Programming the PDP-11 under RSX

[MattCarp]

I thought I saw a discussion somewhere on this topic, but I can’t seem to find it.

Where can I find programming tools for the PDP-11 under RSX?

I see that RSX includes FORTRAN IV, and of course MACRO-11, but I am looking for something easier to use. I’d like to avoid BASIC and COBOL.

I don’t know if C was ported, since it was evolving in Unix at that time. I think I would like a Pascal compiler. However, I would yield to a veteran’s advice on this.

Purpose is…I don’t know. Playing around. Would like both ease of console I/O, access to low level functions, good modularity and readability.

 

[daver2]

There is a C compiler. I never used it though.

There definitely is a Pascal compiler. I did use one.

In the first instance, can I point you to https://gist.github.com/tuklusan/4323687373bf101f1de35ec15669efa1.

Dave

 

[krebizfan]

Looking at the DECUS list, other languages include Pascal, C, Forth, Lisp, and APL. The official DEC C was supposed to be fairly good from a feature standpoint if not code performance.

Much of the DECUS RSX material is available at http://pdp-11.classiccmp.org/RSX-11/freeware-CDS/images/

The Forth Interest Group website has a PDP-11 Forth implementation that is probably more recent than the DECUS version but I can't tell if it will run on RSX.

 

[MattCarp]

There is a C compiler. I never used it though.

There definitely is a Pascal compiler. I did use one.

In the first instance, can I point you to https://gist.github.com/tuklusan/4323687373bf101f1de35ec15669efa1.

Dave

Thank you , Dave - that’s gold. …but, it doesn’t look like that includes a reference manual or user’s guide.

 

[daver2]

>>> but, it doesn’t look like that includes a reference manual or user’s guide.

That website was pretty high up on my Google search...

Bitsavers would be the place to start first.

Dave

 

[hush]

if you have TCP/IP running (or don't mind duplicating your setup in SimH and transferring a new disk image) johnny bilquist's RSX package manager has C, F77, Pascal, C81, and more available- might be the easiest way to get a working development environment.

for your reference, here's a list of available development tools in RPM:

>; Compilers and runtime libraries
>;
>; *   C          V1.2    PDP-11 C compiler
>; *   CRTL       V1.2    PDP-11 C runtime library
>; *   F77        T5.4    FORTRAN-77 compiler
>; *   F77RTL     V5.4    FORTRAN-77 runtime library
>; *   BP2        V2.7C   BASIC+2 compiler and interactive environment
>; *   BP2RTL     V2.7C   BASIC+2 runtime library
>; *   C81        V3.1    COBOL-81 compiler
>; *   C81RTL     V3.1    COBOL-81 runtime library
>; *   PAS        2.1E    The Oregon Pascal-2 compiler
>;     BCPL       BCPL04  The DECUS BCPL compiler
>;     FORTH      V1.3.3  FORTH language for RSX-11M-PLUS
>; *   XLISP      V1.4B   Experimental object oriented language based on LISP
>; *   APL        V2.2    APL-11 language interpreter
>;
>; Development tools
>;
>;     MKE        V1.32   The Unix-like make tool
>;     DBG        T2.2.1  PDP-11 Symbolic Debugger
>;     ORCAM      V01.7   Object file disassembler
>;     DOB        V2.2    Object file disassembler
>;     TIN        V1.8    Task INformation tool
>;     SYM        V1.1    Examine symbols in OBJ and STB files
>;     OBD        V1.3    Object file dump/disassemble
>;
>; Utilities/libraries
>;
>; *   DTR        V03.03  DATATRIEVE-11 for RSX
>;     SORT       V3.0    SORT/MERGE for RSX
>;     FMS        V02.2B  FMS-11 for RSX
>;     CURSES     X0.5    A Unix compatible curses library for PDP-11 C

 

[MattCarp]

Hush - that's awesome!


I'm getting ready to button up my hardware - in other threads you may have come across that I was switching SCSI controllers (done), fixing my SLU (done), and one of my memory boards (done, since I replaced it).

Now I just need to get my SCSI cabling cleaned up - I need to have a SCSI cable to the front for a 3.5" half height drive, but, I'd also like to have a SCSI cable branch out of the back for the SCSI2SD device.

After that, I was going to SYSGEN, and then install the TCP/IP package.

The package and documentation looks to be INCREDIBLE, so I read this in the installation section of the documentation:

The disk image will be easy to use both inside RSX by using the VF:
device driver, and outside of RSX by either dumping the disk image
into any existing disk that is 10M or larger, or connecting to an
emulated disk in any of the existing PDP-11 emulators available.

The disk image is a virtual RL02 disk, but will be usable
through any disk which is at least the size of an RL02.

So, I'm going to "dd" it to an SD card, and mount it with the SCSI2SD device...