Re: cauzin softstrip

[et472@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Michael Black)]

Michael J. Mahon (mjmahon@aol.com) writes:
> In article <a2c2f792.0302180620.be503f7@posting.google.com>, jon@i-manila.com
> (Jon Co) writes:
> 
>>Remember all those softstrips published in old magazines?  I was
>>wondering if there was a way to  "decode" the stuff by scanning it
>>into a PC and decoding the files or disk images stored in them?
> 
> Certainly it is, in principle.  There would be a small matter of programming. 
> ;-)
> 
> Just how much "SoftStrip" software was actually published?  And was
> it any more than Applesoft checkbook balancing programs?
> 
> A first step would be to put several hi-resolution scans of the strips on
> the Web, so that experimentation could begin.  Also, ISTR that there
> were two or three different "densities" of softstrip, depending on the
> resolution of the printer or medium.  At least a couple examples of
> each would be useful for expreimentation with decoding.
> 
> -michael
> 
My memory was that it was never used all that much, it was just
pronounced as the next big thing, and there was much about examples
rather than practical useage.  But, I didn't really read the
Apple magazines at the time, so I might have missed that.

I seem to remember a fairly recent discussion of the strips, sometime
within the past five years or so, in one of the newsgroups.  My
guess would be alt.folklore.computers  I can't remember if there
were any concrete discussions, but I thought the topic of scanning
them did come up.

The hype seemed a bit much.  About 1977, Byte was trying out the
publishing of programs by bar code.  They listed some programs that
way in the magazine, but it seemed like they made more use of it
in some booklets that they published that were basically programs
you bought, but the medium was bar codes on paper.  That was in
the days when they could sell a 6800 assembler, and it would be
universal enough that people could adapt it to their own specific
6800 system.  Even more than the listings, Byte ran articles about
making your own barcode scanner, reviews of commercial scanners,
and I think articles about the software to scan the barcodes.

When the softstrips came along, the hype made me think "doesn't
anyone remember that this was done before?".  It was higher
density (but then, programs had become larger), but not
really that different from the barcodes.

It's interesting the schemes tried out in those early days
for distributing software.  The floppy record inserted in
one of the magazines (you'd feed your record player into your
cassette interface to get the program into your computer),
and various schemes to deliver programs over broadcast radio.
There was also, relatively late, something done on PBS's
Computer Chronicles for delivering programs via the video,
but I can't remember what you were supposed to use to get
the signal into your computer.

   Michael