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> Tandy's drive is a horrible, unreliable kludge. Even I, as a Color Computer (CoCo) owner, had heard about the issues with expansion memory and peripherals th

> Tandy's drive is a horrible, unreliable kludge. Even I, as a Color Computer (CoCo) owner, had heard about the issues with expansion memory and peripherals the Model I. It also couldn't pass FCC regulations for RF emissions. > ... but Tandy otherwise kept all technical information secret ... They started to come around later. With the CoCo, they published the schematics for it as a book. I mostly didn't understand it back then... it would have helped if they'd bundled the data sheets for the various chips along with the book. The assembly language programming book for the 6809 (the CPU in the CoCo) didn't really cover the hardware inside the CoCo (like the 6821 peripheral interface adapter) either. That was a shame.

bsder 5y ago
Wait, what? William Barden's "TRS-80 Color Computer Assembly Language Programming" most certainly did cover the peripherals. Even Lance Leventhal's "6809 Assembly Language Programming" covered the 6820 PIA. The big problem was that Lance Leventhal's book wasn't strictly speaking compatible with the EDTASM assembly language disks and cartridges. That caused a lot of grief for me until Barden's book came out.
- ansible 5y ago
  I wasn't aware of either of those books. I was referring to the book by Forrest M. Mins III which was sold in Radio Shack stores. Bummer. I would have really enjoyed either of those. The Mims book didn't even cover interrupts...
  - bsder 5y ago
    The magazines and newsletters of the time were essential. Living in a rural area, I had nobody to talk to about this stuff. Barden was quite prolific in the newsletters and magazines and was effectively my only contact with assembly language and advanced CS concepts (FFTs-for example). I had to pre-order the Leventhal book sight unseen from my local bookstore for something like $60, and it took 18 weeks to get the book. The only way I could ever have figured out that I wanted that book was via breadcrumbs from those articles. Side note: "TRS-80 Color Computer Assembly Language Programming" was actually a Radio Shack book. As was the "Color Computer Technical Reference Manual".
    - ansible 5y ago
      IIRC, I briefly had a subscription to a Color Computer magazine, but I don't remember the title. It was printed on a thick newsprint-like material, and stopped publishing shortly after I started subscribing. :-( Later I did subscribe to Hot CoCo. I don't recall (30+ years later) seeing adverts for other assembly language books. I never did subscribe to any other newsletters or programs-on-tape like I had wanted. > I had to pre-order the Leventhal book sight unseen from my local bookstore for something like $60, and it took 18 weeks to get the book. Yeah, even if I'd have had the money for that, I doubt I'd have done that.

bsder 5y ago

Wait, what? William Barden's "TRS-80 Color Computer Assembly Language Programming" most certainly did cover the peripherals. Even Lance Leventhal's "6809 Assembly Language Programming" covered the 6820 PIA. The big problem was that Lance Leventhal's book wasn't strictly speaking compatible with the EDTASM assembly language disks and cartridges. That caused a lot of grief for me until Barden's book came out.

ansible 5y ago
I wasn't aware of either of those books. I was referring to the book by Forrest M. Mins III which was sold in Radio Shack stores. Bummer. I would have really enjoyed either of those. The Mims book didn't even cover interrupts...
- bsder 5y ago
  The magazines and newsletters of the time were essential. Living in a rural area, I had nobody to talk to about this stuff. Barden was quite prolific in the newsletters and magazines and was effectively my only contact with assembly language and advanced CS concepts (FFTs-for example). I had to pre-order the Leventhal book sight unseen from my local bookstore for something like $60, and it took 18 weeks to get the book. The only way I could ever have figured out that I wanted that book was via breadcrumbs from those articles. Side note: "TRS-80 Color Computer Assembly Language Programming" was actually a Radio Shack book. As was the "Color Computer Technical Reference Manual".
  - ansible 5y ago
    IIRC, I briefly had a subscription to a Color Computer magazine, but I don't remember the title. It was printed on a thick newsprint-like material, and stopped publishing shortly after I started subscribing. :-( Later I did subscribe to Hot CoCo. I don't recall (30+ years later) seeing adverts for other assembly language books. I never did subscribe to any other newsletters or programs-on-tape like I had wanted. > I had to pre-order the Leventhal book sight unseen from my local bookstore for something like $60, and it took 18 weeks to get the book. Yeah, even if I'd have had the money for that, I doubt I'd have done that.