ND-10373 — IS XMSG (X-Message, Inter System)¶
Status: IN-PROGRESS — real J-version floppy decoded; same load/start pattern as ND-10130, plus inter-system extras
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| ND article number | ND-10373 |
| Product name | X-Message (Inter System) |
| Functional category | Networking & Communications (inter-task messaging, networked) |
| CPU target | ND-100 |
| Related products | ND-10130 X-Message for SINTRAN III/VS — see ../ND-10130/README.md, the base single-system product this one extends. Historical note: XMSG version J (1985), unrelated to this repo's live XMSG reverse-engineering project (SINTRAN/XMSG/, revision L03). |
What is known — real floppy, decoded¶
Floppy 10373J00 (downloaded via NDwiki, imaged by Torfinn "Tingo" Ingolfsen) mounts cleanly. Its
file set is nearly identical to ND-10130's J-version floppy — same
XMSG-LOAD-J00:MODE load script (decoded there, byte-for-byte identical in structure), same
XMSG-SYSTABS/XMSG-POFTABS/XMSG-VALUES/XMSG-LIBRARY support files, same CX/NX kernel
variants (here named XMSG-KERN-*/XMSG-XROU-*/XMSG-SYMB-* rather than the abbreviated
XMSG-KE-*/XMSG-XR-*/XMSG-SY-* seen on ND-10130 — cosmetic naming difference only, contents
not diffed byte-for-byte).
What this floppy adds over the base product:
- XMSG-HDLC-TEST-J:PROG — a compiled HDLC link test program, confirming this "Inter System"
variant is specifically about the wire-level link between systems (HDLC being the physical/link
layer XMSG rides on for inter-system traffic — see LAPB-REQUIREMENTS.md, the compact LAPB note kept in this repository; the full ND LAPB spec it is a companion to, lapb-nd-spec.md, lives in the separate X25Emulator repository and not here).
- The load script's comment explicitly lists a third foreground program beyond XROUT/XTRACE:
XFTRA (XMSG File Transfer) — "Create foreground programs XROUT, XTRACE and XFTRA" — real
evidence that inter-system file transfer support is what distinguishes this product from
ND-10130.
- XMSG-STARTEX-J00:MODE/:BATC in place of ND-10130's XMSG-START-S-J00:MODE/:BATC — same
role (example startup script + batch wrapper), not individually re-decoded here since the
pattern is already fully documented on ND-10130's page.
Documentation¶
- No PD sheet or PI sheet located specifically for
ND-10373(the baseND-10130PI sheet describes the shared XMSG concepts — ports, XROUT directory service, etc.).
Provenance & open items¶
- Source: one real floppy image, downloaded via NDwiki and decoded in this session
(
ndfs -t/ndtool -x); the load script's structure was confirmed but not re-transcribed verbatim here (see ND-10130 for the full decode). - TODO:
XMSG-STARTEX-J00:MODE/:BATCandXMSG-HDLC-TEST-J:PROGwere not individually decoded/read.
Parent: ../README.md (Software catalog)