Due to massive amounts of caffeine & sleep deprivation, A.R. Duell said:
>I really don't see the interest in emulators if the real hardware still
>exists. I'd much rather have the real thing, and have all the fun of
>maintaining it, than have a piece of software (probably without source)
>running on a PC that I can't get spare chips for. Perhaps it's because I'm
>a hardware hacker, but emulators seem to lack so much compared to the
>phyusical machine.
For me:
Speed & functions, pure and simple. Altho I'm designing my CoCo3 benchmark
to see just how many Mhz-like CoCo my P150+ makes, think about this scenario:
This cycle takes me 10-20 minutes(depending on # of changes) on my real CoCo3:
Boot assembler/editor from disk,
load program,
make changes to program,
assemble program in mem, <--|
correct errors if necessary, --|
save program,
assemble program to disk,
reboot machine (to start with clean slate),
set up environment (clear ML memory, etc.)
LOADM program,
EXEC program,
Watch Program die, lock up system (this is ML, you know ;-),
reboot machine again, to recover from lockup,
start cycle over.
On my P150+ with emulated floppies on the hard drive, and the emulator also
has the ability to save a snapshot of your entire environment, this cycle
has been reduced to 1-4 minutes (depending on number of changes) making ML
programming worthwhile (no thumb-twiddling) and I plan on writing some ML
proggies for my wife & kids to use that I can burn into eprom and set up on
a CoCo for them.
Roughly guesstimating, I now have a 40 Mhz CoCo3 sitting on my hard drive
at home... :-)
Also, I plan on getting a CD-RW (that's re-writable!) within the next two
weeks, and I plan on archiving all my software on CD-R... cain't do that on
a CoCo! ;^>
HTH,
"Merch"
--
Roger Merchberger | If at first you don't succeed,
Programmer, NorthernWay | nuclear warhead disarmament should
zmerch_at_northernway.net | *not* be your first career choice.
Received on Thu Jun 19 1997 - 14:38:19 BST