Re: help wanted

massage4jou@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
On 13 mrt, 13:30, sjm <sjms...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hi Peter,

I see that Henk Salemink has sent you source code. If that doesn't
work out, let me know and I'll send it to you.

I was a PL/I programmer about 25 years ago. I'd be interested in
looking at your Web site if you'd post the URL here.

Being somewhat of a computer antiquarian, I just uploaded PLUM to my
modern Dorado 180 and tried to execute it. I got an error saying
INVALID ABSOLUTE ELEMENT - MAYBE OBSOLETE FORMAT - TRY REMAP which
tells me that the executable format is so old (absolute created in
1976) that it's no longer supported. Unisys 1100/2200 systems are
very good about maintaining backwards compatibility. I've got other
software of the same vintage where the executable still runs (e.g.,
@DOC from 1975!), so PLUM might have been built on a system that was
not new in 1976. When I have time (I wonder when that will be?), I'm
going to try to re-assemble and re-collect PLUM from the source code
and see if I can get it to work on my current system.

BTW, if memory serves, Unisys (Sperry Univac at the time) also had a
PL/I compiler for the 1100 Series system. I'm not sure when it was
released or how long it lived as a product.

-- Steve J. Martin

Hello Steve,

Be aware of the obsolete executive request ER LINK$, ER RLINK$ and ER
RLIST$ in element PLEX and EXDB.
This ER's are replaced with hardware instructions.

So it appears there are at least two different problems. The format of the absolute did change, about exec level 33 If I remember correctly. Sperry provided a program (called ABSEX?) that was written in FLIT and simply "adjusted" an old format absolute to the new format. This was for people who didn't have the source or relocatables for older programs. Of course if you recollect, you get the new format.

The second problem (as message4 indicated) is the obsolete ERs. These ERs were used to create reentrant processors. The mechanism was indeed replaced by the multi banking/common banks and the LIJ/LDJ instructions, but it was not a simple one to one replacement.

For your purposes, since I expect you don't care about reentrancy, you can probably simplify things considerably, but you will have to do some research as to exactly what these ERs expected so you can set up the code into the right place and the right way. I expect the research will take far longer than making the changes once you determine what needs to be done.

If you are serious about this, I think I have an old PRM that might be old enough to have these ers documented and I can try to do the research for you. But I never used them myself.


--
- Stephen Fuld
(e-mail address disguised to prevent spam)
.

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