knudsen (10/29/82)
In the first Bud -vs- Blatz game last nite, a grounder bounced low and went between the fielder's legs. It appeared he never touched it. Yet the umpire called an error. (I assume the ball had top spin on it, so it bounced lower than expected -- seems unfair to call this an error.) Later, another Brewer bounder was caught (by 22nd or short) who pulled it out to throw to 1st and dropped it out of his glove and had to chase it a bit. Incredibly, this was NOT ruled an error! I always thought that the major reason for calling an error was that you touched the ball without getting control of it. So, I think the first "error" was an honest hit, and the second abortion was an open-&-shut error! Since I'm brewing for the Rooters (oops) I enjoyed both misplays, but could someone explain the above to me? PS: ... here's the 3-1 delivery ... Ball 4! Another brew for the Walkers! PS: On deck is ... check that, it's a pinch brewer for the Hitters... I've used a KIM-1 off & on since '77, and have spent last couple days reading Motorola's excellent docs on their 6809. Also have been enjoying the many responses to my Color-80 query last week. General impression is that the 6809 combines the best of 6800 and 6502, plus lots more (16-bit index regs, multiply, etc etc). HOWEVER, it really doesn't extend the 6502, just the 6800 (naturally). Two 6502 addressing modes are missing from the '09: Zero-page indirect (explicitly forbidden; you must use fullword address to the RAM pointer) Index AFTER indirection (what you get with the Y index (I think) in the 6502). That is, indirection in the 6809 is still treated as an afterthought, after using up the index reg, if any. Since the Motorola engineers knew about the 6502, why the above shortcomings? (1) Figured these modes weren't all that valuable, given the other 6809 goodies. (2) "Not Invented Here" syndrome (3) Fear of legal action from MOS-Tech, now Commodore. Note: Motorola sued hell out of MOS-Tech when 650x came out, calling it a 6800 ripoff. Resolved by MOS-Tech's agreeing to kill the 6801, but not the rest. Too bad Motorola didn't get the rights at this time to in turn ripoff the 6502 innovations. (4) "Nobody can understand or use them crazy addressing modes anyway." Just Apple, Commodore, Atari, & all us KIM hackers. Don't get me wrong, the 6809 has to be THE FINEST 8-bitter yet, with the possible exception of the 8088, and for assembly programming I'll probably prefer the '09. It just hurts me to see a processor get so close to perfection & then not quite make it. Oh well.... Post flames to net.micro.