Re: WHY does the apple II have higher resolution horizontally?

[gids.rs@sasktel.net]

On Monday, August 20, 2012 9:48:45 PM UTC-6, Michael J. Mahon wrote:
> Your Name <YourName@YourISP.com> wrote:
> 
> > On Monday, August 20, 2012 9:59:57 AM UTC-6, Steve Nickolas wrote:
> 
> >> On Mon, 20 Aug 2012, aiiadict@gmail.com wrote:
> 
> >>> 
> 
> >>> 280X192.  TV does the same too.  VGA, SVGA, etc.  Did the designers have 
> 
> >>> higher resolution sight in the horizontal direction?
> 
> >> 
> 
> >> Standard televisions are wider than they are tall.
> 
> > 
> 
> > I would ALMOST be willing to guarantee that every computer and TV display
> 
> > is that way. Widescreen TVs / displays are of course even "worse". Even
> 
> > the screens on things like TV recorders, digital wristwatches, microwave
> 
> > ovens, etc. all tend to be "landscape" orientation.
> 
> > 
> 
> > It's only really with the invention of devices like mobile phones, iPads,
> 
> > and iPods that displays started becoming more common in "portrait"
> 
> > orientation (taller than they are wide), and many of those device can be
> 
> > turned sideways in use.
> 
> > 
> 
> > Most book, newspaper, magazine pages are printed in portrait orientation,
> 
> > but when you open them up to a double-spread they are often in "landscape"
> 
> > too.
> 
> > 
> 
> > Possibly it's something to do with the anatomy of the human eye - perhaps
> 
> > the eye (without moving your head) can scan horizontally for a further
> 
> > distance than it can vertically. The human eye does also tend to be wider
> 
> > than it is tall.
> 
> 
> 
> Exactly. 
> 
> 
> 
> Evolution has produced our "widescreen" visual system, no doubt because it
> 
> is better suited to seeing both threats and opportunities. 
> 
> 
> 
> NTSC chose to have approximately equal resolutions in both horizontal and
> 
> vertical directions, and adopted a 4:3 aspect ratio because the movies did.
> 
> 
> 
> The movies naturally have equal horizontal and vertical resolutions with
> 
> cylindrically symmetric optics, and they picked 4:3 because it is a better
> 
> match to our field of view.  Before movies, the theater also used a
> 
> horizontal rectangle as the common proscenium. 
> 
> 
> 
> A different, more Apple-related question is why the Apple II pixels are not
> 
> "square", and the answer to that is related to clock speeds and color
> 
> subcarrier frequencies. 
> 
> 
> 
> -michael - NadaNet 3.1 and AppleCrate II: http://home.comcast.net/~mjmahon


I agree.  A lot more detail can be taken in from a sideways glance than an up-and-down glance.

But, then that begs the question.  Why are books written for horizontal reading but almost all books themselves are vertical?

Rob