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 [...]
Archive of posts tagged mindcraft
Hackfest Day 1
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 [...]
Saying “Hello” with Macrosoft
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 [...]
Saying “Hello” with the Mindcraft Assembler
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 “!” [...]
Low-Res Life for the Apple II
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 [...]