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Run Windows 1.01 in your browser

jsmachines.net

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Re: Run Windows 1.01 in your browser

#81

Post by PhasmaFelis »

yohanatan wrote: post #77
PhasmaFelis wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Run-of-the-mill hackers should know this. Do you really need to put the guy down for honestly admitting ignorance and trying to learn? Anyway, "hacking" and computer science in general is diverse enough now that I wouldn't expect even an expert in any particular subfield to necessarily know anything about another. It's quite possible to be, say, an experienced database guru with a solid working knowledge of raytrac…

I wasn't putting him down. Just noting that his use of the word 'hacker' is not correct. There's a minimum bar to clear to call one's self a hacker and understanding how to substitute part of a software stack with another one is above that bar (in my opinion). See: http://www.paulgraham.com/gba.html

It seems to me that tying "hacker" status to any one specific skill or bit of knowledge is antithetical to the whole concept.

Re: Run Windows 1.01 in your browser

#82

Post by s-macke »

slacka wrote: post #70
tzury wrote: post #28

After Bellard's JSLinux, it was just about time till more OS will be ported to JS. http://bellard.org/jslinux/

After PCjs and Bellard's, try Virtual x86, which can emulate FreeDOS, OpenBSD, and KolibriOS. http://copy.sh/v24/ As a hack, all of these JavaScript emulators are awesome to play with. But in reality if you need performance for something in the past decade, like a N64 or newer arcade emulators, JS is still orders of magnitude slower than dynarec emulators written in C. I hope something like PNaCl will come along to b…

N64 might work. With WebGL support of course. And I hope too for a really new standard for web programming. Java was the answer for some time, then Flash, now Javascript. The big companies should sit together and agree on one standard with typed variables. The JIT compilers of Javascript will reach there limits sooner or later.

Re: Run Windows 1.01 in your browser

#83

Post by s-macke »

slacka wrote: post #70
tzury wrote: post #28

After Bellard's JSLinux, it was just about time till more OS will be ported to JS. http://bellard.org/jslinux/

After PCjs and Bellard's, try Virtual x86, which can emulate FreeDOS, OpenBSD, and KolibriOS. http://copy.sh/v24/ As a hack, all of these JavaScript emulators are awesome to play with. But in reality if you need performance for something in the past decade, like a N64 or newer arcade emulators, JS is still orders of magnitude slower than dynarec emulators written in C. I hope something like PNaCl will come along to b…

Here is an incomplete list of web emulators

http://archive.vg/blog/12-feature/114-a-big-list-of-browser-...

Re: Run Windows 1.01 in your browser

#84

Post by yohanatan »

PhasmaFelis wrote: post #81
yohanatan wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wasn't putting him down. Just noting that his use of the word 'hacker' is not correct. There's a minimum bar to clear to call one's self a hacker and understanding how to substitute part of a software stack with another one is above that bar (in my opinion). See: http://www.paulgraham.com/gba.html

It seems to me that tying "hacker" status to any one specific skill or bit of knowledge is antithetical to the whole concept.

I was referring to the term 'hacker' in the 'good programmer' sense as mentioned by Paul Graham in the link I posted. Obviously, to be a good programmer one must first be a programmer.

Re: Run Windows 1.01 in your browser

#85

Post by yohanatan »

BlackDeath3 wrote: post #80
yohanatan wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wasn't putting him down. Just noting that his use of the word 'hacker' is not correct. There's a minimum bar to clear to call one's self a hacker and understanding how to substitute part of a software stack with another one is above that bar (in my opinion). See: http://www.paulgraham.com/gba.html

Hmm. What I'm about to say probably sounds a lot like something that somebody who lacks impressive technical prowess (like myself, self-admittedly) would say, but I think that being a "hacker" is almost more of a mindset. Or, alternatively, there is a hacker mindset, and a lot of the folks here can identify with, and exhibit, that mindset. Specifically, the hacker mindset means that you're always curious, always lear…

I was referring to the term hacker in the 'good programmer' sense (as mentioned in the PG essay I linked to). Being a good programmer pre-supposes being a programmer (and good programmers should definitely have an idea how emulators are written, IMO).

Re: Run Windows 1.01 in your browser

#87

Post by tanzam75 »

mwally wrote: post #22
tegansnyder wrote: post #13

where is qbasic?

In the MS-DOS Executive, click the A-Drive, and the double-click on BASICA.EXE (Basic Advanced). QBasic didn't come until MS-DOS 5, the demo uses MS-DOS 2.

> QBasic didn't come until MS-DOS 5, the demo uses MS-DOS 2.

Actually, the demo is PC-DOS 2.0, not MS-DOS 2.0. Notice the disk that's in the emulator's drive. Also, IBM replaced all of Microsoft's copyright notices:

  The IBM Personal Computer DOS
  Version 2.00 (C)Copyright IBM Corp 1981, 1982 1983
If they're using real disk images, then they must have an actual IBM ROM BASIC in the emulator. PC-DOS BASIC(A) would only run on a true-blue IBM machine, because it called into the ROM BASIC. In contrast, MS-DOS BASIC(A) was implemented entirely in software and would run on any clone.

Re: Run Windows 1.01 in your browser

#88

Post by tanzam75 »

allochthon wrote: post #21
mambodog wrote: post #16

As there seems to be a lot of interest in emulators in the browser, here's my effort: I ported an emulator for classic Mac and IBM PC to the browser. Mac System 7 Demo: http://jamesfriend.com.au/pce-js/ Windows 3.0 Demo: http://jamesfriend.com.au/pce-js/ibmpc-win/ IBM PC doesn't have mouse support... Yet. For Mac OS it's writing the mouse position directly into memory, but I've yet to add that hack for Windows.

The Mac is great -- just as I remember it when I was a little kid. Actually, not exactly -- the emulator seems faster than the Mac we had. Also, I tried to get it to crash but wasn't able to.

> The Mac is great -- just as I remember it when I was a little kid. Actually, not exactly -- the emulator seems faster than the Mac we had. Also, I tried to get it to crash but wasn't able to.

You really shouldn't see a crash on a fresh install of the operating system. A lot of crashes on Mac OS Classic were caused by software that hooked itself deeply into the system and corrupted state. Not so different from Windows, actually ...

As software became ever more complex in the 9.x era, Option-OpenApple-Reset became as familiar as Ctrl-Alt-Delete.

Re: Run Windows 1.01 in your browser

#89

Post by tanzam75 »

guyzero wrote: post #26
DanBC wrote: post #17

I am really enjoying a lot of the retro things being posted recently. Sadly, they miss out some of the details. Like Elite being playable at 4 MHz, but really hard at 25 MHz, because that's how clocks worked then, and that's what the turbo button did. (It was a de-turbo button, turning your machine into a slow machine for compatibility. If it was connected, that is.) And this makes me wonder about the Wayback machine…

it came with an embedded windows runtime - I think it was Microsoft not sure quite yet how they'd license it.

> it came with an embedded windows runtime - I think it was Microsoft not sure quite yet how they'd license it.

The Windows port of Microsoft Excel also initially came bundled with a Windows runtime. It wasn't really until Windows 3.0 that you could start take Windows as a prereq. Before then, very few systems had Windows installed.

Wait a minute. "Windows Runtime" has a different meaning nowadays. Microsoft is really reusing a lot of its existing trademarks for Windows 8, isn't it? "Surface" was also a trademark that they already owned, for a giant touchscreen table.

Re: Run Windows 1.01 in your browser

#90

Post by tanzam75 »

vidarh wrote: post #72
ghc wrote: post #10

Played Reversi in Windows 1.01. Still lost. I will go hang my head in shame now.

The key to Reversi is to win the corners (EDIT: you can lose while still winning 2-3 corners, but losing the corners gives the opponent a much greater chance to take large chunks of the edges and then purse to turn whole rows). To win the corners, you must avoid the spots 1 out from the corners. To avoid being forced to take the spots 1 out from the corners, one strategy is to avoid the edges as long as possible, and…

> I'm not a particularly good player, and I got 3 out of 4 corners on my first attempt by just relatively haphazardly following the above, which means the default settings and/or overall strength of this version is pretty weak.

It defaults to Beginner. Use the "Skill" menu to change it to Master. It'll be much more challenging, and the AI will take a lot longer to calculate its move.

(Remember: This is Windows 1.01, so you have to hold down the mouse button to use pull-down menus.)

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