VIC-20 Kernel Project

From: Richard A. Cini, Jr. <rcini_at_msn.com>
Date: Sun Jul 27 08:14:55 1997

On Fri, 25 Jul 1997 15:51:33 -0400, Gil Parrish wrote:

> For the last two years, I have been working on making a
recompilable version of the VIC-20 Kernel ROM.<

>>OK, I'm not afraid to ask the amateur question: Why?
>>I'd love to see someone with good programming skills write some
>>sophisticated software for the VIC-20, likely requiring at least a 16K
>>expander or something. If your project will help lead to that, I'm all
>>for it.

        Well, Gil, I used it as a learning project. When I first got my VIC-20 in
1981/2, I was in junior high school. I programmed mostly in BASIC, and did a
little ML. After I graduated, I got involved in too many other things: my
fraternity, my wife, a job, the Mac, and then Windows hacking. When I bought
my house two years ago, I moved all of my old machines and started playing
with them again.
        So...I wanted to re-learn 6502 ML and the VIC/CBM architecture. I thought
that documenting the VIC Kernel (some thing that I had never seen in print)
would be a nice project. Also, I thought that it sould be good to have
recompilable Kernel code, if I ever needed to recompile it. Documenting the
Kernel enables the programmer to understand what's in the "black box." This is
why AndrewShulman and Matt Pietrek have made a fortune in books detailing the
internals of Windows.

------------------------
Rich Cini/WUGNET
rcini_at_msn.com
   - ClubWin Charter Member (6)
   - MCPS Windows 95/Networking
Received on Sun Jul 27 1997 - 08:14:55 BST