rrw@naucse.UUCP (Robert Wier) (09/22/89)
In the Sept 12th issue of MacWeek there is an ad on page 56 for a laptop machine called the Z88, from a company, Cambridge North America. I have a colleague that has a demo unit on loan, and it looks pretty usable, assuming you are willing to tolerate a non-mac machine. It includes a cable and software to download text into a Mac. Couple of questions: Does anyone have experience with this machine? How well does it work, is it reliable, etc., etc. Also I wonder if maybe there is a connection between this machine and the old Sinclair Z machine? Please E-Mail or respond here. Many Thanks -- "I know NOTHING!" - Sgt. Schultz *usual disclaimers* --------------------------------------------------------------------- - Bob Wier Northern Arizona University Ouray, Colorado & Flagstaff, Arizona ...arizona!naucse!rrw | BITNET: WIER@NAUVAX | WB5KXH
phil@mva.cs.liv.ac.uk (09/25/89)
In article <1709@naucse.UUCP>, rrw@naucse.UUCP (Robert Wier) writes: > > In the Sept 12th issue of MacWeek there is an ad on page 56 > for a laptop machine called the Z88, from a company, > Cambridge North America. > > Couple of questions: Does anyone have experience with this machine? > How well does it work, is it reliable, etc., etc. I have used and programmed (in BBC Basic) a Z88 and I suppose it was OK, though I was very happy to get back to the Mac afterwards. It has some neat features - like the built in programs (wordprocessor/spreadsheet) and the real-time clock. The keyboard isn't too bad - though not as good as a real-key keyboard. It's LCD display is very good, and one interesting feature of the word-processor is that although it only has about 8 lines of 80 characters it uses a nifty trick to display the layout of your document on the right-hand-side of the display (imagine a reduced view of your document where each character is represented by a dot - the layout is visible although of course you can't see what the individual words are...) Now the bad points: 1) The keyboard and case are covered in a black rubber material that just sucks up the dust. 2) The only way to edit programs is either to re-type whole lines, or else to use the wordprocessor to edit the text files - and if you get word-wrap it will completely zap your program. 3) Power on & off is achieved by pressing both left & right shift keys together. I once tried to turn it on while I was on the phone and had to use my nose to press one of the shift buttons - they're too far apart for the fingers (and thumb) of one hand. 4) The control sequences in the wordprocessor are extremely obscure. 5) The manual is terrible. > > Also I wonder if maybe there is a connection between this machine > and the old Sinclair Z machine? > Yup - there sure is. The Z88 was created by Sir Clive Sinclair, the genius who brought you the black watch and the Sinclair C5 electric "vehicle". He sold the Sinclair name to Amstrad a while ago, and is now forced to use a different name for his products.
phil@mva.cs.liv.ac.uk (09/25/89)
Ooops - forgot to include my address in my last message. Phil Jimmieson, *************************************************** Computer Science Dept., * * Liverpool University, * JANET : PHIL@UK.AC.LIV.CS.MVA * PO Box 147 * ARPA : PHIL%mva.cs.liv.ac.uk@cunyvm.cuny.edu * Liverpool L69 3BX * * (UK) 051-794-3689 ***************************************************
ianf@nada.kth.se (Ian Feldman) (09/26/89)
In article <1897@mva.cs.liv.ac.uk> phil@mva.cs.liv.ac.uk writes: >I have used and programmed (in BBC Basic) a Z88 and I suppose it was OK, ^^^^^^^^^^^^^ This is another fact that is seldom mentioned in context of the Z88 as a portable peripheral for the Mac: Z88's native high-level programming language is the BBC Basic, a very well designed "superset" of MS Basic that is also available for the Macintosh. The BBC Basic is also available for the Z80, the 6502 and the Archimedes RISC (one of the fastest ever) processors. Though I have not used the Macintosh version of it (only the BBC Micro/ 6502 one) I believe that it has - as all BBC Basics do - a nice feature of inline assembler for the 68000 that's available right within the Basic programming environment. Indeed, it is a pity that this language is not as widely known as its strengths warrant. Thus a person using the Z88 for on-the-road programming can, in pronciple, edit & debug the same program later on the Mac. -- ---- ------ ianf@nada.kth.se/ @sekth.bitnet/ uunet!nada.kth.se!ianf ---- --
ts@cup.portal.com (Tim W Smith) (09/28/89)
You can get a Toshiba T1000 for about the same price as a Z88, and you then get a real size screen ( i.e., 24x80 characters ). For another $200 or so, you can get a 768k RAM disk for the T1000. Turbo C can be convinced to fit on this RAM disk if you must program the thing. For a while there was a special promo in which you got Microsoft Works for free if you bought the RAM disk at the same time as you bought the T1000. Without the RAM disk, the deal was something like $50 for Works. Tim Smith
kg19+@andrew.cmu.edu (Kurt A. Geisel) (09/29/89)
Tim W Smith@cup.portal.c writes: >You can get a Toshiba T1000 for about the same price as a Z88, and you then >get a real size screen ( i.e., 24x80 characters ). >For another $200 or so, you can get a 768k RAM disk for the T1000. >Turbo C can be convinced to fit on this RAM disk if you must program >the thing. >For a while there was a special promo in which you got Microsoft Works >for free if you bought the RAM disk at the same time as you bought the > >T1000. Without the RAM disk, the deal was something like $50 for Works. All true, but the T1000 isn't the size of a Byte magazine. I think that's the real point of the Z88. - Kurt