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There is what appears to be source code depicted on Nedry's work station before he shuts down the gates, I wanted to know if this belongs to real programming language/s? (so we can all laugh/cry at how deprecated it is...)

A quick Google found an out-of-stack question was already asked but no answers yet.

Also a related question: Is the Unix operating system featured in Jurassic Park real?

enter image description here

Zooming left enter image description here

Zooming right enter image description here

(Note: images I could produce given a 1080p resolution edition of Jurassic Park)

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    Worth mentioning that the titlebar of the left-hand window is begins "NEDRYLAND :MPW:Examples." (possibly followed by "hyper"). MPW is Macintosh Programmer's Workshop (a Classic Mac OS development environment), the font is Chicago (the default Classic Mac OS font) and the colon-delimited path indicates Classic Mac OS. As the other machines portrayed in the movie are Unix systems (SGI IRIX), this may not be a realistic screenshot but rather some mocked up.
    – nobody
    Commented Dec 11, 2014 at 22:45

2 Answers 2

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Yes, it all looks like real code.

The window on the left looks like Object Pascal code for Classic Mac OS judging by:

  • the := assignment syntax.
  • The NEDRYLAND :MPW:Examples: (cut off) window title. MPW is Macintosh Programmer's Workshop (a Classic Mac OS development environment), the font is Chicago (the default Classic Mac OS font) and the colon-delimited path indicates Classic Mac OS.
  • The NewHandle and GetHandleSize functions are Classic Mac OS API functions (can't find an API reference that old online, but they are present in the Carbon compatibility layer for OS X).
  • "Macintosh HD" and "Trash" icons in the lower right-hand corner of the screen indicate Classic Mac OS.

The routine on the screen takes a string input and produces as output a copy of that string with consecutive tabs and/or spaces replaced with a single space.

The window on the right appears to be some kind of shell script for source code version control. Possibly written in an early version of AppleScript as it doesn't quite look like a UNIX sh-style syntax. http://www.joecullin.com/site/2012/01/jurassic-park-source-code/ claims to have found the full file (with a description and Apple copyright notice) based on matching text. The path where the file was found (... MPW/Examples/Examples/CheckOutActive.txt) is also associated with Macintosh Programmer's Workshop.

The window at the bottom is a script for converting Apple PICT format pictures to resources, as would be used in a software build process.

This is, of course, all very generic and not specific to amusement park/zoo control.

As the other machines portrayed in the movie are Unix systems (SGI IRIX), it is questionable that this machine was even being used for actual development. Development for the IRIX machines would have been done on the IRIX machines, probably in C, using the Workshop GUI or command-line tools.

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    Where do you see Macintosh HD and Trash icons? In the "SYS ICONS" window? Commented Dec 12, 2014 at 1:11
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    The code that's not Pascal looks like the scripting language used in MPW; I don't think it's related to AppleScript. The italicized fonts in the "SYS ICONS" window look like they'd fit in well in IRIX's GUI; at first I thought the lavender borders were also IRIX-like, but I must be thinking of Sun GUIs since I can't find that color in any IRIX screenshots. Commented Dec 12, 2014 at 1:15
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    @echristopherson Yes, in the "Sys Icons" area. In the larger images at the "out of stack" link, the icons and text are easier to see and clearly from Mac OS.
    – nobody
    Commented Dec 12, 2014 at 1:43
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    As for the AppleScript, that was just a guess - not totally confident on it. I see some resemblance to the modern reference, but I don't have a reference from that era to compare to.
    – nobody
    Commented Dec 12, 2014 at 1:46
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    "This is, of course, all very generic and not specific to amusement park/zoo control." - which is why the dinosaurs escaped(!)
    – EvilDr
    Commented Dec 12, 2014 at 5:14
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This looks like Delphi (or a pascal derivative) because of the semi colons at the end of the lines and also the := assignment operator. Delphi is also a RAD language which would be good for building out their screens.

Edit: Based on the related question of the system running unix, Delphi can be done on *nix

Note: Object Pascal (Delphi) is generally not case sensitive. My examples are in lowercase while the screen shot is uppercase.

Here is a basic if/else I found from here

if (condition1) And (condition2)   // Both conditions must be satisfied
   then
     begin
       statement1;
       statement2;
       ...
     end              // Notice no terminating ';' - still part of 'if'
   else
     begin
       statement3;
       statement4;
       ...
     end;

if you compare the similarities to what you can see in the image, it's a match. The if [predicates] then begin ... end matches

Same for the while [condition] do example from here

While sqrNum <= 100 do
  begin
...
end;

Also looking at the comment blocks using *, you can match them to this (found here)

//This is a single line comment.

{
Multiple line
comment.
}

(*
This too is a
multiple line comment.
*)

Examining the right file more the comments are # not * and it also looks like a build script or some kind of shell script, especially if you read the comments.

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    Or any other kind of Pascal dialect afterall, no? Commented Dec 11, 2014 at 19:46
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    @NapoleonWilson yes Commented Dec 11, 2014 at 19:49
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    Sure, just that this wasn't clear from your answer. Someone who does not know that programming language (which we have to assume is basically everyone on a site about movies) looks at your code examples and can't see even a remote similarity. But at least you now mention the case insensitivity in the answer. Commented Dec 11, 2014 at 19:55
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    @NapoleonWilson I thought everyone here came from SO :) Commented Dec 11, 2014 at 19:56
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    Have a look here, some of the code seems to match. mail-archive.com/[email protected]/msg01884.html Commented Dec 11, 2014 at 21:18

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