PDP-8/L value

And I am sure you know which I'd rather have to repair or keep going :-). <ARD looks around at the 20 or so classic machines still in very active use here...) Actually, I think I'll put in a plug for the BBC Micro again here. It has an excellent structured BASIC (but it's still interpretted BASIC, so you can type 10 FOR I = 1 TO 10 20 PRINT "Hello World" 30 NEXT I 40 END and RUN it with no more rigmarole, it also has a built-in 6502 assembler, USER and ADC ports for easy hardware add-ons, and so on. Yeo. And if you want to understnad how a computer really works, I think it's a lot easier to do so with a PDP8 or (old, Unibus) PDP11, the tech manuals, and some simple test gear than with any modern machine (even if by some piracly you have scheamtics...) And that's a perfectly good use of this 8/L, I suyspect... There's been a bit of talk in the UK recently about the use of computers in education. I still feel Seymor Papert (?spel) got it right and just about everyone else gets it wrong. The child should learn to program the computer, not have the computer program the child. I know that if I had children, I would object most strongly if computer lessons consisted of learning how to use popular-for-the-time applications (under any OS, this is not Windows-bashing!). I believe most people should learn to program, not because they are going to be employed as programmers, but because programming involves the essential skills of breaking a problem down, thinking how to solve each part, testing the solution, and so on. -tony