HP Forum Archive 02

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CONVERTING HP87 PROGRAMS Message #1 Posted by FRED ELLERS on 1 Mar 2000, 8:57 p.m. I HAVE A LOT OF TIME INVESTED IN WRITING PROGRAMS IN THE SPECIAL BASIC AND HP GRAPHIC LANQUAGE OF THE HP87XM. IS THERE ANY WAY THESE PROGRAMS WHICH WERE SAVED ON THE 5 1/4 FLOPPY DISKS AND DRIVES OF THE HP 80 SERIES CAN BE RECOVERED SHORT OF REWRITING FROM SCRATCH. THE 87 AND IT'S FLOPPY DRIVE ARE NO LONGER OPERABLE AND NEITHER ARE NOW SUPPORTED BY HP. WOULD APPRECIATE ANY THOUGHTS FROM SOMEONE WHO HAS FACED THIS PROBLEM.

Re: CONVERTING HP87 PROGRAMS Message #2 Posted by Jan H. Bos on 2 Mar 2000, 7:45 a.m., in response to message #1 by FRED ELLERS You could ask somebody with a working 86/87 unit to load the programs and print them out. An other possibility is to tranfer the programs to ASKII and put the on a floppy in MS-DOS format, but also in this case you will need a working 86 or 87 computer.

Re: CONVERTING HP87 PROGRAMS Message #3 Posted by Dan M on 2 Mar 2000, 12:42 p.m., in response to message #1 by FRED ELLERS There was a series of articles by Greg Goebels on one of the hp ftp web sites about this very problem. I took the opportunity to print out most or all of these, because I didn't trust that the web site would be around as long as my HP85's, 86 and 87... and these printouts are now in a box somewhere in my house. I think that there was a translation program involved, to move these from an older HP basic to a newer HP basic. I never tried them out, but will look in my boxes at home for the printouts and what the URL used to be...

Re: CONVERTING HP87 PROGRAMS Message #4 Posted by Dan M on 6 Mar 2000, 12:49 p.m., in response to message #1 by FRED ELLERS Well, HP continues to surprise me. The URL I was afraid was gone is still there. Specifically, at this site are some instructions on translating S80 basic to HP Basic over HPIB. Maybe not exactly what you're looking for, but perhaps taking a look. ftp://fcext3.external.hp.com/dist/mxd/pc/hbw/bw_s80x.html It may be of interest to some of the readership of this forum to browse through the rest of the files around ftp://fcext3.external.hp.com/dist/mxd/pc/index.html there's some neat old stuff there. HP - Please keep it around, it is worthwhile. I also checked my hardware in the basement, and I have an HP87 (not XM) along with a 5.25 disk drive (82901?) old HP version that I think works. Good luck!

Re: CONVERTING HP87 PROGRAMS Message #5 Posted by Fred Ellers on 24 Mar 2000, 7:24 p.m., in response to message #4 by Dan M Dan Many thanks for your help. I am struggling with reactivating an HP 87XM and am worried that in the last days of using the 5.25 disks I was copying from the first generation floppy 48tpi? onto second generation 5.25 disks with 96tpi? without trying to rerun the copied programs. HP documentation makes a point of only using blank disks from them but I think, not certain at this point, that anything that would fit in the drive could be formated to the HP standard. Would be grateful if you could remember. Also many thanks for your guidance on sources of conversion from HP Basic to IBM Basic. Regards, Fred

Re: CONVERTING HP87 PROGRAMS Message #6 Posted by Betty Roller on 15 May 2000, 8:50 a.m., in response to message #5 by Fred Ellers We are also running HP87 programs that are interactive. Can these be recompiled on a PC or unix system without rewriting them?

Re: CONVERTING HP87 PROGRAMS Message #7 Posted by Paul Eaton on 21 Apr 2000, 7:23 a.m., in response to message #1 by FRED ELLERS Fred, I have the same problem with reading programs on 3 1/4" floppys I wrote in 1981-82. I have a working HP-86B with 9121 floppy drive but am missing the mass storage ROM. I would appreciate any ideas from your recent experience. Thanks, Paul

Re: CONVERTING HP87 PROGRAMS Message #8 Posted by Fred Ellers on 29 Apr 2000, 12:25 a.m., in response to message #7 by Paul Eaton Paul While the HP85, 87, 87 series are no longer supported by HP, I have found that except for the soft and hard drives, the other components stand storage well and can generally be expected to work. After looking around in the various HP forum and ad sections I think you would have a good chance to pick up almost anything you need if you let your needs stand out in the headline of your listing. Not that this will happen with any great speed-the guy who has what you need may not stumble over your ad for several months. In my case the concentrated risk has always been the 5 1/4 inch dual floppy master controller but I now have a replacement thru luck and determination. In your situation I guess it boils down to how much your programing for this system is worth to you. No one has responded to my request for a way to convert the 80 series programs to the PC's of today without rewriting from scratch particularly the graphic sections. Regards, Fred

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