BASIC-PLUS-2 RSX-11M/M-PLUS Installation Guide and

This document serves as an installation guide and release notes for BASIC-PLUS-2 Version 2.2 on Digital Equipment Corporation's RSX-11M V4.1 or RSX-11M-PLUS V2.1 operating systems.

The installation process, typically performed by a system manager, outlines prerequisites including specific software (RMS-11 V2.0) and hardware (32K words of virtual address space, various disk block requirements, and specific executive directives and utility programs). Before commencing, users must decide on optional components such as memory-resident libraries (BP2RES or BP2SML) and a secondary cache (to improve compilation speed), preparing necessary partitions beforehand.

The core installation involves mounting the distribution medium (magnetic tape or disk) under a special privileged account and then executing the interactive BP2BLD dialogue program. This program guides the user through configuring various aspects of BASIC-PLUS-2, including:

• Installing memory-resident libraries and specifying their partitions and addresses.
• Enabling and sizing a secondary cache for work files, requiring partitions for associated libraries (B22SHR and B22SH1).
• Configuring RUN support, including remote RMS file access and linking with memory-resident libraries.
• Installing the BP2 Resequencer and the BP2 Help file.
• Selecting the hardware math package (EIS or FPU).
• Defining the compiler's invocation name and prompt.
• Specifying disk locations for the compiler, work files, object module libraries, ODL files, and temporary installation files.
• Setting default formatting characters (e.g., currency symbol, decimal point) and time format.
• Options to update the compiler, delete temporary installation files, and verify the installation.

Upon completion of the dialogue, a summary of selected options is displayed and recorded. The installation then proceeds with creating command files, linking object modules, and installing the compiler and chosen libraries. A verification test is executed to confirm the successful setup.

Beyond installation, the guide details post-installation customization. The BASIC-PLUS-2 Help file (BP2.HLP) can be modified or extended using a text editor, followed by running the BP2RFA utility to update its indexing. System-wide compiler defaults can be established or modified by creating a system initialization file (BP2INI.nnn) containing specific BASIC commands, affecting all users. Individual users can further customize their environment by creating private initialization files, which override system defaults.

Finally, the document notes that release notes, detailing new features and known problems for Version 2.2, are provided in the [1,10]RELNOT.DOC file on the distribution medium.