- cctalk - classiccmp.org

by Jacob Ritorto

Hi, I like period correct hardware terminals for authentic immersion feels and have been tending to RSX (and UNIX) PDP-11s since my teen years, quite a long time now. I keep them in my living room and den, etc. Convincing setups that quite look the part. And actually *are* the part; running much as though it’s still 1986. Very little emulation “cheating.” Real SMD disks, even, sometimes. Anyway, one of the many fun things I do with them is chat rooms. People are like, “you connected here on a WHAT?” In doing this I find myself often chastised by my esteemed Internet colleagues for using such “horrible” computers because “That’s the worst possible computer you could pick” (real quote, minus some aspersions about power consumption) and “what loser can’t scroll up and look through chat that’s more than 24 lines back?!?” I try to ignore all this in the name of “progress,” but, I mean, they have a point. As much as I’m having a nice time with all this, it does hurt quite enough already for all the other obvious reasons and then I CAN’T SCROLL BACK?!? Come on. When you think about it retrospectively, this _is_ actually kind of bad, right? So What? Quit the real terminal and computer and use a modern laptop? Hell no. It strikes me that scrollback is a silly thing to condemn such a storied lineage of computers over, but that’s exactly what’s happening in this contemporary vale of tears. My friends think PDP-11s suck because they can’t scroll (and, yes, perhaps some other things). So I say let’s write a scrolling “terminal” program for RSX. Should work with serial and telnet (BQT stuff) and DECnet (i.e. $SET HOST XXXXXX). Actually maybe it doesn’t even have to know about that layer, right? (Thinking as I write this). Spawn whatever command and it buffers the output such that you can effortlessly scroll back up through stuff that has scrolled past. Something terribly rudimentary, perhaps, but with at least infinite scrollback. Like just a dumb scroll back buffer wrapper thing. Writes to / reads from disk as you accrue characters / cursor up. Heck, this would have been a boon in the day for normal use, right? Like having a glass tty and a real paper printing terminal all in one! I can scarcely believe it doesn’t already exist. Would you folks be into helping with it? If not, I’ll try myself. Did a bit of this sort of work some decades ago writing a disk imager under RSX in MACRO-11 using QIO$ calls, looked up fresh from the orange binders sitting there on the couch. Pretty easy. Should we take from screen or tmux? Or do a clean room concept, you think? I hope it can work under RSX and UNIX. RSTS/e, too, anyone? RT? If you have opinions about this or if it already exists, let me know, pls. thx jake

4 months, 1 week

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Passing of Robert Tinney

by Murray McCullough

I read a day or so ago that Robert Tinney passed on. I enjoyed his cover-page art on Byte as I’m sure so many more did too. He illustrated in a more-than-impressive way & detail what early microcomputing was. May the computer gods bless him. Murray--

4 months, 1 week

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CMS Pipelines for UNIX

by Lyndon Nerenberg (VE7TFX/VE6BBM)

Okay, third attempt at this, this time with the appropriate Subject header. --lyndon ------- Forwarded Message From: Adam Thornton <athornton(a)gmail.com> Date: Thu, 5 Dec 2024 09:55:30 -0700 Message-ID: <CAP2nic0E=0dLT2JaDJv0OCBQUBaqKd6+2hy30hpKjowPVc76BA(a)mail.gmail.com> To: The Eunuchs Hysterical Society <tuhs(a)tuhs.org> Subject: [TUHS] Re: Pipes (was Re: After 50 years, what has the Impact of Unix been?) List-Id: The Unix Heritage Society mailing list <tuhs.tuhs.org> On Thu, Dec 5, 2024 at 8:20=E2=80=AFAM Dan Cross <crossd(a)gmail.com> wrote: > > Unix pipelines, on the other hand, tend to be used in a manner that is > strictly linear, without the fan-out and fan-in capabilities described > by Morrison. Of course, nothing prevents one from building a > Morrison-style "network" from Unix processes and pipes, though it's > hard to see how that would work without something like `select`, which > didn't yet exist in 1978. Regardless, Unix still doesn't expose a > particularly convenient syntax for expressing these sorts of > constructions at the shell. > > Rick Troth has recently published xfl, which is pretty much CMS Pipelines for Unix. https://github.com/trothtech/xfl He's got a slide deck on it at http://www.casita.net/pub/xfl/pervasive-vmws-2024.pdf . There are a lot of really cool things you can do with fanin/fanout. Adam

4 months, 2 weeks

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Inquiry regarding Noel Chiappa / Status of Computer History Wiki (Gunkies.org)

by Hans-Ulrich Hölscher

Dear list members, I am writing to this list as I am concerned about J. Noel Chiappa. I have noticed that the Computer History Wiki has been locked for maintenance ("Spam issue") for some time now. As Noel is the primary administrator and heart of the site, this persistent lock, combined with the fact that he hasn't responded to my recent emails, makes me worry about his well-being - especially knowing that he has been facing health challenges. Does anyone on this list have recent information on how he is doing or if there is any update regarding the status of the wiki? I am not looking for private details, but simply a sign that he is okay or if there is anything the community is currently doing to support his projects. You can of course send me a PM if you like. Thank you for any insights you might be able to share. Best regards, Ulli Hölscher aka "VAXorcist"

4 months, 2 weeks

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CMS Pipelines for UNIX

by Lyndon Nerenberg (VE7TFX/VE6BBM)

Some people have passively accused me of making this up :-) Here is the original announcement from the TUHS list. --lyndon

4 months, 2 weeks

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7" 9 Track 1600 BPI Tapes free (local pickup or cost of S&H)

by Ali

I have a bunch of what looks to be 7" 9 Track 1600 BPI tapes based on the labels. I have no use for them, before I trash them is anyone interested in them for the princely sum of S&H/prepaid label or you can pick them up for free in Upland, CA. I will hold on to them until 2-20-26 at which point I will toss them. Thanks. https://forum.vcfed.org/index.php?threads/9-track-1600-bpi-7-tapes-free.1256 372/ -Ali

4 months, 2 weeks

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[TUHS] Re: Pipes (was Re: After 50 years, what has the Impact of Unix been?) (fwd)

by Lyndon Nerenberg (VE7TFX/VE6BBM)

Hmm ... the list manager apparently stripped the MIME attachment. Here it is again inline. --lyndon ------- Forwarded Message From: Adam Thornton <athornton(a)gmail.com> Date: Thu, 5 Dec 2024 09:55:30 -0700 Message-ID: <CAP2nic0E=0dLT2JaDJv0OCBQUBaqKd6+2hy30hpKjowPVc76BA(a)mail.gmail.com> To: The Eunuchs Hysterical Society <tuhs(a)tuhs.org> Subject: [TUHS] Re: Pipes (was Re: After 50 years, what has the Impact of Unix been?) On Thu, Dec 5, 2024 at 8:20=E2=80=AFAM Dan Cross <crossd(a)gmail.com> wrote: > > Unix pipelines, on the other hand, tend to be used in a manner that is > strictly linear, without the fan-out and fan-in capabilities described > by Morrison. Of course, nothing prevents one from building a > Morrison-style "network" from Unix processes and pipes, though it's > hard to see how that would work without something like `select`, which > didn't yet exist in 1978. Regardless, Unix still doesn't expose a > particularly convenient syntax for expressing these sorts of > constructions at the shell. > > Rick Troth has recently published xfl, which is pretty much CMS Pipelines for Unix. https://github.com/trothtech/xfl He's got a slide deck on it at http://www.casita.net/pub/xfl/pervasive-vmws-2024.pdf . There are a lot of really cool things you can do with fanin/fanout. Adam

4 months, 2 weeks

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Robert Tinney the man who created many of the early Byte Covers passed away.

by Christian Liendo

https://tinney.net/in-memoriam Robert Frank Tinney, of Washington, Louisiana, passed away peacefully at River Oaks Nursing & Rehabilitation Center on February 1st, 2026, at the age of 78. Born in 1947 in Penn Yan, New York, Robert moved at a young age with his parents, Ellis and Ruby, and his younger brother, Bill, to Baton Rouge, Louisiana. From Istrouma High School, Robert took with him a diploma, life-long friendships and a focus on artistic expression to Louisiana Tech University to study illustration and graphic design in commercial art. After graduating, and after a tour of service during the Vietnam War, Robert began a career that would see his artwork don the covers and pages of some of the most well-known computing publications in the world, most notably BYTE Magazine. Due to his signature artistic style, the name Robert Tinney soon became synonymous with the rapidly-growing world of computing technology, and remains so to this day. A deeply caring husband and family man, Robert is survived by his devoted wife of 48 years, Susan, three children, nine grandchildren and one great-grandchild. Married in 1978, Robert and Susan lived and worked in Baton Rouge until 1987, when they moved to Washington, Louisiana, where they would restore an historic landmark home, the Crawford House. For over four decades, Robert and Susan served and nurtured their beloved community with open arms, and were rewarded with priceless family memories and an exuberance of rich, cherished friendships. Robert’s philosophical intellect, refreshing humor and profoundly sympathetic nature will be sorely missed by his loving family and a wealth of loyal friends and admirers. A celebration of Robert’s life will be held in May, 2026. For more information, RSVP to illustrations(a)tinney.net.

4 months, 2 weeks

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Glen Ellyn CCC meeting - March 28th

by Mike Katz

The next Glen Ellyn CCC chat and repair meeting will be held on March 28th, 2026. Anytime after 2PM until we all get to tired to solder and talk. We will order Pizza around 5:30pm. As usual Beer and Pop will be provided. 385 Saint Charles Rd Glen Ellyn, IL 60137 +1 (773) 414-1044 (Cell)

4 months, 2 weeks

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PDP-8 software for the DEC MPS (MIcroProcessor System)?

by Robert Armstrong

Short version - I'm looking for copies of the PDP-8 software for the DEC MPS, MIcroProcessor System. Longer form, since it wasn't very well known - DEC made an 8008 (yes, 8008, not 8080) microprocessor based system on a set of three quad sized modules, plus a really nifty looking lights and switches front panel. It's not clear what DEC expected customers to do with it; I guess use it to build an embedded control system for things that were too simple for a PDP-8 or -11. In any case, DEC made a whole software development toolchain for the MPS and 8008 using a PDP-8 as a host computer. There was a cross assembler (aka MPA), a downloader (aka MPL), a specialized text editor (yes, MPE), a debugger (you guessed it - called MPD), a EPROM programmer, and several other miscellaneous tools. They were all distributed on paper tape and I believe they were intended to run on a basic 8/E and Teletype, without mass storage and without OS/8. If anybody has these, I'd love to get copies of the tape images. Thanks, Bob

4 months, 2 weeks

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