Code Pages

Submitted by Philip Storry on Wed, 29/06/2016 - 07:55

I can't remember the last time I received a file from someone that I couldn't use.

These days, the file formats we use are pretty standardised. PDF files, Word documents, JPGs, MP3s, MP4s and so on - unless the person sending you it is a specialist in some area you actually have very good odds that any file you're sent will be readable.

Of course, it wasn't always so. But it was once much worse than just having different file formats. WordPerfect vs Wordstar vs Word was just an argument between companies. Once, it was a battle between computer hardware and countries.

Wasted Neurons Wednesday - The Architecture of MS-DOS

Submitted by Philip Storry on Wed, 20/08/2014 - 20:47

I have a lot of neurons wasted on MS-DOS. Probably more than for any other technology I've ever worked with.

Which is a bit ironic, as most people would say that the entire problem with MS-DOS is that there's so little of it...

And I'll admit that I would agree MS-DOS has an architecture in the same way that a bivouac has - there's the beginnings of something there, but it's not exactly going to fill a textbook.

Wasted Neurons Wednesday - CTL3DV2.DLL and DLL hell

Submitted by Philip Storry on Wed, 19/06/2013 - 21:02

In the beginning, Windows was remarkably flat.
Visually, that is.
It was hard to tell what could or couldn't be clicked on, as the screen lacked visual clues to help guide you. This was a particular problem for buttons, toolbars and other controls.
(I could insert a snarky comment here about repeating the mistakes of history...)

Then came CTL3DV2.DLL.
It changed everything.

Windows 3.0 was the first version to get some real 3D going, and Windows 3.1 continued the trend.

Wasted Neurons Wednesday - 4DOS

Submitted by Philip Storry on Wed, 08/05/2013 - 22:13

Whilst writing about Utilities last week, the fondest memory wasn't one of the best known.
Well, kind of.
4DOS was a replacement for COMMAND.COM. Distributed as shareware, an older version was also licensed to Symantec as NDOS, which might be more familiar for some people.

The reason I'm so fond of it is that it made MS-DOS usable on a daily basis.
Remember, this was before Windows. No GUI here. So COMMAND.COM was your interface with DOS, making 4DOS the equivalent of replacing Program Manager or Explorer in Windows.

Wasted Neurons Wednesday - Utilities, utilities, utilities...

Submitted by Philip Storry on Wed, 01/05/2013 - 20:22

Some of my fonder memories of computing days of yore are those where I was working with utilities under DOS.

And boy, were we spoiled for choice.

Wasted Neurons Wednesday - COM and EXE files

Submitted by Philip Storry on Wed, 24/04/2013 - 20:33

These days, all Windows programs are .EXE files. But back in the days of DOS, there were also .COM files.

Why no .COM files anymore?

The answer lies with the precursor of MS-DOS - CP/M.

MS-DOS was not actually written by Microsoft - IBM had tried to get CP/M for their new PC, but couldn't agree on the royalty rates. As a hedge bet, they asked Microsoft for an operating system - so Microsoft first licensed, then bought outright someone else's CP/M clone and resold it to IBM!

Wasted Neurons Wednesday - Intel's forgotten processor

Submitted by Philip Storry on Wed, 03/04/2013 - 22:07

Intel really struck it big when IBM's PC design used their 8088 as it's CPU.
The Intel 8088 was a budget version of the Intel 8086 - the money was saved by only giving the 8088 an 8-bit data bus instead of a 16- bit one.

So here's the thing...

Wasted Neurons Wednesday - RAM and the IBM Compatible PC

Submitted by Philip Storry on Wed, 27/03/2013 - 21:22

The IBM PC was powered by an Intel 8088 processor.

That processor could address 1Mb of memory. Yes, a whole luxurious megabyte! Trust me, that was a big figure in 1981.

However, you didn't get the whole megabyte. Oh no. Things like video cards and the built-in BASIC need some RAM to use, so IBM reserved the upper 384Kb of RAM for that purpose. That gave the machine 640Kb of RAM to play with.

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