|
A post in the Lounge reminded me my old adventures with DOS, autoexec.bat and config.sys.
And it reminded me that 4 years ago we had a course on Assembly programming in the University. Being up-to-date the assembler used was... MASM. Which ran just fine on win XP but in 2012 every notebook had Win7 - let alone the freak Computer engineering students with Macs.
So there is DosBox, but it needs to be used. You need to know at least the basic commands of DOS, know how to install a program under DOS and how to properly configure the environment variables to find the farking compiler. Nobody was able to. Only me. We all were graduated with a Bachelor's degree and I was one of the youngest.
I helped a friend, then a friend of his asked him how to make it work, he pointed the finger at me and I saw the whole lab turning as one person towards me. I was elephanted. Luckily the next day I set up a selfcontained DosBox package with everything installed and compiled. Not knowing where to publish that I asked the teacher if he could publish it on the course site - now I have a permanent thanks on the bulletin board every academic year.
But seriously, does really nobody born between 1984-1990 know how to use DOS? What kind of childhood did they have?? 
GCS d--- s-/++ a- C++++ U+++ P- L- E-- W++ N++ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t++ 5? X R++ tv-- b+ DI+++ D++ G e++>+++ h--- ++>+++ y+++* Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X
If you think 'goto' is evil, try writing an Assembly program without JMP. -- TNCaver
When I was six, there were no ones and zeroes - only zeroes. And not all of them worked. -- Ravi Bhavnani
|
|
|
|
|
I miss adding the "nosmoke" option to config.sys 
Bastard Programmer from Hell 
If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]
|
|
|
|
|
Was it a compatible version of nosmoke.com or was it the newer dosnosmoke.exe?
- I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.
|
|
|
|
|
And the ever-delightful TSR, which I found most productive for insidious mischief.
The game Rogue, on a MassComp unix based lab system, inspired me to shop for my own first PC.
| Ravings en masse^ |
|---|
| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
|
|
|
|
|
den2k88 wrote: What kind of childhood did they have?? 
a pretty farkin sad one - if its not a GUI or graphics, they cant relate .. NO IMAGINATION !!!!
.. ahhh, youth ... gimme a command line, an ascii version of Star Trek(1) (possibly running on a PDP 11/60, cough) and I'll be happier than a pig in proverbial
(1) Nethack might suffice at a pinch
|
|
|
|
|
Garth J Lancaster wrote: Nethack might suffice at a pinch
Wanna buy the The Amulet of Yendor? I'm 50% sure it's not a cheap plastic imitation...
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
|
|
|
|
|
waaaahhhh, I want 
|
|
|
|
|
Admittedly my first games were graphical - there were no textual games in Italian and I wasn't of coruse able to write in English. I learned English mainly through games though, much better than school for that.
GCS d--- s-/++ a- C++++ U+++ P- L- E-- W++ N++ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t++ 5? X R++ tv-- b+ DI+++ D++ G e++>+++ h--- ++>+++ y+++* Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X
If you think 'goto' is evil, try writing an Assembly program without JMP. -- TNCaver
When I was six, there were no ones and zeroes - only zeroes. And not all of them worked. -- Ravi Bhavnani
|
|
|
|
|
Is that why all your articles start "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away....it is a period of civil war."?
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
|
|
|
|
|
Yep, you got me! 
GCS d--- s-/++ a- C++++ U+++ P- L- E-- W++ N++ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t++ 5? X R++ tv-- b+ DI+++ D++ G e++>+++ h--- ++>+++ y+++* Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X
If you think 'goto' is evil, try writing an Assembly program without JMP. -- TNCaver
When I was six, there were no ones and zeroes - only zeroes. And not all of them worked. -- Ravi Bhavnani
|
|
|
|
|
"A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away..."
De de de dah DAH! Daaah da da daaaah da! Da Da Da DAH!
And the hairs on the back of my next still stand up! 
Star Wars original opening crawl - 1977 - YouTube[^]
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
|
|
|
|
|
I have no need of YouTube for that. I have the opening theme in my MP3 player and usually do a 6 days (now 7) rewatch of SW with my girlfriend every year.
I rewatched The Force Awakens just a couple of days ago - I was at first "meh, I've already saw it recently". Then the opening crawl and I was excited as a little kid for the entire movie.
GCS d--- s-/++ a- C++++ U+++ P- L- E-- W++ N++ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t++ 5? X R++ tv-- b+ DI+++ D++ G e++>+++ h--- ++>+++ y+++* Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X
If you think 'goto' is evil, try writing an Assembly program without JMP. -- TNCaver
When I was six, there were no ones and zeroes - only zeroes. And not all of them worked. -- Ravi Bhavnani
|
|
|
|
|
wow - not even 'well, there was this cute chick who couldnt speak Italian'
|
|
|
|
|
They probably had computer that booted directly to win3.1; or (for the older ones) just didn't use a PC when they were younger.
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, waging all things in the balance of reason?
Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful?
--Zachris Topelius
Training a telescope on one’s own belly button will only reveal lint. You like that? You go right on staring at it. I prefer looking at galaxies.
-- Sarah Hoyt
|
|
|
|
|
Obviously they had childhoods severely lacking in essential information. If you can't reconfigure the floppy disk controller parameters to write data between the standard tracks using only CP/M DDT[^], you're computer illiterate.
Will Rogers never met me.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Kent beats you in the Insider News.
|
|
|
|
|
I never liked Nintendo - but Final Fantasy are great. I've always been a PC gamer, since 1992.
GCS d--- s-/++ a- C++++ U+++ P- L- E-- W++ N++ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t++ 5? X R++ tv-- b+ DI+++ D++ G e++>+++ h--- ++>+++ y+++* Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X
If you think 'goto' is evil, try writing an Assembly program without JMP. -- TNCaver
When I was six, there were no ones and zeroes - only zeroes. And not all of them worked. -- Ravi Bhavnani
|
|
|
|
|
den2k88 wrote: been a PC gamer, since 1992.
Ah, the good old days, when you had to configure interrupts just to get a game to play.
There are only 10 types of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who don't.
|
|
|
|
|
No please do not remind me of that. In 1992 I was too little to do that myself, in 1996 not anymore. I ws the only 3rd grader able to install Windows on a PC, through experience.
How did I end up being a programmer? It's been a loooong road...
GCS d--- s-/++ a- C++++ U+++ P- L- E-- W++ N++ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t++ 5? X R++ tv-- b+ DI+++ D++ G e++>+++ h--- ++>+++ y+++* Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X
If you think 'goto' is evil, try writing an Assembly program without JMP. -- TNCaver
When I was six, there were no ones and zeroes - only zeroes. And not all of them worked. -- Ravi Bhavnani
|
|
|
|
|
 
There are only 10 types of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who don't.
|
|
|
|
|
And hand tweaking autoexec.bat and config.sys to get enough memory! 
EMM386 or HIMEM - if I use HIMEM, I can use V3 of the mouse driver which takes 1K less than V4, but that means the Sound Blaster driver has to load last, and...
I can remember times when it took longer to get the memory / driver combo right than to play the whole game. 
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
|
|
|
|
|
Pah! You kids with your 386 machines and HIMEM.SYS!
I remember the really old good old days when I had to help rebuild the college's only computer, a Pr1me 300B running Pr1mos and bootstrapping the loader by setting the address and data memory switches on the front panel, pressing the "set" button and then updating the address and data switches again all while trying to balance the big square manual/ring-binder folder I was reading the settings from on my knee (it was about 15" square and very heavy for some reason!). Repeat until the loader was all set and then press "boot" (and pray). Suddenly the primary tape drive (you did remember to load the correct 400 bps "boot tape" didn't you?) would come come to life and after several short spasmodic jerks all the christmas lights on the front panel would go out... keep breathing... and then come back on and make pretty patterns for a while. Then the disc drive would spin up and all would be well.
Later on the college paid for a solely disc based version, we got rid of the tape drive (which, apparently, we were the only installation of a 300B in the world to have - it was an option some clever salesman sold us on). This disc-based version had a boot disk but still needed the front panel set-up after yet another power outage crashed the machine - it was the period of strikes and blackouts back in the 70s.
- I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.
|
|
|
|
|
I could probably still toggle the bootstrap sequence into the front panel of a Data General Nova 3 from memory!
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
|
|
|
|
General 
News 
Suggestion 
Question 
Bug 
Answer 
Joke 
Praise 
Rant 
Admin 
Submit an article or tip
