It is intended to issue a second version of the system to users in December. The manual is currently being retyped. However, there are a number of points to be raised.
(1) Should a 'glossy' manual be issued for this version? Such a manual will be produced by a printer with smart cover, and it will be easy to obtain copies (using the Xerox for many copies takes a long time). However, it is not worth the extra expense if major changes are likely in the near future.
(2) Should we aim to include any more facilities in Version 2 before it is released, particularly with regard to point 1 above.
To assist in such decisions, the following is a list of jobs which have still to be completed (among others).
These are defined as non-trivial additions, on which no work has yet started.
The method of approach has been defined, but the coding and testing is likely to take 2-3 months.
An automatic repetition of frames could be done by using temporary storage in the file store. Such a facility, however, may lead to major changes in the code.
Since the early discussions on STROKE, this problem has received no further attention. STROKE itself, if implemented, is likely to prove difficult.
With the preprocessor already in existence, a certain amount of data definition has been done, but it relies heavily on the form required for use by PDP15, and the coding may be difficult.
With the introduction of RSX3, there is likely to be a delay in the release of software on the PDP15 for the general user, maybe as late as Spring 1974.
Little extra work has been done to provide extra facilities in conjunction with histograms, contours etc. A usable system ought to include these frills.
There are a number of jobs for which work is in hand, and which are nearing completion, but which have yet to be included.
Routines to provide variable line thickness exist but no attempt has yet been made to incorporate them.
Code which follows the GROATS plan has been written to provide the necessary scaling and off-setting.
Routines to scissor a line for circular and elliptic areas have been tested, but no attempt to include them into the regions has been made.
Although not strictly started yet, the inclusion of COLOUR is fairly simple. It has been given as thesis task to David Ralphs, and hence is nearly finished.
Routines have been written to handle this device. However, they cannot be completely tested, or included in DVOUT, until a device is available.
These routines give scaling information for characters so that automation TEXPAN factors can be generated. Again, these have yet to be fully integrated.
The following jobs have been defined, and their implementation seems fairly simple, but no work has begun.
One-shot WHILE.
Start sequence list without adding a file.
Same as AR, but with autoincrementing on the third index variable.
To be effective outside a file definition, so that suspended items can be added to the sequence list.
To have a bit set to cause automatic repetition of the named file.
This can easily be done by providing some extra locations in the display name table, extra calls to null routines in OBEY and a routine to set up the display name table. A user would write his own display routine and use one of the dummy routine names in OBEY for the execution part.
This needs changes to IFPOS to make allowances during the hash search.
This needs changes as above to INPOS.
There are two jobs which have been designed, but not started, which could take a significant amount of work, although not sufficient to warrant being described as large jobs.
This involves the packing of null files so that only the arguments need to be stored. Such a file will have to be read using file length to detect the end, since no FIDF will be present.
Currently no check is kept on the arguments to see if they really are integral, or whether they really do fit in 12 or 6 bits. Such checking would slow the packing of files considerably.
In addition to the above, the following two jobs must be done before the second release.
(1) Inclusion of spooling, which is being tested.
(2) Inclusion of owned tapes and the removal of RETAIN.
