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Commodore Free 34
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Commodore_Free_Issue_34_2009_Commodore_Computer_Club.d64
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2023-02-26
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*************************************
Interview with David W. Murray
creator of ADMIRAL64
*************************************
http://galaxy22.dyndns.org/admiral64/
Q. Please introduce yourself to our
readers
Well, I'm a Commodore fan since the
1980's. I was pretty active in the
community when the DTV was released,
but once it sort of died off, I
stopped developing for it. So I've
been out of the loop for a couple of
years.
Q. How did you start your journey
into computing?
My first ever computer was a VIC-20
when I was 6 years old. I learned to
write BASIC programs within a few
days since there wasn't a whole lot
else you could do on it. I didn't
have any games or storage devices.
Over the years my parents bought me
bigger and better things, a C64, a
128, and Amiga 500, and so the story
goes.
Q. OK so lets see if I have this
right "Admiral 64" is going to be a
programming environment that acts
like a Commodore 64 interpreter
Yeah, pretty much.
Q. So the main advantages are Better
Graphics and speed, what about sound
will this be implemented
Well, besides the fact that you can
run it on a wide variety of modern
hardware, yes the speed and graphics
will be better. I hope to do sound
eventually. That is sort of last on
the list.
Q. How will be Graphics be
implemented then will the user still
peek and poke or are you planning to
implement other commands
Well, originally I was planning this
as an actual operating system for a
PC to load from a boot-sector. So
sure, Poke and Peek would be
possible. But I had planned to
introduce new commands to take care
of just about anything the user might
need, so there would be no need to
poke and peek. That would also help
make it more cross-platform if I ever
get it running inside Windows, Linux,
or MacOS.
Q. TCOLOR - BCOLOR I notice these
commands are to be implemented, so
this is a Customised implementation
of Commodore Basic or just a BASIC
+ Commodore styled Editing features
Well, I'm pretty much designing the
interpreter from scratch. I want to
look and work as much like Commodore
BASIC as possible. But I plan to add
all the commands that I always felt
like Commodore BASIC lacked. So it
will be like a Commodore on steroids.
The screen-editor is what really sets
it apart from other BASIC
environments like GWBASIC, for
example. It will offer PETSCII
characters and colours on the
keyboard, and the all familiar
"in-quote" mode for storing cursor,
colour, and screen codes inside
strings.
Q. I know this must have been asked
before but why not just create a new
BASIC why implement Commodore Basic
Well, it is the language I've coded
since I was a kid. It is my
favourite and I feel more at home
programming in Commodore BASIC than
anything else.
Q. Have you had many user complain
about this project I notice many
suggestions saying "use VICE" or
similar emulator does this annoy you
So far people seem pretty divided by
it. Some people think it is a waste
of time, and some people have been
really supportive of the project.
And I'm talking about people who are
active in the commodore community.
Obviously no real programmer is going
to give much consideration to it.
Q. What was the motivation for such a
project?
Frankly, I miss the days where I
could turn on the computer and type a
few lines of code, followed by "run"
and just see it work (or not work).
These days it takes a new programmer
two weeks just to figure out how to
use the programming environment and
write "hello world." By that point
many give up and move on because it
was just too hard. I know, because
I've done it myself many times with
different languages and operating
systems. It was extra frustrating to
me because I had been a whiz at
programming both BASIC and Assembler
most of my life. So I wasn't a
programming novice by any stretch.
Q. Will the finished BASIC be
compiled to run on any PC without the
need for the environment to be loaded
You mean the BASIC program, or the
BASIC interpreter? I really hadn't
given it much thought. But being the
interpreter is so small, it would
probably load instantaneously if I
made run on top of Windows, Linux, or
Mac OS. So I would imagine it could
be designed to work kind of like Java
where you just associate a certain
file type with the interpreter. Only
it would actually load up very
quickly compared to Java and execute
100 times faster due to its
simplicity.
Q. Bit of an (if - then) question I
know, but How long do you expect the
project to take
Honestly I have no idea. I have only
been working on it for 2 weeks as
time permits and I've already
completed most of the hard work of
the screen editor. I've already
started work on the BASIC
interpreter, but that is proving to
be more of a challenge. And I've run
into some road-blocks with memory
usage under Turbo C that I'm not sure
how to deal with yet.
Q. Can out readers do anything to
help you?
Well, yeah.. I need help better
understanding how the BASIC
Interpreter works on a C64 as far as
parsing out lines into tokens and
managing of the memory. I also need
some help on the MS-DOS side of the
programming. And I may want to move
the project to a more modern
operating system and I'd really need
some help with that.
Q. Have you any Comments or was there
a question I left unanswered you
would like to add
Well, there are a few things I could
mention. I was sort of hoping to add
some modern features to the BASIC.
They'd be optional to the user. For
example, instead of using
line-numbers, maybe have the ability
to use labels instead. Maybe also
use longer names for the variables
instead of 2-characters. I'm kind of
curious what people think of that.
But also another way of thinking
about this project is to consider
that Apple changed processor types
twice over the life of the Mac. I
guess what I'm hoping to do is extend
the life of the Commodore operating
system by porting it to a new
platform. Sure, there are emulators
out there, but very little new code
being written. I think the best way
to extend the life and memory of the
Commodore is to give it a new lease
on life using new hardware. After
all, was it the hardware we all loved
as a kid, or was it the software? If
it was just the hardware, then why do
we all love emulators so much?
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