1978 4.05 1980

Vol.4 n°5 (#35) may 1979

Vol.4 n°5 (#35) may 1979

(ddj_1979_05.jpg)

p.4 The Software Tools FORMAT Program: An 8080 Version (p.188 in reprint volume 4)

p.4 The Software Tools FORMAT Program: An 8080 Version (p.188 in reprint volume 4)

[author : Mike Gabrielson] #Listing #Assembly #Office

Extract : «  FORMAT is a program for neatly formatting and printing arbitrary text. It can output documents to terminals or line printers, and provide automatic justification, page numbering, margin control on all four page borders, centering, underlining, indenting, interline spacing, and titles at page tops and bottoms.

FORMAT was originally published as a Ratfor (Rational Fortran) program in the excellent book Software Tools, by Brian W. Kernighan and P.J. Plauger. The version presented here is virtually the same program, but it has been translated by hand into 8080 assembly language. Because the Ratfor version is so thoroughly documented in the book, and since all variable and subroutine names have been retained to allow easy comparison with the original Ratfor code, the comments in the listing of the 8080 version are a bit spars. [...]  »

p.15 Changing Bases (p.199 in reprint volume 4)

p.15 Changing Bases (p.199 in reprint volume 4)

[author : Theodore C. Hines, Rosann Collins, Jerry Russell, Linda Spencer] #Listing #BASIC #Encoding

Extract : «  Recently, we needed a decimal-to-hex conversion routine in BASIC. We had seen many programs in the journals but, unfortunately, they would not work for us because our Processor Technology Extended Cassette BASIC does not have string arrays (though we fake them with programmer defined functions —is that of interest to anyone?) [...]  »

p.16 A Z-80/ZAP DISASM (p.200 in reprint volume 4)

p.16 A Z-80/ZAP DISASM (p.200 in reprint volume 4)

[author : B. W. Lee] #Listing #Assembly #Programming

Extract : «  As the title says, here is an assembly listing and user documentation for a Z-80 disassembler. It can be used as is under the TDL/NORTH STAR disk version 1.2NS operating system and, with some changes and/or patches, it can be adapted for use under other Z-80 based systems. The latter should be disk based, however, since an important feature is the capability to reconstruct from disassembly a TDL assembler compatible source file in disk (rather than in memory thereby avoiding potential conflicts with the object program). [...]  »

p.25 Patches to SWTPC BASIC: Change Output Format of Numbers (p.209 in reprint volume 4)

p.25 Patches to SWTPC BASIC: Change Output Format of Numbers (p.209 in reprint volume 4)

[author : Robert L. Pigford] #Listing #Assembly #Programming #BASIC

Extract : «  As written by Robert Uiterwyck, SWTPC 8-K BASIC outputs numbers in a special format. All numbers having magnitudes smaller than 0.01 are printed in the scientific notation or E-format. The same is true for numbers equal to or greater than 10 9 . Numbers in the intermediate range are printed in the F-format with a decimal point in the proper place. This is sometimes inconvenient and annoying if one is doing engineering or scientific computations. [...]  »

p.26 Programming Pastimes and Pleasures (p.210 in reprint volume 4)

p.26 Programming Pastimes and Pleasures (p.210 in reprint volume 4)

[author : Charles Wetherell] #Practice #GameBoard

Extract : «  [...] The Game of Neutron

And so I would like to introduce you to the new game of Neutron. Neutron was invented by Robert A. Kraus and published in issue 71 of the excellent English magazine Games & Puzzles. The structure of Neutron is familiar, but it has several unusual twists. First I will describe the rules and then I will suggest some programming ideas. [...]

Although Neutron is a much simpler game than chess, it has sufficient tactical and strategic complexity to be an interesting object of study. And I think you will find that a game playing program for any game is not a small project. I would be interested in hearing from anyone who writes a good player for Neutron or any other small but non-trivial game.  »

p.28 Patching the SWTPC Co-Resident Editor-Assembler (p.212 in reprint volume 4)

p.28 Patching the SWTPC Co-Resident Editor-Assembler (p.212 in reprint volume 4)

[author : Geoffrey A. Gass] #Listing #Assembly #Programming

Extract : «  The SWTPC Co-resident 6800 Editor-Assembler program at under $15 (cassette or paper-tape) is about as cheap an assembler as you’re ever likely to find without resorting to outright theft.

But, of course, there’s a catch. For that kind of money, the documentation is minimal: 9 pages, with almost nothing revealing the inner workings of the program. Further, SWTPC will not for any price deliver the original source code (they may not even have it!), nor will they work up custom patches for any system configuration other than that for which the code was designed. [...]  »

p.37 Tiny-C Interpreter on CDOS (p.221 in reprint volume 4)

p.37 Tiny-C Interpreter on CDOS (p.221 in reprint volume 4)

[author : Ray Duncan] #Listing #Assembly #Programming #C

Extract : «  [...] We hand translated the Intel mnemonics into Zilog mnemonics, reassembled the whole thing and got the interpreter running without any trouble. We have written a set of interface routines to let the Tiny-c Interpreter run under Cromemco CDOS (virtually identical to CP-M) with full disc file capabilities. [...]  »

p.40 ODT User’s Manual (p.224 in reprint volume 4)

p.40 ODT User’s Manual (p.224 in reprint volume 4)

[author : Gary D. Gaugler] #Listing #Assembly #Programming

Extract : «  ODT (on-line debugging tool) is a monitor level or standalone, line-at-a-time assembler for the MC6800 microprocessor. ODT allows the user to rapidly enter patches or small programs directly into memory using normal mnemonics and operands. The only limitations are that arguments must be numeric (no labels) and all direct versus extended decisions resolve to extended. [...]  »

p.44 Software Standards, Who Needs Them? (p.228 in reprint volume 4)

p.44 Software Standards, Who Needs Them? (p.228 in reprint volume 4)

[author : Tom Pittman] #GeneralQuestions #Standard #Languages

Extract : «  Any time someone gets up the energy to spend some effort on standardization, opinion polarizes. On the one hand we hear cheers and encouragement and on the other hand boos and discouragement. Since I am sitting on a Standards committee, you know how I feel. Let me therefore answer the detractors of standardization in general, and of software standards in particular.

The first argument raised against standards is, “They will inhibit progress.” That may be true. Standards certainly slow down the proliferation of different ways of doing things. [...]  »