8 Sep
2008
8 Sep
'08
5:58 p.m.
I have my sbc6120 here and wanted to do a little OS/8
programming, but I
think I'm stumped for a particular bit of doco - according to the "OS/8
System Reference Manual" (DEC-8-OSRMA-A-D), the User Service Routine is
documented in the "OS/8 Software Support Manual" (DEC-8-OSSMA-A-D). I've
found many OS/8 docs on Highgate and Bitsavers (DEC-S8-OSSMB-A-D, the
1974 "OS/8 Handbook", memos, etc.), but not that exact one.
I also have lots of OSSMB but no OSSMA.
The reason why it matters is that if you want to do
file I/O, directory
lookups, etc., you use the USR. For stuff that doesn't depend on OS/8
filesystem operations, there's plenty of info out there for FORTRAN,
BASIC, FOCAL, assembler, etc. Imagine trying to program in UNIX without
knowing how to setup and call stdio routines. That's kinda where I'm
at. I've found one or two narrow examples where some code fragments
call the USR for a particular function, but I really just need the
Software Support Manual.
OSSMB has some stuff about USR in chapter 2, and Appendix F has some
code examples of how to do the usual stuff.
Was there additional information in OSSMA?
Google found http://www.pdp8.net/document.txt, which makes a cryptic
reference to it. Maybe that means David has a copy?
Vince