How to load the VT-52 trek program into RSTS

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Bob Flanders

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May 26, 2022, 4:30:24 PM5/26/22
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Hi all,

Does anyone have an idea about how to load the program into RSTS? 

Thanks in advance.

Regards,
Bob

Johnny Billquist

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May 26, 2022, 5:19:44 PM5/26/22
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On 2022-05-26 22:30, Bob Flanders wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> Does anyone have an idea about how to load the program into RSTS?

If you have KERMIT installed, that's one way of transferring files.
If you have DECnet installed, that's another way.
If everything else fails, you can always create an RT-11 disk image,
place the files there, and then connect that to your RSTS/E system, you
can copy the file out from there.

Johnny

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|| on a psychedelic trip
email: b...@softjar.se || Reading murder books
pdp is alive! || tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol

Ken Conatser

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May 26, 2022, 5:50:43 PM5/26/22
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I have been looking for this version of Trek for quite a while. Do you have a link so that I can download it?

Bob Flanders

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May 26, 2022, 6:06:33 PM5/26/22
to Ken Conatser, [PiDP-11]

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Ken Conatser

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May 26, 2022, 6:17:34 PM5/26/22
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Thanks for the link. I see that this is a new version, and I have downloaded it. I have a printout of the original strtrk.bas from the late 1970's, but apparently didn't keep a copy of trekvt.bas from back then.

Johnny Billquist

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May 26, 2022, 7:24:26 PM5/26/22
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I don't know for sure which version Bob have, or is referring to, but in
case it's the one where you have a LR scan on the left, a SR scan on the
right, and it's basically two 8x8 displays, and in the LR scan you have
three numbers showing (Klingons, bases, stars), then it might be the
same version I have running under RSX. Although I modified it to work on
VT-100 terminals instead.

You can find that on MIM::SYS$GAMES:TREK.B2S, along with build files and
documentation. If you have the BP2 compiler for RSTS/E, it should
compile just fine with no changes.

Johnny
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Anton Lavrentiev

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May 27, 2022, 11:42:08 AM5/27/22
to Bob Flanders, [PiDP-11]
There are tools like "flx"/"rstsflx" (look 'em up on the web / github), which can let you copy files from and into a disk image.  But please be careful to always make a backup of the image before proceeding with writing into the image, and always run a disk cleanup (of the updated disk image at startup), 'cuz I personally witnessed an image becoming corrupted (in the eyes of the operating system) after such an operation, unfortunately.  IIRC, inside RSTS/E there's a "fit" utility, which can copy "foreign" formats, but for that the medium must be in such a format, beforehand.

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sydn...@gmail.com

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May 27, 2022, 1:18:40 PM5/27/22
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1) in your modern client machine, COPY the text of the program (copy/paste) 
1) ssh into SIMH machine and login to RSTS
2) PIP trek52.bas=kb:
3) paste (copy/paste)
4) ctrl/z
5) profit

Bob Flanders

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May 28, 2022, 3:17:16 PM5/28/22
to sydn...@gmail.com, [PiDP-11]
Hi ... I tried this six ways to sunday... didn't work for me. But I put up RT11 and it looks like it worked. (pip trek52.bas-tt:/a) 

I also tried paper tape, but it came in screwy.

thanks for the idea, tho.

(working on simh on macos for now. PIDP sooo slow...)

Regards,
Bob

timr...@gmail.com

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May 29, 2022, 6:42:42 PM5/29/22
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Would have expected paper tape to work.  Interesting.  Screwy how?

Bob Flanders

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May 30, 2022, 1:53:53 AM5/30/22
to timr...@gmail.com, [PiDP-11]
Hi,

I think it has to do with the file in macOS having line feeds without carriage returns. When I attached trek52.bas to the paper tape, it had only line feeds and the file looked like a series sorta like this:

100 print "hello"
                          200 print "world"
                                                    300 do next thing.

Nothing I have tried has resulted in a file that I can successfully "old" in basic/bplus.

Regards,
Bob



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Warner Losh

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May 30, 2022, 9:40:42 AM5/30/22
to Bob Flanders, timr...@gmail.com, [PiDP-11]


On Sun, May 29, 2022, 11:53 PM Bob Flanders <bob.fl...@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi,

I think it has to do with the file in macOS having line feeds without carriage returns. When I attached trek52.bas to the paper tape, it had only line feeds and the file looked like a series sorta like this:

100 print "hello"
                          200 print "world"
                                                    300 do next thing.

Nothing I have tried has resulted in a file that I can successfully "old" in basic/bplus.

What happens if you just cut and paste it into the Ready prompt?

Warner 

Anton Lavrentiev

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May 30, 2022, 10:30:44 AM5/30/22
to Warner Losh, Bob Flanders, timr...@gmail.com, [PiDP-11]
You could have used unix2dos on the file you attached to the tape device, to have all single linefeeds replaced with CR-LFs.... I think

Clem Cole

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May 30, 2022, 10:34:19 AM5/30/22
to Bob Flanders, timr...@gmail.com, [PiDP-11]
Bob - man unix2dos on your mac.
You can also use tr(1) -- if you are going through the tty emulator, just translate linefeed to carriage returns as that is what the ASR33 would have sent.   When you cut a ppt with an ASR-33 back in the day, it would have had <CR><LF><NULL><NULL><NULL><NULL>.   (number of NULLS was different for different systems.



Bob Flanders

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Jun 3, 2022, 12:00:29 AM6/3/22
to Clem Cole, timr...@gmail.com, [PiDP-11], Bob Alexander
Hi all,

Well, it was quite a trek, but I got it to work.

Thank you all for the help with this.

To start, I first wrote a small basic program with multi-line statements, then examined it with ODT. (This was a chore.), but I found that the file uses just CR for line endings. No apparent special characters (Null and such). Armed with this, I figured I had to make the file from github match.

So the base problem was that in macOS (probably linux too) the file downloads from git with 0x0a (line feed) line endings. If you are using windows, it becomes 0x0d,0x0a (crlf) line endings. Using the macOS "tr" utility, I ran the command:

tr "\n" "\r" <trek52.bas > trek52cr.bas

to convert the LFs to CR. There may be a way to do this with SED, but macOS sed is not up to snuff. Maybe linux's would do better. 

Next, I needed to upload it. This was where I had to play for a long time. I tried a few ways. Here's what worked:
  1. In Windows, I opened the trek52cr.bas file with notepad++ and showed all characters (to ensure CR was just CR).
  2. I installed the Windows Telnet client. https://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/38433.windows-10-enabling-telnet-client.aspx
  3. I started pdp11 with a dz set up and started RSTS/E (using 10.1 ... haven't gotten it to work on my PIDP yet.)
  4. Log in to 1,2 password SYSTEM (on RSTS/E)
  5. I opened a command line in windows and used the command: telnet
    • The prompt is 'Microsoft Telnet>' and enter the command: 'u crlf' 
      • This shuts off  CRLF mode when hitting enter. Enter is just CR now.
    •  Next, enter 'c <ip of pdp11> 1170' to connect. e.g., c 10.10.10.247 1170
    • It will tell you where you connected to. e.g., "Connected to the PDP-11 simulator DZ device, line 4"
    • On your simh RSTS/E, enter the command 'SHO DEV'. It will print out the devices. in the list, find the DZ and corresponding line.
      • e.g., "Device _KB9:   (KBG4:)   Control DZ0:4   CSR 760100  Status: Restricted."
    • On the PDP console, enter the command: pip trek52.bas=kb9:
    • Back in Windows, on the open the trek52cr.bas in notepad++, ctrl-a ctrl-c (select all, copy)
    • Paste it into the telnet session. Just point at telnet and right-click.
    • When you see the final statement, "32767 end", ctrl-z and pip will close
  6. To check that the program went in ok, do the following on RSTS/E
    • Run the 'command basic/bplus'
    • Run the command 'old trek52.bas'
    • If there are no errors, the file loaded ok.
  7. So now, you want to run it? I did this:
    • Ran the command: 'git clone https://github.com/kgober/VT52'
    • cd to the VT52 director
    • Compile it with the command: 'dotnet build'. You'll need the dotnet runtime to do this.
    • cd to the bin directory
    • Run the command: 'vt52'
    • Right click the header line
    • In connection enter <ip of your pip11>:1170
    • Hit enter a few times to get the User: prompt
    • Enter: "1,2" then password SYSTEM
    • Get to the "$" prompt and enter the command 'set term/device=vt52'
    • Enter the command: 'basic/bplus'
    • Enter the command: 'run trek52"
image.png

So, what failed?
  • Everything when the line feeds were in the file
  • Trying to paste it into a macOS terminal ssh'd into the pdp11 (it must convert CR's somehow)
  • Trying to paste it into a basic/bplus session directly. (Maybe paste too fast/interpreter too slow?)
  • Trying to get it on paper tape using RT11. I think RSTS/E 10.1 doesn't have PT drivers?
  • Trying to put it on an RK05 then FIT it into RSTS. (Maybe this would have worked, but I hadn't solved the CR/LF problem yet.)
  • Trying to put it on mag tape. 
I am using the latest macOS on a 2019 MacBook Pro 15" with 2.6GHz core I7. Windows was running on a separate AMD 5900x machine and connected to the mac using Microsoft Remote Desktop.

The trek52cr,bas file is attached.

Regards,
Bob
trek52cr.bas
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