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1500 questions
23
votes
2 answers
Was it possible to get more than 8 sprites per scanline on an Amiga with the copper list?
I've read in the past that it was possible to overcome the 8 sprites per scanline on the Amiga (OCS) using the copper list. However, I can't seem to find any actual references to what may have used this trick (any games or demos).
Is this actually…
cbmeeks
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23
votes
2 answers
Were there any PCs using the i376?
The Intel 80376 was an x86 CPU that didn't support Real Mode or paging. It was targeted for embedded applications and it wasn't very successful at that (the 80386EX overtook it).
Under these conditions, it seems hard to believe someone could ever…
DarkAtom
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23
votes
1 answer
Where can I find the code of the ancestors of the WebKit family of web browsers?
I want to trace the development of the web browser back to the earliest point.
The code that would become WebKit began in 1998 as the KDE HTML (KHTML) layout engine and KDE JavaScript (KJS) engine.
-- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebKit
KHTML…
vaughan
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23
votes
3 answers
Why were OS/360 PL/I procedure calls so expensive in terms of stack space?
In 1977, Guy Steele published a paper entitled Debunking the “expensive procedure call” myth or, procedure call implementations considered harmful or, LAMBDA: The Ultimate GOTO. The paper was the fourth in a now-famous series known as the Lambda the…
Alexis King
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23
votes
15 answers
Did type-in-programs or type-in-listings teach programming in the 70s and 80s or was it just tedious typing of the source code?
In the late 70s and early 1980s, computer magazines and books usually distributed program codes via program listings, which the user then had to type into his computer. Today these are also known as type-in-program or type-in-listing programs.…
Coder
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23
votes
2 answers
Using Clang to compile MS-DOS executables
I have a simple C program, and I would like to compile it targeting MS-DOS. Can this be achieved with Clang?
I would like to produce the following formats:
COM executable
16-bit MZ executable
32-bit protected mode MZ executable (for use with…
tpimh
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23
votes
1 answer
How much slower was the 286 in protected mode?
I am given to understand that if the 80286 is run in protected mode, it is slightly slower than real mode, due to memory protection checks taking extra clock cycles.
Just how much slower is it? Either as an overall percentage on whole programs, or…
rwallace
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23
votes
2 answers
What did Windows 2 do about varying aspect ratio?
There was a time when computer graphics had to deal with non-square pixels. Happily that time ended once everyone had VGA or better.
But Windows 2 supported both EGA and VGA. And while the latter has resolution 640x480, the best the former can do is…
rwallace
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23
votes
1 answer
Why was the graphical user interface version of Defrag removed?
I remember in MS-DOS 6.22 that Defrag had a GUI that showed its progress and how it was moving files. It wasn't there in Windows XP and I can only assume that it wasn't in Windows 95, 98, 2000 either (I'm not sure though). Even now in Windows 11, we…
user10191234
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23
votes
9 answers
Why did "protected-mode MS-DOS" never happen?
Software written for MS-DOS used DOS extenders as early as on PC/AT (DOS/16M), and starting from i386-based systems, DOS extenders became really widespread.
I'd think it was pretty obvious at the time that the real-mode limitations of both BIOS and…
DmytroL
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23
votes
6 answers
Were CD-ROM-based games able to "hide" audio tracks inside the "data track"?
I have been digitizing the audio tracks from various old CDs lately, because I have become a lossless audio snob who no longer is able to tolerate MP3s but need FLACs of everything. Many of these are not music albums but rather CD-ROM-era video…
Dauson S.
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23
votes
8 answers
Why were nested functions excluded from B and C?
I'm learning C and was curious as to why the language does not allow nested functions.
From what I've read, the lack of nested functions seems to have been a simplification that was inherited from its parent language, B. And the reason they were…
user51462
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23
votes
6 answers
What was the first computer to support Arabic writing?
Looking at early microcomputers, all of them have support for something resembling ASCII, occasionally a few letters with accents and things were included also. And occasionally another alphabet such as Russian or Armenian was squeezed in.
But the…
Omar and Lorraine
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23
votes
6 answers
Why was video, audio and picture compression the poorest when storage space was the costliest?
"Full-motion video" sequences in PC and console games in the 1990s were bad-looking, in spite of taking huge amounts of storage space. Same thing with random short video clips that I obtained on a burned CD-ROM in the late 1990s. Huge files with…
Romalis
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23
votes
2 answers
What are the "Screen Holes" in Apple II graphics?
I've read the term screen holes many times in the context of Apple II graphics.
From what I understand, it has something to do with the interleaving storage of graphics (or was it text) and that some programmers use this space for other…
cbmeeks
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