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Comment by mkovach | Hacker News Reader

Oh by, Trash 80s! I learned FORTRAN programming on a collection of TRS-80 Model III/IV in high school. (Yes, for the programming class we were not allowed to use basic, so we used FORTRAN).

Seen my old computer/math teacher last summer, he now owns a brewery he bought in retirement, and we laughed about how things have changed in such a relative short period of time. He was excited, though, to find out that I did work as a FORTRAN programmer for a period of time after college. He is pretty sure I was the only of his former students that every wrote a line of FORTRAN after those classes.

I have some old images made from some of my old school floppies. I'll have to give this emulator a try, pop up to the brewery with a laptop, and let my old teacher look over my shoulder as I debug code, again.

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Seems a bit mean-spirited to call these systems trash - they look like cool 8 and 16-bit systems, and they can run their own custom OS (and other software, presumably including games?) as well as standard environments like CP/M and Unix/Xenix.

After all, this is HN where we love classic microprocessors like the 6809, Z-80 and 68000. (And CP/M.)

Imagine if Radio Shack (or Commodore, Atari, etc.) were still a successful computer company in the 2020s like their competitor Apple.

I'm not sure the OP meant it as negatively as it seems. The "trash 80" seems to be a common enough nickname for these that even I knew it, never having even seen one until recently.

Adrian's Digital Basement has featured lot of videos on restoration of many TRS-80 versions. Seemed like a nice machine for its time.

Yep, TRS = Trash. It was a nickname. They are pretty good computers. I still use my TRS Model 102 (portable computer, includes basic and a few decent apps).

Tandy Radio Shack (TRS) make some decent computers. My first IBM compatible PC was a Tandy 1000. Used that through-out college.

Good stuff that got stuck with a bad nickname.

It really was a term of derision. Sure, some may have used it affectionately and even more might do so now, but by and large it wasn't used in kindness.

To cite a reference, the first issue of "80 Microcomputing", a magazine dedicated to the TRS-80 line of computers. See the second paragraph of Wayne Green's editorial "80 Remarks" on page 8:

https://archive.org/details/80-microcomputing-magazine-1980-...

We'll agree to disagree then, but remember nothing is set in stone. That is an article from 1980.

I spent 10 years working at Radio Shack, and the TRS was typically referred to as 'trash' but more people I spoke with.

Of course then, plenty of people working for the company could have been opening trashing it in front of corporate.

Trash 80s were a nickname based on the TRS (Tandy Radio Shack) name. Nothing bad about them. In fact, the TRS Model III - 102, that I still own is still used. (And has a basic written by Bill Gates).

They were great computers!

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