Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!ames!pasteur!miro.Berkeley.EDU!ph
From: ph@miro.Berkeley.EDU (Paul Heckbert)
Newsgroups: comp.graphics
Subject: the word "bitmap"
Message-ID: <8568@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU>
Date: 4 Jan 89 03:01:02 GMT
Sender: news@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU
Reply-To: ph@miro.Berkeley.EDU (Paul Heckbert)
Organization: University of California at Berkeley
Lines: 19

I've been troubled lately to see people using the word "bitmap" to mean
a grayscale or color image.  As long as I can remember, however, "bitmap"
has meant a ONE BIT PER PIXEL, black and white image.

Where is this new, (and I believe) incorrect usage coming from?

Several contributors to this news group have used "bitmap" as a synonym for
"image" yet I don't think I've ever seen that usage in a book, journal article,
or software documentation.  Does anybody know the etymology of this
bad new usage?

I hope the new usage doesn't catch on, because the old, correct meaning of
"bitmap" fills a niche, and the new meaning is redundant (we don't need
another synonym for "image" and "picture").  If you see people misusing the
word "bitmap", correct them!

Paul Heckbert, CS grad student
508-7 Evans Hall, UC Berkeley		UUCP: ucbvax!miro.berkeley.edu!ph
Berkeley, CA 94720			ARPA: ph@miro.berkeley.edu