[TUHS] Unix Circuit Design System

Sat Jan 2 05:57:20 AEST 2016

That makes sense.   That version should have had my changes and should have
been pretty close to that version that was ever released from BTL.  I had
ported it @ Tek to the next generation 4Yxx terminal,.  At the time time, I
ensured it ran on 4.1[ABC] which ever version was current from Evans at the
time.  (those systems were the "beta" system for 4.2BSD).   When I was
done, I had sent the changes back to Ted Kowalski , Ken et al and they had
sent me the final tape -- which is why I had a copy of it in my archives.

I'm not sure if its the in makefile, of that version, but I did have
makefiles for the research Magnolia system.   We used some of USCD to it
and of course brought it up on it when we were done.   I'm not so sure
those deltas went back, they might have.   The one thing that UCSD did not
have was a good board layout program (it creates net-lists), we imported
something I had been familiar with from CMU, who's name I can remember.

BTW:  As part of some other experiments, Tek Labs also had a Lilith system
from CERN, which also had some circuit tools written in Pascal/Modula; but
I've forgotten if we used any of them in the design stream for Magnolia
before it was baked.   IIRC one or two those tools were ported to Magnolia
later when the Modula compiler was brought up by Larry Morandi [I think].
There was a strong anti-C run in many parts of the Tek in those days (there
was by one count in 1980 over 14 different "Tek Pascal's").    So the Labs
folks were always looking for tools that product groups would consider,
since the product teams were so Pascal centric.

On Fri, Jan 1, 2016 at 12:42 PM, Michele Ghisolfo <ghisolfo.m at gmail.com>
wrote:

> It compiled fine in 4.2BSD (inside simh).  I telnetted in with an
> xterm in Tektronix mode and draw works like a charm.  I even got the
> xterm to graphically display some logic gates.  There's only some
> minor fiddling with environment variables to be done.
>
>
>
> 2016-01-01 16:45 GMT+01:00 Michele Ghisolfo <ghisolfo.m at gmail.com>:
> > Yes, but earlier you pointed out that it does not emulates two wheels
> > of the terminal.  Since I have never used "draw" nor any Tektronix
> > terminal I don't know what was the purpose of the wheels and how they
> > are used by the program.  So I thought that, if "draw" heavily relies
> > on such feature, xterm might not suffice.
> >
> > 2016-01-01 15:31 GMT+01:00 Clem cole <clemc at ccc.com>:
> >> Xterm can emulate a Tek terminal.
> >>
> >> Sent from my iPhone
> >>
> >>> On Jan 1, 2016, at 8:58 AM, Michele Ghisolfo <ghisolfo.m at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >>>
> >>> Thank you!  I think I'll tamper with it a bit, when I have time.  With
> >>> regards to
> >>> the lack of wheel emulation in xterm, I think it wouldn't be too
> difficult to
> >>> write a terminal emulator with the set of tek functions and codes used
> >>> by "draw".
> >>>
> >>> I'll try as soon as possible!
> >>>
> >>> 2016-01-01 0:13 GMT+01:00 Warren Toomey <wkt at tuhs.org>:
> >>>> Ah, it's in the archive at
> >>>> http://www.tuhs.org/Archive/Applications/Circuit_Design/
> >>>>
> >>>> Cheers, Warren
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>> On 1 January 2016 8:52:34 am AEST, Clem Cole <clemc at ccc.com> wrote:
> >>>>>
> >>>>> Funny you should ask....
> >>>>>
> >>>>> I had the last known virgin copy of that UCDS a few years ago, which
> we
> >>>>> managed to save.  Dennis declared it part of V7 (just a little late
> being
> >>>>> distributed), which we promptly sent to Warren, who has the source
> in his
> >>>>> archives.    Note it uses a tektronix 40xx terminal as the native
> screen.
> >>>>> It's been years since I used it, but I may be able to answer a few
> >>>>> questions.  I suspect the biggest issue with trying to use with xterm
> >>>>> emulation is that lack of the two wheels that the tek terminals had.
> >>>>>
> >>>>> Good luck,
> >>>>> Clem
> >>>>>
> >>>>> On Thu, Dec 31, 2015 at 1:20 PM, Michele Ghisolfo <
> ghisolfo.m at gmail.com>
> >>>>> wrote:
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> Hello all!
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> While I was reading the article "A Research UNIX Reader:  Annotated
> >>>>>> Excerpts
> >>>>>> from the Programmer's Manual" from Douglas McIlroy, I learnt of a
> set of
> >>>>>> utilities for designing electronic circuits.  Here is a brief quote
> of
> >>>>>> this
> >>>>>> article:
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> "CDL (v7 pages 60-63)
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> Although most users do not encounter the UNIX Circuit Design
> System, it
> >>>>>> has long
> >>>>>> stood as an important application in the lab.  Originated by Sandy
> Fraser
> >>>>>> and
> >>>>>> extended by Steve Bourne, Joe Condon, and Andrew Hume, UCDS handles
> >>>>>> circuits
> >>>>>> expressed in a common design language, cdl.  It includes programs to
> >>>>>> create
> >>>>>> descriptions using interactive graphics, to lay out boards
> automatically,
> >>>>>> to
> >>>>>> check circuits for consistency, to guide wire-wrap machines, to
> specify
> >>>>>> combinational circuits and optimize them for programmed logic arrays
> >>>>>> (Chesson
> >>>>>> and Thompson).  Without UCDS, significant inventions like Datakit,
> the
> >>>>>> 5620 Blit
> >>>>>> terminal, or the Belle chess machine would never have been built.
> UCDS
> >>>>>> appeared
> >>>>>> in only one manual, v7."
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> I looked it up on the 7th Edition's Manual and I haven't found
> references
> >>>>>> of
> >>>>>> this system.  I also searched a v7 system image downloaded from
> TUHS and
> >>>>>> got no
> >>>>>> results.  However I got some references of this system in USENET
> >>>>>> archives.  In
> >>>>>> particular, two hierarchies, net.draw and after net.ucds were
> dedicated
> >>>>>> to it.
> >>>>>> Apparently two of the binaries of the system were called "draw" and
> >>>>>> "wrap".  I
> >>>>>> also found a manual of a similar system which I suppose is the UCDS
> >>>>>> descendant
> >>>>>> in the 1st Edition of Plan 9.  This is the link of the document:
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> http://doc.cat-v.org/plan_9/1st_edition/cda/
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> However that edition of Plan 9 is not publicly released and I could
> not
> >>>>>> find
> >>>>>> it in following editions.  But since v7 Unix is available, I hope
> it may
> >>>>>> be possible to get hold of an older release at least.
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> Does anyone have any information?
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> Thank you in advance!
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>    --- Michele
> >>>>
> >>>> --
> >>>> Sent from my Android phone with K-9 Mail. Please excuse my brevity.
>
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