Consoles and displays

["Mr. Spock" <Spock%samson.cadr.dialnet.symbolics.com@RELAY.CS.NET>]

    Date: Wed, 10 May 89 14:16 EDT
    From: "TSD::AIP1::\"Len%HEART-OF-GOLD\"%atc.bendix.com"%RELAY.CS.NET@Warbucks.AI.SRI.COM

    Date: Wed, 10 May 89 14:07 EDT
    From: Len Moskowitz <Len@HEART-OF-GOLD>
    Subject: Consoles and displays
    To: "3077::IN%\"Slug@warbucks.ai.sri.com\""@TSD1
    Message-ID: <19890510180751.4.LEN@HEART-OF-GOLD>
 
    Our consoles seem to be the weakest links in our systems.  A majority of
    our service calls are console-related.  Is this true for anyone else?

Yes.  We find this to be true.  However the new-style monitors (i.e. the
box with no vents on the top) seem to hold up much better.
 
    Even when they're working well electrically, the displays distort at the
    corners and suffer all kinds of non-linearities that vary from console
    to console.  These seem to be the kind of ills that all CRTs are heir
    to. 

We haven't experienced these non-linearities with the new-style monitors
yet and the oldest of these is at least 1 year, maybe 2.

 For graphics work this can get is disconcerting.  We've attempted
    to relieve the edge/corner distortion by having our field service tech
    shrink the display size down just a bit, so that there is a black
    surround (ala Sun).  For a typical Genera screen (like a Dynamic Lisp
    Listener), this gives us a black surround outside of a white surround
    outside of the border for the screen.
 
    This is a bit busy.  We tried to get rid of the inner white surround by
    entering Function-C followed by Function-c-C.  This looks better, but
    the same sequence doesn't seem to work quite right for other windows.
    In ZMACS windows, new input causes the current input line and all
    subsequent input lines to revert to black background/white type.
    Scrolling and refresh too.  In Document Examiner and Terminal windows
    similar things occur.
 
    Being curious, I tried the Function commands under release 6.1.  They
    seem to work fine except that in the Document Examiner, Terminal, and
    ZMAIL only certain panes obey the Function-c-C command.  There's no
    reversion upon input, scrolling, or refresh.
 
    This is hardly a barn-burner of a problem -- we can live with
    less-than-perfect displays.  But being as we sit in front of these
    things for hours at a stretch, even a simple thing like this can make
    the difference between comfort and irritation.  Is there any consistent
    way to make the inner surround always appear black while keeping the
    display black-on-white?
 
    Len Moskowitz
						     Allied-Signal Aerospace
    moskowitz@bendix.com (CSnet)                       Test Systems Division
    moskowitz%bendix.com@relay.cs.net (ARPAnet)        Mail code 4/8
    arpa!relay.cs.net!bendix.com!moskowitz (uucp)      Teterboro, NJ 07608

You could try:

(tv:set-screen-background-gray :black)

And if you want to get creative you can roll your own stipple pattern
using TV:MAKE-BINARY-GRAY.

(setq fancy-gray
      (tv:make-binary-gray 4 8
	  		   '(#b10000001
			     #b01000100
			     #b00101000
			     #b00101000)))

(tv:set-screen-background-gray fancy-gray)