Xref: utzoo comp.sys.ibm.pc:40313 comp.sys.mac:44686 Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!usc!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!apple!rewing From: rewing@Apple.COM (Richard Ewing) Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc,comp.sys.mac Subject: Re: PC's are democratic; Mac's are fascistic Message-ID: <37396@apple.Apple.COM> Date: 19 Dec 89 17:34:08 GMT References: <6767@tank.uchicago.edu> <1989Dec17.112127.27333@me.toronto.edu> <14960@boulder.Colorado.EDU> <1210@serene.UUCP> <1989Dec18.142406.5066@hellgate.utah.edu> <1989Dec18.191117.18483@hellgate.utah.edu> Organization: Apple Computer Inc, Cupertino, CA Lines: 56 For the PC users out there that say that 32 bit color exists for the platform, well I agree. Everybody knows that the Targa boards came out on the PC before the Mac. My point was that there are *no standards* for doing 32 bit work on a PC and still be compatible across the board with the zillion appilcations that you already run. The 32-bit Color Quickdraw standard created by Apple was invented for a reason: to create a standard that would be a logical extension of the existing video model without obsoleting it, and to give the third party board makers a model which to design by. That way, when SuperMac introduced the 32-bit version of PixelPaint, they didn't have to worry about whether their board only worked on SuperMac's 24 bit card. It would work on *any* card from any vendor. That's the kind of video standards that the industry needs. Not different video modes that completely render null and void the last standard. The PC world has gone from MDA to CGA to EGA to MCGA to VGA to 8514/A with Hercules (a few varieties) and Super VGA just to cload the issue. And good video products have to backwards emulate most of those just to be competetive. The Mac world works stricly by bit depths so we can work in 1 bit, 2bits, 4 bits, 8 bits, 16 bits, or 24 bits, and all user selectable from the control panel. Just to illustrate how flexible this is, just last week, I was in a demo in which I had three monitors on a Mac IIx. The first was an AppleColor Monitor driven by a RasterOps 264 card ($995) at 640x480 pixels. The second was a Radius 19 inch Trinitron Monitor being driven by a Radius 32 bit Truecolor card, and accompanying graphics accelerator. This monitor was 1180x850 pixels. The last screen was an ordinary Mitsubishi 19inch multisync monitor being driven by a TrueVision 4M (Targa board to you PC guys). I ran this display at 640x480, even though I experimented with higher resolutions (up to 1024x780) being the demo. Not only did three different video cards from three different vendors work on three different monitors in the same Mac, but because of the virtual desktop between them, I could drag a window from one monitor to another as if they were all one display. I could drag a Wingz spreadsheet to encompass the space of all three monitors, and have it act properly. I could run all three boards in the 24 bit mode, or I could have 1 in 24 bit, one in 8 bit, and the last in grayscale or monochrome, and the system (not the application software) would take care of any color mapping as objects moved from one screen to another *automatically*. If I wanted to change the physical arrangement that the monitors were perceived to the user, no problem, just select the control panel and drag the screen around until they are how you like them. Its that easy! The way it should be. And no obsolescence! Can you do that on a PC anything? -- __________________________________________________________________________ |Disclaimer: I run 125 INITs. Nothing I say can be seriously considered. | | | |Internet: REWING@APPLE.COM-----------------------Rick Ewing | |ApplelinkPE & MacNet Soon!------------------Apple Computer, Inc. | |Applelink: EWING--------------------100 Ashford Center North, Suite 100 | |Compu$erve: [76474,1732]--------------------Atlanta, GA 30338 | |GENIE: R.EWING1--------------------------TalkNet: (404) 393-9358 | |USENET: {amdahl,decwrl,sun,unisoft}!apple!rewing | ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^