Color alternatives on Symbolics

[Hornig@RIVERSIDE.SCRC.Symbolics.COM (Charles Hornig)]

    Date: Thu, 28 Feb 1991 10:46 EST
    From: lgm@iexist.att.com

    I need to know more about the various hardware alternatives for color on
    the Symbolics: price, robustness, support, etc.  For example, is a color
    X terminal the route of least cost?  What color X terminals are known to
    work with the Symbolics?  On such a terminal, do all "ordinary"
    Symbolics programs (e.g., Genera tools, or any software not specifically
    written for color) show up in B&W? Can one set foreground and background
    colors for such "ordinary" programs?

A few comments on color X terminals:

Genera needs lots and lots of memory on the X terminal for bit-save
arrays.  Don't even think about less than 8MB.  If you plan to use a lot
of windows (editor, Zmail, Lisp, etc.), I'd recommend 16MB.  Keep this
in mind when comparing costs.

I like NCD terminals.  At one point there was a bug in their NCD17c
(color) terminal which made it not work properly with Genera.  I don't
know if it is fixed.  There are lots of other vendors out there.

You can pick the foreground and background of each Genera "screen".  You
can have multiple screens up on the terminal at the same time.
Non-color Genera programs will use the foreground and background colors
of their screens.  Genera selection (Select key, etc.) works inside one
screen.  You use an X window manager to select between different
screens.