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Don Lancaster's Apple II Books
Posted: Wed Mar 04, 2020 2:07 pm
by cjs
I am (and probably most everybody of a certain age is) familiar with
Don Lancaster's electronics works, from the
TTL Cookbook to the Televsion Typewriter.
But what I didn't know is that he published quite a bit specific to the Apple II, as well as machine language programming in general, and many of these books are, along with his classics,
available for free download from his web site.
I'm posting this in the newbies forum because it looks like several of these would be particularly good for beginners to assembly language, and not necessarily just for the Apple II. Some of the books that caught my eye are:
- Apple Assembly Cookbook, parts 1 and 2.
- Enhance Apple Vol. 1
- Enhance Apple Vol. 2
- AppleWriter Cookbook. I'd forgotten how incredibly powerful AppleWriter was for its time; this seems to go even beyond that into some serious hacking on the program itself.
- Machine Language Programming Cookbook, parts I and II. This is I think the second half of his Micro Cookbook, focusing on assembly programming. The examples are 6502 assembler, but it's actually quite generic and, given some additional material for your particular CPU, I think would make an excellent intro to assembly for any machine.
It's also worth checking out his "Director's Cuts" further down the page. This is where, for example, the "Tearing Into Machine Language Code" article,
mentioned in the thread on reverse engineering Robotron, comes from.
Re: Don Lancaster's Apple II Books
Posted: Wed Mar 04, 2020 4:13 pm
by barrym95838
I used AppleWriter II extensively in the 1980s for nearly all of my high school and college papers, and was very impressed with its performance and extended features ... it was the main reason for adding the "shift key modification" to my ][+.
Re: Don Lancaster's Apple II Books
Posted: Fri Jun 30, 2023 5:25 am
by GARTHWILSON
Unfortunately we just lost Don Lancaster. He was 83. This link was forwarded to me.
https://www.eacourier.com/obituaries/do ... 18597.html
Re: Don Lancaster's Apple II Books
Posted: Fri Jun 30, 2023 7:30 am
by BigEd
That site's geoblocked for me, but also only one paragraph. There's a more substantial obituary here
https://gilaherald.com/obituary-for-don-lancaster/
He had his own website with lots and lots of content - perhaps the tech section is a good place to start
https://www.tinaja.com/tmsamp1.shtml
Re: Don Lancaster's Apple II Books
Posted: Fri Jun 30, 2023 8:31 am
by strik
Unfortunately we just lost Don Lancaster. He was 83.
What a loss!
His "CMOS Cookbook" (1st ed. in German) was one of my first books I had in the 80s when I begin to interest in digital logic families. It is still on the shelf behind me.
Re: Don Lancaster's Apple II Books
Posted: Fri Jul 07, 2023 5:22 pm
by Dr Jefyll
This was a man whose contribution isn't easy to fully grasp.
Check out this Hacker News
discussion; it's full of remarks, widely varying but all appreciative. Naturally his TTL Cookbook is much celebrated, but here are just a few other examples:
I tried to explain to my wife why Mr Lancaster's use of the phrase: "The Postscript general purpose programming language" was a sign that he was even nuttier than me.
Although I was introduced to him through his electronics books, I think it's no exaggeration to say that of all the books I've read, it was "The Incredible Secret Money Machine" that had the largest influence in my life.
Too many years ago, when I was getting ready to start my new business, I read pretty much every business book I could lay my hands on. Although easily the shortest, "The Incredible Secret Money Machine" was the best of them by a longshot. It distills fairly commonsense business advice into a short collection of concentrated wisdom, and tailors it for the one-person venture. I think part of the value is that is isn't an academic treatise on entrepreneurship. It's more like a short writeup on what worked and didn't work for Don's own business ventures.
I think that in every business mistake I've made, I can point to a page in that book where he said outright not to do whatever I did.
In the Incredible Secret Money Machine, one of his tips was to cut off the power cord to your TV. (Pre Internet era!) The solid advice to not let yourself get distracted is invaluable. And harder than ever in today's world.
Speaking for myself, Don's Cheap Video Cookbook triggered an immensely subversive train of thought. How deliciously naughty an idea it is to trick the CPU into unaccustomed behaviors by intercepting some of the bytes fetched from memory and replacing them with blatant fabrications!
I implemented Cheap Video on three homebrew microcomputer systems, and my 1988
KK Computer brings together Don's "lie to the CPU" trick and
'C02 undefined-opcode behavior to create a rogue super-6502 with 6 new registers and 44 new instructions.
An obituary is posted
here. And Don's web site, the Guru Lair, is
here.
-- Jeff
Re: Don Lancaster's Apple II Books
Posted: Fri Jul 07, 2023 7:29 pm
by BigDumbDinosaur
An obituary is posted
here.
I wonder if there’s some sort of irony in a lawyer’s ad telling us “jail sucks” being right above Don’s obit. 
That said, I found all of his writings quite entertaining to read, as well as supremely informative. He will be missed, no doubt.
Re: Don Lancaster's Apple II Books
Posted: Fri Jul 07, 2023 7:39 pm
by Dr Jefyll
From the obit:
He attended Lafayette College in Pennsylvania, where he earned a degree in Electrical Engineering. He graduated from Arizona State University with a Master’s degree in Engineering while working for Goodyear Aerospace Corp., and nearly completed a second Master’s degree in Archaeology at ASU.
A Master’s degree in Engineering? Impressive. And
Archaeology??! 
Gila Valley residents who have attended presentations at Discovery Park will remember Don’s fascination with the prehistoric canal system in the northern foothills of the Pinaleño Mountains. [...]
Don referred to the hundreds of miles of canals as “spectacularly engineered and woefully underappreciated,” and was committed to increasing public awareness of their importance, as evidenced by a front-page story in the Arizona Republic and his coverage 10 years ago in USA Today. He coauthored scientific papers about them with Dr. James Neely of the University of Texas-Austin, and was always in search of new canals, most recently hiking with his dog Sally.
-- Jeff
Re: Don Lancaster's Apple II Books
Posted: Fri Jul 07, 2023 7:42 pm
by barnacle
A Master’s degree in Engineering? Impressive. And
Archaeology??!
-- Jeff
Given the age of the systems we play with around here, archeology should be no surprise!
Neil