15 Oct
2008
15 Oct
'08
3:08 p.m.
Jeff Erwin said the following on 10/14/2008 1:56 PM:
Ok, Jeff, I am wondering what you might be referring to. I think you
might be thinking of PL/M-86, which I'm not that familiar with.
Intel, generally, would issue two manuals for PL/M-80 (and ASM-80 as
well). One manual is the PL/M-80 Programming Manual and one is the
ISIS-II PL/M-80 Compiler Operator's Manual. I have in front of me the
"PL/M-80 Programming Manual", no. 9800268B, which is dated 1977, and the
DATA construct is in it. It is used at load time to set initial values
of variables. I believe that this manual applies to several versions of
PL/M-80, including V4 and earlier ones. It is basically a syntax manual.
I have the "ISIS-II PL/M-80 Compiler Operator's Manual", no. 9800300-04,
dated 3/82. It is the manual that was issued specifically for V4.0 of
the compiler. There are several "$" commands listed. All those "$"
commands are also listed in the V3.0/V3.1 version of that manual (9800300C).
The Programming Manual did not change from V3.0 to V4.0. The language
was really the same. I programmed a lot in those days and I never had
to change anything moving from V3 to V4.
I think the main changes from 3 to 4 had to do with newer operating
system environments. Newer versions of ISIS-II could have more than the
four or six or seven disk drives by allowing networked drive assignments
up through :F9:. File names could be longer, as well. I think those
were some of the differences from V3.x to V4.0. But the language syntax
was the same.
I've used PL/M-80 extensively in the past,
but I don't remember V4 being
that much different than earlier versions. All versions of PL/M-80 that
ran under ISIS-II used the linker and locater. The only version that I
know of that didn't was the Fortran version that ran on mainframes. It
produced absolute object code, usually in the form of an Intel hex format.
Version 4 was radically different from the 3.X and prior versions. The
earlier versions used the $X controls, version 4 used the controls that were
then used in the PLM86 compiler. Also, the DATA statement was eliminated
and other language constructs were changed. PLM80 V3 code would not compile
without mods. I remember it being released at about the same time the 8086
and PLM86 was was released and the effort was to make PLM80 and PLM86
somewhat similar. The PLM80 3.x docs are pretty much worthless if you are
using the 4.0 compiler. 4.0 was also one executable, a big change from the
PLM81 and PLM82 2-pass method the earlier versions used.
> Specifically, I am in need of:
>
> 98-00268B plm 80 programming manual, V4
>
> Thanks.
>
> Jeff Erwin
>
> By the way, I am running the ISIS-II emulator in a DOS box under windows,
> itself an emulator. Windows is running under Parallels on my Mac Pro
>
which
> is running OSx. Is it possible to get
further from reality here??
>
>