MC400 or MC600
==============
Note: this post was written some time ago. I just forgot to upload it.
I have found and interesting blog of someone who is using the PSION
MC400 these days [1] (even for some sort of on-line work!). This is
interesting and pretty inspiring, I must say.
I have both the MC400 (a EPOC/SIBO OS machine) and the MC600 (a MS-DOS
machine). Actually, I like the MC600 better. It is not because its OS
interface (there is the DOS 3.x which is the somewhat unfriendly
operating system - it's very basic and limited, it even does not have
command line history in its shell). It is probably because its bigger
versability. There are many DOS programs. There are also some ports
of open source programs which are (or were) often used in the
UNIX/BSD/Linux world like the Vim (well, 5.x as maximum), the SC
spreadsheet (6.22), the Gnuplot (3.2, I think) and so on. Some DOS TeX
distribution can run here in theory (in practice, it does not fit
because of limited storage size). There also can run commercial DOS
titles if one has them (word processors, spreadsheets and so - I only
have the C compiler here).
It is possible to run stuff like PDA synchronisation utilities (for the
Atari Portfolio, Cambridge Z88, PSION Organiser II and so on) and even
development environment and emulator for the Organiser II. Even the
WWW browser is available (but I have to find a way to connect the thing
to the Internet - there is a serial port for this...).
In other hand, the MC400 as a touchpad (an early one which is a bit
unusual by today's standards but in general it works) a better screen
(though I suspect that 600 and 800 have the same screens and the MC600
uses just a half of vertical resolution because of the DOS/CGA
limitations) and a very nice GUI.
The funny fact is that the GUI machine has (and needs) less RAM (256
kB) than the DOS one (1-024 kB). The 256 kB (which is shared with the
internal ramdisk - the K: disk drive) is of course limiting as one
cannot run too much programs at one time. But the DOS box can generally
run just one full-featured program at one time in any case!
The MC400 with GUI can run the word processor and the spreadsheet at
once, plus calendar or other tools.
The problem is that the SIBO system and its software have many
limitations. There can run only programs designed for this particular
machine. It is not possible to run software developed for the later
PSION Series 3 machines (they have to be modified for that). So one is
generally limited to: a plain text editor (also works as a simple OPL
language IDE), a calculator, a calendar program (which is quite nice)
and a communication software. If one has an additional software then
there can be also the word processor (a simple one but it can do - I
think - tables and can use the RTF format), the spreadsheet (a rather
powerful tool but without any ability to make graphics) and one or two
games. There is also an English language spell checker. And this is
all. It is also good to mention that the OPL language cannot do any
graphics nor GUI elements - it only outputs to the text window (the GUI
functionality was added only in the Series 3 line). If one can live
with these few programs then the M400 is a great and very comfortable
machine. If one needs something else the he/she is out of luck...
I actually use the MC400 for writing of texts and for messing up with
the OPL. The MC600 I use for writing of blogs, for operating my PSION
Organiser II fleet, for some C programming and for making spreadsheets
in the SC (and for other things I forgot to mention). If feels more
bare bone (because of the DOS) but allows me to do more things than the
more sleek MC400.
This text was written on the MC600 in the Vim, of course.
Reference(s):
[1]
https://zedstarr.com