One funny thing with the DS$ variable, when the C-128 boot and the disk drive is on. The DS$ contains the DOS version. For example: "73,cbm dos v3.0 1571,00,00". I think, it works with PET, VIC and C-64 also.
Yes, that's an excellent feature. If you have JiffyDOS or a fast load cartridge with a command wedge on C64, you can also type @ and get the same info.
I knew most of the previous video's ESCape features of the C128, from having owned one briefly back in the day, but this episode was basically 100% new to me. Had no idea those error trapping features were built in natively. Wish I had known back then!
Been revisiting my 5.25 floppy box and I use most of these commands when writing BASIC7 except forgot all about HELP! Thanks for the video and the reminder. These are great!
Hi, Robin. I'm sure you've seen by now, but there's a long and winding road from this video, through the "Bit Pair" video, to Darren, that ends with my daughter using the clip of the Tron Ring Game as inspiration for a school project in Python. She did great and scored an A on the final project. Thanks for the great content and helping to keep my daughter interested in programming. :-)
Robin, I believe you're the chap who did the two-player Karateka hack for the C64? If possible you could do a vid on that? This is the best channel since the 8-bit guy. Love it!
I came back to watch this one after watching the year review episode. Neat stuff! I published a short bit back in the late 80s in Run magazine about using TRAP and unimplemented commands to trigger them. "Illegal C128 Trapping Season" is what I beleive they titled it. Basic 7 was pretty good in 40 column mode.
Nice! Yes, BASIC 7 is pretty great; I didn't get a C128 until the '90s unfortunately, it would have been really fun to play with a more advanced BASIC back then. That's fantastic you were published in RUN, congrats!
Basic 3.5 on the c16 had pretty much all the same commands as the c128 did. Which was nice after moving from Vic20 where you need 4 carts to get that functionality and RAM.
Really awesome videos, Robin... Your vids have really helped me getting to know my breadbox 64... and the 128DCR I recently bought. Lovely machines both of them, and a good, fun excercise for a modern, IDE-spoiled programmer like me :) This here is surely going to make debugging and error handling a lot easier for me... I didn't even realize that a try...catch equivalent existed for these old clunkers :D Man, keep 'em good tricks coming ;)
0:41 They also have a keyboard key dedicated to the HELP command. 1:53 They fixed the spacing of the error messages like "?SYNTAX ERROR" on the C128 vs. the C64. 4:00 I've never considered a use case for the TRAP command before. Though, I'd feel better about doing input validation myself. I'm sure there's lots of cases where the error trapping itself has bugs in it. 8:59 There's also a DS numeric pseudo-variable that gives the disk error code.
Once again your comment got put in "Likely spam" by UA-cam :) ?BREAK ERROR still has two spaces, but that's improved from three spaces on the C64 :) Thanks as always for your insights; you keep me humble and/or honest.
What is the advantage of using these devices today? I had a C128D 30 years ago and I always thought it was the best computer I could use. But now I wonder if it would be useful or just a fun. Of course, your videos leave me in an ipnotic state.
I still enjoy how I can turn on my C64 or C128 and I'm ready to program in BASIC. I often use it for solving small math problems with a short program. I also like how there are no interruptions or distractions. It's mostly just for fun, but I find it relaxing, and I enjoy how there's still new things to learn, new challenges.
Old computers give you a bottom-up view of how computers work. I suspect that programmers who didn't cut their teeth on 8-bit computers but instead used something like Javascript, don't have as much depth of understanding of computers.
The official C-128 drive, the 1571, doesn't have directories, but the CMD drives (such as the FD-2000 3.5" floppy drive, the CMD hard drive series, etc.) do, and that same concept was adopted into the various SD2IEC devices available, like the uIEC I'm using in this episode (that's the thing jutting out the back that you can see a bit of above the game box).
@@8_Bit Oh, I see... In addition to C1571 disk drive, I also have a C1581.. I think there's a concept of partitioning of that disk, though not official sub-dirs? Maybe you can make a video about that? Or a video in general about C1581?
@@be236 Yeah, the 1581 has partitions which are kind of like directories, but the CMD solution is much more robust and closer to the subdirs that we're used to on newer operating systems. When I finally get my FD-2000 video done, it should look at the 1581 also, since the FD-2000 is basically a superset of the 1581's capabilities.
My eyes just fell out of my head. I didn't know about the HELP command being useful at all. Blows my mind, thanks!
It works also with the 'help' key
i have to restore my C128 as soon as possible. Thank you for this valuable information!
That's Robin.
He fights for the Users.
the c64 and c128 lead to me learning modern languages like C++, Java and Python. But I look back on these machines fondly.
BASIC, True Basic, C, C++, Bash (and other shells), Python and now HDL for me .... learning new languages never stops for some of us. :D
One funny thing with the DS$ variable, when the C-128 boot and the disk drive is on. The DS$ contains the DOS version. For example: "73,cbm dos v3.0 1571,00,00".
I think, it works with PET, VIC and C-64 also.
Yes, that's an excellent feature. If you have JiffyDOS or a fast load cartridge with a command wedge on C64, you can also type @ and get the same info.
I knew most of the previous video's ESCape features of the C128, from having owned one briefly back in the day, but this episode was basically 100% new to me. Had no idea those error trapping features were built in natively. Wish I had known back then!
Been revisiting my 5.25 floppy box and I use most of these commands when writing BASIC7 except forgot all about HELP! Thanks for the video and the reminder. These are great!
Hi, Robin. I'm sure you've seen by now, but there's a long and winding road from this video, through the "Bit Pair" video, to Darren, that ends with my daughter using the clip of the Tron Ring Game as inspiration for a school project in Python. She did great and scored an A on the final project. Thanks for the great content and helping to keep my daughter interested in programming. :-)
Robin, I believe you're the chap who did the two-player Karateka hack for the C64? If possible you could do a vid on that? This is the best channel since the 8-bit guy. Love it!
I had forgotten about that! That probably would make a good video, thanks for the suggestion, and thanks for watching :)
I just searched my list of episode ideas, and it's on there already as #64 out of 249. I... need more time to make videos :)
@@8_Bit can't wait!
I never knew...... Thanks Robin. 👍
Great Vid
I came back to watch this one after watching the year review episode. Neat stuff! I published a short bit back in the late 80s in Run magazine about using TRAP and unimplemented commands to trigger them. "Illegal C128 Trapping Season" is what I beleive they titled it. Basic 7 was pretty good in 40 column mode.
Nice! Yes, BASIC 7 is pretty great; I didn't get a C128 until the '90s unfortunately, it would have been really fun to play with a more advanced BASIC back then. That's fantastic you were published in RUN, congrats!
Nice tips! I dont remember if I played with these commands when I got my Commodore 128 years ago when it came out... Nice reminder!
And now you begin to undersand why Basic 7.0 is still my programming languag of choice...Powerful, useful and easy.
Yes, it's excellent!
I really enjoy your content.
Keep up the good work!
- Voultar
THanks for these tutorials Robin, are really cool !
Please keep making them
Will do :)
Basic 3.5 on the c16 had pretty much all the same commands as the c128 did. Which was nice after moving from Vic20 where you need 4 carts to get that functionality and RAM.
Really awesome videos, Robin... Your vids have really helped me getting to know my breadbox 64... and the 128DCR I recently bought. Lovely machines both of them, and a good, fun excercise for a modern, IDE-spoiled programmer like me :)
This here is surely going to make debugging and error handling a lot easier for me... I didn't even realize that a try...catch equivalent existed for these old clunkers :D
Man, keep 'em good tricks coming ;)
I love your videos.
Cool. I think I used to know these. I know I used tron/troff before. Great stuff. Love it
Great vid!
I'll wager that your nickname in school was Professor. Nice video Professor!
It's interesting that many similar commands and functions still do exist in the modern Microsoft Visual Basic Language.
0:41 They also have a keyboard key dedicated to the HELP command.
1:53 They fixed the spacing of the error messages like "?SYNTAX ERROR" on the C128 vs. the C64.
4:00 I've never considered a use case for the TRAP command before. Though, I'd feel better about doing input validation myself. I'm sure there's lots of cases where the error trapping itself has bugs in it.
8:59 There's also a DS numeric pseudo-variable that gives the disk error code.
Once again your comment got put in "Likely spam" by UA-cam :)
?BREAK ERROR still has two spaces, but that's improved from three spaces on the C64 :)
Thanks as always for your insights; you keep me humble and/or honest.
What is the advantage of using these devices today?
I had a C128D 30 years ago and I always thought it was the best computer I could use. But now I wonder if it would be useful or just a fun.
Of course, your videos leave me in an ipnotic state.
I still enjoy how I can turn on my C64 or C128 and I'm ready to program in BASIC. I often use it for solving small math problems with a short program. I also like how there are no interruptions or distractions. It's mostly just for fun, but I find it relaxing, and I enjoy how there's still new things to learn, new challenges.
Old computers give you a bottom-up view of how computers work. I suspect that programmers who didn't cut their teeth on 8-bit computers but instead used something like Javascript, don't have as much depth of understanding of computers.
can you not split the number into two by dividing the number by 256 to get the high byte and do the number mod 256 to get the low byte.
These are great! Can you write a program that will download your programming knowledge to my brain please?
Thanks. I wish I could, instead I'm stuck spending several hours to make a 10 minute video. Oh well, it's mostly fun :)
UA-cam has already written that program.
@@8_Bit well we appreciate it!
Wait.. Commodore 128 disk drive has a concept of directory (Eg, "CD?")
The official C-128 drive, the 1571, doesn't have directories, but the CMD drives (such as the FD-2000 3.5" floppy drive, the CMD hard drive series, etc.) do, and that same concept was adopted into the various SD2IEC devices available, like the uIEC I'm using in this episode (that's the thing jutting out the back that you can see a bit of above the game box).
@@8_Bit Oh, I see... In addition to C1571 disk drive, I also have a C1581.. I think there's a concept of partitioning of that disk, though not official sub-dirs? Maybe you can make a video about that? Or a video in general about C1581?
@@be236 Yeah, the 1581 has partitions which are kind of like directories, but the CMD solution is much more robust and closer to the subdirs that we're used to on newer operating systems. When I finally get my FD-2000 video done, it should look at the 1581 also, since the FD-2000 is basically a superset of the 1581's capabilities.
googles "pixel tron game" ... does it exist?
It's actually from a song video from my band. Art work by my friend Darren: ua-cam.com/video/Appmg64tZB0/v-deo.html
You should do IT training. I am doing a Cisco course online and the instructor is a pain to listen to. You would be so much better at that job.
Thanks, though I think I do a better job explaining things that I'm interested in, like Commodore computers :)
@@8_Bit it's a pity :-)