Gary from OPA Posted May 7 Share Posted May 7 1 hour ago, apersson850 said: Sure you can understand the system, but the lack of documentation is the pure definition of a lousy and incompetent programmer. So obviously he was that. Well that's your narrow view and opinion, but if you had work along side him like I did and see how he operate and was able to complete tasks that were needed, you would have different opinion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tursi Posted May 7 Share Posted May 7 9 hours ago, Gary from OPA said: Well that's your narrow view and opinion, but if you had work along side him like I did and see how he operate and was able to complete tasks that were needed, you would have different opinion. How did the next person who had to maintain that system feel about him? Comments are a social contract. Refusing to write them is sociopathic. He was a great guy and an excellent programmer, but self-skill doesn't justify screwing the next guy. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RXB Posted May 8 Share Posted May 8 I met a Programmer that did not comment anything in his code but he had a good reason... photographic memory. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary from OPA Posted May 8 Share Posted May 8 4 minutes ago, RXB said: I met a Programmer that did not comment anything in his code but he had a good reason... photographic memory. Well James had good memory as well. Sadly, so do I. But the issue the others in this thread have its that it makes it harder for others to pick up the work once the person leaves. which i can understand, but that can also be solved with having very good docs on how to use the program, for example if its api and how to interface to it. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
apersson850 Posted May 9 Share Posted May 9 Documentation on how to use it must of course exist too. But that doesn't fully help the person who will take the responsibility to maintain and further develop this code on Wednesday, because the original creator was run over by a bus on Tuesday. As a professional programmer you must assume that any day your work may have to be completed/maintained by somebody else, since you may not come back tomorrow, even if that was your plan. I've created code professionally for more than 35 years now and I can say for sure that there's no talent that can excuse sloppiness of this kind. We have systems that sometimes lives for more than 20 years and such code simply must be possible to understand even when I retire in a few years from now. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Artoj Posted May 14 Share Posted May 14 Hi All, Back in the day I wrote code everyday and loved it, it was such a joy. Luckily I have found a lot of old printouts, still quite damaged through water and just fading away. Here is a routine I wrote to open and close small windows on the screen, I remember it was part of a suite that was going to be call TIGOS (Texas Instruments Graphic Operating System), I have some parts I am still deciphering, as they were many alteration by pencil on water damaged and faded dot-matrix printouts. I've typed it in and hopefully there are no errors, I hope you enjoy, regards Arto. ********************************** CALL LINK("WOPEN",VAR,X1,X2,Y1,Y2) ---------------------------------- VAR =0 TO 9 TOTAL OF 10 WINDOWS X1 =1 TO 32 START COLUMN X2 =1 TO 32 END COLUMN Y1 =1 TO 24 START ROW Y2 =1 TO 24 END ROW ONLY MINIMAL ERROR CHECKING THE LOCATION DECIMAL 32248 HOLDS (>7DF8) THE CHARACTER FOR THE WINDOWS BACKPROP ---------------------------------- CALL LINK("WCLOSE",VAR) VAR =0 TO 9 TOTAL OF 10 WINDOWS ONLY CLOSE A WINDOW IF IT HAS BEEN PREVIUOSLY BEEN OPENED ---------------------------------- MINIMAL REQUIREMENTS MINI-MEM + 32K BY ARTO 1986 ------------------------------------------------- 7D00 02E0 LWPI >70B8 WORKSPACE 7D02 70B8 7D04 C808 MOV R11,@>7DF4 SAVE RETURN [RT] 7D06 7DF4 7D08 04C0 CLR R0 NO ARRAY 7D0A 04C1 CLR R1 7D0C 06A0 BL @>7DB6 GET 1ST ARGUMENT [FC] 7D0E 7DB6 7D10 C120 MOV @>834A,R4 7D12 834A 7D14 06A0 BL @>7DB6 2ND [FC] 7D16 7DB6 7D18 C160 MOV @>834A,R5 7D1A 834A 7D1C 06A0 BL @>7DB6 3RD [FC] 7D1E 7DB6 7D20 C1A0 MOV @>834A,R6 7D22 834A 7D24 06A0 BL @>7DB6 4TH [FC] 7D26 7DB6 7D28 C1E0 MOV @>834A,R7 7D2A 834A 7D2C 06A0 BL @>7DB6 5TH [FC] 7D2E 7DB6 7D30 C220 MOV @>834A,R8 7D32 834A 7D34 C244 MOV R4,R9 R9 = LOCATION STORE 7D36 0A39 SLA R9,3 FOR VALUE IN 7D38 0229 AI R9,>7DFA ARGUEMENT [SR] 7D3A 7DFA 7D3C 0288 CI R8.>18 CHECK Y2 24 7D3E 0018 7D40 1535 JGT >7DAC [EX] 7D42 0286 CI R6,>20 CHECH X2 32 7D44 0020 7D46 1532 JGT >7DAC [EX] 7D48 0607 DEC R7 ADJUST Y VALUE 7D4A 0A57 SLA R7,5 FOR SCREEN 7D4C 0608 DEC R8 7D4E 0A58 SLA R8,5 7D50 CE45 MOV R5,*R9+ STORE X1 7D52 CE46 MOV R6,*R9+ X2 7D54 CE47 MOV R7,*R9+ Y1 7D56 CE48 MOV R8,*R9+ Y2 7D58 1000 NOP 7D5A 1000 NOP 7D5C 0209 LI R9,>1111 LOAD FOR COMPARE 7D62 7DF0 7D64 0202 RG LI R2,>0001 R2 = AMOUNT 7D68 C244 MOV R4,R9 CHANGE VARIABLE 7D6A 3A60 MPY @>7DF6,R9 TO MEMORY LOCATION [NM] 7D6C 7DF6 7D6E C10A MOV R10,R4 7D70 0224 AI R4,>2000 7D72 2000 7D74 0248 MOV R8,R9 FINISH ROW 7D76 A246 A R6,R9 FINISH SCREEN 7D78 C285 NX MOV R5,R10 COLUMN START 7D7A C007 MOV R7,R0 ROW START 7D7C A005 A R5,R0 SCREEN LOCATION 7D7E C0C0 NT MOV R0,R3 SCREEN LOCATION TO 7D80 A0C4 A R4,R3 MEMORY LOCATION 7D82 C043 MOV R3,R1 7D84 8820 C @>7DF2,@7DF0 COMPARE OPEN OR CLOSE 7D86 7DF2 [CP CO] 7D88 7DF0 7D8A 1304 JEQ >7D94 JMP CLOSE [CC] 7D8C 0420 BLWP @>6030 READ SCREEN 7D8E 6030 7D90 0201 LI R1,>7DF8 CHARACTER FOR WINDOW [SP] 7D92 7DF8 7D94 0420 CC BLWP @>6028 WRITE SCREEN 7D96 6028 7D98 0580 INC R0 INCREMENT POSITION 7D9A 058A INC R10 INCREMENT COLUMN 7D9C 0240 C R0,R9 ALL DONE 7D9E 1306 JEQ >7DAC [EX] 7DA0 1505 JGT >7DAC [EX] 7DA2 818A C R10,R6 COLUMN <R COL 7DA4 11EC JLT >7D7E NEXT COLUMN [NT] 7DA6 0227 AI R7,32 ADD 32 TO START ROW 7DA8 0020 7DAA 10E6 JMP >7D78 NEXT ROW [NX] 7DAC 04E0 EX CLR @>837C NO ERROR 7DAE 837C 7DB0 02E0 MOV @>7DF4,R11 R11 = RETURN 7DB2 7DF4 7DB4 045B B *R11 RETURN TO BASIC 7DB6 0581 FC INC R1 NEXT ARGUEMENT 7DB8 0420 BLWP @>6044 GET NUMBER 7DBA 6044 7DBC 0420 BLWP @>601C FLOATING POINT TO 7DBE 601C INTEGER 7DC0 1200 DATA >1200 7DC2 045B B *R11 RETURN SUBROUTINE 7DC4 02E0 CL LWPI >70B8 CLOSE SUBROUTINE 7DC6 70B8 7DC8 C80B MOV R11,@>7DF4 SAVE RETURN [RT] 7DCA 7DF4 7DCC 04C0 CLR R0 NUMBER ARRAY 7DCE 04C1 CLR R1 7DD0 06A0 BL @>7DB6 GET WINDOW NUMBER 7DD2 7D86 USED [FC] 7DD4 C120 MOV @>834A,R4 7DD6 834A 7DD8 C244 MOV R4,R9 CHANGE VARIABLE TO 7DDA 0A39 SLA R9,3 TO STORE 7DDC 0229 AI R9, >7DFA LOCATION [SR] 7DDE 7DFA 7DE0 C179 MOV *R9+,R5 GET X1 7DE2 C189 MOV *R9+,R6 GET X2 7DE4 C1F9 MOV *R9+,R7 GET Y1 7DE6 C239 MOV *R9+,R8 GET Y2 7DE8 C820 MOV @>7DF2,@>7DF0 LOAD FOR COMPARE [CP CO] 7DEA 7DF2 7DEC 7DF0 7DEE 10BA JMP >7D64 JUMP TO REGISTER [RG] 7DF0 0000 CO DATA >0000 COMPARE DATA 7DF2 2222 CP DATA >2222 7DF4 0000 RT DATA >0000 RETURN 7DF6 0300 NM DATA >0300 SCREEN 7DF8 8080 SP DATA >8080 WINDOW CHARACTER 7DFA 0000 SR BSS 32 STORE VALUES 7E1A 0000 AORG >701E 701E 7FE0 DATA >7FE0 7020 0000 AORG >7FE0 7FE0 574F TEXT 'WOPEN' 7FE2 5045 7FE4 4E20 7FE6 7D00 DATA >7D00 7FE8 5743 TEXT 'WCLOSE' 7FEA 4C4F 7FEC 5345 7FEE 7DC4 DATA >7DC4 7FE0 4F4C END 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+dhe Posted May 16 Share Posted May 16 @Vorticon it's been a month or so ago now, but did you ever get your AMS code working in Assembly under the P-System? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Vorticon Posted May 16 Share Posted May 16 36 minutes ago, dhe said: @Vorticon it's been a month or so ago now, but did you ever get your AMS code working in Assembly under the P-System? I sure did! I created a library of functions to initialize the SAMS and store/retrieve data. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+TheBF Posted May 17 Share Posted May 17 @Vorticon is pushing the envelope of the P-System for use in the 21 century. Really cool stuff he has created so far. 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DPOLARA Posted May 19 Share Posted May 19 I've been spoiled, writing and debugging TI-99/4A Assembler Code in Classic99, but I'm having problems getting the Editor/Assembler Debugger to properly work on actual TI-99/4A. After setting breakpoints, I think the system is supposed to return to the DEBUGGER, but it just stops running and appears frozen. I need to power cycle the TI-99/4A when it hits a breakpoint. Does anyone have any tips, tricks, links or tutorials for running the EA Debugger on actual TI-99/4A hardware? Thank you! 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DPOLARA Posted May 20 Share Posted May 20 Has anyone checked out or purchased this new book that includes Intro to TMS9900 Assembly Language https://www.chibiakumas.com/tms9900/? I think I'm going to buy a copy just to support this author's ambitious efforts. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
apersson850 Posted May 20 Share Posted May 20 Perhaps we should support him by teaching instead? I had a look at that page and found an error pretty quickly. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+InsaneMultitasker Posted May 20 Share Posted May 20 I could only look at that web site for 30 seconds before the Lite-Brite / dark color scheme gave me a headache. The site has some good info and a different way of portraying/explaining the instructions, but also some errors as apersson850 points out. Edit: didn't this site come up once before as a discussion point? Is the author part of the AA community? 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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