Synthetics

[John W Kercheval]

I got into synthetics in the 1980s. Now I am trying to brush up, for obvious reasons.

Text is: "Synthetic Programing" by Prof. WC Wickes

Any other sources?

Any advances in synthetics?

Synthetics on 71?

John

[Richard Wagoner]

I'd recommend Kieth Jarret's Synthetic Programming Made Easy.

Rick

[Garth Wilson]

I got into it in the 80's with Mier-Jedrzejowicz's book "Extend Your HP-41." Later I got the ZENROM which did away with the need for the byte grabber and gave direct keyboard access to the synthetics as if they weren't really synthetic anymore.

[Raymond Del Tondo]

And if you want even more, I'd recommend getting a CCD module:-)

The CCD module is rare, but much easier to get than the Zenrom,

and the CCD covers a wider range of entry aids, and eases use with many OS extensions.

Actually, the CCD module is _the_ OS extension for the HP-41.

[Luiz C. Vieira (Brazil)]

Ditto!

If you cannot find the module itself, any of the machine language development hardware (MLDL2000, NOV-series, etc.) will let you delve into it.

Cheers.

[Sylvain Cote]

I am not aware of any synthetic programming on the HP-71B.

The book "HP-71 Basic Made Easy" by Joseph Horn has a section on PEEK$ and POKE that show you how to read/write from/to the system.

Reading the HP-71B Internal Design Specifications is also a must.

Your other options are to use either the Forth language or the assembly language.

For the Forth language, at least three versions are available ...

- the Forth/Assembler ROM

- the 41 Translator Pac (include Forth)

- a RAM and ROMmable version is available on the J-F Garnier site.

For the native code, at least three assemblers are available ...

- the Forth/Assembler ROM

- an assembler is also available on the J-F Garnier site.

- the areuh tool for HP-48SX is also compatible with the HP-71B

Sylvain

[Monte Dalrymple]

The 41CL Extra Functions make PEEKing and POKEing simple. You don't need byte-grabbers at all. And you can POKE anywhere in memory. It's a lot of fun, even if you can get yourself in all kinds of trouble.

[Garth Wilson]

ZENROM has the direct memory editor too, which lets you edit any part of RAM. Again, you better know what you're doing, to stay out of trouble.

[Frido Bohn]

Quote:

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I got into synthetics in the 1980s. Now I am trying to brush up, for obvious reasons.

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The primary question is in my view:
How sexy can 41-synthetics be if you can hook up with MCODE?

[Ángel Martin]

Quote:

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How sexy can 41-synthetics be if you can hook up with MCODE?

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Not very, IMHO. In my mind Synthetics are great but a poor-man's replacement for some MCODE functionality :-)

[Gerry Schultz]

Yeah, but the learning curve is so steep I keep falling off!

[Garth Wilson]

Quote:

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The primary question is in my view:
How sexy can 41-synthetics be if you can hook up with MCODE?

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There's still some good stuff you can do with synthetics that MCODE doesn't really help with, like putting non-keyboard characters directly into a string without using XTOA for example.

Edited: 22 May 2012, 2:27 p.m.

[Ángel Martin]

Quote:

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MCODE doesn't really help with, like putting non-keyboard characters directly into a string

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well, try the CCD OS/X for that: its MCODE implementation allows you to input the character just by using its code (in either Decimal or HEX) directly in ALPHA mode.

But I agree with you, synthetics is very helpful and much easier to learn/use/command.

Edited: 23 May 2012, 7:57 a.m.

[Garth Wilson]

Quote:

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well, try the CCD OS/X for that: its MCODE implementation allows you to input the character just by using its code (in either Decimal or HEX) directly in ALPHA mode.

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I know I should look into the CCD. (I think that's the one with the 500-page labor-of-love manual, right?) In ZENROM (which I have), once in ALPHA mode, you do <SHIFT> <ALPHA> and then the two-digit hex character value, 00 through FFh. You can do it for labels and other things too, although it won't work in the 41cx text editor. The <USER> <ALPHA> has the lower-case letters, and <USER> <SHIFT> <ALPHA> gives other ones including but not limited to []#()'"@&\.