[HN Gopher] Programming the Convergent WorkSlate's spreadsheet m...
___________________________________________________________________
Programming the Convergent WorkSlate's spreadsheet microcassette
future
Author : ingve
Score : 44 points
Date : 2024-09-04 06:17 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (oldvcr.blogspot.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (oldvcr.blogspot.com)
| AstroJetson wrote:
| I had one of these when they came out. It truly was a marvel at
| the time. I used it all the time as my side machine. It was great
| as a spreadsheet machine, it wasn't fast but it could run very
| decent financial models.
|
| This article is the best I've ever seen about how the 'slate
| worked. It's super long, but really does a nice job on the
| technology.
| classichasclass wrote:
| (author) Hey, thank you! Did you ever try any of the
| telecommunications features or use any of Convergent's Taskware
| tapes?
| AstroJetson wrote:
| I used the telcom features, you could "talk" to another
| WorkSlate and exchange files, and use it as a terminal. At
| the time I worked for Burroughs and we had access to the full
| range of Convergent products. I don't know how much was
| Convergent stock or had been adapted by Burroughs to fit into
| the Convergent workstations we used/sold.
| rbanffy wrote:
| Convergent was so much ahead of its time... Their modular
| machines were the realisation of what Apple thought about
| doing with their project Jonathan.
| AstroJetson wrote:
| Yep, they were very much on the cutting edge. There was a
| ton of flexibility in how the systems set up. The
| networking part was very well done, you could have main
| units with disks, printers, etc. and use the remotes on
| people's desks. But as all things cool, they were
| expensive and ran face into lower cost PC's.
| rbanffy wrote:
| As we are all now familiar with the saying, "worse is
| better".
| jawon wrote:
| I've never seen this before. I love the design. It's like a drum
| machine for spreadsheets. And it's from 1983, the same year the
| Tandy Model 100 was released. A good year for gadgets.
| rbanffy wrote:
| There is just one question remaining: where do I get one?
| AstroJetson wrote:
| History on Ebay has them popping up. Check with the InfoAge
| Science Center, 2201 Marconi Rd., Wall, New Jersey, 07719. The
| Burroughs plant that supported them (Flemington) gave all that
| stuff away when they ended that product line.
| rbanffy wrote:
| A lot of eBay. unfortunately, is less than accessible from
| Ireland, where I live, but I will doubtlessly reach out to
| the InfoAge Center. It sounds like an interesting place
| anyway.
| prox wrote:
| Another computer from that time with a micro cassette is the
| P2000 from Philips.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philips_P2000
| jhbadger wrote:
| And the Epson PX-8 Geneva, a 1984 CP/M laptop using micro-
| cassettes rather than floppies. I actually had one for a time
| that I got a few years later when they were discontinued and
| were sold for a fraction of their original price.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epson_PX-8_Geneva
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2024-09-05 23:01 UTC)