[Coco] CoCo Video Player

[Boisy G. Pitre]

As a software guy, I have to agree with Steve.  I can only play in the software world due to the designs of the hardware engineers.  The hardware creates the world in which the software lives.

Clever as DriveWire may be, it ultimately is a software solution and is limited to the bit banger's physical speed limitations.

I bow down to the hardware gods!

On Mar 18, 2011, at 10:47 AM, Steve Batson wrote:

> Adding my 2 cents...I'm actually kinda of surprised to see this type of 
> debate on this list....Yes hardware and software depend on each other, both 
> are required to make everything work. I have to disagree that Software is 
> more powerful than hardware since the hardware is ultimately what makes it 
> all happen in the end. Yes the software directs actions and does all sorts 
> of calculations and such, but that is all because the hardware is busy 
> working on what the software tells it to do.
> 
> I would submit that any task you might have software do, could be faster, 
> more efficient and more robust if implemented completely in hardware. I'm 
> not saying that everything should be, or is feasible to do in hardware, I'm 
> just trying to make a point. As someone already said, you can't make 
> software do more than hardware is capable off. The main thing that software 
> has over hardware, is that you have the flexibility to change things 
> anytime, including on the fly. We wouldn't have computers as we do today if 
> it wasn't for software of course. 
> 
> And just because you might be able to use software to force the hardware to 
> do something that maybe it wasn't necessarily designed for, doesn't make it 
> more powerful than hardware. The hardware is a wall for the software. Once 
> you have written the tightest, most efficient machine code that can be 
> written, you hit a brick wall. You then need that next more powerful, 
> faster hardware to go further. 
> 
> Bottom line, use the right tools for the job. With computers, it's Hardware 
> and Software. Regardless of what you are trying to do, using the best of 
> both will get the best results.
> 

--
Boisy G. Pitre
http://www.tee-boy.com/