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ZSoft Corporation
PC Paintbrush was a graphics editing software created by the ZSoft Corporation in 1984 for computers running the MS-DOS operating system. It was originally developed as a response to the first paintbrush program for the IBM PC, ''PCPaint'', which had been released the prior year by Mouse Systems, the company responsible for bringing the mouse to the IBM PC for the first time. In 1984, Mouse Systems had released ''PCPaint'' to compete with Apple Paint on the Apple II computer and was already positioned to compete with ''MacPaint'' on Apple Computer's new Macintosh platform. Unlike ''MacPaint'', ''PCPaint'' enabled users to work in color. When Paintbrush was released the following year, ''PCPaint'' had already added 16-color support for the PC's 64-color Enhanced Graphics Adapter (EGA), and Paintbrush followed with the PC's advantage of EGA support as well. (The EGA supported 64 colors, of which any 16 could be on the screen at a time in normal use.) Also following the lead of M ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
MS-DOS
MS-DOS ( ; acronym for Microsoft Disk Operating System, also known as Microsoft DOS) is an operating system for x86-based personal computers mostly developed by Microsoft. Collectively, MS-DOS, its rebranding as IBM PC DOS, and a few operating systems attempting to be compatible with MS-DOS, are sometimes referred to as "DOS" (which is also the generic acronym for disk operating system). MS-DOS was the main operating system for IBM PC compatibles during the 1980s, from which point it was gradually superseded by operating systems offering a graphical user interface (GUI), in various generations of the graphical Microsoft Windows operating system. IBM licensed and re-released it in 1981 as PC DOS 1.0 for use in its PCs. Although MS-DOS and PC DOS were initially developed in parallel by Microsoft and IBM, the two products diverged after twelve years, in 1993, with recognizable differences in compatibility, syntax, and capabilities. Beginning in 1988 with DR-DO ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
IBM PCjr
The IBM PCjr (pronounced "PC junior") was a home computer produced and marketed by IBM from March 1984 to May 1985, intended as a lower-cost variant of the IBM PC with hardware capabilities better suited for video games, in order to compete more directly with other home computers such as the Apple II and Commodore 64. It retained the IBM PC's 8088 CPU and BIOS interface, but provided enhanced graphics and sound, ROM cartridge slots, built-in joystick ports, and an infrared wireless keyboard. The PCjr supported expansion via "sidecar" modules, which could be attached to the side of the unit. Despite widespread anticipation, the PCjr was ultimately unsuccessful in the market. It was only partially IBM compatible, limiting support for IBM's software library, its chiclet keyboard was widely criticized for its poor quality, expandability was limited, and it was initially offered with a maximum of of RAM, insufficient for many PC programs. Models The PCjr came in two models: ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1984 Software
Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). * January 10 ** The United States and the Vatican (Holy See) restore full diplomatic relations. ** The Victoria Agreement is signed, institutionalising the Indian Ocean Commission. *January 24 – Steve Jobs launches the Macintosh personal computer in the United States. February * February 3 ** Dr. John Buster and the research team at Harbor–UCLA Medical Center announce history's first embryo transfer from one woman to another, resulting in a live birth. ** STS-41-B: Space Shuttle ''Challenger'' is launched on the 10th Space Shuttle mission. * February 7 – Astronauts Bruce McCandless II and Robert L. Stewart make the first untethered space walk. * February 8– 19 – The 1984 Winter Olympics are held in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Learning Company
The Learning Company (TLC) was an educational software company founded in 1980 in Palo Alto, California and headquartered in Fremont, California. The company produced a grade-based line of learning software, edutainment games, and productivity tools. Its titles included the flagship series ''Reader Rabbit'', for preschoolers through second graders, and ''The ClueFinders'', for more advanced students. The company was also known for publishing licensed educational titles featuring characters such as Arthur Read, Arthur, Scooby-Doo (character), Scooby-Doo, Zoboomafoo, and Caillou. In 1995, the company was acquired by The Learning Company (formerly SoftKey), SoftKey in a hostile takeover bid, at which point SoftKey assumed the Learning Company name and brand. History The Learning Company was founded in 1980 by Ann McCormick; Leslie Grimm; Teri Perl; and Warren Robinett, a former Atari employee who had programmed the popular game ''Adventure (1979 video game), Adventure''. They s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Image Scanner
An image scanner—often abbreviated to just scanner—is a device that optically scans images, printed text, handwriting or an object and converts it to a digital image. Commonly used in offices are variations of the desktop ''flatbed scanner'' where the document is placed on a glass window for scanning. ''Hand-held scanners'', where the device is moved by hand, have evolved from text scanning "wands" to 3D scanners used for industrial design, reverse engineering, test and measurement, orthotics, gaming and other applications. Mechanically driven scanners that move the document are typically used for large-format documents, where a flatbed design would be impractical. Modern scanners typically use a charge-coupled device (CCD) or a contact image sensor (CIS) as the image sensor, whereas ''drum scanners'', developed earlier and still used for the highest possible image quality, use a photomultiplier tube (PMT) as the image sensor. A ''rotary scanner,'' used for high-speed documen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
TWAIN , a communication standard for computer software and digital imaging devices
{{disambig, geo, surname ...
Twain may refer to: People * Mark Twain, pen name of American writer Samuel Langhorne Clemens (1835–1910) * Norman Twain (1930–2016), American film producer * Shania Twain (born 1965), Canadian singer-songwriter Places * Twain, California, a census-designated place in Plumas County * Douglas River, formerly named Twain, in New Zealand Other uses * TWAIN Twain may refer to: People * Mark Twain, pen name of American writer Samuel Langhorne Clemens (1835–1910) * Norman Twain (1930–2016), American film producer * Shania Twain (born 1965), Canadian singer-songwriter Places * Twain, California, a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Windows 3
Windows 3.x means either of, or all of the following versions of Microsoft Windows: * Windows 3.0 * Windows 3.1x Windows 3.1 is a major release of Microsoft Windows. It was released to manufacturing on April 6, 1992, as a successor to Windows 3.0. Like its predecessors, the Windows 3.1 series ran as a shell on top of MS-DOS. Codenamed Janus, Windows 3 ... Windows NT * Windows NT 3.x 3.x {{Short pages monitor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
TIFF
Tag Image File Format, abbreviated TIFF or TIF, is an image file format for storing raster graphics images, popular among graphic artists, the publishing industry, and photographers. TIFF is widely supported by scanning, faxing, word processing, optical character recognition, image manipulation, desktop publishing, and page-layout applications. The format was created by the Aldus Corporation for use in desktop publishing. It published the latest version 6.0 in 1992, subsequently updated with an Adobe Systems copyright after the latter acquired Aldus in 1994. Several Aldus or Adobe technical notes have been published with minor extensions to the format, and several specifications have been based on TIFF 6.0, including TIFF/EP (ISO 12234-2), TIFF/IT (ISO 12639), TIFF-F (RFC 2306) and TIFF-FX (RFC 3949). History TIFF was created as an attempt to get desktop scanner vendors of the mid-1980s to agree on a common scanned image file format, in place of a multitude of proprietary for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Device Driver
In computing, a device driver is a computer program that operates or controls a particular type of device that is attached to a computer or automaton. A driver provides a software interface to hardware devices, enabling operating systems and other computer programs to access hardware functions without needing to know precise details about the hardware being used. A driver communicates with the device through the computer bus or communications subsystem to which the hardware connects. When a calling program invokes a routine in the driver, the driver issues commands to the device (drives it). Once the device sends data back to the driver, the driver may invoke routines in the original calling program. Drivers are hardware dependent and operating-system-specific. They usually provide the interrupt handling required for any necessary asynchronous time-dependent hardware interface. Purpose The main purpose of device drivers is to provide abstraction by acting as a translator be ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Super Video Graphics Array
Super VGA (SVGA) is a broad term that covers a wide range of computer display standards that extended IBM's VGA specification. When used as shorthand for a resolution, as VGA and XGA often are, SVGA refers to a resolution of 800×600. History In the late 1980s, after the release of IBM's VGA, third-party manufacturers began making graphics cards based on its specifications with extended capabilities. As these cards grew in popularity they began to be referred to as "Super VGA." This term was not an official standard, but a shorthand for enhanced VGA cards which had become common by 1988. One card that explicitly used the term was Genoa's SuperVGA HiRes. Super VGA cards broke compatibility with the IBM VGA standard, requiring software developers to provide specific display drivers and implementations for each card their software could operate on. Initially, the heavy restrictions this placed on software developers slowed the uptake of Super VGA cards, which motivated VESA to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
PICtor PIC Image Format
PICtor is an image file format developed by John Bridges, the principal author of PCPaint, the first Paintbrush program for the PC. It was also the native file format for Pictor Paint and Graphics Animation System for Professionals (GRASP) (also by Bridges) and became the first widely accepted DOS imaging standard. Typical file format The PICtor format is a device-independent raster image format; the file header stores information about the display hardware (screen resolution, color depth and palette information, bit planes, and so on) separately from the actual image information, allowing the image to be properly transferred and displayed on computer systems with different hardware. PIC files commonly stored palette-indexed images ranging from 2 or 4 colors to 16 and 256 colors, although the format has been extended to record true-color (24-bit) images as well. Although it is device-independent, the PIC format also contains additional information about the device that it was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
