[Simh] OS development

[Cory Smelosky]

On Wed, 10 Jun 2015, Timothe Litt wrote:

> There are some cases where extending the OS to understand new things is
> useful.  E.g. TCP/IP for TOPS-10, or the card punch I devised for the KS
> that never existed in hardware, but allows GALAXY to punch cards as it
> would on a KA/KI/KL.
>

What's the copyright on the various TCP/IP stacks for TOPS-10?  I believe 
the LLNL one is public domain?

I am unsure as to the rights on the KTH one, one I cannot say exists is 
under a very restrictive license, CompuServe's SEEMS KTH-derived but I 
lack source ... or distribution rights.  I think the Stacken one also 
differs slightly from a KTH one as well?

> For TOPS-10, I still haven't recovered the earliest preserved sources -
> which is what one would want to start a repository with.  The media is
> with CHM, but at last check, hasn't been read in.  Once it is, I have to
> do some sorting before it's published.  My concept has been to start a
> github repository for each OS with branches for each released
> version.    I have signed-out https://github.com/DEC36 for this
> purpose.  I have some unpublished MCOs for TOPS-10 that will help.
> Similarly for TOPS-20, though that takes even more effort in the SimH
> context due to the fate of KS support and the way the system fileystems
> were laid out.

Do any of the MCOs cover the RP07 ONCE bugs in TSU04?

>
> There are quite a few Y2K divots to tackle.  One tricky issue is DAP, as
> that's cross-OS. (And now there's VMSSOFTWARE (the company) to
> consider.)  In general, some thought needs to be given to what
> categories of change are acceptable, and where.  The main thrust of the
> simulator effort has been preserving history.  So there may be different
> branches for "last DEC release + bug fixes", "last DEC release +
> completing unfinished or internal use but never released work" (e.g. my
> unfinished KS10 ethernet driver), and "new features/extensions".
>

I'd make it a "user's choice" type thing - I would for personal use eant a 
rather extended version of the OSes, but for a project on the real 
hardware I'd want "last + bugfixes".

> The simulator community uses TOPS-10/20 under the terms of the hobbyist
> license that Dick Greeley & I arranged while DEC was still in
> existence.  A user-driven project could not expand the terms of that
> license, nor do I think it wise to draw HP's attention to it.  However,
> distributing patches/improvements for use under the existing license
> would seem OK to me.  I would want to be careful about any user
> copyright/license text in such additions to be sure that they don't
> appear to conflict with the DEC license.  (I'm not a lawyer and do not
> represent HP.)
>
> As an interim solution, I have created
> https://github.com/dec36.patches.  If people care to provide their
> patches (clone the repo and submit pull requests), it can serve as a
> distribution point until I get to a more complete solution.  I probably
> won't do much review.
>

Do you have any dynamic disk geometry patches?

If Stacken gives the OK I would advocate for the addition of the command 
history patches. ;)

> At this point, I think FILCOM (/O) or SOUP/SOUPR against unmodified DEC
> sources are the best formats.  That way I don't have to deal with
> setting up the full repo structure.
>

I'm thinking that's the best plan as well.

> As for other OSs - I'm not taking those on...
>

Only Rich can speak for WAITS I think. ;)

>
>

-- 
Cory Smelosky
http://gewt.net Personal stuff
http://gimme-sympathy.org Projects