mwang_pay (06/11/82)
DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE
UNIVERSITY OF WATERLOO
COLLOQUIUM ACTIVITIES
COMPUTER SCIENCE COLLOQUIUM - Wednesday, June 16, 1982.
Dr. Rob Pike of Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, will
speak on "The Blit: Merging Bitmap Graphics and
Unix".
TIME: 3:30 PM
ROOM: M&C 5158
ABSTRACT
The Blit terminal developed at Bell Labs by Bart Lo-
canthi and Rob Pike aims at the middle ground between
time-sharing and personal computing, providing the
advantages of high-speed interactive graphics against
the familiar backdrop of the Unix time-sharing sys-
tem. The terminal has very inexpensive hardware,
cheap and simple enough to take home, but designed
with software in mind by the people who planned to
write the software and use the terminal. The result
is a working environment which augments Unix rather
than compete with it. Two general improvements in-
troduced to Unix by the Blit world are:
+ interactive graphics for (potentially) any user
+ a multiprogramming terminal to assist the mul-
tiprogramming operating systems.
This talk will focus on issues of software design
(particularly the division of labor between hardware
and software, terminal and operating system) and user
interface, and will be peppered with examples of
Blits in action.
Coffee and refreshments will be served at 3:00 PM.
June 11, 1982