GTTY - A Glass TTY + Load paper tape software into a PDP-8/E/F/M/A

Want a program to act as a "Glass" TTY for your PDP-8x - with paper tape file upload and capture capabilities? Free? You can download if via anonymous FTP All you need to make it work is a serial cable from your PDP-8x TTY console (EIA RS-232 mode) to the serial port of a DOS capable PC. It's been tested with DOS 6.22 and a DOS Window in Windows 98se and Windows XT. A copy of the file "gtty.txt" which describes it's capabilities and limitations is below: ---------------------------------------------------------- GTTY - A Glass TTY + Load paper tape software into a PDP-8 ---------------------------------------------------------- by Lyle Bickley, Bickley Consulting West Inc. Inspired by K. McQuiggin's "RIM Client, Version 0.2" (July, 1998) , I decided to write a complete "Glass" TTY that could be used as a console, paper tape "reader" and "punch" for my PDP-8/F. Starting up, it is a full duplex glass TTY - and sends the characters you type to the PDP-8 and displays the characters received from the PDP-8 on the screen/monitor. Hitting the "F2" key - GTTY asks you for a PT (paper tape) filename - and lets you specify whether you want it to strip "garbage" characters from the tape before uploading it to the PDP8. After the upload, it automatically switches back to "glass" TTY mode. Hitting the "F3" key asks for the name of a "Capture" file - and then all data received from the PDP-8 is captured to the file. Note that the display is turned off - as typically the data to be "captured" is a binary punch file. Hitting the "F4" key closes the capture file and GTTY switches back to "glass" TTY mode. The other two active function keys are "F1" - Help, and "F5" - Exit. Notes: 1. No function keys get passed to the PDP-8 (even those that are not "progamatically active". 2. Filenames are limited to DOS's 8.3 filename format. 3. The GTTY startup parameters (upper or lower case) are: -P port [COM port=1,2,3 or 4] Default "1" -B baud [Baud rate=110,300,600,1200,2400,4800,9600 or 19200] Default 9600 -S stop bits [Number of stop bits=1 or 2] -H help 4. I'm a *NIX buff and haven't written DOS code for years, but I wrote GTTY as a DOS program because I know there are a lot of collectors that use "imagedisk", "Teledisk", "PUTR", etc. which only operate on DOS - and many folks who don't have *NIX systems. I've successfully tested GTTY on DOS 6.22, Windows 98 SE in a DOS window, and Windows XT [Home Edition] in a DOS window. 5. I'm including the source code, for anyone who would like to "hack" the program, add feature, etc. My only request is that if you release it back to the community that you change it's name, and maintain my copyright notice in the code and startup. Note that it is totally "free" when used for non-commercial use. Please contact me at lbickley at bickleywest.com for commercial use. 6. I wrote GTTY in "C" - and wanted to use a freely available DOS compiler and libraries. I selected Dave Dunfield's "Micro-C". Dave's compiler and libraries let you get close enough to the "metal" to make a program such as GTTY responsive and effective - easily handling communications, screen and keyboard control simultaneously. His compiler can be downloaded from: www.dunfield.com, either "free" or if you want all the examples and library source (I did) for the modest cost of $25. 7. I've successfully uploaded virtually every paper tape diagnostic available for my system (and it's I/O). In addition, I've uploaded FOCAL and other software without error at 9600 baud. I've tried it using both the M8550-YA and the M8655 "TTY" console boards with equal success. Have fun! Cheers, Lyle -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Note: Forgot to add that the backspace and delete key both generate the classic TTY "rubout" character. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- Lyle Bickley Bickley Consulting West Inc. Mountain View, CA http://bickleywest.com "Black holes are where God is dividing by zero"