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       COMMENT PAGE FOR:
   URI   An anecdote about backward compatibility
       
       
        nye2k wrote 2 hours 24 min ago:
        I love this absolute example of old systems interfering with new
        systems, rewriting old systems.
        
        My old man started his tech work on hot rods, then mechanical
        typewriters, calculators, eventually continuing into mainframe
        electronics and nearly followed all the transitions up to today’s AI.
        
        The number of times I’ve scratched my head at a problem and he had a
        clear understanding of where the logic broke… based on a historical
        decision that could not physically be undone.
       
        bob1029 wrote 3 hours 22 min ago:
        IBM is the undisputed king of backward compatibility. There is code
        running on mainframes right now that is going on 50 years old.
        Microsoft is a close #2 with windows.
        
        I'd probably consider using IBM if it wasn't so goddamn weird and
        expensive. I suppose all that backward compatibility does have its
        downsides. Windows feels a bit weird in some places too, but at the
        same time it didn't start out life as a typewriter.
       
          reddalo wrote 1 hour 41 min ago:
          >Windows feels a bit weird in some places too
          
          Windows 11 still has some dialogs that haven't been touched (and they
          can't ever be, in order to prevent backward compatibility breakage)
          since Windows 3.1:
          
   URI    [1]: https://www.windowsonwindows.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=44
       
            nottorp wrote 5 min ago:
            The ones that work every time, right?
       
        mikelitoris wrote 3 hours 39 min ago:
        For those who don’t get it: It’s referring to the ink soaked ribbon
        that would print characters on a piece of paper, similar to a
        typewriter. This is a preceding technology to digital consoles. Also
        why most programming languages refer to outputting a string to stdout
        as “print”.
       
          reddalo wrote 1 hour 45 min ago:
          It's almost the same reason Windows still uses CR LF characters for
          new lines.
          
          Not one character, but two: Carriage Return and Line Feed. Literally
          the action of moving the printer back to the beginning of the line
          and then the action of making the sheet of paper go "up" by one line.
       
          jibal wrote 2 hours 56 min ago:
          Similar? It is in fact a typewriter ribbon:
          
   URI    [1]: https://www.amazon.com/Olympia-Typewriter-Ribbon-Black-Red/d...
       
       
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