Another nasty holiday season on RBT

On 1/21/2019 4:43 PM, John B. Slocomb wrote:
On Mon, 21 Jan 2019, news18 wrote:
On Mon, 21 Jan 2019 17:51:02 +0700, John B. Slocomb wrote:
On Mon, 21 Jan 2019 , news18 wrote:
On Sun, 20 Jan 2019 14:38:45 -0500, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 1/20/2019 11:59 AM, wrote:
On Sunday, January 20, 2019, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 1/20/2019 10:23 AM, wrote:
On Saturday, January 19, 2019 at 1:51:09 PM UTC-8, AMuzi wrote:
On 1/19/2019 1:59 PM, wrote:
On Friday, January 18, 2019, John B. Slocomb wrote:
On Fri, 18 Jan 2019 , wrote:
On Friday, January 18, 2019 , John B.Slocomb wrote:
On Fri, 18 Jan 2019 , wrote:
On Thursday, January 17, 2019 , John B. Slocomb wrote:
On Fri, 18 Jan 2019 , Ralph Barone wrote:
jbeattie wrote:
On Thursday, January 17, 2019, wrote:
On Wednesday, January 16, 2019 , Ralph Barone wrote:
jbeattie wrote:
On Wednesday, January 16, wrote:
On Wednesday, January 16, 2019 , Sir Ridesalot wrote:
On Wednesday, January 16, 2019 , wrote:
On Wednesday, January 16, 2019 , Sir Ridesalot wrote:
On Wednesday, January 16, 2019, Andre Jute wrote:

-snip just oodles of text-

-more snip-

When the company I worked for in Indonesia started using computers we
used Apple II's with the Z80 card in order to use WordStar.


[sigh] I miss WordStar

--
Andrew Muzi
www.yellowjersey.org/
Open every day since 1 April, 1971

On Mon, 21 Jan 2019 17:18:45 -0600, AMuzi wrote:

On 1/21/2019 4:43 PM, John B. Slocomb wrote:
On Mon, 21 Jan 2019, news18 wrote:
On Mon, 21 Jan 2019 17:51:02 +0700, John B. Slocomb wrote:
On Mon, 21 Jan 2019 , news18 wrote:
On Sun, 20 Jan 2019 14:38:45 -0500, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 1/20/2019 11:59 AM, wrote:
On Sunday, January 20, 2019, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 1/20/2019 10:23 AM, wrote:
On Saturday, January 19, 2019 at 1:51:09 PM UTC-8, AMuzi wrote:
On 1/19/2019 1:59 PM, wrote:
On Friday, January 18, 2019, John B. Slocomb wrote:
On Fri, 18 Jan 2019 , wrote:
On Friday, January 18, 2019 , John B.Slocomb wrote:
On Fri, 18 Jan 2019 , wrote:
On Thursday, January 17, 2019 , John B. Slocomb wrote:
On Fri, 18 Jan 2019 , Ralph Barone wrote:
jbeattie wrote:
On Thursday, January 17, 2019, wrote:
On Wednesday, January 16, 2019 , Ralph Barone wrote:
jbeattie wrote:
On Wednesday, January 16, wrote:
On Wednesday, January 16, 2019 , Sir Ridesalot wrote:
On Wednesday, January 16, 2019 , wrote:
On Wednesday, January 16, 2019 , Sir Ridesalot wrote:
On Wednesday, January 16, 2019, Andre Jute wrote:

-snip just oodles of text-

-more snip-

When the company I worked for in Indonesia started using computers we
used Apple II's with the Z80 card in order to use WordStar.


[sigh] I miss WordStar

I believe that you can still get a copy, somewhere. Or maybe it only
runs on Linux now, I don't remember. But I did, sometime in the past
few years have a copy running here. My memory was that it was a great
program but compared with the modern WP apps it was rather mundane.

p.s. I just did a quick search and found
https://www.wordstar.org/
--

Cheers,

John B.

On 1/21/2019 6:18 PM, AMuzi wrote:


[sigh] I miss WordStar

Not me. I'm a lot more modern! I use WordPerfect! ;-)


--
- Frank Krygowski

On Mon, 21 Jan 2019 19:25:14 -0500, Frank Krygowski
wrote:

On 1/21/2019 6:18 PM, AMuzi wrote:


[sigh] I miss WordStar

Not me. I'm a lot more modern! I use WordPerfect! ;-)

I'm not sure how "modern" that is. As I remember we went from WordStar
to WordPerfect when we changed from the Apple II to the original IBM
PC. Back in the 1980's I think it was.

(Goodness! How time flies, that was 30 years ago :-)
--

Cheers,

John B.

On Mon, 21 Jan 2019 14:08:15 -0800, Zen Cycle wrote:

On Monday, January 21, 2019 at 11:23:30 AM UTC-5,
wrote:
On Monday, January 21, 2019 at 7:50:23 AM UTC-8, Zen Cycle wrote:
On Sunday, January 20, 2019 at 3:43:58 PM UTC-5,
wrote:

This is several pictures of the 1200 and 1600. All of the robotics,
electronics and programming was done by me. They changed the case
and shape several times later. So what? What does this tell you?


then the following questions shouldn't be too hard:

what was the programming language?

What compiler did you use?

Was it run from resident or removable media?

If resident, how was the file loaded into the resident device?

Was the program a state machine, or some aspect of real-time
processing?

Then this should be easy to identify you. It was programmed in assembly
language because C compilers were horribly inefficient in those days.

Then you would know it wasn't the compilers that were inefficient, it
was that machine language is way faster (and still is).

Tell me where you got the idea that there was "removeable media" in
those days.

Ever seen one of these?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floppy_disk

Lol, I've got an 8" floppy.
Actually a whole box of them.

They were invented in the 60's. in the 80's desk-top computers from
Commodore, IBM, and compaq all used 5 1/4 inch drives to store the
entire operating system until IBM invented BIOS. If you have some notion
that removovable media didn't exist, it only goes to show your entire
life is one big lie.

Before that there were 8" drives used in CP/M computers, which was my
third computer, a real fork liftable job.

Also about Tommies time there were some heavy hard drives (10Mb?) able to
be added to IBM PCs, and I guess other PCs as they were a third party
device.

Do you envision a removable hard drive which would cost more than the
entire electronics of that instrument then? Or maybe you think that
they had thumb drives as you just discovered?

In your mind a "state machine" cannot be real time?

No, and if you had any clue about software architecture you'd know what
I meant by state machine versus real-time processing.

Tell us all - when you have 5 axis of motion how do you propose running
them without a real time kernel? By moving one axis at a time?

IT depends on the application, but I can tell you you would be able to
handle 5 simultaneous motor control tasks with one processor back then.
Why don't you tell us how you handled simultaneous tasks with a
processor that can only execute one line of code at a time? Newer
processors can do it, but not back then.

You have just identified yourself as a second rate student. Go back to
class and try to learn something instead of making really stupid
statements here.

Right, by claiming an 8080 could multi-task? Or by claiming removable
media didn't exist? Those weren't _my_ stupid statements.

Actually I think his "real time" label needs massive support, but then
I'm biased by one of my lecturers who parphrased "plenty of people claim
their progrsm is real time but in my opinion, the only real time
programming was data logging a nuclear explosion. the rest are just
proceedural problems".

On 1/21/2019 5:26 PM, John B. Slocomb wrote:
On Mon, 21 Jan 2019 17:18:45 -0600, AMuzi wrote:

On 1/21/2019 4:43 PM, John B. Slocomb wrote:
On Mon, 21 Jan 2019, news18 wrote:
On Mon, 21 Jan 2019 17:51:02 +0700, John B. Slocomb wrote:
On Mon, 21 Jan 2019 , news18 wrote:
On Sun, 20 Jan 2019 14:38:45 -0500, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 1/20/2019 11:59 AM, wrote:
On Sunday, January 20, 2019, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 1/20/2019 10:23 AM, wrote:
On Saturday, January 19, 2019 at 1:51:09 PM UTC-8, AMuzi wrote:
On 1/19/2019 1:59 PM, wrote:
On Friday, January 18, 2019, John B. Slocomb wrote:
On Fri, 18 Jan 2019 , wrote:
On Friday, January 18, 2019 , John B.Slocomb wrote:
On Fri, 18 Jan 2019 , wrote:
On Thursday, January 17, 2019 , John B. Slocomb wrote:
On Fri, 18 Jan 2019 , Ralph Barone wrote:
jbeattie wrote:
On Thursday, January 17, 2019, wrote:
On Wednesday, January 16, 2019 , Ralph Barone wrote:
jbeattie wrote:
On Wednesday, January 16, wrote:
On Wednesday, January 16, 2019 , Sir Ridesalot wrote:
On Wednesday, January 16, 2019 , wrote:
On Wednesday, January 16, 2019 , Sir Ridesalot wrote:
On Wednesday, January 16, 2019, Andre Jute wrote:

-snip just oodles of text-

-more snip-

When the company I worked for in Indonesia started using computers we
used Apple II's with the Z80 card in order to use WordStar.


[sigh] I miss WordStar

I believe that you can still get a copy, somewhere. Or maybe it only
runs on Linux now, I don't remember. But I did, sometime in the past
few years have a copy running here. My memory was that it was a great
program but compared with the modern WP apps it was rather mundane.

p.s. I just did a quick search and found
https://www.wordstar.org/


I moved to PageMaker then Word 97.

But at the time WordStar's simple easily-learned command set
with such low system overhead (program & text file on a
5-1/4 disk) was the moment when I packed up my SCM
typewriter off to storage (where it sits today).

--
Andrew Muzi
www.yellowjersey.org/
Open every day since 1 April, 1971

On 1/21/2019 6:25 PM, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 1/21/2019 6:18 PM, AMuzi wrote:


[sigh] I miss WordStar

Not me. I'm a lot more modern! I use WordPerfect! ;-)



I used it briefly, no complaints, but needed to buy/learn
Pagemaker shortly thereafter.

--
Andrew Muzi
www.yellowjersey.org/
Open every day since 1 April, 1971

On 1/21/2019 7:32 PM, John B. Slocomb wrote:
On Mon, 21 Jan 2019 19:25:14 -0500, Frank Krygowski
wrote:

On 1/21/2019 6:18 PM, AMuzi wrote:


[sigh] I miss WordStar

Not me. I'm a lot more modern! I use WordPerfect! ;-)

I'm not sure how "modern" that is.

Yeah, that was kind of my point. My kid claims I'm the last person on
earth still using WordPerfect.

But I like it!

--
- Frank Krygowski

On Mon, 21 Jan 2019 17:18:45 -0600, AMuzi wrote:

On 1/21/2019 4:43 PM, John B. Slocomb wrote:


-more snip-

When the company I worked for in Indonesia started using computers we
used Apple II's with the Z80 card in order to use WordStar.


[sigh] I miss WordStar

Err, YUK was my impression when I tried it.

I was using Spellbinder on my CP/M machines which did all the
correspondence and office management stuff like boilerplating mass mail
outs to club members and produced copyfor a number of booklets and
newsletters which we had offset printed. We used Supercalc and dBase II
as the other main progs.

When we retired the CP/M boxen, we went to Wordperfect on DOS, then Win3-?
NT3-2K and Linux until it basically was dead and buried.

Loathed anything MS and always used Novell/Corel packages on the above
X86 boxen.

After trying the various Linux based *** Offices, I went to back to Tex,
or more correctly LaTeX, while SWMBO'd exercises her profanity on
whatever version of Office on Linux is current. The demise of WordPerfect
hit her greatly.

Am 21.01.2019 um 23:08 schrieb Zen Cycle:
Then this should be easy to identify you. It was programmed in assembly
language because C compilers were horribly inefficient in those days.

Then you would know it wasn't the compilers that were inefficient, it was that machine language is way faster (and still is).

Hand-crafted Machine language is usually faster than C Compilers because
most C-Compilers produce inefficient Machine Language.

Any Machine code (hand-crafted or compiled) is usually faster than
UCSD-Pacsal or Java because UCSD-Pascal and Java compilers produce
machine independent pseudo-code which is in turn executed by an interpreter.