Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!wuarchive!gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!ginosko!uunet!mcsun!ukc!mucs!liv-cs!phil
From: phil@mva.cs.liv.ac.uk
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Z88 from Cambridge North America
Message-ID: <1897@mva.cs.liv.ac.uk>
Date: 25 Sep 89 10:22:38 GMT
References: <1709@naucse.UUCP>
Organization: Computer Science CSMVAX, Liverpool University
Lines: 41

In article <1709@naucse.UUCP>, rrw@naucse.UUCP (Robert Wier) writes:
> 
>  In the Sept 12th issue of MacWeek there is an ad on page 56
>  for a laptop machine called the Z88, from a company,
>  Cambridge North America.  
> 
>  Couple of questions: Does anyone have experience with this machine?
>  How well does it work, is it reliable, etc., etc.

I have used and programmed (in BBC Basic) a Z88 and I suppose it was OK,
though I was very happy to get back to the Mac afterwards.  It has some neat
features - like the built in programs (wordprocessor/spreadsheet) and the
real-time clock.  The keyboard isn't too bad - though not as good as a real-key
keyboard.  It's LCD display is very good, and one interesting feature of the
word-processor is that although it only has about 8 lines of 80 characters it
uses a nifty trick to display the layout of your document on the
right-hand-side of the display (imagine a reduced view of your document where
each character is represented by a dot - the layout is visible although of
course you can't see what the individual words are...)  
Now the bad points:
1) The keyboard and case are covered in a black rubber material that just
 sucks up the dust.
2) The only way to edit programs is either to re-type whole lines, or else to
use the wordprocessor to edit the text files - and if you get word-wrap it will
completely zap your program.
3) Power on & off is achieved by pressing both left & right shift keys
together.  I once tried to turn it on while I was on the phone and had to use
my nose to press one of the shift buttons - they're too far apart for the
fingers (and thumb) of one hand.
4) The control sequences in the wordprocessor are extremely obscure.
5) The manual is terrible.

> 
>  Also I wonder if maybe there is a connection between this machine
>  and the old Sinclair Z machine?
> 

Yup - there sure is.  The Z88 was created by Sir Clive Sinclair, the genius who
brought you the black watch and the Sinclair C5 electric "vehicle".  He sold
the Sinclair name to Amstrad a while ago, and is now forced to use a different
name for his products.