9 Aug
2011
9 Aug
'11
12:54 a.m.
Remember doing exactly that 25 or so years ago. Wrote some process control
software; CGA monitor on top of the PC and the MDA monitor hanging from
the
roof of the factory floor displaying bundling information. Machine control
via the
parallel port which required a tiny bit of assembler but the rest was
QBasic.
Doug.
9 Aug
9 Aug
8:45 a.m.
On 9 Aug 2011 at 8:54, Doug Peksa wrote:
Remember doing exactly that 25 or so years ago. Wrote
some process
control software; CGA monitor on top of the PC and the MDA monitor
hanging from the roof of the factory floor displaying bundling
information. Machine control via the parallel port which required a
tiny bit of assembler but the rest was QBasic.
Exactly. I recall some real-time applications that used CGA to
graphically display the state of a process and MDA as the text-mode
interaction with an operator. From a programming standpoint, beats
the hell out of (small "W") windows interface. Some early CAD
systems, I believe could also do a similar thing.
--Chuck
11:48 a.m.
Exactly. I recall some real-time applications that used CGA to
graphically display the state of a process and MDA as the text-mode
interaction with an operator. From a programming standpoint, beats
the hell out of (small "W") windows interface. Some early CAD
systems, I believe could also do a similar thing.
I have used an electronic CAD system where the th schematic or PCB was
displayed on an EGA monitor and the menus and help text on an MDA monitor
on the same PC. (An EGA card se to a colour mode will co-exist with an
MDA card, I beleive an EGA card set to the mono grpahics mode will
co-exist with a CGA card).
I also heard of an early PC based CAD system which had a special display
controller and colour monitor conencted using a serial interface. The
normal PC video system was used for menus, etc.
-tony
4:47 p.m.
On 08/09/2011 02:48 PM, Tony Duell wrote:
The Calay schematic capture/PCB layout system did this.
Interestingly, that system was built around a PDP-11/23 running (if
memory serves) RT-11, and the extremely CPU-intensive task of PCB
autorouting was farmed out to an interesting proprietary box containing
a Z8000, configured with a DMA interface to the Qbus, treated as a sort
of attached processor. The whole shebang is built into a very nice desk.
I had the pleasure of using one of these systems at Princeton in the
mid-late 1980s. I actually own one, sadly sans desk, but I've not yet
physically picked it up.
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire
Port Charlotte, FL
Exactly. I
recall some real-time applications that used CGA to
graphically display the state of a process and MDA as the text-mode
interaction with an operator. From a programming standpoint, beats
the hell out of (small "W") windows interface. Some early CAD
systems, I believe could also do a similar thing.
I have used an electronic CAD system where the th schematic or PCB was
displayed on an EGA monitor and the menus and help text on an MDA monitor
on the same PC. (An EGA card se to a colour mode will co-exist with an
MDA card, I beleive an EGA card set to the mono grpahics mode will
co-exist with a CGA card).
8:47 a.m.
On 9 Aug 2011 at 8:54, Doug Peksa wrote:
Remember doing exactly that 25 or so years ago. Wrote
some process
control software; CGA monitor on top of the PC and the MDA monitor
hanging from the roof of the factory floor displaying bundling
information. Machine control via the parallel port which required a
tiny bit of assembler but the rest was QBasic.
The NEC PC9801 took an alternate approach--it had two graphics
controllers in the machine, so graphics and text were handled
independently and could be superimposed on the same screen.
--Chuck
11:44 a.m.
The NEC PC9801 took an alternate approach--it had two
graphics
controllers in the machine, so graphics and text were handled
independently and could be superimposed on the same screen.
As did the DEC Rainbow. The colour video card for that machine was a
completely separate system to the built-inmonochome text display. If you
used the standard cable with a colour monitor you got the text appering
in green, and the colour graphics. With a special cable you could have
text on a mono monitor and sparate colour grapgics on a second monitor.
-tony
4883
days inactive
4883
days old
5 comments
4 participants
participants (4)
-
ard＠p850ug1.demon.co.uk -
cclist＠sydex.com -
mcguire＠neurotica.com -
PeksaDO＠cardiff.ac.uk