[HECnet] Task Buillder question

[Robert Armstrong]

  Thanks for the suggestions, guys, but I don't think that'll help.

  What I want to do is to rebuild (after making some changes) Joe Lang's copy of DEC's paper tape BASIC-11

	http://www.bitsavers.org/bits/DEC/pdp11/papertapeimages/DEC-11-LPTBA-B-PB_disassembly/

  There are three MACRO-11 source files that have to be separately assembled and then linked into an absolute memory image.   

Bob


-----Original Message-----
From: owner-hecnet at Update.UU.SE [mailto:owner-hecnet at Update.UU.SE] On Behalf Of Paul Koning
Sent: Monday, April 12, 2021 10:43 AM
To: hecnet at update.uu.se
Subject: Re: [HECnet] Task Buillder question

I don't remember the format of a task file, but object files in RSX and RT11 are nearly identical.  The difference is that the RT11 ones are "formatted binary", the same structure as abs loader data, where records start with a byte of 1 followed by a byte of 0, then load address and length (or the other way around).  RSX uses RMS variable length records instead, so you get a record containing a load address and data, but the length is handled by RMS.  The conversion between the two is pretty trivial.

PIP on RSTS can do this, for example RSX to RT11 would be "pip foo.lda/fb=foo.obj".

I have somewhere a Python script that turns an a.out format executable (from the GNU linker) into an abs loader file.  Converting that to handle task files is likely to be pretty easy.

	paul

> On Apr 12, 2021, at 1:15 PM, Steve Davidson <steve at davidson.net> wrote:
> 
> RT emulation under RSTS should work as well.  If I can find some time I can fix my router and give you an account on PLUTO::  if that helps.
> 
> -Steve
> 
> SF:IP2
> 
>> On Apr 12, 2021, at 13:12, Robert Armstrong <bob at jfcl.com> wrote:
>> 
>> ?
>>   Thanks � I don�t have RT11 at the moment; I have the RSX AME on VMS.  I guess I could set up RT11 on some simh, but I was looking for a shortcut.
>> 
>> Bob
>>  
>>  
>> From: owner-hecnet at Update.UU.SE [mailto:owner-hecnet at Update.UU.SE] On Behalf Of Steve Davidson
>> Sent: Monday, April 12, 2021 10:04 AM
>> To: hecnet at update.uu.se
>> Subject: Re: [HECnet] Task Buillder question
>>  
>> Bob,
>>  
>> You are looking for LDA format. TKB might be able to do it but LINK (RT-11) certainly can. 
>> 
>> -Steve
>>  
>> SF:IP2
>> 
>> 
>> On Apr 12, 2021, at 12:57, Robert Armstrong <bob at jfcl.com> wrote:
>> 
>> ?
>>   Ok, this is a bit of an off the wall question, but � can Task Builder (aka TKB) build paper tape images in absolute loader format?  Can anybody clue me in as to the magic switch(es) to do this? 
>>  
>> Thanks,
>> Bob