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