[Coco] Heathkit H89

[Bill Gunshannon]

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From: Coco [coco-bounces at maltedmedia.com] on behalf of Rob Rosenbrock [bester at adamswells.com]
Sent: Saturday, April 22, 2017 2:27 PM
To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts
Subject: Re: [Coco] Heathkit H89


LOL

I didn't intend that, but meant that in relation to the Coco the (stock)
Mod I/III graphics are crude/rudimentary - just SET & RESET, and rather
lo-res at that. In fact, that was one of the reasons I bought my first
Coco.

What I found funny was discussing a H89 as if moving to it from the Mod
III when I did just the opposite.

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Well, if put into context it looks somewhat different.
Let's start with the H89.  It's "contemporaries" were mostly home built S100
boxes with terminals connected to a serial port.  So they basicly just removed
the serial cable. (Would love to see a manual for the H-89 to see how they
implemented the terminal.)

Then you have the TRS-80 Model1/III (and 4).  Actual market was small business
as evidenced by the availability of packages like A/R, A/P, General Inventory and
Payroll. Plus compilers for real languages like COBOL and Fortran.  Of course. much
more was available from outside of Tandy.  And, games did make their way into the
inventory but the graphics were more than adequate for sales charts.  Oh, and I
even have a program for computng the radiation patterns of "All Driven Element
Vertical Phased Arrays" which does just fine with those graphics. (I am thinking
it might be fun to port it to the COCO not only for DECB but maybe for Basic09 as
well.)

And lastly, we have the COCO.  Intended market, the game computer world.
It had mostly games and education.  Both markets that needed good graphics.
OS-9 was available but Tandy did little to push it and in most cases you had to
have prior knowledge of its existence and then had to convince them to order it
for you (pre-paid, of course as they didn't want to get stuck with it in the store
if you backed out.  I know, I got mine very early in game.)

So, It is easy to see why the differences and what the progression was.  The
fuhn is still working with them, and I do.  Now, if I could just find an H-8 somewhere
that I could afford.  :-)

bill