Based on this, I wonder if it's worth trying the following:
10 REM [Graphic+Shift+=] [_] [(] [Graphic+Shift+NumpadPlus] [2] [Graphic+Shift+NumpadEquals] [Graphic+Shift+Numpad6] [Graphic+Shift+0]
128 0x80 b'END'
129 0x81 b'FOR'
130 0x82 b'NEXT'
131 0x83 b'DATA'
132 0x84 b'BYE'
133 0x85 b'INPUT'
134 0x86 b'DIM'
135 0x87 b'READ'
136 0x88 b'LET'
137 0x89 b'GOTO'
138 0x8a b'RUN'
139 0x8b b'IF'
140 0x8c b'RESTORE'
141 0x8d b'GOSUB'
142 0x8e b'RETURN'
143 0x8f b'REM'
144 0x90 b'STOP'
145 0x91 b'OUT'
146 0x92 b'ON'
147 0x93 b'NULL'
148 0x94 b'WAIT'
149 0x95 b'DEF'
150 0x96 b'POKE'
151 0x97 b'PRINT'
152 0x98 b'CONT'
153 0x99 b'LIST'
154 0x9a b'CLEAR'
155 0x9b b'CLOAD'
156 0x9c b'CSAVE'
157 0x9d b'NEW'
158 0x9e b'TAB('
159 0x9f b'TO'
160 0xa0 b'FN'
161 0xa1 b'SPC('
162 0xa2 b'THEN'
163 0xa3 b'NOT'
164 0xa4 b'STEP'
165 0xa5 b'+'
166 0xa6 b'-'
167 0xa7 b'*'
168 0xa8 b'/'
169 0xa9 b'^'
170 0xaa b'AND'
171 0xab b'OR'
172 0xac b'>'
173 0xad b'='
174 0xae b'<'
175 0xaf b'SGN'
176 0xb0 b'INT'
177 0xb1 b'ABS'
178 0xb2 b'USR'
179 0xb3 b'FRE'
180 0xb4 b'INP'
181 0xb5 b'POS'
182 0xb6 b'SQR'
183 0xb7 b'RND'
184 0xb8 b'LOG'
185 0xb9 b'EXP'
186 0xba b'COS'
187 0xbb b'SIN'
188 0xbc b'TAN'
189 0xbd b'ATN'
190 0xbe b'PEEK'
191 0xbf b'LEN'
192 0xc0 b'STR$'
193 0xc1 b'VAL'
194 0xc2 b'ASC'
195 0xc3 b'CHR$'
196 0xc4 b'LEFT$'
197 0xc5 b'RIGHT$'
198 0xc6 b'MID$'
199 0xc7 b'\x00\t'
200 0xc8 b'G.'
201 0xc9 b'F4'
202 0xca b'K'
203 0xcb b'5'
204 0xcc b'H\x03'
205 0xcd b'`C'
206 0xce b'JO'
207 0xcf b'Mr'
208 0xd0 b'J'
209 0xd1 b'L'
210 0xd2 b'Hr'
211 0xd3 b'HU'
212 0xd4 b'HD'
213 0xd5 b'I'
214 0xd6 b']'
215 0xd7 b'Fa'
216 0xd8 b'H'
217 0xd9 b'\x10'
218 0xda b'H'
219 0xdb b'7'
220 0xdc b'H\x07'
221 0xdd b'GV'
222 0xde b'R&'
223 0xdf b'IH'
224 0xe0 b'G\\'
225 0xe1 b'R\x1f'
226 0xe2 b'O\x05'
227 0xe3 b'Wh'
228 0xe4 b'I5'
229 0xe5 b'G'
230 0xe6 b'F'
231 0xe7 b'E\x0f'
232 0xe8 b'HA'
233 0xe9 b'S'
234 0xea b'I'
235 0xeb b'R\x1a'
236 0xec b'Dy'
237 0xed b'"'
238 0xee b'Wy'
239 0xef b'*'
240 0xf0 b'S|'
241 0xf1 b'j'
242 0xf2 b'T|K'
243 0xf3 b'U\x7f'
244 0xf4 b'C'
245 0xf5 b'XP'
246 0xf6 b'('
247 0xf7 b'LF'
248 0xf8 b"'"
249 0xf9 b'LNFSNRGODFCOVOMULBSDD/0IDTMOSLSSTCNUFMO'
250 0xfa b'Ck'
251 0xfb b'@'
252 0xfc b'C'
253 0xfd b'e'
254 0xfe b'G'
255 0xff b'S\x00'
I don't remember seeing this on Commodore 64 too much. Most type-in hybrid BASIC-machine language programs would have numerous DATA statements with opcodes and a loop to READ and POKE them (typically in the tape buffer area somewhere in the fist 2K of RAM or in the 4K area at 49152/$C000).
Commodore 64 BASIC's LOAD"WHATEVER",8 command would load a file of any size in the BASIC text area without validation or checking it for any type of format. So much commercial C64 software often had a one line "10 SYS2063" (or similar) stub that would simply jump into the actual code which was tacked on to that BASIC stub. But the LIST command wouldn't display anything after the stub - I guess the "next line" bytes were set to $0000 to indicate end of program.
Here's a recent example I made: an Amstrad CPC program that's both valid BASIC and machine code at the same time, and running it both ways (RUN or CALL &170 -- loading address of the BASIC program) produce the same output: https://github.com/ssg/yello
I'm persuaded that just about every language is "homoiconic" and that _bicameral syntax_ is the actually-interesting thing about Lisps : https://parentheticallyspeaking.org/articles/bicameral-not-h...
But maybe this is part of what Gerald Sussman was talking about when he called Lisp a "low level language": like machine code, Lisp has the nice property that its default data representation is used for building directly executable programs.
The general purpose computers we have today all follow that principal, yes. However it's not a fundamental fact of computing. Turing machines, cellular automata provide other paradigms. And if those aren't practical enough for you, ASIC programming is Turing complete but cannot access its code as data.
So yes, you can't modify the actual embodiment of the state transition if it does not offer you the capability to do so. But as long as it interprets data in a TM manner (input and output are colocated and the alphabet is the same), you can write code that will interpret data as code and manipulate code as data. Not by modifying the base substrate, but by adding a virtualization layer on top.
Everything else is data.
By the time you get to programming language like C and LISP, and software like vim or firefox, everything is abstracted away and the only limits are self-imposed (or imposed by others that have done the work). They are not laws of nature.
So yes there’s a definition of code and data. But for the Turing machine, there’s only the tape and its content.
Incredible to find out that typing the paper program would not have worked, though. And in such a disappointing way no less.
I sometimes wonder if there is still a lot of that magic in the tech world, but were so used to having everything abstracted away from us in multiple layers that we've lost the ability to look for it.
I think about the TLA hackers who do seemingly impossible things. Surely they must operate on this level.
One of which was some sort of mystical “reflect on the runes” program that printed ancient symbols to contemplate. It had a written comment in the docs that it would self destruct after three attempts “to guard against frivolous use”. And, sure enough, if you typed it in without understanding it - there was the BASIC command that soft reset your computer on the third iteration! I can’t remember that command now - RANDOMIZE USR 0 perhaps? Happy days.
https://zx.tr/basinc/help/topics/manual_appd.html, scroll down. "Here is a program to throw coins for the I Ching. (Unfortunately it produces the patterns upside down. but you might not worry about this.)"
Last statement: NEW.
https://bunsen.itch.io/the-snake-temple-by-rax
IN 10 LINES OF BASIC!!
I thought it was cute that it used the RND() function to seed things necessary to generate each room .. so I used that technique in my own Oric game, which generates a large blob of graphics data using the RND() seed, meaning I don't have to ship that data in the program itself. I find the pseudo-ness of the RNG infinitely resourceful in that regard ..
Another cute trick on the Oric Atmos is to seed the 14 registers of its synth chip with ROM data .. meaning the Oric Atmos has literally THOUSANDS of onboard sound presets to choose from - once you find them, of course. So I wrote a program to find the most interesting ones and have been accruing a list of "synth presets" that come onboard with the Oric, for use in my game.
Its quite rewarding to go back to these machines and use such techniques to generate nearly-infinite levels/sounds/etc.
I can't remember how the ORIC BASIC does it but a cool property of LFSRs as PRNGs is that if you pick the right taps and length they must cycle through every possible number from 1 to (2^length)-1 exactly once, excluding zero. That's how the Wolfenstein "Fizzle Fade" effect worked - set up an LFSR long enough that every possible pixel can be visited once, with a few left over, and then throw away any that don't fit.
Some examples here, as sadly the apple2twitter bot shut down and deleted their account a while ago.
Then you'd do "RANDOMISE USR 16514" to start it. Actually USR was interesting because it would pass back the contents of BC when your machine code routine returned to BASIC.