On Mon, 9 May 2016 16:07:07 -0500, philo wrote:

I never had a TRS-80

but when I got my Ti-99/4, the ability to save my programs on a cassette
seemed amazing.

It was just like having a miniature main-frame!

I missed all of that stuff, Until the 80s, I could get mainframe time
just about any time I wanted it. In the 60s and early 70s we had the
whole system for a few hours a week at a half dozen customers. I could
get a partition just about any time I liked. A program I wrote,
allowing concurrent maintenance on anything running DOS (360-370
style) pretty much made taking the system obsolete for the guys who
used it.
I got into the home computer biz with the IBM PC and a "first day
ship" PC1. I bought it second hand when an IBM guy I knew upgraded to
the brand new PC/AT.

As you saw, I built my first AT from parts (there is no part number
for a case)