Subject: Re: newbie building a scratch-built computer From: Dave McGuire <mcguire at neurotica.com> Date: Sun, 05 Aug 2007 14:54:42 -0400 To: "General Discussion: On-Topic Posts Only" <cctech at classiccmp.org> On Aug 5, 2007, at 4:16 AM, Gordon JC Pearce wrote: That in itself is a good reason to avoid them, in my opinion. I have two or three useless PC-based EPROM programmers sitting in various boxes in the garage. They're useless because the manufacturer has orphaned them (or just plain gone out of business) and I either lost the software, or it only runs under some release of Windows that isn't easily available anymore. (and I'll be damned if I'm going to have a Windows machine here just to run an EPROM programmer!) Anything worth doing is worth doing right. Get a standalone device programmer, not one that pretends to be a computer peripheral...or worse yet, a "Windows PC peripheral". With a real device programmer, you won't get locked into the whims of the manufacturer (at least not as easily), or worse yet, the whims of Microsoft. Having an important tool depend on an unreliably, proprietary operating system from one manufacturer who is well-known for sleazy business practices sure doesn't sound to me like a smart way to run. I used a Data I/O 2900 for many years, and I absolutely loved it. I recently replaced it with a Data I/O Unisite...a big beefy one with a hard drive. It's Good Stuff(tm) and can program pretty much anything. When designing or repairing something, I never have to stop and worry about whether or not I can program a particular device. These machines have floppy drives, and can deal with DOS- formatted disks (which most anything can write) and understand literally dozens of different file formats. They can also be remotely controlled via a *STANDARD* serial port, and the protocol is simple and openly documented. Like I said...anything worth doing is worth doing right.