The Wiert Corner – irregular stream of stuff

Jeroen W. Pluimers on .NET, C#, Delphi, databases, and personal interests

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Archive for the ‘History’ Category

infinite loop in “LaTeX: A Document Preparation System” by Leslie Lamport, printed in 1994.

Posted by jpluimers on 2024/09/10

Cover of "LaTeX: A Document Preparation System, 2nd edition", Published by Addison-Wesley Professional (June 30, 1994) © 1994, authored by Leslie Lamport

Cover of “LaTeX: A Document Preparation System, 2nd edition”, Published by Addison-Wesley Professional (June 30, 1994) © 1994, authored by Leslie Lamport

LaTeX was slightly later than the 1992 Turbo Pascal 7.0 Language Guide having both entry in the manual about Recursion (“recursive loop, see recursive loop”) which of course is similar to “infinite loop” and entries for “infinite loop See loop, infinite” and “loop, infinite See infinite loop”.

So what is LaTeX?

Where Donald Knuth created the typesetting program TeX (visually TeX), Leslie created a set of macros for it, later named LaTeX (visually LaTeX) and wrote the first (still famous) book – cover on the right – on it: [Wayback/Archive] LaTeX: A Document Preparation System by Leslie Lamport, second edition, printed in 1994 back then by Addison-Wesley (now Pearson Education, subsidiary of Pearson plc) with ISBN 9780201529838.

It’s gimmick was at page 252, inside the index referring “infinite loop” to page 252 itself.

Many people keep posting screenshots of the page without referencing where it is from. That’s a bit sad, as these gimmicks are an important part of history where programming books were as much about explaining features of computing environment, as well as explaining underlying concepts like recursion.

So this 2024 post finally made me write this blog post: [Wayback/Archive] vx-underground on X: “HELP!”

[Wayback/Archive] GTv89dwWsAM05wM.jpg (552×639)

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Posted in *nix, *nix-tools, ffmpeg, History, ImageMagick, LaTeX, pandoc document converter, Power User, Typesetting | Leave a Comment »

Iconography of the X Window System: The Boot Stipple | matttproud.com (blog)

Posted by jpluimers on 2024/09/06

https://proud.social/system/media_attachments/files/112/768/011/579/353/261/small/b76295db1a6e025d.png

The X Windows System starting up with the seminal stipple on the root window and the X_cursor on the pointer.

Oh, the days of /etc/X11/XF86Config frustration (:

Nevertheless, a good tribute to the X Window System, the successor of the W Window System on V Operating System (not to be confused with System V), that turned 40 in June 2024 is [Wayback/Archive] Iconography of the X Window System: The Boot Stipple | matttproud.com (blog).

Via [Wayback/Archive] mtp: “To celebrate the X Window Syst…” – proud.social (image on the right of that post):

To celebrate the X Window System’s 40th birthday, I did a deep dive on something about it: the iconography of its boot-up stipple (that gray pattern you first see as the X Server starts up):

matttproud.com/blog/posts/x-wi

Did you know the stipple has a name, age, and cultural significance to the ecosystem? I’ll share my personal history with it. What’s yours?

#XWindowSystem #UNIX
#History #RetroComputing

(Later forks replaced XF86Config with xorg.conf).

--jeroen

Posted in History, Retrocomputing | Leave a Comment »

Identity Crisis | Apple II Programs: Susan Kare’s “Happy Mac” on an Apple II

Posted by jpluimers on 2024/09/04

The re-imagined iconinc Happy Mac by Suzan Kare on the computer she got before even becoming employee #10 at Apple in 1982 [Wayback/Archive] Identity Crisis | Apple II Programs

Identity Crisis

Via [Wayback/Archive] Short Programs | Apple II Programs “Susan Kare’s “Happy Mac” on an Apple II

At age 70, Susan is still alive and kicking, and even around on Twitter as [Wayback/Archive] Susan Kare (@SusanKare).

Inspired by a search because of [Wayback/Archive] Ron’s Computer Videos 🧍‍♂️🖥️ 📼 on X: “I wonder if Susan knew that Steve used her desk?”:

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Posted in //e, 6502, Apple, Apple ][, Classic Macintosh, History, Power User | Leave a Comment »

With the newest PowerToys version, the Microsoft teams shows they forgot about their CUA heritage

Posted by jpluimers on 2024/08/30

The most recent Microsoft Power Toys version binds to Alt + Spacebar which indicates the Windows team has forgotten about the CUA (Common User Access) heritage.

[Wayback/Archive] PowerToys bring fun tweaks to Windows 10 and 11 • The Register

And that tells us something else, too: that none of the Microsoft developers involved in building and releasing this tool are old-style keyboard warriors, because since Windows 1.0 in 1985, Alt+space has been the keystroke to invoke the window-management menu. From Windows 2 onwards, the leftmost button on every Windows title bar even looked like a space bar, to remind you. So to maximize a window, it’s Alt+space, x; to minimize, Alt+space, n; to resize with the keyboard, Alt+space, s, and so on.

Via [Wayback/Archive] Jeroen Wiert Pluimers @wiert@mastodon.social on X: “Stealing Alt+Space for a Power Toy, the Microsoft @Windows team has forgotten about its CUA heritage.”.

--jeroen

Posted in Hardware, IBM SAA CUA, Keyboards and Keyboard Shortcuts, KVM keyboard/video/mouse, Power User, Windows, Windows 10, Windows 11 | Leave a Comment »

‘Tis but a scratch, just a flesh wound: 3D Printable Black Knight from Monty Python – Highlands Miniatures by Highlands Miniatures

Posted by jpluimers on 2024/08/19

Memories of a great movie scene with The Black Knight and King Arthur: for USD 5 you can get the template files for the [Wayback/Archive] 3D Printable Black Knight from Monty Python – Highlands Miniatures by Highlands Miniatures.

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Posted in 3D printing, Fun, History, Power User, Quotes | Leave a Comment »

CrazyMyra: “After AI took his job as an online assistant, Mr Clippy was obliged to seek work in other sectors…” – beige.party

Posted by jpluimers on 2024/07/30

I love the new title-text for the 2018 “Clippy” picture at [Wayback/Archive] CrazyMyra: “After AI took his job as an online assistant, Mr Clippy was obliged to seek work in other sectors…” – beige.party

A metal toilet paper holder in a corner od a bathro,with an empty roll, that looks similar to a large paperclip

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Posted in AI and ML; Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning, Conference Topics, Conferences, Development, Event, Fun, History, JavaScript/ECMAScript, LifeHacker, LLM, Meme, Office, Power User, Scripting, Software Development, Web Development, Windows | Leave a Comment »

Ends in a few hours: The Jordan Mechner Prince of Persia Challenge! | ThecePlay

Posted by jpluimers on 2024/07/15

Memories of the Apple ][ and //e past, though I won’t participate (my eye hand coordination is mediocre at best, so even completing a game will be a challenge:

[Wayback/Archive] The Jordan Mechner Prince of Persia Challenge! | ThecePlay

Via [Wayback/Archive] Jordan Mechner on X: “@sarsij @sujoygolan Hi, you can play 1990 @princeofpersia in your browser or in emulation via @internetarchive. Links are posted here (for @TwinGalaxies Prince of Persia challenge, with prizes–ends midnight tonight)”

More links:

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Posted in //e, 6502, Apple, Apple ][, Games, History, Power User, Retrocomputing | Leave a Comment »

How Old Are You in CO2?

Posted by jpluimers on 2024/07/15

I’m from 326 CO2.

[Wayback/Archive] How Old Are You in CO2?

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Posted in Awareness, History, LifeHacker, Power User | Leave a Comment »

The Blast-RADIUS bomb logo reminded me of “Kaputt” in the original Castle Wolfenstein game

Posted by jpluimers on 2024/07/12

There is a Blast-RADIUS exploit that makes many uses of RADIUS vulnerable as they depend on MD5, and MD5 collisions have been sped up considerably. Basically only RADIUS TLS seems safe now.

The Blast-RADIUS logo on the right reminded me about using grenades in a game 40+ years old, so lets digress: Archive.org is such a great site, with for instance the original Apple ][ Manual of Castle Wolfenstein by MUSE Software (the manual is written in Super-Text which they also sold):

The PDF from [Archive] Instruction Manual: Castle Wolfenstein from Muse Software : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive is at

[Archive.org PDF view/Archive.is] archive.org/download/1982-castle-wolfenstein/1982-castle-wolfenstein.pdf

Screenshot

The trick in that game when entering a room full of SS-officers was to throw a grenade into a chest of grenades in the middle of that room, then quickly leaving the room, waiting a few seconds then re-entering that room.

Not many moves further, you would find the chest with the war plans and find the exit, then finish the game.

Back to Blast RADIUS

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Posted in 6502, Apple, Apple ][, Authentication, Hashing, History, md5, Power User, Security | Leave a Comment »

Cyberteletekst

Posted by jpluimers on 2024/06/17

With the ever decreasing content on Teletekst and and Teletext, this is so cool: [Wayback/Archive] Cyberteletekst

Via:

–jeroen

Posted in Cable TV/Radio, Hardware, History, Power User, Security | Leave a Comment »