Re: Cables and or connectors

[<alez@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Sven,

Thanks for the info and the links. I had already browsed your 
comprehensive page about the PC-3000.

> But then again, this would require a cable too, and chances are you
> need to solder for this once more...

The other day I began to wonder if anything cool could still be done 
with NO cables at all.. I've got a laptop with built in microphone, 
surely it could LISTEN to the PC-3000 by making a very simple, low 
speed, software modem. This way you could just forget about being 
extremely careful when you plug or unplug the connectors (connectors are 
fragile and if these are hard to find, they will be harder to find in 
the future). The big disadvantage is that nothing can be done the other 
way around, because the PC-3000 cannot listen.

For me, the great straightforward application for this PC is using it as 
a notepad to write documents, emails or code in the bus or underground, 
for example. I say this because I most often carry a folder with some 
paper and a pen with me for that purpose but I think that a computer is 
much more convenient. I often end up with 3 sheets of paper containing 4 
or 5 lines of valid text and 500 lines crossed out. With the text editor 
I can see 25 lines full of info at a time and many more if I scroll and 
still, when I finish, I can store the file on my regular backup without 
having to retype (once transferred) instead of having all those sheets 
of paper spread all around (grep is good for searching texts). And that 
small thing is light and still the keyboard is quite usable, you don't 
need to carry a laptop for that.

As the functionality would be so limited, I then decided to forget all 
about it and go for the cables :-) After all, it would be a real pitty 
to use such a neat device, which is a real standard DOS platform 
including 8088 and full CGA just as a notepad.

Anyway, it would have been nice to hear the data flow :-) Of course, the 
transmitter software could be written in pure 8088 asm and, once 
assembled into a .COM program file, programmed (typed) into the PC-3000 
using debug.

Cheers,


Alex