On Fri, Oct 22, 2004 at 02:03:13PM -0500, James Rohde wrote: > Didn't someone write (and if they didn't someone should have) a > corollary, to the effect that the amount of memory required to run a > program doubles every x number of years? AKA Bloatware or 'feeping > creatures'?
You cannot generalise that rule. As much as I hate to admit this, there are some things which an Apple II cannot do -- no matter how much chrome you remove. :`( For example: I know of people who do simulations of physical systems (eg. the dynamics of galaxies). If you were to try this on a stock Apple II, you would be able to simulate galaxies with several hundred stars and it would take a very long time to do so. Current simulations use millions of stars, which means that it would take about a million times longer and a thousand times more memory. To take a more common example: you would only be able to do the simplest of video production without special hardware (the NTSC/PAL video out does have some advantages ;-). Digital photography would be a bit of a pain with limited video modes too! That said, there is a lot of stuff which would be functionaly equivalent if you stripped out the eyecandy. That can be said of most word processing (even a lot of math/science writing is possible through the likes of LaTeX or troff) and even web browsing would be functionally equivalent in a text-only environment. While some of the software may require too much memory or processing time to be viable on an Apple II, you can always do the old fashioned thing and login to a remote system to run LaTeX or lynx or pine to get your work done. Unfortunately, that way of doing things is dying off for running the software on your own system, or CPU intensive web front ends. (I used this sort of setup to get through a year of university after my 486 died, when I only had an IIe and IIgs. And guess what, my grades didn't suffer.) While there are cases where illustrations are useful, most of the graphics you see serve positively no purpose. In fact, one of the reasons why I prefer old computers is because they allow the user to focus on content creation, rather than wasting time on design. Unfortunately, it has reached the point where you must "powerpoint" a public talk (even course material) otherwise people will ignore you. I don't know whether they assume black and white transparencies mean you are unprepared, hence unworthy to listen too, or if they need the novelty of colour "digital" projections just to keep their interest. But it is a pattern I've noticed. Byron. -- Apple2list is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... / Buy books, CDs, videos, and more from Amazon.com \ / <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect-home/lowendmac> \ Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> Apple2list info: <http://lowendmac.com/lists/apple2.html> --> AOL users, remove "mailto:"; Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/apple2list%40mail.maclaunch.com/> Using a Mac? Free email & more at Applelinks! http://www.applelinks.com
