[Simh] OS development

[Johnny Billquist]

On 2015-06-11 03:25, Timothe Litt wrote:
> 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".

DAP is good until 2070 or so. If the DAP implementation on 
Tops-10/TOPS-20 don't do things right at the moment, it's just a local 
bug within those OSes then. RSX and VMS (maybe others) have had DAP Y2K 
secure for many years.

> Legally - so far as I know, the rights to TOPS10/20 belong to HP.  Which
> part of HP gets them in the upcoming split is unknown.  Logically it
> would be HP Enterprise, but logic requires knowledge and knowledge of
> 36-bits is in short supply at HP.  The DEC archives at CHM include the
> 36-bit engineering environments; I promised to sort through them and
> determine what can be released.  [Things like personal e-mails in the
> system backups can't be.]  (Also, HP has sold off a lot of DEC's IP.
> It's possible that HP sold some or all of the 36-bit technology.)

I thought the Tops-10/TOPS-20 stuff was handed over to XKL, but maybe 
someone with better knowledge than me can clarify this.

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

The legal jungle around the PDP-11 software is a nightmare. The PDP-10 
stuff is easy in comparison, I think.

	Johnny