Uncle Roger wrote:
>
> At 03:13 AM 10/4/98 -0700, you wrote:
> >The Model 100 OTOH is more structured around word processing, I'd say.
> >This could be another reason for the 100's popularity and the workSlate's
> >lack of popularity.
I'd call it text editing rather than word processing -- since the
Model 100 had minimal formatting capability (width before wrap).
I've never seen a workslate. As a former employee at the old
Convergent campus in San Jose, I'd love to find one -- none were in
evidence when I was there, though there were a fair number of NGEN
boxes (which I know little about -- wasn't my department) and quite a
few Unix PCs around still being used -- as a 3B1 owner long before I
got there, I managed to get three into my cubical to use as terminals
to the machines I was testing. Sort of a pity I was a Unisys hire
and Convergent had technically ceased to exist a couple of years
previously.
> The m100 has three useful programs (and two worthless ones) in ROM: BASIC,
> Text, and TelCom. The "operating system" consists of 4 or 5 lines of 4
> columns of filenames (including the ROM based ones) which you select by
> moving a cursor with the arrow keys and hitting return. The other half of
> the OpSys was BASIC commands.
>
> What really got the m100 selling, though, IMO was the fact that it could be
> had at Radio Shack -- and there are (were) about a gazillion of those. How
> many Convergent stores were there? (Or, for that matter, NEC, Olivetti,
> and Kyocera, who all sold versions of the Kyocera machine that the m100 was
> based on.)
>
> I bought my m100 with a credit card at a Radio Shack.
It also got very good press because with the built-in modem even at
300bps, a reporter could phone in his story without the added typos
of dictation. I've mentioned before that I helped deliver at least
$500,000 of these machines to the LA Times -- they got a quantity
discount that basically meant that the 24k machines got the other 8k
thrown in. The NEC and Olivetti versions depended on external modems
(I've never seen specs on a Kyocera-labeled machine), which are not
usually functional with public phones due to lack of power outlets
until the PocketModems came out. And until modular jacks became
regularly available with public and hotel phones. Yes, in the long
run it hurt, since the built-in modem was only 300. Ever met a
field reporter who can dictate a story faster? (Not how fast he can
ask questions). The Mod 100 acoustic cups ate battery power, but
they worked if the phone did. And I seem to recall that that's the
year that 1200 bps modems broke the $500 price barrier in non-portable
form factors.
Oh, the "two worthless ones" was one program primed for two filenames.
A minor addition to the "Search" portion of the text editor. If they
took 200 bytes of ROM, I'd be surprised. The real sacrifice was in
the reduction of entries in the directory. Which I recall a program
showed up in PCM in the 2nd or 3rd issue to elimate the address and
schedule program directory entries.
--
Ward Griffiths <mailto:gram_at_cnct.com> <http://www.cnct.com/home/gram/>
When I was crossing the border into Canada, they asked me if I had any
firearms with me. I said "Well, what do you need?" -- Steven Wright
Received on Tue Oct 06 1998 - 23:10:04 BST