TRS-80 Model I

[Jim Battle]

Jay West wrote:
> Al wrote...
>> I have a HUGE softspot in my heart for the TRS-80 Model I, having 
>> purchased a 16k, Level I unit in December of 1978. A unit, I still own 
>> today,
> That's the one system I don't have in my collection that I'd really like 
> to - a TRS-80 model I with tandy monitor and perhaps the expansion unit. 
> I never owned one, but a lot of my friends in the late 70's timeframe 
> did and we always fought about if my Apple ][+ was better than their 
> TRS80 :)
> 
> Jay

That must have been a short argument.  I used both a lot in high school. 
  The model I was unreliable in the extreme.  The model III's were much 
better in that regard.

Level I BASIC that was the low-end option of the Model I (and only 
option originally) was a slightly improved Palo Alto Tiny BASIC.

Mechanically and esthetically, the Apple II case was vastly superior. 
For I/O, the Apple was vastly superior.  For graphics, the Apple was 
vastly superior.  Both had MS BASIC, which was a wash, but the various 
TRS-80 DOS's were much better than Apple's DOS (at least as of 3.3, 
which was the last version I used).

Nevertheless, the Z80 is nearer and dearer to me than the 6502.

I still have the source code for a couple of the asm programs that I 
wrote for the TRS-80.  One was a fancy pong, the other was a symbolic 
differentiator I did as a calculus project.  Mathematica is slightly ;-) 
more powerful, but mine came first.