SC/MP programming book?

[SiriusHardware]

I got a nice hi-res scan of it via fellow MK14ner GrahamN a couple of years ago, but I would still like a real paper copy of it, doesn't have to be a 1978 original but a genuine author-sanctioned reprint would be nice.

[Phil__G]

When it comes to documentation, paper is so much nicer than a PDF
I found a place who will make a batch of 10 A5 paperbacks at £11 each,
are 9 others interested in this? Ethically, is it ok to reprint it?

[SiriusHardware]

I think you may struggle to find that many people when the majority of people who are interested in the content will be happy to read it on a Kindle, etc. I would prefer to get an 'official' paper copy from the hands of the original authors, but agree that seems unlikely to happen.

[Mark1960]

I guess the Williamson / Dale book has some historical interest, and it might be nice to add an original copy to an MK14 collection, but I don’t have much interest in the contents of the book. I did scan throught the pdf but was disapointed to see simple mistakes like memory sizes in the first couple of pages. It was probably ok as an introduction to machine code / assembler programming, but not in the same class as the Leventhal 6502 or Zaks z80 programming books.

[SiriusHardware]

A common complaint about the original MK14 manual is that it just doesn't go into enough detail about SC/MP programming, rather it tells you how to enter code and gives you a fair bit of code to enter, so you really have to look at the example code and try to work out how it's doing what it does.

The 'Understanding...' book at least goes into more detail about actual programming, the information about individual intructions is more detailed and it also goes a bit more into how to read the keypad and drive the display which was not at all clear from the original manual, except by deconstructing the example programs.

If there are errors, well, we have the book in high quality electronic form. Now would be the time to correct the errors, before Phil does his limited-edition 'print run' - or to notify the original authors so that the errors can be corrected before the imminent (!) reprint run.

[circuitryboy]

Some folk may not recall:-
Author Ian Williamson had previously introduced Clive Sinclair and Chris Curry to the '8060 and its possibilities.
SoC almost used his design. And then didn't.
https://www.theregister.com/2014/01/...an_williamson/ has the full story.

[SiriusHardware]

I've just read that through again. Buried somewhere in the middle is the interesting detail that Williamson was paid to write a manual but SOC didn't use it. The book was then published independently as the 'Understanding Microprocessors...' book which we've just been discussing. It is in effect the manual which the MK14 was meant to have had.

Another part of the article quotes a contemporary review criticising the original manual for not even properly explaining how to send output to the display, which was a valid complaint.