retrocomputing

/ret'-roh-k*m-pyoo'ting/ Refers to emulations of

way-behind-the-state-of-the-art hardware or software, or

implementations of never-was-state-of-the-art; especially if

such implementations are elaborate practical jokes and/or

parodies, written mostly for hack value, of more "serious"

designs. Perhaps the most widely distributed retrocomputing

utility was the "pnch(6)" or "bcd(6)" program on V7 and other

early Unix versions, which would accept up to 80 characters of

text argument and display the corresponding pattern in

punched card code. Other well-known retrocomputing hacks

have included the programming language INTERCAL, a

JCL-emulating shell for Unix, the card-punch-emulating

editor named 029, and various elaborate PDP-11 hardware

emulators and RT-11 OS emulators written just to keep an old,

sourceless Zork binary running.

[Jargon File]