RT11 BASIC beginner's help requested

[George W4AVO]

I am trying pidp11 RT11 on a Pi3 standalone in a terminal window from the desktop while waiting for my kit. A lot of things work (DIR KED FORTRAN LINK) but not BASIC.

I boot --

cd /opt/pidp11/bin

./pidp11.sh 3 and get :

RT-11SJ (S) V05.03

and the dot prompt

.DIR .BASIC yields:
BASIC.SAV 36 15-Oct-99

.BASIC yields :
BASIC V01
HALT instruction, PC: 002702 (HALT)
sim>

Any pointers to what I'm doing wrong would be appreciated.

George

[sparksh]

I was able to get along with the PiDP-11 demo version of RT-11 Basic, but I wanted to find and try the "lastest and greatest."

It might work better for you. Please report.

---------------------------------------------------------------

Notes for Installing DEC BASIC V2.1

The master source:

http://bitsavers.org/bits/DEC/pdp11/floppyimages/rx02/

Get the file:

BASIC-11_V2.1_RX02.DSK.zip

The RX02 RT-11 device is "RY" in SIMH. It brings good luck to disable the RX device when you enable the RY device.

set rx disable

set ry enable

att ry0 BASIC.DSK

The program banner says the version is:

BASIC-11/RT-11 V2.1

The distribution has lots of .obj files so you can link your own version with different capabilities. Instructions for doing this are in the manuals. One reason for wanting to do this is to have the right floating point support in your basic. For the PiDP-11 with SIMH "set cpu 11/70, 4M" that would be FPU support.

There is a default version "BASIC.SAV" which probably has no hardware floating point.

Copy this file to sy:

copy xxx:basic.sav sy:

Run basic:

r basic

If you get complaints about "not enough memory" boot one of the mapped monitors and try:

vrun sy:basic

Enable lower case

A=SYS(7,0)

There are lots more SYS functions documented in the manuals.

To exit basic, execute:

 A=SYS(4)

If you get a TRAP 4 message when you run a program, try disabling the LPT device in SIMH:

set lpt disable

Manuals on bitsavers (you'll have to search)

DEC-11-LIBBB-A-D_BASIC-11 Language_Reference_Manual_Sep76

DEC-11-LIBTA-A-D_BASIC-11 RT-11 Installation Guide - Mar78.pdf

DEC-11-LIBUA-A-D_BASIC-11 RT-11 Users Guide - Mar78.pdf

[oscarv]

George,

The right incantation is

  R BASIC

rather than

  BASIC

Followed by a return at the * prompt.

Sorry for not spotting this earlier ;)

Kind regards,

Oscar.

[Ian Schofield]

Dear All,

   In the meanwhile, if anyone want a copy of BASIC-RT (http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/pdp11/basic/DEC-11-LBACA-D-D_basicRTlangRef_Oct74.pdf) , do let me know. This version contains the graphic extensions to drive the VT11/VS60 systems.

Regards, Ian.

[oscarv]

Ian,

Is that a different version from the GBASIC that's on the PiDP-11 RT-11 disk image?

Kind regards,

Oscar.

[Ian Schofield]

Dear Oscar and all,

 Correct. The gbasic.sav file on the RT11 disk is BasicRT as per the pdf link. I hadn't realised that this was in the RT11 RL02 image.

Regards, Ian. 

[George W4AVO]

Oscar -- Yes, of course R BASIC from the RT11 dot prompt. I was a victim of a 40 yr (2019-1979) brain fade. That's my excuse and I'm sticking with it.

Ian --  I downloaded the  the bitsavers pdf and stuck it in my RPi Documents folder so when I need to RTFM it will be at hand. Interestingly, the R BASIC invocation I should have remembered is described right up front on page 1-1.

sparksh -- I will save your outline to load V2.1 for later. V01B is runs now and is adequate for playing with.

All -- Thanks

George

[Thomas Niccum]

I know this is an old thread... but...

I'm trying to install this, but try as I might, I only have gotten:

.dir dy0:

?DIR-F-Invalid directory

I've scrambled around looking for clues all over... nothing I've tried has gotten me anything other than Invalid Directory.

in SIMH I show:

sim> show dev

PDP-11 simulator configuration

CPU 11/70, FPP, RH70, autoconfiguration enabled, idle disabled

SYSTEM

RHA address=17776700-17776753, vector=254, BR5

RHB disabled

RHC disabled

CLK 60Hz, address=17777546-17777547, vector=100, BR6

PCLK disabled

PTR address=17777550-17777553, vector=70, BR4

PTP address=17777554-17777557, vector=74, BR4

TTI address=17777560-17777563, vector=60, BR4

TTO address=17777564-17777567, vector=64, BR4

TDC disabled

CR disabled

LPT address=17777514-17777517, vector=200, BR4

DLI address=17776500-17776527, vector=300-324*, BR4, lines=3

DLO 3 units

DCI disabled

DCO disabled

DZ disabled

VH disabled

RC disabled

RF disabled

RK address=17777400-17777417, vector=220, BR5, 8 units

RL RL11, address=17774400-17774411, vector=160, BR5, 4 units

HK address=17777440-17777477, vector=210, BR5, 8 units

RX disabled

RY address=17777170-17777173, vector=264, BR5, 2 units

RP Massbus adapter 0 (RHA), 8 units

RS disabled

RQ address=17772150-17772153, no vector, BR5, RQDX3, 4 units

RQB disabled

RQC disabled

RQD disabled

TC disabled

TM address=17772520-17772533, vector=224, BR5, 8 units

TS disabled

TQ TK50 (94MB), address=17774500-17774503, no vector, BR5, 4 units

TU disabled

TA disabled

VT disabled

XQ disabled

XQB disabled

XU disabled

XUB disabled

KG disabled

DMC disabled

DUP disabled

DPV disabled

KDP disabled

KE disabled

In the PiDP11, under RT-11

I show 

.sho dev

Device    Status          CSR     Vector(s)

------    ------          ---     ---------

  CR      Not installed  177160   230

  CT      Not installed  000000   260

  DD      Installed      176500   300 304

  DL      Resident       174400   160

  DM      Installed      177440   210

  DP      Not installed  176710   254

  DS      Not installed  172040   204

  DT      Not installed  177340   214

  DU      Not installed  172150   154

  DW      Not installed  000000  

  DX      Not installed  177170   264

  DY      Installed      177170   264

  DZ      Not installed  000000  

  PD      Not installed  000000  

  RF      Not installed  177460   204

  RK      Not installed  177400   220

  LD      Not installed  000000   000

  LP      Not installed  177514   200

  LS      Not installed  176500   470 474 300 304

  MM      Not installed  172440   224

  MS      Not installed  172522   224 300

  MT      Not installed  172520   224

  NL      Not installed  000000   000

  PC      Not installed  177550   070 074

  PI      Not installed  000000   000

  SL      Not installed  000000   000

  SP      Not installed  000000   110

  TT      Installed      000000   000

  VM      Not installed  177572   250

  XC      Not installed  173300   210 214

  XL      Not installed  176500   300 304

in SIMH i entered the commands as given in the notes above... but nothing seems to work...

I love to write basic code, but would like to have the bigger feature set of this newer version.

Thanks in advance for any guidance!

Tom

[Thomas Niccum]

Quick follow up...

just wanted to show that I had RY0 attached to the BASIC.DSK file

sim> show ry

RY address=17777170-17777173, vector=264, BR5, 2 units

  RY0 512KB, attached to BASIC.DSK, write enabled

double density

  RY1 512KB, not attached, write enabled

double density

sim> 

[Johnny Billquist]

If you tell me where you get BASIC.DSK from, I could at least check if
it is a valid RT-11 formatted disk...

Johnny

> *RX disabled*
>
> *RY address=17777170-17777173, vector=264, BR5, 2 units*

> *DXNot installed177170 264*
>
> *DYInstalled177170 264*
>
> DZNot installed000000
>
> PDNot installed000000
>
> RFNot installed177460 204
>
> RKNot installed177400 220
>
> LDNot installed000000 000
>
> LPNot installed177514 200
>
> LSNot installed176500 470 474 300 304
>
> MMNot installed172440 224
>
> MSNot installed172522 224 300
>
> MTNot installed172520 224
>
> NLNot installed000000 000
>
> PCNot installed177550 070 074
>
> PINot installed000000 000
>
> SLNot installed000000 000
>
> SPNot installed000000 110
>
> TTInstalled000000 000
>
> VMNot installed177572 250
>
> XCNot installed173300 210 214
>
> XLNot installed176500 300 304

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

[Thomas Niccum]

Thanks...

I got it from http://bitsavers.org/bits/DEC/pdp11/floppyimages/rx02/

the image is called BASIC-11_V2.1_RX02.DSK.zip

[Johnny Billquist]

Hi.

That image seems a bit broken. It's too short, in the end.
But I fixed it so at least I can read it.

Test ftp://mim.update.uu.se/basic.dsk

and see if that one works better.

Johnny

On 2021-08-10 23:36, Thomas Niccum wrote:
> Thanks...
>
> I got it from http://bitsavers.org/bits/DEC/pdp11/floppyimages/rx02/
> <http://bitsavers.org/bits/DEC/pdp11/floppyimages/rx02/>
>
> the image is called BASIC-11_V2.1_RX02.DSK.zip

> <http://bitsavers.org/bits/DEC/pdp11/floppyimages/rx02/BASIC-11_V2.1_RX02.DSK.zip>

> <mailto:pidp-11%2Bunsu...@googlegroups.com>
> > <mailto:pidp-11+u...@googlegroups.com
> <mailto:pidp-11%2Bunsu...@googlegroups.com>>.

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> >
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> >

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>
> --
> Johnny Billquist                  || "I'm on a bus
>                                    ||  on a psychedelic trip

> email: b...@softjar.se <mailto:b...@softjar.se>             ||

> Reading murder books
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>

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[Thomas Niccum]

OK, so even with some talented help, I could not get the instructions in this thread to work... no matter what I tried, I got an Invalid directory error when trying to access the BASIC.DSK mounted on an ry device...

So, here's what worked for me.

I downloaded the install file from bitsavers... and unzipped.

I copied BASIC.DSK (the one file in the zip archive) to my rt11 directory.

I used the pdp utility (found in this forum on a link from the PiDP-11 v0.2 manual) to copy the BASIC.DSK onto one of my RL disk images in the same directory (i put it on the rt11games.rl2 disk image). I was also able to use pdp to get a good directory of BASIC.DSK.

pdp -C <rt11games.rl2 -w BASIC.DSK -i BASIC.DSK

I then attached the rt11games.rl2 image 

set rl1 rl02

att rl1 rt11games.rl2

Now inside rt11, i mounted the new BASIC.DSK file on dk1: as a logical disk...

.MOUNT LD1: DK1:BASIC.DSK

from there I was able to access all the files in BASIC.DSK by referring to LD1...  and the BASIC-11 installation manual covers all the steps to generate a custom version of BASIC with your desired options.

[Neil Higgins]

Hey! A friend of mine, Graeme Wightman, wrote the pdp utility many years ago. He’ll be delighted to know that it’s still going strong. Thanks for the mention.

[Johnny Billquist]

Hmm. After thinking some more, I wonder if simh exposes the RX02
interleaving. Seems rather probable, since the interleaving happens in
the PDP-11 RX driver.
So that means an RX image needs to have the blocks ordered in the same
way the driver interleaves the data.

Copying the data over to an RL image solves that problem, since RL disks
do not play with interleaving.

You could probably have connected the BASIC.DSK image directly to an RL
device, and it would have worked as well.

Using the virtual device subsystem inside RSX, as I did, worked fine,
since that also do not do any interleaving.

The BASIC.DSK image clearly just had the blocks in the natural order.

Johnny

On 2021-08-12 01:25, Thomas Niccum wrote:
> OK, so even with some talented help, I could not get the instructions in
> this thread to work... no matter what I tried, I got an Invalid
> directory error when trying to access the BASIC.DSK mounted on an ry
> device...
>
> So, here's what worked for me.
>
> I downloaded the install file from bitsavers... and unzipped.
>
> I copied BASIC.DSK (the one file in the zip archive) to my rt11 directory.
>
> I used the pdp utility (found in this forum on a link from the PiDP-11
> v0.2 manual) to copy the BASIC.DSK onto one of my RL disk images in the
> same directory (i put it on the rt11games.rl2 disk image). I was also
> able to use pdp to get a good directory of BASIC.DSK.
>

> *pdp -C <rt11games.rl2 -w BASIC.DSK -i BASIC.DSK*

>
> I then attached the rt11games.rl2 image
>

> *set rl1 rl02*
>
> *att rl1 rt11games.rl2*

>
> Now inside rt11, i mounted the new BASIC.DSK file on dk1: as a logical
> disk...
>

> .*MOUNT LD1: DK1:BASIC.DSK*

> <mailto:pidp-11+u...@googlegroups.com>.

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[Thomas Niccum]

Yes!

I attached BASIC.DSK to rl1 and was able to access it perfectly as DK1: in rt11

Good to know for the future.

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[isy...@gmail.com]

Dear All,

 Nice to see some interest in Basic. I have added a link to an RL02 image that contains

 RT11 basic V01 (a bit old but OK) as R BASIC and a copy of BASIC-RT as R GBASIC.

 The RT version contains drivers for the VT11 display system. See DEC-11-LBACA-D-D_basicRTlangRef_Oct74.pdf. (At archive.org)

NB This is a lifesaver. If you happen to type ^C in Basic, you will return to the monitor ie a full stop . Don't panic and immediately type REENTER to recover your valuable programme!

Link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1iqwiT3iUPofA788oVQKyTG1bC-aBd-sv/view?usp=sharing

File for Simh:

set cpu 11/35

set cpu 64k

SET RL0 RL02

att rl0 rt11V.dsk

set dz disable

set vt crt=vr14

set vt scale=2

set vt alias=on

set vt enable

boot rl0

Have fun, regards, Ian.