31–40 of 218 posts
I wonder how long it'll be before they release the source for the earliest Windows versions. The fact that they still have the source for this very old DOS at least gives hope that they also do for old Windows.
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Yet another case where text printed on paper outlived any digital storage.
Seems like it was never digitally stored in the first place, and the printed text was barely readable due to age. Not really a big win for paper.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Seems like it was never digitally stored in the first place, and the printed text was barely readable due to age. Not really a big win for paper.
The idea that it never existed digitally is obviously untrue. Likely poor wording in the author's part. They probably meant something like, so old that a printout is all that survived (which sounds vaguely like not being digital to someone in an era so far removed from a time when programs were/could realistically be printed.)
Really depends on the program. Source code is often quite manageable. Even artifacts aren't always as large as you might expect. Busybox on my system weighs in at 1.9 MiB or alternatively 928 KiB with zstd maxed out.
But I don't really see a point to printing any of it. A situation that might require the printouts is likely to largely preclude the continued existence of modern electronics, the ability to replace batteries, or even a connection to a reliable electrical grid.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The idea that it never existed digitally is obviously untrue. Likely poor wording in the author's part. They probably meant something like, so old that a printout is all that survived (which sounds vaguely like not being digital to someone in an era so far removed from a time when programs were/could realistically be printed.)
> a time when programs were/could realistically be printed Really depends on the program. Source code is often quite manageable. Even artifacts aren't always as large as you might expect. Busybox on my system weighs in at 1.9 MiB or alternatively 928 KiB with zstd maxed out. But I don't really see a point to printing any of it. A situation that might require the printouts is likely to largely preclude the continued e…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Seems like it was never digitally stored in the first place, and the printed text was barely readable due to age. Not really a big win for paper.
How did they print it then, I wonder?
It is wonderful how early years of modern computing was brilliant. We treated machines as they really are: machines. Performance, creativity, science..., all possible to make a 386 machine work. Nowadays is all about libraries, virtualization, [bad] code over [bad] code over [bad] code..., I dont like it.
Linus Torvalds, a few months ago, said something to this effect when discussing AI coding tools. That his (also, mine) generation was lucky to have started with low level stuff and managed to retain the understanding of the whole stack - and kids these days don't get that. Good luck acquiring this level of feel for computers, algorithms, data structures today, when a kid's first experience with coding will be a seemingly genius chatbot.
I wonder how long it'll be before they release the source for the earliest Windows versions. The fact that they still have the source for this very old DOS at least gives hope that they also do for old Windows.
The day they would make Windows 2000 codebase open source (or source available) would be the day I could die happy (although I'd probably be long dead anyways by the time there's a glimmerof chance of it happening). What a beautiful, smooth-running operating system it was.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Seems like it was never digitally stored in the first place, and the printed text was barely readable due to age. Not really a big win for paper.
Well it had to have been on disk or tape at some point. It wasn't all typed in by hand every time they needed to build a new version.