Date   : Mon, 03 Apr 2006 21:48:44 +0100
From   : Jules Richardson <julesrichardsonuk@...>
Subject: Re: Basic & BBC Basic

Andy Armstrong wrote:
> like the same immediacy. Probably not I guess. I did have a thought a 
> while back that it'd be cool to have a Linux distro that turned an old 
> laptop into a dedicated BBC Emulator. It'd still take longer to boot of 
> course.

You got me wondering just how long it *would* take, though. Custom kernel with 
just the bits that are needed, minimal X config etc.

Presumably there are DOS-based BBC emulators around - a DOS-based emulator 
that talked to the video and audio hardware direct (and used DOS for access to 
the hard disk) would presumably be a lot leaner an approach.

>> Oh yes, the teachers need changing too! the ones at my childrens schools
>> insist that the PC case is a "CPU" or "Processor" <sigh>
> 
> Yeah. People call them disk drives too.

But then at least in the UK, 99% of the curriculum is dictated by central 
Government. I doubt any IT teacher's *allowed* to teach real computing without 
getting fired.

> Turns out I was wrong about that - OO does indeed now have a database 
> thingy.

Wonder if you can choose not to install it if needed? That's a lot of what's 
wrong with software these days - bundled features that half the users never 
need but that are hard to get rid of :-(