An Interview with Brad Templeton

Originally published on: Tue, 27 Apr 2010 23:16:17 +0000

This article originally appeared in Commodore Hacking issue #13.

The following text is an interview held via e-mail with former C64 software author Brad Templeton. Mr. Templeton is the author of the PAL assembler and the Power productivity tool.

Mr. Templeton is the founder and current CEO of ClariNet, a networked newspaper with over a million subscribers. Please refer to the references at the end of this text for Internet resources detailing his accomplishments.

Q: Were PAL, Power, and C Power fruits of your imagination, or were you contracted by Pro-line to write them?

A: C Power was a C compiler written by Brian Hilchie, nothing to do with me.

But POWER and PAL (Can't recall which I did first, probably PAL, but POWER was the one sold first.) were done on my own. Professional Software licensed Power for the Pet and Pro-Line licensed it and Pal for the C-64.

Actually, I think I wrote a quick cross assembler in B (the predecessor language to C) to run on the mainframe at my university first, and wrote the early version of PAL in that. Then of course moved it to the Pet so that PAL could assemble itself -- always the big moment in any language development. My memory is getting dim, I might have started from an Apple based assembler. I know I wrote a cross assembling, one-pass version of Pal, with macros for Unix a few years later but just used it to develop stuff for the C64.

(Most people are startled to learn that C compilers, even the very first one, are usually written in C, and so on. You bootstrap by writing a very simple one using an existing tool, then get it going and then enhance it.)

Q: PAL was/is one of the most widely used assemblers for the C64 (and I assume the PET). Had you written any assemblers before PAL, or did you just happen to create a darn good product "coming out of the starting gate"?

A: No, I hadn't written any assemblers other than the cross assembler. Before that however, I had developed Time Trek, a game for the Pet, Checker King (a game) for the Atari 800, Apple ][ and Pet and the Atari 800 graphics for Microchess.

Q: In the days of PAL and Power, were you actually making a living writing software for CBM machines or was it sort of a part-time excursion?

A: Well, I was a student at the time. But after graduating, it was enough of a living to be able to work on other projects, and eventually get the contract to develop my next product, Alice Pascal, in 84.

Q: What were some of the biggest problems marketing your CBM software? (Was piracy an issue?)

A: Piracy was somewhat of an issue. The big mistake with Power was doing demos at some pet user groups before I was ready to sell it. Bill Seiler of Commodore saw a demo I did at the silicon valley PUG, and added some of the best features to Basic-AID, which Commodore gave out for free. Power was better than Basic AID but a good free competitor didn't help.

It was still a hobbyist market, not nearly as big as the computer industry grew to be.

Q: When and why did you finally abandon development efforts geared toward the C64?

A: The machines faded away and the IBM based machines clearly took the lead for more serious applications. If you wanted to do things that took more than a few kilobytes, or work in C, the C64 wasn't really an alternative.

I did some games for the C64 but never went anywhere with them.

Q: With C64's showing up at garage sales and emulators available on a wide variety of machines, a renewed interest in that little machine is experiencing a rebirth. Do you have anything you'd like to say to a new generation of C64 hackers out there?

A: On one hand I am shocked, since vastly more powerful computers are of course available very cheap, garage sales or otherwise. However, there was a certain excitement to a small computer that one person could fully understand and work with like the Pet or C-64. If you view the computer as a hobby or a toy, it doesn't have to be the most advanced thing, what matters is that you have fun with it.

I certainly wouldn't advocate Windows programming to the ordinary start-up hobbyist but such people can have fun on a C64.

Unless otherwise noted, all code and text entries are Copyright ©1996, 1999, 2010 by James K. Lawless

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