16 May
2005
16 May
'05
9:57 p.m.
Hi folks,
I'm looking for ideas for a few small demo programs I want to write for
my Honeywell H316 minicomputer.
I have written a Mandelbrot demo program which plots on the ASR or line
printer - that's already very nice. Bu now I want to do more ;-)
My tools are:
Assembler and FORTRAN IV compiler.
Usable peripherals:
Paper tape reader/punch, teletype, line printer, serial port
Any interesting suggestions?
Best wishes,
Philipp :-)
http://h316.hachti.de
16 May
16 May
10:20 p.m.
Philipp Hachtmann wrote:
I'm looking for ideas for a few small demo
programs I want to write for
my Honeywell H316 minicomputer.
That should be a recipe database, no? ;-)
--
Tim Riker - http://rikers.org/ - TimR at Debian.org
Embedded Linux Technologist
BZFlag maintainer - http://BZFlag.org/ - for fun!
10:31 p.m.
That should be a recipe database, no? ;-)
I'm not sure.... My machine lacks the cutting-board - it's rack-mounted.
Did the kitchen computer really store entire recipes?
My machine has 16k word of core and no magnetic disc or similar. That's
not enough for a sophisticated recipe-storage and automated
meal-preparation system :-)
11:24 p.m.
Philipp Hachtmann wrote:
Did the kitchen computer really store entire recipes?
My machine has 16k word of core and no magnetic disc or similar. That's
not enough for a sophisticated recipe-storage and automated
meal-preparation system :-)
From what I can tell the point was to store the
ingredients and then
recipes would be on some other media.
http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?st=1&c=927
claims that the "other media" was a printed recipe book. ;-)
--
Tim Riker - http://rikers.org/ - TimR at Debian.org
Embedded Linux Technologist
BZFlag maintainer - http://BZFlag.org/ - for fun!
17 May
17 May
12:23 a.m.
Generate some digits of pi... or generate permutations in minimal
change (gray code) order is fun.
Good question though... "hello world" gives you no feel for the
machine whatsoever. Need to make the computer compute...
-- John.
12:48 a.m.
Hi,
Generate some digits of pi...
That's a good
idea. That way I can use the full "power" of the FORTRAN
IV math library..... :-)
or generate permutations in minimal
change (gray code) order is fun.
I could write a
converter program. The same task in VHDL on a FPGA was
my task at the university last week!
Good question though... "hello world" gives
you no feel for the
machine whatsoever. Need to make the computer compute...
Yes. Hello world says
hello world and asks for name, does this and that.
I'm looking for some impressive and easy to implement toys.
Philipp :-)
10:25 a.m.
On Tue, 17 May 2005, Philipp Hachtmann wrote:
Impressive != (normally) easy to implement.
Find an IMP and re-create the ARPAnet protocols.
--
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org
[ Old computing resources for business || Buy/Sell/Trade Vintage Computers ]
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Generate some
digits of pi...
That's a good idea. That way I can use the full
"power" of the FORTRAN
IV math library..... :-)
or generate permutations in minimal
change (gray code) order is fun.
I could
write a converter program. The same task in VHDL on a FPGA was
my task at the university last week!
Good question though... "hello world"
gives you no feel for the
machine whatsoever. Need to make the computer compute...
Yes. Hello world says
hello world and asks for name, does this and that.
I'm looking for some impressive and easy to implement toys. 
3:42 p.m.
If you have a keyboard and one line of upper case text, how about
the old ANIMALS game? It's reasonably "interactive" for something
that codes up in very little assembly language. 16K is plenty of
memory for it.
4:25 p.m.
If you have a keyboard and one line of upper case
text, how about
the old ANIMALS game? It's reasonably "interactive" for something
that codes up in very little assembly language. 16K is plenty of
memory for it.
I have text. And I have a keyboard - on the ASR33, half duplex circuit
...but what is ANIMALS?
4:42 p.m.
Philipp Hachtmann wrote:
Something like:
http://www.smart.net/~dsb/Animals/
perhaps?
--
Tim Riker - http://rikers.org/ - TimR at Debian.org
Embedded Linux Technologist
BZFlag maintainer - http://BZFlag.org/ - for fun!
If you have a
keyboard and one line of upper case text, how about
the old ANIMALS game? It's reasonably "interactive" for something
that codes up in very little assembly language. 16K is plenty of
memory for it.
I have text. And I have a keyboard - on the ASR33, half duplex circuit
...but what is ANIMALS?
18 May
18 May
4:57 p.m.
On Tue, 17 May 2005, Philipp Hachtmann wrote:
I have text. And I have a keyboard - on the ASR33,
half duplex circuit
...but what is ANIMALS?
It's been so long since I've seen it I hoep I can describe it... a
hex dump (!) of it came with the SWTPC 6800.
It's a guessing game. It uses a lot of text [so non-techies like
it] but does no text processing or handling [so toggle-switch
programmers like it].
It's D U M B. There is a table containing related datums:
ANIMAL NAME // QUESTION TO ASK
FISH DOES IT SWIM
CAT DOES IT MEOW
BIRD DOES IT HAVE WINGS
You can build in a few animals to start. It builds this by asking
yes/no questions, and occasionally asking for new data. It's
reasonably clever-seeming for a tiny program. It codes up in a
few hundred instructions. Human input is either raw text stored in
a table, or Y or N for decisions.
computer: ARE YOU THINKING OF AN ANIMAL (Y, N):
person: [N exits or restarts] Y
computer: DOES IT SWIM?
person: N
computer: DOES IT MEOW?
person: Y
computer: IS IT A CAT?
person: Y
computer: GREAT!
<whitespace>
computer: ARE YOU THINKING OF AN ANIMAL (Y, N):
...
If you get to the end of questions ("swim? meow? wings?") with all
NOs then it asks for new data:
computer: WHAT ANIMAL WERE YOU THINKING OF?
person: ORANGUTANG
computer: WHAT WOULD BE A GOOD QUESTION TO ASK?
person: DOES IT FLING TURDS AT GAWKING VISITORS
computer: THANK YOU
<whitespace>
computer: ARE YOU THINKING OF AN ANIMAL (Y, N):
...
computer: DOES IT FLING TURDS AT GAWKING VISITORS?
person: Y
computer: IS IT AN ORANGUTANG?
...
Ad nauseum. With an adult audience, the questions/answers tend
towards the sexual and scatalogical (duh).
There's a grossly over complex version in some dialect of BASIC here:
http://www.animalgame.com/play/misc/source.php
HA HA! The home page http://www.animalgame.com/ *IS* the ANIMALS
game! Now that's weird...
5:13 p.m.
On Wed, 18 May 2005, Tom Jennings wrote:
computer: ARE YOU THINKING OF AN ANIMAL (Y, N):
...
computer: DOES IT FLING TURDS AT GAWKING VISITORS?
person: Y
computer: IS IT AN ORANGUTANG?
...
Ad nauseum. With an adult audience, the questions/answers tend
towards the sexual and scatalogical (duh).
"Adult" used in this context is ironically oxymoronic.
--
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org
[ Old computing resources for business || Buy/Sell/Trade Vintage Computers ]
[ and academia at www.VintageTech.com || at http://marketplace.vintage.org ]
17 May
17 May
12:23 a.m.
From what I can
tell the point was to store the ingredients and then
recipes would be on some other
media.
http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?st=1&c=927
claims that the "other media" was a printed recipe book. ;-)
Perhaps. But
don't believe that website.... the H316 does not have a
clock frequency of 2.5 Mhz - it lacks a central clock :-) There is a
cycle frequency of 625khz, that's all.
My question is still up: What to program next?
Btw, I've just tried out an odd-looking modem with a Bull-label on it.
But it behaves strangely. It answers the phone with a strange tone. On
the local side it has some built-in intelligency which tells me "INV"
and nothing else when I try to enter something.....
12:27 a.m.
Philipp Hachtmann wrote:
I have written a Mandelbrot demo program which plots
on the ASR or line
printer - that's already very nice. Bu now I want to do more ;-)
What kind of display does it have? Is it bitmapped and/or are the individual
pixel elements individually addressable?
--
Jim Leonard (trixter at oldskool.org) http://www.oldskool.org/
Want to help an ambitious games project? http://www.mobygames.com/
Or check out some trippy MindCandy at http://www.mindcandydvd.com/
1:22 p.m.
Philipp Hachtmann wrote:
So much for my realtime graphics examples, then :-) I'd say fractals are your
best bet for a "demo" of the machine. Or, try to print better
"graphics" by
using a combination of . o O (and others) and quarter-stepping the platen
and/or print head (if the capability exists). If not, you could still attempt
better display by working internally with grayscales and using different
letters and/or dithering to better represent the graphic. There are a
multitude of ways to display graphics on printers using more than just "O" and
space :-)
If you know 3D, try using the generated fractal as a height map and plot
something interesting with it :-)
Does the machine have a tone generator? If so, try to work it -- see if you
can alter the frequency (tone/pitch) to make music. Arpeggiate to simulate
n-part harmony. If enough cycles exist, try sound synthesis.
Get creative :)
--
Jim Leonard (trixter at oldskool.org) http://www.oldskool.org/
Want to help an ambitious games project? http://www.mobygames.com/
Or check out some trippy MindCandy at http://www.mindcandydvd.com/
What kind of
display does it have? Is it bitmapped and/or are the
individual pixel elements individually addressable?
Haha! NO Display at all! I displayed the "graphics" by writing "O"
and
space characters.... :-)
10:12 a.m.
On Tue, 17 May 2005, Philipp Hachtmann wrote:
Hi folks,
I'm looking for ideas for a few small demo programs I want to write for
my Honeywell H316 minicomputer.
I have written a Mandelbrot demo program which plots on the ASR or line
printer - that's already very nice. Bu now I want to do more ;-)
Write a recipe book application so they can finally sell the Kitchen
Computer:
http://starfish.osfn.org/~mikeu/h316/kitchen.shtml
;)
--
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org
[ Old computing resources for business || Buy/Sell/Trade Vintage Computers ]
[ and academia at www.VintageTech.com || at http://marketplace.vintage.org ]
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16 comments
6 participants
participants (6)
-
hachti＠hachti.de -
jhoger＠gmail.com -
Tim＠rikers.org -
tomj＠wps.com -
trixter＠oldskool.org -
vcf＠siconic.com