ike this, only to be thrown abuse from the community. Yes, its expensive,
but we have already spoken about the amount of work involved. Also, I
suspect that in reality there is very little profit to be made from such a unit. Would you like to comment?

A. That's why I don't bother talking to people in the online communities
that do not give anything positive back into them. Some people have a real passion for all things retro; others can only say they could do it better,
but of course they don't. The Internet is full of freetards like this; hey
- they're probably still living with Mother! If I was trying to make a
living wage making these, well, frankly - I couldn't. It is important to
make a profit; as with everything I sell, it has a warranty. So you have
to cost things with this in mind. If one breaks I have to replace it.

- - - - - - - - - -

Q. What was the motivation? Was it just a challenge - or did you see a
real need for this?

A. I wanted a C64 I could use anywhere, so I got off my backside and did
it!

- - - - - - - - - -

Q. Of course we need to talk about compatibility and the DTV was never
100% Commodore-compatible. In your experience, how compatible is the
device (you mention it runs GEOS)?

A. No, it's not 100% compatible, but it surprised me on how much stuff
does work. From what I'd read about the DTV I wasn't expecting much, but
just about everything I've personally used seems to work peachy! Yes, I
did have a working GEOS - it was amazing! But some idiot (me) formatted
the SD card. It's on my to-do list to recreate the DTV-GEOS disk images.

- - - - - - - - - -

Q. In GEOS, can some of the DTV's memory be used as a ramdisk?

A. Yes, this can be done, but the version I ran didn't use this. It's something that I'd love to spend some time on, but I'm kinda hoping that
one of the C64p owners might do the leg work for me! I've got other
portables in the works, you know, and very little time to play with my own toys.

- - - - - - - - - -

Q. Maybe you would like to tell our readers about some of the other
services you can provide.

A. I mostly get questions regarding C64 and its repair - that's fine by
me. But I can answer most questions on just about any 8/16/32 bit
machines, and I'm always happy to help (no Apple please, I'm British).

- - - - - - - - - -

Q. Why did you select the model of machine you did to start the
customisation?

A. The donor laptop is one of those OEMs you see with different brands
printed on them. In fact, I bought so many of these things, I even found
OEM clones!

- - - - - - - - - -

Q. One thing you have created is a very professional looking piece of hardware. It doesn't look to quote yourself like it's a "butchered piece
of hardware." Do you have plans for any other hardware device?

A. Yep, they do look good, even if I do say so myself. Like I've already said, the feedback on the C64p has been amazing. I always worry when you
sell things like this, and yes, I do have plans for more hardware. Two
more laptops (original hardware) are in the works with a possible third - probably eye-wateringly pricey. They will need custom plastics.

- - - - - - - - - -

Q. Have you been contacted by Jeri Ellsworth, the creator of the DTV? I wonder what she makes of your customisations. You could say the DTV has
been customised to the max with the creation of the C64p.

A. I did send her a tweet. She probably thought, "Yeah, whatever." I
didn't hear anything back.

- - - - - - - - - -

Q. Of course I have to ask - why call it the C64p?

A. It was gonna be called the if64 (rude)... "P" for portable (little p,
as it's small), and 64p is slightly humorous because I'm British and it
doesn't cost 64 pence (we say pee, BTW).

- - - - - - - - - -

Q. Finally, do you have any comments you would like to make?

A. Trust me, some of you might do a little wee when you see what I've got
in the works.

www.thefuturewas8bit.co.uk



*************************************
SPAGHETTI CODE
By John Fielden
*************************************

'GOTO' BASIC (aka 8-bit or "procedural") has often been criticised for
causing spaghetti code. Sorry... No! Programmers (I use the term quite loosely!) are responsible for getting their work in a mess! Look at it
this way: When you have to clean your room, you don't say, "Oh, it's that
new wardrobe from MFI. We should have gone to Argos!" You just don't, do
you? You get the missus to do it!

Joking aside, "Good programmers have a pen & paper handy," as the saying
goes. However, in my case I seem to use the technique backwards. When something I've started becomes too big to check through on-screen, or
there's something I can't figure what I've done wrong simply by looking,
that's usually when the pen & paper come out of the drawer. It's a great
way to tidy up the mess. Believing the common trend that blames procedural rather than a person's logic, planning capabilities, etc., the VB.Net
company have pretty much destroyed that which was the beauty of BASIC and
basic programming. Now, as I look through the walk-through guide of the
Visual Studio 2003 Edition, there's very little difference between VB, VC, VC++, VC#, and so on. What is the point when the only real difference is
in the syntax (grammar, loosely speaking)? Sometimes it's merely a case of throwing extra symbols in!

I mean, what is the point?

Anyone interested may as well invest in learning its common (intermediary) language. The rest. On the face of it, at least. Seems pretty much
surplus to requirements! A waste of the company's time and money investing
in the other languages (which more and more seem a mere split off from
BASIC anyway - not withstanding OOPs).

OOP, on the other hand, is much more likely to cause SPAGHETTI CODE than
any amount of GOTO statements. First, you've got to decide how to band together the groups of events. For instance, do you put the Click events together, the items being clicked together, or instructions to let this
monster which is actually being clicked? (ie. left or right mouse button,
or whether it is hovering, moving, etc.) When you've figured that little
lot out, we're back to the problem of variables and how they just get
discarded when you clear the page for a new one (effectively starting a new form). Note: a new form is not the same as a new project (called a
Solution in VS.). Glue is a Solution! At least with glue people stick to
it!

VS (even BASIC) have become so convoluted, and people aren't bothering to
keep up with it. In spite of the claimed statistics, which are actually well-worked propaganda, BASIC is claimed to be the most commonly used
language. Maybe so generally, but the DotNet books claim this of VB.Net.

Now, I have issues with this (having looked beyond the wording) and have
seen what it is trying to lead us to believe!

1. Is VB.net the most commonly used .Net language?

2. Is it most commonly purchased in recent times, bearing in mind people
will have long ago bought other versions, languages, etc.? Most will still have them, and if not, these are usually available free, though being for
the purist, are rarely updated to become usable mainstream. Ironically,
the only one I know of that did try ended up as an OOP version that this
writer is complaining as to the complexity of!

3. There are probably several versions vying for attention, and they may concentrate only on specific things. Does adding these (as one) change the stats?

4. How many start with it - only to give up on it? I am quite near doing this, having gotten nowhere beyond pretty front ends in my ten long years - with this and dialysis!

There are probably more reasons in unravelling the propaganda when you look
at it. The marketing and advertising capabilities (and prowess) of the
richest company the world has ever known - and perhaps

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