IBM 1410 Processor Operating System Compiler Status Report

[Jay Jaeger]

Over the past few weeks I have been playing with the COBOL, FORTRAN and 
RPG compilers that are present on the IBM 1410 PR108 Processor Operating 
system tape, available at:

http://piercefuller.com/library/kau1401s.html (it is really 1410) and
https://sky-visions.com/ibm/ibm7010_soft.shtml (For use under SimH)


FORTRAN:  While the compiler seems to function, this is probably a "lost 
cause" as we have neither the FORTRAN library, nor the relocatable 
loader required - those were shipped by IBM on a separate tape.  Getting 
around this would require reproducing both.


COBOL:  It is not usable in its current state, but maybe not a totally 
lost cause.  It requires some macros (notably "MOVE=" for any MOVE 
statements) and Subroutines accessed via Autocoder CALL (for example, to 
use the DISPLAY verb.)  I have no current plans to do such work.  One 
would have to code some programs, see what got generated, and then 
create (or modify ones that had been started earlier) macros to support 
the result.  It would take a lot of work, but not impossibly much.

The relevant early IBM COBOL General Information manual is now available 
on bitsavers at

http://bitsavers.org/pdf/ibm/generalInfo/F28-8053-2_COBOL_General_Information_1961.pdf

I have a copy of the relevant IBM 1410 compiler supplement, manual 
number C28-0330, but it is on Fiche and portions are not very good images.



RPG   1410-RG-910-43:  This turned into an "ugly duckling" of sorts.  We 
have only the sparse information provided in the PR-134 Processor 
Operating System manual, C28-0287-1 (available on bitsavers).  HOWEVER, 
as luck and history would have it, it turned out that this RPG is based 
on an extremely similar to one of the early 1401 RPG "compilers" for 
which a manual *is* available, J24-0215-2. [I discovered this by looking 
at the 1410 bibliography, find the form numbers for the coding forms for 
1410 RPG, and searching for those, and getting hits on the 1401 manual, 
above.)  With that information, along with a little bit of disassembly 
to figure out most of what goes into the PR-108 "RG" control card it 
uses, I was able to put together a couple of sample programs, and kept 
some notes as well as a partial disassembly of Phase RPG1.

This might be the earliest RPG available anywhere - I haven't seen a 
1401 RPG tape image anywhere to date, though maybe someone has one I am 
not aware of.

Also, since it generates Autocoder, it might not be impossibly difficult 
to port one of the samples back to the 1401 - the logic implemented in 
the 1410 RPG generated Autocoder appears very very similar to that 
described in the 1401 manual.

The materials I put together relating to the IBM 1410 RPG "compiler" are 
  now available in a zip file at (feel free to copy)

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1RXtSCW0EpBYQqb_EY_iqnLUqt4btYWVt?usp=sharing

JRJ