Maybe that's because OS9.1 finder is 6 years old (built from scratch in 8.0) and OSX 10.1 finder is 6 months old, built from scratch 6 months after 10.0.. Expect it to undergo many changes in the next 12 months ('Cocoaification').
That just means you have never owned a BMW:) Many 1978 BMWs are still functional whereas 1988 Toyotas are.. well...
Im typing this on my dearest computer, a 33Mhz 68040 Mac Quadra 950 from 1992. It has 2 svga-class outputs, both capable of 640x480 to 1280x1024/1152x864 resolutions at 32bit (24+alpha) and still 4 expansion slots unused (could be), it supports up to 6 heads (5 * NuBUS cards + built-in 2M) It runs MacOS's from 7.0.1 (1991) to 8.1 (1998), Linux (debian m68k) and NetBSD.
This box runs at efficient speeds comparable to a 400Mhz Celeron running Windows 98.
The machine also sports dual SCSI controllers, 10BaseT Ethernet, RS-422 Serial Ports capable of 230kbps, 5 NuBUS Slots, processor upgrade slot for up to ppc601/100Mhz, ATX-style Power Supply..
At that time high-end PCs were AT-mobos with ISA-slots (and maybe EISA), Fastest CPU's were 40Mhz 386 and 25Mhz 486's and maximum HDD capacity was 500M, serial ports @ 56kbps, and OS support limited to windows 95 and linux at really slowww performance.
Wrong. That was the case with OS9 (and linux etc), the kernel in OSX does the hardware abstraction. If Apple decided to make a box with 40CPU:s the software would not need to be recompiled to utilize those. That's why they chose the mach microkernel.
The Twentieth Anniversary Mac was introduced in 1997 and Apple built 12000 of them. It contained a Base unit with power, drives and subwoofer. Just cable one from the base unit to the LCD display which contained a cdrom and the connectors... or check the picture to see it yourself..
> I understand what he is saying, but I fail to <BR>
> comprehend how what he is saying can possibly <BR>
> be true. Hence, erm...? <BR>
<BR>
Well, it was like this:<BR>
1: shiny new peecee, unformatted harddrive, win2k cd.<BR>
2: install win2k <BR>
3: reboot <BR>
4: everything works for some week or so (a lot of software is used).. until..<BR>
5: the user installs netscape communicator <BR>
6: user launches netscape communicator <BR>
7: machine freezes <BR>
8: machine gets rebooted, bios reports very funny values (cpu speed, date/time, everything is screwed up) and the values are different on every boot-up
9: machine gets replaced, the retailer makes sure all bios settings are ok on the new machine... windows is installed and so on.. everything works and then we try to launch a fresh new download netscape.. kaboom! the same thing happens.. machine gets replaced (warranty is a good thing).. win98 is
installed and everything works...<BR><BR>
strange, huh?:) <BR><BR>
i never got an explanation of what happened..
I ran across one of
these
mobile phones from Samsung.
The phone comes with a built-in mp3-player and 32M of storage. The storage can be used for other data too. It connects to the PC thru the lpt port and the software seem windoze only:(
Has anyone seen a better product with the same concept yet? (USB+multiplatform drivers etc..) This is probably one of the next steps in the mobile phone industry..
>Just a random thought that popped in my head, but
>what if it turned out that GPL'd code was found in
>Microsoft's source code?
Good point... and how all the code in windows that damages 3:rd party software.. like when i installed win2k, it somehow conflicted with my mobo and flashed random values to the cmos every time i launched netscape..
>Here I've been writing code on the Mac >since '85, and this has to be the best Easter >Egg of all.
Another one is the ability to render PS fonts smoothly on screen without atm. I don't know when this feature was introduced, but it seems to be a egg too. No mentions about it anywhere.
I have a Q900 (same as 950 except that the 950 runs at 33Mhz). It has 2 independent SCSI buses, supports 256MB RAM (16x30pin SIMM * 16MB), 5 NuBUS slots + 1 PDS slot, 10M Ethernet, sound-board with RCA input jacks, 2M built-in video (actually 1/2/4/8/32 bit / didn't support 24/16bit at all), serial ports capable of 230kbps, etc, etc..
It still has features you simply can't beat even with new PeeCees, like true plug and play. Try to install 5 additional videocards by just plugging in and boot (6 videocards total) with any current machine. No drivers/tweaking required. I think that wouldn't even be possible with a PC as you'd run out of irq's and dma's.
This was a real kickass 3l33t machine in '91 when I got mine;)
ps. don't bitch about upgradeability on this one as you could install (real plug'n play) an PPC/x86 board into the PDS-slot. I don't know if any of these upgrades are manufactured anymore tho.
Maybe it's not too bad to standardize on a scripting language.
Python is one of the most portable scripting languages around ant it's easier and faster to optimize the intepreter's code than to rewrite or port the script/program itself.
<SPECULATION> If the rumors about Crusoe turns out to be true, you could hack (insert your favourite scripting language) intepreter on the chip, replacing the (standard?) x86 emulator? </SPECULATION>
These are robust, time-tested tools for creating software. If a better way existed to manage projects we (programmers in general) would probably have it by now.
I see these "good enough" -opinions as a part of the problem.. Of course anything can be improved and still be both forward- and backwards-compatible. I haven't seen a piece of software that couldn't be better in some way.
I was just recently a member of a team that converted a very large project from Microsoft's hideous Visual Studio project (.dsp) files to autoconf, automake, and make. Why was this done? Because it's easier to use, more flexible (try telling MSVC to run lex and yacc and then compile the output files, using only.dsp files! HA!), and opens the program up to porting to other platforms.
Please don't compare your tools to the worst ones. Of course they look great that way, but it would be nice to see some piece of OSS as (real) state of the art (not just good enough to beat some crappy windoze shit).
Now on the other hand, if all "Software Carpentry" wants is versions of autoconf and make ported to python, well, I guess it's not that silly, but why would you want to do that? The source code for these programs is extremely portable already. Implementing them in Python gains you nothing.
I used SLiRP to get a SLIP connection to home back in 1992-93 or something. (Dialled up to a shell with my 2400bps modem..) I can still remember the feeling of using all TCP/IP software home without the hassles of first downloading files to my account and then downloading them home with Ymodem etc..
Nowadays I have a cable modem at home and I hook up my old computers as terminals to the serial ports of my NetBSD box. It's still the easiest way of networking old boxes with only a parallel or serial cable.
230Kbps is still fast enough for most 'surfing' if some friends visit and wants to be on-line the same time as I am.
I think SLiRP is quite useful for many others too who want to utilize their old boxes without spending more time (and money) on hubs, cables and ethernet cards and configuring interfaces than the old boxes are worth.
Slashdot Mirror
Upgrading a mac is not pricey if you go this way:
buy a new mac
use it
sell it
buy a new mac
Its just as easy to compile linux programs on a mac as on solaris, freebsd and other non-linux unix-compatibles.
Maybe that's because OS9.1 finder is 6 years old (built from scratch in 8.0) and OSX 10.1 finder is 6 months old, built from scratch 6 months after 10.0.. Expect it to undergo many changes in the next 12 months ('Cocoaification').
That just means you have never owned a BMW :)
Many 1978 BMWs are still functional whereas 1988 Toyotas are.. well...
Im typing this on my dearest computer, a 33Mhz 68040 Mac Quadra 950 from 1992. It has 2 svga-class outputs, both capable of 640x480 to 1280x1024/1152x864 resolutions at 32bit (24+alpha) and still 4 expansion slots unused (could be), it supports up to 6 heads (5 * NuBUS cards + built-in 2M)
It runs MacOS's from 7.0.1 (1991) to 8.1 (1998), Linux (debian m68k) and NetBSD.
This box runs at efficient speeds comparable to a 400Mhz Celeron running Windows 98.
The machine also sports dual SCSI controllers, 10BaseT Ethernet, RS-422 Serial Ports capable of 230kbps, 5 NuBUS Slots, processor upgrade slot for up to ppc601/100Mhz, ATX-style Power Supply..
At that time high-end PCs were AT-mobos with ISA-slots (and maybe EISA), Fastest CPU's were 40Mhz 386 and 25Mhz 486's and maximum HDD capacity was 500M, serial ports @ 56kbps, and OS support limited to windows 95 and linux at really slowww performance.
Well, most of the roads are just muddy paths where a Land Rover, Hummer or a Horse are more appropate than a BMW.
First, not all old macs used the same hardware as old PC's. Way back in the 68K days you couldn't just swap parts with PC's.
True, the pc:s at the time used mfm hdd:s, chip dram and Hercules/CGA/EGA. The macs had scsi, simm and vga-class gfx.
Wrong. That was the case with OS9 (and linux etc), the kernel in OSX does the hardware abstraction. If Apple decided to make a box with 40CPU:s the software would not need to be recompiled to utilize those. That's why they chose the mach microkernel.
The 2:nd cpu is handled by mach. Software on it uses multiple cpus automagically, even recompiled Lunix and Solaris apps.
..that mac users dont have to worry about. :)
Because I'm really not using it that much :)
...to replace my Rhapsody DR1/i386 with :)
As usual, this HP P4 box is just a ripoff.
The Twentieth Anniversary Mac was introduced in 1997 and Apple built 12000 of them. It contained a Base unit with power, drives and subwoofer. Just cable one from the base unit to the LCD display which contained a cdrom and the connectors... or check the picture to see it yourself..
Yeah, sure. If you'd read my user info you'd know I don't use ext2 nor fat.
..and you cant do any damage to my l33t powerbook by yanking the powercord :)
> I understand what he is saying, but I fail to <BR> :) <BR><BR>
> comprehend how what he is saying can possibly <BR>
> be true. Hence, erm...? <BR>
<BR>
Well, it was like this:<BR>
1: shiny new peecee, unformatted harddrive, win2k cd.<BR>
2: install win2k <BR>
3: reboot <BR>
4: everything works for some week or so (a lot of software is used).. until..<BR>
5: the user installs netscape communicator <BR>
6: user launches netscape communicator <BR>
7: machine freezes <BR>
8: machine gets rebooted, bios reports very funny values (cpu speed, date/time, everything is screwed up) and the values are different on every boot-up
9: machine gets replaced, the retailer makes sure all bios settings are ok on the new machine... windows is installed and so on.. everything works and then we try to launch a fresh new download netscape.. kaboom! the same thing happens.. machine gets replaced (warranty is a good thing).. win98 is
installed and everything works...<BR><BR>
strange, huh?
i never got an explanation of what happened..
I ran across one of these mobile phones from Samsung.
:(
The phone comes with a built-in mp3-player and 32M of storage. The storage can be used for other data too. It connects to the PC thru the lpt port and the software seem windoze only
Has anyone seen a better product with the same concept yet? (USB+multiplatform drivers etc..) This is probably one of the next steps in the mobile phone industry..
>Just a random thought that popped in my head, but
>what if it turned out that GPL'd code was found in
>Microsoft's source code?
Good point... and how all the code in windows that damages 3:rd party software.. like when i installed win2k, it somehow conflicted with my mobo and flashed random values to the cmos every time i launched netscape..
Yeah, they should remove the -tag too, in case someone would link to a possibly annoying page?
;)
Yes, the line below is my signature
>Here I've been writing code on the Mac
>since '85, and this has to be the best Easter
>Egg of all.
Another one is the ability to render PS fonts smoothly on screen without atm. I don't know when this feature was introduced, but it seems to be a egg too. No mentions about it anywhere.
I have a Q900 (same as 950 except that the 950 runs at 33Mhz). It has 2 independent SCSI buses, supports 256MB RAM (16x30pin SIMM * 16MB), 5 NuBUS slots + 1 PDS slot, 10M Ethernet, sound-board with RCA input jacks, 2M built-in video (actually 1/2/4/8/32 bit / didn't support 24/16bit at all), serial ports capable of 230kbps, etc, etc..
;)
It still has features you simply can't beat even with new PeeCees, like true plug and play. Try to install 5 additional videocards by just plugging in and boot (6 videocards total) with any current machine. No drivers/tweaking required. I think that wouldn't even be possible with a PC as you'd run out of irq's and dma's.
This was a real kickass 3l33t machine in '91 when I got mine
ps. don't bitch about upgradeability on this one as you could install (real plug'n play) an PPC/x86 board into the PDS-slot. I don't know if any of these upgrades are manufactured anymore tho.
Correction: it won't run on PPC601-chips (it needs at least a 603)
ps. why don't anyone read the article before posting?
Maybe it's not too bad to standardize on a scripting language.
Python is one of the most portable scripting languages around ant it's easier and faster to optimize the intepreter's code than to rewrite or port the script/program itself.
<SPECULATION>
If the rumors about Crusoe turns out to be true, you could hack (insert your favourite scripting language) intepreter on the chip, replacing the (standard?) x86 emulator?
</SPECULATION>
Replace autoconf?
.dsp files! HA!), and opens the program up to porting to other platforms.
Replace make?????
These are robust, time-tested tools for creating software. If a better way existed to manage projects we (programmers in general) would probably have it by now.
I see these "good enough" -opinions as a part of the problem.. Of course anything can be improved and still be both forward- and backwards-compatible. I haven't seen a piece of software that couldn't be better in some way.
I was just recently a member of a team that converted a very large project from Microsoft's hideous Visual Studio project (.dsp) files to autoconf, automake, and make. Why was this done? Because it's easier to use, more flexible (try telling MSVC to run lex and yacc and then compile the output files, using only
Please don't compare your tools to the worst ones. Of course they look great that way, but it would be nice to see some piece of OSS as (real) state of the art (not just good enough to beat some crappy windoze shit).
Now on the other hand, if all "Software Carpentry" wants is versions of autoconf and make ported to python, well, I guess it's not that silly, but why would you want to do that? The source code for these programs is extremely portable already. Implementing them in Python gains you nothing.
Maximum portability is always good.
How about doing something new?
I've seen too many bad X11 Apps, which are only (trying to be) clones of really sucking windoze products. (KDE & Gnome suites etc.)
IMO it's a shame that most X11 stuff is even slower than most Windoze stuff.. Optimize that code, ppl! X11 needs to be rethought at some point too.
Here's the german gnustep mirror:
:)
http://www.nmr.embl-heidelberg.de/GNUste p/
It's [still] not slashdotted
I used SLiRP to get a SLIP connection to home back in 1992-93 or something. (Dialled up to a shell with my 2400bps modem..) I can still remember the feeling of using all TCP/IP software home without the hassles of first downloading files to my account and then downloading them home with Ymodem etc..
Nowadays I have a cable modem at home and I hook up my old computers as terminals to the serial ports of my NetBSD box. It's still the easiest way of networking old boxes with only a parallel or serial cable.
230Kbps is still fast enough for most 'surfing' if some friends visit and wants to be on-line the same time as I am.
I think SLiRP is quite useful for many others too who want to utilize their old boxes without spending more time (and money) on hubs, cables and ethernet cards and configuring interfaces than the old boxes are worth.