🚀 go-pugleaf

>From article <2585882...@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca>, by jo...@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca (Conan the Barbarian):
> 
>   Ah yes, the Commodore PET days.  I have fond memories too.

Hmmmm.  Memories so fond, you wish you'd left them where you found them. :-)

I remember those behemoths.  Our school had a PET 2001 (with 32K!!) and 4
or 5 4016's (16K) and a 4032 (32K).  The 2001 was not used much because
the only way you could get a program onto it (besides typing) was through
a cassette drive (it was running Basic 2.0, which didn't have disk I/O
specific instructions, and no one wanted to learn that).  I guess I should
say that it was not used for classwork much.  What it was used for was the
space invader game we had on tape.  Even the data processing types (data
processing and computer science were taught together) learned one obscure
command, just to play the game.  Of course, nothing could beat the amazing
24x40 character graphics that brought the alien ships to life.  :-)))

Remember the disk drives they had.  We had a double unit that must've
weighed as much as the PET itself!  It was great fun trying to access them,
since we only had three drives and one printer, and every thing was
daisy-chained to everything else.  We spent half the time making sure that
the right disk was in the right drive.


>   I remember in high school there was a bully who would steal my designated
> time on the PET.  I guess he hated me because I made fun of his stupid
> mistakes.  And he was so much bigger and fatter than I, what could I do?

You could do like we did and modify his program with obscene language and a
couple of random GOTO's.  We did that to our bully, he was copying other
people's programs and turning them in as his own.  Of course, he had a
tendency to pick us up and toss us across the room, but he could afford to
actually hurt us badly enough, else he'd have to find other people to help
him with his program.  It's a pyrrhic of sorts, I admit.  But it did teach
him a lesson.

> -- 
> "After all is said an done,                    John Schmitt
>  a lot more is said than done."                jo...@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca
> Don't blame anybody for what I say.            SCHM...@SCIvax.mcmaster.ca

****************************************************************************
Paul Tien-Shih Lee              |cth...@claris.com
Claris Corporation, SQA Division|{ames,apple,sun,portal,voder}claris!cthulhu
Disclaimer: Dis is my claimer.  |AppleLink PE:Paul Lee
If Claris wants one, it can get |AppleLink: D0667
its own.  All hail Discordia!   |(coming soon to a network near you)
****************************************************************************

In article <2585882...@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca> jo...@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca (Conan the Barbarian) writes:
>
>     Ah yes, the Commodore PET days.  I have fond memories too.
>
I bought one of these back in 1979 for $500 used and then later a 2022
printer used for $500.  I cut my teeth on BASIC on that machine.  Just
sold it and the printer last winter for $60.  My wife didn't appreciate
my sentimentality towards wanting to keep it.  It was still working, had
trouble loading tapes once in a while, but it was fun to see it still work.

-pete
--
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Peter R. Schmitt - UNIX Consultant, User Services - Peter....@dartmouth.edu
Kiewit Computation Center, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH 03755   (603)646-2085
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I particularly liked the one about how Commodore were mystified by the PET's
poor sales in France, until someone pointed out to them that "pet" is french
for fart :-)


--------------------------------------------------------------------
 Tim Duncan, AI Applications Institute, University of Edinburgh, 
  80 South Bridge, Edinburgh EH1 1HN, Scotland, United Kingdom.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
 JANET:  T.Duncan@uk.ac.edinburgh
 ARPA:   T.Duncan...@nsfnet-relay.ac.uk
 BITNET: T.Duncan%uk.ac.ed@ukacrl.bitnet
 UUCP:   ... mcvax!ukc!ed.ac.uk!T.Duncan
--------------------------------------------------------------------

In article <2585882...@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca> jo...@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca (Conan the Barbarian) writes:
>VERIFY that it was completely and uncorrupted on the tape.  So, he methodically
>types NEW, and VERIFY and gets no errors.  By now I was laughing so hard, he
>couldn't help but think he'd goofed so he VERIFYs again.  If I had looked 
>carefully, I'll bet he typed NEW again.

How about we try to explain some of these stories when we submit
them?  Several times I've read a punch line and had to infer from
context the critical technical details.

In the present case, I can guess that either the initial save didn't
work so verifying against a NEW (null) program succeeded, or that
verifying against a null program erased the tape.  Knowing which it
was would have made the story a tad more digestible.

Most of us have used some crufty old system, but I doubt there is
anyone here who's used them all.
-- 
Steve Nuchia	      South Coast Computing Services      (713) 964-2462
"If the conjecture `You would rather I had not disturbed you
 by sending you this.' is correct, you may add it to the list of
 uncomfortable truths."   - Edsgar Dijkstra

 I agree, a little more detail would make the stories a lot more understandable
- I own a C-64 (Which is talking to you now by the miracle of Kermit :)
and have worked with a PET also.  Therefore, I do know that NEW is the 
command that will erase your program from memory, so prehaps the verify
couldn't find any thing in memory to verify with the program on tape.
still, I miss the humor in this post; A little explanation would really
help, a joke not funny if it has to be explained later :)

-----------------------------------------------------------------
 rwi...@hubcap.clemson.edu

"What I'd like to do is find the fellow who gave commodre 40-columns and
 have him shoot!"
                -Common complaint of people who telecommunicate with the C-64

In article <17459@nuchat.UUCP> steve@nuchat.UUCP (Steve Nuchia) writes:
>In article <2585882...@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca> jo...@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca (Conan the Barbarian) writes:
>>VERIFY that it was completely and uncorrupted on the tape.  So, he methodically
>>types NEW, and VERIFY and gets no errors.  By now I was laughing so hard, he
>>couldn't help but think he'd goofed so he VERIFYs again.  If I had looked 
>>carefully, I'll bet he typed NEW again.
>
>How about we try to explain some of these stories when we submit
>them?  Several times I've read a punch line and had to infer from
>context the critical technical details.
>[stuff deleted]

    Sorry, I guess being the nerd I am, Computerese feels better than English.

    On the PET, once you SAVEd a file to tape, you could rewind the tape, type 
VERIFY, and it would check that the data on the tape matched memory.  Well, if
you typed NEW, there was nothing in memory.  (Actually there was, but let's
not get technical here. :-)  This guy in his Pinheaded wisdom didn't think that
far.  You could practically pull any prank on this guy, and he wouldn't know it
was a joke until you laughed.  
-- 
"After all is said an done,                        John Schmitt
 a lot more is said than done."                    jo...@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca
Don't blame anybody for what I say.                SCHM...@SCIvax.mcmaster.ca

  Ha ha... Guess what?!!

  I still have my Vic-20!!!  Great little machine... anyone interested in
  purchasing it?        
 
                                    
-- 
  Jeff Baxter
  baxter@disk.UUCP  or  uunet!ukma!corpane!disk!baxter
  Digital Information Systems of Kentucky                D.I.S.K.