Yet another piece of microcomputers history

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stefano
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Joined: Mon Jul 16, 2007 7:39 pm

Yet another piece of microcomputers history

Post by stefano »

https://github.com/z88dk/z88dk-ext/blob ... d/submit.c

I took a bit to understand this program.
First of all the way the SUBMIT command works on cp/m 2.2 is a simple hack: the warm boot process looks for a file named $$$.SUB, if it exists, then it uses it as a batch file, then the file will be deleted. I wouldn't be surprised if the file ie altered by wiping off every single line just before executing a command.

EDIT: my guess was correct. . https://forum.vcfed.org/index.php?threa ... ost-846541

SUBMIT is also capable of a bit of macro substitution, e.g. to permit the parameter passing to a .SUB batch file used as a template.

Then the C functions. It looked close to the BDS C, but the file access stuff was different. Moreover the puts() function was expected to work in a non standard way, without forcing a NEWLINE.
I later discovered that it was an example program for an earlier implementation of the MESCC C compiler, a CP/M tuned variant of the SMALL C by Mike Bernson.
It could compile itself, but the bootstrap version was built with the BDS C.

For the sake of completeness I translated also 'time.c', which was a command intended to operate an ancient clock/calendar board for the S100 computers.
https://github.com/z88dk/z88dk-ext/blob ... /qt_time.c
I couldn't test it (yet) :)
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