On 03/02/2015 06:36, wrote:
On Tue, 03 Feb 2015 00:03:40 +0000, John Rumm
wrote:

On 02/02/2015 15:49, wrote:

Lots of familiar languages but not seen Coral66 mentioned; anyone
here ever use it?

Yup, loads of times alas!

(its kind of like Pascal with all the nice bits taken out)

I have a particular computer and military system in
mind and am involved with its restoration.

Yup it was often used for MoD contracts. It kind of had a place many
years ago when the amount of data throughput through systems was small,
memory was scarce, and readability and maintainability of code was
paramount.

Its a struggle to use elegantly for anything modern with a large amount
of data to handle, since there are no user defined types, and the
nearest thing you will get to a data structure is an array of integers!

(most of the development tools also suck to some greater or lesser extent)

Ah so you really liked it then John

Its shows doesn't it ;-)

I am part of a team restoring a Bloodhound MK2 missile system launch
control post operating only in simulation mode; it uses the Ferranti
Argus 700 computer (see Wikipedia).

We now have it all working again despite it having spent about 25
years without power laying in a field.

Sounds like a good result.

We have one Winchester drive
left with the operational code but do not have the source code which
was written in Coral66.

With systems of that age its a not uncommon problem. Often a result of
hardware production lines not really understanding the concept of
software. I have seen a number of projects where it became apparent that
changes were needed to some old software, and when asked where it was,
all they could find was the master PROM that was kept in a secure
cupboard in the production facility. That was the one they took from the
shelf, and carefully copied to make each new board. As to where the
source code was (let alone any more nuanced nicety like what
configuration or build state the code on the prom was anyone's guess.

Our weakest link is the storage medium for being able to ensure that
it will remain functional so are working on first a SCSI replacement
(because it has been done before) followed by solid state. Whilst we
have the source code for another version we would feel much safer if
we had our own plus development tools ... always possible it is
lurking on a tape in someone's attic as it is amazing what has
surfaced!

You may be lucky... I know of one GEC project where they dug some old
Intel MDS development systems out of the stores, and by fluke found they
had the required source code on disks that had been packed away with them.

It is intended to have the kit on display in a new museum by 2017
alongside a missile, launcher that is already on site and our Ferranti
radar; find us at http://www.bmpg.org.uk/ This is a totally privately
funded project so DIY at its finest!

Indeed!


--
Cheers,

John.

/================================================== ===============\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\================================================= ================/