russ (03/10/83)
#R:sri-arpa:-54600:kirk:22100014:000:1127 kirk!russ Mar 8 09:03:00 1983 (This is a flame and an advertisement.) Haven't you seen the HP-75 yet? Not only does the basic beat microsofts, but the machine is a joy to use. The entire keyboard is redefinable. You can even redefine the 'OFF' key to run any program or whatever. The time mode allows you to set alarms, the edit mode allows you to edit text files or basic programs. The HP-75 has mass storage built in (a card reader), and if you don't like that, then there's the HP-IL digital cassette drive (not analog like the Epson's). The HP-75 has HP-IL built in, so that you can hook it up to an RS-232, GPIO, HP-IB, or even a custom interface. Try that with the Epson's RS-232! If you don't like any of the current HP-IL devices you can design your own. HP is making the HP-IL integrated circuit, and all the necessary special parts available to anyone. Mountain Computer has already designed and put into production an HP-IL EPROM burner. Sorry to spend this much time advertising a product, but somebody has to! And besides, I feel that the HP-75 beats out all the other portables by a mile. Russ Nelson ...hp-pcd!hp-cvd!russ