[Simh] RSTS/E 10.1-L and Paper tape

[Johnny Billquist]

On 2016-01-06 23:36, Christian Gauger-Cosgrove wrote:
> You take one day trip to the US and suddenly "Reply Explosion"...

That's life. :-)

> Inlined replies/comments to several previous messages in this thread follow:
>
>
> On 6 January 2016 at 10:51, Paul Koning <paulkoning at comcast.net> wrote:
>> I'm not sure what a DOS device is.
>>
> The E-11 simulator has a special device which allows you to read from
> a normal PC file folder, it's the DOS device. I know there's an RT-11
> to use it, and the resident RSX-11 expert (Johnny) can say if there's
> also a driver for it. I don't think there is a RSTS/E driver; though
> as an aside: How difficult would it be to add in a custom device to
> RSTS/E? If one wanted to implement said "DOS device" in RSTS would it
> be possible?

As for RSX:
.dev do:
DO0:     Loaded Type=UNIX
.dir do:


Directory DO0:
7-JAN-16 00:05

cons1.log           ;0        0.
e11                 ;0        0.
cons2.log           ;0        0.
restart             ;0        0.
re11~               ;0        0.
cons0.log           ;0        0.
cons3.log           ;0        0.
e11-4.0b.tar        ;0        0.
e11-5.0.tar.gz      ;0        0.
e11.ini             ;0        0.
d                   ;0        0.
re11                ;0        0.
e11.ini~            ;0        0.
mim.txt             ;0        0.
full.tar.gz         ;0        0.

Total of 0./0. blocks in 15. files

.

(Unfortunately, the DOS device do not return any information like file 
size or dates, but I can at least do a directory, and copy files in and 
out...)

I wrote the DO: device to look like a magtape from RSX point of view, so 
it also supports "funny" filenames.

I don't know anything about writing your own device drivers under RSTS/E 
though, so I can't even comment on it. That said, I'm sure Paul do. :-)
Also, someone else wrote a user level file access program for the DOS 
device, which might be another option for accessing files without 
writing a device driver. Not sure if that could be adopted for RSTS/E if 
it don't already exist.

>> 3. Magtape.  DOS format labels are very simple; ANSI isn't much harder.  For extra credit, someone could write an implementation of VMS BACKUP -- RSTS can read those tapes (with some restrictions) in V9.0 or later.
>>
> May I inquire how to read VMS BACKUP format? Also, by any chance can
> RSTS read RSX style BRU format (...isn't RSX-11 BRU format actually
> the predecessor/a subset of VMS BACKUP)?

How to read VMS BACKUP format? Under RSTS/E? How about using BACKUP?
As for RSTS/E reading BRU format tapes... Probably not that hard. I know 
there is a BRUREAD program from DECUS, which should be pretty easy to 
adopt, if nothing else.

But no, BRU and VMS BACKUP are not related. At all. However, as Paul 
said, RSTS/E BACKUP is subset compatible with VMS BACKUP.

>> 4. Disk.  Years ago I wrote a program "rstsflx" that can read and write RSTS disk images.  It should still be around; if not I should build some new kits and supply them to whoever can offer a place for them.
>>
> You can also use AUXLIB$:FIT within RSTS to read and write RT-11
> format media. So you could make an RT-11 formatted disk with John
> Wilson's PUTR utility and move files to and from it (with a DOS
> emulator like DOSbox because PUTR doesn't play nice on x64 Windows);
> it'll work on WXP though. You can also make said RT-11 formatted media
> with SIMH running RT-11 as well.

Yeah, that was what I was thinking of. You can also read RT-11 formatted 
disks under RSX, using FLX.
So, RT-11 formatted disks are sortof a lingua franca when it comes to 
transporting files between PDP-11 systems (or even VAX) on disks...

	Johnny

-- 
Johnny Billquist                  || "I'm on a bus
                                   ||  on a psychedelic trip
email: bqt at softjar.se             ||  Reading murder books
pdp is alive!                     ||  tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol