There were indeed huge jumps in computation in those days. I took that Apple IIe as far as I could, pouring all of my money into upgrades. I added a one MHz accelerator card, a math coprocessor, Z-80 card to support my C compiler, a one MB RAM expansion, and the piece de resistance, a 10MB hard drive that set me back over $1000. That machine could hum--the normal cursor would go "blink......blink......blink.....", but mine was "blinkblinkblink...".

Eventually I outgrew that system and bought a MsDos Compaq that I had until I went back to Apple with a Macintosh SE30 and its' huge 9" screen.

There is a good story about my Apple IIe. My space was limited, so I sold my IIe for a couple hundred dollars to one of my students. Ten or fifteen years ago I saw an article about the nostalgia people had for their old IIe's. The article talked about a Vintage Computer Fair that featured them, and lo and behold the person running the fair was my former student. I contacted him and found that my old IIe was not only still alive but still maintaining his database for the fair.