image of READY prompt

Wang2200.org

December 25, 2011

I've finally cleaned up the code for my catweasel code which allows me to read Wang 2270(A) type 8" floppy disks on a PC. This is how I've captured nearly all the disk images which appear on this website. The zip file with the source code, some notes, and a DOS executable are available from the virtual media page.

I've also released another update to the wvdutil program. This is a python program which can be used to inspect .wvd virtual disk images. It too is available from the virtual media page. New features in version 1.4 include:

  • new "scan" command to scan the list and determine where files and file fragments are, irrespective of the catalog, or if the disk has no catalog.
  • the "cat" command now sorts the output by filename by default, and takes optional flags to allow sorting by disk location, file size, and to reverse the order of any of these.
  • "list " now also allows "list " to list the contents of sectors, one sector at a time, irrespective of any file boundaries.
  • the "compare" command now takes an optional -v (-verbose) flag, which will show the first mismatching line of a BASIC program. the command used to only check for binary exact equality, which is fast and simple, but which isn't foolproof, as most sectors of the program have don't-care bytes after the EOB/EOD byte.
  • "check" command much more thorough about finding problems
  • more robust operation when inspecting corrupted disks and disks which have no catalog
  • if you modify the disk and then exit, the program will prompt to ask if you want to save the image before exiting.
  • the .zip file now contains a windows executable version of the program, in case you don't care to install python on your machine. As a result, though, the zip file is now huge, as it contains an embedded python interpreter and a number of libraries.

October 8, 2011

A couple years ago Ron O'Kelly sent me a bunch of wang floppy disks. Due to me building a new house, moving into it, having generally too much to do, and inertia, it has taken a long time to capture all the disk images. Most of them were blank or contained uninteresting inventory and accounting files, but the interesting ones have been put online at virtual media. They are:

Thanks are due to Paul Szudzik and the people at Southern Data Systems (SDS) for allowing me to post disk images of the SDS Extended BASIC 4.0 program. This doesn't run on the emulator yet as it requires being able to run an MVP OS, but some day ...

September 4, 2011

This is just a small update. A couple years ago I bought a book from Russia about programming the Искра-226 computer, a Russian clone of the Wang 2200. The book is now linked from the Iskra-226 page.

August 28, 2011

Here are a few more documents, thanks to Chris Cummings and Ron O'Kelly. Also thanks to Paul Sudzik and SDS for allowing me to share the SDS documents. All of the are available from the documents page, but they are linked here for convenience:

August 20, 2011

Here is a pile of datasheets, all courtesy of Chris Cummings, yet again. All of these datasheets available from the documents page, but they are linked here for convenience:

New brochures:

New datasheets:

Datasheets which were already on the site, but are now available as a different version of the datasheet:

These were already online, but Chris' scan was better, so they have been replaced:

Finally, here is a collection of dozens of price lists, spanning 1975-1980:

August 13, 2011

Three, small, related updates:

  • Updated the wvdutil program to version 1.3. This adds the ability to read disk images which have been zip'd, and adds a new command, LISTD, which mimic's BASIC-2's feature of the same name, which is to prettyprint program listings.
  • The vmedia.html page allows viewing the contents of disk images, including listing programs. Using the updated wvdutil, program listings are now prettyprinted by default. If you want to see the program without the prettyprinting, remove the &prettyprint=1 from the URL.
  • Fixed a bug when attempting to list the contents of a file that contained a "$" in its name.

July 31, 2011

Chris Cummings has again delivered a truckload of manuals, datasheets, price lists, and other interesting documents. All are available from the documents page, but they are linked here for convenience:

New 2200 documents:

New (M)VP documents:

New software manuals:

New SDS documents:

New peripheral manuals:

New newsletters:

New brochures:

Miscellaneous documents:

That is it for now, but Chris has scanned 26 price sheets and 81 datasheets as well. Those will take a couple of weeks, at least, to process, but the current document dump should be enough to keep anyone happy.

April 23, 2011

A long time ago I wrote a python utility to inspect and modify Wang virtual disk images used by the emulator. I had the idea to hook it up to the website so one could dynamically inspect each disk directory and drill down into file listings. Due to a lack of knowledge of PHP, I put it off, but this weekend I finally spent a few hours figuring out how to do it. The PHP part was a snap; the biggest problem was that the host server has a different version of python than I use, causing problems unzipping the disk images to perform the inspection. Go to the virtual media page and click on the "directory" link next to any disk image. From there you can click on a filename to see what is inside the file.

I also updated the links page with a new link to GBS Wang, a South African Wang user group.

March 5, 2011

I added a scan of a 1970 ad for PHI (Philip Hankins Inc), which was a subsidiary of Wang Inc. It was PHI engineers who developed some of Wang's most sophisticated calculators (eg, Wang 700) and the Wang 3300 computer. The ad is on the documents page.

January 4, 2011

This is a small update; I bought a 1976 ad for the MPS (Management Planning System) software package, which ran on the 2200. I believe the software sold for $200. The ad, titled What if?, is on the documents page.

January 2, 2011

The schematics page used to contain a small number of the most important 2200 CPU schematics. However, bandwidth is less expensive these days, so I've added two documents, containing all the schematics that I have. These were loaned to me by a former Wang engineer, Max Blomme, and I scanned them all before sending back his schematics.

October 8, 2008

I just discovered a very interesting email from Richard L. Langley from five years ago concerning Wang history. Sadly, and inexplicably, I never replied to him, and now his email address is stale. If you are Richard Langley, or know one who used to work at Wang, please have him get in contact with me.

...

(anything over a year old is no longer noted)

January, 2001

Web site started