Comment by jshier
15 hours ago
Seems like it was never digitally stored in the first place, and the printed text was barely readable due to age. Not really a big win for paper.
15 hours ago
Seems like it was never digitally stored in the first place, and the printed text was barely readable due to age. Not really a big win for paper.
Well it had to have been on disk or tape at some point. It wasn't all typed in by hand every time they needed to build a new version.
unless they used punch cards
Punch cards are still a form of digital storage, mind.
2 replies →
I threw out all my punch cards. Wish I'd kept at least a listing!
1 reply →
> unless they used punch cards
For MS-DOS?
8 replies →
The idea that it never existed digitally is obviously untrue. Likely poor wording in the author's part. They probably meant something like, so old that a printout is all that survived (which sounds vaguely like not being digital to someone in an era so far removed from a time when programs were/could realistically be printed.)
Having printouts were necessary when:
1. you were using a DECwriter dot matrix printer as a terminal
2. using an ASR-33 teletype as a terminal
3. using punch cards or paper tape
4. using a glass tty that could only display 24 lines
5. when you did not have a remote terminal, and wanted to spread your code out on a table and debug it
Brings back memories of desk checking
> a time when programs were/could realistically be printed
Really depends on the program. Source code is often quite manageable. Even artifacts aren't always as large as you might expect. Busybox on my system weighs in at 1.9 MiB or alternatively 928 KiB with zstd maxed out.
But I don't really see a point to printing any of it. A situation that might require the printouts is likely to largely preclude the continued existence of modern electronics, the ability to replace batteries, or even a connection to a reliable electrical grid.
Yeah, that's why I tried to include both categories. Even for programs that are small enough to be printed, we just don't do it any more. I could have worded that part better myself.
Early versions of some things, MS Basic being one example I think, were baked into ROM. One of the best innovations that Paul Allen came up with was adding software hooks to the code so bugs that were found later could still be patched.
How did they print it then, I wonder?
They had some old German guy with a big beard, and two interns, running some sort of big contraption that looked like a medieval torture instrument, and the interns would run and put letters in a row and then the old guy move a massive letter and in the end out came a bit of paper with source code on it.
Where can I buy this printer?
1 reply →
One has to be pretty ignorant and dismissive to claim that this is not "a big win for paper".
First of all, that comment is weirdly out of place. The quality and longevity of paper is not the topic.
Secondly, there are fragments of paper with writing as old as 2,000 years.
Thirdly, paper you look at and see the writing. With digital documents, you need the technology to read the medium and then you need to know how the information was encoded onto the medium, before you even arrive at the same level with paper, where you can start to decide the actual writing.
Paper has brought us where we are today, and given us what we know about the past. Don't be so ignorant and dismissive.