New PiDP8i - running OS/8 on DECtape - "F4.SV NOT FOUND"?

[Charles Ess]

Hi all,

I have PiDP8i/simh running on a Pi 4B+ (64-bit raspian) on a newly built kit that has passed all the initial tests and seems to be working as it should, e.g., entering a demo program  using the front switches from Christopher Masto: 

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMRDAD1JNWo&list=PLt-V4nS9-rENItgFNsPjakwJT_krU2ENB&index=4&t=3s)

I'm then trying to follow Oscar's instructions on exploring "1972 Test drive: adventures with OS/8 on DECtape" from 

<https://obsolescence.wixsite.com/obsolescence/how-to-use-the-pidp-8>

- but am getting odd behavior. After rebooting (using octal 3 in the IF section; rebooting with SingStep; setting IF switches back to 0), OS/8 comes up as described; DIR works. 

BUT, most of the time 

.R F4

results in "F4.SV NOT FOUND"

This may make sense: DIR results in only showing a "FORT.SV" (unless F4 is an alias somehow?)

I've tried this a few different ways - once, I got past this first step: but then 

TEST<TEST

resulted in the same NOT FOUND error message.

So it looks like the OS/8 dectape, "with system utilities and Fortran" is not loading properly - i.e., the requisite files are not to be found. If so - suggestions/solutions?

Many thanks,

- charles

[Steve Tockey]

Hi Charles,

I built a whole series of DECtape images for various languages for the PiDP-8/I, including FORTRAN IV.

FORT.SV is the FORTRAN II compiler, the FORTRAN IV compiler is named F4.SV

Anyway, you can look at this thread discussing everything:

https://groups.google.com/g/pidp-8/c/88nDVJF1bIA

It links to a DropBox folder that has DECtape images for a number of languages: FORTRAN II, FORTRAN IV, Pascal, Basic, Algol, COBOL, and so on. It talks about how you can set up the PiDP-8/I to be able to select any one of the tapes I set up when you reboot with IF switches set to 3 (011). Otherwise, you could just find the tape with F4.SV on it and copy that file onto Oscar's DECtape. But watch out, if F4.SV is missing then it's likely that other things are missing too.

Good luck,

-- steve

[Charles Ess]

Just a small update: everything (so far) is working like a charm.

I ran the batch file that compiled, built, linked, and then ran the WHTSTN.F4 program. The comment about "OS/8 FORTRAN IV is massively slow on DECTapes" is just about right: the whole thing took 40+ minutes or so. But rewarding to see the blinkenlights at work - and the final results:

Thanks a million again!

- c.

On Sunday, April 28, 2024 at 7:00:23 AM UTC+2 Charles Ess wrote:

Thanks a million, Steve - will get on it today. Will try to do so without having to ask further questions - fingers crossed ...

Again, many thanks indeed - 

- c.