[author : D. J. Reynolds] #Electronic #Robotics #Home
Extract : « While modern household appliances really take the drudgery out of housework, they still require attention by the homemaker. Often the remaining part of a task requires more time-consuming attention and manual skills, which may make it very difficult to do several tasks simultaneously. A household servant in homes before World War II was the effective solution to this problem. Now available technology could be used to develop an electromechanical household servant, a “Home Robot.” Homemaker activity surveys and studies have tended to show about five hours of actual housework per day done in the home for a family which includes at least one child under fifteen years of age. This excludes time devoted to child care and outside operations such as shopping. [...]
References
1. "Hydraulic Muscles Begin to Flex Artificial Limbs," Product Engineering, Vol. 39, No. 5, Feb. 26, 1968, pp. 50-53,
2. Pressure Sensitive Paint, made by Clark Electronics Laboratories.
3. C.A. Rosen and D. Nitzan, "Use of Sensors in Programmable Automation," Computer, Vol. 10, No. 12, Dec. 1977, pp. 12-23.
Bibliography
Young, John F., "Robotics," John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1973. [...] »
[author : S. Cash Olsen] #Electronic #Listing #BASIC #Interface #Telecom
Extract : « If you’re looking for another neat way to use your system, try this telephone dialer written in ZIBL (Dynabyte Z80 Industrial Basic Language). It’s close enough to Basic that only three keywords need to be changed, depending on your system. They are TURNON RELAY, TURNOFF RELAY, DELAY. DELAY in ZIBL is for introducing a programmed wait and has a 5 millisecond overhead plus expression* 1 millisecond delay times. [...] »
[author : Graham K. Jenkins] #Listing #BASIC #Encoding
Extract : « WHY COMPRESS?
Computer vendors have in recent times come to announce reductions in memory prices with such a disturbing degree of regularity that one feels almost a sense of disappointment if a month elapses during which one does not discover a further announcement. And the reductions cover every conceivable type of memory device, ranging from high-speed primary memory through rigid and flexible rotating memories (and their more recent solid-state equivalents) to the various types of tape unit. In the light of these considerations, one might well wonder at the merits of data/program/text compression.
Whatever may be the magnitude of announced reductions, it is cold comfort for the owner of a recently acquired twin-floppy unit to learn that twice the capacity could have been had for half the price! This article will at least provide you with the means for increased capacity at no cost outlay. [...] »
[author : Paul Tarvydas] #Listing #Lisp #Programming
Extract : « From the initial moment of having powered up a LISP interpreter on my microcomputer, I found myself writing and using a number of utility routines to ease the creation of LISP programs. Since the internal representation of programs in LISP is somewhat different than that of “standard” languages, the creation of utility routines such as these may not be obvious to the first-time LISP user so I thought I would share them with you.
First the disclaimers: these routines were written with specific personal, temporal and machine limitations in mind; they were written to achieve a specific purpose in as little time as possible. Considerations such as style, error checking, etc., were chucked out the window as long as the purpose was achieved. Thus, these routines should be viewed as a starting point to get one’s system off the ground.
These programs were developed using F.v.d. Wateren’s LISP for the 6800. Comments about the code are contained in /*...*/ separators. Commenting is not supported by this version of LISP and was just superimposed for clarification: the comments should be omitted when actually entering the code. In this version of LISP, the atoms “LAMBDA,” “EXPR” and “FEXPR” evaluate to themselves. [...] »
[author : Cohn Keay] #MachineCode #Programming
Extract : « Unless you happen to be proficient at subtraction in hexadecimal arithmetic, the determination of relative address displacements is the most irksome task faced by microcomputer programmers who attempt to assemble programs manually. Even when using a microcomputer with a built-in displacement calculator, the required button-pushing takes time, especially if you forget or mistake the addresses in memory where the origin and destination bytes must be lodged for processing. Furthermore, each microcomputer with this facility has a different procedure to follow.
Alternatively, one may work from sequential hexadecimal number tables which require tedious counting, buy a T.I. Programmer calculator or use a Relative Jump Ruler as described by John S. MacDougall (Interface Age, March 1978). This requires that the program be coded on a line-per-byte basis, which is a considerable nuisance for the majority of microcomputers. [...] »
[author : A. L. Bender] #Listing #Assembly #DataManagement
Extract : « There is a proverb which is always true when it comes to data files: “A picture is worth a thousand words.” Whenever a program is prepared to read or write a data file it becomes imperative to look at the file to see if it “looks like it should” or to see what’s wrong with it.
This program allows you to read a sequential data file and display the file on an 80 character wide line. It was designed to run under MITS DOS. If you own MITS Disk BASIC you might want to write a program of this type in BASIC, which is really a trivial task. You are then conned into booting up BASIC every time you want to look at a file for a second. This disrupts the “interactive programming” which one is supposed to enjoy with MITS DOS. I wrote this dump for myself only at first, but decided to make it useful for other MITS users by removing “custom features.”
Systems Requirements: 8080 CPU or Z-80 CPU. 16KB storage. MITS DOS with at least one diskfile. [...] »
[author : Charles B. Falconer] #Interface #Standard
Extract : « A standard, such as this, is only of use if freely available to all, and if easily physically realized. The system must provide for most, but not all, desireable system inter-action.
The proposed system is based on an existing buss, in use at the Yale School of Medicine for the last three years. The extension to a 16 bit system reflects the experience gained on the 8 bit system.
Signals have been deliberately grouped to:
1. Provide mnemnonic relations to pin nos
2. Avoid transient signals coupling to address/data
3. Isolate power pins (until spares are used. [...]
»
[author : Holger Petersen] #Listing #Assembly #Programming
Extract : « Here is a small Z-80 program (less than 512 bytes) which will display the memory content 1 to 4 bytes at a time depending on the length of the OP-code. I call it micro-disassembler. I think it might be useful to some of your readers; if you do not think so, please publish a small note with my address and the remark that I am searching contacts to other German Z-80 users. Since September ’78 I have owned an SDS Z-80 starter kit and have bought an Artec Memory Board which worked at once. I bought a video board from JADE (less than 3 weeks delivery to Germany!) but it required some modifications to select logic. I interfaced a Selectric Printer and a surplus keyboard, both imported from England since computer parts are still too expensive in continental Europe (the 4K-PET is 1895DM [Deutsche Mark] = $1000!). [...] »
[author : R. F. Zant] #Listing #Assembly #Programming
Extract : « [...] The utilization of common routines is practical only if external subroutines are allowed in the language being used or if there is a way to easily insert common code into different programs. Neither of these capabilities are available in the BASIC language on the Apple II. External subroutines can be written in machine language, but not in BASIC.
Several other BASIC language systems solve this problem with a system command that loads and attaches a second program to the current program in main storage. Common routines are written with high (or low) statement numbers and saved on tape or disk. Then, using the command, they are added to different programs as needed.
The two assembly language programs reproduced below provide this capability on the Apple II. [...] »