Old days of computing

[Flatland_Spider]

I miss the old pizza box Sparcstations and the whine of SCSI drives.

I have nostalgia for the command line and flat config files, which is why I use Linux , but I'll take Gig networks, octo-cored procs, and flat-screen monitors.

[pikaporeon]

I miss the old pizza box Sparcstations and the whine of SCSI drives.

I have nostalgia for the command line and flat config files, which is why I use Linux , but I'll take Gig networks, octo-cored procs, and flat-screen monitors.

I worked at a somewhat sketchy datacentre, one guy rented a cabinet that had six or seven Sparcstation 4s in it - this was in 2008.

[Scrotos]

I miss having reasonably priced FORTRAN compilers for the PC. I have my own library of FORTRAN code that I wrote and used interactively while in grad school.

I think there are some free Fortran compilers nowadays if you search for 'em.

Heck with OS/2, I remember getting all hot and bothered about this thing called DesqView/X. Multitasking DOS screens and stuff! At least that's what the magazine ads claimed... http://toastytech.com/guis/dvx.html

I'd probably need a refresher on CP/M. I used to play games on it all the time on my dad's Zilog-80-based Heathkit H89. I think he even overclocked the CPU on that bad boy, too!

[just brew it!]

I miss having reasonably priced FORTRAN compilers for the PC. I have my own library of FORTRAN code that I wrote and used interactively while in grad school.

Does "free" qualify as "reasonably priced"?

The GNU toolchain includes a FORTRAN compiler. To run your FORTRAN code you can either run Linux in a VM, or install Cygwin.

There's probably even a way to get the Cygwin FORTRAN compiler to emit native Windows executables; I've never tried doing that myself, but the Cygwin C/C++ compiler can definitely do this, so there's a fair chance the FORTRAN compiler can as well.

[Flatland_Spider]

@JBI
MinGW compiler suite is what you're thinking of, and it does include the GCC Fortran compiler.

http://www.mingw.org/

Open64 is supposed to also support Fortran on Windows, but I can't confirm this when looking at their website.

http://www.open64.net

[just brew it!]

Heck with OS/2, I remember getting all hot and bothered about this thing called DesqView/X. Multitasking DOS screens and stuff! At least that's what the magazine ads claimed... http://toastytech.com/guis/dvx.html

I remember using DesqView back when I was a MS-DOS developer. Having multiple virtual DOS sessions was pretty cool -- one for editing, one for compiling, and one for testing. I still remember how thrilled I was to get 10 MB of RAM (which was a *buttload* of RAM for a PC back in those days, cost my employer a small fortune) for my 386 since it allowed me to run more concurrent DesqView sessions!

[JustAnEngineer]

How about Choplifter on an original Apple?
http://store.steampowered.com/app/202070/

One of my first computing experiences was teaching myself BASIC on an 8K white-screen Commodore PET.

[Captain Ned]

How about Choplifter on an original Apple?

Played it on a friend's ][ back in the late '70s. In college in the early '80s near every IIc had a copy of Choplifter on it.

[P5-133XL]

I miss my PDP-8L from high school! A computer with only 4K of core RAM, a teletype with a paper-tape reader for I/O and lots of blinking lights that you could look at, or listen to on an AM radio placed on top, and tell what it was doing at the time. Where you had to load the bootstrap loader via switches so you could load a primitive paper-tape loader that would actually load the program that could read and load Basic, Focal, or a Macro Assembler from paper-tape. Where the first computer class anyone took was how to program in assembler code (Basic or Focal came later).

[Captain Ned]

Ah, high school. PDP-8/e here, with an ASR-33 Teletype and a DECWriter. Ours was spiffy and had the reel-to-reel tape drive. If the drive was in use, rules said the computer room door had to be closed. The drive had this nasty tendency to throw one of the reels and since the door opened axially to a long hallway a thrown reel with the door open meant someone chasing the reel down the hall, rewinding the tape by hand, and trying not to damage it too much as the floor grit was gently blown off.

[riviera74]

Thankfully, the old days are long gone. I like how things are now. HW is stable and reliable, while software is increasingly so. I do NOT want to go back to the days when upgrading anything meant removing and replacing DIP chips off a board. I had to do that twice: once to upgrade a modem from 28.8k to 33.6k, and the second to upgrade the BIOS. I had a very heavy 19" CRT (65 Lbs.) that was pretty good for a lot of things, but a bigger 27" IPS is so much better. The closest to old days of tech now where there are obvious improvements in everything is now in smartphones.

[jackbomb]

I can remember the incredible rush I felt when I saw Jurassic Park played in FULL SCREEN on a Pentium-90 with an MPEG-1 board. And not only that, but it was running Microsoft Chicago!Those old computer fairs were great.

[Buub]

Heck with OS/2, I remember getting all hot and bothered about this thing called DesqView/X. Multitasking DOS screens and stuff! At least that's what the magazine ads claimed... http://toastytech.com/guis/dvx.html

Oh yes... I was so pumped for DesqView/X. Too bad Microsoft added code to DOS to sabotage it and make it unstable, making everyone assume it was DesqView that was unstable.

[thegleek]

Another sentimental vote for old school comp's... C=64, Timex Sinclair 1000 (flat-membrane keyboard), Compaq Suitcase (first laptop prototype), etc... So much fun.

[just brew it!]

Compaq Suitcase (first laptop prototype),

The Kaypro (and the Osborne before it) pre-dated the first Compaq.

[thegleek]

Compaq Suitcase (first laptop prototype),

The Kaypro (and the Osborne before it) pre-dated the first Compaq.

Maybe so, but I actually own the Compaq Suitcase.. And it WORKS! nothing like green monochrome 9" crt monitor built in to drag around! lol

[just brew it!]

Maybe so, but I actually own the Compaq Suitcase.. And it WORKS! nothing like green monochrome 9" crt monitor built in to drag around! lol

Egads, you're an even worse packrat than Starfalcon. (Says the guy who still has an IMSAI in his crawlspace... )

[thegleek]

Egads, you're an even worse packrat than Starfalcon. (Says the guy who still has an IMSAI in his crawlspace... )

No. He's 50x worse then me. He has QUANTITY versus my QUALITY. lol i do have to admin I have those organizer drawers (something like this) filled with (probably still functional) C=64 IC chips!

[Starfalcon]

Meh, I haz quality too. I raise your luggable with a franklin 8088 computer that works, along with my C64 that I was just playing Ultima IV on a few days ago since hawkwing mentioned it in the ultima thread....for being nearly 30 years old now, the 5 1/4 floppies are still going strong.

[thegleek]

Meh, I haz quality too. I raise your luggable with a franklin 8088 computer that works, along with my C64 that I was just playing Ultima IV on a few days ago since hawkwing mentioned it in the ultima thread....for being nearly 30 years old now, the 5 1/4 floppies are still going strong.

awesome. its no competition, you'd win hands down. i too though can bring out a 100% working C=64 complete with 1541 floppy drive and 1571 monitor and play the 10000+ games i have on floppies still (will they still work after sitting for 20+ years? who knows).

but, cool man!

[The Swamp]

I fondly remember the age of BBSs. All text forums and crude downloads. I was a member of many back in the day.

My first computer was a Tandy TRS-80 Model 1 Level 2, with 16K of RAM and a cassette tape for loading programs. And it was pretty high tech for the time. Hard to believe.

[thegleek]

I fondly remember the age of BBSs. All text forums and crude downloads. I was a member of many back in the day.

Who doesn't? I still can't get most of the AT commands out of my head! lol Horst Mann lists... oh man I still have printouts of BBS's I was on back in the 80's!

And it progressed from 300 baud to 1200 to 2400 to 9600 to 14400, then 28.8, 33.6 and finally 56k!

[The Swamp]

My first modem was a 2400 baud on an ISA card. For some reason, 2400 baud was the standard for a very long time, it seemed. By the time the 56K modems trickled out, the web was starting to emerge and BBSs began their decline. We'd spend all night on all of the regional BBSs looking for files and conversation.

[Krogoth]

Parallel SCSI offer a number of advantages over PATA. (Longer cable length, can handle more than two devices per channel, limited PnP capabilities {came in later flavors of SCSI}, TCQ). The controllers and disks were set to QC standards.

Parallel ATA only became somewhat decent after ATA-100 became commonplace and most of the bugs that plagued earlier ATA controllers were ironed out.

In the Pre-Ultra ATA era you were stuck with PIO mode. PIO mode = bloody murder on I/O performance.

SATA changed the playing field since it adopted many of SCSI's traditional features. SAS is really just SATA built to higher standards; more devices per controller, support for longer cable lengths, ports can handle multiple devices via splitters etc).