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<p>Thanks Brendan, your tale of the restoration process was a very
interesting read - especially repairing the core memory...</p>
<p>In reading up on the focal language I stumbled across this
git-hub code for a FOCAL-69 interpreter that will run on Linux: <a
href="https://github.com/AndrewSav/focal-69">https://github.com/AndrewSav/focal-69</a></p>
<p>It looks like this is taking code from this site: <a
href="http://www.cozx.com/dpitts/">http://www.cozx.com/dpitts/</a></p>
<p>There are a few .foc files included in the repository</p>
<p>Cheers</p>
<p>Alan<br>
</p>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 28/03/20 10:51 am, Brendan McNeill
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:15E49D85-2AFF-48D7-B019-9EA055A39F19@mcneill.co.nz">
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Hi Everyone
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class="">I recently obtained my Amateur radio licence which
is where I met Mark Atherton. Mark circulated my restoration
effort on the PDP8 computer: <a href="https://pdp-8.nz" class=""
moz-do-not-send="true">https://pdp-8.nz</a> (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!</div>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class="">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!</div>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class="">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).</div>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class="">The Focal manual can be found here:</div>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class=""><a
href="http://homepage.divms.uiowa.edu/~jones/pdp8/focal/focal69.html"
class="" moz-do-not-send="true">http://homepage.divms.uiowa.edu/~jones/pdp8/focal/focal69.html</a></div>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class="">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?</div>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class="">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.</div>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class="">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.</div>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class="">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.</div>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class="">Kind regards</div>
<div class="">Brendan McNeill</div>
<div class="">
<div class="">
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<div><br class="">
--------------//----------------<br class="">
<a href="mailto:brendan@mcneill.co.nz" class=""
moz-do-not-send="true">brendan@mcneill.co.nz</a><br
class="">
+64 21 881 883</div>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
</div>
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