Re: Apple III question (couldn't find a 3 group to ask)

[mjmahon@aol.com (Michael J. Mahon)]

bathswife wrote:

<insightful comments snipped>

>Is there still a market for computers that can be 'talked to'?  Those
>of us still using Apple II's that pine away for the 'good old days'
>are probably using some form of Linux or something comparable but  are
>limited by what can be done with the hardware aren't they? I don't
>know...I'm actually new to the Apple II having just bought one used
>but prefer using it to write on for some inexplicable reason.
>  Why can't there be a personal computer using faster processors and
>newer technology that can be 'talked to'....modified and with the
>options that 'simplification' for the masses took away?  Is that
>impossible?  I don't know.  How many people would be interested in a
>machine like that and willing to pay for it (I 'm sure it would cost
>more than the average pc made today)?

I was just talking with a friend this evening about the Apple II, and
found that it was his first exposure to computing years ago.

We reminisced about the joy of working with a computer that,
as soon as you turned it on, responded with a BASIC prompt
beckoning to be programmed.  What a far cry this is from the
computers of today!

To program one of today's machines (as they are intended to
be programmed) requires a couple of bookshelves worth of
documentation, several hundred dollars worth of Integrated
Development Environment, and more trouble than 99.999%
of users are willing to take.

The fact is that the "barrier to entry" for programming today's
machines is so high that few venture more than a scripting
or macro language, if that.

"Getting to the bottom" of a modern machine and its detailed
behavior is extremely difficult--modern processors alone are
so complex in their behavior that even their designers are at
a loss to work out the detailed execution of, say, a half-dozen
instructions, without the use of a timing simulator!

With the 6502, timing was as simple as addition.  And the
Apple II, as I'm fond of saying, was the last computer for
which all the information necessary to completely understand
it weighed less than the computer itself.  ;-)

So...to address your original question:  "Is there still a market
for computers that can be 'talked to'?"  I don't know.  I'd like to
think so, but I think the jury's out.

Of course, one can easily run an emulator or other synthetic
environment on a modern computer which will present a simple,
easy-to-program, understandable interface--but 1) that isn't really
quite the same as seeing all the chips and wires without any
"magic", and 2) such environments already exist and are not the
basis of any "mass movement" as far as I can tell--mostly just
some enthusiasts reliving the joys of their youth.

Perhaps the real issue is that computers have become passe.

Everyone has a couple, they are necessary to life and business,
like shoes, and are about as intrinsically interesting as shoes.
Young people aren't excited by the prospect of being a cog in
the giant software machine of a "major label", and regard a
"major software innovation" as a tempest in a teapot.

True to the dreams of the inventors of the personal computer,
it has become ubiquitous--more conspicuous by its absence
from a room than by its presence.  It is now a commodity.
It is boring, humdrum--taken for granted.

Q:  "How would you like to learn to _program_ a computer!"
A:  "Whatever..."

Certainly a far cry from that age when the world was permeated
with infinite possibilities:  "Whatever you can imagine, you can
program!"  "Look at this!  You can actually program it to do
whatever you want!"  "I have to get my hands on one of these!"

Ironically, those heady sentiments, which fueled the personal
computer takeover of the world, were engendered by machines
with less than one thousandth of the computational speed of
today's machines, with less than one ten-thousandth of the RAM,
and less than a millionth of the disk storage capacity.

Yet, we saw infinite possibilities!  And we built the software
"air castles" that have made today's world possible.

Perhaps it is only because our appetites had been whetted
by the almost unapproachable computers which preceded
the personal computing age.  We saw computers as signs
of great power and capability, and whoever could approach
them personally was one of the chosen few.

As you can see, virtually every aspect of our perception of
computers has changed in the last 30 years.  Even as the
machines themselves have become incredibly powerful and
available to anyone who wants one, our imaginations and
aspirations about their possibilities have faded into the
commonplace and pedestrian.

The irony is mind-bending.

(The parallels with the space program are appalling.)

-michael

Check out parallel computing for 8-bit Apples on my
Home page:  http://members.aol.com/MJMahon/