28 Jan
2005
28 Jan
'05
10:22 a.m.
"Randy McLaughlin" <randy(a)s100-manuals.com> wrote:
[...] PostScript is useless in this
case since the documents are stored as graphical images and cannot be used
on the classic computers.
What????
What makes you think that "classic computers" are character based?
I don't want to start a "my machine supported graphics earlier than
yours", but as a datapoint, I used a PERQ for my undergrad project in
the early 80s. Since this was running Unix V7 (or smth close), I am
sure you can get a postscript viewer running on it (or a tiff viewer
for that matter), while you'd have no chance in hell of getting
Acrobat Reader for it.
Which gives me a nice excuse to repeat my favorite line: I use open
source software not because it is free, but because I get to keep the
code (so I do not depend on the code author to port the software to
newer/different/stranger platforms).
**vp
28 Jan
28 Jan
10:38 a.m.
New subject: Many things, meaning nothing
What makes you think that "classic
computers" are character based?
Umm, hello?
* Some old computers are character-only; no graphics supported at all.
* Some old computers have support for graphics.
* This is old news.
None of my "klassik" computers "support" graphics, just for
example. No character judgement implied or intended.
The word "classic" doesn't carry any real meaning, it means "older
computers I like" (Fred's wisecrack about electricity
notwithstanding :-)
Terminology matters. This is a text-only mailing list!!
Tom Jennings <tomj(a)wps.com>
11:04 a.m.
From: "Vassilis Prevelakis" <vp(a)cs.drexel.edu>
"Randy McLaughlin"
<randy(a)s100-manuals.com> wrote:
Works out great since there are open source PDF viewers ;-)
Randy
[...] PostScript is useless in this
case since the documents are stored as graphical images and cannot be
used
on the classic computers.
What????
What makes you think that "classic computers" are character based?
I don't want to start a "my machine supported graphics earlier than
yours", but as a datapoint, I used a PERQ for my undergrad project in
the early 80s. Since this was running Unix V7 (or smth close), I am
sure you can get a postscript viewer running on it (or a tiff viewer
for that matter), while you'd have no chance in hell of getting
Acrobat Reader for it.
Which gives me a nice excuse to repeat my favorite line: I use open
source software not because it is free, but because I get to keep the
code (so I do not depend on the code author to port the software to
newer/different/stranger platforms).
**vp 
11:27 a.m.
"Randy McLaughlin" <randy(a)s100-manuals.com> wrote:
The PERQ 1 came out in 1979 IIRC....
THe Unix was almost certainly PNX (always pronounced 'Peenix', for
obvious reasons if you've ever used it :-)) It's the least useful PERQ OS
for me, because it doesn't really support user-written microcode (what's
the point of a PERQ if you don't modify the microcode).
[...] PostScript is useless in this
case since the documents are stored as graphical images and cannot be used
on the classic computers.
What????
What makes you think that "classic computers" are character based?
I don't want to start a "my machine supported graphics earlier than
yours", but as a datapoint, I used a PERQ for my undergrad project in
the early 80s. Since this was running Unix V7 (or smth close), I am sure you can get a postscript viewer running on it (or
a tiff viewer
for that matter), while you'd have no chance in hell of getting
Maybe. You've got a maximum of 2M bytes of physical memory (and the video
memory is taken from that). OK, there is the PERQ 2T4 with 4M bytes, but
(a) AFAIK only 2 of those have survived (I would love to be proved wrong
on that) and (b) PNX was never ported to that machine. I've never come
across a PNX version that supported any form of virtual memory either. I
suspect getting a postscript viewer onto that would be 'interesting'
Acrobat Reader for it.
Agreed!
Which gives me a nice excuse to repeat my favorite line: I use open
source software not because it is free, but because I get to keep the
code (so I do not depend on the code author to port the software to
newer/different/stranger platforms).
Yes. For me, having the source code is more important than it being free
(I don't use free software that comes as binaries-only, i do have the
source listing for the (IBM copyrighted) BIOS ROM in this PC).
-tony
7268
days inactive
7268
days old
3 comments
4 participants
participants (4)
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ard＠p850ug1.demon.co.uk -
randy＠s100-manuals.com -
tomj＠wps.com -
vp＠cs.drexel.edu