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From: jcb@loral.UUCP (Jay C. Bowden)
Newsgroups: net.micro.amiga
Subject: Re: Program load time
Message-ID: <940@loral.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 9-Oct-85 11:38:16 EDT
Article-I.D.: loral.940
Posted: Wed Oct  9 11:38:16 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 15-Oct-85 11:28:10 EDT
References: <216@cositex.UUCP> <372@wlbr.UUCP>
Reply-To: jcb@loral.UUCP (Jay C. Bowden)
Distribution: net
Organization: Loral Instrumentation, San Diego
Lines: 25
Summary: The C64 could have been a contender..


Commodore has quite a heritage to live down, in  my eyes,
with respect to program loading times from the disk.
The biggest reason I know of why the C64, which seemed to
have a lot going for it otherwise, proved to be essentially
unusable for *serious* applications was the crippling
speed of the link to the disk.  The first time I saw the
Flight Simulator message: "Program Load Time 2:50" my
jaw dropped to the floor!  The machine only has 64K of RAM,
but takes 3 minutes to load it?

So that's why you all have thrown your C64's in the closet,
and are chomping at the bit to buy a new Amiga.  The
question in my mind is, have they done it again?

It is interesting to note how previous computer experience
can taint a persons perceptions w.r.t personal computers.
People who had worked with 80 column screens COULD NOT
STAND the thought of using an Apple (40 col) for word processing.
After a Kaypro or other vanilla CP/M machine, waiting 3
minutes for 64K bytes of RAM to load from the disk is
UNTHINKABLE.  But, did either of these constraints limit
the products success?  Sometimes ignorance is bliss.

                          - Jay