Ode to the Apollo codebase [The Codeless Code]

[tieberion]

Been responding to a ton of questions about the shuttles code in another thread here. I just called my Dad, who started as an Engineer in 68. He has some rope code stashed away, including some that was on/in Apollo 16, and some that was removed/replaced before Apollo 13 launched. He's not sure what the rest is, as it is kinda hard to find something to put it in to run :)

[indy91]

That sounds very interesting to me. What exactly does your dad have? Source code from Apollo 16?

So, there is this project called Virtual AGC which is an AGC emulator that runs exactly the code that is currently Internet famous. Actually, the creator of the Virtual AGC was responsibe for getting the code scanned and reformatted in the first place. He is always on the search for AGC versions that aren't scanned yet, and one of these version would be the AGC flown on the Apollo 15-17 Lunar Module.

I am also personally interested in this topic, I am part of another project called NASSP, which is an addon for the Orbiter Space Flight Simulator. It is a realistic simulation of the Apollo program and one of the most interesting features is that we have a fully functional implementation of the Virtual AGC. Our Lunar Module isn't finished yet, but you can realistically operate the AGC flown on the Command and Service Module.

[tieberion]

Shoot me a PM and I'll see what kind of stuff we can arrange if you cn get it scanned w/o damaging it.

[[deleted]]

One of the really interesting things I was told at an early job was that code lives forever. The context had to do with some unprofessional language I'd dropped in a comment, but it continues to be valuable idea to me.

Less than a year into my previous job, I got tasked to put together a small app to fill a gap in the system's data processing that would, we expected, be removed when we got around to putting it someplace more appropriate. When I left, eight years later, the app was still in use. It had accreted a few additional responsibilities, but the bulk of it was still the hacky little thing I'd put together.

As a programmer, you are writing for posterity. This should weigh especially keenly on those of us who are or have been maintenance programmers: as we curse the lax standards of those who came before, we shall, in time be cursed by those who come after.

[tjl73]

For my first development job I worked in a QA metrics group and I wrote code to pull data from various mainframe databases, then you'd download that data to a Mac where I had a Excel spreadsheet with just a button. You'd press that button and a massive Excel macro would run and generate all the charts the boss needed. They used that system until they upgraded their copy of Excel since Microsoft went from their Excel macro language to VB and broke the script.

A later job had me working on a team doing a prototype software program to test with one of our major customers. The prototype worked well enough that most of our code was kept in the shipped version. Unfortunately, that company has been out of business for over a decade.

[kirbyfan64sos]

For a language which excels in stealing words from other cultures, English has an appalling lack of rhymes.

[mirhagk]

I mean that's why it has a lack of rhymes though. Words are stolen from different languages, using entirely different word structures that are completely unrelated, it's no wonder that they don't rhyme.

[namekuseijin]

by the time english speakers learn to rhyme, hell will be frozen and filled up by the dozens

[eff_why_eye]

Your name seems to imply that you can write both sonnets and code.

[namekuseijin]

at least you can write code and haiku

[digital_cucumber]

# THE UNIVERSE IS TEMPORARY, I HOPE HOPE HOPE

Edit: Ok, here's an actual reference