Dedication ---------- The Offical Aztec C Museum (http://www.aztecmuseum.ca/) is dedicated to my friend, colleague and long-time mentor: Leslie Eugene Gros Forward ------- First, afew words about my friend Les and about how he helped me get started in computers in the first place and in programming in the second place, and about the role that he played in introducing me to Aztec C and C programming in general, and finally about his role in making the Aztec C Museum website possible. The 1980's ---------- Back in the 1980's while working as a product designer with vector based computer graphics on "mainframe" Computer Aided Drafting (CAD) systems I made several discoveries that changed my life drastically. The first discovery was that PC's (personal computers) were as capable and easy for me to program as the complex and expensive CAD systems that I worked-on. The second discovery was that I could make more money doing graphics (and other) programming for PC's than I ever could on a CAD system. During that "magical" time I was heavily influenced by by every magazine article and book about computers and programming that I eagerly devoured and by many other external influences. However, despite the fact that I got myself going in the direction of computers and programming in the first place, the greatest influence of all was the constant support and stream of information that came from my boyhood friend, Les Gros, who by the time I discovered computers, already had his "shingle" hung-out as a consultant, lots of code "under his belt", and a large arsenal of "booty" like compilers and hardware that he shared with me from the beginning of this new time for me. Even while taking my CAD course, I visited the offices of Les and his then- business-partner for long late coffee and whiteboard discussions about the relationship between computers and base 2 (binary) and base 16 (hex) and how these processors worked and other incredibly fascinating lessons about this brave new world. Around that time, having been properly outfitted with one of Les's old IBM- PC XT clones, I recall seeing on his desk some book by the Waite Group on C programming. I had already borrowed a Peter Norton book on 8086 assembly programming, but wanted more. He said that book would be too hard and loaned me a copy of the C Primer Plus instead, and added a copy of Aztec C86 squeezed onto a 360K floppy. By the late 1980's I had quit my job in the CAD world and following my heart I took a C and Assembly programming job, writing kiosk applications for paint and carpet companies. I still relied on Les's advice for what I was unable to solve myself. That didn't stop with that job, and together we took a contract to write educational software for the Apple II and Commodore 64. Les took some of our advance money to add to his library which already had the Aztec C86 compiler (now available from the museum). We added the Apple II and C64 MS-DOS cross-compilers (also now in the museum). The 1990's ---------- We split-up the project and while I was doing the Apple programming, Les was learning about the Commodore 64. Due to an unfortunate chain of events at that time, programming the C64 version was never started. Leslie died of a heart attack. He was fortunately revived some minutes later, and has spent from that time to this recovering, and so was not capable of delivering the C64 portion of the project. The market disappeared for these C64 programs almost immediately after, so that part was cancelled. (The Apple II followed and vanished a year or so later from the Software Budgets in Canadian Schools). Several years passed. Les was programming throughout off and on but he needed to take it easy of course. He is meticulous about saving everything and between us, he always stored my originals as well as his own. One day in the late 90's he showed-up at my house with 3 pristine original Aztec C Compilers (several versions of C86 and the two cross-compilers) complete with manuals. 2000 and Beyond --------------- Then, even though I had my own C86 and Apple II ProDOS environment already installed with my own libraries, and despite the fact that these manuals were passed-on to another friend when I ran out of packing space during a cross-country move, I had set aside the original cross-compiler disks which somehow were saved and magically reappeared a couple of years back (2007). The chain of events that led to this discovery was that I found my Apple II Aztec C projects, tried compiling them and still could, then rummaged for more and discovered the disks that Les had given me in the late '90's. My buddy Al Wong converted these from 5 1/4" floppies (I haven't one of those old drives anymore right now). By then (early 2008) I was already thinking about the Aztec C Museum. Additional Dedication --------------------- The Aztec64 distribution of Aztec C available from the Aztec C Museum (http://www.aztecmuseum.ca/) is also dedicated to my friend, colleague and long-time mentor: Leslie Eugene Gros Since the website is already dedicated to Les, this may seem redundant, but here's why this additional dedication is appropriate: In early 2008 as part of my efforts to produce an Aztec C programming environment for the Commodore 64 (C64) for the website, complete with sample programs, I decided that I would create an English-only version of "What Time Is It? for the C64. During the time years before when I created the Apple II version, "What Time Is It?" was one of the programs that Les and I had purchased the C64 Aztec C compiler to produce. I had never installed the C64 compiler after the contract was cancelled. I produced the C64 version of "What Time Is It?" in Windows XP in less than 2 weeks of my spare time including the time required to prepare the C64 graphics and music. It runs nicely in the WinVICE C64 Emulator in Windows XP or on a real C64, and is as complete in every way as the other versions, accounting for differences between the C64, the Apple IIe, and the IBM-PC. It turned-out to be a good choice for an Aztec C64 production demo program. Also, for me, this now answers the question whether or not Aztec C for the C64 would have been capable of producing a comparable version of "What Time Is It?" to that of the Apple IIe. This was just one of those things that had to be done or I would never have really known the answer. Well Les, it looks like you were right again. There is now no doubt that Aztec C was the right tool for the job, and it was only the fickle finger of fate that took away the livelihood of my friend, Leslie Gros and prevented the release of "What Time Is It?" before 2008. Bill Buckels bbuckels@mts.net January, 2009 Downloads --------- The programs mentioned above for the Apple II and C64 as well as being available in source and working form from the Aztec C Museum: http://www.aztecmuseum.ca/ are also available as disk images for download from the following websites: http://www.appleoldies.ca/ http://www.c64classics.ca/