2014-04-26 10:52:28 -04:00
|
|
|
retrocomputing
|
|
|
|
|
|
2014-04-26 11:54:15 -04:00
|
|
|
/ret'rohk@mpyooting/ , n. Refers to emulations of
|
|
|
|
|
way-behind-the-state-of-the-art hardware or software, or implementations of
|
|
|
|
|
never-was-state-of-the-art; esp. if such implementations are elaborate
|
|
|
|
|
practical jokes and/or parodies, written mostly for hack value , of more
|
|
|
|
|
serious designs. Perhaps the most widely distributed retrocomputing utility
|
|
|
|
|
was the pnch (6) or bcd (6) program on V7 and other early Unix versions,
|
|
|
|
|
which would accept up to 80 characters of text argument and display the
|
|
|
|
|
corresponding pattern in punched card code. Other well-known retrocomputing
|
|
|
|
|
hacks have included the programming language INTERCAL , a JCL -emulating
|
|
|
|
|
shell for Unix, the card-punch-emulating editor named 029, and various
|
|
|
|
|
elaborate PDP-11 hardware emulators and RT-11 OS emulators written just to
|
|
|
|
|
keep an old, sourceless Zork binary running. A tasty selection of
|
|
|
|
|
retrocomputing programs are made available at the Retrocomputing Museum,
|
|
|
|
|
http://www.catb.org/retro/.
|
|
|
|
|
|
