trb@masscomp.UUCP (07/18/84)
Lisa Chabot and others claim that color in a workstation tends to be
an unnecessary toy. I work at a company that sells these unnecessary
toys, they seem pretty reasonable to me. Lemme tell you why.
Engineers need color for applications like circuit design and image
processing. Industrial users need them for displays control
applications ("valve stuck," "intruder alert," "bathroom occupied").
Guys in suits need them to display multi-flavor pie charts and other
razzle dazzle.
Some of you hackers out there might doubt the legitimate value of
razzle dazzle. If your customer will give you major bucks if you show
him a sea lion balancing on one flipper, then that's what you give
him. Not only that, but often a customer WON'T give you a contract if
you don't give him the razzle dazzle.
If a company has the attitude "we know what's best for you," they're
bound to get clobbered, even if they're right. Case in point, the
Bell System sold analog phone switches in the 1970's. Bell System
analog switch technology was better than anyone's digital technology,
which is exactly what they told the hordes who asked for digital
switches. Eventually, customers started buying digital switches
because that's what they wanted, even though Mother tried her best to
explain why they were getting an inferior product. Mother might have
had the technical facts, but she was ignorant of the desires of the
marketplace. Ma Bell got into the digital switch business only after
great toil and anguish, making up for lost time. This is just one
more reason why companies sell color graphics systems. People will
buy them from someone else if we refuse to sell them.
From the hacker viewpoint: Given equivalent color and monochrome
systems, same number of planes, similar price, you get a better
monochrome image from a monochrome system (and of course you get a
better color image from a color system). Most people don't need high
quality monochrome imaging, the color system will do fine. The color
is there if you need it, at about the same price. So people buy it.
Yea, you can design horrible displays if you (don't) try hard enough,
but that's no reason to not buy or not sell color.
Andy Tannenbaum Masscomp Inc Westford MA (617) 692-6200 x274