Re: Sider (Xebec/Datamac SASI) drive and UCSD Pascal 1.1 (Apple Pascal)

[msg <msg@cybertheque.org>]

John, Thanks much for your reply.


> I seem to recall a utility named SYSTEM.ATTACH that was used to
> bind drivers to unit numbers. I used it with a RAM disk driver
> and OKS Cache Card Pascal driver. It appeared on the volume
> named APPLE4: with Pascal 1.3. Previously it had been sold by
> Call-APPLE. Sadly, I can't find the docs, but it might be the
> missing piece.
> 

Sadly, we don't have any Apple Pascal printed documentation; we're
extrapolating from IBM UCSD P-system materials.  I now know
that there was dynamic device driver support available for
versions of Apple Pascal; this excerpt is from a Technote:

The Boot Process

The boot code (contained in blocks 0 and 1 of the boot disk) is
loaded into memory by the Autostart ROM. It checks for the
P-machine file and loads it into RAM. The P-machine, in turn,
brings in and initializes the Run-time operating system.
(In the case of a two-stage boot, the message "Insert boot disk with
SYSTEM.PASCAL on it, then press RETURN" appears after the P-machine
has been loaded. The user should then insert the second-stage boot
disk and press the Return key, which results in the operating system
being loaded and initialized.) The first noteworthy action taken by
the operating system is to execute SYSTEM.ATTACH, if that utility
program is available on the Vendor Product Disk. Remember that
SYSTEM.ATTACH must not be present on the Vendor Product Disk unless
special, low-level I/O drivers must be bound into the system. As
explained more fully in Apple II Pascal Device and Interrupt Support
Tools,
SYSTEM.ATTACH uses two special data files and will fail if these files
are not present on the boot disk.

However, there is no file 'SYSTEM.ATTACH' or its data files on the
root volume (or any volume) of the original hard disk, yet the original
system boots properly and recognizes the Xebec Pascal volumes.

Curiously, there also is no 'SYSTEM.ATTACH' as a directory entry on
any of the Siderware disks from Wayne's site, and the contents of
disk4 is a bit bizarre: it contains a single 2 block program called
'QUIT.CODE', however upon inspecting the remaining unused area on
the disk one finds a great deal of code with imbedded strings
containing references to 'SYSTEM.ATTACH' and I/O primitives, snippets
of Assembler and Pascal source, and a menu for backup and restore
operations.  Unfortunately, running 'QUIT.CODE' on our system merely
corrupts and screen and exits to the monitor.

Unless there is some 'hidden file' mechanism at work on our original
disk, there must have been some installation program which statically
linked Xebec drivers into the P-system somehow.

Anyone have any Xebec support tools from about 1981 to 1983?

Michael