Date   : Wed, 07 Sep 1994 16:41:38 EST
From   : Stephen Quan <quan@...>
Subject: Re: Licensing ROMS

> I find it hard to imagine that anybody will seriously use BBC s/w over ...

The BBC computer may be more far reaching than you realise!  I knew
at least 3 years ago, model Bs were in several primary and secondary
schools here (well, I think you mentioned schools already).

The BBC used to be the standard education machine for our state, don't
know if that includes Australia wide, but I know a fair amount of
teachers and kiddies have used a BBC at one time in their life; but this
never went beyond the classroom.  During my highschool years, I thought
to be very fortunate to have a BBC of my own (I won it!).  Nowadays,
nobody seems entirely interested in the model B, and some of labs I have
seen have replaced the model Bs for masters, Archimedes or even plain
IBM-compatibles.

As far as an education machine, I still think the model B is great, and
I think Acorn should still churn it out as the machine you wouldn't shed
too many tears (or dollars) if it broke.  I have not seen any other
machine make learning hardware easy but retain the technical aspect
(ie. the BBC's user port).
-- 
Stephen Quan (quan@...                 ), SysAdmin, Analyst/Programmer.
Centre for Spatial Information Studies, University of Tasmania, Hobart.
GPO BOX 252C, Australia, 7001.  Local Tel: (002) 202898 Fax: (002) 240282
International Callers use +6102 instead of (002).