Newsgroups: comp.graphics
Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!dgp.toronto.edu!alain
From: alain@dgp.toronto.edu (Alain Fournier)
Subject: Re: the word "bitmap"
Message-ID: <8901050417.AA16210@explorer.dgp.toronto.edu>
Organization: University of Toronto, CSRI
References: <8568@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU> <7549@watcgl.waterloo.edu>
Date: Wed, 4 Jan 89 23:17:06 EST

I agree with Paul Heckbert that "bit-map" should be kept for 1 bit deep arrays
(by the way Rob Pike, ToG 2,2, (April 1983), and Eugene Fiume, Computers and
Graphics, 11, 2, April 1987, have interesting distinctions between the bit-map
as an array in memory vs what is on the screen).
That leaves us without a good word for multi-bit-maps. My modest proposal
is "swatch". The word means of course a sample of cloth or other material,
usually variegated, which is appropriate. It is also short. 
PS: It is not to be confused with "swath". Actually one of my dictionaries 
defines "to cut a wide swath" as "to make a pretentious display", so it also
has its use in computer graphics.
And remember: a neologism a day keeps the spell-checker at bay.