Peter Prymmer wrote:
> bloatware - but some of that is quite fun. e.g. PC-DOS can be optionally
> installed with Rexx and I chose that option. I also have a couple of
> different DPMI's available including the one for DJGPP.
REXX on a PC? I think I have heard (very dimly) of this (there was
something called REXX-88 or some such name when I was at IBM) but I
haven't used REXX for years! What does it run on? Will it run on a
Compaq 386? An IBM AT?
Philip.
> Who among you collects mainframes? I couldn't resist asking in light of the
> "what's the heaviest portable" thread, because the CPU of IBM System/3 Model
> 15 I have weighs 1800 lbs.
I expect the heaviest unit I have on wheels is the IBM 709 CPU, in
addition to its size and steel frame the whole back end is covered with
filament transformers to light the tubes. I can roll it around on a
level concrete floor OK, but its a good idea to avoid the cracks or at
least roll it crooked (so only one wheel sees a crack at a time, and not
straight on) and keep the speed up. But there are other contenders - the
709 power supply units, the motor-generator set for the 7094, the 407
accounting machine, etc. I don't know what any of these weigh off hand
and don't have the installation manuals handy. There exist larger units
(e.g. old CDC mainframes even apart are in large, very tall pieces; the
assembled 709 memory is a T about 4 times the floor space of the CPU)
but they tend not to have casters. I wonder what a more recent
water-cooled machine (e.g. 3090) weighs, the TCU's (thermal conduction
units) can't be very light.
On other subjects
- a common source of serious mildew smell is the absolute filter in a
disk drive. I would check that first.
- I'm reasonably certain you can still get blank punch cards. The last
bunch I bought maybe 10 years ago cost $75 for 10,000. I've been meaning
to get some more now that the collection has a dry home and will try to
remember to post info.
Paul
http://www.teleport.com/~prp/collect/
We were discussing Frogger a month or so ago. I've found a shareware (DOS)
version available. If anyone misses it as much as I, it's at
http://users.deltanet.com/users/phixus/kgames/rof.html
along with other classic arcade games. Registration is $10
manney(a)nwohio.com
>My understading is that this machine needs no reference disks, but
> >can I use a hard drive > 20MB? It never mentions it on IBM's site.
I successfully installed a 3 1/2" ST-506/412 drive (a Seagate, IIRC), which
worked OK. Has to be 3 1/2" because it fits in the floppy bay. You have to
find a controller card which has the power output because the floppies take
power off the drive cable.
I think you could bodge it to take a hardcard in one of the expansion
slots.
manney
The Model 25 takes the cake for the world's most stupidly designed PC --
and the hardest to work on.
> well, you could get your 5150 in several different flavours: one, two or
no
> floppy drives.
You could actually get four, supported by the motherboard switches. ($529
each, IIRC) There was some sort of expansion box, or you could get external
drives. I presume that's what the connector on the back of the FDD
controller was for.
manney
There's a lever/spring mechanism that shoves the floppy out when the disk
"carriage" is up and aligned with the slot in the case. When you put in a
disk, it extends the spring, the lever latches, and a microswitch activates
the motor that draws the carriage down. I expect that either the spring is
broke or the lever connected to it is bent. The previous owner probably
shoved in a floppy upside down or backwards and had to wrench it out using
brute force.
Dont laugh. I know someone who repairs machines for a living with GE (they
do repair for Circuit City and others), and he once found a slice of
american cheese in a floppy drive (guess it was a 5-1/4 inch unit). Coins
inside the drives and case are also common sources of PC/Mac repairs. Kids-
you gotta love 'em.
Anyway- the mechanism would go back down after failing to eject. The switch
contacts are still closed, and that's what it's designed to do - keep
running the motor.
You might be able to fix it with a pair of small needlenose pliers if the
spring is not broke. You will have to remove the drive to do this. Be
careful with that paper clip! You could hose up the head, or send a minute
electrical charge through your body that could affect your ability to
reproduce in the future. Unless you are really good with working on tiny
mechanical parts, save yourself the headache and replace the drive.
-----Original Message-----
From: SUPRDAVE <SUPRDAVE(a)aol.com>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Date: Monday, January 26, 1998 11:16 PM
Subject: back ontopic: mac 400k drive.
>part of my new additions last week was a bunch of old mac stuff. i finally
got
>one of the 400k drives, but its having eject problems. the mechanism was
stuck
>so now im able to get a disk in, but when i call it to eject, the motor
turns,
>the disk lifts up to the slot, but wont pop out, then the mechanism goes
back
>down in position to read the disk. it does the same thing when i use a
paper
>clip; it will go up, the disk will stay in, then it goes back down into
read
>position. amazingly, the drive works fine otherwise. i dont quite
understand
>the mechanicals of it, anyone have ideas?
>
>david
>
Hi!
Recently I tried advertising for obsolete computers in a national
computer trading magazine, and it has paid off well. But I just got a
phone call today regarding an old Smelter near Mt Gambier in South
Australia. Apparantly they had a huge pile of old computer equipment,
and they went through and sold off the relativly new stuff. What they
have left is a whole lot of old stuff (around 15 years+) includig a huge
number of PCs and XTs, XT laptops, terminals, a mainframe, "a hard-drive
as big as a computer", terminals, and, presumably, a volume of non-dos
stuff. The guy I talked to has no idea what it all is, just that they
want to get rid of it really cheap. It's too much for me to handle on my
own, and it certainly is nowhere near where I live - would anyone else be
at all interested too?
Adam
classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu
Subj: Re: Re[3]: Development, round II
Roger Merchberger wrote:
!>REXX is/was
!>quite a nice language to use, but some features rendered it unsuitable
!>for serious programming - numbers, for example, are stored as strings of
!>digits in the character code of the machine you are using...
!
!Uh, Sir Philip?
!
!Maybe there are other reasons that your statement of unsuitability stands,
!but I can think of one programming language that's very handy (& powerful &
!serious) which stores it's digits as charcter codes: Perl. From experience
!I can tell you that one heckuva lot more stuff gets done with Perl on the
!WWW than Java -- and it's a lot easier to pgm. in.
!
!Guess what! This is still ontopic for this list... there's a version of
!Java for almost every 16-bit or higher machine available -- including a
!native version that runs on an Atari ST... (version 4.035 and I think you
!need a meg to run it -- I've done it!)
But Perl is 10 years old and Java is not. It is still quite easy to
distinguish a perl scalar that contains a numeric value from one that does
not. From the old FAQ you add 0 to see if the thing remains unchanged:
$ perl -e '$s = "a"; if ($s + 0 eq $s) {print "num"} else {print "string"}'
string
$ perl -e '$s = "1"; if ($s + 0 eq $s) {print "num"} else {print "string"}'
num
See also "perlfaq4: Data:Misc: How do I determine whether a scalar is a
number/whole/integer/float?" at
http://www.perl.com/CPAN-local/doc/FAQs/FAQ/PerlFAQ.html
for a whole slew of regular expressions for numbers.
BTW Tcl runs on a bunch of platforms and treats many things like strings as
well (hence it requires the expr() call for numeric evaluation and has
trouble with data containing embedded nulls (whereas perl does not)).
Apologies to folks (such as myself :) who tire of language wars though.
If the original poster wanted to run Rexx I say let them.
Peter Prymmer
(Someone who just spent a great deal of time porting perl to MVS recently)
On average, were most external floppies that used a db25 connector, pretty
much standard, as in interchangable? I'm basically talking along the lines
of mid-80's laptops. I've got a GRiD 1535exp that has a db25 connector on
the back for an external floppy, the left bottom most pin on the connector
is plugged up. Any ideas? Anyone?
-John Higginbotham-
-limbo.netpath.net-
