PCjs Machines

PCjs Machines

This folder contains a mix of shared code, with some files used only by Node (server) modules, some used only by Browser (client) modules, and others used by both.

• component.js
• debugger.js
• defines.js
• diskapi.js
• dumpapi.js
• embed.js
• externs.js
• int36.js (see below)
• keys.js
• netlib.js
• nodebug.js
• private.js
• proclib.js
• reportapi.js
• save.js
• sockets.js
• state.js
• sticky.js
• strlib.js
• userapi.js
• usrlib.js
• weblib.js

At the moment, only a few files are completely agnostic; eg: strlib.js and usrlib.js. One give-away is that neither contain references to any globals (although references to each other would be fine).

netlib.js is appropriate only for Node modules, because it contains code that relies on Node’s global Buffer object, as indicated by:

/* global Buffer: false */

weblib.js is appropriate only for client modules, because it contains code that relies on the browser’s global window object, as indicated by:

/* global window: true */

We declare window modifiable (true) so that defines.js can set global.window to false when running within Node, allowing any other code to test the existence of window with a simple:

if (window) {...}

instead of:

if (typeof window !== "undefined") {...}

Unused Modules

The Int36 class was an early attempt to build a general-purpose 36-bit integer Math class in JavaScript, with the thought that it would become a building block for the PDP-10 emulation. A Node test harness (int36) was written as well. There was nothing wrong with the idea, but ultimately, it was simply more expedient to build the required functionality directly into the PDP-10’s opcode handlers. That decision may be worth revisiting someday.