Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2013/02/15
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Yep, and the Kaypro http://oldcomputers.net/kayproii.html It looked like something that belonged in an USAF equipment rack. I liked it because it had a wonderful keyboard that was just like a Selectric, the 9 inch monitor, while small, had fully formed letters, and the printer was not a dot matrix POS. All in all, the problem was they took too long to go to MS/dos operating sysstem from C/PM and got left behind. It was my first computer, and I loved it. On Fri, Feb 15, 2013 at 9:17 AM, Bill Clough <bill_clough at yahoo.com> wrote: > Herbert-- > > There is something here. I often see this same history and, always, the > Radio Shack TRS-80 is left out, which is unfortunate, considering that any > town large enough to have a Dairy Queen has a Radio Shack. > > I was Tandy's first computer instructor--teaching hundreds of people > application programs and the BASIC language. I did this for five years. If > you bought an Apple computer in those days, the instruction book was > mimeographed with the first sentence saying to turn on the computer and > type in CALL and then giving a register. > > Meanwhile, owners of Tandy computers had professionally printed > instruction books that also were textbooks, beginning with LEVEL 1 BASIC, > followed by LEVEL II and DISK BASIC. I averaged a class a day, including > evening classes and Saturday classes, and usually filled all the 32 seats. > Yet the Tandy machine, based on the Z-80 chip, still is tarnished with the > label "Trash-80." > > Tandy's mistake, of course, was to bind their users to the TRS > operating system. Across the patio from the radio shack computer store in > Dallas where I worked, IBM opened a store to sell its PC, which was open > source. > > The rest is history. > > I am, in no way, trying to diminish Apple's role in the PC market. I'm > typing this on an Apple. But Tandy was there, too, and its significance, > sadly, seems to be ignored. > > Bill Clough > > > > > > ________________________________ > From: Herbert Kanner <kanner at acm.org> > To: Leica Users Group <lug at leica-users.org> > Sent: Thursday, February 14, 2013 4:30 PM > Subject: [Leica] The History of the Personal Computer > > People often ask: "What was the first personal computer?" That is a > futile query; it depends too much on the definition of personal computer, a > definition that can be quite flexible. So what I'm going to cover here are > the personal computers that had a significant effect on the future. > > First is the Altair, circa 1975. It was advertised as a $400 kit in > Popular Electronics magazine and the company in Albuquerque, MITS, was > swamped with orders. > http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/herbk1/L1002888.jpg.html > > Two young squirts, Bill Gates and Paul Allen phoned MITS and said they had > a Basic (programming language) interpreter for the Intel 8080 chick what > was its "brain". They actually had not even started programming the > interpreter, but fortunately for their enterprise, MITS told them that it > would be about a month before they actually had an assembled and working > kit. > When Paul Allen flew to Albuquerque and demonstrated the interpreter, > typing "Print 2+2" and getting back "4" the MITS people were astounded; it > was the first time they had actually seen their computer do anything. > > Here is a picture of the Altair. Until the the programs enabling it > enabling it to read paper tape and use a keyboard are loaded, it had to be > programming one bit at a time using the toggle switches on the front, and > until it had the program for driving a printer, results had to be read one > bit at a time from those lights on the front. It was clearly originally > intended as a toy for a hobbyist. > http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/herbk1/L1002887.jpg.html > > The effect on the future was: Bill Gates and Paul Allen licensed MITS to > use their interpreter and created a company named Micro-Soft, later to be > renamed Microsoft. > > Next is the Apple 1, circa 1976. Steve Wozniak built one for his personal > use, showed it off at the Homebrew Computer Club, and his buddy, Steve > Jobs, decided they could make some money from it. He beat the bushes and > found a store called The Byte Shop in Mountain View, CA that was willing to > take fifty of them at $500 each and mark them up 1/3, to an unrounded price > of $666.66. The Steves were under the illusion that all they had to supply > was a printed circuit board and a bag of parts. The Byte Shop disillusioned > them and a frantic assembly and testing operation ensued. The printed card > in front of the artifact is therefore erroneous, and I'm waiting for the > Museum to update it. The company, Apple Computer, was created at that time. > The user still had to furnish a keyboard and a television set as the > monitor. > http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/herbk1/L1002890.jpg.html > > The Apple 2 appeared one year later. You can already see the fine hand of > Steve Jobs sculpting the external appearance of the device. In the first > version, cassette tape was the medium for loading programs, but later > versions provided an operating system for floppy disks. Two years later, > 1979, Dan Bricklin and Bob Franskton market the first spread sheet, > Visicalc. It was so appealing that Apple salesmen could walk into a > business establishment with an Apple 2 under their arm, demonstrate > Visicalc, and the proprietor would be sufficiently impressed to buy the > computer. My personal opinion is that this success may have been what > persuaded IBM to produce the IBM PC in 1981; they realized that such > devices were than a toy and that there could be serious market for them. > http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/herbk1/L1002895.jpg.html > > > In 1985, IBM introduced the first model of the PC. To a certain extent, > their heart was not entirely in it. All IBM equipment, prior and since, was > completely manufactured by IBM: hardware, software, the lot. But the PC was > an exception. The computer chips came from Intel. The operating system came > from Microsoft, which bought it from Seattle Software. Except for the > physical box, the only IBM contribution was the software for communication > with a floppy disk, known as "BIOS" for Basic Input Output System. > http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/herbk1/L1002897.jpg.html > > Who can forget the amazing Super Bowl commercial that introduced the > Macintosh in 1984. Here is a picture of the original Macintosh model. It's > screen was monochrome and didn't even have gray scale; it could just draw > fine lines with remarkable resolution. > http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/herbk1/L1002900_001.jpg.html > > > Herbert Kanner > kanner at acm.org > 650-326-8204 > > Question authority and the authorities will question you. > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information > -- Regards, Sonny http://sonc.com/look/ Natchitoches, Louisiana USA