13 Sep
2001
13 Sep
'01
10:17 a.m.
In a recent
thread, Tony Duell expressed a lack of interest in the
emulators and simulators of old iron that are now circulating. His
True. But let me say a couple of things here... reasons
centered around his love of hardware. From my perspective,
it appears that for Tony, the experience of computing cannot be
separated from the experiencing of the computer.
That much is also true. As I've said a few times before, I am an
electronics hacker primarily. My interest in computers is to consider
them as (fairly) complex electronic circuits to be investigated, hacked,
modified, repaired, etc. This is (I know) somewhat unconventional, but.... Since you can't (usefully) take a soldering iron
to an emulator, it
explains why I am not interested in them.
Isn't rosin (ersin) carcinogenic? Just kidding!
I confess I
don't like that- the Classic Computers for which I
lust the most will forever remain inaccessible (and few examples
You can probably gather from the above that I don't like it either! Sure,
_I_ am interested in the hardware, but this list would be very boring if
all memeber were like me. I feel that this list should cover other
aspects of classic _computing_. Yes, keep the hardware repair and
preservation (the bits I am interested in), but also include stuff on
emulators, programming techniques for the older machines, software
preservation, and everything else related to _computing_ 10 years or more
ago. So, I think
the formal name and the charter of this group should
change to reflect an interest in Class Computing. The only real
I am assumeing that's a typo for 'Classic Computing'. In which case you
have my vote... change would
be that discussions about the eumlators and simulators
would no longer be OT unless they drift into details of programming
the emu/simulators themselves. Additionally, more detailed discussions
Why the last exclusion? I've never heard of a discussion on how to
diagnose hardware faults using modern test equipment being branded as
off-topic. Nor using modern parts to repair old machines. Nor using
modern machines as an aid to restoring/preserving old hardware. Why
should writing emulators be any different. I don't particularly want to see complete listings
for emulators (many
megabytes of C source) posted here, but certainly techniques for writing
them could be classed as on-topic, I think.
Agreed... -dq