[cctalk] Re: datapoint 2200 programming

Thanks. I was curious about if I found a Datapoint 2200 "in the wild" -- what could be done with it, if no floppy nor any working tapes (then again, such a system is well retired and really no need to power it on). "good tapes" would probably be degraded by now (although the media has probably been extracted and archives somewhere? so like with a TRS-80 today, can you just use any tape deck or even a smartphone to just play back the tape? not quite that simple, as the DP2200 digital data would have to converted into appropriate audio tones -- unless they didn't actually use audio tape?) Sounds like the "systems debugging" might allow injecting direct machine code at addresses (the IBM 5100 has a DSP that allows this, to Alter addresses to apply PALM instructions, then do a "BR" branch run at your starting address to kick things off). I'm reading through the Lamont Wood Datapoint book, maybe it will have more insight here. I was just curious how the first tape (for the DP2200) was produced. I recall the story by Paul Allen - they had developed a BASIC, but didn't have a boot loader to load it, and Paul wrote one while on the airplane to MOS. That's not quite the same - but I imagine a similar story with the DP2200. An early incomplete DP2200 was built, someone coded some save/load routines, tested, and once perfected maybe it was formalized into (a part of) what became the bootrom? (if you have a correct "CTOS" tape, does the DP2200 just load it or is an initial command needed?) Sorry, as mentioned I'm reading the Datapoint book, and after that will explore the manuals mentioned here that will probably explain it. (I see reference to a DP2200 emulator made on the System/360 - but none ever made it to a "modern" x86 PC?) On Thu, Oct 13, 2022 at 3:11 AM jos via cctalk <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote: