SINTRAN III
SINTRAN III is a real-time, multitasking, multi-user operating system used with Norsk Data computers from 1974. Unlike its predecessors SINTRAN I and II, it was entirely written by Norsk Data.
Sintran III core and file system was written in NORD PL, intermediate language for Norsk Data computers.[1]
SINTRAN was primarily a command line based operating system though there were several shells which could be installed to control the user environment more strictly, by far the most popular of which was USER-ENVIRONMENT.
One of the clever features was to be able to abbreviate commands and filenames between hyphens, for example LIST-FILES when typed would ask you for several prompts including print, paging etc, you could override this using the following LI-FI,,, which would abbreviate the LIST-FILES command prompt and bypass any of the prompts. One could also refer to files in this way, say, with PED H-W which would refer to HELLO-WORLD:SYMB if this was the only file having H, any number of characters, a hyphen, a W, any number of characters, and any file ending.
In case the user wanted to actually edit a new file called H-W:SYMB (with no automatic expansion to match an existing file), the file name would have to be enclosed in double quotes, i.e. PED "H-W:SYMB". The double quotes automatically created a new file. The other common way to create a file was to use the SINTRAN command CREATE-FILE.
The abbreviation concept saved quite a lot of keystrokes and would allow users a very nice learning curve, from complete and self-explanatory commands like LIST-ALL-FILES to L-A-F for the advanced user. (The hyphen key on Norwegian keyboards resides where the slash key does on U.S. ones.)
There are a few SINTRAN computers still running in a production manner, including one public-access ND-5700 system operated by a NODAF member.
See also
- SINTRAN III Real Time system
- SINTRAN III Disk Layout
- SINTRAN III Commands
- File Formats
- Programming Languages
- NORD PL
- PLANC, Program LAnguage for Norsk Data Computers
Releases
This section lists the releases of SINTRAN III.
- A-version
- B-version
- C-version
- D-version
- E-version
- F-version
- 1981? ND–60.125.02 SINTRAN III INTRODUCTION from October 1981 says "Corresponds to the F version of SINTRAN III".
- G-version
- H-version
- Last version available for NORD-10.
- I-version
SINTRAN III VSE, version I ND-10174 SINTRAN III VSX, version I ND-10575 SINTRAN III VSE-500, version I ND-10175 SINTRAN III VSX-500, version I ND-10576
- J-version
- Release notes (ND–60.230.01 SINTRAN III J-version Release Information ) from January 1985. Modified monitor calls: BRKM (MON 4), FIXC5 (MON 61), ABSTR (MON 131), LAMU (MON 315). New monitor calls: FSMTY (MON 327), TERST (MON 330), TREPP (MON 332), UDMA (MON 333), GETXM (MON 334), IOMTY (MON 336), SPCHG (MON 337)
- K-version
- Release notes (ND–60.230.4 SINTRAN III J-version Release Information ) from May 1987. New commands: DEFINE-MASS-STORAGE-UNIT, DELETE-MASS-STORAGE-UNIT, GIVE-OBJECT-BLOCKS, LIST-MASS-STORAGE-UNITS, SET-INITIAL-FILE-ACCESS, SET-INITIAL-FRIEND-ACCESS, TAKE-OBJECT-BLOCKS, UNLOCK-DIRECTORY. Commands removed: COMMUNICATIONS-LINE-STATUS, COMMUNICATIONS-STATUS, LOCAL, REMOTE, REMOTE-LOAD, REMOTE-PASSWORD, START-COMMUNICATION, STOP-COMMUNICATION. New monitor calls: RSREC (MON 340), SGMTY (MON 341), ADP (MON 342), CONFG (MON 343), PERFO (MON 344), MTAD (MON 345), 5MTRANS (MON 515).
SINTRAN III/VSX ND-210575K SINTRAN III/VSX-500 ND-210576K SINTRAN III/VSX-500 (standard system D) ND-220046K03 SINTRAN III/VSX-500 (standard system C) ND-220047K03 SINTRAN III/VSX-500 (standard system B) ND-220048K03
- L-version
- Release notes (ND–860230.6 SINTRAN III L-VERSION RELEASE INFORMATION ) from September 1988. A ND-100/CX cpu is the minimum required hardware to run this version. New commands: AUTOMATIC-ND5000-ERROR-MESSAGES, FILE-SYSTEM-ERROR-MESSAGES, LIST-ALL-OPEN-FILES, LIST-SERVERS, SET-DIRECTORY-AVAILABLE, SET-DIRECTORY-UNAVAILABLE, START-SERVERS. Monitor calls (ND-100) modified: TERMO (MON 52), ABSTR (MON 131), WSEG (MON 164), CPUST (MON 262), MLAMU (MON 315), FSMTY (MON 327), ADP (MON 342), CONFG (MON 343). New monitor calls: NUCL (MON 347), RWSEG (MON 350).
- M-version
- this version has Y2K patches.
New command: EXPAND-DIRECTORY. Removed command: COPY-DIRECTORY. New monitor calls: IOPEN (MON 351), EVENT (MON 352), PLACE (MON 441) (ND-500/5000 only).
- N-version
- this version has Y2K patches.
VSE is short for Virtual Storage Extended, VSX is short for Virtual Storage Extended for CX CPU:s.
References
Norsk Data Document ND–30.003.06A SINTRAN III System Supervisor printed 1985
Norsk Data Document ND–30.049.1 EN SINTRAN III TUNING GUIDE printed May 1985
Norsk Data Document ND–60.050.03 SINTRAN III USERS GUIDE printed January 1975
Norsk Data Document ND–60.051.03 SINTRAN III REAL TIME LOADER printed February 1976
Norsk Data Document ND–60.062 SINTRAN III SYSTEM DOCUMENTATION
Norsk Data Document ND–60.072 SINTRAN III REAL TIME LOADER SYSTEM DOCUMENTATION
Norsk Data Document ND–60.081 NORDNET SYSTEM DOCUMENTATION
Norsk Data Document ND–60.112 SINTRAN III SYSTEM DOCUMENTATION APPENDIX A-DATA FIELDS
Norsk Data Document ND–60.125.02 SINTRAN III INTRODUCTION printed October 1981
Norsk Data Document ND–60.128.03 SINTRAN III REFERENCE MANUAL printed February 1983
Norsk Data Document ND–60.132.01 SINTRAN III TIMESHARING/BATCH GUIDE printed June 1980
Norsk Data Document ND–60.133 SINTRAN III REAL TIME GUIDE
Norsk Data Document ND–60.134.02 SINTRAN III COMMUNICATION GUIDE printed November 1981
Norsk Data Document ND–60.136 ND-500 LOADER/MONITOR
Norsk Data Document ND–60.151.02A SINTRAN III UTILITIES MANUAL printed February 1985
Norsk Data Document ND–60.163.4 EN COSMOS USER GUIDE printed May 1986
Norsk Data Document ND–60.164 COSMOS PROGRAMMER GUIDE
- ↑ Norsk Data Document ND–60.047.03 NORD PL USER'S GUIDE Page 3
- This article was originally a copy of the English Wikipedia article SINTRAN III in 1 November 2008.