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Direct.sv

Mike_Z

Mike_Z

Veteran Member
Joined
Dec 1, 2013
Messages
1,713
Location
Near Milwaukee Wisconsin
Today was the first time I fired up my PDP8E since last winter. It started just fine and seems to work as I remember. But due to our (mine and the PDP8) advanced age, we needed some time to remember how everything works. I also use SIMh. I noticed a difference between the DIR command between my PDP8e and SIMh. Both list the files, but at the end of the file listing, SIMh tells me how many files and how many blocks remain. Whereas my PDP8e only tells me how many block remain. I tried DIR/W and found that my PDP8e DIR is version V5G and the SIMh version is V7D. This is most likely the reason for the difference. I wondered where the DIR program was and I found DIRECT.SV in both machines, but how can one differentiate the different versions if both files have the same name. I'd like to get the later version of DIRECT.SV in my PDP8e. Thanks, Mike
 
Hey Mike, How's it going?

If I remember correctly (but it is a little late at night over here) the version string is encoded into a fixed location within the executable itself.

I would have to lookup the documentation to identify where though.

Dave
 
I can see it in the source code for direct.

The version string itself is in a block of text fairly close to the end of the source (we'll, it is in mine).

At the beginning of the source is a call to print a message followed by the pointer to the message itself.

So it is a programmatic interface...

Dave
 
Dave, good to hear from you. I made another year and hoping for more. Had a frustrating summer. The basement walls of my home were collapsing and I had to have them repaired. This meant that all my stuff, computer and car parts had to be moved out of the basement so the repairmen had enough space to make the repairs. My garage, a few friends garages and my daughters place were stuffed with my stuff for a few months. The actual repairs only took a week, but it took me a couple of months to move my stuff out of the basement and then again to move it back. I'm pretty much back to 'normal', (a little sore, I used muscles that have not been used in a while) but I'm still having trouble finding things. I suppose it is just part of the adventure.
This morning I searched my copy of SIMh for DIRECT.* files. I only found two copies of DIRECT.SV and one of DIRECT.TS. The DIRECT.TS is not a source file. On my PDP8e I found a bunch of DIRECT.SV and DIRECT.TS files, plus one copy of DIRECT.PA. But, looking inside the .PA, file I find that the version number is V6A. So I do not have the correct source code for the DIRECT that the PDP8e does have (V5G). Seems nothing matches anything else. I suppose the next thing I need to do is search thru some of the other disk images I have to see if I can find more source code files. Thanks for the help, Mike
 
I have a bunch of disk images that I can use with either SIMh or Serial Disk. My method of searching these images is to install them in either SIMh or Serial Disk. I was wondering are these disk images (*.RK05) ISO files? I was figuring that it may be easier to search and retrieve files in Windows. Mike
 
No they are not. But you should be able to use a DOS program called PUTR.COM you will find around.

You just open the disk file under PUTR and list the directory contents to find the file or list the file contents itself.

Dave
 
A quick check on my desktop machine shows 9 different direct.pa and 33 distinct direct.sv.

The 8tools are good for extracting files from various OS/8 images (floppy, DECtape, RK05). There is also os8copy, and whatever the PiDP folks use (os8pip?).

There is something claiming to be direct.pa V7A in the PALBART test bench.

Vince
 
Hi Mike.

Do you have Serial Disk running on the 8/e? If so you could mount the serial disk image on simh as an rk05 image and copy the V7D version you use under simh to the serial disk image. Then put that image back on serial disk and copy the V7D version to your SYS image. If you want both versions you could rename one of them DIRV7D.SV. You would need to explicitly run that version via R DIRV7D instead of using the CCL command DIR.
 
Thanks, Dave I'll look for PUTR & 8TOOLS and give them a try. Hi Doug. Get any snow yet? We got a little, but it all melted. I do use Serial Disk on the PDP8e. I'll have to think about what you said a little and then see if I can do what you said. Thanks a million, Mike
 
8tools are here:

svn - Revision 5660: /trunk/pdp8/8tools

svn.so-much-stuff.com

svn - Revision 5716: /trunk/pdp8/8tools/doc

svn.so-much-stuff.com
The os8dir and os8xplode commands look at and take apart media images. There are conversion tools to and from SIMH floppy or DECtape image formats and "dsk" format (which is basically the same as RK05 format). The osimplode and mkdsk tools (re)construct os8 dsk format file systems from the exploded stuff.

I think the copy tool from the PiDP project is here:

PiDP-8/I Software: os8-cp.in at tip

tangentsoft.com

Don Baccus' ospip is here:
github.com

GitHub - dhogaza/os8pip: Provides OS/8 PIP-like functionality on Mac OS/X.

Provides OS/8 PIP-like functionality on Mac OS/X. Contribute to dhogaza/os8pip development by creating an account on GitHub.
github.com github.com

Hope that helps.

Vince
 
Thanks for the help. I Yesterday I found putr.com and here is what I learned so far. The copy I got does not work on WIN7, but it does work on WINxp. You also need to use the DOS file spec. The long file names do not work (doh!). I was able to mount a rk05 disk image, look at what was in it and dis mount it. Hopefully today, I can look at more images and features. Vince, thanks for the reference to 8tools. I didn't find them on my own. I'll give them a try later.
 
PUTR.COM is an assembly language DOS program - so the old limits of DOS apply...

Win/XP would be my "go to" OS for this as well.

Dave
 
Well...... I had thought that I had a bunch of disk images, but it turns out I only have four. I do have a bunch of copies of each. Where can I find more? Mike
 
Mike_Z said:
Well...... I had thought that I had a bunch of disk images, but it turns out I only have four. I do have a bunch of copies of each. Where can I find more? Mike
Click to expand...
There are a few great sources for images online, but my collection is here:
Unlike my colleagues who've done it better, with a proper web interface and such, it is just a big list of downloadable files. There's usually a ".dir.txt" file with a list of what's in each image, at least.

Vince
 
Mike,

I know this is going to sound a daft question, but why don't you just transfer the OS/8 image you are running on SIMH down to the PDP-8/E if you want the 'latest' version?

Or am I missing something?

Dave
 
Thanks Vince for the link. Dave, you know, there are times when I look in the refrig for something and tell my wife that I can not find that something. Then she reaches over a pulls it out when it was right in front of me all the time. This seems to be one of those times. Thanks, Mike
 
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