A type down memory lane.
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This cartoon: UserFriendly[^] got me thinking: 36 years ago this month, the PC was released to the world for the first time. I was in the industry when it happened, and it didn't really make a splash immediately, but IBM made some huge mistakes back then: they made it extensible, expandable, and ludicrously expensive. Seriously: the basic usable machine (64K RAM, one off 160KB floppy, monochrome text-only monitor, and a keyboard) was priced at around US$3,000. A top of the range model with CGA monitor (16 colours text, 320x200 graphics in any four colours of your choice from the available 16, and a printer) was US$4,500. You could buy expansion cards to get more RAM - up to 640K! Two floppies! You could swap out the 4.77MHz processor for a slightly faster working (but same clock speed) V20 one, or buy a floating point processor and plug that in! So clones appeared. And boy, have they progressed! There are (from what I see on t'interwebs) well over 2 billion PC's in existence and working today. And every single one of them is thousands of times more powerful than the computers that got man to the moon and back in 1969. We - nearly all of us - owe our whole job to that tank of a PC (heavy? Nah - the keyboard alone weighed in at only 6lb) and I've been coding on or for the damn things for well over thirty years. Perhaps August 12th should be a worldwide public holiday? [edit]CGA, not EGA! :doh:[/edit]
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay... AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
OriginalGriff wrote:
A top of the range model with EGA monitor (16 colours text, 320x200 graphics in any four colours of your choice from the available 16, and a printer) was US$4,500.
Just to put that in perspective, that's $12,589.15 USD in today's dollars.
Jeremy Falcon
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Not the frirst time around. First I just copied what I found in the manual, then I changed the text to be printed and sometime that afternoon I also learned the magic command GOTO.
The user can't update the up: we update it for them (Choice in the CP poll)
CodeWraith wrote:
I also learned the magic command GOTO.
Yes and now we're being told to forget it :laugh:
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OriginalGriff wrote:
EGA monitor
That was [CGA](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color\_Graphics\_Adapter). EGA was a serious improvement! ;)
OriginalGriff wrote:
or buy a floating point processor and plug that in
I did that. I was working on a neural network simulator, actually [recreated here](https://www.codeproject.com/Articles/1035958/Neuro-Sim) 30 years later. The FPU dramatically improved performance, but it was still chunky.
OriginalGriff wrote:
he keyboard alone weighed in at only 6lb
I sort of miss the days when computer equipment was made from actual metal. :)
Latest Article - Class-less Coding - Minimalist C# and Why F# and Function Programming Has Some Advantages Learning to code with python is like learning to swim with those little arm floaties. It gives you undeserved confidence and will eventually drown you. - DangerBunny Artificial intelligence is the only remedy for natural stupidity. - CDP1802
You're right! EGA was the high res one that came later! Well ... 16 colours, up to 640x350! The first computer I bought for myself at home was EGA - the Amstrad 1640DD, with 640K RAM, twin 360KB floppies, Power supply built into the monitor ... and a MOUSE! I bought it a 32MB hard disk (a "hardcard" where the disk was mounted on the HDD controller card) which cost £400 and had a seek time of ~100ms! :omg:
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay... AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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This cartoon: UserFriendly[^] got me thinking: 36 years ago this month, the PC was released to the world for the first time. I was in the industry when it happened, and it didn't really make a splash immediately, but IBM made some huge mistakes back then: they made it extensible, expandable, and ludicrously expensive. Seriously: the basic usable machine (64K RAM, one off 160KB floppy, monochrome text-only monitor, and a keyboard) was priced at around US$3,000. A top of the range model with CGA monitor (16 colours text, 320x200 graphics in any four colours of your choice from the available 16, and a printer) was US$4,500. You could buy expansion cards to get more RAM - up to 640K! Two floppies! You could swap out the 4.77MHz processor for a slightly faster working (but same clock speed) V20 one, or buy a floating point processor and plug that in! So clones appeared. And boy, have they progressed! There are (from what I see on t'interwebs) well over 2 billion PC's in existence and working today. And every single one of them is thousands of times more powerful than the computers that got man to the moon and back in 1969. We - nearly all of us - owe our whole job to that tank of a PC (heavy? Nah - the keyboard alone weighed in at only 6lb) and I've been coding on or for the damn things for well over thirty years. Perhaps August 12th should be a worldwide public holiday? [edit]CGA, not EGA! :doh:[/edit]
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay... AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
You can now purchase a usable computer for ~ $200. But The one you really want is still >$3000
Arguing with a woman is like reading the Software License Agreement. In the end, you ignore everything and click "I agree". Anonymous
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You're right! EGA was the high res one that came later! Well ... 16 colours, up to 640x350! The first computer I bought for myself at home was EGA - the Amstrad 1640DD, with 640K RAM, twin 360KB floppies, Power supply built into the monitor ... and a MOUSE! I bought it a 32MB hard disk (a "hardcard" where the disk was mounted on the HDD controller card) which cost £400 and had a seek time of ~100ms! :omg:
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay... AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
OriginalGriff wrote:
a "hardcard" where the disk was mounted on the HDD controller card)
We had one of those at the company I worked at -- I took it to a trade show and realized a few hours later I'd left it on top of the rows of public phone booths at the convention center. My boss was not happy. :(( Marc
Latest Article - Class-less Coding - Minimalist C# and Why F# and Function Programming Has Some Advantages Learning to code with python is like learning to swim with those little arm floaties. It gives you undeserved confidence and will eventually drown you. - DangerBunny Artificial intelligence is the only remedy for natural stupidity. - CDP1802
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You're right! EGA was the high res one that came later! Well ... 16 colours, up to 640x350! The first computer I bought for myself at home was EGA - the Amstrad 1640DD, with 640K RAM, twin 360KB floppies, Power supply built into the monitor ... and a MOUSE! I bought it a 32MB hard disk (a "hardcard" where the disk was mounted on the HDD controller card) which cost £400 and had a seek time of ~100ms! :omg:
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay... AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
Yes, I remember; I had the same model Amstrad running GEM! Who needs Windows, eh? Although my first home machine was a Commodore PET 40x25 screen. Later I bought the business version of the PET with 80x25 lines and a external twin floppy box (1.04mb each) that cost about 1,225 pounds!
- I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.
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OriginalGriff wrote:
(64K RAM, one off 160KB floppy, monochrome text-only monitor, and a keyboard) was priced at around US$3,000. A top of the range model with EGA monitor (16 colours text, 320x200 graphics in any four colours of your choice from the available 16, and a printer) was US$4,500.
Go ahead and take a look what a TRS-80 Model 3 or 4 would have cost. These were still typical workhorses at that time. Edit: Model 4 came later, that still leaves us with Model 3: 1980: July - Radio Shack introduces the TRS-80 Model III, priced from US$700 to US$2500.
The user can't update the up: we update it for them (Choice in the CP poll)
I literally shouvelled shit ti help my school buy 2 model II's. Few months later was caned for playing on it when I was supposed to be in class (metalwork) - in font of the class. Ah memories, stuff that today's kids will never get the chance to experience. And I must admit: 1. caning (6 on the backside) really didn't hurt that much, 2. learning metal/woodwork back then means there's a lot of stuff I can do myself. 3. chainsaws are fun
signature upgrading ... please wait.
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CodeWraith wrote:
I also learned the magic command GOTO.
Yes and now we're being told to forget it :laugh:
Which I stubbornly refuse to do. These 'rules' are for those who are to dumb to understand at which point something becomes problematic. I do this very rarely, but sometimes it's more important to keep a piece of complicated code contained in a method. No refactoring into other functions! Let's keep these eggs in one basket, despite all wise rules. Add a note that only I may work on that thing, and even then only with signatures from at least three bosses and only on highest holidays. There should be reasons for doing this and playing by the rules will break it. In such a thing it can be easier to get out of some nested code using a GOTO than doing it with the 'good' if-else way. In C or C++ such a function may often contain some inline assembly, providing one more good reason to keep everything in one function. That's very volatile code which you don't want to spread out all over the application.
The user can't update the up: we update it for them (Choice in the CP poll)
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You can now purchase a usable computer for ~ $200. But The one you really want is still >$3000
Arguing with a woman is like reading the Software License Agreement. In the end, you ignore everything and click "I agree". Anonymous
$3000 wouldn't complete the machine that I really want.
CPU
$1000
Intel Core i9-7900
Video
$1400
GeForce Titan Z
Motherboard
$500
ASUS Prime X-299 Deluxe
RAM
$825
GSkill DDR4 4000 x32GB
And I haven't even got to the hard drives, power supply, case, or the three 26 inch 4K monitors that I would like. :-D I could easily spend over $5000 on a single machine plus video. Now only if I could actually afford it. :sigh:
if (Object.DividedByZero == true) { Universe.Implode(); } Meus ratio ex fortis machina. Simplicitatis de formae ac munus. -Foothill, 2016
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I literally shouvelled shit ti help my school buy 2 model II's. Few months later was caned for playing on it when I was supposed to be in class (metalwork) - in font of the class. Ah memories, stuff that today's kids will never get the chance to experience. And I must admit: 1. caning (6 on the backside) really didn't hurt that much, 2. learning metal/woodwork back then means there's a lot of stuff I can do myself. 3. chainsaws are fun
signature upgrading ... please wait.
-
Yes, I remember; I had the same model Amstrad running GEM! Who needs Windows, eh? Although my first home machine was a Commodore PET 40x25 screen. Later I bought the business version of the PET with 80x25 lines and a external twin floppy box (1.04mb each) that cost about 1,225 pounds!
- I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.
GEM! Did you know it survived to this day? It enjoyed a long life on the Atari ST and the Atari OS was completely rewritten when Atari died. It has been enhanced since then and is still used on FPGA based computers or software emulators. That remiends me: I always wanted one of those FPGA boards.
The user can't update the up: we update it for them (Choice in the CP poll)
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Which I stubbornly refuse to do. These 'rules' are for those who are to dumb to understand at which point something becomes problematic. I do this very rarely, but sometimes it's more important to keep a piece of complicated code contained in a method. No refactoring into other functions! Let's keep these eggs in one basket, despite all wise rules. Add a note that only I may work on that thing, and even then only with signatures from at least three bosses and only on highest holidays. There should be reasons for doing this and playing by the rules will break it. In such a thing it can be easier to get out of some nested code using a GOTO than doing it with the 'good' if-else way. In C or C++ such a function may often contain some inline assembly, providing one more good reason to keep everything in one function. That's very volatile code which you don't want to spread out all over the application.
The user can't update the up: we update it for them (Choice in the CP poll)
Quote:
These 'rules' are for those who are to dumb to understand at which point something becomes problematic.
For those of us who haven't used a GOTO in 20 years, we can say the same thing about you.
System.ItDidntWorkException: Something didn't work as expected. A guide to posting questions on CodeProject
Click this: Asking questions is a skill. Seriously, do it.
Dave Kreskowiak -
$3000 wouldn't complete the machine that I really want.
CPU
$1000
Intel Core i9-7900
Video
$1400
GeForce Titan Z
Motherboard
$500
ASUS Prime X-299 Deluxe
RAM
$825
GSkill DDR4 4000 x32GB
And I haven't even got to the hard drives, power supply, case, or the three 26 inch 4K monitors that I would like. :-D I could easily spend over $5000 on a single machine plus video. Now only if I could actually afford it. :sigh:
if (Object.DividedByZero == true) { Universe.Implode(); } Meus ratio ex fortis machina. Simplicitatis de formae ac munus. -Foothill, 2016
Here you go: Raspberry Pi Zero - Raspberry Pi[^]
Arguing with a woman is like reading the Software License Agreement. In the end, you ignore everything and click "I agree". Anonymous
-
This cartoon: UserFriendly[^] got me thinking: 36 years ago this month, the PC was released to the world for the first time. I was in the industry when it happened, and it didn't really make a splash immediately, but IBM made some huge mistakes back then: they made it extensible, expandable, and ludicrously expensive. Seriously: the basic usable machine (64K RAM, one off 160KB floppy, monochrome text-only monitor, and a keyboard) was priced at around US$3,000. A top of the range model with CGA monitor (16 colours text, 320x200 graphics in any four colours of your choice from the available 16, and a printer) was US$4,500. You could buy expansion cards to get more RAM - up to 640K! Two floppies! You could swap out the 4.77MHz processor for a slightly faster working (but same clock speed) V20 one, or buy a floating point processor and plug that in! So clones appeared. And boy, have they progressed! There are (from what I see on t'interwebs) well over 2 billion PC's in existence and working today. And every single one of them is thousands of times more powerful than the computers that got man to the moon and back in 1969. We - nearly all of us - owe our whole job to that tank of a PC (heavy? Nah - the keyboard alone weighed in at only 6lb) and I've been coding on or for the damn things for well over thirty years. Perhaps August 12th should be a worldwide public holiday? [edit]CGA, not EGA! :doh:[/edit]
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay... AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
Way back in 1983 I taught myself GW-Basic on [one of these](http://lowendmac.com/wp-content/uploads/zenith-z120.jpg).
If it's not broken, fix it until it is. Everything makes sense in someone's mind. Ya can't fix stupid.
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OriginalGriff wrote:
(64K RAM, one off 160KB floppy, monochrome text-only monitor, and a keyboard) was priced at around US$3,000. A top of the range model with EGA monitor (16 colours text, 320x200 graphics in any four colours of your choice from the available 16, and a printer) was US$4,500.
Go ahead and take a look what a TRS-80 Model 3 or 4 would have cost. These were still typical workhorses at that time. Edit: Model 4 came later, that still leaves us with Model 3: 1980: July - Radio Shack introduces the TRS-80 Model III, priced from US$700 to US$2500.
The user can't update the up: we update it for them (Choice in the CP poll)
CodeWraith wrote:
1980: July - Radio Shack introduces the TRS-80 Model III, priced from US$700 to US$2500.
Amazing how much the price dropped in the next couple of years...my parents bought us a TI/99-4a at the end of '83 (I think) for around $100. No monitor, just hook up the console to a TV! Also, no HDD or even a floppy...cassettes! I still have it in the box! :laugh:
"Go forth into the source" - Neal Morse
-
This cartoon: UserFriendly[^] got me thinking: 36 years ago this month, the PC was released to the world for the first time. I was in the industry when it happened, and it didn't really make a splash immediately, but IBM made some huge mistakes back then: they made it extensible, expandable, and ludicrously expensive. Seriously: the basic usable machine (64K RAM, one off 160KB floppy, monochrome text-only monitor, and a keyboard) was priced at around US$3,000. A top of the range model with CGA monitor (16 colours text, 320x200 graphics in any four colours of your choice from the available 16, and a printer) was US$4,500. You could buy expansion cards to get more RAM - up to 640K! Two floppies! You could swap out the 4.77MHz processor for a slightly faster working (but same clock speed) V20 one, or buy a floating point processor and plug that in! So clones appeared. And boy, have they progressed! There are (from what I see on t'interwebs) well over 2 billion PC's in existence and working today. And every single one of them is thousands of times more powerful than the computers that got man to the moon and back in 1969. We - nearly all of us - owe our whole job to that tank of a PC (heavy? Nah - the keyboard alone weighed in at only 6lb) and I've been coding on or for the damn things for well over thirty years. Perhaps August 12th should be a worldwide public holiday? [edit]CGA, not EGA! :doh:[/edit]
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay... AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
I remember those days well. I was still in gradual school at the time. The original PC had a cassette tape or a floppy drive as options actually. You could also get your choice of CP/M or PC-DOS on it. Once 1-2-3 came out CP/M faded quickly. One amusing thing - the original v1.0 PC-DOS didn't even have directories. That wasn't until v2.0. :omg:
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Quote:
These 'rules' are for those who are to dumb to understand at which point something becomes problematic.
For those of us who haven't used a GOTO in 20 years, we can say the same thing about you.
System.ItDidntWorkException: Something didn't work as expected. A guide to posting questions on CodeProject
Click this: Asking questions is a skill. Seriously, do it.
Dave KreskowiakI did not want to offend you. It's just that I met enough people who could recite all kinds of rules as if they were holy commandments, but had not the slightest clue why it's not always a good idea to use these things. I don't think that those people are dumb. They have been made that way by training them to obey rules without questions.
The user can't update the up: we update it for them (Choice in the CP poll)
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CodeWraith wrote:
1980: July - Radio Shack introduces the TRS-80 Model III, priced from US$700 to US$2500.
Amazing how much the price dropped in the next couple of years...my parents bought us a TI/99-4a at the end of '83 (I think) for around $100. No monitor, just hook up the console to a TV! Also, no HDD or even a floppy...cassettes! I still have it in the box! :laugh:
"Go forth into the source" - Neal Morse
The prices dropped constantly as memory got cheaper and the competition got stiffer. The TRS-80 Model 3 was intended to be a professional machine with the best reasonable hardware options. Lots of memory, multiple disk drives, modems, large printers - all stuff that you did not find in a small home computer.
The user can't update the up: we update it for them (Choice in the CP poll)
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You're right! EGA was the high res one that came later! Well ... 16 colours, up to 640x350! The first computer I bought for myself at home was EGA - the Amstrad 1640DD, with 640K RAM, twin 360KB floppies, Power supply built into the monitor ... and a MOUSE! I bought it a 32MB hard disk (a "hardcard" where the disk was mounted on the HDD controller card) which cost £400 and had a seek time of ~100ms! :omg:
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay... AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
This [^] was my first laptop. Twin 720k floppies, 512k of memory, b&w cga screen. It would run for 5 hours on its battery which was handy because it would take 3 1/2 hours to compile and build a star-trek based computer game I was developing which left me an hour to actually do the coding and testing. I used to have a 4 1/2 hour train commute from Preston to London each week; down on Monday morning, back on Friday evening - spent the weekend with my wife. This worked perfectly for me for a couple of years.
- I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.
-
I did not want to offend you. It's just that I met enough people who could recite all kinds of rules as if they were holy commandments, but had not the slightest clue why it's not always a good idea to use these things. I don't think that those people are dumb. They have been made that way by training them to obey rules without questions.
The user can't update the up: we update it for them (Choice in the CP poll)
