[Simh] RSTS/E Reminiscing

[Johnny Billquist]

Hi.

On 2018-02-07 21:26, John H. Reinhardt wrote:
> 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.

Understood. I did suspect it might be something like that. I remember 
running V7 and V8 back in the day as well. But personally, I would 
probably always install the latest and greatest version, even if my 
nostalgic memories are of V7.1.
But we all have different kinks. :-)

> 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.

Yeah, unfortunately no news at this time. But don't give up hope...

   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