BILLW@SRI-KL@sri-unix (07/23/82)
Minimum resolution for text: Well, the minimum that most people consider a readable font is a 5x7 dot matrix, in say a 6x8 box. If you consider a full page 60 lines by 80 characters, this means the minimum you need is is 480 x 480 dots. (not that id want to have to read that, nor does it give you much room to play with fonts). Now you can decrease the number of horizontal dots you nead by doing proportional spacing - I have heard of programs for the APPLE ][ that give you 72 characters accross in only about 300 dots (?). The worst case of dor conservation ive seen was a program for the RCA 1802 microprocess/1861 graphics chip where they tried to cram a usable amount of text into somthing like a 64*80 bit map. A lowercase "a" looked something like: xx x x eg, 3x3 dots. xxx It all depends on what you're willing to put up with, and how much imagination you have. I gather what corvus has done is squeze out as mush resolution as possible without going to a high preformance (read modified scan rate) monitor... Comand parsers: Ive had some experience with a beast called (modestly enough) "The Ultimate command parser". The idea was that the parser filled in as much of a comand as was unique as the user typed it. eg:, given commands EXIT and EXPUNGE, when the user typed an "E", the parser filled in the X. If the user then typed a "P", "UNGE" would be filled in. The parser waited for a break character to confirm the commands. The really neat part was that the parser kept track of which characters had been supplied by who, and if the user typed characters that had already been filled in, they were accepted and ignored. It was interesting to use th delete key, in which case, nothing was deleted until the command became non-unique, when it rubbed out a whole lot. I think an example is necessary: use EXIT and EXPUNGE... display action explanation > prompt >eX user typed "E" parser fills in "X" >eX^G user typed "F" "F" is not valid >eX user typed "X" "X" is ignored >eXpUNGE user typed "P" command is filled in >eX user typed DEL rubbed out until unique >eX user typed DEL portion is unique even without "X" > user typed DEL all characters have been rubbed out I beleive this parser was used in an early version of MM. I've seen it run on TENEX, TOPS-20, TOPS-10, and APPLESOFT systems.... Enjoy BillW