Dilog DQ132 question

[Dave McGuire]

On Apr 3, 2008, at 2:11 PM, Brad Parker wrote:
>>   No way.  RSTS/E is, by far, my favorite PDP-11 OS...but only v9+.
>> I'm definitely not a fan of the pre-v9 RSTS/E releases.  Most of my
>> early computer knowledge was gained on a v9.4 system.
>
> Interesting.   Could you expound on that a bit?
>
> I'm pretty ignorant about v9+.  I first touched RSTS very early on  
> - I'm
> pretty sure I saw version 2A running (sneaking into the computer  
> lab at
> Carleton).  Later I actually got paid to use it around V6/V7 but after
> that I moved on to other machines.
>
> (Always likes rsts, however.  something cool about basic+ and then  
> being
> able to run rt11 also)
>
> What would I notice/like/want running V9+ over running V7?  I'd enjoy
> hearing from someone who's used it a lot.

   Well, I had been exposed to VMS, so I knew a bit of DCL.  Since  
RSTS/E includes DCL as a runtime system from V9 onwards, I was  
instantly comfortable with it.  It's a pretty limited DCL compared to  
that of VMS, but it's close enough for someone to sit down and start  
working right away.

   The notion of logging in and being dumped into a BASIC interpreter  
didn't excite me at all, as I had an Atari 800 that did that just  
fine.  Granted BASIC-Plus is a damn nice dialect of BASIC, it still  
wasn't enough to justify (to me) running two-and-a-half racks of  
equipment over the Atari 800.  The first OS I ran on my first PDP-11  
was RSX-11M v4.2, and I liked it a lot, but once I found RSTS/E  
(v9.4), I felt like I was right at home with DCL.  I had written some  
little programs under RSX and they moved right over (a BBS program  
comes to mind) so I was able to keep hacking on my longer-term  
projects after converting.

   Doing a SYSGEN under RSX-11M at age 16 with just a doc kit and no  
help was...fun. :)

           -Dave

-- 
Dave McGuire
Port Charlotte, FL