Hi All!

Maybe interesting to some? http://hackaday.com/2017/04/26/a-modern-day-pdp-11-front-end/

CU, Ricsi

--- GoldED+/LNX
* Origin: You don't understand something so you become fearful. (80:774/18)

Hello Richard,

Maybe interesting to some?

... once I know it's not Altair... count me in.

I would wish I could be able to get to the hardware layer.

But I'm afraid without having prior knowledge and skills that wouldn't
be the case for me.

Would You be able to build / restore such a thing?

There is so much to be preserved. My ream is to visit the computer museum.

There is one in U.S. I thing. I had several hits on it while browsed the
world wide web.

But back to topic... I was a bit surprised regarding the current mainframe MVS/380 emulation regarding it's low🐭-levelity.

I somehow has had connected huge boxed mainframe to lot of ram and latest development approaches.

But after some examination I realized I'm emulating (correct me if I'm wrong) system with tens of MB RAM that uses Cobol as main language.

I'm glad about it. I'm amazed with such a powerful and efficient system.

And scalable at the one of main advantage.

I'm now trying to comprehend the power of such a machine�.

And I do also try to somehow figure... where such a michines could have been used.

I think one such a use is the NYC subway. But I doubt it runs on OS/360.

But I think I get the point where such a power could be used.

The PDP emulator is my next step. But there is one thing I'm really afraid of. It's assembler. And I think there is no such retro-computing without asm.

The question is... whether it hasn't be used enough in the C compiler for MVS/360.

There is something like 1000 lines of man-written asm code (that generates
the rest 100000.

When I'll try to code C Hello World ... if even ever ... I think I'll be
ready to move to PDP. I dare to ask... do You have any more experience with
it? Could I kindly ask You for any starting point?

I've no prejudice there would be anything so easy as the Turnkey is.

The topic is just very much interesting indeed. I like to open new pages of
the computer history book.

Best regards

Miken

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A31 (Linux)
* Origin: Infolinka BBS (80:505/2)

Hi Miken!

28 Apr 2017 02:31, from Miken -> Richard Menedetter:

Maybe interesting to some?

... once I know it's not Altair... count me in.

You know that you can boot CP/M on the Altair and use a serial console to interact with it, and high level languages to program it?

I dare to ask... do You have any more experience with it?
Could I kindly ask You for any starting point?

Sorry ... I am not very familiar with the DEC PDP series ...

I played around with the Kim UNO, as the MOS 6502 based C128 was my first computer.
I found it really interesting to dive into the details of the computer.
And it was cool how well the hex keyboard and 6 7-segment display work to control the minimal computer.

CU, Ricsi

--- GoldED+/LNX
* Origin: Health: the slowest possible rate of dying. (80:774/18)

Hello Richard,

You know that you can boot CP/M on the Altair and use a serial console to interact with it, and high level languages to program it?

I guess... that's just my prejudice with the Altair. It could have been quite an interesting machine. Somehow what I knew about it... was the simple fact
it does not have a keyboard. And that's where my bias started. I will give a bit more unbiased visit to the machine in the future.

I found it really interesting to dive into the details of the computer. And it was cool how well the hex keyboard and 6 7-segment display work to control the minimal computer.

... Even the Hex keyboard itself feels very interesting... respect to the sleeping branches of computers evolution. I guess it doesn't really mean the branches were unusable or somehow else bad. Just we're in branches that I
guess had more marketing etc. Just because there was more software for given system and it spread to more people is in my hones opinion enough to keep it alive.

Somehow I wonder whether I could ever comprehend the punch cards. Someone
once explained to me the whole process. And the possibility of errors and
need to rewrite the whole program in one mistake... But what interest me most in connection to current systems... was the resources sharing thing. I
somehow feel that current BBSes have something from it. Just one of it is
like Mainframe decades ago (in the terms of computing resources). I mean... I really like the Universities approach when You have one supercomputer divided between several different scientists and they have to agree on when it's
their part in the machine time.

Without doubt it makes them better people... at least.

Best regards

Miken

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A31 (Linux)
* Origin: Infolinka BBS (80:505/2)

Hi Miken!

01 May 2017 05:35, from Miken -> Richard Menedetter:

You know that you can boot CP/M on the Altair and use a serial
console to interact with it, and high level languages to program
it?

I guess... that's just my prejudice with the Altair. It could have
been quite an interesting machine. Somehow what I knew about it... was
the simple fact it does not have a keyboard. And that's where my bias started. I will give a bit more unbiased visit to the machine in the future.

I have not informed myself in detail about the Altair and the PDP.

I have a Kim Uno here, and found Oscars Manual VERY detailed and interesting: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_jM3_1AFMbMQkhnUWJfUVVGNTg/view

He also has a manual on PDP and the emulator he uses: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_jM3_1AFMbMdnBhOHQ5blBvTTQ/view

CU, Ricsi

--- GoldED+/LNX
* Origin: GENERAL EXCUSE: It seemed like a good idea at the time (80:774/18)