How can I refresh the dictionary?

[Simon Knight]

If I thought it was just about LCB I wouldn't be in the process (long and painful) of jumping ship.

Which direction are you thinking of jumping ?

[richmond62]

Which direction are you thinking of jumping ?

Not very far at all: already have one leg in the ongoing Open Source LC-heritage 'thing'.

Within a month I envisage porting my Devawriter Pro code 'over there'.

[Simon Knight]

Not an option for me as I am using an M2 ARM Mac (Acorn Risc Machine?) and I look on my license fee in terms of full tanks of diesel.

[richmond62]

I understand exactly what you mean.

I'm trying to run my car on recycled cooking oil.

Which is OK in my Soviet-era Lada, but won't even allow the ignition to be turned on with a 2022 Toyota.

[stam]

Acorn Risc Machine?

That kind of statement always tickles me. It’s like calling F-22 Raptor fighter jet the Wright Brothers’ flying machine…

[Simon Knight]

That kind of statement always tickles me. It’s like calling F-22 Raptor fighter jet the Wright Brothers’ flying machine…

Well yes and no. A better comparison might be a Spitfire, I'd say the Sinclair ZX80 is more akin to the Wright Flyer. Its what ARM originally meant and the RiscPC outperformed the 486 P.C.s that were available at the time. Later the same RiscPC could be upgraded with a StrongArm which performed well ahead of the P.C. pack. Acorn dropped the successor machine Phoebe because it was never going to make any money as the IBM PC had the market share and PACE were looking at using the ARM chipset in the new fangled set top boxes.

I remember feeling that changing from a RiscPC to an Apple Laptop (System 8?) was a bit of a downgrade what with all the issues with system extension conflicts. In conclusion the history of massed produced technology market share trumps technical advantages; anyone want a Betamax recorder?

Did you know that the Wright Flyer was not the first powered flying machine ? While it was the first to carry a person, others had experimented but the engines available at the time were not up to the task. See https://www.newscientist.com/definition ... 0the%20job.

[stam]

Did you know that the Wright Flyer was not the first powered flying machine ? While it was the first to carry a person, others had experimented but the engines available at the time were not up to the task. See https://www.newscientist.com/definition ... 0the%20job.

Well we all know that it's rare that inventions claimed by a named inventor were actually first invented by them. Telephony is a prime example.

But what I was referring to was: Calling silicon Macs "Acorn RISC machines" is a useful a comparison as comparing an F-22 to an archaic flying machine: It's ignoring the huge evolutionary and revolutionary advances in design and hardware as well as software, and basically is the same as saying: "well, the principle of 1 tiny aspect of the machine is similar, so yeh basically the same"

I saw a TV documentary on BBC micro/Acorn, where some of the surviving inventors basically insinuating that Apple's success was due to them. Unlike the F-22 however, that don't fly

[FourthWorld]

I saw a TV documentary on BBC micro/Acorn, where some of the surviving inventors basically insinuating that Apple's success was due to them. Unlike the F-22 however, that don't fly

Apple has done a great job of advancing the GUI they licensed from Xerox, the Gorilla Glass they pay extra to rebrand from Corning, and the chip architecture they license from Acorn.

I agree it is a mistake to diminish Apple's contributions to those. And it would also be a mistake to suggest that the company's accomplishments would be anywhere close to what we see without those foundations.

Both companies see the m series as a partnership, a reasonable characterization of their mutual contributions.

https://www.macrumors.com/2023/09/06/ap ... -designer/

[richmond62]

One should not diminish Apple's achievement: but one should acknowledge that almost everything had its seeds elsewhere, and that Apple subsequently made everything considerably better.

After all nobody gets stroppy that William Shakespeare 'nicked' most of his plot lines from other authors, and took their seriously crappy plays and worked them up into fantastic things.

No one goes to watch Kyd's 'Hamlet' nowadays!

Or reads, Saxo Grammaticus's story about some Danish bloke called 'Amleth'.

[Simon Knight]

All fair points. A few years ago I downloaded a RiscOS emulator and it was like stepping back into the middle ages. The British problem has always been failing to develop and market inventions.

[stam]

I saw an old video of Steve Jobs being grilled by an audience member about dropping openDoc - really quite vociferously.

Steve very elegantly made the point that many technology inventions and evolutions will not be marketable and valuable for sales, because the developers focus too much on the technical 'cleverness' of the what they are developing and put all the development into that. What he did with Apple after returning and restructuring it was answer a simple question: What could he develop to make the user's life better/easier. And in pursuing that, some technological advances would be sacrificed because ultimately they want to sell machines, not be 'clever'.

Or to put it more simply: It's not about the amount of technology you have, it's about the specific customer's needs
I'm probably not representing that quite correctly so here is the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeqPrUmVz-o&t=85s

I suspect in many cases British technology firms have failed to grasp that subtle difference and as a result failed to engage the customer base...

[Simon Knight]

I suspect in many cases British technology firms have failed to grasp that subtle difference and as a result failed to engage the customer base...

I think its known as gold plating.

[richmond62]

A lot of it comes down to the oppressive British (English?) culture of mediocrity: anyone who stands out gets squashed.

That is why there are a lot of English and Scottish people who moved (and keep moving) to the United States with their inventions and ideas.

While the USA has some fairly bad cultural aspects, no one, but no one can say that their way of doing things discourages innovation.

Britain is regulated to the point of fossilisation, and that's before you get to the culture of running down people's achievements.

I certainly felt freer to make intelligent comments in the USA than I ever did in England.