[Coco] KIDS REACT TO OLD COMPUTERS

[Richard E Crislip]

On Sun, 1 Jun 2014 19:43:55 -0500
Frank Pittel <fwp at deepthought.com> wrote:

> I hope this thread hasn't been closed already but I thought the video
> was funny. Sadly I'm old enough (as I'm sure most if not all of us
> are) to remember a time when all of that seemed incredibly modern and
> high tech!!
> 
> I don't think I'll ever forget the first time I saved files to a
> floppy!! I was besides myself with excitment.
> 
> The Other Frank
> 
> 
> 
> On Fri, May 30, 2014 at 12:04:42PM -0400, Frank Swygert wrote:
> > I think it's a funny video. I've dealt with various antiques over
> > the years, and there are lots of things from the early 19th century
> > that many of us here simply wouldn't know a thing about, or how to
> > get it going. One of the old farm use "hit an miss" engines is a
> > prime example. Most would recognize that it's a motor and has a big
> > pulley, so obviously drove something from that, but starting it and
> > getting it to run is.... well.... different than anything else.
> > Simple once you know how (like sticking the floppy in and cutting
> > the computer on).
> > 
> > The whole thing reminded me of the Star Trek movie (went back in
> > time to get a whale) where Scottie first tries talking to the
> > computer, then picks up the mouse (it was a Mac of some kind) and
> > tries to use it as a microphone.
> > 
> > As for the Apple/Mas debate... Well, most computers use a GUI with a
> > mouse now. Apple started it for the masses (didn't the idea come out
> > of PARC labs, or AT&T labs in some "flavor" of UNIX??), and it
> > caught on as an easy way to navigate. Hey, it's even on the CoCo --
> > though Deskmate didn't work all that great because more computing
> > power is needed for a really effective GUI. So just about every
> > computer has some type of "point and click" interface now. Yeah, the
> > "dumbed-down" description is pretty accurate -- assuming you mean
> > you don't need to know anything about how the computer operates to
> > use it. But from a user standpoint (and most people are users of
> > everything!) that's a good thing. For you guys who program, most of
> > you use an ICE of some sort, or some other GUI operated programming
> > aides. I know some of you, especially CoCo guys, still do it the old
> > fashioned "direct input" way, but most don't. That "dumbed-down" GUI
> > means more time programming and less time running the computer. Cars
> > have been dumbed down -- there is no spark control on the steering
> > column any more!! How many of you have no idea what I' even talking
> > about???
> > 
> > I'm mostly a Linux user now -- Mint is great and easy to setup and
> > use, much easier than Windows and I would even say a Mac! It took a
> > good GUI with all the little things like codecs already packaged
> > with it to make it easy, and for me to make the switch. For me
> > personally a good DTP package was required (Pagestream --
> > commercial, but fair priced and real good!),  but that's just me. I
> > do like the fact that it's easy to get into the OS to make tweaks if
> > I need/want to, though all I can do is follow instructions. Windows
> > is increasingly hard to make even minor tweaks and settings changes,
> > the guys in Redmond are trying to effectively lock the user out,
> > which I don't like. I don't know how hard it is to get into the Mac
> > OS, but the "closed box" hardware and programming method was
> > outdated many years ago. As long as it's profitable they will keep
> > using it, but that's what has held more general acceptance back and
> > prices up. I know they figure as long as they (Apple) are the ones
> > making the money it's just fine, and I can't disagree with that
> > thinking.
> > 
> > -- 
> > Coco mailing list
> > Coco at maltedmedia.com
> > http://five.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/coco
> 

I was very proud of myself when I took a program from the Rainbow, or
was it HotCoCo, and ran it from a series of loads on tape because
that's all I had. Then later on, I improved a teaching game from the
Rainbow that drew states on the screen, which took some time, and the
player had to guess it's capitol. I improved it by copying the screens
to disk after they were completely drawn and changed the program
to load the images from the disk. Improved the speed of the program by a
factor of three. Another program I improved was Battleship, also from
the Rainbow. The original only allowed the player to compete against the
CoCo. I altered it to allow two players to compete against each other
or the CoCo. It was a great time. I hope the FPGAs will re-introduce
a new group of people to the wonders of computer programming and
engineering.