Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!hao!ames!ptsfa!ihnp4!ihlpm!njd
From: njd@ihlpm.ATT.COM (DiMasi)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.8bit
Subject: Re: Re: Used 800XL, etc.
Message-ID: <1676@ihlpm.ATT.COM>
Date: 6 Feb 88 00:07:26 GMT
References: <31873P4O@PSUVMA>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories - Naperville, Illinois
Lines: 47

> Patrick O'Toole writes:
> I have a atari 800XL and run a small BBS system up in the Scranton,Pa
> area.  I have the 800Xl with the Newell 256K Ramdisk.
> Although I think it is a great machine CMO seems to differ.
> ....
>      
The 800XL was (and yes, still is, as are the  "old"  400  and  800)  a
great  machine.   But, what don't you like about the XE machines?  The
difference that most people in net.land complained about when the XE's
came  out  (as I recall) was in the keyboards.  Some people prefer the
feel (or whatever you call it) of the XL keyboards to the  XE.   Also,
the console keys on the XEs are harder to see and in a different place
(which, I admit, caused my wife and I a little trouble  until  we  got
used  to them.  "Coloring" the first letter of each console key's name
with a different-color marker on each keytop seemed to help  us  adapt
to the console key "transplantation").

Even if you don't like the new keyboards (which we did,  once  we  got
used  to  them), the XEs are otherwise superior (in my opinion).  Note
for example, the "complete" video hookups on the monitor output  jack,
that is, BOTH luma AND chroma are actually wired!  This means, that on
a 130XE, you can get the  best  resolution  available  from  any  (un-
hacked-on)  8-bit  Atari  on  a  compatible monitor (e.g. the recently
readily available Commodore 1802C).

The extra 64K of RAM (a bit less if you talk  to/read  Bill  Wilkinson
et. al.) in the 130XE  is no piece of dogdoo either, especially if you
have a DOS that supports a RAMdisk in  that  extra  memory  (BTW,  the
OMNIVIEW  80-column  chip  from  CDY [where has he moved to?] supports
that RAMdisk with any DOS as long as the  DOS  isn't  hiding  part  of
itself  in  the  "old"  XL  16K  bank,  ala  DOS-XL in extended mode).
(Granted, a 64K RAMdisk is not huge, but better  than  no  RAMdisk  at
all!   Now  if I only had time to program again...)  And there is some
commercial/PD/?  s/w that uses all that memory also (like Synfile  XE,
though I'm not sure what it uses it for; buffers I guess).

(I won't even go into the OS and BASIC changes [improvements,  mostly]
to  the  XEs,  mostly  because  I don't know that much about them :-).
Anyone else care to take over here?)

So, what you think?  Was the 800XL better than  the  XE  machines?   I
don't feel that way.  How about the rest of you 8-bit users?

Nick DiMasi
Uni'q Digital Technologies (Fox Valley Software subsidiary;
   ^          working as a contractor at AT&T Bell Labs in Naperville, IL)
(  | this is an accent mark, supposed to replace the dot over the 'i')