Before HDOS there was ...
Glenn Roberts
I have finally gotten around to updating the SEBHC web site to include the very first Software Reference Manual for the H8. This was released in the Fall of 1977 along with the original H8 itself. Back then Heath provided software only on magnetic (cassette) tape or paper tape (the latter for the H-10) – there were no disk drives (the H17 came a year later in the fall of 1978, along with HDOS). I was fortunate enough to receive this documentation from Ed Aumiller a few summers back.
You can find the reference just below the HDOS 3 section in the Documentation section:
https://sebhc.github.io/sebhc/documentation.html
Software Reference (1977 Tape Version)
Chapter 0 - Introduction
Chapter 1 - Panel Monitor (PAM-8)
Chapter 2 - Console Debugger (BUG-8)
Chapter 3 - Heath Text Editor (TED-8)
Chapter 4 - Heath Assembly Language (HASL-8)
Chapter 5 - BASIC and Extended BH BASIC
What inspired me to finally cross this off my To Do list is that I’m writing up instructions on how to run this original software (watch for this article, and more, as I unblock the REMarks logjam!). If you don’t have any disk drives but have at least the H8-5 serial/cassette interface plus a laptop you can load and run programs from the front panel. This was demonstrated nicely in the Eric Ackerman video that was posted here recently:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NC2BOBhqork
The original Heath tape software itself is also available in the SEBHC archive:
https://sebhc.github.io/sebhc/software.html#Cassette_Tape_Images
You may find it interesting to peruse this old documentation, and I hope you’ll read my forthcoming writeup and perhaps give it a try. I got my start with the H8 in 1981 and therefore never got to experience the “early days”, but I find it very interesting and satisfying to go back and load and run some of these programs!
- Glenn
Joseph Travis
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