Jeff's VIC 20 Book

[Mayhem]

And away it goes on itch.io too! More exposure. Hopefully means any nasty little errata missed can be picked up and fixed too. Congrats

[doug_in_nc]

The FINAL draft is posted here:
Version 0.9 PDF

I have enough orders to do a print run, so please let me know if you want one too. This PDF is what I am sending to print this week.

If you are OK shipping to the US and we can arrange an easy way for me to pay then put me down for a copy.

[Jeff-20]

UPDATE: Printing and shipping is a lot more expensive now then when I started (and first estimated pricing)... pre-pandemic.

I had sourced a local printer and had the price down to $10 per book (with a loss for me on international shipping), but now the estimate has doubled -- just over $20 per book. I think it is still comparable to most books nowadays and still more affordable than many used guides!

I am now going to try LULU for printing. They send direct to buyer. This is a faster option especially for international buyers, but it will use a slightly lighter paper stock than I intended. I am ordering a sample and will post pictures here when it arrives.

The prices are transparent on LULU. Of course, they set a minimum price to cover printing and their fees. This is not for profit, but any overage will go back into keeping this forum hosted.

I am sorry if this update discourages some of you and hope the free PDF will suffice if this sounds too expensive... you may also be able to find local printing options in your area. More info below...

If you can send to Spain, I’d be interested to buy it. Just let me know how can I order it and how can I do the payment.

con gusto! I am working on it now. I will post information on how to purchase soon.

And away it goes on itch.io too! More exposure. Hopefully means any nasty little errata missed can be picked up and fixed too. Congrats

That's the idea. I hope this all works!

How are you getting them printed? If LULU could you drop the link to the published project (I think you can add a markup if you wanted too) and people will be able to get a print locally to them saving on postage and time to deliver.

Thank you for suggesting this! This is clearly the way to go.

FYI, to make the book available internationally, I have to meet a minimum retail price. Here are the numbers, everyone. Let me know your thoughts.

[AndyH]

Not a bad price. Is that your local printers (and if so postage on top of that?)

[Jeff-20]

Not a bad price. Is that your local printers (and if so postage on top of that?)

This is LULU's price. My local printer would be much more expensive because I would have to ship to me THEN ship to destination. I'm so happy you suggested this.

[AndyH]

Ah, good stuff. I would likely have bought a version from you and a lulu version (for speed of delivery).

As you have the source files you are best placed to construct the lulu version, for example, to create a proper front cover, so glad you are doing that. I've got a few reprints of vic 20 books and have been happy with the quality. Hopefully your test order is good enough... did you go with the ring binding?

Btw, lulu constantly give out 10% or 15% discount codes, the last one I had is COURSEBOOK15 if it still works

[Jeff-20]

did you go with the ring binding?

Yep, ring bounding. It almost doubles the price of the book, but the whole point is to have a lay-flat book... I'm still making tiny tweaks to the content, but I am eager to get a tangible sample.

[Lechuck]

Price looks Ok for me too. I have ordered some Lulu prints in the past and delivery cost to Spain wasn’t high so will order it as soon as it is available.

Thanks

[mathom]

I too think the price looks fine (looking at US). I have also gotten a few reprints from Lulu and am favorably impressed with their quality.

[srowe]

If you see any typos or changes that need to be made, let me know as soon as possible. Thanks, all for helping and following the process.

I've give this version a couple of read throughs. Here's what I've found so far

Page 1

Include start of IEEE-488 interface cartridge

SYS45065


Page 6

92/$5C - if there's enough space include Yen symbol


Page 12-15

ABS(<number>) - for consistency with other numeric functions
INPUT# - extra spacing compared with INPUT
LOAD - <device> and <command> can only follow one another
. LOAD[<"file">[,<device>[,<command>]]]
NEXT - use ellipsis for consistency with other statements
. NEXT<counter>[,<counter>...]
ON - use ellipsis for consistency with other statements
. ON<variable>GOTO/GOSUB<line>[,<line>...]
READ - single instance in repeat
. READ<variable>[,<variable>...]
SAVE - <device> and <command> can only follow one another
. SAVE[<"file">[,<device>[,<command>]]]
VERIFY - <device> and <command> can only follow one another
. VERIFY[<"file">[,<device>[,<command>]]]


Page 36

Title should be "DISPLAY OPTIONS (VIC CHIP)"?


Page 40

Multicolour table, centre numbers
"Set Screen / Border Color", white square in top right, make entire right column grey


Page 49

TRMPOS - bad rendering of second line in my viewer


Page 57

M51CTR - bad rendering of '00=5 bits' in my viewer


Page 64

911D - typo "VIA1IER"
911E - typo "VIA1IFR", not sure why there are arrows on this entry
911F - no need to include "sense tape switch"


Page 65

VIA2DDRA - bad rendering of second line in my viewer

Page 67

Autostart graphic isn't rendered correctly in my viewer


Page 77

Last three entries are vectors so for consistency with other entries
FFFA 65530-65531 {etc}


Page 83

SBC - For consistency with ADC
. A - M - /C -> A, /C


Page 87

AND ),Y - $31


Page 94

SBC updates /C (as page 83)


Page 96

The more usual term is "Undocumented Opcodes"


Page 101

ACPTR - typo, [TKSA] (brackets to match CIOUT)


Page 108

Keyboard Matrix - missing key @ G6 (up arrow)


Page 114

Device Number table - not sure why devices below 4 have "TALK" & "LISTEN", they don't respond to IEC commands (just KERNAL I/O)


Will do another pass tomorrow,

Simon

[Jeff-20]

I've give this version a couple of read throughs. Here's what I've found so far

Great input, Simon! I'll get started on this right away!

[Jeff-20]

NEXT - use ellipsis for consistency with other statements
. NEXT<counter>[,<counter>...]

This whole time I thought you could only nest 3 loops!

Page 40

Multicolour table, centre numbers
"Set Screen / Border Color", white square in top right, make entire right column grey

That section labels two different parts of the chart: the white Is meant to indicate screen color, and the grey is border color

911E - typo "VIA1IFR", not sure why there are arrows on this entry

I'm not sure I understand. There are no arrows here. Do you mean 911D?

Page 96

The more usual term is "Undocumented Opcodes"

Yeah, I had to pick one and made a personal choice... I used undocumented in the index. I would love input from others on this.

Page 114

Device Number table - not sure why devices below 4 have "TALK" & "LISTEN", they don't respond to IEC commands (just KERNAL I/O)

This is also a new area for me. I don't understand the change you are suggesting. This is what appears in "Mastering the VIC"...

[srowe]

Page 40

Multicolour table, centre numbers
"Set Screen / Border Color", white square in top right, make entire right column grey

That section labels two different parts of the chart: the white Is meant to indicate screen color, and the grey is border color

That makes sense.

911E - typo "VIA1IFR", not sure why there are arrows on this entry

I'm not sure I understand. There are no arrows here. Do you mean 911D?

Yes, I got the wrong register. Both IER and IFR here have a '1' instead of a 'I'. And the bits in the IFR don't have 'direction'.

Page 114

Device Number table - not sure why devices below 4 have "TALK" & "LISTEN", they don't respond to IEC commands (just KERNAL I/O)

This is also a new area for me. I don't understand the change you are suggesting. This is what appears in "Mastering the VIC"...
Mastering_the_VIC-20_0071.jpg

Well, that table is just bogus. Devices support communication in different directions sure but only devices on the serial bus (4 and above) actually respond to TALK and LISTEN. It's even wrong wrt device 3 (screen), you can perform input operations on it (see my KERNAL I/O doc). It's impossible to address any device on the IEC (or IEEE) bus above 30, I think a better table would just summarize direction wrt the VIC, like this

Code: Select all

+------+------------+----------+
|   0  | Keyboard   | IN       |
|   1  | Cassette   | IN & OUT |
|   2  | RS-232     | IN & OUT |
|   3  | Screen     | IN & OUT |
|  4-5 | Printer    | OUT      |
|  6-7 | Plotter    | OUT      |
| 8-30 | Disk/Other | IN & OUT |
+------+------------+----------+

[thegg]

For what it's worth, 'undocumented' seems clearer to me.

[tokra]

"Unintended" seems to be the genereal consensus nowadays. "Undocumented" makes it read as if they were intented but just not documented. The "No More Secrets"-PDF that is updated each year at Christmas also calls them "unintended" and this seems to be the go-to-document regarding these:

https://csdb.dk/release/?id=226987