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t.iv arthur
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u
Interview with Arthur Jordison
creator of Commodore 64 .prg Generator
---------------------------------------
Commodore Free
Please introduce yourself to our reader
Arthur Jordison
I guess, like most programmers around
my age, I started programming when I
was in my teens. Back then you were
either in the Commodore camp or the
Sinclair camp, luckily I chose the
right one! I was only casually
interested in programming at the time
though as my main interest was games,
this is why I still like the emulator
scene today. I kind of drifted into
programming professionally really,
ending up with a BSc degree in
Information Technology and a Masters
degree in 3D graphics, neither of
which I use for work! Now I'm a C++
programmer by trade and I work for a
company which develops traffic control
and monitoring systems. I live in the
north east of England with my wife and
(almost) two children.
CF. When did you first hear about
Commodore machines
AJ. I was lucky enough to get a VIC-20
not long after they were released, so
I'd have been about 13.
CF. What machines do you own Commodore
or otherwise
AJ. I've had a number of Commodore 64s
(and Amigas) over the years but the
only Commodore machines I now own now
are calculators. I used to have quite
a lot of Commodore hardware but sold
most of them a couple of years ago.
I've still got some old 8-bit Ataris
somewhere in the house though. At home
I do all of my development on my wifes
laptop, which isnt very exciting.
CF. Do you still use Commodore
machines, if so what use do you put
the machines to
AJ. Like I said, I still have some old
calculators, one of which I still use
at work. I wish I had the space to own
some actual machines, so mostly I use
emulation these days.
CF. can you explain what the
"Commodore 64 .prg Generator" is
AJ. Basically it an application that
allows you to type in (or load from a
text file) a BASIC program into a
windows environment and then generate
a .prg file which you can use on an
emulator or a real 64. It also lets
you create and edit sprites and
characters and create the DATA
statements you need for your BASIC
programs. The application also comes
with most of the sample programs taken
from the Commodore user guide and
programmers reference manuals. There
are also some simple formatting tools,
such as program renumbering built into
the application too. Ive just added
the ability to import files, either
.prg, .T64 or from a D64 disk image.
The application can also extract
sprite and character data directly
from a BASIC listing.
CF. So does this application run on a
PC only or are other systems supported?
AJ. PrgGen only runs on a PC with
WinXP or windows Vista installed. I
haven't tried it under Vista though so
I'm assuming it works.
CF. What was the motivation to create
such an application?
AJ. I liked tinkering around with
various emulators and tools but they
tended to be old DOS or windows
applications that hadn't been updated
in years. I was mostly playing around
with tok64 and using it to generate
small programs, it's at this point
when I started thinking about creating
a modern window's tool which did the
same job. I didnt however want to just
put a windows front-end on tok64. So
about six months ago I wrote a simple
.prg generator application and since
then I've been improving the .prg
generation and bolting on extra
features and tools.
CF. From the Website you say you were
given VB as a project at work so how
did the project develop from there?
AJ. Well I'm sure you understand but I
can't really talk about my work as
it's a bit sensitive, let's just say
that having VB at work allowed me to
do some extra lunchtime coding!
C64prgGen has nothing to do with work
though.
CF. Do you intend to develop the
software for other platforms or
re-write the application in any other
language
AJ. I've been thinking about using a
product called realBASIC which let's
you develop code for Linux and Mac
platforms. I dont have access to
either Linux or a Mac though, so
testing would be a nightmare. I might
write a version of C64prgGen using
this but it's really a question of it
being worth it. I may be wrong but I
don't think that there are that many
Linux or Mac users who would be
interested!
CF. Is this the final version, and
will there be bug fixes tweaks etc in
the future, I guess I am trying to say
will you continue support for the
application?
AJ. No this isn't the final version,
in fact I've just released a new
version with some new features. I'll
continue to release bug fixes as time
allows, I do however have a busy
family life, so I'm very limited to
how much time I can spend programming.
CF. Do you plan to support other
Commodore machines
AJ. I'm going to add support for other
64 BASICs (don't ask me when!) and
maybe even the VIC-20 as the BASIC is
almost identical. I'm not sure about
that though as C64prgGen focuses on
the 64, as the name suggests. If I do
add other machines then C64prgGen will
need to be re-written as something
else and I'm reluctant to do this in
the near future.
CF. So this is an application to help
BASIC programmers develop BASIC
applications?
AJ. It only helps in the sense that it
merges some common tasks (e.g. program
creation/generation, sprite and
character editing etc.) into one
application, saving you the hassle of
using separate tools. It also has some
built-in code snippets, which are sets
of pre-defined functions for using
sprites, music etc. I did get an
e-mail from one person who wants to
use C64prgGen to teach BASIC to his
students so I'll be interested to see
how he gets on with that.
CF. Can you explain basically how our
reader would use the application?
AJ. The application is very simple to
use.. Basically you can either type
(or load) in your program and just hit
F6. C64prgGen will then generate a
.prg file and if it's valid the file
will be sent it to your emulator. You
will need to configure C64prgGen
properly to use this function though.
It does much more than that though,
there are a few tutorials in the help
file which shows you how to do some
common tasks.
CF. Do you have any other projects
planned Commodore or otherwise?
AJ. I don't have any other Commodore
related projects in the pipeline, I
can't think of anything I'd like to
write that hasn't already been done
before; though I am open to
suggestions.
CF. Is the application FREE to our
readers?
AJ. Yes it's completely free, much to
my wife's disappointment....
CF. If our reader is wanting to
contribute to the project how can they?
AJ. I'm open to any (sensible)
suggestions and criticism about the
application. C64prgGen has a couple of
threads on the Lemon64 forum, so thats
a good place to contact me. Ive had
lots of help and suggestions from
people in that forum. You can also
contact me via email. I'd like to let
users leave feedback using my website
but I haven't a clue how to do that, I
had to learn some HTML just to get a
basic web site going. It's fair to say
it's definitely basic! Any tips on how
I can improve the website would also
be appreciated. On a more technical
note one thing Id like C64prgGen to do
is syntax highlighting. Syntax
highlighting is where BASIC keywords
are coloured differently from other
text and variables to make them stand
out. I had a brief play around with
this but all of the things Ive tried
are very slow. If any of your readers
know how to do this efficiently (in
VB) Id like to know!
CF. Your website says your wife is due
to give birth, has your wife had the
baby and is everything ok?
AJ. The baby was born on 30 May
CF. I guess everything will be on hold
for a while with a recent addition to
the family?
AJ. Yes, the computer (and almost
everything else) will be off limits
for a while I expect. Except for my
two year old who loves it!
CF. Do you have any question you would
have liked to have been asked?
AJ. No, I think you've covered
everything.
CF. Thank you for supporting Commodore
machines and good luck with the
application
AJ. You're welcome. I'm just glad you
wanted to do this article. I'm very
keen to get the application out to as
many enthusiasts as possible.
Currently I get around three or four
downloads a day and hopefully after
your article I'll get a few more. I
spent a lot of time on this
application and a reward is knowing
that people will use the application
for creative purposes.