From brain@mail.msen.com Tue Mar 19 11:08:58 EET 1996 Article: 49680 of comp.sys.cbm Path: news.cs.tut.fi!news.funet.fi!news.csc.fi!news.eunet.fi!EU.net!newsfeed.internetmci.com!swrinde!sgigate.sgi.com!news1.best.com!pravda.aa.msen.com!conch.aa.msen.com!not-for-mail From: brain@mail.msen.com (Jim Brain) Newsgroups: comp.sys.cbm Subject: Commodore Trivia Edition #26 Answers for February 1996 Date: 16 Mar 1996 17:07:39 -0500 Organization: Msen, Inc. -- Ann Arbor, MI Lines: 197 Sender: brain@msen.com Message-ID: NNTP-Posting-Host: conch.aa.msen.com X-Newsreader: Yarn 0.88 with YES 0.22.B0208 X-URL: http://www.msen.com/~brain/ -------Commodore Trivia Edition #26 Questions and Answers Preface-------- Not to leave you in the dark for too long, here are the trivia answers to the previous edition of Commodore Trivia. I am posting the answers at this time, and will post the scores and winners in a few days. This time frame is set up to allow time for any discussions on the correctness of these answers. By this time, the newest edition of trivia has been posted. I encourage you to enter it. This edition of trivia answers has been posted to the USENET newsgroups: comp.sys.cbm, alt.folklore.computers, and comp.sys.amiga.advocacy. It has also been posted to the FidoNET CBM Echo. Feel free to use these trivia answers in newsletters, magazines, and other publications (please see disclaimer). If you use the trivia, I would appreciate knowing where it has ended up. If you intend to use this information, please wait a few days after the posting date to allow for major errors to be corrected. Please mail any new questions for upcoming trivia (with answers) to my address. This edition and previous editions the trivia can be obtained from my mailserver. To: brain@mail.msen.com Subject: MAILSERV Body: send trivia1 quit This will retrieve the first edition of the trivia. Replace the number with the edition you want. **NEW** Interested persons can now subscribe to the Trivia Mailing List. To add your name to the list, please mail a message: To: brain@mail.msen.com Subject: MAILSERV Body: subscribe trivia Firstname Lastname help quit Each new edition of the trivia will be automatically mailed to you when it is made available on the Internet. I try to post the answers for the questions shortly after the monthly contest has ended. However, I usually wait a few days for any errors I may have made to be worked out before scoring the contest. -------Commodore Trivia Edition #26 Questions and Answers (BEGIN)-------- Q $190) In reference to Commodore, what does TOI stand for? A $190) The Other Intellect. Evidently, it was the computer the CBM engineers were working on before the VIC-20 project. The name sounds like it was dreamed up after the fact. In either case, this machine might have been the "Color PET" mention in _The Home Computer Wars_ that Chuck Peddle was designing before company shifted to the VIC architecture. Q $191) Name two values that, when poked to the screen, will yield the identical character appearance. A $191) 32 and 96 or 160 and 224. Space and Reverse space. 103 and 106 or 101 and 116. Left and right lines. Q $192) What chr$ codes lock out and re enable the shift/commodore keyboard flip from uppercase to lowercase on the VIC-20? A $192) chr$(8) and chr$(9), respectively. Q $193) What chr$ codes lock out and re enable the shift/commodore keyboard flip from uppercase to lowercase on the C64? A $193) chr$(8) and chr$(9), respectively. Q $194) What chr$ codes lock out and re enable the shift/commodore keyboard flip from uppercase to lowercase on the C128? A $194) chr$(11) and chr$(12), respectively, while in 128 mode. Q $195) On CBM machines prior to the VIC-20, what chr$ code outputs the same character as chr$(44), the comma. A $195) 108. Q $196) Is the character described in $195 of any use? A $196) To put commas in strings read via INPUT. Remember, INPUT treats a comma (chr$(44)) as a delimiter between input fields, but chr$(108) does not produce the same effect, so you could replace 44 with 108 in data written to disk, and read it in with INPUT. Q $197) The speed of Commmodore BASIC increased dramatically after the first OS upgrade in 1979. Why? A $197) Jim Butterfield supplies us the answer: "The original PET 2001 suffered from the same kind of "screen sparkle" that was later seen in the early Commodore 64. So the original code would write to screen memory only during the "refresh" period; that really slowed down the speed of output to the screen. By the time the first revised PET came out, the screen sparkle was solved, and characters were delivered to the screen with no wait. (The new operating system also did a massive relocation of system variables, and used zero page very heavily, to the dismay of home programmers. When asked about this, Commodore pointed proudly at the "new, higher speed". But in fact it was the screen reorganization that caused 95% of the improvement)." --Jim Related to this question is $00C, which implies that the "sparkle" problem was fixed in the original PETs, so some people increased the performance of the original PET by setting the RETRACE line mentioned above to an output, which fooled the system into thinking the video was ALWAYS in RETRACE mode. Q $198) COMAL, a programming language available for Commodore computers, was created by whom? A $198) Borge Christensen and Benedict Lofstedt, although Borge is given the most credit. Q $199) At the 1980 COMDEX, Commodore PETs proved instrumental during a crisis. What happened? A $199) The following is excerpted from _The Whole PET Catalog_, page 21: "PET PROVEN USEFUL" During the 1980 MGM Grand fire in Las Vegas, Commodore moved its entire COMDEX '80 booth dowstairs to help track rooms, guests, etc. According to _InfoWorld_, 7 PETs with OZZ data-bases (predecessor to SILICON OFFICE) were used for two straight days. Local police agreed they could not have kept of the guests as well as the PETs did. Also, untrained operators quickly learned the system. In the crisis, PET was both powerful and useable. Q $19A) Who designed the PET/CBM 8032 computer? A $19A) Bill Seiler, the able assistant to Chuck Peddle, designed the unit. Q $19B) What was the "cursor gone out to lunch" bug in the first PETs? A $19B) No answer available yet (I can't find my notes!) Q $19C) On a PET/CBM (early models), what will "POKE 14,1" do? A $19C) If done immediately prior to an INPUT, the poke will suppress the question mark prompt. Q $19D) What version of BASIC would not utilize disk drives? A $19D) BASIC 1.0 Q $19E) Who is Lyman Duggan and why is he important? A $19E) He is one of the founding fathers of the Toronto PET User's Group (TPUG), along with Jim Butterfield. Q $19F) Jim Butterfield notes to me that he received plenty of help in creating the first PET memory map (Q $0D8) from the Sphinx group, who published critical information in their early newsletters. How did Commodore influence the name of the group? A $19F) The name "Sphinx" was chosen because of the way early PETs resembled the Great Sphinx, the Lion with the head of a pharoah. The information in this between the lines marked by (BEGIN) and (END) is copyright 1996 by Jim Brain. Provided that the information between the (BEGIN) and (END) lines is not changed except to correct typographical errors, the so marked copyrighted information may be reproduced in its entirety on other networks or in other mediums. For more information about using this file, please contact the address shown below. Jim Brain brain@mail.msen.com 602 North Lemen Fenton, MI 48430 (810) 737-7300 x8528 --------Commodore Trivia Edition #26 Questions and Answers (END)--------- -- Jim Brain, Embedded System Designer, Brain Innovations, Inc. (BII)(offline sig) brain@mail.msen.com "Above views DO reflect my employer, since I'm my employer" Dabbling in WWW, Embedded Systems, VR, Old CBM computers, and Good Times! -Me- Jim Brain: BII, VR, and CBM info