[Coco] Post to the list
Paul Fitch
pfitchjr at bellsouth.net
Sat Jul 18 13:58:54 EDT 2009
I've seen his name in the Glenside CCC membership list, and he was active on
the Coco Supersite a year or more ago, but I haven't seen any posts from him
on this list.
Truth is, when I and Rodney worked toether, he was the brains of the outfit.
He was OLD SCHOOL, did his early programming by flipping switches and
graduated to punch cards. I hope to hear from him one of these days.
> -----Original Message-----
> From: coco-bounces at maltedmedia.com
> [mailto:coco-bounces at maltedmedia.com] On Behalf Of Wayne Campbell
> Sent: Saturday, July 18, 2009 1:27 PM
> To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts
> Subject: Re: [Coco] Post to the list
>
> Paul!! Hello! I wasn't sure if I'd see you on this list or
> not. I remember the fun we had working out the details of
> Drpn. I never really liked the term "reverse polish
> notation", but it seemed to fit well at the time. If I
> remember correctly, the accurate term is PostFix Notation. In
> the politically correct 21st century, I'd probably have been
> required to name it DPFix or something like that. LOL
>
> I know that Rodney Hamilton also helped on Drpn. Has anyone
> heard from him? If so, perhaps my greetings may be conveyed to him.
>
>
> Wayne
>
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: Paul Fitch <pfitchjr at bellsouth.net>
> To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts <coco at maltedmedia.com>
> Sent: Friday, July 17, 2009 4:21:52 PM
> Subject: Re: [Coco] Post to the list
>
> Hello Wayne, Long time no see. I worked with you after you
> initially released DCOM, trying to get better decompiles. I
> was living in Winter Springs, Fla at the time. Like you, I
> misplaced everything during the years getting my degree and a
> real job. I still remember what a bear the Reverse Polish
> Notation of the i-code files was. Hope you get Dcom all back
> together.
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: coco-bounces at maltedmedia.com
> > [mailto:coco-bounces at maltedmedia.com] On Behalf Of Wayne Campbell
> > Sent: Thursday, July 16, 2009 10:23 PM
> > To: coco at maltedmedia.com
> > Subject: [Coco] Post to the list
> >
> > Hi everyone. I am new to this list, and haven't been
> directly involved
> > with the Color Computer or OS-9 crowd in a long time. Over
> 15 years. I
> > have come back because I want to preserve a program that I wrote a
> > long time ago. I'd like to tell you about the program, and
> more recent
> > events.
> >
> > >From 1991-93 I developed a program, in Basic09 on a 512K
> > CoCo3 running OS-9 Level 2, designed to de-code Basic09
> I-Code files.
> > The object was to retrieve the source code if the user (me) lost a
> > source code file and needed it back. I named it DCom. The
> full title
> > is "DCom - Basic09 I-Code De-Compiler". I marketed it
> through Animajik
> > Productions, owned by Alan Sheltra. At the 92 or 93 (not
> sure which)
> > CoCoFest in Atlanta, Georgia, Alan sold nine copies. Since
> the cost of
> > packaging and marketing was not covered by the sales, I conceded to
> > allow Alan to keep it all. I never saw a penny.
> >
> > I managed to hold onto the original source (in printed form), along
> > with related materials, until about two years ago.
> > Recently, I realized how long it's been since I wrote the
> program, and
> > decided to see if someone ever put a copy online to preserve it. I
> > found that the CoCo group is very worthy of praise, as not
> one single
> > copy was to be found. My copyright had been upheld by the
> group. I was
> > happy, and sad. I want to release it to the public domain
> in order for
> > it to be preserved.
> >
> > Through contact with Alan, who I haven't seen in over 16 years, I
> > found that he didn't have any of the materials left, but he
> put me in
> > touch with Dean Lieber, to whom he had given everything he
> had years
> > ago. I am esctatic! Dean had a copy!
> > I got the .os9 image file, installed Mess and NitrOS-9 and tried to
> > read the disk. Bummer. Disk isn't being acknowledged. Upon
> > investigation, I find that, somehow, a byte in the disk
> header in LSN0
> > was set to $07, when it was supposed to be $03. Finally reading the
> > disk, and everything is there! Everything but the source
> code, because
> > that wasn't included in the distribution disk.
> >
> > I have tried to see if the old 3-ring binder I lost still
> exists, in
> > the hope of preserving what may well prove be the most
> important OS-9
> > Level 1 and Level 2 code that still exists. Back when I was
> developing
> > it, Boisy Pitre send me a copy of the header to the
> original Basic09
> > source code! As far as he knew, it was the last 6809 version of
> > Basic09. He couldn't send me the entire source. That header
> info was
> > invaluable. From what I understand, Microware had already destroyed
> > everything related to Level 1 and Level 2 by then, because
> they were
> > already developing OS-9000, which didn't even include a Basic
> > language. In addition, there were many pages of my notes.
> And I even
> > had a printout of the hexadecimal representations of the I-Code
> > modules. That was in case I ever had to manually create the I-Code
> > files.
> >
> > Alot of good all that work did. Without the binder I only
> have what I
> > can remember, which hasn't proven to be much.
> > It's like I'm learning OS-9 for the first time. I'm looking
> at version
> > numbers and differences now. Which brings me to the point of this
> > post.
> >
> > I finally got everything done, meaning I had to set the executable
> > attrs on the cmds directory and on every file in it. I also had to
> > make copies of the I-Code modules to work on, because I had to get
> > past the internal security that blocked self-decompile. It wasn't a
> > difficult thing, but I had to change every single procedure
> that makes
> > up the program. That was my attempt to discourage it. I
> also knew I'd
> > probably forget it altogether if I made it too complex.
> > Anyway, I started the de-compile. It got all the way to
> printing out
> > the instruction statements when it stopped.
> > Examination of the source file being constructed showed it got hung
> > before it was done writing the DIM, TYPE and PARAM
> statements to the
> > file. Checking the disk space available proved there was plenty of
> > room on the disk.
> >
> > I knew that the Basic09 in Level 2 had been upgraded from
> the version
> > for Level 1. I decided to see if I could tell what version was in
> > NitrOS-9. The versions of Basic09 and RunB in
> > NitrOS-9 are listed below.
> >
> > NitrOS9 version:
> >
> > Basic09
> >
> > BASIC09
> > 6809 VERSION 01.01.00
> > COPYRIGHT 1980 BY MOTOROLA INC.
> > AND MICROWARE SYSTEMS CORP.
> > REPRODUCED UNDER LICENSE
> > TO TANDY CORP.
> > ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
> >
> > RunB
> >
> > BASIC09
> > RS VERSION 01.00.00
> > COPYRIGHT 1980 BY MOTOROLA INC.
> > AND MICROWARE SYSTEMS CORP.
> > REPRODUCED UNDER LICENSE
> > TO TANDY CORP.
> > ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
> >
> > I found a copy of an archive that contains both OS-9 Level
> 1 and Level
> > 2. The Level 1 version didn't contain Basic09 or RunB, but
> the Level 2
> > version did. The versions are listed below.
> >
> > cocoos9 version:
> >
> > Basic09
> >
> > BASIC09
> > RS VERSION 01.00.01
> > COPYRIGHT 1980 BY MOTOROLA INC.
> > AND MICROWARE SYSTEMS CORP.
> > REPRODUCED UNDER LICENSE
> > TO TANDY CORP.
> > ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
> >
> > RunB
> >
> > BASIC09
> > RS VERSION 01.00.01
> > COPYRIGHT 1980 BY MOTOROLA INC.
> > AND MICROWARE SYSTEMS CORP.
> > REPRODUCED UNDER LICENSE
> > TO TANDY CORP.
> > ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
> >
> > I could swear I remember Level 2 Basic09 displaying the
> version number
> > 1.2. How many versions are there? From what I can deduce,
> the versions
> > may be as follows:
> >
> > Dragon L1:
> >
> > 1.00.00
> >
> > CoCo L1:
> >
> > 1.00.01 or 1.01.00
> >
> > CoCo L2:
> >
> > 1.01.00 or 1.02.00
> >
> > Does anyone on this list have the original OS-9 Level 1 version of
> > Basic09 and RunB, and/or the original Level 2? I feel it
> may be that I
> > am running an older version of Basic09 than I used when I wrote the
> > program. I need to figure this out, or I'm stuck trying to
> decode the
> > I-Code manually. I already started doing that. Using the smallest
> > procedure in the program, named DCIA, I was able to
> remember something
> > of the structure of I-Code, but attempts with the primary
> procedure,
> > DCom, prove I don't remember enough to make that
> difference. It will
> > take a long time manually. But, I did get DCIA decompiled. The only
> > thing I'm not sure of about it is if I'm using TRUE and
> FALSE in the
> > correct order. In case you haven't guessed it, DCIA is the
> procedure
> > that seeks to prevent self-decompile.
> >
> > Here's the listing, for those interested. The variable
> names are new.
> > I can't remember what names I used originally. The
> condition tests in
> > comments are versions I think I used, but without compiling
> it I can't
> > tell.
> >
> > PROCEDURE DCIA
> >
> > DIM verify(6):BOOLEAN
> > DIM copyRight:STRING[1]
> > DIM id:BYTE
> > DIM index:INTEGER
> >
> > PARAM idents(6):BYTE, verified:BOOLEAN
> >
> > copyRight := "@8y at aa"
> > copyRight := " DCom - Basic09 I-Code De-Compiler: Copyright
> > (c) 1991,1992,1993 by Wayne Campbell All Rights Reserved "
> >
> > FOR index := 1 TO 6
> > READ id
> > IF id = idents(index) THEN
> > verify(index) := TRUE
> > ELSE
> > verify(index) := FALSE
> > ENDIF
> > NEXT index
> >
> > FOR index := 1 TO 6
> > IF verify(index) = FALSE THEN (* IF NOT(verify(index)) THEN *)
> > verified := FALSE
> > ENDIF
> > NEXT index
> >
> > IF verified = FALSE THEN (* IF NOT(verified) THEN *)
> > PRINT
> > PRINT " ==> WARNING!! <=="
> > PRINT " Attempt to De-Compile DCom Related or DCom Protected
> > Module!"
> > PRINT " De-Compile ABORTED!!"
> > ENDIF
> >
> > END
> >
> > DATA $40, $38, $79, $40, $61, $61
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > Coco mailing list
> > Coco at maltedmedia.com
> > http://five.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/coco
> >
>
>
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>
>
>
>
>
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