Ron's Stuff

There is no particular organization, just an ever lengthening page of stuff. Browse down, you might find something interesting.

Last updated: 20-Jul-2008

P-Lisp

P-Lisp is an old Lisp system (1982) for the Apple II. Recently "rediscovered" and made available by others I am putting it here as well along with some simple additions I've made.

• Apple II specific extras
• The original disk image
• A disk image with my additions is here
• Or the above as a ShrinkIt archive
• The existing manual
• My notes on intrinsic Lisp functions available is here
• Lastly, directions on how to use my additions

P-Lisp is reasonably complete in that it has floating point arithmetic and supports interaction with the Apple II hardware via PEEK, POKE and CALL.

SPL Compiler

SPL is a simple compiler for computers using the 6502 8-bit microprocessor or one of its variants. It is tailored for the Apple II but can be easily modified for other computers.

SPL is written in plain Python and generates 6502 assembly language output. This output is then assembled using a C-based assembler (as6502) which is included as source code and as a precompiled binary for Windows and Intel Macintosh. Use Python 2.4 or later but it should work with earlier versions as well. The as6502 assembler compiles almost everywhere, even old VMS systems.

SPL creates several different output files, if desired:

• Assembly source
• Binary output file
• Binary output with load address at the front
• 140k disk image format for Apple II emulators
• Text dump for EXEC-ing on an Apple II

The SPL language is simple and Forth-like, easy to learn. SPL includes a library of over 100 assembly words including:

• Full 16-bit arithmetic
• Full 32-bit arithmetic
• Support for Apple II ProDOS file access
• String support
• Stack manipulation

Try it! You'll like it!

Download SPL

PIC0 Compiler

PIC0 is a simple optimizing compiler for the Microchip 10F2xx series of microcontrollers. It is written in plain Python and will run on any system which has a recent version of Python installed. The output it produces is PIC assembly language which can be used by MPLAB or via the command line using gpasm.

I chose the name, PIC0, to represent "pico", for very small, and "PIC 0" since it works with the simplest of PICs.

Requirements:

1. A PIC programmer for the 10F2xx series of chips. I use the baseline flash programmer.
2. MPLAB or gpasm to produce the final hex file. The combination of Python and gpasm from the command line is particularly nice.
3. A recent version of Python for your platform.

Download:

The current version is 1.0
The compiler, documentation, and example files are all here.

Indoor/Outdoor Temperature

This is a simple project which uses the DI-194RS to implement a simple indoor/outdoor thermometer application for the PC. The DI-194RS, available here, is a low-cost 4-channel, 12-bit A/D converter with a range of -10 V to +10 V.

The application is in Python, using wxPython (www.wxpython.org) and pyserial (pyserial.sourceforge.net), to implement a very simple user interface showing the current indoor and outdoor temperatures. The temperatures themselves are measured using two LM335 devices (see Jameco or DigiKey). These are inexpensive devices which output a voltage that is the current temperature in Kelvin (/100). Add two 10k resistors, two 10k pots, and a 9 volt source (I used a wall transformer) and that's all there is to the circuit. There is a README and circuit image in the zip file.

The zip file is set up for Linux. To get it to work with Windows, which is how I actually use it, you need to add about 35 to the height of the window (the wxFrame object). This makes room for the title bar.

Calibration is required but it is simple to do. Simply adjust the 10k pot slightly until the displayed temperature matches that on a known thermometer. One point is all that is needed. The reading will be accurate to about +/-2 F.

Download: thermometer.zip

pycount

Pycount is a simple Python source code analyzer. It will report the actual number of program lines, comments, functions and classes in a Python source code file or files. Linux and Windows.

Download: pycount.zip

Line Editor

LE is a simple line editor written in Python. I wrote it to use with my old Data General Dasher 412 terminal but it has other used as well. Unzip, rename le.py to le and place it somewhere in your path. It handles all the basic features of an editor including multiple files.

Download: le.zip