Re: The Internet-enabled Contiki Desktop OS

[Thomas Richter <thor@cleopatra.math.tu-berlin.de>]

Hi Bill,

> On the Atari 8-bit, you can get a fairly fast 80 column display by alternating
> the display and the character set used.  (Sure, that adds another 2K to
> what you're doing:  ~1K for the screen data, and 1K for the char. set,
> but it works :^) )

> FlickerTerm 80, a modem terminal program, is an excellent example.

> So between the two frames (ever 30th of a second), thanks to persistence
> of vision, you get 80 columns.  Inverse-video is tricky, though. :^(

> It's definitely faster than using 320x192 bitmap mode. :)

I wouldn't guess so, it depends on how smart you print characters. I've
here a (pretty simple) terminal program at hand that uses 80 column graphics
by the Antic F mode. Characters are of course rendered to the screen the
"traditional" way, but the main speed break is scrolling if you perform it
"the lazy way". With some smart display list tricks, you can scroll a 320x192
screen without moving a single byte. The terminal program in question does not
implement a VT-xxx terminal, tough, but a private terminal protocol for a
remote debugger I wrote years ago for the Amiga (using the Atari as remote
terminal, that is). Maybe I can still dig out the sources if this is of any
interest.

Greetings,
	Thomas