VOLITION

John Andrea

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Oct 7, 1993, 10:22:50 AM10/7/93

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I just happen to have a manual for Volition Systems Modula-2 right here
on my shelf.

the cover page shows: Release: 0.3
Date: 31 May 1984
Author: Richard Gleaves

I never did use that system myself, but it was around here for a bit
a while ago.

john andrea

Randy Bush

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Oct 8, 1993, 12:30:35 AM10/8/93

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and...@ESSEX.STFX.CA (John Andrea) writes:
> I just happen to have a manual for Volition Systems Modula-2 right here
> on my shelf.

> ...
> Author: Richard Gleaves

Much of which was later published by Springer Verlag as "Modula-2 for Pascal
Programmers." Gleaves's style was as simple, direct, and elegant as the
language.
--
ra...@psg.com ...!uunet!m2xenix!randy

Chris Chiesa

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Jun 14, 2023, 3:17:44 PM6/14/23

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And here I am, thirty years later, trying to boot, under vDos, copy of Volition Systems Modula-2 from a college course I took in 1985. The main screen comes up, but it never gets to accepting top-level-command input; just sits there chewing about 48% of the CPU. I suspect it may be looking for a second floppy, or a second Modula-2 volume (I'm booting something named SYSVOL, from the same "floppy" as M2.exe itseIf). Clearly, *something* it needs is not available where sought.

Randy, if you still have that manual, and ever see this message, does it say anything about system prerequisites that I need to meet?

OrangeFish9737

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Jun 15, 2023, 10:28:26 AM6/15/23

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The Internet Archive has a 405-page manual on Volition Systems 0.3j
(https://archive.org/details/bitsavers_volitionSy20.3jIBMPC_14753891),
which may or may not help.

rugxulo

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Jun 19, 2023, 4:04:28 AM6/19/23

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Hi,

On Wednesday, June 14, 2023 at 2:17:44 PM UTC-5, Chris Chiesa wrote:
> And here I am, thirty years later, trying to boot, under vDos, copy of
> Volition Systems Modula-2 from a college course I took in 1985.
> The main screen comes up, but it never gets to accepting top-level-command
> input; just sits there chewing about 48% of the CPU. I suspect it may
> be looking for a second floppy, or a second Modula-2 volume (I'm
> booting something named SYSVOL, from the same "floppy" as M2.exe
> itseIf). Clearly, *something* it needs is not available where sought.
>
> Randy, if you still have that manual, and ever see this message, does it
> say anything about system prerequisites that I need to meet?

A naive hint would be to try to run a TSR that logs what files are being opened.

* http://cd.textfiles.com/simtel/simtel9310/MSDOS/SYSUTL/KGB104.ZIP

Martin Brown

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Jun 22, 2023, 4:15:13 PM6/22/23

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You might be better off downloading a modern copy of XDS and adjusting
your source code to compile with it. It was surprisingly good.

I don't recall Volition being a player back in the 80's.
JPI/Topspeed M2 & Logitech were the main ones.

Is the Logitech compiler still out there?

--
Martin Brown

Chris Burrows

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Jul 7, 2023, 9:18:38 PM7/7/23

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On Friday, June 23, 2023 at 5:45:13 AM UTC+9:30, Martin Brown wrote:
>
> I don't recall Volition being a player back in the 80's.

A 1987 post in comp.lang.modula2 by Randy Bush titled 'One-pass' Compilation Issues mentions the Volition compilers. Here is an extract

--------------------------------
Volition's p-code system (they also did a completely different MC68000
native system) was derived from the one-pass P2 compiler, and therefore
could not implement the language as specified in PIM-2.3. They added
FORWARD to procedure declaration, disallowed use before declaration, and
did not support mutually importing internal modules.

There was no negative user feedback on these restrictions. As the p-code
compiler was quite fast for an interpretive implementation (2,000 lpm on
a floppy based 68000 at 8MHz), the users seemed to feel the trade was worth
it. This was in '81.

Volition's native code compiler for the 68000 was written with the same
restrictions. This product has been acquired and developed further by
Masthaven, and their impressions of user feedback would be useful in
evaluating the impact of one-pass restrictions."
--------------------------------

I have also used Volition's Modula-2 on a Sage 68000 computer in the guise of ScenicSoft Modula-2 and Pecan Modula2.

> JPI/Topspeed M2 & Logitech were the main ones.
>
> Is the Logitech compiler still out there?
>

A summary of the evolution of Logitech Modula-2 is here:

http://www.edm2.com/index.php/Logitech_Modula-2

I suspect that v4 of Logitech Modula-2 was a rebadged version of Stony Brook Modula-2. The Stony Brook compiler is now available as freeware as ADW Modula-2

https://www.modula2.org/adwm2/

--
Chris Burrows
CFB Software
https://www.astrobe.com/Modula2/