18 Jun
2013
18 Jun
'13
11:57 a.m.
Indeed. They aren't very expandable, but even a
fully-loaded PDP-8/E
is pretty "useless" these days. But that's not the point. I've often
Why do you say that? A PDP8/E will do everything it could do when it was
made. And if you happen to do want to do such a task, it's as usegful as
ever.
described the 8/L as "the most classic computing
goodness crammed into
the smallest package". Only the Nova can compete with it. Of course,
these are aesthetic judgements with much room for disagreement, thus I
may have touched off another discussion of what makes a classic computer
"interesting" or "classic"...
I am curiouse as to why you claim that. I don't have an 8/L, only an 8/E,
but while I will agree that the PDP8 is an elegannt machine I don't think
it's unique in that respect. There are plenty of other machines of the
same period with similar elegance to me.
FWIW. the programamble machine that I've worked on that I consider to be
the most elegant is the HP9100B calculator (never worked on a -A). That
machine is glorious inside.
-tony