Did HP use SP (synthetic prog.) in any of its 41 apps???

[Bill Wiese]

Just curious, does anyone know if HP ever use any synthetic programming ("SP") in its user code apps (modules, app packs on cards, etc.)? Were any SP functions a normal part of an HP programmer's day, and just were not presented to users so as to assure overall machine integrity??

This question is not meant to include code that manipulates normally non-user-accessible registers by machine code, since the whole machine's "open" at that level.]

Just curious, thanks...

Bill Wiese
San Jose, CA

[Ernie Malaga]

Bill:

As far as I know, HP never used SP in any of its own products. SP was routinely banned from the User's Library, so your chances of having your program rejected from the UL climbed to 100% if it included a mere STO M. This policy was revised some time later, and the UL started to accept programs where SP was used and well-documented.

The application pacs, however, had always plain-vanilla, SP-free code. If anyone knows different, I'd love to hear that.

-Ernie

[Bill Wiese]

Ernie,

Thanks for the input. Yes, I'd guess the User's Library would ban SP since it's, well, for "users". Similarly, App Packs on cards or printed media would prob shy away from SP
as well.

But what about App. *Modules*?? Looks like my math module, etc. employ straight HP user code. Other modules may use machine code for certain functions as well.

Bill Wiese
San Jose, CA

As far as I know, HP never used SP in any of its own products. SP was routinely banned from the User's Library, so your chances of having your program rejected from the UL climbed to 100% if it included a mere STO M. This policy was revised some time later, and the UL started to accept programs where SP was used and well-documented.

The application pacs, however, had always plain-vanilla, SP-free code. If anyone knows different, I'd love to hear that.

[J-F Garnier]

There are some synthetic lines in the PLPLOT user program in the PLOTTER module: a shortened 'E2' or 'E3' instead of '1E2 or '1E3'. Also synthetic alpha lines with characters like '{' or '(' (I don't remember exactly) not available by keystrokes.

J-F