Re: WHAT MOVES ON SCREEN?

[Andreas Ramos <andreas -at- NETCOM -dot- COM>]

On Thu, 7 Jul 1994 mpriestley -at- VNET -dot- IBM -dot- COM wrote:
> (Deleted)
> ... On a "phenomenal" level, sure, nothing moves,
> everything is just redrawing pixels (well the electron gun moves)...
> (Deleted)

The electron gun doesn't move either. The stream of electrons are
directed by several magnetic fields. The only thing that moves is the
electrons (I built an electron gun once, using a laboratory flask, wires,
etc. Lots of fun. Very dangerous.)

I replied in a private e-mail to the original poster: Computer Science
(CS) students use the metaphor of a window moving over a large flat
surface. Accountants whom I've known also learn this metaphor. I learned
computering from CS people, and for many years, thought of it this way.

I think the confusion arose with the word "scroll". Most people think of
scrolls as the kind in the movies: one holds a roll in the lower hand and
rolls it upwards towards the upper hand. The text is read along, as if on
a very long sheet of paper.

This is Hollywood. And Hollywood doesn't care much about historical
accuracy.

Scrolls, as in the original Greek and Egyptian, were read horizontally,
left to right or right to left. The sheet was separated into sections, or
pages.

Therefore, when we Mods say "scrolling by moving up or down",  we're
misusing the word. Properly, the text should flow (or page) from left to
right (or right to left) (The Greeks didn't care which way it went).

Thus I would guess that most people think that the text flows from below
to above. I've often seen illustrations in introductory books to
computers that promote this view: two rollers mounted above and below the
screen, with a roll of text going from one to the other, being viewed
through the screen.

Indeed, it's easier to explain it this way to the newbie. They are
the kind of people who watch TV and thus "know" what a scroll is.

yrs,
andreas