The Mythical \"X on a Dumb Terminal\" server, part 53

[jbs at eddie.MIT.EDU]

In article <16524 at brl-adm.ARPA> valdis at sun.mcs.clarkson.edu writes:
>Somebody proposed that we use a downloadable 256-char font with appropriate
>pixel definitions to cover all possible bit patters.

I never proposed such a thing.  Please re-read my article.  


(back from re-reading so soon?)

Now, note that I did not say anything about a downloadable font, nor
did I say that I wanted to access every possible bit pattern.  Each
character on the terminal would be dealt with, by the server, as one
"pixel"--one that can contain some number of different values, not
that unlike a color display.  The server would not display a character
by painting it pixel-by-pixel; it would simply set one pixel to the
correct value.

(again) The goal here is not to do graphics on a character terminal.
It is to do characters on a character terminal--using a consistent,
(roughly) device-independent, network-transparent protocol: X.

Jeff Siegal