User talk:Jeh/Archives/2011/March

Rotating bit displays

Hi Jeh,

Did I say LEDs displaying a register in WNT? No, on the display screen; a pattern of marching bits on the display screen will the OS configures itself. If you didn't understand it, why not make it more clear rather than delete.

Jonathan144 Jonathan144 (talk) 23:24, 5 March 2011 (UTC)

I don't remember where that was and it doesn't appear to be in your edit history. If you'll remind me of the article title I'll be happy to try rewording, if you haven't already. As I recall my impression was that the previous text really did imply pretty strongly that it was talking about LEDs displaying register contents, which is why I deleted it. Note though that without a supporting WP:RS it would of course be WP:OR to state or imply that the NT display was done as a "nod" to earlier switch-and-light displays. Jeh (talk) 23:55, 5 March 2011 (UTC)

NM, I found it. Well.. I've seen no evidence that the rotating bit patterns in the DEC machines were Cutler's idea. He had nothing to do with PDP-8 OSs, for example. As for the 11's, all of the major DEC OSs for the 11's (RT11, RSTS, all of the RSX family) did that, but Cutler only worked on RSX-11M. And many other machines used similar displays. Still, the "chaser" on the WNT boot screen could have been a nod to those DEC OSs, but just as easily not. Incidentally the rotating "lights" on the WNT boot screen are not an idle loop, they're a progress indicator. Jeh (talk) 07:23, 6 March 2011 (UTC)