July 1980 — Vol 2 No 7
Source
Open original PDF • July 1980 • Vol 2 No 7 • 28 pages
Overview
The "build-your-own-Pi-infrastructure" issue. John Moon is building his own Apple Bulletin Board System ("ABBS" — written by him, about to enter testing). DOS 3.3 group buy announced at substantial discount over $60 retail (deposit $20). Two new SIGs: NEWSIG for new Apple owners (led by Al Weiner) and PascalSIG. Featured technical content: Tom Woteki's "Pascal Pointers" primer, Dana Schwartz's FILEMOVER utility, and John Moon's Word Processor — both the construction tutorial and a published user guide. NOVAPPLE sets dues at $12 for 1980–81, declines to bundle Apple Orchard cost.
Table of contents
| Section | Page |
|---|---|
| Cover with highlights | 1 |
| Computerland display ad | 2 |
| Officers; Event Queue; Classifieds | 1 |
| Apple Pi Minutes (Pi 6/28) | 1 |
| Group Purchase: DOS 3.3 | 1 |
| NEWSIG announcement | 1 |
| NOVAPPLE Minutes (6/11) + Notes | 2 |
| "Blaise Away: A Primer on Pascal Pointers" — Dr. Wo | 3–8 |
| "Filemover" — Dana J. Schwartz | 9–14 |
| "Writing a Word Processor" — John L. Moon | 15–17 |
| PascalSIG announcement | 18 |
| "Word Processor User Guide" — John L. Moon | 21+ |
Articles
Minutes of Pi 6/28/80 (page 1)
Rich Wasserstrom (VP) presided. New meeting structure announced; suggestions invited. Items: - Dave Efron (Ad Mgr) seeking help abstracting Apple-related articles regularly - David Morganstein announced new library additions, suggested ways to stimulate contributions - Robert Peck reported on group purchases - Acorn Publications rep announced they were preparing a new Apple magazine, looking for authors - Chuck Reinbrecht (TCA 257) reminded members he is the Apple Source coordinator - Tom Jones (Membership Chair) asked for prospective-member names - John Moon announced he is about to begin testing an Apple Bulletin Board System (ABBS) which he is writing
Main program: Paul A. Sand (Computerland Rockville) slide presentation on Apple III.
Group Purchase: DOS 3.3 (page 1)
Discount over retail $60 + tax. $20 deposit required to place order. Call the club number.
NEWSIG (page 1)
A new SIG for new Apple owners, led by Al Weiner — "an experienced computer programmer, but a new Apple owner." Will cover basics through problem-solving strategies.
Minutes of NOVAPPLE 6/11/80 (page 2)
- Henry Tannenbaum of PM Magazine looking for people with unusual Apple uses for a TV segment
- Gerald Eskelund starting a NOVAPPLE/Pi library documentation book; needs articles documenting library programs (Call-A.P.P.L.E. reprints, magazine articles, etc.)
- Motion carried: NOVAPPLE dues set at $12 for 1980–81, beginning July; amendment to bundle Apple Orchard cost defeated
- Program: Nicholas B. Cirillo Applesoft Tutorial continued — Counting Routines, FOR/NEXT, READ/DATA/RESTORE
Upcoming schedule: - June 19: Open Forum for Problems - July 9: Applesoft Tutorial - July 24: Stockmarket Programs - Aug 13: Applesoft Tutorial - Aug 21: Adventure Fest
NOVAPPLE Computer Day planned: one Saturday/quarter for demonstrations, trading sessions, and program-library building. Looking for a non-store venue (school or meeting room).
"Blaise Away: A Primer on Pascal Pointers" (pages 3–8) — Dr. Wo (Tom Woteki)
Cover-highlight. A primer on Pascal pointers — pointers are foreign to most Apple users coming from BASIC. Walks through dynamic memory allocation, NIL, the ^ operator, dereferencing, building linked structures.
"Filemover" (pages 9–14) — Dana Schwartz
Cover-highlight. FILEMOVER — utility for moving files between disks. Particularly useful for users with a single drive and the new DOS 3.3 / 3.2 incompatibility. Full source listing.
"Writing a Word Processor" (pages 15–17) — John Moon
Cover-highlight. A construction tutorial for building your own word processor on the Apple. Covers the high-level architecture before showing the implementation.
"Word Processor User Guide" (pages 21+) — John Moon
Companion piece — user-facing documentation for the WP described in the construction tutorial. Together they're a complete write-it-from-scratch ML-and-Applesoft word-processor package.
PascalSIG (page 18)
New SIG for Pascal users. Forms in response to growing Apple Pascal adoption (Tom Woteki's monthly column, the WCCF Pascal talks, Apple PASCAL now an Apple-supported product).
Club news / events / announcements
- DOS 3.3 group buy live ($20 deposit)
- ABBS coming online
- NEWSIG and PascalSIG formed
- August Pi meeting: August 23
- Apple III brief: Paul Sand's Computerland Rockville slide deck
Notable advertisements
- Computerland Tysons Corner (page 2) — same multi-vendor block
Key quotes
- "Join the rest of us at NEWSIG — a special interest group for new Apple owners." — Pi announcement (page 1)
- "John Moon announced that he was about to begin testing an Apple Bulletin Board System (ABBS) which he is writing." — Minutes (page 1)
Entities
People: Bernard Urban, John Moon, Rich Wasserstrom, Robert Peck, Dana Schwartz, Mark L. Crosby, Sandy Greenfarb, Scooter Conrad, David Morganstein, Dave Efron, Tom Jones, Chuck Reinbrecht, Paul A. Sand, Tom Woteki, Al Weiner, Henry Tannenbaum, Gerald Eskelund, Nicholas B. Cirillo, Kirk Balcom, Hugh Develin, Fred Henry Topics: Pi BBS, NEWSIG, PascalSIG, Pascal Pointers, Word Processor on Apple, Group Purchase Power References: ABBS, DOS 3.3, Acorn Publications, PM Magazine, Apple Orchard, Filemover, Pi Word Processor
Connections to other issues
- Moon's BBS announced in 1980-06 — V02 N06 minutes, in testing here
- DOS 3.3 (announced 1980-05 — V02 N05) now in group buy
- PascalSIG joins the SIGAMES/NEWSIG/Youth-SIG/Source-SIG roster
Open questions
- Does Moon's ABBS go live, and at what number?
- Does NEWSIG attract enough new owners to be sustainable?