Tiny PILOT for KIM-1 resurrected

[D Hassler]

Hi folks.  Reading the BYTE article from Dmitri's post about WADUZITDO, I noticed it mentioned PILOT.  I kind of remembered that language being available for the C64, and went on an internet hunt.  I found a version written specifically for SYM-1 (close enough!), scanned the source code, typed it up, and I present to you Tiny PILOT, in all its 1979 glory!

Included in the attached ZIP file: a PTP, the source code, documentation/User Guide, the relevant pages of MICRO #16 and #27, and 7 demonstration programs I either found or adapted or wrote.  Loads at $0200 and leaves 3.5K for a program in an unexpanded PAL-1.  Easily relocatable, but I'm holding out for a more feature-rich version to sit at $2000.  This will also be available on my PAL-1 website at www.vanportmedia.com/PAL-1

Have a great weekend, all.

Dave

[GN Liu]

Thank you for sharing another piece of history AGAAIIIN!!!

[Neil Andretti]

Wow, again.

I love to dig deeper into  the Tiny Interpreter.

BTW: did anyone port EHBasic to the KIM-1/PAL-1?

I tried but miserably failed :D

Here is Hans' page with all infos and sources:

http://retro.hansotten.nl/6502-sbc/lee-davison-web-site/enhanced-6502-basic/

and here's a port to the SYM-1

http://b5.net/sym1/ehbasic

have a good retro weekend,

nils

[Jim McClanahan]

Good stuff. I wrote a version of Pilot (actually two of them) back in my days with the Ohio Scientific. The first version was in BASIC and I wrote it on the C1P. I converted it to assembly language when I upgraded to the C4P-MF. Unfortunately I never made a hardcopy listing of a lot of the things I did. I have the computer and the disks, but they've been packed away for around thirty years and about a half dozen moves. (I probably have the C1P version on one of the cassettes I have also, although I haven't tried to pull anything off of them either.) When retirement gets here, getting the C4P out and trying to see what I can recover is high on the list of things to do.

I had actually thought about it a while back when I was tinkering with Linux and different languages. I was surprised to find that there isn't an "official" flavor of PILOT for Linux. I did find one called RPILOT and with a few minor tweaks got it running on my Linux machine.

Thanks,

Jim W4JBM

[Hans Otten]

Thank you for all the work you out into resurrecting old KIM-1 software!

 

Bob Applegate, he was 17 when the (second) Micro article was published in 1980. He is still active in the KIM-1 clone world, Corsham Technologies is his (evening/weekend) company and he sells good hardware. His health is not so good alas.

[Hans Otten]

I cross posted in the Corsh...@groups.io | Home group about TinyPilot, this is Bob's response:

Yes that was me!  Being paid for that article allowed me to convince my mother, a very traditional person, that I could make a living writing software and that I should drop out of high school at the end of 11th grade to attend college early.

The code has bugs in the random number generator (produces a binary number, not BCD) and the whole article sounds like a kid wrote it.  I still have the envelope from Micro with my special copy of that issue and a copy of the check.  Some of my teachers seemed uncomfortable having a paid author in their class ;-)

BTW I took a typing class in 10th grade and the teacher pulled me aside and said he could transfer me to a course about repairing cars and farm equipment (I lived on a farm) which would be more appropriate for a young man.  No, I really wanted to learn how to touch-type so I was the only boy in that class.

Bob