MACRO Symbols Package

[Luke Shiner]

I'm trying to recreate an original software development workflow for the PDP-1. I've got the basics of MACRO and DDT but to use them properly together I need to MACRO to punch a symbols tape. If I'm understanding the manual correctly I need a separate "MACRO Symbols Package" to do this but I can't find that anywhere.

I've found some versions of it on bitsavers but they don't seem to work, either because they're are'nt RIM formatted which I believe the tape I need would be, or because they're for the wrong version of MACRO. Quite likely both.

Can anyone point me in the direction of the correct tape to use with the MACRO included in the PiDP-1 tapes directory? Or explain what I might be doing wrong?

[Bill E]

A number of what are labeled .bin files aren't actually binary files, they're documents in a specific format. If you get docviewer from my repo, you can see them. They tend to be assembly source, some of the macro sym ones are, for example macroSymPackEng_6-63.bin.

You might have to check several of them, get the source from them, and then assemble one.

Also be aware the sources might need editing, they aren't all macro source. There were several other assemblers at the time, midas and concise being two, and they have a slightly different syntax. (and are better than macro in some ways)

Bill

[Luke Shiner]

Thank you for your response. After posting my original message I did some further digging and realised what I was looking at was source code. I've found "macro_sa0.bin" and "macrosym.bin" that are RIM format and seem to both work correctly, however the "macro.rim" provided in the tapes directory, while very similar in filesize, is not the same MACRO version and does not work with this symbol package. Assuming macro_sa0 continues to function correctly my problem is solved but if you know anything about the differences between these MACRO versions and in particular what version the one in the tape directory is I'd love to know more.

I found these files at bitsavers.org/bits/DEC/pdp1/papertapeImages/20040106/russell2/