| Produced by Su Mi
| CSDN (ID: CSDNnews) Does
software have weight?
Some people say that modern software is mainly installed on hardware and only takes up memory;
Some people say that software is downloaded from the Internet, so there is no weight at all;
Some people say that software is stored in disks. , the disk must have weight;
While everyone is arguing endlessly, a related answer from Microsoft has refreshed many people's understanding.
Recently, the Microsoft Windows Developer Documentation Team published an internal interview with its company archives expert Amy Stevenson on Twitter. When asked about "What is the largest software Microsoft has released so far?", the other party gave a The answer to "Microsoft C/C++ Compiler with Windows SDK".
Heavy software
This answer surprised many people. Because most of the software we use on personal computers today does not have any weight. As mentioned at the beginning of the article, applications such as music, movies, games, software, etc. are directly downloaded online.
The Microsoft C/C++ compiler mentioned by Stevenson seems to have once again brought a period of software development to the public's eyes.
In the past, software tools were usually transmitted in physical forms such as floppy disks or CDs. For example, the packaging and design of some powerful and complex tools would be equipped with relevant printed documents. Some documents were thousands of pages long, which resulted in a The complete software seems very bloated and heavy.
It is reported that this Microsoft C/C++ compiler with Windows SDK is Microsoft's heaviest software product ever. It was released in 1992 and weighed more than 40 pounds (about 36 kilograms). Packaging Microsoft C/C++ 7.0 in a box over two feet long, the compiler allows developers to develop MS-DOS, Windows and OS/2 applications. At the same time, this box also contains 25 independent 5.25-inch floppy disks, which are used to store the program itself. In addition, it also contains 21 paper booklets of the software, which takes up most of the weight and space of the entire software.
In the past 47 years of Microsoft, it can be said that the birth of Microsoft C/C++ 7.0 is quite meaningful because it is the first C++ compiler. At that time, Microsoft worked with multiple C++ preprocessor compilers to convert C++ to C before the compiler created an executable program. Starting in 1992, Microsoft implemented direct support for C++ on native compilers, a feature that continues to this day.
At the same time, Microsoft C/C++ 7.0 is also the last character-oriented C language development environment delivered by Microsoft.
Below the tweet, a former Microsoft employee commented, "This package is too big to be accommodated in Microsoft's own Canyon Park factory. Therefore, this tool was placed in a factory in , Oregon. . So we didn’t have the opportunity to celebrate its birth, nor did we have the opportunity to watch it go offline.”
Regarding this, many netizens joked that this is the most difficult software product in Microsoft’s history. When some people receive this product by courier, just from the scale of the software tools, they will be directly considered by the other party to be a programming master, a real programmer .
The form of software download has changed
Somewhat unfortunately, this Microsoft C/C++ compiler with Windows SDK has not been used for too long.
As Stevenson pointed out in the interview, "We don't do that anymore." Because Microsoft launched Visual C++ 1.0 in 1993 to replace the C/C++ compiler, and Visual C/C++ is provided in 3.5-inch floppy disks and the more convenient CD-ROM format, but it is worth mentioning that Visual C++ 1.0 The overall weight is still 15 kilograms. It was not until version 2.0 that the weight of this software tool was reduced to about 3 kilograms.
Today, Visual C++ is still under development, and the latest version is Microsoft Visual C++ version 2022.In addition, it is also integrated in Visual Studio and can also be installed and used separately. Microsoft provides community, professional and enterprise editions of Visual Studio for modern software development, which can span different desktop and mobile platforms at the same time.
However, as physical media becomes more and more dense, the software package becomes more and more compact, and digital downloads have become the main carrier of current sales of various software.
Looking back on many years of programming career, have you ever seen any valuable software?
reference link:
https://www.pcmag.com/news/microsofts-largest-piece-of-software-weighed-more-than-40-pounds
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