#timex_sinclair — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #timex_sinclair, aggregated by home.social.
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Super obscure request, but does anyone know the header format of a file transferred via serial port from a Timex FDD 3000 running TOS? #zxspectrum #sinclair #timex #timex_sinclair #retrocomputing
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Modula-2, UCSD P-System, and the birth of Scala
I stumbled across this tidbit from Hacker News.
I never liked that #Borland stuffs. And used to program in #Pascal in #UCSD P-system (my alma mater). When I got to the US Department of Defense they wanted me for my #C and #COBOL skills and then they sent me to an Air Force School where I studied Modula-2 and Ada.
I did a lot of work in Modula-2, which doesn't exist anymore. Modula-3 does, but in the meantime Scala was in the works. #Ada is still actually a thing. We didn't want clever, like those one liner #Perl challenges that folks use to put in their signature lines to demonstrate how clever they thought they were through obfuscation.
Clever is bad. Clever opens up a whole universe of unexpected behavior and potential vulnerabilities. Maybe that's why #Rust became so organically popular - because it's safe by design and nowadays it's included in the Linux kernel more and more.
When you're designing software for missle guidance systems you most certainly do not want clever. The job is simple and ambiguity is potentially catastrophic in warfare.
Anyway, I really enjoyed this interview, I can identify with the #Timex_Sinclair - my dad bought me one and that membrane keyboard was horrendous, but I was persistent and eventually I was writing code in cutting edge languages on mainframes and #Vaxen.
Many of the stories about how one thing or another came about were through frustrations; like the impetus for #Linus the #Linux kernel coz #MINIX just didn't cut it, and who wants to trodge through snow drifts in #Helsinki to the computer lab when you can be warm and cozy, drinking beers in your dorm room?
This story is kinda like that too, which I can really appreciate, even though I've never played with #Scala.
I hope you enjoy it too.
https://www.artima.com/articles/the-origins-of-scala
#tallship #FOSS #Modula_2 #Modula_3
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Modula-2, UCSD P-System, and the birth of Scala
I stumbled across this tidbit from Hacker News.
I never liked that #Borland stuffs. And used to program in #Pascal in #UCSD P-system (my alma mater). When I got to the US Department of Defense they wanted me for my #C and #COBOL skills and then they sent me to an Air Force School where I studied Modula-2 and Ada.
I did a lot of work in Modula-2, which doesn't exist anymore. Modula-3 does, but in the meantime Scala was in the works. #Ada is still actually a thing. We didn't want clever, like those one liner #Perl challenges that folks use to put in their signature lines to demonstrate how clever they thought they were through obfuscation.
Clever is bad. Clever opens up a whole universe of unexpected behavior and potential vulnerabilities. Maybe that's why #Rust became so organically popular - because it's safe by design and nowadays it's included in the Linux kernel more and more.
When you're designing software for missle guidance systems you most certainly do not want clever. The job is simple and ambiguity is potentially catastrophic in warfare.
Anyway, I really enjoyed this interview, I can identify with the #Timex_Sinclair - my dad bought me one and that membrane keyboard was horrendous, but I was persistent and eventually I was writing code in cutting edge languages on mainframes and #Vaxen.
Many of the stories about how one thing or another came about were through frustrations; like the impetus for #Linus the #Linux kernel coz #MINIX just didn't cut it, and who wants to trodge through snow drifts in #Helsinki to the computer lab when you can be warm and cozy, drinking beers in your dorm room?
This story is kinda like that too, which I can really appreciate, even though I've never played with #Scala.
I hope you enjoy it too.
https://www.artima.com/articles/the-origins-of-scala
#tallship #FOSS #Modula_2 #Modula_3
⛵
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Modula-2, UCSD P-System, and the birth of Scala
I stumbled across this tidbit from Hacker News.
I never liked that #Borland stuffs. And used to program in #Pascal in #UCSD P-system (my alma mater). When I got to the US Department of Defense they wanted me for my #C and #COBOL skills and then they sent me to an Air Force School where I studied Modula-2 and Ada.
I did a lot of work in Modula-2, which doesn't exist anymore. Modula-3 does, but in the meantime Scala was in the works. #Ada is still actually a thing. We didn't want clever, like those one liner #Perl challenges that folks use to put in their signature lines to demonstrate how clever they thought they were through obfuscation.
Clever is bad. Clever opens up a whole universe of unexpected behavior and potential vulnerabilities. Maybe that's why #Rust became so organically popular - because it's safe by design and nowadays it's included in the Linux kernel more and more.
When you're designing software for missle guidance systems you most certainly do not want clever. The job is simple and ambiguity is potentially catastrophic in warfare.
Anyway, I really enjoyed this interview, I can identify with the #Timex_Sinclair - my dad bought me one and that membrane keyboard was horrendous, but I was persistent and eventually I was writing code in cutting edge languages on mainframes and #Vaxen.
Many of the stories about how one thing or another came about were through frustrations; like the impetus for #Linus the #Linux kernel coz #MINIX just didn't cut it, and who wants to trodge through snow drifts in #Helsinki to the computer lab when you can be warm and cozy, drinking beers in your dorm room?
This story is kinda like that too, which I can really appreciate, even though I've never played with #Scala.
I hope you enjoy it too.
https://www.artima.com/articles/the-origins-of-scala
#tallship #FOSS #Modula_2 #Modula_3
⛵
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Oh man, I feel your pain.
A could if my most prized Linux collection possessions are the very two first releases of Yggdrasil Plug and Play Linux (LGX) and the first two print editions of "The Linux Bible - the GNU Testament". I was a bit startled to find out what those would actually cost me off i ever wanted to replace them.
The other thing I've had an alert in for about ten years now is a "Memotech" keyboard for the #Timex_Sinclair computer 🖥️ I found one in the past twenty years and they wanted over two hundred dollars for it. In hindsight, I should have jumped on it, but I figured I'd find another one for twenty bucks or so. You live and learn 🙂
You know what? I should boost your inquiry for the Walnut Creek Slackware CDs into the SDF Mastodon server! There's serious #retro_computing folks there, and they maintain a comouter history museum.
I've been a member there for eons. You can't get an account there on our mastodon server unless you're an actual SDF member, but I'll be happy to boost your request there.
Okay #Matrix. In very liberal terms, Matrix is considered by many to be part of the #Fediverse. In more strict interpretations it isn't. Matrix is it's own (and optionally secured by e2ee) communications protocol including chat via text, voice, and video, for one on one and groups - kind of like Slack or discord or IRC but with a very privacy centric focus and built with #FOSS. i.e., it doesn't run on #ActivityPub protocol, but it's very popular with many millions of users.
Here's a good homeserver to join, managed by an #OpenBSD and Matrix developer who's a really nice guy. NOTE: He hosts on his home network so occasionally it goes offline for an hour or so when his ISP's DHCP server changes his IP address.
It's s very performant and well managed server. You can signup at this link:
https://bancino.net/element/#/welcome
There's an easy to read explanation of everything here:
https://joinmatrix.org/guide/#get-started
I would recommend that you start off with the #Element client if you're using #Android, which you can get here at F-Droid:
https://f-droid.org/en/packages/im.vector.app/
There are a lot of guys Matrix clients, like #SchildiChat, #FkuffyChat, a good #WeeChat plugin if you use that for IRC, #Nehko, and others; but Element has ALL features is completely cross-platform - Android, iPhone, #Linux, Mac, Web, and Windows. So it's a good client to start with.
Now, about a third of all Matrix users have accounts on the Matrix Foundation's #Homeserver, and although they recommend you choose from among three thousands of other homeservers, you are welcome to create an account there too.
Stay away from their main Matrix room though - there are several thousands of people in there and can bog your system if your machine had limited resources.
The main site to get Element for any type of computer, phone, or operating system is here:
https://element.io/
I hope that helps!
#tallship
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