Micro Men
in [UK Mac]
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From: Peter Ceresole on 11 Oct 2009 11:16 Ian McCall <ian(a)eruvia.org> wrote: > RADALand. BBC Drama (sorry Peter) tend to have a wonderful knack of > making any period in history look and sound like any other period in > history, with the exception that the morals will always be those of the > present day. Not very surprising. The objective is to entertain the audience, mostly, and to educate them, just a tiny bit. More or less the same objective as the original authors, of course. -- Peter
From: Steve Firth on 11 Oct 2009 11:16 Tim Gowen <tim(a)nospam.demon.co.uk> wrote: > Yeah but how many people in their thirties now, who were doing little > bits of programming when they were 10-15, can actually still remember > that it's better to use for...next loops than GOTO statements! What's a GOTO statement? > Unless they're still in the business! As you were. Umm I'm not in my 30s either. What I miss from those days is the comparative excellence of magazines about computing. Today magazines are simply consumer sales vehicles pushing the latest MouseBlaster 2800 series of multi-core gaming machines. At least back then there was editorial content wirth reading, written by people who knew what they were talking about and (mostly) able to communicate it to others. I learned a great deal about fractal landscapes, handy algorithms and structured programming from magazines at the time. I imagine that in the majority of current magazines I'm not going to find a single line of code.
From: Jaimie Vandenbergh on 11 Oct 2009 11:38 On Sun, 11 Oct 2009 16:16:44 +0100, %steve%@malloc.co.uk (Steve Firth) wrote: >Tim Gowen <tim(a)nospam.demon.co.uk> wrote: > >> Yeah but how many people in their thirties now, who were doing little >> bits of programming when they were 10-15, can actually still remember >> that it's better to use for...next loops than GOTO statements! > >What's a GOTO statement? > >> Unless they're still in the business! > >As you were. Umm I'm not in my 30s either. > >What I miss from those days is the comparative excellence of magazines >about computing. Today magazines are simply consumer sales vehicles >pushing the latest MouseBlaster 2800 series of multi-core gaming >machines. At least back then there was editorial content wirth reading, >written by people who knew what they were talking about and (mostly) >able to communicate it to others. > >I learned a great deal about fractal landscapes, handy algorithms and >structured programming from magazines at the time. I imagine that in the >majority of current magazines I'm not going to find a single line of >code. I've not read any for some time, but PC Pro used to have ye olde-fashioned CompSci pages at the back, with actual code and articles about interesting algorithms in. Cheers - Jaimie -- It's all fun and games until someone loses an eye. Then it's a scavenger hunt.
From: Pd on 11 Oct 2009 11:39 Jim <jim(a)magrathea.plus.com> wrote: > I think the Apple ][ didn't make big inroads into the UK home computer > scene as it was very expensive. I was expecting to hear something more > about the Commodores and Tandys though - the VIC20, C64, and TRS-80 > range were extremely popular over here. In New Zealand the big ones were the Apple ][ and the Commodores, although the TRS-80 was my main workhorse when I was programming cash registers. The C-64 was particularly good for comms, with an easily controllable RS232 interface that I used to dial up remote sites, download the day's transactions and update a dBase II database. I also used a Japanese "General" computer which had its own operating system built around a proprietary database. It had dual 8" floppy drives with *huge* storage capacity, nearly a megabyte I think (980KB maybe?) on a single disk. -- Pd
From: Jim on 11 Oct 2009 11:46
David Kennedy <davidkennedy(a)nospamherethankyou.invalid> wrote: > <http://www.sharpmz.org/mz-700/first700.htm> I've got one of those. And an immaculate MZ80K. > I often wondered if I should have gone with the BBC... Depends, although I'd tend to say 'yes' due to being highly biased in favour of the Beebs. Jim -- "Microsoft admitted its Vista operating system was a 'less good product' in what IT experts have described as the most ambitious understatement since the captain of the Titanic reported some slightly damp tablecloths." http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/ |