25 Jun
1997
25 Jun
'97
5:37 a.m.
Due to massive amounts of caffeine & sleep deprivation, Allison J Parent said:
> What worries me is that in a lot of cases, the
older machines are more
> useable than the modern Wintel equivalents. This applies both to a new
> user (somebody who just wants to write 2 page letters does _NOT_ (or
> should not) need a 166MHz Pentium with 16Mbytes of RAM), and to 'hackers'
> who want to understand their machines. It's possible for one person to
> complete understand both the hardware and software of most classic
> computers - something that (IMHO) is not possible with a Wintel box.
Same here. In reality I use my s100 crate, ampro, and
sb180 to produce
8048/9 and 8051 code as they really are faster and easier to use. Also
being as I have them interconnected it's easier to blast proms in the
s100 crate. Efficient, very! I've had nearly 20 years to refine the code
and tools! I have the advantage of having source code for those tools so
and long latent bugs are easily squashed. This is not doable on PCs.
I still do my banking/checkbook on the kaypro! Faster than the PC overall.
I love my PC! I've got a Cyrix 6x86-P150+ Running MS-DOG, running: (drum
roll, please! <g>)
My Tandy CoCo3 emulator! I have the fastest CoCo in a 50 mile radius!
Running the disk EDTASM package for that computer is... well... kludgy.
(Please, no flames... no computer's perfect!) The (relatively) slow boot
times for the software, plus other factors in setting up the environment to
run an ML proggie gives me a boot assembler / load software / make changes
& compile / reboot to fresh / run ML / watch computer crash / reboot &
start over.
This cycle takes 10-20 minutes on my CoCo3, but takes 2-5 minutes on Goon.
Also, as the only eprom burner I have is on wifey's '286, I can save my
wonderful (in my eyes! ;-) ML creations to an IBM floppy, and burn them on
the '286 so I can plug 'em into one of my 3 (soon to be 5) CoCo's.
Not to mention having access to optical storage (MO and soon to have CD-RW)
-- great fixes for bit-rot, so my CoCo's can go for another 50 years!
Mind you, I use this tool to enhance my CoCo-ing, not to replace it.
If anyone wants info on how to purchase the CoCo3 emulator, just ask!
See ya,
"Merch"
--
Roger Merchberger | If at first you don't succeed,
Programmer, NorthernWay | nuclear warhead disarmament should
zmerch(a)northernway.net | *not* be your first career choice.