TI-99/small computers (was Re: GIMP 3.0.0-RC1)

From	John Ames <commodorejohn@gmail.com>
Newsgroups	comp.os.linux.misc
Subject	TI-99/small computers (was Re: GIMP 3.0.0-RC1)
Date	2025-01-08 09:34 -0800
Organization	A noiseless patient Spider
Message-ID	<20250108093413.0000064a@gmail.com> (permalink)
References	(19 earlier) <Lh-cnZhYK5I07uH6nZ2dnZfqn_adnZ2d@earthlink.com> <oz_eP.635943$ZAue.380823@fx12.iad> <lu3cs2FnjlcU1@mid.individual.net> <jw2fP.815824$bYV2.62701@fx17.iad> <WGudncOHH8XEj-P6nZ2dnZfqn_udnZ2d@earthlink.com>

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On Wed, 8 Jan 2025 00:51:19 -0500
"186282@ud0s4.net" <186283@ud0s4.net> wrote:

> I bought a TI99 somewhere in there. Had potential but TI kinda
> screwed up in several dimensions. Users couldn't even get at the
> 16-bitter without ASM. The 9900 chip WAS kinda interesting with
> hardware support for multi-user/multi-tasking and in-RAM register
> cloning.

The TI-99 was an absolutely *mind-boggling* case of misdesign, likely
for cost-cutting reasons, but probably also a bone-headed attempt at
market segmentation and/or an artifact of TI's toxic corporate culture
(one of a *baffling* number of companies in the '70s - '80s that made a
habit of Thunderdoming their departments against each other, and then
being Very Surprised to find themselves bleeding out from a thousand
self-inflicted stab wounds.)

It's worth reading up on the details of the architecture; it's *so*
much worse than you'd guess. Best analogy I can make would be something
along the lines of "trying to drink bubble tea through a coffee-stirrer
that someone is periodically pinching shut," but even that doesn't
cover the part where the BASIC interpreter was itself written in an
interpreted language. Amazing the thing ran at all...

https://www.unige.ch/medecine/nouspikel/ti99/architec.htm

> In any case, it IS amazing how much solid biz was done on slow boxes
> with almost no memory. Good tight code and a few tricks ...

Yup. Knew a family back when who were carnival folk; they ran their
whole business off a Commodore 128 right up into the '00s.

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Re: GIMP 3.0.0-RC1 Andrzej Matuch <andrzej@matu.ch> - 2025-01-01 18:17 -0500
  Re: GIMP 3.0.0-RC1 Joel <joelcrump@gmail.com> - 2025-01-01 18:40 -0500
    Re: GIMP 3.0.0-RC1 Andrzej Matuch <andrzej@matu.ch> - 2025-01-01 19:30 -0500
      Re: GIMP 3.0.0-RC1 Joel <joelcrump@gmail.com> - 2025-01-01 20:17 -0500
        Re: GIMP 3.0.0-RC1 Andrzej Matuch <andrzej@matu.ch> - 2025-01-02 08:36 -0500
          Re: GIMP 3.0.0-RC1 rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-01-02 19:42 +0000
            Re: GIMP 3.0.0-RC1 Andrzej Matuch <andrzej@matu.ch> - 2025-01-02 15:06 -0500
              Re: GIMP 3.0.0-RC1 Pancho <Pancho.Jones@proton.me> - 2025-01-02 20:13 +0000
                Re: GIMP 3.0.0-RC1 Andrzej Matuch <andrzej@matu.ch> - 2025-01-02 16:17 -0500
                Re: GIMP 3.0.0-RC1 Chris Ahlstrom <OFeem1987@teleworm.us> - 2025-01-03 07:09 -0500
              Re: GIMP 3.0.0-RC1 rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-01-02 20:21 +0000
              Re: GIMP 3.0.0-RC1 "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2025-01-03 11:43 +0100
                Re: GIMP 3.0.0-RC1 Chris Ahlstrom <OFeem1987@teleworm.us> - 2025-01-03 07:11 -0500
                Re: GIMP 3.0.0-RC1 Andrzej Matuch <andrzej@matu.ch> - 2025-01-03 10:13 -0500
                Re: GIMP 3.0.0-RC1 D <nospam@example.net> - 2025-01-04 01:29 +0100
                Re: GIMP 3.0.0-RC1 Pancho <Pancho.Jones@proton.me> - 2025-01-03 12:26 +0000
                Re: GIMP 3.0.0-RC1 Andrzej Matuch <andrzej@matu.ch> - 2025-01-03 08:43 -0500
                Re: GIMP 3.0.0-RC1 Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2025-01-03 21:30 +0000
                Re: GIMP 3.0.0-RC1 rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-01-03 23:17 +0000
              Re: GIMP 3.0.0-RC1 The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2025-01-03 11:28 +0000
                Re: GIMP 3.0.0-RC1 Andrzej Matuch <andrzej@matu.ch> - 2025-01-03 08:56 -0500
                Re: GIMP 3.0.0-RC1 The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2025-01-03 14:06 +0000
                Re: GIMP 3.0.0-RC1 Andrzej Matuch <andrzej@matu.ch> - 2025-01-03 15:10 -0500
                Re: GIMP 3.0.0-RC1 "186282@ud0s4.net" <186283@ud0s4.net> - 2025-01-04 03:32 -0500
                Re: GIMP 3.0.0-RC1 Andrzej Matuch <andrzej@matu.ch> - 2025-01-04 10:14 -0500
                Re: GIMP 3.0.0-RC1 "186282@ud0s4.net" <186283@ud0s4.net> - 2025-01-04 17:13 -0500
                Re: GIMP 3.0.0-RC1 Andrzej Matuch <andrzej@matu.ch> - 2025-01-04 21:01 -0500
                Re: GIMP 3.0.0-RC1 "186282@ud0s4.net" <186283@ud0s4.net> - 2025-01-05 02:54 -0500
                Re: GIMP 3.0.0-RC1 Andrzej Matuch <andrzej@matu.ch> - 2025-01-05 08:22 -0500
                Re: GIMP 3.0.0-RC1 "186282@ud0s4.net" <186283@ud0s4.net> - 2025-01-06 19:21 -0500
                Re: GIMP 3.0.0-RC1 Andrzej Matuch <andrzej@matu.ch> - 2025-01-06 19:29 -0500
                Re: GIMP 3.0.0-RC1 rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-01-07 01:04 +0000
                Re: GIMP 3.0.0-RC1 Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> - 2025-01-07 04:58 +0000
                Re: GIMP 3.0.0-RC1 "186282@ud0s4.net" <186283@ud0s4.net> - 2025-01-08 00:51 -0500
                Re: GIMP 3.0.0-RC1 rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-01-08 17:13 +0000
                TI-99/small computers (was Re: GIMP 3.0.0-RC1) John Ames <commodorejohn@gmail.com> - 2025-01-08 09:34 -0800
                Re: GIMP 3.0.0-RC1 rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-01-03 21:14 +0000
                Re: GIMP 3.0.0-RC1 Joel <joelcrump@gmail.com> - 2025-01-03 16:30 -0500
                Re: GIMP 3.0.0-RC1 "186282@ud0s4.net" <186283@ud0s4.net> - 2025-01-03 22:46 -0500
            Re: GIMP 3.0.0-RC1 D <nospam@example.net> - 2025-01-03 12:16 +0100
              Re: GIMP 3.0.0-RC1 "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2025-01-03 13:25 +0100
                Re: GIMP 3.0.0-RC1 Andrzej Matuch <andrzej@matu.ch> - 2025-01-03 10:39 -0500
                Re: GIMP 3.0.0-RC1 Joel <joelcrump@gmail.com> - 2025-01-03 16:51 -0500
                Re: GIMP 3.0.0-RC1 D <nospam@example.net> - 2025-01-04 01:21 +0100
    Re: GIMP 3.0.0-RC1 rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-01-02 03:59 +0000
      Re: GIMP 3.0.0-RC1 Joel <joelcrump@gmail.com> - 2025-01-01 23:09 -0500
  Re: GIMP 3.0.0-RC1 The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2025-01-02 10:07 +0000
    Re: GIMP 3.0.0-RC1 Joel <joelcrump@gmail.com> - 2025-01-02 10:47 -0500
    Re: GIMP 3.0.0-RC1 "186282@ud0s4.net" <186283@ud0s4.net> - 2025-01-03 01:59 -0500
      Re: GIMP 3.0.0-RC1 chrisv <chrisv@nospam.invalid> - 2025-01-03 06:32 -0600
        Re: GIMP 3.0.0-RC1 "186282@ud0s4.net" <186283@ud0s4.net> - 2025-01-03 23:12 -0500

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