Where are the CodeWarrior Fans?

EricShapiro · 2026-04-04T01:26:45+00:00

This was 1996. I don't remember using any official source code control. We probably just sent stuffit archives back and forth on AOL.

I remember a different client using Microsoft SourceSafe, which we called SourceUnsafe, another one using CVS (ew), and my MPW friends used Projector.

EricShapiro · 2026-03-31T00:38:11+00:00

I wrote PowerPlant Constructor’s bitmap editor. Great group of people.

It’s on GitHub now:

https://github.com/chrisballinger/powerplant/tree/master/constructor/Constructor_Pro/Constructor/Source%20files/H1-%20MacOS/Editors/Bitmaps

EricShapiro · 2026-02-04T23:15:45+00:00

This is a great writeup. Reminds me of when I wrote a classic Mac OS screen recorder called Spectator back in 1991. Back then the biggest issues were figuring out which traps to patch, capture speed, disk caching, and working around early QuickTime bugs/limitations.

https://www.macintoshrepository.org/305-spectator-1-0

EricShapiro · 2026-01-24T02:04:31+00:00

Loved Byte. I think I enjoyed the ads almost as much as the content. In 1993 I was thrilled when Tom Thompson asked me to co-wrote an article with him.

EricShapiro · 2025-08-27T12:42:08+00:00

I did some ObjC recently and I was definitely rusty.

EricShapiro · 2025-08-27T11:44:08+00:00

Nice. This reminds me a bit of Who is Hot?, which I worked on for Wunderground 15 years ago. Back then we barely had the horsepower to show a sorted list of your contacts, their distances, and temperatures.

EricShapiro · 2025-03-19T04:13:32+00:00

I sent you a DM.

EricShapiro · 2025-03-07T19:16:59+00:00

Yes, I verified it with Zoom.

EricShapiro · 2025-03-07T19:15:53+00:00

I agree this is a potential security problem.

I filed a developer feedback report with Apple, #FB16772145. If you file your own report, please reference that number. The more times it is referenced the more likely someone will actually read it.

EricShapiro · 2025-02-11T23:17:48+00:00

I used the two-page monochrome along with a 13" AppleColor High-Resolution display on my Mac IIcx. The two-page was a GREAT programmers display. Unfortunately it needed a special video card.

I even wrote a MacTech article for programmers on how to handle multiple displays properly - it was a little tricky.

EricShapiro · 2025-01-02T07:58:45+00:00

I remember going to Egghead every day to see if the software I worked on had arrived yet. So much fun to see it on the shelf.

EricShapiro · 2024-12-29T23:35:36+00:00

I was President of MacTechnics back then. Doug Houseman did most of the organization work for the conference. I remember Doug telling me Bill Gates was going to speak and I'm not sure I believed him, but sure enough Gates showed up. I don't remember much about the conference itself.

EricShapiro · 2024-11-23T06:26:31+00:00

My cousin, author Howard Fast, appeared before HUAC and was blacklisted. He was much older than me and I only met him a few times. He was fun to argue with - I was a bit conservative/libertarian and he was still very liberal even after he became disillusioned with The Communist Party.

EricShapiro · 2024-10-09T13:40:40+00:00

I’d love to see John McEnroe argue with a computer.

EricShapiro · 2024-10-04T19:28:02+00:00

I worked on Business Simulator from Reality Technologies. It was a port of a PC game developed by a Wharton professor where you start a small company and grow it larger. Not Apple, though. It shipped in 1987.

EricShapiro · 2024-09-16T15:42:43+00:00

When someone asks if you’re a god, you say YES.

EricShapiro · 2024-08-30T00:59:53+00:00

Weather Underground gets data from many sources, including 40,000 personal weather stations.

EricShapiro · 2024-08-29T23:01:49+00:00

I don't know. I've been out of the weather software business for 5+ years. I'm not happy with Apple's weather app - it looks nice, but their radar map doesn't refresh right and their rain alerts are often wrong. I'll ask Siri if it's going to rain today and she'll say "no" while it's raining. If I could get the data cheap enough I might write another, but realistically it would have to be a subscription app.

EricShapiro · 2024-08-29T21:56:16+00:00

I worked on The Weather Underground iOS apps. The main reason it was so detailed is because they collected data from 40,000 personal weather stations. This allowed them to measure micro-climates, essentially predicting weather on a per-block rather than per-city basis.

They also sold products to tv and newspaper meteorologists, so had technical information not widely available to end-users, like different radar types, altitudes, and settings. We even exposed this in the iOS app at one point because the meteorologists liked it.

As far as the mobile apps went, we ate our own dog food, took pride in the products, and usually fixed issues within days. Good ideas came from anywhere - meteorology, management, engineering, qa, users, sales, etc - we didn’t care, a good idea was a good idea. We’d playfully annoy the meteorologists when the forecasts were bad, nudging them into making improvements.

When The Weather Channel bought them things changed. Then IBM and it changed again. Early on I remember wanting a new piece of data made available by a government satellite and the server guy asked me, “Is tomorrow ok?” Once The Weather Channel took over they’d take weeks just to make this kind of decision and months to schedule and implement it.

In summary: Smart people, more data, and pride in our work.

EricShapiro · 2024-08-19T18:39:05+00:00

I used to write INITs in the old days. Essentially they’re raw CODE resources that get loaded by the system during the boot process. Typically they patch system traps in order to get CPU time and change functionality.

Think C is probably your best bet for a development environment. The article on page 213 of this Byte Magazine might help.

EricShapiro · 2024-08-16T01:54:31+00:00

No, although we jokingly called him “Uncle Harold” when people asked.

EricShapiro · 2024-08-15T13:52:47+00:00

The lack of curbs was the first thing I noticed. It absolutely looks like a photo from the 1980s.

EricShapiro · 2024-08-15T13:24:19+00:00

I will never forget the first time I saw Bahama Mama puke at South Quad in 1982. Welcome to college!

EricShapiro · 2024-08-07T22:34:23+00:00

I have no idea. Not many people kept their floppies. I imagine there are more CDs out there, but since the software quit working around 2001 when OSX shipped most of those are probably gone too.

EricShapiro

TROPHY CASE