Perth Meeting – 21st June 2016

1) Jim Eadie – TRS-80 Emulator

About the presenter:

Bought my first computer, a TRS80 Model 1, Level II 16K memory, in 1978, and , eventually to a model 4, 128K, with 5MB harddrive. Self taught BASIC and then Z80 assembler. Migrated to IBM-clone PC in late 80’s after a few years using an Amiga 1500. At same time changed to C/C++ over that time. Have stayed with PC’s since. Moved to Delphi with Delphi 1 when it first came out. Have migrated with each version release until Delphi 2007, when I saw a diminishing return in investment for the type of programming I was involved in. At this time I was working in a biotech company involved in the synthesis of custom bio-molecular compounds. This involved creation and maintenance of a database to track and guide synthesis of such compounds. I am now retired and with the extra free time available I decided I’d return to the TRS80. I had attempted twice previously to write an emulator. The first on the Amiga around ’86, and subsequently on the PC. The source code for the PC version dating around ’93. Neither of these was very useful, they were slow and there was not really enough memory in a 1-MB machine to do what I wanted to do.

Emulator:

  1. Basics of the Model I/III/IV TRS80 computers
  2. Memory mapping for M3/4
  3. Emulator interface
  4. Simple BASIC programs, CLOADing
  5. Assembly Debugger/Monitor
  6. Floppy Disk emulation/activation
  7. Inbuilt assembler
  8. Printer(s) emulation
  9. Still to do/enhancements

 

2) Scott van der Linden – Abstract Oriented Programming (AOP)

Aspect Oriented Programming (AOP) is the next logical step in Object Oriented Programming (OOP).  In AOP the goal is to design each object with a pure focus on its purpose.  As such, cross cutting concerns such as logging and security are dealt with entirely outside the core classes; they are aspects of the code, not the core functionality.  In this session two ways of developing aspect oriented code will be demonstrated: the built in RTTI form (native Delphi), and the Spring4D form, using attributes.  If we have time we will also revisit Attributes in a more general way.
Scott van der Linden completed his Bachelor of Science (Computing Science) at Curtin University in 1995 with a minor in Computer Graphics and Master of Science (Project Management) in 2010.  He started programming on a Commodore 128 at the age of 13 and has been writing Delphi/Pascal code since 1986 (Turbo Pascal 3).  He has worked predominantly in the oil and gas industry writing inspection software, project management software, and now design engineering software.  Scott has a wife and seven.  He is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (which partially explains the children).

Where  – Artifactory  8/16 Guthrie St, Osborne Park WA 6017
When   – Tuesday 21st June 6pm start
Why     – Freebie drinks and loads of Marco’s “Food Of The Gods” pizza.  Email dietary needs to scott.hollows@gmail.com