24 vs 8 bit color systems

["Jason P. Meyers" <jpm7934(at)cis.rit.edu>]

Hello All,

	This is a bit of a departure from the normal request for help.  I am
getting ready to begin designing (aka programming) my final project for
my IDL programming class.  I have read through Dave Fanning's book and
since I wasn't sleeping, Dave's not so subtle message about differences
between 8 and 24 bit displays became apparent. :-)

	However, (and this is the point of this post) I got to wondering just
how much of an issue this really is in today's environment.  I suspect,
and would like feedback, that it is rather uncommon now-a-days to find
an IDL user who is working on an 8-bit color display.  I assume that if
one can afford IDL, then one can also afford a "decent" graphics card. 
I ask this question, because I would like to make the going in
assumption that the user of my project will be working on a 24 bit
system.  Is this a "bad" assumption to make (i.e. are this still a
significant number of users still running on 8 bit systems?)

Thanks in advance,
Jason Meyers
PhD Student, Center for Imaging Science
Rochester Institute of Technology
jpm7934@rit.edu