Troy Press

A friend made a joking reference to COBOL yesterday, which reminded me of the time I tried to write a COBOL interpreter. In college, I took a one-credit class in 80286 assembly language and for my course project I decided I’d implement a Tiny COBOL, which sounded like a great oxymoron in and of itself. Also, I was a big fan of Grace Murray Hopper (shown above). But I really picked Tiny COBOL instead of Tiny BASIC so I wouldn’t have to implement parentheses and order of operations in assembler […]

When my youngest was 8, I created a simple microgame for us to play instead of the classic card game of War: Melee in the Mines. We played it about 50 times, so I created a free PDF version to share with other people. (It’s light but with some decisions: it has an average rating of 5 out of 10, compared to 2 out of 10 for War.) It’s been downloaded less than 100 times, so imagine my surprise when I came across merchandise for it: Basically, TwiceTheTees.com has created […]

Growing up, I remember going to friends’ houses and typing in BASIC programs. We’d take turns entering the listing and double checking it, then play whatever game it was. Back then, everyone had a different microcomputer. I had a TRS-80 Model I, the library had an Apple II (too expensive for most of us back then), Ron had a VIC-20, Mark had a TI-99/4A, Mike had a Commodore 64, Chris an Amiga, and so on. Even the Bally Astrocade had a BASIC cartridge. The iOS app LowRes Coder returns us […]

When my 11-year old wanted to learn to program last spring, I got him a book on writing games in JavaScript. It had the source code for four games, but my son found it difficult. Four games?! A far cry from the 101 BASIC Computer Games that was my go-to (ahem) when I was his age, programming a TRS-80 Model I. So I looked at a number of different BASIC implementations for his iPod Touch, eventually landing on LowRes Coder, which turns an iOS device into an 8-bit microcomputer circa […]

I curated a rock opera about the life and many loves of Code Monkey, drawn from Jonathan Coulton songs. You can listen to the playlist on Spotify or assemble it using your favorite music app: The Future Soon Code Monkey I Feel Fantastic Make You Cry You Ruined Everything Sticking It to Myself SkyMall Alone at Home Nobody Loves You Like Me When You Go Artificial Heart Today with Your Wife Glasses Shop Vac Chiron Beta Prime (The image is a screen cap of this video.)

BRAINTREE, Mass.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–April 1, 1998–Perseus today announced the immediate availability of a new version of Perseus SurveySolutions written specifically for the Tandy/Radio Shack TRS-80 Model I. “When we realized that no new software had been developed for the TRS-80 Model I in at least a decade, we felt compelled to re-open the market window,” said Richard Nadler, President of Perseus Development Corp. “The TRS-80 is an exciting platform for us, given its installed base. While some software companies were started in the garage, we’re the first to develop software for […]

Mark Rosenfelder has edited and updated my articles and essays from the Model Languages newsletter and the former Langmaker.com website, assembling them into the book Langmaker: Celebrating Conlangs. Available now as a Kindle or paperback from Amazon! Here’s the very first issue I ever published. From: Jeffrey Henning <[email protected]> Subject: _Model Languages_, 5/1/95 MODEL LANGUAGES The newsletter discussing newly imagined words for newly imagined worlds ————————————————————————– Volume I, Issue 1 — May 1, 1995 AN INTRODUCTION TO THE HOBBY OF MODEL LANGUAGES Some people build model airplanes, some craft model […]

History on his head He wore a black mountain kapa Black border, red blood center, white war braid Black for Kosovo Polje, swarming with Turks Red for Kosovo Polje, bleeding his fathers’ blood White for the wars and the strength of his cause A millenium halved in war A mountaineer in love with hate A warrior from Crna Gora Italians had swarmed over the border Had stolen the capitol of Cetinje Now he guides his men for the black mountain “A friend can cross the karst in 6 hours, a […]