18 Mar
2000
18 Mar
'00
1:19 p.m.
Hi Tony,
Ah, the fun of TEXED (Text Editor, which had
TECO-like
commands, although I didn't realise it at the time)....
Ah yes, "TEXED" I really liked that one too; especially since when I started
using WordStar many of the commands were the same. :-)
....ZASM (Z80 Assembler), BASIC, tiny Pascal, MDOC
(Minidisk Doctor -- a sector editor) etc.
We never had the tiny Pascal or MDOC packages. ZASM was neat, probably the
first assembler I ever used in fact!
When the teachers weren't watching, there was
always the
user port :-)
Yeah, we had fun with that too.
Strangely enough the original cassette based 380Z belonged to the maths
department (along with the Teletype linked to a mainframe many miles
away....I don't know what it was, but I do recall it printed out "TTFN"
when
you logged off (hence the "TTFN" at the bottom of my messages) and the word
"MAXIMOP" appeared somewhere in the log in banner).
The four disc based machines, when they appeared went to the physics
department though. They got a Beeb about the same time too.
I don't think I ever used a 380Z without disks....
It's strange, I've only ever seen two non-disc based 380Zs. The one at
school and the one I saw reviewed in some computer magazine of the day.
I've also seen two different types of disc based machine, one with the
drives mounted horizontally (the most common IME) and one type with them
mounted vertically.
A few years ago, I spotted one at a radio rally for a
very
low price....
Yes, I saw one at the Drayton Rally a few years back. I'd have bought it but
I'd just cleaned myself out buying an Apollo DN3500 (a "FULLY OPERATIONAL"
system which I found was devoid of RAM when I got it home). Of course, I've
not seen one since. :-(
The only one I'm lacking is the COS source
listing. Yes, it
was available as an optional extra, but I've never seen it.
I'm going to be doing battle with the room in which these manuals are stored
in a day or two. I'll have a look and see exactly what I have....I do recall
seeing a COS source listing at school, but I don't think I have a copy
myself (worth checking though).
TTFN - Pete.
--
Hardware & Software Engineer. Sound Engineer.
Collector of Arcade Machines, Games Consoles & Obsolete Computers (esp DEC)
peter.pachla(a)wintermute.org.uk | www.wintermute.org.uk
--