From: andy-w@ersys.edmonton.ab.ca (Andrew webster)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ti
Subject: Re: Barry Boone
Date: Wed, 19 Aug 92 21:52:14 MDT
Organization: Edmonton Remote Systems #2, Edmonton, AB, Canada

cohen@GOMEZ.phys.virginia.edu writes:

- In article <Bt8Jxt.Eup@accelr8.com>, jim@accelr8.com (Jim Reiss) writes:
- 
- > ...On the graphics, again, I see little need
- >for better pixel resolution.  Even a 9-pin printer does graphics well enough
- >for home use.
- >-- 
- 
- Interesting you should say that...   Let's look back for a moment.  When the
- Single-Sided/Single density drives came, people wonder how they would ever
- fill up a 90K diskettes with the few programs they had on cassettes...  Now
- we have 360K drives on the TI, while the rest of the world is moving to
- 1.2/1.44 Megs.   And that 20ms track to track head access time Shugart drive
- did seem fast, didn't it?   Well, people say that once you get used to a
- RAM disk or HD you'll never give 'em up!  Look at screen graphics.  The first
- "plug and play" home computer (TRS-80 model 1) had only B&W block graphics.
- The Commodore PET was monochrome, too...  when the TI-99/4 came out with
- 16 colors it was unbelievable; then came the /4A with bit-mapped screen
- graphics, NTSC (256X192 pixels)  and blew up everything else (except the
- built-in BASIC did not allow a full use of all the features of the 9918A,
- users had to wait till the EDT/ASM package came out).  Well, nowadays the
- resolution is poor, we want 256 colors, and even the 9958 can't keep up
- with the price/performance ratio of the SVGA IBM compatible video display.
- 
- Speech was another area where the TI was the first, and many did not
- understand what good it was till they used it.   There are many other
- examples.  Coming back to printers, the early dot-matrix printers were
- 5X7, no true descenders (for y,g,p,q, j) and no graphics.  When the
- first really good dot-matrix printer came out (Epson MX-80), again some
- people said that this is not necessary....   and even that MX-80
- was constantly improved (look at a recent Epson 9-pin, such as LX-810
- or FX-1050 to see what I mean).  The TI 99/4 impacr printer was a modifies
- MX-80; it could not even do a REAL continuous underline (only broken
- underscores).  Some said that was good enough for home use.
- 
- When the rest of the world moves to 24 pin printers, it might be worth-
- while thinking for a minute: "perhaps there is some potential in there".
- There is no need to copy EVERYTHING, but IMHO this has much more
- potential than little gimmicks and games (though I wouldn't want the
- other areas neglected, too  ! :-)
- 
- Anybody convinced?  :-)
- 

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THANKS FOR THE HISTORY LESSON, JOSEPH!!
BUT, WHATS YOUR POINT??

     __@  __@
   _-\<, -\<,_
  (_)/---|/-(_)  --==>> ANDY <<==--
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Andrew webster              andy-w@ersys.edmonton.ab.ca 
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ti