Chương 24: Book 2 - Chapter 3 B

I was still swapping disks when I joined Grandma for lunch.

"How is the project going, John?"

"Still at the compiling stage. Probably two more hours of swapping disks every few minutes before it finishes."

"Having a second floppy drive means you don't have to swap disks?" she asked.

"Yes it does," I said, biting into the big bologna sandwich.

"Right now it slowly converts my commands into a program the computer can understand, but then I need to put in another disk so it has a place to put that data. When I have a second drive, it would just copy the program onto the new disk as it was created.

"What happens when it's done?"

"Then I have to test the program. I run it and make sure it works. If it doesn't, I have to figure out why, rewrite the computer commands and compile it all over again."

"So much work!" she said sounding impressed.

"Will it be worth it?" A big grin crossed my face.

"Yes, Grandma. It'll be so worth it." After lunch it was just two more hours of disk swapping. It took the compiler about seven minutes to pass the code through the four programs before the disk was full. Then I would swap disks as it copied the data to the new disk. Finally it finished. I quickly did a disk copy to make a backup after all that time spent. Then I had to carefully create the folder to hold the images and copy them over.

In addition to the animated units, I had pictures of the terrain, cities, technology and other icons used in the game. All carefully labeled so the program would call the correct image. I started the game, and it ran. It was so beautiful. I was so lost in playing the game that Grandma had to come find me for dinner.

"Is that what you made?" she asked, looking over my shoulder.

"Yes. It's called Civilization. In the game you start with a small tribe that founds a city in the year 3000 BC. As time goes by your population grows, your people learn new technologies. Then you explore the world, meeting new civilizations. Sometimes it's for trade, sometimes it's war."

"Oh, that horse just attacked that guy with the bow and arrow!"

"My Roman knight defeated a French archer."

"Are you at war?" she asked.

"Just testing the combat. Each unit has a different strength. When you attack or defend the computer rolls the equivalent of dice to see if you won or lost, factoring in the strength of the two units."

"That's very interesting John. You should show your Grandpa."

"I will, when he isn't so busy."

"Well, go wash up for dinner. We've been waiting on you. You can play your game later," Grandma directed. After dinner I sat in front of the Mac and considered. I wanted to port Civilization to the Apple //e but my expanded memory card was still on order. Even if I ported it, I couldn't play it on the Apple. I had to wait. Since I didn't want to get sucked back into another game of Civilization, I decided to modify my compiler.

I edited the assembly code for one of the parts of my compiler, creating a new disk to hold it. Now I could take the same source code and compile it for either a Mac or an Apple computer. The compiler was too limited to be able to do both from the same program. Just like most programmers were using Lisa for writing code on the Mac, I could use the Mac to write code for the Apple. The compiler needed to be tested, so I wrote a quick typing game for the Apple.

The monochrome screen was again the only light in the room as the sun fell. It took three times longer to compile than to write. I moved the chair over one spot and turned on the Apple. The green light filled the room with strange shadows, as I started to insert the disk to test the program. I looked at the five-and-a-quarter-inch drive dumbfounded as I held the three-and-a-half-inch floppy from the Mac. I searched my memories, realizing I had never really examined this series of events.

I was so focused on following the steps, I had missed I was ready a whole day early. Alphabet Invasion was a simple game, a bit like space invaders. It distilled everything that Principal Endicott had taught me about typing into a fun training game. The game began with just single letters you had to type before they moved from the top of the screen to the bottom. As you progressed it became larger words. It got harder as the words got longer over time, before eventually becoming sentences with punctuation.

I went back and compiled it again, this time for the Mac. Just as it finished, Grandma knocked on the door.

"John, you can't be staying up late every night," she said.

"Especially when we have an important appointment the next day."

"I'm going to bed Grandma. I just finished what I was doing. I can test it in the morning."

"Good," she said as she watched me start to brush my teeth.

"I'm going to get you a table lamp. I don't want you hurting your eyes playing on the computer in the dark."

"Oh. Good idea Grandma," I mumbled back through the toothbrush. You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

"I'm also setting a summer bedtime of 10pm. I'll be coming each night to be sure you're going to bed. If you don't I'll move the computers to my room, and you'll only have two hours a day on them." I spit and rinsed.

"I understand Grandma. I won't stay up late like that anymore."

"Good. Now good night, and sweet dreams." I climbed into bed and she tucked me in.

"Good night, Grandma. Love you," I told her as my eyes started closing on their own.

"Love you too, sweetie," she said and closed the door. I woke up early enough to test Alphabet Invasion on the Mac before breakfast. After breakfast I started editing the fourth compiler module again. This time I built it to compile for an IBM machine. I got no errors when it compiled Alphabet Invasion for a DOS machine. Unfortunately, like the Apple version, I had no way to test it. I hurriedly made copies of all my programs, creating a stack of labeled three-and-a-half-inch floppy disks.

I had just finished when Grandma knocked and came in.

"Are you ready to go?" she asked.

"All ready," I said holding a stack of computer disks.

"Put those down, and go brush your hair." I did what she asked, and then put everything I needed in a cloth bag I had that had handles. We went downstairs and out a side door. It was a short walk to cross the street and enter the OneOk building. We went upstairs on the elevator, a much newer and smoother rise than ours. I still held Grandma's hand. The law office was very modern looking, with a granite and dark wood welcome desk, and lots of glass and indirect lighting.

They took us back to a conference room with a view out the windows at our building. Grandma directed us to sit on the side away from the big windows. We introduced ourselves.

"I'm John Cook, and this is my Grandma."

"Elizabeth Carpenter," Grandma said, "But call me Beth, everyone else does."

"Hi folks, great to meet you. I'm Mike Nickelson, and this is Jeff Broderick. How can we help you today?" I slid across the table the disks and the user manuals as I pulled them from the bag.

"I need you to represent me."

"We can do that, but what are these?" Jeff asked, as he picked up the disks, looking at them.

"I wrote several pieces of software and I need to have you find a reputable software publishing company for me." Mike picked up the stack of manuals and flipped through them.

"ArtStudio, Object Pascal, Civilization and Alphabet Invasion," he said, reading off the names. Jeff held up two disks.

"I see two Object Pascals, what is the difference?"

"Both run on the Mac, but one compiles the program for Apple //e machines, the other compiles for the Mac."

"I see that there are two Alphabet Invasions?" he said, holding up two more disks.

"One for the Mac, one for the Apple. Both were written and compiled on my Mac." Mike made some notes.

"So I see we have six different software programs. Other than finding a distributor, you need to have some copyright protection."

"Right, I want you guys to handle all of that. The ArtStudio needs a patent filed for the image compression algorithm, and the image format."

"We can definitely do the patent applications. We specialize in protecting intellectual property."

"Well these won't be my only patents, so expect a lot of work from me," I told them.

"Excellent, any particular licensing fees you are hoping to get?" Jeff asked.

"Not really. I mainly want to find a publisher that can produce, market and collect the money. If you can find someone who is a good fit, I'll negotiate with them the fees I want."

"Have you considered going to a duplicator? They have computer shops they ship out to across the country. We can help you draw up a user license as well."

"I'm looking at a long-term partner who will run the business. I don't want to run a business right now. I'm starting University soon."

"Okay, Mike, get the agreement, and we'll get on the job," Jeff decided.

"I did have a question," I said, "Do you have any experience with tip ware licensing?" Mike paused, and looked at Jeff, "No, what's that?"

"You make the program licensed where it's free to copy, then in the program, every so often you have a screen pop up. It tells them that the program is free to use and free to copy and share. If they want to use it for commercial purposes, they need a code that will also turn off the pop up. Or, if they want to support the software, they can send money to a specific address, then they get the code mailed back to them."

"We'll check that out, did you think that all of these would be tip ware?"

"Not at all, just considering it for ArtStudio."

"Ok, we'll research that, and get back to you. I'll go get the new client agreement," Mike said. Once the forms were signed, they brought me to their computers, they had IBM, Apple and Macintosh computers. I watched as they each tested out Alphabet Invasion, Mike on the Apple, and Jeff on the Mac.

"I see you have the new three-and-a-half-inch floppy drive for your Apple. I brought some blank five-and-a-quarter disks. Can I use it to copy Alphabet invasion to five-and-a-quarter?"

"Sure. I was wondering why everything was on three-and-a-half," Mike said. Then Mike watched as Jeff started a Civilization game. Five minutes later they pulled themselves from the game.

"This looks really professional."

"Thanks, it was a busy week." Jeff and Mike met eyes as they processed the implication.

"We don't know anything about programming can you show us Object Pascal?" I sat down in front of the Mac.

"Since you have an external drive, this should make it easier. I'll need a blank disk." Mike grabbed one and handed it to me.

"The first step is to run the compiler," I explained, as I demonstrated by inserting a different disk from my bag.

"This is my compiler." I inserted a second disk from my bag into the external drive.

"This is the source code for Alphabet Invasion." I directed the editor to display the source code.

"This is all the code I wrote."

"That's so interesting. We like having the latest and greatest computer hardware, but I've never seen the inside code of a program before," Jeff said.

"I'll start the compiler now. The compiler will process the code, turning it into a program. This might take a while." We waited, and during the lull, Mike asked.

"Will you be compiling Civilization as an IBM compatible game?"

"Eventually. I've been waiting on the new 286 to come out. I've got one on order."

"You do, do you?" Grandma asked.

"Oops," I said, grinning.

"I guess Grandpa didn't tell you about that." She made a dissatisfied noise, and I mentally asked Grandpa for forgiveness for throwing him under the bus. The computer screen flashed, so I turned back to it.

"Now we insert the blank disk, and it writes the program to it." We waited as the data was copied, and then after another beep I removed the disk.

"There it is, one copy of Alphabet Invasion for Macs, freshly compiled." Mike took it, and sat down and started the game.

"It works just the same."

"Great!" I agreed.

"We will work on finding a partner you can work with, and getting the copyright filed for all of these," Mike said. Jeff added, "It may take some time, but we'll work on it as fast as we can."

"Thank you," I said politely, knowing that they already knew exactly where they were going to take the software.