Re: Apple II: Second Best Tech Product of All Time!

["N.N. Thayer" <nnthayer@hotmail.com>]

On Apr 4, 2:15 pm, "Michael J. Mahon" <mjma...@aol.com> wrote:

> The provision of an 8-slot expansion bus that was architecturally
> integrated with the system software, together with very complete
> documentation of the entire system, made the Apple ][ by far the
> most robust microcomputer platform for applications involving
> hardware expansion of the system.
>
> This capacity was not approached by any other platform until the
> IBM PC, which imitated this aspect of the Apple ][ quite conciously.

Oh yeah, some of the earlier papers I came across mentioned not only
standard parallel/serial cards but also custom cards with totally non-
standard interfaces between the Apple II and the rest of the
laboratory setup.  Most of the corresponding software consisted of
finished products from third-party vendors, but some of it was real
seat-of-the-pants stuff that the institutions had written in-house
since it just wasn't on the market.  Flexible expandability was an
absolute linchpin for these guys.