[Coco] What was used before EDTASM+?

[L. Curtis Boyle]

Spectral's editor/assembler came out in 1981 (not sure when, maybe about the middle of the year?).

Cer-Comp’s had one out in 1981 as well (CCASM9, etc.) which had multiple parts that could be purchased separately (CCASM9 assembler, CCEDT9 text editor, CCDISS disassembler). These required that you use their DOS (which came out before Tandy’s) called CCMD+9 - which didn’t even require Extended BASIC to run.
They had another one called CORES9 which ran from cassette and was sold as an editor/assembler package. It’s editor could even be used for BASIC program editing. It also featured global search & replace, moving and/or copying lines around.

Microworks had their SDS80C that came out in 1981 on ROM cartridge - editor, assembler & monitor - and was more powerful than the EDTASM+ cartridge. It had a screen editor, key repeat, didn’t need line numbers, had 6800 cross-assembly built in, and was a common one in early development from what I understand. But it wasn’t cheap: $89.95.

(See January 1982 Color Computer News on the archive for some sample ads. As with all magazines, their cover date was usually a couple of months later than when it was actually released. They also reviewed both CORES9 and SDS80C in this issue).

L. Curtis Boyle
curtisboyle at sasktel.net



> On Aug 2, 2022, at 4:16 PM, L. Curtis Boyle <curtisboyle at sasktel.net> wrote:
> 
> Spectral's editor/assembler came out in 1981 (not sure when, maybe about the middle of the year?).
> 
> Cer-Comp’s had one out in 1981 as well (CCASM9, etc.) which had multiple parts that could be purchased separately (CCASM9 assembler, CCEDT9 text editor, CCDISS disassembler). These required that you use their DOS (which came out before Tandy’s) called CCMD+9 - which didn’t even require Extended BASIC to run.
> They had another one called CORES9 which ran from cassette and was sold as an editor/assembler package. It’s editor could even be used for BASIC program editing. It also featured global search & replace, moving and/or copying lines around.
> 
> Microworks had their SDS80C that came out in 1981 on ROM cartridge - editor, assembler & monitor - and was more powerful than the EDTASM+ cartridge. It had a screen editor, key repeat, didn’t need line numbers, had 6800 cross-assembly built in, and was a common one in early development from what I understand. But it wasn’t cheap: $89.95.
> 
> (See January 1982 Color Computer News on the archive for some sample ads. As with all magazines, their cover date was usually a couple of months later than when it was actually released. They also reviewed both CORES9 and SDS80C in this issue).
> 
> 
> L. Curtis Boyle
> curtisboyle at sasktel.net
> 
> 
> 
>> On Aug 2, 2022, at 3:48 PM, Allen Huffman <alsplace at pobox.com> wrote:
>> 
>> On Aug 2, 2022, at 4:46 PM, L. Curtis Boyle <curtisboyle at sasktel.net> wrote:
>>> 
>>> And some hand assembly, as Steve Bjork has mentioned that he did on his earliest Coco projects. Steve Hirsch did Speed Racer for Michtron by hand assembly too.
>> 
>> That’s pretty mind blowing. It might be fun to try something small, but doing a full game sounds daunting.
>> 
>> The editor would be a pencil eraser, I guess. ;)
>> 
>> Do we know the release dates of the other compilers?
>> 
>