Jeff's VIC 20 Book

[rhurst]

Super Expander, Programmer's Aid, et al, but the Machine Language Monitor quick reference is missing entirely -- it will make all those useful mnemonics and memory internals fully explained put to native use on a VIC 20.

I'm certain someone clever can write a really short "game" or "tool" listing, like you have for BASIC.

[Jeff-20]

Here's the latest PDF

Thank you all for the continued input! I hope I caught all the corrections suggested. I still have yet to check on the katakana for the VIC-1001.

A suggestion for this table: it is useful to know which calls are through a RAM vector. Could you use bold or italics on the label to indicate that?

Again, this is out of my range. Which ones should be highlighted?

I think your description for VIC 6560 register $9005 may be wrong.

They were all wrong! Hopefully, it looks better now.

Can this PDF format support bookmarks? PDF exports often have as an option off any header style formatting.
For example, its cover does not offer me to click on any TOC entry to jump to that page.

Yes, you're right -- the final draft should have clickable links in a digital version. I am focusing on a print hardcopy at the moment.

Someone sees this hardcopy laying about and will likely ask, "What's a VIC 20?"
Suggest moving the technical screen map off the cover and replace it with an image, such as:
And I see page 30 + 31 offers a nicer screen map already.

Good point; I will take this into consideration. I imagined making only a handful of copies for users very familiar with the computer. I felt the screen map on the cover was very quick access to one simplified version of the screen map. (Like, you don't even have to open the book for it to be useful haha, same with the back cover).

Super Expander, Programmer's Aid, et al, but the Machine Language Monitor quick reference is missing entirely -- it will make all those useful mnemonics and memory internals fully explained put to native use on a VIC 20.

I don't understand. I thought page 110 might suffice. What additional VICMON infor should be included? I have two extra pages at this point for certain.

[JonBrawn]

Page 38, "POKE 36878, PEEK (36878) OR X*16" should be "POKE 36878, PEEK (36878) AND 15 OR X*16
Page 39, "POKE 36879, PEEK (36879) AND 240 OR X" should be "POKE 36879, PEEK (36879) AND 15 OR X*16

[srowe]

A suggestion for this table: it is useful to know which calls are through a RAM vector. Could you use bold or italics on the label to indicate that?

Again, this is out of my range. Which ones should be highlighted?

• CHKIN
• CHKOUT
• CHRIN
• CHROUT
• CLALL
• CLOSE
• CLRCHN
• GETIN
• LOAD
• OPEN
• SAVE
• STOP

[srowe]

A few more bugs/suggestions

• Page 12, "FN", rather than repeat the syntax for "DEF FN" show this as "FN<name>(<expression>)"
• Page 14, "OPEN", I know space is tight but the string parameter on the end is missing. How about "OPEN <file num>[,<dev>[,<cmd>[,<name>]]]"
• Page 106, the OPEN command is missing the device and secondary address parameters, 'OPEN <file num>,2,0,"<control>,<command>"'
• Pages 114, 115 & 116, the command channel examples, need to be "OPEN15,8,15:PRINT#15" (PRINT#, CLOSE etc use the logical file number)
• Page 116, READ ERROR CHANNEL, this cannot be done in direct mode so add line numbers. Also, use ';' between variables in the PRINT statement
• Page 124, disk error 74 is valid on all CBM drives (including the 1541)

[Jeff-20]

Update: I had a chance to work on it over the last few days. I merged two threads discussing this project and edited the first post to always link the most current draft: Version 0.4 PDF

I am going to print a few copies to test it out. Let me know if you want one. I also made a seperate file for some game programs I made for the book.

[srowe]

Was wondering how this was going, will proofread again when I get home in a couple of days.

[AndyH]

Looks great Jeff, so much information! I'm definately going to get one printed when this is ready.

[srowe]

This version is looking good, if there's still time for corrections here's a couple

[Page 13] MID$ the <length> parameter is optional, if it's absent the rest of the string is taken
[Page 18] MID$, typo for first arg, A$
[Page 101] STOP* background light grey like other vectored rows
[Page 112] Device Number, top bit does not control Line Feed, it's top bit on LFN that does that
[Page 116] Read Error Channel, either 'OPEN 15 ... INPUT#15 ... CLOSE 15' or 'OPEN 1 ... INPUT#1 ... CLOSE 1'

If the postage to the UK isn't too crazy then I'll be up for a copy,

Simon

[RobertBe]

Some corrections to be made

p. 128

Change "Boleen functions" to "Boolean functions"
Change "Hexidecimal" to "Hexadecimal"
Change "Optimation" to "Optimization"

Merry Christmas!
Robert Bernardo
Fresno Commodore User Group - http://www.dickestel.com/fcug.htm
Southern California Commodore & Amiga Network - http://www.portcommodore.com/sccan
April 15-16 Commodore Los Angeles Super Show 2023 - http://www.portcommodore.com/class

[malcontent]

Minor quibble, but Page 94 calls the "illegal" opcodes pseudo-opcodes, when pseudo-opcodes are used for directives to the assembler, not actual opcodes. I would head it under its classic name, and also by the name the current best reference calls them: Unintended "Illegal" Opcodes

https://csdb.dk/release/?id=212346&show=review#review

[Jeff-20]

Here is a new draft considering these recent suggestions: Version 0.5 PDF

Looks great Jeff, so much information! I'm definately going to get one printed when this is ready.

Thanks for the encouragement!

Page 38...

A few more bugs/suggestions...

Thanks, all!

Some corrections to be made...
Change "Optimation" to "Optimization"

There's a bit of debate about these two words (both accepted), but I agree with you.

Minor quibble, but Page 94 calls the "illegal" opcodes pseudo-opcodes...

Thanks for letting me know about this. I have a tentative fix using only the word "unintended".

Someone sees this hardcopy laying about and will likely ask, "What's a VIC 20?"
Suggest moving the technical screen map off the cover and replace it with an image, such as:

I have a hard time imagining this as a coffee table book... But you are right, I should try to make it a little more appealing to the eye. The new test cover also allows a little more space for the table of contents.

Can this PDF format support bookmarks? PDF exports often have as an option off any header style formatting.
For example, its cover does not offer me to click on any TOC entry to jump to that page.

I still have not created bookmarks for the PDF because pages are likely moving around, but I will for the 1.0 version.

[malcontent]

Can this PDF format support bookmarks? PDF exports often have as an option off any header style formatting.
For example, its cover does not offer me to click on any TOC entry to jump to that page.

I still have not created bookmarks for the PDF because pages are likely moving around, but I will for the 1.0 version.

Like he is saying, check your software. TOC is automated in a lot of ways. Like if you are using Word or a linux equivalent, it will make a TOC for you based on headers. You have to tell it to update after edits, but otherwise it's automatic.

[Jeff-20]

Like he is saying, check your software. TOC is automated in a lot of ways. Like if you are using Word or a linux equivalent, it will make a TOC for you based on headers. You have to tell it to update after edits, but otherwise it's automatic.

Yeah, I just didn't use headers on most sections because I needed the page space. I just had to manually insert them. They should work now. I'm also experimenting with a multilingual cover TOC. Version 0.6 PDF

[srowe]

Some corrections for v0.6

• Pages 84&85 - The 'AI' column should have BYTES '3'
• Page 105, User Port Note - 'explanation'
• Page 109, Super Expander - CIRCLE, the <wi> <hi> seems confusing, not sure what they represent
• Page 109, Super Expander - DRAW also accepts 'DRAW <color> TO <x1>,<y1>'
• Page 110, Programmer's Aid - the line number ranges in FIND, CHANGE, DELETE work the same as LIST (e.g. <n>, -<n>, <n>-, <n1>-<n2> are all valid)