GTA Baghdad by the Bay
1,170 karma · joined April 13, 2020
Whether it was the best language for 8-bit programming, it certainly was a great fit for the 6502, as the language targeted the peculiarities of that chip. Accessing hardware-specific features of the 8-bit Atari's was a snap, which was necessary in order to do anything more interesting than sieves or print loops.
Action! probably could've been ported to the Apple line, but 8-bits were winding down by the time it was released. Porting to 16-bit machines like the IBM PC or Mac (or even the Atari ST) would have been a tougher sell, since Pascal and C were better established by that point, and worked well on those machines.
Two bad things about Action!: Charging a license fee to distribute the runtime, and that dumb bang in the name.
https://intfiction.org/t/first-full-game-available-on-new-ll...
In fact, it does this during a "preinit" stage that runs immediately after compilation. Once all preinit code finishes executing, the compiled image is overwritten with the updated state. The language includes a "transient" keyword to permit creating objects that should not be stored.
This same mechanism permits in-memory snapshots, which are used for the game's UNDO feature. No need to rewind or memento-ize operations, just return to a previous state.
It's not a general-purpose mechanism. After all, the language is for building games with multiple player-chosen save files, and to permit restarting the game from a known Turn 0 state.
In order for the mux to work, each TSR had to have its own identifier code. Other than some reserved ranges, no one organized such a namespace, meaning it was possible for two or more TSRs to intercept the same request, leading to the same collision problem.
This note from Ralf Brown's Interrupt List has the gory details:
http://www.ctyme.com/intr/rb-4251.htm
Incomplete list of TSRs and drivers relying on it:
Some of the other problems look like a common problem with scripting—the ease of treating an int like a string, and vice-versa.
"This isn’t about being spec-compliant anymore. I need to know the thought process behind this decision."
May not be a thought process, just a rush to get the service into production, and a lack of attention to detail. Lots of coders treat error-handling as a hassle or optional, hence the 80-20 rule.
For all the gauzy what-could-have-been speculations about Gopher, it really was more like a hierarchical wiki. WWW's freestyle document model quickly expanded to an application platform that could support all manner and style of services. Fees or not, Gopher didn't have a chance.
Look at MS today. Not so irrelevant.
I do think the original post is right, that WordPress is plateauing and they're scrambling to maintain their hold on a zero-sum market. But, if they can figure out a new direction, they're also in a unique position to lead.
Getting there is not going to happen through dot releases and a squeaky new blog template named for the current year. It looks to me like they need some fresh leadership.
https://dailycaller.com/2024/07/16/elon-musk-spacex-headquar...
Now we're hearing that he's moving X's offices to the South Bay Area. Go figure.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek_project
> For one thing a company like Sun Microsystems or Apple that specializes in making computers that are much more expensive than PCs would not want people to get anywhere near the PC clone ecosystem where you can pay less and get a lot more.
Except in the 1990s Apple did permit PowerPC-based Mac clones to proliferate, until Jobs returned and cancelled all the contracts.
A wild time.
They had great hardware; the Atari 800 was Jay Miner's penultimate masterwork before he went on to design the Amiga chipset; it was still considered good as late as the mid-eighties.
The great hardware didn't languish in obscurity; Atari was one of the best-known brand names in the industry.
Nor did it lack software support; Atari was perfectly positioned to support their machines with cartridge versions of arcade games, and Star Raiders is still cited as a killer application for home computers."
ZipAir doesn't even provide free cups of water during its flights. They require all baggage, even carry-on, to be under a certain weight or pay an additional charge.
Unbundled options is no longer merely about how many bags you check or carry on. They're monetizing _everything_.
"Unbundling" options permits non-ultra-budget airlines to move toward the top of that list, and then make the money back by offering extras during the checkout.
Now, if sites like Google Flights and Kayak would give customers the ability to tick checkboxes saying, "I want a ticket with these unbundled extras," and sort according to the final price, that could potentially re-arrange the field, but who knows? The airlines would probably find another dodge around it.
Can you name one example? I'm talking about a male-oriented, so-called "journalism" site cut because it's unprofitable, leading to outrage and pearl-clutching about free speech and cancel culture.