nep.pgelhausen@AMES-VMSB.ARPA (11/14/85)
I have a problem calling OMNIVIEW an 80-col board. (Please correct me if I am wrong, DY...) From what I understand, OMNIVIEW is not a full character 80-col generating board, but rather an 80-col SIMULATION in GR.8. Meaning 4-bit wide characters....acceptable but NOT genuinely (in my view) an 80 column board. There is a PD communications program called VT10SQ (vt-10 squared, or VT100) which also uses a software 80-col display. I also pulled a file from a local BBS which seemed to contain ONLY the E: (or was it S:?) wedge from this program. Possibly this 4-bit charset technique could be used on the 520ST for the person desiring 132 columns. (Actually you could get up to 160-col on the ST with this.) The 80-col RBG board (someone supplied the name...but I didn't even try to remember it) actually generated a full 8-bit wide character, 80-column display (you needed a RGB monitor, of course...) I believe the BIT-3 board did the same for a monochrome monitor. If any of this is incorrect, please feel free to reply.... -Richard Hartman max.hartman@ames-vmsb BTW: Does anyone on the net actually have one of the previously mentioned RBG 80-column boards (Austin something just popped up in my memory...)? -rmh ------
DYOUNG@USC-ISID.ARPA (C. David Young) (11/14/85)
You are right Richard, OMNIVIEW does use GR. 8 to generate the characters. However, it looks better than the others I have seen because I did a lot of work on my character set. Most people report that they are quite pleased with the readability. This technique also has the great advantage that it is cheap! That is why my sales are better than ever and the others are out of business. One other advantage to this technique is that you could theoretically mix text and graphics on the screen. I have not yet had time to try this out but maybe eventually ... I enjoy reading your well thought out comments, David Young -------
phinn@acf4.UUCP (Jorge F. Phinn) (11/19/85)
Since vt10sq is PD, how do I go about getting a copy? If you have a copy please send EMail to me or please post the source to either notes.sources or here.