Speaking of trying out all the emulators, I'm a bit of a fan of those which run in the browser. Full-screen the browser and you get the feeling of just having the machine to yourself. There's a hundred or so catalogued here, from the usual 8bit suspects, to early Unix capable machines, even earlier machines, 16 bit machines - you name it!

https://github.com/fcambus/jsemu#emulators-written-in-javascript

#acorn #atari #commodore #altair #amstrad #datageneral #apple #dec #robotron #sinclair #tandy #ibmpc #babbage

@fluffy @ajroach42

Maybe most interesting is Acorn's BBC Micro - it's a reasonable 8bit machine as is, but architected to act as a front-end to a bigger faster "second processor" - from Z80 to x86, and the very first ARM product.

These days, you can plug a Raspberry Pi into the bottom of your Beeb, and it can emulate a few second processors: a 274MHz 6502, a 100MHz Z80, a 6809, an x86, an ns32k, an ARM.

Then run GEM, or PanOS, or CP/M, and write in Pascal, Fortran, Lisp, C.

@shoutcacophony @ajroach42

@solderpunk The UK #raspberrypi in education guide suggests(?) four stages: first scratch, then python and pygame, then networked applications and GPIOs, and then the linux command line. I'm sure each teacher or school has its own approach. I like the idea of eventually teaching everything - see #nand2tetris - but it makes sense to teach in stages, and at stage real-world motivation.

@ginsterbusch @clacke @noyoushutthefuckupdad

About that #raspberrypi @solderpunk - I do see a connection with the #BBCmicro - it's a hands-on and very personal machine. Swap SD cards and you've swapped projects - no wrestling with applications co-existing. And it's not (just) a linux machine - can program at bare metal, can run RISC OS, even booting rapidly to a Basic prompt. And it has I/O. We can wait and see - but I'm optimistic!
@ginsterbusch @clacke @noyoushutthefuckupdad