3 ms·

1) Turn on computer. 2) 500ms go by 3) Computer prints "READY" and shows a blinking cursor. At this point you can start typing code. That is what I miss abo

1) Turn on computer. 2) 500ms go by 3) Computer prints "READY" and shows a blinking cursor. At this point you can start typing code. That is what I miss about 80s computing.

GekkePrutser 6y ago
4) Spend 10 minutes saving your carefully written code to tape. 5) Scream at the tape the next day because it stretched a bit and the computer now won't read it back, or your little sister recorded the spice girls over it :P I did love that time too though! But it did have its drawbacks. But really, this experience is not far away if you're looking for it. A raspberry pi kinda offers that. Maybe not the 500ms, but it boots in seconds to a CLI and it's cheap enough to just leave running. Windows 10 is also really fast at booting (basically because it secretly just hibernates its kernel but it's a smart and useful trick).
- foobarian 6y ago
  You had tape? I had to retype all my programs any time I power cycled my computer :-)
  - GekkePrutser 6y ago
    Well in effect that same thing happened to me.. Atari's tape drives were horribly unreliable. It was a tense time listening to the screeching during read operations. You could usually hear it go wrong, and some error would appear, having to start all over again (and the position counters were cheap and unreliable too). My 1010 tape drive also had really really thin plastic stems under the buttons, which pressed on quite heavy mechanical tape controls.. Obviously they didn't last much longer than the warranty period :X I removed the front panel and pushed the metal parts by hand for a while until the whole thing just gave out. The new-style XE tape drive I got after that was better but still had the poor reliability. There was also a disk drive option but it cost more than the computer itself (and in fact it was almost another computer as it was powered by a similar CPU, just with less RAM). So being a schoolboy I never owned one.
  - jkestner 6y ago
    You had a keyboard? I had to reenter the sequences of toggle switches every time I turned on my MIPS.
zepto 6y ago
That is essentially possible with any laptop today, regardless of OS. Just fullscreen a terminal and start your favorite repl. You can even have basic if you want.
- foobarian 6y ago
  It's possible, but it's just not the same thing. There are orders of magnitude more layers of abstraction in play. "Fullscreen a terminal" implies graphics - so X, toolkits, window managers, on top of kernel and userland etc. It would take you decades to wrap your head around all that; a little 6502 computer you can grok in a month. Quick, what stovepipe of software would let you type "PLOT 10, 10: DRAW 20, 20" to draw a line :)
  - GekkePrutser 6y ago
    That's absolutely true. It was much simpler to start creating. Now you have a choice in platforms that can achieve the same with similar effort, but you have to start by picking and installing one, whereas those computers came with it. PS: You also used an Atari? I think it was DRAWTO there :)
    - theamk 6y ago
      Have you seen Scratch [0]? It runs entirely in the web browser and you don't need to install it. It is designed for kids and it looks a bit goofy with all those drag-and-drop programming commands, but don't be fooled -- it is a pretty modern language, with flow control, variables, functions and all. At the same time it is great for "just start creating" things -- you start by drawing pictures, then you animate an object and the next thing you know you have a fun game :) [0] https://scratch.mit.edu/ https://scratch.mit.edu/
      - GekkePrutser 6y ago
        Never heard of it, looks cool. Thanks!
  - 6y ago
raldi 6y ago
Buy an M1 Mac or iPad.
theamk 6y ago
3) Prepare to load yesterday's work from the tape 4) Tape does not load for some reason, retry. 5) Tape still does not load, retry. 6) You remember your friends brought some games yesterday and you had to tweak tape player's head position. Where is your screwdriver again? 7) Spend 20 minutes trying to re-align the heads so you can load the tape. ... If you want "turn on and start coding" experience, then programmable calculators are your friend. Really, give them a try -- they have the same BASIC, support your familiar "PLOT 10,0" commands, but at the same time do not lose all your data when you turn then off, and do not require tapes.
7thaccount 6y ago
They have some modern machines meant to replicate that experience, but on more modern hardware (Ex: 480 MHz lets your BASIC code run way faster than Assembly could on those 8-bit machines), but you still boot straight into BASIC (pretty much no OS) in about 3 seconds. Pretty nifty.

1) Turn on computer. 2) 500ms go by 3) Computer prints "READY" and shows a blinking cursor. At this point you can start typing code. That is what I miss about 80s computing.

GekkePrutser 6y ago

4) Spend 10 minutes saving your carefully written code to tape. 5) Scream at the tape the next day because it stretched a bit and the computer now won't read it back, or your little sister recorded the spice girls over it :P I did love that time too though! But it did have its drawbacks. But really, this experience is not far away if you're looking for it. A raspberry pi kinda offers that. Maybe not the 500ms, but it boots in seconds to a CLI and it's cheap enough to just leave running. Windows 10 is also really fast at booting (basically because it secretly just hibernates its kernel but it's a smart and useful trick).

foobarian 6y ago
You had tape? I had to retype all my programs any time I power cycled my computer :-)
- GekkePrutser 6y ago
  Well in effect that same thing happened to me.. Atari's tape drives were horribly unreliable. It was a tense time listening to the screeching during read operations. You could usually hear it go wrong, and some error would appear, having to start all over again (and the position counters were cheap and unreliable too). My 1010 tape drive also had really really thin plastic stems under the buttons, which pressed on quite heavy mechanical tape controls.. Obviously they didn't last much longer than the warranty period :X I removed the front panel and pushed the metal parts by hand for a while until the whole thing just gave out. The new-style XE tape drive I got after that was better but still had the poor reliability. There was also a disk drive option but it cost more than the computer itself (and in fact it was almost another computer as it was powered by a similar CPU, just with less RAM). So being a schoolboy I never owned one.
- jkestner 6y ago
  You had a keyboard? I had to reenter the sequences of toggle switches every time I turned on my MIPS.

zepto 6y ago

That is essentially possible with any laptop today, regardless of OS. Just fullscreen a terminal and start your favorite repl. You can even have basic if you want.

foobarian 6y ago
It's possible, but it's just not the same thing. There are orders of magnitude more layers of abstraction in play. "Fullscreen a terminal" implies graphics - so X, toolkits, window managers, on top of kernel and userland etc. It would take you decades to wrap your head around all that; a little 6502 computer you can grok in a month. Quick, what stovepipe of software would let you type "PLOT 10, 10: DRAW 20, 20" to draw a line :)
- GekkePrutser 6y ago
  That's absolutely true. It was much simpler to start creating. Now you have a choice in platforms that can achieve the same with similar effort, but you have to start by picking and installing one, whereas those computers came with it. PS: You also used an Atari? I think it was DRAWTO there :)
  - theamk 6y ago
    Have you seen Scratch [0]? It runs entirely in the web browser and you don't need to install it. It is designed for kids and it looks a bit goofy with all those drag-and-drop programming commands, but don't be fooled -- it is a pretty modern language, with flow control, variables, functions and all. At the same time it is great for "just start creating" things -- you start by drawing pictures, then you animate an object and the next thing you know you have a fun game :) [0] https://scratch.mit.edu/ https://scratch.mit.edu/
    - GekkePrutser 6y ago
      Never heard of it, looks cool. Thanks!
- 6y ago

raldi 6y ago

Buy an M1 Mac or iPad.

theamk 6y ago

3) Prepare to load yesterday's work from the tape 4) Tape does not load for some reason, retry. 5) Tape still does not load, retry. 6) You remember your friends brought some games yesterday and you had to tweak tape player's head position. Where is your screwdriver again? 7) Spend 20 minutes trying to re-align the heads so you can load the tape. ... If you want "turn on and start coding" experience, then programmable calculators are your friend. Really, give them a try -- they have the same BASIC, support your familiar "PLOT 10,0" commands, but at the same time do not lose all your data when you turn then off, and do not require tapes.

7thaccount 6y ago

They have some modern machines meant to replicate that experience, but on more modern hardware (Ex: 480 MHz lets your BASIC code run way faster than Assembly could on those 8-bit machines), but you still boot straight into BASIC (pretty much no OS) in about 3 seconds. Pretty nifty.