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Software utility package found for the Commodore PET

dave_m

dave_m

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In the early 80's, North American Rockwell developed, for in-house use, a very comprehensive package of utilities for the PET. The package was named Basic, Assembly and Text Processor (BATPRO). The programmer is a retired engineer named John Darling. Recently he has uncovered a set of the EPROMs and a very detailed write-up. I will post the introduction in a follow-up message to see if there is any interest. If so, I have his permission to post the binary files and I have created a set of Intel Hex files also.

I have a limited number of Texas Instruments 2532 EPROMs that I will program and send to serious PET enthusiasts free of charge who do not have PROM programming capability just to ensure that this software will continue to be used.

I will also convert the hard copy manual to a pdf file and will post this as soon as possible. John told me that the utility adds 49 new commands useful for developing and troubleshooting programs and data files (sequential disk files).

Right now I am troubleshooting two 8032 machines that I borrowed from an old Rockwell guy who apparently never throws anything away (I gave mine away decades ago). The keyboards do not work well and one comes up with only 16K of RAM. But one works good enough to verify that the contents of the 26 year old EPROMs seem to be good. One really neat feature is a number converter. One enters a number in either decimal, hex or octal and it returns the number in the other forms.
 
BATPRO Introduction page

BATPRO Introduction page

BATPRO DESCRIPTION

INTRODUCTION

BATPRO (Basic, Assembly, & Text Processor) is a general purpose utility
package intended for use with the COMMODORE PET. This utility package is
an improved version of PLUG which is described in WP81-3021 and an upgrade
of the 1982 BATPRO Version (WP82-3121). It presumes the user has a
COMMODORE Dual Disk Drive (8050, 4040 or 2040) and a COMMODORE
Printer (2023, 2022, 4022 or 8023), but they are not necessary to use BATPRO.

This utility package requires 8K of program space. No storing occurs in this area
which makes it suitable for EPROM usage. For discussion purposes, it is
assumed that BATPRO is located at $9000 thru $AFFF, although it could be
located elsewhere: ref BATPRO(3.1). It does not require ram storage space in
the 2nd cassette buffer area ($03A8-03FF). There may be a conflict with some
programs due to the repeat key being active. The command "ko" (REPEAT-KEY
OFF) will disable the BATPRO all-keys repeat option. Then reload your program
and try running it again.

BATPRO contains a comprehensive Disk Operating System (DOS) package. It
Includes many new features not found elsewhere.

XTRAMON, an extended machine language monitor, is included for the machine
language user, along with a source code Text Editor and an Object Code Loader
and a Disassembler. The Loader is compatible with the COMMODORE
Assembler (MOS Technology ASCII format). A revised version of that assembler
which will run on BASIC 3.0 or 4.0 machines is also included on the companion
disk to this working paper.

Screen print and other printer options are also available with this package.

In addition, BATPRO provides extensive editing and debugging capability for the
serious PET programmer. A summary of the various options are provided with an
index to their description and usage.

20 October 1983
 
WOW! Sounds like quite a find!

I'm certainly interested; I can burn the 2532s, so all I'd need would be the binaries and the PDFs, but that's a very generous offer to burn the EPROMs.
Sounds like there's also a diskette in the package; any chance one of those is still around?

Thanks in advance!

mike
 
Mike,
John Darling said he would look around the garage for his work boxes to see if he can find some more stuff. Apparently the tech library handed out a diskette with the report that contained a RAM version of BATPRO along with PROM images for 3.0 and 4.0 BASIC machines and an assembler. However there is a mini assembler built into BATPRO where one types in the starting address and the mnemonic instructions and BATPRO puts in the code.

Where would be the best place on the internet to upload the PROM images and the pdf manual to get this into the hands of guys that might play with this utility? I certainly realize that most collectors don’t have the time or inclination to really write code for their old machines, but some people must like to keep up their skills in assembly language and somehow it just isn't any fun on a Vista PC.

Are there other places where PET/6502 microprocessor fanatics hang out?
Best regards, Dave
 
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There are a couple of software archives. The major one is Zimmers FTP, former Funet FTP. It is the perfect place to host ROM images and accompanying software.

As for other discussion forums, there is the cbm-hackers mailing list which is mostly technical but with a great amount of knowledge (high signal/noise ratio). There used to be a PET Alive! forum too, but it got merged with the C128 Alive! forum. Traffic is limited, and I doubt all PET people even know about the forum, although some do.
 
carlsson said:
There are a couple of software archives. The major one is Zimmers FTP, former Funet FTP. It is the perfect place to host ROM images and accompanying software.
Click to expand...

Thanks, Carlsson, Zimmers looks like a great place to put the ROM images and text. I sent an email to Bo Zimmerman to find out the details. I'll make sure I post a message here to let people know where to find the files.
-Dave
 
Upload please...

Upload please...

These roms sound great. Please upload them to ftp.zimmers.net/incoming, or email them directly to me and I'll make sure they are put in place.

Thanks!
 
BATPRO User Manual

BATPRO User Manual

dave_m said:
I will also convert the hard copy manual to a pdf file and will post this as soon as possible. John told me that the utility adds 49 new commands useful for developing and troubleshooting programs and data files (sequential disk files).
Click to expand...

I have sent the BATPRO files to Bo by email so it may take a while for him to post on the zimmers site. To see what BATPRO can do, I have posted the pdf user manual here:

http://generalthomas.com/PET/BATPRO_Ref.pdf
 
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BATPRO and VICE Emulator

BATPRO and VICE Emulator

Today I tried the BATPRO binaries in 9000H and A000H with the Versatile Commodore Emulator (VICE) and they worked together very well. I configured VICE for PET 8032 emulation as that is the version of BATPRO I have.

The beauty of this was that I was able to check out the DOS commands in BATPRO. Having no actual disk hooked to my PET, I was not able to try these commands before.

VICE is quite a program and an outstanding tool.

Here are the links to the PROM binary images.

9000H Binary Image

A000H Binary Image
 
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good stuff

good stuff

Thanks, dave_m
Good stuff !
You might want to PM VCF user tezza in NZ who recently restored a CBM and posted his trials & tribulations, I'm sure he'd be most interested in a set of the 2532's
patscc
 
patscc said:
Thanks, dave_m
Good stuff !
You might want to PM VCF user tezza in NZ who recently restored a CBM
Click to expand...

Sure, I'll help any user get a set. But note that tez has a 3032. Right now I have only located PROM images for PETs with BASIC 4 and 80 columns.

Also note that, at least with the PET business keyboard, commands must be entered in lower case letters.
-Dave
 
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I am using 4.8 in a PET 4032. I haven't used the text editor portion but the BASIC extensions seem to be working fine in 40 columns and are quite useful in my current project. Was the source code found for this?

-Matt
 
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hexsane said:
I am using 4.8 in a PET 4032. I haven't used the text editor portion but the BASIC extensions seem to be working fine in 40 columns and are quite useful in my current project. Was the source code found for this?

-Matt
Click to expand...

Matt,
This is really great news. Have you tried the additional disk commands? They are very handy too if you have the original IEEE 488 disk drives.

I think I will run Batpro 4.8 in the VICE emulator set to 4032 mode and see exactly how much of it works.

No, sorry, the source code has not been found.

If anyone wants a set of EPROMs for their 8032 or 4032 PETs, just let me know. I'm offering this partly because I know the retired engineer who wrote the code back in the early 80's and partly because I enjoy messing with my old PROM Programmer. I think it has to do with making something useful out of blank silicon.
 
The only thing I've run into that doesn't work is the unnew ;UN command. I have forgotten to sys 40960 at power on and when I've tried it unnew doesn't work. Everything else I've used appears to work.

-Matt
 
That's too bad the un-new doesn't work on the 4032. That very issue of having input a bunch of code and forgetting to save before initializing Batpro was the reason un-new was added.

It seems to work with the VICE emulator. With the business model the command should be entered in lower case.
-Dave
 
PET Software Testers Wanted

PET Software Testers Wanted

I have re-generated a machine language program that loads in the $7000 to $7FFF area of RAM. It has some of the features of BATPRO and can run on any 32K version of the PET.

It was a small part of an integrated set of software called Data File Handler which, for its time, was a fairly sophisticated data base program as it could sort data records across multiple diskettes. Of course no one would use a PET for this kind of thing now, but the part I salvaged is called “DFH Editor” and it has some useful features that PET users with disk drives might want.

It has the full set of disk command shortcuts as used in the Commodore Wedge and in BATPRO. And while the rest of the commands are mainly to support editing of text files, a few of commands are useful in the software’s “BASIC” mode such as Auto line numbering and Un-new. Unfortunately the extended machine language monitor and debugging commands from BATPRO were left out as not being applicable to a data base application.

I tried testing it in the VICE Simulator but while everything else looks good, the disk LOAD command seem a little flaky on the simulator. I would like to find out if it is the Editor program or in VICE’s disk simulator.

Could someone with a PET and an IEEE drive try out the LOAD command shortcut? Also let me know what type of PET you used.

Here is the syntax (note that quotes around filename are NOT needed and IEEE address #8 is the default and is NOT required to be in the command):

/filename (this is used for a ‘BASIC’ LOAD as it always loads at $401. Very useful in loading C64 BASIC programs as it will correctly load the file at $401 not at $801.)

/filename,1 (this is used to load at address indicated in file. Useful for machine language programs.)

/filename,$xxxx (this is used for a ‘directed’ load as it will load to the hex address provided.)


Things to note: Start the code with sys 28672. The program will protect itself by setting the top of BASIC to $7000. Kill it with the ;mk command and since the default is TEXT mode, change it to BASIC mode with the ;mb command before loading BASIC programs. I’m not sure if a file extension is needed for PET disk drives so I will post it with the name "editor.prg". You can rename it to "editor" if the extension is unnecessary.

download editor.prg
 
editor

editor

dave_m said:
I tried testing it in the VICE Simulator but while everything else looks good, the disk LOAD command seem a little flaky on the simulator. I would like to find out if it is the Editor program or in VICE’s disk simulator.
Click to expand...

I found out how to make the load command shortcut work with the VICE simulator, but I still don’t know if the problem was with editor or VICE.

After the editor software is loaded with load “editor”,8 and initialized with sys 28672), it defaults to TEXT mode, i.e., wants to work with sequential data files. Leave it there and load a file from the disk using the shortcut command:
/filename

Loading a sequential file is best but it is OK to load a program file as long as you get rid of the results with a NEW command.

Then change mode to BASIC ( ;mb ). Now loading of program files will be fine.
 
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