Re: GIMP 3.0.0-RC1

On 1/12/25 7:07 AM, Charlie Gibbs wrote:

On 2025-01-12, 186282@ud0s4.net <186283@ud0s4.net> wrote:
 

    The 8086 would have been better, but the extra wiring
    apparently would have pushed up the price too much
    according to some old interview with an IBM guy.
    They didn't KNOW it would be super-successful, so they
    kinda hedged their bets, split the diff. 640k banks
    were a hell of a lot better than 64k banks.

 The 64K barrier was alive and well on the 8086/8.
I wrote a lot of horrible code to deal with large arrays.
Then there were all the memory models: tiny, small, large,
huge... yuck.
 

    The instructions for the 8088 were "familiar" to
    anyone who did the 8008/8080 and not TOO far
    from Z-80 sensibility - so I think that cinched Intel
    as the maker. WISH they'd used the 68000s. Ever
    see the Sage boxes ... gone alas before I could
    afford one .......

 I got into the Amiga and enjoyed the 68000 that way.

   Alas I spent big $$$ and bought the very first Amiga
   model. NOTHING but "Guru Meditation" errors ... dumped
   the thing and bought a PC clone.
   The little Macs were cute - but kinda expensive and
   had that weird 'Apple mentality' - so never bought one.
   At my age now I'd need special glasses just to read
   the tiny screen  :-)
   I remember Tandy had a TRS model that'd take a 68k
   add-on board, ran some version of CP/M-68k. Again
   out of my price range at the time.
   So, alas, my exposure to the 68k series wound up
   being limited. Too bad, it WAS a great chip for
   the time. Apparently Intel could just produce
   more for cheaper and won The War.
   Haven't researched it in detail, but it's said the
   68k's ultimately had 'scalability issues' - ie
   it wasn't easy to change the architecture, not
   easy to go forwards. They could make slightly
   faster versions, but no Great Leaps.
   You can still buy 68000 chips from DigiKey and
   Mouser - about nine bucks - and the 'ColdFire'
   successors. STILL useful and used for embedded
   apps, esp 'devices'. Good ideas persist.