Date   : Wed, 23 May 2001 09:22:30 -0700
From   : Angus Duggan <angus@...>
Subject: Re: Tape reading/writing

W.H.Scholten writes:
>Thomas Harte wrote:
>> was primarily tape based machine, unlike the BBC with its 'money no object'
>> owners and their disc drives. Why should the majority of the old Electron
>
>Whoa there! This may be true for a small section, but tape has been the
>dominant format in the 8 bit days. Perhaps after around 1987 a large
>section of BBC owners may have had discs, but I doubt before that (I
>only got a disc when I bought one second hand in 1995).

I'd hardly say "money no object" for most BBC owners. Yes, I had a 5 1/4"
disc drive in 1983 (or maybe even 1982), but I had to save every penny for
over a year before I could afford it. I remember being *so* proud, because I
got one of the new 2/3 height disc drives instead of a full height one :-)
Buying the BBC blew all of the savings I had. And the self-build 2k RAM Acorn
Atom I had before that took most of what I had at the time. It was a couple
of years more before I could afford a monitor (I used a crappy old TV and
latterly a crappy old 9" B&W monitor scavenged from some test equipment for
the BBC).

a.