Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Finishing reading all COBOL related cards, picked up supplies for wiring the data center shed

My day to volunteer at the CHM working on the 1401 systems, which cut down on my 1130 time a bit.

READ TAPE OF 1130/1800 SOURCE CODE

Still working out a date/time to get the tape read, but won't be long now.

SHARING OF 1130 CARD DECKS

I organized and cleaned up some of the COBOL compiler oriented decks I recently read. It became clear that there is some mixture of original distribution and updated files, based on a PTF that fixed some problems with COBOL. Later I found yet another section of cards labeled as a COBOL PTF. It will take a bit of sleuth work to figure out which are the latest files and whether I have a complete, usable system from card decks alone.

Since I also have disk cartridges with COBOL installed, I should be able to retrieve anything I don't have, but it will have to wait until there is a working 1442 card reader and punch or my emulated devices are working through the SAC Interface box that is still in debugging status.

COBOL was a licensed program, which makes it infeasible to publicly share this as I have been with other software I retrieved along with the 1130. I could run COBOL jobs for other people as long as it ran on one of my systems, but transferring the program to others seems forbidden.

DATACENTER SHED CONSTRUCTION

For some mysterious reason, when I arrived at Lowes to pick up the supplies I had ordered online, they found the order 'cancelled' with no way to find out why it happened. They speculated that some part which I ordered was not available in store, but claimed that I should have received a phone call yesterday to explain the cancellation. I am now left to re-order everything and then wait to see whether I get a call this time or perhaps the order will be fulfilled.

The parts of the order which are shipped from a warehouse have been fulfilled, based on emails confirming shipment. The store clerk promises that my credit card was not charged for the store pickup part of the order. I will need to verify this.

I placed a new order, but do see that my online account shows the order still in fulfillment, nothing there about cancelling a portion of it.  The second order produced a phone call telling me that they did not have the #10 green wire I was going to use for ground - I asked to pick up the remainder of the order and did so successfully this afternoon.

A few completer bits are on order, but if necessary I can stop in to one of the local stores for the parts. I have one or two decisions yet to make before I can start wiring up the outside outlet, but I certainly can wire the 'extension cord' and everything inside the shed, since the cord just plugs into the weatherproof outdoor outlet. 

1 comment:

  1. Too bad COBOL is licensed, but I guess the most important thing is that it's hopefully been preserved. I know from experience that trying to get someone in authority to sign off on releasing old stuff as free software is darn near impossible - no one wants to take responsibility for it.

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