4 ms·
So happy that people can still write & compile code for Win3.1 or other vintage OS!
by ale42 5y ago
So happy that people can still write & compile code for Win3.1 or other vintage OS!
- AshamedCaptain 5y agoLess than 10 years ago I had to write practically the same thing for an active "industrial" user... and I'm quite sure they are still using it.
- sigmaprimus 5y agoI think Vancouver's original rapid transit line still uses legacy systems with 5 1/4 Floppies.
- flatiron 5y agoI’ve written software for cpm in 2021. It’s still a thing.
- naikrovek 5y agocan you go into more detail? what did you write? why did you write it?
- stevekemp 5y agoNot the parent poster, but I bought a Z80-based single-board computer last year. I wrote a simple text-based adventure game for it which I submitted here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26946130 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26946130
- flatiron 5y agoNot new software. Preexisting software written in “pilot” which as you can assume not many people are familiar with. Z80s and cpm are still used in a lot of places (none of them at this time really at choice)
- retrac 5y agoHeh. My local nuclear power plant was, just a few years ago, hiring programmers to maintain some of the robotics software written in PDP-11 assembly. Expected to remain in use until the 2050s when the plant is decommissioned.
- reaperducer 5y agoI know a company that recently upgraded a computer to Windows XP. That computer controls a building-sized machine. The computer was upgraded to XP take advantage of the latest software update for controlling that machine. The company that makes the software says it will no longer support XP, and if the machine owners want the next version of the software, they'll have to upgrade to a new machine. A new machine, depending on options, runs $200,000-$500,000. So in order to keep the XP machine safe and happy for many years to come, it's been airgapped from the world. Not "airgapped" as in "I turned off my laptop's WIFI." But airgapped in the sense that it's 2,000 feet from the nearest building, surrounded by a barbed wire fence, and the control computer is at the top of the machine — probably 50 or 60 feet off the ground.
- comprev 5y agoI once did a project which involved migrating an ancient (early 1980s) DOS based application to FreeDOS via a VMWare host. The application controlled an oven in a soft drinks bottling factory and due to EMI, the physical disk had to be cloned every 6-9months to avoid corruption, and sourcing ancient IDE drives was problematic. The manufacturer was happy to provide updated software, but only alongside a new oven, at a cost of £1 million. The factory had 4 ovens. VMWare + Windows 7 + SSDs + proper Siemens industrial PC = much cheaper hack! Definitely a cool feeling knowing the solution might be in place another 20-30 years :-)
- bobthebuilders 5y agoWhat kind of PC is an industrial PC? More hardened? More resistant to factory floor accidents?
- silverlyra 5y agoI don’t work in the field, but I was curious too and found the Siemens product offerings: https://new.siemens.com/global/en/products/automation/pc-based.html https://new.siemens.com/global/en/products/automation/pc-bas... Looks like they’re hardened to run continuously, reduce potential causes for maintenance, resist vibrations, and run in ambient temperatures up to 55ºC. You can also find variants certified for use in marine shipping scenarios.
- gota 5y agoI've had to for some academic work. Some interesting and promising work that did not catch much attention and was last implemented by some post grad student for proof-of-concept in the Win3.1 era, using some contemporary and very specific dependencies