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