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Recreating the lost SDK for a 42-year-old operating system: VisiCorp Visi On

git.sr.ht
98 points·by nkali·7 miesięcy temu·17 comments

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nkali
·7 miesięcy temu·discuss
PC-9801 could do 640×400 in 8 colors, and is supported by early Windows.
nkali
·7 miesięcy temu·discuss
Oh no, you're right How do I unsee this
nkali
·7 miesięcy temu·discuss
For the record, a text-mode SuperWriter is the default word processor for the Apricot - but its format is not well understood by modern tools, unfortunately.
nkali
·7 miesięcy temu·discuss
The keyboard on the Apricot uses round capacitive foam pads under the keys. This means the keys had to be square, or they needed a mechanical thing like the space button on the photo here: https://www.baffo71.com/details.php?id_img=7

So, I think it is a mechanical/electrical limitation.
nkali
·7 miesięcy temu·discuss
That's what I've heard, too! But apparently there even was an effort to port Windows 2.11 to XEN, though I have no idea whether it was ever completed.
nkali
·7 miesięcy temu·discuss
There are two now; one from GEM 1.2 and one from FreeGEM.
nkali
·7 miesięcy temu·discuss
The model I have is exactly like this, with a handle and a clip. You can still get one! :)
nkali
·7 miesięcy temu·discuss
Hi, the article's author here~

I just checked the Tandy 2000 Windows pre-installation - it has the drivers unpacked, which means you can just get the Slow Boot Windows 2.0, and put the drivers from this floppy to it. And the fonts, of course. Definitely do not check this bad pirate website that has it: https://winworldpc.com/product/tandy-2000-ms-windows-pre-Ins...
nkali
·9 miesięcy temu·discuss
Thank you for sharing. Note it's a duplicate of https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45558371
nkali
·9 miesięcy temu·discuss
Thank you! MGR (and other projects you shared on your home page) are very fun!
nkali
·9 miesięcy temu·discuss
Indeed, the signalling is implemented in a really, really clever way.

I had no idea that the author was left-handed; it would be interesting to try MGR with remapped mouse controls, I suppose!
nkali
·w zeszłym roku·discuss
Not just "some", but whopping 23% of this test participants.
nkali
·w zeszłym roku·discuss
I tried to do something like that in my free time. ARMs are everywhere, PICs are very common as well: https://github.com/ninakali/chip_scavenger/tree/main/src
nkali
·w zeszłym roku·discuss
Even if not, the collieries in Wales, built on top of coal shafts, were quite industrial-looking/landscape-runining. https://museum.wales/articles/1260/Nantgarw-Colliery---once-...
nkali
·2 lata temu·discuss
There was a HN thread about this, of course. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40647278
nkali
·2 lata temu·discuss
And it seems to be David C Norris, a software engineer from Microsoft: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidcnorris/details/experience/

Here are more details about Bogus Software: https://minesweepergame.com/history/bogus-software.php
nkali
·2 lata temu·discuss
I have checked both, and while there are similarities, I think they both share a common ancestor - some physical Mahjongg tiles. This Windows Taipei 1 is written by " Bogus Software Inc", and Windows 3.0 Taipei, which uses a very similar interface and tiles, is made by "David Norris" from Redmond WA.
nkali
·2 lata temu·discuss
I suspect that Windows used monochrome mode to squeeze 78 characters per line, not because the colours were "useless".

CGA graphics is tricky, but it can look at least as pretty as contemporary ZX Spectrum: https://media.tech.lgbt/media_attachments/files/112/481/028/...

Not very many people cared for CGA, though.
nkali
·2 lata temu·discuss
I was talking about the looks of the version 1. Technical side of things seems quite solid, and things have clearly improved by 2.x.
nkali
·2 lata temu·discuss
I think this is a bug with smooth scrolling of pixel perfect scaled images. I'm not quite sure though.