11 Jun
2005
11 Jun
'05
2:10 a.m.
On 10 Jun, 2005, at 03:08, Fred Cisin wrote:
I'm becoming convinced that the "unavailability of old computer" is
code
for: "the guy who understands this stuff doesn't work here anymore,
and we don't WANT to have responsibility for the old data."
For really odd computers, I can understand that there may be problems,
but I would think that users in most cases got their data and
applications ported to the next generation. Even if the tools used were
not fully automatic, there is still a big area which would be nice to
get mapped.
One case is of course trivial. IBM are still selling computers which
run the software for the first S/360, and the S/360 had porting tools
for lots of other old systems, including simulators and emulators.
HP-3000 also had a really long line of binary compatibility, but not as
much in the way of porting tools.
--
-bv