Video terminals have historically used the bottom line on the display to show things like the speed of the connection to the computer they are talking to.
The H89/Z-89 is basically the guts of Heath/Zenith's H8 computer put into the H19/Z-19 terminal's case. Despite being in the same enclosure, the Z-89 works exactly as if the computer and terminal are physically separate.
Software that is aware of the extra line can use it to display information specific to the application.
Heath/Zenith reminds me a lot of Tandy. Well-known electronics/kit retailer starts selling preassembled computers in hopes of breaking into the big time of corporate sales.
In retrospect, Heath/Zenith benefited from being a small company. Tandy thought that the TRS-80's gigantic immediate success meant that it really could indefinitely monopolize the entire software and hardware ecosystem, as opposed to people buying the TRS-80 because Radio Shacks were everywhere and the only alternatives were from a) a small California startup founded by two college dropouts, or b) a Pennsylvania calculator and office-furniture company. The TRS-80 sold despite the Expansion Interface and disk drives being hunks of junk, despite Tandy's own software being unbelievably awful garbage, despite Radio Shack stores being forbidden to acknowledge to customers that any non-Tandy products were available for their computers.
Of course, this couldn't last. Had the EI and drives actually worked, VisiCalc would have been developed for TRS-80 as originally planned ... But it wasn't. 1980 is when the market abruptly shifted from 80/20 Tandy/Apple to the other way around, all thanks to VisiCalc and the rush of other developers following its lead. 1977 to 1980 had built such momentum for Tandy that it was able to survive in computers until 1985, when it gained a second lease on life with the Tandy 1000 ... and then lost its lead in the personal computer market again. Congratulations, Radio Shack!
Heathkit, by contrast, only had about 50-60 stores when Zenith bought the company in 1979; the bulk of its business was done through its mail-order catalog. Zenith bought Heath to gain computer expertise and did not interfere with its new Zenith Data Systems division, only providing capital and distribution reach. Had there been thousands of Heathkit stores and Heath been a Fortune 500 member, the odds are good that Heath would have tried to, like Tandy, monopolize aftermarket sales for its computers. But Heath only released its own operating system, very quickly realized that no one cared about HDOS, and pivoted to CP/M. Heathkit stores carried non-Heath software and peripherals from the beginning.
Similarly, the lack of Heath stores meant that Zenith was not bound to an existing large retail network. ZDS did not try to sell computers through Zenith's existing TV retailers. Rather, it built an aggressive sales force going after large customers. By the mid-1980s it had become the #2 PC company after IBM itself by signing gigantic government contracts. This is something Tandy desperately tried to do, but never could because a) its existing retail network demanded too much attention and b) the "Radio Shack" name was too embarrassing for corporate customers.
PhilosphicalZombie@reddit
Display: 24 lines of 80 columns of text plus a 25th user information line.
What was the information line used for or how was it used?
TMWNN@reddit
Video terminals have historically used the bottom line on the display to show things like the speed of the connection to the computer they are talking to.
The H89/Z-89 is basically the guts of Heath/Zenith's H8 computer put into the H19/Z-19 terminal's case. Despite being in the same enclosure, the Z-89 works exactly as if the computer and terminal are physically separate.
Software that is aware of the extra line can use it to display information specific to the application.
PhilosphicalZombie@reddit
I get it. So it kept with the terminal roots. Makes perfect sense. A redeveloped H8. I should have caught on to that. Thanks for the explanation.
KingOfZero@reddit
I built the H89 (and H87 dual floppies) back in 1981 (or might have been 1982). I gave them away when I ran out of room. I wish I kept them.
TMWNN@reddit
Heath/Zenith reminds me a lot of Tandy. Well-known electronics/kit retailer starts selling preassembled computers in hopes of breaking into the big time of corporate sales.
In retrospect, Heath/Zenith benefited from being a small company. Tandy thought that the TRS-80's gigantic immediate success meant that it really could indefinitely monopolize the entire software and hardware ecosystem, as opposed to people buying the TRS-80 because Radio Shacks were everywhere and the only alternatives were from a) a small California startup founded by two college dropouts, or b) a Pennsylvania calculator and office-furniture company. The TRS-80 sold despite the Expansion Interface and disk drives being hunks of junk, despite Tandy's own software being unbelievably awful garbage, despite Radio Shack stores being forbidden to acknowledge to customers that any non-Tandy products were available for their computers.
Of course, this couldn't last. Had the EI and drives actually worked, VisiCalc would have been developed for TRS-80 as originally planned ... But it wasn't. 1980 is when the market abruptly shifted from 80/20 Tandy/Apple to the other way around, all thanks to VisiCalc and the rush of other developers following its lead. 1977 to 1980 had built such momentum for Tandy that it was able to survive in computers until 1985, when it gained a second lease on life with the Tandy 1000 ... and then lost its lead in the personal computer market again. Congratulations, Radio Shack!
Heathkit, by contrast, only had about 50-60 stores when Zenith bought the company in 1979; the bulk of its business was done through its mail-order catalog. Zenith bought Heath to gain computer expertise and did not interfere with its new Zenith Data Systems division, only providing capital and distribution reach. Had there been thousands of Heathkit stores and Heath been a Fortune 500 member, the odds are good that Heath would have tried to, like Tandy, monopolize aftermarket sales for its computers. But Heath only released its own operating system, very quickly realized that no one cared about HDOS, and pivoted to CP/M. Heathkit stores carried non-Heath software and peripherals from the beginning.
Similarly, the lack of Heath stores meant that Zenith was not bound to an existing large retail network. ZDS did not try to sell computers through Zenith's existing TV retailers. Rather, it built an aggressive sales force going after large customers. By the mid-1980s it had become the #2 PC company after IBM itself by signing gigantic government contracts. This is something Tandy desperately tried to do, but never could because a) its existing retail network demanded too much attention and b) the "Radio Shack" name was too embarrassing for corporate customers.
Empty-Ad-5360@reddit
The good ol’ days!
Great post—thank you!
youtellmebob@reddit
Imagine a time, before the IBM PC, when everyone thought the Personal Computer market was up for grabs, or at least a market with multiple players.