Forth, wonderful Forth! (I've got it installed on several of my Linux
machines, also run it from tape on my Oric Atmos!)
If there's a Jupiter ACE still available I'd love to have one.
Chris.
On 17/07/07, Paul Tansom <paul@???> wrote:
>
> ** Vic <lug@???> [2007-07-13 14:40]:
> > >> Jupiter ACE x2
> > >
> > > One of these would be interesting to play with. I haven't seen one
> > > since they first came out. :)
> >
> > <guilty secret> I've still got one... </guilty secret>
> ** end quote [Vic]
>
> I have most of one! I picked up one of the last off the line after
> Juptier Cantab closed. Of all places it was bought a Beaulieu boat
> jumble! It was an event memorable for that reason and the fact that when
> I got back to the stall we were running I had just missed John Noakes
> haggling over the price of some water containers, presumably just before
> heading off the Med.
>
> I spent some time playing around with Forth and liked it alot. Sadly
> there's only one company I know of that makes use of Forth in a big way,
> so employment using it was limited.
>
> I've been after the rest of the machine ever since. It currently sits in
> a case (as in brief case style thing) with the circuit board fixed to
> the base of the case (as in the actual computer casing) and the rubber
> keyboard mat held on with two elastic bands. It doesn't use the membrane
> approach that the ZX81, Spectrum and QL used in spite of its heritige,
> but has small round pieces of contuctive material glued under the keys.
> These press directly on the circuit board and complete the circuit
> between the tracks that are laid out in a keyboard pattern. It all
> works, and I have the demo tape, manual, PSU, tape and TV leads, just no
> top casing. I also never managed to track down a 16k RAM pack, but I
> live in hope still. I may yet modify a ZX81 unit as they are pretty much
> the same bar the pinout on the connector.
>
> OK, not so secret anymore, but I don't feel guilty :) If I dare say it
> here, although Linux gives modern computing some sanity and interest it
> doesn't manage to provide the soul that something like an Amiga, Jupiter
> ACE, BBC Micro or one of the many other 80's micro computers had. I
> blame that n the Frankenstien's creation that is the x86 hardware it
> generally runs on - way too closely linked to the hell that is Windows.
>
> I sometimes think that if all modern computing had to offer was Windows
> I wouldn't have a PC. The language that has been coming out of the
> dining room today as my wife curses the Windows machine in there for
> insisting that the software she has been using for several days, and has
> been installed and working for months, needs installing and configuring
> because it isn't on there - having cancelled the multiple requests for
> the installation CD it gives in and works as it should!
>
> Oh, and before anyone comments, I do have Linux (Ubuntu 7.04) installed
> on the machine too, and as of a few days ago and a replacement of the
> wireless NIC it has networking. Sadly there is still more work to do to
> get it running smoothly though as:
>
> 1. when I tried to scan from the scanner that was correctly detected the
> application locked up and the machine all but ground to a halt
>
> 2. when the wireless connection was lost the mouse and keyboard started
> playing up - the mouse became very jerky and slow to respond to
> movement, and the keyboard would miss random characters typed in on it
> meaning that the only way to get something accurately typed was to hit a
> key and wait for it to display before typing the next; as such debugging
> was not practical, and I've not got back to it yet.
>
> --
> Paul Tansom | Aptanet Ltd. | http://www.aptanet.com/ | 023 9238 0001
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