Re: No rights, was Re: Syndicomm Scam

["Bill Buckels" <bbuckels@mts.net>]

"Sean Fahey" <a2fan@hotmail.com> wrote:
> It's good to have options. Aztec C is awesome.

Wait until you get the bug fixed libraries that I am finally finished with. 
I also have some old code from the Manx BBS written by their support dude 
Mike Spille in the late 80's that was never applied to the product. Mike 
also offered to help me rewrite the compiler and tools if we ever find the 
source...

Since last night, I can now make BLOADABLE bins for ProDOS AppleSoft that 
don't crash AppleSoft, and Sys programs that can launch other SYS programs 
and that don't crash the shell. This too shall be documented.

I also did alot of past work with overlays in around 1990, and recent years, 
and whatever templates I eventually provide will be in the form of 
documentation and properly set-up MAKE files with better examples than the 
ones that are there already.

I am still looking at the use of Zero Page by Aztec C and realize that they 
are not saving and restoring the ProDOS bitmasks (they use Zero Page for 
Pseudo-registers as part of their assembler scheme) and other stuff like 
that, which although fascinating has also yielded very productive results. 
Two nights ago I discovered that the exit routine did not invalidate the 
ProDOS power-up byte. This is a 25 year old bug. Stuff like that.

My goal here is to put it all back together into something that anyone who 
knows C can build anything without much effort. It is not ready for an IDE 
quite yet, and it is also time to get back in touch with all the original 
authors and owner and ask for sources again and see if the old wounds have 
healed from the days when they went down, squashed like a bug by Microsoft.

If we can get the tools source then ISO compliance will be next for me, and 
the shell source could be improved by adding command line history, but 
otherwise I will still pull this back into a complete piece that is trivial 
to use. The Aztec C manual is too minimalistic and lacks the clarity of the 
ProDOS Technical Reference Manual bits. These days I can merge the two bits 
together and use them in my own documents without going to jail for doing 
so.

So now I'll go back to listening to the thoughts of the real community. Keep 
in mind that I am only in it because I was an MS-DOS guy who thumbed his 
nose at Macophile's back-in-the day and showed them all that I could write 
Apple II code on my IBM-PC without going near the little 6502 toy:) So now I 
get to make ammends and show the Macophile's that I know more about the 
Apple II than they do.... so far that hasn't happened but it's fun to try...

Bill