HP 2000 system requirements (was Re: Request for Armed Guard highway escort (HP2100))

From: Jay West <jwest_at_classiccmp.org>
Date: Wed Feb 5 12:05:00 2003

Jim wrote...
> Oh boy! Another 'religious' war starting up! <insert MANY smilies here>

Nah, not at all :) Eric makes a good point, the smaller program workspace on
E version, and "print using" not being present on E. I don't have his view
only because of my experience. I happened to start out on an E series
version of TSB. As a result, I was very used to defining COMmon variables
and doing CHAINs. So when we upgraded to C, and later Access, all the
programs I was used to using still worked fine. Of course, we could have
gotten rid of the COMmon and CHAIN stuff and made several programs into one,
but, why bother if it works as is. I never had the experience Eric did in
getting used to the workspace on C, and then having to split the programs up
when moving them to an E, so I can certainly understand his frustration with
it. In addition, coming from E, I wasn't one to frequently try to use "PRINT
USING", I found other ways to address it because it was the only way to do
it on E. Of course, Eric got used to using PRINT USING on all his programs,
so again, I can see his frustration in moving programs which made liberal
use of that statement back to an E series. He's got perfectly valid points.
There's no question that C, C', and F are superior to E. However, my
argument was that E is perfectly usable unless you're doing business
processing, running large apps, etc. More to the point, I was saying that if
a hobbyist wants to get some form of TSB running, E is by FAR the easiest to
attempt, because it uses much less hardware that is already somewhat
difficult to find. Or to put it very succinctly - for E the requirements are
one cpu, one disc drive, paper tape reader, and a 12920 mux set. For C, C',
F you need an additional cpu with 32K, and 4 more I/O cards and the rather
hard to find processor interconnect cables. I THINK 7970 tape MAY be
required for C, C', F, but I am not sure about that, I know it's required
for Access. I was just being realistic that... ok, if a hobbyist has trouble
finding an HP TSB compatable cpu, they're going to be twice as pressed to
find another cpu as well.

So, to sum up, Eric is correct. Our only difference is that I consider E to
be VERY usable, he doesn't agree because it lacks features that he finds
important. I personally feel that if one looks at the specific differences
between E and C, C', F, with regards to programming features available, not
O/S or admin stuff, the differences aren't very big at all. And the hardware
requirements are less. Given unlimited funds and/or easy access to more
hardware, sure, go with C, C', F.

> So... for those of us who would be just as happy to get nearly ANY
> variant of HP TSB running, (I have a matched set of 2117F machines) on
> either 1 or 2 CPUs...
>
> Anyone have the source media (paper tape would be good) that I can get?
Yup, I know load media is available around the listmembers for 2000E and
2000Access for sure, and I am guessing that Eric has load media for C, C',
or F probably?
Received on Wed Feb 05 2003 - 12:05:00 GMT