From: mds@bogus.nodomain.nowhere   
      
   Lawrence D'Oliveiro  writes:   
      
   > On 25 Feb 2025 02:19:13 -0400, Mike Spencer wrote:   
   >   
   >> 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.   
   >   
   > The "Inside Macintosh" series had all the details. Volumes I and II   
   > covered the software APIs, while Volume III described the original   
   > Macintosh hardware: the video buffers, sound buffers, vertical refresh   
   > interrupt, floppy interface, Z8530 serial controller chips, the lot.   
   > Volume IV updated all that for the Mac Plus (with SCSI!).   
      
   I borrowed an Apple ][ (sic) in 1980, my first computer "experience"   
   since 1964 and punch cards.  I was sold but I couldn't afford my own   
   just then.   
      
   Soon thereafter, Apple was ballyhooing the Mac so I borrowed a Mac for   
   a week, then went into the Apple Store and had a look:   
      
       Me: So, how do you program it?   
      
       AppleGuy:  What do you want to do?   
      
       Me: Well, I want to write programs for it.   
      
       AG: Yes, but what do you want to *do*?   
      
       Me: Program? You know?  Like, write a program that the machine will   
           run?   
      
       AG: But what do you want to do?   
      
          [Rinse & repeat ad naus.]   
      
   Never did get him to tell me how you program a Mac.  A bit later, from   
   a different source, I learned that you could buy a "programmer's   
   switch", a piece of plastic that you stuck into a hole on the back of   
   the machine where it presses against an already-present switch and   
   does $SOMETHING allowing you to, in some sense, "program". You also   
   needed a "application developer's kit", two or three hundred bucks   
   (early 80s $$) worth of Apple-proprietary disks.   
      
   This (to me, then) incredible horseshit caused me to permanently write   
   off Apple as part of Them, not Us and certainly not Me. More recent   
   cries of Unix-Under-The-Hood sounded great when I first heard about it   
   but, AFAICT, it's still wrapped in the same arrogance and hubris as   
   refelcted in the above anecdote.   
      
   Only a few years ago, a friend with a recent Mac called me for help --   
   I forget why.  Totally baffled by the Mac GUI interface, I told him if   
   he could get me an xterm, I could fix him up.  Took him 20 minutes to   
   figure out how to get a bare xterm up.  Then, working at Under The   
   Hood level, I fixed him up.   
      
      
       We offer you a Perfect World. Just as long as you stay inside the   
       yellow lines. Please stay inside the yellow lines.  The Armed   
       Response Team thanks you for staying inside the yellow lines.   
      
   > Those Z8530 chips were wonderfully versatile. Back when your Microsoft-   
   > compatible PCs were struggling to do transfers beyond about 19200bps, the   
   > Mac could do 230.4kbps, or even a megabit per second with external   
   > clocking (e.g. for MIDI).   
      
   But who knew? "What do you want to *do*?"   
      
   --   
   Mike Spencer                  Nova Scotia, Canada   
      
   --- SoupGate-DOS v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)