2 ms·
I worked at the Center for Astrophysics and Space Sciences at UCSD for a time in the early 1990s on the Electron Drift Instrument. I wrote 90% of the code (250K
by _fwbf 5y ago
I worked at the Center for Astrophysics and Space Sciences at UCSD for a time in the early 1990s on the Electron Drift Instrument. I wrote 90% of the code (250KB, or 250 screens, of 32 bit LMI 386 Forth (IIRC), that controlled the entire testing apparatus for the device. This included a stepper motor, channel plate (to detect single electrons; similar tech to night vision devices), and several electron guns. Low level device control. DMA. A rudimentary but usable GUI. Complex floating point math routines. All in Forth. I still have the code.
- KMag 5y ago> I still have the code. Any chance of the code being released open source? I don't imagine anyone testing a spacecraft in their garage, but at some point, the must arise full-time software historians using automated tools to search through all available history of code. It's very difficult to know what they'll find useful centuries in the future.
- m4rtink 5y agoOr it coud at least be donated to the Computer History Museum or Archive.org to be preserved. :)