Isaac Asimov was born in the Soviet Union to his great surprise. He moved quickly to correct the situation. When his parents emigrated to the United States, Isaac (three years old at the time) stowed away in their baggage. He has been an American citizen since the age of eight. Brought up in Brooklyn, and educated in its public schools, he eventually found his way to Columbia University and, over the protests of the school administration, managed to annex a series of degrees in chemistry, up to and including a Ph.D. He then infiltrated Boston University and climbed the academic ladder, ignoring all cries of outrage, until he found himself Professor of Biochemistry. Meanwhile, at the age of nine, he found the love of his life (in the inanimate sense) when he discovered his first science-fiction magazine. By the time he was eleven, he began to write stories, and at eighteen, he actually worked up the nerve to submit one. It was rejected. After four long months of tribulation and suffering, he sold his first story and, thereafter, he never looked back. In 1941, when he was twenty-one years old, he wrote the classic short story “Nightfall” and his future was assured. Shortly before that he had begun writing his robot stories, and shortly after that he had begun his Foundation series

Introduction

Asimov’s Foundation trilogy reflects and is sustained by the currents and cross-currents in the religious, political, economic and social fields which our planet had witnessed during the first half of the twentieth century. The predictive elements in the subject of ‘psycho-history’ bear Marxist influence. The declaration of Brodwig – the Commander of Imperial forces – that the “eyes of Emperor are everywhere”41 is a significant observation on the totalitarian tendencies of contemporary Europe. George Orwell in his futuristic 1984 had also made a similar observation when he wrote “ “BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU”. And Orwell and Asimov happen to be contemporaries. The dying Galactic Empire has close kinship with the dying powers of feudalism and its ally Church. The two Foundations – one dedicated to science and other “devoted to social-sciences”42 – which take over the dying Empire may be traced from the two-fold growth of scientific knowledge and social sciences after the decline of feudalism. The Galactic Empire decays on account of “triple disease of inertia, despotism and mal-distribution of the goods of the universe”43. This very disease afflicted the age-old institutions of feudalism and Church. Asimov incorporates the contemporary social problems of population explosion and ever[1]mounting tyranny and tension of urbanization as well in the texture of the novels. Trantor, the capital of Imperial government faces the twin-problems of population-explosion and over-urbanization: “Its urbanization, progressing steadily, had finally reached the ultimate. All the land surface of Trantor 75,000,000 square miles in extent was a single city. The population, at its height was well in excess of forty billions …..”44 . After the Second World War America and Russia emerged as super-powers. They started a cold war with a view to establishing supremacy over the globe. In the trilogy, the emergence of two Foundations on the periphery of the Galactic Empire may be viewed as something that is modelled on the rise of Big – 2. The galactic struggle between the two Foundations may be seen as extension of the cold-war between two super-powers. Thus in science fiction, social reality and human environment provide the essential background to the narrative. Any science-fiction-writer with all his futuristic moorings derives the basic model of his fiction from contemporary social structure. Three innate forces – (i) the science fact, (ii) the archetypes of the collective unconscious, (iii) the contemporary milieu – control and streamline the sprawling narrative. These forces collectively lend structural solidity and formal strength to science fiction

When Isaac Asimov began to expand the fictional uni[1]verse of his acclaimed Foundation Trilogy in 1982—almost thirty years after the publication of its prior entry, Second Foundation (1953)—he did so with the express intention of assimilating its continuity into a unified “history of the future” with his Robot and Galactic Empire series (Prelude ix). He proceeded to write further novels within this metaseries for the remainder of his life. By the point of his death in 1992, Asimov had greatly expanded this unified future history series, which he named the Foundation Universe (Edge 415). (For ease of reference and in lieu of any official title, I shall refer to the series as “Foundation Universe” throughout this article. Donald E. Palumbo designates the series significantly less elegantly as the Robot/Empire/Foundation Metaseries.) Although the Foundation Universe has received little critical attention to date as a unified series, the analysis of it cumula[1]tively reveals its significantly mundane and repetitive aspects. Demonstrably, the rhetorical function of such banal compo[1]nents renders the series conspicuously posthuman.

Literature Review:

General internal background:

• The earliest stories are set about the year 12,067 in the Galactic Era; (there’s also a reference, page 4b, to 12,000 years of Imperial progress). At the same time, there’s a reference to mankind having atomic power for 50,000 years (!), p50.0, suggesting that it took 20^th century Earth millennia (38,000 years!?) to expand into a galactic empire.
• Everyone seems to speak a common language.
• There’s no overt religion… just the phony religion set up by the Foundation to control technology.
• There are no aliens, and no robots.
• People don’t live any longer than they do now; cf. comment p30.4 about how no one alive now will be living a century from now.
• Everyone (well, the men, since there are barely any women in this book) smokes cigars.
• The Empire consists of 25 million inhabited planets.
• Ships jump instantaneously through hyper-space.

Part I, The Psychohistorians

• This story was new to the 1951 book, and for me has always been the most memorable story in the book.
• It follows one Gaal Dornick, a mathematician from the planet Synnax, as he arrives on a spaceship at Trantor, the center of the Galactic Empire, to interview for a job with Hari Seldon, who has developed a theory of ‘psychohistory’ that predicts the collapse of the empire within several centuries.
• Seldon is shortly arrested and put on trial, his sentence commuted on the condition that he and his team of 100,000 relocate to the remote planet of Terminus – a plan Seldon had anticipated, and perhaps maneuvered, all along. Seldon mentions that, in addition to Terminus, a second refuge will be established, at “Star’s End,” to implement his plans. And Seldon anticipates his own imminent death: “I am finished.”

Key points:

• Trantor is an extrapolation, obviously, of Manhattan (though when the earliest stories were written, Asimov’s hadn’t yet moved to New York, but was living in Philadelphia) – a crowded city of skyscrapers that, on Trantor, had expanded to cover the entire planet. It’s a single city of 40 billion people.
• The city is so all-engulfing that many people never see the sky; when Dornick ascends a Tower to see the sky, he’s told how some people get hysterical here.
• Psychohistory is defined on page 14; its key points are that it deals only with large groups, and with groups unaware of the analysis – not with individuals.
• Seldon, in a memorable scene, challenges Dornick to use the principles of psychohistory on the spot, to calculate a certain result – without offering him a ‘calculator pad.’ That is, here’s Asimov anticipating hand-held calculators, in 1951.
• Seldon explains that his plan is to reduce the interregnum between the fall of this empire and the rise of the next, by saving all human knowledge, in an Encyclopedia Galactica (which, as we’ve already seen through quotes, apparently was eventually written).

Part II, The Encyclopedists

• The original 1942 version of this story, the first ever Foundation story published, in Astounding in May 1942, was called “Foundation,” and opened with a page and a half introduction as Hari Seldon conducts a last meeting of a group he’s worked with for 20 years to plan two “Scientific Refuges” at Terminus and Star’s End – at opposite ends of the galaxy, he says – to help build a Second Galactic Empire after this one falls. This section ends with Hari saying, “I am finished!” This original version of the story was reprinted in The Great SF Stories 4 (1942), edited by Asimov and Martin H. Greenberg (DAW, 1980).
• This story is set 50 years after the first, and is set on Terminus, where the encyclopedists, running the show, anticipate release of the first volume in 5 years.
• The gist of this story is that Terminus, where Hari Seldon’s 100,000 academics have settled, is being run by academics who are naive about the local politics of their planet with respect to other nearby planets. On one of those planets, Anacreon, the Royal Governor has declared himself king. Since Terminus is mineral-poor and depends on trade, Salvor Hardin, the mayor of Terminus, tries to raise alarm.

Two key scenes:

• An envoy from Anacreon visits, and inadvertently reveals that his planet has lost the ability to use nuclear power, and has reverted to using oil and coal. The envoy strongly implies Terminus needs Anacreon’s protection, for the price of establishing a military base on Terminus.
• An imperial envoy, Lord Dorwin – who lisps and takes snuff (Asimov’s characterizations are not subtle) – discusses the “Origin question” about which planet humanity actually originated from. He does his ‘research’ by reading the books of older archaeologists, and thinks this is the ‘scientific method’.

Resolution

• The political tension is resolved as Salvor Hardin and his aide stage a coup, taking control of Terminus away from the academicians and to politicians.
• The dramatic tension resolves as a pre-recorded 3D message from Hari Seldon appears in a ‘Vault,’ to announce that the idea of writing an Encylopedia was a fraud – his real plan was to shorten the barbarism between empires, and that the solution to the current crisis – which he had foreseen 50 years before – is “obvious”!

Key points:

• The empire is crumbling as massive bureaucracy precludes new development and research – this seems to be the key thesis in Asimov’s projection of a collapsing empire, illustrated here as planets lose atomic power; the ‘scientific method’ is a matter of reading books.
• Terminus is at the political mercy of its neighbors, with no imperial support.
• The encyclopedia itself was a decoy; the real plan is to shorten barbarism between empires. (We already knew this, from the first story, later written; but the folks on Terminus apparently did not.)
• Hardin cites a maxim: “violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.” This is repeated several times. Hardin diagnoses the current situation as one of deferring to authority or to the past, like the encyclopedia itself, instead of pursuing new research or training new technicians. Hardin thinks a bigger issue is: why was only one psychologist included at Terminus? Was Hari Seldon trying to hide something from them?

Part III, The Mayors

• (This story was first published in Astounding, June 1942, as “Bridle and Saddle.”)
• The solution to the crisis of the previous story is given in passing: mayor Salvor Hardin pressured the other three of the nearby ‘Four Kingdoms’ to force Anacreon to withdraw its threatened takeover of Terminus, lest the other three fall next. Then Terminus began providing scientific aid to all Four Kingdoms – but in the context of a priesthood, of a religion about the Galactic Spirit and so on, with priests being taught only empirical knowledge of how to run the atomic generators, not the real science behind them, p86t.
• The conflict of this story begins with a challenge to Hardin by a cabal of young politicians, led by Sef Sermak, to take action against the Four Kingdoms.
• Meanwhile, a derelict imperial battle cruiser has been found by Anacreon, and the leader there, the regent Wienes watching over the young King Lepold, demands that Terminus repair it for him.
• On Anacreon, Wienes itches for war with Terminus – but Lepold hesitates, fearing it might be blasphemy to challenge the head of the church.
• On Terminus, Hardin seems unconcerned. One of Sermak’s aides returns from Anacreon to report that the religion there works.
  • 106m: “Ethically it’s fine. It scarcely varies from the various philosophies of the old Empire. High moral standards and all that. There’s nothing to complain about from that viewpoint. Religion is one of the great civilizing influences of history and in that respect, it’s fulfilling—“
  • And how the Foundation fostered this delusion; the monarch (King Lepold) rides around on a floating chair surrounded by a radioactive aura, to underscore his divinity.
• Hardin, in fact, makes a trip to Anacreon to celebrate the coming of age of King Lepold. During the celebration, regent Wienes confronts Hardin with news that military action has begun against Terminus. Hardin responds by calmly waiting for midnight – when a prearranged strike by the entire priesthood takes place, and the power goes off, and king’s aura fades, and his floating chair falls to the floor. Mobs outside riot for Hardin’s release.
• Meanwhile, the imperial cruiser – repaired by Terminus but now in use by Anacreon against it – is cursed by the priest on board, and turns back to Anacreon.
  • P124b: “For it is the chief characteristic of the religion of science, that it works…”
• Hardin tells Wiemis a fable about a horse and a wolf – the bridle and saddle – about how, once accepted, the yoke of science cannot be shrugged off. Wienis, enraged, tries to kill Hardin – who’s surrounded by his own aura. Wienis kills himself.
• Later, back on Terminus, it having established a new treaty with Anacreon, Hari Seldon makes another pre-recorded appearance. Again, he assesses the situation in generalities – but warns against the overconfidence of attacking:
  • “The Spiritual Power, while sufficient to ward off attacks of the Temporal is not sufficient to attack in turn. Because of the invariable growth of the counteracting force known as Regionalism, or Nationalism, the Spiritual Power cannot prevail. I am telling you nothing new, I’m sure.”
• And he reminds them of the other Foundation, at Star’s End.

Key points:

• Terminus placates its hostile neighbors by offering them technology—but in the guise of a religion; technology which they use but do not understand.
• On these planets the technology enables the rulers to seem semi-divine, with glowing auras, etc. But the smart politicians know the religion is a ruse to control the masses.
• Hari Seldon foresees the reign of religion giving way to regionalism, or nationalism.

Part IV, The Traders

• (This story was first published in Astounding in October 1944 as “The Wedge.”)
• The focus of this story is about interstellar traders, who work outside politics and forge connections among planets in advance of the politicians. The theme, boiled down, is that the Foundation is trying to lure independent planets back under Foundation control by tempting them to buy atomic devices.
• We begin as one such trader, Limmar Ponyets, receives instructions from his Guild to proceed to the planet Askone, a closed planet whose nationalistic tendencies reject [Foundation-derived] atomic gadgets of any sort, but where a visiting trader, Eskel Gorov, has been imprisoned. Moreover, Gorov is a Foundation agent, with the specific mission of persuading key government officials to purchase atomic gadgets, and thus extend the Foundation’s controlled commercial empire, p142b.
• Ponyets comes to Askone and deals with its Grand Master, who objects to ‘devil’s machines’ and claims atomic goods are worthless because they lack ‘ancestral blessing.’ But Ponyets perceives that the GM is wheedling for a bribe, and so whips together a slapdash transmuter, and demonstrates in the GM’s court that it can turn iron to gold, and arranges to sell the device to the GM in exchange for the release of Gorov, with a bit of blackmail to assure the deal is never revealed.

Key points:

• Another Salvor Hardin epigram: Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what is right!
• An issue on Askone is the local ancestor worship, 143.4—deferral to “simple and virtuous heroes of the past generations.”
  • (Hmm; you could call the deference to America’s ‘founders’, and the idea of Constitutional originalism, as a kind of ancestor worship…)
• Again, the politician Grand Master is educated, and realizes religious customs are ritualistic… 150.4.
• Note that the transmuter isn’t a trick; it works, but will only work for a short time, which Ponyets uses in his blackmail of the GM. It’s the wedge.

Part V, The Merchant Princes

• (This story was first published in Astounding in August 1944 as “The Big and the Little.”)
• This story begins back on Terminus, some 70 years since the last “Seldon crisis” – i.e. story #3.
• The issue here is the possible re-appearance of atomic weapons – outside the Foundation’s control – on one of the independent planets, suggesting that planet may have re-contacted the Empire.
• There’s also the suspicion by Terminus that the traders are getting out of hand, perhaps engaging in treachery.
• The trigger for both ideas is the reported disappearance of three trade ships in the Korellian Republic and the possible appearance of atomic weapons there. Could this be another “Seldon crisis”? Master trader Hober Mallow is sent to Korell to see what’s going on. The planet is ruled by the despotic Argo family, led by ‘Commdor’ Asper Argo.
• Mallow lands on Korell and sits for a week before an unusually dramatic scene unfolds: a Foundation emissary appears outside his ship, demanding refuge. Mallow’s crew accedes, despite Mallow’s instructions, and to his extreme anger, as a mob appears outside demanding the emissary’s release. Mallow knows no Foundation emissary is even allowed on this planet, and so he has no legal grounds to protect him; Mallow perceives this a test by Commdor Argo. He releases the emissary to the mob and sure enough shortly receives an invitation from Commdor Argo.
• Thereupon commences a negotiation, as Argo claims he is all for free trade – just not with religion. Mallow offers him riches, including a belt that generates a lovely glow over a woman’s body. Asper gives it to his hostile wife the Commdora – she is contemptuous of his ambitions, until she gets the belt, looks at herself in a mirror, and is assuaged. [She, and her maid, are the first and only female characters in this book.]
• Mallow’s motive is to inspect the factories on this planet, to see if they really do have atomic power. He sees, by chance, a Korellian security guard in possession of an atomic weapon—with the symbol of the Empire on it.
• Then in an odd sequence of scenes, Mallow travels by himself inward into the Empire, and lands on the planet Siwenna, apparently at random, and meets a sad old man, Onum Barr, and via him manages to bribe himself inside one of the local atomic plants—which, he deduces, is kept running by technicians who don’t know how to repair anything that goes wrong.
• Mallow returns to Terminus, where he faces political charges over the abandonment of that emissary, and criticism for becoming wealthy due to private deals he made with the Korellians. Mallow claims the Foundation’s use of religion to control trade is outdated. Put on trial, he reveals evidence that the supposed emissary was a plant by the Korellian Secret Police, in collusion with a rival trader.
• Two years later, Mallow is now mayor, and explains his solution to the apparent “Seldon crisis” – do nothing. Let free trade have its way. The Foundation’s gadgets are more efficient that the lumbering Empire technologies; through lack of resources, the Foundation has been forced to become more efficient. Big and little.

Key points:

• As noted above, the ending is rather anticlimactic. And this story more than the earlier ones is unevenly paced – though still eminently stageable as a series of set-pieces.
• The theme or lesson boils down to free trade and efficient technologies, and how former adversaries can come to rely on another – through non-zero sum games of free trade.
  • History since Asimov wrote these stories has vindicated this theme – c.f. the US, Germany, and Japan.
  • On the other hand, primitive religions have not disappeared; they’ve managed to acquire advanced technology anyway, and use it (as Gibson said, about the street finding its own use for technology) against the very societies that produced that technology.

• The idea of psychohistory is perhaps deliberately contrasting to the so-called ‘great man’ theory of history, that historical trends are determined by the actions of rare, exceptional individuals. There’s an analogy to the history of science here, where crucial discoveries are attributed to individual brilliant scientists — yet, wouldn’t those discoveries have been made anyway, by someone else?
• Psychohistory’s emphasis on ‘mob psychology’ to make predictions hasn’t worked out. On the contrary, understanding of basic human psychology – all those mental biases and the evolutionary reasons they exist – has become an analogous kind of understanding of that psychology, but on an *individual* level. These biases can be understood and possibly overcome through awareness education. But likely not in large populations.
• Primitive religions and their tribal motivations will always exist among the uneducated and unworldly.

Conclusion:

Asimov’s interest in these stories was the idea of how human history might be foretold; he drew heavily on the ideas of Edward Gibbon’s famous The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire), about how such a mighty empire could begin to decay at the edges and gradually bring itself down. Asimov’s premise was that advanced mathematics, and theories of history, could *predict* such a decay — and moreover, suggest ways that small, surgically-precise steps in local politics, might ameliorate that decay, in order to rebuild a second, stronger empire.

The post Write up on Isaac Asimov: The Foundation appeared first on DayDreamin’ Comics.

Abstract:

An inmate in a Siberian prison camp, Ivan Denisovich Shukhov awakes in the dark and cold of early morning. Feeling sick, he lingers too long in his bunk. He is caught by a guard and is ordered to wash the guardroom floor; this is a light sentence, considering he could have received ten days in solitary confinement. He finds a way of washing the floor with minimal effort, which is the only way a “zek”— a political prisoner—survives in the Soviet labor camps.

Literature Review:

Clang! A resounding five A.M. wake-up call—hammer against steel—pierces the ears of Ivan Denisovich Shukhov in his feverish haze and commences One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. A third-person narrator thence follows Shukhov through twenty-four hours of toilsome labor amidst the frigid landscape of his Siberian prison camp. Shukhov is a dutiful Russian soldier; he prides himself in his timeliness, ardor, and devotion. A wrongful conviction of treason does not shake his valor: Shukhov pursues harrowing labor with nothing short of rigor to ensure the livelihood of his prison squad, the 104. On this one day, however, illness prevents his early start, and his morning commences with punishment. Not minutes after an extra round of chores and threats of solitary confinement, he proceeds from the ominous guardroom into the flow of prisoners picking up their bread rations, gathering for a meager breakfast, and landing upon their sunup frisk. From this hectic morning, the reader marches alongside Shukhov to his designated worksite.

     Shukhov and the 104 are tasked with the construction of a power plant. Their work is heavily guarded, unshielded from the cold, and determines their food rations for the day. Many are penalized for attempts to huddle around a nearby building, harboring warmth. The prisoners’ hands otherwise barely depart from the cement mortar until their lunch break. Together, the squad finds joy in their serving of kasha for the day and returns to bricklaying soon after.  Shukhov is fairly self-sufficient; he devours his bowl with the spoon he keeps handy in his boots and scrapes his serving clean with bread crust from the morning. After the meal, Shukhov shakes off his feverish stupor and works for perfection beyond his quota. In the thick of his labor, Shukhov notices a bit of steel on the site that he fancies could fashion a utile trowel, his possession of which almost lands him subject to severe punishment—maybe, even, death—upon return to camp. Back at the main quarters, Shukhov voraciously consumes his third meal of the day—even receiving savory extras—and returns to the bunk enamored of his fortune. His evening ends with another abrasive inspection, leading into dialogue with Aloysha, a Baptist prisoner who advises Shukhov to embrace faith. Yet one more inspection ensues, and Shukhov ends these twenty-four hours in his bunk, “almost happy,” (139) preparing for the clang of hammer and steel soon enough.

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich is literally a prison story, and thus, it takes its place in a long list of similar works which deal with conditions in prisons, labor camps, concentration camps, mental hospitals, or POW camps. As such, it deals with many of the same problems that works like The Survivor by Terrence des Pres, Pierre Boulle’s The Bridge on the River Kwai, Borowski’s This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen, Henri Charriere’s Papillon, and many German, French, and British POW novels attempt to come to grips with.

Like all of these works, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich deals with the struggle for survival under inhumane conditions. What must a man or a woman do to get out of such a camp alive? Is survival the only and most important goal, or are there limits to what a person can and should do to stay alive? Is religious faith necessary or vital for survival? All of these are questions which this work attempts to answer on a literal level.

Solzhenitsyn, who has first-hand experience of the camp conditions which he describes in this story, relates the actual experiences of millions of his compatriots, and his Russian readers could not help but ponder the real possibility of their being confronted with Ivan Denisovich’s situation.

Like the authors of other prison novels, Solzhenitsyn concludes that it is the duty of a human being not to resign and give up the struggle for survival. However, it is wrong to concentrate on what one must do to survive. It is better to establish a personal code of behavior which dictates what one will not do just to preserve one’s physical existence.

Existence without dignity is worthless — in fact, loss of human dignity will also diminish the will and the capacity to survive. Compromises are certainly necessary, but there is a vast moral gap between Ivan and Fetyukov: Fetyukov will do anything for a little more food, and he is properly referred to as a scavenging animal; Ivan, in contrast, will swindle and bully, at times, but basically, he relies on his resourcefulness to achieve the same goal. He does not lick bowls, he does not give or take bribes, and he is deferential when necessary, but he never crawls. With some improvement in his habits of personal hygiene, he will probably, eventually, become what might be termed “the ideal prisoner,” represented by Y-81, the meticulous old camp inmate whom Ivan admires.

Survival is a task which needs Ivan’s constant, simple-minded attention. Abstractions, esoteric discussions on religion or on art are irrelevant and counter-productive. Caesar Markovich can survive only as long as his packages arrive. The Captain, if he survives solitary confinement, will have to give up his unrealistic ideas about communism and his overbearing manner if he wants to live. Alyosha the Baptist is, by the very nature of his faith, more interested in an afterlife than he is in physical survival during this lifetime. Clearly, Fetyukov and most of the informers will not live long.

Only Ivan combines all the qualities necessary to survive: he works for himself and for his comrades, but not for the authorities; he does not rely on outside help, but on his own skill and craftiness; he is used to obeying sensible orders and circumventing absurd ones; he has faith, but it is a faith designed to help him cope with the realities of this life, not one which exhausts itself in dogmatic theological debate. Ivan believes in the strength and the dignity of the simple Russian worker and peasant without being a doctrinaire Communist. He is, with some lapses, a compassionate human being who looks at his fellow prisoners with sympathy and understanding. Most of them appreciate this attitude and treat him with the same respect.

A Social Commentary

The population of Ivan’s prison camp contains a cross section of Russian society. There are prisoners representing virtually every professional, social, and ethnic group in the Soviet Union: we find artists, intellectuals, criminals, peasants, former government officials, officers, Ukrainians, Latvians, Estonians, and gypsies (Caesar Markovich), just to name a few. If one looks, therefore, beyond the literal level of the novel, it becomes clear that Solzhenitsyn not only wanted to give a realistic description of life in a Siberian prison camp, but that he also wanted the reader to understand that the camp — on an allegorical level — was a representation of Stalinist Soviet Russia.

In an interview, Solzhenitsyn once stated that he had been interested in a statement made by Leo Tolstoy, who said that a novel could deal with either centuries of European history, or with one day in a man’s life. (This statement by Tolstoy may have also been the reason why Solzhenitsyn changed the title of this work from S-854 to One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich.) During his own prison term, the author made up his mind to describe one day of prison life, one day in the life of Ivan Denisovich Shukhov, whose fate Solzhenitsyn once called “the greatest tragedy in Russian drama.”

Read on this level, the novel becomes a scathing indictment of the Soviet system during the Stalin era. Solzhenitsyn would now certainly extend this indictment to the Soviet system as a whole. There are chronic food shortages, except for a privileged few who can bribe advantages out of corrupt officials. There is vandalism and bureaucratic inefficiency, leading to waste and sabotage. To dispel any doubt that all this applies only to camp life, Solzhenitsyn introduces Ivan’s thoughts about the collective farm from which he comes (‘Daydreams of Home and of the Kolkhoz“), which is barely functioning. The men there have bribed the officials to relieve them from farm work so they can paint the profitable, sleazy carpets. In addition, there is also the constant spying and informing activities which are typical of Soviet society, and Solzhenitsyn deplores them most of all, for they create distrust among people who should cooperate against the authorities rather than against themselves. A prisoner, he says, is another prisoner’s worst enemy, not the authorities. It is interesting to note that, in spite of serving ten- or twenty-five-year sentences, all of the prisoners seem to be serving life terms. Nobody is ever released from the larger Soviet prison; when one term ends, another one is added on.

It was probably an accident that One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich was published exactly one hundred years after Letters from the House of the Dead, Dostoevsky’s famous account of his own experiences in prison under the Czar. But certainly, many Russian readers would immediately recognize the connection between the two works and realize the irony inherent in the comparison: prisons under the hated Czars were, by far, more humane than those under Stalin, and far fewer people were imprisoned in them.

What can be done to overcome these wretched social conditions? It is clear that Solzhenitsyn sees as little possibility for a successful, violent overthrow of the Soviet regime as he does for an armed revolt in Ivan’s camp. The real hope is that the corrupt, inefficient system will destroy itself from within, and that Russia will return to a system which is founded on the qualities which Ivan represents: hard work without too much reliance on technology.

Here, Solzhenitsyn follows Dostoevsky’s anti-Western, anti-technological attitude. He calls for (1) a revival of the old Russian folk traditions, (2) a simple, mystic faith without the dogmatic bureaucracy of any established church, (3) cooperation between the multitudes of ethnic and social groups in Russia who are now divided and, thus, “their own worst enemies,” and (4) an attitude of non-cooperation and non-violent undermining of the bureaucracy and the authorities.

Even if it appears that conditions will not change soon (another prison term may be added on), the actions of the Russian people should be designed to survive with dignity and pride, not with groveling and crawling. It should be noted that Solzhenitsyn does not expect any leadership from intellectuals, churchmen, or artists in this struggle. Their love for abstractions and endless discussion is shown as not producing practical results.

An Existential Commentary

Beyond the literal and the social level, we can detect in this work a theme which aligns it closely to many works of modern fiction. Its theme is the fate of modern man who must make sense of a universe whose operations he does not understand. Thus, the level of meaning which addresses the questions “How is one to survive in a prison camp?” and “How is one to survive in the Soviet Union, which is like a prison camp?” is extended to this question: “According to what principles should one live in a seemingly absurd universe, controlled by forces which one can’t understand and over which one has no control?”

Ivan’s fate closely resembles that of Josef K. in Franz Kafka’s The Trial. Josef K. is arrested one morning without knowing why, and he attempts to find out the reasons. In his search, he encounters a cruel court bureaucracy which operates according to incomprehensible rules; lawyers and priests cannot provide him with reasonable answers for his fate, and so he finally concludes that he must be guilty. Accordingly, he willingly submits to his execution.

Ivan is also arrested and sent to prison camps for absurd reasons, and so are most of his fellow inmates. He does not understand the legalities of his case. He is, after all, only a simple worker, and he never encounters the highest authorities who might provide him with an answer. He meets only cruel, minor officials of the system, who only obey orders but do not give explanations. The intellectuals around him do not seem to have the right answers, and the religious people, like Alyosha the Baptist, are very similar to the comforters who try to explain to job the reason why he must suffer so cruelly. Their arguments are dogmatic; they are not logical or practical.

A man who finds himself in such a situation has several options. One is despair, a passive acceptance of whatever fate has in store for him. This, as Camus indicates in The Myth of Sisyphus, is unacceptable behavior for an intelligent human being. An extension of that option is suicide, an alternative that is not even mentioned in One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich.

Another alternative is to search for a system of thought which will provide an explanation for such a basic existential question as “Why is all this happening to me?” These could be philosophical, religious, or political systems of thought, most of them having spokesmen who seemingly are able to give answers. Unfortunately, they all require that a person accepts at least one basic point of dogma on faith — that is, one must not ask for proof. And that is unacceptable to many practical, logical people like Ivan. Therefore, Ivan must ultimately reject Alyosha the Baptist’s interpretation of the universe.

Despite the fact that Ivan does believe in God, albeit a pantheistic pagan god, his answer to the existential question of modern man is fundamentally that of jean-Paul Sartre and other Existentialists. He decides to adopt a personal code of behavior similar to that of Hemingway’s so-called “code heroes,” whose highest satisfaction is derived from demonstrating “grace under pressure.” Rather than adopting other people’s behavioral codes (for example, the Ten Commandments), Ivan establishes his own set of morals, which are designed to help him survive with dignity. Since nobody can give him a logical explanation for his fate, he abandons all attempts at finding such an explanation and structures his life by the premise that there is, in fact, none. This allows him to concentrate on gaining satisfaction from following the standards he has set for himself. He does not have to please anyone about practical matters. This is graphically demonstrated by Ivan, particularly in his sense of self-reliance and in his “grace under pressure” behavior. He is a prototype of what Sartre calls a man “living in good faith,” as well as a prototype for the common Russian, in whom Solzhenitsyn puts his hope for a better future.

Denisovich

Novel by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

One Day 
in the Life of 

Ivan Denisovich 

By 

ALEXANDER SOLZHENITSYN 

One Day 
in the Life of 

Ivan Denisovich 

By 

ALEXANDER SOLZHENITSYN 

The post Write up on One day in the life of ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn appeared first on DayDreamin’ Comics.

The plot of Aelita can strike as rather strange. A Soviet engineer receives a mysterious radio message and decides to build a spaceship in order to go to Mars and find out its meaning. In the meantime, his jealousy is ruining the relationship with his young and beautiful wife; he finally ends up killing her in a fit of rage before departing for Mars. There he meets queen Aelita, who reigns but does not rule. She has been watching him from her planet and is already in love with him—the feeling seems to be requited, albeit complicated by the memory of engineer’s wife. After an unsuccessful attempt to free Martian slaves, the engineer kills Aelita who was using him to seize the power, and suddenly finds himself back on Earth. His wife is alive and well, and after a reconciliation, he burns his spaceship designs saying that there are enough things on Earth that one should take care of instead of dreaming of Mars—a remark that sounds quite ironic if one considers the so-called Space Race between the Soviet Union and the United States.

Introduction:

The Civil War has ended. A widowed Russian engineer goes to Mars with a demobilised Red Army officer and falls in love with a Martian princess. Her ancestors are of mixed descent, some having come from Earth, from Atlantis, in fact, so she is almost human. A workers’ revolt begun by a Martian engineer forces the couple to flee to a cave. The Russian hero tries to commit a double love suicide with her, but she alone drinks enough from the poisoned cup to die. He returns to earth, but hears her voice calling for him across time and space. The Civil War has ended. A Russian engineer grows suspicious that his wife is betraying him and shoots a gun off at her. He goes to Mars with a detective and a demobilised Red Army officer. On the Red Planet the princess has already fallen in love with him by watching him through a telescope. He finds himself in the middle of a proletarian revolution led by the Red Army man, which the princess has tried to defuse by declaring herself a leader of the uprising. He starts confusing her with his dead spouse, only to awaken and find that he is really on earth where his uninjured and all-forgiving wife cradles him like a surrogate mother.

Significance of the Study:

Within this context, the Russian science fiction literature and cinema, which are so significant not only in Russia but also throughout the world, have continued as lesser known across the country for a long time, until recent times. The known works are the works used for anti-Soviet propaganda of the West such as We of Zamyatin. Whereas proto-science fiction works written by Russian writers and intellectuals under the influence of science fiction works written within a utopic and/or dystopic framework arisen after Enlightenment and Industrial Revolution in the West began to be written Dr. Arş. Gör. Emek YILDIRIM ŞAHİN 298 and read in the 18th century. For example, Nikolay Gavrilovich Chernyshevsky, who was tracing Prince Mikhail Mikhailovich Shcherbatov and Prince Vladimir Fyodorovich Odoyevsky as two important names not only of the Russian Enlightenment but also of the Russian proto-science fiction as well, and his famous work What Is To Be Done? (Что делать?)1 , which is not a complete science fiction but has significant science fiction attributes with a Fourierian background and has had a great impact upon the Russian science fiction literature for years, are good instances for early Russian science fiction endeavors. Furthermore, Pyotr Alexeyevich Kropotkin, who is a leading name of the anarchist movement not only in Russia but also in the world, described this novel as “a flag for Russian youth” (Yıldırım, 2016: 66). As a matter of fact, in this novel, the fourth dream of Vera Pavlovna substantially contains a utopic science fiction aspect, and it has affected some large and small facts and cases occurring in the Russian political and social atmosphere for a long time. Since then, starting with pro[1]science fiction works in 18th century, the Russian science fiction works have always had a great impact not only upon Russian art but also on political and social facts occurring on national and international bases. Therefore, by this article, it is aimed to study not only artistic but also political and social background of Russian science fiction in literature and cinema by considering the science fiction works produced since the late 19th century.

Additionally, it is also crucial to indicate that there are two pioneering figures of science fiction all over the world, and these are Stanislaw Lem and Isaac Asimov, both of who were born within Soviet geography but later started to live in different lands. In fact, these two famous science fiction writers are actually originated from Russian/Soviet culture. Moreover, while Tarkovsky adapted Solaris of Lem into a film in 1972, Lem had a great impact upon the Russian intellectual life as well. Asimov is also one of the most influential writers of the Russian science fiction by his works translated into Russian during and after the Soviet period. Nevertheless, it is clear that in general the main difference distinguishing Russian/Soviet science fiction from science fiction genres of other countries is basically shaped by the hope for future arisen by enthusiasm of a new kind of collective spirit and creativity, as Efremov also explains in the manifesto he wrote upon Soviet science fiction:

The post Write up on aelita by Aleksey Tolstoy appeared first on DayDreamin’ Comics.

There are several versions of how Conchobar was conceived. In the earliest, Ness, daughter of Eochaid Sálbuide, the then king of Ulster, asks the druid Cathbad what it is an auspicious time for. Cathbad replies, “for begetting a king on a queen”. There are no other men around, so Ness takes Cathbad to bed and she conceives a son.[2] In a later version, Ness is brought up by twelve foster-fathers, and while all twelve are at a feast, Cathbad, leading a fian or landless war-band, attacks the house and kills them all. Eochaid is unable to avenge them as the culprit cannot be identified, so Ness forms her own fian to hunt Cathbad down. But while she is bathing alone in a pool, Cathbad appears, stands between her and her weapons, and bares his sword. He spares her life on the condition that she becomes his wife. They settle near a river called Conchobar, and Ness soon conceives a son, but in this version the father is the High King Fachtna Fáthach, who is Ness’s lover. As she and Cathbad set out to visit Fachtna, Ness goes into labour. Cathbad tells her if she can manage not to give birth until the following day, her son will be a great king and have everlasting fame, for he will be born on the same day as Jesus Christ. Ness sits on a flagstone by the river Conchobar, and the following morning gives birth. The baby falls into the river, but Cathbad lifts him out, names him Conchobar after the river, and brings him up as his own son.[3]

Conchobar becomes king[edit]

By the time Conchobar is seven, Fergus mac Róich is king of Ulster, and falls in love with Ness. She agrees to become his wife, on one condition: that Fergus allows Conchobar to be king for a year, so his children will be called the sons of a king (under Medieval Irish lawinheritance passed through the male line, and only those who had a king as a male-line ancestor were eligible for kingship).[4] The nobles of Ulster advise Fergus that this will not affect his standing with them, as the boy will be king in name only, so he agrees. But Conchobar, advised by his mother, rules so well that by the end of the year it’s decided he should be king permanently.[5] Fergus makes an alliance with the new High King, Eochu Feidlech, and they make war on Ulster. After a series of bloody battles, Conchobar makes overtures for peace. Fergus is offered land, the Champion’s Portion at Emain Macha, and the position of Conchobar’s heir. Conchobar demands compensation from Eochu for the killing of his father, Fachtna Fáthach, and is granted land, status and the High King’s daughter in marriage.[6]

Marriages and family[edit]

Conchobar marries several of Eochu’s daughters. Medb, later queen of Connacht, is the first. She bears him a son called Amalgad, but soon leaves him.

Her sister Eithne conceives a son by him, but Medb murders her by drowning her in a stream. Her son Furbaide is delivered by posthumous Caesarian section.

Mugain bears him a son called Glaisne and remains his chief wife.

The mother of Conchobar’s eldest son, Cormac Cond Longas, is either Eochu’s daughter Clothru or Conchobar’s own mother Ness.[7] Cormac is given to Fergus mac Róich to foster.

His other sons include Cúscraid Mend Macha and Folloman. His daughter Fedelm Noíchrothach marries Cairbre Nia Fer, King of Tara, and they have a son, Erc, and a daughter, Achall.

Conchobar has two sisters, Findchóem [8] and Deichtine.[9] Findchóem marries the poet fAmergin, and they have a son, Conall Cernach. Deichtine is the mother of Cú Chulainn, by either her mortal husband Sualtam or the god Lugh.[10]

Deirdre[edit]

When Conchobar is visiting the house of his storyteller Fedlimid mac Daill, Fedlimid’s wife gives birth to a daughter. Cathbad, now Conchobar’s chief druid, prophesies that she will be so beautiful that kings will go to war over her, and she will bring nothing but sorrow. The child is named Deirdre, and Conchobar decides to have her brought up in seclusion from men, intending to marry her when she comes of age. However, she elopes with a young warrior called Naoise. Along with Naoise’s two brothers, the couple go into hiding, and are eventually forced to flee to Scotland. Wherever they settle, the local king tries to have the brothers killed so he can have Deirdre for himself, and they have to move on. Eventually Conchobar tracks them down to a remote island, and sends Fergus to them with his guarantee of safe passage home. On the way home he arranges for Fergus to be separated from his charges by having him invited to a feast, so they are escorted back to Emain Macha by Fergus’s son Fiachu. When they arrive, Fiachu, Naoise and his brothers are murdered on Conchobar’s orders by Éogan mac Durthacht, and Deirdre is forced to marry Conchobar.

Fergus, outraged by the death of his son and the betrayal of his honour, makes war against Conchobar, alongside Cormac Cond Longas, who sides with his foster-father against his father, and Dubthach Dóeltenga. They burn Emain and slaughter the maidens of Ulster, before going into exile with Medb and her husband Ailill in Connacht.

Deirdre lives with Conchobar for a year, but during that time she never smiles, rarely eats or sleeps, and refuses to be comforted. Conchobar asks her what it is she hates, and she replies, “you, and Éogan mac Durthacht.” Conchobar gives her to Éogan. The next day, riding in Éogan’s chariot, she commits suicide by dashing her head against a stone.[11]

The Cattle Raid of Cooley[edit]

When Medb raises an army from four of the five provinces of Ireland and launches an invasion of Ulster to steal the bull Donn Cúailnge in the Táin Bó Cúailnge, Conchobar, like all the Ulstermen but Cú Chulainn, is unable to fight, disabled by the curse of Macha. Cú Chulainn fights a series of single combats against Connacht champions, hoping to give the Ulstermen time to recover and take the field.

Eventually Cú Chulainn’s father, Sualtam, comes to Conchobar at Emain Macha to warn him of the devastation the Connacht army is creating and demand he raise his army before it’s too late. Conchobar and his druids agree that Sualtam should be put to death for breaking the protocol of the court – no-one is permitted to speak before Conchobar but the druids – and Sualtam runs out, but falls and decapitates himself on the sharpened edge of his shield. His severed head is brought back in on his shield, still crying out his warning. Conchobar raises his army and leads them into battle. During the fighting, Fergus has him at his mercy, but Cormac Cond Longas prevents his foster-father from killing his biological father, and Fergus strikes off the top of three hills instead. Medb is eventually forced to retreat by Cú Chulainn, but manages to bring the bull back to Connacht, where it fights her husband Ailill’s bull Finnbhennach, kills it, and dies of exhaustion.[12]

The Battle of Ros na Ríg[edit]

After the Táin, Conchobar falls ill, and doesn’t eat or sleep. The Ulaid ask Cathbad to find out what’s wrong with their king. Conchobar tells Cathbad that he is ill because the other four provinces of Ireland have made war against him with impunity. Although he was victorious against Ailill and Medb, neither of them was killed in the battle, and he still lost his bull. He wants to make war against Connacht, but it is now winter, so Cathbad advises him to wait until summer when his men and horses will be fresh and energetic, and in the meantime, call on all his foreign allies to bring reinforcements. He sends word to Conall Cernach, who is raising tribute in the Scottish islands, and he raises a great fleet of the Ulaid’s allies in Scandinavia and the Faroe Islands and brings them home to Ulster.

In response to this build-up, the other provinces mobilise. Eochu mac Luchta, king of Munster, convinces Ailill and Medb, very much against Medb’s better judgement, to offer reparations to Conchobar. Ailill sends a man the Ulaid have reason to mistrust as their envoy to make the offer. Conchobar rejects the offer, and says he will not be satisfied until he is able to pitch his tent anywhere in Ireland. When asked where he wants to pitch his tent that night, he selects Ros na Ríg (Rosnaree) on the River Boyne. A battle ensues at Ros na Ríg between the Ulaid on one side, and on the other side the kingdom of Meath, led by Conchobar’s son-in-law Cairpre Nia Fer, king of Tara, and the Gailióin of Leinster, led by their king Find mac Rossa. The battle goes badly for the Ulaid until Conall Cernach joins the fray, because the wavering Ulstermen are too scared of him to retreat. Conall kills a thousand men in the battle. Cairpre Nia Fer kills 800 before Cú Chulainn kills him with a spear thrown from a distance, and then beheads him before his body hits the ground. The Gailióin retreat and the Ulaid take Tara. Erc, Cairpre’s son and Conchobar’s grandson, is installed as the new king of Tara. He swears allegiance to Conchobar and is given Cú Chulainn’s daughter Fínscoth in marriage.[13]

Death[edit]

Conchobar is eventually killed as a result of a wound inflicted by the Connacht warrior Cet mac Mágach. Cet had stolen one of Ulster’s trophies of battle, the petrified brain of Mesgegra, king of Leinster, and shoots it from his sling so it embeds itself in Conchobar’s head; this is supposed to have taken place at Baile Ath in Urchair, (Ardnurcher).[14] Conchobor’s physicians are unable to remove it, but sew up the wound and tell the king he will survive so long as he doesn’t get excited or over-exert himself. Seven reasonably peaceful years later, Conchobar is told of the death of Christ, and becomes so angry that the brain bursts from his head, and he dies. The blood from the wound baptises him as a Christian, and his soul goes to heaven.[15] While this account of his death has been superficially Christianised, it also bears strong resemblances to the Scandinavian myth of Thor’s fight against Hrungnir, suggesting either a common origin of the two episodes or a later borrowing during the era of Viking influence in Ireland.

The Ulstermen invite his son Cormac Cond Longas, still in exile in Connacht, to succeed him as king, but on his way to Emain Macha Cormac is forced to break his geasa or taboos, and is killed in battle at Da Choca’s Hostel.[16] On Conall Cernach’s recommendation the kingship is then given to Conchobar’s other son, Cúscraid Mend Macha.[17]

The post Write up on Celtic Myths: Conchobar Mac appeared first on DayDreamin’ Comics.

Shanda

Muh

An ancient already, Powers of her mother’s ancient breath, gave her a new body. Shania Muh, New power, unimaginable to World, yet to be unleashed. To utter the power, of the new elite trained,Guardians of the Realm of Scorpio. Shanda Muh, unknown factor in formula on conquering ,war?

Besieged and cut down by Nasira and the Libra Witches.  Shanda Muh body was taken to Estmar by Molenda the Terrible.  Shanda Muh helped aide Molenda and General Bruce escape a burning Forest in Bismet. Nasira burned the forest of Bismet down to Smoke out the Last remaining party that slaughtered Skolora.

The Crystal Jade attached to Arboreal the Enchantress brought her daughter, Shanda Muh alive again. Tears came from Arboreal the Enchantress and Molenda the Terrible to see the gruesome slain body of Shanda Muh. The only way regain Shanda Muh life was she had to become a Guardian of Estmar like her mother before her Arboreal the Enchantress.

In Return Arboreal the Enchantress, sought out Nasira and her Witches for revenge.

Excerpt by Shaun Whittaker: Zodiac World

Tales of the Offspring:

Scorpio heir to the Throne:

Shanda Muh

Which crown would she choose the Eye of the Ultimate, Supreme ruler and overseer of the Realm of Scorpio. Maybe her supposed mother Arboreal the Enchantress, the ruler of Estmar, the land of the dead? Both parents could never leave their realms. One parent fought for queendom, power, and the ultimate level of black magic. Arboreal was rejected by her father and out casted from the Realm of Scorpio, ultimately inevitable to rule the underworld, Estmar. Should Shanda rule either or she would free her mother from centuries of ruling the land of the dead. If choose to Rule the Realm of Scorpio; she would keep the bloodline of rulers the Modin Bleeks. Shanda bloodline of royalty was strong; she came from the Duchess beyond the Eboke Mountains and the Modin Bleeks. She was sent for years to guard the boundaries of the Realm of Scorpio: to see what burden she would have to partake.

Fate might have aided Molenda the Terrible, Shanda Muh might never return back to the Realm of Scorpio or the capital city of Modin Bleek. Her destiny lie with her mother in Estmar the Land of the Dead as a Guardian.

Shanda Muh was exiled from the Realm of Scorpio shortly after her scrimmage with Nasira the Libra Witch in the forest of Bismet. Remembering the events prior , Nasira the Realm of the Scorpio Guardian words of harsh condemning  Shanda Muh.

“HOUSE OF MODIN BLEEK!

THE HOUSE OF TACKA

BESEIGES you , for justice!”

                        Yelled out Nayette the Realm of Scorpio Guardian.

“Amongst whom?

A guardian, Nanyette .

This is an Outrage, even if we could, this is  against the laws of my Father who lies under the

Black sand .”

                        Stated Shanda Muh

“Shanda Muh, do you KNOW what she Did?”

                        Naynette Questioned.

“Don’t call me that peasant. I am no Guardian anymore.”

                        Shanda Muh coyly remarked.

Imperialist, I am Naynette your sister Guardian, your Mother she Raped our Native

Son’s Land and ate your Fathers Clan with her Black Magic Rituals!

It’s Treason! Maximus. Take this Harlet head or exile our sister Shanda Muh!

Imperialist Shanda Muh, its True

I saw it for Myself before you were born in her wound

            Stated Maximus

Maximus, I can’t kill a Guardian she is my sister the Law, Law and the Law of the Black Sand of Modin declares best option we have is to exile Shanda Muh?

                  Nayette cried.

Shanda Muh thought to herself EVER since she let Cableas in the Realm of Scorpio, and Cloak and Dagger, Filthy sin, had come to their land.

Now, they are becoming like Them.

11 perverts Zodiac. The Ultimate fought so Hard to preserve their Form.

Shanda Muh thought changing the Law would do good, for Equality of Races, she was Wrong. Even her Mother warned her.

The post zodiac world: After Tarzac -Shanda Muh the house of modin appeared first on DayDreamin’ Comics.

OCR plays a critical role in the field of assistive technology. It can help individuals with cognitive or reading difficulties, such as dyslexia, by converting printed materials into a readable digital format. This enables text-to-speech functionality, allowing users to listen to content they might struggle to read. Additionally, OCR can be paired with other assistive technology solutions, such as screen readers, magnification tools, and customizable font settings to support diverse user needs.

Introduction:

Future Goal of DaydreaminComics: is to enhance it’s technology advancement of Portable Document Formats(PDF .extensions) with OCR to enhance readers reading comprehension and tools to learn by being entertained by Comics and Other Literature under 508 Compliances .

The Purpose of Reading

According to Grabe and stoller (2011:11) there are six the purpose of reading, they are:

1. Reading to search for simple information

Reading to search for simple information is a common reading ability, though some researchers see

it as a relatively independent cognitive process. It is used so often in reading tasks that is probably

best seen as type of reading ability.

2. Reading to skim quickly

Reading to skim quickly is a common part of many reading task and a useful skill in its own right.

It involves, in essence, a combination of strategies for guessing where important might be in the

text,  and then  using  basic reading  comprehension  skills on  those  segments  of  the  text until  a

general idea is formed.

3. Reading to learn from Texts

Reading to learn typically occurs in academic and professional contexts in which a person needs to

learn  a  considerable amount  of information  from a  text, it  requires abilities  to remember  main

ideas, recognize and build rhetorical frames and link the text to the reader base.

4. Reading to integrate information

Reading  to  integrate  information  requires  additional  decision  about  the  relative  importance  of

complementary,  mutually  supporting  or  conflicting  information  and  likely  restructuring  of  a

rhetorical frame to accommodate information from multiple sources

5. Reading to write and reading to critique texts

Reading  to  write  and  reading  to  critique  texts  may  be  task  variants  of  reading  to  integrate

information. Both require abilities to compose, select, and critique information from a text.

6. Reading for general comprehension

Reading for  general comprehension when  accomplished by  a skilled fluent  reader, require very

rapid and automatic processing of words, strong skills in forming a general meaning representation

of main idea, and efficient coordination of many processes under very limited time constraint.

Technique of Improving Reading Skill

To achieve the purpose of reading one should read effectively. States that effective reading means

being able to read accurately, efficiently and to understand as much of the passage as you read in order

to achieve your purpose.

To achieve one purpose of reading, you can apply some reading technique as follows Harmer in

Munawaroh S (2018:11). How to Teach English. England: Longman

a. Survey Reading

Surveying is specialized technique for getting a mountain top new of Article chapter content and it

helps to give a general point of view.

b. Skimming

Skimming is a kind of reading that make our eyes move quickly in order to get the main idea from

the reading material. Skimming enable people to select content that want to read and to discard that

which is in consequential for their purpose.

Bilingual : Jurnal Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris Vol. 4 No.1 2022 e – ISSN : 2302 – 6596

DOI : 10.36985/jbl.v4i1.380

51

c. Scanning

Scanning is reading the text quickly to answer a specific question. This technique enables people to

locate specific information without reading all the material around it.

d. Pre-reading

Pre-reading is a technique that a reader uses before he began to read the material to improve his

comprehension and recall. Pre-reading involves only at those part of reading materials that will tell

you what it is about or how it is organize.

Comic

Definitions of Comic

According  to the  Big  Indonesian  Dictionary  (KBBI) stated  that  comics  are interpreted  as  an

illustrated story that is easily digested and funny (usually found in newspaper magazines or made in

the form of books). In general, comics can be interpreted as one of the media that serves to convey a

story through picture illustrations to describe the story. In addition, comics can also be interpreted as

literary works in the story there is leading figure. Comics generally contain fictional stories, as with

other literary works.

According  to  Kekkonen  (2013:  6)  stated  that,  comics  can  be  defined  as  words  and  images

combined into a sequence. What is more important, usually they are words and images combined into

a sequence for a particular purpose, namely, to tell a narrative.

The Using of Comic Books in Teaching Reading

Most people like reading comics. The appealing of pictures and a sequence of story drawn are

interesting to read. They also find it easier to understand comics ‘content because comics are always

accompanied by visuals and use simple languages. Moreover because of the visuals, readers need less

cognition to understand the contents. English teachers may find that comics can be a potential source

to motivate students to read. This can be used as media applied in teaching English in the classroom.

By making sure that  students enjoy reading, it is easier to teach them various materials to improve

their skills (Royanti: 2017:14).

The statements  above are supported  by Arikunto (2010: 123)  who points  out that  comic book

usually  liked  by  teenagers and  young  adults  are seen  to  be  effective  used  as  media in  language

teaching. Comic Books which are usually funny will amuse and interest L2 students in which it means

their motivation to read can be increased. She also states that with the characteristics of comic strips

which visuals, students will arebe  able to learn better. Because if  a word, expression, or concept is

accompanied by a picture (a visual image in one‘s mind), they tend to memorize and to recall them

more easily.

Droplet (2010: 40) says that it is better to implement authentic materials having real language use

but still  bring the students  to do extensive reading. If  students enjoy reading, it will bring  positive

results in the way of comprehending the text contents. Comics can be seen as a promising material to

implement because they are not only attractive for most learners in different ages and levels but also

contain  real  language  use  and  also  culture.  The  more  students  enjoy  reading,  the  more  their

comprehension skills improve.

Because comic books are dominantly visual, it can help students to comprehend the text and the

situation of comic strips easier. Visuals accompanying a text can help students to comprehend factual

information.

Comic  books  like  intermediary  to  reading  comprehension.  Comics  can  scaffold  to  difficult

disciplines and concepts, can give reluctant  readers the non-threatening practice and to  experienced

onesinspiration and confidence for more challenging texts. And comic books popular in child.

Comic books provide the structure and the stimulus to which students respond, and, since stories

are universal, students from different cultures can understand their structure and identify themselves

with  the  characters.  This  helps  them  to  acquire  vocabulary,  grammatical  and  communicative

competence and provides them with special cultural knowledge as well

Literature Review:

What is OCR (Optical Character Recognition)?

Optical Character Recognition (OCR) is the process that converts an image of text into a machine-readable text format. For example, if you scan a form or a receipt, your computer saves the scan as an image file. You cannot use ag text editor to edit, search, or count the words in the image file. However, you can use OCR to convert the image into a text document with its contents stored as text data.

Why is OCR important?

Most business workflows involve receiving information from print media. Paper forms, invoices, scanned legal documents, and printed contracts are all part of business processes. These large volumes of paperwork take a lot of time and space to store and manage. Though paperless document management is the way to go, scanning the document into an image creates challenges. The process requires manual intervention and can be tedious and slow.

Moreover, digitizing this document content creates image files with the text hidden within it. Text in images cannot be processed by word processing software in the same way as text documents. OCR technology solves the problem by converting text images into text data that can be analyzed by other business software. You can then use the data to conduct analytics, streamline operations, automate processes, and improve productivity.

How does OCR work?

The OCR engine or OCR software works by using the following steps:

Image acquisition

A scanner reads documents and converts them to binary data. The OCR software analyzes the scanned image and classifies the light areas as background and the dark areas as text.

Preprocessing

The OCR software first cleans the image and removes errors to prepare it for reading. These are some of its cleaning techniques:

• Deskewing or tilting the scanned document slightly to fix alignment issues during the scan.
• Despeckling or removing any digital image spots or smoothing the edges of text images.
• Cleaning up boxes and lines in the image.
• Script recognition for multi-language OCR technology

Text recognition

The two main types of OCR algorithms or software processes that an OCR software uses for text recognition are called pattern matching and feature extraction.

Pattern matching

Pattern matching works by isolating a character image, called a glyph, and comparing it with a similarly stored glyph. Pattern recognition works only if the stored glyph has a similar font and scale to the input glyph. This method works well with scanned images of documents that have been typed in a known font.

Feature extraction

Feature extraction breaks down or decomposes the glyphs into features such as lines, closed loops, line direction, and line intersections. It then uses these features to find the best match or the nearest neighbor among its various stored glyphs.

Postprocessing

After analysis, the system converts the extracted text data into a computerized file. Some OCR systems can create annotated PDF files that include both the before and after versions of the scanned document.

What are the types of OCR?

Data scientists classify different types of OCR technologies based on their use and application. The following are a few examples:

Simple optical character recognition software

A simple OCR engine works by storing many different font and text image patterns as templates. The OCR software uses pattern-matching algorithms to compare text images, character by character, to its internal database. If the system matches the text word by word, it is called optical word recognition. This solution has limitations because there are virtually unlimited font and handwriting styles, and every single type cannot be captured and stored in the database.

Intelligent character recognition software

Modern OCR systems use intelligent character recognition (ICR) technology to read the text in the same way humans do. They use advanced methods that train machines to behave like humans by using machine learning software. A machine learning system called a neural network analyzes the text over many levels, processing the image repeatedly. It looks for different image attributes, such as curves, lines, intersections, and loops, and combines the results of all these different levels of analysis to get the final result. Even though ICR typically processes the images one character at a time, the process is fast, with results obtained in seconds.

Intelligent word recognition

Intelligent word recognition systems work on the same principles as ICR, but process whole word images instead of preprocessing the images into characters.

Optical mark recognition

Optical mark recognition identifies logos, watermarks, and other text symbols in a document.

What are the benefits of OCR?

Data scientists classify different types of OCR technologies based on their use and application. The following are a few examples:

Simple optical character recognition software

A simple OCR engine works by storing many different font and text image patterns as templates. The OCR software uses pattern-matching algorithms to compare text images, character by character, to its internal database. If the system matches the text word by word, it is called optical word recognition. This solution has limitations because there are virtually unlimited font and handwriting styles, and every single type cannot be captured and stored in the database.

Intelligent character recognition software

Modern OCR systems use intelligent character recognition (ICR) technology to read the text in the same way humans do. They use advanced methods that train machines to behave like humans by using machine learning software. A machine learning system called a neural network analyzes the text over many levels, processing the image repeatedly. It looks for different image attributes, such as curves, lines, intersections, and loops, and combines the results of all these different levels of analysis to get the final result. Even though ICR typically processes the images one character at a time, the process is fast, with results obtained in seconds.

Intelligent word recognition

Intelligent word recognition systems work on the same principles as ICR, but process whole word images instead of preprocessing the images into characters.

Optical mark recognition

Optical mark recognition identifies logos, watermarks, and other text symbols in a document.

What are the benefits of OCR?

The following are major benefits of OCR technology:

Searchable text

Businesses can convert their existing and new documents into a fully searchable knowledge archive. They can also process the text database automatically by using data analytics software for further knowledge processing.

Operational efficiency

You can improve efficiency by using OCR software to automatically integrate document workflows and digital workflows within your business. Here are some examples of what OCR software can do:

• Scan hand-filled forms for automated verification, reviews, editing, and analysis. This saves the time required for manual document processing and data entry.
• Find the required documents by quickly searching for a term in the database so that you don’t have to manually sort through files in a box.
• Convert handwritten notes to editable texts and documents.
   

Artificial intelligence solutions

OCR is often part of other artificial intelligence solutions that businesses might implement. For example, it scans and reads number plates and road signs in self-driving cars, detects brand logos in social media posts, or identifies product packaging in advertising images. Such artificial intelligence technology helps businesses make better marketing and operational decisions that reduce expenses and improve the customer experience.

Content of Problem:

What are the benefits of OCR in assistive technology for students with disabilities?

Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology offers several benefits to students with disabilities. By converting printed text into digital format, OCR allows students with reading difficulties, such as dyslexia, to access text through text-to-speech tools or screen readers. This technology also enables students with visual impairments to enlarge the text or adjust contrast settings for better readability. Additionally, OCR allows students to access learning materials in alternative formats, such as audio or Braille, thus enhancing their overall learning experience.

How does OCR technology improve accessibility in educational settings?

OCR technology plays a crucial role in facilitating accessibility in educational environments. It allows students with disabilities to access a wide range of printed and digital materials, which might otherwise be inaccessible. With OCR, textbooks, handouts, and other learning materials can be scanned and converted into formats that are compatible with screen readers, text-to-speech software, and devices that produce Braille output. This in turn promotes inclusive education and helps students reach their full potential by providing them with equal access to information.

Which OCR-based devices are commonly used for students with intellectual disabilities?

There are several devices available using OCR technology to support students with intellectual disabilities. Some of these devices include portable text-to-speech scanners, desktop OCR scanners, and mobile scanning apps. These tools allow students to access printed materials more easily, as they convert text into an accessible format like audio or enlarged text. By providing alternative ways to engage with learning materials, OCR technology helps students with intellectual disabilities succeed in their education.

How does OCR technology enhance the learning experience for students with visual impairments?

OCR technology greatly enhances the learning experience for students with visual impairments by providing access to printed materials in digital formats. By converting text into formats compatible with screen readers and Braille devices, OCR allows visually impaired students to access the same information as their peers. This technology also enables students to enlarge text, adjust contrast settings, and use audio outputs to help them understand and engage with content.

What are the main challenges in implementing OCR as an assistive tool for students?

Implementing OCR technology in educational settings can present some challenges. One of the main issues is the quality and accuracy of the scanned text, as errors in the OCR conversion can make it difficult for students to comprehend the material. Additionally, cost can be a concern, as some OCR devices and software might be expensive for schools or families. Training and support for educators, students, and their parents are also essential to ensure the successful implementation of OCR-based assistive tools.

Can OCR technology be integrated within existing assistive devices in the classroom?

Yes, OCR technology can be integrated with many existing assistive devices in the classroom. For example, there are OCR scanning apps available for smartphones and tablets, allowing these devices to be used as text-to-speech scanners. Similarly, OCR can be incorporated into existing desktop computer systems with screen readers and magnification software. Integrating OCR technology with existing assistive devices promotes a seamless and inclusive learning experience for students with disabilities.

The post Write up on Assistive Technology development and comic books in education appeared first on DayDreamin’ Comics.

Literature Review:

A logic Program is typically, a collection of Clauses that consist of preconditions for running the clause and a should be taken. Matching exercises in a Cognitive Compression way to develop a child’s brain to think Logically and Mathematically even about Reading Compression.

Designed for Fuzzy Logic in A.I in advanced way to train Human Interactions and Brain Cognitive and Generally how Programming works

#35. In context which of the following would NOT improve sentence 14

Whatever their experience, I believe that more and more women are playings, sports today, than ever before did play sports, and I think that is has many positive consequences for LARGER SOCIETY

1. Delete “ I believe that:
2. Delete “than ever before did play sports.”
3. Delete: I think that “
4. Insert the word” trend: after “this.:
5. Replace “many” with : alot of .”

Imagine if utilized Daydreamin Comics with a computational abstraction: in OCR( optical character recognition) a child’s imagination of reading a comic book or literature give a survey of comments to what the context of the story was about, not knowing it , training for great reading compression. example

COMMENT BOX AND ABOVE IS THE FOLLOWING:

1. Delete “ I believe that:
2. Delete “than ever before did play sports.”
3. Delete: I think that “
4. Insert the word” trend: after “this.:
5. Replace “many” with : alot of .”

Computational Abstractions

Introduction

Pupils should be taught to: design, use and evaluate computational abstractions that model the state and behavior of real-world problems and physical systems.

In computer science, abstraction is the process by which data and programs are defined with a representation similar in form to its meaning (semantics), while hiding away the implementation details. Abstraction tries to reduce and factor out details so that the programmer can focus on a few concepts at a time. A system can have several abstraction layers whereby different meanings and amounts of detail are exposed to the programmer refines the definition of computational thinking to six concepts: a thought process, abstraction, decomposition, algorithmic design, evaluation, and generalization. All of these concepts are employed in problem solving processes. Again, the emphasis in this list of concepts is on thought processes, not the production of artefacts or evidence.

The Computing Progression Pathways (Dorling and Walker, 2014) is an example of a non-statutory assessment framework. It was produced by a small team of authors and reviewers, all teachers, based on their classroom experiences. It is an interpretation of the breadth and depth of the content in the 2014 national curriculum for computing program of study. It includes the dependencies and interdependencies between concepts and principles. This may help non-specialist teachers and inexperienced teachers to understand what should be taught in the classroom. It is publicly available at this link: 

Evidence of assessing computational thinking Given that computational thinking concepts have been defined (Selby and Woollard, 2013) and an assessment framework for the computing program of study has been proposed (Dorling and Walker, 2014), a mapping can be developed to illustrate how computational thinking can be assessed over the full breadth and depth of the computing programme of study.

2.3. Problem solving techniques.

2.3.1. Introduction Now, it’s easy to write down these stages but harder to see how they apply in practical problem solving for programming.

Significance of the Study:

Logo is a programming language that was developed in the late 1960s by a team of researchers at Bolt, Beranek and Newman (BBN) led by Wally Feurzeig, Seymour Papert, and Cynthia Solomon.

The language was designed to be a simple and intuitive tool for teaching children the principles of computer programming. The development of Logo was closely tied to the field of artificial intelligence (AI) and the broader movement to make computers more accessible to the general public.

Feurzeig, Papert, and Solomon were all influenced by the work of the pioneering AI researcher Marvin Minsky, who believed that children could learn to think logically and computationally if they were given the right tools.

At the time, most programming languages were designed for use by professional programmers, and were considered too difficult for children to learn. Logo was different in that it was designed to be simple and intuitive, with a focus on using graphics and turtle-based commands to create simple programs and animations.

The first version of Logo was implemented on a DEC PDP-1 computer, using a turtle as a visual representation of the cursor. The turtle could be moved around the screen by giving it commands in Logo, allowing children to create simple drawings and animations.

This innovative approach to teaching programming quickly gained popularity, and by the early 1970s, Logo was being used in schools around the world.

In the 1980s, it was adapted for use on home computers, including the Apple II and the Commodore 64, and became widely accessible.

One of the key features of Logo is its use of English-like commands, which made it easy for children to learn and use. This was a major departure from other programming languages of the time, which were often difficult for non-experts to understand.

Over the years, Logo has evolved and been implemented on a variety of different platforms, including personal computers and mobile devices.

One of the most famous uses of Logo was the development of the first widely-used educational robotics platform, the LEGO Mindstorms system. Using the Logo programming language, students were able to create simple programs that could control LEGO robots and make them move, turn, and interact with their environment.

In the decades since its inception, the Logo programming language has evolved and grown in complexity, but it remains a popular choice for educators looking to introduce children to the world of computer programming.

The Logo Programming Language, a dialect of Lisp, was designed as a tool for learning. Its features — modularity, extensibility, interactivity, and flexibility — follow from this goal.

For most people, learning Logo is not an end in itself, and programming is always about something. Logo programming activities are in mathematics, language, music, robotics, telecommunications, and science. It is used to develop simulations, and to create multimedia presentations and games. Logo is designed to have a “low threshold and no ceiling”: It is accessible to novices, including young children, and also supports complex explorations and sophisticated projects by experienced users.

The most popular Logo environments have involved the Turtle, originally a robotic creature that sat on the floor and could be directed to move around by typing commands at the computer. Soon the Turtle migrated to the computer graphics screen where it is used to draw shapes, designs, and pictures.

Some turtle species can change shape to be birds, cars, planes, or whatever the designer chooses to make them. In Logo environments with many such turtles, or “sprites” as they are sometimes called, elaborate animations and games are created.

Out Into the World

Widespread use of Logo began with the advent of personal computers during the late 1970s. The MIT Logo Group developed versions of Logo for two machines: The Apple ][ and the Texas Instruments TI 99/4. The Logo language itself was similar in both versions, but the video game hardware of the TI 99/4 lent itself to action-oriented projects, while the Apple version was best suited to turtle graphics, and language projects.

In 1978 a pilot project sponsored by MIT and Texas Instruments was begun at the Lamplighter School in Dallas, Texas with 50 computers and a student population of 450. In 1980 the Computers in Schools Project was initiated by the New York Academy of Sciences and Community School Districts 2, 3, and 9 in New York City, and supported by Texas Instruments and MIT. Twelve TI 99/4 computers were placed in six New York City Public Schools. These were later joined by a few Apple ][s.

Both projects offered teachers extensive training and support through intensive two-week Summer Institutes and follow-up workshops during the school year.

These projects have had lasting results. Theresa Overall, who was a leader in both the Dallas and New York workshops, continued to teach Logo at Lamplighter and to offer summer workshops. Michael Tempel, then of the New York Academy of Sciences is now President of the Logo Foundation, a nonprofit organization that provides Logo professional development and support services to schools and districts throughout the world, including New York City Community School District 3. Two of the teachers who represented that district in the original project, Peter Rentof and Steve Siegelbaum, went on to form the Computer School, one of the District’s alternative middle schools where Logo is still in use today.

The prototype Logo implementations used in those pioneering projects evolved into commercial products. TILOGO was released by Texas Instruments. Terrapin Software, a company that was set up in 1977 to distribute robot floor Turtles, licensed the Apple ][ version of MIT Logo and has marketed it and upgraded it to this day.

A new company, Logo Computer Systems, Inc. (LCSI) was formed in 1980. Many of the researchers, teachers, programmers, and writers who were involved in this venture have played major roles in the subsequent development of Logo. Seymour Papert is LCSI’s chairman. Brian Silverman was Director of Research and guided the development of all of LCSI’s products. Cynthia Solomon, who was on the team that created the original Logo in 1967, headed up LCSI’s first development office in Boston and later directed the Atari Cambridge Research Center. Michael Tempel provided educational support services from LCSI’s New York City office for ten years until he started the Logo Foundation in 1991.

LCSI developed Apple Logo, followed by versions for a host of other computers. With commercial availability, Logo use spread quickly.

Another important event occurred in 1980 – the publication of Seymour Papert’s Mindstorms . Teachers throughout the world became excited by the intellectual and creative potential of Logo. Their enthusiasm fueled the Logo boom of the early 1980s.

New versions of Logo were implemented in more than a dozen spoken languages on a variety of machines, many with video game style graphics and sound capabilities. Logo for MSX computers was popular in Europe, South America, and Japan. Atari Logo and Commodore Logo were popular in North America.

Logo received considerable support from mainstream computer manufacturers. Apple Computer marketed LCSI’s Apple Logo and, at one point, bundled it with the computers given away to each school in California. IBM marketed LCSI’s IBM Logo and Logo Learner.

Atari not only distributed Atari Logo, but set up the ambitious Atari Cambridge Research Center under the direction of Cynthia Solomon.

By the mid 1980’s the computers with video game capabilities had dropped off the market and taken their versions of Logo with them. MSDOS machines increasingly dominated the world of educational computing, except in the United States where Apple was the school favorite. Logo developers concentrated on these machines. Although new implementations added features and took advantage of the increased speed and memory of newer computers, the most popular versions of Logo in use in 1985 were similar to those of 1980.

Around this time there was also some interest in using Logo as a “serious” programming language, especially for the new Macintosh computer. MacLogo from LCSI added new functionality to the Logo environment. Coral Software, developed an object-oriented version of Logo called Object Logo. It included a compiler which allowed programs to run at higher speed, and stand-alone applications could be created. But Logo did not become popular among applications programmers.

Innovation

In 1985 Logo Computer Systems, Inc. introduced LogoWriter, which was novel in several ways. First, it included word processing capability – hence the name. Second, the user interface was simplified and made more intuitive. LogoWriter also included, as the earlier “sprite” Logos had, multiple turtles that could take on different shapes, although in this area the Apple and IBM computers on which LogoWriter ran were no match for the earlier game machines. LogoWriter was implemented in many spoken languages and became popular throughout the world.

Another innovation of the mid-eighties was LEGO Logo. Mitchel Resnick and Steve Ocko, working at the MIT Media Lab, developed a system which interfaced Logo with motors, lights and sensors that were incorporated into machines built out of LEGO bricks and other elements. Robotics systems with Logo were not new, but the popular and well-supported LEGO TC Logo was a commercial success which reached thousands of teachers and their students.

It was around this time that a unique series of Logo conferences took place at MIT. Beginning with LOGO ’84 and continuing for two more years with LOGO ’85 and LOGO ’86, these meetings brought a worldwide community together at Logo’s unofficial home.

In 1988 the Programa Informática Educativa was initiated in Costa Rica by the Omar Dengo Foundation, the Ministry of Public Education, and IBM Latin America. This project put Logo in the hands of most of Costa Rica’s elementary school students and their teachers. A similar project was initiated in Costa Rica’s secondary schools.

The Costa Rican projects have provided extensive teacher education and support with a strong emphasis on Logo’s contructionist educational approach. They have been taken as models for similar endeavors in a dozen other Latin American countries. Through the 1990s Latin American Logo enthusiasts came together every two years in a different country for the Congreso Logo.

In Japan, Logo saw growing acceptance in the country’s schools where the original LogoWriter, then the enhanced LogoWriter2, and then LogoWriter Win were the most popular versions.

In England, Logo was a mandated part of the national curriculum. This guaranteed that Logo was widely, if not necessarily well used. England is also the birthplace of the extinct Valiant Turtle and the Roamer.

There are Logo hot spots throughout Europe where there is a biennial EuroLogo conference. Now renamed, this conference was most recently held in Vienna, Austria as Constructionism 2014. European Logo software developments have included WinLogo in Spain and Comenius Logo from Slovakia.

New Developments during the 1990s

A new version of Logo called MicroWorlds was released in 1993 by LCSI. It embodied major changes both in the Logo environment and the Logo language. It included many extra-Logo features – drawing tools, a shape editor, a melody maker, the ability to import graphics and sounds – that work along with Logo to support the creation of multimedia projects, games, and simulations. Microworlds has been upgraded several times and is available today as MicroWorlds EX.

MicroWorlds Logo includes a number of changes, the most significant being multi-tasking, or parallel processing. Several processes can be launched independently. This is invaluable when creating animations with more than one actor – the car can drive off a cliff while the dog wags its tail while the fat lady sings. This sort of thing is possible in a non-parallel Logo environment but it is far easier and more natural in MicroWorlds.

Control Lab and Control System were LEGO Logo products whose multi-tasking software was built on the same core as MicroWorlds.

Another LEGO Logo innovation was the Programmable Brick , a research project at MIT spearheaded by Fred Martin. Unlike earlier LEGO Logo products where the robot received instructions through wires connected to a computer, the Programmable Brick had a computer inside. A program written on a desktop or laptop computer could be downloaded to the Brick, which could then be detached from the host computer and run its program autonomously.

LEGO commercialized the programmable brick as the RCX and later the NXT, and now the EV3 in products called LEGO Mindstorms. Smaller versions of the Programmable Brick, called crickets, where also developed commercially as the Handy Cricket and PICO Cricket .

As part of the Programmable Brick project at the MIT Media Lab a new version of Logo called Logo Blocks was created.  Instead of writing lines of code in text, programs were built by snapping together jigsaw-like puzzle pieces.

A radically different Logo called StarLogo was introduced in 1994. It is a massively parallel version that was developed by Mitchel Resnick at MIT. Thousands of turtles can carry on independent processes and interact with each other and with patches of background. The system is specifically designed to facilitate the exploration of decentralized systems, emergent phenomena, and self organizing behavior. Resnick’s Turtles, Termites, and Traffic Jams is the source book on StarLogo and the ideas underlying its conception.

A similar program called NetLogo was developed by Uri Wilensky, who now heads the Center for Connected Learning at Northwestern University.

The 21st Century

In 2004 a new Logo programming environment called Scratch emerged from the Lifelong Kindergarten Group at the MIT Media Lab.  It uses the blocks programming paradigm that was originally implemented as Logo Blocks.  Scratch is well suited to designing and building interactive stories, animations, games, music, and art. It can gather information from the outside world via a sensor board connected to the computer. The Scratch Web site provides the focal point for a community of millions of users who have shared more than nine million projects.

Following from the popularity of Scratch, blocks programming has become widespread and is used in a number of other Logo applications including Turtle Art, Scratch for Arduino, Snap!, and StarLogo TNG .

Meanwhile, traditional versions of Logo continue to be used.Brian Harvey, author of the three-volume classic Computer Science Logo Style wrote UCBLogo, a public domain version for Macintosh, MSDOS, and Unix.George Mills used the core of UCBLogo as the basis for his MSWLogo which runs under Windows with many enhancements that are possible in that operating system. FMSLogo is a more recent version of Logo based on MSWLogo.

After more than four decades of growth, Logo has undergone dramatic changes in step with the rapid pace of development in computer technology. The family of Logo environments is more divers than ever before.

Pavel Boytchev, who created Elica, has compiled the  Logo Tree, which lists all the versions of Logo, past and current, that he has information about. There are more than 300 of them.

Logo is a growing family of programming languages and a learning environments, and a worldwide community of people drawn together by a shared commitment to a constructivist educational philosophy.

To find out more about Logo you can continue to wander around this website and check out the links to other sites. 

Today, it is still widely used in schools and other educational settings as a tool for teaching computational thinking and problem-solving skills.

There are many different versions of Logo available, including versions that run on personal computers and mobile devices. Overall, the Logo programming language has played a significant role in the history of personal computing, and continues to be an important tool for teaching the next generation of computer programmers.

Despite its age, Logo remains an important part of the history of programming and continues to inspire new generations of programmers and computer scientists. It stands as a testament to the power of simple, intuitive tools for teaching complex concepts and encouraging children to think critically and creatively.

The Logo Programming Language, a dialect of Lisp, was designed as a tool for learning. Its features — modularity, extensibility, interactivity, and flexibility — follow from this goal.

For most people, learning Logo is not an end in itself, and programming is always about something. Logo programming activities are in mathematics, language, music, robotics, telecommunications, and science. It is used to develop simulations, and to create multimedia presentations and games. Logo is designed to have a “low threshold and no ceiling”: It is accessible to novices, including young children, and also supports complex explorations and sophisticated projects by experienced users.

The most popular Logo environments have involved the Turtle, originally a robotic creature that sat on the floor and could be directed to move around by typing commands at the computer. Soon the Turtle migrated to the computer graphics screen where it is used to draw shapes, designs, and pictures.

Some turtle species can change shape to be birds, cars, planes, or whatever the designer chooses to make them. In Logo environments with many such turtles, or “sprites” as they are sometimes called, elaborate animations and games are created.

Content of Problem:

Computational Abstractions

1.0

Pupils should be taught to:

design, use and evaluate computational abstractions that model the state and behaviour of real-world problems and physical systems.

In computer science, abstraction is the process by which data and programs are defined with a representation similar in form to its meaning (semantics), while hiding away the implementation details. Abstraction tries to reduce and factor out details so that the programmer can focus on a few concepts at a time. A system can have several abstraction layers whereby different meanings and amounts of detail are exposed to the programmer

refines the definition of computational thinking to six concepts: a thought process, abstraction, decomposition, algorithmic design, evaluation, and generalisation. All of these concepts are employed in problemsolving processes. Again, the emphasis in this list of concepts is on thought processes, not the production of artefacts or evidence

Computing Progression Pathways and describes how it can be used to acknowledge progression and reward performance in mastering both the computing programme of study content and computational thinking skills.

There is some debate about whether it is important that the arbitrary values of progression be standardized across schools. Naace (Harrison, 2014), in their guidance, indicate “…a school approach to assessment will need to be tailored to match their approach to the curriculum” (p. 1).

Alternatively, the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) propose when translating the national curriculum into assessment criteria “… there is little room for meaningful variety, we suggest this job be shared between schools” (2014, p. 10).

Whether it is designed by a single school or a collection of interested parties, an assessment framework is required by classroom practitioners.

The Computing Progression Pathways (Dorling and Walker, 2014) is an example of a non-statutory assessment framework. It was produced by a small team of authors and reviewers, all teachers, based on their classroom experiences.

 It is an interpretation of the breadth and depth of the content in the 2014 national curriculum for computing programme of study.

 It includes the dependencies and interdependencies between concepts and principles. This may help non-specialist teachers and inexperienced teachers to understand what should be taught in the classroom. It is publicly available at this link: 

The framework is grid-based.

Five of the six strands, represented as columns, are aligned with the range and content categories from the Computing at School curriculum (Computing at School, 2012) and the requirements of applicants to initial teacher training courses (DfE, 2012).

 These include algorithms, programming and development, data and data representation, hardware and processing, communication and networks.

The sixth strand incorporates the more traditional concept of information technology. This breadth affords an opportunity to view the subject of computing as a whole, rather than the separate subjects of Computer Science, Digital Literacy, and Information Technology.

 Each row represents a level of pupil progression. Annotation of the framework suggests that key stages 1-2 cover the first four levels (pink, yellow, orange, and blue), that key stages 3-4 cover the next four levels (purple, red, and black), and that GCSE covers the final level (white).

As an example, the purple cell under the “Hardware and Processing” strand states that a pupil “Recognises and understands the function of the main internal parts of basic computer architecture” (Dorling and Walker, 2014).

The colour-coded rows may aid teachers in assessing whether pupils are exhibiting competences at different levels and in recognizing achievement and attainment. In addition, adherence to the colour-coded statements can provide standardization across schools as identified by the NAHT (2014).

Institutions planning to use this assessment framework with existing assessment or reporting systems may: • assign values or levels to the coloured rows, • agree the benchmark value, level, or entry point for a particular key stage, assign the benchmark value or level to the appropriate progression statements.

The Computing Progression Pathways also affords opportunities to celebrate achievement in computing. There is a growing interest in badges as an informal recognition of skill, knowledge, understanding, or attitude.

They are made and awarded by commercial organisations, educational suppliers, websites, schools, teachers, and pupils (Hamilton and Henderson, 2013; Mozilla, 2014; Radiowaves Schools, 2014).

Recognizing and rewarding pupil achievement in each strand can be accomplished via coloured digital badges. Each strand can be assigned a separate digital badge. There may be two-tone badges for pupils working between coloured progression levels. Currently, there are no digital badge designs for the strands.

 Teachers and pupils who will be using the digital badge system are better placed to design and create them. The process of designing and creating the digital badges might promote learner ownership and student-centeredness (Reigeluth, 2013).

The computational thinking concepts of abstraction, decomposition, algorithmic design, evaluation, and generalisation have been abbreviated to the first two letters. Care has been taken by 3 iterations of expert evaluation of the statements to avoid making assumptions about how the teaching might afford opportunities for computational thinking rather than strictly interpreting what is explicitly stated in the Computing Curriculum Pathways.

 For example, an exercise in a classroom might afford opportunities to identify suitability for purpose and efficiency of input and output devices.

Table 1: Computational thinking and progression pathways in computing (Based on Dorling and Walker, 2014) Using this strategy of identifying computational thinking concepts associated with the pathways’ statements enables computational thinking to be assessed using the same framework as the programme of study. From a practitioner’s perspective, there is no additional assessment or progression tracking required to fulfil the broad aim of the computing programme of study to incorporate computational thinking.

Conclusion The computing programme of study (DfE, 2013b) includes the broad aim of incorporating computational thinking into the classroom.

The subject content is detailed in the document, but the connection to computational thinking and its meaning is not. Removal of the statutory assessment frameworks, which did not assess computational thinking, leaves a void in assessing pupils’ attainment.

Both of these shortcomings have been addressed in this paper. An understanding of 9 computational thinking, based on the work of Selby and Woollard (2013), has been established. An assessment framework, the Computing Progression Pathways, has been used to illustrate the dependencies and interdependencies between the concepts and principles of the programme of study (Dorling and Walker, 2014). This work has demonstrated how the Computing Progression Pathways can be used to evidence the assessment of computational thinking directly. By using the assessment framework to evidence progression, with its underlying support for computational thinking concepts, it is possible for the classroom practitioner to assess computational thinking without introducing additional complexity to the assessment process. However, this does raise questions around the provision for teachers of a framework for the pedagogy of computational thinking that aligns to this assessment approach

2.3. Problem solving techniques 2.3.1. Introduction Now, it’s easy to write down these stages but harder to see how they apply in practical problem solving for programming. It’s really not clear where to begin. Programming isn’t hard when you know how to solve the problem. It then becomes a matter of battling with the vagaries of language‐specific syntax, semantics and tools. For people new to programming, this language specific detail can become overwhelming, leading to a plethora of tiny, low level concerns at the expense of understanding how to solve an original problem. And there is curiously little material on problem solving and programming.  

For example, Wienberg’s (1971) classic study of the psychology of programming assumes that programming is an activity based on a specification that is elaborated from analysis, but says nothing about analysis itself. This echoes the then prevalent waterfall model of software development with distinct stages which are never revisited.

 One of the few books that ostensibly focuses on problem solving and programming, Dromey’s How to solve it by computer (Dromey, 1982), draws explicitly on Polya’s 1950 foundational study How to solve it (Polya, 1990) and on later work by Wickelgren (1974). Polya (pp5 & 6) characterises problem solving as a four stage process of: understanding the problem; linking unknowns to data to make a plan; carrying out the plan; looking back and reviewing the solution. He offers a long list of problem solving heuristics, many of which correspond to different aspects of CT (e.g. analogy, auxiliary problem, decomposing and recombining, do you know a related problem, specialisation) but doubts any systematic way of deploying them: ‘Rule of discovery. The first rule of discovery is to have brains and good luck.

 The second rule of discovery is to sit tight and wait till you get a bright idea. … To find unfailing rules applicable to all sorts of problems is an old philosophical dream; but this dream will never be more than a dream.’ (p172)

Nonetheless, Wickelgren attempts to provide a methodical approach to solving what he terms formal problems that is those couched in some formal notation, typically logical or mathematical. Wickelgren sees a problem as being specified as a starting state, a set of allowable operations over states, and a goal state. Thus, a solution is found by a sequence of state to state transitions leading from the start state to the goal state. Much of the book focuses on techniques for pruning the space of transitions, in particular reasoning backwards from the goal, but there is little on problem formulation. Dromey (1982) is a proponent of top down design and stepwise refinement, linking decomposition to algorithm, which we will consider briefly below. He also uses logical statements to capture properties of program stages, typically loop invariants.

While he acknowledges the central role of the choice of data structures in programming, he largely focuses on algorithm design, suggesting that structures are somehow chosen from a menu of JPD: 5:1:55   

 Journal of Pedagogic Development Volume 5, Issue 1 options. Despite acknowledging Polya’s and Winkelgren’s influences, Dromey has little to say about problem formulation. Still, we already have tried and tested techniques for teaching programming so why can’t we retrofit CT to what we do already? Let us now consider a range of these in slightly more detail, in inconsistently chronological order. Please note that much of the following is partial, anecdotal and superficial.

Effective Tool of Logical Programming in Curriculums for Highschool, and Middle Schools:

1.1  Learning Outcomes

In our LP course, we decided not to put emphasis into Prolog knowledge per-se (although

basic elements of the language should be taught), but to focus on all the above aspects. We

believe the students appreciate more the skills acquired through this course, which can be

used to change the mind-set of the programming task as a whole. By the end of the course

should be able to:

•  understand the basic principles of logic programming theory and symbolic reasoning,

•  demonstrate  good knowledge of the basic Prolog language by constructing small

programs,

•  make sense of more complicated Prolog programs, predict and describe what they do,

•  modify existing code to perform a similar task,

•  identify the advantages of declarative programming and evaluate its shortcomings in

comparison with imperative languages,

•  comprehend the basic principles of programming languages, like procedural abstraction,

program design and development, parameter passing, recursion, variable binding etc., 

•  adapt declarative programming techniques to other programming paradigms.

These learning outcomes are assessed through coursework and final examinations. 

1.2 Discrete Mathematics Preparation

Discrete Mathematics

Discrete mathematics is foundational material for computer science: Many areas of computer science require the ability to work with concepts from discrete mathematics, specifically material from such areas as set theory, logic, graph theory, combinatorics, and probability theory.

1.3 Common Lisp

The material in discrete mathematics is pervasive in the areas of data structures and algorithms but appears elsewhere in computer science as well. For example, an ability to create and understand a proof is important in virtually every area of computer science, including (to name just a few) formal specification, verification, databases, and cryptography.  Graph theory concepts are used in networks, operating systems, and compilers. Set theory concepts are used in software engineering and in databases.  Probability theory is used in artificial intelligence, machine learning, networking, and a number of computing applications.

Consequently, a Common Lisp program tends to provide a much clearer mapping between your ideas about how the program works and the code you actually write. Your ideas aren’t obscured by boilerplate code and endlessly repeated idioms. This makes your code easier to maintain because you don’t have to wade through reams of code every time you need to make a change. Even systemic changes to a program’s behavior can often be achieved with relatively small changes to the actual code. This also means you’ll develop code more quickly; there’s less code to write, and you don’t waste time thrashing around trying to find a clean way to express yourself within the limitations of the language.²

Common Lisp is also an excellent language for exploratory programming–if you don’t know exactly how your program is going to work when you first sit down to write it, Common Lisp provides several features to help you develop your code incrementally and interactively.

For starters, the interactive read-eval-print loop, which I’ll introduce in the next chapter, lets you continually interact with your program as you develop it. Write a new function. Test it. Change it. Try a different approach. You never have to stop for a lengthy compilation cycle.³

Other features that support a flowing, interactive programming style are Lisp’s dynamic typing and the Common Lisp condition system. Because of the former, you spend less time convincing the compiler you should be allowed to run your code and more time actually running it and working on it,⁴ and the latter lets you develop even your error handling code interactively.

Another consequence of being “a programmable programming language” is that Common Lisp, in addition to incorporating small changes that make particular programs easier to write, can easily adopt big new ideas about how programming languages should work. For instance, the original implementation of the Common Lisp Object System (CLOS), Common Lisp’s powerful object system, was as a library written in portable Common Lisp. This allowed Lisp programmers to gain actual experience with the facilities it provided before it was officially incorporated into the language.

The post Write up on Tech geek history: Logo Programming Language”Turtle” appeared first on DayDreamin’ Comics.

Written by Shaun Scott

    Meet the Punaki Pirates;  and the Pirate Guild from the far outer Quandrants of the Galaxy dedicated to Revolutionize Lord Basfarti’s Laws.

The post Tales of the trionous Galaxy: Punaki Pirates appeared first on DayDreamin’ Comics.

Most Gaming Consoles were Steppingstones to Modern Day Technology Operating System: Today we discuss Neo Geo:

The device includes a 4.3-inch LCD screen, SD card slot, A/V output, internal stereo speakers with a 3.5mm headphone jack.[9] A micro USB port on the system is used for charging the battery.[12] The screen’s 480×272 pixels resolution is the same as the original PlayStation Portable and is close to the 16:9 aspect ratio.[5]

The system was released as part of the Gold package, which includes the “Neo Geo X Station”, a replica of the original Neo Geo AES console that functions as a charging/docking station with its own composite video out and HDMI output along with a functioning replica of the original Neo Geo AES arcade stick controller.[4][13]

The Neo Geo X arcade stick controllers connect to the docking station via two USB ports.[12] Original Neo Geo AES controllers, game cartridges and memory cards are not compatible with the Neo Geo X.

The handheld has an 8-way thumbstick for directional control, menu and start buttons, four face buttons and four shoulder buttons: L1, L2, R1, R2. The shoulder buttons are used for changing screen aspect ratio and pausing games. Buttons to adjust volume and brightness are located under the handheld.[14][15]

The unit’s BIOS and pre-installed games were initially stored on an internal microSD card; later hardware revisions use a chip installed directly on the motherboard.

The Neo Geo AES of 1990 was the first video game console to offer the ability to use memory cards to save game progress. It initially used a 68 -pin 2KB SRAM memory card based on version 3 of the JEIDA standard and needed a battery inside the card to retain the data.

What really set Neo Geo apart at the time was that you could take a cartridge out of its MVS arcade cabinets and bring it home to its AES system and play. Even with this feature, Neo Geo was only able to maintain its status as a niche console never selling to the likes of its competitors. Moving just over one million consoles, the Neo Geo was also limited by its lineup of games, many of which focused on fighting. 

By the end of 1997, the Neo Geo AES was canceled. Software development would surprisingly live on until 2004, again emphasizing the console’s status as a cult favorite.

Price

Priced at $399, the system was bundled with a control pad instead of the joystick that had made the original Neo Geo AES so unique. Unfortunately, for its price, the CD loading time was notoriously slow and quickly frustrated gamers who had to often wait a full minute before a title would load completely. 

SNK quickly promised to deliver a model that would double the speed of the built-in CD ROM in North America but never delivered on their commitment. By 1996, SNK announced they would double speeds as the cost was too high until they sold through the initial run of Neo Geo CD consoles. 

A version with the double-speed loading CD drive was sold in Japan as a “CDZ” model with North American enthusiasts importing the console. Without a region lock, games launched in the U.S. played much better than the original console release. 

The post Write up on Tech geek history: Neo Geo Operating System appeared first on DayDreamin’ Comics.

Atari TOS Version 1.0 TOS is the operating system designed for the Atari ST and TT series of computers. The Atari ST and TT use a Motorola 68k based CPU (The same CPU used by early Macintoshes) and was first manufactured in 1985. The operating system consists of two parts. TOS – “The Operating System”. Kind of a customized version of CP/M provided by Digital Research. GEM – “Graphics Environment Manager”. The GUI shell that runs on top of TOS. This shares much in common with the DOS version of GEM. Both TOS and GEM are stored entirely in the system’s ROM. This is the GEM desktop running on TOS displaying its desktop info screen. The actual resolution of the default display is 320*200, obviously meant for viewing on a TV or composite monitor, but these screen shots have been enlarged to 640*400 for viewability. This is the GEM desktop running on TOS displaying its desktop info screen. The actual resolution of the default display is 320*200, obviously meant for viewing on a TV or composite monitor, but these screen shots have been enlarged to 640*400 for viewability. This is a blank desktop. Instead of disk icons, there are file drawers. The drives / drawers are assigned letters A, B, C and so on, similar to how CP/M and DOS organize drives. Just imagine if IBM had gone with CP/M for the original IBM PC instead of Microsoft DOS.

We might all be running Digital Research GEM 2004 right no The windows in TOS/GEM are Mac-like and can overlap and resize. None of the versions of GEM for Atari TOS were affected by the Apple lawsuit so all of the Atari versions retained these feature The TOS is the native Atari operating system, which comes together with each Atari computer. The first version, 1.0, also known as RAM TOS was loaded from disk, each next version is burned into system ROM at the factory. Each TOS version Atari has developed, apart from the official number, is also known under an unofficial name: TOS 1.0- RAM TOS, since it was loaded from disk and resided in the system RAM. TOS 1.02- Blitter TOS was introduced with the Mega ST computer and contained routines supporting the Blitter, a graphic co-processor. TOS 1.04- Rainbow TOS, since it displays a rainbow Atari logo in the info box. TOS 1.62- STE TOS was introduced with STE computer series. TOS 2.0x- Mega TOS was developed for Mega STE computer. TOS 3.0x- TT TOS was developed for the Atari TT030. TOS 4.0x- Falcon TOS also known as 3D TOS is present in the Falcon030 computer and provides 3D-looking window elements. TOS 5.0- the real Falcon030 TOS was supposed to become the native system of Falcon computers, but has never been officially released. The only available version is a beta release known as TOS 4.92. The non-multitasking TOS, to be differentiated from the MultiTOS, is also known as the SingleTOS. System structureThe TOS consists of four main parts, each one can be replaced by a RAM-based substitute: BIOS, Basic Input/Output System, provides several hardware dependent functions and is basically compatible with PC BIOS.

Additionally, the ST-BIOS contains an enhancement, known as XBIOS(Extended BIOS). The XBIOS functions are strictly platform dependent and aren’t compatible with any other computer, but ST. GEMDOS, is the main file management subsystem. The GEMDOS has been developed by the Digital Research, Inc. and is compatible with DR-DOS. The GEMDOS may be replaced with MiNT kernel in order to use MiNT networking software. VDI, Virtual Device Interface, is a library of hardware dependent graphic functions. Generally, it is responsible for drawing basic screen elements (points, lines, filled and empty objects, fill textures, fonts etc.) and controlling the mouse. The VDI has also an optional, loadable extension called GDOS, mainly responsible for font management. Latest GDOS versions support Bitstream and True Type character sets.

The VDI may be replaced with NVDI, which is much faster and provides some additional functions. AES, Application Environment Manager, is a fully hardware independent window and application manager. The AES and the VDI, both developed by the Digital Research, Inc., are known as GEM, Graphic Environment Manager. The standard AES (version 3.40 in Falcon TOS) may be replaced with the MultiAES (AES 4.10), a part of MultiTOS 1.08 or with the Geneva, which converts the TOS to a co-operative multitasking system. Besides of that, the system ROM contains also the GEM Desktop, i.e. an application program directly responsible for user interaction with the TOS. This structure, in order to keep compatibility with the TOS, is present in some other operating systems. Short characteristicThe main advantage of the TOS is that it is fast, stable and not memory hungry – if you don’t load many TSRs, it gives you about 3,7 MB of TPA on a 4 MB machine, since it doesn’t utilize the system RAM to keep it’s own code into. But even considering that the system resides in ROM, you must prove that the TOS code is generally compact: the latest version, Falcon TOS, fits in a 512k chip together with the desktop and five resource files for five different nationalities. Also notice, that the TOS will work fine even if there is no hard drive connected – you can run the system from a floppy and have a serious chance, that all necessary system files won’t take more than 1% of the capacity on a standard 1,44M diskette.

‘ The main disadvantage of the TOS is that it doesn’t support true multitasking: only one application can be used at once together with up to six so called accessories, which have to be loaded at startup and must be present in the memory all the time the system is running. The accessories may run in parallel with the main application using some sort of cooperative multitasking – the system switches the CPU time between those seven tasks if they interact with the GEM. If the application or one of the accessories executes an operation which runs without any system call, task switching is impossible and the rest is stopped. Additionally, the TOS doesn’t support big logical drives. You can have up to 16 logical drives, 14 of them can be hard disk partitions. Each one is limited to 32766 data clusters, up to 16384 bytes each. It means, that the maximum capacity of a partition is about 512 MB. Summa summarum, the TOS cannot be currently considered as a modern operating system, but one has to remember that the latest version of the system has been released four years ago. That time big hard drives were rather rarely used in home computers and only one of popular operating systems supported true pre-emptive multitasking, namely the AmigaOS. Now the TOS is a bit out of date and has few devotees in the Atari community. Majority has moved to systems mentioned below.

MultiTOSThe multitasking TOS The MultiTOS has been developed by Atari Corp. to be a TOS replacement for those who would like to have a true multitasking system. Unlike the TOS, the MultiTOS is a fully RAM-based system and in fact consist of the MiNT kernel (that is described in one of the further sections) and a new, multitasking version of the AES (MultiAES). Due to this reason, the MultiTOS can theoretically support all of the MiNT possibilities, since in fact it is nothing else than the MiNT configured to be TOS and GEM compatible.

The MultiTOS provides the true, pre-emptive multitasking and supports many additional functions which are needed in such a system, e.g. memory protection, multiple filesystems, startup sequence scripts, standardized system enhacements, easy task selection, window iconification, loadable accessories, unlimited number of concurrent applications and many more. Additionally, it is much more configurable than the TOS and follows the general trend in programming of a modern operating system. Unfortunately, bad financial condition in 1993. has enforced the Atari Corp. to drop all ST-line support. MultiTOS was one of the victims of that decision. The latest official version, 1.04, was not perfect and has been quickly forgotten by the Atari community. Interestingly, the latest unofficial beta, MultiTOS 1.08, was way better and has began a general guideline for programmers developing software and replacement operating systems. In fact, the MultiTOS 1.08, never officially released, never officially supported and used only by a few heroical devotees – has become a standard. MagiCA way to new hardware The MagiC has been introduced to the market about two years ago by a German company called Application Systems Heidelberg, previously known as the developer of a C compiler (Pure C) and has become popular very quickly, breaking the Atari community into Magic’s devotees and enemies

. The MagiC is a modern operating system without any doubt. It is probably also the only and unique complete TOS replacement, which doesn’t use any of the TOS components. It follows the main MultiTOS guidelines (though some of the MultiAES, or even Falcon AES, functions are missing) and, furthermore, tries to enforce a new standard for software developers by supporting many of Digital Research GEM/2 functions (which are missing in the Atari GEM) as well as several own enhancements. Besides of the multitasking (both pre-emptive or co-operative, depending on a user selection), the MagiC supports a new filesystem in order to allow you to use long filenames and really big disks, easy task management, background DMA transfers, fast GEMDOS, fast AES, fast VDI and many more features. Additionally, although it is a RAM-based system, it is compact and not memory hungry – the whole system takes less than 300 kilobytes. Furthermore, it opens a way for the Atari community a way to use GEM applications with newer hardware – since there’s no hope to see new products of the Atari Corp. as the company is dead, the Application Systems Heidelberg released the MagiC versions for Apple computers and PCs. They are claimed to be GEM compatible and are supposed to allow you to use GEM applications on these platforms. MiNTA bridge to Unix The MiNT is a system originally based on the BSD package ported to ST computers by Eric R. Smith. It was supposed to be a backdoor for the Atari community to the Unix world with loads of BSD based network applications. A short (1992-94) romance of the MiNT and Atari Corp., which decided to convert the system to the MultiTOS kernel, has caused a birth of an unique TOS/Unix hybrid, which gives you simultaneous access to both GEM and BSD application libraries. Since the MiNT is the MultiTOS’s kernel, it has kept all the features described above and, if an AES replacement is installed, it can show you a new face of the MultiTOS. Unlike the MultiTOS however, the Unix-like MiNT is based on a different filesystem, which is much faster and more flexible than the TOS FS. Furthermore, thanks to the excellent network support, the MiNT gives you an unique possibility to convert your Atari to a true Internet server, which will still be able to run GEM and TOS applications! Thanks to this feature, the MiNT has a lot of devotees in the Atari community(they’re recently considered as MiNTquisitors) and is the main competitor for ASH’s MagiC.’

Unlike the Linux, the MiNT contents itself with Motorola 68000 without an FPU, but similarly to other Unix systems it requires much more memory to work in a decent setup. A 4 MB is an absolute minimum, if you want to have a multiuser configuration however, and to run GEM applications at the same time, it will require at least 8 MB or more Operating system summaries Sampling Criteria Problem of Content the five years between 1978 and 1983, the videogame industry saw a huge surge in popularity, a halcyon period of soaring profits and new consoles.

The operating system consists of two parts.

TOS – “The Operating System”. Kind of a customized version of CP/M provided by Digital Research.

GEM – “Graphics Environment Manager”. The GUI shell that runs on top of TOS. This shares much in common with the DOS version of GEM.

Both TOS and GEM are stored entirely in the system’s ROM.

This is the GEM desktop running on TOS displaying its desktop info screen.

The actual resolution of the default display is 320*200, obviously meant for viewing on a TV or composite monitor, but these screen shots have been enlarged to 640*400 for viewability.

The development started in 1983. It was marketed into the 1990’s, both as a GUI shell sold as GEM Desktop for operating systems such as CP/M, DOS and FlexOS but also as a shell less graphics library primarily sold on an OEM basis as that could be used to develop and ship graphical applications that worked on the aforementioned OS’s even though they did not have a graphical shell installed.

It is based on the GSX vector graphics interface library that was primarily built on components the company licensed from Graphic Software Systems and development of it was started as soon as GSX had shipped in 1982 although GEM itself was not officially shipped as a desktop retail product until February 1985 (OEM software was sent out in 1984, though). GEM was highly influenced by both the Xerox Star and the original Apple Macintosh and featured a user interface somewhere in between those two, this was not unexpected as GSS Inc. head honcho Lee Lorenzen had worked on the development of the graphics engine and Interpress for the Star at Xerox.

While not a big seller for the company it did manage to outsell Microsoft Windows by a considerable margin up until the release of Windows 3. The best known version of the system was on Atari ST computers where it was used as the GUI component of TOS. A number of European vendors of IBM PC and other Intel based hardware used the system, most notably Amstrad with their PC compatible budget computers and Apricot with their Sirius compatible systems.

There was also a lawsuit brought in by Apple in 1985 that ran into 1986 that stopped USA based computer manufacturers from shipping it with their systems since Apple had threatened to go after any maker that shipped GEM with their system and Digital Research simply did not have the financial wherewithal to offer OEM’s indemnity from Apple’s lawsuit.

Even as if not a big hit it became quite an influential product in the PC world, not the least since Microsoft Windows was developed in response to it, but there was the air of a missed opportunity about the whole project. GEM worked on hardware that was much slower than what the competition was using for their GUIs which was mostly processors like the 68000, Z8000 and 320016 which outran the 4.77MHz in an IBM XT class machine GEM was designed for quite comfortably, but at the same time GEM on an XT was quite reasonable if not exactly fast.

Even though the basic vector drawing engine in GEM was considerably stronger than what Windows had to offer. The Windows version was simply bog slow compared to GEM and almost unbearable on an XT, showing that DRI’s software was much better optimised for low power hardware such as XT class machines than Microsoft’s shell.

GEM simply gave customers a much better experience on the hardware of the time. Also Digital Research had released a GUI word processor and other graphical applications but for some reason did not develop these products any further.

The Apple lawsuit somehow managed to take the wind out of the marketing of GEM and DRI’s CEO Gary Kildall was by that time showing much more interest in his Grolier CD-ROM project than in promoting GEM. Development of the system and related software was cut down considerably in late 1986 although a GEM 3 was eventually released in 1988, but that release had none of the features that had been in shown in the GEM/XM beta of 1986.

8.2 AES fundamentals

The AES(Application Environment Services forms the highest level of GEM. It deals with all those parts of GEM that go above elementary graphic output and input functions. As the AES works exclusively with VDI and GEMDOS calls, it is completely independent of the graphic hardware, of input devices as well as of file-systems.

The AES manages two types of user programs: Normal GEM applications with file extensions ‘.PRG’, ‘.APP’ or ‘.GTP’, and desk accessories with file extensions ‘.ACC’.

Unless you are using a multitasking operating system such as MagiC, MiNT or MultiTOS, the AES can only run one application and six desk accessories at a time. Desk accessories (with an ‘.ACC’ extension) allow quasi-multitasking even with plain TOS: They are usually special GEM programs loaded (wholly or partially) at boot-up from the root directory of the boot drive (normally C:\), which remain in memory and can be called at any time from GEM (and some TOS) programs by clicking on their entry in the first drop/pulldown menu. In other words, desk accessories can be called and used while another application is running and has its window(s) open, even with a single-tasking operating system such as TOS. Note that this is not real multi-tasking, as the main application is suspended while the accessory is executing and only resumes when the accessory is exited.

Unlike applications, desk accessories don’t interact with the user immediately; most just initialize themselves and enter a message loop awaiting an AC_OPEN message. Some wait for timer events or special messages from other applications. Once triggered, they usually open a window where a user may interact with them. Under TOS, accessories should not use a menu bar and should never exit after a menu_register call. Loading of any resources should happen before the accessory calls menu_register, and these resources should be embedded in the desk accessory rather than being post-loaded, as on TOS versions earlier than 2.06 memory allocated to a desk accessory is not freed at a resolution change; thus memory allocated with rsrc_load is lost to the system after a change of resolution with the early TOS’s.

When a desk accessory is closed under TOS, it is sent an AC_CLOSE message by the system. Following this it should perform any required cleanups to release sytem resources and close files opened at AC_OPEN (the AES closes the accessory’s windows automatically). Following this it should reenter the event loop and wait for a later AC_OPEN message.

The following points are covered in this section:

• Accessories
• Bindings of the AES
• The desktop window
• Data exchange via the GEM clipboard
• Messages
• AES object structure
• Quarter-screen buffer
• Rectangle-list of a window
• Screen-manager
• Toolbar support

For the AES too there have been some interesting developments, as various programmers have meanwhile announced their own AES clones; at present one can mention projects such as N.AES and XaAES. Besides constant evolution one may hope also for source texts of these GEM components.

See also: Style guidelines

8.2.1 Accessories

• Startup-code for accessories
• Accessories in MagiC

8.2.1.1 Startup-code for accessories

To test whether an application was launched as a program or as a desk accessory, one can proceed as follows:

• If the register a0 has the value zero at program startup, then we are dealing with a normal program launch.
• Otherwise we are dealing with a desk accessory, and register a0 contains a pointer to the (incompletely) filled BASEPAGE. The TPA has already been shrunk appropriately (to the sum of basepage size and the length of the three program segments), but a stack still has to be created.

Note: With this information there is no problem in creating the start- up code for a program in such a way that it recognizes automatically how the application was launched, and to continue the initialization appropriately. With most C compilers the external variable _app in the startup code is initialized automatically, which has the value 0 when the application was launched as a desk accessory. This makes it possible to develop applications so that they may be launched either as desk accessories or as normal programs.

See also:

About the AES   Accessories in MagiC   Program launch and TPA

8.2.1.2 Accessories in MagiC

Under MagiC, desk accessories are almost equal to programs. Their windows are maintained at program changes. They may have menus and desktop backgrounds, post-load programs, allocate memory, open/close/ delete/copy files etc.

As there is no longer any reason to close windows at program changes, there is no AC_CLOSE message any more. The system does not distinguish desk accessories from programs, apart from the fact that they may not terminate themselves. As under GEM/2, accessories can also deregister themselves in the menu, using the AES call menu_unregister.

In place of accessories, under MagiC it is more sensible to use applications that simply register one menu bar with one menu, and lie in the APP autostart folder. These applications can be loaded when required, and also removed again afterwards.

Note: As of MagiC 4, desk accessories can be loaded also while the system is running (not just at boot-up). Furthermore accessories can be unloaded by clicking on the corresponding accessory entry in the first menu while the [Control] key is held down. One disadvantage is that at present accessories may not perform Pexec with mode 104.

See also:

About the AES   GEM   Startup-code for accessories   shel_write

8.2.2 The desktop window

Of the available windows, the desktop or background window plays a special role. It has the ID 0, occupies the whole screen area, is always open and also cannot be closed. The working area is the area below the menu bar. Only in this working area can other programs output to the screen or open their own windows.

Normally the working area of the desktop appears as a solid green area (in colour resolutions) or as a grey raster pattern (in monochrome operation). The screen-manager attends to the screen redraws all on its own; with a call of wind_set, other application programs can anchor any other object tree as a background. In that case too the screen-manager looks after any required redraws of sections of the image. Although this possibility is very alluring, there are several reasons that point against the use of the desktop window; the most important:

• Even under a multitasking-capable GEM (MagiC or MultiTOS), there can be only one screen background. This should be reserved for the program that can make the most use of it – as a rule this is the desktop or a desktop replacement such as the Gemini shell, Thing or Jinnee for instance.

To sum up: If possible, the desktop background should not be used in your own programs.

See also: About the AES   wind_set   WF_NEWDESK

8.2.3 Data exchange via the GEM clipboard

To store files in the clipboard, one should proceed as follows:

• Delete all clipboard files that match the mask ‘scrap.*’ and ‘SCRAP.*’. Note: The mask ‘SCRAP.*’ must be allowed for because old programs knew nothing of alternative and case-sensitive file-systems.
• Save the data to be stored in one or several formats.
• Send the message SC_CHANGED to all applications in the system and SH_WDRAW to the system shell.

The filename is always ‘scrap.’, the extension (suffix) depends on the selected format here; if possible one should always support one of the following standard formats:

In addition one can support one or more of the following formats (the receiver then has the option of using the option with the greatest amount of information):

The receiving program should first check which of the available files contains the most information, and then use this file.

Important: Each of the files in the clipboard contains the same information on principle, just in different formats. The text processor Papyrus, for instance, imports ‘scrap.rtf’ only if its own format ‘scrap.pap’ could not be found.

It should be clear from the above explanation that only one data object (though in different formats) can be present in the clipboard at any time.

Note: A few old programs, such as First Word and First Word Plus, are promiscuous and the clipoards they create automatically are scattered all over the place – usually the directory they are launched from. Some other applications may then use this clipboard rather than the ‘official’ one on the boot drive!

See also: Clipboard functions   scrp_clear   Style guidelines

8.2.4 The object structure

Although the data structure of the object tree is not a tree in the sense of a binary tree, it nevertheless possesses within a pointer the logical chaining of a tree, with predecessors and successors (generally called ‘parents’ and ‘children’ respectively). The speci fication of parents and children is made via indices to an array.

The tree structure of the individual objects can be illustrated best with a simple example: A menu is composed at first of the menu bar. This in turn contains several title texts. The title texts therefore are contained directly in the menu bar, and are both children of the object ‘menu bar’, so they move on the same hierarchical level. The object menu bar refers with ob_head to the first menu title and with ob_tail to the last menu title. In the first menu title the pointer ob_next serves for addressing the next menu title. Thus the chaining shows the following structure:

     Menu bar:

   +———+———+——–+

   | ob_head | ob_tail | …    |

   |    o    |    o    |        |

   +—-|—-+—-|—-+——–+

        |         +————————-+

        V                                   V

   +———+———+——–+       +———+———+——–+

   | …     | ob_next | …    |  …  | …     | …     | …    |

   |         |    o    |        |       |         |         |        |

   +———+—-|—-+——–+       +———+———+——–+

   1st menu title |                          n-th menu title

                  +—–> 2nd menu title

The actions that may be performed with a given object is specified in ob_flags. The state of an object is held in the entry ob_state. The entry ob_type determines the object type.

For an exact definition some objects need an additional data structure such as TEDINFO or BITBLK. In that case a pointer to this additional structure will be stored in ob_spec.

Summarising again the total setup of the data structure for objects OBJECT:

        +————-+

         |  ob_next    |   Index for the next object

         +————-+

         |  ob_head    |   Index of the first child

         +————-+

         |  ob_tail    |   Index of the last child

         +————-+

         |  ob_type    |   Object type

         +————-+

         |  ob_flags   |   Manipulation flags

         +————-+

         |  ob_state   |   Object status

         +————-+

         |  ob_spec    |   See under object type

         +————-+

         |  ob_x       |   Relative X-coordiante to parent object

         +————-+

         |  ob_y       |   Relative Y-coordinate to parent object

         +————-+

         |  ob_width   |   Width of the object

         +————-+

         |  ob_height  |   Height of the object

         +————-+

See also:

AES object colours   Object types   Manipulation flags   Object status

8.2.4.1 AES object types

The following types of object are available for selection:

Note: For G_BOX, G_IBOX and G_BOXCHAR, the component ob_spec of the OBJECT structure does not point to another data structure, but contains further information for the appearance of the object. The following apply:

The high byte is used by the AES only for submenus. If the highest bit of ob_type is 0x8000 and the bit SUBMENU in ob_flags is set, then the bits 8..14 specify which submenu is coupled with the menu entry. Hence each application can have a maximum of 128 submenus. MagiC only reads the low byte from ob_type, apart from the submenu handling. TOS reacts cleanly to unknown object types (such as the purely MagiC types G_SWBUTTON etc.), i.e. the objects are not drawn.

See also: Object structure in AES   AES object colours

8.2.4.2 AES object colours

The following table contains the predefined object colours. Of course particulars depend on the selected screen resolution, as well as any settings made by the user.

Note: These colours also correspond mostly to the icon colours used under Windows and OS/2. With a suitable CPX module one can set the correct RGB values for the frst 16 colours.

See also: Object structure in AES   AES object types

8.2.4.3 AES object flags

The manipulation flags of an object determine its properties. The following options can be chosen:

See also: Object structure in AES   AES object types

8.2.4.4 AES object stati

The object status determines how an object will be displayed later on the screen. An object status can be of the following type:

In GEM/5, CROSSED makes the object draw in 3D:

• If an object is both CROSSED and SELECTABLE, then it is drawn as a checkbox.
• If it is CROSSED, SELECTABLE and an RBUTTON, it is drawn as a radio button.
• If it is a button or a box and it is CROSSED, then it is drawn as a raised 3D shape, similar to Motif.
• If a button is CROSSED and DEFAULT, a “Return key” symbol appears on it (rather like NEXTSTEP).
• Boxes and text fields that are CROSSED and CHECKED appear sunken.

GEM/5 can be detected by calling vqt_name for font 1. If nothing is returned, GEM/5 is running.

Recent FreeGEM builds contain a system based on the GEM/5 one, but extended and backwards-compatible. The DRAW3D state is used instead of CROSSED:

• If an object is both DRAW3D and SELECTABLE, then it is drawn as a checkbox.
• If it is DRAW3D, SELECTABLE and an RBUTTON, it is drawn as a radio button.
• If a button is DRAW3D and DEFAULT, a “Return key” symbol will be on it.
• If an object with a 3D border has the WHITEBAK state, then the 3D border will not have a black edge.
• If a radio button or checkbox has the WHITEBAK state, then it will be drawn with a white background rather than in the colour used by 3D objects.

To check for these abilities, use appl_init and check that bit 3 of xbuf.abilities is set.

See also: Object structure in AES   AES object types

8.2.5 The quarter-screen buffer

The quarter-screen buffer is required by the screen-manager to save the contents of the menu background when drop-down menus drop down. The ‘QSB’ (the usual abbreviation) is also used for the display of alert boxes. Normally its size should depend on the number of colour planes and the size of the system font, but not on the total size of the screen.

A good formula would be:

  500(characters) * space of one character * colour planes

In ‘ST High’ resolution this would give a value of exactly 8000 (i.e. a quarter of the screen memory). Unfortunately in many cases the AES is not so clever. The following table contains a summary of the algorithm used by some GEM versions:

Note: The GEM versions 1.0 and 1.2 (i.e. up to and including TOS Version 1.02) are not prepared by this for colour graphics cards – one of several reasons why even with the use of a special VDI driver under these GEM versions one can not make use of colour graphics cards.

See also: GEM

8.2.6 The rectangle-list of a window

To overcome the problem of windows that overlap each other, the AES holds for each window a so-called rectangle-list; when a window is partially obscured, GEM divides the visible portion of that window into the least possible number of non-overlapping rectangles, the details of which are then stored in the rectangle-list. Thus the elements of this list form a record of the currently completely visible working area of the corresponding window.

To redraw a window (or its contents) one first inquires with the function wind_get(WF_FIRSTXYWH) for the first rectangle of the abovementioned list. Then one checks whether this rectangle overlaps with the screen area to be redrawn; then and only then one can redraw this area with the use of vs_clip.

This method will be continued with all remaining elements of the rectangle-list, until the height and the width of a rectangle have the value zero.

See also: Clipping   WM_REDRAW   wind_get   wind_update

8.2.7 The screen-manager

The screen-manager is always active and supervises the position of the mouse pointer when this leaves the working area of the window of other applications. The areas in question are the frames of the windows, the drop-down menus and the menu bar.

When touching the menu area, the screen-manager automatically ensures that the section of the screen occupied by the menu is saved and later restored again (the quarter-screen buffer is used for this).

Manipulation of the window controllers also do not lead to permanent changes of the screen memory; the result of the interaction with the screen-manager are the so-called message events, which inform the relevant application about the user’s actions.

Note: The ID of the screen-manager can, incidentally, be found easily by a call of appl_find(“SCRENMGR”).

See also: About the AES   GEM   Messages

8.2.8 Toolbar support

From AES version 4.1 onwards the operating system supports so-called toolbars. A toolbar is an OBJECT tree that is positioned below the information-line of a window (and above the working area) which makes it possible to display buttons, icons etc. in a window.

As already known from the window routines, the management of toolbars is shared betwen the AES and the application. Here the AES is responsible for the following actions:

• Adaptation of the X- and Y-coordinates of the toolbar when the window is moved or its size is changed.
• Ensuring that the window is configured to the size required by the window components and the toolbar.
• Adjustment of the toolbar’s width to the width of the window.
• Redraw of the toolbar on receipt of a WM_REDRAW message.
• Sending of AES messages when the user activates an object of the toolbar.

The application, on the other hand, must look after the following:

• Construction of an OBJECT tree for the toolbar (in particulat one has to ensure that all selectable elements of the toolbox have the status TOUCHEXIT).
• Adjustment of the width of a toolbar object if this depends on the width of the window (may be required when changing the size of the window).
• Handling of USERDEF objects.
• Redrawing all objects whose appearance is to be changed. In this case it is imperative that the rectangle-list of the toolbar is inquired for and/or taken into account.
• Problems that arise in connection with the screen resolution have to be solved. Thus, for instance, the height of an icon in the ST Medium resolution can differ from the height of the icon in the TT030 Medium resolution.

For supporting toolbars in your own programs, you should respect the following points:

• Communication with the AES window-manager
• Problems with wind_calc
• Redraw and updating of toolbars
• Toolbar support under XaAES

See also:

WF_TOOLBAR   WF_FTOOLBAR   WF_NTOOLBAR   WM_TOOLBAR   wind_get   wind_set

8.2.8.1 Redraw and updating of toolbars

For redraws of (parts of) the toolbar, one has to pay respect to the rectangle-list as usual. As the previous wind_get opcodes WF_FIRSTXYWH and WF_NEXTXYWH only respect the working area of a window, however, two new parameters (WF_FTOOLBAR and WF_NTOOLBAR) were introduced, with whose help the rectangle-list of a toolbar can be interrogated.

A redraw of (parts of) the toolbar may be necessary in the following situations:

• The toolbar contains user-defined objects (USERDEF‘s).
• The status of an object in the toolbar was altered. The area to be redrawn here consists of the size of the object plus the space required for special effects (3D, shadowing, outlining etc.).

Redraw is not necessary in the following cases, for instance:

• The relevant window is iconified. The application does not have to take on any management of the toolbar; this is only required at the restoration of the iconification, the so-called uniconify.
• The toolbar present in the window is to be replaced by another one. In this case a call of wind_set with the opcode WF_TOOLBAR and the address of the new OBJECT tree will suffice.
• The toolbar present in the window is to be removed. In this case a call of wind_set with the opcode WF_TOOLBAR and NULL parameters will suffice.

See also: Rectangle-list of a window   Toolbar support

8.2.8.2 Toolbars and the window-manager

For handling toolbars an application can have recourse to the window- manager of the AES. In detail:

For tacking on a toolbar to a window, it is sufficient to call wind_set(handle, WF_TOOLBAR, …) with the address of the toolbar object tree. If this call is executed while the window is open, then it is itself responsible for the correct calculation of the height of the toolbar.

To exchange a toolbar for another one, one can have recourse to a call of wind_set(handle, WF_TOOLBAR, …) with the address of the new toolbar. If this call is executed while the window is open, then it is itself responsible for the correct calculation of the height of the (new) toolbar.

To remove a toolbar from a window, it is necessary to call wind_set(handle, WF_TOOLBAR, …) with NULL parameters. If this call is executed while the window is open, then it is itself responsible for the correct calculation of the height of the toolbar.

In addition the following points have to be taken into consideration:

• If a window is closed with wind_close, then any toolbar present will not be removed. At a later reopening the toolbar will be in place once more.
• If a window is removed with wind_delete, then its link to a toolbar will be dissolved.
• To be able to recognize mouse-clicks on toolbar objects, these have to possess the status TOUCHEXIT. When such an object is clicked on, the AES creates a WM_TOOLBAR message which is sent to the relevant application.

See also: AES   GEM   Toolbar support

8.2.8.3 Problems with wind_calc in toolbar windows

When applying the function wind_calc to windows that possess a toolbar there are several problems to be taken into account:

As this function is not passed a window ID (window handle), the desired sizes cannot be calculated correctly when a toolbar is present in the window. The reason for this is that, quite simply, the AES in this case has no information about the toolbar, and specially about its size.

Hence the values returned by wind_calc in such cases have to be further refined by the application. As the program can access the relevant OBJECT tree (and with this also the height of the toolbar), this should present no problems. In detail:

• When ascertaining the border areas of the window, the height of the toolbar must be added to the height returned by the function.
• When ascertaining the working area of the window, the height of the toolbar must be added to the Y-value (couty) returned by the function.

Note: Besides the height of the actual object, the height of the toolbar should include also the space requirement for special effects (3D, shadowing, etc.).

See also: WF_FTOOLBAR   WF_NTOOLBAR   WM_TOOLBAR   objc_sysvar

8.2.9 AES bindings

The AES is called via a single subprogram that is passed 6 parameters; these are addresses of various arrays that are used for input/output communications. To call an AES function, the following parameter block must be populated with the addresses of the arrays described below:

typedef struct

{

    int16_t *cb_pcontrol;  /* Pointer to control array */

    int16_t *cb_pglobal;   /* Pointer to global array  */

    int16_t *cb_pintin;    /* Pointer to int_in array  */

    int16_t *cb_pintout;   /* Pointer to int_out array */

    int16_t *cb_padrin;    /* Pointer to adr_in array  */

    int16_t *cb_padrout;   /* Pointer to adr_out array */

} AESPB;

The address of this parameter block (which lies on the stack) must be entered in register d1, and subsequently register d0.w must be filled with the magic value 0xc8 (200). With a TRAP #2 system call the AES can then be called directly. For the Pure-Assembler this could look like this, for instance:

               .EXPORT aes         ; Export function

                .CODE               ; Start of the code-segment

        aes:     MOVE.L 4(sp),d1    ; Address of the parameter blocks

                 MOVE.W #200,d0     ; Opcode of the AES

                 TRAP   #2          ; Call GEM

                 RTS                ; And exit

                .END                ; End of the module

There is no clear information available about which registers may be altered. In fact, however, the corresponding routines in ROM save all registers.

Now to the individual arrays. With each field, designated input or output functions can be performed. The following apply:

Warning: If the operating system supports threads, then it is impera tive that a multithread-safe library is used. In particular one must ensure that each thread receives its own global field (see above).

See also: Sample binding   VDI bindings   TOS list

8.2.9.1 Sample binding for AES functions

The function ‘crys_if’ (crystal interface) looks after the proper filling of the control arrays, and performs the actual AES call. It is passed one WORD parameter in d0 containing the funtion’s opcode minus 10 multiplied by 4 (for faster table indexing); this gives an index into a table in which the values for control[1], control[2] and control[3] are entered for each individual AES function.

AESPB c;

int16_t crys_if (int16_t opcode)

{

        int16_t i, *paesb;

        control[0] = opcode;

        paespb = &ctrl_cnts[ (opcode-10)*3 ];

        for (i = 1; i < 4; i++)

                control[i] = *paespb++;

        aes (c);

        return (int_out[0]);

} /* crys_if */

The table used for this could be built up as follows, for instance:

.GLOBAL ctrl_cnts

.DATA

ctrl_cnts: .dc.b     0,  1,  0       ; appl_init

           .dc.b     2,  1,  1       ; appl_read

           .dc.b     2,  1,  1       ; appl_write

            …

            …

            …

.END

A fuller version is given in The Atari Compendium pp. 6.39-41. Note that the rsrc_gaddr call must be special cased in a library if you want to use the crys_if binding to call the AES.

See also: AES bindings   GEM

The post Write up on Tech geek history: Atari 1979 Operating System appeared first on DayDreamin’ Comics.