expansion differences (was Re: Micro$oft Biz'droid Lusers)

From: Christopher Smith <csmith_at_amdocs.com>
Date: Fri Apr 26 10:23:10 2002

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Richard Erlacher [mailto:edick_at_idcomm.com]

> When you opened the box with your COCO, what useful work
> would it do with the
> $399 you had just spent? Could you write a letter? Could

As with any computer, you'd need software. Let's take that
into account, and say that you could certainly get software on
ROM cartridges, and that you could plug a normal household tape
recorder in and store data on cassette. Sure, it's not the
greatest thing in the world, but it will "balance the checkbook"
that way.

> you write and
> compile a Fortran program? Could you save your work in any

I'm not sure whether there were any compilers available that
didn't require disk drives. It would have been possible (not
fun) given the proper programs.

> meaningful way?
> Given that you had a printer, could you attach it and use it?

Yes, if it was a serial printer. Most software that used a printer
depended on having a serial printer plugged into that port on the
back of the system. If it was parallel, you'd need a converter.

> What software
> was there, that you could install and use? How and where
> would you install

Cartridge slot or cassette tape. Again, there was some available.
I'm not sure that it would be enough to constitute "lots," but there
was certainly some of most types of software.

> it? When you finally decided you had to build your own
> hardware and write
> your own software, wouldn't it have been easier to use a
> wirewrap card and a
> CPU chip and start from scratch rather than having to work

I'm sure it depends on what you're doing. It seemed to me that
the bus slot in the side would have been simple enough to use for
hardware add-ons, and you could certainly program the thing in
machine code, if nothing else.

> hardware didn't cost less if you used one of the "toy"-based
> systems, and the
> software wasn't any more available than if you'd used a
> "real" computer. It

Home computers have never been in the same class as "real
computers". I'll be the first one to suggest that; they probably
never will, either. I would say that it depends on whether you
wanted to do "home computer" things, or something more. Certainly
it would cost quite a bit of money to make them do something they
weren't designed to do, but if your needs fit the design, they were
probably fine. Even adding disks would have still been less
expensive than the "real computers" of the day.

> near the bottom. For something equal to, say, and Apple][,.
> I'd say you'd pay
> nearly twice what a well-purchased Apple][ would have cost
> for a RS product of
> nearly similar actual capabilities. RS never did build
> something genuinely
> intended for expansion though, did they?

That was a complaint of mine too.

Chris


Christopher Smith, Perl Developer
Amdocs - Champaign, IL

/usr/bin/perl -e '
print((~"\x95\xc4\xe3"^"Just Another Perl Hacker.")."\x08!\n");
'
 
Received on Fri Apr 26 2002 - 10:23:10 BST