Notices by argv minus one (argv_minus_one@mastodon.sdf.org), page 2

The #Hayes #Smartmodem had a separate data mode (in which bytes are sent/received over the phone line) and command mode (in which the computer sent commands to the modem itself).

Switching from command to data mode was simple: send the command `ATO`.

The reverse was more complicated. The modem would switch from data mode to command mode whenever the computer tried to send the special character sequence `+++`, with a delay before and after the sequence.

1/

#RS232 #modem #retrocomputing

Unless I'm mistaken, DTR is kept active at all times while the computer is using the modem. Its only function is that the modem is to hang up if DTR becomes inactive for 2 seconds.

So, if DTR becomes inactive for only 0.5 seconds and then becomes active again, what happens then? If the answer is nothing, then that could be interpreted as a signal to switch the modem to command mode.

Nobody can trick you into toggling DTR, so that should be fine, no?

3/end

Another possibility comes to mind: use a single-byte escape code instead (ASCII's Data Link Escape code 16 seems appropriate), and add a modem command that sends that literal byte and goes back to data mode.

So, for example, whenever you need to transmit `␐`, you'd instead transmit `␐ATY␍` (for a hypothetical command `ATY` that sends a literal ␐ and switches back to online mode) and then continue transmitting as normal.

'Course, I'm about 45 years too late to be having this thought, but… 🤷♂️

@WhombeX

Oddly enough, I have successfully dodged COVID so far, but have caught a case of Fediverse Chick at least twice now.

Guess I should practice better social-media distancing? 🤭

@ash @phocks

Advances in electronics manufacturing are mainly noted for having made incredibly fast computers possible, but today's dirt-cheap microcontrollers are also incredibly fast.

Back in the day, a dirt-cheap microcontroller was something like a PIC16. Doesn't even have a multiply instruction, let alone an FPU.

Dirt-cheap microcontrollers today can run freaking Linux and are fast enough to do *software emulation* of #retrocomputing devices like floppy drives and sound cards.

Neat.

@tertle950

Both of those things tend to be done in a web browser these days, and yes, modern web browsers require massive computing power.

I could ask programmers to write more efficient code and stop wasting computing resources, but that's about as likely as a unicorn pooping a million bucks on my doorstep.

And for that matter, not even LibreOffice runs all that well on old hardware.

@navi

> it wants control of the source tree

Um no. I have a Maven project with some Rust code, with pom.xml and Cargo.toml in the same folder. That works fine. Cargo DGAF that it's being invoked from another build system instead of directly, nor that the Rust sources are in a different folder than usual (because, again, there is both Rust and Java code in this project). It Just Works™, as Cargo usually does.

@natty @wyatt8740

@puppygirlhornypost2

For building Linux, you mean? I don't know whether that's the case, but I wouldn't be surprised. LLVM is missing some of the targets that Linux supports, so Linux people are probably going to want to use a Rust compiler that uses GCC as a backend (either rustc_codegen_gcc or gcc-rs) once it's sufficiently mature.

As of this moment, though, they're using the LLVM-based rustc, according to their documentation.

@pancake @wolf480pl @hunger

@wolf480pl

I should point out that knowing C gives you a huge head start on learning Rust. It's different, but you can see an underlying C-ness to it.

Most notably, references are really just pointers except the compiler can check whether they're still valid at any given point in the program. If you're a C programmer, you were already doing that pointer validity checking in your head, so this'll be far more familiar to you than to a JavaScript/Python/etc programmer.

@hunger @pancake

@hunger

I'm in my 40s and I don't do C any more either.

C has a metric crapton of cases of undefined behavior, and although you could get away with a lot of shenanigans when I was young and compilers were dumb, they *will* blow up in your face if you try them with a modern optimizing compiler.

Fun fact: signed integer overflow is UB in C, and yes, modern compilers *will* optimize based on the assumption that signed integer arithmetic will never overflow. If it does, 💣.

@wolf480pl @pancake

@wolf480pl

Yep. As far as I know, no language other than C and C++ has this many ridiculously obscure ways to cause UB.

Most languages, including but by no means limited to Rust, try pretty hard to not give you any way to cause UB without some sort of incantation. Java made a big deal of “no UB” back in the '90s.

Rust's innovation, rather, was “no UB” while still using pointers and still letting you control memory management (stack, heap, reference counting, etc).

@hunger @pancake

@Melissabeartrix @Waxingtonknee

I like static site generators, personally. Nice and efficient, no security risk, you get complete control over the HTML they generate, and you can keep the site in version control (Git, etc).

I'm only familiar with the one I wrote myself in the 2000s, but Eleventy and Hugo seem to be what folks use these days.

Downside: this usually involves doing stuff on the command line. Not sure if there are any nice front ends with point-and-click deployment.

@whitequark @mcc

#Intel : goes through hell to design an entirely new instruction set architecture and calls it #Itanium

Everyone: “We'll just take the #C++ #ABI, thanks. We're going with #AMD for everything else. Toodles.”

@prettygood

Ahh, there it is. Thank you!

@SuperDicq@minidisc.tokyo

Hey #XMPP / #Conversations / #Gajim people, I need some help.

Conversations tells me “you are using unverified devices”, namely Gajim on my desktop. It wants to scan a QR code, but I don't see any way to get a QR code from Gajim for Conversations to scan.

What do I do to fix this?

@selea

Also, if you use a public CA for your internal stuff, then your internal stuff is polluting a bunch of public databases, which seems impolite.

I use a private CA and/or self-signed certificates for stuff like that.

@tomcapuder

As far as the person who had the NDE is concerned, the existence of their god is already affirmatively proven.

You want such people to believe that what they saw was something other than their god, yes? How would you prove that to them?

TIL a crazy couple built their own #laptop with a 43-inch screen. It weighs 100 pounds. IT'S HUGE. But it can be used on your lap…provided your lap can withstand 100 pounds of weight on it.

https://youtu.be/uUVfHaW6nWs?si=yNld41NKmVZtnpxI

@tomcapuder

I haven't had one to interpret. 🤷♂️ But people who do have one tend to interpret it as a meeting with their god, and I'm reluctant to dismiss that interpretation because I have no proof to the contrary.