Terminal Type/Productivity correlation (re:was hardcopy/pro

[Tim W Smith]

Try printing three columns in landscape mode on a laser printer.
If you use a tiny font, you can get 80 characters in each column,
and some large number of lines.

As for size of the screen, I prefer computers that allow me to
have several screens.  For example, on my Mac, I've got a mono
screen (actually, it supports greyscale, but I never use that).
This lets me have about 40x110 text display.

Next to this I've got the color screen.  This is good for another
40x110 (actually, slightly less because the menu bar is on this
screen).

If I decide I need more room, I'll get a two page display and
video card.  I'll still have three NuBus slots for more video
expansion should that fail to satisfy my appetite for screen
space...

This sort of arrangement has several advantages compared to the
usual "get a real big screen" strategy that most people seem
to follow.  First of all, it costs a lot less.  Those big screens
are expensive.  There's no way, for example, that I could afford
a single large color monitor and a video card to drive it, but
a 640x480 color monitor and 24 bit video card is not that
expensive.

Second, it lets one optimize better for what one is doing.  For
example, I find most color screens not as nice as a good mono
display for working with text.  With the multi-screen approach,
I get to have a good mono screen where I do my primary editing,
and I can use the other screen for looking at header files and
stuff like that, where I can tolerate a little less quality on
the text display.

It's also easier to arrange.  I don't have *room* for a big
screen, but I can fit a couple of smaller screens in.

					Tim Smith