28 Apr
2020
28 Apr
'20
9:29 a.m.
On Mon, 27 Apr 2020 10:58:59 -0400
Chris Zach via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
NL7776 /SETUP -2
TAD (-7776) /COMPARE TO EXPECTED VALUE
SZA CLA /SKIP IF OK
JMP IMA8S /JUMP IF RETARDED BROTHER
/ IF WE GET HERE, WE'RE NOT A PDP-8/S.
Ok, that made me laugh.....
Charles and I have many emails over the years going back and forth regarding
OS/8 vs. P?S/8.
He was one of those folks that when you sent him a five line email, you would
often get a five page response. Charles was definitely opinionated - but often
proven to be right.
Both Charles and Merrill (author of FOCAL) teased me when I got my PDP-8/S
running. It was definitely SLOW (8/S where S=Slow). Merrill told me that DEC
management was furious when FOCAL displayed which kind of 8 it was running on.
Management wanted folks to think all 8's were totally compatible.
Charles designed P?S/8 to run in a 4K PDP-8 - making it feasible to run on a
basic 8/S (OS/8 requires a minimum of 8K). I hope it gets "released" someday :)
I'll miss Charles and his passion for P?S/8.
Lyle
--
On 4/27/2020 10:40 AM, Pontus Pihlgren via cctalk
wrote:
> On Mon, Apr 27, 2020 at 09:08:24AM -0500, John H. Reinhardt via cctalk
> wrote:
>> Charles Lasner.? He passed the weekend of April 3rd due to
>> complications from the COVID-19 virus.? I'm fuzzy on his exact
>> biography, but he was big in the development of OS/8 for the PDP-8 at
>> DEC.? His current project was an update of OS/8 which he called
>> P?S/8.? Apparently he owned multiple LINC-8's according to comments on
>> the Facebook group.
>
> He also worked onKermit-12, for instance the code that identifies which
> PDP-8 machine it is running on. It is quite fun to follow that code. It
> can, impressively, separate between a PDP-5, LINC-8, PDP-12, Straight-8,
> 8/S, 8/I, 8/L, 8/E, 8/A, 6100 and 6120.
>
> Here, search for "MACHINE,.-."
> http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/ftp/d/k12mit.pal
>
> A lot of PDP-8 know-how and trivia went with him, sorry to see him go.
>
> /P
>
--
73 NM6Y
Bickley Consulting West Inc.
https://bickleywest.com
"Black holes are where God is dividing by zero"