The Sinclair QL Forum

NormanDunbar wrote:Thanks everyone. I hope you think it's a bargain.

It is. That coupon code did the trick for me as well.

NormanDunbar wrote:Thanks everyone. I hope you think it's a bargain.

Of course, this is an original Norman, at that price I had to get it

Ordered my copy today too

mk79 wrote:Of course, this is an original Norman, at that price I had to get it

Flattery! That will get you anywhere! Thanks.

pr0f wrote:Ordered my copy today too

Thanks Pr0f, hope you enjoy it.

Cheers,
Norm.

A long time ago I bought some Atari Sts to run SMS2. I was not a QL user and when Atari ceased trading I stopped using SMS2
and started using Microsoft Windows.

I am not a programmer but I enjoyed designing programs for SMS2. The main SMS2 design was a networked accounting program which
was used by a number of companies until real-time reporting was required. I re-wrote it to run on a PC and this version is still in use to date.

About 5 years ago I bought an Arduino, downloaded the development environment and immediately lost interest.I have bought your book
and anticipate it will rekindle my hobby interest in computer control systems.

When I heard of the Q68 I bought some of them, found ancient SMS2 stuff in my attic, and spent some time configuring my Q68s to look like the
SMS2 Ataris.
I like the Q68 and have written over a hundred small test application programs in BASIC during my ongoing "learning curve". The "SMS2" BASIC
programming interface seems much easier to use than the Arduino equivalent.

If the Q68 had the I/O capability of an Arduino I guess it might represent an easy to use control system.

Thank you for providing links to your other work. I have downloaded your PDF on assembly language programming and enjoyed reading your first
sentence:- "Assembly language is very, very simple." I not sure that I will be able to write assembly language programs even if it is very simple
but it is certain that my BASIC programs could be improved with some new keywords written in assembly.

I am going to see how much it will cost to have it printed locally in book form. Have you considered publishing it on Blurb?
I would be willing to pay for the startup costs.

i think the difference between assembler and basic is that you are directly responsible for the commands being run when programming in assembler - as you've provided the instructions - with Basic - there is a lot going on behind the scense, so sometimes the unexpected can happen.

Also - Assembler is very low level so the possible outcomes of running an instruction should be quite predicacble

Hi Tinyfpga,

Tinyfpga wrote:About 5 years ago I bought an Arduino, downloaded the development environment and immediately lost interest.I have bought your book
and anticipate it will rekindle my hobby interest in computer control systems.

Thanks for buying the book.

I got my first Arduino in 2009, I think, maybe 2010. A Duemilanove (2009 in Italian). I've played with it on and off since then. I've also got a few ATtiny85 dvices for whenever a full blown Arduino isn't necessary. If I do need the big chip, I have a few of those also that I can breadboard into a device - without the Arduino paraphenalia of always on LEDs and such like. The only "serious" thing I've done is an interrupt driven ATtiny85 based "Lime Tree Waterer" for when my wife tells me I need a holiday. My lime tree gets watered any time it gets too dry.

The book isn't one of the many that show you a project and tell you how to build it, supplying a ready made sketch, it's in three main parts:

- How all the functions in the Arduino Language work, with almost full source code. So, how does pinMode() actaully take your pin number and mode, and make the ATmega328 set that mode for that pin, how does digitalWrite() do what it does. All the classes are disassembled and explained as well;

- How you can replace pinMode(), digitalWrite() etc with smaller, better (!), faster code;

- How the hardware works, Fuses, lock bits, timer/counters, analogue converter, ADC, Timer/counter 1's Input Capture Unit, etc - many of which are not easily accessible from the Arduino Language;

- Appendices, lots! How to build a breadboarded/stripboarded "NormDuino", how to get rid of the crystal and gain two extra GPIO pins, how to program it without a USB cable, or without an ICSP device, how to use the ATmega328's internal temperature measuring sensor, etc etc.

- And "lots lots more" as they say. Example code is provided for many of the chapters.

Tinyfpga wrote:I like the Q68 and have written over a hundred small test application programs in BASIC during my ongoing "learning curve". The "SMS2" BASIC
programming interface seems much easier to use than the Arduino equivalent.

If the Q68 had the I/O capability of an Arduino I guess it might represent an easy to use control system.

That would be a nice to have!

Tinyfpga wrote:Thank you for providing links to your other work. I have downloaded your PDF on assembly language programming and enjoyed reading your first
sentence:- "Assembly language is very, very simple." I not sure that I will be able to write assembly language programs even if it is very simple
but it is certain that my BASIC programs could be improved with some new keywords written in assembly.

You are very welcome. There's a couple of chapters on adding new keywords etc using Assembly, so you should be good to go.

Tinyfpga wrote:I am going to see how much it will cost to have it printed locally in book form. Have you considered publishing it on Blurb?
I would be willing to pay for the startup costs.

I'd never heard of Blurb, so I went looking. I'm not sure it's the right platform though. Doesn't have much (any) technical books on their lists. I might use Lulu or maybe, Softcover, if I ever get around to it and convert my LaTeX source into whatever these platforms need/want.

I appreciate the willingness to pay for Blurb, but no, I doubt it would ever sell enough copies for you to recoup your costs, and I'm not about to take advantage of your generosity. Feel free to take what I've written - the source is on my GitHub in a repository - and publish it yourself, if you really want to. It's only fair that if you provide the up front costs you get something back. Go for it with my full permission.


Cheers,
Norm.

Pr0f wrote:i with Basic - there is a lot going on behind the scense, so sometimes the unexpected can happen.

I'd rather say that with assembly the unexpected will happen

NormanDunbar wrote:it's in three main parts:

Ok, it's in slightly more than three!

Cheers,
Norm.

PrOf wrote:- "with Basic - there is a lot going on behind the scene, so sometimes the unexpected can happen."

This certainly seems to be my experience. It has sometimes taken me a week to work out why my use of a BASIC keyword does not
work. Sometimes even crashing the Q68. (at least it takes only seconds to restart)
I always compile my programs to produce an application running in a fixed or moveable window in the Q68's high resolution setting.
Most (All?) of the sample code I have downloaded from the marvelous Dilwyn Jones's website seems to have been written as though
it was going to be running in a low resolution interpreted framework.

Although difficult to understand (for me), M. Lenerz's series of articles on writing moveable window programs was invaluable.
I collated his articles into a PDF file as follows. Forum users might find the articles as useful as I did.