Playing classical music on a classic PC with GentleOS
8 points by luke8086
8 points by luke8086
I had (still have, actually) the next model up from this -- the Amstrad PPC/640. I got it specifically for the properly sized screen and full keyboard -- I hated the stretched screens of most portable PC's of that era. Weighed about 20 pounds with all 10 C batteries installed, but portable!
If I may ask, what did you use it for?
Nothing too crazy -- mostly learning C and word processing. Also plenty of BBSing -- it had a nice 2400 baud modem. Despite the correct aspect ratio, the screen was fairly low-contrast. It was worth it though -- my circles were circles, not ellipses!
Sounds cool! Yeah, the screen could at least use a backlight.
Do you remember which compiler you used? I was thinking about setting up some lightweight dev environment, but with just two 720k floppies for storage, the choices are somewhat limited.
Oh, only one possible choice! Mix Power C! (Yes, they seem to still be in business, although their cert expired a few weeks ago, advance at own risk...)
I had some of the extras -- the library source and debugger. But the main thing was the manual. It was absolutely outstanding. Aside from being complete, with both a tutorial and reference section, every built-in and library function had a complete type-compile-and-run example. This was hugely helpful for getting me up to speed in the new language.
It didn't have an IDE like Borland. As I recall, I used a tiny text editor called t.com (1K, 4K? Can't remember) with a keyboard shortcut for compiling. It was a little slow, but not too bad. And it made nice small executables.
From there, I jumped to programming on a VAX, then SGI machines. Through it all, my handy Mix manual was by my side (although I didn't need to refer to it as much after a while...).
When I wanted to be totally self contained, I used Tom Zimmer's F-PC (Forth environment). Later, I was able to take advantage of a Forth Incorporated sale to score realio-trulio PolyForth. I placed my order with Elizabeth Rather her own self! ; - )