I'm a bit disappointed that the author doesn't talk about using one of the Apple I emulation projects (such as Sim6502 or Cocoa Pom I to offer a reference platform to introduce the programming. (Just in case the user gave up with the hardware hacking). Admittedly half the fun in programming old hardware are the tribulations in doing it, but the emulator would give the reader a better introduction to concepts without tossing the reader straight in to the confusing world of the old tools as well. Most programming books teach the user how to user the compiler and debugger separately from teaching the language; it seems like a natural way to do it if it's possible.
Unfortunately, these emulators have very poor compatibility with the Apple I (neither can run BASIC) and had to be left out. They will hopefully be improved as interest in building and programming the replica grows.
I thought this reviewer was excellent and remained fairly objective despite his disappointment.
Indeed. It's clear the reviewer started reading the book with high hopes, but nonetheless frustrating to see a review that lambasts the book for not being something I never intended it to be. If you are an experienced electrical engineer or assembly language programmer, this book will probably only interest you if you are specifically interested in building an Apple I replica. If you are interested in learning more about the history of computers and how they work, I believe you'll be very happy with this title.
As author, I certainly can't provide an unbiased assessment of the book, but I can assure readers that they will be welcome to post their questions, no matter how elementary or complex, on Applefritter. We have one discussion board dedicated to the Apple I and another specifically for technical questions pertaining to the included software. We are eager to hear from readers who have built their own kits and look forward to sharing advice, programs, and schematics.
The software, btw, is a bargain, to quote from my own description of the book:
"McCAD EDS SE 400 is an excellent piece of software which I worked very hard to get included with the book. The full EDS-1 package retails for $1495 (the book includes a coupon for 50% off any McCAD product, by the way). This special edition of the McCAD software was written exclusively for inclusion with Apple I Replica Creation and is not available from any other source. The SE 400 version of McCAD EDS includes all the features of the full version, but limits the design's complexity so you can't design anything much more complex than a typical 8-bit microcomputer. You'll be hard pressed to find a similar software suite for under $500. The interface is without equal. While evaluating the software, I got into an argument with a McCAD programmer over the proper layout of the buttons in one of the dialog boxes, each of us backing up our position with extensive references to the Apple Human Interface Guidelines. He won (but only on a technicality!). These guys take user interface very seriously and I'm happy to say I've never used a more intuitive design package. The McCAD package is Mac OS X native, but also compatible with Mac OS 9. If you don't have a Mac, you may want to consider picking up an old $50 iMac just for this software. PC users might want to try running it in Basilisk."
There are almost 4 pages dedicated to the McCAD program included with the book on CD-ROM, but unless you are familiar with CAD/circuit design software, you will finish the four pages with precious little understanding of how to actually use the software, or how to turn the circuits you designed into actual printed circuit boards.
A technical forum has been set up on Applefritter to provide support to those working with McCAD. Documentation and a training video are available on the CD and from McCAD's website. The included software is an excellent value and is only needed for readers interested in printing their own circuits.
Then we move on to programming the Replica I in Assembler -- here the author cuts so many corners (he even reduces the now-obligatory "Hello, World" program to a much shorter text message "H W" to save space) that the reader is left with only a hint of what can be done with the Replica I in assembler.
The very first assembly program on page 155 explains how to echo the characters 'H' and 'W'. Page 165 provides a more complex example that does spell out the entire phrase. The reviewer is correct that this chapter is "only a hint" at what is possible in assembly. It is intended as an _introduction_.
Again, material appears to be added to the book to pad out the chapter, including one of three separate ASCII Character charts, all the Op Codes of the 6502 CPU listed in several different ways
The Op Codes are presented in matrix form (for reverse look-up), as an alphabetical chart with memory modes, and organized by category. I'm not sure which of these the reviewer would want left out.
(both in this chapter and in the Appendices)
This is simply not true. The Op Code charts appear only in the appendices.
Next we come to a chapter entitled "Understanding the Apple I" -- what this chapter is doing in the back of the book is beyond me, since understanding the Apple I is, you know, the whole point of this book, right? The information provided is fairly technical, but does little to provide the reader with the information needed to actually design/build anything based on the Apple I design.
It appears the reviewer was looking for a book aimed at engineers. What he found was a guide intended for beginners. While this chapter does discuss some modifications and variations to the circuit, describing circuits that go beyond the Apple I is outside of its scope.
then three appendices which simply list all the Op Codes of the 6502 processor three different ways. Again, these appear to be added simply as filler material to add heft to the book
This baffles me, given the reviewers earlier complaints that the book is not technical enough. All three styles are imperative. These are not filler at all.
Next we have an Appendix on "Hacking Macintosh",
This section was filler from an earlier book (though another review I read was delighted by it)
In the end, I have no idea who the target audience market is for this book, and I felt the book had no central theme -- it seemed to be a bunch of material culled (I can only assume) from the author's Apple Fritter web site. This book was too "light" to be of any real use to an experienced electronics person looking to design an "Apple I-inspired" system, and there is precious little material for the electronics novice who wants to build Vince Briel's Replica I kit that isn't provided by Vince either on his site or in the included assembly instructions and original Apple I documentation.
The book is intended the novice or intermediary reader interested in learning more about electronics and computers. Very little of this material is on Applefritter (did you look?) and the Replica I kit includes less than 5 pages of assembly instructions.
I noted numerous errors in the book, and attempted to forward them to the publisher for inclusion in the next printing of the book, but af
1) Implement a 6502 processor. There is a free core or two floating around, which she likely used. Still not exactly trivial, though.
The 6502 design is her own. At VCFe a few months ago I asked about her implementation of Binary Coded Decimal (which the open core I looked at lacked) and she was very happy to show off and discuss her design.
Jeri has also designed the C-One, which is a much more interesting and complex system.
Re:Macquariums with real fish!
on
Aquarium Modcase
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
"For example, concoct a story about a guy who built a submarine in his garage, took it out to sea, and penetrated a carrier battle group."
The "Fenian Ram" did the first two around 1900. It was built by an lone inventor (John Holland) and financed by the Fenian Brotherhood (Irish nationalists, who by no means had bundles of money). IIRC, it could stay submerged for three days and was able to shoot torpedos a good distance.
Mostly, they just ferried it around and pissed off the English.
The very Lisa being referred to here can be seen here.
Anbody who questions the role of the Lisa in advancing the GUI can find more than ample evidence in the 5000 pages of texts linked to from the above page.
The differences between the Lisa and Xerox Alto and Star are very significant.
Maybe not commercially, but there is some hobbyist interest in building new Apple I's. I don't suppose anybody knows where one could find some MOS shift registers for the video display?
Slashdot Mirror
Those interested in NetworkLocation might also want to take a look at Wilma. It has a cleaner, more tradional Mac interface.
http://www.codehackers.net/wilma/
Here's a similar homebrew system for the Apple II:
http://www.applefritter.com/node/1542/
I was actually expecting 3/4 of the book to talk about how to lathe the wooden case and apply a nice varnish stain.
Larry Nelson wrote a detailed guide about just that topic, as a matter of fact:
Building a Case for the Replica I
Unfortunately, these emulators have very poor compatibility with the Apple I (neither can run BASIC) and had to be left out. They will hopefully be improved as interest in building and programming the replica grows.
I thought this reviewer was excellent and remained fairly objective despite his disappointment.
Indeed. It's clear the reviewer started reading the book with high hopes, but nonetheless frustrating to see a review that lambasts the book for not being something I never intended it to be. If you are an experienced electrical engineer or assembly language programmer, this book will probably only interest you if you are specifically interested in building an Apple I replica. If you are interested in learning more about the history of computers and how they work, I believe you'll be very happy with this title.
As author, I certainly can't provide an unbiased assessment of the book, but I can assure readers that they will be welcome to post their questions, no matter how elementary or complex, on Applefritter. We have one discussion board dedicated to the Apple I and another specifically for technical questions pertaining to the included software. We are eager to hear from readers who have built their own kits and look forward to sharing advice, programs, and schematics. The software, btw, is a bargain, to quote from my own description of the book:
"McCAD EDS SE 400 is an excellent piece of software which I worked very hard to get included with the book. The full EDS-1 package retails for $1495 (the book includes a coupon for 50% off any McCAD product, by the way). This special edition of the McCAD software was written exclusively for inclusion with Apple I Replica Creation and is not available from any other source. The SE 400 version of McCAD EDS includes all the features of the full version, but limits the design's complexity so you can't design anything much more complex than a typical 8-bit microcomputer. You'll be hard pressed to find a similar software suite for under $500. The interface is without equal. While evaluating the software, I got into an argument with a McCAD programmer over the proper layout of the buttons in one of the dialog boxes, each of us backing up our position with extensive references to the Apple Human Interface Guidelines. He won (but only on a technicality!). These guys take user interface very seriously and I'm happy to say I've never used a more intuitive design package. The McCAD package is Mac OS X native, but also compatible with Mac OS 9. If you don't have a Mac, you may want to consider picking up an old $50 iMac just for this software. PC users might want to try running it in Basilisk."
A technical forum has been set up on Applefritter to provide support to those working with McCAD. Documentation and a training video are available on the CD and from McCAD's website. The included software is an excellent value and is only needed for readers interested in printing their own circuits.
Then we move on to programming the Replica I in Assembler -- here the author cuts so many corners (he even reduces the now-obligatory "Hello, World" program to a much shorter text message "H W" to save space) that the reader is left with only a hint of what can be done with the Replica I in assembler.
The very first assembly program on page 155 explains how to echo the characters 'H' and 'W'. Page 165 provides a more complex example that does spell out the entire phrase. The reviewer is correct that this chapter is "only a hint" at what is possible in assembly. It is intended as an _introduction_.
Again, material appears to be added to the book to pad out the chapter, including one of three separate ASCII Character charts, all the Op Codes of the 6502 CPU listed in several different ways
The Op Codes are presented in matrix form (for reverse look-up), as an alphabetical chart with memory modes, and organized by category. I'm not sure which of these the reviewer would want left out.
(both in this chapter and in the Appendices)
This is simply not true. The Op Code charts appear only in the appendices.
Next we come to a chapter entitled "Understanding the Apple I" -- what this chapter is doing in the back of the book is beyond me, since understanding the Apple I is, you know, the whole point of this book, right? The information provided is fairly technical, but does little to provide the reader with the information needed to actually design/build anything based on the Apple I design.
It appears the reviewer was looking for a book aimed at engineers. What he found was a guide intended for beginners. While this chapter does discuss some modifications and variations to the circuit, describing circuits that go beyond the Apple I is outside of its scope.
then three appendices which simply list all the Op Codes of the 6502 processor three different ways. Again, these appear to be added simply as filler material to add heft to the book
This baffles me, given the reviewers earlier complaints that the book is not technical enough. All three styles are imperative. These are not filler at all.
Next we have an Appendix on "Hacking Macintosh",
This section was filler from an earlier book (though another review I read was delighted by it)
In the end, I have no idea who the target audience market is for this book, and I felt the book had no central theme -- it seemed to be a bunch of material culled (I can only assume) from the author's Apple Fritter web site. This book was too "light" to be of any real use to an experienced electronics person looking to design an "Apple I-inspired" system, and there is precious little material for the electronics novice who wants to build Vince Briel's Replica I kit that isn't provided by Vince either on his site or in the included assembly instructions and original Apple I documentation.
The book is intended the novice or intermediary reader interested in learning more about electronics and computers. Very little of this material is on Applefritter (did you look?) and the Replica I kit includes less than 5 pages of assembly instructions.
I noted numerous errors in the book, and attempted to forward them to the publisher for inclusion in the next printing of the book, but af
My own description of the book can be found here:
www.applefritter.com/replica
1) Implement a 6502 processor. There is a free core or two floating around, which she likely used. Still not exactly trivial, though.
The 6502 design is her own. At VCFe a few months ago I asked about her implementation of Binary Coded Decimal (which the open core I looked at lacked) and she was very happy to show off and discuss her design.
Jeri has also designed the C-One, which is a much more interesting and complex system.
And here's one that actually runs.
While trying to print in Adobe Acrobat in Mac OS (classic), I have several times gotten the "error":
The document could not be printed. No error has occured. [Ok]
"For example, concoct a story about a guy who built a submarine in his garage, took it out to sea, and penetrated a carrier battle group."
The "Fenian Ram" did the first two around 1900. It was built by an lone inventor (John Holland) and financed by the Fenian Brotherhood (Irish nationalists, who by no means had bundles of money). IIRC, it could stay submerged for three days and was able to shoot torpedos a good distance.
Mostly, they just ferried it around and pissed off the English.
GEOS was written for both the Commodore 64 and Apple II. It was more popular on the Commodore.
Anbody who questions the role of the Lisa in advancing the GUI can find more than ample evidence in the 5000 pages of texts linked to from the above page.
The differences between the Lisa and Xerox Alto and Star are very significant.
Maybe not commercially, but there is some hobbyist interest in building new Apple I's. I don't suppose anybody knows where one could find some MOS shift registers for the video display?