[author : Marlin Ouverson] #Edito

Extract : «  Computers and their owners are at the leading edge of this information era. Whether they will remain there long enough for us humans to more fully realize our potential for self-determination depends upon several things.

First, the computer user must know what information he requires. Next he needs to learn who has it, how to access it and what to do with it. Networking in general, and computer bulletin boards specifically, are moving toward the fulfillment of personal computing power. [...]  »

TABLE OF CONTENTS

[author : Ray Duncan] #Microprocessor

Extract : «  Ever since its introduction, the Zilog Z-80 microprocessor has had an aura of glamor and power compared to the workhorse Intel 8080 or 8085. This reputation is justified to some extent by the additional instructions, registers, addressing modes, and vectored interrupt capabilities of the Z-80. However, unless the additional Z-80 instructions are employed very carefully, they may cause a definite decrease in performance compared to using the 8080 instruction set alone (assuming the same machine speed, of course) [...]  »

[author : Eric M. Miller] #Memory #DataManagement

Extract : «  [...] EPROMs may be programmed using data that was copied from another ROM, by data obtained from downloading from a computer or development system, or from manual entry byte by byte. The EPROM can be checked for full erasure, and can be verified to ensure the success of the programming. Contents of the EPROM or on-board RAM may be dumped to the terminal, and checksums generated. Checksums of EPROM contents are handy for microcomputer systems performing self-testing functions. All communications to the programmer are via a serial RS-232 data link.[...]  »

[author : Dave Cortesi] #Event #Book #Software #TradeAndLaws #ComputerPortable

Extract : «  Two Conferences The Personal Computer Arts Festival [...] Tenth Annual Symposium on Incremental Motion Control Systems (IMCSS) [...]

The Contest Is Still Open [...]

Elicon Goes FORTH to an Oscar [...]

APLers Need Love, Too [...]

The Software Market Served [...]

OK, Who Is Who? [...]

What’s in a Name ? [...] Carl Helmers Personal Computer Letter. [...]

Pubs Potpourri [...] 33 Challenging Computer Games for TRS-80, Apple, and PET, D. Chance ($7.95, 1275); Programmer’s Guide to LISP, K. Tracton ($6.95, 1045); The MC6809 Cookbook, C. D. Warren ($6.95, 1209); Microcomputer Interfacing Handbook: A/D and D/A, J. J. Carr ($8.95, 1271); The PLL Synthesizer Cookbook, H. Kinley ($7.95, 1243) [...]

Software For All [...]

Electronic Ordering [...]

Another Single-Board Computer BASYS/1 [...]

64K Chips Are Really Here [...]

Osborne I Is Born [...]  »

[author : John B. Palmer] #Listing #Assembly #Keyboard #DataEntry

Extract : «  Here is a CP/M program to allow a user to define special functions of his keyboard so that a single keystroke can recall a word or an entire phrase. There has already been a similar program in DDJ for users of North Star BASIC. This program is perhaps more versatile.

So you have a CRT with those 16 extra function keys? You say that someday you will do something with them, but you just have not got around to it? I know how you feel. I finally did something about it though, and had some fun in the process. Maybe you would like to know how I did it so that you can be sure to do it different and perhaps better. [...]  »

[author : Hal Knippenberg] #Listing #BASIC #Method #Electronic

Extract : «  [...] I found my self spending far too much time "designing" before I could construct a working circuit. My time was spent making numerous design decisions and solving equations to come up with correct timing components — tasks that could be done easily with a hobby computer. With that idea in mind, I spent an evening developing a BASIC computer program that would take all the drudgery out of IC design. [...]  »

#Book

Extract : «  Disassembled Handbook for the TRS-80 By Robert M. Richardson Published by Richcraft Engineering, Ltd. $10.00 [...]

TRS-80 Disk and Other Mysteries By Harvard C. Pennington Published by IJG, Inc. $21.95 [...]

Pascal Programming By Laurence Atkinson Published by Wiley & Sons, Inc. $49.50 hardbound, $21.00 softbound 428 pages [...]

How To Build Your Own Working Microcomputer By Charles K. Adams Published by Tab $9.95, 308 pages [...]

The Dartmouth Time Sharing System By G. M. Bull Published by Halsted Press (John Wiley & Sons) $65.00, 240 pages [...]  »

#Experience

Extract : «  Doctor Dobb’s Clinic is a new venture. It is a place for the display of techniques and discoveries. We want to cover any sort of method or trick you’ve found in your exploration of (for example, but not limited to): CP/M or OASIS or FLEX or APPLE DOS or TRSDOS or NEWDOS or RSTS or UNIX or UCSD PASCAL or...

During our rounds at the clinic we may examine a compiler or an interpreter, revealing its bugs or showing how it can be made to perform better. We’d like to tell of unobvious uses for standard utilities. We want to uncover errors in published documentation, to warn people away from pitfalls, and to show off those eureka! moments that make systems work rewarding.

This first appearance of Doctor Dobb’s Clinic has used up all the material we have at hand. It can’t appear again until we have more things to tell. Where will that material come from? From you, the readers, or not at all. The requirements are very simple, much easier than those for an article.

Write to us. Describe your discovery or technique in a couple of pages, in any format you like — so long as we can read it. Don’t worry about being "literary." Don’t bother with a tutorial introduction for the novice reader; this isn’t a column for novices. Do include a daytime phone number so that if we have questions we can call you.

The items that follow are examples of the kind of thing we think the Clinic should contain; if you think differently, send us what you have [...]  »

[author : James A. Hinds] #Listing #Assembly #Programming #BASIC

Extract : «  DDJ is pleased to present this version of Tiny BASIC for the 6809. It is a direct descendant of Li-Chen Wang’s Palo Alto Tiny BASIC (refer to DDJ #5) which its author, James A. Hinds, has named Santa Barbara Tiny BASIC.

SBTB is an example of a transliteration of a large 8080 program, and contains a number of 6809 techniques which should be useful to those who want to get familiar with the 6809. The program was developed on an Apple II with The Mill (which puts the 6809 under the hood) and Technical Systems Consultants’ operating system, FLEX.

The following introductory paragraphs are the same as those printed with the original Palo Alto Tiny BASIC. The few differences in documentation can be noted as follows: in this version, there is no Control O function; NEXT statements do not require a variable name; there is no overprint function; and no spaces are allowed in the input language except in GO TO commands.

In addition, this program is completely relocatable on a page basis to any position in memory. It requires about the same amount of space as did Li-Chen Wang’s PATB [...]  »

[author : Gene Head] #Software #Review #Office

Extract : «  [...] SCRIBE IX is a complete word processing package with features built in to enable extensive mailing list functions. These mailing functions include selected auto insert from appended files, complete with letter salutation and other keyedtext insertions. There are two subsystems, one for printing and one for disk activities. The screen editing mode has all the features expected in a high-quality, professional word processor. The command mode functions similarly to the ED editor supplied with CP/M. [...]  »