Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!samsung!think.com!mintaka!bloom-beacon!eru!hagbard!sunic!news.funet.fi!tukki.jyu.fi!sonja!tt From: tt@sonja.jyu.fi (Tapani Tarvainen) Newsgroups: comp.sys.handhelds Subject: Re: More on ROM extraction Message-ID: Date: 1 Feb 91 14:56:46 GMT References: <10594@jarthur.Claremont.EDU> Sender: news@tukki.jyu.fi (News articles) Organization: University of Jyvaskyla Lines: 42 In-Reply-To: sburke@jarthur.Claremont.EDU's message of 1 Feb 91 00:59:04 GMT Originator: tt@sonja.jyu.fi Nntp-Posting-Host: sonja.jyu.fi In article <10594@jarthur.Claremont.EDU> sburke@jarthur.Claremont.EDU (Scott Burke) writes: >no one has yet demonstrated a supportable >reason for needing more than 1 slot (assuming a merged 128K RAM card). I am >a developer, and _I_ don't need 2 slots. Just wait a few years. The HP-41 has 4 expansion ports. It took me almost two years before I found that intolerably few: I found swapping modules such a pain that I bought a port extender which, besides costing a small fortune, doubled the size of the machine. Later, when the HEPAX module became available (a RAM module small enough to fit in one slot yet had enough memory to allow copying several ROMS into, expensive as hell) I bought one, and I've never used it for anything much besides holding copies of ROMs (yes, ROMs I own). Another problem: I am not sure if the 48 has been designed with frequent card swapping in mind: contact wear did become a problem with the 41. Anybody at HP care to promise that it will survive removing and inserting a card five times a day for ten years? (Oh well, slight exaggeration, but perhaps not much when I think of the 41 ...) I think it is more than likely that soon enough a card will appear I can't live without, one all my programs need, making all cards from which I can't extract and copy to RAM what I need useless. Or several cards from which I want pieces in at all times. Indeed, any utilities-type card, designed to be used from one's own programs will be a pain to remove. Swapping cards won't be too hard with "take-over" cards that contain one big application and doesn't let you do anything much on the side -- but I don't think such sit too well with the 48. Given a choice between two cards with otherwise same functionality but one with the possibility of downloading it piecewise into RAM I would pay _a lot_ more for the latter. Whether I have a "supportable reason" for that or not is moot: I want it, and I want to pay for it. If you don't want to provide it, you will lose -- more or less than piracy would cost, that is the question. -- Tapani Tarvainen (tarvaine@jyu.fi, tarvainen@finjyu.bitnet)