29 Jun
2007
29 Jun
'07
4:35 p.m.
On Thu, 28 Jun 2007, Jim Leonard wrote:
Then how was Compaq able to get around it? The
original Compaq is the
only compatible I've ever used that -- BASIC programs aside -- ran
everything a real 5150 would, without exception.
ALMOST everything.
Check the 1983? PC-WORLD "round up the compatibles", in which like every
other non-IBM machine, the Compaq filed to be able to run the "OEM IBM
ONLY" edition of Xeno-Copy.
howzbout the undocumented "Model ID" in ROM? No sane programmer used
that, due to the fact that IBM did not originally document it, and so
machines intended to be compatible did not implement it. Not all of us
are sane.
BTW, in August 1983, I used a Compaq for MOST of the programming of
Xeno-Write. Nice machine, but the handle was too flexible for serious
carrying, and the latches of the keyboard do not extend far enough (to
keep the keyboard from getting knocked off by a bump against an airport
escalator)
Yes, I will be pedantic, and insist that there ARE exceptions.
Fortunately none that really matter.
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin at xenosoft.com