Questions tagged [software-development]
For questions about the software development process on retrocomputing platforms
52
questions
11
votes
5answers
1k views
Belated ascendancy of dynamic linkers
Old computer systems were supplied—by our present notion—with very little memory, thus conservation of both RAM and storage room has been tremendously important during those years of austerity. ...
4
votes
1answer
106 views
How do I detect if AmigaDOS dos.library/CurrentDir() fails?
It seems that the primary system call to change a new directory within an Amiga process is dos.library/CurrentDir(lock) but the documentation does not tell me how to detect if it succeeded.
Quoting ...
4
votes
1answer
241 views
What HyperCard extensions did Myst use?
The original Macintosh version of Myst was written in HyperCard.
According to https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20549685
Adding useful features, such as uploading those HTML files to a web server, ...
5
votes
1answer
304 views
What size was the Microsoft Internet Explorer team?
According to Joel Spolsky,
I will give the Internet Explorer team credit. With IE versions 3.0 and 4.0 they probably created software about ten times faster than the industry norm. This had nothing ...
37
votes
3answers
6k views
How did Woz write the Apple 1 BASIC before building the computer?
According to his 1984 interview with Byte magazine, Steve Wozniak created the BASIC for the Apple 1 computer before he actually built the computer:
I sat down and wrote the BASIC first, and that took ...
3
votes
1answer
182 views
Porting of software from the m68k family architecture to the DEC VAX
I am looking for impressions, memoirs, articles, guidelines - everything that is possible about the unusual direction of software migration. I am interested in non-Unix related code, and preferably ...
8
votes
3answers
360 views
What source-code management tools were available for Classic Mac OS development?
I've been reacquainting myself with classic Mac OS programming (e.g. the Toolbox, MacsBug, THINK Pascal/C, etc.) and became curious how software engineering best practices were ...practiced... using ...
7
votes
1answer
447 views
How did old car games, using “sprite illusions”, function on a technical level?
Example: https://youtu.be/E9QJZSBpvg0?t=80
The road turns not only left and right, like in the classic Pole Position, but also goes up and down. Other than the cars and the road, there are numerous ...
2
votes
0answers
108 views
Who did what exactly for the original Shadowgate (1987) Macintosh video game?
I primarily know Shadowgate from the wonderful NES port, which was ported by some Japanese company and whose Japanese musician composed the beautiful, iconic music which I frankly thought was there ...
4
votes
1answer
259 views
Whatever happened to the Refal language?
Refal is a language from the 1960s that is based on the concept of pattern-matching with many features that could be considered advanced even today- it is functional, garbage collected, and supported ...
17
votes
2answers
2k views
Is there a Commodore 64 emulator that can profile running code?
I am developing some software for the Commodore 64, and I am concerned about its runspeed.
Is there an emulator that can report, after running my code, where exactly it spent most of its time? I'm ...
14
votes
12answers
4k views
Late 1970s and 6502 chip facilities for operating systems
I'm quite unfamiliar with how operating systems used to be written but its clear to me that operating systems were clearly written for these systems. I'm particularly interested in how operating ...
7
votes
4answers
2k views
Library of MS BASIC programs in text format?
I am wondering if anyone has a pointer to a good source of "classic" BASIC programs, in text format. One would think this would be easy to find, but unfortunately VB so pollutes the results as to ...
8
votes
5answers
868 views
Source Code Archival in early Game Developement
During the latest gaming press release, Square Enix released remastered versions of all of the classic Final Fantasy games excluding Final Fantasy VIII. The alleged reason is due to the lost source ...
2
votes
1answer
202 views
ISVs in the mainframe and minicomputer eras
In the eighties, there was a vast flowering of small independent software companies. Business and productivity software for the IBM PC, all manner of novelties for the Macintosh, games for the ...
31
votes
2answers
6k views
How did people program for Consoles with multiple CPUs?
I'm specifically interested in the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis, which used a 68000 CPU, but also a Z80, mainly used to control the sound hardware and provide backward compatibility with the Master System.
...
11
votes
3answers
2k views
Did CP/M support custom hardware using device drivers?
MS DOS Ver 1.0 did not have OS support for device drivers. DOS ver2 added support for device drivers in the config.sys file during boot with the "DEVICE=[path][filename][parameters]".
Did CP/M have ...
75
votes
12answers
17k views
Back in the late 1980s, how was commercial software for 8-bit home computers developed?
When hobbyists wanted to write software for e.g. the Commodore 64, they either used the built-in BASIC interpreter (with all its limitations) or some native tools, like compilers for other languages ...
4
votes
2answers
1k views
What was the dithering algorithm used in Sierra and LucasArts games?
I am trying to write a program in C# that will re-create the type of dithering used in many of the old Sierra and LucasArts games. I have looked up many different dithering algorithms and none seem to ...
5
votes
3answers
1k views
Were some Atari 2600 games written in C?
I thought all Atari 2600 games had been programmed in 6502/6507 assembly language (plus whatever activated the Stella sound system), but at a party recently, a friend indicated that some 2600 ...
27
votes
9answers
6k views
What was the first mainstream advanced debugger?
What was the first mainstream development toolchain that provided advanced debugging facilities?
By "mainstream" I mean something that was available on home computers, not mainframes or super-...
15
votes
8answers
2k views
Developing an application in the era of cassette tapes (audio-tapes)
My colleague and I have just had a conversation and we were wondering how the process of developing an application was done in the era of cassette tapes.
Today we have HDDs, backup HDDs, FTPs, ...
14
votes
4answers
5k views
What was computer “Fuzzy” logic?
In the mid 1980's computers began to be advertised as having or being capable of "Fuzzy" logic. How was "Fuzzy" logic added to a computer and what was it suppose to do better than a computer without ...
11
votes
2answers
754 views
What modern image editors support non-square pixels?
Almost all old home computers tend to offer non-square pixels, from wide-pixel graphics modes on the C64/CPC/BBC Micro to CGA's weird not-quite-square 320x200 mode with a pixel aspect ratio of 5:6.
...
11
votes
2answers
1k views
What is the history of the PDP-11 MARK instruction?
The PDP-11 MARK instruction was intended to be used as part of the standard PDP-11 subroutine return convention. MARK facilitated the stack clean up procedures involved in subroutine exit.
To use it, ...
5
votes
0answers
299 views
Link N64 object file while preserving relocation data
The N64 SDK provides the makerom tool to create a ROM image given a file describing the ROM layout called spec and the various object files it refers to such as the N64 OS, RCP microcode, and the game'...
17
votes
9answers
4k views
What caused the demise of BASIC/BASICA in the late 1980's?
While not strictly adhered to, this is somewhat of a generalization of computer listings found in the more popular magazines of the time - BYTE, Kilobaud, PC Computing, etc. This explains the ...
20
votes
5answers
5k views
Was it feasible to create Win16 software using pre-existing DOS development tools?
It seems that right from the outset, the plan for Windows development was that it would be done with a separate set of compilers specifically equipped for that purpose.
The Windows SDK comes with ...
34
votes
4answers
16k views
Who is credited for the creation of Assembly Language?
The C Programming Language was originally developed by Dennis Ritchie who also co-designed the Unix operating system with which development of the language was closely intertwined.
Is there a ...
17
votes
2answers
639 views
When did README files start showing up in software?
Everyone knows how important documentation is -- for a project to grow past a certain point, it's a must-have. However, almost every software project of any size nowadays comes with at least a README ...
9
votes
2answers
956 views
Has any major corporation ever successfully sued Microsoft for intellectual property theft?
It is generally agreed that Microsoft stole parts if not entire blocks of intellectual property from Digital Research, Xerox, Apple, and several other major corporations.
To keep it simple, lets ...
21
votes
8answers
2k views
Which BASIC interpreters support techniques for hybrid programming in Assembly?
It was common with Commodore BASIC (and others, I'm sure) to have machine language encoded in BASIC programs using POKEs or READ/DATA. This was needed for both performance and to access certain ...
8
votes
1answer
732 views
How was the Traf-O-Data 8008 simulator developed?
Traf-O-Data was the first business partnership between Paul Allen, Bill Gates and Paul Gilbert. In order to develop the software for their custom-built Traf-O-Data machine (Intel 8008 Inside™), ...
7
votes
1answer
1k views
How was the Microsoft PDP-10 8080 emulator developed? [closed]
Altair BASIC, the first version of Microsoft BASIC, was developed using an Intel 8008 emulator, modified to emulate an Intel 8080, running on a PDP-10 computer. This emulator was originally designed ...
6
votes
1answer
609 views
What is the title of this Macintosh programming book?
Back when Mac OS was called "System" and preemptive multitasking was a distant fantasy, I had a small collection of Macintosh programming books.
For the life of me, though, I can't remember what one ...
9
votes
3answers
2k views
How to develop software for the Commodore 64 with VICE?
I see a very large fan-base and hear a lot (especially here on retrocomputing) about how great the Commodore 64 was. Growing up in the Windows 95/98 era, I seemed to have missed a great era for ...
15
votes
1answer
1k views
Was there a 'git' in the 1990s?
I seem to remember using a source code control system back in the early- to mid-1990s called git. Am I nuts?
I used to work at IBM way back then. We didn't use it for a big project, but I distinctly ...
73
votes
9answers
23k views
How were the first ZX Spectrum games written?
Being a child of the 80s I loved my ZX Spectrum, did my best to learn BASIC but I felt like the games I was playing (Jetpac, Dizzy, Renegade etc) were perhaps not written using BASIC.
I wondered: how ...
13
votes
2answers
959 views
Are there any public tools for the TMS34010?
I am interested to learn about the Texas Instruments TMS34010, a 32-bit fully functional CPU with built-in graphics manipulation capabilities, which appeared in Atari's Hard Drivin' arcade boards ...
8
votes
5answers
684 views
How did software engineers test their code in 19xx? [closed]
There is a plethora of tools available for engineers to test their code these days. However, frameworks like Mocha.js came around only in 2011 with the ascent of NPM. So I wonder what were the ...
8
votes
1answer
149 views
cbm prg studio for the Amstrad
CBM prg studio is brilliant.
I have searched Google for a version (or something similar) for the Amstrad CPC 464, to no avail.
Does anyone know of one?
11
votes
3answers
898 views
Was the PDP-11 coroutine instruction actually used?
In a typical description of the coroutine mechanism it usually mentioned that the PDP-11 instruction set provided a way to effect the coroutine switch by a single instruction, namely
JSR PC,@(SP)+.
...
19
votes
1answer
778 views
When was the relocatable object module invented?
During the time when programming was done in machine codes, there was no need for object modules; it just wouldn't make sense. People would write the whole program they needed to run in "zeroes and ...
8
votes
0answers
373 views
Who and how worked on games in 80's? [closed]
As a developer in a team, I am used to some techniques and workflow, like using git, issue trackers, linters, common ways to discuss the structure of the code, the ways to debug and refactor code.
I ...
4
votes
1answer
205 views
Include c files using z88dk
I want to split a program developed in c using z88dk in several .c files and I do not know how.
I have these files:
test.c: The main file with the "main" method.
test2.c: An auxiliar file with the "...
66
votes
12answers
17k views
Did Apple not originally allow anyone to develop software for the Macintosh?
This probably nearly belongs on Skeptics.SE but here goes.
Within the last few years I've become an Apple convert for the most part, which occasionally brings me into (usually) good natured conflict ...
18
votes
1answer
7k views
Which original retrocomputer OS's are still maintained and updated today, for original hardware?
I would like to know which original Operating Systems that run on retrocomputers are still being actively maintained and updated. This only applies to retrocomputer OS's that may still be used on ...
30
votes
1answer
5k views
How can I create a split-scroll effect in an NES game?
Games like Super Mario Bros. and Super Mario Bros. 3 were able to scroll the playfield but not the status bar:
The status bars are clearly too big to be sprites, yet they don't scroll with the ...
93
votes
7answers
27k views
Why would a NES game use an undocumented 1-byte or 2-byte NOP in production?
Reading the NESdev wiki page on CPU unofficial opcodes, I see a few games use an undocumented 2-byte NOP instuction in production: Puzznic, F-117A Stealth Fighter, and Infiltrator use $89 #i. Beauty ...
6
votes
2answers
733 views
How were analytics gathered on software built for retrocomputing platforms?
In modern software development, it is a common practice to include some kind of analytics tracking software to see how customers are using your software, what a typical user flow of the application is,...
