Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!husc6!endor!durham
From: durham@endor.harvard.edu (Peter Durham)
Newsgroups: comp.os.os9
Subject: Re: survey response
Message-ID: <1260@husc6.harvard.edu>
Date: 23 Feb 89 21:51:25 GMT
References: <8902131319.AA18648@decwrl.dec.com>
Sender: news@husc6.harvard.edu
Reply-To: durham@endor.UUCP (Peter Durham)
Organization: Aiken Computation Lab Harvard, Cambridge, MA
Lines: 89

In article <8902131319.AA18648@decwrl.dec.com> akermanis@troa02.dec.com writes:
>I thought that it would be interesting to know more about the folks who read
>and contribute to comp.os.os9...
>
>  Name, and path to your site.

Peter Durham
I'm durham@endor.harvard.edu; for UUCP send to endor through harvard.

>  Type of system you run OS-9 on.

I have a CoCo3 with 512K, an LR Tech 5 meg hard disk (gee, it seemed SO
big not that long ago...), and miscellaneous other stuff.

>  What do you use OS-9 for? (Software development, word processing, etc.)

1. Recreational programming (almost a contradiction in terms)
2. Word processing (hey, I'm a student)
3. Games (my fiancee and I love King's Quest III; we've been stuck for a
          while but we just called the Sierra BBS last night and got a hint
	  that got us going again -- if you're stuck it's really worth the
	  call, they give excellent hints, with subtlety decreasing as
	  you wish)
4. Terminal (NO!  It seems a sin to use my machine to call some other machine
             to do stuff there, but I have to do/grade course work...)

>  Significant programs you've contributed to public or private domain.

1. KMode -- like xmode, except for the CoCo1/2 keyboard, to make the
   extra keys in 2d source keyboards useful.  For level I only.
2. OS9p3 -- a "printerr" for level II.

>  How others might obtain the fruit of your work.

The above are on CIS and Delphi, I think.

>  Current and future projects you're working on.

OK, remember I'm a student, so there's a random chance these'll get done
someday.  A font editor.  A text editor (I've been enjoying the CoCo list
discussion on useful features).  Some useful subroutines for MultiVue
based programs.

>  What programs would you hope to find and/or buy in the near future?

1. A terminal program under OS9 that does good vt100 emulation at 2400.  This
is the "holy grail", I think.  Ultimaterm is an excellent RS-DOS terminal
program, but I'd much rather be under OS9.  From my experience, XCom9 is
the _only_ thing I've seen so far that doesn't drop half the characters.
I agree with what's being discussed as to terminal programs; I'd much
rather have lots of little programs (an autodialer, the simple terminal
program, small file transfer programs) than a big one.  A lot of the OS9
philosophy is "mix-and-match", and that's how something like this should be
done.
2. More Sierra adventure/graphics games.  They're good.

>  Other electronic forums you frequent (CIS, Delphi, etc.)

1. CIS (73177,1215)
2. Delphi (PEDXING)
3. the CoCo list (durham@endor.bitnet)
4. here

>  Other random comments while you're making a posting and might as well
>  say something.

1. Having the above-mentioned fiancee really curtails late-night hacking
   (not that I object to my current situation!!)
2. The CoCo III is a great home hacking machine; it's got good features
   like windowing and multitasking; it's a VERY open system.  Compare
   to other stuff: the generic PC has little more than I/O handling, and
   the Mac is a very closed system to work under.  It's a small system;
   it's relatively easy to know it inside out.  There isn't a machine
   out there that I'd rather have (though I'd take a Mac for free if I
   could keep my CoCo, since laser printing is good, and it'd be handy
   for grading; the NeXT is neat but $$$$)
3. What would my dream machine be?  It needs the following...
	1. A 68000-class engine and at least 1M memory.
	2. An OS like CoCo OS9 L2: windowing, multitasking, but not in
	   the programmer's way; easy to write small programs and/or
	   standalone applications.; modular; OPEN.
	3. A fast C compiler (like Lightspeed C), with source level
	   debugging, & windows; which will easily generate standalone
	   programs.

---------
Peter Durham
durham@endor.harvard.edu
durham@endor.bitnet