Notices by Paolo Amoroso (amoroso@fosstodon.org)

@amszmidt Can't remember, but recently I got soaked in a thunderstorm.

@amszmidt Don't they collect garbage by jumping in puddles? Never mind, that's the point.

@amszmidt You'll save the world.

The from:me operator of Mastodon restricts search to only the toots posted by my account. I use this feature all the time to retrieve old posts with links or resources I need to revisit.

#mastodon #fediverse #tips

Rob Roland @robdaemon started a new blog with a focus on retrocomputing. So far he posted on why he enjoys retrocomputing, writing a Smalltalk interpreter, and learning IBM i.

https://write.as/robdaemon

#retrocomputing #blogs #smalltalk

These days coding for retro computer system is a recreational and learning activity. But sometimes it's essential for maintaining mission critical legacy software, like in this case of writing a new x86 C compiler for Windows CE.

https://building.enlyze.com/posts/a-new-windows-ce-x86-compiler-in-2024

#WindowsCE #windows #retrocomputing

@cnes 👆 The French space agency CNES has the official account @cnes Here on Mastodon. Not Blueskly, Threads, or elsewhere.

Can we help them grow and reach for the stars?

It's not as fancy as AI but you know what blows my mind? Turning on my wireless printer and getting a notification the unit was configured while I figure where the print manager is on my newly installed Linux Mint system.

#LinuxPrinting #linux #LinuxMint

@sgharms That's basically it. In Lisp you interactively grow a program instead of writing it.

@RL_Dane @amin

@RL_Dane Read, Eval, Print, Learn.

@sgharms @amin

@sgharms Have you tried Practical Common Lisp by Peter Seibel?

https://gigamonkeys.com/book

Most current or past Lisp books focus on the language and few discuss the interactive development style.

@RL_Dane @amin

This is the year of the Lisp Machine desktop.

Here's an online Medley Interlisp session on my Chromebox. Your turn: show off your Lisp Machine environment.

#interlisp #lisp #LispMachine

@sgharms This glyph? :debian:

@RL_Dane

These unofficial Mastodon accounts of space agencies are bots that merely share news items the agencies publish elsewhere, yet the accounts have quite a lot of followers:

- NASA: @nasa 71K followers
- ESA: @esa 1.4K followers

There's an unfulfilled demand for public institutions to communicate on open and independent platforms.

#nasa #esa #space #mastodon #fediverse

The advice for writing better software manuals in this article, published in the May 1983 issue of BYTE magazine, is still useful, assuming software manuals are still produced. The article noted that software with good manuals sold better, which makes sense.

https://archive.org/details/byte-magazine-1983-05/page/n287/mode/2up?view=theater

#documentation #development #retrocomputing

Dear Developer,

For the love of all that is eyecandy, if your software has a GUI or outputs graphics, please add to the README.md on GitHub at least one full size screenshot (not a reduced, illegible stamp size version). And if the software only does console output, it would be great if you could add a screenshot of a terminal session.

It won't hopefully take too much work.

Thank you!

#GitHub #development

@goatsarah What were the main issues with the 386 in the context of workstations? Performance? Complexity?

@hankg

As many others, I always wondered why Steve Jobs went with the 68K for NeXT workstations instead of the 386.

The possible reasons discussed here are interesting. The product positioning and business ones make sense as much as the technical reasons.

https://retrocomputing.stackexchange.com/questions/28131/why-did-steve-jobs-choose-the-motorola-6803025-mhz-for-the-first-next-computer

#NeXTCube #NeXTComputer #retrocomputing

@gnutelephony Something like threaded interpreters?

@spacehobo

Those who dismiss or deride BASIC don't go beyond the language. Guillaume Chereau points out there's more to BASIC as on early microcomputers it provided a full development environment too, almost an IDE.

I'd say BASIC also supported a REPL-based, exploratory programming style similar to Lisp's.

https://gcher.com/posts/2023-12-24-basic/

#basic #retrocomputing