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XX-2FB5E-8C

May 1986

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Document:	SH Bulletin V4N3 Winter86
Order Number:	XX-2FB5E-8C
Revision:	0
Pages:	4
Original Filename:	http://bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/pdp11/tsxPlus/sh_bulletin/SH_Bulletin_V4N3_Winter86.pdf

OCR Text

WINTER 1986

VOLUME FOUR, NUMBER THREE

Bulletin Board Service (BBS]
Our Bulletin Board Service (BBS) is up and running. Please
dial in and see what we have. The phone number is
615/320-5462.
Using this BBS, you can obtain the most current release notes,
back issues of this Bulletin, patches, example programs, and
more. You can also leave messages for the technical support
staff, the sales department; really anyone here at S&H. However, the BBS is NOT a valid means to submit purchase
oideis.
.
Due to good response to our BSS, we have extended the
BBS to 24 hours. If the system is not available for any reason, the phone will not answer. Otherwise, the phone wi!1
answer within three rings.

A hint for those collecting information: If you are calling to get
handler patches or long documents and are using VTCOM
to capture the information, we recommend that you do not
use VT100 mode, as this mode sends VT100 escape
sequences to clear the screen and position the cursor. Also,
in non-VT100 mode, the output will not pause at the end of
a screen, but continue until the current menu is re-entered.
This way, large documents (such as release notes and the
compability list) can be received with little user interaction,
eliminating the necessity of removing controi sequences from
the received file.
If you have suggestions for the improvement of our BBS,
please leave a message for the Technical Support department.
We have had some good suggestions on the expansion of
our BBS. Please keep those suggestions coming.

We are continuing to upgrade this service. Since last month,
the software products compatibility list has been added to the
ulletin board.

TSX-Pius v6.01 Released December 5 J 1985
A change has been made to the way the controi-character
causes a n-CL cross connection to be broken. If you wish
to break the connection without dropping DTR, you may type
control-A X.
It is now possible to disable the print window function, and
cause a control-B to be passed through to the running program rather than being intercepted by the system.
A /NOWARN qualifier may now be used with the DISMOUNT
command to prevent display of the warning message "Device

:s stu :noL.;nted by other L.;sers".
The TSX-Plus OW handler is compatible with RT-11 through
version 5.02.
A job (or installed command file) with SYSPRV privilege can
now perform operations which were previously only legal
'ithin start-up command files, such as the ACCESS
-- command.
Device and/or file names may now be specified in TSGEN
for the file used to store user-defined commands (UCL) and
the IND temp file.

A change has been made to the shaied-file record locking
system so that if the same shared file is opened more than
once by the same program, and .SAVESTATUS and .REOPEN
operations are performed on the channels opened to the
shared file, the channel number is used to associate the correct record locking information with the channel when it is
reopened.
An error message will be printed if you attempt to SQUEEZE
or INITIALIZE a device containing TSX-Plus system files.
Corrected Problems
• The SHOW TERMINALS command will now display the current user name if the line was generated without a NAME
macro and the line is currently logged on.
• The SET n n START command now prints an error message if the line is connected to a CL unit.
• The $NOSUB flag (specified within a line definition block
in TSGE~~) did not 'v'York as documented.
• A job would hang if a .READW EMT was executed from
within a completion routine, and generalized data caching
was enabled for the device from which the data was being
read, and the data being read was not currently in the
cache.

s&h bulletin
• The SET LD EMPTY command failed to dismount a logical
disk if the logical disk was unavailable at the time that the
command was executed.
• Syntax checking for the INSTALL command has been made
more rigorous and the REMOVE keyword may be used as
well as the DELETE keyword to deinstall a program or command file.
• A security problem related to system passwords has been
corrected.
• During logon, if a start-up command file was not found, the

2
job could be left in a logged on state with all privileges
enabled.
• The function to transmit a break signal through the co~.-'~~.
munications port or one of the quad serial line units on~.
Professional series computer did not work correctly.
.
• The .SYNCH system service did not support job numbers
greater than 31.
New editions of the TSX-Plus manuals are available. A complete set of release notes is available on our BBS.

COBOL-Plus v6.0 Released December 51 1985
There are two versions of the COBOL-Plus v6.0 compiler-a
small-memory version which is designed to operate in small
to medium memory space (as little as 36 Kb), and a version
of the compiler with a different overlay structure requiring
about 4 Kb more space for the compiler but which compiles
up to 1.8 times as fast.
There is a new option switch "IF" for the compiler. If specified, data items whose usage type is declared computational,
are instead assigned display usage.
COBOL-Plus version 6.0 features a major enhancement to
support of indexed organization (lSAM) files. With version 6.0
it is possible to enable automatic file size extension for ISAM
files.
The structural modifications for the new ISAM are due primarily
to the requirements of the automatic file extension function.
File extension is accomplished in essentially the same way
that the ISAM utility uses the IE, for IEXTEND, switch.
The escape sequences transmitted by VT200 terminals for
function keys F6-F20, HELP, DO, FIND, etc. are now correctly
processed by the ACCEPT statement.
The ACCEPT id FROM TIME statement now returns with the
maximum accuracy possible with your system clock.
Because of changes to the internal structure of ISAM files,
existing programs will need to be recompiled in order to use
ISAM files of the new structure.
The ISAM run-time error messages have been improved.
The ISAM utility was updated to fully support the new structure. The IU switch will cause an existing file with the old structure to be updated (converted), in place, to the version 6.0
structure. Be sure to backup your files first!
The format of some of ISAM's displays has been improved.
Some items are displayed in octal, some in decimal, and some
in both, depending on context.
The ISAM utility now queries "Delete; Are you sure (YIN):"
when you use the 10 option to delete an ISAM file set.

Corrected Problems
• A problem was corrected which could incorrectly cause the
run-time error message: ?CBRTS-F-OVM-Insufficient memory space available for program execution.
• A problem was corrected which could cause a READ NEXT
statement following a START "file" KEY GREATER THAN
"key" statement to find the record whose key matched
"key" rather than the following record.
• A problem was corrected which could cause too many decimal places to be retained in the computation of a numeric
expression which contained numeric literals.
• A problem was corrected which sometimes prevented t .
compiler from producing an error message when a grou
data item was used in an arithmetic statement such as ADD,
SUBTRACT, MULTIPLY which requires elementary numeric
items.
• A problem was corrected which caused an EXIT PROGRAM statement to fail when the program contained no
CALL statements, and was linked for extended memory
(XM) execution.
• A problem was corrected which occasionally caused the
compiler to spuriously produce the information message
"?CBL-I-SDT Significant digits truncated".
• The COBOL-Plus run-time system now checks for attempts
to write records to ISAM files with null bytes in the keys. If
this happens, a run-time error occurs with the following error
message: "ISAM key contains null (binary zero) byte." Previously it was possible to write a record with a null key but
the ISAM program would report a "Key sequence error"
when the file was verified. The ISAM program has also been
changed to report any occurrences of null bytes within keys
when a file is verified.
N.B. RealWorld accounting programs use a record with a
null byte key as a control record. COBOL-Plus v6.1 supports null keys.
• A problem was corrected which could cause the COBOLPlus run-time system to stop doing record locking for an
ISAM file if the same file was opened two or more times
concurrently within the same program.
• It has never been legal to specify a null as an octal constant (#()OO) but it used to produce a non-obvious error message. There is now a specific error message to diagncw:
the use of a null octal constant.
•

A new edition of the COBOL-Plus manual is available. A complete set of release notes is available on our BBS.

s&h bulletin

COBOL-Plus v6.1 Released January 2811986
With COBOL-Plus v6.1, nulls are again allowed within indexed
file keys and the ISAM utility program has been changed so
as to correctly verify files with nulls in the keys.

A complete set of release notes is available on our BBS.

RTSORT v2.0 Released December 51 1985
A. new switch, IGETCXl has been added to RTSORT v2.0
when used in conjunction with TSX-Plus v6.0. The effect of
the IGETCXT switch is to cause RTSORT to temporarily
acquire the file context of the job that sent the sort command
message. Among the job attributes acquired are: ASSIGNments, ACCESSes, and MOUNTed logical disks.

exam ole. the followinq switch would insert the file number as
a 2 digit field starting in column 86 of the record: "/FILE:86.2".
A new edition of the RTSORT manual is available. A complete set of release notes is available on our BBS.

A nevv' switch IF!LE[:col[.len]], has been provided vvhich allows
the inclusion of the file identifier in the output records. For

Problems opening "LP:" in DBL
Beginning with TSX-Plus version 6.00, DBL version 2.2 programs which attempt to open a printer through the LS or LP
handlers will fail with an error 17 (bad file specification). This
occurs when an open statement refers to a device without
a file name. For example: OPEN(6,O,'LP:'). The same error
will occur under RT-11 beginning with version 5.02, because
the 5.02 LS and LP device handlers, which are supplied with
TSX-P!us version 6.00, are treated as pseudo file-structured
devices.
In order to prevent potentially serious corruption to device
directories, DBL does not permit opening output devices
which use normal or special directory structures unless a file
name is also used. Opening such a device without a file name
is commonly known as a "non-file-structured lookup". When
opening an output channel without a file name, DBL tests the
device status word for the following three conditions:
Bit mask Name
100000 FILST$
40000 RONLY$
10000 SPECL$

Meaning
Uses normal RT-11 directories
Read-only device
Special file-structured device

150000

Bit mask sum

if any of these bits are set in the device status word, the OPEN
statement will fail with error 17. Note that the SPECL$ bit is
~et in the device status word for both the LS (032041) and
"'_ _P (032003) handlers.
,.

There are currently four solutions available to rectify this
condition.
1. Rewrite all programs to include a file name (e.g. 'LP:A').

2. Modify the DBL run-time to permit opening pseudo filestructured devices without a file name. See warning in next
paragraph. Either patch the run-time system as described
below or use patch 44 from DISC and rebuild the run-time
system. (By permission of DISC, patch 44 is available on
our 88S.)
3. Use an LS or LP handler which does not support ENDPAGE. Either use an older handler which is not pseudo
file-structured, or patch the current handler to clear the
SPECL$ bit.
4. If your printer is attached through a serial line, use the CL
handler instead of LS. This is not possible for parallel
printers.
If you elect to modify the DBL run-time system, you must be
aware that it will become possible to perform a non-filestructured lookup on special directory structured devices. This
is no problem for LS and LP which do not have any real filestructure. However, mag tapes use the same bit to indicate
their special directory structure and it may be possible to corrupt one or more files on a mag tape if this bit is cleared and
the tape unit is opened without a fiie name (a poor programming habit for tape files). The customer assumes full responsibility for the possible corruption of tapes by using this
mechanism.
You can patch the DBL run-time system, TDBL.RTS or
DBLSHR.RTS, by locating the instruction which tests the
appropriate bits in the device status word. Use the RT-11 SIPP
utility to search for the bit mask word (150000), verify that it
follows the correct instruction (032711 [BIT fI150000,@R1D,
and change it to ignore the SPECL$ bit (010000). Remember that if you patch the shared run-time, the change will not
take effect until TSX-Plus is restarted. To patch the non-shared
run-time:

s&h bulletin
.R SIPP
*TDBL.RTS
Base?
;S
Search for?
150000
Start?
End?
Found at 030534
Base?
a
Offset? 30532
Base
000000
000000
000000

*/\c

Offset
030532
030534
030536

Old
032711
150000
001410

New?
140000
/\ Y

MS Tape Handlers for TSX-Plus versions 6.00 and 6.01
The MS handler shipped with TSX-Plus v6.00 is from RT-11
v5.02. As part of its installation code, it checks a bit (mask
100) in the RMON configuration word 2 (fixed offset 370) to
determine the machine bus type. This bit is acquired by TSXPius from RT-11 during start-up. if you are using a version
of RT-11 earlier than 5.02, then the bit is not set and the handier will not function correctly on OBUS systems. This was
resolved in TSX-Plus v6.01 by using a different MS handler.
To circumvent this problem in v6.00 you should set the bit
under RT-11 before you start TSX-Plus. Alternatively, you can
patch TSX.SAV to set the bit regardless of its value under
RT-11; this patch is available from the S&H Bulletin Board.

.R SIPP
*SY:MS.TSX
Base? 1000
Offset? 1634
Base
001000
001000
001000
001000

* /\ C

Offset
001634
001636
001640
001642

Old
012775
177777
000000
000167

New?
12715
240
/\ Y

When using the MS handler shipped with TSX-Plus v6.01,
dated 05-Dec-85, it is possible to get a Fatal system error,
Kernel mode trap within the MS handler, usually with an argument value of 121642. This will only happen during processing of an error condition on the tape unit, and so may occur
very infrequently. To prevent this error, use the RT-11 SIPP
utility to patch SY:MS.TSX as show below. The corrected handier will be installed the next time you restart TSX.

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Nashville, TN 37212-2299

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