Domain: csbruce.com
Stories and comments across the archive that link to csbruce.com.
Comments · 12
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Re:Circuit Cellar
Holy crap! I had no idea this magazine existed! It's like my beloved Transactor on crack!
I (heart) you, Anonymous Coward!
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Re:Common Sense
No way, there are so many changes to Roman History all the time it definitely takes a full time publishing staff to keep up.
"A student who changes the course of history is probably taking an exam."
Thanks to http://www.csbruce.com/~csbruce/quotes/general.html , a nice way to waste some time :) -
British company, computers, oil!
It just had to be a British company! (If you don't understand, search this page for the word "British".)
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Re:Rebirth of the C-64 sw/hw scene?
There's at least one commercial software developer already out there and active: Maurice Randall. He's got a functioning shell interface, FAX application, and more (be sure to check out "Wheels") for GEOS on the C64/C128. His site can be found at: http://www.cmdrkey.com/
There are also a lot of open source developers out there. Craig Bruce comes right to mind; his site is at: http://www.csbruce.com/~csbruce/cbm/"
There's been an amazing amount of high-quality software created for the C64 and (especially) the C128. GEOS (now found on some hand-helds and phones) cut its teeth on the Commodore 8-bit machines. There have been several superb operating systems designed for them. There are even graphical web browsers available. Yes, web browsers, in the plural.
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Re:How'bout NO ADS
And how much are you going to pay for a magazine or newspaper if it's not supported by advertisers?
There's only one thing I like better than ice fishing.. ..and that's sitting at home with my computer and a Transactor Magazine. -
Re:How'bout NO ADS
And how much are you going to pay for a magazine or newspaper if it's not supported by advertisers?
There's only one thing I like better than ice fishing.. ..and that's sitting at home with my computer and a Transactor Magazine. -
Re:and how do I use it?
Well actually you can read PC floppies on the Commodore drives (atleast with 1571, 1581, CMD FD-2000 and FD-4000), using software like Big Blue reader and Little Red Reader.
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Re:So many funny quotes
Google picked up about 700 pages with "that will just be a completely unintentional side effect"...
Maybe it'll be 7,000 by sundown. I've updated *my* quotes page! :-) -
Re:Screw thisAvoid BASIC: ACE
ACE is an alternative uni-tasking operating system for the C128 and C64 that provides a Unix-like command shell.
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Contiki LinksContiki Links
URL: http://dunkels.com/adam/contiki/links.html
System information and emulators
Commodore 64/128
The Commodore 64 is based on the 6510 CPU, which is a 6502-derived 8-bit CPU. It has 64k of RAM and 16k ROM which includes a BASIC interpreter and some basic I/O services. Graphics is provided by the VIC chip which has 16 colors and a maximum resolution of 320x200 in hi-res mode. It provides a 40x25 raster of characters in character mode. The three voices of digital sound is produced by the SID chip.
The Commodore 128 is an extended version of the Commodore 64 that contains a 8510 CPU which is capable of 2 MHz operation and can address 128k RAM (hence the name Commodore 128). It also has a Commodore 64 compatibility mode which is extremely similar to a regular C64 but with a few minor differences.
SuperCPUThe SuperCPU is a 20 MHz 16-bit 65816-based computer that is plugged into the back of the Commodore 64 or 128. It uses the C64 keyboard and joysticks for input and the VIC and SID chips for audiovisual output. The SuperCPU is capable of addressing several megabytes of memory and is usually used together with a 16 megabytes RAM expansion board.
There are no SuperCPU emulators avaliable.
Links- The VICE emulator
is capable of emulating a large number of Commodore machines. It
emulates the C64, the C128, the VIC20, most of the PET models, and the
CBM-II. VICE runs under Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, and a number of other
host systems.
- Joakim Eriksson's Web
C64 emulator, written in Java, runs as an applet within a web
browser.
- Per Håkan Sundell's CCS64 emulator works
under Windows and DOS.
- The ec64
emulator is developed for Linux and was originally written entirely in
x86 assembler.
- An article by Simon
N Goodwin about C64 emulators.
- The Commodore
emulators category in the Dmoz has more links.
Commodore 64/128
There are plenty of alternative operating systems for the C64, mostly written in 6502 assembler. Some of them are far from complete, however, and only appear as dark shadows on a few web pages - MagerValp's SMOS and my own osT are among those.
- GEOS from 1986 probably
is the most well-known graphical operating system for the C64. It is
still sold commercially by CMDKEY.com.
- LUnix NG is an open-source multi-tasking operating system with TCP/IP/PPP-support, a *nix-like command shell, and a number of *nix-like utilities such as ls and cp.
- Craig Bruce's ACE is a
text-based single-tasking operating system for the 64 and the 128. It
provides a *nix-like command shell, a text-editor, a terminal program
for the SwiftLink RS232 interface, as well as device drivers for a
lot of devices
- GeckOS/A65 is a
multi-tasking operating system with TCP/IP support and a *nix-like
command shell.
- Wheels is a version of GEOS that requires RAM expansion to run.
With its 20 MHz and megabytes of memory, the SuperCPU is powerful enough to run fully-fledged graphical operating systems that rival early Machintosh or Microsoft Windows systems.
- Wings is a TCP/IP-enabled graphical operating system for the SuperCPU. It includes a MOD music player, JPEG viewer, web page download utility, etc.
- JOS is an older version
of Wings.
TCP/IP and PPP connectivity
To surf the web, send or read email, etc., the first step is to actually get in touch with the Internet. This requires both physical access to an ISP, either via a modem and a phone-line or an Ethernet broadband connection, and the TCP/IP software running on the C64.
There are a number of programs that make it possible to reach the Internet with a C64/C128.
- LUnix NG contains a
TCP/IP stack and a PPP implementation which makes it possible to reach
the Internet using a modem and a dial-up ISP.
- GeckOS/A65 also
contains a TCP/IP stack, but no PPP dialer.
- My own uIP TCP/IP stack
has been used for some time to run a web server on a Commodore 64. uIP
currently does not include a PPP dialer.
- Novaterm 10
contains a PPP dialer and enough TCP/IP code to be able to run telnet
over the Internet.
SuperCPU
All of the above mentioned SuperCPU operating systems have TCP/IP support.
- The
Wave is a web browser for the SuperCPU (and not for the Commodore
64/128 as the web page claims) that runs under the Wheels operating
systems. Here
is another page with information about The Wave (that also falsely
claims that The Wave is for the Commodore 64/128). The latter page
also includes screenshots of The Wave in action.
Small graphical user-interfaces (GUIs)
User interfaces for embedded systems range from the simple buttons on the front of a washing machine to those of fully fledged web browser type interfaces on information stations. The underlying technology varies from simple electronic circuits to full-scale PC compatibles.
- PicoGUI is a GUI architecture
designed for embedded systems to desktop machines. It does not require
any supporting GUI system and can be used on anything from graphical
screens to text based systems. Their smallest target system are
handheld terminals and the compiled object code size is on the order
of hundreds of kilobytes.
- Microwindows/NanoGUI is
a graphical user interface system designed to run without support from
an underlying system. On 16-bit systems Microwindows is about 64k
large.
The smallest web browsers are usually specially designed for the limitations of embedded systems and other specialized computers such as car navigation systems, set-top boxes and medical equipment. There are also a few small web browsers for old DOS PCs available.
- Interniche's NicheView Portable
Embedded Web Browser is probably the smallest full-featured web
browser around with its 35 kilobytes code footprint. There is also an
additional JavaScript module available.
- AU-systems' AU Mobile
Internet Browser supports both HTML/TCP/IP and WML/WAP as well as
SSL. It occupies 340 kilobytes of code (plus an additional 190
kilobytes for the protocol stacks) and uses 5 kilobytes of RAM when
idle (plus 8 kilobytes used by the protocol stacks). Extra RAM is used
when downloading web pages.
- The Fusion
WebPilot Embedded Micro-Browser supports much of the features
found in modern web browsers including frames, authentication, and
JavaScript. The web page does not specify memory footprint.
- MicroDigial's Graphical
MicroBrowser supports tables, frames, images as well as FTP as
uses 260 kilobytes of code memory and requires a minimum of 210
kilobytes of RAM apart from that. A demo version is available.
- The 2net Alice Web
Browser is intended for handheld computers and PC based
architectures and requires 400 kilobyte of free RAM and 200 kilobytes
of code memory. It includes a TCP/IP stack.
- WebBoy is a
fully-fledged browser with SSL support intended for 386 DOS boxes with
more than 4 megabytes of memory. Includes a TCP/IP stack.
- The Arachne web browser
runs under MS-DOS or Linux and requires at least 1 megabyte of
memory. Does not include a TCP/IP/PPP stack.
- Lynx is probably the most
well-known text-based web browser around. It is ported to many
different operating systems and architectures including MS-DOS.
- The Off by One Web Browser
has been labeled as the smallest web browser ever, but is quite large
in comparison with other small web browsers. It is 1.1 megabytes large
and requires support from an underlying Windows operating system.
- Mirko Sobe's BOSS-X
HTML browser for 8-bit Ataris is not a full web browser, but an
off-line HTML viewer with hyperlinking abilities written in three
days.
- The pre-alpha v0.3 GEMWeb browser
supports 640x480x16 VGA.
- The Atari
Phoenix Web Browser is a non-existant vapor-ware web browser
project intended for the 8-bit Ataris.
- The VICE emulator
is capable of emulating a large number of Commodore machines. It
emulates the C64, the C128, the VIC20, most of the PET models, and the
CBM-II. VICE runs under Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, and a number of other
host systems.
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Other archives
Some other excellent Commodore magazine archives:
ftp://oasiscomm.net/Gazette/ - Scans of the type-in program articles from COMPUTE!'s Gazette and almost all of the companion disks
The Transactor Online Archive - Complete scans of every magazine (in progress but impressive so far) -
Re:Don't laugh
And if one has a 1571 or 1581 Commodore drive, Big Blue Reader is an utility that will read/write/format DD DOS disks.
Hey, you could also use Little Red Reader! ;-)