20 Apr
2007
20 Apr
'07
5:20 p.m.
On 20 Apr 2007 at 9:39, Jules Richardson wrote:
I'm sort-of with Wayne on this one in terms of
observation, but I think it's
probably because more areas for discussion have appeared in recent years
(mailing lists, web forae and usenet groups) for the smaller micros that
people often "grew up with". Coupled with that is the fact that a lot of the
8-bitters have now got very comprehensive coverage via websites, so there's
less need to ask "how do I?" type questions than there once was.
There's another aspect--the heyday of 8-bit processors is retreating
into the past. There were more operating systems than many people
realize. During 1976-1980, it wasn't at all clear that CP/M was the
only way to go. Given the relatively small footprint of an 8-bit OS
in a 64K memory space, some chose to "roll their own". Alas, that
bit of history seems to be what's being lost.
At Durango, we went down to Pacific Grove and talked to DRI about
CP/M and came away with the feeling that it was too primitive for our
needs. So we rolled our own system, complete with utlities,
languages and applications for a full-blown multitasking system with
file locking, indexed sequential file management, boot-time system
configuration and a host of other features. And we were just one of
the many firms developing 8-bit products. But then, this wasn't a
"home" or "personal" system.
The PC wasn't an instant success; I recall that a friend looking for
a system for his business passed over the IBM PC as being too
expensive and immature and purchased a Morrow MD2 system. He was
quite content with it for years. A 4.77 MHz 8088 really didn't have
that much of a speed advantage over a 4 MHz Z80--and the planar
memory on the original 5150 was 64K. It was much more of a horse
race before the PC-XT hit the market.
Cheers,
Chuck