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Old 04-28-2015, 02:41 AM   #409
kacir
Wizard
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Posts: 3,463
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Join Date: May 2006
Device: PocketBook 360, before it was Sony Reader, cassiopeia A-20
Quote:
Originally Posted by murg View Post
Ha! What modern trash!

1. flip switches to reflect binary code for single instruction.
2. press enter switch.
3. repeat as necessary.
4. press execute switch.
Do not laugh.
We still service a computer at work that functions that way.
Of course, most of the time you only use the front-panel switches to initialize loading of the memory map from an 8" floppy disk. That 8" floppy disk is a huge improvement, until relatively recently a perforated ribbon was used.
The computer in question is hard-wired to control mission-critical technological process in a plant 24/7.

By the way, I have used hex editor to modify binaries in a distant past ("good old MSDOS days"). It was mostly used to replace a string (a piece of text) inside an *.exe or *.com file, so it would offer a different suffix for saving files, for example. Of course the replacement string had to be of the same length as the old one.
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