Groups > alt.folklore.computers > #215483

Re: An Xmyth stack overflow ?

From	Dave Garland <dave.garland@wizinfo.com>
Newsgroups	alt.folklore.computers
Subject	Re: An Xmyth stack overflow ?
Date	2020-12-13 11:22 -0600
Organization	A noiseless patient Spider
Message-ID	<rr5ikf$gct$1@dont-email.me> (permalink)
References	(6 earlier) <rr16t31si7@news4.newsguy.com> <rr1jdg$u9i$1@dont-email.me> <2114942093.629474161.586458.peter_flass-yahoo.com@news.eternal-september.org> <kml9tf12mr3t9il8hvb4ieiqa6b2bksnmf@4ax.com> <2118538012.629520399.062895.peter_flass-yahoo.com@news.eternal-september.org>

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On 12/12/2020 8:57 PM, Peter Flass wrote:
> J. Clarke <jclarke.873638@gmail.com> wrote:
>> On Sat, 12 Dec 2020 06:58:19 -0700, Peter Flass
>> <peter_flass@yahoo.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Dave Garland <dave.garland@wizinfo.com> wrote:
>>>> On 12/11/2020 7:37 PM, Charlie Gibbs wrote:
>>>>> On 2020-12-11, Gerard Schildberger <gerard46@rrt.net> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> On Friday, December 11, 2020 at 12:13:39 PM UTC-6, John Levine wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Mike Spencer  wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> I think my Osborne I was more powerful than the IBM 1620. (Serious
>>>>>>>> tecnology wonks may correct me.)
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> No doubt. The IBM 1620 was known as CADET for Can't Add, Doesn't Even
>>>>>>> Try. It was a decimal serial machine and did all arithmetic by table
>>>>>>> lookup. Each instruction took 100us or more. Nonetheless, it was
>>>>>>> reliable and fast enough that it was used as part of the IBM 1710
>>>>>>> which was the first real time process control system.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> The above reply applies to the  IBM 1620 Model I  (one).
>>>>>> The word  "CADET"  was the code name before the first delivery,  it was
>>>>>> just a code word;  almost all IBM hardware had a code name assigned to it
>>>>>> during design/production before the first delivery.   They were just names.
>>>>>> The  model II  (two)  didn't use lookup tables except for multiplication.
>>>>>> Model III was about to go into production,  but was cancelled because of
>>>>>> the upcoming IBM 360,  and IBM didn't want anything to compete with the
>>>>>> 360,  even other IBM computers.
>>>>>
>>>>> Sounds familiar, like the way the original IBM Personal Computer
>>>>> was crippled so as not to compete with the Displaywriter.
>>>>>
>>>> It's a different market. While you could get CP/M-86 and UCSD p-System
>>>> for the D'wr (pre-IBM PC), I think it had a 1MHz CPU and CP/M-86 at
>>>> least was very sluggish compared to a 4MHz Osborne O-1. But our D'wrs
>>>> had more RAM and could run a bigger SuperCalc spreadsheet
>>>> (sluggishly).  When we did that, the challenge was making the printer
>>>> work. IBM did its classic routine, being unfailingly polite and
>>>> switching me from one person who couldn't tell me what the control
>>>> codes were to another until I gave up and did it by trial and error.
>>>>
>>>> IBM later sold "Displaywrite" softwere for the PC that emulated a lot
>>>> of the software features.
>>>>
>>>
>>> The display on the Displaywriter was high-quality. Going from a real
>>> Displaywriter to Displaywrite on a PC was a big step backwards for anyone
>>> who did a lot of word processing.
>>
>> What was "high quality" about the monitor?  I did hear a lot of
>> kvetching about the PC display back then but generally the people
>> kvetching got the color display instead of the green screen.
>>
> 
> Hard to recall, but I think the resolution was a lot better. Of course, it
> was text-only, but I seem to recall you couldn’t see the pixels in the
> characters.
> 
Correct. The D'wr monitor was text-only and not very big, but razor 
sharp. Text included some symbols and special characters for major 
Roman-alphabet languages (accents etc.). (You could configure the 
keyboard for the languages, and it had a caps-lock key that worked 
just like a typewriter and stayed down when engaged.) PCs with CGA 
weren't much use to a good typist, between the lag and the eyestrain. 
Hercules was pretty good.

Thread

An Xmyth stack overflow ? gareth evans <headstone255@yahoo.com> - 2020-12-07 11:38 +0000
  Re: An Xmyth stack overflow ? gareth evans <headstone255@yahoo.com> - 2020-12-07 11:41 +0000
    Re: An Xmyth stack overflow ? maus <maus@dmaus.org> - 2020-12-08 15:08 +0000
      Re: An Xmyth stack overflow ? maus <maus@dmaus.org> - 2020-12-10 17:52 +0000
        Re: An Xmyth stack overflow ? Dave Garland <dave.garland@wizinfo.com> - 2020-12-10 22:46 -0600
          Re: An Xmyth stack overflow ? Mike Spencer <mds@bogus.nodomain.nowhere> - 2020-12-11 01:47 -0400
            Re: An Xmyth stack overflow ? Ahem A Rivet's Shot <steveo@eircom.net> - 2020-12-11 06:54 +0000
              Re: An Xmyth stack overflow ? Bob Eager <news0073@eager.cx> - 2020-12-11 09:46 +0000
            Re: An Xmyth stack overflow ? John Levine <johnl@taugh.com> - 2020-12-11 18:13 +0000
              Re: An Xmyth stack overflow ? Gerard Schildberger <gerard46@rrt.net> - 2020-12-11 11:29 -0800
                Re: An Xmyth stack overflow ? Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> - 2020-12-12 01:37 +0000
                Re: IBM 1620 and its successors, not An Xmyth stack overflow ? John Levine <johnl@taugh.com> - 2020-12-12 02:22 +0000
                Re: IBM 1620 and its successors, not An Xmyth stack overflow ? Peter Flass <peter_flass@yahoo.com> - 2020-12-12 06:58 -0700
                Re: 360/44, was IBM 1620 and its successors, not An Xmyth stack overflow ? John Levine <johnl@taugh.com> - 2020-12-12 19:16 +0000
                Re: 360/44, was IBM 1620 and its successors, not An Xmyth stack overflow ? Peter Flass <peter_flass@yahoo.com> - 2020-12-12 19:57 -0700
                Re: An Xmyth stack overflow ? J. Clarke <jclarke.873638@gmail.com> - 2020-12-11 21:44 -0500
                Re: An Xmyth stack overflow ? Dave Garland <dave.garland@wizinfo.com> - 2020-12-11 23:11 -0600
                Re: An Xmyth stack overflow ? Peter Flass <peter_flass@yahoo.com> - 2020-12-12 06:58 -0700
                Re: An Xmyth stack overflow ? J. Clarke <jclarke.873638@gmail.com> - 2020-12-12 09:43 -0500
                Re: An Xmyth stack overflow ? Dan Espen <dan1espen@gmail.com> - 2020-12-12 10:31 -0500
                Re: An Xmyth stack overflow ? Ahem A Rivet's Shot <steveo@eircom.net> - 2020-12-12 17:40 +0000
                Re: An Xmyth stack overflow ? Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> - 2020-12-12 19:28 +0000
                Re: An Xmyth stack overflow ? J. Clarke <jclarke.873638@gmail.com> - 2020-12-12 13:12 -0500
                Re: An Xmyth stack overflow ? Dan Espen <dan1espen@gmail.com> - 2020-12-12 13:28 -0500
                Re: An Xmyth stack overflow ? J. Clarke <jclarke.873638@gmail.com> - 2020-12-12 17:35 -0500
                Re: An Xmyth stack overflow ? Dan Espen <dan1espen@gmail.com> - 2020-12-12 17:49 -0500
                Re: An Xmyth stack overflow ? J. Clarke <jclarke.873638@gmail.com> - 2020-12-12 19:31 -0500
                Re: An Xmyth stack overflow ? Dan Espen <dan1espen@gmail.com> - 2020-12-12 19:54 -0500
                Re: An Xmyth stack overflow ? Dan Espen <dan1espen@gmail.com> - 2020-12-12 20:08 -0500
                Re: An Xmyth stack overflow ? Peter Flass <peter_flass@yahoo.com> - 2020-12-12 19:58 -0700
                Re: An Xmyth stack overflow ? Dan Espen <dan1espen@gmail.com> - 2020-12-12 22:13 -0500
                Re: An Xmyth stack overflow ? J. Clarke <jclarke.873638@gmail.com> - 2020-12-12 23:07 -0500
                Re: An Xmyth stack overflow ? Dan Espen <dan1espen@gmail.com> - 2020-12-12 23:28 -0500
                Re: An Xmyth stack overflow ? maus <maus@dmaus.org> - 2020-12-14 19:13 +0000
                Re: An Xmyth stack overflow ? J. Clarke <jclarke.873638@gmail.com> - 2020-12-12 23:04 -0500
                Re: An Xmyth stack overflow ? Peter Flass <peter_flass@yahoo.com> - 2020-12-12 19:57 -0700
                Re: An Xmyth stack overflow ? Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> - 2020-12-13 16:23 +0000
                Re: An Xmyth stack overflow ? J. Clarke <jclarke.873638@gmail.com> - 2020-12-13 11:47 -0500
                Re: An Xmyth stack overflow ? Ahem A Rivet's Shot <steveo@eircom.net> - 2020-12-13 19:18 +0000
                Re: An Xmyth stack overflow ? Peter Flass <peter_flass@yahoo.com> - 2020-12-13 15:11 -0700
                Re: An Xmyth stack overflow ? cb@elaine.df.lth.se (Christian Brunschen) - 2020-12-13 23:28 +0000
                Re: An Xmyth stack overflow ? Ahem A Rivet's Shot <steveo@eircom.net> - 2020-12-13 23:23 +0000
                Re: An Xmyth stack overflow ? Niklas Karlsson <anksil@yahoo.se> - 2020-12-13 09:05 +0000
                Re: An Xmyth stack overflow ? Peter Flass <peter_flass@yahoo.com> - 2020-12-12 19:57 -0700
                Re: An Xmyth stack overflow ? Dave Garland <dave.garland@wizinfo.com> - 2020-12-13 11:22 -0600
                Re: An Xmyth stack overflow ? Mike Spencer <mds@bogus.nodomain.nowhere> - 2020-12-12 01:55 -0400
          Re: An Xmyth stack overflow ? gareth evans <headstone255@yahoo.com> - 2020-12-11 11:46 +0000
            Re: An Xmyth stack overflow ? Peter Flass <peter_flass@yahoo.com> - 2020-12-11 17:22 -0700
              Re: An Xmyth stack overflow ? John Levine <johnl@taugh.com> - 2020-12-12 02:24 +0000
              Re: An Xmyth stack overflow ? Bob Eager <news0073@eager.cx> - 2020-12-12 10:16 +0000
      Re: An Xmyth stack overflow ? Mike Spencer <mds@bogus.nodomain.nowhere> - 2020-12-10 16:28 -0400
  Re: An Xmyth stack overflow ? usenet@only.tnx (Questor) - 2020-12-08 18:08 +0000
    Re: An Xmyth stack overflow ? Ahem A Rivet's Shot <steveo@eircom.net> - 2020-12-08 18:53 +0000
      Re: An Xmyth stack overflow ? gareth evans <headstone255@yahoo.com> - 2020-12-08 21:01 +0000
        Re: An Xmyth stack overflow ? Ahem A Rivet's Shot <steveo@eircom.net> - 2020-12-08 22:28 +0000
          Re: An Xmyth stack overflow ? Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> - 2020-12-09 01:12 +0000
            Re: An Xmyth stack overflow ? gareth evans <headstone255@yahoo.com> - 2020-12-09 11:43 +0000
        Re: An Xmyth stack overflow ? drb@ihatespam.msu.edu (Dennis Boone) - 2020-12-08 20:57 -0600

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