Re: A Link of note

[Rubywand <rubywand@swbell.net>]

Roy and/or Janet Miller wrote:
> 
> Rubywand wrote:
> 
> > About the only disagreement would be with the term
> > "hobbyist".
> >
> >      By 1976, Bill should have been aware that "hobbyist" was out-dated
> > Popular Electronics lingo. Anyone running BASIC in 1976 was a "small computer
> > user".
> >
> > Rubywand
> 
> I have here beside my keyboard Volume Two of Dr. Dobb's Journal of Computer
> Calisthenics & Orthodontia "Running Light Without Overbyte" The introduction,
> written in 1980, paragraph two starts out, "Microcomputers were still very much
> the domain of hobbyists and technology junkies in early 1977."
> 
> The first article in the January 1977 issue, titled "A PDP-11-Like, 16 bit, Micro
> for the S-100 Bus", closes it's first paragraph with "... which should prove to
> be of interest to the more advanced hobbists who have run out of flexibility in
> their 8080 systems." There is a letter on pg 15 from CACHE (Chicago Area Computer
> Hobby Enthusiasts). The second article is a description and listing of the
> Lawrence Livermore Lab's 8080 BASIC, so people could assemble and burn their own
> ROMs with it. On page 62 is a notice titled "NEW BOOK FOR COMPUTER HOBBYISTS"
> 
> In the February 1977 issue is a letter from Tom Pittman who wrote one of the
> first "Tiny BASICs" His fourth paragraph starts with "A quick scan of a couple of
> hobby magazines shows typically 40 ads offering computer hardware and no
> software, 10 ads offering both hardware and software...."
> 
> I could continue, but the point is obvious. Even in 1977 the term "hobbyist"
> wasn't (yet) an outdated term referring to computer users. Most people were still
> buying computers that they had to assemble themselves, or pay an extra fee to
> have it soldered together for them. In vol 2 issue 1 is a letter from LeRoy
> Finckle complaining that there was only one computer in the entire country that
> could be bought and used by someone who wasn't a hardware enthusiast and who only
> knew BASIC, and which would be bought with disk drives. 1977 was still the time
> of the pioneers, in both hardware and software, and they were still called
> "hobbyists."
> 
> Roy


     The term "hobby" is frequently misused. In many cases, the explanation
is that someone wishes to refer to a group engaged in some non-professional
pursuit and, lacking any interest in correct usage, picks the term "hobby".
Then, too, those who sell magazines and supplies related to some activity may
call the activity a "hobby" in order to create an easy-to-grasp sense of
community-- e.g. 'the magazine for widget hobbyists', 'the number one seller
of widget hobbyist supplies', etc..

    "Hi Fi" and "Stereo" were frequently refered to as "hobbies" in the
1950's and 1960's though, for all but a very few participants, they were
nothing of the kind. Most of the so-called "hobbiests" built kits because
that was the cheapest way to get decent equipment, not because they
especially enjoyed constructing amplifiers and gluing together speaker
cabinets. Once they had a system they liked, they used it to listen to music.

     Model building is, usually, a hobby. The same is true of "electronic
experimentation", "robot building", "model rocketry", etc.. In each case you
have a pursuit in which the design/building activity itself is enjoyed and
can be repeated again and again with no obvious end point.

     Sure, some of those involved in early small computing built kit after
kit and/or fiddled with numerous hardware projects. Others, once they had a
small computer, used it for nothing but trying out 'the language of the
month', running primes sieves, and experimenting with sorts.

     There were, certainly, some hobbyists within small computing. However,
the vast majority of those involved were genuine users. And, when you focus
upon users of BASIC, the number of hobbyists is truly miniscule. If these
users messed with hardware at all it was to have the hardware and be done
with it. They were interested in using their computers to play games, balance
checkbooks, write music, and create useful programs.

     A computer is a tool. Using a computer may be interesting, beneficial,
and/or entertaining but, in general, it is no more a "hobby" than using a
lawnmower.




Rubywand