At 02:48 PM 1/2/98 -0600, you wrote:
>get all those pretty colors... (Thank goodness *somebody*'s coloring all
>those boring old black and white movies! 8^)
They used to do that with older games that were originally in 4-color CGA,
going back and redoing them in VGA 256 color. Just a few though. Space Quest
springs to mind...
- John Higginbotham
- limbo.netpath.net
pvhp(a)forte.com (Peter Prymmer) wrote:
> I am brimming with curiosity about the MPE OS: What is it like?
ObAdvocacy: <BIFF> K00L3R THAN L1NUX!!!! </BIFF>
It's stable like a rock, and doesn't need a lot of maintenance. You
want a system that can stay up for a year? Choose MPE.
> Having tried to glean some info from the HP web site I can only
> surmise that the target market is mid to large businesses and
> might be comparable to IBM AS/400 or Mainframe type computing
> environments. Am I right?
Yep, pretty much. Historically, 3000s have been aimed at
transaction-processing environments. There have been efforts to push
3000s into office automation roles but they really didn't stick, both
because PCs got cheap and because 3000s (particularly the classics)
really didn't do interactive character terminal I/O very well.
> If that is the case I am curious: does MPE run with ASCII or EBCDIC
> character sets?
ASCII. But there's some presumption (in many applications, including
some of the configuration tools) that you will be using an HP terminal
that supports block mode, which (approximately) lets the application
use the terminal's memory as a buffer for a form, so that the user
can do his editing in the terminal then transmit the completed form
to the 3000 in a fast block transfer.
> Does MPE support a UNIX like environment - even as an option?
If you're running MPE/iX, yes. :RUN SH.HPBIN.SYS and you will get a $
prompt.
> What is the shell like?
The MPE command interpreter...well, I can't speak for the MPE/iX CI.
I haven't used it enough.
The classic MPE CI is not really like a Unix shell -- there are a
bunch of internal commands that look like they do their own filename
globbing depending on whether they handle filesets or not, there
aren't really pipes (instead there are "message files" which are
sort of record-structured FIFOs with disc-file backing store).
> What is the C compiler like?
For MPE/iX, it's available and seems to be a somewhat modern C compiler
for PA-RISC 1.0. GCC has also been ported to MPE/iX.
At Wollongong, we used a third-party C compiler that sometimes made me
wish SPL supported structure/record declarations. It was a slow compiler,
and it had a really conservative approach to addressing modes...though
I managed to find ways around some of its conservatism.
> Editors?
Well, you get EDIT/3000, which is a line-oriented editor that is
suitable for use on all manner of terminals, even the printing ones.
I believe someone ported MicroEMACS to MPE/iX a while back, and you
definitely get vi with it. There are also several third-party
editors, some in the Interex contributed software library (e.g. QUAD,
which includes a pseudo-screen editing mode) and some commercial
(e.g. Robelle's QEDIT, which lots of 3000 folks swear by).
> How long has it been on the market?
25 years.
-Frank McConnell
At 07:13 PM 1/2/98, you wrote:
> Did you see the ad on there for the KayPro 4 on there for $10,000 !
>Honest! I'm not making this up! Gee, my Altair must be worth millions!
>I wish!
Some yahoo on www.haggle.com had an Apple Lisa listed for $15,000.00. People
collect these old machines, but not for the money, for the nostalgia mostly.
At least that's how it is in my case, although I do use some of my machines
on a daily basis. (Mostly for playing my collection of ancient games that
just seem to run like greased electrons on my Cyrix 200 system. :)
- John Higginbotham
- limbo.netpath.net
classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu, fmc(a)reanimators.org
Subj: Re: Frank Knows his stuff was Re: What is this HP 9000/220?
Frank McConnell wrote:
>I've been doing stuff with HPs for over 20 years now (mostly with
>3000s and HP PCs), and some of it stuck. But I've never worked with
>Series 200s so don't know that much about them, just what I've picked
>up here and there. And I still think I have a lot to learn.
>
>Why do I know about Series 500s? In 1989 I took a job at a little
>company called The Wollongong Group, supporting a product for the HP
>3000 called WIN/TCP for MPE/V. Little did I know, they also had a
>product for the HP 9000 Series 500s called, straightforwardly enough,
>WIN/TCP for HP 9000 Series 500. They expected me to support that too
>-- after all it's all HP stuff, it's all weird/how different can it
>be? (yep, that's how they thought) -- so I did.
<snip>
>-Frank McConnell "I want my MPE" (w/apologies to Dire Straits)
> <fmc(a)reanimators.org>
I am brimming with curiosity about the MPE OS: What is it like?
Having tried to glean some info from the HP web site I can only
surmise that the target market is mid to large businesses and
might be comparable to IBM AS/400 or Mainframe type computing
environments. Am I right? If that is the case I am curious: does
MPE run with ASCII or EBCDIC character sets? Does MPE support a
UNIX like environment - even as an option? What is the shell like?
What is the C compiler like? Editors? In short - what is MPE like?
How long has it been on the market?
Sorry, but I have never personally known anyone/anyplace that runs
MPE, until I came across a UC campus with a web site that several
MPE freeware packages available. However, from that (as well as
any possible newsgroups) it is difficult to determine what the OS
is like for the user/admin/programmer and I would appreciate some
info.
Thanks very much to anyone who can respond.
Peter Prymmer
> I mentioned a while ago that I saw a copy of Apple II visicalc. Well, I
> finally got it. It has all the stuff, and is a 1981 copy. I was wondering
if
> there was a PC version or port for DOS?
Sure was. -- I've got one (no manuals, tho'). I messed with it a
little...works sorta like early Lotus.
IIRC, there was one for the PCjr, too.
manney(a)nwohio.com
In a message dated 98-01-02 17:36:09 EST, you write:
<< Why do I know about Series 500s? In 1989 I took a job at a little
company called The Wollongong Group, supporting a product for the HP
3000 called WIN/TCP for MPE/V. Little did I know, they also had a
product for the HP 9000 Series 500s called, straightforwardly enough,
WIN/TCP for HP 9000 Series 500. They expected me to support that too
-- after all it's all HP stuff, it's all weird/how different can it
be? (yep, that's how they thought) -- so I did.
>>
Oh cool. from 89-92, I managed 2 500's, a 540 and a 560. I don't remember
the exact differences between the two. but, they were great. we had the
wollongong software on them.
my favorite was the 400 Mb had disk that looked and sounded like a dishwasher.
Kelly
At 03:32 PM 1/2/98 -0800, you wrote:
>Here is one that I got today from someone offering "Rare Apple Computers
and Hardware". Seems that the prices are about as far disconnected from
reality as his web page. It's there, but has no content other than a splash
screen.
>Apple Macintosh 512K - 200.00
I feel so stupid... I sold a Mac 512ke for $40 about 3 months ago. Man, I
better go update my prices... I'm sitting on a fortune!!!!
- John Higginbotham
- limbo.netpath.net
Two quick questions:
1. What is a disk substitution for a DEC RX-50 diskette?
2. How can you get a DECmate terminal working as a regular "dumb"
terminal in stead of a word processor?
TIA!
Rich Cini/WUGNET
<nospam_rcini(a)msn.com> (remove nospam_ to use)
ClubWin! Charter Member (6)
MCP Windows 95/Windows Networking
============================================
In a message dated 98-01-02 20:03:36 EST, you write:
<<
> Right. And if you ran MS Works 2.0 for DOS on an XT, which was
unfortunately
> what had to be done for a while with me, it would show characters maybe a
> second after they are type, especially on a Leading Edge Model D, which
was
> first priority to replace among the 8 XTs that were slowly being phased
out.
I've used MSW on XT's (even a PC), and I don't remember its being all that
slow. What were you doing? Editing War & Peace?
> MS-DOS edit or Windows Write works very much faster. (Don't get me wrong
here,
> I love the Leading Edge Model D, it's just so damn slow)
I think they're pretty quick (faster than the IBM XT, anyway!)
>>
Actually, It took a few minutes for works even to start up! We were editing
one-page documents. The Leading Edge Model D I have had two experiences with.
In one case it was ENIAC-speed (clock? oh, yeah, it's 3:30!) and the other it
was 286-speed.