June 1980 — Vol 2 No 6

Overview

New administration takes office. Election results: Bernard Urban is Pi's third President, Rich Wasserstrom VP, Dana Schwartz Secretary, Robert Peck continues as Treasurer; Members-at-Large Scooter Conrad, Mark L. Crosby, Sandy Greenfarb. John Moon becomes honorary Executive Board member; Susan Eickmeyer stays on as Program Chair; Genevie Urban continues as Associate Editor. Executive Board now meets the second Wednesday monthly with minutes published. New appointments: Tom Jones Membership Chairperson; Dave Efron Advertising Manager. John Moon will run a Pi modem bulletin board. The library has reached 19 disks. Library issues with the disk-purchase quality and drive-speed adjustments are discussed. The headlining technical piece is Bruce F. Field's software half of his real-time clock series — interrupt-driven, continuously displays time in the upper-right of the screen even during other programs. Tom Woteki (Dr. Wo) adds lowercase input to Apple Pascal by porting Dan Paymar's tricks.

Table of contents

Articles

Editorial — President's Message (page 1) — Bernard Urban

First message as elected President. Thanks outgoing John Moon, Susan Eickmeyer (continuing as Program Chair), Genevie Urban (continuing as Associate Editor). Announces regular Board meetings on the second Wednesday of each month — open to membership; date/time on the official phone (468-2305). Appoints:

• Tom Jones — Membership Chairperson (directory, demographics, membership cards)
• Dave Efron — Advertising Manager + organizer of printed APPLE materials (APNotes from IAC piling up at Urban's house; newsletter exchanges from Eastern IAC region)

Urban surfaces a tension that recurs: three audiences at Pi meetings — newcomers, experts who get bored by elementary discussions, and youngsters interested in games. Pilloff's Q&A and Gass's SIGAMES are partial answers; more attention needed.

Event Queue (page 1)

• Pi: 4th Saturday, 9:30 AM at GWU. July meeting: July 26
• NOVAPPLE: 2nd Thursday (Computers Plus Franconia) + 4th Thursday (Computerland Tysons), 7:30 PM

Classifieds (page 1)

• FOR SALE: Tom Jones — Applesoft Firmware with Autostart ROM + Applesoft Reference Manual, $135
• WANTED TO RENT: John Robb wants to rent an Apple II/II+ for 1–3 months while waiting for Apple III delivery

Minutes of Pi 5/31/80 (page 2)

Election results (tallied by Chuck Philipp and Nancy Philipp):

Sue Zakar (Program Chair) announces June program: Apple III by Paul A. Sand (briefing from his Newark NJ tutorial). Membership directory pros/cons discussed. Club setting up a modem bulletin board with John Moon in charge. Library now at 19 disks. Discussion of disk quality issues and adjusting drive speed. Treasurer reported on group purchases.

Program: Theron Fuller on PILOT — covered compilers, translators, structure.

Minutes of June Executive Board (page 2) — Dana Schwartz

First published Board minutes — Urban's note that the Board will publish its minutes "to keep the general membership better informed":

1. Treasurer reports collection difficulties on some newsletter and ad bills. Motion to put delinquent commercial accounts on cash-only basis tabled until next meeting.
2. Board meetings: 2nd Wednesday monthly, open to members
3. Revised meeting format coming (announced by Urban)
4. Membership directory — Tom Jones to propose format; members can opt out of any/all personal data
5. Treasurer wants an Ad Manager; passed: Pi will hire one for a 6-month trial, expenses + commission negotiable. (Subsequently Urban appointed Dave Efron.)

SIG News (page 2)

Correction to last month: Michael Thomas's phone is (703) 978-8411 (typo in April was 928).

"Software for the Experimenter's Real-Time Clock" (pages 3–8) — Bruce F. Field

Continuation of last month's hardware article. The Apple-II software half: an interrupt service routine that updates a memory-resident time and continuously displays the time in the upper-right corner of the screen even while other BASIC or ML programs run. Power line frequency / 60 produces a 1Hz interrupt; the hardware tracks any missed interrupts so software can catch up when interrupts are re-enabled.

Two programs: 1. Interrupt service routine in 6502 assembly — pulses the slot's device-select line to decrement the hardware count, updates stored time, redraws the screen corner 2. Setup loader — installs the ISR, sets the interrupt vector, sets initial time

Full assembly listing and BASIC loader provided.

"Washington Apple Digest" (page 8) — Dave Efron

New column by the new Ad Manager — digest of relevant news.

"Dealer's Corner: Apple Writer to Text File Conversion" (pages 9–12) — Paul A. Sand

Second installment of Dealer's Corner. Walks readers through converting AppleWriter documents to plain text files for use in other Apple applications.

"Blaise Away: Dan Paymar meets M. Pascal — Lower Case Input for your Pascal Apple" (pages 13+) — Dr. Wo (Tom Woteki)

Cover-highlight. Apple Pascal originally has no lower-case keyboard input (the Apple II keyboard is upper-case only). Woteki adapts Dan Paymar's known lowercase-modification hardware approach into a Pascal-callable routine, allowing lowercase input in Pascal programs.

Club news / events / announcements

• New officer slate seated June 1
• Executive Board meeting cadence formalized (2nd Wed)
• Board minutes will be published
• John Moon's BBS being set up
• Library at 19 disks
• Apple Language Card group purchase still at $415

Notable advertisements

• Computerland Tysons Corner sub-ad block (SOFTAPE, Mountain Hardware, Heuristics, Hayden, Automated Simulations, SANYO) — page 2

Key quotes

• "Voiced again and again was the feeling that we must do something about our Saturday meetings. We have, it appears, at least three groups of attendees." — Bernard Urban (page 1)
• "Let me express my personal thanks and that of the entire membership to our outgoing officers, John, Sue and Gena for jobs well done." — Bernard Urban (page 1)
• "The Executive Board has decided to publish the minutes of their meetings in order to keep the general membership better informed on club business." — Editor's note (page 2)

Entities

People: Bernard Urban, John Moon, Genevie Urban, Robert Peck, Rich Wasserstrom, Dana Schwartz, Scooter Conrad, Mark L. Crosby, Sandy Greenfarb, Tom Jones, Dave Efron, Susan Eickmeyer, Bruce F. Field, Tom Woteki, Paul A. Sand, Theron Fuller, Sue Zakar, Chuck Philipp, Nancy Philipp, Michael Thomas, Dan Paymar, John Robb Topics: Pi Officers 1980-81, Executive Board Cadence, Pi BBS, Real-Time Clock Software, AppleWriter Text Conversion, Pascal Lower Case References: Apple Writer, Apple Language Card, Pilot Language

Connections to other issues

• Election results from 1980-05 — V02 N05's ballot
• Real-time clock article completes the hardware half from 1980-05 — V02 N05
• Dave Efron's Washington Apple Digest column debuts here, continues through 1980

Open questions

• When does John Moon's Pi BBS go live, and what's the phone number?
• Did the membership directory ship in 1980? Format?