[Simh] RSTS/E Reminiscing

[John H. Reinhardt]

On 2/7/2018 1:42 PM, Johnny Billquist wrote:
> On 2018-02-07 18:01, John H. Reinhardt wrote:
>> With all the recent discussion of BASIC games and such, I have been reminiscing about my first days introduced to RSTS/E and the PDP-11 at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology's Camp Retupmoc in summer 1977.  At the time they were running V6B on their PDP-11/70.  I've searched for some time for various versions of RSTS/E and I've found a few distributions.
> 
> The joy of reliving yesteryear... ;-)
> 
>> I have a real PDP-11 chassis and cards which I am slowly working toward refurbishing.  But they are newer MicroPDP-11 types and would not run anything older than V8 or V9.  I've found a copy of V6C which is pretty close but I'm wondering if anyone has V6B on TAP format. Hopefully the SYSGEN tape or a running system that can be re-configured.  I would run it on a SIM-11 emulation.
> 
> I would have expected V7 something to be the ultimate if you wanted "old" style RSTS/E. V8 might also fit the bill. V9 definitely have a different taste, though...
> 
>> I know mention has been made of source listing/tapes.  I don't know the legality but if it's possible to get source for a V6 or even V7 I'd love to have it to look at to see how things were done.
> 
> While I really can't help with finding any distributions, I can at least comment on the legality question, even if you won't like the answer. RSTS/E is still owned by someone (XX2247 LLC) and is not available as things stand today.
> It's a long story...
> 
>    Johnny
> 

Hi Johnny,

We actually ran V7.x for the majority part of the time I was at Rose-Hulman (1978-1983) but V6B was my first exposure to RSTS/E and in fact to just about any "large" computing system.  At the time in 1977 when I went to the camp I had been working on building a Digital Group Z-80 from kits but hadn't finished.  It might be that V7 was the epitome classic RSTS/E before DCL, etc but your first is something special.

I have been following all the news about the disappearance of Mentec, the shadowy existance of XX2247, LLC and all.  I was hoping there was news that I'd missed. But I see not.


-- 
John H. Reinhardt