I am Jeremiah Stoddard, and this is where I will document my participation in RetroChallenge 2008 Winter Warm-up. I’ll be doing a boatload of stuff with my lovely 8 bit systems:

First off, I remember the good ol’ days when one of my favorite ways of acquiring new software was by typing it in by hand. Program listings would come from friends, books of computer games, and magazines. It may have been tedious, but it was cheaper than trading disks, and I first learned to program by typing in other people’s programs. I admire the fact that Applesoft BASIC was an integral part of the system, and I learned a lot from those experiences. Unfortunately today the 8-bit hobbyist community is small, and modern BASIC implementations are reserved for those living at the bottom rung of the professional programmer food chain. So one of my three main objectives in January will be to write (and post the listings of) a handful of small Applesoft programs.

Second, for years I’ve wanted to learn 6502 Assembler programming. January will be the month I get off my duff and write my first pieces of code in Assembler. I will be using the book “Assembly Language for Applesoft Programmers,” to which I was introduced by the A2Unplugged podcast. I will try to figure out how to apply what I learn from that book in the ORCA/M macro assembler which I will be purchasing online this month.

And lastly, I will be writing a research proposal in AppleWorks.

The systems I will be using for this include an Apple IIc with an ImageWriter II printer, and an Apple IIe platinum. Also, the Virtual II emulator will be used largely for screenshots and for the transfer of data between the II’s and the iMac in conjunction with ADTPro. You can read about my progress in the blog section, and enjoy some of the fruits of my labor in the listings section. See you in January!

Comments, suggestions, support - jeremiah at jeremiahstoddard dot com.

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