The old legacy heave-ho number
I really went to town cleaning out my home computer room last night and this morning.
When Borland bailed out from the programming tools business a couple weeks ago, that raised the issue of getting rid of my C±+, Java, database, and productivity tools from them. After all, it seems unlikely I will be doing any work in the future using their products.
Way back in April 1991, I bought my first Borland product: Borland C++ 1.0. I kept buying software from them throughout the 1990s. I was a pretty loyal consumer of their end-user and developer products during that era. For a lot of that time, Microsoft as well. I bought their MSDN OS/SDK subscription for about 5 years, a couple versions of their C±+ compiler, and 3 versions of Visual Basic Professional.
I learned a lot. I already knew C but it enabled me to learn C++ and OOP years before most of the other programers I know did. I did the book reading side of it in the late 1980s but the hands on stuff, starting in early 1991. I each time I bought a product, I dutifully took it home, skimmed through the manual, learned its features, used it, and really put it through its paces.
Back to programming. I took to OOP in C++ something fierce. I wrote my own MVC framework around 1993 in a a newer version of Borland C++. A real MVC. I really worked hard in C++. I really studied hard at OOP, OOD, OOA, and design patterns.
Professionally, I used Borland C++ from 1991 to 1996. The I used VC++ professionally from end of 1996 to 2002. By end of 1997 most of my programming was done in Java. However, parts that had to be done in C++ came up with great regularity. I always coded those in Visual C++.
Every time they Borland out with a new version, I upgraded. The Each upgrade really made a difference. It also came with its own CDs, books, and license agreement.
I decided to stay up late tonight and get rid of that stuff. Spring will be hear soon and I did not want to keep that old stuff around anymore
I was thinking that I might have to work on an old MS–Windows system at some point. However, I think I am safely past having to ever work on anything older than Windows 2000 now. It never really happened. Sure, not always the newest version. Back I never went far back again on my systems. And, by the end of the turn of the century, companies were accustomed to buying the tools they needed. So, I didn't have to buy the development tools I wanted to use to write our products in. They already had them.
So, that old 90s C++ stuff that had gone the way of the dodo at last got put out for the trash man to haul away this morning.
As I dug into cabinets in my computer den, I came across a lot of really old software. I mean really old software. It was like a trip to the twilight zone. Or memory lane.
Turns out, I also had some archaic C compilers for the Macintosh from the early 1990s. It was hilarious. The last time I enjoyed programming in C was in the 1980s. I have hated programming in C instead of modern languages since around 1992.
Along with that stuff some mid 1990s era hardware and software. Check out the list of what passed off to the trash man this morning:
It is safe to say that by the end of the 1990s, these programs would not be useful on even the most legacy computing environment. In fact, half of them by the early 1990s were not of any use to me.
More embarrassing still, some really old books.
The lesson to be learned is, if you don't move to a new house every few years - still get rid of your old computer stuff every few years. You really are not going to go back and use it again. Trust me. I proved it.
My other conclusion is, software is ephemeral. Even though you think it is an asset when you buy it, it really is not one for long. It either enables you do to something for a little while - or it doesn't. Either way, do not hang onto it.
When Borland bailed out from the programming tools business a couple weeks ago, that raised the issue of getting rid of my C±+, Java, database, and productivity tools from them. After all, it seems unlikely I will be doing any work in the future using their products.
Way back in April 1991, I bought my first Borland product: Borland C++ 1.0. I kept buying software from them throughout the 1990s. I was a pretty loyal consumer of their end-user and developer products during that era. For a lot of that time, Microsoft as well. I bought their MSDN OS/SDK subscription for about 5 years, a couple versions of their C±+ compiler, and 3 versions of Visual Basic Professional.
I learned a lot. I already knew C but it enabled me to learn C++ and OOP years before most of the other programers I know did. I did the book reading side of it in the late 1980s but the hands on stuff, starting in early 1991. I each time I bought a product, I dutifully took it home, skimmed through the manual, learned its features, used it, and really put it through its paces.
Back to programming. I took to OOP in C++ something fierce. I wrote my own MVC framework around 1993 in a a newer version of Borland C++. A real MVC. I really worked hard in C++. I really studied hard at OOP, OOD, OOA, and design patterns.
Professionally, I used Borland C++ from 1991 to 1996. The I used VC++ professionally from end of 1996 to 2002. By end of 1997 most of my programming was done in Java. However, parts that had to be done in C++ came up with great regularity. I always coded those in Visual C++.
Every time they Borland out with a new version, I upgraded. The Each upgrade really made a difference. It also came with its own CDs, books, and license agreement.
I decided to stay up late tonight and get rid of that stuff. Spring will be hear soon and I did not want to keep that old stuff around anymore
I was thinking that I might have to work on an old MS–Windows system at some point. However, I think I am safely past having to ever work on anything older than Windows 2000 now. It never really happened. Sure, not always the newest version. Back I never went far back again on my systems. And, by the end of the turn of the century, companies were accustomed to buying the tools they needed. So, I didn't have to buy the development tools I wanted to use to write our products in. They already had them.
So, that old 90s C++ stuff that had gone the way of the dodo at last got put out for the trash man to haul away this morning.
As I dug into cabinets in my computer den, I came across a lot of really old software. I mean really old software. It was like a trip to the twilight zone. Or memory lane.
Turns out, I also had some archaic C compilers for the Macintosh from the early 1990s. It was hilarious. The last time I enjoyed programming in C was in the 1980s. I have hated programming in C instead of modern languages since around 1992.
Along with that stuff some mid 1990s era hardware and software. Check out the list of what passed off to the trash man this morning:
- OmniPage Pro 9.0 (for Windows 95, 98, NT) - bought for $90 in 1999
- EasyCD Creator Deluxe v3.5 bought for $100 in 1999
- a Norton software product for Windows 95
- Active Office for Microsoft Office 95 and 97
- Partition Magic 4.0 (unopened, must not have anted that upgrade)
- Turbo Tax for year 1996
- Timex Data-Link watch software from mid-1990s
- MS-DOS 6.0 upgrade bought in 1993
- Spear of Destiny, a 1992 DOS-based game from id Software
- Lotus Oranizer 1.0, a PIM for Windows 3.1 - I used it heavily from about 1993-1995: I managed myself and all my products I was responsible for with it
- Borland C++ 3.1 bought sometime around 1993 (I still need to track down and get rid of BC++ 5 if I still have that 1986 relic)
- Home Design software – compatible with Windows 3.0 and 3.1
- QualComm for Windows (guaranteed upgrade to Windows 95)
- AfterDark 3.0 - a screen saver in a shipping envelope postmarked August 1994
- a hand-held scanner - from back in early 1990s when a tabletop scanner cost several hundred dollars, instead of under a hundred
- Quicken 2.0 for Windows - from 1992
- DesqView/X from 1992
- HP NewWave 4.0 from 1992
- Borland C++ 2.0 - purchased 1991 - came with 7 manuals and I not only saved them, I saved the shipping box so I could keep them all together
- Sidekick 2.0 - purchased in 1991 - I think it came with my Borland C++ 1.0 (my first C++ compiler I bought myself on my first C++ job)
- Unix World April 1990 issue that I got some someone I worked with that was throwing it out that same year
- MacRecord box (empty) - purchased in early late 1980s or early 1990s so I could record my own voice on Mac Mac Plus computer
- a Logitech mouse from 1987 - I think I used it on my Z-100, the one I threw away a decade ago
- HyperAccess for Zenith Z-100 - it's a terminal program for Windows
- Microsoft Windows 1.0 for Zenith Z-100 - I rushed out and bought it when it was released in 1986 - only to discover that, unlike my 512 MB Macintosh, it could not do overlapping windows, just divide the screen into panes; though it did display colors on the screen, which the Mac could not.
- MS-DOS 2 for Zenith-Z100 (copyright 1986) - I must have bought this a couple years after I rented my first apartment and I am not sure why I bought it with me 4 years later when I bought my own place, since I already had DOS 3 for my Z-100 at that point.
- Semantec Utilities for the Macintosh - bought this in 1988 and we managed to wreck my hard drive
- Consulair 68000 Development System (formerly Apple's MDS) - I bought this 68K assembler in 1988 for $60, and Apple and everyone else dropped this microprocessor family over a decade ago, so it has been pretty useless for over ten years
- Warlock by Silicon Beach Software (an early graphical adventure game and construction set for the original Macintosh)
- Accessory Pak 1 Graphics Tools Featuring Paint Cutter for the Macintosh (copyright 1984)
- Apple MacDraw [original version] (box with floppies) that I bought the same time I bought my 512 MB Mac in 1985
- Apple HyperCard [original version] (box with floppies) I bought for my Mac in the late 1980s
- Terrapin Logo Language for the Apple II/II+ computer - purchased in 1983 with money saved from my summer job at a computer store
It is safe to say that by the end of the 1990s, these programs would not be useful on even the most legacy computing environment. In fact, half of them by the early 1990s were not of any use to me.
More embarrassing still, some really old books.
- Data General's ECLIPSE MV/8000 Principles of Operation - rescued from someone who was throwing it out an an office I worked at in the late 1980s, because it was the 2nd minicomputer I had programmed professionally back in the mid-1980s
- Intel IAPX-432 architecture reference manual (stamped PRELIMINARY in bold letters across the cover) - copyright Intel 1981
The lesson to be learned is, if you don't move to a new house every few years - still get rid of your old computer stuff every few years. You really are not going to go back and use it again. Trust me. I proved it.
My other conclusion is, software is ephemeral. Even though you think it is an asset when you buy it, it really is not one for long. It either enables you do to something for a little while - or it doesn't. Either way, do not hang onto it.
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posted by John Collins | 8:20 AM
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