rlb@ncsu.UUCP (Roger Lee Banner) (06/26/84)
it as a terminal-for a VAX 780?
?What modems work best-and modem interface?
?What printers work best-and printer interface?
?How is it for running CP/M?
?Is there any way to expand it past 64K?
Please feel free to give any advice/comments about the C-64.
Thanks for any replys.
roger
!ncsu!rlbdas@ecsvax.UUCP (06/26/84)
I wrote the following as a reply to author, but some of it may be
of general interest, so I'm posting it too.
Re: (ncsu.2635) net.micro.cbm : buying C-64
I have had a 64 since Dec 82 -- various experiences have appeared
on the bulletin board under micro.commodore. I previously used an
Apple at the office (still do!), and our dept is heavily into IBM
PC's now, so keeping up with 3 very different systems has kept me
from being expert at any one of them. Here are my answers to your
questions:
?How fast is the C-64 for processing?
Exactly as fast as the Apple -- see David Ahl's benchmarks printed
regularly in Creative Computing.
?How fast is the disk read/write?
Very slow compared to any other disk drive you've ever seen. This is
because of the serial bus on which you can hang up to 4 drives and a
printer. It's fast only if you are upgrading from a cassette drive.
There are some advantages. DOS is in ROM in the drive with its own
6502 and some RAM for buffering, so you get a full 170K on each SSSD
disk. Files are treated identically whether going to disk or printer;
only the device number distinguishes them.
?Are there any math capabilities-if so, what software?
Essentially only if you code them in 6502 assembly or buy packaged
software. The Basic supplied is quite primitive. E.g. the answer
to 7^2 is not 49, but something like 49.0000001, since it uses
LOG and EXP even for integer exponents. (This may be true of the
Apple too -- I forget.) On the other hand, the routines for functions
in the Basic ROM can be accessed directly via SYS calls -- see Ray
Miller's articles in net.micro.cbm for how to do this (and much more).
I have a copy of the public domain language COMAL, which is reputed to
be much faster than Basic, but I haven't had time to try it out. I
also have one of several commercial implementations of FORTH, which is
certainly faster than Basic -- and can be gotten with floating point
extensions.
?What are the graphics REALLY like?
Compared to Apple, super! Compared to IBM, nothing special, unless
you're into sprites or want to see 16 colors on screen at once.
?How is it as a word processor-and software reccommended?
If you like the keyboard (I do, for the most part), it can be a very
good word processor. But you really need a monitor (not TV), and you
may want to do something about 40 cols. I have 80 col software in my
terminal pkg (more below), but not in my word processor. I use
WordPro3+, because it was the first decent one to come out, but I
think you can do better. It's very powerful in some directions, e.g.
fancy formatting, chaining a whole disk full of files, etc. But it's
weak in other directions, e.g. lacks word wrap (I'm used to reading
split words now), can't read a directory without erasing the text
in memory. One of the better wp's around is free: SpeedScript. You
can type it in from the January 84 Compute's Gazette, or copy it from
a friend (public domain). See many articles on this system for
comments, bug fixes, etc. It's also on the May Compute's Gazette
Disk, with all bugs fixed. I just got it, so no real experience yet,
but I'm impressed. There are lots of other wp's around, most of them
quite affordable. I believe that someone wanting a home word processor
and having no other use for a computer, wanting to minimize the
investment, would find the system of choice to be configured around
the 64. (Not everyone would choose the same printer or word processor.)
?How is it as a terminal-for a VAX 780?
?What modems work best-and modem interface?
I have VIP Terminal, which takes a long time to boot (there's a
preliminary "desktop" step to access your choice of VIP pkgs --
don't know if any others exist yet), but which is very flexible
and powerful. I'm also using to Vicmodem (1600), which is no match
for the capabilities of VIP, but I don't do enough communicating from
the 64 yet to justify a better modem. No interface is needed for
the 1600 or 1650. My understanding is that other modems need the
user port reconfigured as an RS232.
?What printers work best-and printer interface?
I use a Gemini 10 (pre-10X), and am very pleased with it. See
uwvax.313 for reasons why. I forget the name on my interface --
MSW or MWS, I think. It does all the right things (with DIP
switches), and I never think about it. However, the Cardco inter-
faces have a good reputation, and I think they are cheaper. I've been
intrigued with the ads for a Grappler for the 64, since that's what we
we use on the Apple, with excellent results (especially graphics), but
it lists for $139, and I'm not sure it does anything that the $60
Cardco can't do.
?How is it for running CP/M?
Don't know, since I can't think of any good reason to run CP/M on it.
I've heard that very little CP/M software has actually been put out
on CBM compatible disks.
?Is there any way to expand it past 64K?
None that I know of.
David A. Smith
Department of Mathematics
Duke University
Durham, NC 27706
(919) 684-2321
{decvax,akgua}!mcnc!ecsvax!das