OS/8 BOO DECODING PROGRAM

PROGRAM TO  DECODE  OS/8  FILES  FROM  "PRINTABLE"  ASCII  (".BOO")  FORMAT TO
BINARY-IMAGE FORMAT.   INTERMEDIATE  "ASCII"  CONVERSION SHOULD BE HARMLESS AS
LONG AS ALL PRINTING DATA CHARACTERS ARE NOT MODIFIED.

DISTRIBUTED BY CUCCA AS "K12DEB.PAL" AS PART OF THE CUCCA KERMIT-12 PACKAGE.

WRITTEN BY:

CHARLES LASNER (CJL)
CLA SYSTEMS
72-55 METROPOLITAN AVENUE
MIDDLE VILLAGE, NEW YORK 11379-2107
(718) 894-6499

USAGE:

THIS PROGRAM OPERATES ON "PRINTABLE" ASCII FILES WHICH  HAVE  BEEN  CREATED BY
ENCODING THE CONTENTS OF ARBITRARY (BINARY) FILES.  THE ENCODING FORMAT ALLOWS
FOR  CERTAIN  "WHITE  SPACE" MODIFICATIONS SUCH AS LINE WIDTH REFORMATTING  AS
LONG  AS  ALL  PRINTING CHARACTERS ARE UNMODIFIED.  EXTRANEOUS / PAIRS
AND ALL OTHER CONTROL CHARACTERS (, , ETC.) ARE IGNORED.

WHEN CREATING THE DESCENDANT DECODED FILE,  THE  USER  MAY  SPECIFY EITHER THE
IMBEDDED FILENAME OR AN ALTERNATE FILENAME ON EITHER THE DEFAULT (DSK:) DEVICE
OR A SPECIFIED DEVICE: 

.RUN DEV DEBOO		INVOKE PROGRAM.
*INPUT			INPUT IS DECODED INTO IMBEDDED NAME ON DSK: (DEFAULT).
*DEV:OUTPUT.EX CHARACTER  WAS  USED  TO  TERMINATE THE LINE
			(THIS IS SIGNIFIED BY $).  THIS CAUSES PROGRAM EXIT.
.			PROGRAM EXITS NORMALLY.

INPUT FILE ASSUMES .BO EXTENSION; THERE IS NO ASSUMED OUTPUT EXTENSION.

PROGRAM EXIT IS THE NORMAL  OS/8 METHOD OF EITHER PRESSING <^C> ON THE CONSOLE
KEYBOARD DURING THE COMMAND, OR ENDING  THE  COMMAND  INPUT LINE WITH AN 
CHARACTER.

.BOO FORMAT IMPLEMENTATION DESCRIPTION.

THIS  PROGRAM  SUPPORTS  STANDARD .BOO FORMAT ENCODED FILES AND OPTIONALLY THE
USE OF LENGTH CORRECTION BYTES AT THE FILE'S END TO ENSURE PROPER  LENGTH.  IF
NO  LENGTH CORRECTION FIELDS ARE FOUND, IT IS ASSUMED THEY AREN'T NEEDED;   IT
IS THE RESPONIBILITY OF THE ENCODER TO INSERT THESE FIELDS IF NECESSARY.  OS/8
FILES PROPERLY  ENCODED  BY THE COMPANION ENBOO-ING PROGRAM (ENBOO AKA K12ENB)
WILL CONTAIN SUCH  BYTES AS NECESSARY, AND WILL BE PROPERLY DECODED INTO THEIR
ORIGINAL FORM WITHOUT LOSS.  ALL OTHER FILES WILL BE -PADDED AS NECESSARY
TO ROUND-UP THE FILE SIZE  TO  A  NUMBER  OF  COMPLETE  OS/8  RECORDS;   THEIR
ORIGINAL LENGTH WILL BE LOST.

**** WARNING **** USE OF  ENBOO-ING  PROGRAMS NOT COMPATIBLE WITH THE OPTIONAL
LENGTH  CORRECTION SCHEME CAN PRODUCE FILES  DRASTICALLY  DIFFERENT  FROM  THE
ORIGINAL;  AN ENTIRE OS/8 RECORD CONTAINING  CHARACTERS COULD BE APPENDED
TO THE END OF THE  FILES.    BEYOND  THE  WASTE OF DISK SPACE, THESE DEFECTIVE
FILES COULD ACTUALLY BE DANGEROUS TO USE UNDER OS/8.

ORDINARILY THESE FILES SHOULDN'T EXIST, BUT COULD BE CREATED  BY  METHODS SUCH
AS DECODING ON OTHER SYSTEMS FOLLOWED BY USE OF ENCODERS INCOMPATIBLE WITH THE
LENGTH CORRECTION SCHEME.  THIS TENDS TO MAKE THE FILE SIZE  WRONG  BY  ONE OR
TWO  BYTES,  WHICH  WHEN  DECODED  HERE  WILL CAUSE THE CREATION OF AN  ENTIRE
ERRONEOUS  RECORD.    IT IS RECOMMENDED THAT FILES STORED ON OTHER SYSTEMS FOR
EVENTUALLY DELIVERY  TO  OS/8  SYSTEMS BE MAINTAINED IN .BOO FORMAT TO PREVENT
THIS FORM OF FILE CORRUPTION.

ERROR MESSAGES.

ANY MESSAGE  PRINTED  IS A FATAL ERROR MESSAGE.  ALL MESSAGES ARE THE STANDARD
OS/8 "USER" ERROR  MESSAGES OF THE FORM:  USER ERROR X AT AAAAA WHERE X IS THE
ERROR NUMBER AND AAAAA  IS  THE  PROGRAM ADDRESS WHERE THE ERROR WAS DETECTED.
THE FOLLOWING USER ERRORS ARE DEFINED:

ERROR NUMBER		PROBABLE CAUSE

0			TOO MANY OUTPUT FILES.

1			NO INPUT FILE OR TOO MANY INPUT FILES.

2			IMBEDDED OUTPUT FILENAME FORMAT ERROR.

3			I/O ERROR WHILE LOCATING IMBEDDED OUTPUT FILENAME.

4			ERROR WHILE FETCHING FILE HANDLER.

5			ERROR WHILE ATTEMPTING TO ENTER OUTPUT FILE.

6			OUTPUT FILE LARGER THAN AVAILABLE FILE SPACE.

7			ERROR WHILE CLOSING THE OUTPUT FILE.

8			I/O ERROR WHILE DECODING FILE DATA OR BAD DATA.

9			OUTPUT ERROR WHILE DECODING FILE DATA.

ASSEMBLY INSTRUCTIONS.

IT IS  ASSUMED  THE  SOURCE  FILE  K12DEB.PAL  HAS  BEEN  MOVED AND RENAMED TO
DSK:DEBOO.PA.

.PAL DEBOO



Feel free to contact me, David Gesswein djg@pdp8online.com
with any questions, comments on the web site, or if you have related equipment,
documentation, software etc. you are willing to part with.  I am 
interested in anything PDP-8
related, computers, peripherals used with them, DEC or third party, or
documentation.  

 

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