TI99ers Hall of Fame - Inductee Name

Winfried Winkler was an important and skillful programmer in the German TI community. Bill Gaskill called him "The German Assembly language wizard". His work is mainly based on the results of disassembling and interpreting the content of the GROM chips of the TI-99 console and TI modules like Extended Basic, Editor/Assembler and TI-Writer. For his starting point he used the content of Heiner Martin's book "TI 99/A Intern" and his GPL assembler and disassembler program. He found 'non-optimal code' in that content and created new ways to improve the performance of our computer by not using the standard ROM routines but re-inventing them in GPL instead.

Winfried was a member of the TI Club Berlin and worked together with a large number of TI assembler programmers and hardware designers. The most important projects developed by Winfried were:

GROM-0. Software that replaced the TI-GROM-0, allowing the direct selection of sixteen GROM-banks by using the arrow buttons for up and down. This software is used for devices like the HSGPL (GROM-GRAM Card) designed by Michael Becker and Harald Glaab of SNUG (System-99 User-Group).
EXTENDED BASIC 3. Winfried produced a faster and almost bug free version of Extended Basic with many additional properties. A part of the GPL routines were loaded in ROM which resulted in a higher execution speed and about fifty new commands. All TI-Basic programs can be executed with this module. Extended Basic 3 was distributed in an extremely limited release by Asgard Software. The module was also available as a set of files for the HSGPL card.
C99 VERSION 5. An adaptation and expansion of Clint Pulley's C99 compiler with improved and more effective Assembler code. The package contains a C-Code-Optimizer and routines for the support of 80 column cards. The new version is compatible with the Funnelweb system and the C99-ROM of Oliver Arnold.
EDITOR/ASSEMBLER PACKAGE. Winfried Winkler also wrote an improved E/A module with built-in editor, an assembler and optimized routines, as well as new TI-Basic Calls.
SPEECH DSR. This DSR is a part of a project by TI-Club Berlin: the design of a multipurpose 'speech in the box' PEB card. The hardware for this project was designed and built by Jens Fiedler. Winfried Winkler incorporated the routines and allophones of the Terminal Emulator II module, used for 'text to speech', in a DSR. With this DSR on the card it was possible to use all speech capabilities of the Terminal Emulator II module in Extended Basic, TI Writer and other text programs, by opening the device "SPEECH", This Speech DSR is also used on the SPVMC (Speech and Voice Memory Card), designed by Michael Becker and Harald Glaab of SNUG.

Winfried Winkler was born on October 21, 1963 in Berlin. He studied Chemical Engineering at the Technische Hochschule of Berlin. He bought his first TI-99/4A for its superior mathematical routines and statistical capabilities, compared to other affordable home computers of that era and regardless of other drawbacks. He was able to make a link to the mainframe of his university so as to access email and news at home. His first TI games were the Infocom Text Adventures. He is still a fanatical gamer and loves Fantasy MMO Role Playing as well as Strategy Games. His other hobbies are reading and mountain hiking. He is also a member of a German gospel choir. Winfried is a bachelor and still lives in Berlin.