[Simh] Interdata OS/32: hello-world in CAL32

[lists at openmailbox.org]

Thanks for the very interesting info! I have not come across this machine
or software and did not know anything about it.

On Thu, 18 Feb 2016 21:16:32 -0500
Davis Johnson <davis at frizzen.com> wrote:

> I'm pretty sure the resemblance was intentional  so as to be an easier 
> sell to customers familiar with 360 assembler.
> 
> There was a rumor that they had originally hoped to sell low-cost 
> training machines to schools when real computers were expensive.
> 
> There is some architectural resemblance if you throw out most of the 
> address modes, base registers, have fewer condition code bits... You end 
> up with 16 two's complement registers, uniform size 8-bit op codes, RX, 
> RR, and RI addressing modes (with a few variants).
> 
> A 16 bit quantity on the 16 bit machines was always, from the beginning, 
> a "HALF WORD".
> 
> The assembler, "CAL" (Common Assembly Language) would assemble 16 or 32 
> bit source.
> 
> With care it was possible to write source code that could be assembled 
> to either 16 or 32 bit object. Don's example uses some of the features, 
> A(...) specifies an "address length" constant, 16 or 32 bit as 
> appropriate. There was a whole set of opcode mnemonics that would 
> assemble appropriately depending on the target. The BASIC interpreter 
> was a key example, and was actually distributed in source form. I'd love 
> to find a copy.
> 
> If you were really careful you could create a binary that would actually 
> run on 16 or 32 bit machines without modification. Some of the hardware 
> diagnostics are this way. Look for COMMON in the diagnostic title.
> 
> For a 32 bit target a different kind of careful would let you write 
> position independent code.
> 
> On 02/16/2016 05:16 AM, lists at openmailbox.org wrote:
> > Fascinating and very similar in syntax to the assembler for IBM OS/360
> > and later. Does anybody know the history behind this?
> >
> > On Mon, 15 Feb 2016 13:58:26 -0500 (EST)
> > dstalk at execulink.com (Don Stalkowski) wrote:
> >
> >> *L EDIT32
> >> TSKID = EDIT32
> >> *ST
> >> *13:19:38   EDIT32:PERKIN-ELMER OS/32 EDIT 03-145 R04-01
> >> *EDIT32>GET HELLO.CAL
> >> *EDIT32>T 1-12
> >> *13:19:48   EDIT32:    1             SVC   1,SAY
> >> *13:19:48   EDIT32:    2             SVC   3,0
> >> *13:19:48   EDIT32:    3             ALIGN ADC
> >> *13:19:48   EDIT32:    4    SAY      DB    X'28'
> >> *13:19:48   EDIT32:    5             DB    X'00'
> >> *13:19:48   EDIT32:    6             DS    2
> >> *13:19:48   EDIT32:    7             DC    A(SAY1)
> >> *13:19:48   EDIT32:    8             DC    A(SAY2)
> >> *13:19:48   EDIT32:    9             DAS   2
> >> *13:19:48   EDIT32:   10    SAY1     DC    C'HELLO WORLD '
> >> *13:19:48   EDIT32:   11    SAY2     EQU   *-1
> >> *13:19:48   EDIT32:   12             END
> >> *EDIT32>END
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> 
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