Software Archaeology 434
Plug1 writes "Salon (day pass needed) has an article about preserving software for historical purposes. It discusses source code archiving, and the effect the DMCA is having on attempts to catalog and analyze legacy code. It will be a shame if in the future a wealth of information is locked away because knoweldge of the underlying technology is lost."
Central Point Software (Score:5, Interesting)
Preserve the Hardware as Well? (Score:5, Interesting)
very useful for the people in the future! (Score:1, Interesting)
Heh... (Score:3, Interesting)
Knuth is only one foundation that won't be lost (Score:4, Interesting)
It really all started when some engineers decided that machine code was too hard and invented assembler. Nowadays it's not even necessary to know what a bit is or how an ALU works to make programs. Just point and click and you've got yourself a brand spanking new database app courtesy of VB.
No one ought to knock VB because it really is the best tool for what it does, but it also lowers the barrier to entry for would-be programmers. This can only lead to worse programs.
The most fundamental concept in computer science is logic, not algorithms (or worse programming languages). If a 'programmer' hasn't written a program in a low level language like C or assembler, the hiring manager should beware. Without hands-on experience with the fundamentals of computer science that person is lacking at the most basic level, regardless of whether he knows 1 language or 50 languages. He is handicapped.
It's a good thing to abstract, but it's also important to remember and study the bases of our science.
Storage of old data / hardware (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:here's an easy howto: (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Preserve the Hardware as Well? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Preserve the Hardware as Well? (Score:5, Interesting)
It was fictional, and very tongue in cheek, but it made an interesting point. How the hell will you play your archived media if you don't have a player? And, not just a player, but support equipment as well -- a display that can connect to the player, a power supply that is the right voltage, amperage, and number of cycles, compatible cabling, etc. It could turn out to be quite a trick to get all the requirements together, just to do something as simple as play an old tape.
Perhaps what's needed is to define a single "data archival standard", and by law require that it be backwards compatible with version 1 of the standard, forever. Then, convert all current data to the version 1 standard, once and for all. We have a good candidate right now: DVD-RW and CD-RW. Preserve those standards, so that all future disk players can at a minimum play current-day CD's and DVD's, and we might be ok. Of course, you'd have to use archival-quality CD's and DVDs, because the cheap ones only last five years (the good ones last a hundred or more, they've got extra coatings to prevent degradation, etc).
Why not? Current DVD players already accept CDs. Just take the current DVD writer as a standard and design all new devices to be backwards compatible (on physical size, too -- i.e. a current, standard-size CD should be usable).
This is a major reason... (Score:3, Interesting)
Haunt (Score:3, Interesting)
I went looking for it again a couple of years ago, but it has been lost. It was written in a language which no longer exists: OPS-4. Even the original source code has disappeared. All that is left is a partial port, to another language which no longer exists (OPS-5). Here is a brief description by the author [umich.edu].
Looking at the source code for the partial port gives some of the feel of the game:
Other technologies go obsolete too, So what? (Score:5, Interesting)
Why is obsolete software technology worth preserving where obsolete manufacturing technologies are not? In a 100 years, will we really need access to the billions of JPEGs that were spewed out by digital cameras everywhere? I am not arguing for ignoring history (even though those that learn from history are also doomed to repeat it), but I am wondering about the double-standard. What realms of human knowledge and invention are worth saving, and which are not?
BTW, for the record, I still have old documents and applications from my Mac 128k and I might even have a paper tape copy of a old APL program that I wrote 25 years ago. But then I am a certified packrat.
Re:full article text, no pass required (Score:2, Interesting)
It's not like anyone here follows ad-links anyways.
Maybe not legally, but it *will* be preserved... (Score:4, Interesting)
He goes on to explain that they use these 'ancient' systems to understand and gain insight into current systems, adding that nothing really changes, just gets added to (and that noone really understands the full system).
I believe Gibsons insight will be proven real, and that Software Archaeology is *essential* for the future DMCA or no DMCA.
The alternative is stagnation in the evolution of computer systems. This cannot happen, although it might in America
The part/parts of the World that don't succumb to DMCA fever will become the new tech leaders (and probably a great immigration target for us lot!)
Please refrain from SPAM (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:full article text, no pass required (Score:3, Interesting)
I don't like the idea of reposting an entire article on Slashdot, either, but there's no other way for some of us to read what's being talked about.
Reverse engineering (Score:2, Interesting)
What, Me Pedantic? (Score:3, Interesting)
"It might seem silly now but put yourself 1,000 years in the future," says Booch, chief scientist at IBM's Rational Software subsidiary. "It's not too hard to imagine."
This assumes that (a) humans will still be drinking coffee 1,000 years from now, (b) we will still have college professors and (c) they will still have need of drink coasters.
I believe that 1,000 years from now we will consume our caffeine in pill form only, be schooled by robots and will obtain our liquids from intravenous bags.
Re:Explain the Pyramids? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Preserve the Hardware as Well? (Score:2, Interesting)
I have personally driven almost 3000 miles one way to keep a piece of vintage hardware from ending it's life on the scrap heap.
I think the biggest losses, howver, have been in documentation. People will tend to hang on to disks and hardware a lot longer than they will keep manuals.
People would not believe how much of the old software, documentation, and hardware has already been lost. That is why a few [classiccmp.org] people spend a great deal of their personal funds and time trying to preserve as much as possible.
Difficult not impossible (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:My first program (Score:3, Interesting)
It really would be a travesty of progress if we lost all those wonderful "Hello World" programs to history.
Fortunately, we have the classic ACM "Hello World" [latech.edu] project to remind us of past glory.
Re:Other technologies go obsolete too, So what? (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:full article text, no pass required (Score:3, Interesting)
I thought that was a bug! Every time I have to search again for the article I wanted to read. Since you're using cookies anyway, why not store the article you read the teaser for in the cookie so you can be taken to the full article immediately after you view the ad -- or at least give it as an option.
Eyeglasses (Score:4, Interesting)
Those of you of moderate to low income (I'm talking. . . making less than 7 figures per year, to put it in perspective with pre-reniassance nobility), who require corrective eye lenses, imagine yourself unable to beg, borrow, or steal a pair of glasses for yourself. Even crude ones.
Eventually, the secret got out, and now we have a global multi-billion dollar industry.
In other words, the very concept of IP is just plain evil.
we have this problem... (Score:3, Interesting)
Rock^H^H^H^H HTML will never die (Score:3, Interesting)
The only thing we need to do is maintain our compliance to standards! Because barring the end of the world, HTML and other standards will never die. They'll just get turned into kernel options with a default of NO.
Re:Explain the Pyramids? (Score:2, Interesting)
If I continue using rope as my compass and stakes as my pencils, I could locate the east and west corners. Then it's a simple matter to compare the 4 sides, and compare the 2 diagonals, to confirm we have constructed an accurate square. Then you cut your giant stone blocks to fit the square. It's not rocket science, and there's no reason to think it's beyond the capabilities of our Egyptian ancestors to get within a few inches using this technique. I just thought of it sitting here with two minutes' reflection, and I'm sure the Egyptians did something much smarter than that.
You don't need to go looking very far to see amazing accomplishments in the pyramids. The fact that the Great Pyramid was the tallest building until the Eiffel Tower is incredible enough. That, plus the fact that it was constructed from multi-ton rocks lifted hundreds of feet into the sky, makes your .1% error pale in comparison.