Open Apple #46 (April 2015): Paul Lutus, ReactiveMicro, and KansasFest Keynote

This month on Open Apple, we sit down with Paul Lutus, author of seminal early Apple II software such as AppleWriter and GraFORTH. We talk about the impacts of software development on society, the value of the individual in the process, and the trials of coding software in the woods.

We talk extreme offsite backups, KansasFest keynotes, telnet BBSing, and the hurricane of awesome that is ReactiveMicro. We reminisce about the original Home Computer Wars (these kids today arguing about their smartphones are so darned cute), and also Boo Atari.

We trek from Bulgaria to Korea to Canada and back again, to bring you the latest in sound cards, solid state storage, and portable Apple IIc action. You won’t want to miss Quinn plugging Phil Plait for some reason. With our story on Atari 8-bits in Poland, this marks the most Atari content ever on Open Apple. It also qualifies us as the 698th currently operating Atari podcast. Boo Atari. See what you get when you poke the bear, people? ][ Infinitum.

More information on everything discussed in this episode after the jump.

* AppleWriter – Arguably the first Apple II word processor.* WPL (PDF warning) – The word processing scripting language.* GraFORTH & TransFORTH – Terrific early implementations of FORTH on the II.* GraFORTH (PDF warning) – Try it out for yourself, here. FORTH is neat.* TransFORTH (PDF warning) – The business/science-focused version.* Electric Duet – Multi-voice music from a single flip-flop.* Pictures of Paul’s Apple – Coding in the woods, with an epic extension cord.* FrEDWriter – The unauthorized clone of AppleWriter.* Paul Lutus’ website – Keep up with what he’s up to now.* TransWarp GS clone – Now available! Shut up and take our money!* No Slot Clocks and Scalable Oscillators – Also now becoming available in limited quantities.* Rebecca “Burger” H...