Re: 24 vs 8 bit color systems

[Martin Schultz <martin.schultz(at)dkrz.de>]

"Jason P. Meyers" wrote:
> 
> 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

Us Germans like to think in hierarchies, and these are best reflected
in the kind of computer one gets ;-) Thus, the poor students who work
a little during their terms don't have more than 8 bits, and even
several PhDs and postdocs don't have it. The problem with these Sun
workstations is that they are so robust, so there is no need to
replace them ;-)

Don't take this so seriously, but be warned that whoever is going to
cease support of 8 bit displays will be missiled with emails or other
things.

Cheers,
Martin

PS: However, I think you are right in that RSI could make a move
toward adopting 24 bit displays as the current standard and only
allowing for 8 bit as a secondary option. I haven't thought about it
too much, but perhaps they could then come up with a better and more
user-friendly color model (forget about the tables, have at least 16
Million indices available, store more than one colortable, so each
application running concurrently can have its own and update colors
smartly, etc.)



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