HP200C: A Guide to Time Shared Basic
This was my very first Computer Book and ended up reading cover to cover.
Access was through an ASR33 teletype through leased line to a company
called OTIS (Oregon Total Information Service?).
I managed to do a lot of programming the first couple of years but I've
had folks tell me I was jaded for learning Basic first.
The verdict is still out....
George Rachor
=========================================================
George L. Rachor Jr. george_at_racsys.rt.rain.com
Beaverton, Oregon
http://racsys.rt.rain.com
United States of America Amateur Radio : KD7DCX
On Thu, 25 Feb 1999, James Willing wrote:
> Some somewhat regional information to follow, but valid as to the fates of
> some past friends (systems)...
>
> On Thu, 25 Feb 1999, Rick Bensene wrote:
>
> > Jay West (in a wonderfully informative message about HP systems) wrote:
> >
> > > Generally the HP2000 designation meant the system was running TSB
> > > (Timeshare
> > > BASIC) which is my particular target of collecting since it was the first
> > > computer system I ever learned. If the same hardware was running DOS/RTE,
> > > etc. is was called an HP 1000.
> > >
> > So, does anyone out there know of, or have, any of the HP 2000 Timeshared
> > BASIC systems *running*? This is what I learned on also.
> > The county educational services district purchased an original HP 2000B
> > TSB system. Over the years, it was upgraded to a C, then C', then E, F, and
> > finally ACCESS. The last I know of the system being in service was in the
> > early
> > 1980's. I've tried to track down what happened to it, but every lead has
> > resulted
> > in a dead end.
>
> Ah, yes... I remember it well. As to its fate, I can offer a few more
> tidbits...
>
> The METCOM system, known as "Darlene" to its friends, met its final
> (publically anyway) end at a sealed bid county auction in the early 1980s.
>
> Timesharing was no longer considered a 'practical' solution to teaching
> computing in the schools, with the increasing presence of the PC...
> "Overhead, expense, and reliability" were some other terms bandied around.
>
> I attended the auction along with some friends who hoped to have a shot at
> obtaining the system. We all thought it would be really cool to have.
> That hope did not last long...
>
> The system was last seen in numerous pieces in the building where the
> auction was held (some miles away from the former 'Computer Center'). One
> of the (washing machine style) disk drives had a rather large 'ding' in
> the side, indicating that the people who moved it did not apparently have
> much of a clue... B^{
>
> The system was auctioned "whole", or so they said... What we were able to
> idenfity in the lot was the main cabinet with the two CPUs, a tape drive,
> and two standing hard drives.
>
> The ASR-35 console TTY, and modem banks were nowhere to be seen...
>
> As I recall, most of us just wandered out of the room when the winning bid
> was announced. As I recall it was somewhere around $3800...
> (far too much back then for a bunch of kids...)
>
> Hung around for a time watching bids on some other items, never did get
> anything out of it... And never did see the system again... (or find out
> who won the bid)
>
> -jim
> ---
> jimw_at_agora.rdrop.com
> The Computer Garage - http://www.rdrop.com/~jimw
> Computer Garage Fax - (503) 646-0174
>
>
Received on Thu Feb 25 1999 - 12:07:43 GMT