Apple & Commodore questions - test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

6 Jul 1998

...
 >     I'd like to do some assembly language
programming on my Apple //+. What
> program was generally used to do AL programming? Did you typically use the
> built-in Monitor, or was there an "Apple Assembler" program? 
...
  Well, you had many to choose from.  Probably the most
popular was
 Merlin by Roger Wagner.  You also had the Apple's EDASM, and there
 was the LISA Assembler (no relation to the computer), Big Mac Assembler,
 Assyst, ORCA/M, probably a few others. 
Big Mac is still a usefull choice.
ORCA/M is more powerfull, but a bit harder to get on.

...
  Then of course there was the Sweet-16 mini-assembler
built into the ROMs
 of the Apple ][ (not ][+ or //e).  It finally reappeared in one of the
 later ]['s, but I can't remember which (the //c+ perhaps?) 
First thing I did after I had my own Apple ][+ was hacking in
the Mini Assembler via the monitor (CALL -151) and save it to
cassete tape. I had to modify it on the fly ... :) At least
the dissassembler was still in ROM - Ohhh good ol times.

...
  I did all my coding by poking bytes from the monitor. 
Its how I learned
 and its the only way I ever felt comfortable with even though using an
 assembler would have saved me countless hours.  But I never liked any of
 the assemblers (and I had all the ones I mentioned above). 
I'm prety shure Bic Mac is woth a try. After I had FD drives
Eventualy I did my own assembler (/370 orientated - before
the Apple, I did it the other way - I developed a set of Macros
for the ASSEMBF to compile 8080 code (and 6502) on the mainframe)

...
 >     Second, has anyone heard of a Commodore C64k??
I found a news post where
> a guy had two of these available, but I don't recognize the "k" suffix.

...
  He probably is just referring to the amount of memory
it has and is
 clueless enough about the machine that he would call it that.  I'm
 positive its just a plain old C64. 
Maybe - I don't know all the names for the different 65816 projects
to boost the C64 - maybe it's one of those ?

Gruss
H.

--
Ich denke, also bin ich, also gut
HRK