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16 bit computing was the domain of inspired individual efforts. 32bit computing brought about "communities" that overshadowed the individual geniuses contributi

16 bit computing was the domain of inspired individual efforts. 32bit computing brought about "communities" that overshadowed the individual geniuses contributing to them. Right now there's an extra boost because of the "that's what I used as a kid" factor. In the future the DOS era will still be studied, as that time when collaborative development had not yet been invented.

cgh 2y ago
Agreed, but small nitpick: the early ‘80s was mostly 8 bit, eg the C64, Apple II, MSX, etc. It was possible to acquire a more or less complete idea of how these machines worked. My C64 had documentation that detailed every memory location, register and port right down to the hardware. It made them really compelling to ‘80s nerds like me.
AshamedCaptain 2y ago
> extra boost because of the "that's what I used as a kid" factor I've made this observation several times: the number of people who are buying these things who are young enough _to have never used them in the first place_ outnumber us dinousaurs who have used them by an order of magnitude or more. I suspect it's just a matter of fashions like everything else.
anthk 2y ago
>overshadowed individual >collaborative Say what? ITS, Emacs, MacLisp, Macsyma on top of MacLISP, Arpanet, SupDup and WAIS too. Remote process debugging and hooking, a Maclisp close to the future GNU Emacs' Elisp, proto-internet, AI, video terminals... https://github.com/PDP-10/its/blob/master/README.md https://github.com/PDP-10/its/blob/master/README.md http://www.hakmem.org/ http://www.hakmem.org/ These have been built collaboratively, for sure. GNU and Emacs brought that spirit back. Well, at least the tried: - Open Adventure - Emacs - Elisp (and CLISP/sbcl with Common Lisp) - GDB (A far cry from DDT at ITS, but this is Unix, nit the - Maxima. Code form old Macsyma will still work as is except for Gnuplot calling parts, but the plot itself will be 100% the same. Have fun.

cgh 2y ago

Agreed, but small nitpick: the early ‘80s was mostly 8 bit, eg the C64, Apple II, MSX, etc. It was possible to acquire a more or less complete idea of how these machines worked. My C64 had documentation that detailed every memory location, register and port right down to the hardware. It made them really compelling to ‘80s nerds like me.

AshamedCaptain 2y ago

> extra boost because of the "that's what I used as a kid" factor I've made this observation several times: the number of people who are buying these things who are young enough _to have never used them in the first place_ outnumber us dinousaurs who have used them by an order of magnitude or more. I suspect it's just a matter of fashions like everything else.

anthk 2y ago

>overshadowed individual >collaborative Say what? ITS, Emacs, MacLisp, Macsyma on top of MacLISP, Arpanet, SupDup and WAIS too. Remote process debugging and hooking, a Maclisp close to the future GNU Emacs' Elisp, proto-internet, AI, video terminals... https://github.com/PDP-10/its/blob/master/README.md https://github.com/PDP-10/its/blob/master/README.md http://www.hakmem.org/ http://www.hakmem.org/ These have been built collaboratively, for sure. GNU and Emacs brought that spirit back. Well, at least the tried: - Open Adventure - Emacs - Elisp (and CLISP/sbcl with Common Lisp) - GDB (A far cry from DDT at ITS, but this is Unix, nit the - Maxima. Code form old Macsyma will still work as is except for Gnuplot calling parts, but the plot itself will be 100% the same. Have fun.