Jim Butterfield

Infobox Person
name = Jim Butterfield

---

image_size =
caption = A caricature
birth_date = February 14, 1936
birth_place = Ponoka, Alberta, Canada
death_date = June 29, 2007
death_place = Toronto, Ontario, Canada
occupation = Computer programmer, author
spouse = Vicki Butterfield
parents =
children = Susannah Butterfield, born in 1988.

Frank James (Jim) Butterfield (14 February 1936 – 29 June 2007) was a Toronto-based author and computer programmer famous for his work with Commodore microcomputers, and a longtime contributor to periodicals such as "The Transactor" and "TPUG". One of Jim's major works was the book "Learning Machine Code Programming on the Commodore 64 (and other Commodore computers)" [cite web|accessdate=|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=sobEAAAACAAJ
title=Google Book Search |publisher=Google|date=|author= ] , one of the leading references on programming the 6502-derived 6510 microprocessor.

Jim was born in Ponoka, Alberta, and attended the University of Alberta and the University of British Columbia, but never graduated. In 1957 he moved to Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, to work on the microwave system along the Alaska Highway.

In 1962 he was transferred to Toronto, Ontario. There he was exposed to computers. [cite web|accessdate=2008-10-08|url=http://www.commodore.ca/history/people/jim_butterfield_compute_sept82.htm
title=Meet Jim Butterfield |publisher=COMPUTE!|date=September 1982|author=Gail Hook ]

In a November 2006 newsgroup message, Butterfield revealed that he was undergoing chemotherapy. [http://groups.google.com/group/tor.forsale.computers/msg/ab595abbfc9f039f] His death from cancer was announced on the [news:comp.sys.cbm comp.sys.cbm] newsgroup on 30 June 2007. [http://groups.google.com/group/comp.sys.cbm/browse_thread/thread/b0a7385cc931b291/e093a559d9ebb07f?hl=en#e093a559d9ebb07f] .

Authored Works

* 1977 [http://books.google.com/books?id=cbXsAQAACAAJ "THE FIRST BOOK OF KIM", by Jim Butterfield, Stan Ockers, Eric Rehnke]
* 1984 [http://books.google.com/books?id=sobEAAAACAAJ "Learning Machine Code Programming on the Commodore 64 (and other Commodore computers)"]
* 1984 [http://books.google.com/books?id=KU3_AAAACAAJ "Machine Language Programming for the Commodore 64: Commodore 64/Book and 64K Disk"]
* 1985 [http://books.google.com/books?id=g9Z7AQAACAAJ "Commodore Reference Diary"]

Trivia

An image of Jim Butterfield is included as an Easter egg on the v1 revision of the C64DTV plug-in joystick. [cite web|accessdate=2008-10-08|url=http://bay01.imagebay.com/bay.php?view=61310_C64DTV_2B.jpg
title=Hidden Image (JPEG) |publisher=|date=|author= ]

In 1976, Micro Chess, a 1Kbyte KIM-1 chess program by Peter Jennings won its first real game against a human, at Jim's house in Toronto. [cite web|accessdate=2008-10-08|url=http://archive.computerhistory.org/projects/chess/related_materials/oral-history/jennings.oral_history.2005.102630656/jennings.oral_history_transcrit.2005.102630656.pdf
title=Oral History of Peter Jennings (PDF) |publisher=Computer History Museum|date=February 1, 2005|author= ]

References

External links

* [http://www.pathcom.com/~fjb/Personal%20Computers.html Jim Butterfield's home page] (last updated: "Monday, April 30, 2007 5:52:42 PM" two months before his passing)
* [http://www.commodore.ca/gallery/adverts_other/proline_butterfield_run_mar85.jpg1985 software advertisement] featuring Brad Templeton, Jim Butterfield, and Steve Punter
* [http://www.torontostarclassifieds.com/OLCSApp/do/attribute_view_ad?Refresh=No&categoryName=DEATHS&adID=1119307&printerFriendly=true&today=null&pages=10&printerFriendly=true Jim Butterfield's obituary]
* [http://www.commodore.ca/history/people/jim_butterfield_compute_sept82.htm Videos of Jim Butterfield at the 2005 LUCKI Expo]
* [http://users.telenet.be/kim1-6502/6502/fbok.html Full text of the 1977 book, "THE FIRST BOOK OF KIM", by Jim Butterfield, Stan Ockers, Eric Rehnke]