Joined: Fri Aug 30, 2002 1:09 am Posts: 8540 Location: Southern California
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I know what you mean, and even with things that are available on the internet, I don't like E-books, and if there's something I want or need badly enough, I email it to a place a mile away to get it printed, then I put it in a loose-leaf binder (which also isn't as good as a regular book binding). It's quicker to thumb through the paper, and you can pencil-in your notes, add the stickies, etc..
Various people (including WDC) have asked me if they could print the 6502 primer or post it also on their own sites. I always ask that they just refer to my site, because I'm always improving it. It's definitely not static. There's also the matter of all the hypertext links that would not get followed if they were on paper. I do keep the DNS paid up several years in advance, and the hosting service as well, so even if I get hit by a meteorite, it will remain up for at least that long. Then there's always archive.org.
I appreciate the compliment, and may someday offer the primer or other major features on the site as books, but I'm not really considering it at this time.
There are a few reasons it is a primer, not a university-level training:
- I originally wrote it to address problems and questions that newbies kept bringing up on the forum over and over.
- If it were to get too advanced, the newbies might be scared away, or otherwise not find the burried information they need.
- There are things which, because of my own uses for the 65xx computer, I myself have not gotten into, like video.
- There are other subjects I've wanted to address as well, some already posted (like the 6502 stacks treatise which is 19 articles plus appendices), and some still in progress, and these all take a lot of time. And like for everyone else, life gets in the way too.
- My own strength is in doing the unexpected with simple tools; and I like to stimulate others' thinking along those lines. My own job is mostly analog design anyway, and I just use the little computers to control the analog, whether on the workbench for testing and controlling experiments and taking data, or in our products. There are lots of circuits I want to add to the potpourri page, which although not strictly 65xx-related, support 65xx work.
I have a minor pipe dream of someday making my living in 65xx, but that dream includes making the information itself (including software) free (except in the case of books or materials that cost money to produce), to promote the interest. The market keeps changing though, so I'm not holding my breath. I saw the possibilities decades ago, and certain things remain rather constant but others have changed dramatically, like that everybody and their dog now sells cheap SBCs like Arduinos and Pis which have their attractions but leave certain needs unmet. Uh-oh, now I feel myself getting into the subject of computer education, and this post could get super long. I better stop.
_________________ http://WilsonMinesCo.com/ lots of 6502 resources The "second front page" is http://wilsonminesco.com/links.html . What's an additional VIA among friends, anyhow?
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