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COMPUTING
January 1983 £i.aa
USA $ 2 .5 0
BUSINESS TRAINING
COURSE
MICRO-SIMPLEX
REVIEWED
CROSS REFERENCE
INTERFACING
in fce p n a tio n a
LIGHT PEN
Two sets of Fabulous U tilities
in one!
V IC
L IG H T PEN
PROGRAMMERS TOOLKIT
Gives extra com m ands: Auto,
N um ber, Help, Delete, Change,
Trace, Step, L ig h t Pen, Break etc.
and
V * c k
MACHINE CODE MONITOR
Gives Save, M em ory Display,
Load, V erify etc.
S im ila rto T IM on PET.
Examine the VICS ROM
Needs DAM S R A M /R O M b o a rd o r sim ila r
£19.95
+ VAT
D A M S P R IC E
ONLY
£17.35
£19.95
+ VAT
FOR PET
12" SCREEN
+ VAT
RAM ’N ROM
BOARD
VICMON
THE ULTIMATE
PROGRAMING AID
FOR THE VIC
T
Full machine code
package with:
j
Assembler, Dissassembler,
Fill, Re-locate, Identify, Exchange, Compare,
Printing, Dissassembler etc., etc.
Needs DAMS RAM /ROM board or similar
£19.95
+ VAT
3K RAM
In Hires area.
Also space for
V IC A ID and
VICM O N
p rogram m ing aids.
£22.95
+VAT
(Includes Cover)
BUY THE 3K RAM N ROM BOARD W ITH VIC AID AND V IC M O N W ITH
M ACHINE CODE MANUAL (W O RTH £5.00) FROM M OS TE C H N O LO G Y FOR ONLY
£ 6 7 . 8 5 + V A T AND GET A F R E E VIC LIG H T PEN (W O RTH £17.35)
VIC REFERENCE G UIDE R.R.P. £14.95 D A M S P R IC E £ 1 4 . 5 0
IEW
(lTHi
ANTIGLARE
SCREENS FOR PET
40 Column
£17.95
£19.95
80 Column
ALL PRICES PLUS VAT
■ ■ ■
VKA
VDU VIEW THRU
ACCESS &
BARCLAYCARD
WELCOME
VIC STARTER KIT
VIC 20
C2N Cassette Deck, 10 Blank Cassettes,
User Manual, Vic Programmers Reference Guide,
1 Joystick.
Worth £238.30 O N L Y
0 + m A A
1 Z 1 H . U U +VAT
(VAT INCL. PRICE = £244.62)
OR VIC 20
W ith free 3K RAM pack or
S u p e r C a r tr id g e G a m e O N L Y j^ ^ j ^
^
03
+ VAT
DAMS BUSINESS COMPUTERS LTD.
Gores Road, Kirkby Industrial Estate, Kirkby, Liverpool L33 7UA.
Telephone: 051-548 7111 (20 lines)
c * c o m m o d o re
COMPUTING
J a n u a ry 1 9 8 3
in te r n a tio n a l
CONTENTS
5 ...........................................................NEW PRODUCTS — The latest in hard and software
1 0 ...........................................................EDUCATIONAL REPORT - APL and the SuperPet
1 2 ...........................................................MICROS IN BUSINESS — The merits o f the Commodore 64
1 6 ........................................................... INTRODUCTION TO MICROS - First o f a six-part series
2 0 ........................................................... SOFTWARE REVIEW — The Micro-Simplex, a system designed for ac­
countants
2 2 ....................................................... HARDWARE REVIEW — A package that allows tw o Pets
to communicate
2 3 ....................................................... NEWS — Programs for learning
2 4 ....................................................... BOOK REVIEW — CBM Professional Computer Guide
2 6 ...........................................................BEGINNERS GUIDE — A utility called the String Thing
3 0 ...........................................................PROGRAMMING TIPS — Finding industrial uses for the m icro-computer
3 6 ........................................................... INTERFACING — Attaching a light pen to the Pet
3 8 ...........................................................SOUND & VISION — M usical Vies and graphical Pets
4 0 ........................................................... BASIC PROGRAMMING - Tiny-Aid For Vic 20
4 5 ........................................................... DISC UTILITIES
5 0 ........................................................... SCREEN DATA
5 4 ........................................................... MACHINE CODE PROGRAMMING — Jim Butterfield devises a cross
reference
Editor
Nick Hampshire: tel 01 -63 6 6351
Technical Editor
Pete Gerrard
Production Editor
Ron Scott
Programmer
Richard Franklin
Staff Writer
Martin Bush
Advertising Manager
Peter Chandler: tel 0 1 -6 3 6 640 8
Typesetting by
Centrepoint Typesetters Ltd, London
Printed b y Spottisw ood & Ballantyne,
Essex, England.
Commodore Computing International
is published 12 times a year by
Nick Hampshire Publications. It is
not in any way connected w ith
Commodore Business Machines
U.K. Ltd.
If you w ould like to contribute articles
or programs, please send them to:
Commodore Computing International,
167-169 Great Portland Street,
London W1. Tel: 0 1 -6 36 6354.
It can be c o n fid e n tly e xp e cte d th a t 1 9 8 3 w ill see a considerable
increase in th e w o rld -w id e m a rke t fo r m icro -co m p u te r system s.
W ith th e expa nsion o f th e fa m ily o f m icro -co m p u te r system s o f­
fered by C o m m o d o re fro m thre e to e ig h t in the near fu tu re , the
c o m p a n y is poised to increase its cu rre n t 1 2 per cent o f the w o rld
m arke t.
Before C h ristm a s C o m m o d o re announced the sale o f the
m illio n th V ic 2 0 co lo u r co m p u te r. Since the A m erican com pany
launched th e m achine last year, US sales have reached an
e stim a te d 8 0 0 , 0 0 0 . The sales figure fo r Europe is close on
2 0 0 , 0 0 0 , w ith th e U nited Kingdom a cco u n tin g fo r half the to ta l.
The d e v e lo p m e n t o f a w id e range o f s o ftw a re , including games
and e d u cational program m es, is ce rta in ly paying dividends.
W ith C o m m o d o re e xpa ndin g w e are looking fo rw a rd to increas­
ing th e readership o f th is m agazine. The February issue o f C om ­
m odore C o m p u tin g w ill th e re fo re be on sale at new sa g e n ts
across th e c o u n try . T o assist th is expansion there have been
som e changes in th e m agazine's s ta ff. The editor is n o w N ick
H am pshire and Pete Gerrard is te ch n ica l editor. In a dd ition there
are th re e n e w m em bers o f s ta ff — Ron S c o tt is p ro d u ctio n editor,
Richard Franklin is s ta ff p rogram m er and M artin Bush s ta ff w rite r.
W e hope th a t all our readers w ill approve o f th e im p ro ve m e n ts w e
w ill be m aking to th e m agazine in the com ing m onths.
Commodore Computing
COMMODORE
COMPUTING
BACK NUMBERS
April/M ay: Forth for the Pet
and Vic : The M anager
review ed: Butterfield:
Additional I/O Interface:
Search Procedures: Alpha
i Sorts.
F 'S iS -
July: C o m a l: Petspeed
reviewed : Butterfield : More
on modems and stepper
motors : Pet Talker: Another
Vic v o ic e : Quarter square
p lo ttin g : Fourier Analysis
part tw o : m achine
language auto location.
-
I
Septem ber:
Microcomputers in
Business: Microfacts 82
review ed: Cursor Handling
Routines: Instrument
Synthesis: 8032 control
characters : Linking Pets up
to a teletype: Getting to
grips with M achine Code.
N ovem ber: An interview
with Jim Butterfield : More
m u sic: high resolution
p lo ttin g : writing user
friendly program s: security
chip storage; Getting
neater printouts: Animation
on the Pet, plus a couple of
hints from Butterfield.
June : Connecting a disk
drive to an Old Rom Pet:
The 8 0 10 m odem
revealed: program m able
characters on the V ic : HighJ
Speed stepper motor for
the P et: Load and Save
explored : Fourier Analysis I
Tinymon, a m achine code
monitor for the Vic.
August: Vic educational
software: Butterfield on
co m pilers: Glass Teletype
m achine co d e listing:
Dump Mate, a multi linking
Pet and/or Vic system : CB2
interface: graphics
d ra w in g : Sound Synthesis
Input and Output from the J
User Port: How to use a SYS
call with parameters.
O cto b e r: DMS for the Pet:
old Rom DOS Support
p ro g ra m : Upgrade roms
for old 8K Pets : More on
Instrument Synthesis:
Sorting d a te s : Cursor
positioning: True
assignments for Vic
function keys: An
adaptation of Supermon, q
powerful extension to the
monitor, for the Vic.
D ecem ber: Three word
processors c o m p a re d :
computers in the optical
industry: a first look at
m achine c o d e : graphics
and plotting routines : full
Com m odore 64 memory
m a p s : a u to lo a d in g of
program s: packed with
program listings.
Every issue has much more than what we've detailed above. In each issue you'll find plenty of program listings, in Basic and
machine code, for all the Commodore family of machines, as well as in-depth articles, news ancJreviews. Why not buy now and
see what you've been missing?
Each back issue costs £1.00, including post and packing. Just send your cheque or postal order to:—
Back Issues, Commodore Computing International, 167-169 Great Portland Street, London W1 or telephone 01-636 6354
Commodore Computing
NEW PRODUCTS
Micro vision system
This is one o f those ideas th a t makes you w o nder
w h y no-one has ever done it before. Technical
problem s perhaps, b ut D igithurst in Royston have
solved them all and n o w present a vision system
fo r the Pet (am ongst other micros).
Coming in t w o versions (M icrosight 1 and 2:
the firs t one's cheap and the second one is very
fast), the system uses a standard CCTV camera
to capture images and an interface to process this
and send it back to the m icro as 8 bit digitised
video.
The s o ftw a re package handles data transfer
from the 'M icro Eye' interface to the Pet, and
controls the camera. It also looks afte r disk
storage and retrieval, as w e ll as the display o f im ­
ages on a high resolution screen.
High resolution screen? W ell, D igithurst have
taken care o f th a t by m aking available a high
resolution board fo r £ 1 5 0 , w h ich gives you an
image resolution o f 1 2 8 x 1 2 8 . No d ou bt so­
meone w ill produce a higher resolution to take ad­
vantage o f the te ch n o lo g y available.
I th in k you can see the potential o f the system .
Given a really high resolution, te x t recognition
becomes possible, and if linked to a w o rd pro­
cessor w e 'll be able to transcribe W ar and Peace
to disk w ith in seconds!
Prices are not cheap: system 1 is £ 4 9 5 , and
system 2 is £ 1 , 9 0 0 , but the advantages are
enormous.
A re a :
C om p a n y:
A d d re s s :
Tel. No.
C o n ta c t:
M ic ro C o m p u te r V ision S y s te m
D ig ith u rs t Ltd.
Leaden H ill, O rw e ll, R o y sto n , H erts. S G 8
5Q H
0223 208926
P e te r K ru g e r
Star gazing
The C onstellation is the la test in th e g row ing bat­
tle fo r control o f the local area n e tw o rk (LAN)
m arket, th is one being fro m Keen Com puters.
Claim ing to have already sold over 1 ,0 0 0
system s, the Constellation allow s up to 6 4 micros
o f varying pedigrees to share data and programs,
printers and up to 7 2 m egabyte o f hard disk.
A considerable saving in an a lw a ys costconscious m arket.
A re a :
C om pany:
Tel. N o.
C o n ta c t:
L o c a l A re a N e tw o rk s
K een C o m p u te rs
0 1 - 2 3 6 0 0 2 6 /7
M a x H o to p f
M ore Super soft and hardware
One of, if not the, firs t add-on chip fo r the Pet was
the T o o lkit, o fte n im personated in recent years.
This added a num ber o f com m ands to the existing
Pet Basic, and became very successful in term s of
sales.
S u p e rso ft have long had a reputation fo r being
suppliers o f chips fo r one purpose or another, and
th e y have ju s t taken over from Zynar Limited as
UK d istrib u to rs o f the original Toolkit.
Versions o f the T o o lk it are available fo r all the
Pet range o f m icros, and costs s ta rt at ju st 2 9 .0 0
pounds plus V A T . J u s t by liftin g up the lid o f your
Pet and plugging in th is one chip, y o u 'll find your
program m ing abilities s ig n ific a n tly enhanced.
A re a :
C om pany:
A d d re s s :
Tel. N o.
E n h a n c in g B a sic
S u p e rs o ft
W in c h e s te r H ouse , C an n in g Road, H a rro w ,
M id d le s e x
0 1 -8 6 1 1 1 6 6
Processing package
Getting serious
There is m oney to be made in accou nta ncy afte r
all. Pegasus, w h o 'v e been selling their accounts
and sto ck control packages since the beginning of
the year, recently announced im pressive sales
figures fo r the firs t seven m onths o f the year,
w ith a projected p ro fit fo r the year o f alm ost a
quarter o f a m illion. On to p o f this, th e y 'v e ju st
brought out a payroll package as w ell, so perhaps
w e 'll see an even bigger profit.
A re a :
C om p a n y:
A d d re s s :
Tel. No.
C o n ta c t:
B u siness P ackages
Pegasus S o ftw a re Ltd.
S ta tio n R oad, K e tte rin g , N o rth a n ts
0536 522822
J o h n n ie J o h n s o n
J u s t a quick m ention fo r another S upersoft pro­
du ct, th e ir w e ll k n o w n M icro scrip t w o rd process­
ing package. A couple o f bits o f new s: one is th a t
it n o w m akes fu ll use o f the 9 6 K available on the
8 0 9 6 , a llo w in g you to hold three w o rk spaces o f
about 1 5 pages o f A 4 te x t in each.
Secondly, the la test version has im plem ented
proportional spacing fo r those printers th a t can
accom m odate it.
A n d fin a lly , th e ir expansion m odule fo r
M icro scrip t, M ath s Pack, is reportedly doing w ell.
Described as 'th e firs t in a range o f M icroscript
add-ons designed to m eet th e needs o f particular
users', it enables you to produce invoices,
state m en ts, quo tatio ns and anything else o f th a t
nature fro m w ith in M icroscript.
Commodore Computing
NEW PRODUCTS
Trashman on the Vic
Jerem y Biggs continues on his m erry w a y by sup­
plying me (and no d o u b t every other magazine
editor in the w o rld) w ith the latest w adge of
w allpaper describing n e w game releases fo r the
V ic fro m Audiogenic.
In light o f snoo ker's dom inance o f our TV
screens lately, it is surprising th a t no-one has yet
com e up w ith a version fo r the Vic. Can you im ­
agine an alcohol sw ig g in g A lex Higgins, or Terry
G riffith s chain-sm oking in fro n t o f your very eyes
in high resolution graphics? Perhaps not.
One o f our other popular games has how ever
been given th e V ic tre a tm e n t. G olf, m y
know ledge o f w h ic h is lim ited to the 1 9 th hole,
w eighs in at 7 .9 9 pounds plus a 3K ram expan­
sion pack.
Suitable fo r one or t w o players, it th ro w s all the
usual hazards at you like w a te r, bunkers, rough,
and tries to ensure th a t each club approxim ately
perform s as in real life. N ot a bad im plem entation,
nice colour, but I c a n 't see m any business deals
being concluded over it.
Describing th e ir n ext one as featuring 'Bigger
and M eaner m o n s te rs ', Bonzo puts the player in
the role o f a w o rk m a n w h ose jo b it is to collect
boxes fro m d iffe re n t levels o f th e screen. These
levels are conn ecte d up by ladders. But, you are
n ot the only one w h o can clim b up ladders. The
'Bigger and M eaner' m onsters can also clim b, and
displaying a rare intelligence, actually try and trap
you on a particular level.
All good clean fu n , it gets progressively d iffic u lt
as you clear more and more levels.
H o w ever, the press release to end all press
releases m u st be th e ir description o f Trashm an, a
games cartridge fo r £1 9 .9 5 . And I quote ....
The garbage problem in the c ity has reached a
crisis point. The streets are fu ll o f litte r and there
are lots o f trash cans w a itin g to be em ptied.
W o rs t o f all, th e flies are th rivin g in these condi­
tio n s and have g ro w n to vast, m an-eating propor­
tions! O f course, no san^ trashm an w ill w o rk
under these dangerous cond itions, so the c ity
council has invested in a fle e t o f rem ote co n tro ll­
ed robot trash tru cks, in the hope th a t if th e y can
get rid o f the garbage, then the m u ta n t flies w ill
starve, and the citizens w ill be able to w a lk the
streets again w ith o u t fear.
Good s tu ff, eh?
You are in charge o f steering the rem ote con­
trolled trash tru c k s round the c ity streets. The
screen display w ill give you a street map show ing
the position o f yo u r tru c k and the location o f the
six green trash cans. The litter appears as dots in the
street, and you can also see the flies as th e y chase
Commodore Computing
yo u r tru ck. If the flies catch yo u r tru c k they w ill
devour it. Y our d u ty is to clear th e streets o f litter
and trash cans. The flies w ill be a fte r y o u rtru c k , but
if you pick up a trash can th e y w ill be tem porarily
w eakened by th is loss of sustenance and w ill turn
blue. During th is tim e you can hit th e m w ith your
tru ck, and th e y w ill limp harmlessly back to their
hideout in the c ity centre.
A lm o s t there ......
The council ca n n o t afford to lose to o m any
tru c k s , so yo u are restricted to three. If you lose
th e m th e n it's th e end o f your shift. During each
s h ift a bit o f bonus rubbish w ill appear fo r a w h ile
near the centre o f th e screen. If you manage to
pick it up you w ill get bonus points depending on
w h a t s h ift level you are on. If you manage to clear
all the litte r and trash cans, you w ill be allow ed to
s ta rt another s h ift, and you can carry on until you
run o u t o f tru c k s .
Remem ber: th e hygiene of the c ity is in yo u r
hands!
So n o w you k n o w w h a t I have to put up w ith :
tru th , ju stice , and the A m erican w a y o f hygiene.
A re a :
C om pany:
A d d re s s :
Tel. N o.
C o n ta c t:
V ic G am es
A u d io g e n ic Ltd.
PO B o x 8 0 , R eading, Berks.
0 1 -4 6 8 7 0 4 5
J e re m y B iggs
Educational releases
C h a lkso ft are a n e w co m p a n y in the educational
s o ftw a re m arket. Formed by a group o f teachers
and program m ers (w h ich makes a pleasant
change fro m teachers a tte m p tin g to be program ­
mers or program m ers a tte m p tin g to be teachers)
th e ir s o ftw a re is aimed principally at the 5-11
prim ary school and 9 - 1 3 m iddle school range.
V arious program s have com e out to coincide
w ith the launch o f the com pany, w ith the promise
o f at least one or t w o ne w ones each m onth. All
the V ic ones require the 3K m em o ry expansion
pack, but th is is reasonable enough judging by the
use o f sound and colour in each 'g a m e '.
Suitable fo r use in the classroom or the home,
w ith prices ranging fro m £ 5 .9 5 to £ 9 .9 5 C halksoft
could find them selves doing quite well.
If all else fails, th e y m ust be remem bered as the
c o m p a n y w h o coined the m o st ridiculous name
fo r a gam e so far: Punc-Man.
A re a :
C om pany:
A d d re s s :
V ic E d u c a tio n a l P ro g ra m s
C h a lk s o ft
L o w m o o r C o tta g e , T onedale,
W e llin g to n ,
Tel. No.
C o n ta c t:
S o m e rs e t
082 347 7177
B rian K ersla ke
Program networks
M ore new s has been filte rin g th ro u g h on n e tw o rk ­
ing again. W e gave a brief m ention last m o n th fo r
Hydra, the LAN syste m being m arketed by
D a taview .
The la test in fo rm a tio n to com e in
describes a syste m called Hydra being m arketed
by a co m p a n y called IJJ Ltd. A re th e y the same?
W ho know s?
This one com es in a sm all board w h ic h plugs in­
to the m em ory expansion p o rt o f each Pet (m ust
be at least 3 2 K on board, w h ic h I w o u ld have
th o u g h t cuts o u t a fa ir ch u n k o f the available
m arket), and then the Pets are ju s t daisy chained
to g e th e r by link cable.T hey can be connected up
in w h a te v e r c o n fig u ra tio n you like, because as far
as the w h o le syste m is concerned it d o e s n 't m a t­
te r w h e th e r any particular Pet is active, sw itch e d
on or even conn ecte d.
A m ulti user disk operating system (MUD) is
provided on disk, w h ic h allo w s any co m p u te r on
the n e tw o rk to use disk drives and printers con­
nected to any o th e r c o m p u te r on the n e tw o rk
w ith o u t a ffe c tin g th a t c o m p u te r's operation.
Messages can also be passed fro m m achine to
machine w ith o u t de stro yin g program s in either o f
them .
A num ber o f com m a nds are added to Basic,
special LAN ones being prefixed by 'N ' to
distinguish th e m fro m ordinary com m ands. Thus
w e have NLIST, NOPEN and so on. Executive
sites, w h ic h are specified at s w itc h -o n by a
security code, have a num ber o f additional c o m ­
mands o f th e ir o w n .
Price o f one to five units is £ 1 7 5 each, and fo r
more than five, £ 1 6 9 each. One board is needed fo r
each com puter connected on the ne tw o rk.
A re a :
C om p a n y:
A d d re s s :
Tel. No.
L o c a l A re a N e tw o r k s
IJ J L td.
1 C ard ig a n R oad, M a rlb o ro u g h , W iltsh ire
0672 54487
More communications
O xford C o m pu ter S ystem s, those w e ll-k n o w n
producers o f PetSpeed, have com bined forces w ith
the respected ta le n ts o f M ark Clarke to produce a
device called Interpod.
Interpod is a sm all box th a t essentially takes a
c o m p u te r (e.g. th e 6 4 ) in at one end, and at the
o th e r a llo w s it to speak to any IEEE in stru m e n t
(e.g. 1 0 m e g a b yte disk drive), or even any
R S 2 3 2 in s tru m e n t, th u s doing a w a y w ith IEEE to
R S 2 2 3 2 in terfaces.
All you have to do is plug Interpod in at the
serial p o rt o f y o u r V ic or 6 4 , and you are ready to
c o m m u n ica te w ith any num ber o f IEEE or R S 232
devices. No extra s o ftw a re is needed, and at ju st
£ 9 5 . 9 5 O xfo rd could w e ll have another w inner on
th e ir hands.
A re a :
C om pany:
A d d re s s :
Tel. N o.
C o m m u n ic a tio n s
O x fo rd C o m p u te r S y s te m s
The O ld S ig n a l B o x, H e n s in g to n Road,
W o d d s to c k , O x fo rd
0993 812700
Easy to assemble
M ore s o ftw a re aimed at im provin g the existing
Pet com es fro m C o m s o ft in Birm ingham . Called
X 3 (e x te n s io n s to e x is tin g e x e c u tiv e : good
grief!) it is a package o f A sse m bler m odules pro­
vid ing 'use rs and program m ers w ith a string of
im p o rta n t ben efits on flo p p y and hard disk
s y s te m s '.
M any fe a tu re s are detailed: an Indexed Sequen­
tial A cce ss M e th o d , restructured and enhanced
In p u t/O u tp u t, m ore com prehensive and easily
m aintained overlays, and m uch more.
A re a :
Com pany:
A d d re s s :
Tel. N o.
C o n ta c t:
D is k S o ftw a re
C o m s o ft A s s o c ia te s
2 c - 2 d W ake G reen R oad, M o s e ly , B irm ­
in g h a m
021 4 4 9 9151
P h il N u t t
Programming aids
Y e t an o th e r Eprom Program m er has appeared,
th is one a t £ 7 9 , fro m MED Ltd. A lso from them w e
have the M eddev-P D evelopm ent Package, at
£ 1 9 . 7 5 , all to do w ith storing sequential ASCII
records on disk or tape. W e hope to bring you more
on these t w o in fu tu re m onths.
A re a :
C om pany:
A d d re s s :
Tel. N o.
P ro g ra m m in g A id s
M E D L td .
6 4 0 M e lto n R oad, T h u rm a sto n , L e ic e s te r
LE 4 8B B
0533 704492
Commodore Computing
NEW PRODUCTS
I'm forever blowing bubbles
A thumping good read
C o m pu ter A pplied T ech n o lo g y Ltd. have ju s t an­
nounced a 1 2 8 K Bubble M em ory fo r the Apple II,
w ith prom ise o f a sim ilar goody fo r the Pet by the
end o f Decem ber. W h y m ention the A pple one?
Because w e have no o th e r source o f in form ation
as ye t. W h y anyone should w a n t 1 2 8 K fo r
£ 4 6 5 , even if it is three tim e s faste r than the stan­
dard Apple disk drive is beyond me, but at least you
k n o w the thing exists, and is very reliable.
Prentice Hall International send o u t alm ost as
m any catalogues as th e y produce books, but all
co n ta in so m e th in g o f in terest to th e Com m odore
reader.
Their w in te r catalogue feature s m any in­
te re s tin g Pet and V ic books, and also one fo r the
m achine th a t arguably started it all, the K im -1.
T his is by one o f th e ir regular c o n trib u to rs , Lance
A . Leventhal, and is called M ic ro c o m p u te r Ex­
pe rim e n ta tio n w ith the K im -1 . It em phasises the
practical side o f th in g s, including a look at c o m ­
m u n ica tio n s, peripherals, and more.
On th e Pet fro n t w e have quite a fe w publica­
tio n s , m ainly aimed at teaching you the art o f pro­
g ram m ing in Basic on yo u r Pet (or V ic and C om ­
m odore 6 4 fo r th a t m atter). One th a t deserves
m e n tio n is Pet Games and Recreations, by Len
Lindsay and half th e population o f th e w e ste rn
w o rld , w h ic h covers gam es fro m th e sim ple to the
e x tre m e ly co m p le x.
A re a :
C om pany:
A d d re s s :
Tel. No.
B u b b le M e m o ry
C o m p u te r A p p lie d T e c h n o lo g y L td
S c a rb o ro u g h H ou se , S ca rb o ro u g h Road,
B rid lin g to n , E a s t Y o rksh ire Y 0 1 6 5 N S
0262 73036
Training courses
I th o u g h t w e 'd seen the end o f trainin g courses
fo r a w h ile , b u t n o w th e P olytechnic o f N orth Lon­
don has g o t in on th e act, and is p rom oting tra in ­
ing courses fo r c o m p u te r sales s ta ff.
Claim ing, quite rig h tly, th a t selling m icro c o m ­
puters is fa r m ore d iffic u lt than selling other elec­
tro n ic e q u ipm ent, th e Poly boasts an im peccable
pedigree fo r p u ttin g on th is kind o f course.
Names like Barry M iles, Robin Bradbeer, A drian
W oods et al. are all fa irly w e ll k n o w n in the m icro
w o rld (you m ay rem em ber the series o f articles
w e featured by Barry in the old C om m odore Club
N e w s days) and all are m ore than capable o f g iv ­
ing you a good in sig h t in to the uses (and abuses!)
o f m icro salesm anship.
Ideally you should already have som e industrial
or com m e rcial experience, but you do not have to
be in e m p lo y m e n t to qu a lify fo r the course. Being
conn ecte d w ith th e M a n p o w e r Services C o m m is­
sion, all th e ir usual rules apply, and th e y 'll give
you a w e e k ly tra in in g allow ance and som e c o n ­
trib u tio n to w a rd s expenses.
The pilot course, w ith places fo f up to 2 0
students, sta rts on February 7 and runs fo r 21
w e eks. It w ill include three w e e ks o f in struction
on the prem ises o f a m icro -co m p u te r m a n u fa c­
tu re r on the C ontinent.
A re a :
C om pany:
A d d re s s :
Tel. No.
C o n ta c t:
8
C o m p u te r S ales T raining
P o ly te c h n ic o f N o rth L o n d o n
M ic ro S ales C ourse, c /o The C o m m u n ity
C o m p u te r C entre, P o ly te c h n ic o f N. L o n ­
d o n, H o llo w a y R oad, L o n d o n N 7 8 D B
0 1 -6 0 7 8 3 4 9
P e te r H o fe r, C ourse T u to r
Commodore Computing
A re a :
C om pany:
A d d re s s :
Tel. N o.
Books
P re n tic e H a ll In te rn a tio n a l
6 6 W o o d Lane End, H e m e l H e m p s te a d ,
H e rtfo rd s h ire H P 2 4RG
0 4 4 2 5 8 5 3 1 /2 1 2 7 7 1
The video age
For th o s e o f yo u w h o d o n 't k n o w a n ything about
th e m icro w o rld b u t w o u ld dearJy like to , System T w o are producing a series o f educational
d o cu m e n ta ry television program m es, available on
ca sse tte , fe a tu rin g m icros.
N o t sp e cifica lly Pet, b u t o f interest to educa­
tio n a lists generally, the program s aim to be un­
biased, and present th e practical and theoretical
fa c ts a b o u t m icro co m p u te rs, w h ich should
enable you to understand th e th e o ry and prin­
ciples involved.
Each film lasts an hour, b ut fo r som e obscure
reason (could be m oney!) each film w ill also co n ­
tain som e advertising. The press release d o e sn 't
m ake it quite clear w h e th e r it is th e film s or the
a d ve rtise m e n ts th a t 'w ill n o t only appeal to
stu d e n ts ... b u t also those people w h o enjoy
co m p u te rs as a h o b b y ', but rest assured th a t one
or th e o th e r o f th e m w ill!
A re a :
C om pany:
A d d re s s :
Tel. No-.
C o n ta c t:
U n d e rs ta n d in g M ic ro c o m p u te rs
S y s te m -T w o L im ite d
N o. 3 W o k in g B u sin e s s P ark, A lb e r t D rive,
W o king , S u rre y G U 2 1 5 J Y
04862 27676
L u ke T h o rn to n
Now the VIC 20 and 64 can
communicate with PET peripherals
VIC and 64 users
Would you like to be able to access any of these
peripherals from your computer?
•
V3 megabyte disks (Commodore 4040 drive)
•
1 megabyte disks (Commodore 8050 drive)
•
10 megabyte disks (Commodore 9090 hard disk)
•
Printers including a wide range of inexpensive
IEEE and RS232 matrix and quality printers
•
IEEE instruments such as volt meters, plotters etc.
Now you are no longer lim ited by the VIC or the 64’s
serial bus. Simply by attaching INTERPOD you can
vastly increase the power of your VIC 20 and when
used with the new 64, INTERPOD turns the computer
into a really powerful system.
With INTERPOD the VIC and 64 become capable of
running really professional quality software such as
Word-processing, Accounting, Instrument control and
many more.
INTERPOD w ill work with any software. No extra
commands are required and INTERPOD does not
affect your computer in any way.
Using ENTERPOD is as easy as this:
Simply plug INTERPOD into the serial port of your
computer, power-up and you are ready to
communicate with any number of parallel and serial
IEEE devices and any RS232 printer.
INTERPOD costs £95.95 + VAT
(IN T IH W O P )
Oxford Com puter Systems (S oftw are) Ltd. The Old Signal Box, Hensington Road, Woodstock, Oxford OX7 1JR Tel. ( 0993) 812700
EDUCATIONAL REPORTi
APL and the SuperPet
Eike K a ise r
T o ro n to , Ont.
A fte r w o rkin g w ith com puters fo r only fo u r years,
the real surprise in th is relationship is probably the
infrequency rather than the freq uency w ith w h ich
m ajor problem s arise. I w o n 't claim th a t this is
because alm ost all m y w o rk is in APL, b u t it pro­
bably does co n trib u te . One such problem th a t I've
finally cleared up involved the use o f the serial
port (RS-232C) on m y Super Pet. It to o k a lot of
help from a lot o f people, but m y special thanks
go to Peter V elocci o f C om m odore Canada. He
to o k the tim e and show ed the interest to set up
the co n ta cts th a t fin a lly shed light on one more
hidden secret o f the SuperPet.
D o cum entation o f the SuperPet's serial port
has only been released in bits and pieces. A t this
point I'm still not convinced th a t enough pieces
have com e o u t to let the average user pull th e m all
together, even if he happens to have access to all
the available literature. I'll try to corre ct this here,
at least fo r any APL users in the audience. D o n 't
stop tho u g h , if you are not an APL freak like me.
M uch o f th is is n o t tied to any one language, other
parts m ay at least be a guiding m ilestone!
The firs t problem in using the serial p ort is to
get som e in fo rm a tio n about its " p in o u ts ” : the
location and operation o f each o f the 2 5 electrical
connections th a t make up th is com m u nicatio ns
channel. Some o f th is has recently become
available, b u t none th a t I fo u n d w a s either explicit
or com plete. Here is h o w the standard inform a­
tio n goes.
R S -2 32C has the fo llo w in g 2 5 pins, in t w o
colum ns
The T ransactor, V o lum e 3, Issue # 6 ,
p .6
The pin allocations s h o w n above re fle ct the in­
d u stry standard w h ic h , so far as I have seen,
C o m m odore have adhered to. As noted, only pins
1 -8 and pin 2 0 are used by the SuperPET. A m ong
o th e r th in g s, th is lim its users to only one serial
device at a tim e being attached to the m achine. If
you dream ed o f a p lo tte r and printer, one o f them
b etter be on the IEEE port.
The note on a possible c o n flic t on pins 2 and 3
turn ed o u t to be a fa c t. I doubted th is fo r a long
tim e. The conn ection inside the SuperPET is the
fem ale side o f th e R S -2 32 plug. W ith o u t w ishing
to be sexist, I reasoned th a t th e " tra n s m itte d ”
line on a male plug really o ug ht to be the " r e c e iv ­
e d " line on a fem ale plug. A fte r all, none o f the
d o cu m e n ta tio n referenced above said " tra n s m it­
ted t o ” or " tra n s m itte d fro m ” . M y guess seemed
a logical com prom ise, right???
N o t so. It tu rn s o u t th a t male or fem ale d o e s n 't
m a tte r (at least not in com puters). Pin 2 sends
data fro m w h a te v e r device th a t pin is attached to,
regardless o f its sex! C ount one more fo r equality.
The m oral o f all this is th a t pins 2 and 3 M UST
be reversed in any connection betw e e n a
SuperPET and a serial device th a t adheres to the
in d u stry standard fo r the R S -2 32C ports. That is
a generalization gleaned fro m experience, but it
seem s even m ore sensible than m y m ale/fem ale
theory.
The possible c o n flic t on pins 4 and 5 relates to
a "h a n d s h a k e " procedure, w h e re the SuperPET
1 4 s e c . t r a n s m it t e d d a t a
1 e a r th g ro u n d
c o n firm s th a t the printer is ready fo r input. Pins 6
(T X D )
1 5 t r a n s m it c lo c k
2 t r a n s m it t e d d a t a
and 8 are used to te s t th a t th e printer is in fa c t
(R X D )
1 6 s e c o n d a r y re c e iv e d d a ta
3 r e c e iv e d d a ta
(R T S )
1 7 * e c e i v e r c lo c k
4 re q u e s t t o s e n d
there. If y o u r printer d o e s n 't actually use these
(C T S )
1 8 . .. u n a s s ig n e d ...
5 c le a r t o s e n d
pins th e n it's tim e to play electrician. W ith o u t
(D S R )
1 9 sec. re q u e s t to sen d
6 d a ta s e t re a d y
2 0 d a t a te r m in a l r e a d y (D T R )
7 lo g ic g ro u n d
rem o ving any existing connections, som ew here
(D C D )
2 1 sig n a l q u a lity d e t e c t
8 c a rrie r d e t e c t
in either m achine, or in th e cable joining them , you
2 2 rin g d e t e c t
9 . .. r e s e r v e d . ..
2 3 d a t a r a te s e le c t
1 0 . . . re s e r v e d . ..
m u s t m ake a co n n e ctio n betw e en pins 4 and 5,
2 4 t r a n s m it c lo c k
11 . .. u n a s s ig n e d ...
and/or pins 6 ,8 , and 2 0 . These fool the SuperPET
2 5 . . . u n a s s ig n e d . ..
1 2 s e c . c a rrie r d e t e c t
1 3 s e c . c le a r t o s e n d
in to th in k in g th a t th e printer is sending all the right
a ckn o w le d g e m e n ts o f its existence. For details,
Norm ally, only pins 1-8 and pin 2 0 are used.
W a te rlo o has a technical letter w ith a bit more
Diablo and SuperPet use only these pins b u t m ay
in fo rm a tio n .
have c o n flic t on pins 2 & 3, or pins 4 & 5.
So m uch fo r the hardw are. N o w ju s t plug it all
REF:
Byte, M a y 1 9 8 2 , p .21 2 et al.
up and w a tc h APL fly back and fo rth betw een
C om m odore M ag, Feb 8 2 , p .5 8 ,
m achines — right? W rong!
A p r/M a y 8 2 p .8 7
The SuperPET has its o w n special ASCII
Diablo d o cu m e n ta tio n , p .2 -1 0
representations,
w h ic h d iffe r fro m the standard
Torpet, A pril 1 9 8 2 , p .2 3
th
a
t
m
o
s
t
m
a
n
u
fa
ctu re rs adhere to . This is more
C om puters and Program m ing, J u l/A u g
o f a nuisance th a n a problem , since W aterloo
1 9 8 1 , p .3 2
Commodore Computing
have provided som e fa c ility , h o w e ve r meagre, fo r
conve rting th is "in te rn a l re p re s e n ta tio n " into an
"e x te rn a l re p re s e n ta tio n " th a t devices like ASCII
printers can use. C onveniently, these are provid­
ed as the system fu n c tio n s " f l X R " and "| |IR".
The fo rm e r co n ve rts SuperPET jargon into
som ething th a t the rest o f th e w o rld can unders­
tand w h ile the la tter tu rn s incom ing code into the
SuperPET's talk.
This difference d o e s n 't seem to a ffe c t other
W aterloo languages, perhaps because th e y use
the standard ty p e w rite r character set, unlike the
special characters used by APL. W aterloo m ay
also have fo u n d a less cum bersom e w a y o f handl­
ing th e conversion in the other languages, and are
m oving s lo w ly in th is directio n in release 1.1 o f
APL. Note tho u g h , th a t in release 1 .0 these con­
versions do n o t w o rk on m atrices. This is the im ­
provem ent th a t release 1.1 w ill bring. For n o w w e
m ust c o n ve rt our te x t line by line.
Note th a t I said " t e x t " . W aterloo d id n 't provide
fo r sending a n ything o th e r than characters out
the serial port, a t least in APL. Numbers and fu n c ­
tion listings d o n 't q u a lify. Both m ust firs t be con­
v e r t e d t o c h a r a c t e r r e p r e s e n t a t io n s o f
them selves. This again is quite con tra ry to the
basic philosophy o f AP., w h ic h w a s to let users
be u s e r s , a n d o b l i v i o u s o f c o m p u t e r
technicalities.
Fortunately these are no d iffic u lt task. " T h o r n "
(<J>) is th e APL operator th a t conve rts num bers in­
to th e ir character representation. "<l>5 5 p / 2 5 "
gives a printable 5 by 5 m a trix o f all the num bers
fro m 1 th ro u g h 2 5 . Functions, the APL equivalent
of user defined program s, are converted by the
s ta te m e n t "| |CR'FN' " , w h ere FN represents the
fu n c tio n 's name, w h ic h m ust be enclosed in
single quotes. This has a hidden problem though .
Q C R strips th e fu n ctio n o f its line num bers, m ak­
ing the printed listing very d iffe re n t fro m w h a t
users, especially ne w users, com e to expe ct from
th e ir experience w ith listing fu n c tio n s on the
screen. Thus, y e t another step is forced on us by
W aterloo — re-inserting line num bers in a w a y th a t
m irrors w h a t APL w o u ld norm ally give us. The pro­
gram "N U M B E R " is included below to m eet this
need.
Here then are our three fu n c tio n s "P R IN T " is the
main routine, and fa irly thoro u g h notes on its
operation fo llo w th e listings. " A S K " is a u tility
fu n c tio n th a t is called by PRINT, its purpose being
to m o d ify the w a y th a t user in put ishandled at the
screen and to in te rru p t program execution until
th a t in put is received. This is used to perm it
changing paper if you are not using continuous
form s. A n alternative sta te m e n t allow ing fo r
autom atic advance o f contin uous fo rm s is provid­
ed in th e discussion below . "N U M B E R ", finally,
provides fo r fu n c tio n line num bering as described
above.
Do note th a t th e problem s w e are fixin g here
are n o t APL problem s. They are little inconsisten­
cies th a t W a te rlo o gave us in an o th e rw ise very
acceptable APL im plem e nta tion. H opefully fu tu re
releases, beyond 1 .1 , w ill contin ue to w o rk
to w a rd s the APL goal o f encouraging a very
casual user relationship w ith the com puter.
Discussion of Function "P R IN T "
Note: See n e x t m o n th fo r program listings.
APL program s a lw a ys s ta rt w ith line zero,
w h ic h defines th e s y n ta x o f the fu n c tio n , along
w ith any local variables th a t it w ill create. Their
nam es, separated by sem i-colons, list the te m ­
porary w o rk variables th a t w ill no longer be need­
ed w h e n execu tion term in a te s. Having them here
tells APL to th ro w th e m o u t fo r you. A n y variables
created by the execu ting fu n c tio n but not listed in
th is w a y remain available fo r possible later use.
" P R IN T " e xp e cts a right argum ent o f X, w h ich
is the data w e w a n t printed " X " can be a variable
name, it can be " $ D A T A " (the character
re p re s e n ta tio n o f num bers) or it can be
" Q C R 'F N ' " , as discussed above. In fa ct, APL
even lets us string to g e th e r m ore com plicated
argum ents to fu n c tio n s . Remem ber the problem
o f line num bers n o t appearing in the Q C R o f a
fu n ctio n ? To fix th is, the "N U M B E R " fu n ctio n
above can be used as in th is state m en t:
PRINT NUMBER n C R 'F N '
In th is case "N U M B E R " is ju s t another fu n ctio n
w h ic h does its jo b before PRINT. The right argu­
m e n t in the header perm its th is typ e o f syntax.
Line one o f an APL fu n c tio n is ofte n reserved
fo r a brief s ta te m e n t o f w h a t the fu n c tio n does or
h o w . This is s tric tly a m a tte r o f style. I suggest
you g et in to th e habit, and a fu tu re article w ill
s h o w h o w you can take great advantage o f this
feature. Unlike BASIC, APL lets you have
num erous program s and sets o f data available
sim ultan eously, m ixing and m atching them as in
our "P R IN T N U M B E R " exam ple. This saves a
great deal o f code, because you can re-use
utilitie s rather th a n re-coding th e m in to every ap­
plication th a t needs them .
W ith such a m ixture o f fu n ctio n s, th a t one line of
d o cu m e n ta tio n can p ro te ct against confusion over
sm ilar nam es, and help you or others find their w a y
around.
C o ntinued n e x t m o n th
Commodore Computing
MICROS IN BUSINESS*
Are Small Micros of Any Use To the
Businessman?
This is n o t ju s t the superficial question it m ig h t at
firs t sig ht appear to be. No d o u b t m any pundits
w o uld dism iss th is w ith a derogatory NO, but th a t
is far fro m being the case. The use o f a small
m icro co m p u te r, such as the Vic, the Spectrum or
w h a t e v e r , c o u ld in d e e d e n h a n c e m a n y
businesses, but th e question goes deeper than
th a t.
Consider the businessm an w h o w a n ts to learn
about co m p u tin g , but cann ot ju s tify the co st of
buying (say) a com plete 8 0 0 0 series system out
o f his o w n budget, w ith the possibility o f it being
of no use to him or his business in the long run.
O bviously he w o u ld have to aim his sights a little
low er, but at the sam e tim e remain aw are o f the
fa c t th a t at som e day in the fu tu re the system w ill
have to be expanded up fro m its original hum ble
beginnings.
Use in the Home
I th in k, if the syste m is to be expanded up into a
fu lly fledged o ffic e one, w e w ill have to discount
the V ic fro m our reckoning. A lth o u g h it has long
been prom oted as a possible business m achine, I
cann ot see h o w C om m odore ju s tify th a t. W ith
only 3 .5 K on board, and a te rrib ly lim ited screen,
an a w fu l lot o f m oney has to be spent before it
can be b rough t up to the basic requirem ents o f at
least a 4 0 colum n screen, preferably 8 0 , and a lot
more m em ory.
By the tim e y o u 'v e added on disk drives,
printers and so on, the final co st has soared far
beyond the original outlay. O f course, item s like
In te rp o d co u ld be used here, b u t b e fo re h e 's
b o u g h t a n y th in g o u r b u sin e ssm a n w ill have to
have desig n e d o u t his w h o le o ffic e s tru c tu re .
T his is n o t w h a t w e 'r e here to co n sid e r.
Interpod is a good and useful product, d o n 't get
me w ro n g , but I feel it w ill be bou ght by existing
users w h o w ish to save on the price o f a fe w disk
drives, or w h o w a n t an inexpensive IEEE to
R S 2 3 2 con ve rto r, or any o f the other uses o f it,
rather than the firs t tim e buyer.
If w e 're going to seriously consider any o f the
C om m odore m achines, it w ill have to be the C om ­
m odore 6 4 . This certa inly has enough m em ory,
has a 4 0 colum n screen (and no d ou bt some
enterprising com pany w ill bring o u t an 8 0 colum n
co n ve rto r before long), and already has an
astonishing array o f s o ftw a re to back it up. Not
Commodore Computing
least o f th is o f course is all the original Basic 4 0
colum n Pet s o ftw a re : m uch o f th is, given the Pet
e m u la to r program , w ill run quite happily on the
n e w m achine.
Commodore 6 4
Enough has been w ritte n about the 6 4 already
w ith o u t me giving you a m ini-revie w o f it again,
so I'll assum e fro m n o w on th a t y ou kn o w more or
less w h a t the m achine is all about.
A t three hundred pounds som e users m ay con­
sider it to be to o expensive fo r a firs t buy, but
considering th e fa c t th a t it w ill alm ost certainly be
an invaluable asset to any business, the idea of
g e ttin g one in itially fo r home use is perhaps not so
outlandish a fte r all.
A lready, w e have an e xtre m e ly good and
soph istica te d w o rd processing package available,
and if th e 6 4 ends up being used fo r nothing more
than th is, th e original outla y w ill have been
ju s tifie d . Equally, you can be assured th a t many
m ore business packages w ill be appearing on the
m arket, and w ith the very im pressive specifica­
tio n s o f th e 6 4 th a t so ftw a re looks like being o f a
very high qua lity.
So w e k n o w it w ill be all rig h t fo r later use:
w h a t about the present?
Getting Started
H aving taken the plunge and brought the new
m achine hom e, once y o u 'v e rem oved everyone
else fro m w a tc h in g y e t another re-run o f Star
W ars on th e video y o u 're a bo ut to launch yourself
in to th e w o rld o f hom e com p u tin g .
O bviously you have to s ta rt som ew here, and
possibly the best place w o u ld be w ith C om ­
m o d o re 's In tro d u ctio n to Basic Part 1, w h ic h has
been specially re -w ritte n fo r the 6 4 , although
pesonally I th in k the original S trath clyde Basic is
good enough. This w o n 't teach you all about the
features sp e cific to the 6 4 , such as colour, sound
and high resolution graphics, b u t it w ill teach you
all a bo ut Basic Program ming.
H o w e ve r, sooner or later y o u 're going to w a n t
to k n o w all a bo ut the tric k s possible w ith this
'w o n d e r-to y ', so perhaps a m achine specific book
is desirable.
I have y e t to see such a book, other than the
m anual th a t com es w ith it and the a forem e ntion­
ed In tro d u ctio n to Basic, but I w o u ld n 't be surpris-
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A Commodore e n t h u s i a s t wanted a word p r o c e s s o r t h a t
was s im p le , f a s t and e a s y t o u s e . He wanted t o h a n d le
up t o 20,000 c h a r a c t e r s o f t e x t , to u se a wide s c r e e n
form at o f up t o 240 c h a r a c t e r s , w ith f u l l window
s c r o l l i n g i n a l l d i r e c t i o n s , and be a b le t o u s e th e
s c r e e n w h ile p r i n t i n g . He wanted a word p r o c e s s o r a t
a r e a s o n a b le p r i c e . The e n t h u s i a s t , Simon Tranm er,
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p r i n t e r f e a t u r e s , such as b o l d f a c e and r i b b o n c o lo u r
change. In s h o r t , i t p r o v id e s a l l o f th e a d v a n ta g e s
o f a d e d i c a t e d p r o f e s s i o n a l word p r o c e s s o r .
i s e asy t o i n s t a l , b e ca u se t h e r e ’ s n o th in g t o i n s t a l l
J u s t lo a d t h e s u p e r s c r i p t d i s k e t t e , and your PET
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SUPERSCRIPT The U l t i m a t e C M W o r p r o c e s s o r ...................... £ 2 4 9 . 0 0
SUPERSPELL D i s k D i c t i o n a r y / S p e l l i n g Ch e c k e r ................. £ 1 5 0 . 0 0
MASTER Pr og r am De v e l o p m e n t Syst em .......................................... £ 3 0 0 . 0 0
MASTER A d d i t i o n a l r u n - t i m e k e y s ................................................. £ 4 5 . 0 0
PM96 96K Memory Management / B a s i c Enhancement ................. £ 9 9 . 5 0
VIC SCREEN S c r e e n m anagement / Dos S u p p o r t e t c .................... £ 4 9 . 5 0
KRAM Keyed D i s k A c c e s s ( s t a t e w h i c h d i s k ) ......................... £ 8 6 . 9 5
COMMAND-O ( f o r B a s i c I V , s t a t e w h i c h P e t ) ........................ £ 5 9 . 9 5
DISK-O-PRO
( Adds B a s i c I V e t c t o B a s i c I I ) ...............£ 5 9 . 9 5
SPACEMAKER 4-Rom a d a p t o r ( n o t f o r 8 0 9 6 ) ............................... £ 2 9 . 9 5
VI SI CALC 32K/ 96K RRP £ 1 8 0 . 0 0 , l e s s £ 3 5 . 0 0 ....................... £ 1 4 5 . 0 0
ORDER INC INFORMA TI ON: Add 1 5 X VAT t o q u o t e d p r i c e s . O r d e r
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overt h e - c o u n t e r s a l e s , see y o u r Commodore D e a l e r .
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TEL 01-546-725 6
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BRAMHALL CLOSE, TIMPERLEY,
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'Commodore Computing
MICROS IN BUSINESSi
ed to see a num ber o f such on the m arket before
long. As fa r as the m anual itse lf is concerned,
tread w a rily, as it has a num ber o f sig n ifica n t er­
rors in it. Still, it's probably all y o u 'll have to go on
to begin w ith , so y o u 'll have to make the m o st o f it.
Nonetheless, by skirting around the errors and
reading w h a te v e r else com es along you w ill no
d o u b t progress a fa ir w a y to being com puter
literate w ith the m achine before to o long. It's
round about th is tim e , having achieved a degree
o f literacy on th e 6 4 , th a t y o u 'll w a n t to consider
taking your n e w fo u n d skills into the o ffic e and
seeing m ore precisely w h a t the m achine is
capable of.
w o u ld ta ckle th e problem , and then go about
w ritin g th e program .
It d o e s n 't m a tte r if, at firs t, yo u r coding looks
in e ffic ie n t and th e program runs a little slo w ly.
The im p o rta n t fa c to r is th a t it w o rk s , and does the
job required o f it. Your firs t program is not going
to be a m achine code to u r de force , b u t th irty or
f o rty lines o f Basic solving a particular problem
w ill do ju s t as w e ll to begin w ith .
Then, having g o t one problem solved, y o u 're
then in a position to branch fu rth e r out, and
perhaps feeling a little pleased w ith yourself as
w ell!
First Steps in Business
A ll the tim e th o u g h it is im p o rta n t to remember
th a t you b o u g h t th is originally as a hom e c o m ­
puter, and altho ugh it m ay be doing sterling w o rk
in the o ffic e , it's vita l th a t you keep up the tra in ­
ing at hom e.
This is one o f th e beauties o f a com puter like
the 6 4 . It can do very im p o rta n t tasks at w o rk,
either w ith program s like the ones w e m entioned
above th a t y o u 'v e w ritte n yourself, or perhaps an
o ff-th e -s h e lf package fo r som ething th a t is
originally a b it beyond y o u r o w n program m ing
ta le n ts, b u t at th e same tim e it is equally at home
in yo u r fro n t room connected up to the television
set.
The m ore you use the m achine, the more
fam iliar you g et w ith it, th e b etter it w ill be all
round. Y o ur program m ing ability develops, and
b etter program s result fro m this.
By virtue o f having used th e m achine at home,
y o u 'll be in a fa r be tte r position than m ost
businessm en w h o com e into the w o rld o f c o m ­
puting. Generally, m o s t n e w co m e rs tend to buy
o ff the shelf packages, w ith the result th a t they
run them and n o thing else, and never really get to
grips w ith the c o m p u te r proper.
This could be the m istake o f m any a business. It
is true, in all w a lk s o f our increasingly com m ercial
and m aterial w o rld , th a t if you d o n 't k n o w your
subject m a tte r sooner rather than later you are
going to com e unstuck.
This tru ism can have no greater w e ig h t
anyw here th a n in the c o m p u te r in dustry. Y o u 've
g o t to k n o w h o w th e m achine operates, h o w it
fu n ctio n s, if y o u 're going to get the best o u t o f it.
By th a t, I d o n 't m ean th a t y o u 're a m achine
language program m er capable o f in terfacing it to
the co ffe e m achine, but you do at least have a
fa irly good idea o f h o w it w o rk s , and w h a t its
stren gth s and lim ita tio n s are.
By being fam iliar w ith the m achine at home,
y o u 'll be able to take this one stage fu rth e r into
the office.
Initial Ideas
A t firs t y o u 'll probably w a n t to try and co m ­
p u te rise e v e ry th in g , w ith th e re s u lt th a t
e verything becom es th a t little bit more in efficient.
Bearing in m ind th a t the 6 4 is not a m u lti­
m egabyte m achine, b u t is instead a hum ble (hum ­
ble? Remem ber the original 8K Pets ?!) 6 4 K , and
th a t you w ill probably only have a cassette deck
to begin w ith , it w o u ld be best at firs t to concen­
tra te on som e sim ple adm in istrative ta sk th a t is
perhaps ta kin g a little bit longer to sort o u t than it
should.
Using yo u r n e w fo und program m ing skills, it
should be possible to take a sim ple operation like
this, w o rk o u t a flo w chart sh o w in g h o w you
Commodore Computing
Backup
Conclusion
The p o in t to a lw a ys bear in m ind is th a t the C o m ­
m odore 6 4 (or indeed w h a te v e r small m icro you
e ven tua lly end up acquiring) is not the Cray-1. It
is a sm all c o m p u te r th a t can be made fairly large
w ith th e aid o f disk drives and printers. I d o n 't
th in k w e really need w o rry about m em ory expan­
sion w ith th e 6 4 ! 6 4 K should keep us happy fo r a
w hile.
It is a m achine th a t is going to teach you a lot
a bo ut p rogram m ing, and as w e g et ever more
te c h n ic a lly oriented th is is going to be o f great
use.
It is a m achine th a t is capable o f doing m any
tim e consu m ing ta sks in the o ffic e . One th a t can
fu n c tio n as a w o rd processor, a s to c k control
m achine, and one th a t in a dd ition w ill probably
have a lo t o f con tro l applications developed fo r it.
In short, th e 6 4 w ill fin d a use in the o ffic e and
th e hom e, and a ve ry valuable use at that.
By picking up on the m icro revolution at home,
y o u 'll be keeping ahead o f the revolution in the
o ffic e .
cM A STER o
MASTER i s a t o t a l l y new c o n c e p t . . . a c o m p le te package
f o r program d e v e lo p m e n t. Used by to p p r o f e s s i o n a l s i n
t h e USA and E urope, MASTER has e v e r y t h i n g you need t o
w r i t e your own s o f t w a r e , to th e h i g h e s t p r o f e s s i o n a l
s t a n d a r d s . . . up t o 85 new commands t h a t work w ith CBM
B a sic I V . . . and j u s t one command can r e p l a c e whole
p a r a g r a p h s o f B a sic c o d e . T h a t ’ s why M a ste r i s . . .
" IN S T A N T R O M "
" In s t a n t R o m " R O M /E P R O M E M U L A T O R S c o n tain C M O S R A M w ith in te r­
nal b a tte ry b a c k u p . W h e n th e p o w e r is s w itc h e d o ff, d a ta is re ta in e d fo r up
to 1 0 ye a rs .
In th e PET, a 4 K IN S T A N T R O M c a n be fitte d in th e $ 9 0 0 0 or $ A 0 0 0
s o c ket. M a c h in e -c o d e (an d Basic) p ro g ra m s can be s to red , and are a v ailab le
at s w itc h -o n .
I N S T A N T R O M s a v e s tim e . It can be used fo r long periods; w h e n th e pro­
g ram is fin a lly " b u g - f r e e " , an E P R O M can be p ro g ra m m e d .
4 K IN S T A N T R O M (R O M s o c k e t r e p la c e m e n t) ............................................ £ 5 6 . 0 0
2 K IN S T A N T R O M (c h a ra c te r g e n e ra to r r e p la c e m e n t).,......................... £ 3 9 . 0 0
A d a p to r G A 1 (es s e n tia l for PET u s e rs )................................................................. £ 6 . 0 0
"G -R O M E"
G -R O M E is a 4 K E P R O M w h ic h w ill A u to -ru n , a t s w itc h -o n , a n y Basic or
M a c h in e -C o d e p ro g ra m s to red in fN S T A N T R O M . Basic p ro g ra m s can be
s to red w ith a f e w q u ick k e y stro k e s . N o skill is n e e d e d . P ro g ra m s can n o w
be run w it h o u t a ta p e or disk u n it, and can be c h a n g e d w it h o u t c o s t to th e
user. D ia g n o s tic aids are included.
G -R O M E (s p e c ify ty p e o f P E T )..............................................................................£ 2 5 . 0 0
Postage (£1.00) and VAT are extra. Leaflets are available.
"INSTANT ROM" and "PETCLOCK" are COMMODORE APPROV­
ED PRODUCTS.
GREENWICH INSTRUMENTS LIMITED, 22 BARDSLEY LANE.
GREENWICH, LONDON SE10 9RF, UK. Tel: 01-853 0868. Telex:
896691 Attn. GIL.
MIDLANDS
a new concept in CBM Basic
MASTER has 17 DISK HANDLING commands (b o th keyed and
s e q u e n t i a l a c c e s s , masked r e t r i e v a l , b a tc h o p e r a t i o n ,
e x i s t e n c e t e s t s , e t c ) . . . 12 INPUT MANAGEMENT commands
( i n p u t / o u t p u t s c r e e n z o n e s , w ith a l p h a , num eric and
d a te f o r m a t t i n g , e t c ) . . . 8 SCREEN MANAGEMENT commands
(w ith s c r e e n p ages l o a d a b l e from d i s k o r m e m o ry )...
10 commands f o r REPORT MANAGEMENT ( w ith d i s k - l o a d a b l e
r e p o r t f o r m a t s ) . . . 18 BUSINESS BASIC commands (w ith
2 0 - p l a c e a r i t h m e t i c , d a t a c o m p re s s io n , a u to m a tic d a te
c o n t r o l e t c ) . . . and on t h e CBM 8096, a l l t h e f e a t u r e s
o f PM96 (46K f o r p ro g ra m s, 26K f o r v a r i a b l e s , a s w e ll
a s 17 BASIC UTILITY commands).
MASTER s u p p o r t s t h e CBM 8 0 3 2/8096, 8032+CP/MAKER, and
4 0 4 0 /8050/8250 flo p p y d i s k s , p lu s CBM 9060/9090 h a r d
d i s k s , and i s s u p p l i e d w ith a User R e fe r e n c e Manual,
Quick R e f e re n c e G uide, Demo D isk , and w ith a key f o r
e i t h e r c a s s e t t e p o r t . S upplem entary RUN-TINE keys a r e
a v a i l a b l e f o r m u l t i p l e u s e r s and s o f t w a r e h o u s e s .
T M 96
At l a s t you can program t h e f u l l c a p a c i t y o f t h e CBM
8096, w ith 53K f o r program s (up t o 15 s i m u lt a n e o u s ly )
and 26K f o r v a r i a b l e s ( m a in ta in e d even w h ile e d i t i n g
o r l o a d i n g ) . . . and u se 17 new B a sic commands a s w e l l ,
i n c l u d i n g a l l t h e TOOLKIT commands, p l u s PRINT USING,
IF-THEN-ELSE, STOP KEY d i s a b l e , HARDCOPY s c r e e n dump,
CALL, FETCH, PLOT (50 by 1 5 0 ), WINDOW, and more. PM96
comes w ith a User R e fe re n c e Manual, Quick R e f e r e n c e
G uide, D isk w ith demo p rogram s, and UD11 S u p p o rt Rom.
COM M ODORE PET
SERVICE CENTRE
Phone Anne on 021-772 8181
about our
1. WORKSHOP & FIELD
REPAIRS
2. BUSINESS SOFTWARE
3. STATIONERY & SUPPLIES
i s t h e u l t i m a t e CBM w o rd p ro c e s so rI W o rd p ro-com patible
(e x c e p t f o r p r i c e ) . . . w ith up t o 2 0 ,0 0 0 c h a r a c t e r s o f
t e x t , and 240 c h a r a c t e r s s c r e e n f o r m a t . . . and no Roms
or d o n g le s t o i n s t a l l s u p e r s c r i p t has been a d o p te d by
Commodore f o r t h e i r new m o d e l s . . . and i s now j o in e d
by SUPERSPELL, a 3 0 ,0 0 0 word d i s k d i c t i o n a r y , which
e a s i l y v e r i f i e s t h e l a r g e s t S u p e r s c r i p t ( o r Wordpro)
document i n 80 s e c o n d s . . . and u s e r - d e f i n e d words can
be a d d e d . SUPERSCRIPT and SUPERSPELL s u i t most CBMs,
d i s k s and p r i n t e r s , and l e t t e r - q u a l i t y p r i n t e r s .
These a r e J u s t t h r e e f i n e p r o d u c t s f r o m o u r CBM/PET r a n g e . . .
p l ea se t el eph one o r w r i t e f o r ou r comprehensive data she et s :
MASTER Pr og r am D e v e l op m e n t Syst em ......................................... £ 3 0 0 . 0 0
MASTER A d d i t i o n a l r u n - t i m e k e y s .................................................. £ 4 5 . 0 0
PM96 96K Memory Management / B a s i c Enhancement ................. £ 9 9 . 5 0
SUPERSCRIPT
The U l t i m a t e CBM W o r p r o c e s s o r ...................... £ 2 4 9 . 0 0
SUPERSPELL D i s k D l c t l o n a r y / S p e l l i n g Ch e c k e r ................. £ 1 5 0 . 0 0
VIC SCREEN Sc r een management / Dos S u p p o r t e t c .................... £ 4 9 . 5 0
KRAM Ke y ed D i s k Ac ce ss ( s t a t e w h i c h d i s k ) ........................ £ 8 6 . 9 5
COMMAND-O ( f o r B a s i c I V , s t a t e w h i c h P e t ) ........................ £ 5 9 . 9 5
DISK-O-PRO
( Adds B a s i c I V e t c
t o B a s i c I I ) ........ ............ £ 5 9 . 9 5
SPACEMAKER 4-Rom a d a p t o r ( n o t
f o r 8 0 9 6 ) ............................. £ 2 9 . 9 5
VI SI CALC 32 K/ 9 6 K RRP £ 1 8 0 . 0 0 ,
l e s s £ 3 5 . 0 0 .................... £ 1 4 5 . 0 0
CDnSULTflriTS
ORDERING INFORMATION: Add 15X VAT t o q u o t e d p r i c e s . O r d e r by
p o s t , t e l e p h o n e o r P r e s t e l , u s i n g c h e q u e , ACCESS o r
BARCLAY
c a r d . F o r same- day s e r v i c e , t e l e p h o n e 0 1 - 5 4 6 - 7 2 5 6 . F o r
overt h e - c o u n t e r s a l e s , see y o u r Commodore D e a l e r .
( R e f AD10)
COMPUTER BUSINESS SYSTEMS
75 Watery Lane, Birmingham B9 4HW.
Telephone; 021-772 8181 (7Lines)
Calco Software
LAKESIDE HOUSE, KINGSTON H IL L , SURREY, KT2 7QT.
TEL 0 1 -546-725 6
Commodore Computing
INTRODUCTION TO MICROS: 1
W hat is a micro-computer?
R o b e rt M o s c ro p
This series o f six articles is intended as a guided
to u r th ro u g h 'M ic r o la n d ' fo r th e business
user and assum es no previous know ledge of
m icro-co m pu ter technology. Each article w ill ex­
plore the ground o f the various aspects o f the pro­
blem w h ic h he w ill enco unter on the w a y from his
firs t th o u g h ts o f p u ttin g a m icro com puter to
w o rk in a business situatio n, to the hopefully suc­
cessful im plem e nta tion o f his system . It is hoped
to take a w a y the m ystique by explaining the te r­
m inology and sig n p o st a fe w o f the check points
along the w a y . But firs t a w o rd o f caution, m o v­
ing into m icro co m p u tin g (like mini and m ainfram e
before it) is like m oving into the w o rld o f m oto r
tran sport. W h o in his right m ind w o uld buy a car
w ith o u t learning to drive it properly and safely?
Business data processing is ju s t the same, w h ils t
you c a n 't actually kill or maim yourself, lack of
some basic kn o w le d g e o f hardw are system s
te chnology can lead you to do dam age to your
business.
This series o f articles is only intended to create
an aw areness, the reader is advised firs t to have
proper trainin g in the techniques o f defining and
co m m u n ica tin g his needs, evaluating alternative
proposals and changing over to a ne w com puter
based system . Learning to program a m icro in the
hope th a t th is w ill enable the firs t tim e user to
design e ffe c tiv e syste m s is a m isconception. It is
like learning to m aintain a car in the hope th a t you
w ill then drive it properly. The m arket is flooded
w ith equipm ent and s o ftw a re fo r sale; it is, regret­
ta b ly only to o short o f skilled people, — 'C A V E A T
EMPTOR'.
Sm aller and cheaper
It w o uld be im possible to define w ith any preci­
sion w h a t is or is n ot a m icro com puter. Let us
th e re fo re consider it as a piece o f elec­
tro/m echanical e q u ipm ent capable o f undertaking
the processing o f a conventional business
routine, accou nting, s to c k control, costing, etc,
and capable o f expanding into more sophisticated
techniques, sim ulation, m odelling, etc, and talk to
each other.
In point o f fa c t the basic characteristics — 'th e
a rchitecture' as w e call it, has not changed since
the firs t days o f the c o m p u te r in the mid 1 9 5 0 's .
W hat has happened is th a t the te ch n o lo g y 'th e
hardw are ' has becom e sm aller and cheaper hence
16
Commodore Computing
w ith in the need o f m o st people.
A m icro -co m p u te r is made up o f fo u r basic
Elements:
1.
A n Input
: W hereby processing instruc-.
tio n s, 'th e program ' and cur­
Facility
re n t business tra n s a c tio n s
'th e d a ta ' can be fed in.
2.
3.
The Pro­
cessing
U nit
Backing
M e m o ry (or
Backing
Files)
: W here the program s and data
are held during the actual pro­
cessing operation, together
w ith the associated control
m echanism s.
: These are the disks (floppy,
W in ch e ste r and hard disks)
and cassette tapes w h ich hold
th e files o f data, eg. Names
and A ddresses, A c c o u n ts ,
S to ck Records, etc, w h ich are
th e basis o f the system .
4.
A n O u tp u t : W here the results o f com putaF acility
tio n are fed back to the user.
Let us n o w consider each o f these com ponents
in tu rn in greater detail.
1. Input Facilities
This is a keyboard sim ilar to a conventional
ty p e w rite r in its la yout having provision fo r the
letters A-Z, the num erals 0 -9 and fu n ctio n keys.
In practice, m ore fu n c tio n keys are required
th a n in the case o f a ty p e w rite r and a duplicate
set o f num eric keys, in a cluster or 'ke y-p a d ' is
o fte n provided to speed up the input o f num eric
data.
It is by the depression o f these data and fu n c ­
tio n keys th a t the operator com m u nicates w ith
the processing unit.
2. The Central Processing Unit (CPU)
This is the nerve centre o f the c o m p u te r w h ich
has three fu n c tio n s :
The
This is the part o f the CPU
(i)
M e m o ry
w h ic h holds s o ftw a re and
(often call­
data to be processed.
ed M ain or
internal
M em ory)
(ii)
A rith m e tic
and Logic
Unit
This is w here the calculations,
a d d itio n , s u b tr a c tio n ,
m ultip lica tio n and division are
perform ed. In addition, it co n ­
ta in s the decision or logic
m echanism , fo r exam ple to
com pare item s fo r equality,
greater or less than.
(iii)
Control
U nit
This is w here the operating
system m aintains control o f
th e location o f data during
processing.
The CPU is made up o f a num ber o f electronic
devices, in early days these w ere valves w h ich in
the course o f tim e w ere replaced by transistors,
printed c ircu its and la tterly silicon technology.
W h a te ve r th e form , the device is capable of
holding a pulse o f energy, ie. being 'o n ' 'o f f '. This
m eans th a t w e m ust use a fo rm o f n o tation to the
base ' 2 ' or binary to hold in fo rm a tio n , to replace
the deanery or decim al notation w h ic h uses a
base o f '1 0 '. The binary scale can therefo re be
represented thus:. 12 . 11
Binary Values
.2 0 4 8 1 0 2 4
512
.8
.7
.6
256
128
64
32
.4
.3
.2
16
8
4
2
The decim al values w e w ish to represent can be
expressed in an 'o f f ' or 'o n ' cond ition using the
sym bols 0 and 1 thus:Decim al
Binary Values
V alues
6 4 3 2 16 8 4 2 1
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
1
10
11
100
101
110
111
1000
and so on
Each o f th e positions in the binary scale is
kn o w n as a Binary D igit or BIT. It is therefore
possible to represent any decimal values in this
w a y, and perform a rith m e tic operations on them .
In practice, h o w e ve r, w e w a n t to hold various
elem ents o f data in m em o ry, thus these devices
are linked to g e th e r in a num ber of bits, usually 8
or 16, hence 8 bit or 1 6 bit machines. In earlier
days the com bin ation o f bit arrangem ents w as
m uch more varied th a n th is, although the principle
remains the same. Each o f the groups o f bits
referred to as a 'lo c a tio n ' in m em ory, the size of
m em ory — hence the p o w e r o f the com puter be-
ing m easured in 10 0 0 's o f K locations, hence
3 2 K , 6 4 K , 1 2 8 K , etc. m em ory is m easured in set
units o f 'm o d u le s ' as quoted above.
Thus far, only num eric in fo rm a tio n has been
considered. W here alphabetic data is to be
catered fo r, th is is achieved by the m achine hav­
ing its o w n code o f binary equivalents fo r the let­
ters o f th e alphabet, special sym bols, £, &, = , > ,
< , etc, and fo r the fu n c tio n keys o f the input
device.
The final p o in t to note is th a t the control m ust
be m aintained o f th e data in m em ory. This is ac­
com plished by each lo cation being identified by
an 'a d d re ss' in th e same w a y as w e have our
hom e address or telephone num ber — a
m echanism by w h ic h w e can be located.
W h a t th e n are the co n te n ts o f M em o ry during
processing?
(i)
Data
: This is either —
(a) C urrent tran saction in fo r­
m a tio n re c e iv e d v ia th e
keyboard, eg. an order item
fro m a custom er, a paym ent
to a supplier, an item o f stock
received or issued, or an in­
s tru c tio n to the com puter,
or (b) A record from the back­
ing file w h ic h is to be process­
ed, eg. C ustom er Name and
A ddress, his record in the
s a le s le d g e r , t h e s t o c k
balance record fo r the item of
s to c k etc.
The data area o f m em ory is
o fte n considered as three
fu n c tio n a l divisions —
INPUT BUFFER. W here data is
read fro m the in put device or
backing file.
W ORK AREA. W here it is
located during the actual pro­
cessing, to g e th e r w ith in­
te rm e d ia te results.
OUTPUT BUFFER. W here the
results are put prior to being
w ritte n to an o u tp u t device.
During execu tion o f the pro­
gram , data is c o n s ta n tly m o v­
ing b e tw e e n th e s e th re e
areas.
Backing Store
Keyboard
Input B uffer
Commodore Computing
INTRODUCTION TO MICROS: 1\
(i)
W ork Area
O utp ut B uffer
Printer
VDU
(ii)
A Program
(The User
Program)
(iii)
Operating
System
This w h ole m atter o f data
m o vem ent is kn o w n as In­
p u t/O u tp u t. (I/O). The solid
lines above denote Physical
I/O, under the control of the
O perating System , logical I/O
is m o vem ent in m em ory by
the user program .
This is a list o f instructions
w h ic h is in a language the
co m p u te r understands and
w h ic h w ill perform the re­
quired operations on the data.
This is a program ju s t like the
one above, but its purpose is
to do the housekeeping re­
quired fo r sm ooth operation.
For exam ple, it m aintains con­
tro l o f data location, inter­
faces betw e en the operator
and the user program , gets
data from or puts data to the
backing files and m any other
jobs.
In practice, various typ e s o f m em ory devices
are available to -d a y, the m o st sig nifican t being:1.
ROM Read only m em ory.
2. RAM Read and Am endable M em ory.
Is used fo r the data w h ic h are being process­
ed ie. tran saction and balance records and
can be used as ROM.
3.
PROM Program mable ROM.
4.
EPROM Erasible Program mable ROM.
The addresses o f locations o f m em ory are
ofte n held in a shorthand version o f binary call­
ed Hexadecim al (HEX) using the base '1 6 '. This
requires fo u r binary bits per decimal digit using
the letters A-F to cover values 1 0 -1 5 thus:Binary
Value
11 1 1
0011
100 1
0101
HEX
Value
F
3
9
5
3. Backing Memory
These are the files and program s on w h ic h the
com puter w ill operate. As w ith earlier Mini or
M ainfram e com puters t w o devices are available:-
18
Commodore Computing
TAPES
These are simple cassettes
identical to the ones used for
m usic on radios and music
centres.
By their very nature, these
are 'serial devices' in th a t the
inform ation is recorded over
th e length o f the tape and m ust
be processed in the same w a y.
The entire tape m ust pass the
re a d /w rite m echanism , every
record m ust be read w h e th e r or
not it is needed fo r processing,
it is not possible to 'acce ss'
data random ly or quickly.
In practice, th e y are very
useful fo r holding program s and
duplicates or 'b a ck-u p ' copies
o f data files.
(ii) DISKS
Using
the
analogy
a
gram ophone record, data is
recorded not in one continuous
groove, b ut in discrete 'tra c k s '
fro m the ou te rm o st to the in­
nerm ost and w ith in each track,
blocks o f records.
It is possible therefore by
num bering the tracks and the
blocks, to have an addressing
system as w ith the locations in
main m em ory and to kn o w
w h ere each record is, say the
sto c k record o f a given num ber,
the name and address of a par­
tic u la r c u s to m e r e tc . A s
w ith main m em ory, control
over a file is m aintained by a
series o f indexes in conjunction
w ith the operating system .
It is th is fle x ib ility o f w h a t are
c a lle d 'in d e x e d file s ' th a t
enable data to be processed or
r e tr ie v e d 's e q u e n t ia lly ' or
ra n d o m ly'.
A s w i t h a g ra m a p h o n e
record, it is possible to position
the read/w rite head at any
point in the file w ith o u t scann­
ing the remainder.
A range o f disks is available
fro m small pliable 'flo p p y ' to
large ca p a city 'W in c h e s te rs ' to
'hard d isks' approaching the
ca p a city o f larger machines.
This fa c ility to store data on cassettes and
tapes enables the user to have an in finite backing
store fo r th e various applications.
A w o rd o f caution at th is point. Processing on a
com puter is essentially one o f updating files,
stock, accou nting, payroll, etc, on an 'ad h o c' or
regular cyclic basis; by current transaction data.
In planning a syste m , alw ays make sure to have
'b a ck-u p ' o f your im p o rta n t data files. Things can
go w rong . A s a general rule, three generations of
balance in fo rm a tio n should be retained to enable
a 're c o n s tru c tio n ' to take place.
4. Output Facilities
(i)
(ii)
The Visual
Display
(VDU)
Printers
This is a television screen on
w h ic h
r e s u lt s c a n be
displayed.
It is also a m echanism by
w h ich the operating system or
the user program can c o m ­
m unicate w ith the user to ask
fo r more data, tell him he has
made an illegal entry or given
him som e other instructions.
By its very nature, the VDU
is lim ited in the am ount of
data it can display and the
tim e fo r w h ic h it can hold it. It
does, h o w e v e r, have the
ben efit o f the capability both
tabular and m oving/graphic
display.
T h e use o f th e in p u t
keyboard coupled w ith the
alm ost in sta n t response of
results on the VDU is referred
to as 'in te r a c t iv e m o d e '
w h e th e r w ritin g a program or
processing data.
By this means, printed or
'hard c o p y ' results can be ob­
tained. These vary in typ e and
hence quality o f the final pro­
d u ct, dot m atrix printers pro­
ducing graphics and d ra ft
q u a lity te x t, w h ils t daisy
w h e e l or therm al printers
enable high resolution letter
q u a lity printing in a variety o f
ty p e faces or 'fo n ts ' to be
produced.
Types o f report are;
(a) Internal — usually produc­
ed on plain 'lis tin g ' paper.
(b) External — letters or the
norm al business form s.
In either case, care should
be taken in the layout o f
Commodore CBM 80 9 6 micro-computer.
1.
2.
Input
M ain
M e m o ry
Backing
Files
4.
O u tp u t
reports, in m any cases these
are the main am bassadors of
your system .
To review the scope o f this
article, a M icro C om puter is an
electronic device com prising:-V ia a keyboard.
- W h ic h h o ld s u s e r p r o ­
gram s/operating system s and
data w h ic h is being process­
ed.
-The ledgers, names and ad­
d r e s s e s , s t o c k b a la n c e s
w h ic h are held on tapes and
disks externally to the co m ­
puter. W hen processing takes
place,the file media is placed
in t h e
r e a d in g /w r itin g
m echanism to be called into
m em ory as required.
- T o the screen (or the printer)
o f the results o f processing.
• Next month
What is a system?
A ll businessmen and their s ta ff use them daily without
thinking about them. This article is in tended to direct their
thinking about systems and their implications in a micro­
computer environment.
Robert Moscrop, Director o f Computotech Ltd, is a widely ex­
perienced systems analyst and designer. Since 1978 he has
been developing training systems for the Manpower Services
Commission and working as a consultant.
Commodore Computing
SOFTWARE REVIEW
Micro-Simplex
The traditional image o f accountants poring over
ancient m anuscripts in lo fty garrets, aided only by
a quill and the light fro m a flickering candle, is
already far rem oved fro m reality. Their image
takes a fu rth e r step into the fu tu re w ith the ad­
ve n t o f M icro-S im plex, a to ta l accountancy
package linked up to a cash register.
The idea behind the package cam e from the
Sim plex D book, m uch used (and m uch hated) by
over 2 0 0 , 0 0 0 retailers. The book has been in ex­
istence fo r som e 5 0 years n o w , and is a tota l
record o f all sale tran sactions, accou nts and so
on. It is also e xtre m e ly d iffic u lt to keep up to date
and, m oreover, keep accurate as w ell.
It is a com plex book and its life w a s made
even more com ple x by the 'in v e n tio n ' o f Value
A dded Tax. A book th a t, by sheer tra d itio n , could
n ot possibly change, even fo r the vagaries o f a
governm ent th a t w a n te d to introduce som ething
like V A T . C o nsequently everything became con­
siderably m ore com ple x w ith the addition o f a
ne w book to keep V A T records.
W ith nine d iffe re n t V A T schem es to keep track
of, w ith balance sheets to fill in at the end of
every period, and w ith m uch duplication o f
m aterial be tw e e n th e books (necessary but u n fo r­
tunate), the w h o le system had becom e ju s t a little
unw ieldy and cried o u t to be 'co m p u te rise d '.
Since ju s t a bo ut every retailer uses a cash
register o f som e kind, and it is th a t cash register
w h ic h should be providing all the in fo rm a tio n fo r
the Sim plex book, it w a s logical to produce a link
fro m a cash register to a Pet, as part o f our c o m ­
puterised system . A s one o f the m o st popular,
and indeed m o st in telligent, o f cash registers is
the N ortrond S ystem 8 1 , th is w a s the model
chosen by the co m p a n y w h o n o w go under the
name o f Catlands Info rm a tio n Services, although
th e ir package w ill w o rk w ith a w h o le herd o f d if­
fe re n t models.
The Story Begins
The road to success started w ith ju s t one sale,
albeit o f a fa irly large system : w o rd processing,
a cco u n ta n cy and so on. The program w h ic h is
n o w (suitably amended) the heart o f M icroSimplex cost about £ 1 , 0 0 0 to install then.
Four m onths later, in O ctober 1 9 8 1 , Vynes,
the publishers o f th e S im plex book, w ere co n ­
ta cte d , and gave to ta l su p p o rt to the idea o f pro­
Commodore Computing
ducing a c o m p le te package bearing the Simplex
logo. O bviou sly as the name w a s so w ell kn o w n
using it w o u ld give the system a very good
m arket en try point, and Vyners w ere more than
happy to do this.
W ith C o m m odore recognising the significance
o f a previously untapped, but potentia lly enor­
m ous, m arket, M icro Sim plex w a s launched w ith
an initial p u b lic ity brochure run o f around
1 00 ,0 0 0 .
W ith a com ple te backup o f personnel training,
sales aids, and m ore. M icro Sim plex is proving to
be a success. Is the package w o rth y o f this?
The Package Itself
For a to ta l c o s t o f 4 , 9 5 0 pounds, you w ill get an
8 0 3 2 , 8 0 5 0 and 4 0 2 2 printer, th e a forem e ntion­
ed N o rtro nd cash register, a co m m u nicatio ns
package (of w h ic h more later), the actual M icro
S im plex suite o f program s, and th e Anagram
S to c k C ontrol package, w h ic h links into the
w h o le thing .
Since m o s t o f you w ill k n o w w h a t 8 0 3 2 s ,
8 0 5 0 s and 4 0 2 2 s are, le t's m ove straight onto
the cash register.
The N ortrond Cash Register, as w e 'v e said, is
an e xtre m e ly in te llig e n t register. W ith spare ROM
s o c k e t s o n b o a rd (and c o m m u n ic a t io n s
specialists C o rtex are considering, and m ay
already have done so, p u ttin g a com m s package
o n to the spare ROM), a program m able till, and its
o w n data storage (w ith data checking) it is a
p o w e rfu l beast.
Every tra n sa ctio n is recorded on cassette, us­
ing m ini cassettes w ith a bo ut 2 6 K o f storage.
This records s to c k num bers, acco u n t num bers
and so on, and can be used fo r links w ith Silicon
O ffice , or w h a te v e r. It can also be used fo r goods
in w a rd s, and at a tra n s fe r rate o f 9 6 0 0 baud can
rapidly tra n s p o rt all o f this in fo rm a tio n to the Pet
at th e heart o f it all.
This in fo rm a tio n is also used in the link to the
A n agram S to c k C ontrol package. This has been
review ed in enough other places fo r it n ot to w a r­
rant an indepen dent re vie w o f its o w n here, but
s u ffic e it to say th a t it's an extre m ely robust
s to c k co n tro l program , or rather suite o f pro­
gram s, and m akes an adm irable link fo r any pro­
gram requiring £ to ck recordings.
Communications
All the c o m m u n ic a tio n s used th ro u g h o u t the
system have been developed by Cortex, long
regarded as expe rts in the field. This is principally
used w h e n co m m u n ic a tin g from the register to
the Pet, but e q u ip m e n t other than a register can
also be used w ith th e s o ftw a re .
For instance, various rem ote data en try te r­
minals can be used, the RDC M S I/5 5 fo r exam ple
is the latest w o n d e r device th a t can be held in the
hand and tru n d le d around the store fo r entry o f
data. W ith 4 K o f RAM on board, this 3 0 0 . 0 0
pound u n it can hold a fair a m ount o f in form ation,
w h ic h can be subsequently transferred to the Pet
and handled fro m there.
W h e th e r you use a hand held term inal, or the
tape storage o f the Nortrond, sooner or later
y o u 're going to have to get all th a t in fo rm a tio n in­
to the Pet, and the M icro Sim plex system allow s
th is to be done overn ig h t thus no tim e is lost dur­
ing th e day, it can be sim ply le ft alone all night to
to ta lly update everything, and be ready fo r
another days service the n e xt m orning.
Nor are you lim ited to ju s t one register. Larger
stores, w ith a num ber o f d iffe re n t ones about the
place, w o u ld also be able to use the system , as
up to 2 0 cash registers can be linked up at the
sam e tim e to the one Pet, and all th e ir in form ation
pooled at the end o f the day, or w h enever is
co n ve n ie n t.
The Heart of the System
Rather like M anchester United depending on
Bryan Robson, so all o f this depends on the pro­
gram running on yo u r Pet.
W h a t th e y 'v e tried to do w ith th is s o ftw a re is
d up lica te th e S im plex D book as m uch as possi­
ble. Screen la yo u ts try , w h ere ver possible, to ap­
pear the sam e as the w ritte n la yout in the book.
Thus, by running a simple dem onstration program
th a t com es w ith th e package, the retailer can see
a) th a t he 's dealing w ith som ething very fam iliar,
and b) it's an a w fu l lot easier than the system
h e 's used to.
The syste m , like th e book, runs on a 1 3 w e ek
h isto ry schedule: th u s everything is COMPLETE­
LY updated a fte r every 3rd m onth, ju s t as it has
to be w ith th e book. Fortunately the program
does th is fo r you, rather than have you poring
over 'th e boo ks' in to th e small hours fo r day after
day.
In order to perhaps convince the retailer th a t
th is m ic ro c o m p u te r lark is n 't really as c o m ­
plicated as he firs t th o u g h t, th e program is tru ly
user friendly. V e ry easy to use, single key entry
The CBM 803 2 can be linked up to the Micro-Simplex
package.
w h e re ve r possible, and very visual.
Plenty o f screen p ro m p ts exist to guide you
th ro u g h , b u t unlike other packages w here screen
pro m p ts, a fte r y o u 'v e g o t used to everything,
becom e a hindrance, these m erely serve to make
life easier th ro u g h o u t the life tim e o f the package.
To co m p le te th e in tro d u ctio n th e program uses
te rm s th a t th e retailer w ill k n o w and be fam iliar
w ith in his eve ryd a y w o rk : unpaid bills are refer­
red to as unpaid bills, fo r exam ple, and this princi­
ple applies th ro u g h o u t th e running o f the
program .
All tra n s a c tio n s are in s ta n tly updated on entry,
so th a t at no tim e do you have to w o rry about
having m issed an en try, or in co rre ct entry of
som e data. You can see im m edia tely w h e th e r or
n o t y o u 'v e m ade a m istake.
Conclusion
From the firs t pressing o f s h ift and run/stop the
package is robust and easy to use. The initial
m enu, w h ic h decides w h e th e r y o u 're going into
M icro S im plex itself, th e co m m u n ica tio n s side,
entering data processing or running the Anagram
S to c k co n tro l, sets th e package up, and fro m then
on in it is very d iffic u lt (if n o t im possible) to make
any m istakes on data e n try or processing.
The w h o le sy s te m , as w e 'v e said earlier, can be
le ft on o ve rn ig h t to com ple tely read in all the data
stored on ca sse tte fro m th e cash register. Thus
you can arrive b rig h t and fresh the n e xt day to
fin d all th e arith m e tica l w o rk done fo r you. A far
cry fro m earlier days.
A re a :
C om pany:
A d d re s s :
Tel. N o.
C o n ta c t:
R e ta il A c c o u n ta n c y
C a tla n d s In fo rm a tio n S e rv ic e
8 C h a rlo tte S tre e t W est, M a c c le s fie ld ,
C heshire, 8 K 1 1 6EF
0625615375
M ik e D a w s o n , Lee M c G a w
Commodore Computing
21
HARDWARE REVIEW i
Petween
A s Info rm ation T e ch o lo g y Year d ra w s to a close
(and a re n 't you sorry yo u m issed it) one o f the
better th in g s to com e o u t o f it w a s an increasing
aw areness o f c o m m u n ic a tio n s as a to o l fo r the
futu re.
M any packages e x is t fo r th e Pet, w h e th e r
operating as a re m o te te rm in a l, c h a ttin g a w a y to
a giant m ainfram e , ta lkin g to a num ber o f other
Pets via som e local area n e tw o rk syste m , or
w h a te ve r.
W h a t no one has done, and th is is quite surpris­
ing as it w o u ld seem to be a fa irly co m m o n re­
quirem ent, is a sim ple package to a llo w a couple
o f Pets to ta lk to each other. For instance, w h ile
one c o n tro ls som e co m p le x la borato ry equip­
m ent, th e o th e r can be garnering th e in fo rm a tio n
fro m th a t Pet w h ile it is fu lly occup ied, and get on
w ith th e jo b o f processing it all.
A lth o u g h m any LAN packages exist, these are
all aimed at rath er large num bers o f Pets, in a
large u n ive sity, la b o ra to ry or som e o th e r such
place. W e 're n o t decrying LANs here, but m ost
people seem to have ignored the s o m e w h a t
sm aller e s ta b lish m e n ts w h o can only a ffo rd t w o
Pets a t th e m ost.
These t w o Pets usually te n d to be p re tty hard
pushed to do e v e ry th in g th a t's required o f th e m ,
so a package to let th e m share th e load w o u ld be
a w e lc o m e d e ve lo p m e n t.
Such a package n o w exists, and has been pro­
duced by a c o m p a n y th a t is an o ffs h o o t o f 3D
Digital Design and D e ve lo p m e n t, long regarded as
a u th o ritie s in th e in te rfa cin g w o rld .
This n e w co m p a n y is called D .M .A ., based in
N o ttin g h a m , and th e ir p ro d u c t is called P etw een..
Ease of installation
P etw een is a co m b in a tio n o f a m achine code pro­
gram s ittin g in EPROM in th e spare 9 so cke t, a
repla cem e nt ROM fo r th e F so cke t, and a sim ple
cable th a t c o n n e c ts th e t w o Pets to g e th e r. A s the
cable c o n n e c ts up th e Pets via th e User Port w e
still have c o n tro l o f th e IEEE port.
U n fo rtu n a te ly th is does n o t m ean th a t both
Pets can still access one disk drive: only one Pet
at a tim e can use either th is, or a printer. So the
procedure w o u ld be to load a program on Pet1
tra n sfe r it to Pet2 and let th a t one g et on w ith its
job, and then load another program o n to P e t1 .
The package, being sim ple and s tra ig h tfo rw a rd ,
is also easy to install. J u s t rem ove the F ROM,
replace it w ith th e n e w one, p u t th e 9 EPROM into
place and plug th e cable in to th e back o f the t w o
22
Commodore Computing
Pets. E ve ryth in g is th e n ready to go.
There are seven n e w c o m m a n d s available on
b o th Pets. All o f these special co m m a n d s are
preceded by th e ! sym bol, and co n sist o f t w o
c o m m a n d s to enable and disable th e Pet as a
listener, one to kill P etw een c o m p le te ly, one to
send a program fro m one Pet to th e other, one
c o n tro llin g passing o f variables, one to subse­
q u e n tly evaluate th e variables, and th e seventh
sets th e to p o f th e m e m o ry pointer in th e Pet to
give us an in p u t b u ffe r fo r th e variables.
One w o u ld , as usual, like to see m ore c o m ­
m ands available. D M A are c u rre n tly w o rk in g on
som e, in cluding a screen du m p fro m one Pet to
ano th e r, a n e tw o rk in g syste m , sending t e x t fro m
one to an o th e r ready fo r prin tin g , and so on.
In operation
All o f th e se c o m m a n d s can be used in either
d ire c t or program m ode, and in add ition to these
w e have fiv e error c o n d itio n d e te cto rs, w h ic h b e t­
w e e n th e m m anage th re e printed error m essages
and a break in w h a te v e r is happening at the tim e.
O nly one in c o m p a tib ility W ith existing Pet
Basic. If one o f these n e w co m m a n d s is to fo llo w
an IF ... THEN s ta te m e n t, th e com m a nd m u st be
preceeded by a colon. E.G. IF ST = - 1 THEN :
ITEST.
A fu ll han dshaking sequence is em ployed on
data tra n s fe r, and th e error risk is exceedingly
sm all.
The m anual ta ke s yo u th ro u g h e ve ryth in g in
s u ffic ie n t detail fo r yo u to understand q uite easily
w h a t's hap pening, and it is soon apparent th a t
P etw een is rather m ore p o w e rfu l th a n you m ight
at fir s t have th o u g h t. T im in g sequences are ex­
plored, so th a t data can be se n t w h e n you w a n t it
to (and m ore im p o rta n tly w h e n th e Pets w a n t it
to !) rath er th a n ju s t being passed as and w h e n it
co m e s in, fo r in stan ce.
Conclusion
A n easy to use s y s te m th a t should fin d a hom e in
m a n y sm all e s ta b lish m e n ts and laboratories,
w h e re one Pet is v irtu a lly d evo ted to one task, but
th e data gathered fro m th a t ta s k needs to be pro­
cessed at th e sam e tim e.
A re a :
C om pany:
A d d re s s :
Tel. N o.
C o n ta c t:
P e t to P e t C o m m u n ic a tio n s
D .M .A .
3 S a n d fie ld R oad, A rn o ld , N o ttin g h a m ,
NGS 6QA
0602 267007
A la n M ills
NEWS
Programs for learning
Ivan Berg Associates have released details of their new
educational software produced in conjunction with
Commodore Computers and Hodder and Stoughton:
Revision Aids
Geography
History
Test Your Child's
Reading
Arithmetic
General knowledge
This series is based on Hodder and Stoughton's Test
Your Child's series.
Teach and Test ( 5 - 8 year-olds)
Alphabet skills
Vocabulary skills
Arithmetic I
Arithmetic II. (Rules of hundreds, tens and units,
multiplication and division).
Ivan Berg's exam revision programs for secondary
school students are already well established.
In all cases, says Ivan Berg, the data is prepared by
teachers and textbook authors who specialise in the
subjects covered. Students completing the tests will
have a clear indication of any weak areas which require
further revision.
The software comes with extensive student notes
prepared by the authors and designed for use alongside
each program.
Other programs available are:
English language
Material is supplied by International Correspondence
School tutors. The program follows the GCE/CSE
syllabus and covers composition, comprehension, spell­
ing and grammar.
Biology
Covers the nature and variety of living organisms, func­
tions of living organisms and the biology of the
environment.
Mathematics 1
This begins with a general section covering different
parts of the syllabus. The student's knowledge of
arithmetic, algebra, geometry and trigonometry is then
tested and the program ends with tw o tests of short
questions and longer problems.
Mathematics 2
Similar to Mathematics 1, with ICS data and more con­
cerned with traditional mathematics, this program
covers arithmetic, equations, progressions, functions,
calculus and trigonometry.
Physics
Prepared in collaboration with Hodder and Stoughton.
The program covers charges and circuits, electricity and
magnetism, electronics and nucleonics, waves and
sound, light, matter, forces and motion.
Chemistry
This program covers basic techniques, the periodic
table, structure, binding and energy. Redox reactions,
acids, bases and salts, reactions and their rates, analysis
and organic chemistry.
With the exception of biology, for which many of the
questions are in a sequential order, all the programs have
an automatic randomising feature; the questions are
never presented to the student in the same order, thus
discouraging students from learning parrot fashion.
The student can choose three kinds of tests. He can
work against the clock, setting his own time limit, he can
work through the test with the answers checked and the
correct answers given to every question; or he can work
through the test with all his results presented at the end
of the test.
A t the end of each test the screen displays the full
results of each test and the bar chart displayed at the end
of the program shows areas in need of further revision.
Brains of the year
For his proposal to make micro-computers more widely
available to the mentally and physically handicapped,
14-year-old Derek Reynolds from Newcastle-upon-Tyne
has won the accolade of 1 982 Young Computer Brain of
the Year.
A t a ceremony at the headquarters of The British Com­
puter Society in London, he received Commodore com­
puter equipment valued at £ 2 ,0 0 0 and a special trophy
from The Sunday Times Magazine, presented by Peter
Hall, Chairman of the Council of The British Computer
Society.
Derek wrote a program to enable handicapped people
to teach themselves with a micro-computer. " I noticed
that some children had difficulty recognising the 'oddman-out' in a group of shapes or letters. This gave me
tw o ideas which I combined. The first was an educa­
tional computer program. The second, a keyboard with
only tw o large keys, so the program could be used easi­
ly, even by the handicapped.”
The Young Computer Brain of the Year competition is
an annual event run by The Sunday Times Magazine and
Commodore Computers. From this year's 328 entries,
1 9 were chosen to share £ 1 2 ,0 0 0 of computer prizes.
The competition is aimed at encouraging young peo­
ple to think of original ways of using a computer to
benefit society.
Derek Reynolds was the winner in the 13-15 age
group. Twelve-year-old Rachael Gooberman from
Oldham won first prize in the under-1 3 category for her
entry on how computer aided design could be used to
improve police Identikit methods. Lionel Tun, in the 1 6 1 8 age group won first prize for suggesting ways of us­
ing computers to treat depression.
Vic 20 makes it to a million
Commodore Business Machines (UK) Ltd. have an­
nounced the millionth Vic 20 colour computer sale.
Since Commodore launched the machine in America
last year, sales have topped 8 0 0 ,0 0 0 over there — half
that number selling in the last quarter of 1 982 alone.
Sales in Europe, by Christmas, were expected to ex­
ceed 2 0 0 ,0 0 0 , with the United Kingdom accounting for
over half this total.
Commodore Computing
BOOK REVIEW
CBM Professional Computer Guide
Every p ub lica tion o f th is nature w h ic h n o w
com es o u t has g o t to co m p e te w ith Ray W e s t's
P rogram m ing the PE T/C BM to som e e xtent. W h a t
W e s t's book d id n 't cover, and the only w a y th a t
others w ill succeed, is th e beg inne r's aspect: th a t
is, I'v e g o t th e m achine, w h a t do I do w ith it n o w .
E verything else he to u ch e d on w a s m ore or less
1 0 0 % corre ct.
C onsequently, O sborne's book is n o w be­
decked w ith m e m o ry m aps, e xplanatio ns o f Basic
k e y w o rd s and so on, in an a tte m p t to cover all the
hard-core m aterial th a t he previo usly d id n 't go in­
to in such great detail.
H o w e ve r, it is as a learning, in s tru c tio n book
th a t it is o f m o st value.
An O verview
W e s ta rt o ff w ith an in tro d u c tio n to CBM c o m ­
puters and th e ir peripherals, all good s tu ff,
designed to give yo u a th o ro u g h grounding in the
basics o f th e m achines. H o w you co n n e ct them
all up, sim ple th in g s like operation o f the cursor
con tro l keys, to u rs o f th e keyboard and so on.
Sim ple th a t is if you k n o w it all already, but as
J im B u tte rfie ld has said, w h a t you th in k everyone
else already k n o w s d o e s n 't a lw a ys tu rn o u t to be
w h a t th e y do k n o w !
Having fo u n d o u t w h e re e ve ryth in g is, and h o w
to use it, ch a p te r t w o goes o n to th e actual opera­
tio n o f the co m p u te r, sta rtin g o ff w ith program
sta te m e n ts in im m edia te m ode, and then onto
sim ple program s, file handling etc.
A sh o rt se ctio n on screen editing leads us into
p ro g ra m m in g th e bea st: va ria b le s, arrays,
boolean ope rators and m uch m ore are all given a
th o ro u g h (if at tim e s brief) going over. This sec­
tio n could really be applied to any c o m p u te r being
program m ed: n o t a c riticism o f the book, but an
in tro d u c tio n to th e ne xt, and perhaps m o st im p o r­
ta n t chapter, M aking the M o s t o f CBM Features.
One o f th e lo ngest chapters in the book this
tells us all a b o u t th e peculiarities and id iosyn­
crasies o f th e C o m m odore fa m ily , and is probably
also one o f th e m o s t useful chapters in the book
as far as th e novice is concerned.
Business Use
Since th is particular version o f th e book is aimed
m ore at businessm en th a n hom e h o b b yists, w e
m u s t th e re fo re believe th a t th e c o n te n t fo llo w s
th is d ictu m . To be fair, it does, and in th is chapter
Commodore Computing
in p a rticular w e have m ore business utilities e x ­
plored th a n a n y th in g else: sorts, th a t kind of
th in g .
All these listings in ciden tally are reproduced
d ire c t fro m a CBM printer, w h ic h does encourage
c o n fid e n ce in th e ir ability to w o rk .
The lo n g e st ch a p te r in the book is d evo ted to
CBM peripherals, sta rtin g o ff w ith the cassette
d e c k : n o t o f m u c h use to th e average
b u s in e s s m a n I w o u ld ha ve th o u g h t, b u t
nonetheless valuable in fo rm a tio n if you w a n t to
s ta rt using CBM k it in a hum ble w a y .
Disk drives, and th e ir uses, get the m o st e x te n ­
sive coverage, w ith m any program s covering file
handling (sequential, random ), sto rin g string and
num eric data.
Printers round o ff th is section, before m oving
o n to a sh o rt look at o th e r peripherals, including
m odem s and vo ice response units.
The c h a p te r called Inside and Beyond Basic
te n d s to refer yo u to other p ub lica tions rather
th a n try and do e ve ryth in g itse lf: no bad thing
really I suppose, if you a ckn o w le d g e yo u r peers in
th is w a y . Still, it is a reasonable and concise in­
tro d u c tio n to h o w basic does w h a t it does.
A fte r th a t, th e book is rounded o ff by a su m ­
m ary o f all th e basic k e y w o rd s and error
m essages y o u 're ever likely to encounter,
fo llo w e d by th e fa irly detailed m e m o ry maps, and
fin a lly a list o f o th e r in fo rm a tio n resources.
Summary
A m o s t useful and accurate guide to the use of
C o m m o d o re e q u ipm ent. A t 51 2 pages it is p re tty
good value fo r its cover price o f £ 1 0 .9 5 and fo r the
businessm an w a n tin g to k n o w more than h o w to
press s h ift and ru n /sto p it is probably the best buy
around at the m o m e n t.
It w ill n o t ta ke you in to the m u rky dep ths of
m achine code p rogram m ing in any great detail,
b u t I w o u ld assum e th a t the authors k n o w w here
th e ir readers' in terests lie.
Area
: Guide to C o m m odore Equipm ent
T itle
: CBM Professional C o m pu ter
Guide
A u th o rs
: A d a m O sborne, Jim Strasm a and
Ellen Strasm a
Publishers
: M cG ra w -H ill Book C o m pa ny (UK)
Ltd.
A d d re ss
: Shoppenhangers Lane,
M aidenhead, Berkshire
Price
: £ 1 0 .9 5
PAMPER YOUR
PET WITH
n o p ro g ra m m in g experience necessary
THINK COMPUTERS
THINK WILEY......
GETTING MORE FROM YOUR
PET/CBM:
Write your data base applications in
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Microsoftware introduce to PET owners
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Screen la y o u t, data e n try v a lid a tio n ,
screen d is p la y o f user-defined e rro r
messages, screen ca lculations, searching
b y any fie ld - all are c h ild 's play to
C o d e w rite r D isk 1. C o d e w rite r D isk 2
provides p rin te d reports and menu
generators.
Advanced Microcomputer Applications
A selection o f th e a p p lica tio n s o f
C o d e w rite r already in use are listed
b e lo w ;
Data e n tr y storage and re trieval o f;
(a) personnel records
(b) p ro d u c t in fo rm a tio n
(c) rental records
(d) cu stom er data
S to ck c o n tro l systems
L e tte r/w o rd in fo rm a tio n
H o te l reservations systems
F ix e d assets and d e p re c ia tio n schedules
Projects records and c o n tro l systems
M ailing and labelling systems
MASTERING THE VIC-20
T u rn k e y tra in in g courses are alw ays
available a t various Centres th ro u g h o u t
the U. K ., o r take a h o lid a y course in
th e c h a rm in g is la n d o f Guernsey.
F o r f u l l details o n courses a n d in f o r m ­
a tio n o n C o d e w rite r, w rite o r 'p h o n e
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Dealer enq uiries w elco m e — we are
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DYNATECH MICROSOFTWARE LTD.
SUMMERFIELD HOUSE, VALE,
GUERNSEY, CHANNEL ISLAND.
Tel. 0481 47377 Telex 4191130
by E.A. Flinn, A.E. H ill and R.D. Tom linson, aliofU n iversity of
Salford
For a n um ber of years the authors have been r u n n in g a series
of highly successful and proven courses at Salford on the
P E T /C B M com puters for a wide spectrum of audiences. T h is
book is a distillation of the experiences gained on these
courses.
It represents a wide and readable coverage that is easily
understandable by anyone having any familiarity w ith the
PE T /C B M .
Nov'82.
0905104 23 4
198pp
£7.50
P u b lis h e d by S ig m a T e c h n ic a l Press
by A.J. Jones, Departm ent o f Mathematics, Royal
H ollow ay College, University o f L on don; E.A. Coley, Senior
M icrocom puter Sales Engineer, D ynaland L im ited, Reading, and
D.G.J. Cole, Microprocessor A pplications Engineer, Pro-Bel
Lim ited, Reading.
A machine-specific introduction to microcom puters based on
the VIC-20, designed to supplem ent the booklet provided w ith
the machine. It offers a wealth of interesting program s w'hich
can be supplied separately on tape or disk, or entered by the
reader.
March'83
approx. 208pp
0 85312 506 6
cloth £12.50
0 85312 585 6
paper £5.95
P u b lis h e d by F.llis H o r w o o d L t d . , Chichester.
THE VIC FOR CHILDREN
by A.D.J. Noble
T h e VIC 20 com puter from Com m odore is aimed at the
younger user, perhaps w orking w ith their parents to explore
w hat c o m p u tin g is all about. Now that microcom puters are
finding their way into schools, parents should also find that
this book — with a VIC 20 — will also provide valuable out
of school education. After all, a class of 30 with one com puter
gives little chance for hands o n usage, but this book can solve
the problem: everything from sw itching on the VIC 20
th ro u g h sim ple BASIC p ro g ram m ing to exciting games and
puzzles.
Dec'82
approx. 140pp
0 905104 02 0
£5.95
P u b lis h e d by S ig m a T e c h n ic a l Press.
W ILEY COMPUTER BOOK
MONTH —FEBRUARY 1 9 8 3
A wide range of Computer Books and
Software on display at leading Bookshops
and selected Computer Stores throughout
the UK
(Checklist of titles available from Wiley)
Marketed by
John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
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Sussex P 0 1 9 1 U D , England
Commodore Computing
BEGINNERS GUIDE
Universal String Thing
J im B u tte rfie ld
This is not a com ple te String T h in g * , ju s t the IN­
PUT # section. Q uite sim ply, the program is an
INPUT # u tility th a t lifts som e o f the restraints im ­
posed by the BASIC INPUT # com m and. It w o rks
on all versions o f BASIC (except 1.0) fo r PETs
and CBMs. If th e re 's enough dem and, a VIC S tr­
ing Thing w ill be released th a t w ill probably w o rk
on the C om m odore 6 4 w h e n it arrives.
Logical file num ber 1 m u st be used in the
DOPEN or OPEN sta te m e n t. Using the routine
w ith any other file num ber w ill result in ?FILE
NOT OPEN ERROR a fte r th e SYS call.
No b u ffe r if required fo r the incom ing data. The
characters are built dire ctly into the space
allocated fo r the string variable. If the string
resides in high R A M , th e y w ill be delivered there.
If the string is declared in the program , the
characters w ill land right in te x t space.
The string used fo r in put m u st be the firs t
variable seen by BASIC. Location 1 8 9 decimal is
used to store the length o f the input string. Input
stops only on Carriage Return and E01 w h ic h oc­
curs at the end o f a file or relative records not te r­
m inated by a CR. Leading spaces, com m as, co l­
ons and q u o ta tio n m arks are all accepted. The
size o f the string can be used to govern the
a m ount o f input. For exam ple, rem oving lines
1 1 0 and 1 2 0 fro m th e program below leaves
a$ = ” a b cd e fg h ijklm n o p q ” , w ith a length o f 17.
cluded string search, string overlay, and string in­
p u t fu n c tio n s . For details on th is program , see
The T ransactor, V o lum e 3, Issue 1. Copies are
available fro m th e T o ro n to PET Users Group.
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
110
120
130
200
210
220
230
250
260
400
410
420
425
430
440
450
460
rem ************************* *****
**
rem **
string thing (universal)
**
re m * *
jim butterfield
**
rem * *
string used for input
*
*
rem **
m ust be first variable
rem ************************* * * * * *
a$= "abcdefghijklm nopq"
a$ = a$ + a$ + a$ + a$ -+■ a$
a$ = a$ + a$ + a$
rem above sets string for m axim um (ie. 255)
data 160,
2 ,1 7 7 , 4 2 ,1 5 3 ,1 8 4 ,
0, 200, 192,
6
d ata 208, 246, 162,
1, 32, 198, 255
data 3 2 ,2 2 8 ,2 5 5 ,2 0 1 , 13,240, 11, 164, 189, 145
data 187, 200, 132, 189, 196, 186, 208, 238, 76, 204,
255
for j = 896 to 933 : read x : p oke j, x : t = t + x : nextj
if t< > 5 7 6 7 th e n stop
d o p e n # l , "som e SEQ file" ,d0
rem : next sys sam e as ‘input# l ,a$’
sys 896
rem : 1= size of input (could b e 0)
l = peek(189)
print left$(a$,l)
if st = 0 goto 420
dclose
Subsequent calls
Filing It
N o w , strings longer than 17 can n ot be retrieved
in w hole. Instead, th e firs t 17 characters are
brought in and the remainder is received in subse­
quent calls. If the string is exa ctly 1 7 long fo llo w ­
ed by a Carriage Return, a subsequent input
w o uld be m et by the CR and PEEK (1 8 9 ) w o uld
equal zero. Be careful tho u g h . In this case A $ w ill
contain the previous input, not null string.
Using this routine as opposed to INPUT # can
be especially helpful w h e n disk space is at a
prem ium . It can handle strings up to 2 5 5
characters long and th e re 's no need fo r Carriage
Returns.
* — The String Thing w a s originally a u tility w r it ­
ten by Bill M acLean o f BMB Com puscience. It in­
Commodore Computing
O nce you have learned h o w to in put fro m the
keyboard and o u tp u t to the screen, it's easy to
take th e n e xt step, and in put or o u tp u t using other
devices.
The printer is handy, o f course. But the super
p o w e r com es fro m devices you can both read and
w rite . T h a t w a y , in fo rm a tio n can be stored no w
and bro u g h t back in later. You can store names,
addresses, phone num bers ... and read them
w h e n you need th e m . This gives you t w o advan­
tages: firs t, th e in fo rm a tio n is n 't lost w h en you
tu rn the p o w e r o ff; and second, you have lots of
storage space even if yo u r co m p u te r m em ory is
small.
INLAB
19” RACK
MODULAR EUROCARD
INTERFACE SYSTEM
★ Flexible - multi-channel, multi-purpose
★ Versatile - interfaces all popular micros
★ Powerful - many plug-in options
^ 12- & 14-bit A/D convertors
^ Transducer amplifiers and multiplexers
12-bit D/A convertor
□ Relays and opto-isolated outputs
□ Opto-isolated BCD inputs
□ Intelligent stepper motor controller
□ Programmable gain amplifier
□ Battery-backed clock/calendar
□ Universal frequency/event counter
and now
□ Function generator
BEGINNERS GUIDE
The Golden Rule
Y o u 'll find it easy to rem em ber the golden rule of
input and o u tp u t; the in form ation going out is
alm ost exactly as you w o u ld see it on the screen.
So if you asked to print o u t a value o f 1 6 7, the
fo llo w in g characters w o uld be sent to the
cassette, printer or disk: Space. 1 ;6 ;7 ;R e tu rn .
T h a t's alm ost exa ctly the same as w o uld go to
the screen; w e w o u ld n 't see the Return on the
screen, but w e 'd see its e ffe c t since a new line
w ould be started.
The opposite side o f the golden rule concerns
input. If the above value w a s w ritte n to a device,
and later w e rew ind and ask to INPUT from th a t
device, the program w ill receive exactly the same
in form ation as if w e typed on the keys: Space,
1 ,6 ,7 , and Return. On the keyboard, RETURN
signals th a t w e are finished; and it means the
same w h en the in form ation com es from some
other device.
T w o special situatio ns should be m entioned.
You m ight have noticed th a t if w e say PRINT 1 67
an extra character is delivered to the screen:
behind the last digit, 7, th e re 's a dursor-right. You
m ay not notice it, since it d o e sn 't print, but it's
there. This extra character w ill not be sent to
other devices. T h a t's good because w e d o n 't
need it; w e save the space and no harm is done.
The o th e r s itu a tio n is an o th e r invisible
character. M any versions of Basic send one more
character afte r RETURN. Basic 4 .0 does not nor­
m ally send it, but m ost other Basics send a special
character called a Linefeed. The Linefeed is a nice
character fo r certain typ e s o f printers: it may be
needed to m ove the paper up ready fo r printing
the n e xt line. But it's w a sted in data storage, and
m ight even give us a little trouble. More on this
later.
Writing a File
It's easy to w rite a file. All w e need to do is: Open
it, w h ich tells the com puter to get everything
ready to go; Print the s tu ff; and then Close it,
w h ich tells the co m p u te r to w ra p everything up.
Let's do it. If you have cassette tape, type:
OPEN 6 , 1 , 1 , "D A T A F IL E "
or if you have disk, type:
OPEN 6 ,8 ,2 ," 0 :D A T A F IL E ,S ,W "
... and in either case, your file num ber 6 is ready
to go.
N o w w e can w rite a fe w things. Let's try some
numbers:
PRINT # 6 ,3
PRINT # 6 , 1 2 3
PRINT# 6 , 3 * 4 5 * 6
Commodore Computing
A nd a fe w names:
PRINT# 6 , "H E L L O "
P R IN T# 6 , " M Y NAM E IS FRED"
Finally, w e w ra p up the file w ith :
CLOSE 6
A fe w notes. Did you notice th a t a fte r w e open­
ed the file, the coding w a s the same no m atter
w h e th e r w e w ere going to tape or disk? The
OPEN s ta te m e n t sets everything up fo r us. This
can make th in g s very easy.
Note th a t w e use one print sta te m e n t fo r one
item . D o n 't try p u n c tu a tio n ' PR IN T# 6 ,3 ,1 2 3
w o u ld n o t w o rk right — w e w ill need th a t extra
RETURN w h e n w e read back the data. It's also in­
tere sting to see th a t expressions are w orked out
before being printed, so th a t 3 * 4 5 * 6 w ill placed
on the file as value 8 1 0 .
N o w fo r th a t sneaky Linefeed. You d o n 't really
need to w o rry about this if you have 4 .0 Basic or
if you are using cassette tape, but it's good prac­
tice. Those PRINT # state m en ts w ro te the in fo r­
m ation w e asked; then a Return, w h ich w e
w a n te d ; then a Linefeed, w h ich w e d id n 't w a n t.
W e can get rid o f the unw anted Linefeed by
w ritin g the Return ourselves — it codes at
CHR$(1 3). So w e m ig h t more corre ctly w rite :
PRINT' # 6 ,"H E L L O ";C H R $ (1 3);
... and d o n 't fo rg e t both sem icolons.
Reading it Back
This is ju s t as easy, excep t th a t w e need to w rite
these sta te m e n ts as a program . INPUT and IN­
PUT # w o n 't w o rk as direct sta te m e n ts typed on
the screen. So w e code:
1 0 0 OPEN 4 , 0 , 0 , "D A T A F IL E "
or, fo r disk:
1 0 0 OPEN 4 , 8 , 3 , "D A T A F IL E "
And contin ue w ith :
1 1 0 IN P U T # 4 ,A $
1 2 0 PRINT A$
1 3 0 IF ST = 0 GOTO 1 1 0
1 4 0 CLOSE 4
W h a t's ST doing? T h a t's the S tatus w o rd. If it's
zero, w e are reading our file norm ally. If it's non­
zero there is som ething going on — usually w e are
at the end o f th e file (ST w ill equal 6 4 in this
case).
Y our data should com e back very nicely ju st as
you w ro te it.
Conclusion
It's n ot hard to w rite and read files. W e 'll pick up a
fe w fine points n e xt tim e around.
Does your PET need a n e w chip?
You need a SO FTCHIP !
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___________________
Basic commands like : —
—AUTO
BEEP
BLOAD
BSAVE
CALL
CIF.CEND
ELIF.ELSE
CURSOR
DATIN
DELETE
DISABLE
DISP
DREAD
DSEARCH
DUMP
EDIT
EXEC
FIND
QENIN
QSUB
QTO
INPUT
INVERT
IRQ
KILL
LINES
LWIND
MERGE
★ ★
40
60
40
120
80
220
Provides autom atic line num bering.
Plays music of g iven duration and pitch.
Loads in a block ot m em ory w ithout affecting B A S IC execution.
Saves the m em ory area between two given addresses.
En ter a m achine-code subroutine w ith given A c c,X - & Y -reg.
Four com m ands which provide facilities for structured B A SIC ,
largely elim inating the need for the G O T O com m and.
30 Places the cursor at position x ,y on the screen.
690 Foolproof input routine for dates w ith full error detection.
70 Deletes a given range of program lines.
50 Disables the ru n /sto p key w ithout affecting the internal clock.
140 Displays a prom pting or w arning message on a given line.
100 Reads data from disk w ithout Input restrictions.
330 Searches a disk r e la tiv e -flle fo r a given string or pattern.
170 O utputs the nam es and values of all current scalar variables.
70 Adds ‘d elete-forw ards’ function.
140 Executes a string as a B A S IC com m and.
200 Lists all lines in which a given character string appears.
700 G eneral foolproof input routine w ith selected key disablem ent.
110 Perform s a G O S U B to a given labelled line.
90 Perform s a G O T O as above.
40 A llows a program to continue despite a null entry being input.
160 Turns a string back to front.
60 Restores normal system use of interrupts.
20 Takes out S O F T C H IP co m m an d s.
50 Calculates the num ber of lines in a program .
170 Loads a screen display from a compressed form at file.
360 M erges a program from tape or disk into th e current program .
MON
MOVE
NUMIN
PCTRL
PLOT
POP
PRINT
PRINT
PUSH
RENU
REPEAT
REPLACE
RESCUE
RESET
RESTORE
REVERSE
SCAN
SCOPY
SCROLL
SEARCH
SHRINK
SORT
SWAP
SWIND
TRACE
VAR
WINDOW
WPOKE
10
130
740
100
170
30
130
280
60
930
50
490
40
170
20
50
190
340
230
270
160
760
440
150
110
390
30
50
E n ters the C B M m achine-code m onitor.
M oves a block of m em ory to another position in R A M .
Foolproof input routine for am ounts of m oney.
Set the device num ber and characteristics of th e printer.
Plots a double-density point on the screen.
Removes the last subroutine return address from the stack
A dds routine to autom atically rlg ht-justify am ounts of money.
M o d ifies all printer-output as needed and adds T A B function.
Pushes a return address onto the stack.
Renum bers a p rogram , altering all G O T O ’s, T H E N ’s, etc.
A dds repeat key function.
Replace all occurrences of one character string w ith another.
Recovers a p rogram accidentally ‘ N E W ’ed.
Resets a double-density point on the screen.
Restores D A T A back to a given line num ber.
Reverses the field of the screen.
Scans a string for the next occurrence of a given character.
Copies the screen to the printer.
Scrolls screen contents up.dow n, left o r rig ht.
Searches an array for a given string or pattern.
Removes all unnecessary spaces and ‘ R E M 's from a program .
Sorts any one-dim ensional array (and tags another array along)
Loads in another program , retaining all variables.
Saves the contents of the screen in a compressed form at.
Displays the last six line num bers at the top-right screen.
O utputs the nam es of all variables referred to in a program .
Sets top, bottom , left, right for an 8032 screen window.
Pokes tw o m em ory locations in hi-lo 6502 order.
H E R E 'S H O W
TO O R D E R
N E W C O M M A N D S N O W A V A IL A B L E
BORDER
CLOCK
GRAPH
ON
PROTECT
STATS
100 Draws a border around the edge of the screen
250 Continually displays the time at a given screen position.
120 Gives access to the box-drawing characters on an 8032
50 Branches to program line corresponding to key pressed.
90 Allows regain of control after system crash.
120 Outputs the number of statements in the current program.
(1) Choose around 3700
bytes worth : the number of
bytes is beside the name.
(2) W rite your selections in
order of preference - this
is important as our numb­
ers of bytes are only appr­
U N C T IO N S which may be used in any expression
★ ★ N E W FFU
oximate.
140 Calculates the average of the elements in a numeric array.
AVG
(3) State which of these
40 Tests a string : returns true if the string is blank.
BLANK
computers you have
80 Gives the decimal equivalent of a hexadecimal number.
DEC
New Roms, Basic 4, Fat 40,
60 Provides the factorial function.
or 80-column : and also
FACT
GAMMA
90 Provides the gamma function.
which socket you would like
90 Gives the hexadecimal equivalent of a decimal number.
HEX$
the chip to reside in ( we
120 Returns the maximal element of an array.
M AX
w ill choose if you wish us
120 Returns the minimal element of an array.
to).
MIN
160 Provides the normal distribution area function.
(4) Send order direct to us
NORM
90 Pads a string with spaces.
at the address below,giving
PADS
70 Assists high-resolution plotting on QUME Sprint 5 printer.
a day-time telephone num
QUME$
260 Gives the compressed form of a number for compact storage ber, together with remitt
SHRS
ance for £45.00 incl. VAT &
30 Gives a string of spaces of given length.
SPCS
p /p for each new chip.
SUM
130 Returns the sum of elements of an array.
We take orders over the
W PEEK
40 Peeks a two-byte address.
phone from government
XPD
220 Decompresses a number.
y
organisations.
O N LY £45 ALL IN C L U S IV E FOR Y O U R C H O IC E O F 3700 B Y TES
Full and free details of current library of S O F T C H IP commands available.
WHITBY COMPUTERS LTD.
8 Chubb Hill Road, Whitby, North Yorkshire.
Tel: (0947) 604966 or 604968
Commodore Computing
PROGRAMMING TIPS
The Role of the Micro-computer
as an Intelligent Controller
negative input i.e. the non-inverting and inverting
inputs. Fig. 3 sh o w s an operational am plifier con­
figured as an oscillator. As in the case of tra n ­
s is t o r o s c illa t o r s th e fe e d b a c k n e t w o r k
characteristics w ill determ ine the frequency of
oscillation. The m axim um frequency obtainable
w ith an operation am plifier w ill depend on its slew
rate (normally quoted in Volts/m icrosecond).
Pulse outputs
This article w ill sh o w ho w a Comm odore PET
m icrocom puter can drive a very sophisticated
w a vefo rm generator, w ith w ide applications in
such fields as the m echanical testing of various
com ponents fo r the autom obile industry, and the
medical investigation o f the effe cts of drugs on
muscle tissue.
Non-linear integrated circuits such as digital
gates, w h e th e r TTL or MOS, m ay be configured
as oscillators to produce pulse o u tp u ts (see Fig.
4). The frequency can either be determ ined using
an R-C n e tw o rk or by a crystal. Crystal oscillators
(see Fig. 5) are more stable than R-C oscillators
since both resistors and capacitors vary w ith
tem perature quite significantly whereas crystals
ty p ic a lly vary by a fe w parts per million per°C .
Oscillators and Function Generators
The classical approach fo r generating various
w a ve fo rm s is based on a controlled am ount of
positive feedback signal. Norm ally tuned circuits
are used to select specific frequencies. Figs. 1 &
2 show simple oscillators w ith tuned circuits and
R-C feedback ne tw o rks. M ost active devices can
be made to oscillate by the correct choice of feed­
back com ponents.
Operational am plifiers lend them selves as the
ideal devices to obtain oscillation at low frequen­
cy since they have both a positive input and a
F ig 1 : TUNED DRAIN TRANSISTOR OSCILLATOR.
Commodore Computing
F ig 2 : R-C
PHASE
SHIFT
OSCILLATOR
TRANSISTOR.
USING
FET
C rystal-controlled oscillators are used in m ost
c om puter system s, including the Commodore
range of m achines, to provide the m icroprocessor
m aster clock. M o st processor clocks are in the
range 1 MHz to 8M H z. The usual practice is to use
a high freq uency crystal oscillator follow ed by
dividers to provide clock signals fo r use in d if­
fe re n t parts o f the system , som etim es w ith une­
qual m ark-space ratios.
Digital-to-analogue convertors m ay also be us­
ed to generate o u tp u t w a vefo rm s. Here the data
is provided in digital form from a m icroprocessor,
and consequently both the o u tp u t w a ve fo rm and
the o u tp u t freq uency is determ ined by the soft-
ware. To provide s u ffic ie n t fle xib ility and speed
means th a t a sophisticated m achine code pro­
gram m ust be designed, and furtherm ore the
m icroprocessor ends up as dedicated to the task
of w a ve fo rm generation.
S p e c ia lly m ic r o p r o g r a m m e d s in g le - c h ip
m icrocom puters are available for such tasks, and
voice-synthesis chips and intelligent stepperm o to r controllers fall into this general category.
An approach similar to the D-to-A convertor
technique has been em ployed by 3D Digital
Design & Developm ent Ltd. Their technique is
based on stored w a ve fo rm s in a read-onlym em ory (ROM). Since the price of m em ory chips
is com ing d o w n all the tim e, and their capacity is
rapidly increasing, this is a cheap ye t pow erful
route to fo llo w . A 2 7 1 6 EPROM can be used to
store eight w a ve fo rm s w ith eight bit resolution in
both am plitude and tim e (equivalent to draw ing
the w a v e fo rm on a high resolution grid o f 2 5 6 x
2 5 6 pixels). If higher resolution is needed a co m ­
bination of tw o or more 2 7 1 6 s m ay be used to
provide up to 1 6 -b it resolution.
The data o u tp u t from the ROM(s) is applied to a
digital-to-analog convertor, and the ROM address
lines are driven fro m the o u tp u ts o f a digital
counter chain. The freq uency o f the counter clock
determ ines the rate at w h ic h the stored
w a v e fo rm is sent out.
By appropriate c ircu itry the counter may stop
afte r one com plete cycle, or it m ay be made to
keep counting repetitively over and over, so the
o u tp u t w a ve fo rm m ay be one-shot or continuous.
A d dition ally, it is possible to arrange fo r the
coun ter clock frequency to be chosen as an in­
tegral sub-m ultiple o f a very high crystalcontrolled frequency, thereby giving fle xib ility in
o u tp u t frequency as w ell as accuracy. W ith this
clever piece o f circu itry interfaced to the PET the
above m entioned options can be brought under
so ftw a re control. Further, the o u tp u t level m ay be
a d d itio n a lly varied using tra n s c o n d u c ta n c e
am plifiers or electronic attenuators.
The approach em ployed by the 3D w a vefo rm
generator o ffe rs the fo llo w in g facilities under pro­
gram control:1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Frequency m odulation m ay be achieved by
sw eeping the fine frequency control
6. A m p litu d e m odulation m ay be achieved by
sw eeping the am plitude control under softw are
In addition, the fo llo w in g signals are available at
the fro n t panel:
1 . High freq uency square w a ve
2. Low fre q u e n cy square w ave
3. A m p litu d e control signal
4. External control fo r synchronisation w ith an ex­
ternal signal source or to trigger one-shot opera­
tion.
5. X-axis sw eep-signal: a synchronised ramp o u t­
put w h ic h can act as a tim ebase fo r oscilloscope
displays or ch a rt recorders.
Selection o f w a v e fo rm s w h ich are stored in
EPROM
Coarse frequency selection i.e. high range or low
range
Fine frequency control w ith 1 2-b it resolution i.e.
there are 4 0 9 6 frequencies w h ich the operator
m ay select under program control
A m plitude control w ith 8-b it resolution, allow ing
2 5 6 am plitude levels to be selected from the
m icro-com puter.
It is apparent fro m the discussion above that
the com bin ation o f the stored w a ve fo rm principle
to g e th e r w ith the C om m odore PET provides a
rem arkably flexible and convenient w a y of
generating a variety o f w a ve fo rm s. These
w a v e fo rm s m ay be generated m athem atically or
derived fro m graphical tem plates. The com puter
is the ideal to o l fo r generating, or reading the
w a v e fo rm s fro m a digitising tablet. A simple
EPROM program m er can then be used to store
these w a v e fo rm s in an EPROM. Using this ap­
proach a library o f various w a ve fo rm s may be
built up and then used at some stage to provide
the te s t signals fo r w h a te ve r application is
required.
More easily controlled
One possible im provem ent on the design
presently being considered is the possibility of us­
ing o ff-boa rd RAM instead o f EPROM, together
w ith means o f d o w n loading the w a ve fo rm data
fro m the PET, via the IEEE-488 bus, thus making
the generator even more easily controlled.
Fig 6. sh o w s a sample o f w a ve fo rm s generated
using the com bin ation o f C om m odore PET
m ic r o c o m p u t e r and 3 D s to r e d - w a v e f o r m
generator.
Fig. 3 : a m p l if ie r
CONFIGURED
AS
OSCILLATOR.
WIEN-BRIDGE
Commodore Computing
31
PROGRAMMING TIPS
Application Areas
W aveform or pulse generators are used in the
testing and calibration of m ost electronic circuits,
be they digital or analogue. Typical of such pieces
o f h a r d w a r e are a u d io -a m p lifie rs , ser voam plifiers, and medical recorders fo r electro­
cardiography and electro-encephalography: these
all require in p u t te s t signals o f particular
characteristics. M odern fa tig u e -te stin g machines,
w h ich determ ine the life tim e-to-failure on critical
aerospace or a u to m o b ile m echanical co m ­
pon ents, m ay have a range o f standard
*
* { > < £ — >o
Digital representation
7i* L S I4
Fig. 4 : TTL
SCHMITT
TRIGGER
CONFIGURED
OSCILLATOR.
m easure the a m p lifie r's main characteristics, e.g.
1.
Frequency Response
2.
Pow er E fficiency
3.
H arm onic D istortion
4.
P rotection circu itry & overload sh u td o w n
A m icro co m p u te r te s t bed m ay be based on the
w a v e fo rm generator to provide the te s t signal and
an analog-to-digital conve rtor w ith m ulti-channel
m ultiplexer to provide signals back to the com ­
puter about the response o f the various com ­
ponents of the system . The analog-to-digital con­
ve rto r could have a 1 2 -b it resolution and a short
conversion tim e. The te s t set-up w ould be as in
Fig. 7. Since the w a v e fo rm generator and the
analog-to-digital co n ve rto r are part of the same in­
te rfa ce system (INLAB) w h ich is IEEE-488 com ­
patible, program m ing in C om m odore BASIC is
stra ig h tfo rw a rd , m aking m uch use of PRINT # and
GET#.
AS
AN
w a ve fo rm s w h ich can be applied to the te s t
specimen. W ave tanks or m oving vib ra to ry te st
tables sim ilarly im pose a pre-selected pattern of
acceleration, force, or stress.
Before im plantation medical pacemakers m ust
undergo a particularly rigorous and precise testing
procedure involving the superim position of sine,
square, and sine pulses on their o u tp u t electrode to
sim ulate real physiological impulses.
The am plitude and pulse repetition rate of the
impressed w a v e fo rm to g e th e r w ith its synchonisation (or phase delay) from the inherent in­
ternal signals o f the device under te s t can be
crucial to the significance o f the te s t procedure as
a w hole.
We w ill discuss t w o specific areas w here a
'closed loop' control system may be em ployed
using the 3D w a v e fo rm generator and a num ber
of analogue-to digital conve rtor channels to pro­
vide feedback about the s y ste m 's response to the
applied w a ve fo rm .
The program w ill select the appropriate w a ve­
form and set the frequency and o u tp u t level
o f the w a v e fo rm generator; the m ultiplexer w ill
then be addressed to select the channel of in­
te re st and the A /D conve rtor w ill supply the PET
w ith a digital representation of the selected
analog signal, such as current, voltage, pow er,
etc. The program m ay then plot the resultant
response curve on the PET screen (perhaps fitte d
w ith a HIRES board), and if a perm anent record is
required the in fo rm a tio n may be sent to a digital
plo tte r and/or d o t m atrix printer. The te s t data
m ay be stored on diskettes fo r sta tistica l analysis
or qua lity control checks. Since the PET can per­
form these operations at a fa irly high speed it may
prove desirable to have a single PET controlling
several such te s t rigs, especially if the device
under te s t is slo w in responding. On the other
hand, som e applications dem and th a t the speed
o f the w h ole process is increased. In such cir­
cum sta nces, the lim ita tio n to speed is usual in the
A. Computer Control of Audio Amplifier Test Bed
M ost audio-am plifier m anufacturers carry out a
w ell-defined set o f routine te sts in order to
32
Commodore Computing
Fig. 5 : 8032/4032 MASTER CRYSTAL OSCILLATOR.
If it cam e to th e worst
you'll b e glad you w ent
to th e b est.
If your computer develops a fault chances
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afford the interrupdon and downtime. So you’ll
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Through Mills you have access to a range of
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com puter engineering.
Full maintenance contract
This is designed for users for whom a
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If break-neck speed is not essential then Mills’
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For occasional repairs and upgrades Mills offer a
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Remember, Mills Associates are the only
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I’d like to know more about
the following services:
(tick as required)
□
□
□
Full maintenance contract
Fault repair contract
General repairs and upgrades
N a m e (Mr/Mrs/M/ss)
A d d r e s s______
Telephone
M A /C C O /1 1 8 3
To: The C om m o do re Information Centre
675 Ajax Avenue, Slough, Berks SL1 4BG.
Cr,
Changing business for the better.
Comm odore Computing
PROGRAMMING TIPS
IfctE-U.'iS
Power supply
execution tim e o f the interpretive BASIC, and it
Interface bus
thus becomes necessary to m ove to machine
code to obtain the tru e speed advantage of the
□ Microcom puter
A .d.c
Wj^(t <\v*
Watt
m icroprocessor. If you are not fam iliar w ith
e.g. CBM
generator
meter
machine code program m ing it is probably ad­
Print#'
visable to use a com piler in order to increase ex­
-U L
ecution speed.
L
©
Amplitude
In the above illustration the PET m ay finally be Frequency
Digital
Load <
plotter
program m ed to grade the am plifier and produce a
Oscilloscope
label via the printer indicating passed, rejected or
necessary re w o rk details. O bviously this type of
test system is not lim ited to audio am plifiers, but T h e c o m p le t e c i r c u it
can easily be extended to telecom m s equipm ent,
as keeping w ith in the tim e constraints during run­
w h ite goods, or electrical/electronic equipm ent of
ning m eant th a t it w a s necessary to use a fast
all sorts.
processor (i.e. 4 M H z Z 8 0 A or 2 MHz 6 8 B 0 9 ).
N o w , w ith the 3D w a v e fo rm generator and the
B. Bio-Medical Application
ubiquitous PET w e have the prospect o f storing
several o f the pre-designed stim ulus pulse trains
One interesting area o f physiological research
in EPROM, and applying them to the m uscle sam ­
concerns the in vestigation o f the response of
ple as w e choose, at any desired repetition rate
muscle tissue to applied electrical stim uli, and
(or one-shot) and am plitude, w h ils t having the
more particularly the w a y in w h ich the pattern of
w h o le o f the PET processor free to run a machinesuch response is altered w h en th a t tissue is s u f­ code (or com piled BASIC) fast-data acquisition
m onitoring program . W ith A /D convertors m ap­
fused w ith lo w conce ntration s of d ifferent
chemical com pounds or drugs. In this w a y it is ped onto the PET's m em ory-bus, sam pling rates
possible not only to stu d y the effectiveness o f a o f tens o f kilohertz are possible, w h ils t o u tputting
particular fam ily o f com pounds but also to study
stim ulus w a v e fo rm s at frequencies up to several
the underlying physiological and biochemical
tens o f kilohertz.
m echanism s involved.
It is hoped th a t this article gives an impression
An earlier approach involved the generation of a o f the p o w e r and scope o f relatively simple and
pulse train o f a particular repetition rate and dura­ cheap m icrocom puters like the CBM PET when
tion by running a m achine code program on a coupled w ith in telligently designed interface
m ic r o p r o c e s s o r s y s te m , a n d 'q u a s iequipm ent.
sim ultaneously' m onitoring signals com ing back
from the tissue by sam pling a fa s t A /D w ith the
5
p
=5
Users welcome the 500
M ic r o - c o m p u t e r w it h o s c illa t o r
same m icroprocessor and same m achine code
program.
The m achine code developm ent fo r such a
com bined task is tim e-consum ing, and the result
is inflexible. To enable the processor to keep up
w ith all the necessary inputs and o u tputs as well
Commodore Computing
" I hear th a t the firs t C om m odore 5 0 0 has arrived
in the U K ,” says Stephen Rabagliati in the latest
n e w sle tte r from the Independent Com m odore
Products User Group.
" M y spies tell me th a t "ti' is no longer a reserv­
ed w o rd and th a t 't i $ ' n o w returns the lapsed
tim e in te n th s o f seconds.
"A n o th e r feature o f both the 5 0 0 and the sole
7 0 0 in the UK is th a t th e y both have only 2 4
display lines on th e ir screens as opposed to the
fam iliar 2 5 . It m akes you w o n d e r w h a t else CMB
(USA) have seen f it to alter on the new range.
" T h e 7 2 0 B X (the super tw in processor ver­
sion) w ill n o t be w o rk in g until next M arch at the
earliest, w h ile the M A X (Vic 1 0) has not had its
design finalised.
" O n the other hand, the UK version o f the CBM
6 4 is available. I expect to receive the machine
soon. If anybody w a n ts a 6 4 I m ight be able to ar­
range more if given early w a rn in g ."
INTRODUCING S E Q U O S . . .
* SEQUOS is a new disk management system w ritte n entirely in 6 5 0 2 machine code.
* SEQUOS w as designed to sim plify programme w riting. For example, opening and closing o f files is eliminated (its all
done automatically)!
* The principle feature o f SEQUOS is its ability for high-speed file scanning.
* SEQUOS adds 1 0 new easy-to-use DISK comm ands to BASIC for w riting, updating, reading and scanning files.
* SEQUOS can read and w rite strings up to 2 5 5 characters long and provides autom atic wrap-round from one disk to
another.
* SEQUOS scans com plete disks w ith : —
AND, OR, NOT capability
Will search fo r numbers > , < , < > , > = , < = , , = etc
Up to 2 0 specified criteria per search
A ny portion o f a w ord, sentence or number can be identified!
* SEQUOS has m any other fantastic features!
* Uses include: —
Library citation indexes
Medical record keeping etc
PRICE:
Manual by itself £ 2 .5 0 + V A T
Disk based SEQUOS (BASIC 4) £21 5 .0 0 + V A T
(shipped com plete w ith 2 5 page manual
and dem onstration programmes) please specify
CMB/Disk/Printer
* SCIENTIFIC SEQUOS w ill store and retrieve DITIAL ata (all bytes 0 thru 2 5 5 accepted).
AND INTRODUCING PETWEEN . .
PETWEEN is ROM based PET link-up system. PETWEEN w as designed for data transfer between one PET and another.
W hole programmes or a string o f variables can be sent in either direction. Ideal for scientific use where one PET is busy
collecting data for the other one to process and deal w ith printer and disk drives.
PRICE: Manual by itself £ 1 .0 0 + V A T . PETWEEN ROMset (BASIC 4), cable and manual £ 9 5 .0 0 + V AT.
D IGITAL M E A S U R E M E N T A N D ANALYSIS LIM ITE D ,
9 0 6 W o o d b o ro u g h Road, M a p p e rle y, N o ttin g h a m . N G 3 5Q R.
T e lepho ne: ( 0 6 0 2 ) 6 2 2 6 8 6
THE HYDRA SYSTEM
NETWORKING WITH CBM COMPUTERS
This British designed and ruggedly built system allows the user to set up a Local Area Network (LAN) with up to 127 CBM computers
connected by means of a simple 4-wired cable link. Each computer has a small ( 1 4 x 1 Ocm) printed-circuit board plugged into its memory
expansion port and all LAN transactions are executed via these boards, which are inter-connected by the link cable. The LAN may be
connected by daisy-chaining or in a radial configuration and it is immaterial whether a particular node is active, switched on or even
connected as far as the rest of the system is concerned. The use of a single board type for 3032, 4032 and 8032 computers simplifies
installation and this is typical of the fail-safe and virtually fool-proof design philosophy.
THE HYDRA SYSTEM COMES COMPLETE WITH SOFTWARE, MULTI-USER DISK AND A 32 PAGE MANUAL
1-5 units...........................................................................................................................£175 each
6 or more..........................................................................................................................£169 each
(including first class registered post, but excluding VAT)
O N E H Y D R A B O A R D IS N E ED ED FO R E A C H C O M P U T E R C O N N E C T E D T O T H E N E T W O R K .
PLEASE S E N D A S T A M P E D A N D SELF-A D D R E SS ED ENVELOPE FOR A P H O T O -R E D U C E D H Y D R A M A N U A L .
IJ J IM P O R T S LTD
1 Cardigan Road, Marlborough, Wilts., England.
Telephone: 0672 52818
Telex 23152 (MONREF G) IJJ
Commodore Computing
INTERFACING
A Simple Light Pen
A lth ough w ritte n fo r the Com m odore PET, the
m ethod used here w ill w o rk fo r any com puter
w h ich has a m em ory-m apped screen and a
parallel port.
General Principle
Our m ethod is sim p licity itself, w o rks in BASIC;
requires only one external 1C and needs no addi­
tional pow er supply. It can be easily adjusted to
suit am bient light conditions. The plug into the
com puter costs more than the pen! As you m ight
expect w ith a simple arrangem ent, there are
lim itations. M o st com m ercial pens w ill pick up the
position o f the light pen anyw here on the screen
by tim ing h o w long it takes the scanning dot of
the CRT to reach it. 'D ra w in g ' on the screen is
possible. The pen described here w ill not do this
but it w ill w o rk in th a t m ost com m on situation
w here the user is asked to select from a num ber
o f choices printed on the screen. Other uses will
no doubt occur to readers.
The pen w o rk s as fo llo w s . Reversed squares, or
graphic blobs o f light, are allocated on the screen
w h ich correspond to the replies from a menu of
possibilities. The pen is 'peeked' to ascertain if it
Commodore Computing
is 'seeing' a light. If it is, the firs t square on the
menu is blanked and reprinted rapidly four tim es.
The input fro m the pen is m onitored . If the pen
stays on co n sta n tly, it cannot be over this square
and the next one is flashed. If, how ever, the pen
also turns on and o ff fo u r tim es as a particular
m enu square flashes, then it is over this square
and this is the selected choice.
Circuit
The circu it is sh o w n in diag. 1. It is intended th a t
the pen be operated via a PIA or V IA port such as
th a t on the 6 5 2 2 . One data line (PAO) is con­
figured as an in put and reads the o u tp u t from the
pen circuit. T w o other lines (PA1 and PA2) are us­
ed as o u tp u ts to run the pen chip. + 5V is m ain­
tained on PA2 to supply the chip itself. The cur­
rent used is m inute and the port is quite capable
o f supplying it direct. PA1 is used to reset the
latch circuit. It w o rk s in the fo llo w in g w a y. The
chip is turn ed on by poking the port w ith a 4. PA2
becom es + 5V . N ext, the chip latch is set by pok­
ing the port address w ith 6. PA1 also becomes
+ 5V.
N o w , if the pen detects light, the latch w ill flip
and PAO w ill become a ' 1 The latch w ill stay in
this position until the port is poked w ith '4 ', when
PA1 w ill become '0 ' and reset the latch. The lat­
ching m echanism is required to prevent the in­
definite m ovem ents o f the pen from retriggering
the circuit. S e nsitivity can be adjusted by means
of the preset control.
Mechanical
The pen proper is an old opaque ball-point. It m ust
have an internal diam eter w h ich w ill allow the
light detector transistor to slide right to its end.
The photo-transistor looks like a transparent LED
and is the same size as the larger variety — 0 . 2 " .
The lead can be held w ith a small grom m et or
Araldite. I m ount m y 1 C and pot. on a small piece
of Vero, in the line itself.
Program
The flo w chart of the program is show n in diag. 2.
This should be easy to fo llo w when read in con­
ju n ctio n w ith the above description. Note th a t a
delay has to be introduced, even in the BASIC
program , to allow the screen persistence to fade.
There is, therefore, no point in trying to conve rt it
to m achine code as the tim e taken for the screen
to fade o u t w ill be the same and the program w ill
run no faster. A n y w a y , the tim e taken to scan 6
possible answers is quite short and acceptable.
'b lo b s '. Each succeeding option blob in the
menu is directly below the one above and 2
lines d o w n , hence the + 8 0 in line 401 4 0 (this
can be changed as required.).
Other points
The pen w ill w o rk w ell on any m onitor or external
T V attached to the com puter operating it.
The circu it sh o w n is easily adapted to other in­
puts and, w ith appropriate detectors, can be
made to s w itc h on a sound input, tem perature
change etc. Inputs are show n w h ich s w itc h either
on a '0 ' or '1 '.
The author is prepared to copy a dem onstration
program , w h ich includes full setting-up method,
flo w charts and in structions fo r those less
understanding o f com puters, onto your disk
( 3 0 4 0 ) or cassette (PET form at) or alternatively a
full printer listing, any fo r 5 0 p ( funds to ACC).
Please enclose return postage.
David Annal, 1 4 2 W inderm ere Road, London
S W 1 6 5HE.
-Z-.
Variables used are:
UP — User port address.
OP — Option num ber being tested (max 6 on our
menu)
PN — Position on screen o f firs t option blob — see
below .
DL — Delay loop.
DT — Num ber of tim es the pen has follow ed
correctly.
L I — 1 if light is detected by pen, 0 otherw ise.
For those not fam iliar w ith the PET, the fo llo w ­
ing notes should aid adaptation to your machine.
1. M em ory location 5 9 4 7 1 is the PET User Port
8-b it data bus.
2. Location 5 9 4 5 9 is the data direction register.
Poked w ith 2 5 4 , it sets all bits to outputs ex­
cept the firs t, PAO, w h ich w e are using as the
input from the pen.
3. Locations 3 2 7 6 8 - 3 3 7 6 7 are the screen
m em ory map ( 4 0 x 2 4 — 1 0 0 0 squares on PET
4 0 colum n). 3 3 1 2 3 is the firs t o f our menu
Commodore Computing
SOUND AND VISIONi
Musical Vies
W h ilst brow sing around through a num ber of pro­
grams w e came across this simple dem onstra­
tion of the musical abilities of the Vic, and th o u g h t
you m ight be interested. It w ill w o rk on any Vic, just
type it in and run it, and fo llo w the instructions as
they appear on the screen.
100 REM PET BENELUX
110 REM EXCHANGE
120 REM NETHERLANDS
130 P0KE3 6 8 7 9 ,2 6
14tf PuKEci6 o 6 9 .'
150 PR I NT "m nzm . SOUND
EFFECTS
160 PR I NT "
"""..... ——
——
■■ ■
170 PRINT"! 0 MYSTERY NOISE!
1S0 PRINT")® 1 COMPUTER MANIA
190 PRINT":?*. 2 EXPLOSION
200 PRINT"Ml 3 BOMBARDEMENT
210 PR I NT ".sit 4 ALARM
220 PRINT"MS 5 LASER FIRE
230 PR I NT "Mil 6 SIREN
240 PRINT11iH 7 SILLY TUNE
250 PRINT" *10 3 TELEPHONE
ii6 ti PR INI
9 KANDuM NUibEo
270 PR IN T"!
Tin, .......in
a
WHICH ONE
?
JSIifi S 3" :Q=1
280 GETA$ ■ I F A f O " " THEN330
k!9 y F u R I= lT u5 yy : NEXT
300 Q=Q+1 : IFQ=8 THENQ=2
y 1u P u KEy 6 y 7 9 .*Q+^4
320 GOT0280
330 A=1+VAL<A$>
340 IFA*=" "THEN550
350 ONAGOSUB3 8 0 .. 4 0 0 .. 4 1 0 .. 4 2 0 .. 4 4 0 .. 4 6 0 .■ 4 8 0 .. 500 .■ 510 .•530
x6 y FURU=WTU4 ’ F'UKEo6b7 4 +U.. U ■ NEX I
370 GOT0280
yyy PuKt>:6y 7y . 15 : FUKL=ci5 b I’Ui.'tJUSTEP-'ei : r'UkEy6 y 7 6 .■ L : FuRM= l TUlyy : NEK I : NEXT
390 FORL=2 0 5 TO2 5 0 STEP2 =P0 KE3 6 8 7 6 , L : F0 RM= 1TO10 0 •NEXT:NEXT =RETURN
4O0 P0KE3 6 8 7 8 , 1 5 =F0 RL= 1TO1 0 0 : P0 KE3 6 8 7 6 , INT<RND<1 >*1 2 8 >+ 128 =F0RM=1T0 1 0 :NEXT■NEXT
=RETURN
410 P0KE3 6 S7 7 , 2 2 0 •F0 RL=15 TO0 ST E P-1 ; P0KE3 6 8 7 8 , L =F0 RM=1TOSOO : NEXT NEXT:RETURN
420 P0KE3 6 8 7 8 , 1 0 : FORL=2 3 0 T0 1 2 8 ST EP-1 : P0KE3 6 8 7 6 , L : FORM=1TO2 0 : NEXT: NEXT:P0 KE36876
.■ O
430 P0KE3 6S7 8 , 200 : FGRL= 15T0 0S T E P -. 5 : P0KE3 6 8 7 8 , L •' NEXT : RETURN
44 t! F'0 KEo6 y.7y .■ 15 • h UKL= 1 i U1W■ i- URM—1yyTUk'oSy rhPii!: PUKEyyy76 .• M: b URN—1Tu 1y : NEXT ; NEXT
450 P0KE3 6 8 7 6 , 0 : F0 RM=1TO1 0 0 : NEXT: NEXT:RETURN
4 6y PuKE-Jbo7y .■ 15 : FuRL=l l U-jy ; i'URM—iil50 i Uii4 0.y TEF'—l : r'UKEy6 y 7 6 .■ M: NEXT FuRM=li‘4tf i UL'50
470 P0KE3 6 8 7 6 , M: NEXT : P0 KE3 6 8 7 6 , 8 : NEXT : RETURN
4yy PuKEy6y 7y .■ 1 5 : FuRL= 1 i u l y ; PukEy6875 .■ ^ y y ; i~uRM= l Tu5 y y ; NLX r : P0kEy6w7 i3.■ y : Pukt.y6 y 7
6 .. 200
490 F0 RM=1T0 5 0 0 : NEXT:P0KE3 6 8 7 6 , 0 : NEXT=RETURN
5 0O P0KE3 6S7 8 , 1 5 : F0 RL=1TO15 =PQKE3 6 8 7 6 , 168 =F0 RM=1TO4 0 0 :NEXT: NEXT RETURN
51 y F‘0kEy6y 7y.> 15 : FuRL= l i U-j : FUKk—1 f U5 U : F'UKEyyy7 6 .■ c-ciy • hURN= n U5 ' NEX i PuKEy6 y 7 6 , y :
Next
520 F0RM=1T0 3 0 0 0 : NEXT;NEXT: RETURN
530 P0KE3 6 8 7 8 ,2 5 =F0 RL=1TO2 0 : F0RM=2 5 4 T0 2 4 0 + 1NT( RND<1 ># 1 0>STEP- 1 P0KE3 6 8 7 6 , M=NEXT
540 P0KE3 6 8 7 6 , 0 : FORM=0 T0 1NT <RND<i )% 1 0 0 >+ 1 2 0 : NEXT =NEXT; RETURN
550 : PR I NT" IE".; : P0KE3 6 8 7 9 , 27 : P0 KE3 6 8 6 9 , 248
READY.
38
Commodore Computing
Graphical Pets
Four short Basic program s fo r use in your o w n
business and u tility program s, all to do w ith
screen appearance. A s th e y are w ritte n in Basic
th e y 'll w o rk on any m achine.
100 SP#="
1000 REM * ♦ ♦ ♦ * ♦ ♦ ♦ * ♦ ♦ ♦ * ♦ * * ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ » * * * ♦ ♦
1001 REM ♦EXAMPLE OF SUBROUTINE CALL
100 2 REM ♦T O DISPLAY WARNING MESSAGE
1003 REM ♦ T H IS SUBROUTINE ALSO CALLS
1004 REM ♦TH E CURSOR CONTROL SUBROUTINE
1005 REM ♦CURSORCONT AT 2 9 8 0 0 .
1009 REM « ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ * * ♦ ♦ ♦ « ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ » ♦ » ♦ ♦
1010 PRINT"rr
1020 ME* = " EXAMPLE OF WARNING MESSAGE"
1030 GO'UB 30100
1040 PRINT"ST
1050 END
2000 REM
3000 REM
4 0 0 0 REM
5 0 0 0 REM
6 000 REM
2980 0 REM ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
2 9 8 0 2 REM ♦CURSOR CONTROL SUBROUTINE
2980 4 REM ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ * ♦ « « * ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ * * * * ♦ * ♦
2 9 8 0 6 COL*="W
29 8 0 8 L N Ef="
29 8 1 2 PR I NT" SI" ■
2981 4 IFCOL> 1THENPRINTLEFT»<COL*, COL- 1 >.:
2981 6 IFLN E >1THENPRINTLEFT* < L N E f, L N E -1>•
2 9 8 2 2 RETURN
2 9 9 0 0 REM
299 1 0 REM
299 2 0 REM
299 3 0 REM
3 0 1 0 0 REM ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ * ♦ ♦ * ♦ ♦ * * ♦ ♦ * ♦ ♦
3010 2 REM ♦WARNING MESSAGE
3010 4 REM ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ * * < * * * *
3010 6 COL=1 LNE=2 4 : GOSUB2980 0
30108 r$= im m r
3011 0
30 1 1 2
30114
3011 6
3011 8
30120
3012 2
30124
READV.
2990 0
29 9 0 2
2990 4
2990 6
29 9 0 8
29 9 1 0
29 9 1 2
2991 4
29 9 1 6
29 9 1 8
29 9 2 0
READV.
FORA=1TO30
AW=L OG<n > PR IN T" 3WARNING"A * .
AW=LOG ) PRINT "WARN I NG "A* .
NEXT PRINT"SMARNING -"L E F T *< M E *+ S P *, 3 1 > " ■"
GETAS IF A * = " " THEN3 0 118
COL* 1 LNE=2 4 =GOSUB2980 0
PRINTSP*;
RETURN
REM ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ * * * *
REM ♦SUBROUTINE TO DRAW A BORDERREM ♦ARROUND THE SCREEN.
REM ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ *
P R IN T -S " A$="»" FO R I=1T0 2 5 A $ = A * + " N E X T
B *= " " FO R I=1TO4 0 B * = B *+ " *" NEXT
FORI = 1TO2 0 PR IN T"T *TAB <2 0 - 1>LE FT* < B * , 2 ^ I > : NEXT
P R IN T " !" ; F0 R I = 1T0 2 1 =PRINT"li"SPC<3 8 > "J§"; : NEXT' PRINT
PR I NT " * " SPC <38 > " # T ;
FOR I =0 TO 19 : PRINT ••t * S P C C I) “# " SPC ( 3 8 - 1* 2 > " * " : NEXT
RETURN
100 SP*="
1000 REM ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ * ♦ *
1001 REM ♦EXAMPLE OF SUBROUTINE CALL
1002 REM ♦T O DRAW BORDER WITH SCREEN
1003 REM ♦HEADING.
1009 REM ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ * * * * ♦ *
1010 P R IN T 'T T :
REM ♦♦H E A D IN G S
1020 P*="EXAMPLE"
1030 GOSUB 29900
1040 PRINT " iM lM iO H U iM M tM ttttfT E X T ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ « ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ "
1050 END
2000 REM
3000 REM
4000 REM
5000 REM
6 000 REM
2990 0 REM ♦ ♦ * ♦ ♦ * ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
2990 2 REM ♦SUBROUTINE TO DRAW BORDER
29904 REM ♦ARROUND THE SCREEN WITH A
2990 6 REM ♦REVERSE FIELD PAGE HEADING
2990 8 REM ♦TRANSFERED AS P *
2991 0 REM ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
299 1 2 A =L E N (P f) A l= < 4 0 - A ) / 2
2991 4 A l* = L E F T * v S P * ,A l>
2991 6 P R IN T T T .;
29 9 1 8 P R IN T A If; P R IN T"S "P $"5 "
2992 0 PRINT"
29 9 2 2 FORX=32 8 5 0TO3 3 6 1 0 STEP4 0 POKEX, 101 NEXTX
2992 4 FORX=32 8 8 6TO3 3 6 8 6 STEP4 0 : POKEX, 101 NEXTX
2992 6 PRINT"
2992 8 P R IN T " * " , RETURN
READY.
100 SP t="
1600 REM ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
1001 REM ♦EXAMPLE OF SUBROUTINE CALL
1002 REM ♦T O DISPLAY FORMATTED NUMBERS
1009 REM ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ *
1010 INPUT "INPUT 5 NUMBERS - ".:A *< 1 > ,A * < 2 >, A *< 3 > . A *<4 >, A$<5 >
1020 PRINT PRINT PRINT
1030 P=12
1040 F0RQ=1T05
1050 P$=At<Q>
1060 GOSUB2 7O00
1070 P R IN TP f
1080 NEXTQ
1090 END
2 0 0 0 REM
3 0 0 0 REM
4 0 0 0 REM
5 0 0 0 REM
6 0 0 0 REM
27000 R E M * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
2 7 O02 REM*SUBROUTINE TO ROUND NUMBERS
2 7 0 0 4 REM*TO TWO DECIMAL PLACES AND
2 7 0 0 6 REM*PAD WITH SPACES TO RIGHT
2 7 0 0 8 REM.^JUSTIFY COLUMNS. NUMBER INPUT
2 7 0 1 0 REM^AND OUTPUT AS F t , OUTPUT
2 7 0 1 2 REM^LENGTH P CHARACTERS.
270 1 4 R E M * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ^ ^ ^ ^
27 0 1 6 A $ = " " :A l # = " " A2 $ = " "
2 7 0 1 8 AN=VAL <PS >
2 7 0 2 0 REM
2 7 0 2 2 REM ♦♦♦R O U N D TO 2 PLACE$ ♦ ♦ ♦
2702 4 REM
2 7 0 2 6 A 1= - < INT <AN>-A N ;
2 7 0 2 8 Al=SGN <Al)^IN T<A BS<A1^ 1 0 0 > + . 5 > /1 0 0
2 7 0 3 0 REM
27 0 3 2 REM ♦♦♦FO R M A T NUMBER***
2 7 0 3 4 REM
27 0 3 6 A *=STR*<A1 >
2 7 0 3 8 I FA1< . 0 1 THENA*=" 0 . 0 0 "
27 0 4 0 IFLE N (A $>=4 THEN27052
27 0 4 2 IF L E N < A f » 4 THENA*=LEFT:*<A* . 4 >
2704 4 IFLE N 1!A$><4 THENA*=hJ+"0 "
2704 6 REM
2 7 0 4 8 REM * * * J U S T IF Y * * *
2705 0 REM
2 7 0 5 2 A$=RIGHT$ <A t , 3 >
2 7 0 5 4 A *=S TR *<IN T <AN> ) +A$
270 5 6 P*=R IG H T *<S P *+A $.P >
2 7 0 5 8 RETURN
READY.
DISPLAYSR C..-------- PAGE
LIN E # LOC
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7A0 F
7A10
7A 12
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7A 1F7A20
7A21
CODE
0001
LIN E
.♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ * * ♦ * ♦ ♦ ♦
♦SCREEN DISPLAY
, ♦SUBROUTINES
, ♦ 5/ 4 / 8 0
♦♦♦♦♦♦* ♦♦♦♦♦* * * ♦
STARTL= *5 4
STARTH= * 5 5
TEMPI=$56
TEMP2 = * 5 7
TEMP3 = * 5 8
;
B E G IN =*7A00
♦=BEGIN
;
.HORIZONTAL L IN E DRAW S
•DRAW HORIZONTAL LINE
.LENGTH TEMP2 USING
, CHARACTER WITH A S C II
, NUMERIC VALUE IN TEMP:
98
48
A4
A5
91
83
D0
68
A8
60
HORIZ
57
58
54
F9
NEXTH
TVA
PHA
LDV
LDA
STA
DEY
BNE
PLA
TAY
RTS
TEMP2
TEMPS
<STAR TL),Y
NEXTH
;
■VERTICAL L IN E DRAWING
98
48
A4
A2
A5
81
20
88
10
68
A8
60
57
00
58
54
21 7A
F6
VERTICAL LIN E LENGTH '
•CHARACTER A S C II NUMERi
•VALUE IN TEMPS
;
VERT
TYA
PHA
LDY TEMP2
LDX # $00
NEXTV LDA TEMP3
STA <STARTL,X)
JSR NEXTL
DEY
BPL NEXTV
PLA
TAY
RTS
Commodore Computing
BASIC PROGRAMMING
Tiny-Aid For VIC -20
D avid A Hook
Barrie, O nt
Introduction
Since the early days o f the PET, various
enhancem ents fo r BASIC have been available —
T o o lkit and Power are t w o com m ercial examples.
Bill Seiler, then o f Com m odore, produced the first
public-dom ain version, called BASIC-Aid.
M any updates, corrections and im provem ents
have been made over the past couple o f years.
The PET/CBM program has ballooned to a 4K
package fo r alm ost every flavou r of equipm ent
configuration.
As has been cu sto m a ry in the Com m odore
co m m u n ity, Mr. Jim Butterfield developed a ver­
sion of the BASIC-Aid. He called this TIIMY-Aid2 (or
TIN Y -A id4, For Basic 4 .0 ). This offered the six m ost
useful com m ands from the full-fledged program.
Follow ing is m y m odifica tion of th a t w o rk,
designed to provide VIC users w ith the same
benefits. A fte r using this fo r a w hile, I th in k you
w i l l f in d t h e a d d e d c o m m a n d s n e a r ly
indispensable.
Features
VIC Tiny-A id is a m achine language program
w h ich consum es about 1 2 0 0 bytes o f your RAM
m em ory. A fte r you have loaded the program , type
'R U N ' and hit 'RETURN'. The program repacks
itself into high m em ory. The appropriate pointers
are set so th a t BASIC w ill not clobber it. VIC Tiny
Aid is n o w alive.
Once activated, five com m ands become a t­
tached to BASIC. They w ill fu n c tio n only in
" d ir e c t ” mode, i.e. d o n 't include them in a
program.
(1) NUMBER 1 0 0 0 ,5
'RETURN'
NUMBER 1 0 0 ,1 0
Renumbers a BASIC program w ith a given star­
ting line num ber and given increm ent betw een
line num bers. The m axim um increm ent is 2 5 5 .
All references afte r GOTO, THEN, GOSUB and
RUN are a utom atically corrected. A display of
these lines is presented on the screen as it w orks.
If a GOTO refers to a non-existent line number,
then it is changed to 6 5 5 3 5 . This is an illegal line
num ber, and m ust be corrected before the BASIC
program is used.
Commodore Computing
(2) DELETE 1 0 0 - 2 0 0
'RETURN'
DELETE - 1 5 0 0
DELETE 5 1 9 9 Deletes a range o f lines from a BASIC program.
Uses the same syn ta x as the LIST com m and, so
any line-range m ay be specified fo r removal.
DELETE w ith no range w ill perform like a NEW
com m a nd, so be careful.
(3) FIND/PRINT/
'RETURN'
F IN D /A $/, 1 5 0 - 6 7 0
FIND "P R IN T ” , 2 0 0 0 W ill locate any occurences o f the characters bet­
w een the " / " m arks. A lm o s t any character may
m ark the start/end o f the string to be found, so
long as both are the same. The firs t exam ple w ill
find all the PRINT in stru ctio n s in the program.
If you are looking fo r a string o f te x t w h ich con­
tains a BASIC k e yw o rd , you m ust use the quote
characters as m arkers. This w ill prevent the
search string fro m being "to k e n iz e d ” .
If a lim ited line-range is desired,use the same
syn ta x as fo r LIST. Note th a t a com m a ( " , " ) m ust
separate the line-range from the end marker.
All lines containing the string are printed to the
screen. If a line has more than one of them , each
occurrence w ill cause a repetition o f th a t line.
(4) CHANGE - PRINT - PRINT # 4 , - 'RETURN'
C H A N G E /A B C /X Y Z /,6 0 0 0
C H AN G E /D S$/D 1 $ / , — 5 0 0 0
Using the same syn ta x as FIND, you m ay change
any string to any other string in a BASIC program.
This com m and is very p o w e rfu l, and w a s not part
o f the early versions o f Basic-Aid or Toolkit.
A s before, you m ay indicate a line-range. As
the changes are made, the revised lines are
displayed on the screen.
W a tc h o u t fo r the difference betw een BASIC
ke yw o rd s and strings o f te x t w ith in quotes. You
m ay use the quo te characters to differentiate, as
w ith FIND.
(5) KILL
'RETURN'
This com m and disables VIC Tiny-A id and its
associated com m ands. A syn ta x error w ill be the
result if any o f the above com m ands are now
tried.
Since the routine is safe fro m interference from
BASIC, you m ay leave it active fo r as long as your
m achine stays on. It is possible th a t VIC Tiny-Aid
commodore
COMPUTER #
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9*£SS0 <*ftwsette*^^chl
M A N U FA C TU R ED AND D ISTR IB U TE D BY A U D IO G E N IC LTD
AVAILABLE FROM G O O D DEALERS, OR D IR E C T FROM:
A U D IO G E N IC , P.O. BOX 88, REA DING , BERKS.
Tel: (0734) 586334
Comm odore Computing
BASIC PROGRAMMING
m ay interfere w ith other program s th a t m odify
BASIC's internal 'C H R G O T' routine. The KILL
com m and allow s you to avoid this co n flict.
Procedure
The VIC contains no internal m achine language
m onitor, w h ic h is really the only practical w a y to
enter this program . So fo llo w one o f the three
m ethods below to perform the task.
(1) B orrow an Upgrade (2.0 ) or Basic 4 .0
PET/CBM, w ith its internal ML m onitor. This
w ill be the easiest m ethod to w o rk w ith the
program included.
(2) Use your V IC -2 0 , but you m ust have a
machine language m onitor.
- Jim B u tte rfie ld 's TIN Y M O N FOR VIC - m y
adaption o f SUPERMON FOR VIC - VICM O N
cartridge fro m C om m odore.
(3) The easy w a y (?). Send $ 3, a blank cassette
or 1 5 4 0 / 2 0 3 1 / 4 0 4 0 diskette in a stam ped,
self-addressed mailer to me at:
5 5 8 Steel S treet
BARRIE, O ntario, C A N A D A
L4M 2E9
Be sure it's packaged securely. Diskettes w ill be
returned in DOS 2 .0 fo rm a t. Only 2 0 4 0 (DOS
1.0) ow ners need take extra care. (The program s
need to be copies to a DOS 1 .0 fo rm a tte d disk.
D o n 't SAVE or o th e rw ise WRITE to the disk you
get).
If you are using a VIC, and have a 3K RAM or
SUPEREXPANDER cartridge, plug this in. It w ill be
s o m e w h a t easier to fo llo w , since program s are
then "P E T -c o m p a tib le " w ith o u t fu rth e r juggling.
H o w ever d o n 't use the 8K or 1 6K expansion for
this job.
If you are fam iliar w ith the operation o f the ML
m onitor, please skip ahead to the specifics below .
You are about to ty p e in about 2 5 0 0 characters
w o rth of "h e x a d e c im a l'' num bers. In addition to
the digits fro m zero to nine, the alphabetic
characters fro m A-F represent num bers from ten
to fiteeen. These characters, and three in stru c­
tions, w ill be all th a t are used to enter our pro­
gram. You d o n 't have to understand the process
— ju s t type in the characters exactly. It's not very
exciting, but d o n 't be to o intim idated by the " f u n ­
n y " display.
Enter the m achine language m onitor program :
TINYM O N/SUPERM O N FOR VIC - LOAD and
RUN the program .
P E T/C BM
T y p e " S Y S 1 0 2 4 " and h it
"R E T U R N ".
VICM O N Cartridge - "S Y S 6 * 4 0 9 6 " or "S Y S
Commodore Computing
1 0 * 4 0 9 6 " (depending on the version you have),
th e n ty p e "R E T U R N ".
NOTE: If you are w o rk in g on the unexpanded VIC
you w ill need to fo llo w the alternate instructions
in parentheses.
The cursor w ill be flashing n e xt to a period
character ( " . " ) . Type the en try startin g at the cur­
rent cursor position:
.M 0 5 8 0 05C 0
"R E T U R N "
( . M 1 1 8 0 11CO)
Several lines should appear on the screen, much
like the " m e m o r y - d u m p " w h ic h accom panies
th is article. A f o u r - " d ig it " q u a n tity called an " a d ­
d re s s " leads o ff a line, and either eight or five c o l­
um ns o f tw o - " d i g i t " values appear alongside.
Look at the tables o f values in the article. They
s h o w eight ro w s o f these addresses. Note th a t
the firs t " b l o c k " has the address " 0 5 8 0 " , w h ich
m atches the firs t address ju s t above. The first
ro w o f the n ext table sh o w s " 0 5 C 0 " , w h ich is
the second (or ending) address ju s t above.
Y our m ission is to typ e in the m atch ing values
fro m the article, in place o f the t w o - " d ig it " values
you see on the screen.
Remem ber to hit "R E T U R N " at the end o f each
screen line, or the changes w o n 't be made.
D ouble-check the values y o u 'v e typ e d . It's not
easy to find an error later on.
Look at the n ext block o f values. Type in the
sta rt/e n d addresses to display:
.M 0 5 C 0 0 6 0 0
"R E T U R N "
(.M 11 CO 1 2 0 0 )
Type in the values required and go on w ith the
rest o f the blocks.
You w ill use addresses ranging from :
0 5 x x -0 6 x x -0 7 x x -0 8 x x -0 9 x x -0 A x x
as s h o w n in the tables. The " x " characters stand
fo r the other t w o " d i g it s " o f the address in the
le ftm o s t colum n.
If you are w o rk in g on the unexpanded VIC, the
sequence o f addresses is:
1 1 xx-1 2xx-1 3xx-1 4xx-1 5xx-1 6 xx
You w ill have to typ e these pairs o f characters in
place o f the leading t w o sh o w n ju s t above.
W ith th a t task com ple te, w e are ready to
preserve this w o rk on tape. So type:
.S " V IC A ID .M L " ,
0 1 , 0 5 8 0 , 0 A B 6 "R E T U R N "
(
'o
r .
S
'
'
V
I
C
A I D . M L " , 0 1 ,1 1 8 0 ,1 6B 6
"R E T U R N ")
M o u n t a blank tape, and fo llo w the instructions.
Save a second copy, fo r safety.
Exit the M L m onitor, w ith :
.X
"R E T U R N "
VERIFY the program norm ally before going any
further.
N o w com es the easy part. Type " N E W " , then
the BASIC listing. Enter th is exactly, w ith o u t in­
cluding any extra te x t. Save this as "V IC
A ID .B A S ” and VERIFY it.
Finally, LO AD " V I C A ID .M L ” and SAVE " V IC
A ID .R E L " on a no the r blank tape. Both the BASIC
part and the m achine language part have been
SAVEd to g e th e r.
Check-Out
W e are going to check o ut the m achine language
using a " c h e c k s u m " m ethod. Type in " N E W ”
before proceeding. N o w enter the fo llo w in g
program :
1 0 i = 0 : rem(i = 3 0 7 2 fo r unexpanded VIC)
2 0 t —0 : fo r j = 1 0 4 8 + i to 2 7 4 1 + i
3 0 t = t + peek(j)
4 0 next j
5 0 p rin t t
A fte r a fe w seconds, if the value 1 6 1 7 0 5 ap­
pears, y o u 'v e likely g o t it perfect. Go to the n ext
section .
If not, th e re 's at least one in correct entry.
Change th e t w o values in Line 2 0 , using the table
b e lo w . Re-RUN the program and com pare against
the value in the th ird colum n.
Repeat the process fo r each ro w , noting any
th a t d o n 't m atch. Each ro w corresponds to t w o
" b l o c k s " fro m the last section. You w ill have to
re-enter the ML m o n ito r to re-check those sec­
tio n s th a t d iffe r. Re-SAVE the M L part!!!
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
)ck#
1- 2
3- 4
5- 6
7- 8
9 -1 0
1 1 -1 2
1 3 -1 4
1 5 -1 6
1 7 -1 8
1 9 -2 0
21
Value 1
1408
1 536
1664
1792
1920
2048
2176
2304
2432
2560
2688
Value 2
1535
1663
179 1
1919
2047
2175
2303
2431
2559
2687
2741
Checksum
15201
17221
15925
151 17
15565
14141
15840
16276
15152
15194
6073
Operation
The final acid te s t. ReLOAD th e program from
tape and RUN it. The screen w ill clear and a brief
su m m a ry o f th e added com m a nds w ill be
displayed. The cursor should return alm ost in­
s ta n tly , under th e " R E A D Y ." message.
If th e cursor does n o t com e back, there is
s o m e th in g still am iss. All the values appearing in
th e article w e re produced fro m a w o rk in g copy of
th e program (H onest!). You still have option (3)
fro m th e Procedure section available. If you do
send a ta p e /d is k n o w , include your non­
fu n c tio n in g version. I can then do a com pare, to
see w h e re th e error(s) w ere.
This has been a m assive exercise, and m istakes
can easily creep in. Y o ur c o m m e n ts are w elcom e.
pr nl " 3 J vie tin y a id "
Pr nl " E | adapted fo r vie b y : "
Pr nl " d a v id a. h o o k "
Pr ini " S | fro m 'tin y aid' b y :”
pr in1 " iim b u tte rfie ld ”
Pr ini " g |a n d 'ba sic aid' b y : "
Pr ini " b ill s e ile r"
pr ini " f f ls a m p le c o m m a n d s :"
Pr ini ' 'M c h a n g e /? /p r in t # 4 .1 "
pr in1 " f in d .g o s u b .,2 0 0 — "
Pr ini " d e le te 1 3 0 - 6 2 5 ”
Pr ini "n u m b e r 1 0 0 , 5 "
(vie a id )"
pr ini " k ill
sys (peek(43) + p e e k ( 4 4 ) * 2 5 6 + 3 8 3 )
Comm odore Computing
PROGRAMMING AID
0580
0588
0590
0598
05a0
05a8
05b0
05b8
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a5
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da
00
85
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ad fe
ff 00
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7c a9
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0640
0648
0650
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0660
0668
0670
0678
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84
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0698
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30
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85 34
aa aa
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37 68
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aa aa
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0780
0788
0790
0798
07a0
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84
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00
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Commodore Computing
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BASIC PROGRAMMING
Disk utilities
The t w o program s in this section are designed to
give users o f the PET inform ation about h o w data
is being stored on disk; th e y are o f m ost use when
using direct access files.
BLOCKM AP prints a table o f all the blocks on a
disk, tra c k by track, show ing w h ich blocks have
been allocated fo r data storage by the system and
w h ic h are free. Free blocks can then be used for
d ir e c t a c c e s s ( m o d if y in g th e s u b r o u tin e
TRACK/SECTOR one can block o ff allocated sec­
tors). A lte rn a tiv e ly one m ay sim ply w ish to find
o u t h o w m uch free space is le ft on a disk.
SECTORPRINT is the second o f the tw o pro­
gram s and is designed to print a table of data
stored in a specified block. The data is displayed
both in ASCII and hexadecim al form . Using this
program one can see h o w data is stored on disk
and also discover the source o f disk errors.
100 rem
l i t f REM r m i b DISK U T IL IT Y PROGRAM
l i: 0 REM FALLOWS ONE TO LOOK AT WHICH
130 REM ^BLOCKS ON THE DISK ARE
140 REM ^ALLOCATED TO DATA OR PROGRAMS.
150 REM ^USEFUL IN CHECKING WHERE DATA
ifcti REM *HAS BEEN STORED WHEN USING
170 REM ^RANDOM F IL E S .
180 REM
1000 POKE1 4 4 ,4 9 : REM #DISABLE STOP KEV#
1010 OPEN 1 5 , 8 , 1 5
10 2 0 p r i n t " raawmMS"
1030 F'R I NT" HARDCOF'V V OR N ” :p = 0
1040 GETA$ : IF A $ = " 11THEN 1040
1050 IF A $ = " V " THENF-1
1060 PR I NT " ?M«DR IV E # "
1070 G E T D *:IF D $ = ""T H E N 1070
1080 D=VAL(D$>
1090 IFF'THENOF'ENl.. 4 : PRINT# 1 : PRINT#1
1100 P R IN T "n "
1110 P l * = "
1
2"
.1120 F'2$=" TRACK 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 USED FREE"
1130 P R IN T F U P R IN T F 2*
1140 I FFTHENPRI NT#1 , P 1* : PRI NT#1 . P2$
1150 F0RDT=1T035
1160 DT$=RIGHTt <S T R *< 100+DT) , 2 > + "
1170 ADS=21
1180 IF D T > 17THENADS=20
1190 IFDT>24THENADS=18
1200 IFDT>30THENADS=17
1210 PRINTDT$ ; IFFTHENPRINT#1 , D T *,
1220 A U = 0: AF=0
1230 FORDS=0T020
1240 « $ = " . "
1250 IFDS>=ADSTHENA$=" "G O T O 1320
1260 PRIN T # 1 5 , " B -A " D; DT; DS
1270 INF'UT# 15, EN, E l f - , E 2 * , E3S
1280 IF E N O 0 T H E N A $ = "*" : AU=AU+1 : GOT01 3 2 0
1290 AF=AF+1 : PRIN T # 1 5 , " B - F " ; D, DT; DS
1300 GOSUB1 4 4 0 :1 FEN=0THEN1320
1310 P R IN T : P R IN T : P R IN T " DISK ERROR" EN, E 1$ , E 2 f , E 3 * : STOP
1320 PR I N T A * ■' I FF'THENF'R I NT# 1, H$;
1330 NEXTDS
1340 AU$=R I GHT $ CSTR* CAIJ+100 > , 2 >+ "
"
135© AU$=AU#+R I GHT $ STR# <A F+100 > , 2>
1360 PR I NT "
" ; AIJ# : I FF'THENF'R I NT# 1, "
" , AU*
1370 BU=BU+AU: BF=BF+AF
1380 NEMTDT
1390 P R IN T : PRINT =PRINT
14O0 F'3$=" BLOCKS USED "+STR*<B'U>+" FREE "+STR$<BF>
1410 PRINTF'3$: I FF'THENF'R I NT# 1, F'3$
1420 CLOSE1 : CLOSE15
1430 POKE1 4 4 , 4 6 : END
1 4 4 0 iNF'UT# 1 5, EN, E l # , E 2 t , E 3 *
1450 RETURN
READV.
BLOCKM AP
Commodore Computing
45
BASIC PROGRAMMING
Sample printout from BLOCKMAP
1
2
TRACK 012345678901234567890 USED FREE
...................................................................
00
01
02
...................................................................
00
03
.................................................
.................................................
.................................................
00
00
00
114
05
06
...................................................................
00
07
.................................................
00
08
...................................................................
...................................................................
00
00
...................................................................
...............................
00
00
09
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11
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13
14
15
00
00
***********m********
00
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
00
00
00
16
17
IS
13
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
20
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
21
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
24
■.cr
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* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
...............................* ......................
>C|
1:0
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34
BLOCKS USED
46
Commodore Computing
255 FREE
435
03
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S E C T O R P R IN T
iktw REM * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
i l t i REM *D IS K U T IL I TV PROGRAM TO PRINT
liiw REM ^CONTENTS OF fl DISK SECTOR IN
130 REM *HEX AND A S C II. USEFUL IN CHECKING
140 REM *DRTR STORED CORRECTLV.
i s o rem
1 0 0 0 DIMR( 2 6 4 )
1010 Z 1$=CHR$ ( 0 ')
1015 P R IN T ":]"
1020 P R IN T ” HRRDCOPV V OR N " j F -0
1025 G E T fl$: IF fl$ = ""T H E N 1 0 2 5
1030 IF fl$ = "V "T H E N P = l
1040 0PEN4, S , 4 , " # " : CH=4
1050 0 P E N 1 5 ,8 ,1 5
1060 IFPTHENOPEN 1 , 4 : PR I NT# 1 . CHR* (1 4 7 ');
1070 PR I NT "75"
1080 I NF'UT " DR IVE
" ; Ii
1090 I NF'UT "TRACK
" T
1100 I NF'UT " SECTOR " ; S
1110 PRINT"MUM"
1120 PR I NT# 15, " U1" C H D T S : GOSl IB 1490
1130 F'P IN T#15, "B -P "C H ; 1
1140 FOR I = 1T O250STEP5 : GET # 4 , C l * , C 2 * , €"-■$ . r 4$ . C 5 t
1150 A ( I >=ASC ( C1$+Z 1 $
1160 f l ( 1 + 1 >=ASC (C 2*+Z1*>
1170 A (1 + 2 >=ASC( C 3 *+ Z 1$>
1180 A (I+ 3 )= A S C (C 4 $ + Z 1 $ )
1190 A ( I +4 >=ASC( C 5 $ + Z 1 *>
1200 NEXTI
1210 FO R I= 1 TO250STEP8
1220 I F I = 1 2 1 THENGOSUE1460
1230 A $ = R IG H T *(S T R $ (1 0 0 0 + 1 > .3 >+ " : "
1240 F'R I N T A *, I FF'THENF'R I NT# 1, A# ;
1250 FORQ=0T07
12 6 0 I FA ( I+Q >= 13THENh $=
: GOT01300
1270 IF fl( I+ Q ) = 1 0 T H E N fl$ = " < " : GOTO1300
1280 IF A ( I+ Q >>1270RR( I+ Q ><32THENfl»=" . " : GOTO1300
1290 ft$=CHR$( f i d + Q >>
1300 F'R IN T A * ; : I FF'THENF'R I NT# 1, H t i
1310 NEXTQ
1320 PR I NT "
" : I FF'THENF'R I NT# 1, " " ;
1330 FuRQ=0TO7
1340 f l =A( I +Q >
1350 A 1= AAHD15 : A0= ( AAND240 >/' 16
1360 f l 1= f i1 + 4 8 : I F f t 1>57THENfl1= f l1+7
1370 A 0 = fl0 + 4 8 : IFR0>57THENfl0=flO+7
1380 P R IN T " M;C H R * ( fi0 > ;C H R * ( fll> ;
1390 I FF'THENF'R I NT# 1, "
" i CHRf ( fl0 > , CHRf ( fl 1 >;
1400 NEXTG : F'R I NT " " I FF'THENF'R I NT# 1, " "
1410 NEXTI
1420 F'R I NT " MS" : I FF'THENF'R I NT# 1
1430 PRINT"ANOTHER -VES OR N O -",
1435 G E T flf : IF A $ = " “ THEN 1435
1440 IF A $ = " V " THEN1070
1450 C L0S E 4: CLOSE1 5 : END
1460 GET A# : I FA t = " " THEN 1460
1470 P R IN T "n "
1480 RETURN
1490 I NF'UT# 15, EN, E 11 , E2$ , E3$
1495 I FEN>0THENSTOF'
1500 RETURN
READV.
Commodore Computing
47
BASIC PROGRAMMING
Sample printout from SECTORPRINT
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PET PRINTER GRAPHICS
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Send for brochure to:
Or telephone:
C o m p t a c e L td ,
01942 9001■
by Computace Ltd.
Com putace Ltd announce a brand new
graph plotting programme —
SUPERGRAPH — which is now available
for 8000 series Pets with 8050 disk drive
and produces hard copy high resolution
graphs on the CBM 4022 and 4022P
printers.
Features include file handling system
for graph storage and retrieval, m ultiple
background form ats including log (or any
user definable) X and Y scale transform.
Graph size is fully variable to 80 columns
(480 pixels) wide and virtually unlimited
height (8,000 pixels).
Plots up to 1024 data points and
m ultiple functions on the same axes.
Scales are autom atically inserted if
required and there are comprehensive
alphanum eric labelling and editing facilties
throughout. Suppied on copyable
diskette...... £145.00 + VAT.
Also available: Curve-Fit — powerful linear
and non-linear regression to least squares
fit, spline fit plus high resolution printer
plot.
PO Box 50D, New Malden, Surrey KT3 38D
BUSICALC COSTS £39!
If your Commodore computer has at least 32K of memory disks, and you're prepared to spend nearly
£2 0 0 on a 'spreadsheet' program then you really ought to consider VISICALC. It's a superb program.
If however you're not able to run VISICALC on your system, or are not prepared to invest such a large
sum of money you ought to take a look at BUSICALC. It not only sounds familiar, it looks much the same
and has a similar range of facilities. All you need is 16K of memory and a cassette unit or disk drive. A
printer will be useful, but it isn't essential.
Whether you use your computer in an office or at home, in industry or at university, BUSICALC can make
it an even more powerful tool. It can handle jobs that would otherwise require a specially written program
— or hours and hours of tedious paperwork. Just fill in the numbers that you know, then tell BUSICALC
how to work out the others by entering simple formulae. BUSICALC can add or subtract, multiply or
divide, calculate roots or powers, and perform special functions like totalling or averaging rows and
columns. You can enter text on the sheet (for column headings, titles etc) and specify the number of
decimal places for each calculated value — so with the help of a printer you can produce really smart
reports.
BUSICALC 'sheets' can be saved to disk or tape for subsequent reworking, or access by other programs.
It all sounds so simple that you wonder why somebody didn't think of it before. Actually they did — we're
just doing it for a quarter of the price!
BUSICALC is availabe now for 40 and 80 column PET/CBM models and for the Commodore 64. A t just
£39 plus VAT (40.50 on disk) it really is incredible value for money! Please give details of your equipment
when ordering.
WE ARE LOOKING FOR OVERSEAS DISTRIBUTORS FOR BUSICALC AND OTHER SOFTWARE FOR BOTH PET AND 64. PLEASE
WRITE OR TELEPHONE PETER CALVER ON 01-861 1166 (LONDON).
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Winchester House, Canning Road,
Wealdstone, Harrow,
Middlesex, H A 3 7SJ, England
Telephone: 0 1 -8 6 1 1 1 6 6
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Commodore Computing
BASIC PROGRAMMING
Screen Data
Peter Gabor
The fo llo w in g program w ill w o rk on any Basic 4 .0
machine, and its fu n c tio n is to conve rt the entire
screen contents into data statem ents. A lth ough
the Basic dem onstration program is essentially
the same fo r both 4 0 and 8 0 colum n machines
(change line 1 8 0 in the 4 0 colum n version to read
1 8 0 S Y S 3 2 0 0 ), the m achine code parts are
different.
Enter the Basic program firs t (d o n 't fo rg e t line
1 8 0 !), and if you like change the REM and in­
stru ctio n s in lines 4 0 and 1 0 5 if you have a 4 0
colum n m achine. The values become 0BB8 and
ODFO respectively. Save th a t norm ally, and then
go onto the m achine code part.
The firs t t w o blocks are fo r 8 0 colum n
machines, and the second fo u r are fo r 4 0 col­
um ns. T h e y 'v e been divided into screenfuls to
make it easier to enter. Enter the m onitor w ith
SYS4, then typ e M 'S TA R T ADDRESS' 'END A D ­
DRESS' fo llo w e d by RETURN, and ju s t typ e in the
values sh o w n . D o n 't fo rg e t to hit RETURN at the
end o f each line to actually enter the values!
Save it then w ith the m achine language
m onitor, and then finally save the entire thing in
the norm al w a y e.g. SAVE "S C R E E N D A T A ", if
you happen to be using a cassette deck.
If thing s d o n 't w o rk properly, check the
m achine code part o f the listing carefuly, as this is
w here errors are m ost likely to occur. W e h ave n't
included a checksum program , as there is n 't th a t
m uch code, so y o u 'll ju st have to go through it
carefully, byte by byte!
REM m
15 REM * DEMO PROGRfiM FOR SCREEN TO
2 0 REM * IifiTfi TRANSFORM FITION.
25 REM * SAVE MACHINE CODE PROGRAM
30 REM * WITH MLM: 35 REM *
40 REM * .S"8:SCRNDATA",08,i388,i580
45 REM *
50 REM * AFTER COMPLETING TRANSFER,
ctct
REM # ENTER "CLR" AND PRESS RETURN
60 REM * IF NO EDITING IS NECESSARV.
65 REM #
70 REM *
P. LiflEUR
1 6 / iV 'o k !
-?cr
REM #:
80
90 PRINT
r"TAE <'
."TAB<38)"^SH*";
95 PRINT r" TAB<47)”3# SCREEN TO DATA DEMO *"TAE<73
1 0 0 PRINT"SAVE THE MC PROGRAM WITH THE MLM
105 PRINT"FROM LOC $1388 TO $1508.
1 1 0 PR INT "WTO ACTIVATE THE PROGRAM, ENTER "SVS5008"'
115 PRINT"<NOT NECESSARV FOR DEMO PROGRAM
12 0 PRINT"PERFORM THE TRANSFER BV HITTING ' V .
125 PRINT"MRFTER THAT, ENTER FOLLOWING PROGRAM
1 3 0 PRINT“BY PASSING THE CURSOR OVER EACH LINENS
135 PRINT" 1 0 0 PRINT CHR$<147
148 PRINT" 1 1 0 FOR K=1 TO 24
4 a cr
i *■+•-« PRINT" 120 READ A$: PRINT A$
NEXT
150 PRINT" 130 READ A$; PRINT A$:
155 PRINT" 148 GET fi$ ;IF A$ w-CHR$<67 THEN 140
160 PRINT" 1 5 8 PRINT CHR$<19>= ENDS
165 PRINT"MS
."TAE<39> "ZW" j
170 PR INT11*^5
TO CONTINUE?
3PRE3S
; # l l i r r|
175 PR INT"T O
it* !!"
180 SVS5000
READV
10
50
Commodore Computing
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REfiDV.
Commodore Computing
51
BASIC PROGRAMMING
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REfiDV.
Commodore Computing
The Electronic Cash Book
Micro-Simplex makes
Retailers Accounts
and Stock Control
sim ple...
fl c o m m o d o r e
Unique features:
• Based on Britain’s No. 1 cash
book system
• Uses Britain’s No. 1 business
micro computer
• The only one recommended by
Vyners, publishers of Simplex
books
• The only one offering all retailers
special V.A.T. schemes
Other features include ...
• Stock control linked to cash
registers
• Simple and familiar layouts
• Easy to use
• Automatically produces:
(a) Statements to customers
(b)
Lists of unpaid bills
(c)
Simple profit and loss
accounts
8. CHARLOTTE STREET WEST.
MACCLESFIELD.
CHESHIRE SK11 6EF.
TEL: 0 6 2 5 615 000.
COMPUTER
Commodore Computing
53
MACHINE CODE PROGRAMMING\
Cross Reference
J im B u tte rfie ld
Have you ever w a n te d a cross reference of a
listing? In other w o rds, y o u 're happily debugging
a program and w a n t to kn o w every occurrence of
J $ , but w ith o u t a Basic A id-type program all you
have is a listing covered in scraw l and ink?
W ell, this m onth w e bring you the answ er in
this tid y bit o f code from Jim Butterfield. D o n 't
w o rry about the 1 9 8 0 date in line 1 1 0 o f the
basic listing: it's as valid today as it's ever been.
The old CPUCN published a similar listing purely
in Basic once, but th a t program w as dreadfully
slo w , and Jim invited people to produce a
m achine code version. Since no-one did he's done
it him self, and n o w you can share the benefits. To
prove the increase in speed w e decided to do a
cross reference o f the basic listing fo r Adventure,
an incredibly convo luted 12K (or thereabouts) of
program . J u s t to prove it, th a t is reproduced at
the end o f the article, in case y o u 'v e ever w anted
to cheat at A d ve n tu re but d id n 't kn o w w here to
begin.
T ha t process to o k less than a m inute, and in­
deed to o k m uch longer to print o u t than it did to
produce the results.
Let's take a look at the program itself, starting
w ith the Basic part, fo llo w e d by a cross reference
o f itself.
100 PRINT "rXROSS REFERENCE"
110 PRINT "
<C) 1980 JIM BUTTERFIELD"
115 W=6: IFPEEK<32808 >=32THENW=11
120 CLOSE 1 : INPUT "NAME OF PROGRAM F I L E " N $
130 OPEN 1 , 8 , 3 , m + " , P, R" GET# 1, K$ , V*
146 I FV$OCHR$ <4 >GOT0120
150 I F X $ 0 " " ANDXSOCHR* <1 >GOTO120
160 I FK$= " THENGET# 1, K t
170 SVS 1324
180 CLOSE1
130 I NF'UT " PR INTER " J I t P=3 =I FnSC <2$ >=83THENP=4: A= i 1
200 OPEN4 , P • PR I N T#4, " CROSS-REF " , N* •' POKE208, W• SVS2335
240 PRINT# 4 : CL0SE4
READY.
CROSS-REF■ CROSS-REF <C>
120
m
p
w
x$
Y$
zt
140
120
190
115
130
130
130
CROSS-REF
2 90 ■
330 •
3 40 •
360
3 80 :
330
400
420:
430'
4 40 :
5 10 :
550 :
560
620
650 :
680 :
630 :
720 :
730 ■'
750 :
770 :
840 :
860 :
830 :
300
320
380 :
1000
1010:
1040:
1050
1080
1 030:
Commodore Computing
150
130
200
190
150
140
2 00
200
160
ADVENTURE
320
290
4570
340
360
370
380
450
300
2310
3560
4450
2770
430
530
540
2370
530
700
660
630
610
560
3310
770
750
870
840
2020
350
1250
320
1010
1670
1060
1050
310
2 200
4640
680
2110
2 730
760
2120
2330
1350
1370
4580
600
1650
2330
6 20
1680
2370
630 640
1760 1820
2450 2430
3425
720
670
650
1200
360
1700
1730
1310
1330
730
2 130
3380
8.50
2 180
3540
830
2220
3550
‘SIM PLY W R ITE ’: the kind of word processor you
H IR ESO L U T IO N G R A PH IC S
A high resolution graphics board that gives a 64,000 dot (320x200) resolu­
tion. Versions available for any dynamic ram Pet, BASIC 2.3.4, FAT40 & 80
columns. No soldering or track cutting required, supplied complete with fast
GRAPHIX software in ROM and full fitting & operating instructions. L 149.00
S U P E R ROM-SELECTOR
A high quality printed circuit board giving 64K of utility ROM space, software
selectable!!! Allows 16x4K ROMs/EPROMs to reside in the expansion area of
your PET. One 'POKE' enables any two ROMs at a time. Suitable for bankswitched software.
£75.00
PET U PG R A D E S
WHILE-U-WAIT service! (Dynamic ram pets only).
Memory expansion:
8K-32K........................................................................................................ £59.90
16K-32K...........................................................................................from £48.70
8K-I6K........................................................................................................ £38.26
40 column (I2in VDU only) to 80 column conversion.
40-80 column.............................................................................................£89.00
40-80 column switchable (two machines in one!).................................£ 105.00
Full keyboard functions: i.e. TAB. ESC, REPEAT, SCROLL up/down, define
WINDOW, lowercase/graphics mode and DELETE from/to cursor. All
available in direct or program mode.
didn’t think you could afford. Some £300 programs have
fewer facilities. Tape or disk; any printer; any 40 or 80
column PET. Needs 16K. Tape £40, disk £45.
‘SIM P LY FILE’ Records System (DBMS). Selects by
any key. Prints alphabetical lists, mailing labels, colum­
nar reports of all or selected records. Calculates bet­
ween fields. Totals, averages columns. Works with ‘Sim­
ply Write’. Fast, easy, robust and very, very versatile.
Disk £65.
GOTTA PET? ADDA VIC! High resolution graphics,
programmable characters, colour and sound for your
PET/CBM system? All this PLUS a complete extra com­
puter using your PET’s disk drives, printer etc? Under
£200 including VIC computer and our 'SIMPLY LINK'
PET-VIC link system,
X _
_
IO I
U -; \ \
. •' \ \
A WINDOW ON YOUR DISK! Our Simply
Recover' disk file repair kit (4040 only at present)
will allow you to save crashed files, append BASIC
or m/c subroutines, change disk names and IDs,
devise protection systems, etc. Disk & detailed
instructions £17.
ZYGIAN INVADERS. Super second
generation machine code invaders game.
Tape £6, disk £7.50
ASTEROID PATROL. Classic game with
sound effects, 9 levels of play, hyper­
space jump etc. Tape £6, disk £7.50
R E PA IR S AND SERVICING
Fast and efficient repairs to all Commodore Business Machines at
reasonable prices. WHILE-U-WAIT service whenever possible.
p ro frs tlu n u l
coirputcr
3 0 3 2 D rp ia o
Please add VAT to the prices shown at the current rate.
Telephone Mick Bignell for more details at:
ADD VAT TO PRICES PLEASE, BUT ALL
INCLUDE P&P. SEND FOR MORE
DETAILS, MORE ITEMS, AND GET OUR
FREE 'MICROMAIL' PET/VIC NEWS­
LETTER.
Simple Software Ltd.
15 Havelock Rd., Brighton.
Sussex BN1 6GL
Tel: (0273) 504879
MICROSERVE
7 Clydesdale Close,
Borehamwood, Herts. W D6 2SD.
Tel: 01-953 8385
MICROSCRIPT
- more space than any other Commodore word processor
See MicroScript at your Commodore dealer.
In desperation phone SUPERSOFT 01-861 1166
Commodore Computing
MACHINE CODE PROGRAMMING
1110
1170
1180
1200
1260
1290
1350
1370
1380
1450
1460
1560
1620
1640
1650
1660
1680
1690
1710
1740
1770
1810
1820
1830
1900
1920
1940
I9 6 0
1980
2000
2030
2040
2050
2060
2 11 0
2120
2130
2140
2190
2220
2230
2250
2260
2270
2290
2310
2 340
2380
2450
2490
2500
2580
2610
2630
2710
2720
2730
2740
2 790
2850
2 890
2900
2910
2920
2930
2940
2 950
2960
2970
2990
3030
3050
3030
3120
3150
3170
3180
3220
3260
3310
3 330
3370
3 380
3390
3410
3420
3460
3 4803510
3540
3550
3560
3570
3670
3710
3730
3740
3790
oo 1U
3860
3890
56
Commodore Computing
1090
1150
1140
980
1040
1260
1270
1280
1650
1430
1420
1510
1590
1610
790
770
1660
2 30 0
770
770
820
820
3 39 0
740
780
770
770
1920
770
810
790
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880
2340
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2 060
2100
2 080
7 80
810
2 19 0
810
780
1830
2250
780
780
310
2 360
2 430
2 050
810
2560
8 10
2 610
2 690
2 680
2550
8 10
2740
810
2870
2870
2870
2 870
3 50
1210
2 390
2 760
2 900
3 170
3 460
2 920
2860
2630
780
2 150
7 80
3030
3 060
8 10
3130
3150
3120
8 20
790
790
790
3 340
300
800
770
780
820
820
770
730
790
790
430
3 590
1760
3 57 0
400
3760
3790
3 750
2 73 0
1290
1300
4670
1520
1530
1540
2980
3050
3440
2 230
2505
2 870
2880
3 180
2210
2640
2 240
2 670
2 590
3190
3 080
3 140
730
1230
2400
2730
2910
3240
3470
765
1740
2 410
2790
2 940
3 270
3 480
910
1750
2420
2800
2960
3280
3490
930
1770
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2 810
3000
3 290
3 500
9 40
1780
2 480
2 820
3 010
3300
3520
970
19802600
2840
3020
3330
3530
3600
3 610
3620
3 630
3 64 0
3650
3660
3670
710
1690
2990
1790
2140
2950
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2500
3210
3200
2580
3350
3820
3860
990
2070
2620
2850
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3410
1000
2260
2650
2 870
3110
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1030
2380
2660
2890
3160
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1500
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3140
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470
580
960
1320
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3890
4180
330
1410
3860
470
3990
480
480
210
780
1440
570
130
130
130
610
550
540
4200
620
4270
4310
740 380 4320
4280
4130
4410
4430
380
2170
3870
410
2570
3910
1070
2700
4070
1080
2930
4030
1100
3330
4120
1120
3670
4130
1240
3720
4210
1760
3740
4610
1800
3830
4630
480
430
430
510
570
2750
2760
2770
4530
4550
4560
2040
4440
1810
4620
450
440
530
1520
3420
1070
3950
2660
1070
1240
3370
3100
890
3370
4630
460
460
570
1530
470
470
530
1540
1550
1570
2060
2110
2950
2970
2030
2030
2180
2470
2510
2530
2990
3440
2820
3240
3830
2360
3730
3030
3100
3910
3200
1200
2290
1160
1170
4240
3450
4490
3340
1270
4120
1840
1850
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1870
2000
2010
1170
1400
4330
3810
1480
2670
2690
2710
3860
3880
350
1000
1740
2170
2600
2820
3000
3290
3450
3610
3870
4650
4490
4500
380
1020
1750
2260
2620
2830
3010
3300
3460
3620
3310
410
1070
1760
2380
2650
2850
3020
3330
3470
3630
4070
730
1080
1770
2390
2660
2870
3090
3340
3480
3640
4090
765
1100
1780
2400
2700
2890
3110
3350
3490
3650
4120
910
1110
1800
2410
2760
2900
3160
3360
3500
3690
4190
930
1120
1810
2420
2 780
2910
3170
3370
3520
3720
4210
940
1210
1980
2440
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2920
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3530
3740
4460
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3560
4030
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740
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4230
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1090
2080
2390
2570
2920
3170
3530
4180
240
2520
4370
4260
4270
4280
4290
4300
4310
300
1210
2140
2430
2610
2350
3280
3640
4230
360
910
1240
2150
2460
2620
2960
3300
3650
4260
2310
960
1390
2170
2470
2630
2980
3340
3760
4270
2320
1000
1400
2180
2510
2650
2990
3350
3880
4590
2350
1020
1410
2310
2520
2660
3050
3450
3890
4640
3890
1030
1720
2320
2530
2720
3130
3470
3980
210
500
630
1070
1460
2630
3330
4240
460
1440
4150
660
4190
510
230
510
650
1080
1470
2700
3340
4330
470
1450
4330
670
4200
240
520
690
1140
1480
3130
3950
4400
480
1510
4410
690
250
530
710
1170
1490
3140
3960
4550
570
1560
4430
1400
440
540
720
1180
2310
3150
3970
4590
660
1600
4570
1440
450
550
840
1300
2320
3160
3990
4600
670
2320
460
570
850
1310
2330
3880
4010
2690
2710
650
810
1500
3040
650
590
660
820
1510
3070
670
860
1520
3200
680
1380
1530
3260
750
1390
1540
760
1420
1590
779
1430
1630
1150
1140
4170
3430
4480
4470
310
990
1240
2070
2570
2810
2960
3280
3420
3600
3340
4630
4430
4480
4500
3540
1070
3720
620
4340
230
4220
240
1080
2060
2380
2550
2810
3160
3520
4110
230
250
170
480
590
1020
1330
2360
3900
4190
370
1420
4130
480
4000
490
500
560
790
1450
580
170
170
170
650
630
560
2320
190
490
600
1030
1410
2670
3920
4230
450
1430
4140
570
4180
500
510
610
800
1480
680
550
530
590
680
4240
630
1100
2030
2420
2530
2340
3130
3530
4220
250
4260
690
2720
3960
Commodore Computing
57
MACHINE CODE PROGRAMMING
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2630 2 640
2870
3120
3 460 3 470
4370
340
870
510
520
260
340
880
890
1000
1010
1500
1660
1830
1840
2030 2 050
2390 2410
2620
2630
3060 3130
3390 3420
3610
3620
3810
3820
4 230 4290
900
840
3570
3580
3710
260
760
2 60
1090
840
890
1040
1010
1670
1700
140
210
420
750
2 010 2990
1500
4610
140
190
140
260
3 980 4000
140
190
4520
1210
1230
140
190
2250 3480
1410
1420
120
4500 4510
270
290
4620
2350
2360
540
740
2190
2 430
2540
2740
3140
3 490
550
765
2 230
2 450
2550
2790
3160
3500
560
880
2 250
2 460
2560
2 800
3170
4260
600
1740
2 340
2 470
2 570
2 81 0
3 180
4 270
630
1750
2360
2430
2580
2820
3190
4 290
1090
540
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900
1050
1670
1850
2 030
2480
2650
3140
3425
3 630
3880
4300
910
3590
2 200
630
370
910
1080
1690
1860
2 090
2510
2660
3160
3480
3640
3890
4310
1050
3 600
2 240
1820
380
9 20
1130
1700
1870
2150
2520
2670
3230
3510
3650
4020
4340
1150
3 610
3310
3310
3 90
930
1140
1710
1900
2200
2 540
2 726
3260
3520
3740
4050
4390
3790
3620
4640
1060
1100
900
1050
1730
840
860
3000
4630
390
360
4570
210
1080
1110
910
1280
1910
8 90
3980
1120
920
1300
1930
4 010
4600
930
1310
1950
4600
3010
4070
4090
3 70
380
2590
340
3570
1430
2 600
380
3750
1440
320
3670
Type th is in e x a c tly as s h o w n , being very
careful about the num ber o f spaces (especially
line 1 10): m ixtu re s o f Basic and M achine Code
have a habit o f going w ro n g if you interfere w ith
them . Y o u 'll note fro m line 1 3 0 th a t a disk drive is
vital fo r this program ! A printer is n 't, although you
can select printer o u tp u t if required, in line 1 9 0 .
The t w o m achine code routines (lines 1 7 0 and
2 0 0 ) respectively con tro l the cross referencing
part o f the program and the o u tp u t part.
Save th e Basic program under the name Cross
Ref. B, and then o n to the m achine code.
0553
055B
0563
056B
0 57 3
057E
0583
058B
0 593
059B
05R3
05RB
05B3
05BB
05C3
05 CB
05D3
05DB
05E3
05EB
05F3
05 FB
0603
Commodore Computing
32
35
00
98
35
00
98
00
00
00
00
00
00
00
00
00
00
00
00
00
00
00
0B
35
29
71
34
29
89
34
00
00
00
00
00
00
00
00
00
00
00
00
00
00
00
0B
36
3R
05
3fi
3fl
05
3ft
00
00
00
00
00
00
00
00
00
00
00
00
00
00
00
0B
AC
98
F0
A0
98
F0
A0
00
00
00
00
00
00
00
00
00
00
00
00
00
00
00
0B
C2
34
00
34
34
00
34
00
00
00
00
00
00
00
00
00
00
00
00
00
00
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0B
28
2C
82
00
2C
82
00
00
00
00
00
00
00
00
00
00
00
00
00
00
00
00
0B
4ft
4C
4ft
00
4C
4 fl
00
00
00
00
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00
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00
00
API
00
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0B
0B
ftft
3B
3ft
00
3B
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00
00
00
00
00
00
00
00
00
00
00
00
00
00
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0B
0E
650
1770
2380
2 500
2590
2 830
3 220
4300
700
1830
2390
2 505
2 610
2 850
3270
4320
710
1930
2400
2510
2620
2860
3290
4350
690
950
1210
1750
1940
2270
2 570
2 970
3330
3570
3770
4080
4 590
4080
3 640
765
980
1260
1780
I9 6 0
2275
2590
3 030
3 340
3590
3730
4110
4 640
340
990
1350
1790
2000
2290
2610
3040
3 350
3 600
3790
4170
3650
3 670
940
1320
1970
950
1330
2020
980
1340
990
1350
400
1240
1450
2 81 0
3610
2 620
880
4 290
1460
3530
1130
3 850
1830
3 920
2 030
2 080
2200
3710
4500
4540
4550
4560
4610
400
940
1150
1736
1920
2250
2550
2780
3300
3530
3750
4060
4=;7fi
3820
•j 630
Enter the m o n ito r w ith SYS 1 0 2 4 , typ e in M
0 5 5 3 0 6 0 3 (RETURN), and th e n typ e in the
values s h o w n in the firs t block o f num bers. W hen
y o u 'v e finished w ith th a t, ty p e M 0 6 0 B 06B B
(RETURN), and again typ e in the values in the se­
cond block o f num bers.
This is bringing up one screenful at a tim e, to
m ake it easier to enter all th e m achine code part.
C ontinue ty p e in M 'S T A R T ADDRESS' 'END A D ­
DRESS' as s h o w n in the firs t and last ro w o f each
block, until w e g et to th e final one, w h ic h is M
09A 3 0A13.
060B
0613
06 IE
0 623
062E
0 633
063B
0643
064B
0653
065E
0 663
066E
0673
067B
0 633
063B
0693
069B
06A3
06AB
06B3
06BB
0B
0B
0B
0B
0E
02
0B
01
01
01
0B
0B
0B
0B
0B
07
0B
0B
0B
0B
0B
0B
0B
0B
0B
0B
03
09
02
0E
01
01
01
0B
0B
0B
0E
0B
0E
0E
0B
0E
0B
0B
0B
0B
0B
0B
0E
03
0B
02
0B
01
01
01
0B
0E
0B
0E
0B
0E
0ft
0B
0B
0E
0B
0B
0B
0B
0B
0E
03
0B
02
0B
01
01
01
0B
0B
0E
0B
0B
0E
0B
0B
0B
0E
0B
0B
0E
0B
0B
0E
01:
0B
02
0B
01
01
01
0B
0B
0E
0B
0B
0E
06
0E
0B
0H
0E
0B
0E
0B
0B
0E
04
02
02
0B
01
01
01
0B
0B
0E
0B
0E
0B
0B
0E
0B
0E
0B
0E
0E
0E
0E
0B
0B
02
02
03
01
01
01
0B
0B
0E
0B
0B
0ft
0B
0E
0B
0B
0B
0B
0B
0E
0E
05'
0B
02
08
01
01
01
01
0E
0B
0B
0B
0E
0ft
0B
0B
0E
0E
0B
0E
0E
IF YOU HAVE ONE OF THESE..
PET
AND YOU WOULD LIKE...
THE P E R F E C T IO N OF
A T A IL O R E D S O L U T IO N
W IT H O U T T H E
H IG H COST
W IT H O U T T H E FEA R OF
M A K IN G T H E W R O N G D EC IS IO N
IN W H A T CAN O N L Y BE D ESCRIBED
AS A C O N F U S IN G M A R K E T
itr
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The unique 'data base' fa c ility in S IL IC O N O F F IC E has easy to use routines to draw record cards on the screen, insert and 'housekeep'
y o u r file in fo rm a tio n and then com bine and analyse data fro m several files to produce com plex reports designed to y o u r needs.
Simple b ut repetitive routines can be stored fo r subsequent execution. A p o w erfu l w ord processor is b u ilt in, available at all times,
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In fa ct S ILIC O N O F F IC E can be considered as a p ro d u ct o ffe rin g three packages in one w ith co m m unications com plem enting the
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Position _
Company_
A d d re s s _______________________________________________________________________ T e le p h o n e :__________________________
Send to : Bristol S oftware F actory, Kingsons House, Grove Avenue, Queen Square, B ristol BS1 4 Q Y . Telephone 0272 277135
MACHINE CODE PROGRAMMING
06C3
0bCB
06D3
0 6 DB
0 6 E3
06EB
06F3
06FB
0 703
070B
0 713
0 7 IE
0 723
072E
0733
073B
0743
074E
0753
075B
0763
076E
0773
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0B
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0E
OB
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30
18
18
24
30
30
30
0C
0C
30
F8
0C
30
077B
0 783
078E
0793
079E
07R3
07RB
07E3
07BB
07C3
07CE
07D3
07DE
07E3
07EB
07F3
07FB
0 803
O30E
0 813
0 8 IB
0 823
082B
0B
0B
0B
0E
0B
0B
0B
0B
0C
00
0C
18
00
24
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00
0C
0C
00
0C
SC
00
0C
0C
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08
BF
06
30
03
Fl
Cl
FF
E4
OO
F4
C9
20
DS
8R
07
95
55
35
95
CO
0 333
083B
0843
084E
0 85 3
085E
0 863
086B
0873
087E
0 833
088E
0893
089B
08R3
08RB
03B3
08BB
08C3
08CB
08D3
08DB
08E3
EO
E9
OO
30
R5
38
84
15
F9
R5
E9
18
02
60
BE
02
OD
02
7E
20
R4
Cl
R5
08EB
08F3
0 8 FE
0903
090E
0913
0 9 IE
0923
092B
0933
093B
0943
094B
0953
095E
0963
096B
0973
097E
0983
098B
0993
099B
81
38
10
E3
88
BE
Efi
20
Efi
IH
22
20
54
90
00
D0
fi9
20
BE
El
97
fiS
08
Commodore Computing
0B
0B
0E
0E
0B
0E
0E
0B
0C
E0
0C
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24
24
30
E0
3C
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0C
SC
R2
R9
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07
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20
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OS
07
54
29
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D1
49
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54
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54
R5
E6
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38
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65
02
10
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C9
EC
0B
0E
0B
0E
0E
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0B
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43
3C
18
24
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3C
18 24
01 20
00 85
07 85
9D F9
20 CC
E4 FF
00 35
E4 FF
59 R2
C9 20
R8 B l
29 7F
BO 07
08 C9
7F 48
OO B4
EO 05
FO OE
54 E8
68 60
CR 10
C l 38
88
90
ER
R5
R4
07
C9
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Cl
BE
R5
Cl
02
ER
65
09
BO
00
R4
88 85
B l Efi
F7 90
08 fi0
10F9
38 E9
84 BE
C9FF
84 EB
EHI®
fi9 0H
B2 FF
00 20
F3 fi9
85 EC
90 16
0fi 20
20 D2
fid 05
Bfi 85
08 D0
Efi fi4
35 Bfi
84
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DO
ER
Cl
BO
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38
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91
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98
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EC
91
06
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30
07
6@
H9
R0
05
20
fi0
B2
3 fi
E6
fi9
B2
FF
Bl
59
F8
BE
84
0B OB
0B 0B
0B 0B
0B 0B
0B 0B
0B 0E
0B 0B
0B 00
0C 0C
0C 0C
0C 00
18 18
24 24
24 00
30 0C
OC0C
0C 00
30 0C
0C 0C
0C 00
30 0C
ECSC
0C 00
0£
0B
0E
0E
0E
0B
0E
0C
0C
IS
18
18
24
30
30
18
48
0C
18
EC
OC
18
0C
0B
0B
0B
0B
0E
0B
0B
0C
0C
24
18
18
24
30
30
24
48
3C
24
EC
3C
24
0C
30
CS
BE
B9
0E
FF
20
C0
85
0C
FO
B8
H4
CO
OO
C9
54
DO
8R
EO
R2
FB
E9
0C
FF
R9
R2
CR
60
E4
R9
5R
86
F9
10
£8
54
FO
54
CO
F5
R2
04
04
SO
07
0C 3C
20 IF
0C 85
0D BD
10 F7
20 9C
FF FO
0B 35
20 E4
B8 20
RR BD
03 20
85 B8
90 03
B7 DO
FO 14
2 0 FO
FO 12
OO E4
DO F7
R9 20
48 R5
85 BR
EB
RO
05
R4
85
01
98
El
10
DO
EC
07
IF
BF
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OE
E3
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85
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88
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38
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88
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EC
83
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Efi
F6
D6
88
35
08
35
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3D
18
35
BF
38
85
OE
E9
OO
B9
10
DO
84
85
0B
91
90
RO
10
CO
So
BR
3D
7B
RD
EC
35
E9
CO
90
07
98
54
FS
DE
ED
BR
90
EC
06
06
F8
90
60
84
7R
02
7R
RD
ED
07
84
E8
EO
84
EC
20
El
BE
B0
R2
00
04
88
B2
00
FF
20
EC
0D
FF
88
Efi
20
20
69
EB
ED
Fl
10
00
H5
01
04
fi0
B9
10
FF
Bl
08
E2
fi5
20
fifi
10
85
El
fi9
07
05
F|0
00
09
91
Efi
88
86
00
54
F6
fi9
Bfi
00
FF
BC
H2
05
FS
Sfi
FF
09
90
EE
06
88
40
EC
fi4
85
54
85
00
30
0fi
99
05
fi9
05
FF
A9
30
C8
fi4
18
01
fi5
09R3
09RB
09B3
09EE
09C3
09CB
09D3
09 DB
09 E3
09 EE
09 F 3
09FB
0RO3
OROE
OR 13
BE
R2
78
R2
9D
EE
ED
4R
68
02
E8
DO
4C
00
00
E5
02
F8
02
7fi
D8
86
4R
29
C6
EO
04
D2
00
Rh
BF
9D
fl0
BD
02
58
CO
4fi
OF
BD
03
R9
FF
4E
RR
90
7R
OF
7R
CR
R2
BD
09
09
20
90
20
00
4F
RR
86
02
06
02
10
00
7R
30
30
F9
DC
DO
00
4E
RR
60
CR
59
7D
F4
R9
02
20
EO
09
SO
02
00
45
RR
R9
10
26
7R
88
30
48
F9
02
R6
C5
C6
00
20
RR
00
FR
5R
02
10
85
4R
09
DO
CO
BD
BD
00
00
RR
Save all this under the name Cross Ref.M (for
m achine code), and then finally SAVE the w hole
m asterpiece in the norm al w a y. In other words,
ty p e S A V E "0 :C R O S S REF” , 8 if you happen to be
using drive zero on a disk drive w hose device
num ber is 8.
W hen th is is com pleted, typ e in the fo llo w in g
short piece o f code in direct mode, and hit
RETURN:A = 0:FORI = 1 3 6 3 T 0 2 5 7 9 : A = A + PEEK(I):NEXT:PRINTA
If the value you see on your screen is 9 4 3 3 6 all
is w e ll and good, and the program w ill w o rk
corre ctly.
If the value is anything other than 9 4 3 3 6 , there
are t w o possibilities. If the program jum ps into the
m onitor, ty p e X to e xit and check very carefully
the Basic part o f the program . If the machine
hangs up to ta lly , w e have problems, and w e 'll
have to check the m achine code.
To make life easier fo r you, the m achine code
w a s earlier divided up into seven blocks. W e'll
make use o f th is, to try and pin d o w n our error in
ty p in g it in.
Take our little program m entioned above:A = 0:FORI = X to Y:
A = A + PEEK(I):NEXT:PRINTA
w here X and Y are the s ta rt and end addresses.
The fo llo w in g table sh o w s the values of X and Y
fo r each o f the seven blocks, and also the value of
A th a t should appear. If your tota l is different,
w e 'v e fo und the block w ith the m istake. Enter the
m onitor, re-check your code, re-save the machine
code part and w e should n o w have a w o rking
copy o f Cross Ref.
Block 0
X
Y
A
1
1363
1546
4199
2
1547
1730
1619
3
173 1
1914
5935
4
1915
2098
22606
5
2099
2282
23640
6
2283
2466
24413
7
2467
2579
1 1924
W e th in k y o u 'll find th a t the speed and usefulness
o f th is program fa r o u tw e ig h s the e ffo rt involved
in ty p in g it in. A s ever, w e are indebted to Jim
B utterfield!
A NOTICE TO ALL
PET LOVERS
INTRODUCE YOUR PETS TO OURS
A N D SOLVE YOUR INTERFACE PROBLEMS
ANALOGUE/DIGITAL I/O
THE PUPI
*
*
*
*
4
2
4
4
ANALOGUE INPUTS (12BIT)
ANALOGUE OUTPUTS (12 BIT)
RELAY OUTPUTS
LOGIC INPUTS
\
I l\
I I J w
ucl—
Only £195.00
When connected to the "PET" User
Port the PUPI gives you all the above
features together w ith an operating
system in EPROM, which interacts
w ith Basic's variables, giving extrem ely sim ple
operation. Inputs and outputs are +.10V and relays
are rated at 10VA. Logic inputs can be used for
m icroswitch sensing etc.
HIGH SPEED A /D CONVERTER
THE PUSSI
^ ..Cl
f <D <*>
Only £195.00
CIL
MICROSYSTEMS LTD
*
*
*
*
4 ANALOGUE INPUTS (12 BIT)
50 MICROSECOND CONVERSION
STOP AN D START TRIGGERS
DATA ACQUISITION SOFTWARE
Using an operating system in
EPROM, the PUSSI provides a high
speed A-D C o n v e rte r w i t h
4
,,,J
m ultiplexed inputs, which is under
control of e ith e r softw are, or rem ote sta rt/sto p
triggers. A-D Conversion can be carried out from
Basic, or M achine Code, w ith up to 1500 readings
entered directly into m em ory at a softw are
determ ined rate.
CIL MICROSYSTEMS LTD.
DECOY RD.,
WORTHING,
SUSSEX BN14 8ND.
TELEX: 87515 WISCO G ATTMIC
TEL: (0903) 210474
W r ite , p h o n e o r to
o b ta in fu r th e r in fo rm a tio n circle n u m b er
Commodore Computing
61
Landsoft are phased to announcQ that
PAYROLL
i s
now
o v a ila b le
fo r
th e
2
C B M /P E T
£ 3 7 5
+VAT.
This new program, a 1 though embodying a great number
of new features, is sti li as easy to operate as our
very popular Payroll Plus - and in many ways easier.
( Yes - it will assist with the dreaded SSP / )
May we suggest that you insist on seeing this elegant
program demonstrated before you buy a payrol1 program.
It would be highly frustrating to buy another ana
become aware of the PAYROLL Z excellence afterwards.
F R O M YO UR C O M M O D O R E D E A L E R on contacts
to
LandSoft
28 Sheen Lane
London SW14 8LW
Tel
Written
the Inland Rovonuc
S p e c i f i c a t i o n for
c o m p u t e r payrolli
0 1- 8 7 8 7044
ADVERTISERS' INDEX
KINGSLEY COMPUTERS LTD.
132 Desborough Road
HIGH WYCOMBE, BUCKS HP11 2PU
CBM BUSINESS SYSTEMS
VIC HOME COMPUTERS
COMPUTER ACCESSORIES
AND SUPPLIES
AGENTS FOR CBM
APPROVED PRODUCTS
COMMODORE
SERVICE CENTRE
Commodore Computing
Audiogenic
Bristol Software
Calco
Catlands
C.B.S.
C.I.L.
Computace
D.A.M.S.
Datatech
Digital Design & Development
D.M.A.
Dynatech
Greenwich Instruments
I.J.J.
John Wiley
Kingsley Computers
Landsoft
Microserve
Mills Associates
Oxford Computer Systems
Romik
Simple Software
Stack
Supersoft
W hitby Computers
41
59
13,15
53
15
61
49
2
13
27
35
25
15
35
25
62
62
55
33
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63
55
64
4 9 ,5 5
29
R
O
f llK
S
2 4 Church Street, Slough SL1 1PT.
O
F T U
R
R
ROMIK PROMISE
A MINIM UM OF
ONE NEW GAME
EVERY MONTH
E
Telephone: Slough ( STD 0753 ) 71535
Britain’s leading games software house are proud to announce our new range of exciting games and other software for
Vic20 and ZX81 (see panel). (Games for BBC, Dragon, Spectrum and Atari available soon.)
ALL ACTION GAMES CARRY A FREE ENTRY TO NATIONWIDE COMPETITIONS WITH FANTASTIC PRIZES
ALL PROGRAMS ARE £9.99
riRRTim RRIDER
For unexpanded Vic20
Skim as close as you dare to the surface of the planet,
devastating the Martian cities, destroying am munition dump6
(gaining more time), shooting down the ground-to-air missiles
SEA INVASION
Unexpanded Vic20
Fight off the attacking sea creatures for as
long as you can. Shoot the whale for a
surprise score, watch out for the crabs,
starfish and octopuses.
5HRRKRTTRCK
For unexpanded Vlc20
You are in shark-infested waters after being thrown
overboard from a pirate ship. Your only protection being
an atomic net which you trail behind you, trying to cover
all the visible ocean and ensnare the sharks at the same
** * * *
iXWC w M
XX X X
X 1 X
(If iU
“ A real action shot of the g a m e "
time. Beware of stopping or covering your tracks for too
long, if you do, then the sharks will escape and come
after you. Watch out for the ever increasing deadly octopi
(somtimes the sharks will eat part or all of one!)
si
MOONS OF JUPITER
For expanded Vic20, 3K, 8K or 16K
You are the Commander of a fleet of
destroyers looking on from the safety of a
mother ship, you send in one destroyer at
a time to blast a passage through the
MOONS OF JUPITER. Your destroyers
have to dodge, and blast the UFOs. . .
Watch out for the Gologs they can
smash your destroyers, but you cannot
harm them.
A MACHINE CODE ARCADE QUALITY GAME
flULTISOUnn
'jWTHESIZER
A real action shot ol the game
NEW NEW NEW
SPACE ATTACK
For the unexpanded Vic20
F o r th e u n e x p a n d e d Vlc20
The Vic Multisound Synthesiser is very flexible and can
be played in more ways than can ever be explained here,
to create music and special effects. For example, create
any tune, up to 255 notes (after following appropriate
SP A C E AT TA C K is a game of skill. You as the pilot of an
intergalactic battleship have to fight your way through
wave after wave of various alien spaceships.
M ACH IN E CODE
A R C A D E Q U A LITY G AM E
instructions), then press "F1" or "F3", then key "9" and
fWD TUISTERS
For unexpanded VicZO
Four games to stretch your brain
Blackjack, Decipher, Four Thought and Teaser are our co m ­
puterised versions of very popular home games and w ill test
your mental agility and skill for many a long hour
enjoy the added effect. Now hit
difference. For a surprise — hit
listen to the
Now add a melody
over the top — hit key "8" then "7" — now play a melody,
or experiment. Have fun!
ROBOT PANIC
SPECIAL OFFER . . .
C4 COMPUTER CASSETTES
A fantastic high-speed game on cartridge. The
price is yet to be announced, but around £16 . . .
£2.50 for 10; E20for100
Available post free from the above address only
OUR GAMES ARE AVAILABLE FROM ALL GOOD HOME
COMPUTER SHOPS, INCLUDING:
Micro C inside Currys at: Birmingham (233 1105), Leeds (46601), Luton (425079),
Nottingham (412455), Southampton (29676), inside Bridgers at: Bristol (650501), New
Malden (01-949 2091), and at: Leicester (546224), London (01-387 9275), Manchester (834
0144) . . Chromasonic Electronics, 48 Junction Road, Archway, London N19 (01-263
9493/9495), Maplin Electronic Supplies Ltd., P.O. Box 3, Raleigh, Essex (0702 552911/
554155), Gemini Electronics, 50 Newton Street, off Piccadilly, Manchester (236 3083),
Gamer, 24 Gloucester Road, Brighton . . . Dixons, Queensmere, Slough (23211) . . .
Channel One, 174 High Street, Hornchurch, Essex (75613) and Golden Cross Parade,
Rochford, Essex (540455), Twill Star Computer, 17 Regina Road, Southall . . . Data
Assette, 44 Shroton Street, London NW1 . . . Graham & Son, 51 Gortin Road, Omagh, N.
Ireland . . . Ram Electronics, 88 Fleet Road, Fleet, Hants. (5858) . . . Eccleston
Electronics, Legge Lane, Birmingham . . . The Computer Centre, 14 Hemmels, Laindon,
Essex (0268 416155) . . . Microspot, 15 Moorfields, Liverpool . . . R. Seedle, 47
Woodlands Road, Ansdell, Lytham St. Annes . . . Cambridge Computer Centre, 1 Emmanuel
Street, Cambridge . . . Karlinda & Co., Elliott Road, Selly Oak, Birmingham . . . The Sharp
Computer Shop, Melville Street, Lincoln . . . Milequip, 7A Hare Lane, Gloucester (411010)
. . North West Business Machines, Curate Street, Great Harwood, Lancs. . . . Instep
Footwear, 23 King Street, Great Yarmouth . . . J.A.D., 21 Market Avenue, Plymouth
(669462).
’ Computer
t Services
3il ACCESSORIES
40/80 Column Board
VICKITS from STACK
VICKIT 1 programming aids £ 2 5 .0 0
V IC K IT2 b e s t o f l & 3
£ 2 9 .0 0
VICKIT 3 the super graphics ROM £ 2 5 .0 0
fo r VIC-20
plus VAT
Doubles your VIC-20 display on TV!
80 Columns on a monitor!
Now you really can think about Word Processing on your VIC!
Move your VIC into the class of the BIG Micro’s!
i* » v a T
20 extra commands to make Hi-Res Graphics so much easier
The 4 0 /8 0 Column Board fits into the VIC.'s Expansion Port
or any STACK product with Expansion Connector
The best beginners aid around!
Let VICKIT’s do the donkey work for you.
£ 9 9 .9 9
plus VAT
• Graphics made easy!
• Programming short-cuts!
• Easy editing!
• Corrections become simple!
WIN A COMMODORE 64!
S ta c k S to reb o ard
■ ■ ■ r. . . H .
W O ral
(m em o ry e x p a n s io n
unit)
Produce a game on a cassette which
involves the use of the LIGHT PEN and to
the best entry will go a CBM64
Closing date 15th February 1983
P o w e r u p y o u r V I C - 2 0 to a
M A S S IV E 3 2 k C O M P U T E R ! !
only
£49.00
(p lu s V A T ) for 3 k a n d e x p a n d a b le to
2 7 k o n th e s a m e b o a rd
CfBM
Commodore Business Machines
4000 Series Pet Range
8000 Series Pet Range
9000 Series Pet Range
Coming Soon!!
CBM 500 Series (256K-896K)
CBM 700 Series (256K-896K)
CrBM 6 4
and
700 series
at £695
at £995
C*BM
— with full range of peripherals and software.
EPSON
nnadex
PRINTERS
MX-80T3 ..............................at £349.00
M X -8 0 F T 3 ............................at £389.00
MX-82T ................................at £369.00
M X -82F T 3............................at £409.00
M X-100FT3..........................at £499.00
DP-9501 ............................at £1045.00
DP-9500A ..........................at £1150.00
DP-9501 A ..........................at £1150.00
DP-9620A ..........................at £1250.00
WP-6000 ............................at £1950.00
CONSUMABLES
A full range of \fe ib a tim diskettes, paper, printer ribbons etc available P.O.A.
(Trade enquiries welcome. Quantity terms available)
COMING SOON!!
New training premises for courses for the beginner and the expert.
(All prices exclude VAT)
STACK
Sales 051 933 5511
Service 051 933 3355