I wonder if any Triple-I (Information International Inc.) machines are still alive and running any of the code I wrote back in the late '70s?
Ask HN: Oldest code you have written that is still in use?
81–90 of 363 posts
Re: Ask HN: Oldest code you have written that is still in use?
#82I started a Mac app in 1988; the same code base (with tons of people touching it since I last saw it in 1994) is still a real product for sale today. No idea why.
How did they transition from original Mac OS to OS X?
Re: Ask HN: Oldest code you have written that is still in use?
#83Late 70's. I wrote the operating system for the Control Pak EM system sold as the Barber Colman Network Supervisor building automation system. Thousands of systems were installed and many are still in use. By cracky. Er, what was the question again? http://www.controlpak.com/network.htm
That link doesn't work for me. I'd love to read more about this system. Are there any other links you know of?
Re: Ask HN: Oldest code you have written that is still in use?
#84In 2008 I wrote some VBA scripts and built an Access database as part of a dashboard used by suits at an insurance company to track sales stats. Pretty sure it's still in use.
The suits also made a decision to open a third call center based on some staffing and cost analysis done by me and my boss. We used two totally different models (and argued a lot about which model was right). The director said, "The conclusions you guys came to were within 1% of each other, so it must be right. We're going to move ahead with the new center." That center is still up and running.
The thing that gave me chills was that no one told me the analysis would be used to make a $25M decision. I thought it was just skylarking and hacked it out with some formulas in a 3-page Excel spreadsheet in about three hours.
Re: Ask HN: Oldest code you have written that is still in use?
#85I am the original author of LatexMk[1], a Perl script that runs Latex the correct number of times to ensure all cross-references and such were resolved. It can also run continuously with a previewer and several other goodies.
I wrote it around 1993 to scratch my own itch, adapting it from a little script called “Go” by David J. Musliner. At the time I was using a literate programming tool that generated Latex from C code. When I moved on from that job a couple of years later, I released a final version two, which documented that I was no longer planning to maintain it. Since then John Collins took up the cause and been doing a wonderful job from what I can tell from occasional ego searches through google and stackexchange.
Two amusing things: 1) It is the only piece of Perl code I have written, ever, and 2) I had reason to use Latex a few years later, and decided I really dislike the sheer complexity of it all. Despite that, it is surely the most enduring and widely used piece of code that I can claim credit to having a hand in.
Re: Ask HN: Oldest code you have written that is still in use?
#861985, a printer driver for c.itoh matrix printer (assembler), still working. p.s. I was a 10 years old boy. (:
You wrote a printer driver when you were 10!? Jesus ... about all I managed at that age was lasting through a few waves of Space Invaders.
Re: Ask HN: Oldest code you have written that is still in use?
#87In 2008 I wrote some VBA scripts and built an Access database as part of a dashboard used by suits at an insurance company to track sales stats. Pretty sure it's still in use. The suits also made a decision to open a third call center based on some staffing and cost analysis done by me and my boss. We used two totally different models (and argued a lot about which model was right). The director said, "The conclusions…
That's intriguing... Some obvious questions are: if you had known, would you have spent more time or just been "more serious?" Would you have had better answers after more time? Did the other person do the same level of rough estimate, but with a different model?
Re: Ask HN: Oldest code you have written that is still in use?
#88My text editor (Assembler, then C), 1982.
Some F18 Hornet software (C, ground station support), also 1982.
Humphrey Utrasound Biometer (updates, Z-80 assembler), 1992.
Kodak Spark-based picture kiosk (Solaris 8 upgrade, Solaris patches for FAT, USB, PCMCIA), 1999.
But why?
Re: Ask HN: Oldest code you have written that is still in use?
#89I wrote these PayPal IPN code samples (ducks!!) in 2000 which I suspect still exist substantially the same in 10s of thousands of installations.
https://github.com/paypal/ipn-code-samples
I'm still amazed at how lousy http client libraries are in so many environments.
Re: Ask HN: Oldest code you have written that is still in use?
#90Linear mathematics calculator doing pivot tables for solving systems if linear equations 1999. I have only vague rumors of it still being used in class but it's still available http://www.nku.edu/~mat111/offline.htm