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37
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1 answer
In the classic "Windows 98 crashes live on CNN" video, why does the BSOD appear so oddly?
I've been seeing this since the late 1990s: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKy9fV_zX_o
Was this a hoax or joke of some kind? The only reason I ask is that, when the blue screen appears, it does so in such a manner as to look extremely unlike an…
Aruthur P.
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6 answers
Is there a simple way to display ANSI art and animation files in a modern terminal window?
ANSI art and animations were prevalent on BBS systems in the late 80s and early 90s, and the ANSI art scene continues to thrive today. There are thousands of ANSI art files, with usual extension .ans, available on the Internet, many from those retro…
Brian H
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37
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3 answers
Was the term "master" in source code management systems first used with the sense of master/replica or master/slave?
In recent years there has been a push by some to move away from using the term "master" in source code management systems, often by renaming the "master" branch to a "main" branch. This is part of a broader shift away from using "master/slave"…
curiousdannii
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37
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2 answers
Why does Windows 1.01 crash at the splash screen?
When Windows 1.01 is started under DOSBox, FreeDOS or one of the later versions of MS-DOS, garbage characters are printed on the screen right after displaying the Microsoft logo. Here’s an example in MS-DOS 5.0:
Afterwards, Windows starts…
user3840170
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37
votes
3 answers
Why does make only accept tab-indentation?
The syntax for Makefiles requires that indented lines start with a tab, and not a space. So far as I can tell, this has been the case even for very early implementations of make. But even modern-day make (I've checked my current computer, which has…
Omar and Lorraine
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37
votes
3 answers
What was the first programming language to support “operator chaining”?
The Python language has a neat feature: An expression like x < y <= z is interpreted, according to mathematical convention, as equivalent to x < y and y <= z. Operands are evaluated only as many times as they appear, and the short-circuiting nature…
texdr.aft
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37
votes
13 answers
Why were programs entered on punch cards instead of paper tapes?
Dale Fisk's Programming With Punched Cards is a fascinating account of programming in the days of punch cards.
The fundamental dynamic was that early computers did not yet support timesharing.
The first attempt at allocating computer resources was…
rwallace
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37
votes
3 answers
How can I play QBasic Nibbles on a modern machine?
MS-DOS versions 5 and 6 come bundled with the QBasic interpreter and a handful of example programs written in that BASIC dialect. One of the programs is Nibbles, a variant of the well-known Snake game.
However, whenever I attempt to start it up on a…
user3840170
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37
votes
9 answers
How long can a floppy disk spin for before wearing out?
I'm mainly interested in 3.5" floppies here, as they're what I have lying around, but other sizes could also be interesting to hear about if anyone has the data.
As I understand it, the head rubs against the disk and the disk rubs against the…
spacer GIF
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37
votes
6 answers
Why is this gcd implementation from the 80s so complicated?
First of all, I hope this is the right place to post this question. I was looking through one of my dad's old programming books from the 80s, and at the back it has a list of utility functions, one of which is gcd. Its implementation is as…
Calvin Godfrey
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37
votes
9 answers
When and why did high-level language compilers start targeting assembly language rather than machine code?
From what I've read, the first FORTRAN compiler built a machine-code program entirely in memory; it was, in fact, designed to read the entire source code of the program, and then sequentially load pieces of the compiler that would process different…
supercat
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37
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5 answers
Why did early game consoles need the TV to be tuned to channel 3 or 4?
It just dawned on me that, when I was young, game consoles like the NES and SNES, and possibly other devices like VCR's, required the TV to be tuned to channel 4. I asked around, and some remembered it being channel 3.
Why did it matter what…
Ryan_L
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36
votes
8 answers
Why were floppy disks invented after hard disks?
For those of us who grew up with personal computers in the 1970's or 1980's, the experience was a very gradual migration from floppy disks to hard disks as the primary persistent storage. So, based on this experience, it is a bit counter-intuitive…
Brian H
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36
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6 answers
Why do hard drives not use larger platter sizes anymore?
In reading a related question about floppy drive capacity, I thought to ask a question I've had for a long time. When I started programming, all PC hard drives used the 5¼" platter size. There were very large capacity drives available that used…
Kelly S. French
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36
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5 answers
Which ports are which on this Soviet ZX Spectrum clone?
Today I got my (first) Soviet ZX Spectrum clone. The person who sold it to me had inherited it and had no idea how it worked.
It seems to be a home-made clone, rather than a factory-built one. See picture in case I'm wrong about this:
I have looked…
harlandski
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