Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.3 4.3bsd-beta 6/6/85; site caip.RUTGERS.EDU Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!seismo!caip!TLOW From: TLOW@SRI-KL.ARPA Newsgroups: net.micro.amiga Subject: some answers Message-ID: <259@caip.RUTGERS.EDU> Date: Mon, 28-Oct-85 14:53:29 EST Article-I.D.: caip.259 Posted: Mon Oct 28 14:53:29 1985 Date-Received: Thu, 31-Oct-85 22:43:55 EST Sender: daemon@caip.RUTGERS.EDU Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J. Lines: 54 From: Thomas P. LowThere has been alot of discussion regarding the readability of text in the 640*200 mode. I've done some experementation with different monitors and the Amiga, with some interesting results. First, someone asked if there was a hi-res monochrome monitor with long persistance phosphors which would produce readable 640*400 text. I"ve been working with an Amdek 300-G, and have been quite satisfied with the results. To evaluate the 640*400 text readability, I call up the mandril demo from CLI, and then I pull down the graphics screen to reveal the text in the CLI window in 640*400. There is no flicker in either the mandril pic. or in the 640*400 text, and the text characters appear continuous, with no dark spaces between raster lines. I think the odd scan lines are simply repeats of the even scan lines, so the font appears more "stairstepped" If the font was redefined to take advantage of the 400 line resolution, I think it would be exceptionally good. Interlaced text requires a very long persistance phosphor, and when the same display was viewed on the 17XX monitor from Commodore, the result was unacceptably high flicker. I have also been playing with a hi-res analog RGB monitor ( with a price tag higher than a loaded Amiga) by Hitachi. This has a very long persistance phosphor and a very fine dot pitch (sorry, don't have numbers). The results were very readable 640*200 text, with no visible darkness between raster lines. The vertical size of the screen had been reduced to yield an aspect ratio of 1:1, and this may account for the continuity of the text font. The mandril demo can be viewed with no visible flicker, but there was considerable smearing on the boing demo. I have reduced the vertical size on all my monitors to produce a more compressed and continuous font. One last suggestion regarding the preception of text readability. The Mac uses a screen format with black characters on a white background. At any screen resolution, when text is displayed in this way, the characters will appear continuous, since the characters are black, and the spaces between the raster lines are also black. Try using preferences to set up the screen to display dark characters on a light background. This should result in more "readable" 640*200 text, although I can't complain about vertically compressed light on dark text. I read a plea from an Amiga user with a single drive, and his inability to do anything with the workbench disk out of the drive. If you have a 512k machine, you can copy the SYS:c directory into ram, and access all the dos routines from ram. This not only allows you to put the workbench disk away after you boot up, but also speeds up all dos operations, since the command does not need to be loaded from the workbench disk. To do this, type: makedir ram:c copy sys:c ram:c all assign c: ram: This copies all of the normal Amiga-DOS commands to ram, and reassigns the commands directory to find them there. This does take up 128k or so, so you do need the memory expansion. You can copy only selected files to ram if you are pressed for memory. I hope this is of some help. If any one would post a comparison of the Sony and Commodore monitors, I'd be very interested. Tom Low TLOW@SRI.KL.ARPA -------