Path: utzoo!utgpu!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!ames!ncar!tank!shamash!com50!bungia!orbit!pnet51!shawn
From: shawn@pnet51.cts.com (Shawn Stanley)
Newsgroups: comp.graphics
Subject: Re: the word "bitmap"
Message-ID: <450@orbit.UUCP>
Date: 6 Jan 89 16:25:21 GMT
Sender: root@orbit.UUCP
Organization: People-Net [pnet51], Minneapolis, MN.
Lines: 27

Oh my.  I don't see why so many people have decided that the term "bitmap"
must always refer to a one-to-one correspondence of bit to pixel.  The word
"bitmap" is like many other words; if you take it apart, it means a mapping of
some feature to a particular bit representation.  I think attempting to
confine "bitmap" to black & white, or on & off pixel representation is asking
everyone tconfine themselves to B&W, while the technology has obviously gone
beyond that.

Oh well.  Term wars are the worst.  You can find any use you want in a book,
and the only means of supporting it seems to be stating the author's name. 
With that in mind, I'll just take a glance here at the glossary of [unnamed
book] by [unnamed author].  Maybe it provides grounds for agreement.

Bit field: When a byte or word is viewed as a bit pattern, several bits taken
together may hold a particular item of information.

Bit plane: On EGA, the video buffer is divided into four sections, referred to
as bit planes 0 - 3.  In 16-color modes the four planes are in parallel, so
that four bytes are located at a particular memory address (the latch
registers intermediate movement of data between the CPU and video memory).  In
some cases the planes may be CHAINED, that is, they are combined into one or
two larger planes.

So, can we say "bitmap", "bit field", and "bit plane"?

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