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DEC PDP-8/E EDUSYSTEM-10 4KW BASIC interpreter.

daver2

daver2

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Hi,

With assistance from the CHM (Computer History Museum) we have managed to recover the PDP-8/E 4KW EDUSYSTEM-10 BASIC interpreter paper tape image into an electronic form.

I have managed to get it to run under SIMH with the attached configuration file.

Please contact the CHM directly for a copy of the image itself (the release form I signed does not permit me to distribute the artefact to a third party).

You can only run a small BASIC program in the available 4KW - but it still is a great 'experience'...

Now, to see if it will run on something that is not a PDP-8/E (i.e. without a BSW instruction)...

Dave
 

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For that you need the EDUSYSTEM-20 tapes. I have found the source code for that on deramp.com (I think). EDIT: Yes, here: Edusystem 20 Version C.

That gives you a 'better' BASIC (but it occupies a bit more core obviously) but much more user space...

Dave
 
daver2 said:
Hi,

With assistance from the CHM (Computer History Museum) we have managed to recover the PDP-8/E 4KW EDUSYSTEM-10 BASIC interpreter paper tape image into an electronic form.

I have managed to get it to run under SIMH with the attached configuration file.

Please contact the CHM directly for a copy of the image itself (the release form I signed does not permit me to distribute the artefact to a third party).

You can only run a small BASIC program in the available 4KW - but it still is a great 'experience'...

Now, to see if it will run on something that is not a PDP-8/E (i.e. without a BSW instruction)...

Dave
Click to expand...
I find it puzzling that you had to sign a CHM "release form" for a DEC product. How did the CHM end up with the rights to this software?
Also why did you need the CHM to read the paper tape?
 
CHM do not own the rights to this software. It is still copyrighted material. They are providing it for private use/research purposes etc. so I have had to sign that I will not break the terms of the release.

CHM have the paper tape itself in their inventory. I don't. Hence the reason I asked CHM to digitise their paper tape and make it available digitally.

It is now available to other individuals who wish to acquire a copy (for personal use only of course).

Dave
 
That's what I am interested in - running it on a none-8/E (a machine without the BSW microinstruction).

I see from the source code for EDUSYSTEM-20 BASIC that it checks whether it is running on an 8/E or not. Not sure what it does after that. I was going to have a look at the initial code for EDUSYSTEM-10 to see if it does the same thing.

If anyone wants to run it on a Straight-8 I would be interested in the results...

Dave
 
Later versions of EDUSYSTEM BASIC appears to run on an 8/L (no BSW). The first instruction is "CLA CLL IAC BSW". From that the code appears to work out whether BSW works as advertised (it is present) or not (it isn't present).

I will have a look at the EDUSYSTEM-10 BASIC to see whether it has the same entry code construct or not.

Dave
 
It's a hot topic recently. I'm still sorting at least three and probably four different Edu25 versions.

I suspect the newest will turn out to be "edu25f.sv", but haven't proven that yet:

The "restored" version has a new and old too -- I originally stole code from Edu10 to restore the clobbered routine, but later the correct code showed up.

I think Ethan is planning to demo 10 and maybe 20 this weekend.

There are also a couple of other (older) VCF threads about folks looking for these.

Vince
 
I have just done a quick test, and the EDUSYSTEM-10 4KW BASIC doesn't appear to use BSW.

I introduced some diagnostic code into SIMH to print a message if BSW was used - and it was never triggered. I tried quite a lot of floating point maths (and using some of the trigonometric functions and loops) but nada.

I am hoping it will therefore run on the none-BSW machines... I didn't try to monitor OPR group 3 instructions though. Perhaps a test for another day?

Dave
 
I ran Edusystem-5 (or 10 I'm not sure) on a 4K PDP-8/L in 7th - 9th grade in the early 70's. I'm positive Edusystem-10 Basic works on the 8/L.
 
Minor progress...I've determined that edu250.pa seems to be a version of EDUCOMP BASIC, not a version of EDUSYSTEM 25 BASIC. The file edu253.pa *does* seem to be an EDUSYSTEM 25 BASIC.

EDUCOMP BASIC builds (after appending a $ at the end), but crashes on a JMS to a CRLF routiine which lands it in the wrong field, where it tries to do floating point for a while and ultimately returns through a pointer to location 00000, then loops in the interrupt service routine.
 
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