Commander X16

I started learning Commodore BASIC in 1980 (on the PET), and got 6502 programming docs the moment I could lay my hands on them. Remembering back to those days, I now have the idea of developing a transpiler (or whatever you want to call it) which: * Looks and runs like CBASIC, or, should I say, how...

My algorithm was more general-purpose, not assuming any particular length of the dividend.

The reason it works is because the series (1/16) + (1/16)^2 + (1/16)^3 + ... approaches 1/15, and then it's only a matter of dividing by 4 to get the final result.

 

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One way to divide any integer by 60, using only integer math: 1. Shift right by six bits. Save off this value. 2. Shift right by another four bits. Add this to the variable holding the saved-off value. 3. If you still have anything left in the shift variable, return to step 2. 4. The variable with ...

I understand the reasons why few would attempt this. The 6809 seems to have been a victim of bad timing. I've coded for both the 6502 (including a word processor for my C64) and the 6809 (several attempted games for Dad's CoCo), and the latter simply had that much more potential.

Aside from having to rewrite the entire ROM, and perhaps having to add an adapter to accommodate any pin-out/power requirement variation between the two CPUs, what's stopping an ambitious experimenter from replacing the 6502 with a 6809?

 

I wrote my very first computer program on a Commodore Pet in January of 1980. I was in ninth grade on my lunch break, and went over, making me late for civics class. Briefly migrated into TRS-80 Color Computer land during high school, but got my Commodore 64 from a Sears in San Antonio in 1984. Mig...