Moving Backwards

Back in the early 90’s I programed in Microsoft QuickBasic, and after that I started using Visual Basic, then finally I’ve been using LiveCode.

Just for laughs I started building a machine able to run DOS 6.55 and Windows 3.1, brings back memories. After a couple of months assembling the needed parts I finally got the tiny HP T5000 running. It was like an old friend.

It took some time to reacquaint myself with the OLD and how I setup the computers back in the day. I was impressed, my code and batch files were commented and easy to follow. The things we did with serial communication and NO Networking. The newer programs had limited networking, but nothing we find on today systems.

There were full collections of QuickBasic libraries, with manuals, ranging from “windows” and dBase III, speech and even code to create background functions. Those were the days, one person could provide a whole company with software that wasn’t filled by off the shelf programs. All customized for their needs.

Lately I’ve been also revisiting PowerShell and the power of Active Directory, having adding both a Windows Server configured as a Domain Controller and a few Windows 10 machines as Clients. Trying to get both the old and new to communicate has been, frustrating.

Was thinking about using Jabber, or XMPP, to issue small commands to a server/controller/monitor. But as with all projects of this nature, it seems I busted my server by installer a newer version, that wasn’t supported by the hardware I have. Oh well, time to rethink and reproach what I am trying to do.