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From: ken@rochester.ARPA (SKY)
Newsgroups: comp.terminals
Subject: Re: 7-segment LCD (6 segments suffice)
Message-ID: <23668@rochester.ARPA>
Date: Thu, 8-Jan-87 13:40:07 EST
Article-I.D.: rocheste.23668
Posted: Thu Jan  8 13:40:07 1987
Date-Received: Thu, 8-Jan-87 22:38:56 EST
References: <668@instable.UUCP>
Reply-To: ken@rochester.UUCP (SKY)
Organization: U of Rochester, CS Dept, Rochester, NY
Lines: 34

It can be done with 6 segments provided you are willing to go to curved
segments. Here is the basic layout:

	-----
	|   /
	\_ /_
	 /   \
        /    /
        -----

Label the segments a-f from top to bottom, left to right.

0: def
1: cd
2: acdf
3: acef
4: bcd
5: abef
6: cdef
7: acd
8: abcdef
9: abcd

Comments: 0 is half height. 4 looks funny but with a little juggling
can look good. The tops should have rounded edges to help.  It also
helps to skew the whole figure so the diagonal is about 15 degrees from
the vertical.  7 gets fair treatment this time.

I wish I could say I invented this but I saw this in a very old
flourescent display calculator some 10-15 years ago. There may
be a patent on this scheme. I have always wondered why this
encoding hasn't been made more popular.

	Ken