Tutorial

• Adding a Basic Stub to a Vic-20 Assembly Language Program

  10 May 2013   Tags: Programming     Retro     Tutorial     Commodore     Vic-20     Assembly    
  To make machine language programs more friendly it is nice to add a basic stub which contains a line with a SYS statement to start the code. This is easy to do on the Vic-20 and the process gives you an insight into how Basic programs are stored in memory. I’ll show you how to do this and h...   Read More
  
  

• Beginning Assembly Programming on the Commodore Vic-20

  16 April 2013   Tags: Programming     Retro     Tutorial     Commodore     Vic-20     Assembly    
  The Commodore Vic-20 is a great machine to learn an assembly language on. It was released in 1981 and was the first computer to sell one million units, which contributes to is popularity today. The machine is well documented, well supported through forums and much of the hardware is plentiful and...   Read More
  
  

• Using C-Kermit to Exchange Files With Telnet BBS's

  9 April 2013   Tags: Linux     BBS     Retro     Tutorial    
  Most BBSs that are still running now do so via telnet. In many ways this is great as it allows people from all around the world to access a BBS as if it were local to them. The problem comes though, when you want to upload or download a file to/from the BBS. Most telnet clients don’t make t...   Read More
  
  

• Connecting to a Remote Serial Port over TCP/IP

  2 April 2013   Tags: Linux     Emulation     Retro     Tutorial    
  Most modern machines don’t have a serial port as standard; you could use a USB to serial lead, however, if you have another machine available that does have a serial port you can access it remotely over TCP/IP. Using ser2net to Connect a Serial Port to a TCP port ser2net listens to a TCP ...   Read More
  
  

• Using Netcat to Create ad hoc Links Between Applications or Machines

  25 March 2013   Tags: Tutorial     Linux    
  Netcat is a simple Unix utility which reads and writes data across network connections using the TCP or UDP protocol. It is often described as the “Swiss-army knife for TCP/IP” because of its flexibility and is often used to debug and investigate network connections directly from the ...   Read More
  
  

• Compiling a Tcl Script into an Executable

  20 February 2013   Tags: Programming     Tcl/Tk     Tutorial     C    
  Locating Tcl scripts to load from an executable can be awkward if you want to make your program cross-platform. An easier way is to compile a Tcl script directly into the executable and let that script find any other scripts needed. This is particularly relevent as so many programs just use a sin...   Read More
  
  

• Using Dynamically Generated Header Files with CMake

  12 February 2013   Tags: Programming     Tutorial    
  Sometimes it can be useful to dynamically generate header files and include them from a C source file. However, it can be a little difficult getting CMake to recognize when to generate the files and when to recompile the source files that include those headers. What follows is a method to do this...   Read More
  
  

• Embedding an SDL Surface in a Tk Window

  26 June 2012   Tags: Programming     SDL     Tcl/Tk     Tutorial    
  Tk is great, but sometimes it just isn’t fast enough. SDL is fast, but has no support for input dialogs and other GUI conventions. By embedding an SDL surface in a Tk window you get the best of both worlds. Whether you want to use Tk to add a nice GUI to an SDL app or want to access SDL via...   Read More
  
  

• Getting Colour ANSI Emulation to Work Properly When Connecting to a BBS With Telnet Under Linux

  14 February 2010   Tags: Linux     Retro     ANSI     Text Mode     Tutorial     BBS    
  I have noticed that the number of people interested in using telnet to access BBSs seems to be growing, which I’m really pleased to see. However lots of people seem to be having trouble getting colour ANSI emulation working properly with telnet under Linux. I have therefore put this tutoria...   Read More
  
  

• Setting up a Beowulf Cluster Using Open MPI on Linux

  2 December 2009   Tags: MPI     Linux     Beowulf Clusters     High Performance Computing     Distributed Processing     Parallel Processing     Tutorial    
  I have been doing a lot of work recently on Linear Genetic Programming. This requires a great deal of processing power and to meet this I have been using Open MPI to create a Linux cluster. What follows is a quick guide to getting a cluster running. The basics really are very simple and, dependin...   Read More
  
  

• Running 4K FORTRAN on a DEC PDP-8

  14 July 2009   Tags: DEC     Retro     PDP-8     FORTRAN     Programming     Tutorial    
  4K FORTRAN was a subset of FORTRAN II and was the first high-level language available for the DEC PDP-8. It consisted of two parts: the 4K FORTRAN Compiler (nicknamed “Fivetran”) and the 4K FORTRAN Operating System. The compiler was written by Larry Portner and the operating system wa...   Read More
  
  

• A Quickstart Guide to Editing Paper Tape With the Symbolic Tape Editor on the DEC PDP-8

  16 June 2009   Tags: DEC     Retro     PDP-8     Editors     Tutorial    
  Before re-writable storage devices, such as tape drives, become popular for the DEC PDP-8, owners had to rely on paper tape. This was fine for loading programs on pre-punched tape, but left the problem of how to put new data onto punched tape and how to edit existing data. This could be done off-...   Read More
  
  

• Emulating a DEC PDP-8 with SimH

  26 May 2009   Tags: Emulation     DEC     PDP-8     Retro     SimH     Tutorial    
  The DEC PDP-8 mini-computer was launched on 22 March 1965 and was a great success. It was fairly cheap for the day and could easily be expanded. What attracts me most to the PDP-8 is its simple design. I therefore decided to experiment with the SimH emulation of this machine, but found that the d...   Read More
  
  

• Using the latest z80pack, version 1.17, to emulate an Altair 8800 or IMSAI 8080 using the new graphical FrontPanel

  29 October 2008   Tags: 8080     Emulation     Retro     Tutorial     Altair     IMSAI    
  Udo Munk has just released the latest version of his z80pack emulator, version 1.17, which now includes John Kichury’s FrontPanel library. As well as being a superb emulator to run CP/M on, it now gives you a great graphical representation of the Altair 8800 and IMSAI 8080 with fully functi...   Read More
  
  

• Using DOSBox to Run DOS Games and Applications

  24 October 2008   Tags: DOS     Emulation     Retro     Tutorial    
  There were some brilliant games and applications released for DOS, and some of the games such as Command and Conquer are still very playable. There are a number of options to play these games today, from using a Virtual Machine such as QEMU, to DOSBox which is a dedicated DOS emulator. Both of th...   Read More
  
  

• Installing the HI-TECH Z80 C Compiler for CP/M

  22 October 2008   Tags: C     CP/M     Programming     Retro     Z80     Tutorial    
  My language of choice is C and I am currently getting more involved with the CP/M operating system. I have therefore decided that it would be nice to have a C compiler working under CP/M. There are a number of options available in the archives, but I have found that HI-TECH are allowing their CP/...   Read More
  
  

• Installing ZDE 1.6, a programmers editor for CP/M

  21 October 2008   Tags: CP/M     Editors     Programming     Retro     Tutorial    
  To do any serious programming under CP/M, the first thing you need is a good programmers editor. There aren’t many in the archives, but I have tried most of them and found ZDE to be the best. It is small, has lots of features, and uses Wordstar commands which are familiar to me and easy to ...   Read More
  
  

• Setting up z80pack to Create an Emulated CP/M System

  17 October 2008   Tags: CP/M     Emulation     Retro     Z80     Tutorial    
  I have decided to try out some old CP/M software, but need something to run it on.  I could either do this on my Commodore 128 or through emulation.  Unfortunately the 1571 disk drive for my Commodore is currently out of action, so that leaves me with emulation.  I was going to use...   Read More