Diary

Would I reverse engineer Bill Budge's stuff? Yuk! I know how tough that would've been for Apple DOS. Tricks!

And I'm not very visually oriented, artistically anyway, so I wouldn't enjoy the result much.

You can't use hires very 3D graphics except for games.

And if you do the redraw background technique, you actually need 26K 9 for screen 1\ since you have to paint one 9 for screen 2/ while showing other 8 for background

OR you can just use one and use XOR drawing and "undo" pictures but that is pretty time consuming. ----Also for technique # 1, copying 8k means 32 256 byte moves or about 32 msec. SLOW! Only 100 msec is available to paint whole picture since it must change every 1/10 sec.

So XOR drawing is only solution.

SO: HI-RES 3D GRAPHICS ARE OUT. ----It would be nice to do something that could go along with normal text graphics, with all their colors and easy accessibility from BASIC. Remember that I really want to use plain old block graphics in PF, since they are easy to program and MUCH faster! You can still make lots of shapes with block characters. So give a means of using up 128 characters, and GIVE THEM MUSIC. I know something about music, and I enjoy it. I am sensitive to it and its not anywhere near as tough to program as graphics.

Don't make him give the notes. Instead provide lots of canned selections that he can play on any predefined instrument

Games are fine but I think it would be nice just to have music in a program and not have to think much about it.

Not only music, but sounds. Happy, sad, treacherous, etc!

Sprites are real tough too. Give him predefined sprites. A hand, a scissors, etc. He can use these with his block graphics.

Also give him RENUM!

And don't forget a bigger character set. [marked out with note] No due to input kludge. Whole screen has to change. Also this would take up a whole 1K out of 8K. [/note] Forget Hi-res.

Also forget long variable names, high precision. Maybe print using? Also GAME parts, etc. Very straightforward.

1:30 Go to bed (I missed New Year's at Neighbours) But I feel too wide awake. 8:30am Get up

FRIDAY, OCT 14

9:45 -11:00 Read Prentice-Hall catalog. Get book on Vic Graphics. Read Financial Newsletters, "Personal Finance" + Market Logic. Not much value excep tot learn that commodities gains are taxed at maximum rate of 32% no matter how long the holding period.

11:00 - 11:15 WSJ

11:15 - 6:30 Go to work Miscellaneous stuff on Sort, on Finance Finish Infoworld + Byte Read CSN After lunch, go to B Dalton's for Computer Music stuff. + Go home.

6:30 - 8 Make dinner + eat talk to Bob 20 mins talk to Vic 20 mins talk to Parents 20 mins

8-11 Read IBM Sound (+Games) books and get good ideas. ----------Don't worry about missing the Christmas season on Commodore's first really big Christmas, since being intro'd June '82

(Bob just called)...

It's important to do all I want to do. There simply hasn't been time to do a Commo 64 add-on since last fall.

Oct + 1/2 Nov stocks 1/2 Nov + Dec coding Sort Jan + 1/2 Feb design IBM Sort 1/2 Feb + Mar stocks - financial approach April til June Finish Sort + make initial release July + 1/2 Aug Polish Sort + have fun 1/2 Aug + Sept Get to know Multiplan, 1-2-3, MBA Home Finance products Home Experts dBASE, Infostar Now I can do both PF + Commo 64. You can't change the past!

11:45 GO OUT (Hayden, Bruce Jenson, Dan Ireland, Baths, John with Big Dick) 3:00 Get to bed --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Saturday

9-4 Get up, breakfast at McDonalds, play with PC sound. Not much flexibility. Just one voice, and just sine waves + no volume control. Yawn Also discovered that Atari only has 3 full octaves (3, 4 + 5) plus the C of octave 6. YAWN. But Commodore has 8 octaves, 3 voices, ADSR, + overall volume control.