SIMH LGP-30 Progress.

Update on my attempts to bootstrap the SIMH Royal Precision Electronic Computer model LGP-30. I have been able to get through a lot more of the simulator-equivalent processing steps to match the input of the bootstrap programs via the native Flexowriter. I have been able to discover the syntax and basic I/O via trial and error, and a lot of reading. I believe that loading the bootstrap manually is a must; one cannot use or create tapes otherwise. Most SIMH's have some kind of software guide, the LGP-30 has none. I don't think this SIMH has the bootstrap pre-loaded. I am unaware of anyone who is using the SIMH simulator, although I have seen two non-SIMH LGP-30 simulators. One is in German. In order to enter instructions into memory I first learned how to translate code from the various actual papertape sources, for example... "flexowriter entry"> 6300 P 0000' becomes sim> d -a 6300 10000000 where 6300 = memory loc in drum memory, 1000 = P, 0000 = accumulator address (?). You can't store a "P" or "p" in memory. You have to convert to its Flexo binary equiv. Same goes for all instructions in the LGP-30 repertoire. The hardest part is finding ways to enter Flexowriter key input via a modern keyboard, using SIMH commands. It's all pretty slow going to patch together what I think would be a workable bootstrap install process, but I expect to have to try a number of variations before I get any response from the machine. I have a bootstrap but the hard part if the Flexowriter emulation. Who knows, maybe I will be able to contribute a software guide from all of this. I will document what I find and post on my web site, vintagecomputer.net. Bill