This is the full list. Those using screen readers might want to make a coffee first... Writing An Interpreter In Go - Thorsten Bell Writing A Compiler In Go - Thorsten Bell Computers And Quantity Surveyors - Adrian J Smith Digital Design Using VHDL - Dally, Harting, Aamodt VHDL By Example - Blaine C Readler The ZX Spectrum ULA - Chris Smith Design An RP2040 Board With KiCad - Jo Hinchcliffe, Ben Everard High-Level Languages And Their Compilers - Des Watson The Unix Programming Environment - Kernighan, Pike The C Programming Language (2nd ed) - Kernighan, Ritchie C Style: Standards and Guidelines - David Straker Variations In C - Steve Schustack C For Engineers - Edward Arnold Software Engineering In C - Darnell, Margolis Programming Abstractions In C - Eric S Roberts The Little Book Of Pointers - Huw Collingbourne Illustrating ANSI C (revised ed) - Donald Alcock C++ All-In-One For Dummies - John Paul Mueller, Jeff Cogswell An Introduction To Programming And Problem Solving With Pascal (2nd ed) - Schneider, Weingart, Perlman Advanced Programming And Problem Solving With Pascal (2nd ed) - Schneider, Bruell Data Structures Using Pascal - Tenenbaum, Augenstein Programming For Change With Pascal - David J Robson Recursion With Pascal - J S Rohl Oh! Pascal! (3rd ed) - Doug Cooper Programming Psion Computers - Leigh Edwards Introduction To Microprocessors - Levelthal The 8086 Book - Rector, Alexy Assembly Language For Intel-Based Computers - Kip R Irvine Computer Organisation And Assembly Language Programming for IBM PCs and Compatibles (2nd ed) - Michael Thorne Working Effectively With Legacy Code - Michael C Feathers The Basics Of Hacking And Penetration Testing (2nd ed) - Patrick Engebretson Computers And Early Books - Mansell The Amstrad CPC464 Manual The Sinclair ZX Spectrum Manual 30 Hour Basic (standard edition) - Clive Prigmore
#ecobj: Another piece of the #Psion SIBO SDK rewrite puzzle. ECOBJ.EXE takes an Intel OMF file (.OBJ) for a class and moves the class descriptor data into the code segment. I think I might be able to get this working by the end of the year. Get my website running #GoHugo (this is almost done!). #CTRAN: Still haven't started writing unit tests. Also, complete a full write-up of what it took to get the thing working. Research into compilers: I'm nowhere near ready to start yet, but I'm learning as much as I can.γUpcoming projects:γ
#siboimg: Rewrite in Pascal, and add the ability to create and modify FEFS images. #plptools: I'd like to see two-way transfer working for EPOC16 -- I'm sure I'll need the help of the rest of the maintainers to get this working. I can't do much with the #HaikuOS port until the USB serial drivers are "fixed" (hardware flow control added) -- I don't think I have the skills for this, so it'll have to wait until some kind soul has the time to work on it. #PsiDrive: Add a ~17V boost converter to allow writing to Flash SSDs. NAS/home server: Rebuild or replacement of DEATH, my Microserver gen8. It's been over 18 months since DEATH's RAID died. It's lead me to thinking that maybe I don't need the sort of server I thought I need. TBD.γMaybe next year, maybe not:γ
New Psion SSD with RP2350: I doubt I'll get anything made, but I'd like to experiment to see what can be done with the protocol. Rewrite the rest of the SIBO C SDK tools. Compiler: Recreation of the JPI/Clarion TopSpeed C compiler, targeting the SIBO/EPOC16 platform (8086 and V30). I was hoping to get going with this around July this year, but it just didn't happen. This is my Everest. I know I'm not ready yet. I need to train for it. Vine: New word processor for EPOC16. Trying to start this project in 2023 lead me to rewriting the SDK, so we're quite some way away from getting this done. Research into Objective-C: Not Foundation, just the syntax. For compiler shenanigans.
I've really struggled to get going with projects this year. That's fine, these things happen. But I'd like to find better ways to cope next year so that I can make a little more progress.
In 2018, after 16 years of using various #Psion portables, I decided to try my hand at developing hardware and software for my beloved Series 3c to help me with journalling and creative writing.
6 years and repeated sidequests later, I've ended up doing a lot of research into the SIBO/EPOC16 platform, and done my best to document it when I can. I've also nudged former developers into open sourcing their old Psion apps.
My current main projects are: #PsiDrive, an #RP2040-based USB drive for SIBO SSDs. Rewriting the Psion SIBO (16-bit 8086) C SDK, including updating the docs (with #AsciiDoc) and rewriting the original DOS tools as FOSS apps. I'm currently using #FreePascal to create a drop-in replacement for #CTRAN, the Psion OO C preprocessor. (I want to eventually write a new compiler targeting EPOC16. Eventually.) Anything else that tickles my bouncy brain.
Outside of #retrocomputing, I'm your common-or-garden British nerd. I'm a Linux user - mostly Arch, but I dabble with others. I also like a bit of #HaikuOS and I'm planning on giving #FreeBSD a go very soon.
I used to be a senior computer monkey, specialising in on-prem SME infrastructure (I lament the loss of vSphere). Now I train others to become computer monkeys (for better or worse). As a result, sometimes you'll see me wrestling with old Cisco ASAs, Ubiquiti APs, or modded kit running #OpenWrt.
Generally, I like making things do stuff, especially if it's stuff that the thing wasn't originally designed to do.
This is the full list. Those using screen readers might want to make a coffee first... Writing An Interpreter In Go - Thorsten Bell Writing A Compiler In Go - Thorsten Bell Computers And Quantity Surveyors - Adrian J Smith Digital Design Using VHDL - Dally, Harting, Aamodt VHDL By Example - Blaine C Readler The ZX Spectrum ULA - Chris Smith Design An RP2040 Board With KiCad - Jo Hinchcliffe, Ben Everard High-Level Languages And Their Compilers - Des Watson The Unix Programming Environment - Kernighan, Pike The C Programming Language (2nd ed) - Kernighan, Ritchie C Style: Standards and Guidelines - David Straker Variations In C - Steve Schustack C For Engineers - Edward Arnold Software Engineering In C - Darnell, Margolis Programming Abstractions In C - Eric S Roberts The Little Book Of Pointers - Huw Collingbourne Illustrating ANSI C (revised ed) - Donald Alcock C++ All-In-One For Dummies - John Paul Mueller, Jeff Cogswell An Introduction To Programming And Problem Solving With Pascal (2nd ed) - Schneider, Weingart, Perlman Advanced Programming And Problem Solving With Pascal (2nd ed) - Schneider, Bruell Data Structures Using Pascal - Tenenbaum, Augenstein Programming For Change With Pascal - David J Robson Recursion With Pascal - J S Rohl Oh! Pascal! (3rd ed) - Doug Cooper Programming Psion Computers - Leigh Edwards Introduction To Microprocessors - Levelthal The 8086 Book - Rector, Alexy Assembly Language For Intel-Based Computers - Kip R Irvine Computer Organisation And Assembly Language Programming for IBM PCs and Compatibles (2nd ed) - Michael Thorne Working Effectively With Legacy Code - Michael C Feathers The Basics Of Hacking And Penetration Testing (2nd ed) - Patrick Engebretson Computers And Early Books - Mansell The Amstrad CPC464 Manual The Sinclair ZX Spectrum Manual 30 Hour Basic (standard edition) - Clive Prigmore
#ecobj: Another piece of the #Psion SIBO SDK rewrite puzzle. ECOBJ.EXE takes an Intel OMF file (.OBJ) for a class and moves the class descriptor data into the code segment. I think I might be able to get this working by the end of the year. Get my website running #GoHugo (this is almost done!). #CTRAN: Still haven't started writing unit tests. Also, complete a full write-up of what it took to get the thing working. Research into compilers: I'm nowhere near ready to start yet, but I'm learning as much as I can.γUpcoming projects:γ
#siboimg: Rewrite in Pascal, and add the ability to create and modify FEFS images. #plptools: I'd like to see two-way transfer working for EPOC16 -- I'm sure I'll need the help of the rest of the maintainers to get this working. I can't do much with the #HaikuOS port until the USB serial drivers are "fixed" (hardware flow control added) -- I don't think I have the skills for this, so it'll have to wait until some kind soul has the time to work on it. #PsiDrive: Add a ~17V boost converter to allow writing to Flash SSDs. NAS/home server: Rebuild or replacement of DEATH, my Microserver gen8. It's been over 18 months since DEATH's RAID died. It's lead me to thinking that maybe I don't need the sort of server I thought I need. TBD.γMaybe next year, maybe not:γ
New Psion SSD with RP2350: I doubt I'll get anything made, but I'd like to experiment to see what can be done with the protocol. Rewrite the rest of the SIBO C SDK tools. Compiler: Recreation of the JPI/Clarion TopSpeed C compiler, targeting the SIBO/EPOC16 platform (8086 and V30). I was hoping to get going with this around July this year, but it just didn't happen. This is my Everest. I know I'm not ready yet. I need to train for it. Vine: New word processor for EPOC16. Trying to start this project in 2023 lead me to rewriting the SDK, so we're quite some way away from getting this done. Research into Objective-C: Not Foundation, just the syntax. For compiler shenanigans.
I've really struggled to get going with projects this year. That's fine, these things happen. But I'd like to find better ways to cope next year so that I can make a little more progress.
In 2018, after 16 years of using various #Psion portables, I decided to try my hand at developing hardware and software for my beloved Series 3c to help me with journalling and creative writing.
6 years and repeated sidequests later, I've ended up doing a lot of research into the SIBO/EPOC16 platform, and done my best to document it when I can. I've also nudged former developers into open sourcing their old Psion apps.
My current main projects are: #PsiDrive, an #RP2040-based USB drive for SIBO SSDs. Rewriting the Psion SIBO (16-bit 8086) C SDK, including updating the docs (with #AsciiDoc) and rewriting the original DOS tools as FOSS apps. I'm currently using #FreePascal to create a drop-in replacement for #CTRAN, the Psion OO C preprocessor. (I want to eventually write a new compiler targeting EPOC16. Eventually.) Anything else that tickles my bouncy brain.
Outside of #retrocomputing, I'm your common-or-garden British nerd. I'm a Linux user - mostly Arch, but I dabble with others. I also like a bit of #HaikuOS and I'm planning on giving #FreeBSD a go very soon.
I used to be a senior computer monkey, specialising in on-prem SME infrastructure (I lament the loss of vSphere). Now I train others to become computer monkeys (for better or worse). As a result, sometimes you'll see me wrestling with old Cisco ASAs, Ubiquiti APs, or modded kit running #OpenWrt.
Generally, I like making things do stuff, especially if it's stuff that the thing wasn't originally designed to do.
The Last Psion | Alex