This is my first program for the Macintosh, and it was written entirely in assembly language. It calls the System toolbox routines to do disk work and memory stuff, so as long as you've got a System version recent enough, it should all go smoothly. I can't say which is the lowest System version it will work with, because I don't have System disks going all the way back to System 1.0 - in fact, the least I can test is System 7.0.1. It requires only
25K to run, but needs more memory to load the data into memory while it moves it - a minimum setting of 48K should give you plenty of room to move normal resources. If it should crash on you, give it more memory through 'Get Info' in the Finder, and try again (you may also need to repair the files -ALWAYS WORK ON A COPY OF A FILE AT ALL TIMES). Err, that's about all I can say for this program, except for that if you find it useful, you could send me something? (ü)
About Me:
I am currently in my second year of A-Levels (four of them - Maths with Mechanics, Physics, Electronics and Computing…I have very little time to do my programming). I have a Macintosh IIsi, with:
17MB of memory (hey, it was cheap!),
An internal 80MB hard disk (okay, stop laughing)
An external Jaz Drive (wahey!!)
An external quad speed CD-ROM drive
A 12" monitor (How about game developers being a bit more helpful to those less fortunate
than themselves? We survived with 12" monitors before!)
As I said above, this program was written entirely in assembly language, using LightSoft's PowerFantasm 4.1.0. This program took me quite a while to write, because I don't actually have ANY books or manuals for programming on the Macintosh (and the C headers included with PowerFantasm were no help at all - LightSoft take note!!), which meant that I spent a lot of time staring at the happy Mac icon (and sometimes the Flashing Disk), while my computer decided which part of the hard disk it would mess up this time. I also spent a long time crunching the program down to make it as small as possible - the actual code is less than 3K (less than 0.3% of a 1MB).
Remember, assembly language programs are smaller and faster (and a damn sight better looking) than programs written in 'languages' such a C (shudder). It takes some practice, but the end result is a smooth, small and fast program. If there is anyone else out there programming in assembly language, then I would like to hear from you…I'd hate to think I was the only one.
Send letters, postcards, (money?), suggestions, praise and encouragement to:
Richard Wallman
3 Alfriston Close
Luton
Bedfordshire
LU2 8QZ
England (yeah, like it's ever going to go out of England…)
You won't be able to contact me by e-mail because:
