Absolutely wonderful what a great tribute to the mainframes of the 1960's that helped going to the moon be possible. Thank you for your work on this video.
Hi Moshix Thanks for this upload! Being currently an ibm-er, mainframe software engineer, of age (59) with still vivid recollections of the landing , your video made the final push for me to order the book ‘The Apollo Guidance Computer’ in order to study that software and to bring that to my Hercules and see what I can explore. I’m so much in admiration of those guys and girls who made this happen at the time. So brave. Thanks again for all your work to keep the old mainframe alive.
I recognize the printout. Lol. I think we used the blue striped paper. Our department did not write assembly, but i can recall us storing PL/1 listings in a lockable storage room in the office. Thx for doing this. Brings back memories.
Excellent video Moshix and you're absolutely correct about the 1202 (and 1201) program alarms, leaving the radar on to the command module was an oversight they corrected in future missions. I worked at Grumman during the final are missions in the data center and what a blast this was. Highly recommend The Apollo Guidance Computer as mentioned earlier, a bit dry but intensely interesting as the same time. Thanks Moshix and keep 'em coming!
The mission plan called for the radar to be switched off at a certain point. Buzz Aldrin, worried that in the event of an aborted landing the command module would not be able to be relocated, decided to leave it on - unaware that the computer did not have the capacity to deal with that data as well as all the other things it had to do in the last few minutes of landing. The AGC memory eventually filled up, causing the 1202 alarm, and the AGC soft-rebooted (five? times). Amazingly, the AGC continued doing the main tasks all the way through that, a testament to the overall design of the thing.
@moshix, the problem with tabs is that the number of spaces you have to replace them with depends on their position. In particular, tabs represent movement to the next tab stop, which is a multiple of 8 characters by default, so the number of characters the tab is located at relative to the upcoming tab stop will determine how many spaces it needs to be replaced with. For instance, if you have, starting at the beginning of the line, 3 characters followed by a tab, the number of spaces you'd need to replace the tab with is 5 (which takes you to 8 characters, i.e. the first tab stop). There is a utility on Linux that takes care of all this for you, called "expand". If you run it against all of the source code files, it'll make quick work of the formatting problem, and you'd then be able to transfer the results to the mainframe and print it from there using the same method you outlined here. Because the expand utility can take an arbitrary number of input files and convert them, and generates the output to stdout, the entire operation can yield a single converted output file like so: expand *.agc >OUTPUT Anyway, hope that proves useful to you for printing out other text files on the mainframe... For those readers here who are somewhat unfamiliar with Linux, there's a set of documentation that it comes with (and which comes with nearly all Unix variants) called "man pages". You can search for commands and other things in that documentation by doing "apropos ". For instance, I found the "expand" utility by doing "apropos tabs", and it listed "expand" as one of the entries. To look at the command's documentation, just do "man ". So in this instance, you'd do "man expand" and it would bring up the manual for the "expand" command.
@@moshixmainframechannel -- You're very welcome! I actually didn't remember anything about it, but suspected there might be a utility that took care of this. So I did "apropos tabs" and it showed "expand" as one of the results. Note that I did this on an Ubuntu system, but any full featured Linux system should have it. It appears that "expand" is supplied by the "coreutils" package, so that tells me it should be present on your Linux system as well.
Hello moshix! I am new to programming and, after a few recommendations from my friends, I've been wanting to learn BASIC (that language from the 80s) as well as C. Since you seem to know a lot about all these low-level stuff, could you tell me where I could find resources to learn them? Cool vid btw, even though I don't understand what's going on.
If you've not even done any kind of programming (and it sounds like you've not, since you say you're new to programming), C is *not* the language you should be starting with! Rather, you should start with a language like Pascal, which is simple enough to make it possible to learn easily, is strict enough to teach you to be rigorous in your thinking while programming, and is expressive enough that you'll get most of the good fundamentals of programming from it (do *not* start with an object-oriented programming language -- that is a language attribute that you should learn once you've got the basics of procedural programming figured out). Pascal was designed from the start to be a language for learning how to program. Once you've got the basics of programming figured out, if you want to learn C, the best place to start is with the definitive reference: K&R: www.amazon.com/Programming-Language-2nd-Brian-Kernighan/dp/0131103628. If you've done any kind of programming, you'll be able to pick it up from there. BASIC is a harder question to answer. It depends on what you intend to do with it. Because it tends to be best suited to microcomputers of old, chances are you've got a specific computer in mind, and the user manual for it will be the best place to start. For instance, if it's the Commodore 64 you're interested in, then you'll want to examine the BASIC sections in the user manual (www.lemon64.com/manual/ or commodore.ca/manuals/c64_users_guide/c64-users_guide.htm). I'm inclined to say that, simple as BASIC is, you really should start off with Pascal. BASIC is good for interactive playing around, though, so if you get a Commodore 64 emulator going (VICE is an excellent one), you can experiment with it to learn about things like loops, branching, etc. But BASIC is *terrible* for structure, and you really need structure to be there from the beginning, so you really should start with Pascal. Free Pascal (www.freepascal.org) is available for many operating systems, and comes with an IDE that's similar to Turbo Pascal of old. There are other IDEs available for Free Pascal as well. See wiki.freepascal.org/IDE. Lazarus seems to be a popular one: www.lazarus-ide.org. While the IDE that comes with Free Pascal is quirky, it's also relatively simple and powerful enough to do basic debugging and things like that, so it might not take you that long to pick it up. Both it and Lazarus have debugger capability and that's a major help for figuring out why your program isn't working right.
Absolutely wonderful what a great tribute to the mainframes of the 1960's that helped going to the moon be possible. Thank you for your work on this video.
Thank you !!
Hi Moshix
Thanks for this upload! Being currently an ibm-er, mainframe software engineer, of age (59) with still vivid recollections of the landing , your video made the final push for me to order the book ‘The Apollo Guidance Computer’ in order to study that software and to bring that to my Hercules and see what I can explore.
I’m so much in admiration of those guys and girls who made this happen at the time. So brave.
Thanks again for all your work to keep the old mainframe alive.
instablaster...
I recognize the printout. Lol. I think we used the blue striped paper. Our department did not write assembly, but i can recall us storing PL/1 listings in a lockable storage room in the office. Thx for doing this. Brings back memories.
Thank you
Excellent video Moshix and you're absolutely correct about the 1202 (and 1201) program alarms, leaving the radar on to the command module was an oversight they corrected in future missions. I worked at Grumman during the final are missions in the data center and what a blast this was. Highly recommend The Apollo Guidance Computer as mentioned earlier, a bit dry but intensely interesting as the same time.
Thanks Moshix and keep 'em coming!
Thank and what an honor to get this message from you !
Yes , great video !!
The mission plan called for the radar to be switched off at a certain point.
Buzz Aldrin, worried that in the event of an aborted landing the command module would not be able to be relocated, decided to leave it on - unaware that the computer did not have the capacity to deal with that data as well as all the other things it had to do in the last few minutes of landing.
The AGC memory eventually filled up, causing the 1202 alarm, and the AGC soft-rebooted (five? times). Amazingly, the AGC continued doing the main tasks all the way through that, a testament to the overall design of the thing.
Moshix this is an amazing video. What a tribute to the software behind the lunar landing!
I gues you are a fan of curiousmarc's agc restauration videos too. 😁
Yes but I am much more on the software side of things
Those are amazing videos as well
@moshix, the problem with tabs is that the number of spaces you have to replace them with depends on their position. In particular, tabs represent movement to the next tab stop, which is a multiple of 8 characters by default, so the number of characters the tab is located at relative to the upcoming tab stop will determine how many spaces it needs to be replaced with. For instance, if you have, starting at the beginning of the line, 3 characters followed by a tab, the number of spaces you'd need to replace the tab with is 5 (which takes you to 8 characters, i.e. the first tab stop).
There is a utility on Linux that takes care of all this for you, called "expand". If you run it against all of the source code files, it'll make quick work of the formatting problem, and you'd then be able to transfer the results to the mainframe and print it from there using the same method you outlined here.
Because the expand utility can take an arbitrary number of input files and convert them, and generates the output to stdout, the entire operation can yield a single converted output file like so:
expand *.agc >OUTPUT
Anyway, hope that proves useful to you for printing out other text files on the mainframe...
For those readers here who are somewhat unfamiliar with Linux, there's a set of documentation that it comes with (and which comes with nearly all Unix variants) called "man pages". You can search for commands and other things in that documentation by doing "apropos ". For instance, I found the "expand" utility by doing "apropos tabs", and it listed "expand" as one of the entries. To look at the command's documentation, just do "man ". So in this instance, you'd do "man expand" and it would bring up the manual for the "expand" command.
Thank you. Never heard of expand. But I will try it out. Thanks a lot
@@moshixmainframechannel -- You're very welcome! I actually didn't remember anything about it, but suspected there might be a utility that took care of this. So I did "apropos tabs" and it showed "expand" as one of the results.
Note that I did this on an Ubuntu system, but any full featured Linux system should have it. It appears that "expand" is supplied by the "coreutils" package, so that tells me it should be present on your Linux system as well.
The assembler, YUL was written in ARGUS for the Honeywell H1800. github.com/jimlawton/h800 github.com/thewonderidiot/pyul
Thanks for the clarification. I did read only superficially about YUL in a book. Can't wait to dig in and find out more. thanks a lot
Moshix, did you forget to include the blue/green PDF download links in description from 37:31?
I ,djd!
@@moshixmainframechannel ??? djd?
@@xraydelta1I meant: I forgot
Where can I download the PDF?
COBOL-Y VERSUS PL/I-Y THE ULTIMATE BATTLE! :)
so .. they said: "moshix we have had a problem"
where can i download that ibm font?
Search 1403 font kellem
Hello moshix! I am new to programming and, after a few recommendations from my friends, I've been wanting to learn BASIC (that language from the 80s) as well as C. Since you seem to know a lot about all these low-level stuff, could you tell me where I could find resources to learn them? Cool vid btw, even though I don't understand what's going on.
Thanks !!
If you've not even done any kind of programming (and it sounds like you've not, since you say you're new to programming), C is *not* the language you should be starting with! Rather, you should start with a language like Pascal, which is simple enough to make it possible to learn easily, is strict enough to teach you to be rigorous in your thinking while programming, and is expressive enough that you'll get most of the good fundamentals of programming from it (do *not* start with an object-oriented programming language -- that is a language attribute that you should learn once you've got the basics of procedural programming figured out). Pascal was designed from the start to be a language for learning how to program.
Once you've got the basics of programming figured out, if you want to learn C, the best place to start is with the definitive reference: K&R: www.amazon.com/Programming-Language-2nd-Brian-Kernighan/dp/0131103628. If you've done any kind of programming, you'll be able to pick it up from there.
BASIC is a harder question to answer. It depends on what you intend to do with it. Because it tends to be best suited to microcomputers of old, chances are you've got a specific computer in mind, and the user manual for it will be the best place to start. For instance, if it's the Commodore 64 you're interested in, then you'll want to examine the BASIC sections in the user manual (www.lemon64.com/manual/ or commodore.ca/manuals/c64_users_guide/c64-users_guide.htm).
I'm inclined to say that, simple as BASIC is, you really should start off with Pascal. BASIC is good for interactive playing around, though, so if you get a Commodore 64 emulator going (VICE is an excellent one), you can experiment with it to learn about things like loops, branching, etc. But BASIC is *terrible* for structure, and you really need structure to be there from the beginning, so you really should start with Pascal. Free Pascal (www.freepascal.org) is available for many operating systems, and comes with an IDE that's similar to Turbo Pascal of old. There are other IDEs available for Free Pascal as well. See wiki.freepascal.org/IDE. Lazarus seems to be a popular one: www.lazarus-ide.org. While the IDE that comes with Free Pascal is quirky, it's also relatively simple and powerful enough to do basic debugging and things like that, so it might not take you that long to pick it up. Both it and Lazarus have debugger capability and that's a major help for figuring out why your program isn't working right.