It's mostly a problem if there isn't documentation at the place where the machine is. I've never run into a machine that is really beyond my experience (my experience so far is PCs and BASIC-based home micros), but if I ever had to deal with a PDP, I'd have to spend a lot of time asking questions here and otherwise. Not that I foresee it. PDP will eventually vanish from industrial applications, just because they will all eventually be damaged by floods, fires, etc. And companies go bankrupt, too. I doubt that by the time I am 50 I will run a reasonable risk of seeing a PDP. Also, I don't know how to _program_ a PC. I know a bit of BASIC (who doesn't?), enough to write a simple text editor or something. I'm learning C but am stuck with pointers. I'm going to take C++ at school starting in the fall. I've tried assembly, and do notice that it's more straightforward than higher-level languages (I.E. there are no ambiguous concepts like in C, it's all called what it really is), but am not much good with things mathematical. Maybe I'll learn. How many instructions? I believe the Pentium has on the order of 80, not sure. They weren't networked at all? I mean, there weren't instances of connecting two machines with cables? ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com