nr3m@unix.cis.pittsburgh.edu (Matthew A Henry) (08/01/89)
[I apologize if this is a repost, but am not sure if it went out
the first time.]
Greetings net,
I am currently shopping for a 286 AT clone and am considering using
monochrome VGA for two reasons: 1) Reasonably low cost; and 2) the
ability to run software written for various graphic standards. The
second reason has me somewhat confused. According to the August issue
of PC Magazine, where they have a review of monochrome VGA monitors,
"A color VGA system will show CGA and EGA graphics on its screen; a
monochrome VGA system will do likewise-without the special drivers
that are required by Hercules". Is this true of all VGA cards? I
also see VGA cards, like the Paradise VGA Plus, that is also MDA
Hercules compatible. Would that work with a monitor that is only
compatible with a VGA adapter? If I bought an adapter with 800x600
resolution, hoping to some day have a color monitor which could handle
that resolution, work now with a monitor with 640x480 max resolution?
In short, will a low cost monochrome VGA monitor be able to display VGA,
EGA, CGA, MDA Hercules, and MCGA with the appropriate VGA adapter?
Any thoughts E-mailed or posted would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks... Matt
Matt Henry NR3M
(412) 443-5071
...{allegra, bellcore, cadre, idis, psuvax1}!pitt!cisunx!nr3m
NR3M@PITTUNIX
nr3m@unix.cis.pittsburgh.edubrtmac@hobbes.ksu.ksu.edu (Brett McCoy) (08/02/89)
In article <18950@unix.cis.pittsburgh.edu> nr3m@unix.cis.pittsburgh.edu (Matthew A Henry) writes: >[I apologize if this is a repost, but am not sure if it went out > the first time.] I never saw the first one, so as far as I can tell, the first one must have never got out. >I am currently shopping for a 286 AT clone and am considering using >monochrome VGA for two reasons: 1) Reasonably low cost; and 2) the >ability to run software written for various graphic standards. The >second reason has me somewhat confused. According to the August issue >of PC Magazine, where they have a review of monochrome VGA monitors, >"A color VGA system will show CGA and EGA graphics on its screen; a >monochrome VGA system will do likewise-without the special drivers >that are required by Hercules". Is this true of all VGA cards? I >also see VGA cards, like the Paradise VGA Plus, that is also MDA >Hercules compatible. Would that work with a monitor that is only >compatible with a VGA adapter? If I bought an adapter with 800x600 >resolution, hoping to some day have a color monitor which could handle >that resolution, work now with a monitor with 640x480 max resolution? >In short, will a low cost monochrome VGA monitor be able to display VGA, >EGA, CGA, MDA Hercules, and MCGA with the appropriate VGA adapter? I'm not sure how everything works, but I can tell my experiences with my hardware. I have an Orchid ProDesigner VGA card w/512k (upgrade), and a Magnavox Profesional VGA Monochrome monitor. It supports 640x480 graphics and does a very good job of displaying greyscale rendition of the colors that the VGA can display. I have found the blue seems to show up mostly as black so you have to turn the contrast all the way up to see it. I think this is a problem with most greyscale monitors though. The Orchid ProDesigner has CGA,MDA, and Hercules emulation, and all of them work on both Color and Monochrome monitors without any special drivers. I can not speak for other VGA cards, as this is the only one I have ever worked with. -- Brett McCoy | God is real, unless declared integer brtmac@ksuvm.ksu.edu | bmc@phobos.cis.ksu.edu | If you don't get caught, brtmac@calvin.ksu.ksu.edu | did you really do it?
chasm@attctc.Dallas.TX.US (Charles Marslett) (08/03/89)
In article <18950@unix.cis.pittsburgh.edu>, nr3m@unix.cis.pittsburgh.edu (Matthew A Henry) writes: > In short, will a low cost monochrome VGA monitor be able to display VGA, > EGA, CGA, MDA Hercules, and MCGA with the appropriate VGA adapter? If the adapter card can handle it (for example, the STB VGA Extra/EM, EM-16 and the new C&T 451 and 452 based cards we will be selling soon all will display color software in 64 shades of gray and monochrome in appropriate monochrome attributes) all the existing standard software can be run on a monochrome analog monitor, but the display will not always be usable if the colors result in absurdly low contrast. Another possible problem is that cards (such as STB's AutoVGA) that automatically switch between video types may be confused by some software, they are convenient, but not quite as universal. > Matt Henry NR3M > (412) 443-5071 > ...{allegra, bellcore, cadre, idis, psuvax1}!pitt!cisunx!nr3m > NR3M@PITTUNIX > nr3m@unix.cis.pittsburgh.edu Charles Marslett chasm@attctc.dallas.tx.us STB Systems, Inc <-- Apply all standard disclaimers
Charles.Marslett@mamab.FIDONET.ORG (Charles Marslett) (08/06/89)
-- Fidonet: Charles Marslett via 1:363/9 Internet: Charles.Marslett@mamab.FIDONET.ORG Usenet: ...!peora!rtmvax!libcmp!mamab!Charles.Marslett
karl@ddsw1.MCS.COM (Karl Denninger) (08/09/89)
$Item 4857 (0 resps) by Charles.Marslett at mamab.FIDONET.ORG on Tue 08 Aug 89 $15:25 $[Charles Marslett] Subject: Re: Monochrome VGA $ $ $ $-- $Fidonet: Charles Marslett via 1:363/9 $Internet: Charles.Marslett@mamab.FIDONET.ORG $Usenet: ...!peora!rtmvax!libcmp!mamab!Charles.Marslett This is the 10th message from Fido with no body in a row. Can't you people get your software working right before unleashing this on us? I've heard of messed up, but...... -- Karl Denninger (karl@ddsw1.MCS.COM, <well-connected>!ddsw1!karl) Public Access Data Line: [+1 312 566-8911], Voice: [+1 312 566-8910] Macro Computer Solutions, Inc. "Quality Solutions at a Fair Price"
wek@point.UUCP (Bill Kuykendall) (08/11/89)
>Can't you people get your software working right before unleashing this on >us? I've heard of messed up, but...... You're tempting fate a bit there, aren't you? Or have we seen the last new AKCS bug finally? 8-) (For those who don't already know -- Karl is the author of AKCS bulletin board software for unix systems. Several systems on this newsgroup (including mine) use his software.)
karl@ddsw1.MCS.COM (Karl Denninger) (08/11/89)
>----- >Response 2 of 2 (4857) by wek at point.UUCP on Thu 10 Aug 89 08:42 >[Bill Kuykendall] > >>Can't you people get your software working right before unleashing this on >>us? I've heard of messed up, but...... > >You're tempting fate a bit there, aren't you? Or have we seen the last >new AKCS bug finally? 8-) Perhaps not the last, but I don't think we've ever spewed useless articles (headers and ending id/signature but no body!) onto the net.... No, we're not perfect, but we do check things a little more closely than that :-) Now when V7 comes online, well, all bets are off :-) :-) -- Karl Denninger (karl@ddsw1.MCS.COM, <well-connected>!ddsw1!karl) Public Access Data Line: [+1 312 566-8911], Voice: [+1 312 566-8910] Macro Computer Solutions, Inc. "Quality Solutions at a Fair Price"
ron@mlfarm.UUCP (Ronald Florence) (10/10/89)
I have just been informed by Louis Imersheim, the Microchannel Product
Support Manager at SCO, that neither Xenix 2.3.2 nor SCO Unix 3.2 can
or will support monochrome VGA in graphics mode. He is working on a
kluge that will trick Xenix 2.3.2 and Unix 3.2 into thinking the
monochrome display is a color display. The result, in his words, is
that graphics programs will not have "the resolution and shading that
you would get if you were running applications that supported
monochrome vga." His fix will also "disable the capability for any
applications that were written with monochrome support to work
properly."
In other words, if you use a monochrome VGA monitor with either Xenix
2.3.2 or SCO Unix 3.2 on an IBM vga, you are out of luck! The
following commands and programs will not work properly: vidi,
setcolor, CGI, and SCO Pro. Unless SCO agrees to write a proper fix
to support monochrome VGA graphics for Xenix and Unix, you may be well
advised to look elsewhere for your Unix if you want to use a
monochrome display.
--
Ronald Florence {hsi,rayssd}!mlfarm!ron