Building a new Windows 3.1 app in 2019: A Slack Client

#1

Post by yeokm1 » Thu, Dec 19, 2019, 4:05 AM UTC

Building a new Windows 3.1 app in 2019: A Slack Client
yeokhengmeng.com

Re: Building a new Windows 3.1 app in 2019: A Slack Client

#2

Post by yeokm1 » Thu, Dec 19, 2019, 4:06 AM UTC

I built a Win 3.1 app during a company hackathon just for fun. Here, I detail learnings and process for how a new old app can be created with the aid of modern tools and hindsight of old technologies. And perhaps what lessons can it offer us today.

Without the benefit of modern libraries and languages, I had to read up and take care of many low level details, socket programming, HTTP, JSON parsing, UI design in code all under tight memory constraints. Nevertheless, it was a terrific lesson in understanding how things work under the hood.

I had to do things the old-fashioned way reading books and header files due to the dearth of online documentation. I can empathise with the plight of the programmers of yesteryears who had to code without the benefit of online search engines.

With this blog post, I hope you'll find it interesting to learn about developing a modern-ancient app for Win 3.1.

https://github.com/yeokm1/w31slack https://github.com/yeokm1/http-to-https-proxy

Re: Building a new Windows 3.1 app in 2019: A Slack Client

#3

Post by dboreham » Thu, Dec 19, 2019, 5:22 AM UTC

yeokm1 wrote: post #2

I built a Win 3.1 app during a company hackathon just for fun. Here, I detail learnings and process for how a new old app can be created with the aid of modern tools and hindsight of old technologies. And perhaps what lessons can it offer us today. Without the benefit of modern libraries and languages, I had to read up and take care of many low level details, socket programming, HTTP, JSON parsing, UI design in code…

Prior to online search engines there were similar offline resources such as the MSDN CDs.

Re: Building a new Windows 3.1 app in 2019: A Slack Client

#4

Post by vardump » Thu, Dec 19, 2019, 5:22 AM UTC

yeokm1 wrote: post #2

I built a Win 3.1 app during a company hackathon just for fun. Here, I detail learnings and process for how a new old app can be created with the aid of modern tools and hindsight of old technologies. And perhaps what lessons can it offer us today. Without the benefit of modern libraries and languages, I had to read up and take care of many low level details, socket programming, HTTP, JSON parsing, UI design in code…

> https://github.com/yeokm1/w31slack

Gives just a 404.

Re: Building a new Windows 3.1 app in 2019: A Slack Client

#5

Post by yeokm1 » Thu, Dec 19, 2019, 5:31 AM UTC

vardump wrote: post #4

yeokm1 wrote: post #2

I built a Win 3.1 app during a company hackathon just for fun. Here, I detail learnings and process for how a new old app can be created with the aid of modern tools and hindsight of old technologies. And perhaps what lessons can it offer us today. Without the benefit of modern libraries and languages, I had to read up and take care of many low level details, socket programming, HTTP, JSON parsing, UI design in code…

> https://github.com/yeokm1/w31slack Gives just a 404.

I forgot to make the repo public. It's up now!

Re: Building a new Windows 3.1 app in 2019: A Slack Client

#6

Post by yeokm1 » Thu, Dec 19, 2019, 5:32 AM UTC

dboreham wrote: post #3

yeokm1 wrote: post #2

I built a Win 3.1 app during a company hackathon just for fun. Here, I detail learnings and process for how a new old app can be created with the aid of modern tools and hindsight of old technologies. And perhaps what lessons can it offer us today. Without the benefit of modern libraries and languages, I had to read up and take care of many low level details, socket programming, HTTP, JSON parsing, UI design in code…

Prior to online search engines there were similar offline resources such as the MSDN CDs.

Agreed. But such CDs are tough to locate today.

Re: Building a new Windows 3.1 app in 2019: A Slack Client

#7

Post by yeokm1 » Thu, Dec 19, 2019, 5:34 AM UTC

Unsure why it goes to twitter. Here is the blog post. http://yeokhengmeng.com/2019/12/building-a-new-win-3-1-app-i...

Re: Building a new Windows 3.1 app in 2019: A Slack Client

#8

Post by homarp » Thu, Dec 19, 2019, 5:41 AM UTC

yeokm1 wrote: post #6

dboreham wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Prior to online search engines there were similar offline resources such as the MSDN CDs.

Agreed. But such CDs are tough to locate today.

maybe https://archive.org/details/msdncds can help

Re: Building a new Windows 3.1 app in 2019: A Slack Client

#9

Post by dang » Thu, Dec 19, 2019, 5:46 AM UTC

yeokm1 wrote: post #7

Unsure why it goes to twitter. Here is the blog post. http://yeokhengmeng.com/2019/12/building-a-new-win-3-1-app-i...

Changed now from https://twitter.com/gravislizard/status/927593460642615296.

Edit: oh, I see what happened now. We made a mistake, intending to set the URL for https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21831931. Sorry!

Re: Building a new Windows 3.1 app in 2019: A Slack Client

#10

Post by ink_13 » Thu, Dec 19, 2019, 5:48 AM UTC

Reading this article and others by the same author on his travails of getting Windows 3.11 to install and then bridging it to modern(-ish) tech was like being transported back to the 90s when I was first learning about computers. Seeing those screenshots of the unmistakable Win 3.1-style dialogs was a real nostalgia hit. What a treat.

10 points (well, an upvote, I guess) for anyone who knows why the Windows DOS-mode installer says "Press F3 to exit"