README.md
This directory contains programs for the TSS/8.24 operating system, all written
using the PAL/D assembler. Not all of the programs were ever finished, my
RS08 disk stopped working in mid 1984 so these files came from a tape backup.
Partial list:
dt*.pal DECtape related programs. Copy, compare, test.
pt*.pal Paper tape programs.
edit52.pal Full-screen editor for the VT52. Definitely unfinished, but
it was a pretty good start. I was given a little money for
high school graduation in June '84 so I headed straight down
to Eli Heffron's and plunked it down on a VT52, which was a
wonderful step up from the ASR33s and flakey LA30P I'd been
using, but EDIT.SAV assumes that terminals won't echo tabs
so it echos spaces after the tab has already echoed, which
made it very hard to see what I was doing. Also EDIT.SAV
ignores lower-case input (it must think that it's line noise?).
So obviously I needed a new editor! But as always I got
side-tracked, it puts a lot more effort into dealing with
TSS/8's bizarre filename extension kludge (the extension is
encoded in 5 unused bits of the protection code), than with
actual file I/O.
forth.pal Partial FORTH system. I got a bit carried away with the
TTY input editing and focused on that instead of finishing
the dictionary, typical... But the basic pieces did work.
I later converted this program to run stand-alone and build
using the PALX.SAV cross-assembler I wrote for RT-11, since
at that point I had the bare 8/E CPU box in my dorm room,
attached to a PDT-11/150 through a serial line.
sid.dsk Snapshot of the (single) RS08 disk on my TSS/8.24 system
(a PDP-8/E named Sid, for System Is Down).
system/ Subdirectory contains the source code to the TSS/8 monitor
itself, typed in from a listing in 1984 and 1987.