Compute's 128 Programmer's Guide

[nikoniko]

Anyone familiar with Compute!'s 128 Programmers Guide?

I'm having difficulty choosing books to buy for my Compute! scanning project, as a number of them appear to be collections of articles published earlier in the magazines. I'd rather focus more on the titles that use the extra space afforded in a book to expand on the material.

128 Programmer's Guide caught my eye because Ottis R. Cowper is listed as Contributor, which makes me wonder if this would be a nice companion to his Mapping the 128.

It'd be hard to go wrong on something so cheap, but still I'd like to get off to a good start.

[istvan]

This is actually the only 128-specific book I own (never had Commodore's 128 guide), so it's been my bible all these years.  It's very user-friendly and easy to follow.  Some sections are laid out to be read more than to function as a quick reference, which is great when you're first learning about the 128, but a little irritating at two in the morning when you're trying to remember where you saw that useful piece of information you faintly recall.

The book starts with a thorough explanation of BASIC commands/keywords (125 pages worth), then a chapter on graphics (almost entirely VIC), a chapter on sound, and one on disks/files/modems/printers.  There's a really nice chapter on CPM which starts with the basics and ends up talking a little about the internals, then one called "Machine Language" which spends most of its time talking about KERNAL routines.  After that there's a description of the MMU and general memory layout, which is nearly identical to the info at the beginning of "Mapping the 128", and then the standard appendices with character codes, disk error messages, etc.

Comparing it with the Commodore's C64 Programmer's Reference Guide, it's WAY more friendly but definitely less thorough (again, I never saw Commodore's 128 guide, so I'm making assumptions).  The VDC is mentioned a few times, but this book is nearly useless for it.  The memory map is also pretty scant, probably to whet the market for "Mapping the 128", and there's not appendices with reference-style descriptions of the chips like in Commodore's C64 book (e.g., when I want to use a CIA TOD clock, it only takes me 15 seconds to pull my C64 book off the shelf and have it open to the page with the CIA register descriptions;  that information just plain isn't in the Compute! book).

All tolled, I think it's a great resource for new users of the 128, and functional for more advanced users, but not an end-all be-all 128 book.  I never really looked: Is there a scan or e-text of Commodore's 128 reference available online?  I think Sams had a 128 reference as well.  If those are freely available somewhere, then the Compute! book might be a duplication of effort, but if not, I'd say the Compute book is a must-have.

Of course, that's just my opinion; I could be wrong.

[Golan Klinger]

istvan: Not bad for an impromptu review! That was very interesting to read. Thanks!

[nikoniko]

Thanks very much, istvan! It sounds like a great companion for Mapping the 128. I'll go ahead and place an order.

If anyone else has Compute! titles they'd recommend, please let me know and I'll do my best to find a copy for scanning.

[istvan]

Glad to be of service.  I'd offer my book for the project, but the pages are yellowed and adorned with little drips of Folgers Premium Blend, and a better copy should be easy to come by.  The book is spiral bound using a metal spine - not merely a coil, the spine has got these, umm, tooth thingies that you can bend out of the way, so with patience and a little bit of sorcery you can slip the pages out to make scanning easier.

If you want help editing the OCRed version (formatting, checking "i" versus "1", drawing ASCII-art diagrams and so on), I'll volunteer for a few chapters as time permits.  Perhaps having a few peons consigned would make your task less daunting.

[nikoniko]

That would be great, istvan! Every extra pair of eyes and hands we have will go a long way toward making this a successful, quality project.

[hydrophilic]

I never really looked: Is there a scan or e-text of Commodore's 128 reference available online?

Have a look at http://www.devili.iki.fi/library/publication/351.en.html.  Includes an online/HTML verion and a downloadable PDF.  Better than the original which had terrible plastic binding.

[nikoniko]

Beware that copy of the reference guide. It's missing about 100 pages, including most of the chapter on the 8563. I have a complete version of the guide, so I'll contact them and see if they'll let me send it to them for replacement.

[hydrophilic]

Thanks for the info about the missing pages.  I have another PDF version which has all the pages, but it is not OCR'd  I do not know where I got it, so I did a search and found the one above.   I was wrong about the HTML.  That's just the table of contents that links into the PDF.

[Mark Smith]

Funny this topic should come up ... I'd just got got this book .. so it's quite good then ? :-)

[istvan]

Thanks for the link to Commodore's guide.  Their manual-writing skills must have improved along the way, because the 128 guide is done much better than their earlier materials.  The Commodore book has lots more information than the Compute book, but there's some merit in having both available to the community.  Sometimes having a different explanation to consult helps clarify the point, and I still think the Compute book is friendlier to less experienced programmers.

I suppose if I were to be marooned on a tropical island with my Commodore 128 for any significant period, and had to choose between the two books, I'd prefer to have Commodore's book over Compute's.  Of course, if I were to be marooned on a tropical island with my choice of supplies, odds are my list wouldn't include any Commodore stuff...  except maybe a 1541, which might be useful for bludgeoning small animals.

[nikoniko]

I put up the complete scanned and text-searchable version here. I think I originally received it from Christian Johansson; if so, thanks Christian! And I believe Payton Byrd was the original scanner? If so, many, many thanks to Payton!

Oh. And I suppose I should warn you that it weighs in at nearly 18 megs. My host offers a generous transfer allowance but not very spectacular speeds, so I'm sorry if it takes a while to download.