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Re: Apple Drops Backward Compatibility for Next MacOS



In article <54oc1n$1p3e@uni.library.ucla.edu>, pubpc1@library.ucla.edu writes:
|> David Moles <deivu@eccosys.com> wrote:
|> >I heard once that the IIGS was deliberately speed-crippled
|> >to avoid competing with the Mac. Does anyone know if there's
|> >any truth to that rumor?

|> This stems from the WDC vs. Apple debate.  WDC claimed that they
|> had 6MHz chips available, but Apple claimed that there was so
|> much delay that they went with the slower chips.

|> >My only real problem with the IIGS as compared to, say, a Mac Plus
|> >(that being the machine of record on this thread) was the
|> >composite video. After word processing on a crisp, clear
|> >monochrome screen -- or a good, modern RGB monitor -- it's very
|> >hard to go back.

[ snip ]

|> The composite video on the GS sucks, but that's only because
|> it is there to be compatible to VCRs (for multimedia) and
|> //e monitors.

I did an awful lot of coding looking at my //e's green-screen monitor.
I hooked two monitors up to a Y-cable -- one green-screen, the other
an Amdek color 1.  The color 1 would _almost_ be readible in 80 column
mode with the chroma knob all the way off.

|> The real GS monitor is the AppleColor RGB analog monitor, which
|> is much crisper.  Superior to the tiny Mac Plus built-in screen.

Except the best video mode on the GS was 640x200, and it had its
quirks.  Way better than the Apple //e.  The Mac always had better
vertical resolution (384 vs 200).  Shortly after the GS came out, the
color Mac II with 640x480, 256 colors from a pallette of millions came
out.

|> Thanks to its slots, today you can add a Second Sight card and
|> run a VGA/SVGA monitor on it too.

Except there isn't much software supporting that video mode.  Unless
it's just line-doubling the 640x200 to 640x400, with double-height
pixels. 

|> If Apple did not drop the IIgs, you can bet that VGA cards for
|> it would have arrived much sooner!

Chris
-- 
Speaking only for myself, of course.
Chris Wood    christw@lexis-nexis.com   cats@CFAnet.com