MLX (software)

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MLX (software)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

MLX is a series of machine language entry utilities published by the magazines COMPUTE! and COMPUTE!'s Gazette, as well as books from COMPUTE! Publications. These programs are designed to allow relatively easy entry of the type-in machine language listings often included in these publications. Versions are available for the Commodore 64, VIC-20, Atari 8-bit computers, and Apple II. MLX listings were reserved for relatively long machine language programs such as SpeedScript.

First version

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Part of an MLX type-in program from *COMPUTE!'s Gazette*

MLX was introduced in the December 1983 issue of COMPUTE! for the Commodore 64 and Atari 8-bit computers^[1] alongside the December 1983 COMPUTE!'s Gazette^[2] for the Commodore 64. This was followed by a version for the VIC-20 with 8K expansion,^[3] in the January 1984 issue of COMPUTE!'s Gazette and by Tiny MLX, in the March 1984 Gazette issue for the unexpanded VIC-20 to type in the game CUT-OFF!.^[4] These use a format consisting of six data bytes in decimal format, and a seventh as a checksum. The program auto-increments the address and prints the comma delimiters every three characters. Invalid keystrokes are ignored.

In the Commodore 64 version, beginning in the May 1984 issue of COMPUTE!, several keyboard keys were redefined to create a makeshift numeric keypad^[5] and this keypad was added to the Gazette version in July 1984.^[6]

Improved version

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A new version of MLX was introduced for the Apple II in the June 1985 issue.^[7] This version uses an 8-byte-per-line hexadecimal format. A more sophisticated algorithm was implemented to catch errors overlooked by the original.

The improved features were then backported to the Commodore 64. The new version, known on the title screen as "MLX II", but otherwise simply as "the new MLX", appeared in the December 1985 issue of COMPUTE!^[8] It was printed in COMPUTE!'s Gazette the following month.^[9] This version of MLX was used until COMPUTE!'s Gazette switched to a disk-only format in December 1993.

MLX 128 arrived in the August 1986 Gazette^[10] and the March 87 Compute!^[11]