RSTS & PDP-11/34a

Hello, all, I've been working for about the past three weeks on getting the PDP 11/34a up and running under RSTS/E. As a recap, the machine has 2 RX02 floppy drives, 1 RL01 drive, and 2 RK05j drives, 256Kb of parity RAM, programmer's panel, DZ11 8-port serial mux, console serial w/line clock, and EAE. There were lots of fits and starts on getting all of the peripherals working. Most of the problems were due to my ignorance of the characteristics of the UNIBUS. After getting some tutorials from a number of folks on and off the list, I learned the magic of grant continuity and NPG jumpers. In conjunction with lots of time with simh, and the wonderful program vtserver, I now have RSTS/E V7 running successfully on the machine. Right now it's only got a single terminal, as I have to remove an NPG jumper to install the DZ11, but the system is SYSGENed to recognize the DZ11 when it is installed. Learning the ins and out of SYSGEN was quite an experience, but in retrospect, it's an amazingly robust and (once the concepts are understood) relatively straightforward process. As many indicated would occur, it's a little slow, but very usable. The main reason for the slowness is that I have to add extra swap on the RK05's, which aren't the fastest drives in the world. The rack really shakes when running a big program as the RK05's thrash. Unfortunately, I don't have any RSTS documentation other than the HELP system, and a few tidbits that I've found on the web. Someone needs to scan at least the BASIC PLUS manual and put it up on the Web for reference. A few questions for the knowledgable out there: 1) Are RX floppy devices not file-structured devices under RSTS? I've tried using the standalone utility DSKINIT program to format one, and it won't regognize DX0:. The DX0: device shows up in the HARDWARE list. I can write a BASIC-PLUS program that opens DX0: and can write data out to it, but it just acts like one 'file', not a file-structured device. Is there any way to make the floppy drives under RSTS 7 file-structured devices? 2) I see references to BASIC-PLUS-2? What are the differences between BASIC-PLUS and BASIC-PLUS-2? I don't have any bits for BASIC-PLUS-2, but am curious about it. 3) Does anyone know if there was a FOCAL run-time system ever built for RSTS/E? 4) Can I take RT-11 (V4 or V5.3) .SAV programs and use them under the RT-11 runtime system under RSTS/E? an MACRO be used to assemble/link programs written for RT-11 to run in the RT11 runtime systme under RSTS/E? I suspect not, but am not sure. 5) Is there a version of KERMIT for RSTS/E V7? Anyone know where I can get it? 6) My 11/34a doesn't have the floating point hardware option. I had to SYSGEN RSTS with software-based 16-bit floating point. This certainly slows things down. However, I've heard that the FP11 significantly slows with the overall operation of the 11/34a. Would it be worthwhile for me to find and install an FP11, or not? 7) I have a 16-port backpanel for the DZ11. It takes two ribbon cables, one cable for each of two DZ11's that can connect up to it. I've got the right ribbon cable for connecting the one DZ11 that I have up to the backpanel to get 8 RS-232 ports. Anyone know the pinout for the DB-25 EIA connectors on the backpanel? I can probably figure it out with a breakout box, but it someone has it, all the easier. I'm hoping to hook the 8 ports up to a Xylogics Annex terminal server, and be able to TELNET to it. That way I can play with the machine (which is out in the shop) from my office in the house. This has been a great adventure, and a lot of fun. Thanks to the CC'ers who've helped me out along the way! Best to all, Rick Bensene http://oldcalculatormuseum.com