Date   : Tue, 10 May 2005 13:08:32 +0000
From   : Jules Richardson <julesrichardsonuk@...>
Subject: Re: Beeb versus Master?

On Tue, 2005-05-10 at 13:50 +0100, neil f wrote:
>  > Jules Richardson wrote
> > On Tue, 2005-05-10 at 09:44 +0100, Richard Gellman wrote:
> > > To summarise: The Master 128 is technically superior, and
> > 98% of the
> > > time it will run BBC B stuff without problems. But the occasional 
> > > piece of software written by lazy monkeys might have odd behaviour.
> > 
> > Hmm, build a two layer machine with a M128 and BBC B board in the same
> 
> > case (sharing same keyboard and output ports)  :-)
> 
> ;-) I don't think the keyboard would be share-able as they use different
> electrical systems/connectors.

Yep, I'm sure there's nothing like a direct mapping - mind you, there'd
only be one machine running and doing useful work at any one time...

Keep the Master keyboard plugged exclusively into the Master, but hang a
module off the Master's bus that interfaces to the BBC B's keyboard
socket; then when the BBC B is 'active' the Master side of it gets used
purely as a keyboard translator...

Sharing the rear ports might be a bit more tricky, except for a quick
hack involving a bunch of relays!
 
(I don't even know why I'm thinking about this stuff! :-)

> I am thinking about putting a Master into a Beeb case though, to give me
> the Beeb's nice case and small footprint combined with the Master's
> obvious advantages.

Hmm, I suppose you'll get to work out how to interface a BBC B keyboard
to a Master system board then!

(Many moons ago I was working out how to interface a BBC B keyboard to a
PC, but I honestly can't remember why I wanted to do that now :)

cheers

Jules