luckybuck Posted September 2, 2017 Share Posted September 2, 2017 Hi together, In order to get the last remaining exot language for the AtariWiki, I would like to ask the community, whether there is someone out there in the galaxy, who owns: Test Computer Language (disk) version, year : 2.2, 1985-1990 author/company : D.Firth available..... : public domain, ? package....... : compiler and editor features...... : - extracted from the Atari faq. An atr image and a manual in pdf form would be cool. Thank you very much in advance, your help is very appreciated, as always. :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
technomiser Posted April 21, 2021 Share Posted April 21, 2021 (edited) Hi, only just seen this thread (apologies if you have already obtained a copy) - here is a copy of TCL in ATR format together with a manual in PDF format. I have included two example programs: COLOUR.TCL and BREAKOUT.TCL together with functions files (PEEK.FUN and DPEEK.FUN) which are included by BREAKOUT.TCL COLOUR.TCL - Is a minimalistic program that simply sets the background colour (COLBK) to the value of VCOUNT as quickly as possible. I used it as a quick sanity check during development. All you will see is a rainbow effect on the background (Reset to exit .... to spartados, followed by RUN to restart TCL). BREAKOUT.TCL - is a simple version of breakout Quick Start Extract files from TCL.ZIP Disable BASIC and boot TCL.ATR You should now be in SpartaDOS at the D1: prompt D1:TCL Test Computer Language, Version 2.2 Copyright (c) 1985-1990 by D.Firth. Ok. LOAD #D:COLOUR.TCL Ok. LIST [ snipped ] To Run immediately within TCL type RUN (You will need to hit reset to exit, which will return you to SpartaDos, type RUN in spartados to immediately restart TCL). To compile into an executable disk file type: COMPILE #D:COLOUR.COM Don't expect anything like BASIC - you will need to be able use the A8 at quite a low level to get the most out of it. The language basically includes:- 16 bit integer variables, arithmetic, procedures, functions, IF statements, loops, Timer Events using EVERY and AFTER (watch out for non-reentrant code ... there are IRQ ON/OFF commands to help). Quick example library function (and what it is doing) is PEEK.FUN Quote LOCAL FUNCTION PEEK (?address) CODE AD **** This is the 6502 Opcode for LDA (ABSOLUTE) VARIABLE ?address **** This is the storage location for the 16 bit variable ?address, it also end up being the 16 bit address for the LDA opcode above PHA **** Now that we have loaded the A registered from the address specified we can push it onto the stack (low byte of return value). CODE A900 **** Load A with 0 PHA **** Push high byte of return value onto stack PULL (PEEK) **** Load return value into PEEK - this will now be accessible to the calling function END This might look a bit strange but you can now use X=PEEK(53248). TCL.zip Edited April 21, 2021 by technomiser 6 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luckybuck Posted April 21, 2021 Author Share Posted April 21, 2021 Hi Mr. Firth! WOW!!!!!!!! You are the one and only Davith Firth? Well known for decades? Marvelous, thank you sooooo much in the name of the community of the 5 continents: Soooo great !!! All is running like a charm: Am I free to publish this at the Wiki? https://atariwiki.org/wiki/Wiki.jsp?page=Articles with all credits to you? A special place in our hearts, you already have, of course. Thank you sooo much. WOW that is great! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kaj de Vos Posted April 23, 2021 Share Posted April 23, 2021 Wow, never heard of this. This is certainly exotic. Pretty neat, though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kaj de Vos Posted April 23, 2021 Share Posted April 23, 2021 It looks more powerful than Action!, partly more powerful than PL65. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
technomiser Posted April 23, 2021 Share Posted April 23, 2021 On 4/22/2021 at 12:47 AM, luckybuck said: Am I free to publish this at the Wiki? https://atariwiki.org/wiki/Wiki.jsp?page=Articles with all credits to you? Yes you are free to publish it on the Wiki together with the source code I sent as a PM. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
technomiser Posted April 23, 2021 Share Posted April 23, 2021 13 hours ago, Kaj de Vos said: Wow, never heard of this. This is certainly exotic. Pretty neat, though. It wasn't commercially distributed (it never entered my head ... I was far to busy writing code and tinkering). It was used for the development of Enigmatix! ... by the only other person who had a copy of the language. I wrote the language out of interest - and (out of nostalgia) that subsequently led to the development of an emulator so that I didn't lose access to the language. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kaj de Vos Posted April 24, 2021 Share Posted April 24, 2021 Interesting. I know about frantic coding and not releasing. I wrote an emulator around a year before you. I never released it because yours preempted it to become the community one. Only one other person had a copy of it. Mine was much better than Xformer but not as complete as yours. I remember being frustrated because I had a disturbance line in the Swan Demo when the swan came flying by that yours didn't have and that I never got out. I'm not doing much with it anymore, because it was written in C on MS-DOS and I don't want to maintain that anymore. So now I am writing a language to port the emulator to, to not lose access to it. ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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