info-vax@ucbvax.ARPA (03/19/85)
From: Joseph A. Frisbie <JAF%MIT-SPEECH@MIT-MC.ARPA> Does anyone have any experience with Vaxstation I's? Care to comment? They contain a Microvax I, a 31Mb winchester, and a graphics terminal ala VS100 mapped into Qbus memory. Thanks, Joe -------
info-vax@ucbvax.ARPA (03/20/85)
From: Mark Johnson <MHJohnson@HI-MULTICS.ARPA> I used the Vaxstation I when they had it at the Fall 84 DECUS. It was very nice, much better than the VS100. The response to the mouse was good, the pop-up windows worked well, and the demos had a few bugs. Startup took a while (several minutes) but was not too excessive. From the presentations at DECUS, they talked about how they integrated it into the uVAX I. The graphics memory is mapped into system space to allow user mode writes. When you call a graphics routine, it works with that memory directly (and bypasses the change mode overhead) to put the stuff on the display. Hardware support for the display is limited to a lookup table for each raster scan line. No special bit blt's (other than MOVC3), rotation, or scaling hardware is used. It is all SOFTWARE. It still runs pretty fast (good enough for me). We are looking at getting one or two to help support our software development effort. I expect to be using tools such as document previewers, diagram preparation, and maybe some modelling along with all the multi-window, multi-process, multi-machine (we would have it on the Ethernet) stuff that is easy to do with the Vaxstation. Can't wait for the one built on the uVAX II. --Mark <MHJohnson @ HI-MULTICS>
info-vax@ucbvax.ARPA (03/22/85)
From: dual!mordor!seismo!harvard!bu-cs!root@BERKELEY (BostonU SysMgr) Gee, I also used the Vaxstation at DECUS and had a slightly different reaction. I found the window system annoying because of DEC's hopeless hard-wiring of their code to VT100s and hence 24X80 windows. I think if you try other systems you will see why VMS is not really a good starting point for a bit-mapped window system unless essentially every utility is re-written. Of course, if you have already made up your mind that it must be VMS then why bother asking? Don't discount the years of development it takes to make a system like this work, it also takes innovation not heavy retro-fitting. -Barry Shein, Boston University