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PiDP-8/I

Hi All;

M-Thompson, "" Looks just like mine, but I haven't painted the switches yet. "" This is the way they came, the New Switches have pre-tinted levers.. So, they don't need any work, except to install them in the Printed Circuit Board..

THANK YOU Marty
 
Hi All;

All of the Switches are soldered in place..
But, Remember that on the Back side, I have pin Connectors and I have not nor will I install any of the Diodes, Since I am not using any kind of a pie, Apple, Raspberry, Cherry or Peach..
And this will be used on the PDP 8i MicroController Board..

THANK YOU Marty
 
Hi all,

Over the past weekend, I received my order form from Oscar for the next batch of PiDP-8 kits.
I've sent in my order, and I await the request for payment and shipping notice.

smp
 
Hi,

Yes, we'll have one more packing & shipping frenzy to deal with the backlog in PiDP-8 kits, the weekend after next.

Then I'm done. Yay! But it has been great fun.

Kind regards,

Oscar.
 
This morning, I received the following note from Oscar:

All,

If all had gone according to plan, you would have had a Paypal invoice from me on Friday.

However, a minor disaster has struck... I very much regret to tell you that I have to postpone sending them out, due to some family health problems. Nothing too dramatic, but I will not be able to send them out in the coming two months.

I am very, very sorry for the hassle - but nothing I can do about it at the moment.

I will email you again in about two months to check if you still want the kit as per the order forms you have already sent me. Rest assured, I *will* send them out to anyone who still wants them!

Kind regards, and apologies!

Oscar.
Click to expand...

Oscar, you and your family have all my best wishes and prayers as you face this difficult time. Your family is the most important thing you have. Take all the time you need. When the time is right for you to return to this effort, we will still be here. I sincerely hope that all goes well for you and yours.

smp
 
Hi All;

Oscar, I agree with Smp..
"" Oscar, you and your family have all my best wishes and prayers as you face this difficult time. Your family is the most important thing you have. Take all the time you need. When the time is right for you to return to this effort, we will still be here. I sincerely hope that all goes well for you and yours. ""

THANK YOU Marty
 
Hi,

Thank you! But not to worry, 'it' (I'm kind of a private guy) is not all that bad. Just makes it hard to drive the 1600km to/from Holland (where I put together the kits) etc etc. But no tragedy at hand and I **will** make the kits in a month or two!

Kind regards,

Oscar.
 
Good morning (US EDT) to all,

While I am awaiting the eventual shipment and arrival of my cool PiDP-8 front panel kit, I have gotten my Raspberry Pi working with Oscar's very fast OS image. I can plug the Pi into my Mac laptop, watch it come up (only about 10 seconds) and then SSH into the PDP-8 from a terminal window. Wow. This is excellent.

In this mode, just a bare Pi, I am greeted by the dot prompt of OS/8. If I execute a DIR command, I see hundreds of files (or so it seems) stream by on the terminal window.

I certainly intend to get out of the sim and go poking around in the Linux filesystem. I am only a little experienced with Linux, but I am a complete newbie with the PDP-8. Can anyone here who has a PiDP-8 up an running offer some simple suggestions of what I can try out on my PiDP-8? I will be soaking up the OS/8 manual, the small systems manual and the introduction to programming manual, for certain, but what can I play with in the meantime?

Thanks very much for any advice or thoughts that you may have to offer.

smp
 
smp said:
Thanks very much for any advice or thoughts that you may have to offer.
Click to expand...

At the OS/8 prompt, first set the date to 1999 due to Y2K in case you create a file:
date 31-dec-99

Check to see that it took:
date

Then check the version:
ver

Check the B volume of the disk to see the games, etc. You can scroll up to see everything:
dir rkb0:

Then run basic:
r basic

reply 'old' to the prompt to load existing files

then enter filename:

rkb0:dice

Type list to see basic program and then run

enter 'no' to exit program and 'bye' to exit basic and get back to OS/8

To enter a simple Hello World program in FORTRAN IV involves using the stupid line editor so study the manual or make a lot of frustrating errors.
-Dave
 
Hi dave_m,

Thanks *very* much for those few pointers. That's exactly what I was hoping for.
I've typed in a few of my standard BASIC programs, saved them, and edited them to run in PDP-8 BASIC lingo. Well, only one so far, but I'm on my way now.

smp
 
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m_thompson said:
You can always learn to use TECO.;)
Click to expand...


Ah, TECO... I've used it in the past, and I suppose that here I'll use it again. It's kind of like riding a bicycle, don't you think? It takes a little bit of effort at first, but then the goodness of it comes rushing back. <...grin...>

smp
 
smp said:
Ah, TECO... I've used it in the past, and I suppose that here I'll use it again. It's kind of like riding a bicycle, don't you think? It takes a little bit of effort at first, but then the goodness of it comes rushing back. <...grin...>

smp
Click to expand...
I remember using TECO back in the day. I'm sure it would come back to me with a bit of refresher.
 
tradde said:
I remember using TECO back in the day. I'm sure it would come back to me with a bit of refresher.
Click to expand...

I remember using TECO back then as my go-to editor on just about any DEC system; RT11 on PDP11, TOPS10 on PDP10, and then VMS on VAX (really RSX mode). Only later did I move to EDT on VAX for general WYSIWIG screen editing.

TECO is much more than just an editor, it is a whole programming environment as well. I had TECO macros for whole bunches of scenarios, and would use it for what unix users would later know as 'awk' and then 'perl'.

Also: https://github.com/blakemcbride/TECOC

Don
 
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smp said:
Thanks *very* much for those few pointers. That's exactly what I was hoping for.
Now, I've typed in a few of my standard BASIC programs, saved them, and edited them go run in PDP-8 lingo. Well, only one so far, but I'm on my way now.
Click to expand...

smp,
BASIC is OK, but you really need to try FORTRAN IV for a lot of fun. Once you get a handle on TECO, enter a Hello program. The file extension should be '.FT'.

I=100
WRITE(4,101) I
101 FORMAT('HELLO WORLD', I6)
CALL EXIT
END

For simple programs, you can compile, load and execute with one command:
EXE FILENAME.FT

I'm trying to transfer a FORTRAN source file that resides on the PC, which I'm using as a terminal, into the RK05 image, but so far no progress. I think it involves the FOTP command. So much to learn, but its fun.
-Dave
 
For FOTP you need a file-orientated (ie an OS/8 directory structured) device so you can't do that directly. You can attach a text file to PTR: and use PIP, but it can be a bit of a pain with the parity bit where the resulting file can display OK but not be easily editable. As a rather kludgy workaround I run it through a cleanup routine on the PDP8 (Simh) to force parity on.

I always preferred the line editor EDIT to TECO on a terminal. Apart from global searches I think it's a lot faster to use. (By the way, in Fortran (IV) the first character on output is non-printing carriage control so you'd usually start a new line with a space character.)
 
Last edited:
bobaboba said:
For FOTP you need a file-orientated (ie an OS/8 directory structured) device so you can't do that directly. You can attach a text file to PTR: and use PIP, but it can be a bit of a pain with the parity bit where the resulting file can display OK but not be easily editable. As a rather kludgy workaround I run it through a cleanup routine on the PDP8 (Simh) to force parity on.
Click to expand...

I did try PIP but I always did something wrong and had it go into space. I'll study it more. I'm going to try TECO as EDIT is fine for sample programs of a few lines, but otherwise seems to painful to me. Thanks for the tips, I certainly appreciate it. This PiDP-8 gadget is a fun, affordable way to peek into the wonderfully mysterious world of DEC.
-Dave
 
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