26 Feb
2013
26 Feb
'13
2:01 p.m.
On 2/26/13 2:24 PM, Tony Duell wrote:
I think that for the vast majority of modern households, any of your
3 alternatives would be much more expensive, not to mention disruptive,
than simply dressing out a Raspberry Pi system.
Most households run Windows. Yes, there exist free compilers for
Windows but not a lot of parents understand or are willing to risk that
sort of activity on their primary business/communication center. And
rightly so. So just throwing a free compiler on a PC will likely
require the purchase of said PC.
Did you price any BBC Micros lately? Or PDP11 systems, for that
matter? How about shipping costs? Not to mention the fact that the
common household would need to purchase some kind of serial terminal, or
at the least a good USB-serial adapter for use with a PC-based terminal
emulator. Bear in mind also that in most countries, cubic footage is a
very limited resource...
Finally, most households already own as spares all or most of the
peripherals required by the Rpi. If not, "old" USB keyboards and mice
are very nearly free for the taking.
My take on the Raspberry Pi is that it offers EXACTLY what it claims
to offer. A cheap, accessible ENTRY POINT into programming and/or
hardware hacking. Incidentally, it can also serve nicely as a lower-end
general-purpose modern** computer.
**where by "modern" I mean there's no need nor desire for FDC, RS232,
VGA, stepped instructions, etc.
Doc
On 02/25/2013 04:45 PM, Tony Duell wrote:
:-)
As I have said several times, if you want to learn how a computer really
works, buy a non-working Unibus PDP11 (nto an 11/24, 11/84, 11/94, etc
,one of the TTL-baed ones), a PDP8/e or an HP9830 and learn to fix it. By
the time it's working you will know just how a CPU executes instructions.
If you are prepeared to use a microprocessor, then get a BBC micro. I've
yet to se a better educational machine. Seriously.
But I do wonder jhsut who the Rpi is aimed at. Given that you need a PC
and its peripherals (keyboard, mouse, monitor) to use the Rpi, I wonder
if it wouldn't be simpler jsut to install a free C compiler on said PC,
at least to learn programming. There are, IMHO, 3 thigns wrong with the Rpi. The
hardwre, the software,
adn the docuemtnion.
I think my main problem with it is that I'm tainted by nostalgia, and what
I really wish it was is a backplane system with separate cards for ROM,
RAM, CPU, I/O, video etc. :-) Much more fun to mess around with, put into
a cool-looking chassis, use to teach kids about how a computer works etc.