From: mds@bogus.nodomain.nowhere   
      
   Salvador Mirzo  writes:   
      
   > I never used DOS as a programmer, so it wasn't nostalgic to me, but I   
   > enjoyed seeing how simpler things were back then and how programs like   
   > debug could help you to see what was going on.  I was reading about 6502   
   > assembly recently and I became very interested in getting closer to that   
   > simplicity.  The booklet author remarked that modern x86 assembly isn't   
   > really meant for programmers, but compilers.  I had never really thought   
   > of that, but it made a lot of sense to me.  So maybe I should indeed   
   > look into an older, simpler machine to enjoy the low level of things.   
      
   My first computer was an Osborne I that I got on a swap.  I made a   
   hand-raised  copper curry pan for a guy who was buying a Mac for his   
   law student wife.  Macs were new, Osbornes already obsolete and   
   inadequate for the wife's course work.   
      
   I'm forever grateful that I started with the Osborne.  It had a real   
   manual, circuit diagrams available, Z80 CPU simple enough to learn   
   from bottom up.  Learned all the basic principles of how computers   
   operate -- intentionally obstructed from day 1 by Apple for Mac,   
   dismally more arcane for then-current 386.   
      
   So I learned BASIC, Z80 assembler, K&R C and elementary Lisp on the   
   Osborne.   
      
   Now there are so many complications in everything with a small   
   computer, insanely more difficult to beat up/understand the basic   
   principles in the forest of technical advances.   
      
   Thirtyfive+ years on, getting old, don't keep up. I can balance SU   
   carbs on a 1950s Jag but my mechanic plugs in a special purpose   
   computer and diagnoses my failed fuel filter from the driver's seat.   
   Ho hum.   
      
   --   
   Mike Spencer                  Nova Scotia, Canada   
      
   --- SoupGate-DOS v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)