




                     T H E   B E S T   O F   I C R
                     = = =   = = = =   = =   = = =


                              Bob Stodola
                               Bill Cael
                               Bill Wood


     This tape contains release 3 of "The Best of ICR", a  selection  of
useful  programs from the Institute For Cancer Research.  The tape is in
DOS format.  Each UIC contains a README.1ST file;  you  can  copy  these
files to disk by saying,

          MCR FLX SY:=MM0:[*,*]README.1ST/DO


     Almost all of the programs have been revised in one way or  another
since  the  last  release  to fix bugs or add capability.  Following are
some random notes:

      1. Many of the programs use a macro interface to the FCS file sys-
         tem.  If your installation uses the RMS file system by default,
         you will have to link these programs with the FCS library.

      2. The version of this tape which was distributed on the Fall 1981
         RSX/IAS  sig  tape had a bug which caused LIST, SRDCMD, BURSTF,
         and RATFIV not to come up properly on RSX systems,  ie.   these
         programs  attempted  to open "TO:", which is not a legal device
         on RSX systems.  This bug has been fixed, and LIST  and  RATFIV
         have been updated considerably.

      3. The bug in the RSX subtasking subroutine, RUNSYSRSX, which  was
         distributed on the Spring 1981 RSX/IAS sig tape has been fixed.
         This means that  programs  that  do  subtasking  such  as  CPL,
         SRDCMD, and TRU should work now on RSX systems.

      4. Most of the programs may be linked with a resident  library  to
         make the tasks smaller.

      5. When building the programs, be sure to read each one  into  its
         own  UIC  to  avoid  file name conflicts (for instance RATFIV's
         IO.RAT is different than LIST's IO.RAT).

      6. When building FDT on RSX systems, be sure to uncomment the line
         in FDT.MAC which defines RSX11M.

      7. On IAS, programs which do subtasking  (TRU,  CPL,  SRDCMD,  and
         LIST  when using SRD to select files) require subtasking privi-
         leges, and XEQ requires the chain privilege.

      8. CPL will run on RSX or IAS systems, contrary to rumors that  it
         is an IAS only program.

      9. SRD has been substantially debugged since the last release  and


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         has  none of the horrible SRD bugs that some SRDs have, as men-
         tioned on SIG tapes and at the Fall 1981 DECUS convention.   On
         one  RSX system, SRD had to be compiled with BIGMAC, as regular
         MAC failed.

     10. BURSTF now handles files with characters in columns 73-80.

     11. LIST and CPL are two great programs.   At  first  glance,  they
         don't seem to do anything very spectacular, but they are two of
         the most frequently used pieces of software  at  our  installa-
         tion.  Try them!



     A short description of each program on the tape follows:


    [330,1]:  LIST - LIST is  like  the  TYPE  and  GREP  commands  only
         better.   LIST's simplest use is to display lines from a file a
         screen at a time, however it has sophisticated  string  search-
         ing, can be positioned randomly in the file, and can write por-
         tions of the file to other files.  In addition,  LIST  can  use
         SRD  to select multiple files, making it easy to do such chores
         as searching through a group of files for a  particular  string
         or variable.  RSX or IAS.

    [330,2]:  FDT - Number one on the RSX and IAS  menus  was  a  Fortan
         symbolic debugger.  Here it is!  RSX or IAS.

    [330,3]:  CPL - CPL compiles modules in any language if  the  source
         has  been  changed  since  the  last  compilation.   It handles
         multi-pass compilers, including RATFIV, Swedish and NBS Pascal,
         and  Whitesmith's  C,  as well as single-pass compilers such as
         F4P, BASIC+2, and MACRO.  A must for software developers.   RSX
         or IAS.

    [330,4]:  SRDCMD - SRDCMD is a flexible command line generator which
         spawns  SRD  to  select  files,  then writes command lines con-
         structed from specified text and the device, uic, name,  exten-
         sion,  and  version  fields of the selected file names.  RSX or
         IAS.

    [330,5]:  SRD - An enhanced version of SRD including more  powerfull
         file string matching, selection by file revision date, and sto-
         rage allocation summary.  RSX or IAS.

    [330,6]:  TAPE - TAPE reads and writes tapes in a  variety  of  for-
         mats,  including blocked ASCII, blocked EBCDIC, and DEC-10 copy
         format.  RSX or IAS.

    [330,10]:  BURSTF - BURSTF bursts  Fortran  subroutines,  functions,
         main  programs,  and block datas from a file and writes them to
         individual files.  RSX or IAS.

    [330,11]:  RESEQ - RESEQ resequences the statement labels in a  For-


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         tran program.  RSX or IAS.

    [330,12]:  TRU - TRU truncates files, but does not access  the  file
         if  it  doesn't need truncation.  This is a must when using BRU
         for incremental backup, as BRU would copy all files  which  had
         been truncated with PIP, even if the file hadn't needed trunca-
         tion.  RSX or IAS.

    [330,13]:  XEQ - XEQ runs programs.  It maintains  a  global  common
         area  which  contains,  for each user, a list of directories to
         search when XEQ trys to run a program.  Never  again  will  you
         have  to  type XX0:[100,222] when running XX0:[100,222]FOO!  In
         addition, XEQ can pass a command line to  the  program  it  in-
         vokes, whether or not the program is installed.  IAS only.

    [330,14]:  SCHEDULE - SCHEDULE will  invoke  MCR  command  lines  at
         scheduled  times  during  the  week.   The list of commands and
         times is maintained in a file.  IAS  but  easily  modified  for
         RSX.

    [330,14]:  GAME - GAME uses SCHEDULE to  restrict  game  playing  to
         specified times.  IAS and RSX (see SCHEDULE).

    [330,14]:  RUNNL - RUNNL is a  companion  program  to  SCHEDULE  and
         GAME.  It will run a task on the pseudo device NL.  IAS only.

    [330,15]:  RATFIV Version 2 - an enhanced and  debugged  version  of
         the Software Tools Group's Ratfor compiler, Ratfiv features op-
         tional Fortran 77 output, the SWITCH and STRING  statements,  a
         powerful macro processor with macro argument capability, condi-
         tional compilation, output of string literals as quoted strings
         (necessary  for OPEN statements, etc.) or optionally as holler-
         ith strings, and specification of FORMATs within  READ,  WRITE,
         ENCODE, and DECODE statements.  RSX or IAS.

    [330,16] (IAS):  MTREK  -  The  best  Star  Trek  ever,  this  is  a
         multi-terminal  real-time all out war game, replete with torpe-
         does, tractor beams, anti-matter, etc.  This program was origi-
         nally  written  at  Boeing;   we have enhanced and debugged it.
         Terminals with clear screen  and  cursor  positioning  are  all
         that's required.  IAS or VAX, but you could modify it for RSX.




     We would like to hear of any problems or comments you have.

                Robert K. Stodola, Bill Cael, and William P. Wood, Jr.
                Computer Center
                The Institute for Cancer Research
                7701 Burholme Ave.
                Phila., Pa.  19111
                (215) 728 2760



