August 1980 — Vol 2 No 8

Overview

The new parallel-SIG meeting format launches. July meeting structure: short business session followed by several concurrent SIG meetings (NEWSIG, ASMSIG, SIGAMES, etc.), to better serve members at all levels. Hersch Pilloff is now listed as Member-at-Large (replacing Scooter Conrad on the masthead). NEWSIG's first session (led by Al Weiner, notes by Sara LaVilla) gives a window into newcomer questions of the era — POP vs RETURN, IAC, DOS 3.3 advantages, mail-order tradeoffs. ASMSIG's first session drew 12 members with widely varied projects from DOS hooks to image-processing systems. Pi will have a table at Big Apple's New York computer fair August 16. Featured content: Dana Schwartz's SAVETAPE, Howie Mitchell's biorhythms, Brian Dormer's review of EAMON (Library Disk 15), and Hersch Pilloff's CRAE software review.

Table of contents

Articles

Minutes of Pi 7/26/80 (page 1)

New format launched. Short business meeting, then concurrent SIG sessions. Wasserstrom (VP) presided. Items: - David Morganstein: original program contributors get a free disk of their choice - Pi will have a table at the Big Apple computer fair in NYC on August 16 — all members invited - Dave Efron (Ad Mgr) again requested article reviewers

Adjourned to SIGs.

NEWSIG Notes (pages 1–2) — Sara LaVilla

First session of the New Users' Group, led by Al Weiner. David Morganstein and John Moon lent expertise. Sample Q&A reproduced (a snapshot of newcomer-1980 issues):

NEWSIG will develop a glossary for new users. Recommended purchases: Apple Monitor Peeled ($15), CRAE ($20), Call-A.P.P.L.E. newsletter.

ASMSIG (page 2) — Jim Rose

First session of the Assembly Language SIG. Twelve attendees with varied backgrounds (decades of ASM experience vs. brand-new), and widely-varied projects: DOS hooks, computer typesetting, high-speed communications, higher-precision floating point and trig, "even a full blown image processing system!" Rose's interpretation of shared principles:

1. "If things can be done in a higher level language — do it!"
2. But not everything can in interpreted BASIC/Pascal, especially when time matters
3. Necessity or not, ASM is "just another tool in the programmer's kit bag"
4. Avoid reinventing the wheel; share insights, build macros, establish a shared library

"SAVETAPE" (page 3) — Dana Schwartz

Cover-highlight. Utility for saving programs to cassette tape — useful for backups and for sharing with tape-only Apple owners.

"Run Programs from EXEC or Keyboard" (page 4) — John Moon

Compact trick for writing programs that detect whether they're running interactively or from an EXEC file.

"Dealer's Corner: Writing Interactive Programs" (pages 4–7) — Paul A. Sand

Cover-highlight. Sand's third Dealer's Corner column — best-practice guidance on writing software that's friendly to interactive users (prompts, error handling, undo).

"Washington Apple Digest" (page 8) — Dave Efron, M. Leavitt, B. Schultheis

Continuation of Efron's digest, now with two co-contributors.

"ODYSSEY: The Complete Adventure" (page 9) — Sandy Greenfarb

Greenfarb dives into ODYSSEY, an adventure game on the disk library.

"BIORYTHYMS" (pages 10–12) — Howie Mitchell

Mitchell returns with a biorhythm-charting program for the Apple.

Review: Library Disk 15 and EAMON #1 (page 13) — Brian Dormer

Review of EAMON, the open-ended adventure-game system on Library Disk 15. EAMON is a famous early Apple II adventure platform — players create characters, explore dungeons, accumulate inventory across sessions.

"CRAE Software Review" (page 14+) — Hersch Pilloff

Review of CRAE (Cassette/Renumber/Assembler/Editor?), a utility package recommended above as a NEWSIG purchase ($20).

Club news / events / announcements

• New parallel-SIG format
• Pi table at Big Apple NYC fair, August 16
• Hersch Pilloff joins Members-at-Large (replacing Scooter Conrad)
• DOS 3.3 group buy continues
• August Pi meeting: August 23

Notable advertisements

• Computerland Tysons Corner (with usual sub-ads + SANYO) — page 2

Key quotes

• "Subgroups of Washington Apple Pi which have special interests (games, machine language, Pascal, new users)." — NEWSIG glossary on SIGs (page 1)
• "As in most of life's endeavors, you get what you pay for." — NEWSIG on mail-order (page 2)
• "If things can be done in a higher level language — do it!" — Jim Rose (page 2)

Entities

People: Bernard Urban, John Moon, Rich Wasserstrom, Robert Peck, Dana Schwartz, Hersch Pilloff, Mark L. Crosby, Sandy Greenfarb, Genevie Urban, David Morganstein, Dave Efron, Tom Jones, Al Weiner, Sara LaVilla, Jim Rose, Brian Dormer, Howie Mitchell, Paul A. Sand, M. Leavitt, B. Schultheis, Ira Cotton Topics: Parallel SIG Format, NEWSIG, ASMSIG, Cassette Tape Save, Biorhythms on Apple, Interactive Program Design References: Big Apple, Big Apple NYC Fair, EAMON, CRAE, Apple Monitor Peeled, ODYSSEY Adventure

Connections to other issues

• NEWSIG (announced 1980-07 — V02 N07) holds first meeting
• ASMSIG launches (a 4th SIG alongside SIGAMES, NEWSIG, PascalSIG)
• DOS 3.3 group buy continues from 1980-07 — V02 N07

Open questions

• Pilloff replaced Scooter Conrad mid-term — why? Was there a resignation?
• Did the Big Apple NYC fair lead to lasting connections?