Re: Classic computing is out of the closet

[supertimer@aol.com (Supertimer)]

cornelio@san.rr.com (L. Cornelio) wrote:

>John E Townsend <utownje@lexis-nexis.com> wrote:
>
>> There's an interesting article on "classic computing" in yesterday's San
>> Diego Union-Tribune:
>> 
>> 
>> http://www.uniontrib.com/news/uniontrib/tue/computers/news_m1u19old.html
>> 
>> Most of it seems to be about Commodore users, but Apple II's get an
>> honorable mention.
>
>That is just a portion of the article that appeared in the local paper.
>Too bad it is a wire-service; I tried to pitch them on the same concept a
>year ago -- highlighting my classroom of course! :^)
>but no dice.

Actually, I was contacted by the author of the article about
an interview.  But she asked progressively more keen questions
ending with the request for my picture!  Of course I refused
because I thought someone on csa2 was trying to pull my leg.

If I had known the offer was the real deal, I would have asked
her to contact you.  For sure, your classroom illustrates what
the Apple II and Apple IIGS can still do.

By the way, in the full article, what and how much about the
Apple II did she mention?  I didn't like the way the web based
version classified the IIGS as an 8-bit computer.

First "the Apple II, introduced in 1977" then some user "still
uses an Apple IIGS" finally "these 8-bit computers can still
do a lot."  But then they start saying what a Commodore 64
can do.  The IIGS can do so much more and it runs 16-bit
software!

And the part about it taking 1000 C64s to run Microsoft
Word!  Give me a break!  Even the C64 can run GeoWrite
and Apple IIGS can run AppleWorks GS which goes beyond
that.  I'm not saying these have all the features of MS Word,
but they seem to be implying that the classic computers
are incapable of running a GUI word processor or a feature
rich one.  Nothing can be further from the case.  AWGS
is a nice GUI word processor and WordPerfect for the GS
is an example of what a powerful text based word processor
with lots of features running on a IIGS.  Similar to DOS
WordPerfect 4 to DOS WordPerfect 5.

Still, it was nice to see the IIGS get mention.  ;-)