Date:	1993-09-19
		From:	John
		Subject:	Bits and Bytes

Glad to hear the icon finally made it. I have found that sometimes, when a modified icon is first transfered, a generic icon will appear until you close and reopen whatever window it's displayed in. If that doesn't work you might also try rebuilding the desktop. Let me know if you are still having trouble getting it to display.

On bits vs. bytes for micropixel support: I'll use bits for now, assuming that this memory consumption will approximate that required for subsequent color support.

Did you mean to say bits? Bytes, not bits, would approximate the memory consumption required for color support.

I trust you will keep me posted on grid size, etc. As soon as we settle on a size I can begin work on the piece icons.

So far I have been FREQUENTLY using the ones-and-zeroes text file. I will probably need it at least until Alex produces color maps, and possibly even after that. Once you implement smoothing I suppose the easiest format would be to just output 1s and 0s for the whole thing at micropixel resolution. Let's see, at 20 by 16 pixel size and 100 by 75 coordinates that would be 2000 * 1200 = 2.4 megs. YIKES! On second thought, perhaps you should output a format which mirrors the format you use internally. Do whatever is EASIEST from your point of view; I can cope with any code you devise.

Incidentally, I recently noticed that the text file produces 75 lines of 100 chars each which yields an attractive rectangle somewhat wider than it is tall. And yet the on-screen coordinates of your Alex program show 99 lines of 74 units each (thus taller than wide and missing one unit in each dimension). What gives?

Enough Alex for now. Hope your Sunday was profitible. How did your New Mexico gig go, by the way?

Talk to you soon,

Epicurious