[chbot] More on the PDP-8

[Alan]

Thanks Brendan, your tale of the restoration process was a very 
interesting read - especially repairing the core memory...

In reading up on the focal language I stumbled across this git-hub code 
for a FOCAL-69 interpreter that will run on Linux: 
https://github.com/AndrewSav/focal-69

It looks like this is taking code from this site: 
http://www.cozx.com/dpitts/

There are a few .foc files included in the repository

Cheers

Alan

On 28/03/20 10:51 am, Brendan McNeill wrote:
> Hi Everyone
>
> I recently obtained my Amateur radio licence which is where I met Mark 
> Atherton.  Mark circulated my restoration effort on the PDP8 computer: 
> https://pdp-8.nz (which is hosted on a RaspberryPi at home) to all of 
> you at the Robotics group.  He also suggested I join the group list 
> and put out a request for assistance that one or more of you may be 
> interested in helping with. This was prompted by a response Mark 
> received from a gentleman named Richard who had previously programmed 
> one of these computers using Focal-8 in the early 1970’s, and what a 
> great decade that was!
>
> While I have the machine running, and I’m able to load various 
> languages including Focal-8 and Focal-69, and most probably a form of 
> BASIC, there is very little by way of application software available 
> for the machine, after all, it was more than fifty years ago when it 
> was manufactured!
>
> There is a chess program that someone has written in machine code.  A 
> very worthy effort indeed.  However, I had an idea for a relatively 
> simple but interesting (to me at least) application that generate 
> prime numbers and print each one it found on a new line.  I’m more of 
> a hardware and systems programmer than an applications programmer, 
> although I guess being confined to base for a few weeks I could apply 
> myself to the task.  I’m sure however that there are many of you out 
> there more gifted than me in this department, and who might like to 
> apply themselves to creating the necessary code in Focal. (preferably 
> Focal-69 as I already have a copy).
>
> The Focal manual can be found here:
>
> http://homepage.divms.uiowa.edu/~jones/pdp8/focal/focal69.html
>
> If you wanted, we could make it into a competition to create the 
> program in the least lines of code?  That’s up to you.  However if you 
> were interested I could test the programs and publish the winning code 
> to this list?
>
> I’m really just interested in seeing the machine do something beyond 
> running diagnostics and playing chess. If you have more interesting 
> programming ideas you would like to run with that’s fine too. I’m more 
> than happy to accept machine code applications as well.
>
> Long term I’d like to get this system (and others I have around) into 
> a museum of some kind, but that’s down the track. I appreciate that we 
> are confined to base at present, but if any of you are interested in 
> seeing the machine close up, or keying in your program personally, 
> then you have an open invitation to come by.  I live on Idris Road not 
> far from the club rooms, and will provide my address to anyone who asks.
>
> So coders, young and old(er) are we up for the Prime Number Generator 
> challenge?  There are several algorithms available on the net to help 
> get you started.  Feel fee to contact me directly on the email address 
> below.
>
> Kind regards
> Brendan McNeill
>
> --------------//----------------
> brendan at mcneill.co.nz <mailto:brendan at mcneill.co.nz>
> +64 21 881 883
>
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Chchrobotics mailing list Chchrobotics at lists.ourshack.com
> https://lists.ourshack.com/mailman/listinfo/chchrobotics
> Mail Archives: http://lists.ourshack.com/pipermail/chchrobotics/
> Meetings usually 3rd Monday each month. See http://kiwibots.org for venue, directions and dates.
> When replying, please edit your Subject line to reflect new subjects.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.ourshack.com/pipermail/chchrobotics/attachments/20200328/7c9746a3/attachment.html>