Re: Improvement?
RESPONSE IN CAPS
replacement hardware -- Windows 3.1 doesn't run well on modern hardware
THATS OK - THE HARDWARE THIS WILL BE RUNNING ON IS THE SAME VINTAGE - WINDOWS 11 WON'T RUN ON AN 80286 EMBEDDED SYSTEM
replacement hardware -- hardware that plugs into Windows 3.1 machines doesn't tend to have a place to plug into modern hw (serial ports, most notably. And before you say, "USB!", remember USB wasn't a thing for Windows 3.1),
IT DOESN'T NEED TO RUN ON MODERN HARDWARE - THE TRAIN IS 30 YEARS OLD, AND DOSN'T HAVE USB. IT DOES HOWEVER HAVE RS485 SERIAL INTERFACE TO THE DOOR CONTROL SYSTEM AND A SIMILAR RS232LINK TO THE SIGNALLING UNIT.
AS FOR NETWORKING IT MIGHT BE IPX/SPX OR RAW ETHERNET OVER 10BASE-2....
application support -- it is safe to assume the authors of any application running here are not easily reached.
TRUE - BUT THEY DID WRITE SERVICE MANUALS, AND IT WOULD STILL BE CHEAPER TO FIND SOFTWARE COMPATIBLE WITH THIS PLATFORM THAN REPLACE A FLEET OF 60 POWER CAR AND COACH SETS (I.E. 60 TRAINS)
skilled work force -- finding someone who knows how to deal with Windows 3.1 or the hardware that it runs on is getting difficult
YES IT IS THAT'S WHY OLD PROGRAMMERS COMMAND SUCH A HIGH WAGE - KNOWING COBOL AND AIDA IS GOING TO FUND MY RETIREMENT IN 2037 WHEN I GET TO FIX THE Y2K BUG FOR A 2ND TIME (I.E. TIME-T EPOC)
Interest in becoming a skilled workforce -- no one looks at "Windows 3.1 administrator" as a good stepping stone in their career in 2024
IT IS A WONDERFUL PAYOUT JUST BEFORE RETIREMENT - PERFECT CAREER PLANNING
security -- Sure, Windows 3.1 didn't offer a great "attack surface" like modern OSs do, but remember: Windows 3.x security was pretty much non-existent -- remember the login you could get through by tapping the ESCAPE key? There aren't really many "security updates" for Windows 3, because there wasn't any security.
ALSO TRUE BUT GIVEN THAT THERE IS NO INTERNET ACCESS TO THIS DEVICE AND AS YOU HAVE ALREADY STATED MODERN HARDWARE DOESN'T HAVE THE SAME INTERFACES ANY MORE THE RISK IS QUITE LOW
WHAT LOGIN? THERE IS NO SCREEN OR KEYBOARD ATTACHED? WHAT SECURITY - THIS IS TALKING TO A VINTAGE SYSTEM THAT IS IN PLAIN TEXT WITH NO USER SUPPORT AND NO AUTHENTICATION...
Your ideal employee should have all the modern professionalism we would expect (remember: it wasn't common in the 1990s, we were still making stuff up as we went), be smart enough to understand this is NOT a stepping stone in their career, but be stupid enough to be good with that.
TBH MOST OF YOU MODERN WEB TYPISTS ARE STILL MAKING STUFF UP AS YOU GO ALONG, AND AS ALREADY STATED THIS IS A PERFECT CAREER SUNSET - WHERE THE OLDIES LIKE ME DON'T NEED TO FIGHT YOU YOUNG WHIP-A-SNAPPERS TO GET A NICE PAYDAY
If you ignore all that, sure, the windows 3.1 application will probably work just fine for them.
SOUNDS GOOD TO ME
TONG NOT QUITE FIRMLY IN CHEEK, IF THIS ADD WERE FOR REAL I WOULD EXPECT IT TO BE FOR AN EMBEDDED SYSTEM WITH SIMILAR REQUIREMENTS TO THOSE I SUGGEST ABOVE