Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2013/02/15
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Yes, but Tandy only has had a perfunctory presence outside the USA. Here in the UK the BBC personal computer was the one to have. I imagine other countries had their own "Tandy" too, but I don't know what they were. Apple were available in the UK from the Apple II, I used one at Universtity. FD >________________________________ > From: Bill Clough <bill_clough at yahoo.com> >To: Leica Users Group <lug at leica-users.org> >Sent: Friday, 15 February 2013, 15:17 >Subject: Re: [Leica] The History of the Personal Computer > >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 > > >