Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!pacbell!ames!ncar!umigw!umbio!dnelson
From: dnelson@umbio.MIAMI.EDU (Dru Nelson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Amiga Wishlist
Message-ID: <316@umbio.MIAMI.EDU>
Date: 22 Aug 88 02:09:47 GMT
References: <42600042@uicsrd.csrd.uiuc.edu>
Lines: 63

in article <42600042@uicsrd.csrd.uiuc.edu>, leein@uicsrd.csrd.uiuc.edu says:
> On  Aug 19, 1988, Ed Berger at  eberger@godot.psc.edu wrote:
> /* ---------- "Amiga Wishlist" ---------- */
>>OK folks, here is my ideas for improving the AMIGA.
>>
>>1) How about a greek key with all the greek letters printed on the 
>>   keyboard ala C= graphics on the 64.  A good interface program to TEX
[...stuff deleted ]
>>Looking forward to your comments:
>>Ed Berger
> 
> You missed the single-most important shortcoming of Amiga.  That's the damm
> screen flickering problem in its high resolution mode!  200 x 700 is
> simply not enough for today's PC.

We are all aware of this.  The interlaced mode was implemented when
400 vertical was VERY expensive to the Non Scientific market.  They
tried to give the users something; they didn't decide on what we
should have.  They gave it to us to decide.  I do hope, though,
that Commodore/Amiga will fix this problem.
> 
>    Commodore invented some kind of a blit chip which
> gave us 4096 colors while others give only 256 colors at most.  However,
> Commodore has been trapped by that self-made pitfall, and they could not
> improve that blit chip because of, seemingly, the backward software
> compatibility problem---I am not so sure about the exact reason.  If that is
> not the case, they are not so serious about Amiga.
> 

True, but I don't think that it's not backwardly compatible since most
programs go through the Rom routines. I think the problem is with the
DMA bandwith that people mention (I don't understand the DMA problem,
though.  I missed the article explaining that)

>    You mentioned the Greek key.  Maybe I am the predecessor who insisted on
> its necessity.  I even wrote a letter to IEEE P1003 POSIX Committee so that
[ .. stuff deleted  ]
> as one of foreign alphabets.  And their vision is somewhat futuristic.  They
> consider Postcript language as the new ASCII.  They are illusionist.
> They do not realize how many percentage of computer users depend on character-
> based terminals.  I was simply frustrated after the futile effort.
> 
>                          Hugh SONG, U. of Ill
>                          Direct your mail to:    song@uispg.csl.uiuc.edu


Why can't the scientific programs do the greek key feature themselves.
All they would have to do is let the user change a mode (supported by
the program) to consider input as greek or whatever language.  There
wouldn't be incompatiblities because they would just use the standard
alphabet to stand for the greek.  The 'a' key would stand for the alpha
symbol.  The shift 'a' or 'A' would be the uppercase alpha.  No
incompatiblities.  This would be easier to implement than having to
dedicate a key to the function (for the time being).

Speaking of character based terminals, doesn't the ANSI character set
have greek symbols?  I've seen them on I*M's.


-- 
Dru Nelson                    UUCP: (gould || uunet)!umbio!dnelson
Miami, Florida                 MCI: dnelson
                          Internet: dnelson%umbio@umigw.miami.edu