[Coco] What are some good starting points for a CoCo noob (me)?

[Joel Ewy]

Hex Star wrote:
> [...]
>
> My original plan was to try and learn by reading posts but that didn't
> really work as many of the posts have just gone over my head. Learning the
> CoCo will most definetly be a whole new experience for me and I really look
> forward to learning how to use it. 
A lot of the more technical posts on this list are related to
(Nitr)OS-9, and may make more sense to you after you've spent a little
time with it.  The BASIC stuff (Color BASIC (original CoCo), Extended
Color BASIC (CoCo 2 and option on original CoCo), Super Extended Color
BASIC (CoCo 3), Disk (Super) Extended Color BASIC (AKA DECB and RS-DOS
-- what you get when you plug in a CoCo floppy disk controller with a
Disk BASIC ROM), should be pretty easy to comprehend if you spend some
time with the Radio Shack manuals (/(Getting Started)|(Going Ahead) With
(Extended)? COLOR BASIC/ and "Color Computer Disk System").  NitrOS-9
comes with a good manual as a PDF.  OS-9 is quite a bit like UN*X, but
the names of the commands and utilities are more like MS-DOS.  So while
you would 'ls' in Linux, you 'dir' in OS-9.  OTOH, the OS-9 file system
structure is more like UN*X.  You use forward slashes (as God intended)
and there are no letters assigned to drives.
UN*X:       ls /usr/bin
MS-DOS:   dir c:\dos
OS-9:         dir /dd/cmds  (or a shortcut that may do something similar
-- dir -x)

All the above commands show you the contents of a directory full of
system utilities.
> Maybe then I can move on to the TRS-80...
> :D
>
>   
Uh.  The CoCo is (or _was_) a TRS-80.  The first CoCo was called the
TRS-80 Color Computer, as that was the name Tandy used for its entire
computer line at the time of the CoCo's introduction.  Later it was
changed to the Tandy Color Computer.  You're probably thinking of the
TRS-80 Model I or Model III.
> (when will the FPGA coco be for sell?)
>
>   
Probably never as a consumer product.  When Gary Becker has finished and
tested the HDL code to his satisfaction, he has said he will release the
code for others to use and contribute to.  When is up for him to decide,
and we who have not (yet) done anything to help him with his project,
should just wait -- eagerly, but patiently. 

But even when he releases his code, it will likely remain very much a Do
It Yourself project.  If you want one, you will probably have to buy a
compatible FPGA development kit, load Gary's code onto it, and maybe
even do a little soldering to make some custom cables and so forth
(though I'm not sure how much of that will be necessary).  Somebody
could come up with a kit of auxiliary circuits, connectors, cables,
mounting brackets, etc. to plug into the development board and make it a
little more CoCo-like, but that's probably the closest thing you will
see to a commercial FPGA CoCo.

One thing that may help you understand and perhaps eventually fit into
the CoCo community a little better is that there is a strong DIY ethic
here.  The CoCo, when it first came out of the box, was so limited in
its capabilities (not potential) that you _had_ to learn something about
how computers work in order to get much use out of it at all.  Almost
everything was an extra add-on option.  I upgraded my CoCo from 4K to
16K, added an Extended Color BASIC ROM, and eventually expanded it to
64K -- by plugging individual chips in sockets.  (Actually I think I had
the Shack do the 64K upgrade, as it required some modifications to the
motherboard.  These days I would be less afraid to do something like
that myself.)

I added a floppy disk system and an 8-pin dot matrix printer (DMP-105),
bought Telewriter 64, and could finally type my papers for Jr. High on a
word processor.  But I learned something with each thing that I added. 
These days you buy a computer that has a thousand functions you don't
use, and instead of upgrading the RAM, you throw it away and buy a new
one in a couple years.  What do you learn?  Nothing.  Not even how to
properly run your email client.

There was, at one time, a thriving market of largely home-grown add-on
goodies for the CoCo, designed and sold by little "Mom & Pop" companies
that have mostly disappeared as the computer world became ever more
consolidated in the hands of a very few, large suppliers.  But many of
us on this list remember a time when you really could roll your own
software or even hardware, take out an ad in Rainbow magazine, and
perhaps even make a few bucks, or at least have some fun trying.

So for many of us, what is cool about an FPGA CoCo is not whether or not
one can buy it pre-packaged in shrink-wrap at the Wal-Mart, but the very
fact that individual, real human beings can design and implement one, in
loose collaboration with a few like-minded souls over the Internet. 
Yes, you may have to work a little to get your own FPGA CoCo set up and
running.  But running the CoCo is like eating homemade ice cream.  It
tastes far, far better than what you can buy in the store -- even if it
ends up costing you more to make it.  But it tastes better still if you
have actually gotten in there and turned the crank yourself.

JCE
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