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Lotus 1-2-3 arbitrary resolution

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Re: Lotus 1-2-3 arbitrary resolution

#81

Post by mmastrac »

userbinator wrote: post #47

This reminds me I should try to make a bit more progress with trying to write an RDP display driver for Win9x... one of those things I thought of one day but never really got around to doing. (I'm sure there are existing solutions, but writing my own is half the fun --- and I've already written a generic VESA framebuffer.) I like stuff like this in the same ways as car modding --- teaching an old dog new tricks.

Something like this could be useful for DOSBox acceleration to avoid having to go through the emulated SVGA layer. WinBox project?

Re: Lotus 1-2-3 arbitrary resolution

#82

Post by tombert »

I think there is something kind of fun about purposefully using "outdated" software, and even valuable sometimes, in the same way that it's useful to use a dead language like Latin nowadays; it's not changing so there's sort of a bit of "equality" to it, for want of a better word.

For example, I've actually thought it might make sense for people to release new software on DOS or the Sega Genesis, simply because they're not being updated anymore, and as a result, there's a ton of great emulators for both that can run on pretty much any modern platform under the sun. A Linux program I write might not run under FreeBSD or AmigaOS, but I would bet that I could get basically nearly any SNES game running nearly flawlessly on them with an emulator.

Re: Lotus 1-2-3 arbitrary resolution

#83

Post by userbinator »

rasz wrote: post #58
userbinator wrote: post #47

This reminds me I should try to make a bit more progress with trying to write an RDP display driver for Win9x... one of those things I thought of one day but never really got around to doing. (I'm sure there are existing solutions, but writing my own is half the fun --- and I've already written a generic VESA framebuffer.) I like stuff like this in the same ways as car modding --- teaching an old dog new tricks.

>I've already written a generic VESA framebuffer you mean like this https://bearwindows.zcm.com.au/vbe9x.htm ?

I was actually inspired by that one, but it has some glaring deficiencies (like windowed DOS boxes corrupting the graphics state) that I wanted to fix; but only managed to do so, partially, before other things took priority.

The amount of code needed to get basic unaccelerated graphics working is surprisingly small; most of it has to do with detection and modeswitching. Once you set the mode, all you need to do is give Windows' GDI the appropriate framebuffer and related information (the structures are, not surprisingly, very similar to a BMP file header), and it will do all the rendering. Of course you can also hook into some of the drawing functions for some acceleration, but my testing with a relatively recent GPU and CPU showed that even unaccelerated 2D graphics is plenty fast for essentially everything but gaming. That's partly why I wanted to turn it into RDP --- which AFAIK is similar to GDI, but RPC'd over the network.

Re: Lotus 1-2-3 arbitrary resolution

#84

Post by sjwright »

tombert wrote: post #82

I think there is something kind of fun about purposefully using "outdated" software, and even valuable sometimes, in the same way that it's useful to use a dead language like Latin nowadays; it's not changing so there's sort of a bit of "equality" to it, for want of a better word. For example, I've actually thought it might make sense for people to release new software on DOS or the Sega Genesis, simply because they'…

Coding for obsolete platforms is analogous to black-and-white film photography with lenses of fixed focal length. Restriction breeds creativity by denying you access to the full gamut of easy, low effort solutions.

Re: Lotus 1-2-3 arbitrary resolution

#85

Post by raverbashing »

bombcar wrote: post #55
tyingq wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Can't believe the Lotus FTP site is still live. Wonder where that thing is running" Had me curious as well. $ host ftp.support.lotus.com ftp.support.lotus.com is an alias for service.boulder.ibm.com. service.boulder.ibm.com has address 170.225.15.26 It's running WUFTPD 2.6.3, which is abandonware as far as I can tell. Though no open vulnerabilities listed.

Nobody at IBM will ever want to be the person to suggest decommissioning a server that might make a paying customer yell at their manager. Expect it to continue forever.

Unless it would make the paying customer pay more, naturally

Re: Lotus 1-2-3 arbitrary resolution

#86

Post by selcuka »

raldi wrote: post #50
bombcar wrote: post #48

Reminds me of the HP 200LX that came with full version of Lotus 1-2-3 v2.4. Quite a powerful computer to run off of two AA batteries. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HP_200LX I still feel there's things it could do that I can't do with my iPhone; and spreadsheets is one of them. (Yes you can get Excel on an iPhone, the interface sucks).

I had one of these in college! I hooked it up to a serial port and set up Linux to use it as a login terminal, so I could do email in Pine while my girlfriend worked on homework with the actual keyboard/mouse/monitor. It didn’t just have Lotus; it had a dedicated Lotus key.

Lotus 1-2-3 was the killer application. It was the reason for many people for buying a computer.

Re: Lotus 1-2-3 arbitrary resolution

#87

Post by Tijdreiziger »

tombert wrote: post #82

I think there is something kind of fun about purposefully using "outdated" software, and even valuable sometimes, in the same way that it's useful to use a dead language like Latin nowadays; it's not changing so there's sort of a bit of "equality" to it, for want of a better word. For example, I've actually thought it might make sense for people to release new software on DOS or the Sega Genesis, simply because they'…

There are a good number of old devices that still have a devout following. For MS-DOS you might check out e.g. Planet X3 [1]. Or how about Super Boss Gaiden [2], a game for a prototype console of which (AFAIK) only one unit is in existence (but you can play the game on an emulator, which apparently exists for this obscure console).

[1] http://www.the8bitguy.com/product/planet-x3-for-ms-dos-compu...

[2] https://playstation.fandom.com/wiki/Super_Boss_Gaiden

Re: Lotus 1-2-3 arbitrary resolution

#88

Post by bowmessage »

bombcar wrote: post #48

Reminds me of the HP 200LX that came with full version of Lotus 1-2-3 v2.4. Quite a powerful computer to run off of two AA batteries. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HP_200LX I still feel there's things it could do that I can't do with my iPhone; and spreadsheets is one of them. (Yes you can get Excel on an iPhone, the interface sucks).

Seeing that makes me want to go dust off my OpenPandora!

Re: Lotus 1-2-3 arbitrary resolution

#89

Post by joubert »

tombert wrote: post #82

I think there is something kind of fun about purposefully using "outdated" software, and even valuable sometimes, in the same way that it's useful to use a dead language like Latin nowadays; it's not changing so there's sort of a bit of "equality" to it, for want of a better word. For example, I've actually thought it might make sense for people to release new software on DOS or the Sega Genesis, simply because they'…

> can run on pretty much any modern platform under the sun

Which is why web apps shine. Near-universal reach.

Re: Lotus 1-2-3 arbitrary resolution

#90

Post by tombert »

joubert wrote: post #89
tombert wrote: post #82

I think there is something kind of fun about purposefully using "outdated" software, and even valuable sometimes, in the same way that it's useful to use a dead language like Latin nowadays; it's not changing so there's sort of a bit of "equality" to it, for want of a better word. For example, I've actually thought it might make sense for people to release new software on DOS or the Sega Genesis, simply because they'…

> can run on pretty much any modern platform under the sun Which is why web apps shine. Near-universal reach.

Sure but even for web apps, you have to code around the fact the people might have outdated browsers, and even with current browsers you end up having to deal with rendering quirks of each.

When you use a truly "deprecated" platform, you have don't have to worry about that; the Sega Genesis/MegaDrive hasn't been supported in any official capacity for more than 20 years, meaning that basically any emulator made in the last decade or so will be "feature complete".

(I know there are a few bits of weirdness with emulating expansion chips for Virtua Racing, but my point overall still stands).

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