[author : J.M. Terry] #Method #Programming #Languages
Extract : « There is more to learning programming than the memorization of instruction sets or statement types. A distinction is often made between two different sorts of skill acquisition, “horizontal” and “vertical”. For instance, learning BASIC as a first language is “vertical”. After that, it takes a “horizontal” effort for the programmer to leam how expressions are written in FORTRAN. It takes a different kind of effort to leam the use of the ALLOCATE and FREE statements in PL/1 because there are no equivalent statements in BASIC. When we acquire new concepts, a “vertical” effort is needed. Most of the following concepts are beyond BASIC. The steps aren’t difficult, but are definitely “vertical”.
Sooner or later, we are going to need powerful, elegant ways to handle records. Those of us interested in robotics, languages, and various other Artifical Intelligence (AI) applications will want to connect information in complicated ways. Systems buffs will want to manipulate individual programs (tasks) as objects. Business software certainly can make use of efficient record handling. [...] »
[author : Harvey A. Cohen] #Listing #Assembly #Simulation
Extract : « Here is a version of Conway’s classic (i.e. 1969) game of LIFE that has fairly advanced interactive facilities — one can play God with aplomb - yet the program is less than 200 decimal bytes long, and when running uses only a few bytes for a stack and the 1K of memory in a Polymorphic Systems VDM. (I eliminated the need for a 1K next generation store by “marking” the screen itself — indicating which live cells will die in the next generation, and which dead cells will become alive — without interfering with the neighbour count algorithm. [...] »
[author : Les Hancock] #Listing #Assembly #Programming
Extract : « The 1K Debugger is really a 0.95117188K debugger. This version is assembled to start at 074061 octal. That puts it at the top of 16K, up out of the way of most programs. The code must be assembled to end at a page boundary (***/377 octal, **FF hex). The debugger is meant to run on a Digital Group Z-80 system with ZE audio ROM, TVC-64 video interface and TVC-64 monitor. [...] »
[author : Jef Raskin] #Review #History
Extract : « I have accepted employment with APPLE Computers, Inc. It is a case of putting their money where my mouth is, and now I will have a chance to apply my criticism from inside a company. Since I will be Director of Publications there you will know who to blame if, in a year’s time, their manuals aren’t up to snuff. Some other reviewer will have to judge if I’ve succeeded.
This (except for a few that are in the works and may appear in print after this one) is my last review. I will probably continue to write opinion articles, but will no longer cling to the mantle of objectivity. At the end of this article I will have a few words to say about my new employer’s products. [...]
I promised a few words about my new employer’s computer. The APPLE: it is a very neatly packaged 11 pound computer that is unusually complete. It uses a home TV (preferably color) for output. It comes with built-in speaker and joysticks and the associated interfaces, and with a built-in cassette interface. The keyboard is built in as well—and it is a pretty good keyboard (compared to the PET it is an excellent keyboard). BASIC is in ROM and comes up at the press of (three) buttons. The APPLE is fun. [...] »
[author : David J. Morgan] #Languages #Programming
Extract : « I have written a line oriented editor for Dr. Starkweather’s PILOT (DDJ, April, May, 1977). My program takes an additional 629 bytes of memory and provides nine editor commands.
The attached program listing shows the assembled output and assumes that the PILOT source program (as shown in the May, 1977 DDJ) has been assembled with it. User documentation, in the format of the April, 1977 DDJ PILOT documentation, describes the operation of the editor. Thus, the routine can be implemented by assembling my code at the end of Starkweather’s and filing the documentation in place. [...] »
[author : Alex Cecil] #Listing #Assembly #Programming
Extract : « [...] Here now is the symbol table and the assembler listing. The table preceding the assembler listing references selected line numbers in the PL/M version to the assembler listing. »