May 1979 — Vol 1 No 4

Overview

The "election" issue: full slate of nominees published, with short biographical sketches. A "trial marriage" with NOVAPPLE (Northern Virginia's Apple users group) is announced — articles will carry NOVAPPLE designations, and the mailing list is merged. Bernie Urban devotes 2+ pages to Jon Roland's "The Microelectronic Revolution" from The Futurist (April 1979), excerpting predictions on integrated-circuit "throughput density," picocomputers implanted in human skulls, and the "dator" personal terminal — adding his own warning against a 1984-style abuse of the network. John Moon contributes two deep technical pieces: locating Integer BASIC variables in memory, and an interface to the Monitor's floating-point routines. First paid advertisement appears: Research Associates' SHAPE DESIGNER ($15.95).

Table of contents

Articles

Editor's letter & nominations slate (page 1) — Bernard Urban

Mark L. Crosby withdraws his name (over-committed). Urban moves to re-open nominations for President and Treasurer. Adds Rick Hodder as a member-at-large nominee from the Greenapples. Nominee slate:

"Church Bells in the Offing?" — NOVAPPLE merger (pages 1–2) — Bernard Urban

NOVAPPLE has agreed to a "trial marriage" — contributing articles, effort, money toward the newsletter. Phil Eastman (NOVAPPLE VP) is the contact. NOVAPPLE-sourced articles will carry a designation; mailing lists are merged.

Minutes of 4/28/79 (page 2)

Constitution and membership list distributed. Substantial discussion of free-exchange-of-marketed-programs question; motion passes to appoint a copyright research committee (Mort Simon and Fred Artiss) to report in 60 days. Tom Bottegal states no copying of copyrighted material allowed on GWU premises. Hersch Pilloff discussed DOS 3.2. Meeting adjourned to John Moon's 6502 class and program exchange.

Floppy disk storage envelopes (page 2)

Mark L. Crosby arranged a source for clear-vinyl mini-floppy storage sheets: 10-sheet sets with 20 floppy capacity for $6.40, fits a 3-ring binder.

"Something to Think About" — Jon Roland excerpts (pages 2–4) — Bernard Urban

Lengthy excerpts from Jon Roland's "The Microelectronic Revolution" in The Futurist (April 1979). Key concepts: "throughput density" (gate density × switching speed × transmission speed); the prediction that "during the next few years this microelectronic intelligence is likely to be incorporated into almost every product large enough to contain it"; the "dator" (Swedish term for combined computer/terminal) personal device prediction; the speculative picocomputer implanted in a person's skull; and Roland's claim that more than half of yellow-pages occupations will cease to exist. Urban's editorial coda: this could become an Orwellian 1984; "we as members of an 'in group' with knowledge of microcomputers have a responsibility to ensure that the future he portrays does not become warped." A remarkable mid-1979 statement of techno-ethics from a hobbyist newsletter.

Software Review: SINGLE DISK COPY (page 4) — Howard Richoux

Review of SINGLE DISK COPY from Peripherals Unlimited (Lakewood CA, ~$20). Loads a disk in three memory chunks and writes back to a second disk — saving the cost of a second drive. Available at Computers Plus. Richoux's wishlist: a file-compression option to defragment files while copying.

"Locating Integer BASIC Variables" (page 5) — John L. Moon

A small Integer BASIC routine that, given a variable name in ADDR$, returns Z6 = machine address of the data area (or -1 if undefined). Uses PEEK(74)+PEEK(75)*256 for the start of variables and PEEK(204)+PEEK(205)*256 for the end. Caveat: doesn't handle string-variable names yet.

"Floating Point in Integer BASIC" (pages 6–8) — John L. Moon

Promised in the previous issue. Walks through: - Why naive attempts to call the Monitor's floating-point routines bomb BASIC (the FP work area $F3-$FC overlaps BASIC's utility area) - A 4-byte FP representation: exponent byte (with $80 bias, sign in high bit) followed by 3-byte signed-magnitude mantissa - A normalized format (01.xxxxxx for positive, 10.xxxxxx for negative) - A machine-language wrapper at $300 that saves the BASIC utility area to $FF1C, copies operands $0-$7 into FP registers, calls the requested FP routine, restores everything - A reference table of FP entry points: Float $F451, Fix $F63D, Add $F46E, Subtract $F468, Multiply $F48C, Divide $F4B2, Abs $F432, Negate $F4A4 - A forward reference to next month's piece on SWEET 16, "Wozniack's 'Dream Machine'"

Research Associates SHAPE DESIGNER advertisement (page 9)

First paid advertisement in the journal. Research Associates (1373 "E" Street SE, Washington DC) — Mark Crosby's address — selling SHAPE DESIGNER on disk for $15.95. Interactive shape-table editor using U/D/L/R keys; assemble up to 255 shapes; needs Disk II and 32K recommended. "A long-awaited program, the SHAPE DESIGNER is a must for all APPLE owners."

"Music for Greenapples" (page 9) — Rick Hodder

Two-month series begins. Use the music subroutine on page 45 of the Apple Red Reference Manual; POKE pitch into location 0, duration into location 1. G scale: G=255, A=230, B=202, C=190, D=170, E=151, F=134, G=126. Durations: whole=150, half=120, quarter=100, eighth=50.

Biographical sketches (page 10)

Brief candidate bios — among the highlights: - Tom Bottegal — 5+ years computers; teaches CS 51, 52, 157, 158, 201 at GWU - Mark L. Crosby — 31, trade association in adult career ed, former music major - David T. Itkin — 17, 12th grade, uses an OSI at school - John L. Moon — BS CS Univ. of Florida, ACM member, Manager Software Architecture at IBM FSD Manassas, Va - Robert Peck — Lt. Commander, U.S. Navy (retired May 1, 1979), 30 years Navy medical service, Armed Forces Inst. of Pathology administrator - Bernard Urban — programming since 1951 on SEAC, UNIVAC, 1103, CIRCLE, IBM 704/709/etc.; co-chairs ACM Task Group #12 "Handicapped and Special Education" - Genevie Urban — 15 years programming SEAC, UNIVAC, IBM 701/705/709/7090/7094 before raising family

Club news / events / announcements

• Election upcoming May 19 (rescheduled from last Saturday due to Memorial Day weekend conflict)
• Copyright research committee formed (Simon + Artiss)
• NOVAPPLE absorbed into the mailing list
• Next meeting: May 19, 9:30 AM, GWU Thompkins Hall Room 206

Notable advertisements

• Research Associates SHAPE DESIGNER — first paid ad, $15.95 on disk; Mark Crosby's company

Key quotes

• "More than half of the occupations represented in such listings will cease to exist!" — Jon Roland via Bernard Urban (page 4)
• "We as members of an 'in group' with knowledge of microcomputers have a responsibility to ensure that the future he portrays does not become warped into one akin to George Orwell's 1984." — Bernard Urban (page 3)
• "I have only loaded [APPLESOFT] into the machine twice. This is an effect of not having an APPLESOFT ROM card or the Disk. Besides, it wasn't until I started trying to do motion simulations and 3-D graphics and the like that Integer BASIC didn't have all that I needed." — John L. Moon (page 6)

Entities

People: Bernard Urban, Genevie Urban, John Moon, Mark L. Crosby, John Ditman, Susan Eickmeyer, Sandy Greenfarb, Hal Weinstock, Robert Peck, Tom Bottegal, David T. Itkin, Mort Simon, Thomas Robinson, Rick Hodder, Phil Eastman, Fred Artiss, Hersch Pilloff, Howard Richoux, Jon Roland Topics: 6502 Machine Language, Integer BASIC, Floating Point Arithmetic, SWEET 16, HI-RES Graphics, Shape Tables, DOS 3.2, Copyright and Software Sharing, Apple Music, Microelectronic Revolution References: NOVAPPLE, The Futurist, SHAPE DESIGNER, Research Associates, SINGLE DISK COPY, Peripherals Unlimited, Computers Plus, George Washington University

Connections to other issues

• Forward references: SWEET 16 article promised for 1979-06 — V01 N05; Hodder's music series continues there
• Copyright committee deadline (60 days from April) lands in 1979-06 — V01 N05 or 1979-07 — V01 N06

Open questions

• Did NOVAPPLE's "trial marriage" lead to a permanent merger, or did NOVAPPLE remain a sister group? Watch the masthead.