Nostalgia in Programming
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flip the NEXT switch UP once to advance to the next memory location, enter the instruction using the 8 DATA switches, then flip the WRITE switch once to save it. ;P
Will Rogers never met me.
Bet you were glad when they finally invented the wheel so beer trolly didn't spill as much beer. Jeez...
cheers Chris Maunder
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OriginalGriff wrote:
all I have to do is pour the blood of a virgin sacrifice into the DVD drive and Windows does the rest...
Right. And just where are you going to find a virgin in your part of the world?
Will Rogers never met me.
Lambing season :-D
If your neighbours don't listen to The Ramones, turn it up real loud so they can. “We didn't have a positive song until we wrote 'Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue!'” ― Dee Dee Ramone "The Democrats want my guns and the Republicans want my porno mags and I ain't giving up either" - Joey Ramone
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OriginalGriff wrote:
all I have to do is pour the blood of a virgin sacrifice into the DVD drive and Windows does the rest...
Right. And just where are you going to find a virgin in your part of the world?
Will Rogers never met me.
eBay!
Those who fail to learn history are doomed to repeat it. --- George Santayana (December 16, 1863 – September 26, 1952) Those who fail to clear history are doomed to explain it. --- OriginalGriff (February 24, 1959 – ∞)
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Gawd! Back in the early days (when I was all embedded, and only had 4K of ROM and 4K of RAM to play with) there were all the tricks: self modifying code, undocumented processor features (that only worked in the pre V3 hardware mask), hand tuned spaghetti assembler, all the kinds of things that I recoil from these days! Nowadays, all I have to do is pour the blood of a virgin sacrifice into the DVD drive and Windows does the rest... Mind you, you wouldn't believe how hard it is find that around here these days!
Those who fail to learn history are doomed to repeat it. --- George Santayana (December 16, 1863 – September 26, 1952) Those who fail to clear history are doomed to explain it. --- OriginalGriff (February 24, 1959 – ∞)
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I was just daydreaming and thinking about the differences between the HTTP GET and POST verbs (OK, I'm a little tired, OK? The mind wanders) and I suddenly remembered a trick I had to do in the wee early days of the internet when posting article content. We used to have to split the content into small chunks before sending it in the form postback, and then rebuild it on the server end. What sort of relatively recent stuff (this was 10 years ago) did you used to have to do to get your apps to work?
cheers Chris Maunder
I used to write on coding sheets & send them off to be punched. Then we got a Holorith(sp?) manual card punch. PROGRESS! Then we got keyboard-driven card punches. PROGRESS! Then we got a teletype terminal with thermal paper. PROGRESS! Then we got a VDU. PROGRESS! Then we got a text editor. PROGRESS! Then we got the ability to send a job to compile ourselves. PROGRESS! Then we got local compilers. PROGRESS! Then we got an IDE. PROGRESS! Then we got colour screens. PROGRESS! Then we got PCs. PROGRESS! Then we got new OO languages. PROGRESS! Then we got Visual Studio 2010. FUCK!
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I was just daydreaming and thinking about the differences between the HTTP GET and POST verbs (OK, I'm a little tired, OK? The mind wanders) and I suddenly remembered a trick I had to do in the wee early days of the internet when posting article content. We used to have to split the content into small chunks before sending it in the form postback, and then rebuild it on the server end. What sort of relatively recent stuff (this was 10 years ago) did you used to have to do to get your apps to work?
cheers Chris Maunder
Chris Maunder wrote:
What sort of relatively recent stuff (this was 10 years ago) did you used to have to do to get your apps to work?
Let's see. Because the database manager was an idiot, my manager and I had to create a skunk-works project to hide how we were doing things so it didn't take a week per table to write the update, insert, delete, select operations. I kid you not. Rewrote the "Application Coordinator" that this guy had put together taking up most of a year of his time. I rewrote it in a weekend, to the wrath of said developer and the envy of everyone else that had to use said developer's pile of dung. Needless to say, my team ditched this guy's code immediately, and we went on to be a productive, on time and on budget team. Along those lines, getting my team's app to work meant finding the right people, smart people, not dogmatic "design pattern" nincompoops that were running around the hallways touting Java and exclaiming "ooh, did you read about the Visitor Pattern?" On a personal note, getting my C++ apps to work meant realizing that "base class" was the top of the abstraction, not the foundation (and therefore the derived class) in a class hierarchy. I had to remove the "base of the pyramid" image from my understanding of OO. And lastly, solid architecture. And what that meant was, architecture that logged every keystroke, every mouse click, every button press, so I could tell the mostly good, honest, but sloppy people in the QA department, no, you didn't click on "Save", you clicked on "Cancel" to refute their claim that the app failed to save their document. Marc
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I was just daydreaming and thinking about the differences between the HTTP GET and POST verbs (OK, I'm a little tired, OK? The mind wanders) and I suddenly remembered a trick I had to do in the wee early days of the internet when posting article content. We used to have to split the content into small chunks before sending it in the form postback, and then rebuild it on the server end. What sort of relatively recent stuff (this was 10 years ago) did you used to have to do to get your apps to work?
cheers Chris Maunder
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flip the NEXT switch UP once to advance to the next memory location, enter the instruction using the 8 DATA switches, then flip the WRITE switch once to save it. ;P
Will Rogers never met me.
I remember flipping switches when the machine we used for communications went down. I would get a call from the field and had to walk to the other side of the building and start the boot switching sequence.
The report of my death was an exaggeration - Mark Twain
Simply Elegant Designs JimmyRopes Designs
I'm on-line therefore I am. JimmyRopes -
I used to write on coding sheets & send them off to be punched. Then we got a Holorith(sp?) manual card punch. PROGRESS! Then we got keyboard-driven card punches. PROGRESS! Then we got a teletype terminal with thermal paper. PROGRESS! Then we got a VDU. PROGRESS! Then we got a text editor. PROGRESS! Then we got the ability to send a job to compile ourselves. PROGRESS! Then we got local compilers. PROGRESS! Then we got an IDE. PROGRESS! Then we got colour screens. PROGRESS! Then we got PCs. PROGRESS! Then we got new OO languages. PROGRESS! Then we got Visual Studio 2010. FUCK!
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Chris Maunder wrote:
What sort of relatively recent stuff (this was 10 years ago) did you used to have to do to get your apps to work?
Let's see. Because the database manager was an idiot, my manager and I had to create a skunk-works project to hide how we were doing things so it didn't take a week per table to write the update, insert, delete, select operations. I kid you not. Rewrote the "Application Coordinator" that this guy had put together taking up most of a year of his time. I rewrote it in a weekend, to the wrath of said developer and the envy of everyone else that had to use said developer's pile of dung. Needless to say, my team ditched this guy's code immediately, and we went on to be a productive, on time and on budget team. Along those lines, getting my team's app to work meant finding the right people, smart people, not dogmatic "design pattern" nincompoops that were running around the hallways touting Java and exclaiming "ooh, did you read about the Visitor Pattern?" On a personal note, getting my C++ apps to work meant realizing that "base class" was the top of the abstraction, not the foundation (and therefore the derived class) in a class hierarchy. I had to remove the "base of the pyramid" image from my understanding of OO. And lastly, solid architecture. And what that meant was, architecture that logged every keystroke, every mouse click, every button press, so I could tell the mostly good, honest, but sloppy people in the QA department, no, you didn't click on "Save", you clicked on "Cancel" to refute their claim that the app failed to save their document. Marc
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I was just daydreaming and thinking about the differences between the HTTP GET and POST verbs (OK, I'm a little tired, OK? The mind wanders) and I suddenly remembered a trick I had to do in the wee early days of the internet when posting article content. We used to have to split the content into small chunks before sending it in the form postback, and then rebuild it on the server end. What sort of relatively recent stuff (this was 10 years ago) did you used to have to do to get your apps to work?
cheers Chris Maunder
Not use local stack space for anything bigger than a pointer or integer (16-bit Windows)
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I was just daydreaming and thinking about the differences between the HTTP GET and POST verbs (OK, I'm a little tired, OK? The mind wanders) and I suddenly remembered a trick I had to do in the wee early days of the internet when posting article content. We used to have to split the content into small chunks before sending it in the form postback, and then rebuild it on the server end. What sort of relatively recent stuff (this was 10 years ago) did you used to have to do to get your apps to work?
cheers Chris Maunder
I have created a really complex and dynamic organizational chart using pure HTML Tables like a Boss! :cool: A giant table with crazy amount of pre-calculated
rowspan
andcolspan
, with even crazy amount of coding in picking the cell border colors (black or white). so that that whole madness will look like this[^] with really tiny scroll bars. It was in Classic ASP, and the only real alternative (that might not work everywhere) was to create an ActiveX control or Flash control and draw the whole thing. It was a network marketing company (like Amway) where members can see their complete network tree (people they have successfully infected/brainwashed). I am still proud of it. :-DRemind Me This - Manage, Collaborate and Execute your Project in the Cloud
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I experienced everything you mentioned and agree for the most part, but how can you knock Visual Studio ? We can’t stop here, this is bat country - Hunter S Thompson RIP
pkfox wrote:
how can you knock Visual Studio ?
Experience shows that a big shitty stick gives the most satisfaction
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pkfox wrote:
how can you knock Visual Studio ?
Experience shows that a big shitty stick gives the most satisfaction
Yeah. And that's why Eclipse is mostly used for Java, the stick isn't that satisfying when you can't hold it from all the dirt. OT: Didn't knew you are on FarceBook.
I will never again mention that Dalek Dave was the poster of the One Millionth Lounge Post, nor that it was complete drivel.
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Yeah. And that's why Eclipse is mostly used for Java, the stick isn't that satisfying when you can't hold it from all the dirt. OT: Didn't knew you are on FarceBook.
I will never again mention that Dalek Dave was the poster of the One Millionth Lounge Post, nor that it was complete drivel.
I prefer Netbeans, for some stupid reason. But then all IDE's have gone down hill since forever.
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Gawd! Back in the early days (when I was all embedded, and only had 4K of ROM and 4K of RAM to play with) there were all the tricks: self modifying code, undocumented processor features (that only worked in the pre V3 hardware mask), hand tuned spaghetti assembler, all the kinds of things that I recoil from these days! Nowadays, all I have to do is pour the blood of a virgin sacrifice into the DVD drive and Windows does the rest... Mind you, you wouldn't believe how hard it is find that around here these days!
Those who fail to learn history are doomed to repeat it. --- George Santayana (December 16, 1863 – September 26, 1952) Those who fail to clear history are doomed to explain it. --- OriginalGriff (February 24, 1959 – ∞)
OriginalGriff wrote:
pour the blood of a virgin sacrifice
Way back in the Before Times, children, I worked in the computer center at our local Air Force base. We were having a Cray supercomputer installed in the front of the 2 acre computer room. It's the only time I've seen an installation have gawkers. I observed to the other folks from my office who were with me that we needed to find a virgin operator to sacrifice on it before starting it up for the first time. The joke of course being the notion of a virgin operator, since it was well known that the operators (especially those on the night crew) humped like weasels in out of the way corners of the computer room at every opportunity.
Software Zen:
delete this;
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flip the NEXT switch UP once to advance to the next memory location, enter the instruction using the 8 DATA switches, then flip the WRITE switch once to save it. ;P
Will Rogers never met me.
Been there, did that on a DEC PDP-11/05 at school. The machine stored its 80 word bootstrap in a piece of core memory. Student programs routinely wiped the bootstrap due to an errant addressing mode or somesuch. I had to do it once or twice. One guy became legendary for his ability to enter the bootstrap in under 60 seconds. Of course, that doesn't say much for how he acquired the skill...
Software Zen:
delete this;
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flip the NEXT switch UP once to advance to the next memory location, enter the instruction using the 8 DATA switches, then flip the WRITE switch once to save it. ;P
Will Rogers never met me.
You young folks don't know how lucky you are. Why, when I was your age, a byte only had two bits -- and they were both 1s! Do you have any idea how hard it is to do floating-point arithmetic in Roman numerals? Ah, but the men were men in those days...
(This message is programming you in ways you cannot detect. Be afraid.)
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Chris Maunder wrote:
What sort of relatively recent stuff (this was 10 years ago) did you used to have to do to get your apps to work?
Let's see. Because the database manager was an idiot, my manager and I had to create a skunk-works project to hide how we were doing things so it didn't take a week per table to write the update, insert, delete, select operations. I kid you not. Rewrote the "Application Coordinator" that this guy had put together taking up most of a year of his time. I rewrote it in a weekend, to the wrath of said developer and the envy of everyone else that had to use said developer's pile of dung. Needless to say, my team ditched this guy's code immediately, and we went on to be a productive, on time and on budget team. Along those lines, getting my team's app to work meant finding the right people, smart people, not dogmatic "design pattern" nincompoops that were running around the hallways touting Java and exclaiming "ooh, did you read about the Visitor Pattern?" On a personal note, getting my C++ apps to work meant realizing that "base class" was the top of the abstraction, not the foundation (and therefore the derived class) in a class hierarchy. I had to remove the "base of the pyramid" image from my understanding of OO. And lastly, solid architecture. And what that meant was, architecture that logged every keystroke, every mouse click, every button press, so I could tell the mostly good, honest, but sloppy people in the QA department, no, you didn't click on "Save", you clicked on "Cancel" to refute their claim that the app failed to save their document. Marc
Marc Clifton wrote:
And lastly, solid architecture. And what that meant was, architecture that logged every keystroke, every mouse click, every button press, so I could tell the mostly good, honest, but sloppy people in the QA department, no, you didn't click on "Save", you clicked on "Cancel" to refute their claim that the app failed to save their document.
Ooh, good idea. I was figuring on using the C# version of
UnhandledExceptionFilterHandler
for ultimate deniability error-catching, and that's a good addition as well. Now I just need to work around C#'s "if anything but the main thread has an unhandled exception, terminate the thread and ignore it" methodology... -
Marc Clifton wrote:
And lastly, solid architecture. And what that meant was, architecture that logged every keystroke, every mouse click, every button press, so I could tell the mostly good, honest, but sloppy people in the QA department, no, you didn't click on "Save", you clicked on "Cancel" to refute their claim that the app failed to save their document.
Ooh, good idea. I was figuring on using the C# version of
UnhandledExceptionFilterHandler
for ultimate deniability error-catching, and that's a good addition as well. Now I just need to work around C#'s "if anything but the main thread has an unhandled exception, terminate the thread and ignore it" methodology...SortaCore wrote:
if anything but the main thread has an unhandled exception, terminate the thread and ignore it" methodology...
Well, you could put try-catch's in your threads! And there is Application.ThreadException[^] as well. Marc