This Part is concerned with users submitting jobs to the 1906A from punched cards or paper tape. No attempt is made to cover the finer details of running jobs on. the 1906A. Instead it highlights the information required for the input of background jobs.
The main points to be remembered when a background job is submitted are:
This card is described in the Users' Handbook. It should be completed clearly and concisely. If the job is being submitted on cards, the Job Request Card may be passed through the card reader with the card deck. This ensures that the two do not get split up. However, it does mean that the Job Request Card should be kept in good condition and replaced as soon as it becomes at all bent.
Users are requested to check card decks for mispunched cards since the card readers do not give any error indication.
It is recommended that paper tape or card decks should only be input to the 1906A once. The input should be read into a file. Instead of inputting the deck again when changes are made, the user is requested to edit the file (Part G). An updated deck can always be produced when necessary by a LISTFILE to the card punch.
If several jobs are being submitted at the same time, these should either be separate decks (each with its own Job Request Card) or details of the complete set of jobs should be written on the Job Request Card. If a job issues another job (by the RUNJOB command), this information should be mentioned on the Job Request Card. However, this method of issuing jobs is not recommended.
The user should aim to input card decks only once. However, if a card deck has to be input several times, the user must remember that the deck soon gets worn. This can lead to cards being wrecked as they pass through the reader. Card decks should be reproduced as soon as they.show signs of wear. To aid the 1906A operators and support staff, cards should always be interpreted.
It is possible to input card decks in codes other than the standard 1900 code. EBCDIC or ATLAS(BCD) card decks can be input to the filestore and converted into 1900 code. The relevant utility is described in T.4.1.
All paper tapes (normally 8-track ISO code) should be labelled in ink with both the username and jobname or filename at the front of the tape. The label should indicate whether the paper tape contains a JOB file or an INPUT file. There should be two or three feet of runout at the start of the tape.
All paper tapes should be labelled in ink with both the username and jobname or filename at the front of the tape. The label should indicate whether the paper tape contains a JOB file or an INPUT file. There should be two or three feet of runout at the start of the tape.
After a file has been read from a paper tape, the tape reader will continue reading to try and locate the next file. Once the last file has been read, the reader will continue unless it is disengaged by punching DG on the tape followed by a newline after the last terminator (usually ****).
The user is recommended to input paper tapes only once and edit the 1906A files. There are a number of problems with editing tapes using a teletype. If a copy of a file on paper tape is required, this should be done by a LISTFILE to the 1906A tape punch (*TP) rather th listing on the teletype with the punch switched on.
To input the file MYFILE into the filestore belonging to :NTBE34 requires:
INPUT :NTBE34,MYFILE ........ ****
The terminator will be included in the contents of the file. If the input consists of more than one file, it should be entered as separate files. For example:
INPUT :NTBE34,MYDATA .......... **** JOB SMITH,:NTBE34,JD(JT 30 SECS) ........... ****
This is more efficient and less prone to error than embedding the data file as follows:
JOB SMITH,:NTBE34,JD(JT 30 SECS) INPUT MYDATA,T//// ........... //// ........... ****
If this method is used, care must be taken that the T//// and the terminating //// agree. If the data file is not correctly terminated, the remainder of the job and possibly subsequent jobs will also be taken as part of the data file. It is important to remember that when a file is INPUT outside of a JOB file, the username must be present whereas within a JOB file, the username must be absent (but see D.9.5).
The EDITOR is described in Part G. The section G.12 is relevant here. When the EDITOR is being used from a background job, it is much safer to locate a particular line or string by its line number rather than by context. Without being able to check the position reached, context editing can be quite dangerous. The wrong occurrence of a particular string may be found. To obtain a line numbered listing, the NUMBER parameter is used in the LISTFILE command:
LISTFILE MYFILE,*LP,NUMBER
This parameter to the LISTFILE command is used to direct the output to a different destination from the default. For example, jobs submitted at a remote station will have output returned there by default while jobs submitted locally at ACL will have their output sent to the 1906A's local or central lineprinters. To direct the output from a job to the SOUTHAMPTON remote station, the user would call:
LISTFILE MYFILE,*LP,PROPERTY SOUTHAMPTON
The word PROPERTY can be abbreviated to PR. The current list of properties is:
BELFAST CENTRAL CSO EXETER GLASGOW HAWKER LONDON RGO ROE SHEFFIELD SOUTHAMPTON SUSSEX UK5
The property CENTRAL will direct output to the 1906A peripherals at ACL.
The DISPLAY command (D.5.6) is used to send a message to one of:
The remote station's console is the one attached to the one that the job was submitted from. If the job was submitted locally at ACL, this console is the main 1906A operator's console. The form of the DISPLAY command is:
DISPLAY 0, MY PROGRAM WORKED DISPLAY 1, :NTBE34 JOB COMPLETE DISPLAY 2, :NTBE34 JOB FINISHED WITH TAPE 234567 DISPLAY 3, :NTBE34 WAITING FOR TAPE 123456
The first parameter defines the destination as follows:
0 Monitoring file 1 Monitoring file and remote station console 2 Monitoring file and central 1906A operator's console 3 All three destinations
Some typical examples of when to use DISPLAYS are:
This can be used to provide information about the progress of various parts of a job.
This can be used to indicate when a job has finished or when output is ready to be listed.
This should be restricted to very informative details. For example, if a job requires a non-standard magnetic tape and the user knows the location of the tape.
The JOBQUEUE has been created for the following reasons:
In fact (3) will eventually not apply, as an automatic restart option is expected to be introduced into the system. Reason (1) will also become less important as restrictions on direct prime shift submissions are progressively removed.
Jobs are added to the JOBQUEUE by defining a file, say QFILE, with the relevant details and then appending this to the file :OPERATORS.JOBQ. The file QFILE should contain the RUNJOB commands for the jobs together with useful comments. For example:
INPUT :NTBE34,QFILE RUNJOB :NTBE34,SMITHONE,FILENAME,JD(JT 15 MINS) #JOB CAN BE RERUN **** JOB ADDTOQ,:NTBE34,JD(JT 15 SECS) COPY QFILE, OPERATORS. JOBQ (APPEND) ENDJOB
The main classes of jobs suitable for the JOBQUEUE are:
This category includes the following jobs:
JOBTIME > 5 mins STORE > 100K words OUTPUT > 10000 lines CARD OUTPUT > 500 cards
If a user has several jobs to be run in sequence, all the RUNJOB commands should be input into a single QFILE and appended to the JOBQUEUE. Suitable comments should be added to indicate the order.
If several jobs require the same magnetic tape, it is worth defining them in a single QFILE with suitable comments. This allows the operators on the 1906A to leave the magnetic tapes mounted ready for the next job.
The JOBQUEUE is only intended for jobs which can be issued by a RUNJOB command. Brief comments should be included in the QFILE to describe the nature of the job and whether it can be re-run. Comments should be introduced by the # character in the first column. For example:
INPUT :NTBE34,QFILE RUNJOB :NTBE34,SMITHX,FILEONE,JD(JT 10 MINS,MT 1) RUNJOB :NTBE34,SMITHY,FILETWO,JD(JT 5 MINS,MT 1) . #BOTH JOBS USE TAPE 123456 #RUN JOB X BEFORE Y #NEITHER JOB CAN BE RERUN #TOTAL JOBTIME 15 MINS #RETURN TO F SMITH #387 BOLTON ROAD #SIDCUP ****
This command has been added for users submitting jobs to the JOBQUEUE from a remote station. As the JOBQUEUE jobs are submitted centrally, all the output for lineprinters would normally be produced at ACL and not the remote station. The JOBEND command routes the printing of the monitoring file back to the remote station. For example:
JOBEND BELFAST
For other output, the user should put the relevant PROPERTY parameter in the LISTFILE command. However, if system macros are being used, the LISTFILE commands may not be under the user's control. Some macros allow the PROPERTY parameter to be added to the LISTFILE commands. If the macro does not, the output will be printed at ACL. Output for a remote station, which has been printed at ACL, will be posted back to the remote site.
Users should note the following:
All the information that would normally appear on the Job Request Card should appear in the JOBQUEUE file.
