128a-3aj@e260-3b.berkeley.edu (Jonathan Dubman) (10/17/88)
I would never want to get stuck with any one monitor. If it is black and
white, maybe I will want color later. If it has two bitplanes, maybe I want
8 or 24 later. If is is 1120x832 resolution, maybe I want a greater
resolution, or perhaps I will settle for decreased resolution to get one of
the other qualities.
The point is, I hope NeXT has left hooks for all these. I hope nothing is
hardwired, both in hardware and software. That is obviously the way of the
future, so that's probably the way it is. I am a little skeptical about the
color and grey-scale support in Display PostScript, especially color, since
regular PostScript leaves that out completely (correct me if I'm wrong.)
Ideally, in the future, one will be able to get the cube without the monitor
and one could then choose among competing monitors of varying price and
features.
One thing that REALLY bothers me, unless someone jusitifies it soon, is that
the mouse and keyboard plug into the monitor. This is the source of my
worry about proprietary monitors. What's the idea? I don't accept the
argument that it saves a foot of thin cable. Why don't run all the display
connections through the mouse, or have the ethernet connector below the
space bar? It just doesn't make sense to me. Someone please explain.
I have a feeling that there are many more "secrets" being kept in the form of
unannounced plans for the above. We've heard tidbits about RISC,
multiprocessing, etc. Ideally, one could predict at least some of the
future developments by thinking, "what should be done?" I think factoring
computers into less-dependent components is something that should be done,
unless it's a wristwatch.
Also, knowing Jobs' strong opinions on the matter, I suppose the pixels are
square. Damned square.
-Jonathan Dubmanjdn@mas1.UUCP (Jeff Nisewanger) (10/17/88)
In article <15572@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> 128a-3aj@e260-3b.berkeley.edu (Jonathan Dubman) writes: > >I am a little skeptical about the >color and grey-scale support in Display PostScript, especially color, since >regular PostScript leaves that out completely (correct me if I'm wrong.) Regular old PostScript supports color just fine. You can specify it in RGB or HSB formats. Grey-scales are supported with the setgray operator. I *think* Display PostScript will have an operator for the CMYU color model as well. Sun NeWS does wonderful things on a color monitor. The thing I'm skeptical about is how Next Step etc. will fit with X11. I'm not sure X11 can be implemented for NeXT unless you go directly to the display hardware. I don't think Display Postscript supports the traditional Rasterop combinations required for X. An IBM official quoted in the San Jose Mercury a few days ago said IBM would start selling Next Step as an option to AIX sometime next summer when NeXT begins volume production. Presumably they must have some idea about how to make it all work since AIX is supposed to support X11. Maybe a merged server like Digital. Also, does anyone KNOW how network transparent the NeXT User-interface mechanism is? Is Display Postscript network accessible. Is the NeXT window system network accessible? What if you write a NeXT Step application that uses sound (NeXT sound kit). Will that interface work across the network or will the sound come out on the wrong box? Jeff Nisewanger Measurex Automation Systems Inc. ......apple!mas1!jdn Jeff Nisewanger Measurex Automation Systems Inc. .....apple!mas1!jdn
bob@allosaur.cis.ohio-state.edu (Bob Sutterfield) (10/18/88)
In article <1437@mas1.UUCP> jdn@mas1.UUCP (Jeff Nisewanger) writes: >The thing I'm skeptical about is how Next Step etc. will fit with >X11. I'm not sure X11 can be implemented for NeXT unless you go >directly to the display hardware. I don't think Display Postscript >supports the traditional Rasterop combinations required for X. Why not do like Sun did with NeWS 1.[01] and X 10.4 and write an X11 protocol engine in PostScript? Sun's was little more than a proof-of- concept, but with a little careful attention (and the added horsepower of the NeXT box) it could be useful. -=- Zippy sez, --Bob When this load is DONE I think I'll wash it AGAIN..