Question for you 'big iron' collectors

From: allisonp_at_world.std.com <(allisonp_at_world.std.com)>
Date: Thu Dec 30 09:45:38 1999

> Do you just write code for the sheer challenge of writing code?
> Have you written real-world apps? Is it just nostalgia? Or do you
> keep them running purely for historical reasons and don't have any
> practical day-to-day use for them?

Yes to all save for the last bit. Like any computer unless it's broken
there is always a practical day to day use. Even the most limited
machines are useful for teaching computer fundementals or word processing
for examples.

> It just fascinates me that there are so many of you who run these
> beasts and I'd just like to know why.

Everest! It's there. Though that is often at best a partial reason.
All too often the assumption is OLD .EQ. USELESS and that is invalid
all too often. My old Z80 crate (northstar* Horizon ca1978) is an
excellent text editing system and also has a potload of really good cross
assemblers for other CPUs some still widely used (8051 series). Not bad
for a 21 year old system.

Allison
Received on Thu Dec 30 1999 - 09:45:38 GMT