nakada@husc4.harvard.edu (paul nakada) (10/04/86)
Well, all this excitement about the //GS has gotten me thinking about somehow selling parts of my existing systems and upgrading to the //GS. I have a 64k ][+ with videx 80 columns, Keytronic 200,copy card, cpm, 2 drives, parallel card, epson mx-80, zenith 12" green phosphor.. I also have a //c, usr 1200 baud, 2 drives, okidata 192, 9 inch apple monitor and stand. Anyone have any suggestions about how I could upgrade (as in what I should sell/ what I whould keep).. Is it really worth upgrading to the //gs?? My main use for my //'s are for programming... basic/assembly word proc. and telcom.... any suggestions are welcome... respones can be posted or sent to harvard!husc4!nakada paul nakada
ranger@ecsvax.UUCP (Rick N. Fincher) (10/09/86)
> Well, all this excitement about the //GS has gotten me thinking about > somehow selling parts of my existing systems and upgrading to the > //GS. I have a 64k ][+ with videx 80 columns, Keytronic 200,copy card, cpm, > 2 drives, parallel card, epson mx-80, zenith 12" green phosphor.. > > I also have a //c, usr 1200 baud, 2 drives, okidata 192, 9 inch > apple monitor and stand. > > Anyone have any suggestions about how I could upgrade (as in what I should > sell/ what I whould keep).. Is it really worth upgrading to the > //gs?? My main use for my //'s are for programming... basic/assembly > word proc. and telcom.... any suggestions are welcome... > > respones can be posted or sent to > > harvard!husc4!nakada > > paul nakada > Keep the parallel card for the Epson and your 5.25 inch drives will still work but Apple is pushing 3.5's hard, the system software is on 3.5 inch disksn n 3.5 inch disks. Your green monitor will still work, it will show shades of grey instead of color. the keyboard and 80 column boards won't work or be needed. The modem and external //c drive will work fine. If you program, Apple is coming out with a very powerful programming environment that supports Assembler, C and Pascal. Be warned this toolkit requires 768K to run so you will need a memory board, either Apple's or Applied Engineering's (possibly others soon). You may want to keep the //c for its portability and to use its software that won't work with the //gs (telecommunications). I'd sell the //+ and drives and get a 3.5 inch drive and system unit, you could use your //c drive if you needed 5.25 inch disk access. Your CP/M card will probably still work but you may need a small software patch. You'll get a faster, more powerful system than either of your present systems with a lot more memory to program. Rick Fincher ranger@ecsvax
ee161abt@sdcc18.ucsd.EDU (Grobbins) (10/10/86)
In article <2110@ecsvax.UUCP> ranger@ecsvax.UUCP (Rick N. Fincher) writes: >If you program, Apple is coming out with a very powerful programming >environment that supports Assembler, C and Pascal. Yes, Apple is going to come out with a powerful programming environment. But don't expect a good, powerful, bug-free, MPW-like system right away, and don't expect Pascal for a long time to come. Remember, the //GS is based on a new uP, and good development tools aren't easy to create, even (or perhaps especially) for Apple. Developers for the //gs have been going through significant amounts of pain in working with Apple's development system. Grobbins.
ranger@ecsvax.UUCP (Rick N. Fincher) (10/13/86)
> In article <2110@ecsvax.UUCP> ranger@ecsvax.UUCP (Rick N. Fincher) writes: > >If you program, Apple is coming out with a very powerful programming > >environment that supports Assembler, C and Pascal. > > Yes, Apple is going to come out with a powerful programming > environment. But don't expect a good, powerful, bug-free, MPW-like > system right away, and don't expect Pascal for a long time to come. > > Remember, the //GS is based on a new uP, and good development tools > aren't easy to create, even (or perhaps especially) for Apple. > Developers for the //gs have been going through significant amounts > of pain in working with Apple's development system. > > Grobbins. Good Point, the development system is being sent out but is not in its final form yet. Apple says C and assembler are nearly ready but work has just started on Pascal so it will be awhile. Although the processor is new, it is not that different from the 6502 in terms of writing assembler, the same ole stuff plus some new, nice features. The new features are where the power is but it still is not like learning a new uP from the ground up. I expect new stuff will start to come out quickly, six months to a year rather than a year to 18 months (as with a new Machine like the Mac or Amiga) because there are a lot of 6502 programmers out there and they Rick Fincher ranger@ecsvax smell money out there in programming for this new machine.
ee161abt@sdcc18.ucsd.EDU (Grobbins) (10/15/86)
In article <2124@ecsvax.UUCP> ranger@ecsvax.UUCP (Rick N. Fincher) writes: >Although the processor is new, it is not that different from the 6502 >in terms of writing assembler, the same ole stuff plus some new, nice >features. The new features are where the power is but it still is not >like learning a new uP from the ground up. > >I expect new stuff will start to come out quickly, six months to a year >rather than a year to 18 months (as with a new Machine like the Mac or >Amiga) because there are a lot of 6502 programmers out there and they >smell money out there in programming for this new machine. Perhaps this isn't the place for opinions about the chip, but nice new features? Gack. Programmers of the 6502 contented themselves with the knowledge that, while they were programming an old chip, it was a good representative of the 8-bit generation, and there was an enormous installed base. The 65816 would be an embarrassment if compared with other "late 16-bit generation" processors. It lacks the instruction extensions the 6502 really needs; it mainly just adds what's necessary to support the 24-bit addressing, and widens the registers to 16 bits. Will programmers really like switching from the simple 6502 to a version with banked memory? I'll grant that it's somewhat better the using the old chip, but the only reason that Apple or anyone else would really touch the thing, I suspect, is compatibility and what Ranger aptly called the smell of money. Grobbins. "Most people never mature; they just grow taller." - Leo Rosten