https://wiki.twenex.org/ 2026-04-19T08:27:38+00:00 https://wiki.twenex.org/ https://wiki.twenex.org/lib/tpl/dokuwiki/images/favicon.ico text/html 2013-07-06T07:10:20+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.twenex.org/tutorials:access?rev=1373094620&do=diff Getting and Accessing your own TOPS-20 account on TWENEX.ORG If you do not have an account, you can test drive the system by telnetting to TWENEX.ORG. If you do not have a TELNET client, you can run a JAVA Applet from the CONNECT link on the website. Once you reach the text/html 2024-05-20T15:54:49+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.twenex.org/tutorials:assemblers?rev=1716220489&do=diff PDP-10 assembly language programming This page is not limited to TOPS-20, but includes also information on other operating systems that run on the PDP-10 architecture, as there is a great deal of overlap and much PDP-10 software can run on either system with little or no modification. It may also serve as an instructive comparison between the operating system versions and hardware models to show what hardware support is required for each version. text/html 2024-10-04T04:14:35+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.twenex.org/tutorials:basic?rev=1728015275&do=diff Using BASIC TWENEX's BASIC programming system is LOTS BASIC, developed at Stanford University. Start BASIC with the EXEC command BASIC. Return to EXEC with the BASIC command MONITOR. The following tutorial is adapted from chapter 17. “Using BASIC text/html 2024-05-29T12:13:56+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.twenex.org/tutorials:batch?rev=1716984836&do=diff Batch jobs andother background processing options Batch jobs Control .CTL files Log .LOG files BATCH.CMD file Related commands * SUBMIT * INFORMATION (ABOUT) BATCH-REQUESTS * CANCEL * MODIFY * SET DEFAULT (FOR) SUBMIT Remote job entry text/html 2013-12-20T00:20:55+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.twenex.org/tutorials:bboard?rev=1387498855&do=diff BBOARD BBOARD is a shared mailbox that's used as a community bulletin board for twenex.org users. It is completely separate from the SDF cluster BBOARD bulletin board system. Checking for new posts @BBOARD prints BBOARD posts you have not already read. Put the command in your LOGIN.CMD file to check for new posts every time you log-in (it's included in the default LOGIN.CMD). text/html 2014-01-11T03:20:10+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.twenex.org/tutorials:commode?rev=1389410410&do=diff COMMODE is essentially a REMARK script which prefixes the USER's name to whatever the user types. It is used for chatting with other users, but requires that each TERMINAL be LINKED together. A regular chat is held each Saturday at 5:30PM until 7:00PM Pacific Time. text/html 2014-01-10T07:32:57+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.twenex.org/tutorials:compilers?rev=1389339177&do=diff TOPS-20 Compilers Tutorial Compile-Load-Run After program source has been stored in a file, the following steps are necessary before the program can be used: * Compile the source code into an object (relocatable binary .REL) file. * Load the object file into memory, linking with other object files if necessary. text/html 2016-10-20T03:44:59+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.twenex.org/tutorials:edit?rev=1476935099&do=diff EDIT is a line-oriented text editor for TOPS-20 on TWENEX.ORG. Invocation EDIT is usually started with the EDIT command. However, if you have customized your default editor, the EDIT command may invoke a different editor. To run EDIT without disturbing your default editor setting, use the command text/html 2016-08-17T07:31:45+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.twenex.org/tutorials:editor?rev=1471419105&do=diff Default Editor EXEC provides two commands that invoke the default editor: EDIT, to edit an existing file, and CREATE to create a new file. The default editor is determined by the logical name EDITOR:. You can customize the default editor for all your log-in sessions by adding the following line to your LOGIN.CMD file: text/html 2014-05-29T09:28:08+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.twenex.org/tutorials:edt?rev=1401355688&do=diff EDT is one of the few editors on TOPS-20 that will work intuitively for most PC users. It it a typical screen editor and the cursor movement keys will work as expected. However, it also has a line editing mode and this is the default mode initially. One feature of the vt100 terminal that EDT expects to work is the text/html 2022-03-15T09:41:41+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.twenex.org/tutorials:exec?rev=1647337301&do=diff EXEC is the TOPS-20 command parser. It plays a role within TOPS-20 similar to shell programs in Unix systems. However, the range of system functions implemented as EXEC build-in commands is much more extensive what is usually provided by Unix shells. text/html 2024-07-17T01:44:27+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.twenex.org/tutorials:fail?rev=1721180667&do=diff FAIL Assembler FAIL is the winning assembler from Stanford SAIL. It was originally written for the WAITS operating system, but was ported to TOPS-20 and is now available on twenex.org. From the help file: FAIL is a fast, one-pass assembler for the DECsystem-10/DECsystem-20. FAIL is documented in DOC:FAIL.MANUAL. Although FAIL is a great deal faster than MACRO-20, which is the DEC-supplied assembler, new programs should be written in MACRO because MACRO has a wider set of features to suppor… text/html 2022-06-07T02:10:53+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.twenex.org/tutorials:forth?rev=1654567853&do=diff Forth is a stack-based, RPN-format programming language created by Charles H. Moore and first released in 1970. There are two Forth implementation available. FORTH-10 is a Forth language interpreter included in the Panda TOPS-20 distribution. The anonymous programmer describes the implementation as text/html 2022-03-19T09:52:53+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.twenex.org/tutorials:fortran?rev=1647683573&do=diff FORTRAN-20 Compiler Tutorial FORTRAN-20 is a FORTRAN compiler for TOPS-20. It supports the FORTRAN-77 standard (ANSI X3.9-1978 American National Standard Programming Language FORTRAN) with extensions and additions. The purpose of this tutorial is to document the peculiarities of using FORTRAN-20 on TOPS-20 as opposed to other FORTRAN implementations on other operating systems; to highlight useful FORTRAN-20 extensions and additions that are not found in standard FORTRAN-77; and to briefly int… text/html 2022-03-07T16:46:28+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.twenex.org/tutorials:haunt?rev=1646671588&do=diff HAUNT is a haunted house adventure game programmed by John Laird in 1979 using the rule-based language OPS4. Haunt was inspired by playing Colossal Cave Adventure. The TWENEX executable is TOPS20:<GAMES>HAUNT.EXE which most TWENEX users should be able to run by entering just text/html 2014-01-10T04:14:38+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.twenex.org/tutorials:howto?rev=1389327278&do=diff Creating your own tutorials here Please feel free to edit this - the purpose is to establish simple guidelines for style and layout. To create a new tutorial, simply edit the main start page of wiki.twenex.org and put in the tag: \[\[tutorials:your-tutorial-name\]\] along with a description in text/html 2024-10-09T01:58:49+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.twenex.org/tutorials:interlisp?rev=1728439129&do=diff TWENEX Interlisp Tutorial Interlisp-10, for Interactive Lisp, is an implementation of the Lisp programming language developed from 1966 at Bolt, Beranek and Newman (BBN) for TENEX, BBN's in-house PDP-10 operating system, and later DEC's TOPS-20 operating systems. From 1970, development of Interlisp was transferred to Xerox Palo Alto Research Center. text/html 2014-06-09T06:48:27+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.twenex.org/tutorials:kcc?rev=1402296507&do=diff KCC C Compiler Notes KCC is a C language compiler for the PDP-10 written by Kok Chen and rewritten by Ken Harrenstien. KCC can be used to compile C programs to run on under TOPS-20 on TWENEX.ORG. However, the compiler has several shortcomings you should be aware of before planning to use it on a programming or porting project: text/html 2022-03-15T05:07:38+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.twenex.org/tutorials:lisp?rev=1647320858&do=diff Lisp at TWENEX.ORG Tutorial Lisp is a programming language famous for its use in Artificial Intelligence and advanced Computer Science research. First developed in 1958, it is the second oldest (after Fortran) high-level programming language still in common use. text/html 2024-10-06T11:44:37+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.twenex.org/tutorials:maclisp?rev=1728215077&do=diff TWENEX MACLISP Tutorial Lisp is a programming language famous for its use in Artificial Intelligence and advanced Computer Science research. First developed in 1958, it is the second oldest (after Fortran) high-level programming language still in common use. text/html 2024-01-13T17:26:11+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.twenex.org/tutorials:macro?rev=1705166771&do=diff = MACRO-10 assembly languge = MACRO-10 is the native DEC assembly language for the PDP-10 PROCESSOR architecture, used on both TOPS-10 and TOPS-20 operating systems. As n example, a simple “Hello World” program in MACRO-10 to be run on TOPS-20 may look like this: text/html 2022-03-12T06:18:08+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.twenex.org/tutorials:mdl?rev=1647065888&do=diff MDL (pronounced “muddle”; a backronym for Model Development Language) is a Lisp-descended programming language developed at MIT in the 1970s. It was used to develop the initial version of the game Zork. On twenex.org, run the MDL interpreter with the command text/html 2022-03-07T17:16:40+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.twenex.org/tutorials:midas?rev=1646673400&do=diff MIDAS is the winning assembler from MIT. It has a rich history, first starting on the TX-0, then PDP-1, then PDP-6, then ITS. It was ported to TOPS-20 and is available on twenex.org. text/html 2022-03-18T01:43:10+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.twenex.org/tutorials:mm?rev=1647567790&do=diff MM MM is the TOPS-20 mailing subsystem. You can use MM for sending and receiving emails. Run MM: MM . The email subsystem prompt will appear: MM> HELP and ? commands are available. Sending email Create a new message using the MAIL command. text/html 2024-05-29T08:40:55+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.twenex.org/tutorials:network?rev=1716972055&do=diff Internet (TCP/IP) and other communications options Communications hardware * TTY serial lines * NIA-20 ethernet interface * CI-20 cluster interface Internet (TCP/IP) IP version 4 is implemented in some distributions of tOPS-20. Addressing text/html 2024-06-20T05:10:52+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.twenex.org/tutorials:pascal?rev=1718860252&do=diff The Pascal Compiler The TWENEX.ORG Pascal compiler was originally developed at the University of Hamburg as “DECSystem-10 Pascal”. The compiler was later modified and distributed by Rutgers University with fixes and updates contributed by CMU, Stanford, USC, Sandia National Laboratories and other sites. text/html 2025-01-27T04:31:50+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.twenex.org/tutorials:send?rev=1737952310&do=diff Send SEND allows sending text messages to other Twenex user in another terminal. Once you receive a message from other user, you may respond using the REPLY command. Receive Links If you want to use these chat commands with other users in the TWENEX TOPS-20 System, you mus configure text/html 2013-07-10T02:57:47+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.twenex.org/tutorials:snobol?rev=1373425067&do=diff Using SNOBOL/SITBOL on TWENEX.ORG Introduction SNOBOL (StriNg Oriented and symBOlic Language) is a generic name for a family of programming languages designed for the manipulation of strings. Among its features are symbolic naming of strings and pattern matching, making it especially suitable for text analysis. SNOBOL was developed in the 1960s at AT&T Bell Laboratories by David Farber, Ralph Griswold, and Ivan Polonsky. text/html 2024-06-02T01:56:23+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.twenex.org/tutorials:starter?rev=1717293383&do=diff TOPS-20 Starter Guide for UNIX users [Adapted from file TOPS20:<HELP>NEW-USER.HLP.11.] Its important to know these basics before continuing: ^S CTRL-S pause ouput ^Q CTRL-Q unpause output <- NOTE THIS IF YOUR SCREEN IS PAUSED! ^O CTRL-O ignore output text/html 2016-10-17T04:44:30+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.twenex.org/tutorials:startrek?rev=1476679470&do=diff Star Trek/Space War is a text-based strategy game inspired by the television series Star Trek and popular on minicomputers, mainframes, and early PCs in the 1970s and -80s. It was originally programmed in 1971 by high-schooler Mike Mayfield for the SDS Sigma 7 mainframe. The TWENEX version of the program is based on David Ahl's DEC BASIC port[*], which Ahl distributed under the name of text/html 2022-03-13T13:56:47+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.twenex.org/tutorials:teco?rev=1647179807&do=diff TECO TECO (for Text Editor and COrrector is a programmable, character-oriented text editor developed in 1962 by MIT student Dan Murphy for working with punched paper tape (“TECO” originally stood for Tape Editor and Corrector) on a DEC PDP-1. The original version of Emacs (the version available on twenex.org) was programmed in TECO macro language ( text/html 2022-03-12T06:19:03+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.twenex.org/tutorials:zork?rev=1647065943&do=diff Zork, “The classic underground maze/puzzle.” Zork is a text-based adventure game developed between 1977 and 1979 by Tim Anderson, Marc Blank, Bruce Daniels, and Dave Lebling of the MIT Dynamic Modelling Group. The version available on twenex.org is the pre-commercial version developed with the MDL language on a DEC PDP-10 mainframe computer.