DOS/VS operator console

Continuing retro. Here’s a DOS/VS operator console which looks very much like the VSE systems I worked on for years. I had some trouble finding the DOS/VS 5 pack. But thanks to “computeroperator” on YouTube…he was able to help me find it! My desktop is obscured by the editor. but you can see it’s taskbar at the bottom. This is really amazing. It’ just an operators console…but you can view the partitions. I’m running on my personal computer, OS’s that ran business’s. An OS’s along with the hardware that any normal person couldn’t afford, back in the day. On thing to note…it is bare bones…just the console. No VTAM or interactive envirernment, unlike the MVS turnkey available. However you also can submit JCL from Linux.

IBMs VM/370

Continuing retro. Now using the hercules emulator for IBM Mainframes and also the 3270 terminal emulator. Here’s VM/370,  IBM’s first version, released in 1972…way before Linux knew what a VM was or, for that matter, the world knew what Linux was. This is very much like the VM systems I was employed to maintain…

PDP 11/70 running RSTS/E

Feeling nostalgic! Taking a stroll down memory lane. Resurrect working with old computers using emulators [see 3/13/2013 and 4/9/2013] project that I did 5 years ago. First up…the DEC PDP11 running RSTS. However I noticed…thank God for screen captures, that if you look back in 2013 when I did this, that after I logged on it said “WELCOME TO RSTS/E V7.0 TIME SHARING”. It doesn’t say that now! I worked on a  PDP 11/40 [or 11/45] and a PDP 11/70 running RSTS/E. Install the simh package [a mini computer emulator], which includes emulation for the PDP11 along with 30+ other old computers. And here it is running in a Linux terminal on my desktop!

Actually…even better, here’s a PDF with actual screen output along with comments!

SQLite

I’ve been working with computers for over 30 years and I still am amazed at how fast they are. I do these little exercises every now and then to remind myself. I ran a Python program I wrote to create real “looking” customer data. It uses sqlite databases of first name, last name and zip codes to generate these records. It took about an hour and 15 minutes to create “one million” [places pinky in the corner of my mouth] records. This file is slightly greater than 87MB. It is a “|” delimited file. It also contains real “looking” addresses with correct city/state for the zip, and a valid 16 digit mod 10 account number. the average record size is > 90 bytes…if I pad it out to a fixed length record it’s about 140 bytes. Python is a great but interpreted language hence not the quickest. To be fair it is accessing 3 SQL databases and doing a lot of random number generating to create many of the other fields a million times.

I imported these one million records into a SQLite database and it took roughly 12 seconds, and this SQL database file created is about 131MB. During those 12 seconds it also created the Primary Key using the 16 digit Account number. I guess generating random 16 digits are enough to insure you don’t get duplicates because I didn’t get any. To double check I tried importing the records in again but immediately got “INSERT failed: UNIQUE constraint failed: customers.Account”. I can run SQL querys within the “Sqliteman” GUI program and it gives me timings of the query’s. For example, I selected all last names of Smith and sorted by Last, First and it took 0.265 seconds to return a portion of the 16,886 records. And these fields were not even indexed…Amazing! This is from a standalone SQLite program. SQLite is a great little database but doesn’t have all the bells and whistles of a “real” SQL database such as MySQL or PostgreSQL. I really love this little database and have converted many of my old MS-Access databases to Python/SQLite.

GnuCOBOL

Continuing my look at COBOL. Previously I had typed/compiled/ran the customary “hello world” program to test the compiler. But wanted to learn to read/write typical PC files with variable length records with each line terminated with a CR. The mainframe programs I’ve written in the past always used blocked/fixed length records. Success!

I’m rusty but if I can learn MS-Access, Python, PHP, various SQLs on my own…with no formal training. Then I can surely pick up a language I was trained in and which I was paid a salary to program in. So there!

Lazarus

In the past I tried and really liked Lazarus. I had to learn Lazarus AND Pascal…and I enjoyed the process. Lazarus made me want to learn Pascal. I have been using Linux exclusively for years, Lazarus seemed to be a superior replacement from Visual Basic which I use to use on MS-Windows. Recently I was looking at an old Lazarus projects that compiled and ran on both Windows and Linux [my Judo scoreboard program was written 12 years ago in 2005] and remembered how much I enjoyed this.

So for me Python will remain my main scripting language and I need to put more effort into Lazarus/Pascal for GUI development. Free Pascal seems very fast. I need to put more effort into getting Lazarus to work with SQLite for it to be truely useful for me. This is the missing piece of the puzzle for me because SQL is so powerful

Lazarus stuff

In the past I tried and really liked Lazarus. I had to learn Lazarus AND Pascal…and I enjoyed the process. Lazarus made me want to learn Pascal. I have been using Linux exclusively for years, Lazarus seemed to be a superior replacement from Visual Basic which I use to use on MS-Windows. Recently I was looking at an old Lazarus projects that compiled and ran on both Windows and Linux [my Judo scoreboard program was written 12 years ago in 2005] and remembered how much I enjoyed this. I decided to download Lazarus [1.6.4] again and dive back in. However recompiling one these old working programs, produced an error that caused it to not compile…”Illegal parameter:-CpPentium2″. I didn’t specify any parameters…I just pressed the green triangle to run it. This was a working program. And I have an AMD processor. Turned out that a XML [] statement within the .lpi, caused the problem.

So why Pascal. Because I like it. And I’m programming for me. Sure there are things I don’t like. I like that…like Python, I can still use functions and procedures but Free Pascal also allows OOP programming if I want to try that. At one time Turbo Pascal was a very popular language. It seems to compile AND run very fast. My Python program creates fake customer data and took 13 secs to create 5000 records. My Pascal program that parses the customer name into various pieces, process those 5000 records in the blink of an eye…under 1 second. To be fair the Python program does much more than just creating names however you can’t expect it to be as fast as a compiled language.

So for me Python will remain my main scripting language and I need to put more effort into Lazarus/Pascal for GUI development. Free Pascal seems very fast. I need to put more effort into getting Lazarus to work with SQLite for it to be truly useful for me. This is the missing piece of the puzzle for me because SQL is so powerful.

X-Plane 10 FMC

Finally learned to use the default FMC [X-Plane 430] in X-Plane 10. This comes after a lot of reading, Youtube videos and much trial & error. I claim full credit because I did not find any single source that tied everything together. The X-Plane 430 is a close representation of the Garmin 430, enough so that much of that info applies. It seems like most if not all the the FMC vids are about the more advanced FMC which being more advanced is much easier and more intuitive than the default 430 GPS. I would expect a more sophisticated FMC to be easier to setup and use but that doesn’t help us beginners much. Sometimes, but usually not, a simple plane is used in a vid but the planes console has been so customized that it hardly resembles what I have. I have seen comments that say the 430 doesn’t work…but after a lot of trial and error I find it works well enough to get me from point A to point B flying with beautiful precise precision. Part of the success may be do to the version of X-Plane I’m running…10.51. I have to give some credit to the YouTube video “Garmin GNS430 IFR Flight Plan”, which is not a X-Plane video, by Ray Preston after minute 6 was very helpful to putting much of this together. I really enjoy the huge amount of Aviation knowledge that is required to experience this sim to it’s fullest. But sometimes, perhaps because there is so much to learn, things can become frustrating, sometimes taking the fun out of learning. I’m not sure if it’s because I’m a beginner or because my old joystick is not tight, perhaps a combination of the two, but I had a hard time flying straight and steady. No sooner do I correct from drifting off course than I find I’m off course again. It seems I’m always fighting the controls, to maintain horizontal and vertical stediness. Even after applying what I learned bout trimming the plane. Figuring this out brought back a lot of joy.

X-Plane 10

Finished downloading X-Plane 10. Vary excited to play this game…or should I say fly this sim! Flying is an activity I envisioned myself doing one day…when I was younger. I use to often buy flying magazines. Being that it is so large and took so long to download I wanted to back it up before playing it…which caused me to backup/uninstall even more lesser played games.