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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!floyd!harpo!ihnp4!fortune!rpw3
From: rpw3@fortune.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.info-terms
Subject: Re: Re: VT100 Compatible Terminals (and - (nf)
Message-ID: <2547@fortune.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 16-Feb-84 04:03:27 EST
Article-I.D.: fortune.2547
Posted: Thu Feb 16 04:03:27 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 17-Feb-84 02:40:12 EST
Sender: notes@fortune.UUCP
Organization: Fortune Systems, Redwood City, CA
Lines: 33

#R:dual:-28300:fortune:5200002:000:1416
fortune!rpw3    Feb 16 00:32:00 1984

To be fair, getting rid of "magic cookies" (we call them attribute
character positions) is not free. You have to double the size of your
video RAM, since every character now has to have a full set of attribute
bits (instead of inheriting them from the nearest attribute position to
the left of it).

For the cheapest terminals, this used to make sense, since RAM was very
expensive. These days, you're talking about another 2-3 bucks for an
80 x 25 terminal (maybe $6-10 retail?). Chickenfeed. Besides, the logic
gets a little simpler with the added RAM, so the cost difference is much
closer to zero (that's why WE have attribute-per-char, at least).

The biggest gain is being able to underline (or reverse video or boldface)
within a word, which makes it possible for editors to show you on the screen
the area about to be affected by a change without breaking words at the
beginning or end of the area.

Rob Warnock

UUCP:	{sri-unix,amd70,hpda,harpo,ihnp4,allegra}!fortune!rpw3
DDD:	(415)595-8444
USPS:	Fortune Systems Corp, 101 Twin Dolphins Drive, Redwood City, CA 94065

p.s. There goes another word that used to have a "precise" meaning,
namely, "cookie". A cookie used to be (still is around here) a token,
a handle, a file descripter, an index, something you gave back to a
caller that he/she could later use to touch a resource, a ticket.

"Cookie" did NOT mean "an ugly hack". (C.f. "hacking" vs. crime)