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From: Robert Riches <spamtrap42@jacob21819.net>
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.misc
Subject: Re: GIMP 3.0.0-RC1
Date: 11 Feb 2025 05:18:56 GMT
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Message-ID: <slrnvqlne0.s5t.spamtrap42@one.localnet>
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Reply-To: spamtrap42@jacob21819.net
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On 2025-02-11, Robert Riches <spamtrap42@jacob21819.net> wrote:
> On 2025-02-11, WokieSux282@ud0s4.net <WokieSux283@ud0s4.net> wrote:
>> On 2/10/25 4:41 PM, D wrote:
>>> 
>>> 
>>> On Mon, 10 Feb 2025, candycanearter07 wrote:
>>> 
>>>> D <nospam@example.net> wrote at 21:19 this Saturday (GMT):
>>>> [snip]
>>>>> My most powerful software was a multi-path checker to a storage system
>>>>> that held a lot of pension money.
>>>>>
>>>>> It was written in bash. =D
>>>>>
>>>>> Ok, ok... I wrote a GUI for some kind of batch job mgmt software that 
>>>>> IBM
>>>>> hobbled together in order to trace dependencies, that was done in 
>>>>> python.
>>>> [snip]
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Did you use something like tkinter?
>>>>
>>> 
>>> Hmm, it was a long time ago, so I no longer remember. I _think_ it was 
>>> some kind of graph library that enabled you to generate graphics based 
>>> on some kind of node and vertice notation. It then generated a pdf which 
>>> you would zoom into, which visualized all the dependencies of all the 
>>> batch jobs. Sorry, that's about the best I can do. The code is long lost 
>>> in time, like tears in rain.
>>
>>    "Vector" graphics ? You don't see that approach much
>>    any more. Was most popular when you could buy vector
>>    CRT displays - think 1950s/60s movies about NORAD or
>>    similar. They didn't have the stuff for big sharp
>>    bitmaps so you just had the CRT move a bright dot
>>    around XY coords. Kinda like working a pen potter.
>>
>>    Vector makes no sense but with anything but CRTs
>>    as the dot path is made by directly driving the XY
>>    coils in the tube rather than any kind of 'scan'
>>    being involved.
>>
>>    Hmmm ... I think there was an old 'asteroid' kind
>>    of arcade game that used vector. Very sharp, bright,
>>    quick outline drawings.
>
> Yes, there was an Asteroid arcade game that used vector graphics
> on a CRT.  It was a rather pretty picture.
>
> Tektronix had some fairly nice (but expensive) BASIC machines in
> the late 1970s and into the earlier 1980s in the 4050 series:
>
>     4051 6800 and ~12" perfectly flat screen 1024x768
>
>     4052 bit-slice ~20MHz, same screen as 4051
>
>     4054 bit-slice ~20MHz, 19" curved screen 4Kx3K
>
> Everything in BASIC was 64-bit FP, for which the bit-slice CPU
> had an opcode for FP add/sub/mult/div.  I don't remember whether
> trig functions were opcodes or done by the ROM.

Oh, forgot to mention, both sizes of CRTs were _STORAGE_ tubes,
almost like an electronic etch-a-sketch except that line segments
of any angle were perfectly smooth--all done by analog
circuitry.  The CPU wrote to a few registers that fed the DACs,
and the beam was moved along the specified path at a proper speed
to write to write to the phosphor.  To erase anything, you had to
flash the screen to completely blank.

Later on, they had a sort-of 2-color version of the larger CRT
and a refresh graphics engine that would sweep the beam at a low
enough intensity that it wouldn't transition the phosphor to
stored 'on' mode.

-- 
Robert Riches
spamtrap42@jacob21819.net
(Yes, that is one of my email addresses.)