Bluer White

I presented a tutorial introduction at KansasFest 2010 on the Mindcraft Macrosoft programming language, a macro assembler package that allows the programmer to achieve machine language speed with a high-level Applesoft BASIC-like syntax.  Macrosoft and its companion Assembler run on you favorite 8-bit Apple II.  The presentation was well received, and several people left motivated to try Macrosoft for themselves. Don’t miss the history of Macrosoft from the author, Alan Floeter, that’s part of the presentation slides (page 11).

Ken Gagne has kindly shared a recording of my presentation and posted the slides.  Watch the presentation, buy a copy of the Mindcraft Assembler & Macrosoft, and write the next blockbuster Apple II software.

USE MACROSOFT.3.1
UEN
MUL
BEGIN
PRINT "Macrosoft Rocks."
CLEANUP
END

There’s a working Macrosoft example in the presentation slides.  Also, check out my “hello world” program in Macrosoft and with the Assembler.  Finally, don’t forget my winning KansasFest 2009 HackFest entry written with Macrosoft.

My KansasFest 2010 HackFest entry with source code is now available for your enjoyment.  This entry took second place behind Martin’s Wizardy crack.  I used Complete Pascal 2.0 with Pegasoft Draw Tools 3.1, both of which are freely available, to create my first 16-bit Apple II program.  The program displays pictures from KansasFest and asks related trivia questions.

The photographs are used with permission from Henry Courbis of Reactive Micro.  I converted the original JPEG images to GIF files on a modern Macbook then used Super Convert on a IIgs to produce packed SHR image files.

I hope some budding programmer will find the software to be a useful starting place for the next brilliant Apple II software!

There are just so many fabulous things to see and do at KansasFest that Hackfest has not gotten much attention!  Where else do you get to see the worst Apple product and a disk operating system almost twice as fast as ProDOS?

I want to include full-screen bitmapped images in my entry, and I’m figuring out how to load and display images.  The toolbox does not offer a convenient “load image from file” call so I must provide code to load, parse, and decompress the image file.  I found a CSA2 post with sample code and the Pegasoft Draw Tools package.  Draw Tools provides numerous handy drawing tools, including fades, wipes, animation, and image loading.  So, I’ve installed Draw Tools and have the sample code working.  The TML Pascal samples work well with Complete Pascal since Complete Pascal is really version 2 of TML Pascal.  Work continues …

The annual KansasFest HackFest is on!  I’ve heard rumors of Wizardy cracking and a Rockhurst text adventure.  I’m learning Complete Pascal, learning IIGS toolbox programming, and, just in case I run out of things to do, using those skills to write a graphical Apple II/KFest trivia adventure.  I have Complete Pascal running and am ready to crank out a bit of code.  Stay tuned for more …

Following the model of Eric Shepherd’s “Some Assembly Required: Hello World” article on A2Central and my last post on the Mindcraft Assembler, I’d like to present the traditional “Hello World” program for 8-bit Apple II using Macrosoft.

Macrosoft allows the programmer to achieve machine language speed with a familiar BASIC-like syntax.  Technically, Macrosoft is a macro library for the Mindcraft Assembler.

First, follow the directions included with Macrosoft to create a working disk with The Assembler and Macrosoft.  Next, just like last week’s tutorial, slide the disk into your drive and run the BOOT.SYSTEM program.  Press “E” to enter the editor.  Press “enter” once to get a “!” insert mode prompt.  Type in the following program.  Case does matter, so watch the capitalization.  Also, make sure to begin each line with a space; otherwise, the assembler will interpret your entry as a label.  Notice that, except for a few extra “boilerplate” lines, the program appears similar to BASIC.

USE MACROSOFT.3.1
UEN
MUL
BEGIN $2000
PRINT "Hello world."
CLEANUP
END


Press the “Escape” key and enter “Hello” for the “Save Pathname.”  Press “A” to assemble to program.  If you get errors, return to the editor and correct them.

Finally, press “!” to exit back to BASIC.  Change to the directory containing the HELLO program and type “BRUN HELLO”.

Following the model of Eric Shepherd’s “Some Assembly Required: Hello World” article on A2Central, I’d like to present the traditional “Hello World” program for 8-bit Apple II using the Mindcraft Assembler.

Slide the Assembler disk into your drive or run the BOOT.SYSTEM program.  Press “E” to enter the editor.  Press “enter” once to get a “!” insert mode prompt.  Type in the following program.  Case does matter, so watch the capitalization.

            ORG       $2000

COUT        EQU       $FDED         ;Apple II character out func.

            LDX       #0            ;Offset to first character
loop        LDA       msg,X         ;Get the next character
            BEQ       done          ;->Yes!
            JSR       COUT          ;Print it out
            INX                     ;Move on to the next character
            JMP       loop          ;And continue printing
done        RTS                     ;All finished!

msg         ASC       "Hello world."
            DSC       $8D
            DSC       $00

Press the “Escape” key and enter “Hello” for the “Save Pathname.”  Press “A” to assemble to program.  If you get errors, return to the editor and correct them.

Finally, press “!” to exit back to BASIC.  Change to the directory containing the HELLO program and type “BRUN HELLO”.

From KansasFest:

KANSAS CITY, MO — December 22, 2009 — Mark Simonsen, employee number three and later owner of Beagle Bros, will be the keynote speaker at KansasFest 2010. At Beagle Bros, whose popular software products for the Apple II hobbyist demonstrated the publisher’s quirky sense of humor, Mark developed software including Flex Type, Beagle BASIC, Beagle Graphics, Triple-Dump, and Double-Take. In the early 1980s, Mark decided that he “wanted to work with the Apple for the rest of [his] life,” a statement that captures the enthusiasm and spirit of Mark, Beagle Bros, and many Apple II users.

Beagle Bros started in 1980 under the direction of Bert Kersey to provide software to casual users of the Apple II. A year and a half after graduating with a degree in computer science from Brigham Young University, Mark “fell in love with the Apple.” Mark published Flex Type through Beagle Bros in 1982, joined the company as a programmer in 1983, and bought it in 1987 at the age of 29.

Besides software like Shape Mechanic, GPLE, and DOS Boss for budding programmers, Beagle Bros produced books, posters, and even advertisements full of clever and useful tidbits demonstrating the capabilities of the Apple II. Later, the company produced highly regarded productivity software like Platinum Paint, BeagleWrite GS, and the TimeOut line of AppleWorks add-ons. Beagle Bros earned many loyal followers thanks to the combination of quality products, enthusiasm, and humor.

Mark sold the company’s product line in 1991 and 1992 to Quality Computers. Today, Mark helps save memories as the CEO of iPreserve, a company specializing in photo, film, video, and document preservation.

KansasFest 2010, the 21st annual Apple II conference, is set for July 20th through July 25th at Rockhurst University in Kansas City, Missouri. KansasFest was originally hosted by Resource Central and has been brought to you by the KFest Committee since 1995. Any and all Apple II and Macintosh users, fans, and friends are invited to attend this year’s “summer camp for geeks.” Registration details will be announced on the KansasFest Web site in early 2010. Please heed the warning from Beagle Bros and refrain from feeding your disks to alligators. For photos, schedules, and presentations from past year’s events, please visit the event’s official Web site at http://www.kansasfest.org/

CONTACT:
KansasFest 2010
http://www.kansasfest.org/
http://twitter.com/kansasfest/

If you’d like to read more about Beagle Bros and Mark Simonsen, I suggest checking out the following:

• “Interview with Mark Simonsen,” Nibble, December 1987, pages 14 and 138 (http://www.nibblemagazine.net/)
• “The Beagle Bros Online Museum” (http://stevenf.com/beagle/)
• Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beagle_Bros)
• “Beagle Bros Software Repository” (http://beagle.applearchives.com/)

And, here are a few slightly less relevant but still relevant references:

• “Beagle Bros”  (http://everything2.com/title/Beagle+Bros)
• “Who’s Who In Apple II” by Phil Shapiro from GEnieLamp, Nov. 1992 (http://www.morgandavis.net/portfolio/mdg/genielamp.txt)
• “Beagle Bros” by Jeff Atwood at CodingHorror.com (http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000030.html)
• “Variable ‘foo’ and Other Programming Oddities” by Jeff Atwood at CodingHorror.com (http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000375.html)

Conway’s Game of Life is mathematical exploration into artificial life.  The game consists of a grid of cells, and each cell is either alive or dead.  A simple set of rules relate the cells alive or dead in the current generation to the previous generation.  The interesting thing about the Game of Life is that a simple set of rules creates surprisingly complex patterns and behaviors.  Wikipedia gives more details, including examples, a more formal definition of the game, and history.

I have implemented the game of life for the Apple II computer using the low-resolution (40×40) video mode and the Macrosoft macro language.  Macrosoft is a library of assembler macros that produce assembly language code.  I chose this language because I wanted to learn this unique language for years and to improve performance of the implementation.

Download the program with source.

Look for an article in Juiced.GS (Volume 14, Issue 3).