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Posted by jpluimers on 2014/01/21
I remember doing this in DOS ages ago (in the Turbo Pascal 5 era) for exactly the same reason: flash the keyboard LEDs to indicate some event was happening, but I’ve yet to find back the source code.
Here is how to do it in Windows using either C# or C: Faking num lock, caps lock and scroll lock leds – About My Code.
–jeroen
Posted in .NET, .NET 1.x, .NET 2.0, .NET 3.0, .NET 3.5, .NET 4.0, .NET 4.5, C, C#, C# 1.0, C# 2.0, C# 3.0, C# 4.0, C# 5.0, C++, Development, Pascal, Software Development, Turbo Pascal | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2013/12/19
Another episode in the Missed Schedule series that was originally scheduled for 20131201:
Until I read the comments at Monitoring the Monitor, I only knew the early days of Matt Pietrek‘s work at NuMega and as co-author of one of the first Undocumented Windows books (another one appeared about the same time).
Now I know Matt was one of the people interviewing Allen Bauer for his first position at Borland.
A bit more search revealed Matt worked at Borland from 1988 until 1992, roughly the era from Turbo Pascal 5 until Borland Pascal 7 (when Borland already had started researching Delphi), but more importantly with Turbo Debugger versions 1-3 that were indispensable when programming using Turbo C / Turbo C++ and Borland C++.
When Borland was working in Delphi 95, and Microsoft on Windows 95, he moved to Nu-Mega (later Acquired by Compuware) doing lots of work in debuggers.
Some interesting links from or involving Matt:
–jeroen
Posted in Borland Pascal, Debugging, Delphi, Delphi 1, Development, Pascal, Software Development, Turbo Pascal | 2 Comments »
Posted by jpluimers on 2013/12/19
Almost a year ago, a thread on “premature Delphi optimization” came by on G+ about this code:
procedure ExchangeInteger(var AValue1, AValue2: Integer); begin AValue1 := AValue1 xor AValue2; AValue2 := AValue1 xor AValue2; AValue1 := AValue1 xor AValue2; end;
I don’t think that was premature optimization, just some code from an old fart that had already been programming in the era where processors had reasons to use it:
Back then, the only efficient way to exchange two variables of the same data type was using the XOR swap algorithm.
Nowadays you have more options, and this is where the fun in that thread began, which I will show in a minute.
The XOR swap algorithm was widely known in the 80s of last century and before, especially because the 6502 processor (oh the days of LISA Assembler) was vastly popular, as was the Z80. Together, they powered the majority of the home computers in the 70s and 80s.
Posted in Borland Pascal, Delphi, Delphi 1, Delphi 2005, Delphi 2006, Delphi 2007, Delphi 2009, Delphi 2010, Delphi 3, Delphi 4, Delphi 5, Delphi 6, Delphi 7, Delphi 8, Delphi x64, Delphi XE, Delphi XE2, Delphi XE3, Development, History, Pascal, Software Development, Turbo Pascal, UCSD Pascal | 7 Comments »
Posted by jpluimers on 2013/11/21
Thanks for the German heise Developer people that reminded me yestarday was a special birthday of Turbo Pascal: 30 Jahre Turbo Pascal: Integrierter Ansatz revolutionierte die Softwareentwicklung | heise Developer.
The Google Translation into English isn’t bad at all.
–jeroen
Posted in Delphi, Development, Pascal, Software Development, Turbo Pascal | 2 Comments »
Posted by jpluimers on 2013/08/12
While researching some other historic information about Delphi, I bumped into this thread: New DPMI host – delphi.
If is a small thread describing what kinds and versions of DPMI hosts were available to run Turbo Pascal based programs.
DPMI stands DOS Protected Mode Interface: a way for real mode DOS programs to access protected mode features (mainly memory above the 1 megabyte barrier).
I had plainly forgotten that the DPMI host shipped with Delphi 1, and wasn’t aware you could have a 32-bit DPMI host at all.
Some other memory related abbreviations from that era: Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Borland Pascal, Delphi, Delphi 1, Development, Object Pascal, Pascal, Software Development, Turbo Pascal | 2 Comments »
Posted by jpluimers on 2013/07/20
Bitsavers published 2 new Logitech PDFs:
Who didn’t have a Logitech mouse back then?
I had the C7, various MouseMans, and a few more modern mice. Why not all mice? I developed RSI in the DOS era, ending up with TrackPoints and more recently Apple touchpads)
I remember the Logimouse C7, not because it was from Logitech, but because it was available from so may OEMs. Long before Logitech built OEM mice for Apple, they were founded in Apples, Swizerland.
The cool thing: the Programmers Toolkit had examples in Modula-2. I used that as a base to write quite some Turbo Pascal code for mouse handing.
Oh: Bitsavers does have a Logitech Modula-2 PDF online too for quite some time. I mentioned that in More Old Micro Cornucopia issues on BitSavers from 1987 and 1988.
–jeroen
via: Bitsavers’ Index of /pdf/logitech.
Posted in BitSavers.org, Development, History, Pascal, Power User, RSI, Software Development, Turbo Pascal | Tagged: c7, cornucopia, logitech mouse, modula 2 | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2013/07/17
2 more issues got on-line both close to a 100 pages each:
So the only issues missing are #28, #30 and #31.
–jeroen
Posted in Assembly Language, BitSavers.org, C, C++, Development, History, Pascal, Software Development, Turbo Pascal, Turbo Prolog, x86 | Tagged: Media, technology | 1 Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2013/07/10
Just found out that the kind people at BitSavers added some scanned USCD Pascal documentation in PDF format:
It reminds me of my early Pascal days on Apple ][. UCSD Pascal was so slow that I was glad to discover Turbo Pascal 1.0, which lacked some of the UCSD Pascal features (for instance cross platform – including Mac, almost 30 years ago! – and Turtle graphics), but was blazingly fast.
Trade offs indeed (:
–jeroen
Posted in BitSavers.org, Delphi, Development, History, Pascal, Software Development, Turbo Pascal, UCSD Pascal | 10 Comments »
Posted by jpluimers on 2013/06/04
Things That Turbo Pascal is Smaller Than.
Well basically anything.
About 30k was the size our complete IDE in the 80s century.
–jeroen
Posted in Delphi, Development, Pascal, Software Development, Turbo Pascal | 4 Comments »
Posted by jpluimers on 2013/04/08
Last quarter, 11 issues of Micro Cornucopia appeared on BitSavers including the final May 1990 issue.
This month, another 7 issues appeared, most of which cover a form of Pascal in one or more of the articles and advertisements:
A fun thing to notice are the advertisements for Modula-2. Logitech Modula-2. Yes though the Logitech Wikipedia page does not mention it at all, Logitech didn’t only sell mice, keyboards and web-cams. They had more products. Being Swiss, they were big in Modula-2. And Bitsavers has a PDF of that too: Logitech_Modula-2_86_1.0_Feb84.pdf
The only issues still to be scanned are #28 till #32.
–jeroen
Posted in Assembly Language, BitSavers.org, C, C++, Delphi, Development, History, Pascal, Software Development, Turbo Assembler, Turbo Pascal, x86 | Tagged: computer, Media, research, science, technology | 2 Comments »
The Wiert Corner - irregular stream of stuff 