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From: ak10+@andrew.cmu.edu (Andrew Joseph Kompanek)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: A few questions about the display
Message-ID: <UY5U9ry00W0GEIP0wK@andrew.cmu.edu>
Date: 9 Mar 89 04:49:59 GMT
Organization: Class of '92, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA
Lines: 38

I am giving consideration to buying a NeXT machine and I have a few questions
concerning the machine's support of display PostScript which I haven't
been able to find answers to.

1) Is the display setup as a (logical) device so you can send it a stream
   of PostScript source just like any other PostScript device?
2) Is any of the graphics support in hardware?
3) Do you setup a PostScript "display list" that is interpreted
   in (pseudo)parallel with other CPU tasks (analogous to the copper display
   list on the Amiga or the old Atari 8-bit graphics display list).
4) How close to the "standard" is the display PostScript used in the machine?
   And, is so-called "Display" PostScript really any different from a standard
   "Printing" PostScript implementation?
5) If there is no/little hardware support is there any chance that there
   will eventually be a graphics coprocessor/graphics engine available
   for the NeXT machine?
6) (This follows from the answers to the other questions, but I'll ask
    it explicitly anyway).  Will the display support "artifacted"/dithered
   (I can't think of the right term off-hand) display of gray levels
   above and beyond the 4 gray scales supported.  Also, can the brightnesses
   for the four colors (gray scales) be changed?
7) Are the gray scales implemented with bit-planes so that eventual color
   (well, at least more gray scales) support will be "consistent" with
   original graphics model?

and finally, (8) if the support is all in software and this is a true
implementation of PostScript, how the h*ll can it be as fast as it is?

Thanks,
Drew

( If someone thinks answers to these questions are relevant to the pop. of this
board post an answer, otherwise send me personal e-mail.  Also, could someone
tell me exactly WHO has NeXT machines at this point in time? )

Andrew Kompanek                             ARPA: ak10+@andrew.cmu.edu
Carnegie Mellon University
Research Assistant, The Robotics Institute