[Coco] Coco Newby

[arikboke at yahoo.com]

Hello Coconuts,

I'm David from California, USA.  My first computer experience was with a
"trash80" model III in junior high, and my first home computer was a Coco2.  I
was hunkering for an Atari 800 but my friend's dad (an electrical engineer)
advised me to get a "good" computer, the kind he had, a Coco1 with chiclet
keyboard! (he actually designed circuits on contract with that machine).

Fortunately, Radio Shack didn't sell that model anymore, and so I found
salvation in the form of a Coco2 and my own cassette recorder.  It was somewhat
of a painful experience, as the screen was always fuzzy due to interference,
the machine routinely burned the screens of all the color tvs in our house and
cassette operation was a nightmare.  But I loved what a few simple commands in
BASIC could make the computer do.  It seemed so empowering ...

Well, near two decades later, I've a BS in microbiology and am planning to get
my MS in biostatistics -- not exactly a PhD in CIS :)  However, I recently ran
across Nicolar Marentes' Workshop site and I began to wonder what my life would
have been like if I had followed my passion back then.

I wish to know more about machine coding and digital electronics and I wonder
if learning the (relatively) less complex Coco would help me in this direction.
 Or perhaps I should just jump on the Intel Inside bandwagon?  I'm not sure and
perhaps the old coconuts who have learned both systems can give me the proper
direction.  If the Coco route, what books and tools do I need to buy?  If the
Wintel route, which books and tools should I purchase?  I should note that I've
already taken BASIC, Pascal, C, Javascript, and HTML.

I will not be using this knowledge directly, but as I am going towards the
field of biostats and possibly bioinformatics, having a decent knowledge of
computer systems (and possibly intefacing) would be very helpful.  I'm sorry
this is so long-winded, but I just didn't expect to be able to communicate with
a group of (still alive and thrashing) coco users.  I would appreciate any and
all feedback.  Thanks.

Sincerely,
David