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From: smvorkoetter@watmum.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc,comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Apple/ the look and feel of toys
Message-ID: <833@watmum.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 26-Feb-87 11:59:38 EST
Article-I.D.: watmum.833
Posted: Thu Feb 26 11:59:38 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 28-Feb-87 00:13:06 EST
References: <677@imsvax.UUCP> <294@sdics.ucsd.EDU>
Reply-To: smvorkoetter@watmum.UUCP (Stefan M. Vorkoetter)
Distribution: world
Organization: U. of Waterloo, Ontario
Lines: 28
Xref: utgpu comp.sys.ibm.pc:1960 comp.sys.mac:1481

In article <294@sdics.ucsd.EDU> nee@sdics.UUCP (Clydene Nee) writes:
>However, if we want to talk about jokes lets discuss the PC jr.

I happen to own a PCjr, and the only joke about it was the outrageously high
price for a "home" computer.  I got mine cheap, added the Racore expansion unit
and now have 640 K with two disk drives.  The PCjr is a very good machine.

	- it does not have DMA, but disk I/O is faster than any other PC or
	  PC clone I have tried, though I don't know why.  Only drawback is
	  that you can't type during disk I/O.
	- keyboard is compact.  All the keys are there, and they are all full
	  size, but the keyboard takes about half the space (Admittedly, the
	  original chiclet keyboard was a joke)
	- with the Racore extended memory, programs actually run FASTER on a
	  PCjr than they do on a PC.  The PC uses wait states, the PCjr does
	  not when running in the top 512K.  The bottom 128K is a different
	  story since the video circuit gets every other cycle.  Still only
	  about 10% slower than a PC there though.
	- better graphcis than a standard CGA, although completely downward
	  compatible.  Hi-res mode gives 640 x 200 in 4 colours, not just two.

I have used the PCjr for some serious development, and my only complaint is the
lack of a hard disk, although hard disk interfaces are becoming available.

IBM made several mistakes with the jr (price, original keyboard, original limit
of 128K), but their price reductions, new keyboard, peripherals and extra memory
and third party products make it the best bargain around.  Too bad they don't
make them anymore.