In 1979 I was studying for my Computer Science degree in Cambridge. One term we had a practical lab where we programmed a simple microprocessor board using a numeric keypad. I have a lasting memory, tinged with a large dollop of regret, that I made little progress with the lab exercises, even though I was familiar with the ideas from my time working at British Aircraft Corporation (now BAe) the previous year.
Over the years I have occasionally wondered which board we used. The only specific detail I remembered was that I found it impossible to read the manual. This is because it was written entirely in capital letters which were tightly packed. I reckon this is how dyslexia feels. Individual letters are clear, words are visible and by careful scrutiny sentences can gradually be detected but the overall effect is totally unreadable.
At a visit to the Centre for Computer History in Cambridge I was fascinated to see a display cabinet containing a couple of microcontroller boards resembling the one I used all those years ago. They are the MK14 and the Acorn System 1.
On returning home I tracked down the manuals and was pleased to find that the Acorn System 1 manual is indeed all upper case and just as difficult to read as it was 45 years ago.
The CCH description of the board tells us that it was designed by Sophie Wilson in 1979 and cost £81. Sophie is a couple of months older than me and was two years ahead at Cambridge so this may well have been her first product. I wish she could have written the manual in mixed case! Of course Sophie has gone on to achieve fame as the designer of the BBC microcomputer and ARM RISC chips.
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