Assembly Language Programming for the BBC Micro [Remastered PDF]

[dv8]

Here is a scanned, OCRed and fully re-typeset copy of Assembly Language Programming for the BBC Microcomputer (2nd ed.) by Ian Birnbaum.

Also included are SSD images containing all the listings in the book, answers to the exercises, and bonus utility programs that were originally supplied on an accompanying cassette.

Assembly_Language_Programming.zip

(1.93 MiB) Downloaded 2697 times

Other remastered books you may be interested in:

BBC Micro User Guide (Model B and B+ editions)
Advanced User Guide
New Advanced User Guide

[sirmorris]

Ooooh thanks!

[DutchAcorn]

Wow, this is really quality work! Well done and thanks for sharing!

[Lardo Boffin]

Just wondering what you use to get these results? I have a load of Timex Sinclair 1500 Technical Literacy Series manuals to scan and currently can only produce a jpg or similar!

Many thanks for any info

Lardo

[dv8]

Just wondering what you use to get these results?

It's a variety of (mostly commercial) software, plus a fair amount of effort
Effectively, the book has been recreated in a DTP application.

Regarding your scanning project, to turn the images into text you will need some form of OCR software. Was any provided with your scanner? Many of them do come bundled these days. If not, maybe other folks could offer some software suggestions. The one I have is probably overkill just for a single project.

Anyway, this is the process I used to put the book together... (you may regret asking after seeing all this!)

For scanning I use IrfanView with it's handy 'batch acquire' feature.
Colour photos are captured at 300dpi, 24-bit.
Black+white photos are at 300dpi, 8-bit greyscale.
Text and line-art are at 600dpi, 1-bit monochrome.
I always save the scans in PNG format to preserve the image quality during editing.

Photo editing and clean-up is done in PaintShopPro, with a final conversion to JPEG if appropriate.

For OCR I use Nuance OmniPage. It wasn't cheap, but it's had loads of use over the years so the investment was worth it.
I especially like its proofreading features.

The results of the OCR are saved as plain, unformatted text which is then imported into Serif PagePlus for layout and styling.

I usually redraw diagrams and illustrations as vector art within PagePlus. It's often quicker to do this than to clean up the original bitmap scans. The end result looks better too. Only the photos are kept as bitmaps.

Finally, after adding any active components like bookmarks and hyperlinks, the PDF is created from PagePlus.

So there you have it, more work than any sensible person would normally attempt for the purposes of preserving a retro book!

[Lardo Boffin]

Wow! I kind of suspected a lot of work had gone into this having looked at the PDF and compared it to my original book.
Well worth the effort I would say - it's a good book.

[tautology]

Nice, I have the original too; this means I can archive it away from that evil sunlight!

[tricky]

Nice job with some old school tools (I use psp for all my image editing, have done since its release!)

[RobC]

Excellent job - I've had this book since I was a kid and it's a great introduction to 6502 coding on the Beeb.

It seems to have been very popular too as I've picked up numerous copies with other Beeb stuff over the years.

[dv8]

Thanks all for the kind words. It's good to know the effort is appreciated

Nice job with some old school tools (I use psp for all my image editing, have done since its release!)

PSP has been my go to image editor for ages too. Sometimes these older lightweight tools can be more productive than their modern bloated counterparts.

It seems to have been very popular too as I've picked up numerous copies with other Beeb stuff over the years.

It does turn up a lot on ebay, but most of the time it tends to be the first edition (with the green cover). This later version seems to be much less common for some reason.

[andy rea]

Sweet i did a fair bit of 6502 way back on the vic and pet but hardly ever touched it on the beeb, this is fantastic and just what i need to refresh my memory and with my target system as well...

Many thanks

Andy

[pixelblip]

Thank you dv8. You have kept 6502 alive for people to enjoy for many more years to come .........that should be worth your effort

[ludwig_van_potato]

Nice...I'm working slowly through it. We'll written

[SimonSideburns]

Paint Shop Pro 5 is my go to image editor of choice too.

Loads much faster than more modern stuff that I'll use only a small portion of.

The only issue with it for me is it is firmly routed in the Windows 95/98 way of doing things, for example it is not possible to resize file dialogs.

[Stwert]

Thank you for putting so much time and effort into doing this. I’m sure it will help many people, including my own probably fruitless efforts to learn it.

[TobyLobster]

Top quality work, nicely done.

[alastairhm]

This is great, thank you.

[modboy]

Here is a scanned, OCRed and fully re-typeset copy of Assembly Language Programming for the BBC Microcomputer (2nd ed.) by Ian Birnbaum.

Also included are SSD images containing all the listings in the book, answers to the exercises, and bonus utility programs that were originally supplied on an accompanying cassette.


Assembly_Language_Programming.zip


Other remastered books you may be interested in:

BBC Micro User Guide (Model B and B+ editions)
Advanced User Guide
New Advanced User Guide

Thank you so much on my reading list

[nicolagiacobbe]

Thanks, I love this book. It wasn't the first book about 6502 machine language on the beeb but it is the best one.

[maniacminer]

I have the 1st & 2nd Editions of this handy book. I was going to scan my copy, but as the saying goes, a minute in the library saves a month in the lab... Excellent work! It's so useful to have as an eBook/PDF even my 1st gen iPad can show them.

[lovebug]

thank you for all your effort in recreating these books in amazing quality