Questions tagged [utilities]

For questions about retrocomputing hardware and software utilities.

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19 votes
10 answers
6k views

Why does cat with no argument read from standard input?

In advice about how to design good CLI commands I read: If your command is expecting to have something piped to it and stdin is an interactive terminal, display help immediately and quit. This means ...
4 votes
1 answer
886 views

Memory requirements for undelete command

During MS-DOS days, an Undelete command existed and provided three levels of protection. Sentry is pretty much the same as the Recycle Bin, it moves deleted files to a directory called Sentry. Tracker ...
15 votes
2 answers
2k views

What was the first two-panel file manager for DOS?

I'm trying to settle a debate between me and some colleagues about two-panel file managers in MS-DOS/PC DOS. According to my own recollection the first was DV.EXE (see EDIT below), but some of my ...
7 votes
1 answer
285 views

Looking for a 90s Macintosh background pattern collection

I've been trying to find a collection of desktop patterns for Macintosh that I had for System 7 back in the day. I remember it as a specific application that you ran to set the patterns (as opposed to ...
17 votes
3 answers
3k views

Where was the DOS cdd utility from?

I distinctly remember, on the computer I had in the 90's, being able to type cdd D:\bla\bla in the MS-DOS command prompt, to change both the current directory and drive (avoiding having to type D: ...
13 votes
2 answers
732 views

Unix utility "smiley" to decode emoticons: Where to get it?

I remember in the 90s, there existed a Unix command line utility named smiley that decoded emoticons. A sample use would be like this (the output is likely not the exact output the program gave): $ ...
14 votes
3 answers
2k views

How did Atari cassette "turbo without hardware mods" work?

There were some cassette copying programs for 8-bit Atari, that boasted saving the games in a way that would load it at up to 1800baud - versus the standard 600baud, which was a significant ...
10 votes
1 answer
1k views

What is the history of data compression tools on personal computers?

On UNIX, the progression of the most widespread data compression programs was as follows: (AFAIR: Pre System V) compact (suffix .C), dynamic Huffman coding (AFAIR: introduced in System V) pack (...
7 votes
1 answer
716 views

Is there a KiCad library with parts used in retrocomputers?

I ran into this question a few times and couldn't find any acceptable answer: Once I was trying to reverse engineer a card that had chips like Intel's 8255 PPI, 8226 bus drivers and some other ICs. I ...