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  • Re: the computer built to last 50 years

    From anthk@anthk@openbsd.home to comp.misc on Mon May 12 06:24:47 2025
    From Newsgroup: comp.misc

    On 2025-03-17, Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:
    On Mon, 17 Mar 2025 14:27:02 -0300, Salvador Mirzo wrote:

    Each time I look at my Hermes Rocket typewriter (on the left in the
    picture), I’m astonished by the fact that the thing looks pretty modern
    and, after a few cleaning, works like a charm. The device is 75 years
    old and is a very complex piece of technology with more than 2000 moving
    parts. It’s still one of the best tools to focus on writing.

    Technology is here to adapt to our needs, we should not be adapting our needs to the technology.

    People who are used to typewriters don’t notice the absence of features they don’t provide. Think what an advance it was when Mike Nesmith’s mother invented Tipp-Ex. Then the advances in digital technology allowed
    the creation of specialist machines called “word processors”, with text memories, macro keys and other advanced features. Just the ability to preview a page of text on the screen before printing it out led to the saving, not just of paper, but of time.

    This is better:

    http://mynor.org/my4th_forthdeck.htm

    Adding up serial support it's trivial.
    Other languages than English? Translit:
    áéíóúñ <-> 'a 'e 'i 'o 'u 'n as the
    apostrophe it's almost never used in
    Spanish except for foreign English
    words (or non-educated SIC shortenings
    such as pa'+object (para, as in foh-sth in English).

    Bonus: you get a free RPN calculator, a potential
    Algebra CAS, and with a bith of programming,
    a ZMachine interpreter.

    Altough I'd prefer a proper 64x16 screen and some storage,
    even if it uses Forth blocks.
    With a 64x16 screen tons of stuff will run better, such
    as friendlier editor, a Sokoban game, a better game
    area for the ZMachine, ASCII graphs, a bigger
    window for inputting code and so on.


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