7 Mar
2001
7 Mar
'01
7:35 a.m.
You're right. In most museums, a hands-on display
is a recipe for
disaster. A
better model for hands-on in my opinion would be something akin to a
scientific
laboratory: only those of demonstratably sufficient merit are allowed touch
access to the machines. This would be more a thing to be implemented by
enthusiasts' clubs, but it would provide an opportunity for learning to those
who wish it, even as the years pass and working machines become even
more rare.
One aspect that makes considerable difference but that hasn't
been brought up yet is software. If an original machine is put on
display for hands-on use, and is one that depends on floppy, magnetic
or paper tape for program storage and input, how is the storage media
to be safeguarded? One certainly couldn't allow just anyone that
wished to do so to come along and handle it, otherwise it'd be
useless in a very short time. If the visitors weren't allowed access
to the media though it would somewhat defeat the purpose of trying to
keep the hardware running for educational use. Again, this is where
something like the use of emulators would be useful since a
considerable amount of software could be made available to the
visitor, in the form of disk images, while not putting the original
media type at risk. I for one wouldn't wish to put my North Star
hard sectored diskettes or a paper tape of the Cromemco Z80 monitor
program out for general use and as each year goes by these types of
items will be that much harder to make identical working copies of.
Jeff
--
Collector of Classic Microcomputers and Video Game Systems:
Home of the TRS-80 Model 2000 FAQ File
http://www.geocities.com/siliconvalley/lakes/6757