8/16 magazine review
By Chris Birch
Copyright (c) 1990 Apple Users' Group, Sydney
Republished from Applecations, a publication of the Apple Users' Group, Sydney, Australia.
This is very much the era of the power PC user as opposed to the power PC programmer. We are more concerned with getting the most out of Appleworks than understanding the complexities of the Toolbox or ProDos.
The Apple II family of computers has a strong tradition in the programming or hacking arena, due largely to the much heralded "openness" or accessibility of the machines' hardware and firmware.
With the introduction of the IIgs we saw the Apple II family acquire a new complexity. The cost of embracing the Mac's WIMP technology is such that much of the programming enthusiasm of previous years has been rechannelled.
This change in orientation is very apparent in the evolution of the magazine industry built up around the Apple II family. The glossy, high budget magazines such as "InCider" or "Nibble" concentrate on reviews and how to get the most out of your computer from off the shelf software.
In contrast, publications of a technical or programming nature do not attract the advertising revenue or circulation. They are impossible to find on the newsstands and almost certainly are published in similar circumstances as our own "Applecations".
In spite of this, these publications can actually benefit and perhaps flourish simply because they are orientated towards a niche and not off the shelf software.
For instance, they do not have as severe deadlines so they are often able to provide a more timely and accurate service to their readers. They are also not fettered with the constraints of a traditional magazine such as providing a stunning, expensive to produce front cover.
"A2-Central" is recognised as the best Apple II technical publication. In fact it is the largest circulating Apple II publication of any kind, let alone in the technical arena. It thrives on the fact its newsletter format and overall design is the best vehicle for promulgating technical tid bits, news and advice.
That "A2-Central" can flourish is ample evidence a publication will succeed if it is able to fulfill the needs of the Apple II community. Much has been said about the demise of several Apple II journals, as though it was symptomatic of the demise of the Apple II. The bottom line is that the magazines themselves failed. They failed to deliver what the Apple II user wants today.
Rising out of the ashes of some recent failures is a new programming magazine, "8/16". It is essentially "The Sourceror's Apprentice", "Znews", and "Reboot" all rolled into one and repackaged to (hopefully) more successfully cater for the needs of the Apple II programming community.
There are even appearances from regular columnists formerly found in "Call-A.P.P.L.E" (RIP) which was the best Apple II family programming journal. Those of us who go back a decade
will remember it as the bible of Apple Integer BASIC, DOS and Applesoft programming.
There is only one other magazine largely devoted to programming, "GS+", which this author reviewed in the September "Applecations". It is not entirely a programming journal and it only covers the IIgs model.
As its name implies, "8/16" is a programming magazine for any Apple II computer with at least 64K of RAM and ProDos. This includes all but the most minimally configured Apple ][ and ][+ computers.
Each edition is categorised broadly into Classic, GS and General. There is no GS bias, as you may expect with a new publication. This is probably due to the roots of "8/16". The first edition contains an errata file! Not for "8/16" of course, but for the above mentioned publications which gave birth to "8/16". Also, the fact that a //e or //c owner is more likely to be interested in programming than a IIgs owner cannot be denied.
The languages supported by "8/16" also reflect the origins and interests of those at Ariel Publishing. There is a distinct emphasis toward Merlin assembler code, with ZBasic and occasionally Applesoft covered in the Classic Apple section. Pascal and C are included sporadically, due largely to a lack of submissions to the editors.
The editors try to include one or two feature articles in each of the main segments with shorter items rounding out the magazine. The subject matter is diverse which means the next edition may not contain much of value or might be a gold mine of source code, depending upon your interests.
There is also the obvious problem that approximately half the magazine's contents will not be of more than passing interest, depending upon whether your preferred cpu is a Classic Apple or a IIgs. By maintaining diversity though, even articles written around the "other" cpu are often interesting.
For example, my major interest is the IIgs, yet the best article in one edition was an exploration of speech recognition on a stock Apple ][. Also, an enterprising hi-res programmer would have been able to glean a lot of important animation concepts from a recent three part series of animation with Quickdraw II.
Occasionally, "8/16" will provide a pure gem which more than justifies the subscription. The entire source code to BLU, the Apple II archiving standard prior to ShrinkIt, was great but the historical article on Steve Wozniak's Sweet16 interpreter blew me away!
The source code to the FindFile NDA was useful as a tutorial on background processing and Steve Lepisto's afore mentioned animation series simultaneously tackled the Quickdraw II toolset and animation techniques.
It was interesting to note how slow the animation source code for the IIgs executed when compared with Apple Invaders on the original Apple ][ which had to be slowed down by a factor of ten to make the game playable! I wonder if someone
will ever dissect this arcade classic for "8/16". It's a programming masterpiece.
The September 1990 edition contained the entire source code to Dogpaw, the utility bundled with every "A2-Central" disk. All at once, the budding 8 bit programmer has routines to select files in a hierarchical directory structure (ie: ProDos 8), launch programs, read and display files and even print them.
IIgs owners were treated to a previously unpublished utility called the Low Level Resource Editor. No source code with this one though.
There are also the occasional items of interest to all Apple II enthusiasts such as a report on the KansasFest or an occasional scuttlebut column. These are found in the General folder.
The emphasis on source code and variety is crucial to "8/16"'s survival. They must extend the language coverage to include the more mainstream C and Pascal languages for the IIgs and promote Applesoft and backoff with ZBasic if they wish to extend their subscription base beyond several hundred.
If you are unable to scan assembler then I would suggest purchasing a book on assembler programming. Leventhal has excellent volumes on 6502 and 65816 programming, published by Osborne/McGraw-Hill.
IIgs programmers in particular will find the assembler listings useful as it is the combination of tool calls and the way they are used which is more important than what happens to be on top of the stack or in the accumulator.
Like a lot of similar publications there is a disk option. However with "8/16" you can choose to subscribe to either the disk or the hard-copy or both. You miss out on some of the ads and the occasional art work with a disk only subscription but the disk is indispensable due to the abundance of source code. In fact the hard copy is entirely superfluous and not at all cost effective if you own a printer.
One gripe with the distribution of the hard copy magazine though. Subscriptions outside of the USA are by Air/surface mail. This means the typical delay for the printed magazine with a much shorter delay for a disk only subscription.
A publication like "8/16" is NOT positioned with a potential readership of almost all Apple owners. Most Apple owners would prefer not to develop software or hardware. "Call-A.P.P.L.E." was positioned to tap the creative enthusiasm of Apple owners. "8/16" must tap what remains of this interest and also develop the interest if it is to survive.
Its a "big ask", as Rugby League coach Jack Gibson would say and I wish the editors well. They have "played fine, done strong" up to this stage and I'm certainly looking forward to renewing my subscription in January.
Subscriptions: 1 year US$70 disk or US$30 hard-copy. State disk size.
Address: Ariel Publishing, Box 398, Pateros, WA 98846, USA.
Phone: 0011 1 (509) 923-2249. Our breakfast time or after the Vincent Price movie.

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