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AN EXPERIMENT IN AUTOMATED OS/8 PROGRAM DISTRIBUTION AND REVIEW DOUGLAS E. WREGE GEORGIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND TOM W. MCINTYRE WEST VIRGINIA UNIVERSITY ABSTRACT THIS WORKSHOP DISCUSSION IS TO BE CENTERED AROUND THE DISCUSSION AND CONSIDERATIONS OF ESTABLISHING OS/8 SIG SUPPORTED PROGRAM DISTRIBUTION AND REVIEW CENTERS THROUGHOUT THE U.S.. THE INTENTION IS TO SUPPLY SOME MEASURE OF REVIEW OF OS/8 USER WRITTEN PROGRAMS SO THAT USERS WILL BE BETTER INFORMED OF SUPERIOR CONTRIBUTIONS AND KEPT UP TO DATE WITH REGARD TO CURRENT DEVELOPMENTS. IN ADDITION A PRELIMINARY EXPERIMENTAL AUTOMATION DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM WILL BE DEMONSTRATED FOR THE PROLIFERATION OF OS/8 PROGRAM CONTRIBUTIONS. IT IS OUR HOPE THAT AN ACTIVE USER GROUP CAN BE ESTABLISHED TO IMPROVE ON THIS SYSTEM AND THAT MANY INSTALLATIONS THROUGOUT THE COUNTRY WILL THEREFORE FIND IT CONVENIENT TO PARTICIPATE MORE ACTIVIELY IN THE DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM. THE PURPOSE OF THIS PAPER IS TO DESCRIBE THE PRELIMINARY SOFTWARE DEVELOPED FOR THE DISTRIBUTION PORTION OF THIS EXPERIMENT. GENERAL DESCRIPTION TWO OS/8 SYSTEM UTILITY PROGRAMS WERE WRITTEN TO HELP SOLVE SOME OF THE PROBLEMS ASSOCIATED WITH MAINTAINING LIBRARIES OF USER WRITTEN SOFTWARE. BEFORE DESCRIBING THE OPERATION OF THESE PROGRAMS, THESE DIFFICULTIES SHOULD BE INDICATED.
PROGRAM FILENAMES THIS PROBLEM ARRISES FROM THE LARGE NUMBERS OF POTENTIAL CONTRIBUTORS. ONE FINDS THAT MANY SOFTWARE CONTRIBUTIONS USE THE SAME OR SIMILAR FILENAMES FOR THEIR WORK (E.G. PIPX, XPIP, FOCALX, FOCALS, ETC). THERE NEEDS TO BE SOME MANNER IN WHICH TO FILE THESE PROGRAMS UNDER AN INDEXING SYSTEM. A REASONABLE CHOISE IS TO USE SOMETHING LIKE THE DECUS LIBRARY NUMBER. ASSUMING THIS IS DONE, WE ARE LED TO THE NEXT PROBLEM: THE DOCUMENTATION PROBLEM ONCE THE FILENAME OF A CONTRIBUTION HAS BEEN CHANGED, THE DOCUMENTATION NO LONGER REFERRS PROPERLY TO THE FILE. THIS IS ESPECIALLY A PROBLEM WHERE MULTIPLE FILES IN A SINGLE CONTRIBUTION ARE INVOLVED, WHICH IN TURN REINTRODUCES THE FILENAME PROBLEM. WHAT IS NEEDED IS A WAY TO CONSOLIDATE MANY FILES INTO A SINGLE LIBRARY FILE WITH SOME METHOD TO EXTRACT THE ORIGNIAL NAMES. A SECOND AREA OF DIFFICULTY IS INVOLVED WITH THE DOCUMENTATION AREA, NAMELY THE PRODUCTION OF HARD COPY OUTPUT. BY FAR THE MOST REASONABLE WAY OF PRODUCING DOCUMENTATION IS TO DISTRIBUTE IT IN MACHINE READABLE FORM. THE ADVANTAGES OF MACHINE READABLE DOCUMENTATION IS THAT MULTIPLE COPIES MAY BE PRINTED WHENEVER THE SUBSCRIBER WHICHES, AND MORE IMPORTANT, DOCUMENTATION MAY BE MORE EASILY UPDATED TO TAKE INTO ACCOUT MODIFICATIONS OF THE ORIGINAL SOFTWARE. FLEXIBLE OUTPUT MEDIA THE MOST DIFFICULT STUMBLING BLOCK IN AUTOMATED LIBRARY DISTRIBUTION IS THE NON-UNIVERSALITY OF COMMUNICATION MEDIA IN THE OS/8 WORLD. ALMOST EVERYONE HAS PAPER TAPE CAPABILITIES, HOWEVER, PAPER TAPE IS A VERY MESSY MEDIA FOR THOSE INSTALATIONS WITH ALMOST ANY OTHER REMOVABLE MASS STORAGE MEDIA. IN FACT, MOST AUTHORS OF SOFTWARE WOULD RATHER NOT MAKE SOFTWARE AVAILABLE TO THERE COLLEGUES IF PAPER TAPE COMMUNICATION IS REQUIRED. THIS IS ESPECIALLY TRUE WHERE A SOFTWARE SYSTEM COMPOSED OF MANY SEPARATE PARTS (OR FILES) ARE CONSERNED. A REASONABLE DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM REQUIRES DEVICE INDEPENDENCE WHICH EXTENDS ITSELF TO INDEPENDENCE FROM WHETHER THE COMMUTICATIONS MEDIA IS EVEN FILE STRUCTURED OR NOT. LIBRARY CREATION - OS/8 DUMP TO SOLVE THE LIBRARY CREATION AND FILEING PROBLEM A PROGRAM CALLED "DUMP" WAS WRITTEN. THIS PROGRAM WILL CREATE A SINGLE FILE WHICH CONTAINS MULTIPLE FILES, AND A -1-
TABLE OF CONTENTS OF WHAT IS CONTAINED THEREIN. THIS "DUMP" FILE MAY HAVE A FILENAME CONSISTENT WITH THE FILEING SYSTEM, E.G. DECUS NUMBER. ALTHOUGH DUMP REQUIRES THAT INPUT FILES MAKING UP THIS DUMP FILE COME FROM FILE STRUCTURED DEVICES, IT WILL DUMP THE FILE ONTO ANY OS/8 OUTPUT DEVICE INCLUDING PAPER TAPE. THE CONTENTS OF THIS DUMP FILE MAY BE ANY OS/8 FILE, INCLUDING CORE IMAGE FILES. TO RUN THE PROGRAM TYPE .R DUMP *ODEV:ONAME.EX<INDEV:WILDN1,WILDN2,.../OPT THE COMMAND DECODER IS CALLED IN SPECIAL MODE SO THAT WILDCARDS MAY BE USED FOR INPUT SPECIFICATIONS. (SEE DESCRIPTIONS OF OS/8 V3 FOTP OR DIRECT FOR THE DEFINITION OF WILDCARD SPECIFICATIONS). THE OUTPUT FILENAME MUST NOT CONTAIN WILDCARDS AND MAY BE OMMITTED FOR OUTPUT TO NON-FILE STRUCTURED DEVICES. THERE IS CURRENTLY A RESTRICTION THAT ALL OF THE INPUT FILES MUST EXIST ON THE SAME INPUT, FILE STRUCTURED MEDIA. THE ONLY OPTION CURRENTLY IMPLEMENTED IS THE "/V" INVERSION OPERATION (AS IN FOTP). LIBRARY EXTRACTION - OS/8 LOAD THE PROGRAM TO EXTRACT THE PROGRAMS FROM A "DUMP" FILE IS CALLED "LOAD". LOAD IS OPERATED VIA: .R LOAD *OUDEV:<IDEV:DUMPFILE/OPTIONS WHERE THE OUTPUT DEVICE ONLY IS SPECIFIED, AND INPUT IS A FILE PREVIOUSLY CREATED WITH THE "DUMP" PROGRAM. THE INPUT DEVICE MAY BE NON FILE STRUCTURED, IN WHICH CASE THE FILENAME MAY BE OMITTED. IT IS IMPORTANT THAT THE INPUT MEDIA BE PROPERLY POSITIONED FOR THE CASE OF NON FILE STRUCTURED DEVICES. FOR PAPER TAPE, THE FIRST FRAME OF THE DUMP FILE IS A 377. THIS FRAME MUST BE POSITIONED SUCH THAT IT IS THE FIRST CHARACTER READ. THE OPTIONS AVAILABLE ARE: /L LIST TABLE OF CONTENTS ONLY ON CONSOLE. /Q QUERY FILES INDIVIDUALLY /S LOAD SPECIFIED FILES THE /L OPTION WILL PREFORM NO TRANSFERS BUT ONLY LIST THE TABLE OF CONTENTS OF THE "DUMP" FILE. THE /Q OPTION WILL PREFORM TRANSFERS ONLY ON FILES WHICH ARE REQUESTED WITH A -2-
"Y" RESPONSE TO THE "?". ALL EXTRACTED FILES WILL BE TRANSFERED WITH THE FILENAME INDICATED IN THE TABLE OF CONTENTS. THE /S OPTION IS USED TO SELECTIVELY EXTRACT FILES FROM THE LIBRARY. IF THIS OPTION IS GIVEN LOAD WILL PREFORM A SEQUENCE OF SPECIAL MODE COMMAND DECODES, IN WHICH THE OPERATOR MAY SPECIFY UP TO 5 FILENAMES WITH WILDCARDS OF FILES HE WISHES EXTRACTED. THIS PROCESS WILL CONTINUE UNTIL ONE OF THE LINES IS TERMINATED WITH AN ALTMODE. THE INPUT DEVICE FOR THESE COMMAND DECODES IS IGNORED. UPON CONCLUSION OF THIS SEQUENCE OF EVENTS THE APPROPRIATE FILES WILL BE LOADED ONTO THE OUTPUT DEVICE. SUGGESTED FUTURE EXPANSION THESE PROGRAMS ARE OBVIOUSLY ONLY AN EXPERIMENT IN AUTOMATED COMMUNICATION BETWEEN OS/8 USERS. SOME SUGGESTIONS FOR EXPANSION OF THE DUMP PROGRAM INCLUDE OPTIONS: /U UPDATE A DUMP FILE /R REPLACE A FILE IN A DUMP FILE AND FOR THE LOAD PROGRAM: /D CHECK OUTPUT DEVICE FOR CONFLICTING FILENAMES AND USE THE ONE WITH THE MOST RECENT DATE IF THERE IS A NAME CONFLICT. /N DO NOT USE PREDELETION ON OUTPUT MEDIA. /F ALLOW MULTIPLE OUTPUT VOLUMES. CONCLUSIONS IT IS HOPED THAT THESE PROGRAMS WILL BE OF MORE GENERAL USE THAN MERELY AUTOMATED LIBRARY DISTRIBUTION IN THE OS/8 COMMUNITY. ALSO, THAT THEY WILL INSPIRE FURTHER DEVELOPMENT IN THIS DIRECTION TOWARD STANDARDIZATION AND IMPROVED FLEXIBILITY OF USER COMMUNICATIONS. THE CURRENT DEVELOPMENT REQUIRES THAT USERS HAVE AN OS/8 SYSTEM ON WHICH TO RUN THE ASSOCIATED PROGRAMS, HOWEVER, IT SHOULD NOT BE UNREASONABLE TO CREATE A PAPER TAPE VERSION OF THE "LOAD" PROGRAM TO PRODUCE INDIVIDUAL PAPER TAPES FROM A "DUMP" PAPER TAPE. -3-