Re: The IBM PC's slavish devotion to the Apple II

[email@luddite.ca (Simon Williams)]

Bill Garber <willy46pa@comcast.net> wrote:

> > > Neither of those types of > > expansion devices existed at the time
> that the first Apple II came off the > > line, but the inclusion of slots
> in the design allowed them to be used when > > they were developed later.

> > > And was probably intsrumental in encouraging the development of such >
> devices.
> 
> I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but card edge expansion devices did
> exist before the Apple II, otherwise there would have been no card slots
> to buy to put in them. They existed, maybe not in a personal computer, but
> they did exist. I should know. I inserted many a new card into the control
> of an NC machine in the early '70's.

I think you've misconstrued the flow... when the Apple II first went
into production there were (AFAIK) no Apple II expansion devices
available. I don't think anyone is suggesting that Apple invented the
concept of expansion cards, but rather that by including the slots in
the design allowed the computer to take advantage of future technology.
The point I was subsequently trying to make was that by using an
existing technology (cards/slots) to provide expansion potential, Apple
made it easier for third party developers (who were no doubt already
familiar with the basic idea) than it would have been had they come up
with some proprietary, non-standard system.


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