jmsellens@watmath.UUCP (John M Sellens) (08/31/84)
Well, my buddy in Toronto has had an AT for a few days. I had a chance to fool around on it for a while. Here are my (our) impressions: Fast! It screams! We tried a couple of video games on it - they ran fast - pretty well too fast to play (NIght Vision Pinball for example). Dir's go screaming by. Compiles seem to be about 5 (count 'em) times faster. Quieter - he used to use an XT with expansion box and two 10 meg IBM disks. The AT whispers in comparison (in comparison to my lowly two floppy machine too). Keyboard - takes a tiny bit of getting used to. I kept hitting the ~` key for escape (which is now at the upper left corner of the numeric pad). Overall - nice, the big enter key does help a bit (but I've gotten used to my little one). Compatability - seems to run anything. Boots a lot faster - the machine waits for the disk to come up to speed after it does the memory check (which goes a lot quicker). Documentation - smaller paperback 'user guides' - more like "what to do after you plug it in". More useful reference cards (booklets actually). The DOS binder is a different colour (my, how pretty!). The BASIC 3.0 manual makes no reference to the "sys req" key - they probably forgot to put the new extended code in the list at the back of the book (he doesn't have the Tech Ref book yet). Gripes: Still no "power-on" reset button (but that would be admitting defeat, wouldn't it?). The high density floppy *seems* a little slow (but we could be hallucinating). Decision: When (if?) I get a job, I will refuse to work on anything less than an AT. It has enough speed that you can actually edit and compile at the same time, without going crazy waiting for it. John.