I always enjoyed programming Personal Computers, and this passion
grew up one day of the 1983, when my father, in order to sample a bit what I
liked and what I didn't, borrowed a guitar and a VIC-20. My mother had always
dreamt of me singing together with my friends, in a group! As for musical instruments,
apart from a Christmas concert at school when I was 10, I wasn't such a talent,
but the computers fascinated me and, the next year, I bought a Commodore C-16.
It was Dec. 12, 1984, and the new era of the Luca Programmer was beginning.
I learnt BASIC and the machine language of that computer (does anybody recall
the MONITOR instruction?). Then, the Amiga 500 came, a Mr. Computer according
to me, and, at last, in 1997, I bought a PC and installed linux, learning the
shell scripts, and some Tcl/Tk.
With the Amiga I made a lot of programs, mainly apt to understand the system
routines, but I want to put some of them in this homepage, for I think they
could be useful both as programs themselves, and as study for who, like me,
finds fascinating learning and knowing a little more deeply how a machine works;
besides the executable I also include the source.
|
The Myth: Commodore C16
|
and the Amiga 500
|
| TestDrive | Tests the internal drive speed | 7KB | C Source | 4KB |
|
| AssemblerBoot | Shows the use of the dual-playfield | 2KB | ASM Source | 2KB |
|
| AutoBoot | Runs the NDOS games within the DOS. Useful if together with programs which turn the led off or which switch from 50Hz to 60Hz. | 1.5 KB | ASM Source | 2KB |
|
| Chrono | Utility to measure the passing time | 600 bytes | ASM Source | 1KB |
|
| CloseDOS | Close the DOS Window, just like the "endcli" command does, but in multitasking. | 176 bytes | ASM Source | 640 bytes |
|
| ClrMem | Cleans the CHIP-RAM through the Blitter and resets the system | 188 bytes | ASM Source | 485 bytes |
|
| Play | Plays the Protracker/Soundtracker modules (needs streplay.library) | 536 bytes | ASM Source | 699 bytes |
|
| Reset | Software reset through the TRAP instruction | 76 bytes | ASM Source | 50 bytes |
|
| tac | Speeds up "disk-inserted" check (the typical "tac" you may hear from the drive when no disk is inserted) | 876 bytes | ASM Source | 3KB |
|
| WaitMouse | Waits for the pressure of the left mouse button | 56 bytes | ASM Source | 60 bytes |
|
| PrintLyrics | Prints the lyrics of the songs in tape (8x10 cms) or CD (12x12cm) format | 10KB | --- | --- |
|
| CD2MC | The program I'm most proud of, it was awarded by the site I uploaded it into, http://src. doc.ic.ac.uk and it's reachable through the search engines. It tells you how to fit the songs from a CD into a tape, and prints out the cover. Instruction on-line and many options available. | 22KB | --- | --- |