3 ms·

The X-Windows Disaster

4 points by stargrave 7y ago

daly 7y ago
You are obviously new to the computer field. Back in my day (he said from his rocking chair) we had to modify hardware to get things to work. For example, a teletype (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teletype_Model_33 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teletype_Model_33) used either current or voltage in the interface so you had to physically modify the computer motherboard (https://www.foxdata.com/blog/time-to-test-the-data-general-mv2000-dc/ https://www.foxdata.com/blog/time-to-test-the-data-general-m...) with wire cutters or a soldering gun. Or you had to muck about with the patch panel in your card sorter (http://www.columbia.edu/cu/computinghistory/plugboard.html http://www.columbia.edu/cu/computinghistory/plugboard.html) Or you had to "reseat" (open the computer, pull out each card, and plug it back in) the cards every morning when you started the IBM Series 1 computer. (http://www.ricomputermuseum.org/Home/equipment/ibm-series1 http://www.ricomputermuseum.org/Home/equipment/ibm-series1) Or you had to read (by eye) your paper tape looking for a jump instruction you could hand punch (https://collection.maas.museum/object/373326 https://collection.maas.museum/object/373326 or one you made yourself) a "JUMP" instruction to your new "SUBROUTINE" (that you hand punched) to splice the old one out of line and hand compute the return address to skip the old routine. Or hand wiring your own core memory array (http://www.ricomputermuseum.org/Home/interesting_computer_items/magnetic-core-memory http://www.ricomputermuseum.org/Home/interesting_computer_it...) since an order for 64 "bytes" of core was delivered as 512 tiny core "donuts". Or physically enter the paper tape boot loader from the front panel switches (https://raymii.org/s/articles/Toggling_in_a_simple_program_on_the_DEC_PDP-8_and_PiDP-8_using_the_switch_register.html https://raymii.org/s/articles/Toggling_in_a_simple_program_o...) Or implement "Halt And Catch Fire"... The Intel chip had the "FOOF" instruction (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentium_F00F_bug https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentium_F00F_bug) which stopped the processor cold. You had to repower the computer to reboot. Also, your CRT display needed the correct settings for things like "horizontal, vertical, frontporch, backporch", etc. If they were wrong your display could physically catch fire. SO... you created a program to set the fire-causing display settings and then execute a FOOF instruction... The computer stopped and the display caught fire.
- simonblack 7y ago
  Hmm. Looks like I came in at the tail end of those. Rewiring a teletype. Yep. But we were a little more advanced. We had an IC socket on the motherboard that pre-wired IC headers plugged into, depending on whether we wanted current-loop or not. Reseating interface cards. Yep While I did have a small amount of paper-tape use, most of my reading "JMP' and 'Call' instructions by eye was from hexadecimal printouts. And while I didn't have cores as memory, I did have lots of chips to install for a measly 16K of RAM. Happy days.

4 points by stargrave 7y ago

daly 7y ago

You are obviously new to the computer field. Back in my day (he said from his rocking chair) we had to modify hardware to get things to work. For example, a teletype (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teletype_Model_33 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teletype_Model_33) used either current or voltage in the interface so you had to physically modify the computer motherboard (https://www.foxdata.com/blog/time-to-test-the-data-general-mv2000-dc/ https://www.foxdata.com/blog/time-to-test-the-data-general-m...) with wire cutters or a soldering gun. Or you had to muck about with the patch panel in your card sorter (http://www.columbia.edu/cu/computinghistory/plugboard.html http://www.columbia.edu/cu/computinghistory/plugboard.html) Or you had to "reseat" (open the computer, pull out each card, and plug it back in) the cards every morning when you started the IBM Series 1 computer. (http://www.ricomputermuseum.org/Home/equipment/ibm-series1 http://www.ricomputermuseum.org/Home/equipment/ibm-series1) Or you had to read (by eye) your paper tape looking for a jump instruction you could hand punch (https://collection.maas.museum/object/373326 https://collection.maas.museum/object/373326 or one you made yourself) a "JUMP" instruction to your new "SUBROUTINE" (that you hand punched) to splice the old one out of line and hand compute the return address to skip the old routine. Or hand wiring your own core memory array (http://www.ricomputermuseum.org/Home/interesting_computer_items/magnetic-core-memory http://www.ricomputermuseum.org/Home/interesting_computer_it...) since an order for 64 "bytes" of core was delivered as 512 tiny core "donuts". Or physically enter the paper tape boot loader from the front panel switches (https://raymii.org/s/articles/Toggling_in_a_simple_program_on_the_DEC_PDP-8_and_PiDP-8_using_the_switch_register.html https://raymii.org/s/articles/Toggling_in_a_simple_program_o...) Or implement "Halt And Catch Fire"... The Intel chip had the "FOOF" instruction (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentium_F00F_bug https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentium_F00F_bug) which stopped the processor cold. You had to repower the computer to reboot. Also, your CRT display needed the correct settings for things like "horizontal, vertical, frontporch, backporch", etc. If they were wrong your display could physically catch fire. SO... you created a program to set the fire-causing display settings and then execute a FOOF instruction... The computer stopped and the display caught fire.

simonblack 7y ago
Hmm. Looks like I came in at the tail end of those. Rewiring a teletype. Yep. But we were a little more advanced. We had an IC socket on the motherboard that pre-wired IC headers plugged into, depending on whether we wanted current-loop or not. Reseating interface cards. Yep While I did have a small amount of paper-tape use, most of my reading "JMP' and 'Call' instructions by eye was from hexadecimal printouts. And while I didn't have cores as memory, I did have lots of chips to install for a measly 16K of RAM. Happy days.