[Simh] TSS-8 and ETOS free-redistribution licenses (PDP-8 operating systems)

[Johnny Billquist]

Hi, Bob.

On 2017-01-15 00:38, Robert Armstrong wrote:
>> Johnny Billquist wrote:
>
>> I am pretty sure that DEC did release OS/8 at some point.
>
>   DEC released OS/278, including sources, to DECUS back when the latter still carried PDP-8 software.  It even had an official "8-nnn" DECUS number; I don't remember it off hand, but I could find out.  As far as I'm concerned, that effectively makes OS/278 in the public domain.

Ah, yes, thanks. Now that you remind me I remember that one. I don't 
remember if it was with sources or not, but there definitely was 
something OS/278 in the DECUS library.

>   Unfortunately OS/278 was the somewhat hacked up version of OS/8 for the DECmate family.  It lacked many of the handlers and CUSPS related to traditional OMNIBUS hardware.  I also don't think the sources for any of the languages (e.g. BASIC, FORTRAN-IV, etc) were released with it.  Of course all these sources exist and aren't that hard to find, but AFAIK their legal status is up in the air.

Not only that. The DECmate have an incompatible serial port, which lacks 
a feature that OS/8 used. So in OS/278 they reworked some bits as well. 
The missing feature was that on a KL8 you can read the character in the 
input buffer without disturbing the reader ready flag. The DECmate can't 
do that. OS/8 uses that in various drivers to detect if the user press 
^C without removing the typed character, so that OS/8 can also read it, 
if it was typed.

	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