On 2013-07-28, Jim Wilkins wrote:
"DoN. Nichols" wrote in message
...
On 2013-07-27, Jim Wilkins wrote:

O.K. Wasn't QBasic one of the compiled ones for CP/M? My above
Pascal programs were on an OS-9 system (the real OS-9, not the much
later Mac OS-9 -- the last gasp before they went unix based. :-)

The release I was using dated from around 1990, and could execute
either interpreted within the editor or compiled to a stand-alone
.EXE, which was very helpful. A similar version was native to DOS 6.22
and it can run (poorly) under NTVDM in Windows.

O.K. Yes, interpreted makes debugging and experimenting easier,
as long as the compiled code behaves the same as the interpreted code. :-)

We started with Visual Basic 5 but dropped it because it lacked the
INP and OUT instructions that allow low-level hardware I/O access.
http://www.softpedia.com/get/Program...s/Qbasic.shtml

O.K. Something which Intel processors would support, but not
ones like the Motorola 6800, 6809, and the 68000 family, which don't
have separate I/O instructions and just use memory mapped I/O devices
with standard read and write type instructions.

The goal was to write IC application board programs that would run on
customers' unmodified lab PCs, which were typically older office
hand-downs. At that time all PCs had LPT ports but few had USB. The
LPT port is very simple to use for direct digital input and output. In
DOS the serial ports aren't much harder to set up to talk to custom
hardware. Windows polls them, destroying your setup.

Hmm ... no way to tell Windows to keep its hands off those
ports? Another reason not to like Windows, then. :-)

The last step in the test station's troubleshooting procedure gave
the
software manager's home phone number. He wasn't too happy when
National Semiconductor called him at 3AM Eastern time.

So the troubleshooting procedure did not quite anticipate
everything. :-) I presume that he had given permission for his phone
number to be in there? And were there provisions for updating that
when
the manager went on to another company or another job within this
company?

He didn't know his number was in there until he received the first
late-night phone call. He was extremely sarcastic and deserving of
some payback.

Sounds like the team got the payback satisfaction, then. Were
the problems in the code a result of some limits which he put on the
team, thus making it even more appropriate that he get the
o-dark-hundred calls? :-)

Enjoy,
DoN.

--
Remove oil spill source from e-mail
Email: | (KV4PH) Voice (all times): (703) 938-4564
(too) near Washington D.C. | http://www.d-and-d.com/dnichols/DoN.html
--- Black Holes are where God is dividing by zero ---