Still a cool video. Many shortcuts for various operating systems and machines, including BBC B, Linux, Windows, and MacOS.
–jeroen
Archive for the ‘History’ Category
Favourite Shortcut Key? (Soundcheck Question) – Computerphile – YouTube
Posted by jpluimers on 2021/08/20
Posted in *nix, 6502, Apple, BBC Micro B, History, Linux, Mac OS X / OS X / MacOS, Power User, Windows | Leave a Comment »
A storage history thread by @Foone: from USB Floppy drive back to Shugart via UFI/ATAPI/SCSI and everything in between
Posted by jpluimers on 2021/08/19
Quite some interesting bits in [WayBack] Thread by @Foone: “So if you want to use a USB floppy drive, you use a USB protocol called the UFI: Uniform Floppy Interface. What’s UFI? A way to embed ATAPI […]”
Via [WayBack] Kristian Köhntopp on Twitter: “PC Hard drive and floppy disk interfaces, and the people and companies that made them.”
https://twitter.com/isotopp/status/1174609922316783616
–jeroen
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Delphi: some notes on HModule while tracking down an access violation in TRegGroups.UnregisterModuleClasses
Posted by jpluimers on 2021/06/08
Too bad the whole mechanism involving TRegGroups.UnregisterModuleClasses is not documented anywhere
It is the underlying storage to support TClassFinder, which was introduced in Delphi 6, documented on-line in Delphi 2007, documented slightly in Delphi 2009, and since Delphi 2010 only one line of documentation was added (including the unchanged “instatiated”):
- Delphi 2007: [WayBack] TClassFinder Class
This is class
Classes.TClassFinder. - Delphi 2009:[WayBack] TClassFinder Class
The
TClassFinderallows the list of registered persistent classes to be retrieved. Objects instatiated from persistent classes are those that can be stored (serialised) beyond the operation of the current application. - Delphi 2010:[WayBack] Classes.TClassFinder – RAD Studio VCL Reference
TClassFinderallows registered persistent classes to be retrieved.The
TClassFinderallows the list of registered persistent classes to be retrieved. Objects instatiated from persistent classes are those that can be stored (serialised) beyond the operation of the current application.
Back to TRegGroups.UnregisterModuleClasses: it takes a HMODULE parameter and ultimately gets called through the (since Delphi 2007) on-line documented [WayBack] Classes.UnRegisterModuleClasses Function
procedure UnRegisterModuleClasses(Module: HMODULE);Call UnRegisterModuleClasses to unregister all object classes that were registered by the module with the handle specified by the Module parameter. When a class is unregistered, it can’t be loaded or saved by the component streaming system.
After unregistering a class, its name can be reused to register another object class.
To get more context about the access violation, I used both the stack trace and a debugging watch for GetModuleName(Module) (using the [WayBack] SysUtils.GetModuleName Function).
In order to see which classes were registered by what module, I set a breakpoint at in TRegGroup.AddClass (which can be called through various code paths):
procedure TRegGroup.AddClass(AClass: TPersistentClass); begin FGroupClasses.Add(AClass); end;
HModule
That gave me the class, but I also needed the HModule for a class, so I did a windows get module of currently executing code – Google Search, giving me these links, all C/C++ related:
- [WayBack] c++ – How do I get the HMODULE for the currently executing code? – Stack Overflow
I currently use the following trick (inspired from this forum):
const HMODULE GetCurrentModule() { MEMORY_BASIC_INFORMATION mbi = {0}; ::VirtualQuery( GetCurrentModule, &mbi, sizeof(mbi) ); return reinterpret_cast<HMODULE>(mbi.AllocationBase); }Is there a better way to do this that doesn’t look so hacky?
- [WayBack] Accessing the current module’s HINSTANCE from a static library | The Old New Thing
If you are using a Microsoft linker, you can take advantage of
a pseudovariable which the linker provides.EXTERN_C IMAGE_DOS_HEADER __ImageBase; #define HINST_THISCOMPONENT ((HINSTANCE)&__ImageBase)
The pseudovariable
__ImageBase
represents the DOS header of the module, which happens to
be what a Win32 module begins with.
In other words, it’s the base address of the module.
And the module base address is the same as itsHINSTANCE.
Here you already see some confusion: there is HINSTANCE and HMODULE. That’s a historic thing, as described by Raymond Chen in [WayBack] What is the difference between HINSTANCE and HMODULE? | The Old New Thing:
They mean the same thing today, but at one time they were quite different.
It all comes from 16-bit Windows.
In those days, a “module” represented a file on disk that had been loaded into memory, and the module “handle” was a handle to a data structure that described the parts of the file, where they come from, and where they had been loaded into memory (if at all). On the other hand an “instance” represented a “set of variables”.
One analogy that might (or might not) make sense is that a “module” is like the code for a C++ class – it describes how to construct an object, it implements the methods, it describes how the objects of the class behave. On the other hand, an “instance” is like a C++ object that belongs to that class – it describes the state of a particular instance of that object.
In C# terms, a “module” is like a “type” and an instance is like an “object”. (Except that modules don’t have things like “static members”, but it was a weak analogy anyway.)
GetModuleName
Searching for delphi “__ImageBase” – Google Search then got me [WayBack] c++ – Get DLL path at runtime – Stack Overflow with a nice Delphi related answer by [WayBack] Ian Boyd:
For Delphi users:
SysUtils.GetModuleName(hInstance); //Works; hInstance is a special global variable SysUtils.GetModuleName(0); //Fails; returns the name of the host exe process SysUtils.GetModuleName(GetModuleFilename(nil)); //Fails; returns the name of the host exe processIn case your Delphi doesn’t have SysUtils.GetModuleName, it is declared as:
...
This reassured my use of [WayBack] SysUtils.GetModuleName code was OK:
function GetModuleName(Module: HMODULE): string; var ModName: array[0..MAX_PATH] of Char; begin SetString(Result, ModName, GetModuleFileName(Module, ModName, Length(ModName))); end;
HInstance in Delphi
The example from Ian Boyd also brought back memories from long ago about the [WayBack] HInstance Variable – Delphi in a Nutshell [Book]:
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Some VMS and DCL history links
Posted by jpluimers on 2021/05/25
Last week, I wrote about a bit of my command-line and scripting history at I wanted to know the loaded DLLs in a process like Process Explorer shows, but from the console: Sysinternals ListDLLs to the rescue.
Since information about VMS and DCL is harder to find nowadays, I saved some information in the wayback machine:
- [WayBack] VMS -> UNIX Commands
- [WayBack] SjaakLaan.nl – IT Infrastructure Architecture Blog
- [WayBack] Ghost in the DCL shell: OpenVMS, touted as ultra reliable, had a local root hole for 30 years • The Register
- [Archive.is] What was it like to use VAX/VMS? – Quora
- [WayBack] VMS WebRing
- [WayBack] Vaxination Informatique
- [WayBack] OpenVMS command examples
- VAXELN – Wikipedia (written in Pascal!)
- DIGITAL Command Language – Wikipedia
- OpenVMS – Wikipedia
By now, there should be a good x86_64 version of OpenVMS, so this is also a reminder to self to see if that can run as a VM and is affordable enough to do some experimentation with.
- [WayBack] VMS Software: Updates – x86_64 achievements
- [WayBack] VMS Software: Products: Roadmap
- [WayBack] VSI_Roadmap_20180605.pdf
- [WayBack] VSI_Roadmap_20190121.pdf
–jeroen
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I wanted to know the loaded DLLs in a process like Process Explorer shows, but from the console: Sysinternals ListDLLs to the rescue
Posted by jpluimers on 2021/05/20
In Windows, historically most people approach investigation GUI first. Having turned 50 a while ago, I am no exception.
My real roots however are on the command-line and scripting: roughly 1980s Apple DOS, CP/M, SunOS (yay sh Bourne shell!), MS-DOS, 4DOS, and VAX/VMS (yay DCL shell!), from the 1990s on, some Solaris, a little bit of AIX, HP-UX and quite a bit of Linux, MacOS (né OS/X né Mac OS), and some BSD descendants derivatives (SunOS, AIX and MacOS are based on the Berkeley Software Distribution), and this century a more growing amount of PowerShell).
So I was glad to find out the makers of Process Explorer also made [WayBack] ListDLLs – Windows Sysinternals | Microsoft Docs (via windows get dlls loaded in process – Google Search)
List all the DLLs that are currently loaded, including where they are loaded and their version numbers.
ListDLLs is a utility that reports the DLLs loaded into processes. You can use it to list all DLLs loaded into all processes, into a specific process, or to list the processes that have a particular DLL loaded. ListDLLs can also display full version information for DLLs, including their digital signature, and can be used to scan processes for unsigned DLLs.
Usage
listdlls [-r] [-v | -u] [processname|pid]
listdlls [-r] [-v] [-d dllname]
Parameter Description processname Dump DLLs loaded by process (partial name accepted). pid Dump DLLs associated with the specified process id. dllname Show only processes that have loaded the specified DLL. -r Flag DLLs that relocated because they are not loaded at their base address. -u Only list unsigned DLLs. -v Show DLL version information.
Download: [WayBack] ListDlls.zip.
Now it is much easier to generate a draft deploy list of DLLs (and for Delphi: BPLs) based on a process running on a development machine.
Example output (the -r flags relocation warnings; the first part is the [WayBack] shim that Chocolatey created around the second which is from SysInternals):
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Much Turbo Pascal history (via What is a Delphi DCU file? – Stack Overflow)
Posted by jpluimers on 2021/05/19
Editing [WayBack] What is a Delphi DCU file? – Stack Overflow for more historic correctness and adding links prompted me to archive some older material and search for some more, basically because while historically very relevant, link rot makes a lot of that stuff harder and harder to find.
- [WayBack] A Brief History of Modula and Lilith | Кронос (mentioning the single pass compilation objective of the original Pascal standard)
- [WayBack/Archive.is] Follow Delphi’s ancestors-Qiita (original in Japanese. The WayBack link translates into English; the Archive.is link is already translated; neither archive shows the images, so I copied them below)
- I tried to extract a few downloads via it
- Based on Download-Freeware: Delphi, Pascal & C / C ++ Compiler (Inprise: Internet Archive)
- [WayBack] turbo_pascal_701_fr.zip (Turbo Pascal 7.01 FR)
- [WayBack] Delphi6PersoFR.exe (download has vanished)
- [WayBack] freecommandLinetools.exe (Borland C++ Compiler 5.5 US)
- WayBack info.borland.com/devsupport/bcppbuilder/patches/bcc55/bcc55sp1.zip
- WayBack info.borland.com/devsupport/bcppbuilder/patches/bcc55/bcc55sp2.exe
- [WayBack] TurboDebugger.exe (Turbo Debugger pour Borland C++ Compiler 5.5)
- [WayBack] altd.embarcadero.com/download/museum/tc201.zip
- [WayBack] altd.embarcadero.com/download/museum/tcpp101.zip
- Based on Download-Freeware: Delphi, Pascal & C / C ++ Compiler (Inprise: Internet Archive)
- I tried to extract a few downloads via it
- [WayBack; Translated/Archive.is] History of Turbo Pascal v2 (original in Chinese; Google translates the original and WayBack version well; Achive.is is translated)
- I tried to extract a few downloads via it
The legendary full page colour advert published in the 12th 1983 issue of Byte Magazine on page 456 is at the bottom of this post (Many BYTE magaine issues have been archived at https://archive.org/details/byte-magazine).
The smaller version below is from WayBack: Sip from the Firehose : November 2008 marks the 25th anniversary of Turbo Pascal v1.0! (this article is not available on the Embarcadero or Idera site any more).
I also included more adverts in reverse chronological order at the end:
- full page colour advert in the 1st 1984 issue of BYTE magazine on page 183 so show the differences a few months can make.
- full two page colour advert for the Turbo Pascal 2.0 version in the 5th 1984 issue of BYTE magazine on pages 31+32
- full page colour advert for the Turbo Pascal 2.0 version (also in the 6th 1984 issue of BYTE magazine on page 95)
- full page colour advert for the Turbo Pascal 3.0 version (also in the 7th 1985 issue of BYTE magazine on page 41)
The last two via [WayBack] saundby.com: Software for the Ampro Little Board.
--jeroen
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Certified Secure – XS4ALL Challenge
Posted by jpluimers on 2021/04/23
This was a cool one a few years back: [WayBack] Certified Secure – XS4ALL Challenge
–jeroen
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The Architecture of Open Source Applications: Sendmail
Posted by jpluimers on 2021/04/12
Cool historic article: [WayBack] The Architecture of Open Source Applications: Sendmail by Eric Allman.
It is Chapter 17 of this book [WayBack]:
The Architecture of
Open Source Applications
Amy Brown and Greg Wilson (eds.)
ISBN 978-1-257-63801-7
I totally missed that book being published in 2014.
Great historic read!
–jeroen
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em-dosbox – Windows 3.11 on the Web
Posted by jpluimers on 2021/03/22
Cool: [Archive.is/WayBack] em-dosbox – Windows 3.11 on the Web.
Via [WayBack] JRWR – Forrest F. on Twitter: “I love this thing, http://vrcade.io/win311 Boots into Windows 3.11 with a internet connection (over a fake modem!)”
–jeroen
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Posted in History, Windows, Windows 3.11 | 2 Comments »
You are likely to be eaten by a grue! #NerdStitch cross stitch project- Zork 1 (Apple II version)
Posted by jpluimers on 2021/03/08
This is so cool: [WayBack] Glenda 🐰 on Twitter: “You are likely to be eaten by a grue! Just finished a new #NerdStitch cross stitch project- Zork 1 (Apple II version). The second adventure game I ever played. #zork #EatenByAGrue #apple2 #Infocom” .
That cursor!
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The Wiert Corner - irregular stream of stuff 