23 Oct
2008
23 Oct
'08
12:42 p.m.
Is it a
raster-scan CRT? If [...]
Is it a vector-only CRT? If [...]
Try as I will, I can't think of a _CRT_
that can only be raster
scanned or vector scanned. driving electronics more than a matter of possibility
proper. (Or, I
suppose, one could use electrostatic deflection with the deflection
plates outside the vacuum envelope, but that gets interesting in other
ways.)
But, that aside, if you want to use that narrow a definition of CRT,
then no, characters are never sent to any CRT, Charactron or not; it's
And nor, strictly, is a graphics bitmap. Or a table of vectors. Both have
to processed in some way (as do characters) to produce the correct
voltage waveforms on the electrodes.
all voltage levels. I suppose you could view the
voltage levels sent
to a Charactron's pre-mask deflection electrodes as an encoding of a
character; this point of view has some justice to it, since you could
equally well say that a serial line doesn't carry characters, just
voltage waveforms - but in that case you can view the relevant inputs
to any CRT that's displaying a character as an encoding of that
character, so it's really a question of which point of view is most
useful.
-tony