On Dec 30, 2022, at 12:00 PM,
cctalk-request(a)classiccmp.org wrote:
Hi all,
My 11/73 restoration has got to the point that I am loading stuff from RT11 backups, and
I have a lot of Saturn-calc and wp data that I would like to see again. My licensed copy
and the manual are long gone!
I downloaded some RX02 images posted by Mark Matlock, but the disks appear to be all
zeroes where I expect the directory to be.
Does anybody know of a source?
cheers,
Nigel
Nigel,
I’ve been trying to find a working distribution for PDP-11 Saturn-Calc and Graph for
some years now. I had a licensed copy many years ago for RSX11M but it no longer works. I
do have a working copy of Saturn-Calc and Graph (but not WP) for VMS on my MV3100-80 but
not the VMS distribution.
I have managed to contact the lead programmer that developed Saturn’s software through
a former president of the company. The programmer believes he has a copy of the source
code for PDP-11 and VAX on a CDROM that is in a storage unit. He has retired overseas and
come back home where the storage unit is a couple times a year and I’m hoping he can find
the CDROM on his next trip back. I can keep you posted on our progress in trying to
recover this software. It helps that the programmer is interested in making the Saturn
products available as it may need to be recompiled or at least relinked to be compatible
with the newest versions of PDP-11 operating systems with Y2K etc.
We thought we had it recovered a couple years ago when nine RX50 floppies were found
in Australia that were from a distributor that could be used to generate new customer
distributions, but there was no documentation and some info was missing. Also, manuals for
the Saturn products have not been scanned so we are looking for them as well.
If you had some specific Saturn Calc spreadsheets that you wanted data extracted
from, I might be able to help you with my working VMS version of Calc. Saturn Calc was a
great product that we used a great deal back in the day. The Saturn Graph product
supported VT340s with the mouse and could generate plots a wide variety of HP and other
plotters, printers, etc.
Best Regards,
Mark