Paper Tape Loading problem
(1) By ZX-Chris on 2021-12-07 22:43:48 [link] [source]
Dear all, I built my PiDP8/I Kit and working with it literally every day. I have sadly some loading problems at the moment: I want to run the 4K Fortran Compiler via Paper tape described on the sites here: https://techtinkering.com/2009/07/14/running-4k-fortran-on-a-dec-pdp8/ Sadly SimH has problems to attach a paper tape punch and when I follow the description and want to punch the virtual tape nothing will be written in. I am booting the PiDP8 into 001 IF switches and then I load first the compiler and attach the tape. In fact not even the compiler seems to work. And if i attach the symbolic editor it starts but it won't save any files... My workflow was the following:
sim> load /home/pi/symbed.bin (-- my name for the tape) sim> cont
on the front panel I press 0200 (staring point) and Load_add then I enter 3000 for high speed paper tape and then press start. The editor starts and I tried to attach a 'fresh paper tape' with: sim> attach ptp /home/pi/papertape.bin
now after appending some small text and pressing P, the editor does surely something (thanks to the front panel :) ) but nothing is written... I only got this procedure working under OS/8
and when I now load the compiler and run it at adress 0200 the only thing happening is the emitting of a 'J' onto the terminal.
What am I doing wrong?
Thank you in advance for your help
Greetings, Chris
(2) By Warren Young (tangent) on 2021-12-10 22:50:33 in reply to 1 [link] [source]
Dear all
The Google group has a better approximation to "all" than the membership of this forum. This site is primarily the software development and distribution project, so this forum is best used for discussing that, rather than actual use of the software.
That's not to say that your question's off-topic, just that by posting here, you aren't addressing the bulk of the audience that can help you.
I want to run the 4K Fortran Compiler via Paper tape described on the sites here
I've never tried following that tutorial and can't be bothered to debug it properly now, but I wonder if it's simply wrong? Surely a *.bin file in PDP-8 paper tape context is in BIN loader format, not in SIMH's DUMP format? (See ยง4.1.)
Sadly SimH has problems to attach a paper tape punch
That's news to me. Care to be specific?
I am booting the PiDP8 into 001 IF switches
That starts the RIM loader, which may then be used to load the BIN loader per the BIN loader tutorial linked above, but it doesn't look like you're actually doing that.
nothing is written...
SIMH won't flush the file data until the tape is detached from the simulator.
(3) By ZX-Chris on 2021-12-10 23:51:48 in reply to 2 [link] [source]
Thank you really much for the tips! I already sent a request into the group but it has not been answered yet :( Ok. So I solved the problem somehow, the compiler and operating system work now fine. I renamed the bin to pt files and first loaded "old-fashioned" the bin loader from USB and after that I loaded the compiler, attached ptr and ptp and ran the compiler at loc. 0200 with switches set to 3000 this indeed worked and after detaching the paper tape was written ... you somehow have to mix the manuals with the SimH then it works :) so attaching worked but i always forgot to detach... so now I have a working system and enjoying 4k Fortran, which is in fact really interesting :)
I hope to be in the group soon :)
Greetings, Chris
(4) By SteveT (stevet) on 2021-12-11 19:20:41 in reply to 3 [source]
Chris, For what it's worth, I added the binary loader into my boot script under the justification that a real -8 is highly likely to have core memory at least for the lowest 4k. Once loaded, binary loader would remain unless it was overwritten. Here is binary loader as SIMH deposit commands, you can copy this and paste this into your 1.script file to avoid always having to reload binary load every time you start up. ; Binary Loader: dep 07612 0000 dep 07613 0000 dep 07614 0000 dep 07615 0000 dep 07616 0000 dep 07626 0000 dep 07627 3212 dep 07630 4260 dep 07631 1300 dep 07632 7750 dep 07633 5237 dep 07634 2212 dep 07635 7040 dep 07636 5227 dep 07637 1212 dep 07640 7640 dep 07641 5230 dep 07642 1214 dep 07643 0274 dep 07644 1341 dep 07645 7510 dep 07646 2226 dep 07647 7750 dep 07650 5626 dep 07651 1214 dep 07652 0256 dep 07653 1257 dep 07654 3213 dep 07655 5230 dep 07656 0070 dep 07657 6201 dep 07660 0000 dep 07661 0000 dep 07662 6031 dep 07663 5262 dep 07664 6036 dep 07665 3214 dep 07666 1214 dep 07667 5660 dep 07670 6011 dep 07671 5270 dep 07672 6016 dep 07673 5265 dep 07674 0300 dep 07675 4343 dep 07676 7041 dep 07677 1215 dep 07700 7402 dep 07701 6032 dep 07702 6014 dep 07703 6214 dep 07704 1257 dep 07705 3213 dep 07706 7604 dep 07707 7700 dep 07710 1353 dep 07711 1352 dep 07712 3261 dep 07713 4226 dep 07714 5313 dep 07715 3215 dep 07716 1213 dep 07717 3336 dep 07720 1214 dep 07721 3376 dep 07722 4260 dep 07723 3355 dep 07724 4226 dep 07725 5275 dep 07726 4343 dep 07727 7420 dep 07730 5336 dep 07731 3216 dep 07732 1376 dep 07733 1355 dep 07734 1215 dep 07735 5315 dep 07736 0000 dep 07737 3616 dep 07740 2216 dep 07741 7600 dep 07742 5332 dep 07743 0000 dep 07744 1376 dep 07745 7106 dep 07746 7006 dep 07747 7006 dep 07750 1355 dep 07751 5743 dep 07752 5262 dep 07753 0006 dep 07754 0000 dep 07777 5301 -- steve