[Coco] Priming the Pump: How TRS-80 Enthusiasts Helped Spark the PC Revolution

[Boisy G. Pitre]

I agree with John.  I too have this book in my library, and the memoir section was laborious reading.  I felt it was my duty to suffer through it because I didn't want to miss anything relevant to the actual topic, but it really brought down my opinion of the value of this book.

Still, it has some good information, and if you can find it used at a low ball price (which is how I got it), then go for it.

Best Regards,
Boisy G. Pitre

Join our forums at http://www.tee-boy.com/forums/ to exchange ideas and information with other WeatherSnoop enthusiasts.




On Jun 6, 2012, at 8:38 AM, John W. Linville wrote:

> On Tue, Jun 05, 2012 at 10:49:41PM -0700, Tony Cappellini wrote:
>> http://www.retrothing.com/2009/05/how-trs80-enthusiasts-helped-spark-the-pc-revolution.html
> 
> I happen to be in the middle of reading this book right now.  Parts of
> it are interesting, parts of it are...less interesting.  There is
> some cool Tandy history, albeit mostly for the Model I/III/IV line.
> And there is some interesting insight as to what it was like to be part
> of the nascent computer industry in the 70's and 80's.  There are also
> a few bits that I'm fairly certain are factually wrong (and provably
> so) -- probably any significant work has a few of those too.
> 
> What really brings down the value of this book is that are three
> l-o-n-g chapters in the middle of the book that comprise the authors'
> (husband and wife team) life stories.  I don't mean their stories
> as TRS-80 software developers, I mean the stories of going to
> elementary school, of going to high school and college, of falling
> in love, getting married, and starting a family, of taking vacations,
> etc. with just a bit of TRS-80 stuff in their to keep it relevant(?).
> These parts read like a memoir -- a memoir of someone you aren't
> surprised that you didn't know existed.  I had to resort to skimming
> these parts, which consume nearly half the book.
> 
> So anyway, I don't mean to discourage anyone from reading the book to
> gain some insight into Tandy's early years in the computer industry.
> I just want to warn you to prepare yourself -- the reminiscing is so
> thick that it puts even a CoCoFEST! to shame... :-)
> 
> John
> -- 
> John W. Linville		Someday the world will need a hero, and you
> linville at tuxdriver.com			might be all we have.  Be ready.
> 
> --
> Coco mailing list
> Coco at maltedmedia.com
> http://five.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/coco