
Comix-35 Home Computer - sawaruna
https://github.com/schlae/comix-35
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reaperducer
Going a bit off topic here, but I love that it's called a "Home Computer."

Computers used to be a family thing. Back then it was a bit of a status symbol
to have a "computer room" for the family "home computer," and many a den or
library or spare bedroom in middle America was converted to being The Computer
Room. The ads on TV and in magazines showed families gathered around this new
wonder machine, and even in my dysfunctional household that really happened.
Family members who wouldn't normally speak to one another would come together
at the home computer.

Today, we have "personal computers." A term which evokes a more "me and mine"
vibe, rather than an "ours" ethos. We picked up the "PC" term from the
business world, where it was an important distinction that each person could
have a computer, rather than rely on the company's shared resources. But that
term should have stayed in the office.

There's a reason that early video game machines, and even some computers, had
four controllers — because people would come over to your house and you did
things as a group with other human beings. That's why everyone had candy
dishes in the living room and guest towels in the bathroom — in case "company"
came over.

Now, the state-of-the-art is being locked alone in the dark in a "media room"
with goggles and headphones in your own cocoon, shutting out the real world,
and the human beings in it.

~~~
TeMPOraL
I'm of two minds about this. On the one hand, it all sounds nice on the
surface. On the other hand, I definitely wouldn't be a developer today if
other members of my family were in any way interested in computers as I was.
Learning is a personal activity, and computers were a scarce resource back
then.

Competing for computer time is one of those childhood memories I'm least fond
of.

~~~
reaperducer
_Competing for computer time is one of those childhood memories I 'm least
fond of._

I understand competing for computer time. I had to sneak in computer time at
school because boys weren't allowed to use the computers. You were required to
take typing classes before you could get into the computer classes, and only
girls were allowed to take typing.

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0xcde4c3db
Oddly enough, the CDP1802 CPU appears to still be an active product via
Rochester Electronics, although the peripheral chips aren't.

~~~
jascii
It is one of the few radiation hardened processors available and still finds
use in defense and aerospace applications.

~~~
Malic
Gee, it sounds like tinkering with the Comix-35 could be a path to a career
that you couldn't talk about!

~~~
jascii
Eek, talking of legacy code! Legacy code determining life or death at times..

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jascii
Ah, the venerable 1802, the stackless wonder! My first computer was an 1802
based project published in a dutch radio amateur magazine called the "The
Cosmicos" mostly build using "engineering samples" I begged of of
manufacturers. Good times!

~~~
tuatoru
Yeah, back in the day it was sneeringly called a "nanoprocessor" rather than a
microprocessor by fans of the competition.

For a few years in the early 1980s I had a kit based on the 1802 with a whole
2 kB of RAM and a hexadecimal keypad. Fun times.

~~~
jascii
I started out with binary switches and led's. A hex keypad was an
improvement... Later I got a loud surplus mechanical tty, my mother was not
happy!

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jhallenworld
I'm impressed that he could find keycaps:

[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B083L6FVPN/](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B083L6FVPN/)

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jandrese
Am I crazy or is there no enter key on that keyboard?

~~~
detaro
As the text explains, the tab key is enter.

