Project Note No 18: Current Position and future work - Notes on meeting on 2 June 1975

F R A Hopgood

5 June 1975

1. INTRODUCTION

This paper outlines the position regarding software when the FR80 service was started on l June 1975. This is followed by an outline of future work which may be done in the next period.

2. CURRENT POSITION

2.1 Hardware

The outstanding faults on the FR80 were cleared up about two weeks ago. The main problem which prevented acceptance of the complete system was the pressure marks on film produced by the 5010 film processor. This was finally solved by replacing the filter which had become blocked in the cold water supply. Payment of the outstanding 20% has now been authorised.

2.2 SMOG

The major piece of outstanding work is to create the ability to reach a graphical file generated by SPROGS. A facility to save graphical information has been provided for the FR80 but not other devices. A new command for setting character size has been included.

2.3 SPROGS

The FR80 version is working with only minor bugs.

2.4 GROATS

The FR80 version is working wjth only minor bugs.

2.5 SPOOL

The main facility outstanding is the ability to generate 9-track tapes. It was agreed that the 9-track tapes produced by the SPOOL would be equivalent to the 7-track tapes and would have the same program names and operator commands. Initially , a different set of programs would be loaded into the FR80 when 9-track tapes were being processed. Another FR80 camera called ANY may be introduced if there is a need. Output would be produced on the next camera to be loaded on the FR80.

2.6 SCSIM

The system is complete and will only be added to if specific users have a great need for a particular facility.

2.7 360/195

Mike O'Connell of RL has been moved to work on EPIC design and cannot continue with his FR80 work. However, the non-HASP parts of the spool system are nearly complete and there should not be any great delay. Chris Osland has not yet started making the necessary HASP modifications. It was decided that a service on the 360/195 could not be started before this work was completed. Some skew problems had been experienced and these were being dealt with.

The SMOG system should be working quite soon. The VIEW program is also nearly complete although some additions are being made to allow selected parts of a tape to be viewed.

SCSIM and SPROGS should move across from the 1906A with very little trouble. Once SMOG is completely working, all the machine-dependent parts of both systems will be complete. The use of the PAUSE statement in 1906A software should be discouraged as this causes messages to appear on the 360/195 main console. The STOP statement should be used instead.

POLYGRAPHICS will be implemented using SMOG. There are some problems with saving graphical information.

The 360/195 print program is working. Discussions with Harry Hurst have been arranged to decide on a standard format for fiche output.

3. FUTURE WORK

This section outlines a number of possible projects which may be undertaken. As always, there is more work than staff available to do it.

3.1 FR80

The work that could be done on the FR80 is almost unlimited. Experience has already shown that the quality of the FR80 software is poor if not very bad. The limited amount of time available for software development on the FR80 will influence the way systems work is done in the future. Some of the more important problems are:

1. Accounts Program. A large part of this is written. Difficulties have been experienced in compiling the system. More time is spent getting round the system rather than actually finding bugs.
2. Tape Error Handling. There is strong evidence that magnetic tape errors occur which may or may not issue diagnostics but do not cause the tape to stop. It is virtually impossible to run colour work of any length at the moment.
3. Font Changing. The ability to read down a new font description into the Displayer program. This would remove the necessity to keep a copy of the Displayer for each font required.
4. The Accounts Program could be incorporated with LOADGO into the Displayer.
5. The hardware problem when plotting dots and reading tape at the same time needs to be cured.
6. A facility to allow particular Displayer commands to be obeyed and the graphical result displayed on the monitor.
7. It should be possible to speed up vector drawing when overstriking.
8. A number of modifications need to be made to the 1906A Print Program. There is a requirement for multiple titles on a fiche and advance to a new fiche column.
9. Correct scissoring in the Displayer and Print Programs.
10. Extensions to the Displayer Command set. An obvious one is Change Vector Speed.
11. The whole system could be improved if more of the standard parameters were in the global area (first 100 words). This would allow tape characteristics, etc, to be passed from one program to another. The size of this area might need to be extended.
12. The ability to change the default directory in some programs.
13. Graphics Art Character simulation.
14. Filling in coloured areas as a command in the FR80.
15. Curing problems associated with generating output from several tapes.
16. Change the programs so that clock does not get turned off randomly.
17. Make double buffering work for colour output.
18. Utility to list FR80 source programs on PLS.
19. Correct fiche title numbering from the Displayer.
20. Ensure fiche titles can be entered from, the data file.
21. Allow additional monitor commands to be incorporated easily in the Displayer.
22. Page number on 360/195 listings has been generated in the wrong position.
23. CALCOMP Displayer does not work.
24. UNIVAC 1108 print program required for either either 9 or 7-track tapes.
25. 4060 simulator program required.
26. A bug exists in Character Height command when parameter is zero.
27. Redefinition of the poorly-formed characters when displayed at a large size.
28. Redefinition of characters appearing poorly on fiche.
29. Extra large hardware characters.
30. A PIP utility.
31. A loader.
32. Improve compiler messages.
33. A bug exists in DEBUG concerned wiith incrementing start address.
34. Breakpoints in DEBUG do not work if set on IOTs and instructions like SPA.
35. Several error conditions cause the program to hang up. For example, Skip if Camera not Advancing.
36. Disc structure is inconsistent for source files. For example the Editor produces files with no back pointers.
37. CTRL-F should not produce $CLEAN as a side effect.
38. Use of data switches is poorly documented and can cause problems.
39. Editor occasionally loses whole file. Also, message to indicate workspace is exhausted sometimes gets missed.
40. Test Programs required for diagnostic purposes.
41. PDP15 software to aid FR80 program compilation and debugging.

The aim must be to cut down on the number of different copies of the same program required due to the lack of sub-compilation facilities.

3.2 PDP15

The PDP15 could be used to generate FR80 software. The other main areas of work are given below.

1. RSX. The new system needs to be mounted if a multi-user system is still a necessity. This may well mean extensive changes to existing systems such as PIGS unless they are left to run under DOS.
2. VIEW. The program needs to be cleaned up and documented. A facility to connect it via the BSI to the SPOOL would be an advantage.
3. FONTS. Definition of FR80 characters in the standard form and possibly as Graphics Art characters.
4. BSI. System needs finishing off and documenting so that it can be used in systems like the proposed Finite Element work.
5. Microdensitometer. A system associated with viewing and extracting information from microdensitometer data is under construction by LOF.
6. Finite Element Package. Programs are required for inputting graphical data concerned with mesh definitions and outputting various views of the results.

3.3 Applications Packages

1. XRAY. Changes to the 1906A system are required to generate graphical output using SMOG.
2. SPSS. There may be a need for some work to be done on this package.
3. Finite Element Package. Either PAFEC or ASAS on the 1906A needs to be modified to produce sensible data for the interactive viewing of graphical output.
4. Archuleta. The Utah system for displaying 3-dimensional objects as line drawings or shaded areas, with or without contours, may be worth implementing.

3.4 External Projects

Work may be necessary in connection with a number of projects originating outside the Group.

1. Research Council's Publicity Film. State House require a film that can be updated, which gives a factual background to the Research Council's history and current position.
2. RCA Modelling System. The e may be a need for special subroutines concerned with colour output to be produced by the Group.
3. RCA-Leverhulme Project for generating films from Benesh Dance Notation. It may be necessary to generate some basic software to aid this project.
4. Dr Rhind. He requires routines to produce coloured 3-dimensional histograms.
5. Molecule Films. A film of Vitamin B is being generated by LOF. It may be sensible to provide a package for generating films of molecules.

3.5 High-Level Graphic Routines

The current set of high-level routines needs to be incorporated into suites. Some examples arr given below:

1. Contours. A number of similar routines exist. There should be standard input for routines displaying f(x,y) data in a variety of ways.
2. Coloured Areas. >Efficient routines for colouring areas of varied shape.
3. Shading. Routines for shading or colouring 3-dimensional surfaces.
4. Hidden Line Elimination.
5. SPROGS Data Mode. The linking of SPROGS to the PDP15 has been under consideration for some time.
6. Text Output. There is a need to output high quality text on the FR80. This whole area needs to be reviewed.