Running 4K FORTRAN on a DEC PDP-8Written by Lawrence Woodman on 14th July 2009 Tags: DEC, Fortran, PDP-8, Programming, Retro, Tutorials
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4K FORTRAN was a subset of FORTRAN II and was the first high-level language available for the DEC PDP-8. It consisted of two parts: the 4K FORTRAN Compiler (nicknamed "Fivetran") and the 4K FORTRAN Operating System. The compiler was written by Larry Portner and the operating system was written by Henry Burkhardt. The introduction of this compiler made the PDP-8 much easier to program and was particularly useful to those using the machine for scientific calculations. Below is a guide to using 4K FORTRAN.
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Read more A Quickstart Guide to Editing Paper Tape with the Symbolic Tape Editor on the DEC PDP-8Written by Lawrence Woodman on 16th June 2009 Tags: DEC, Editors, PDP-8, Retro, Tutorials
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Before re-writable storage devices, such as tape drives, become popular for the DEC PDP-8, owners had to rely on paper tape. This was fine for loading programs on pre-punched tape, but left the problem of how to put new data onto punched tape and how to edit existing data. This could be done off-line, but a better way was to use DEC's Symbolic Editor. This made life much easier as it allowed you to interactively edit a tape in a buffer, check the alterations and then output a new tape. This editor was used for quite a few years by those wanting to edit Assembly or FORTRAN source code. What follows is a brief introduction to using this editor.
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Read more Emulating a DEC PDP-8 with SimHWritten by Lawrence Woodman on 26th May 2009 Tags: DEC, Emulation, PDP-8, Retro, SimH, Tutorials
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The DEC PDP-8 mini-computer was launched on 22 March 1965 and was a great success. It was fairly cheap for the day and could easily be expanded. What attracts me most to the PDP-8 is its simple design. I therefore decided to experiment with the SimH emulation of this machine, but found that the documentation wasn't always straightforward. This article intends to show how easy SimH is and how powerful it can be. |
Read more Using DOSBox to Run DOS Games and ApplicationsWritten by Lawrence Woodman on 24th October 2008 Tags: DOS, Emulation, Retro, Tutorials
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There were some brilliant games and applications released for DOS, and some of the games such as Command and Conquer are still very playable. There are a number of options to play these games today, from using a Virtual Machine such as QEMU, to DOSBox which is a dedicated DOS emulator. Both of these are included in most Linux distributions. I have chosen DOSBox as it is quick and very easy to use, you don't need to install a DOS compatible operating system on it, and it uses your native file system for storage.
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Read more Installing the HI-TECH Z80 C Compiler for CP/MWritten by Lawrence Woodman on 22nd October 2008 Tags: C, CP/M, Programming, Retro, Tutorials, Z80
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My language of choice is C and I am currently getting more involved with the CP/M operating system. I have therefore decided that it would be nice to have a C compiler working under CP/M. There are a number of options available in the archives, but I have found that HI-TECH are allowing their CP/M C compiler to be downloaded for free. This is a very good product, has good documentation, is almost ANSI C compliant and can be used for commercial and non-commercial use. This, therefore, is the one I have chosen.
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Read more Setting up z80pack to create an emulated CP/M systemWritten by Lawrence Woodman on 17th October 2008 Tags: CP/M, Emulation, Retro, Tutorials, Z80
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I have decided to try out some old CP/M software, but need something to run it on. I could either do this on my Commodore 128 or through emulation. Unfortunately the 1571 disk drive for my Commodore is currently out of action, so that leaves me with emulation. I was going to use vice to emulate a C128, but have always found it a pain to get CP/M files onto .D64/71 disk images. After looking around for the best emulator to run CP/M on, I came up with either YAZE-AG or z80pack. z80pack seems to be better supported, has more documentation and is being actively developed, so that's the one I have chosen for this article.
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