Hardware/doc preservatoion, was Re: rarest computers.

From: Tony Duell <ard_at_p850ug1.demon.co.uk>
Date: Tue Aug 3 17:54:59 2004

> AAAaaarrrggghhh... As I am always pounding into anyone that will listen,
> hardware with no documentation is practically useless. Documentation

I fully appreciate the value of documentation -- the several
_thousand_ schematics/service manuals/etc that I have here support that,
and if I am offered documentation that is of little interest to me (say
application progrma user manuals), I pass it on to people who will
preserve it, or if applicable donate it to the HPCC library (I happen to
be the librarian at the momemnt...).

However, it is _possible_ to produce documentation from the hardware. You
can reverse-engineer most classic computers. It's a long job (can take
_months_), but I have done it. Normally I do this for machines where
proper service information was never available.

It's easier to preserve the manuals -- if they exist -- though.

-tony
Received on Tue Aug 03 2004 - 17:54:59 BST