FYI, DECTape configurations for PAL-8, FORTRAN II, FORTRAN IV, and BASIC

[Steve Tockey]

All,

Someone on the PDP-8 group on Facebook asked if it was possible to run FORTRAN IV on PiDP-8/I DECTapes. Since I already had PAL-8, FORTRAN II, and BASIC up and running, I took it as a minor challenge to add FORTRAN IV into the mix. It turned out to be a slightly bigger challenge that it necessarily should have been, in part because I had to work out that the FORTRAN IV run time system (FRTS.SV) is incompatible with the TD8E/TU56 SYS: handler. The other part was problems with getting BUILD.SV on the normal OS/8 RK05 to properly deal with the TC01(TC08)/TU55 handlers. I ended up having to copy a bootable TU55 SYS: tape from a different source. Anyway, all that said, I thought that others might be interested in the setup. If you want, you can find everything on the following DropBox site:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/0426m8pjzffe3s7/AADjf9KOSIC8IqAaj3Nbl4LMa?dl=0

Start with README.TXT.

[Warren Young]

If you can re-cast that as an os8-run script, we could include it as an optional build item in the main software distribution.

Ideally, it would draw from original DEC source material we already distribute, but if you need us to include something else alongside the current shipping material, we can discuss it.

[Steve Tockey]

Warren,

I'm not that familiar with os8-run scripts. Is that something different than SIMH boot scripts (e.g., what I included as 3.script on DropBox)? If so, I would be perfectly happy if someone (read: "someone else") wanted to incorporate all those simulated DECTapes and what I did in 3.script into the main PiDP-8/I software distribution kit. OTOH, I'm not so sure that's something I want to wrestle with myself. It works as well as I need it to work for my purposes, and I have other, higher priority things going on. If anyone else wants to pick up that ball and run with it, it would be OK with me.

[Warren Young]

On Sunday, April 12, 2020 at 1:18:08 PM UTC-6, Steve Tockey wrote:

I'm not that familiar with os8-run scripts.

That's why I linked you to the tool's manual. :)

 

Is that something different than SIMH boot scripts

Quite.

os8-run is a tool for driving OS/8 via SIMH in order to produce specific outputs, usually repeatably rebuildable media images.

This tool is how we get from pristine DEC OS/8 source files to the bootable disk images we ship with current versions of the PiDP-8/I software, as opposed to the semi-broken canned images the project used to ship.

 

I'm not so sure that's something I want to wrestle with myself.

Suit yourself, but you really are in the best position to document your own process for producing these tape images, using the os8-run language to express the procedure.

[Rick Murphy]

As the creator of a couple of those "Semi-broken canned images" (accurate description), I'll agree that this process makes sure you don't have a mixup of components from multiple versions of OS/8.

FRTS is one of the files that often got copied onto the wrong version of OS/8 in order to "fix" things. That's the path to chaos that came before, so this build process was sorely needed.

    -Rick

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Rick Murphy, CISSP-ISSAP, K1MU/4, Annandale VA USA

[Warren Young]

On Sunday, April 12, 2020 at 2:02:53 PM UTC-6, Rick Murphy wrote:

As the creator of a couple of those "Semi-broken canned images" (accurate description)

I am certain you are not wholly responsible for all of the brokenness that inspired os8-run's predecessor, mkos8. :)

I know for a fact that I broke things at least once between the current state and the state Oscar left those images in.

The main point is, now we have a script that lets us build these disk images repeatably, down to the bit level.

[Steve Tockey]

A PDP-8 COBOL compiler and Hello World in COBOL have been added to the mix. Enjoy.

[Steve Tockey]

Warren, Rick,

By the way, if you happen to be referring to the incompatibility between FRTS.SV and the TD8E/TU56 device handler, there is nothing that either you, or anyone else  for that matter, could ever do about it. It's not a software version configuration issue. It's a built in problem that's actually documented on page 1-26 in the FORTRAN IV section of "AA-H609A-TA OS8 v3d Language Reference Manual" (page 170 in the PDF). As CJL would have pointed out, the TU56 has incredibly tight CPU timing tolerances that can't be met under the existing TD8E device handler with interrupts enabled. This was a recognized system-level incompatibility in 1979. In this case, at least, it's not an issue of any kind of "Semi-broken canned images". CJL would have referred to it as "Totally-broken design and implementation decisions in the development of the TD8E/TU56 inside of DEC". I am paraphrasing, of course. :^)

[Steve Tockey]

The COBOL tapes have been updated. There are now five sample programs--that all run--on the DSK: (DTA1:) tape. Four of those sample programs are copied from the user manual.

Page 2 in the PDF of the user manual is really page 37, but out of place. All manual pages are there, it's just that page 37 is out of order.

Page 6 of the user manual explains why the COBOL run time system is incompatible with TD8E/TU56.

[Steve Tockey]

Roger Abbott's ALGOL implementation for the PDP-8 has been added. Two sample programs, TRIAL.AL and HW.AL (Hello World), both compile and execute.

[Steve Tockey]

Pascal has also been added. Warning: it's really slow on DECTapes. I also cleaned up all of the tapes so that the "INIT NOT FOUND" message is gone.

[Jack Rubin]

Steve, thanks for all your work.

Maybe when you finish not building the os8-run script, you could build a RATFOR on top of FORTRAN IV?

If I was 20 years younger, I'd take it on but not likely at this point.

[Steve Tockey]

Jack,

I'm happy to help keep the legacy alive. Re: RATFOR, if you point me at the necessary files and documentation, it's not that big of a deal to crank out a new DECTape.

[Frank Laczko]

Steve, a RATFOR predecessor would be great. 

Frank L.

Sent from my T-Mobile 4G LTE Device

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[Frank Laczko]

Love the autocorrect. I meant preprocessor. 

Frank 

[Steve Tockey]

All,

I made a couple of updates to the Algol tapes. First, I added a couple of new examples to the source code tape:

  E.AL -- compute e using an infinite series

  SIEVE.AL -- Sieve of Eratosthenes prime number generator

  NQUEEN.AL -- Solve the N-Queens problem for various size chess boards

In addition, I completely rebuilt the language user's manual. The original is still there, but being a .pdf of optical page scans Raspbian OS can't handle it. I have now supplemented it with a text-based recreation "ROGAlgol Algol60 Compiler.pdf" (note lack of underscores in the name of this new version) that Raspbian OS is happy with.The original is 8.2 MB, the re-creation is only 209 KB. FYI, this re-creation preserves as much of the look & feel of the original, including typos.

Cheers,

-- steve

[Peter Long]

Steve

Apologies for asking (again?) - where would I find these tapes / manuals

Thanks

Peter 

 

--- Original message ---
Subject: Re: [pidp8] Re: FYI, DECTape configurations for PAL-8, FORTRAN II,FORTRAN IV, and BASIC

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[Steve Tockey]

Peter,

The link is actually in the very first message of this thread however, it would have been far more convenient had I pasted it in again. Apologies. Here it is:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/0426m8pjzffe3s7/AADjf9KOSIC8IqAaj3Nbl4LMa?dl=0

-- steve