[TUHS] Re: Pipes (was Re: After 50 years, what has the Impact

[TUHS] Re: Pipes (was Re: After 50 years, what has the Impact

[Steve Simon]

helios supported DAG shell syntax.

helios was a unix style os (was it actually posix compliant?) for networks of transputers.

-Steve

[TUHS] Re: Pipes (was Re: After 50 years, what has the Impact

[Martin Schröder]

Am Fr., 6. Dez. 2024 um 23:07 Uhr schrieb Steve Simon <steve@quintile.net>:
> helios supported DAG shell syntax.

Wikipedia:
"What is not immediately apparent is that Helios extends the notion of
Unix pipes into a language called Component Distribution Language
(CDL). In CDL, a typical Unix shell pipeline such as more is called a
task force, and is transparently distributed by the Task Force Manager
server across the available CPUs. CDL extends traditional Unix syntax
with additional operators for bi-directional pipes, sequential and
parallel process farm operators, load balancing and resource
management."

> helios was a unix style os (was it actually posix compliant?) for networks of transputers.

Mostly.

"The Unix compatibility library described in chapter 5, Compatibility,
implements functions which are largely compatible with the Posix
standard interfaces. The library does not include the entire range of
functions provided by the Posix standard, because some standard
functions require memory management or, for various reasons, cannot be
implemented on a multi-processor system. The reader is therefore
referred to IEEE Std 1003.1-1988, IEEE Standard Portable Operating
System Interface for Computer Environments, which is available from
the IEEE Service Center, 445 Hoes Lane, P.O. Box 1331, Piscataway, NJ
08855-1331, USA. It can also be obtained by telephoning USA (201)
9811393"
http://www.transputer.net/hbooks/techref/hbk.pdf

Does that number still connect to the IEEE? :-)

Best
     Martin

[TUHS] Re: Pipes (was Re: After 50 years, what has the Impact

[sjenkin]

> On 7 Dec 2024, at 09:07, Steve Simon <steve@quintile.net> wrote:
> 
> 
> helios supported DAG shell syntax.
> 
> helios was a unix style os (was it actually posix compliant?) for networks of transputers.
> 
> -Steve


For anyone playing along at home, some links I turned up this afternoon.

There are other O/S of the same name, using the capitalisation which the Perihelion version eschewed.
One for Arduino and another Sel4 related microkernel
	<https://drewdevault.com/2022/06/13/helios.html>
	<https://docs.arduino.cc/libraries/helios/>

Wikipedia - already mentioned [ with incorrect capitalisation? ]
	<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HeliOS>


Helios books: many texts, PDF & html, available + names of many resources
	<http://www.transputer.net/hbooks/hbooks.asp>

	Helios Shell
	<http://www.transputer.net/hbooks/shell/shell.html>

	CDL - A Distributed Language for Helios
	<http://www.transputer.net/hbooks/03/hn03.html>


CDL was mentioned by others, source code might still be available in Helios-NG Repo
	<https://github.com/axelmuhr/Helios-NG/tree/master/cmds/cdl>

Helios-NG [ untouched for years ]
	<https://github.com/axelmuhr/Helios-NG>

	This is a project for breathing new live in Helios, an OS from the 90's. Helios was developed by the (now defunct) company called Perihelion Ltd., 
	mainly targeting the INMOS Transputer but later adding other CPUs like the ARM series or TMS320c4x DSPs when INMOS' decline became clear.

	Legal?

	I got the permission from Perhelions fromer CEO Tim King and main programmer Nick Garnett to 
		"[...] do whatever you want with the Helios sources." So here we are: "Helios Next Generation” 
	or Helios-NG for short, put under GPL v3.


Author's Helios-NG page, 2014. ’The Plan'
	<https://www.geekdot.com/category/helios/helios-ng/>


Transputer board, 2024
	<https://www.geekdot.com/stgatw-programming-and-software/>
	To make a long story short: This is basically a design, 
		where the ATARI Mega-ST is used as a boot device and after that just handles file- and user-I/O. 
		The Transputer is attached to the ST via DMA and runs the Helios OS 
		and has direct access to the graphics controller called ‘Blossom’. 
		Totally different concept.

Author ‘about'
	<https://www.geekdot.com/about-me/>

ABOUT ME
	Hi! I’ll make this short… or at least try to. My name is Axel Muhr.

	Born 1970 I’m an fairly old geek compared to todays Web 2.0 standards. 
	Let’s say I do remember how to cope with 4k RAM 
	and considered a 174kb 5.25″ Floppy quite a big storage device… not mentioning it’s insane speed.

--
Steve Jenkin, IT Systems and Design 
0412 786 915 (+61 412 786 915)
PO Box 38, Kippax ACT 2615, AUSTRALIA

mailto:sjenkin@canb.auug.org.au http://members.tip.net.au/~sjenkin

[TUHS] Re: Pipes (was Re: After 50 years, what has the Impact

[Henry Bent]

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On Sat, 7 Dec 2024 at 01:08, <sjenkin@canb.auug.org.au> wrote:

>
> > On 7 Dec 2024, at 09:07, Steve Simon <steve@quintile.net> wrote:
>
> Wikipedia - already mentioned [ with incorrect capitalisation? ]
>         <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HeliOS>
>

Indeed.  While the article uses correct capitalization throughout, the
title of the article is incorrect.   I have requested a move to the correct
capitalization, which unfortunately (but probably understandably) in
Wikipedia land is an involved process.

-Henry

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[TUHS] Re: Pipes (was Re: After 50 years, what has the Impact

[David Arnold]

> On 7 Dec 2024, at 11:53, Martin Schröder <martin@oneiros.de> wrote:
> 
> Am Fr., 6. Dez. 2024 um 23:07 Uhr schrieb Steve Simon <steve@quintile.net>:
>> helios supported DAG shell syntax.
> 
> Wikipedia:
> "What is not immediately apparent is that Helios extends the notion of
> Unix pipes into a language called Component Distribution Language
> (CDL).

I have somewhere the CDL reference: a small volume, perhaps 50 pages.

If I recall correctly, there’s some discussion in the two Helios books as well.   I can dig them up if there’s interest. 

<…>

>> helios was a unix style os (was it actually posix compliant?) for networks of transputers.
> 
> Mostly.

I think it was missing fork(), although I believe it had a vfork().

It was able to run a lot of the free software of the time with a little effort.  There was a GCC port, gnumake, MicroEmacs, X11R4 (? Maybe R5?)

It was an interesting OS. Not unlike Plan9: its file server protocol is roughly analogous to 9p.




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[TUHS] Re: Pipes (was Re: After 50 years, what has the Impact

[Henry Bent]

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On Sat, 7 Dec 2024 at 04:56, David Arnold <davida@pobox.com> wrote:

>
> It was able to run a lot of the free software of the time with a little
> effort.  There was a GCC port, gnumake, MicroEmacs, X11R4 (? Maybe R5?)
>

I was curious about the GCC port as I've spent far, far too much time
looking through GCC support for various platforms and I have no memory of
this target.  Turns out it was an entirely independent effort, and probably
a one-off:
https://groups.google.com/g/comp.sys.transputer/c/Zt6WNxneS08/m/ZBRytllF_X8J
.  The standard C compiler was a different beast, and I was not immediately
able to recognize its lineage; it may have been developed from scratch.

A mostly complete archive of Helios sources is here:
https://github.com/axelmuhr/Helios-NG

-Henry

-Henry

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[TUHS] Re: Pipes (was Re: After 50 years, what has the Impact

[David Arnold]

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> On 7 Dec 2024, at 23:11, Henry Bent <henry.r.bent@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> The standard C compiler was a different beast, and I was not immediately able to recognize its lineage; it may have been developed from scratch.

Derived from the Norcroft compiler Ihttp://www.codemist.co.uk/ncc/index.html




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