6 ms·

Facebook has to be the least convenient way this could be hosted. Here's a mirror: https://pastebin.com/raw/Yq5khyQL https://pastebin.com/raw/Yq5khyQL

macjohnmcc 7y ago
Printed in the magazine and having to type it in was significantly less convenient than Facebook.
- Zenst 7y ago
  Depends upon perspective. Can walk into shop and purchase magazine and the magazine owner wouldn't know what you read, when you read it.... Equally the outlay would be just for the magazine compared to internet connection, computer capable of browsing the internet and then still have to transfer it to the TRS-80/100. Then there was the important aspect many miss-out upon today, when you typed something in from a magazine, you got to know the code over just running a program. You made mistakes, and often the magazines would have erata sections to cover typo's from the last edition and with those mistakes - you learned even more than just hitting run.
  - macjohnmcc 7y ago
    Yeah I'm not supporting Facebook just stating that the physical act of typing it all in vs copying from a Facebook post is not as easy. I have no Facebook account. I typed many programs in from Compute and other magazines back in the day. I miss Byte magazine most of all. I may even try to this this on my Model 100 at some point. Just for kicks.
    - Zenst 7y ago
      The TRS-80 model 100 has a RS232, so a null-modem cable should be the only hardware needed to transfer.
      - reaperducer 7y ago
        And for convenience, a terminal program. It makes debugging the connection to the Model 100 a lot easier. I use Serial on macOS. I don't remember what it costs, but it couldn't have been much. The Model 100 supports RS232 connections up to (IIRC) 115k baud, but mine gets flaky at that speed, so I keep it at 9600. That's more than fast enough for the tiny files the 100 uses. It's the next door neighbor to instant.
- reaperducer 7y ago
  Printed in the magazine and having to type it in was significantly less convenient than Facebook. But, apparently, infinitely more resilient!
dukoid 7y ago
Looks more or less like "standard" MS-Basic... Shouldn't be too hard to get it running with vintage-basic.net ?
- daveloyall 7y ago
  > `PRINT#-1` ... on line 4500 looks to be some kind of idiom.. I don't see a corresponding `OPEN` statement?
  - spc476 7y ago
    That might send output to the printer. I know on the TRS-80 Color Computer, the printer was #-2.
    - ficklepickle 7y ago
      I have one of these, with printer. I should really dig it out one of these days. It's from before my time but something about cassettes and thermal printers piques my interest.
  - dukoid 7y ago
    Seems to be the tape channel: http://www.colorcomputerarchive.com/coco/Documents/Manuals/Hardware/Getting%20Started%20With%20Extended%20Color%20Basic%20%28Tandy%29.pdf http://www.colorcomputerarchive.com/coco/Documents/Manuals/H...
reaperducer 7y ago
Facebook has to be the least convenient way this could be hosted Compared to the rest of the internet, yes. But for the Model 100 people, this is actually the cream of the crop. Sadly, information in the Model 100 community is notoriously difficult to get to. Well, not fully "difficult." More like "obnoxious." Most of the good stuff is on old web sites with many broken links, little documentation, and abysmal navigation. I think the main repository is actually the web site of a guy who died years ago and is kept online, but unmaintained and suffering from severe bitrot, by people about to go the same way. For interactive discussion, the primary source is a mailing list where people ask the same questions over and over and nobody trims their replies, so you might get a message reply that just says "yep" followed by 150 lines of nested quotes. In digest form, it's simply unusable. So, amazingly, a Facebook post is a thoroughly modern and convenient way for Model 100 enthusiasts to pass information around, compared to all of the other methods they employ.
- zozbot234 7y ago
  > Most of the good stuff is on old web sites with many broken links, little documentation, and abysmal navigation. I think the main repository is actually the web site of a guy who died years ago and is kept online, but unmaintained and suffering from severe bitrot, by people about to go the same way. As long as the site(s) have been grabbed by Internet Archive, I'm not sure that this has to be an issue. (I've noticed that the archive.org 'Wayback machine' will even archive some downloads, albeit it's not something that should be counted on.)
  - reaperducer 7y ago
    I'm not sure that this has to be an issue It doesn't "have to," but sadly it is. The internet, like the rest of the world, is not a perfect place. If IA doesn't find a web site before the bitrot sets in, then what? There are huge swaths of the web that are not in IA, and from what I read on HN, IA doesn't have the capacity to archive.
  - kjs3 7y ago
    I don't want to speak ill of them because they're doing an amazing job, but the Internet Archive doesn't have everything (especially old, long gone and/or obscure sites), isn't always complete, and often doesn't have things that back in the day that were on FTP sites. Sometimes you get lucky, but I've not had great luck there. If you're maintaining some repository of information others find useful, please-please-please have a plan to pass it on to a successor caretaker and a notation in your will about your wishes.

macjohnmcc 7y ago

Printed in the magazine and having to type it in was significantly less convenient than Facebook.

Zenst 7y ago
Depends upon perspective. Can walk into shop and purchase magazine and the magazine owner wouldn't know what you read, when you read it.... Equally the outlay would be just for the magazine compared to internet connection, computer capable of browsing the internet and then still have to transfer it to the TRS-80/100. Then there was the important aspect many miss-out upon today, when you typed something in from a magazine, you got to know the code over just running a program. You made mistakes, and often the magazines would have erata sections to cover typo's from the last edition and with those mistakes - you learned even more than just hitting run.
- macjohnmcc 7y ago
  Yeah I'm not supporting Facebook just stating that the physical act of typing it all in vs copying from a Facebook post is not as easy. I have no Facebook account. I typed many programs in from Compute and other magazines back in the day. I miss Byte magazine most of all. I may even try to this this on my Model 100 at some point. Just for kicks.
  - Zenst 7y ago
    The TRS-80 model 100 has a RS232, so a null-modem cable should be the only hardware needed to transfer.
    - reaperducer 7y ago
      And for convenience, a terminal program. It makes debugging the connection to the Model 100 a lot easier. I use Serial on macOS. I don't remember what it costs, but it couldn't have been much. The Model 100 supports RS232 connections up to (IIRC) 115k baud, but mine gets flaky at that speed, so I keep it at 9600. That's more than fast enough for the tiny files the 100 uses. It's the next door neighbor to instant.
reaperducer 7y ago
Printed in the magazine and having to type it in was significantly less convenient than Facebook. But, apparently, infinitely more resilient!

dukoid 7y ago

Looks more or less like "standard" MS-Basic... Shouldn't be too hard to get it running with vintage-basic.net ?

daveloyall 7y ago
> `PRINT#-1` ... on line 4500 looks to be some kind of idiom.. I don't see a corresponding `OPEN` statement?
- spc476 7y ago
  That might send output to the printer. I know on the TRS-80 Color Computer, the printer was #-2.
  - ficklepickle 7y ago
    I have one of these, with printer. I should really dig it out one of these days. It's from before my time but something about cassettes and thermal printers piques my interest.
- dukoid 7y ago
  Seems to be the tape channel: http://www.colorcomputerarchive.com/coco/Documents/Manuals/Hardware/Getting%20Started%20With%20Extended%20Color%20Basic%20%28Tandy%29.pdf http://www.colorcomputerarchive.com/coco/Documents/Manuals/H...

reaperducer 7y ago

Facebook has to be the least convenient way this could be hosted Compared to the rest of the internet, yes. But for the Model 100 people, this is actually the cream of the crop. Sadly, information in the Model 100 community is notoriously difficult to get to. Well, not fully "difficult." More like "obnoxious." Most of the good stuff is on old web sites with many broken links, little documentation, and abysmal navigation. I think the main repository is actually the web site of a guy who died years ago and is kept online, but unmaintained and suffering from severe bitrot, by people about to go the same way. For interactive discussion, the primary source is a mailing list where people ask the same questions over and over and nobody trims their replies, so you might get a message reply that just says "yep" followed by 150 lines of nested quotes. In digest form, it's simply unusable. So, amazingly, a Facebook post is a thoroughly modern and convenient way for Model 100 enthusiasts to pass information around, compared to all of the other methods they employ.

zozbot234 7y ago
> Most of the good stuff is on old web sites with many broken links, little documentation, and abysmal navigation. I think the main repository is actually the web site of a guy who died years ago and is kept online, but unmaintained and suffering from severe bitrot, by people about to go the same way. As long as the site(s) have been grabbed by Internet Archive, I'm not sure that this has to be an issue. (I've noticed that the archive.org 'Wayback machine' will even archive some downloads, albeit it's not something that should be counted on.)
- reaperducer 7y ago
  I'm not sure that this has to be an issue It doesn't "have to," but sadly it is. The internet, like the rest of the world, is not a perfect place. If IA doesn't find a web site before the bitrot sets in, then what? There are huge swaths of the web that are not in IA, and from what I read on HN, IA doesn't have the capacity to archive.
- kjs3 7y ago
  I don't want to speak ill of them because they're doing an amazing job, but the Internet Archive doesn't have everything (especially old, long gone and/or obscure sites), isn't always complete, and often doesn't have things that back in the day that were on FTP sites. Sometimes you get lucky, but I've not had great luck there. If you're maintaining some repository of information others find useful, please-please-please have a plan to pass it on to a successor caretaker and a notation in your will about your wishes.