DIAL

	LAP6-DIAL TO PS/8 SOURCE FILE CONVERTER

		MARIO DENOBILI, POLY QUESTION SOCIETY

	THE PROGRAM, DIAL, WHICH RUNS UNDER PS/8 (OR OS/8)
ON A PDP-12 WITH AT LEAST 8K IS USED TO CONVERT ASCII SOURCE
FILES FROM A LINCTAPE WITH THE LAP6-DIAL OR DIAL-MS MONITOR
SYSTEM TO A PS/8 SOURCE FILE.
	THE LATEST VERSION OF DIAL IS VERSION 15 AND IS THEREFORE
KNOWN AS DIAL15.  THE SOURCE IS CALLED DIAL15.PA AND THE BINARY IS
DIAL15.BN.  THE SAVE IMAGE OF DIAL15 CAN BE CREATED FROM THE
BINARY BY THE COMMANDS:

	.R ABSLDR
	*DIAL15.BN$
	.SAVE SYS DIAL15 16000-17577;17400=6003

	TO CALL DIAL FROM A PS/8 (OR OS/8) SYSTEM DEVICE ON
WHICH IT RESIDES, THE USER TYPES

	.R DIAL15

IN RESPONSE TO THE DOT PRINTED BY THE KEYBOARD MONITOR.  WHEN DIAL
BEGINS EXECUTION, IT CALLS THE COMMAND DECODER WHICH PRINTS A
STAR.  THE USER THEN SPECIFIES ONE OUTPUT FILE AND FROM 1 TO 5
INPUT FILES.  THE ONLY LEGAL DEVICES WHICH CAN CONTAIN THE INPUT
FILES ARE PDP-12 LINCTAPE DRIVES.  THE USER'S PS/8 OR OS/8 SYSTEM
DEVICE MUST HAVE LINCTAPE HANDLERS ALTHOUGH THIS PROGRAM WILL NOT
USE THEM.  SPECIFYING ANY INPUT DEVICE OTHER THAN A LINCTAPE
WILL CAUSE AN ERROR MESSAGE TO BE GENERATED.  ANY OUTPUT DEVICE
AVAILABLE TO THE PS/8 SYSTEM IS LEGAL FOR OUTPUT.
	THE PROGRAM, DIAL, WILL READ IN THE LAP6-DIAL FILES SPECIFIED
AS INPUT, CONCATENATE THEM TOGETHER IF MORE THAN ONE WAS SPECIFIED,
PUT IT INTO PS/8 FORMAT, AND STORE IT ON THE OUTPUT FILE OR DEVICE
SPECIFIED.  DIAL THEN RETURNS TO THE USER FOR MORE INPUT BY TYPING
A STAR AGAIN AND WAITING FOR MORE COMMANDS.  AT THIS POINT, THE
USER CAN CONVERT MORE FILES OR TYPE CTRL/C TO RETURN TO THE
KEYBOARD MONITOR.
	SINCE LAP6-DIAL FILENAMES CAN BE UP TO EIGHT CHARACTERS LONG,
THEY ARE REFERENCED BY USING THE PS/8 FILENAME AND POSSIBLY ALSO
THE PS/8 FILENAME EXTENSION.  THUS, TO REFERENCE THE LAP6-DIAL FILE
CALLED MILDRED ON LINCTAPE DRIVE 3, THE USER SPECIFIES
LTA3:MILDRE.D TO THE COMMAND DECODER.  THE PERIOD BEFORE THE
FILENAME EXTENSION (IF ONE IS GIVEN) IS IGNORED.  IF ONLY A DEVICE
NAME BUT NO FILENAME IS SPECIFIED, THE PROGRAM WILL TAKE THE FOUR
DIGIT OCTAL PARAMETER GIVEN TO THE COMMAND DECODER (IN THE FORM =NNNN)
AS THE STARTING BLOCK NUMBER FOR THE LAP6-DIAL FILE.  THUS LTA2:=234
REFERS TO THE FILE ON LINCTAPE DRIVE 2 WHICH BEGINS AT PHYSICAL
LINCTAPE BLOCK 234 (OCTAL).  THIS STARTING BLOCK NUMBER CAN BE
OBTAINED IN ADVANCE USING THE PX COMMAND FROM THE LAP6-DIAL
MONITOR SYSTEM.  IN SOME CASES, IT IS NECESSARY TO REFER TO THE
INPUT FILE BY ITS STARTING BLOCK NUMBER RATHER THAN BY ITS NAME
BECAUSE IT MIGHT HAVE A NAME WHICH IS NOT A LEGAL FILENAME FOR THE
PS/8 COMMAND DECODER, SUCH AS A FILE CALLED ME$YOU-2.
	THE I/O SPECIFICATION LINE TO THE COMMAND DECODER CAN
SPECIFY THE OPTION /N.  THIS WILL CAUSE A NEW CATALOG TO BE
READ IN FOR THE FIRST INPUT DEVICE.  DIAL NORMALLY KEEPS THE
CATALOG (INDEX) IN CORE AND ONLY REREADS IT IF A NEW TAPE UNIT
IS SPECIFIED OR IF IT CAN'T FIND THE FILENAME IN THE CATALOG
ALREADY IN CORE.  THIS OPTION IS ONLY NECESSARY IF THE FILE
BEING REFERENCED ON THE NEW TAPE HAD THE SAME NAME AS A FILE
ON THE PREVIOUS TAPE ON THAT DRIVE.

	ERROR MESSAGES

FILE OPEN ERROR
INPUT DEVICE NOT LINCTAPE
OUTPUT WRITE ERROR
FILE CLOSE FAILED
XXXX NOT FOUND
CPU IS NOT A PDP-12!
NO OUTPUT DEVICE SPECIFIED
OUT DEV NON-EXISTENT
*INPUT READ ERROR
*OUTPUT DEVICE FULL
*INPUT TAPE BAD FORMAT

* DENOTES ERROR CHECKING FEATURES THAT ARE NOT YET IMPLEMENTED.


NOTE: SOME FEATURES WERE PLANNED FOR THIS PROGRAM BUT WERE NOT
IMPLEMENTED AS OF JUNE 18, 1972.  SINCE THESE WILL PROBABLY
NOT GET IMPLEMENTED IN THE NEAR FUTURE, IT WAS FELT THAT THE
PROGRAM AS IS SHOULD BE SUBMITTED TO DECUS SO THAT USERS CAN
BENEFIT FROM WHAT IS ALREADY WRITTEN.  TWO OPTIONS WHICH ARE
PLANED ARE THE /L AND THE /B SWITCH.  THE /L SWITCH WOULD
CAUSE THE TAPE'S DIRECTORY TO BE CONVERTED TO A PS/8 FILE;
AND THE /B SWITCH WOULD ALLOW BINARY FILES TO BE CONVERTED.

	SOME KNOWN BUGS IN DIAL15 ARE:

1. IF THE SPECIFIED FILE IS NOT FOUND, THE MESSAGE XXXX NOT FOUND
   IS PRINTED BUT XXXX IS GIBBERISH INSTEAD OF THE FILE NAME.
2. IF THE INPUT TAPE HAS THE WRONG FORMAT (I.E. NOT 400 WORDS/BLOCK),
   NO ERROR MESSAGE IS GIVEN.
3. THE PROGRAM DOES NOT HANDLE CORRECTLY ERRORS ON INPUT OR
   OUTPUT DEVICE FULL ERRORS.
4. THE PROGRAM DOES NOT GIVE AN ERROR MESSAGE IF NO INPUT FILES
   ARE SPECIFIED.
) IN CORE AND ONLY REREADS IT IF A NEW TAPE UNIT
IS SPECIFIED OR IF IT CAN'T FIND THE FILENAME IN THE CATALOG
ALREADY IN CORE.  THIS OPTION IS ONLY NECESSARY