[Simh] Simh Digest, Vol 179, Issue 35

[Robert G. Schaffrath]

On 12/31/2018 12:00 PM, simh-request at trailing-edge.com wrote:
> Control/T support was an optional feature, enabled during SYSGEN, for
> some time.  I'm fairly sure it was never an undocumented feature, but it
>   wasn't standard originally.
>
>
>
>      paul
>
I decided to dig into the V6C system a bit further. I am amazed at what 
I have remembered these 30+ years. I patched SYSTAT.BAS to display the 
Pri/RB column that we had available on our V06C-03 system. Even 
remembered how to change a protection to <232> using:

PIP SYSTAT.BAC<232> /RE

(not even sure how I recalled that after all these years LOL)

RSTS V06C-03 Timesharing status at 31-Dec-98, 13:16    Up: 24

Job    Who    Where    What    Size    State    Run-Time  Pri/RB RTS
  1     1,2    Det     ERRCPY   5/28K   SR            4.7    0/6 BASIC
  2     1,4    KB0     SYSTAT   8/28K   RN Lck        0.0   -8/6 BASIC

Then I took a look at V06C TTDVR.MAC and that is where it got 
interesting. There are references to CONTROL/T support but it is not 
calling the mini SYSTAT routine:

TI$CRR::                        ;;HANDLE CONTROL/R (RETYPE)
TI$CTT::                        ;;HANDLE CONTROL/T (SYSTAT)

.IF     NE      EKOCTL

         BITB    #TTECTL,TTMODE(R1) ;;ECHO CONTROL MODE?
         BNE     TTNORM          ;;YES, MAKE A NORMAL CHARACTER

.ENDC   ;EKOCTL

         CALL    TTISGL          ;;CHECK FOR SPECIAL MODE(S)
         BNE     TTNORM          ;;MAKE NORMAL CHARACTER IF ANY
         BIT     #TTFUNC,TTCHAR(R1) ;;ALLOWING SPECIAL FUNCTION CHARACTER
S?
         BNE     TTNORM          ;;NOPE, MAKE A NORMAL CHARACTER
         CMP     R2,#'R-100      ;;IS IT CONTROL/R?
         BNE     40$             ;;NOPE, IT IS CONTROL/T
         CALL    ASCOUE,R5,TTICRC ;;ANNOUNCE WITH "^R"<CR><LF>
         MOV     R5,-(SP)        ;;SAVE R5
         MOV     TTINPT+EP(R1),R5 ;;GET THE CURRENT EMPTY POINTER
         BIT     #TT2741!TAPE!NOECHO,DDFLAG(R1) ;;SHOULD WE DO THIS?
         BEQ     30$             ;;YES
10$:    MOV     (SP)+,R5        ;;RESTORE R5
         RETURN                  ;;EXIT

20$:    MOV     -40(R5),R5      ;;GET NEXT BUFFER IN CHAIN
30$:    CMP     R5,TTINPT+FP(R1) ;;MORE CHARACTERS?
         BEQ     10$             ;;NO, DONE
         BIT     R5,#40-1        ;;YES, MORE ROOM IN THIS BUFFER?
         BEQ     20$             ;;OUT OF ROOM, GO TO NEXT BUFFER
         MOVB    (R5)+,R2        ;;ROOM, GET THE CHARACTER
         BIC     #^C<177>,R2     ;;TRIM OFF ANY JUNK
         CALL    CHOUTO          ;; AND OUTPUT IT
         BR      30$             ;;  THEN LOOP

40$:    JMP     TTSYST          ;;GO DO THE MINI SYSTAT

         TMPORG  TTSYST

TTSYST: JMP     TTNORM          ;;MAKE IT A NORMAL CHARACTER

The TTSYST label simply reverts control-T to a normal character without 
calling the mini SYSTAT routine (wherever it is located). Checking the 
V7.0 TTDVR.MAC code I see there is support to call the routine:

40$:    CALL    MAPPED,R5,TTSYST ;;GO TRY FOR A MINI SYSTEM (USING PAR6 
CODE)
         BCS     TTNORM          ;;NOT LEGAL NOW, MAKE A NORMAL CHARACTER
         RETURN                  ;;DONE, JUST RETURN

         TMPORG  TTSYST
TTSYST: SEC                     ;;SAY MINI SYSTAT NOT LEGAL (UNLESS 
OVERLAID)
         RETURN                  ;; AND EXIT
         UNORG

I did my own V06C SYSGEN and there is no option to build it in like 
there is in a V7.0 SYSGEN. I can only imagine the site we were using, 
Nassau County New York's BOCES system that was shared by schools all 
over the county, had some additional, possibly experimental, patches 
that were not part of the base V06C-03. As I noted earlier, our 
control-T functionality was controlled by the SET CTRL/R command and if 
control-R was turned off in TTYSET, so was control-T. Also we 
non-privileged users could see our job priority which was a feature that 
was removed for non-privileged users in V7.0.

Oh well, it has been an interesting few hours reminiscing with that old 
V06C system. The stuff I still recall is amusing. My last on-the-job 
work with RSTS/E was at a shop that had a V8.0 system on an 11/34 and a 
V9.0 system on an 11/73 back in the fall of 1985. We developers 
preferred working on the V9.0 system as it was faster and more "VMS" 
like. V8.0 was a very odd duck IMHO.

Robert