QL (was: ZX-81 Question) - test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

25 Mar 2002

...
  -----Original Message-----
 From: Roger Merchberger [mailto:zmerch@30below.com] 
...
  Not all Basic's are created equal -- I'd still
give my left 
 <ahem> to be
 able to run a Basic09-like package [for OS-9] on my other 
 machines... That
 was another very powerful Basic. 
For a while I used  Turbo Basic under MS-DOS.  It was an 
incredible development environment... for a BASIC ... running
under MS-DOS... Ok, so it was "passable."  Still :)

I hear that DEC BASIC is good, too.

Both of the above examples are compilers, though, I think.

Anyway, the point is that things based on BASIC don't need to
be all bad.  There is little difference between BASIC and many
command languages which are perfectly useable.  Now, whether 
one would write real software in it is another question.

...
  How much do you think it costs Micro$haft to make a
new 
 version of windows,
 compared to the number of copies they jam down our throats? 
Well, I don't know about you, but nobody's ever forced me to
buy a copy of windows.  As a result, I never have bought a
copy of windows ;)  All my computers run other stuff, and are
much better off for it.

Give me CP/M any day.

...
  As as been said many times before, they only charge
what the 
 market will bear. 
I'm sure that at least some of the people in Apple may have
been certain that they had added that much value to the drive.

...
  If Apple got a lot of people to buy them, and folks
didn't 
 complain about
 the price, <M$Rant> and Apple didn't stifle competition so 
 they could jack
 up the prices even more </M$Rant> does it really matter what 
 they charged
 vs. what it cost them to build? 
It would have been a great opportunity for a competing company
to produce apple 2 compatible drives.

...
  <going OT> Most car chargers for cell phones
cost between $20 
 - $35 USD
 each retail - they cost the dealers between $1.95 - $2.95 
 each, quantity
 10.</going OT> 
...
  The beauty of capitalism. <g> 
It's amazing what you can get for a couple of wires and a 
cigarette lighter plug.

Chris

Christopher Smith, Perl Developer
Amdocs - Champaign, IL

/usr/bin/perl -e '
print((~"\x95\xc4\xe3"^"Just Another Perl
Hacker.")."\x08!\n");
'