ARRITT@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu (What a waste it is to lose one's mind.) (12/14/89)
I am currently in the market for a 4D/25 and am trying to decide exactly how to configure it. My priorities seem to be a bit different from most SGI users: the unit will be used primarily to develop hydrodynamic models (in Fortran), which mostly will be run on Crays. The SGI will be used to execute test jobs and perhaps some of the smaller production runs. So my main interests are adherence to the Fortran-77 standard and floating-point performance, with graphics as a *secondary* consideration. I would also like to use the SGI for analysis of the model results. The final product must be suitable for publication in professional journals. At present I plan to use a version of the NCAR graphics package available from a third-party vendor. This mostly generates simple line drawings: contour plots, vector fields, etc. A PostScript driver can be used to produce hardcopy on an Apple LaserWriter, etc. Eventually I may replace the NCAR graphics package with a more sophisticated graphics program. The main question is whether to get the 24-bit or 8-bit color graphics. The 24-bit color costs extra money, which perhaps could be better spent on more memory, disk capacity, or whatever. The hardcopy output will be in black and white. I can't afford a color hardcopy device, and besides, the journals charge $1000 or more per page to print color illustrations. Therefore it is difficult to see the need for 256 colors, much less 17 million. By getting the 8-bit graphics instead of 24-bit, would I lose anything other than a lot of superfluous colors? Fast and flexible graphics manipulations on the tube are nice, *but must be reproducible in hardcopy to be of real value for my purposes*. Thanks in advance for whatever advice you can offer. Ray Arritt Dept. of Physics and Astronomy Univ. of Kansas arritt@ukanvax.bitnet arritt@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu