Re: about the plus4

On 04/19/2012 04:22 PM, HÁRSFALVI Levente wrote:
>
> As others have already pointed out, the machine evolved from the concept
> of something really small and cheap (to compete with Sinclair) to a
> "real machine" with decent keyboard and intended large user software
> base. They obviously failed, but that's why you can see a well
> integrated "core" inside, with lots of fluff on top (so to say), with
> the result of a neither especially cheap, nor an especially powerful
> machine.

If you want to see the original design, that a look at the C116 
mainboard and disregard all the ICs with three digit U-numbers (U101 and 
up). That was what they had in mind originally. It also meant very 
limited I/O (only the CPU-Port) and no module support or support for the 
1551.


> Yeah. From the other hand, Basic 3.5 and Tedmon usually comes very
> handy. IMHO the Plus/4 has been way more friendly to beginners than
> Commodore's other "cheap" machines.

Yes... That still annoys me... The C64 had all the great capabilities 
but no BASIC support for it, not even a monitor (something like TIM from 
the CBM series would have been enough for me) while the 264 series had 
the great BASIC 3.5 but lacked the sound and video capabilities.



> TED, sure, isn't a musical genius either, but you should probably take a
> listen to, say, Brigitte Gertz's tunes first (look up Winter Events,
> Summer Events, and Bongo at plus4world.com), before making the
> conclusion. Also, the TED is well equipped with hw timers, which makes
> playing digital sound much easier than it's usually done on Sinclairs
> (or Amstrads...) machines.

The ZX spectrum has a single fixed IRQ, you get one at the beginning of 
each video frame. That's it, everything else you have to do yourselves 
in software. Also you have no text mode, it's all bitmap graphics. Take 
a look on Youtube what people were able to do with it anyway.

  Gerrit


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