pjd@demon.siemens.com (dr. funk) (11/20/90)
I've had my Portfolio for nearly a year now and in some ways it is still a great little machine. When I first bought it, I thought "Why waste ROM on the spreadsheet?" However, the spreadsheet turned into quite a useful tool to do the family budget, compute mortgage payements, etc. I never could bring myself to buy Excel and go through the hassle of cranking up the Mac, etc. just to do a few quick, "calculator-like" computations. Do not fear the Portfolio-to-Mac connection, but be prepared to live with Xmodem. Rumor has it that the parallel port file transfer toggles the bit lines through the port effectively reducing it to a serial link. I believe they did this to be compatible with all the quirky PC parallel interfaces in the known universe. Anybody have any speed measurements? I'll bet the serial port under Xmodem is faster (totally unjustified speculation.) I have never seen "DOS compatibility." The basic memory is small and is shared with the resident RAM disk. The few DOS programs that I have downloaded seemed to have compatibility problems with keyboard input. The infinite number of display and keyboard modes in the PC world makes me shudder. [From someone who has learned to peacefully co-exist with X-windows....] "DOS compatibility" can be used to enhance the functionality of the Portfolio -- especially for dedicated, portable applications. More than that should not be expected. The chief advantages of being a registered Atari developer are access to technical information (paper and verbal) and to get a price break on memory cards (both ROM and RAM.) The developer's kit includes an emulator which just extends the normal functionality of a PC to handle the Portfolio specific DOS calls and a rather slim document which describes those extensions. Atari periodically publishes a newsletter with new information and code examples for the machine. Given the recent price drop (e.g., J&R for $250), we should just lobby for cheaper RAM cards or find an alternative source. If you live on a Mac or workstation, a 128K RAM card is "reasonable." I have two RAM cards and keep the Xmodem program on each. I also keep around mortgage and budget related files for quick reference. Originally, I thought that I would use the Portfolio at meetings etc. to take notes. It has not lived up to its potential for notetaking, but *not* through any inherent limitations in the product. People still think you're weird if you take a machine into a meeting and I have not been able to work around this "social problem." [Maybe theirs, maybe mine?] I am not a touch typist and can easily adjust to the keyboard -- kind of like switching from full-size piano keys to portable synthesizer keys. This is clearly a personal issue. [BTW The screen is *eight* lines of forty characters.] Reliability? No problems. Even when the batteries get drained I have not lost data (not even from the internal RAM disk.) Would I buy it again today? Yes. Are there neater things in the works? Yes. Am I skipping a generation of technology of neater things? Yes. Why? At the price I paid, I'm happy. Until somebody invents a tool which really fits into my lifestyle, I'm gonna save my money. Final note -- It's strange to be riding along I-80 in a car while rebuilding a file system..... -- paul j. drongowski siemens corporate research inc pjd@demon.siemens.com princeton, new jersey 08540 (617) 734-6547