OT: What should I do with my self-written software when it no longer runs?

[Foebane]

Originally Posted by haps

What a load of rubbish. The code should be self documenting. If you need to 'exhaustively' document every line you are obviously writing bad code.

If you read the rest of the paragraph I wrote, you'll see that I said what you said.

[Anubis]

If there is no commercial value in software, upload it to archive.org. Sometimes someone might check it out and even contact you on something you did... If nothing else, it will be preserved...

[Thorham]

Originally Posted by haps

The code should be self documenting.

Code can't always be self documenting. While too many comments are bad, so are too few.

[Foebane]

Originally Posted by Anubis

If there is no commercial value in software, upload it to archive.org. Sometimes someone might check it out and even contact you on something you did... If nothing else, it will be preserved...

At a cost?

[Anubis]

Not sure what do you mean? There is no cost involved to have something loaded to Archive.org as far as I know.

[BastyCDGS]

Hi Foebane!

Originally Posted by Foebane

Ironically, my old Amiga software runs fine on emulation, and I'm sure I could get the MS-DOS stuff to run on DOSBox, so I might keep some of it, and my modern-day software still runs fine, so that will stay.

There is not just DOSBox, which BTW is designed and optimized to run DOS games. I would really be surprised, if your stuff doesn't run with PCem, for example.


There are also the Bridgeboards, as well as PCX and PC-Task for Amiga. You should really find a DOS emulator which runs your old stuff.


For preservation, you can also upload them to the EAB file server.

[alexh]

Open Source them and upload them to Github (or similar)?

Maybe a fellow user will fork them and make them compatible with newer OS?

Or if you include releases (binaries) perhaps people running legacy OS will find use for them.

Either way better than letting the work rot on your drive.

[Foebane]

Originally Posted by BastyCDGS

For preservation, you can also upload them to the EAB file server.

Can I really upload MS-DOS program code to the EAB file server? As it is, I have two Amiga games I wrote I would like to upload, but I lost the originals and the only existing copies are part of compendium floppies like the Assassins game disks. Are they still valid? Could they be separated from the other games on there?

Originally Posted by alexh

Open Source them and upload them to Github (or similar)?

Maybe a fellow user will fork them and make them compatible with newer OS?

Or if you include releases (binaries) perhaps people running legacy OS will find use for them.

I've never used Github, it looks complicated to me. Is there a tutorial somewhere?

[BastyCDGS]

Originally Posted by Foebane

Can I really upload MS-DOS program code to the EAB file server? As it is, I have two Amiga games I wrote I would like to upload, but I lost the originals and the only existing copies are part of compendium floppies like the Assassins game disks. Are they still valid? Could they be separated from the other games on there?

You can create folders in your upload directory on EAB as you like, so it is no problem to separate them.

If I can upload an almost complete Total DOS Collection to EAB (I doublechecked by asking a mod for permission), why you should not be able to upload DOS source code?
There even is a "zzz Non Amiga" directory in the main tree on EAB file server.

I've never used Github, it looks complicated to me. Is there a tutorial somewhere?

You can also use Gitlab. On creating a repository in gitlab, it shows you the git commands you need for importing your project files. Might be more easy for you.

[commodorejohn]

Fix it, of course. Every programmer ends up like Jacob Marley, wearing the chain they forged in life

[gimbal]

Originally Posted by Foebane

I've never used Github, it looks complicated to me. Is there a tutorial somewhere?

Github is a git repository with a web frontend. The actual thing you would need to learn the basics of is git. And that has a learning curve, for sure. You can keep the usage pretty basic though, you can do most of your work if you know how the following commands work:

• git clone
• git status
• git commit
• git push
• git pull

And the rest you lookup on Stack Overflow when the moment comes that you need to do something out of the ordinary ("Shit, I need to undo this commit I just made... how do I do that?").

I'm sure most beginner git tutorials will use github already as it is a pretty standard place to create public or private git repositories for free.

[sparhawk]

Originally Posted by gimbal

Github is a git repository with a web frontend. The actual thing you would need to learn the basics of is git.

It helps to understand git, but it's not neccessary. I'm using TortoiseGit, which makes it totally easy and convenient to use, and you can use practically all features. I only have to resort to commandline for extreme obscure stuff which you don't need on a daily basis anyway.


He should learn the git workflow though.

[Foebane]

I'm not a usual coder, I tend to write stuff as I go along and don't plan anything beforehand whatsoever, I have never figured out how to use debugging tools in the language I'm using, and just tend to debug in my own way by putting in temporary code that displays variables, etc, and when it comes to trapping errors, I just put in a lot of if statements to see if something exists before I try to access it.

And my version numbers are very loosely defined, I don't log every single change I make and can't be bothered with all of that. I simply decide that if I've made, like, a single complete rewrite of all code, then it moves up a whole version number.

Maybe git allows me to keep track of all that, but I'm too oldschool to bother with such maintenance. Besides, all my programs are old code from decades ago, and my current project is personal (or at least, others would find it awkward to use and it is tailored for my particular WinUAE emulation setup).

[jcgeuze]

upload the source to github, maybe someone will improve it or take over your project.

[Foebane]

Originally Posted by jcgeuze

upload the source to github, maybe someone will improve it or take over your project.

No way, that's the last thing I want. My code, my rules.

[sparhawk]

Originally Posted by Foebane

No way, that's the last thing I want. My code, my rules.

Don't worry. Most of the time this will not happen anyway because of the user/developer ratio.

[Foebane]

So everyone on EAB or ABIME has storage space? How do I access mine? I want to backup my programs on there.

[gimbal]

No... there used to be an FTP but I'm not sure if that is still alive.

[alexh]

Originally Posted by Foebane

So everyone on EAB or ABIME has storage space? How do I access mine? I want to backup my programs on there.

If you're talking about GitHub then it is owned by M$ and they provide 500MB of storage for each developer for free. And if your projects are mainly source code that is a LOT of projects.

[Foebane]

Originally Posted by alexh

If you're talking about GitHub then it is owned by M$ and they provide 500MB of storage for each developer for free. And if your projects are mainly source code that is a LOT of projects.

Not really, there's compiled executables as well. But since all of my projects will easily fit into an email attachment, I should be fine.

But I will investigate GitHub.