pfarrell@anselm.UUCP (Gladiator Supreme.) (04/20/88)
Does anybody know how to erase a point once plotted on a tektronics 4014 machine? I am looking for a solution in C but any controll codes, or other languages are welcome. It's tough working without documentation! -pfarrell@Anselm
jeff@hammer.TEK.COM (Jeff Beadles) (04/22/88)
In article <166@anselm.UUCP> pfarrell@anselm.UUCP (Gladiator Supreme.) writes: >Does anybody know how to erase a point once plotted on a >tektronics 4014 machine? I am looking for a solution in C >but any controll codes, or other languages are welcome. >It's tough working without documentation! > >-pfarrell@Anselm Once you plot a point on a 4014, it's there until you erase the screen. The 4014 is a DVST device, that actually stores the image on the screen. As for not having documentation, I'm sure that it's still available thru Tek. Of course, I speak for myself, and not the company. Jeff Beadles jeff@tekcsc.MKT.TEK.COM
jms@prism.TMC.COM (04/22/88)
I'm pretty sure that there is no way to remove what is displayed. This is the big disadvantage of storage tubes. Refreshing the display is done by clearing the screen. I seem to recall that the 401X series had a temporary write mode which was used for cursors and such, but this is probably no use to you. When these terminals were introduced, this liability was actually an asset. -- Jim Shaw Mirror Systems, Cambridge Massachusetts atj@mirror.TMC.COM - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
bph@ut-emx.UUCP (Butler Hine) (04/24/88)
[Do I still need this first line?]
This is out of a Retrographics Manual, which I always assumed emulated
a Tek 4014 terminal:
DATA LEVEL:
ESC/Ps d
where:
Ps = 0 --> Dots on
1 --> Dots off
2 --> Complement
3 --> Replace
Thus, when either in Vector or Point plot mode, redrawing with ESC/2d set
will erase what you've just drawn. I've used this in several programs, and
it seems to work fine, but I must admit that I don't think I've ever seen
a real live Tek4014 (just other things which emulate it). Hope this helps.
--
Butler Hine
Gabba, Dept. of Astronomy, University of Texas at Austin
Gabba, Austin, Tx 78712 (512) 471-4419
Hey! {allegra,ihnp4}!{ut-sally,noao}!utastro!bph
(internet) bph@astro.AS.UTEXAS.EDU
(bitnet) bph%astro.as.utexas.edu@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDUseibel@cgl.ucsf.edu (George Seibel%Kollman) (04/24/88)
In article <1822@ut-emx.UUCP> bph@emx.UUCP (hine butler) writes: > >This is out of a Retrographics Manual, which I always assumed emulated >a Tek 4014 terminal: > Yeah, those and about a zillion other terminals will emulate a 4014. They're almost all bitmapped, so most of them allow selective erase. Since selective erase wasn't something that the original Tek storage tube terminals did, the 4010/4014 command set didn't include a 'selective erase' (or 'draw black vector') command. The original Tek command set became a de facto standard for low-budget graphics of that type, but the standard fell apart when it came to selective erase or anything else that wasn't in the original "standard"... You need to find a manual for whatever emulator you're using, and augment your Plot10 or TCS or whatever driver to send the appropriate code for the emulator you have. George Seibel, UCSF seibel@cgl.ucsf.edu
bobm@rtech.UUCP (Bob McQueer) (04/25/88)
From article <206300001@prism>, by jms@prism.TMC.COM: > > I'm pretty sure that there is no way to remove what is displayed. > This is the big disadvantage of storage tubes. Refreshing the display > is done by clearing the screen...... I haven't seen a real storage tube for years, but I DO recall that there is a way to do a selective erase, essentially making your "pen" an "eraser" and allowing you to retrace what you've already drawn. I remember it as being one of about six modes in the Tek manual represented by circles in a state diagram showing the control sequences required to get from mode to mode. I don't recall the sequence, and no longer have the appropriate documentation at my fingertips. Another interesting mode the storage tubes could be put into was a "write-through" mode in which your vectors would fade out in a fraction of a second. It was intended for the case where you had a dedicated machine to support refreshing the display continually. These added modes may not be present on all 40xx devices - I remember it specifically from 4014's.
kurtk@tekcae.TEK.COM (Kurt Krueger) (04/26/88)
>Does anybody know how to erase a point once plotted on a >tektronics 4014 machine? I am looking for a solution in C Tektronix (I'm sensitive about our spelling) ^ Sorry, can't be done. The 4014 employs a special screen phosphor that is a storage element (the machine has no RAM, the RAM is the screen). Actually it is more like an EROM in that you have to erase the whole thing at once. The 4014 is kind of old stuff now, but consider that the storage screen technology was invented when memory was about a buck a bit. The 4014 has 4096x3120 = 13million pixels (approx). It still holds the record for displayed resolution. We've got a lot of folks around here that keep their 4014's next to their color 4207's because they don't want to give up that super high resolution graphics, even if it's only monochrome. Incidently, the 4014 has what is called a "write through" mode. Graphics displayed in write thru is not stored, but it is necessary for the host machine to keep refreshing it. You are severely limited in how much you can refresh due to 9600 baud limitations. If you've got the fancy interface, you can go to 19200 baud (but you MUST use the hardware flagging because the 4014 cannot generate alpha characters at 19200 and (as stated before) it has no RAM). Later models had a refresh buffer option. This used the write thru feature, but the memory and refresh ciruitry was in the 4014. Not too many of these were sold, TEK went to raster scan shortly after this option came out. Hope this is of some help. I've traded my 4014 for a 4115 and no longer have any manuals. Note: Some follow up postings have referred to erasing points on 4014 emulators. The 4014 has no such capability.
cjp@antique.UUCP (Charles Poirier) (04/26/88)
In article <2007@rtech.UUCP> bobm@rtech.UUCP writes: >Another interesting >mode the storage tubes could be put into was a "write-through" mode in >which your vectors would fade out in a fraction of a second. I once wrote a pinball program that used a 4014 for the display. The ball and flippers were drawn using write-through mode. This was pretty cool; though there was the drawback that, whenever my program got swapped out, the ball would disappear! Unnerving, to say the least. -- Charles Poirier (decvax,ihnp4,attmail)!vax135!cjp "Docking complete... Docking complete... Docking complete..."
ain@s.cc.purdue.edu (Patrick White) (04/29/88)
>In article <166@anselm.UUCP> pfarrell@anselm.UUCP (Gladiator Supreme.) writes: >Does anybody know how to erase a point once plotted on a >tektronics 4014 machine? For both the 4015 and 4014 series terminals, it can't be done.. at least not without clearing the entire screen. There is a "refresh" mode in which the lines drawn are not stored, but the computer has to constantly redraw the picture -- 30 times/sec if one wants to avoid flicker. -- Pat White ARPA/UUCP: j.cc.purdue.edu!ain BITNET: PATWHITE@PURCCVM PHONE: (317) 743-8421 U.S. Mail: 320 Brown St. apt. 406, West Lafayette, IN 47906
terry@wsccs.UUCP (Every system needs one) (04/30/88)
In article <2007@rtech.UUCP>, bobm@rtech.UUCP (Bob McQueer) writes: > From article <206300001@prism>, by jms@prism.TMC.COM: > > > > I'm pretty sure that there is no way to remove what is displayed. > > This is the big disadvantage of storage tubes. Refreshing the display > > is done by clearing the screen...... This is right. > I haven't seen a real storage tube for years, but I DO recall that > there is a way to do a selective erase, essentially making your "pen" > an "eraser" and allowing you to retrace what you've already drawn. Uh, no. Not on the 4014 in the other room, anyhow. > I remember it as being one of about six modes in the Tek manual represented > by circles in a state diagram showing the control sequences required > to get from mode to mode. I don't recall the sequence, and no longer > have the appropriate documentation at my fingertips. The doc's I have say "no way". They say that as long as the storage tube holds a charge, everywhere the beam hits STAYS LIT. I think you are confusing the 4014 with STMU's (Storage Tube Memory Units). While it is POSSIBLE to make the tube "forget" (sorta), it requires hardware not in the 4014's schematics. > Another interesting mode the storage tubes could be put into was a > "write-through" mode in which your vectors would fade out in a fraction > of a second. Yes, this is possible with a storage tube. > It was intended for the case where you had a dedicated machine to support > refreshing the display continually. No, again you mistake a 4014 for for an STMU. That was not the intention. Yes, you did have a machine who caused the refresh, but it wasn't for a display reason... it was the first "dynamic RAM". > These added modes may not be present on all 40xx devices - I remember it > specifically from 4014's. I would be suprised if ANY of the old storage-tube displays had this at all, but especially so if it were an option I didn't know about. I searched long and hard for this years ago when I was rewriting plot-10 in C (back in my student days). It wasn't there. Maybe your memory has selective erase? ;-) | Terry Lambert UUCP: ...{ decvax, ihnp4 } ...utah-cs!century!terry | | @ Century Software OR: ...utah-cs!uplherc!sp7040!obie!wsccs!terry | | SLC, Utah | | These opinions are not my companies, but if you find them | | useful, send a $20.00 donation to Brisbane Australia... | | 'Admit it! You're just harrasing me because of the quote in my signature!' |
dhelrod%wolf@Sun.COM (David Elrod) (05/03/88)
I had some experiences at Ohio State Universities 'ADML' lab (Mechanical Engineering Department.) that might shed some light on some of the confusion here. The 4014 had two display modes: 1) Normally, anything written to the display was "stored" there until the whole screen was cleared. 2) "Write-through" mode that allowed users to temporarily write to the screen. The cursors (text and crosshair) both used write-through mode. This was normally very limited in its usefulness. It was possible to connect a high speed interface from a host (at OSU it was a VAX 11/750) which would devote 110% of its time (or so it seemed) to refreshing the display of the 4014 (using write-through mode). As I recall, the department had software (possibly from SDRC) that would animate mechanical linkages using this interface. Tektronix made an expansion board that had some memory, a 6800 microprocessor and 4 ROM sockets (of which 3 were empty). ADML's system manager dis-assembled the code in ROM and extended it so that a display list could be down loaded into the terminal across a 9600 baud RS232 line. The resulting product (after months of hacking) was the ability to animate about 2K vectors per second (my memory is fuzzy on the 2K number, but that seems about right). Doug's display list was ring of frames that the 6800 stepped through. You could get 100 vectors at 20 frames per second which looked pretty nice! This compared reasonably with the "high speed interface" version, and 6 students could all work simultaneously! He talked with Tektronix and eventually sold his modification to several big companies (GE, some big-3 auto company, SDRC, ...). His price varied from about $50 for the first ones to several hundred each when he found out the demand. The big companies liked it because they owned hundred's of 4014's and could postpone the inevitable upgrade to raster. This kind of trick (and there may be others that have done something similar) could account for all of us having such different ideas about what the 4014 could do. dhelrod@sun (I wish I could think of things like that!)