Date   : Mon, 21 Feb 1983 05:16:00 EST
From   : Jerry E. Pournelle <POURNE@mit-mc.arpa>
Subject: QX-10

I have a QX-10.  The software is unfinished, and it wouldn't be
fair to air my views of it widely until they've had a a chance
to fix some of the problems and act on m y suggestions.  The NET
is broken and I cannot send long messages due to the high
frustration factor..  I can't download anything either.  I
wouldn't mind seeing your review of the chip; can you cause Pam
to send me an early copy?
       They did many  things right on the Qx-10, but I doubt
the wisdom of not haing a full ASCII character set, and I
particularly wonder why there is no ESCAPE key; (there is, but
they call it "margin release", and it's in the wrong place, not
up in the upper left hand corner where everyone expects it)
(well it is there, but separated by a gap; could be it will be
all right; but there is no squiggle or grave or curly braces.
The control key(s) is/are placed a bit strangely too.  still, I
could get used to it, and if I had a guarantee that there'd be a
real 68000 cpu to add, as well as a way to connect to hard
disks, and perhaps some way to plug into 8" disks in order to
get software over to it, I'd plan on the QX-10 becoming a major
part of the system here.  With that non-standard bus inside it,
and nothing (that I have) on what will go i nthere, one doesn't
want to plan for too much.  If they get their software done, and
IF they make provisions for people to use it after they become
competent, instead of their present system in which everything
is easily understood by very naive users, but will drive you
nuts once you know how to work it--given those if's, it is one
heck of a nice m achine, and I suspect  potentially better than
LISA--and one heck of a lot cheaper.
       There's a port on the back for a light pen, although no
p en and no software for that yet.  It's a 4 wire socket, wonder
if they could put a mouse on there?