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LT6502: A 6502-based homebrew laptop

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Re: LT6502: A 6502-based homebrew laptop

#91

Post by jdswain »

Tor3 wrote: post #64
einpoklum wrote: post #10

And it mostly runs Microsoft software, too... Basic from 1977 :-P

It does not run Microsoft software at all, as far as I can tell. EhBasic isn't Microsoft Basic, ehbasic was written by Lee Davison. And this particular version was further enhanced (see github). And wozmon was obviously written by Woz.. not Microsoft.

There has been some discussion around this, and Lee Davison is no longer with us so that makes it more difficult. It appears from the source code that Lee's independent basic is highly based on Microsoft Basic. I'm sure it is no longer an issue, especially as Microsoft has provided a free license for Microsoft 6502 basic, but the licensing situation is not entirely clear.

Re: LT6502: A 6502-based homebrew laptop

#93

Post by cosmic_cheese »

antidamage wrote: post #90
cosmic_cheese wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For me the interesting alternate reality is where CPUs got stuck in the 200-400mhz range for speed, but somehow continued to become more efficient. It’s kind of the ideal combination in some ways. It’s fast enough to competently run a nice desktop GUI, but not so fast that you can get overly fancy with it. Eventually you’d end up OSes that look like highly refined versions of System 7.6/Mac OS 8 or Windows 2000, whic…

I loved System 7 for its simplicity yet all of the potential it had for individual developers. Hypercard was absolutely dope as an entry-level programming environment.

The Classic Mac OS model in general I think is the best that has been or ever will be in terms of sheer practical user power/control/customization thanks to its extension and control panel based architecture. Sure, it was a security nightmare, but there was practically nothing that couldn’t be achieved by installing some combination of third party extensions.

Even modern desktop Linux pales in comparison because although it’s technically possible to change anything imaginable about it, to do a lot of things that extensions did you’re looking at at minimum writing your own DE/compositor/etc and at worst needing to tweak a whole stack of layers or wade through kernel code. Not really general user accessible.

Because extensions were capable of changing anything imaginable and often did so with tiny-niche tweaks and all targeted the same system, any moderately technically capable person could stack extensions (or conversely, disable system-provided ones which implemented a lot of stock functionality) and have a hyper-personalized system without ever writing a line of code or opening a terminal. It was beautiful, even if it was unstable.

Re: LT6502: A 6502-based homebrew laptop

#97

Post by pibaker »

ok_dad wrote: post #55
Aurornis wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I remember using the web on 25mhz computers. It ran about as fast as it does today with a couple ghz. I know it’s a meme on HN to complain that modern websites are slow, but this is a perfect example of how completely distorted views of the past can get. No, browsing the web in the early 90s was slooow . Even simple web pages took a long time to load. As you said, internet connections were very slow too. I remember…

No, I think he’s right. I don’t recall the web being any faster today than it was thirty years ago, download speed excepted. The overall experience is about the same, if not worse, IMO.

Why would you make an exception for download speed? It was the reason why the internet was slow back then.

This is like saying Victorian Britain wasn't polluted, except for all the coal burning.

Re: LT6502: A 6502-based homebrew laptop

#98

Post by dpe82 »

rbanffy wrote: post #81
dpe82 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was a sockets API though ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winsock ) and IIRC we all used Trumpet Winsock on Windows 3.1 with our dialup connections. But could have been 3.11 - my memory is a bit hazy.

3.11 was so much nicer than 3.1 (and 3.0) I can’t imagine not moving to it as soon as possible.

I was like 11 at the time buying computer stuff with lawn care earnings so I used whatever I could get my hands on. :)

Re: LT6502: A 6502-based homebrew laptop

#99

Post by aleph_minus_one »

rbanffy wrote: post #81
dpe82 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was a sockets API though ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winsock ) and IIRC we all used Trumpet Winsock on Windows 3.1 with our dialup connections. But could have been 3.11 - my memory is a bit hazy.

3.11 was so much nicer than 3.1 (and 3.0) I can’t imagine not moving to it as soon as possible.

Windows for Workgroups 3.11 did not contain Cardfile. :-(

Re: LT6502: A 6502-based homebrew laptop

#100

Post by bitwize »

rbanffy wrote: post #85
iberator wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

you are wrong. Windows 3.11 era used CPUs with like 33mhz cpu, and yet we had TONS of graphical applications. Including web browsers, Photoshop, CAD, Excel and instant messangers Only thing that killed web for old computers is JAVASCRIPT.

> Only thing that killed web for old computers is JAVASCRIPT. JavaScript is innocent. The people writing humongous apps with it are the ones to blame. And memory footprint. A 16 MB machine wouldn’t be able to hold the icons an average web app uses today.

Netscape was talking about making the Web an app platform to replace Microsoft Windows even way back then. The world we're living in today is exactly what they envisioned.
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