SPACE Newsletter

This Month's Meeting FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 1986 Todd Burkey will demo the programs he wrote and sells for the 8-bit Atari. (You may have seen these at the SPACE meetings before, if you have been a member for two or more years and never missed a meeting.) The programs are: 1. Softbase - a fast loading data base that supports the printing of one-up lables. 2. Diskedit - a disk utility program 3. Cartdisk - a program that makes a disk backup of a cartridge program. 4. Ultracopy - allows for multiple copies of a single disk.

Bruce Baug .. . President 774-6226 Bob Rhode . . . . Editor 222-3593 Jim Schulz ... Vice-Pres 537-5442 Bob Siede . . . . Treasurer 489-3982 Frank Baug ... Disk Lib. 774-6226 Bob Floyd . . . . Secretary 487-2627 Jim Siede .... Pa~r/Educational Librarian 489-3982 SPACE/TAIG Bulletin Board ... 473-2897 Published by the St. Paul Atari Computer Enthusiasts (SPACE), an independent organization with no business affiliation with Atari Incorporated. Permission is granted to any similar organization with which SPACE exchanges newsletters to reprint material in this newsletter. We do, however, ask that credit be to the authors and to SPACE. Opinions expressed are those of the article authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of SPACE, club officers, members, or Atari Inc.

IN TBIS ISSUE: Chris Crawford 1 s final Assembly Language lesson Space•s new ST special interest group Plus, all the usual columns

SPACE FEBRUARY, 1986 PAGE 2 ~

·s6 lleeting Minutes

by Boo Floyd

BYTES FROM THE PRES Well it's time for another 11eeting, and I aa getting to know what's going on in the world of ATARI. I've had auestions, and =ore questions to find the answer to. This ;,onth it has been printers; how do I make my printer work with Print Shop or ATAR!writer? Well, with Print Shop, read the box and ;ake sure your printer is supported. If your printer DOES NOT print ~raphics, then Print Shop will be of :ittle or no use to you. As far as Atariwriter goes, there .re print drivers available for 99 different printers other tnen ATARI, see me at the meeting. We have ordered, from JACS, their two Print Shop 6r3phic disks for our library. Since the Print Shop goes thrcugh ribbons quite quickly, it's lucky that our printer ribbon :;:EINKER has arrived. Now all we need is someone to be in charge of it. We will d2teraine ~ho and the details ;t the Feb. ~eeting. Cc~e to the ieeting and see our new COLOR ~ONITOR! ! It l o□~s great! For the 11oney 'fOU c:an 't buy better! If you have suggestions for upcoaming seetings, please write the& down and give them to ae with your name and p~one nuiber because I c:an't remember everything. I plan the ieetings two weeks in advance: therefore, it is hard to ~ake changes at the last 11nute, and still get everything ,:cvered that was scheduled at the aeeting. The Pres. i'!AST-S I6-ltEWS There will be a MAST SIG aeeting the 21st of Feb. MASi is the 'Minn. Atari ST" SIS (Special Interest Sroupl of

SPACE. The teeting is EVERY 3rd Fri. of the ~onth, at 7:30 ?~ at our r~gular ;eeti ng place, Falcon Heights Cosaunity Center 2077 ~. Larpenteur. The only r;quire~ent to beco1e a 1ember of MAST is to join SPACE. ~AST news will be covered in the regular SPACE Aew~letter, this way there is one printing, one postage to pay, and everyone will get the latest ST NEWS delivered to their home. New infor~ation on the ST will still be covered it the regular SPACE ;eeting, but will be expanded and pulled apart at the HAST meeting the next Fri. , one ~eek later. The extra cost of the 1eeting hall will be taken care •Jf by the selling of 3 1/2' D.0.11. 's for the ST. The extra :est of the Newsletter will be covered hy NEW ST OWNERS joining SPACE, and 11ore ads in our newsletter. Re11e11ber the 305, support our local computer dealers. By having one ;ain coaputer club with a SIS on the NEW 5:0ST\ everyone will be kept up-to-date on both the old and new 4TARl, 1n the NEWSL£iTER, ano each ieeting can cover their own 1nique problems. RE~EMBER SAME PL~CE, SHH£ TIME, ·JNE ~Eff LATER FOR 510Si KAST i'!EETINB.

The last SPACE ~eeting ~as held Friday, .,anuary 10. In 'Ru;ors•, Bruce Haug reported that there ~111 be a 1040ST for Sl000. 00 (includes ~onochrome 2onitor, double sided drive and built-in power suppliesi to be sold at co1puter stares and a 260ST {or 520Si 1) with sonitor; television output (low res only) for $100 less than current 520ST syste1s ~ is to be sold by ~ass ~erchandisers. The co~puter can he purchased separately t ram the 1onitar or drive. An advertisement bv Js,A for tte ST was also mentioned, as ~ell as 1 possible TV ~d. Jis Sc:hulz related some further ST news 5u:n as the ST-TT 32 bit machine for approxi~ately 11000 with l ;egapiiel resolution. He ~entioned 6810 and 6820 · aicroprocessor-based machines. The 20 iegabyte hard 1rive and RDM's are due by February I. ATARI ~ill offer their awn 1 meg upgrade for the 520ST. rrank Haug discussed the dist of the month. lnc!ude1 were 1 Diaaond" and current Federal tas templ3tes far SynCalc. Bob Siede reported a bank balance of :f.1103.)4. Bruce oentioned the XE upgrades for SynCalc and SynFiie+ are now available. The BBS was 1own due to the ?erccm dr:ve needing repair. Dick Johnsen said that the Perea~ "slave drive" fro; the BBS is available far purchase. He would like ta buy two 1050 drives for the !BS. In old business, purc~ase of a ;econd TV or monitor was discussed. A ;otion was seconded and passed ta purchase a new Joni tor. A Zenith color ~onitar from ccr.B is the most likely c,ndiaate. The riboan re-inker has been shipped. An ST special interest ~roug (sigl will oe •ormea soon. (It was decided after th~ ~eeting to have this s1~ meet on the third Friday cf the ~onth ~tarting with February - sa~e tiae and location ~s ncr~ai SPACE 1eet1ng). ihere should be an annaunc:e~ent in the February newsletter. The only neN business ~as that Beginner 's Group ~ould ~eet after this ~eeting. There appeared to be little interest. !~ 'Problems/Serv1c1nq•, Steve Pauley of Mindtcols said the I meg ~pgrade problams that User Fr:!ndl y described at their recent STING ST ~eeting was in error. All that is needeo is a few extra resistors to be compatible with the new RDM's , In 'Offers/Deals', it was reportea that the 1020 plotter was available for t20.00 by ,ail and that a •ew K-Marts had a few 900XL 's for J59 to $69, In 'Demos" 1 Larry !Jandenplas showe~ 'Typesetter' (Xlent Software). It d~es ~hat ~he tit;e says usi~g various fer.ts, s::es. etc. rn ·1ertical or horizontal layouts. Sordy fra~ A1zard '; 4ork ;hawed Hal:ev Patrol IANTICI. It is ~n ~aucat1cnal program ibcut co!et Halley. Tadd Surtey ai Mindtoal; je;o ' a !Jrro, a game aoout the heroic 5washbuciier.

SPACE FEBRUARY, 1986 PAGE 2

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SPACE FEBRUARY, 1986 PAGE 3

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CHRIS CRAWFORD

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a,:::;::;::;;;;;;;;;..;__,,.....-ASSEIIBL YLANGUAGE COURSE

EXCLUSIVELY FDR USE OF WORLDWIDE USERS NETWORK LESSON EIGHT: SOIIE ADVANCED TOPICS We have covered all of the traditional 1aterial associated with b502 asse1bly language program1ing, However, there re1ain a nu■ber of topics that should be addressed before we finish. They are not closely associated with each other, so I will take the• in rando1 order, The first topic is perhaps the ■ost difficult one for a beginning asse1bly-language progra■aer: Where do I begin? How do I put together an entire assembly language project? The problem here is seldo1 a technical one. !lost beginners are stopped by their own lack of goals rather than any lack of technical expertise. One does not just write an asse1bly language progra1 because one knows asse■ bly language -- that is putting the cart before the horse. One starts with goals and -then considers means. A story fro■ my early days with ■icros will illustrate this point.· I did not have anybody to teach me assembly ·language. I decided in 1976 that I wanted to do warga■es on computers. Accordingly, I bought a Kill-1, an early 6502-based single-board co■puter, I received it in January 1977. I studied the manuals and taught myself 6502 aachine langvage. I had 1y first warga ■e up and running in six weeks. That means that I not only taught myself 6502 in six ~eeks, but I wrote and debugged a prograa at the saae ti1e. Now, the point of this story is NOT "Wow, isn't Chris Crawford the saartest progra11er who ever lived!" The point of this story is that goal-oriented learning is far more effective than goal-less learning. Had I sat in on so ■e technical course on 6502, I would have taken ■onths and ilOnths to learn the ■ aterial. Because I had a clear goal, learned very quickly. !1y advice to you, the beginning asse■bly progra11er, is this: You have acquainted yourself with the rudi1ents of 6502 prograHing. lf you have so1e project you 11ould like -to pursue, so ■e goal you would like to achieve, then do it, If not, don't 11aste your tiae trying to use a tool for its own sake. Assuming you pass this first test, there remains the broad proble• of organizng your asse■bly language pragra ■, I suggest that you break your program up into six modules, each forming a separate source code file. These six modules

EQUATES file: this file defines all of the equates used by the program: the data areas, the page zero 3nd page six usage, and perhaps some of the large graphics and screen structures. DATA file: this file contains all of used by the progra1, This would include messages that would be printed onto the graphics images, graphics character set forth.

the static tables all the text 5creen, bitmaps of definitions, and so

INITIALIZATION code: this file contains the routines that initialize the prograa when it first fires up. They set up the screen, clear out all the special graphics and sound registers, zero out all the arrays that need to be cleared, and do all the other legwork associated with clearing the decks for a program. INTERRUPT code: this module contains the code associated with any interrupts used by your program. This 11ouid most comaonly involve vertical blank interrupts and display list interrupts. Inasmuch as your interrupts should be well-separated fro ■ your other code, you !!light as well keep the code in a separate file. MAINLINE code. This includes the ;1ain program loop that controls the pri;1ary behavior of the prograll. If you have probleas iaagining this, think of it :1.s nothing more than a series of subroutine calls arranged in a laoo, with each subroutine handling one chunk of the overall process. SUBROUTINE code: After a while you build up a collection of subroutines for handling standard processes in the program. Keep the• here. The second topic I would like ta talk about is the place of the 6502 in the larger world of microprocessors, The 6502 is undoubtedly the most successful of microprocessors to date, having been installed in more systems than any other nicroprocessor. It is also a very old 1icroprocessor, having first appeared in 1976. That makes it nine years old. A very simple way to approach the world of microprocessors is to group them into two sets -- the Sixes and the Eights. The Eights represent the earliest group of microprocessors, they trace their lineage ai the way back to the 4004, the first microprocessor. The 4004 was followed by the 3008, the first eight-bit micarprocessor. The 8008 was superseded by the 8080, which 11as in turn fallowed by the Z-80. The Z-80 was the most advanced eight-bit processor in the Eights line. The next step was

SPACE FEBRUARY, 1986 PAGE 3

SPACE FEBRUARY, 1986 PAGE 4 to go to 16 bits with the 8088 and 8086. These were followed by the more polierful 80186, 80286, and 80386. The funda1ental philosophy of all the Eights can be er.pressed in tNo words: features and compatibility. The designers of the Eights were always adding new features to the iicroprocessors with each successive generation. The goal see1ed to be to pack as 1any bells and whistles in as would fit. The second goal, compatibility, aeant coapatibility with the previous 1icroprocessor in the series. This insured that software developed for previous versions would still run on the newer versions. The result of this design philosophy was a series of polierful microprocessors that were quite. complex in layout and rather difficult to learn. The features were piled up an each other in a bewildering array. Once you learn the syste1 1 it seems natural enough. But it is something of a ileSS,

The Sixes include the 6800 1 the 6502 1 the 6809 1 and the 68000. The two key words guiding the design of the Sixes are cleanliness and speed. The idea was to make the instruction sets clean, powerful, and fast. The hope was that the processors would be so easy to learn that compatibility would not be a problem. The design approach was to use just a few simple instructions, but give them variations that greatly extend their power. Thus, the 6502 has a LDA instruction that can be used with a great 1any addressing ;odes. The 68000 is the 32-bit entry into the Sixes line. It carries the idea of cleanliness even further than the 6502. The 68000 uses a single instruction with different modes to replace the 6502 instructions LDA, LDX, LDV, STA, STX, STY, TXA, TAX, TYA, PHA and PLA. That's quite a si1plification! The 68000 also boasts sixteen registers, each 32 bits wide. That's a total of 512 bits of register space, the b502 has 32 bits of equivalent register space. Those si~teen registers eliminate many of the data-shuffling problems so caamon with the 6502. The 68000 has a linear address space 24 bits 11ide -that ·s sixteen negabytes! Thus, a 68000 can directly address 16 aegabytes of RA" and RON. The 6502, by contrast, can only address 64K directly -- it 1ust use paging sytems that slow it down to address more memory.

variables stared on the stack, painter register. The 68000 will manage all the housekeeping necessary ta keep such a system straight. Did I ~ention that 68000 has hardware multiply/divide? THE END D.O.!I. Stuff

By:Frank Haug ATTENTION!! 1 If you own one of the following programs: Electronic Art's Pinball Constr. Set, Koala/Atari t:uch tablet lar light penl I Mavi2Naker 1 Paint, or AMS; PLEASE SEE !IE AT THE MEEiING. I would apreciate your help in trying ta put together extra disks that could be sold to members 3nd traded to other clubs. In our club's tradings I've seen the pictures,movies and songs, that they put out, and l know that we can de better -- or at least as ~cod as they did. This is the last ti~e I am going to ask you to help. After this it drops, and if the programs we get in trade for ours start tc look like 1982 rejects, you'll know why. Besides the DON, we will be seiling another picture disk containing iore Micro Illustrator pictures with an AUTORUN on bath sides. Now on with the programs on the February 1986 DON.

1.MINNCALC.SC - The state tax template for 5yncalc. 2.GAMBLER - An intergrated v3riety of games of :~ance. 3.WDPUZGEN - Word find puzzle generator, creates a key and puzzle of user defined words. 4.DEFENSE - A defender clone. 5.APPLKILL.BAS - A final record cf a for~er ;:011peti tor. b.~INIGOLF - A challenging game of minnature golf. ATTENTION Ta the member who has the Disk Librarv en SYNFILE 1 please see Frank Haug about same.

MASi-SIG DISK Jim Schulz is compiling a 3.5 inch disk far the NAST-SIS meeting, out has net yet chosen all the programs fer the disk fro~ the many ST programs available.

Finally, the 68000 has a number of advanced capabilities that 1ake possible a nuaber of special capabiliti~s. I will describe just one stack frames. The 68000 11akes it easy to set up a local, temporary stack when you enter a subroutine. Thus, subroutines can have their ~wn local

SPACE FEBRUARY, 198~ PAGE 4

SPACE ii 1n ind-,endtnt uur int1rnt 9raup of Ollltrl af ATARI Hall Caputlf'I, It hll bllft ar91niZ1d by lacll Olffllrt of ATARI ca111ut1r1 far th1 purpa11 af 111tu1l nlf 111i1t1nc1 and 1h1rin1 of infar11tian. It i1 ap1n ta 111 tnt,rntld CDIPUtlr tnthu1i11t1, Tht 9raup h11 recently ch1n9td 111tin9 ti• and lac1tian ta 1ccaaod1t1 tht r1c1nt influx af n• 111b1r1. SPACE now 1ut1 an tht 1tcand Friday af 11ch ■anth 1t tht F1lcan Hli9ht1 Ca1111nity C1nt1r 1 2077 N11t L1rp1nt111r 1 1t 7:30 p1, N11tin9 till ind lac1tian Clft bl canfirlld by c1llin9 ant af tht offictrl li1tld btlaw. NAST ii I SI& (Sptcill Int1rnt 6raup) af SPACE, and ii inttndtd far th1 own1r1 af tht RN ATARI 5205T, infar11tian an athlr ATARI ClllflUtlrl ii nat dilCUlltd It NAST 111tin91. Thtrl ii na 1dditian1l lllbtrlhip fN ta b1ca11 I ■nbtr of NAST, Tht IIAST NENSLETTER ii part af tht r1911l1r SPACE Ntwtl1tttr and i1 uiltd to yaur ha11 11ch 1anth b1far1 th1 1Ntin9 d1t1,IIAST 111t1 th1 third Friday af tht ■anth 1t tht 11111bav1 lac1tian and till, B1n1fit1 af 111b1r1hip include 1oft111r1 d1■an1tr1tian1, 9raup purch11111t 1ub1t1nti1l di1caunt1 1 1roup proJ1ct1, public da11in disk of th, eanth laft111r11t vtry la11 pricn, baat library, "" lduc1tian1l 1aftw1r1 library with ovtr 20 pra9r111, p1r1an1l cant1cts / llarnin9 1 9r1at1r infarution/1wartn111 an th, world of ATARI, 1aftw1n 1t dhcalint1d pricn frn d11ltr1 1t 1Ntin91, Qu11tian • An...,. Sn1ian, 1tc. Cut ta 1 111tin9 ta find aut 10n, -------------F OR NORE INFORNATION, CONTACT ACLUB OFFICER---------------------Bruc1 Hau9,,,Pr11idtnt ___ n4-6226 1hulz,,,,Vic1-Pr11___ W-5442

Ji ■

Bab Flayd,,,,Stcr1t1ry __ 487-2627 Bab Rhadt,,,,Editar _____ 222-3593

Bab Sild1,,,,Tr111ur1r __ 489-3982 Frank h1119,,,Di1k Lib ___ 774-6226 Ji ■ Sitd1,,,Pa,tr/Educ1tian1l Libr1ri1n ___ 489-3982

SPACE/TAI& Bull1tin Baard,,,473-2897

S.F".A. C.E.

Name _____________ _____________ ____ Phone ____________ Date _____________ _ Addrass _____________ _________ City ___________ State ______ Zip __________ _ Equipment/Sys tem-Used _____________ _____________ _____________ ________ _ Areas of Interest _____________ _____________ _______ _

CHECK ONE or BOTH1 SPACE ____ MAST ___ _ Dues •14.00 per year - Please enclose check with Application. Mail Application and dues to: St. Paul ATARI Computer Enthusiasts 1697 E. Hoyt ave. ST. Paul, MN ~~106

a

SUPPLIES B & D HCllJ1E camFUTEn HOYT /!NE. 1887 E. ST, PAUL. MINN. 5SI08 1812)-774-6228

5 1/4 SSDD FLOPPYS 10 FOR S7.90

:3 1/2 SSDD FLOPPYS . 10 FOR $20.00

BUTTONS S.50 EA 100 TO CHOOSE FROM

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ST. PAUL ATARI COMPUTER ENTHUSIASTS BROCE HAUG, PRESIDENT 1697 E. BOYT AVE. ST. PAUL, MN, 55106 {612)774-6226

IZARD'S' WO HERE FOR YO WE HAVE PRODUCTS AND EXPERTISE

0° ~=0 URS:M&W 11TH-S 11-5:..,