blk@sytek.UUCP (Brian L. Kahn) (02/07/84)
How does Ray Miller know these things? Can one find documentation hidden away on the back shelves of used book stores, like ancient magic books? Or is there actually a source of commodore information? I always thought that "commodore" and "documentation" were mutually exclusive terms. Help? B<
porter@inuxd.UUCP (J Porter) (02/08/84)
+ To best understand how you find out about the deep dark secrets of the Commodore operating system, simply look at Commoodore's previous designs (ie: the PET). The PET has been around since 1977 and the 64 is just a spin off of the PET theme. The operating system is almost identical. And there is a tremendous amount of info available for the PET (if you can get past the shallow stuff in the B. Dalton bookstore). Prior to 1980 however, this was not the case. But Commodore got wise and in a book published by Commodore (England) called "The PET Revealed" they told all - or at least started to tell all. A book pubished by Compute! called "Programming the PET/CBM" is a literal encyclopedia of info on the kernal. Another book written by Jim Strasma (of Midnite/PAPER fame) is the third edition of the PET users guide, which has excellent memory map cross reference between original PETs, Upgrade PETs, 4.0 BASIC PETs, 80 column CBMs, and Fat 40's. It's the same operating system - just located in a different place in memory. (minor adjustments for the most part). This same operating system is used in the VIC and 64. I have had an Upgrade PET since 1979, and it was like pulling teeth just to get a schematic back then. Now with Sams publishing the Programmer's Reference Guide and with such excellent magazines such as Compute! there is no reason to think that they are hiding any secrets. Well, I guess I don't have any more secrets either. Jeff Porter (inuxd!porter) AT&T Consumer Products Indianapolis
miller@uiucdcs.UUCP (miller ) (02/12/84)
#R:sytek:-35400:uiucdcs:36100040:000:244 uiucdcs!miller Feb 12 00:28:00 1984 No, it's not magic. I: 1) read a lot; 2) disassembled the ROMs (trace through a few lines a day and it adds up after a while); and 3) obtain and share info learned with others. That's what education is all about. A. Ray Miller Univ Illinois