After sharing about my experiences in installing old operating systems and software, I remembered another topic I covered here: CASL and COMET. On the later, and in short, CASL is the assembler of the COMET processor developed for the Japanese educational system. Really summarized, read the post here if you want to learn more. The most exciting concept in CASL/COMET is the universality of its use to teach and gauche IT technicians and developers.
One problem I didn’t address at the time was a common issue with CASL software tools. Indeed, if you could still install a few of them on a modern version of Windows, you could not use/enjoy them as their creator intended it. First, because your OS is likely not a Japanese version, or its support for the language doesn’t apply to old software.
Virtualization is a great solution to overcome these challenges. Indeed, you can easily install a localized version of your OS first and then install all your specific applications. Even if you are not reading fluently the localized language, we have access to all the tools needed to help ourselves out if we tumble on a word or a sentence. As an illustration, I first installed the Japanese version of Windows XP Pro SP2 in a Hyper-V VM.
Second, I installed a CASL II education software package containing an assembler and a COMET emulator. Finally, for the help, I used the Google live translation tool on my iPhone.
One good thing though with technical topics is that a number, an algorithm or logic constructs are constant and invariable in all languages. That’s makes it much more manageable. Two final tips for you today. First, Microsoft kept most of the shortcuts the same across OS versions. Second, to close a foreground window, and in fine shutdown Windows, you can always – repeatedly – press <ALT>+<F4>.
