Lots of Apple 1 computers @ VCF West

[Seth J. Morabito]

Tor Arntsen via cctalk writes:

> On Mon, 8 Jul 2019 at 18:19, Chuck Guzis via cctalk
> <cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
>
>> What matters to me is [b]documentation[/b], however it's preserved.  I'm
>> often faced with a bit of old data and I need to know the details upon
>> which it was fabricated.   That has value to me.  Al K has been
>> invaluable in this respect.
>
> I collect all the documentation I can find (including my own old notes
> when I can find them). It's really hard to figure out exactly how
> something works when documentation is lost and there's nobody around
> with the knowledge.

This was by far the biggest challenge I had when writing the 3B2/400
simulator for SIMH. Documentation was scarce or nonexistent for almost
every aspect of the 3B2 system board internals, and I had to work out a
lot of it myself by watching a logic analyzer.

Thankfully, as the emulator progressed and word got out, it attracted
the attention of some people with very useful documentation who kindly
offered it to me. I've been hoarding what I can find and scanning it as
fast as possible to get it all archived online in digital form as well
as maintaining the original physical copies.

But as a result, I'm keenly aware of how much this stuff is ephemeral.
There are still lots and lots of AT&T publications relating to the 3B2
that are (as far as I can tell) lost to history and probably gone
forever.

-Seth
--
  Seth Morabito
  Poulsbo, WA, USA
  web at loomcom.com