Article about collecting in Antique Trader.

From: Glenatacme_at_aol.com <(Glenatacme_at_aol.com)>
Date: Wed Jun 30 22:05:15 1999

Hello Tony:

In a message dated 6/30/99 8:32:36 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
ard_at_p850ug1.demon.co.uk writes:

> Well, the PERQ was a sideline of the main development, it's true. But
> yes, alas....
>
> Of course a PERQ is (IMHO) a lot more pleasant to use and a lot more
> stable than some modern OSes I could name...

I _will_ name them -- I work with Windows 9x every day, and it's a horrible
travesty, a poor excuse for an operating system. It saddens me to see that
people accept this crap. I get better error report codes from my ZX81.
"Illegal operation," indeed!

> But for graphics operations, it's painful. You start in sync. After that
> you have to count every microcycle so that you know exactly when a memory
> address or control word has to be generated. There is no synchronisation
> logic here. ]

Whew! And I thought counting Z80 t-states was bad . . .

> I've long been of the belief
> that software developers should be forced to use a machine at least one
> 'generation' behind that in normal use at the time. If their code is
> useable on that, it should be useable on the public's machines :-)

Right on! Those clowns in Redmond are using 550 MHz P-IIIs with 256 MB RAM,
you can count on it! Ever try loading Win 95 on a 25 MHz 386 with a 17 ms
hard drive and 4 MB RAM?

> I think the PC would have hit the workplace anyway, and
> most of the mainstream applications would be much the same.

Without a doubt.

> I don't want to belittle the cheap home computers and their place in
> computer history. But equally I don't want other machines to be forgotten
> either.

Likewise.

> In other words the local-ish second-hand computer shop tries to sell that
> at that price. Mind you their prices are a little strange - CBM 64 :
> \pounds 25.00. CBM P500 : \pounds 10.00. BBC micro : \pounds 1.00. Go
figure.

Why do the Brits hate the BBC Micro?

> However _now_ you have a lot more choices :
>
> 'Modern PC, running 'standard' applications'. Not that education _about
> computers.

Breaks my heart every day to see a 200+ MHz PC turned into a limping dog by
what is represented to the unsuspecting public as a "multitasking operating
system." I'll never again do any major programming on a PC, unless the OS is
non-Windows or I am completely destitute.

> 'Early 80's home micro'. As educational as ever. Yes, you can still learn
> a lot packing progams into 1K or whatever.

I learn from my ZX81 & 2068 every week.
  
> '1970s Minicomputer/Workstation'. Again as educational as ever. The point
> is, these machines are now affordable. You can have a real PDP8 on your
desk.

Now, I have no -- none -- experience with anything bigger than a PC, but IIRC
C & Unix were developed on a PDP-8 (or was it an 11???). I _am_ a C fanatic
so these have some historical interest for me. Can you really have one on a
desktop? Is the CPU smaller than a Toyota? Are 8" floppies still available?
 Please advise, as this may be my next foray into collecting, if I can find
one and move it without a forklift . . .
A newbie collector thanks you very much for your help,

Glen Goodwin
0/0

P.S.: Isn't it rather sad that a micro-maker (Compaq) wound up buying DEC
_and_ Tandem?
Received on Wed Jun 30 1999 - 22:05:15 BST