Intro; Docs or source wanted for Prime DIPLOT

[Jim Ward]

Hi friends, I'm Jim Ward and I'm new here. I worked for Prime Engineering in MA from '75 to '79, then served as Prime's western region OS guy in Palo Alto in '79 and '80. (I hired on at Apollo in late '80.)

One of my more obscure engineering projects was creating plotting software for Tektronix storage displays and Versatek plotters called DIPLOT, which shipped around '76, possibly in Rev 9. Some friends and I have stumbled upon a set of (binary) plotter data files that I'm certain DIPLOT produced. We've mostly sussed out the format, but not completely so.

So, if anyone has a handle on the source for this package—or its PE-T—I'd love to have a look at it.

Cheers!

[Dennis Boone]

> One of my more obscure engineering projects was creating plotting
> software for Tektronix storage displays and Versatek plotters called
> DIPLOT, which shipped around '76, possibly in Rev 9. Some friends and I
> have stumbled upon a set of (binary) plotter data files that I'm certain
> DIPLOT produced. We've mostly sussed out the format, but not completely
> so.

Jim,

No source, no PE-T. Did find this snippet in a PULSE catalog:

PROGRAM NUMBER: 0277-03-09
PROGRAM NAME: DIPLOT
CONTACT: PRIME COMPUTER, FRAMINGHAM, MASS
HARDWARE REQD: PRIME CPU, TEKTRONIX 4010 OR OTHER GOULD
OR VERSATEC ELECTROSTATIC PRINTER/PLOTTER.
LANGUAGE: FORTRAN
PURPOSE: DIPLOT (DEVICE INDEPENDENT PLOT PACKAGE) IS DESIGNED TO
ALLOW THE USER TO DIRECT HIS PLOTTER OUTPUT TO ANY ONLINE
PLOTTER USING THE INDUSTRY ACCEPTED CALCOMP CALLING SEQUENCE.
THE PACKAGE CURRENTLY HAS 2 MODES OF OPERATION:
IMMEDIATE AND DEFERRED. IN THE IMMEDIATE PLOT MODE, PLOTTER
OUTPUT GENERATED BY THE PROGRAM IS PLOTTED ON A TEXTRONIX
4010 TERMINAL CONNECTED TO THE SYSTEM AS EITHER THE USER
TERMINAL OR ON AN ASSIGNABLE AMLC LINE. IN THE DEFERRED
PLOT MODE, ALL PLOTTER OUTPUT IS WRITTEN TO A FILE WHICH
THEN MAY BE PLOTTED ON A HARD-COPY DEVICE. AT THE PRESENT
TIME, THE ONLY DEVICES SUPPORTED FOR HARDCOPY OUTPUT ARE
THE VERSATEC AND GOULD ELECTROSTATIC PRINTER/PLOTTER.

I have (part of?) a PULSE distribution, one reasonably full tape if
it was written at 1600. It doesn't seem to contain DIPLOT; the stuff
containing the string "plot" in the name is:

./TVLR/SOURCE/PLOTXY1
./ZETA/PLOT
./PTC-5/PLOT
./PRTX/PRINTRONIX/SCATTER.PLOT
./MISCELLANEOUS/SAMPLE_UNSUPPORTED_CPL/GOPLOT.CPL
./MISCELLANEOUS/SAMPLE_UNSUPPORTED_CPL/PASPLOT.CPL
./MISCELLANEOUS/SAMPLE_UNSUPPORTED_CPL/FTNPLOT.CPL
./MISCELLANEOUS/SAMPLE_UNSUPPORTED_CPL/F77PLOT.CPL
./AUS.UTILS/PRINTRONIX/PLOT.FTN
./AUS.UTILS/PRINTRONIX/PLOTS.FTN

Would be interested in the PE-T document, if it's ever found, to put
with other Prime materials on sysovl.info.

De

[Jim Ward]

Hi De,

Thanks for the citation. Looks like the PULSE distribution you have postdates the DIPLOT release by many years. It's likely that this software, first released for DOS/VM on the P300, faded into oblivion sometime after 1980. The filenames you posted are unfamiliar to me—and longer than 6 characters(!), a constraint at the time.

Lacking source or spec has slowed us down, but one of my co-conspirators has made headway deciphering the file format.

Jim

[Dennis Boone]

> Thanks for the citation. Looks like the PULSE distribution you have
> postdates the DIPLOT release by many years. It's likely that this
> software, first released for DOS/VM on the P300, faded into oblivion
> sometime after 1980. The filenames you posted are unfamiliar to me—and
> longer than 6 characters(!), a constraint at the time.

Jim,

Ah. Wasn't sure what era was relevant. Sadly, the oldest runnable
software in captivity is a very bare Rev18, and that's not really
useful. The oldest code around is a partial set of source for Rev16.
(Well, I suppose some of the stuff in that PULSE distribution is older,
but it's not operating system stuff.) There are some docs from the mid
70s.

I would dearly love to find older stuff.

De

[Daiyu Hurst]

I didn't have the pockets to get the entire PULSE library at the time I got what we have. But I got it from Randy Styka
at COMPUTRONICS. He had it all, at least, he did 20 years ago. His company supported other minis as well.

+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
| Computronics Randy Styka, randy (at) computron (dot) com |
| 4N165 Wood Dale Road Phone: 630/941-7767 |
| Addison, Illinois 60101 USA Fax: 630/941-7714 |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------+

Looks like at least the website still exists:

http://www.computronics.com/

It couldn't hurt to contact him.

-Dai

[Jim Ward]

Thanks for the pointer, Dai.

One of my compadrés reversed-engineered the file format and reproduced the imagery using current-day tech. So, that problem is solved.

Interesting, though, to read through Randy's website. I wonder how much of the Prime software goods he actually has in his possession. I'll ask.

Cheers,
Jim

[Dennis Boone]

> Interesting, though, to read through Randy's website. I wonder how much
> of the Prime software goods he actually has in his possession. I'll
> ask.

Randy's a good guy. Last I talked to him, he was still supporting
a small number of small customers with occasional spare parts.

De

[Daiyu Hurst]

I would be great to have a complete copy of the PULSE archives. I still have a PULSE keyfob (also one PR1ME keyfob).

I remain heartbroken that Mike O'Rear let the Rev24 source code tapes die.

-Dai

[Dennis Boone]

> I remain heartbroken that Mike O'Rear let the Rev24 source code tapes die.

The one that breaks my heart is the tape set some folks in Engineering
handed to Al Costanzo as the 50-Series business unit was dying. That
allegedly included even some internal-only tools. He discarded them in
a move.

De

[Daiyu Hurst]

:(