02-02-2013, 10:51 PM
I'm in that tinnitus bracket now, playing around with a Spec+ and +3. I'm back to the old method of saving to tape and then doing a sample listen to check if it recorded with the correct amount of treble. In the heady early 80s the school computer of choice was down to a BBC or a 380z, in our case the 380z won out but I do wonder sometimes if things could have been different. Add to that a kit built ZX81 and a issue 2 Spectrum and the kids were quite happy in thrashing the life out of the code on whatever platform they were using. The real brave ones were digging into Z80 assembly language, just looking at it gave me a headache but we persevered and learnt a lot along the way.
Last I heard, before the school was closed down by Lambeth Council (citing falling numbers, now they struggle to place kids in secondary schools due to a lack of places) was that they went over to Link 480z machines, versatile but limited in what they could do in the programming sense. Also being used by some of the kids, Oric's were gaining ground along with the odd Dragon and the occasional Electron (cut down BBC), not many C64s or VIC20s around and any of the Atari machines were at the time just too expensive. I had to book computer time at school, as a family we just could not afford or justify getting a Spec into the household at the time.
What was a pain was standardisation, or lack of it, each platform with it's own way of doing it and no easy way of cross polinating programs between each platform. Early attempts at coming down to a standard platform were along the IBM PC route but again pricing was prohibitive. Fast forward thirty years and we now have the Pi as an inexpensive single platform that can allow open cross polination of written programs via the internet and user groups. It's not a perfect panacea, but with the take up in schools and homes it means a kid can sweat blood on his latest creation at home and bring it into school the next day for his peers to evaluate, comment, even add their own ideas to the code, take it away home and do their own variations on the same theme, a sort of natural selection version of computer evolution if you like. The Pi, along with it's user support structure has brought those heady early days of the 80s back but without the issues of different manufacturers pulling in different directions with thier own ideas for the perfect computer, all at the same time.
Last I heard, before the school was closed down by Lambeth Council (citing falling numbers, now they struggle to place kids in secondary schools due to a lack of places) was that they went over to Link 480z machines, versatile but limited in what they could do in the programming sense. Also being used by some of the kids, Oric's were gaining ground along with the odd Dragon and the occasional Electron (cut down BBC), not many C64s or VIC20s around and any of the Atari machines were at the time just too expensive. I had to book computer time at school, as a family we just could not afford or justify getting a Spec into the household at the time.
What was a pain was standardisation, or lack of it, each platform with it's own way of doing it and no easy way of cross polinating programs between each platform. Early attempts at coming down to a standard platform were along the IBM PC route but again pricing was prohibitive. Fast forward thirty years and we now have the Pi as an inexpensive single platform that can allow open cross polination of written programs via the internet and user groups. It's not a perfect panacea, but with the take up in schools and homes it means a kid can sweat blood on his latest creation at home and bring it into school the next day for his peers to evaluate, comment, even add their own ideas to the code, take it away home and do their own variations on the same theme, a sort of natural selection version of computer evolution if you like. The Pi, along with it's user support structure has brought those heady early days of the 80s back but without the issues of different manufacturers pulling in different directions with thier own ideas for the perfect computer, all at the same time.
