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For Xerox InH:rnal Use Only -- April 29, 1978




ALTO SUBSYSTEMS




Compiled on: April 29, 1978




Xerox Palo Alto I~esearch Center
3333 Coyote Hill Road
Palo Alto, California 94304
For Xerox Internal ljse Only -- April 29, 1978
Alto Subsystems April 29, 1978 2



Alto Subsystems



This document is a directory of major Alto BCPL subsystems. Mesa subsystems are
collected together and documented elsewhere.
Binary versions of these programs are available on the documentation for the subsystem is short, it is included in this file directly. If it is
somewhat longer, the docllmen tation is stored separately and the en try is marked wi th a *.
The documentation for these objects is available on that have quite bulky documentation are denoted by **. These programs have separate
documentation on If you would like a full listing of documentation for all but the ** programs give the
command" "EARS The person last known to be responsible for each subsystem is also given.
*A NSRV: a prognm that permits a Nova to be used from an Alto as a "remote batch"
computer. (Bruce Parsley)
*ASM: an assembler for Alto machine language, producing object files compatible with
the: 8c:pl loader. (Ed McCreight)
**BCPL: a compiler fot' the Bcpl language. (Dan Swinehart)
**BLOR: a loader for object files produced by Bcpl and Asm. It is documented in the
Bcpl man ua!. (Dan Swinehart)
**BRAVO: a display editor. (Charles Simonyi)
*BUILDBOOT: a program for constructing Alto boot files. (Ed McCreight)
*CHAT: establishes PUP Telnet connections between a pair of cooperating parties.
(Bob Sproull)
CLEANDIR: does a garbage collection on a file directory (not on the disk space,
though). Call it with
) CLt,AN 01 R directory-name n
to clean up the specified directory. The system directory is called SYSDIR. The
second parameter, fl, tells how much extra space to append to the directory. The
reason for it is that extending the directory in this way \vill tend to get the pages
allocated to consecutive disk sectors, so that subsequen t lookups wi II go faster. If
this program Jails," it will leave your disk unusable. To guard against lhis, you can
copy SYSOIR to a dummy file and rlln CLEANOIR on that first, then run it again
on SYSOIR. DO NOT try to copy the cleaned-up dummy file back to SYSDIR.
(Butler Lampson)
*COPYDISK: is run on an Alto with a dual disk drive to copy an enti re disk to a new
disk; it may also be" fun on a stand3rd Alto to copy entire disks over the Ethernet.
All old data on the disk to which you copy is destroyed. (David Boggs)
*CR EATEFILE: creates a file of a given size, allocating consecutively if possible.
(Peter Deu tsch)
*DOS: The Descriptive Directory System is a front end for the Alto file system,
providing a relational data base management system and facilities for displaying
1I1formatlon related to Alto files. (Peter Deut.sch)
For Xerox Internal Use Only -- April 29. 1978
Alto Subsystems April 29. 1978 3



*OMT.BOOT: Alto memory diagnostic program and related statisti:s-gathering
programs. (D, vid Boggs)
*OPRINT: Prints disk files on the Diablo Printer. (Eel Taft)
**ORA W: An illustrator. (Patrick BeaudeJaire)
EMPRESS: Converts ordinary text files to Press files. and performs simple formatting
operations. (David Boggs)
*EXECUTIVE: The Alto command processor. (Ed McCreight)
The followi ng commands are a part of the EXEC:
BOOTFROM: allows you to initiate a software boot of your Alto from an
arbitrary file on the disk.
BOOTK EYS: tells you what keys to hold down to boot from a file.
COPY: copies from one file to another.
DIAGNOSE: invokes the memory diagnostic, OMT.
DELETE: deletes files.
DlJrvlP: dumps a set of files onto a single "dump" file which can be
manipulated as a unit. The files can be recovered later by a LOAD. There is
al:)o a Maxc subsystem called DUMP-