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Ask HN: Oldest code you have written that is still in use?

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Re: Ask HN: Oldest code you have written that is still in use?

#271

Post by shthed »

nickpsecurity wrote: post #68
cottonseed wrote: post #56

I wrote the Oracle driver for the AOLserver web server in 1997. Last year I met a guy who worked at Zipcar who said they were still using it.

It got open-sourced... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AOLserver ...with OpenACS probably being among the first, web frameworks. So, that's a legacy that goes back to one of the first, high-traffic sites in existence.

http://openacs.org/about/what-is-openacs

"Extremely high performance and scalable database backed websites. The technology behind OpenACS powers some of the world's busiest web sites, such as AOL.com, Mapquest.com, Netscape.com, and Moviefone.com."

Wow, how long ago was that written!

Re: Ask HN: Oldest code you have written that is still in use?

#272

Post by gotrythis »

i336_ wrote: post #267
gotrythis wrote: post #257

I bet I have most people beat here, especially with web software. I released the first content management system for websites back in about 1995. It was a fully database driven system with different post types, much like WordPress in design, and editable page content. About 15 years ago, I wrote an entire web-based system for managing an online grocery delivery company. The whole site runs off of version 2 of that co…

It would be very interesting to be able to browse through a site known to be running off a 15-year-old CMS.

http://www.homefieldorganics.com

Re: Ask HN: Oldest code you have written that is still in use?

#273

Post by gotrythis »

brlewis wrote: post #262
gotrythis wrote: post #257

I bet I have most people beat here, especially with web software. I released the first content management system for websites back in about 1995. It was a fully database driven system with different post types, much like WordPress in design, and editable page content. About 15 years ago, I wrote an entire web-based system for managing an online grocery delivery company. The whole site runs off of version 2 of that co…

December 10, 1994 was my first checkin of cgiemail: http://web.mit.edu/wwwdev/src/cgi/RCS/cgiemail.c,v I found at least one live instance of it still running: www.uwo.ca/cgi-bin/cgiemail/somedept/questions3.txt I'm not sad that it's mostly replaced.

The sad part for me, is that I wanted to be the one replacing it. I had a vision for that company that I had been thinking about for years, and pitched it, but he wanted to keep his company a lifestyle business that just gets by. The idea of growing and making real money scared him off. The new developer got paid $5K over the last 2+ years to create it. Curious to see it when it comes out.

Re: Ask HN: Oldest code you have written that is still in use?

#276

Post by riking »

walrus wrote: post #174
peterburkimsher wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Instead of abandoning your program, why not open-source it? No money, no nagging customers. If someone wants to make it work, then they can. You can then deny responsibility for maintaining it.

> no nagging customers Hah! I wish!

the beauty of it is they're /not customers anymore/.

Re: Ask HN: Oldest code you have written that is still in use?

#277

Post by c17r »

My first fulltime job as a developer was back in 1997 for a state university. The wheels of change are slow at that kind of place so it's possible some of my code is still running.

The oldest that I know is still in use is code for an ecommerce outsourcing company I worked for in 2003-2005. ASP/Javascript. Pre-jQuery Javascript too. Fun times.

The oldest that I'm still supporting is VB6/ASP code written in 2006, though the entire software is older than that. It's for "contingent workforce management" (temp labor) and handles the 3-way relationship between client, the supplier, and the worker. In it's heyday we were processing over $2B in payroll annually. It's now down to one client using it. The relationship is very weird too: it's me->hosting company->business company->end client. But I only have to do 1-2 days of support a month and have a pretty good contract for it.

Re: Ask HN: Oldest code you have written that is still in use?

#279

Post by near »

caf wrote: post #270
near wrote: post #260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a reason I stopped associating with that scene/site years ago. Almost everyone in it is toxic and stuck in their rebellious teenage years. Case in point: http://www.romhacking.net/forum/index.php/topic,21797.html The newer versions are called bass, and you can compare yourself here: http://byuu.org/tool/bass/ There is full documentation of every possible command, the code is readable by human beings (eg varia…

This is a great illustration of why, once you've got a user base of any size, backwards-compatibility needs to be one of your touchstones. (eg. if you add {macro}, continue to support !macro as well) Sometimes you do find that you've painted yourself into a corner, though.

Certainly, backward compatibility is critical and has always been a weakness of mine. I've always been an idealist there.

But in xkas' case, this was code from before I really learned how to program; let alone design a proper parser. This would be like asking for strict compatibility between Linux 0.01 and Linux 3.0.

I understand how SMWC became trapped in a cycle of using xkas v06, but any new projects really have no sane reason to be using it anymore. And I'm not even saying, "use bass instead!", there's dozens of cross-assemblers that work much better than it ever did (it would seem that writing an assembler is a rite of passage for ROM hackers.)

Re: Ask HN: Oldest code you have written that is still in use?

#280

Post by gborland »

In 1996 I started work on a 2D rendering engine in ARM assembler which did alpha-blending and vector antialiasing. Substantial parts of it were later rewritten in C, but the core pixel-blitting loops are still there in ARM as far as I know. It shipped hundreds of millions of units and was at one point present on the majority of mobile phones manufactured in Japan, Korea and Taiwan in the mid 2000s. It is still going, and some software products are still being shipped today which contain that code.
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