Ruby on the Apple II - Adventures in Retro Programming

Explore the fascinating world of retro programming in this conference talk that demonstrates running Ruby on an Apple II computer. Dive into the challenges and intricacies of implementing a modern programming language on a 30-year-old machine with limited resources. Learn about the history of the Apple II, its 8-bit CPU, and the innovative work of Steve Wozniak. Discover the process of writing programs for this vintage system, including assembly language and memory management techniques. Gain insights into why Ruby was chosen for this project and how it was adapted to run on such constrained hardware. Follow along as the speaker, Colin Fulton, a front-end developer and web accessibility specialist, shares their journey of bringing Ruby to a platform it was never designed for, offering a unique perspective on the evolution of programming languages and computer hardware.

Introduction
Who is this talk for
Preparation
Booting up
What is this talk about
History of the Apple II
How Computers Work
The CPU
The 6502
Steve Wozniak
Writing a Program
Why Ruby
What does Ruby need
How does it work
The tools
Assembly
Memory Management
Memory in Slot
Whats Next