a551@mindlink.UUCP (Bruce Arabsky) (03/18/90)
Does anyone have a Z88? Are they available in Canada or the U.S.? This seems like the ideal portable for me. Anyone? Bruce A.
foy@aerospace.aero.org (Richard Foy) (03/20/90)
In article <1333@mindlink.UUCP> a551@mindlink.UUCP (Bruce Arabsky) writes: >Does anyone have a Z88? Are they available in Canada or the U.S.? >This seems like the ideal portable for me. Anyone? > >Bruce A. I have one. I like it. They are available in the US from Cambridge I believe in the Boston area. /|\ | The above opinions are all my own but they are freely distributable. foy@aerospace.aero.org (Richard Foy)
cjp@aber-cs.UUCP (Chris Price) (03/21/90)
I would agree that they are a good portable, but not a general one. They are
an excellent word-dumper. I use one to write reports on trains and bits and
pieces at home when I want to slump in an armchair and do it.
For what it is worth, I wrote a review of the Z88 for local consumption
about a year ago - as there seems to be some net interest in the machine,
here it is. Slight apologies to those without LaTeX.
\documentstyle[a4wide]{article}
\title{\bf Travelling light with a Z88}
\author{\bf Chris Price (4th April, 1989)}
\date{}
\parskip=5pt
\parindent=0em
\topsep=0pt
\begin{document}
\maketitle
If you spend long enough commuting each day to complete the Independent
crossword, then you are probably wasting time that you would be able
to use more profitably if you had a good portable computer. It would
enable you to spend the time creating your latest novel, making a case
for a higher salary or even explaining your financial position to your
bank manager.
I've spent several years mentally compiling a list of what I would like
from a portable computer. The contents of this wish--list will probably
change as machines become cheaper and more compact, but the priorities on
my present wish--list looks like:
\begin{itemize}
\item Machine cost must be in low numbers of hundreds of pounds.
This is a major restriction. There are some very powerful and fairly
portable machines coming out in the United States for about \$4000.
Unfortunately, this is the only requirement that cannot be relaxed.
\item It must be small and lightweight.
Most portables are an extra piece of luggage to cart around all day.
The worst ones need an elephant to carry them. I want something that will
fit inside the luggage that I would be carrying anyway.
\item It needs a standard sized keyboard with positive key action.
This is important for word processing. I want to be able to type
rapidly and that's impossible with calculator--sized keys. Sorry,
Psion, Sharp and the new Atari Pocket PC.
\item Reasonable speed
This will of course depend on the task it is performing. I don't
expect to be able to write complex software on such a portable at
present (although that time is not far away --- memory per chip is
still increasing). The ability to word process at the speed of a
standard PC would just about make a machine into a useful beast.
\item Good-sized screen.
24 lines of 80 columns will do, although my inclinations are drifting
towards a screen the size of an A4 piece of paper (no portable provides
this at the moment).
\end{itemize}
No machine available at present meets this specification completely, but
Sir Clive Sinclair's latest machine comes close to fulfilling most of these
wishes and has a base price of just \pounds200. Weighing in at around
three pounds, it is the same size and only a little heavier than the A4
notepad that it might be replacing.
The attractive qualities of the Z88 made me quite enthusiastic about
the opportunity I had to use one over a prolonged period just
recently. I was visiting the United States on business for three weeks
and one of the major problems with such visits is the amount of time
spent afterwards writing a report on what happened. I was provided
with a Z88 to take with me, on condition that I promised to write my
report as I went along. My initial glimpse of the machine made me a
little doubtful about the practicality of using it seriously (an 8
line screen!? a rubber keyboard!!), but in practice it worked out very
well.
The Z88 comes in a grey cardboard box with a reasonable manual. A boxed Z88
is twice as big and twice as heavy as an unboxed Z88, so I spent a few
hours working through the important parts of the manual and then left both
the box and the manual at home. The unavailability of the manual didn't
prove to be a problem --- all Z88 commands can be found on menus within
the different utilities.
I obtained a thin plastic case for the Z88 and carried the machine in my
rucksack almost constantly for several weeks. It was light enough not to
notice the additional burden, but useful enough that I could deliver a
completed seven--page trip report on the day I arrived home (an unheard--of
occurrence). I also composed parts of several other documents during the
countless airplane flights.
The flexible keyboard felt unresponsive at first, but I soon became
accustomed to it. Its quietness was a positive bonus on public
transport --- I felt that I could rap away at the keys without
disturbing even the passenger in the next seat. Similarly, the small
screen was not as awful to use as I had feared. The word~processor /
spreadsheet utility (PipeDream) has an ingenious facility whereby you
can see a miniature version of how the whole of the page you are
typing would appear. This is displayed alongside the six lines that
are shown in full, and has an indication of where those visible six
lines come within the page. This helps enormously to keep track of
where you are in the file, and is adequate for document preparation. I
would not like to use it to write a program.
The machine has no discs, which means that saving a file to secondary
storage (other areas of RAM) is very quick --- several times as fast as on
the 3.5 inch disk based system on my desk. Security of the storage is
another matter, and one I deal with in the ``Practicalities'' section.
{\bf Conclusions:}
What I wanted was a portable word processor and within reason the Z88
fulfills that role admirably. It is not a machine to have as your only
computer because of its lack of serious secondary storage, but if what you
need is a very portable word processing machine, then it is excellent value
for money.
\vspace{1.0in}
\section*{More Detailed Matters}
\subsection*{Practicalities}
Although the basic price of the Z88 is \pounds200, in practice you will
need to spend rather more in order to use your Z88 properly. The main extra
items that you are going to want are:
\begin{description}
\item {\bf Another RAM cartridge}
The memory in the Z88 is insufficient for writing more than a few
pages. I needed to use my extra RAM pack within the first week of
having the machine. Up to 3 RAM cartridges fit tidily within the Z88,
potentially making your Z88 a multi-megabyte machine. I found a 128K
RAM cartridge quite sufficient for my needs (due to a quirk in the
operating system, a 32K RAM cartridge is almost useless). The best
thing to do is to buy your Z88 in an ``All--in--one'' package. For the
cost of a Z88 and a 128K RAM cartridge, you also get a power lead and
a carrying case for the machine.
\item {\bf An EPROM cartridge}
For the paranoid (I'm not paranoid --- my computer is out to get me!), a
RAM cartridge is not sufficiently secure as medium--term storage. If your
batteries fail, you have lost all of your work. EPROM stands for
electronically programmable read only memory. The Z88 can write to it once,
but it is then unchangeable --- even if the batteries go dead or the Z88
crashes unretrievably. In order to reuse the cartridge, you need to erase
its contents by giving it 20 minutes exposure to ultra-violet light. You
can buy an EPROM eraser to do this (from Cambridge Computers --- their
EPROM cartridges are too large to fit many EPROM erasers).
\item {\bf Interface to another computer}
You will probably want to pass your Z88 files to another computer for
permanent storage (on disc!). The Z88 has a RS232 interface and
built-in software to enable you to transfer files.
Transfer packs exist for both the IBM PC and the Macintosh. These packs
contain a connecting lead plus some software to run on the other computer.
The MAC software transfers to\verb+<->+from MacWrite format, and is
supposed to retain the formatting details. The Z88 manual includes details of
the transfer protocol, so you could always write your own transfer software
if you were that way inclined.
\end{description}
The actual cost of a Z88 with a 128K ROM, 128K EPROM plus eraser, carrying
case, and interface software is likely to be rather nearer \pounds400 than
the \pounds200 that you first thought of. The difference is that for that
money you are getting a complete machine with enough memory for writing 10
to 20 thousand word documents.
\vspace{0.5in}
\subsection*{Things you need to know about the Z88}
Using the Z88 wasn't all sweetness and light, of course. Here are details
of the things that seemed harder at first than they needed to be, plus some
words of hard--won advice.
\begin{description}
\item {\bf Saving files}
It is possible to type words into PipeDream, switch the machine off and
back on again, and your PipeDream document should be the same as when you
last saw it. However, backup copies of the document are a good idea for two
reasons. The first is in case you make a mistake in editting the document
--- you can go back to the previous saved version of your file. The second
was discovered by an American reviewer who left 3 days work in PipeDream
and found that his Z88 was locked up and that he had lost all the work.
My rule is to save documents to RAM every new half page or so, and to EPROM
every new page. On first examination, it looks like you need to type in the
file name every time you save to the same file (by typing \(\diamond\)-FS
and then being prompted for a filename). The way around this is to type
\(\diamond\)-FC once and give a filename. Whenever you type \(\diamond\)-FS
after that, you will be offered the same filename as default.
\item {\bf Arranging text}
Using PipeDream as an editor is occasionally a little strange because it
also thinks of itself as a spreadsheet. Things like splitting and joining
lines and reformatting paragraphs are a little more difficult than you
would typically expect, but are possible and documented fairly well in the
manual. Tabbing is also a little strange. If you TAB at the start of a full
line of text, the cursor goes 12 spaces right and all text on the line is
folded into the first 12 characters. It is not advisable to use the TAB
key if you are trying to use PipeDream as a straight word processor.
\item {\bf Making the most of your memory}
One would expect all of the RAM in the machine to be treated as a
contiguous space, but that is not the case. Each RAM cartridge is treated
as if it were a separate disc drive. The RAM that comes built-in is RAM
0, the first RAM cartridge is RAM 1 etc. By default, the Z88 writes to RAM
0. When it is full, you will receive a NO ROOM warning on trying to
save something new to a file. The first time this happened to me, I was
shocked --- I only had about ten pages of work, how had it used up all of
my 128K RAM? The answer was that it had not used any of my 128K RAM, only
the machine's internal RAM (there is a command to tell you how much memory
is free). To use the other RAM, you need to change the default device to
RAM 1. My solution is to work almost exclusively on the larger plug-in RAM
cartridge. You do this by changing the default drive in the Panel utility
--- this utility allows you to set defaults for other useful things such as
baud rate and whether you want key click noises.
\item {\bf A final warning}
Final warning: I heard of someone who pressed lots of soft things in his
briefcase on top of his Z88. The SHIFT keys were continually being pressed
as his bag moved, completely exhausting the batteries. Store the Z88 next
to something hard (that pad of A4 paper you keep in case the machine breaks
down).
\end{description}
\end{document}davidc@vlsisj.VLSI.COM (David Chapman) (03/27/90)
In article <1691@aber-cs.UUCP> cjp@raphael.UUCP (Chris Price) writes: >I would agree that they are a good portable, but not a general one. They are >an excellent word-dumper. I use one to write reports on trains and bits and >pieces at home when I want to slump in an armchair and do it. > > [review deleted] > >Final warning: I heard of someone who pressed lots of soft things in his >briefcase on top of his Z88. The SHIFT keys were continually being pressed >as his bag moved, completely exhausting the batteries. Store the Z88 next >to something hard (that pad of A4 paper you keep in case the machine breaks >down). It's worse than that, actually. My Z88 keyboard seems to be on the fritz (it's been abused horribly - don't blame Cambridge!). I spoke to Cambridge North America's technical support and they told me that it wakes up *every* time *any* key is pressed to see if it's the two shift keys. So battery life goes down if you press keys by any means. Keep things off the top of it. I'll probably try to rig a hard shell (sheet aluminum) around it next time I stuff it into my bicycle's panniers. I found that battery life was about 20 hours in use and a month when the machine was idle. Advertised battery life is 20 hours in use and a year idle. But like I said, mine has been abused (keyboard pressing was the least of its problems! :-) -- David Chapman {known world}!decwrl!vlsisj!fndry!davidc vlsisj!fndry!davidc@decwrl.dec.com
cjp@aber-cs.UUCP (Chris Price) (03/29/90)
In article <1691@aber-cs.UUCP> I wrote: >>Final warning: I heard of someone who pressed lots of soft things in his >>briefcase on top of his Z88. The SHIFT keys were continually being pressed >>as his bag moved, completely exhausting the batteries. Store the Z88 next >>to something hard (that pad of A4 paper you keep in case the machine breaks >>down). David Chapman (davidc@vlsisj.vlsi.com) replied: >It's worse than that, actually. My Z88 keyboard seems to be on the fritz >(it's been abused horribly - don't blame Cambridge!). I spoke to Cambridge >North America's technical support and they told me that it wakes up *every* >time *any* key is pressed to see if it's the two shift keys. So battery >life goes down if you press keys by any means. Keep things off the top of it. You're right about any key - but I did say that I wrote the review a year or so ago. Since then, I've joined the UK's Z88 Club, and the Club Magazine went into detail about the states that a Z88 can be in. There are 4 - but can I remember them all? 1. Asleep - minimum power used to conserve RAM contents. 2. Dozing - you've pressed any key and it is ready for you to do something. Higher levels of power needed. 3. Shifted - one shift key pressed, looking for other. Power needs vrey similar to dozing. 4. Awake - screen on etc. David also commented: >I'll probably try to rig a hard shell (sheet aluminum) around it next >time I stuff it into my bicycle's panniers. Someone in this country has put together a cover for the Z88 (called the Cambridge Topper). It is a piece of plastic the right shape to fit snugly over the top of the Z88. My colleague who lost his files has one and has not had any further trouble. I haven't bothered, as I don't have much trouble of this kind. It costs 8 quid. The Z88 Club magazine has also had discussions about whether you can run the Z88 off rechargeables. Some people seem to have trouble. I've been running mine off them for a long time with no problem. I have two sets, and swap as soon as the battery low indicator appears (or as soon as the screen goes off if I don't notice the indicator). The rechargeables give a maximum of about 10 hours usage (that may be an optimistic figure, as I don't count, I just swap batteries...). Cheers, Chris Price