Users of KED / KEX on the PDP-11

Jerome H. Fine wrote:

I would appreciate suggestions along with any information in regard to the uses of KED / KEX This note is addressed to those users who still make modifications to text files via KED / KEX. The number of such users may be so small (zero) that there is no interest in my five aspects of the proposed set of specifications at the very end of this post. Any and all comments will be appreciated. However, Johnny Billquist recently mentioned that the VT420 supports up to 48 vertical lines. This has provided the incentive along with the justification to support at least that many vertical lines under KED / KEX. After all, if an ALL DEC hardware system is being used, then even though a VT420 with 48 lines is not a supported hardware feature, often such new hardware does work. Normally, when I use a PDP-11 environment, I run the Ersatz-11 emulator. My video card, monitor, the rest of the hardware and the operating system (so far Windows 98SE and Windows XP) can support a full screen mode with the DOS version with either 50 vertical lines by 80 columns or 44 vertical lines by 132 columns. When the Win32 version is used, it is possible to initiate as: E11 /CONSIZE:80x60 to have a screen of either 60 vertical lines by 80 columns or 60 vertical lines by 132 columns. For both the DOS and the Win32 version, using the wide screen command (under KED / KEX): SET SCREEN 132 changes the number of columns to 132 text characters with the DOS version of E11 then reverting to 44 vertical lines (full screen mode must be used for 132 columns) while the Win32 version of E11 retains the same number of vertical lines (allowing up to 60 vertical lines - fewer vertical lines are allowed and the default is 24 vertical lines). While there might be valid reasons for using either the DOS version or the Win32 versions of Ersatz-11 with more than 24 vertical lines, but less then 44 vertical lines, I really do not see much point in doing so. Increasing the number of vertical lines by less than 20 lines does not seem like much of an advantage. If subsequent testing shows that other options of vertical line number between 24 lines and 44 lines can run correctly, then that will be considered a bonus. Unless there is a specific request for a specific option of lines by columns that is not listed below, no additions will be made to that list. NOTE that not all hardware / software combinations of a PC support 132 character text lines under the DOS version of E11. I searched for quite some time to find a video controller / monitor / cable connection to run under Windows XP which would support 132 character text lines. As far as I know, all Win32 versions of E11 support 132 character text lines. Depending on the screen setting for the monitor (i.e. the number of pixels), 24 lines can always be supported and around 48 lines can be supported with using screens of 1280 by 1024 pixels. If 60 lines are to be supported, a larger pixel count is required. A screen of 1800 by 1440 pixels has been found to easily support 60 lines under the Win32 version of Erstaz-11. But, before I freeze the specs for the changes to KED / KEX, some feedback from other users would be helpful. Just how many vertical lines would be useful? Is a somewhat compressed character set (only when using the DOS full screen version) a sufficient deterrent to having 50 vertical lines as opposed to 24 vertical lines? Of course, Ersatz-11 would need to be checked out to determine if 60 vertical lines are supported when KED / KEX are used. And, of course, there is always the possibility that technical considerations might prohibit support of 60 vertical lines when KED / KEX are used. And finally, is it essential that the version of KED / KEX which supports 60 vertical lines also support terminals with only 24 vertical lines? Or is it reasonable that the user know the physical characteristics of the terminal such as when a VT52 is used with K52.SAV and a VT100 is used with KED.SAV? Obviously, the current versions of KED / KEX will not support 60 vertical lines or I would not be writing this note. But, it might be very difficult to have KED / KEX support both 24 vertical lines and 60 vertical lines with the same code. In addition, a buffer must be present within KED / KEX which is large enough to hold all of the characters being displayed on the screen. When the maximum number of characters is 3168 characters (=24*132), that buffer is reasonable to accommodate. If the maximum number of characters is 7920 (=60*132), there may be insufficient room left for other requirements. The solution might be to locate the screen buffer elsewhere since, in particular, with the KEX version, there are some memory address locations which are not being used. One more point. Most of the time, I run 4 system jobs under RT-11 using KEX. The low memory required for each job is 801 words. This seems like substantially more than should be required. If the required number of words could be reduced by 352 words to just 449 words, would that be helpful? In summary, here are the specs thus far: (a) Enhance KED / KEX to support at least 50 vertical lines and up to 60 vertical lines if possible (b) If possible, the same versions of KED / KEX should support any number of vertical lines up to 60 vertical lines (c) If possible, the modified versions of KED / KEX should have as few differences as possible from the versions of KED / KED which support only 24 vertical lines (d) Support for different vertical lines will specifically include: - the standard DEC VT100 screens of: o 24 lines by 80 columns o 24 lines by 132 columns o 14 lines by 132 columns (no avo option) - the video cards on a PC running a PDP-11 under the DOS version of Ersatz-11 which supports these full screen options: o 24 lines of 80 columns o 24 lines of 132 columns o 50 lines of 80 columns o 44 lines by 132 columns - the normal windows support on a PC running a PDP-11 under the Win32 version of Ersatz-11 (tested on Windows 98SE and XP): o 24 lines by 80 columns o 24 lines by 132 columns o from 44 to 60 lines by 80 columns o from 44 to 60 lines by 132 columns - additional screen configurations if suggested - however, only two column sizes, 80 and 132 columns, will be supported (e) Reduce the low memory words required from 801 to 449 words for system jobs under a mapped RT-11 monitor as in: SRUN KEX.REL/LEVEL:n/TERMINAL:n/NAME:Kn (n = 1 to 6) Suggestions and any other information would be very much appreciated. Jerome Fine