Archive for the ‘History’ Category
Posted by jpluimers on 2026/03/04
Finding a reference to DASM while researching yesterday’s post @jpluimers on Twitter: “@b0rk @jilles_com Acids vs bases.”, it felt even more like a trip like memory lane as I had used it in the 1980s on Apple ][ and Apple //e after mainly using EDASM. Lisa and Merlin.
I am glad that it is still alive and kicking with home page at [Wayback/Archive] dasm – macro assembler for 8-bit machines and repository at [Wayback/Archive] dasm-assembler/dasm: Macro assembler with support for several 8-bit microprocessors.
Especially this history section on the home page rang a bell:
- Matthew Dillon started dasm in 1987-1988.
- Olaf “Rhialto” Seibert extended dasm in 1995.
- Andrew “Dr.Boo” Davie maintained dasm in 2003-2008.
- Peter Fröhlich maintained dasm in 2008-2015.
- In 2019, the dasm source code and releases were moved to GitHub.
More links from this trip down memory lane:
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Posted in Software Development, Development, Power User, History, Apple, Assembly Language, Apple ][, //e, 6502 Assembly | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2026/03/03
A few years back I tweeted [Wayback/Archive] Jeroen Wiert Pluimers @wiert@mastodon.social on Twitter: “@b0rk @jilles_com Acids vs bases.”
It was a kind of tongue-in-cheek reaction (with a way better picture below) to a very valuable post by b0rk (Julia Evans) on both Twitter and Mastodon [Wayback/Archive] Julia Evans on Twitter: “bases” / [Wayback/Archive] Julia Evans: “bases title: bases # we usually…” – Mastodon for two reasons:
- There are various interpretations of bases
- Octal is very important to educate as errors introduced by its support are hard to spot even if you do know about octal.
Back to Julia’s post:
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Posted in *nix, *nix-tools, 68k, 8086, Assembly Language, bash, bash, C, C++, Chemistry, Conference Topics, Conferences, Development, EPS/PostScript, Event, Haskell, History, Java, Java Platform, JavaScript/ECMAScript, Jon Skeet, LifeHacker, Mathematics, PDP-11, Perl, PHP, Power User, Python, science, Scripting, Software Development, x86 | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2026/02/23
I pulled this post forward from the blog queue in light of the recent Archive Today controversy (which started because of the Gyrovague article mentioned below). Please note that in this controversy, the Wayback Machine of the Internet Archive plays no role: it is purely about the Archive Today behaviour. Apart from this remark above the line I left this blog post in the original form I wrote it in, as I liked it a lot and quite a few published and queued blog posts still depend on it.
From a while back, but still a historic relevant article: [Wayback/Archive] archive.today: On the trail of the mysterious guerrilla archivist of the Internet – Gyrovague
Via [Wayback/Archive] difference between archive today and wayback machine – Google Search
Related:
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Posted in Archive Today controversy, archive.is / archive.today, Archiving, Bookmarklet, History, Internet, mementoweb, Power User, WayBack machine, Webcitation | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2026/02/15
Trouw publiceerde dit prachtige ode aan het HomeComputerMuseum in Helmond wat een belangrijk document is aan de geschiedenis van computers, voornamelijk, maar niet niet alleen die thuis stonden:
[Wayback/Archive] Museum vol vintage computers toont het stenen tijdperk van ons schermleven | Trouw
Iets bijzonders in dit museum is dat:
Je mag overal aanzitten, ‘behalve aan het personeel’.
Maar ook dat de computers, spellen en andere elektronica in hun natuurlijke historische omgeving staan: meubels, behang, accessoires sluiten allemaal aan.
Mijn eigen verzameling aan historische computers wordt na mijn dood aan dit museum ter beschikking gesteld.
Via: [Wayback/Archive] Post by @homecomputermuseum.computermuseum.social.ap.brid.gy — Bluesky
--jeroen
Posted in History, LifeHacker, Power User | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2026/02/13
While researching early Intel 8087 documentation distributed via LISTSERV, the below blast from the past also turned up: back in 2002 computer dictionaries were also available as … books!
[Wayback/Archive] Microsoft® Computer Dictionary, Fifth Edition (Cpg-Other): 9780735614956: Computer Science Books @ Amazon.com
- Publisher : Microsoft Press; 5th ed. edition (June 1, 2002)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 637 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0735614954
- ISBN-13 : 978-0735614956
- Item Weight : 2.85 pounds
- Dimensions : 7.33 x 1.76 x 9.25 inches
It is available from various sources including [Wayback/Archive] Microsoft Computer Dictionary – Microsoft Press – Google Books and [Wayback/Archive] microsoft_computer_dictionary__fifth_edition1.pdf.
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Posted in 6502, 68k, 8086, 8087, 8087, 8088, Development, History, Software Development | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2026/02/10
I need to check out which ROM my Apple //e and //c have as per [Wayback/Archive] Single Step in Monitor | Applefritter comment by [Wayback/Archive] jeffmazur | Applefritter:
Depends upon which machine and ROM version you have.
The original Apple II monitor does have an S command to single step code in the Monitor. That was removed however to add other features and was not restored until ROM00 of the //c. There are however various 3rd-party ROM images that also have the Step and Trace commands, for example ROMeX and ROM4X, APPLEII.EDM, etc.
There are also hardware boards available to do this as well
Links
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Posted in //e, 6502, Apple, Apple ][, History, Power User, Retrocomputing | Tagged: 394 | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2026/02/10
Sometimes Wikipedia entries are way too short, for instance Philip A. Kaufman – Wikipedia, who in 1992 – at the age of around 50 – died way to early, does not do justice to his time at Intel.
His name rang a bell when searching for early Intel 8087 documentation distributed via LISTSERV, so below is a bit more information on Phil.
True, his life after Intel was very important especially on the front of electronic design automation. That in fact sparked the posthumous instantiation of the Phil Kaufman Award which you can read for instance at [Wayback/Archive] The Phil Kaufman Award Dinner Is Later this Month. Who Was Phil Kaufman? – Breakfast Bytes – Cadence Blogs – Cadence Community.
After his floating-point endeavours at Intel and the IEEE, he was also very instrumental at Intel in finding another big market for silicon: network controller chips (and getting the Ethernet standard going: think DIX (Digital/Intel/Xerox) [Wayback/Archive] Ethernet Blue Book (1980) which was named that way earlier than the PostScript Blue Book (1986) and CD Blue Book (1986)).
This period is very well described in the [Wayback/Archive] 1988 Computer History Museum interview of Phil Kaufman by James L. Pelkey (via [Wayback/Archive] Phil Kaufman | History of Computer Communications).
Back to floating point: Phil’s post from 1987 way better describes what early processor technologies at Intel he was involved with than the above links. That period was instrumental in getting IEEE_754-1985 going (it was released way after the 8087!) and still shapes the floating point aspects of almost any CPU from any vendor today so I quote it in full from [Wayback/Archive] Info-IBMPC V6 #59:
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Posted in 8086, 8087, 8087, 8088, Algorithms, Assembly Language, Development, Floating point handling, History, x86 | Leave a Comment »
The Wiert Corner - irregular stream of stuff 
Depends upon which machine and ROM version you have.
The original Apple II monitor does have an S command to single step code in the Monitor. That was removed however to add other features and was not restored until ROM00 of the //c. There are however various 3rd-party ROM images that also have the Step and Trace commands, for example ROMeX and ROM4X, APPLEII.EDM, etc.
There are also hardware boards available to do this as well