[Coco] CoCoFEST - Dart Time Sharing System Contest

Sat Aug 23 17:56:39 EDT 2014

Hi Wayne!
You are very welcome.  I'm so happy that you have finally realized a dream
you thought would never happen!  I wonder how many other people out there in
classic/retro computer land have similar aspirations. 
I guess I need to specify that you do NOT need to use ALL the statements or
functions, just the ones you feel lead or desire to use.  Any combination of
statements and/or functions is just fine.  Let your imagination be the
limit!  Join in if you like.  It will be fun!  
As a side note, though this simulator does have the INPUT statement, the
original/first version of the BASIC Compiler had no INPUT statement at all.
Any data needed by the students' program had to be included in DATA
statements and read into the program for processing with the READ statement
much like Coco BASIC programs of today (and yesteryear for that matter)
include machine language programs to be POKEd into ram and run during the
execution of the BASIC program.  
Thanks for letting me know your situation so I had the opportunity to
include ALL BASIC Programmers no matter what their level of expertise.  One
of the points of this contest is to have fun doing it in addition to see
what all we can do with a maximum of 15 statements and 10 functions!
Everyone is invited!  Thanks again Wayne!  Take care my friends.

Kip Koon
computerdoc at sc.rr.com
http://www.cocopedia.com/wiki/index.php/Kip_Koon
http://computerpcdoc.com/

-----Original Message-----
From: Coco [mailto:coco-bounces at maltedmedia.com] On Behalf Of Wayne Campbell
Sent: Saturday, August 23, 2014 5:35 PM
To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts
Subject: Re: [Coco] CoCoFEST - Dart Time Sharing System Contest

This is the first time I've ever seen the original BASIC language. I had
given up hope of ever getting to see it decades ago. I am looking at it now.
As to whether or not I will try to place an entry depends. I have never
taken trig and have never used the trig functions in any of the BASIC
languages I have ever used. I know absolutely nothing about them. This would
make any attempt I make a guessing game, and would probably result in ugly
code. If the idea is to use all 15 statements and all 10 functions, then I
think I should refrain from the attempt.

That said, I do appreciate finally being able to see and study the original
original BASIC as developed at Dartmouth. Thanks Kip! :)

Wayne

On Sat, Aug 23, 2014 at 2:18 AM, Kip Koon <computerdoc at sc.rr.com> wrote:

> Hi Basic Language Enthusiasts!
>
> During the August Meeting of the Glenside Color Computer Club, I 
> suggested that the club present/demo the Dartmouth Time Sharing System 
> Simulator during the CoCoFEST Back To Basics Conference in 2015.  As 
> some of you probably know, two computer programmers who held PHDs in 
> Computer Science invented the Basic All-purpose Symbol Instruction 
> Code (BASIC) programming language at Dartmouth College on a GE-235 
> Mini-frame computer system and was first brought online one evening in 
> May 1964.  DTSS is a simulator written by one of those creators of 
> BASIC to simulate the actual environment the students at Dartmouth 
> College used to get their coursework calculations done without having 
> to study to become computer programmers - hence the name of the 
> language.
>
> I also suggested during the Glenside Color Computer Club meeting that 
> maybe we could hold a contest to see what kind of variety of BASIC 
> programs could be created using only the 15 statements and 10 
> functions provided by this very early version of BASIC which runs on 
> this DTSS Simulator.  Everyone at that meeting were very interested in 
> this idea, so I'm putting out an Official ALL-CALL to EVERYONE in the 
> Color Computer Community World Wide to participate in this contest 
> even if you cannot attend.  Maybe everyone's programs will be able to 
> be collected together in some form and shared at the CoCoFEST and be
available for download from someone's web site.
>
> The simulator and all available information, manuals, etc. is 
> available on the DTSS site at the link below.  If you are interested 
> in participating in this contest or just want to see and experience 
> the environment the Creators of the Basic Language programmed on and 
> the students at Dartmouth College had to use, go download this 
> simulator from the following web page.  Also at the bottom of the 
> page, some of the ACTUAL Assembly Language Source Code that ran on the 
> GE-235 computer for the BASIC Compiler has been preserved!
> Much of the mnemonics for the GE-235 computer look VERY SIMILAR to 
> 6809 Mnemonics!  It was so cool to be able to see this source code for 
> what may very well be one of the most popular programming languages ever
created!
>
> Link to the DTSS Simulator Web Page.  
> http://dtss.dartmouth.edu/#download
>
> These are the links for the software itself.  DTSS Simulator software 
> for [Windows] <http://dtss.dartmouth.edu/DTSS-Win.zip>  and 
> [Macintosh] <http://dtss.dartmouth.edu/DTSS-Mac.sit> .
>
> It is my hope that everyone who enjoys our beloved Cocos will at least 
> consider this proposal and at some level participate in it.  This 
> could turn out to be quite an interesting experience for us all!  Take 
> care my friends.
>
>
>
>
> Kip Koon
>
>  <mailto:computerdoc at sc.rr.com> computerdoc at sc.rr.com
>
>  <http://www.cocopedia.com/wiki/index.php/Kip_Koon>
> http://www.cocopedia.com/wiki/index.php/Kip_Koon
>
>  <http://computerpcdoc.com/> http://computerpcdoc.com/
>
>
>
>
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>

--
Wayne

The Structure of I-Code
http://www.cocopedia.com/wiki/index.php/The_Structure_of_I-Code

decode
http://cococoding.com/wayne/

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