Diagnose; A Versatile Trace Routine for the PDP-8 with EAE

8-78

Keith B. Oldham, North American Aviation Science Center,

Thousand Oaks, California

This trace routine will track down logical errors in a program

(the "sick" program). Starting at any convenient location in

the "sick" program, instructions are executed, one at a time,

and a record of all operations is printed out via the Teletype.

To avoid tracing proven subroutines, an option is provided to

omit subroutine tracing. The present routine is significantly

more versatile than two other trace routines in the DECUS

Library (DECUS Nos. 8-56 and 8-57) for the PDP-8 in that

it is able to trace "sick" programs containing floating point,

extended arithmetic and a variety of input/output instructions.

Diagnose is, however, at a disadvantage compared with

DECUS No. 8-56 in requiring more memory space (5 pages

as opposed to two); and compared with DECUS No. 8-57

in not possessing the trace-suppression features of the latter.

The mode of operation of Diagnose is quite different from the

other trace routines.

Minimum Hardware:
PDP-8 with EAE

Other Programs Needed:
Floating Point Package needed

for floating point tracing. (DEC-

8-5-5)

Miscellaneous:
Program is Relocatable

Catalog: November 1969

Minimum Hardware:	PDP-8 with EAE
Other Programs Needed:	Floating Point Package needed for floating point tracing. (DEC- 8-5-5)
Miscellaneous:	Program is Relocatable
Catalog:	November 1969