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From: rbowman <bowman@montana.com>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,comp.os.linux.misc
Subject: Re: The joy of FORTRAN
Date: 8 Mar 2025 05:09:37 GMT
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On 8 Mar 2025 04:12:40 GMT, Ted Nolan <tednolan> wrote:

> In article <vqgc0o$k2b$1@reader1.panix.com>,
> Dan Cross <cross@spitfire.i.gajendra.net> wrote:
>>In article <m30ve0FnaglU2@mid.individual.net>,
>>rbowman  <bowman@montana.com> wrote:
>>>On Fri, 7 Mar 2025 13:06:38 -0000 (UTC), Dan Cross wrote:
>>>
>>>> DEC in the 80s and 90s had a very forward-looking vision of
>>>> distributed computing; sadly they botched it on the business side.
>>>
>>>Their entry into the PC business certainly was ill-conceived.
>>
>>I think that was part of their failure.  While the _vision_ was good, it
>>was only _their_ vision.  You either did things the DEC way or not at
>>all.
>>
>>	- Dan C.
>>
>>
> I remember doing a CSCI graphics project on DEC Rainbows.  The whole "we
> won't pay for two floppy drive arms" thing just felt kind of cheap. 
> OTOH, Turbo Pascal for the Rainbow on CPM/86 was a decent development
> environment.

It was a strange company. In the late '70s we had a contract to assemble 
cables for the Augusta ME plant. The manager decided to give the work to a 
tribal industry in a feel-good gesture. No big deal for us. We moved the 
five techs to other products but it didn't work out too well for them. 

The CP/M Turbo Pascal version might have run as well as the 8088. The 
architecture was different to say the least including the mirrored 
floppies.

The name had bad associations for me. My wife had sold Rainbow vacuum 
cleaners in a MLM setup when she was in college and we had one. Their 
claim to fame was using water to trap the dirt rather than a bag. They did 
work well but emptying the water reservoir made you wonder if you were 
living in a cabin with a dirt floor.