Just wondering if anyone still uses PL1/80 ?

[Phil G]

I've been reminiscing some decades-old (mid 80s) archives from when I worked in BT's Measurement & Analysis Centre - where PL1/80 mixed with assembler was 'the thing'.
Mostly work related stuff but some ham radio & BBS projects, and an early packet-radio 'chatbot' :-)  a lot of the files are missing their essential declaration files, but I did manage to recreate my PL1 library declares, it adds quite a few useful commands to PL1.

Its unlikely I'll ever use PL1 again but I wondered if anyone else did?
Cheers - Phil

[Richard Deane]

It's my go-to language on CP/M. I use it to write utility programs because of its close coupling to APIs, making it ideal for system software. It has library routines for CPM 22 and CPM 3, and if you rename some you can build programs with appropriate linking to cope with both versions after a bdos version check.

I use v1.4 and it is robust, even on-error blocks work but are a bit quirky with respect to placement. My GITHUB RIWIDE repository has the PLI-80 v1.4 bundled with the source of my utilities, some commented as a learning tool. Hexdump.pli  shows a variety of pli elements.

I am biased of course, I wrote a major project management package in PL/I on IBM systems before I got to CP/M. At the time it was before PLI-80 was known and I was committed to Pascal for some development work on CP/M but I would have loved to switch over.

These days I may use HiSoft / FTL/Lightspeed (if i've got the names right) Modula2 (Australian - no worries!) as sold on Amstrad PCW . It's in my Github Riwide repository, easier to use for programs coming across in Pascal, doesn't usually take much effort to port.

My favourite and robust Pascal was Transam (TCL) Pascal interpreter, most other Pascals (compilers and interpreters) failed me during porting of the Project Management systems from IBM to CP/M (Ithaca Intersystems S100) . I have not been able to locate a copy of TCL Pascal to add to my library. A huge regret - The RM 380Z version is similar and derived from it but not generic.

Richard

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[sunnyboy010101]

Some years ago after building a 'single board' Z80 kit, I spent some time converting all my 1980s Engineering FORTRAN programs over to PL/1 and running them on the Z80. I started out in Engineering in the 80's with FORTRAN, but my first job sent me to a PL/1 course (1 week only) which I then used on several big projects. I like PL/1 - it's fun to program. After that I learned C (even more fun as it's super close to the hardware), then C++ and Java among other languages. I still play with the first three (FORTRAN, PL/1 and C) on all my Z80 projects, including the latest RC2014 Z80 (Spencer's kits).

[Ed Silky]

Hi Richard,

What is your GitHub repository? A search for RIWIDE on GitHub doesn't return anything.

-Ed

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[2e0...@gmail.com]

Is it not this one?

https://github.com/riwide

Pete.
2E0QRZ

[Ed Silky]

Probably!

I did a GitHub search and was looking for a repository, not a user. My mistake.

-Ed

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[Phil G]

These are my library routines, if anyone's interested I can post the code (8080 assembler) but I'm not clever enough to do github
Its mostly for stuff PLI-80 wouldnt do ( or wouldnt do it for me!)
The machines we had at the time were Casu C-Max and Mini-C so the bit-banged extra serial port & terminal were for that hardware
Good, solid boxes actually - wish I had one now!

[Richard Deane]

If you search within GITHUB it doesn't seem to find riwide. However a google search finds it.

Richard

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[Ed Silky]

Hi Richard,

Searching within GitHub for "riwide" doesn't find any repositories, which is the default, and the thing I was looking for. However, the left side bar does show results for 'Users'. When I looked in there (after Pete's response showing the github URL for a 'riwide' user) I found your repo.

-Ed

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[7alken]

hi Phil, I remember me peeking into PL/I and PL/M history - here I though you mean more PL/M as it was more related to hardware and even CP/M written in it (?)
so I tried to ask also Lyra again, no harm I hope ))
https://chatgpt.com/share/6a5cb11d-cac0-83eb-9e0c-a0a9f0150898
Petr

[Richard Deane]

that's the one - Github/riwide

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[Phil G]

7alken:>>𝐼 𝑟𝑒𝑚𝑒𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟 𝑚𝑒 𝑝𝑒𝑒𝑘𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑜 𝑃𝐿/𝐼 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑃𝐿/𝑀 ℎ𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑦 - ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝐼 𝑡ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑔ℎ 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑚𝑒𝑎𝑛 𝑚𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝑃𝐿/𝑀
No I never used PL/M as I was mostly of necessity an assembler programmer, but in the early 80s at BT we used a kind of 'closed' computerized telephone network testing system called 'MAC' (measurement and analysis centre, a GEC2050) to which we had no system access, so I did many, many external add-on programs which requested & processed the teletype output using PL/1 for ease and speed of implementation. In this environment - enter a text command, stream & store the result, sort, collate, compare against records, regurgitate for management stats - PL/1 was ideal.  Where network problems were suspected the normal process was a laborious entry by hand of a long block of parameters (called a 'Format-4' in MAC speak) to initiate a specific test run, all this and more was automated using PL/1 on our CP/M Casu Mini-C's and C-Max's and the whole job a year or so into the MAC era was much easier and less labour intensive than it was at the start.   It was some years later I first heard of PL/M but never used it.  BT at the time was quite an affluent company and I was happy to be sent on several PL/I training courses, PL/1 did all we needed until the arrival of BT's first IBM PCs, by which time it was c and 8086 assembler (which I loved, segmentation & all ! )
Cheers - Phil_G

[7alken]

thanks Phil, interesting story, its huge journey what computers did during years;
P.