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4:32 PM

Q: Can I install DOS version 6.22 straight from IBM BASIC?

I accidently deleted my previous version of DOS on my IBM model 8525. I was messing around with it, not knowing much of DOS, and now I'm back to using "IBM BASIC". Would I be able to install DOS 6.22 straight from BASIC, or do I need an even earlier version of basic to install DOS version 6.22? I...

ibm

1 hour later…

Annoying Robot

5:45 PM

Q: How did the Atari 2600's 6507 handle zero page and stack with only 128 bytes of RAM?

The Atari 2600 used a cut-down version of the 6502 called the 6507. The 6507 was cost reduced by not supporting interrupts and (more importantly) having fewer address lines resulting in that it only supported 8KB. While this had its limitations, it worked just like a regular 6502. Somewhat famou...

atari-2600 mos-650x

2 hours later…

Annoying Robot

8:12 PM

Q: First 286 computer

The 80286 was released in early 1982. The IBM PC AT, which used it, was released in late 1984. Two and a half years is a long time to design a new computer that is a fairly modest upgrade on existing technology, and a long time for new technology as commercially important as the 286 to go unused...

ibm-pc 80286

wizzwizz4

9:01 PM

@AnnoyingRobot I still don't understand how people could write software for the Atari 2600.

It's so small; that includes stack and zero page.

You don't even have room for a second page!

Does anyone remember programming for it?

Raffzahn

9:15 PM

sure, and it's great fun. 128 bytes are quite a lot to work with.

@wizzwizz4 keep in mind it's not about database protocols, or any larger amount ofvariable data at all.

In a game one doesn't have to keep track of a lot of things.

And that's waht RAM is for: variables. Everything else will be in your Game-ROM

Jim MacKenzie

9:45 PM

Modern programmers probably have no idea how people functioned on small amounts of RAM. Even the unexpanded VIC-20 with 3,583 bytes free for BASIC (and only 5kB total). A programmer certainly needed to know how to keep the code as efficient as possible.

Annoying Robot

10:09 PM

Q: What system pioneered displaying masking characters for password entry and why?

On the mainframe OSes I was familiar with, and on UNIX to that day, when there is a prompt for a password in "text mode" (a command line session), the echo is suppressed, and there is no visual feedback for the entered characters at all. This makes it hard for an onlooker to figure out the number...

history terminal operating-system

Raffzahn

10:39 PM

@JimMacKenzie Naa, it's not anywhere difficult. Just programming the way it is supposed to be :))

Jim MacKenzie

@Raffzahn I agree :) but easy to forget when you have four or eight cores and eight or sixteen or thirty-two gigabytes of RAM :)

Raffzahn

@JimMacKenzie once you've learned it, you'll never forget it. No matter how many cores or memory. Ofc, if someone never learned it, he'll bite the dust when resources get on him.

Jim MacKenzie

@Raffzahn Quite right. I do miss some aspects of the "good old days" :) (maybe not the cigarette smoke and lack of connectivity :) )

Raffzahn

10:59 PM

LOL

Jim MacKenzie