Adventures with the Nixdorf 8870 Mini-Computer
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First Business BASIC program in years

7/6/2014

4 Comments

 
I wrote my first decent business BASIC program last night. Amazed at how much I'd forgotten but it slowly came back - working in Visual Basic for 20 years hasn't helped.

I wanted a routine to search through a specified list of files and look for pieces of text.

The LIBR list file contains all the *C (contiguous) files that are likely to contain German text that's used by the operating system. For example, I wanted to find where the machines original owner name was stored - In MESSAGES, record 147 for the record.

It was a fun exercise and a real blast of nostalgia. I really need to get a second terminal up and running as just having the one is a real handicap.

I've actually managed to repair a second terminal. Next I need to assemble a suitable connecting cable for it.

As an update to this post, I've been messing around all day trying to get the second DAP4 to work over an IHSS connection for I'm having problems for some reason.

I know the DAP4 works ok, because if I put a V24 card in it and connected to the master port channel on the ALME it works fine. I've tried a different ALME and it's not that.

So it's either a problem with the interface cards (and I've tried several) or the cabling but if it is I'll be dammed if I can see the problem. I'll have another go tomorrow if I get the chance.


4 Comments

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    I'm a software developer, an engineer and I love vintage computers, but the 8870 has a very special place in my heart.

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