The Microscope Software

While I got nothing to do, I desided to look at my 40 gigabytes folder named "d:\Backup\Old Shuttle", that contains the data I moved from my previous system (which happenned to be a Shuttle XPC barebone).

I've discovered the binaries of the first commercial software I've ever developed. And a few data files, too. Surprisingly, it started up and worked, so I was able to make a screenshots.

Why surprisingly?

Because the software was developed in 2000 using Visual Studio 6.0, and tested against Windows NT 4.0. Now in 2010, that whole Win32 environment on my machine is emulated by my 64-bit Windows 7 OS. Even OpenGL is now emulated by Direct3D.

And still everything works.

I was the only developer on the project, which lasted for about 6 months, by the way. There was no graphic designer: all the ugly icons you see on the screenshots are painted by me. That was my first task on my first job, and I think for a beginner the result is not that bad.

AFAIK with the microscope hardware upgrade my software was dropped, and the new one has been developed using up-to-date technologies. This happened years after I left the company.

Remember kids, desktop software lifespan is usually measured in years, not decades.

Here's how the product looks today.

P.S. I wonder how many MacOS 9.0 GUI applications are still functioning when launched on Mac OS X Snow Leopard? :-)

First version June, 2010; updated June, 2011.