knudsen@ihwpt.UUCP (mike knudsen) (10/10/86)
Last night (Thur 10/9) we saw and held a CoCo-III at the Glenside Coco Club meeting. It had been bought that same day, and is probably one of the first to arrive in the western Chicago suburbs. It was found at a plain old Radio Shack, not a Confuser Center. All we saw on it was the "Wheel" Basic graphics test program from the latest Rainbow mag. Since there was a full evening's activities and the owner had only had it a few hours, nothing else was done. Didn't even try the 40, 64, or 80 col display. As you probably know, you have to look pretty close even to tell a Coco-III from the II. The keyboard (same as sold for $5 in a few Shacks last year) has all the arrow keys in a left-side diamond and a REAL CONTROL key -- but you've heard all that. The back side is the same as ever except for two RCA jacks for baseband composite video (still no monochrome!!!) and audio. Look underneath for the RGB connector. It has a nice channel molded into the plastic case for the cord, like on the back of wall-mount telephones. Also in this channel is an intriguing rectangular cavity with a couple of unused screw posts, that looks like a place to tuck a modulator or some sort of adaptor (a modulator of course wouldn't do much good on RGB, but it would be better on your TV than the existing 128x192 4-color display). Does anyone know whether the composite video out shuts off when using the extended hi-res modes, or does it still try to put out what it can? Has anyone else seen one of these beasts? Is this net group still alive?? Has everyone died and gone to Delphi? --mike k -- Mike J Knudsen ...ihnp4!ihwpt!knudsen Bell Labs (AT&T) (312)-979-4132 (work) Nobody pays for my opinions, which are mine alone. "A mind is a terrible thing to waste, but the pay is good."
ln63fhl@sdcc7.ucsd.EDU (David Cook) (10/13/86)
I am very interested in the CoCo & os9 (multitasking!) but
would like to know a few things first:
* How slow is CoCo + os9 (don't be coy, please)
* Where do you get os9 and how much?
* How much software is out there?
Thanx for any replies,
Dave Cook.belmonte@svax.cs.cornell.edu (Matthew Belmonte) (10/13/86)
In article <1143@ihwpt.UUCP>, knudsen@ihwpt.UUCP (mike knudsen) writes: > Has anyone else seen one of these beasts? Is this net group > still alive?? Has everyone died and gone to Delphi? --mike k Yes, this newsgroup is still alive, marginally. ...but let's face it -- things around here have lost vitality. do you know where everyone is? well, i'll tell you. they've all gone to net.micro.amiga, & they're posting like mad. I used to read net.micro.amiga in hopes that someday i'd have one and have something to talk about. yes, i''d have one of those wonderful, CONTEMPORARY beasts and i could just leave this old CoCo hanging off the side on some rs232 port as an antique conversation piece. but do know why i'm still here? i have no money, that's why. let's face it - you can only change the CoCo so much. it's still old. it's going the way of the apple -- even the postfixes show it: CoCo, CoCo 2, CoCo 3 ... Apple, Apple 2, Apple 2+, Apple 2x, Apple 3. See the similarity? I know someone who has a gigantic collection of old Apple _n_'s (where _n_ is large). he never does anything w/ them anymore, except for when a friend of ours used to come to visit & play "Rescue Raiders." I've resolved that I'm going to stick around here & use the university's machines & money & leave my old CoCo running a terminal emulator. no, why would people go to delphi from here? delphi costs MONEY, see? -- "Logic dictated that logic did not apply." -- Spock, "The Galileo Seven" Matthew Belmonte ARPA: <belmonte@rocky.cs.cornell.edu> <belmonte@svax.cs.cornell.edu> BITNET: <d25y@cornella> <d25y@crnlvax5> UUCP: ..!decvax!duke!duknbsr!mkb
belmonte@svax.cs.cornell.edu (Matthew Belmonte) (10/14/86)
In article <547@sdcc7.ucsd.EDU>, ln63fhl@sdcc7.ucsd.EDU (David Cook) writes: > I am very interested in the CoCo & os9 (multitasking!) but > would like to know a few things first: > * How slow is CoCo + os9 (don't be coy, please) OS9 is a very nice operating system. The problem w/ running it on the CoCo is that the CoCo just wasn't designed for multitasking. In particular, disk accesses are slow. They slow down the whole system, because there is no DMA. The disk controller plays w/ the HALT* line to the 6809, so nothing can get any work done. Any type of disk access will make the serial port (the original bit-banger, but not the fancy, expensive RS232 add-on card) drop characters. The serial port's RD line is just 1 bit of a PIA (a parallel i/o chip). it's read in a delay loop, so every time you need something from the serial port, the whole machine gets hogged for a fraction of a second. > * Where do you get os9 and how much? It depends what you mean by "os9." I've forgotten R/S's prices, but you'll need software -- languages or applications or whatever. which brings us to the next topic... > * How much software is out there? there is alot of PD OS9 software floating around on bbs's. there's also alot on CompuServe's OS9 SIG (Go OS9). Perhaps people could be more specific about it if you specify a particular application or group of applications. There's a CoCo bbs list published every now & then in the _Rainbow_, and there's also a column by Dale Puckett called "KISSable OS9" which helps when you're first trying to find your way around OS9. If I were you, I'd get an Amiga or ST and run OSK (if you have the funds). OSK, from what I've seen of it, seems much more polished than 6809 OS9. ...& on those machines, you don't run into memory limitations (as much) & don't end up cursing the hardware you're stuck w/ (as much). -- "Logic dictated that logic did not apply." -- Spock, "The Galileo Seven" Matthew Belmonte ARPA: <belmonte@rocky.cs.cornell.edu> <belmonte@svax.cs.cornell.edu> BITNET: <d25y@cornella> <d25y@crnlvax5> UUCP: ..!decvax!duke!duknbsr!mkb
jonh@tektools.UUCP (Andy Davidson) (10/15/86)
What's with you antagonists?!? The CoCo is a beautiful machine. I have a
friend who owns a CoCo I (Like mine) and a Tandy 1000. The 1000 is claimed
to run faster than the IBM PCs.. Well, we pulled a simple benchmark. With
BASIC, CoCo beat the 1000 twice over! When the 1000 ran the benchmark in
compiled Pascal, CoCo won by about 3:4! Then we tried it with CoCo having
taken Vitamin E. I won't bother to tell you the results. Now, from what
I hear, the CoCo III's graphics are great.. what; 64 colors, 640x192? I think
weve got a real competitor. All we need is some good Public Domain software.
Let's give a big hand to MikeyTerm.
Where can we post CoCo programs? Is there a net.sources.6809? I have
a few ML utilities I've written.. C'mon guys, lighten up!!
-- Jon ("In CoCo We Trust") Howellmyxm@lanl.ARPA (Mike Mitchell) (10/16/86)
OK you salami brains: I am the proud owner of a coco (we are talking OLD OLD OLD!) which i managed to get up to 128K before i gave up !!?! long ago i wanted os9 to give me so many things... a year a go i would not part with level 1 os9. but--i found the ibm/xt/at and now the stuff that i see for my coco is dead meat!!! i unfortunately have dropped most of my coco interest becuz uf the ibm. 6809 was the way to be, but i lost interest from the radio crap guys... i have not seen os9 in over a year.... nothing has changed (oh boy now i get a whole 256k to work with!!! what about the 640k of ram i now have and the other utilities i work with.... give me some port that will talk 6809 and 80?86 and i will bw happy what happened to os9 i used to swear by it...... Life is over for the spam head! Mike Mitchell -- F Board Owner 1986
jonh@tektools.UUCP (Andy Davidson) (10/17/86)
>Any type of disk access will make the serial port (the original bit-banger, but >not the fancy, expensive RS232 add-on card) drop characters. ^^^^^^^^^ Not so anymore! I went out to my local Shack and picked one up for, what, $29.95! Haven't had a chance to use it, for I lack the right cables.. -jon