[cctalk] Re: Getting floppy images to/from real floppy disks.

[Harald Arnesen via cctalk]

Fred Cisin via cctalk [04/06/2023 02.50]:

On Sun, 4 Jun 2023, Alexander Schreiber wrote:

So the Mercedes T model was (at least in Germany, the manufacturers country)
never called a "station wagon" because that category name doesn't exist
there. The closest analogue to it in German parlance would be the "Kombi"
class of vehicles. Based upon the more numerous sedan models, but shaped
like a station wagon with a large rear door, a level trunk (usually)
and with the option of considerably expanding cargo space by folding
down the rear seats to provide a flat surface.



yes.  a Kombi full of tapes hurtling down the highway.


...down the Autobahn.
--
Hilsen Harald
Слава Україні!

[cctalk] Re: FOSBIC Compiler

[Harald Arnesen via cctalk]

Veit, Holger via cctalk [07/07/2023 09.43]:


Hi all,
maybe someone here is interested in the FOSBIC (FORTRAN Simulated BASIC 
Interpretive Compiler) system.


Compiles fine, the tests I have run works as intended.


It is still a batch system, i.e. on has to provide the BASIC program as a file 
(formerly it had to be a card deck), and feed it into the program through 
stdin, as
in "./fosbic < hello.bas | ./asa"


I made a shell script to do this, along with checking that the source 
file exists.


Thanks!
--
Hilsen Harald
Слава Україні!

[cctalk] Re: Borland Turbo C++ and Turbo Basic - Books and Manuals

[Harald Arnesen via cctalk]

ben via cctalk [07/04/2024 20.05]:


I don't think bottles would be ship able. Now a keg of beer might be.
Or a least the old oak kegs you read in stories.


No problem to ship beer bottles, just pack them in diapers. We do this 
all the time in the Norwegian homebrew competitions. Now, diapers are 
the only thing really cheap in Norway.

--
Hilsen Harald.

[cctalk] Re: Z80 vs other microprocessors of the time.

[Harald Arnesen via cctalk]

Fred Cisin via cctalk [24/04/2024 02.06]:


Did the Dimension 68000 (a multi-processor machine) have Z80 and 6502?

Commodore 128 had Z80 and 6502


Z80 and 8502, actually.
--
Hilsen Harald

[cctalk] Re: BASIC

[Harald Arnesen via cctalk]

Gavin Scott via cctalk [02/05/2024 05.44]:


BASIC was always a popular language in the Hewlett-Packard world. From
the HP 2000 timesharing BASIC that was popular in educational settings
similar to the original DTSS, To BASIC/3000 on the HP 3000 which was a
first-class language with both interpreter and compiler (producing
very fast code), to the HP 250/260 which used BASIC as their primary
development language, Rocky Mountain BASIC in the technical world, the
Series 80 microcomputers, HP Business Basic again on the 3000 which
was probably largest and most complex language system ever created for
the Classic 16-bit 3000 systems and which was intended to be both a
migration path for 250/260 applications to MPE and to be a new
standard Basic across multiple HP platforms.


I learned programming in BASIC/3000 in the early 80s. The biggest 
problem with that language was that you could only have short variable 
names (1 letter + one digit, if I remember right).


I and two other students wrote kind of an inventory management system 
for a Norwegian company as a project in class. Oh, the fun of 
remembering what the variable names were in a program of some thousand 
lines...


I actually preferred the BASIC on my Commodore 64, especially when I got 
the Simons' BASIC cartridge.

--
Hilsen Harald

[cctalk] Re: APL (Was: BASIC

[Harald Arnesen via cctalk]

Paul Koning via cctalk [07/05/2024 19.31]:


(Then again, I had a classmate who was taking a double major: math and music 
composition...)


Mathemathics and music is not a rare combination - see Tom Lehrer, for 
instance.

--
Hilsen Harald

[cctalk] Re: Experience using an Altair 8800 ("Personal computer" from 70s)

[Harald Arnesen via cctalk]

Liam Proven via cctalk [31/05/2024 18.07]:


My first fiancée's dad had what he reckoned was the first mainframe in
Norway.


Was it this:

 - in Norwegian, machine translation work ok.


--
Hilsen Harald

[cctalk] Re: Data General MV/8000 emulator announcement

[Harald Arnesen via cctalk]

Liam Proven via cctalk [2024-10-07 11:10:56]:


Have you tried to run any libc5-program lately? Or a.out binaries?

Does WordPerfect 8 (released in 1998) count?

If so, yes, I have:

https://www.theregister.com/2022/07/20/wordperfect_for_unix_for_linux/

Instructions to install it yourself:

https://www.xwp8users.com/wp81script.htm


Sure, I have tested it myself. I can't see a regular user having a need 
to run a random libc5-program will manage to do this (hunt down the 
libraries needed and the like).

--
Hilsen Harald

[cctalk] Re: Data General MV/8000 emulator announcement

[Harald Arnesen via cctalk]

Maciej W. Rozycki [2024-10-07 12:04:29]:


  FWIW compiling 25 years old a piece of software is even tougher, unless
you use contemporary tools in a contemporary environment, so while the
availability of the source code is surely always worth appreciating, the
challenge to make them run is not any smaller.


That depends. I have compiled several SysV- and BSD4.3-utilities for 
FreeDOS, using gcc or openwatcom. Most compiled straight away.


Most of the C programs I made for my Amiga compiles fine today 
(obviously not Intuition-based graphics programs).


I like to collect old text adventure games, most of what I find are easy 
to compile on Linux.



  NB if you clean up old a.out support and submit it for re-inclusion in
Linux along with a serious offer to maintain it long-term, then it may
well end up being accepted.  You have the option to maintain it off-tree
too.


Not me. I have really no need to run a.out binaries, nor am i qualified 
to do such a thing.

--
Hilsen Harald

[cctalk] Re: Data General MV/8000 emulator announcement

[Harald Arnesen via cctalk]

Maciej W. Rozycki via cctalk [2024-10-05 16:51:13]:


On Sat, 5 Oct 2024, Tom Hunter via cctalk wrote:


 As the software is binary only it won't be "Forever", but only until the
next major change in Windows or Linux APIs which breaks binary
compatibility.


  Linux maintains backwards ABI compatibility as far as both the OS kernel
and the C library is concerned.  If something breaks with an upgrade then
please report a bug rather than complaining on a random mailing list (not
that I endorse proprietary or any kind of closed-source software).


Have you tried to run any libc5-program lately? Or a.out binaries?
--
Hilsen Harald

[cctalk] Re: AI? Really?

[Harald Arnesen via cctalk]

Fred Cisin via cctalk [2025-01-27 15:37:46]:


Whereas, the catflap may simply be product development/evolution from
gates that were sufficiently porous that cats could squeezze through?


Cats don't really need catflags:

--
Hilsen Harald

[cctalk] Re: Try Algol 68 on Windows

[Harald Arnesen via cctalk]

Paul Koning via cctalk [2025-01-14 01:42:00]:


Interpreting or compiling are implementation options entirely independent of 
the language.  I don't know of ALGOL 60 interpreters but there's no reason why 
one could not be built.


You'll find a couple here:

--
Hilsen Harald