I was around during 3279 development. I think it was code named hotspur (or was it beano). During a demo a customer (a big bank) asked "why do people need a colour screen". A quick witted person replied "you could display overdrawn accounts in red!!" "great - I'll put in an order". And of course the managers got the colour screens first. Colin
On Wed, 24 Feb 2021 at 10:56, Attila Fogarasi <fogar...@gmail.com> wrote: > The 3279 used tri-plane symbols for extended colour (turquoise, pink, > yellow and white, plus blank for all 3 primary colours off). This had the > neat trick of allowing easy reverse video highlighting (invert the primary > colour bits). GDDM was the software exploitation of 3279, which also > introduced program symbols. Most programs used 10% of the 3279s rather > complex capabilities (a situation not helped by only 2 of the 3279 models > having the full capability set). Great case study on how to design great > hardware badly, or rather so that it is not used. > > Note that the 2260 (3270 predecessor that used a keypunch mechanical > keyboard) and 2250 (million dollar vector graphics terminal) were released > circa 1965. So the 3279 is 15 years later. > > On Wed, Feb 24, 2021 at 7:55 PM Martin Packer <martin_pac...@uk.ibm.com> > wrote: > > > The interesting question to me is "which colours"? > > > > I would say we started with a 3-bit colour space: R, G, B. And so the > > colour Red is 100 in this space and a more complex colour like Yellow is > > probably 110. > > > > Is this right, though? > > > > In particular I'd be surprised if a 4th bit weren't used. But for what? > > > > Cheers, Martin > > > > Martin Packer > > > > WW z/OS Performance, Capacity and Architecture, IBM Technology Sales > > > > +44-7802-245-584 > > > > email: martin_pac...@uk.ibm.com > > > > Twitter / Facebook IDs: MartinPacker > > > > Blog: https://mainframeperformancetopics.com > > > > Mainframe, Performance, Topics Podcast Series (With Marna Walle): > > https://anchor.fm/marna-walle > > > > Youtube channel: > https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCu_65HaYgksbF6Q8SQ4oOvA > > > > > > > > From: Tony Harminc <t...@harminc.net> > > To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU > > Date: 24/02/2021 01:00 > > Subject: [EXTERNAL] Re: Colours on screen (mainframe history > > question) > > Sent by: IBM Mainframe Discussion List <IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU> > > > > > > > > On Tue, 23 Feb 2021 at 19:10, Seymour J Metz <sme...@gmu.edu> wrote: > > > > > IBM had color support for DIDOCS, ISPF and XEDIT pretty early. I don't > > recall when GDDM picked up color support. > > > > Very early 1980s - earlier than I remember support for DIDOCS or ISPF. > > And almost certainly GDDM was under development in parallel with the > > 3279 hardware; IBM rarely comes out with hardware on a whim that has > > no software to support it. One must also remember that the 3279 was > > merely the first implementation of an architectural shift in the 3270 > > series. > > > > Tony H. > > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, > > send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN > > > > > > > > > > Unless stated otherwise above: > > IBM United Kingdom Limited - Registered in England and Wales with number > > 741598. > > Registered office: PO Box 41, North Harbour, Portsmouth, Hampshire PO6 > 3AU > > > > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, > > send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN > > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, > send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
