28 Apr
2016
28 Apr
'16
10:22 a.m.
Several years ago, Lyle Bickley began negotiations with S&H Computer Systems
to release TSX-Plus (a 3rd party Multiuser Operating System for PDP-11's) as
free software for personal use. As is often the case, this process can take
a lot longer than one would expect.
Once Lyle obtained an initial agreement from the owner of TSX-Plus, he then
had to await the approval from S&H's Board of Directors. Initially, S&H
chose to only release the source code listings for TSX-Plus (which are now
on Bitsavers.org). Unfortunately, the machine readable source code itself
had been accidentally lost when S&H changed PDP-11 computer systems
in-house.
Eventually, Lyle was able to obtain the original SMD hard drive from S&H
containing the latest versions of TSX-Plus, and the layered products
COBOL-Plus and RTSORT (and other software that remains private to S&H
Computer Systems). He transferred the TSX-Plus, COBOL-Plus, and RTSORT files
to an RL02 disk - and using S&H's proprietary licensing software created a
"personal use, serialized version" of TSX-Plus. This version has ALL the
capabilities and features of the commercially licensed version of TSX-Plus.
Subsequently, Lyle was authorized to release this "Personal Use" TSX-Plus
distribution only to individuals that he could vouch for as being
non-commercial users.
After another year or so, he was able to obtain the current agreement and
license to make this "Personal Use" TSX-Plus distribution generally
available for non-commercial use.
Please note that TSX-Plus is NOT public domain software; S&H retains all
rights including ownership. They have provided a free personal use license
available through Bickley Consulting West. There is still a paid commercial
use license available directly from S&H.
We all owe a big "Thanks!" to Harry Sanders at S&H Computer Systems and his
Board of Directors for making this release a reality for all vintage
computer folks! Also, the hobby owes huge thanks to Lyle Bickley for
tirelessly pursuing this for us all! I've always been a huge fan of TSX-Plus
and I'm thrilled there's now a personal (hobbyist) license thanks to Lyle.
The distribution is at http://tsxplus.classiccmp.org
Best,
J
28 Apr
28 Apr
10:25 a.m.
We all owe a big "Thanks!" to Harry Sanders
at S&H Computer Systems and his
Board of Directors for making this release a reality for all vintage
computer folks! Also, the hobby owes huge thanks to Lyle Bickley for
tirelessly pursuing this for us all! I've always been a huge fan of TSX-Plus
and I'm thrilled there's now a personal (hobbyist) license thanks to Lyle.
Great work Lyle!!
10:51 a.m.
On 28/04/2016 18:25, Evan Koblentz wrote:
Excellent -- One minor point you need RT11 to run it I think.
Rod
We all owe a
big "Thanks!" to Harry Sanders at S&H Computer Systems
and his
Board of Directors for making this release a reality for all vintage
computer folks! Also, the hobby owes huge thanks to Lyle Bickley for
tirelessly pursuing this for us all! I've always been a huge fan of
TSX-Plus
and I'm thrilled there's now a personal (hobbyist) license thanks to
Lyle.
Great work Lyle!! 
10:55 a.m.
On Thu, 28 Apr 2016 18:51:03 +0100
Rod Smallwood <rodsmallwood52 at btinternet.com> wrote:
On 28/04/2016 18:25, Evan Koblentz wrote:
Excellent -- One minor point you need RT11 to run it I
think.
See note #2 in the download page...
Lyle
--
73 AF6WS
Bickley Consulting West Inc.
http://bickleywest.com
"Black holes are where God is dividing by zero"
We all
owe a big "Thanks!" to Harry Sanders at S&H Computer
Systems and his
Board of Directors for making this release a reality for all
vintage computer folks! Also, the hobby owes huge thanks to Lyle
Bickley for tirelessly pursuing this for us all! I've always been
a huge fan of TSX-Plus
and I'm thrilled there's now a personal (hobbyist) license thanks
to Lyle.
Great work Lyle!!
10:57 a.m.
Rod wrote...
-----
Excellent -- One minor point you need RT11 to run it I think.
-----
That is correct, and that is stated in the "Notes" on the distribution web
page before you download it.
For those not familiar with TSX-Plus, from a user standpoint - it's a
multi-user version of RT-11. You start TSX+ running after RT11SJ boots, and
then it basically replaces RT11 in memory but still uses a lot of the RT11
userland binaries for commands and such.
J
11:02 a.m.
On 28/04/2016 18:57, Jay West wrote:
Rod wrote...
-----
Excellent -- One minor point you need RT11 to run it I think.
-----
That is correct, and that is stated in the "Notes" on the distribution web
page before you download it.
For those not familiar with TSX-Plus, from a user standpoint - it's a
multi-user version of RT-11. You start TSX+ running after RT11SJ boots, and
then it basically replaces RT11 in memory but still uses a lot of the RT11
userland binaries for commands and such.
J
So we need a license and distribution of RT11 is that right?
R
8:58 p.m.
Rod Smallwood wrote:
On 28/04/2016
18:25, Evan Koblentz wrote:
We all
owe a big "Thanks!" to Harry Sanders at S&H Computer Systems
and his
Board of Directors for making this release a reality for all vintage
computer folks! Also, the hobby owes huge thanks to Lyle Bickley for
tirelessly pursuing this for us all! I've always been a huge fan of
TSX-Plus
and I'm thrilled there's now a personal (hobbyist) license thanks to
Lyle.
Great work Lyle!!
10:41 p.m.
On 29/04/2016 04:58, Jerome H. Fine wrote:
Excellent -- One minor point you need RT11 to run it I think.
At the present time, RT-11 is used in running TSX-Plus in three ways:
(a) To boot TSX-Plus, either it is usual to initiate TSX.SAV via one
of the
UnMapped RT-11 monitors such as RT11SJ or RT11FB since most,
probably all, Mapped RT-11 monitors are too large.
(b) Certain RT-11 utilities such as DIR.SAV and PIP.SAV are often
used in
addition to other RT-11 programs such as MACRO.SAV to accomplish
goals under TSX-Plus which S&H did not write.
(c) Many of the TSX-Plus device drivers were originally RT-11 device
drivers
modified to conform to TSX-Plus requirements.
It is probably (c) that is actually the reason that RT-11 is needed to
run
TSX-Plus since S&H could have managed to write the boot code in
addition to the RT-11 programs that are used. But as long as an RT-11
license was a pre-requisite to run TSX-Plus, there really was no need to
also write all of the device drivers from scratch as well. For the
actual
situation, as long as RT-11 was already present, the straight forward
solution was the one used.
If my comments are incorrect, it would be appreciated if someone could
provide the actual information.
Jerome Fine I can remember sitting in the training room at digital in Parker Street
(HQ had moved out of the mill by then)
in November 1973 and doing the RT11 course. It was included in my new
hire training (six weeks in the US)
I was a bit distracted as one of girls running the course came in and
sought out non-US hires and gave us a 50 dollar bill each.
I asked what that was about. Cost of living allowance because the US
was considered to be higher.
She did that every day for the rest of the course, except Fridays when
you got 150 dollars.
We had already had a big expense advance before leaving the UK.
When I got back I duly worked out all my US expenses including the
50dollars and presented them to my new boss.
There was a big surplus and I was all ready to return it.
He laughed and said full marks for honesty but we are are a cost center
and cant take money back in.
Keep it. He then endorsed my copy of the expense sheet "return of
excess declined - employee to retain"
Happy days!!
Rod (Panelman) Smallwood
Rod Smallwood
wrote:
On
28/04/2016 18:25, Evan Koblentz wrote:
We all
owe a big "Thanks!" to Harry Sanders at S&H Computer Systems
and his
Board of Directors for making this release a reality for all vintage
computer folks! Also, the hobby owes huge thanks to Lyle Bickley for
tirelessly pursuing this for us all! I've always been a huge fan of
TSX-Plus
and I'm thrilled there's now a personal (hobbyist) license thanks
to Lyle.
Great work Lyle!! 
1:24 p.m.
On Apr 28, 2016, at 12:25 PM, Evan Koblentz <cctalk
at snarc.net> wrote:
> We all owe a big "Thanks!" to Harry Sanders at S&H Computer Systems and
his
> Board of Directors for making this release a reality for all vintage
> computer folks! Also, the hobby owes huge thanks to Lyle Bickley for
> tirelessly pursuing this for us all! I've always been a huge fan of TSX-Plus
> and I'm thrilled there's now a personal (hobbyist) license thanks to Lyle.
Thank you Lyle and S&H for making this possible. Terrific news!
10:43 a.m.
On Thu, 28 Apr 2016 12:22:11 -0500
"Jay West" <jwest at classiccmp.org> wrote:
--snip--
We all owe a big "Thanks!" to Harry Sanders
at S&H Computer Systems
and his Board of Directors for making this release a reality for all
vintage computer folks! Also, the hobby owes huge thanks to Lyle
Bickley for tirelessly pursuing this for us all! I've always been a
huge fan of TSX-Plus and I'm thrilled there's now a personal
(hobbyist) license thanks to Lyle.
The distribution is at http://tsxplus.classiccmp.org
And a big "THANKS!" to Jay for creating the website and hosting the
TSX-Plus distribution on classiccmp.org!!!
Cheers,
Lyle
--
73 AF6WS
Bickley Consulting West Inc.
http://bickleywest.com
"Black holes are where God is dividing by zero"
7:42 p.m.
Lyle Bickley wrote:
On Thu, 28 Apr
2016 12:22:11 -0500 "Jay West" <jwest at classiccmp.org> wrote:
--snip--
We all owe a big "Thanks!" to Harry
Sanders at S&H Computer Systems
and his Board of Directors for making this release a reality for all
vintage computer folks! Also, the hobby owes huge thanks to Lyle
Bickley for tirelessly pursuing this for us all! I've always been a
huge fan of TSX-Plus and I'm thrilled there's now a personal
(hobbyist) license thanks to Lyle.
The distribution is at http://tsxplus.classiccmp.org
And a big "THANKS!" to Jay for creating the website and hosting the
TSX-Plus distribution on classiccmp.org!!!
Cheers,
Lyle
11:57 a.m.
Fantastic!!
Many thanks to Lyle, Jay, and S H!!!
On Thu, Apr 28, 2016 at 12:22 PM, Jay West <jwest at classiccmp.org> wrote:
Several years ago, Lyle Bickley began negotiations
with S&H Computer
Systems
to release TSX-Plus (a 3rd party Multiuser Operating System for PDP-11's)
as
free software for personal use. As is often the case, this process can take
a lot longer than one would expect.
Once Lyle obtained an initial agreement from the owner of TSX-Plus, he then
had to await the approval from S&H's Board of Directors. Initially, S&H
chose to only release the source code listings for TSX-Plus (which are now
on Bitsavers.org). Unfortunately, the machine readable source code itself
had been accidentally lost when S&H changed PDP-11 computer systems
in-house.
Eventually, Lyle was able to obtain the original SMD hard drive from S&H
containing the latest versions of TSX-Plus, and the layered products
COBOL-Plus and RTSORT (and other software that remains private to S&H
Computer Systems). He transferred the TSX-Plus, COBOL-Plus, and RTSORT
files
to an RL02 disk - and using S&H's proprietary licensing software created a
"personal use, serialized version" of TSX-Plus. This version has ALL the
capabilities and features of the commercially licensed version of TSX-Plus.
Subsequently, Lyle was authorized to release this "Personal Use" TSX-Plus
distribution only to individuals that he could vouch for as being
non-commercial users.
After another year or so, he was able to obtain the current agreement and
license to make this "Personal Use" TSX-Plus distribution generally
available for non-commercial use.
Please note that TSX-Plus is NOT public domain software; S&H retains all
rights including ownership. They have provided a free personal use license
available through Bickley Consulting West. There is still a paid commercial
use license available directly from S&H.
We all owe a big "Thanks!" to Harry Sanders at S&H Computer Systems and
his
Board of Directors for making this release a reality for all vintage
computer folks! Also, the hobby owes huge thanks to Lyle Bickley for
tirelessly pursuing this for us all! I've always been a huge fan of
TSX-Plus
and I'm thrilled there's now a personal (hobbyist) license thanks to Lyle.
The distribution is at http://tsxplus.classiccmp.org
Best,
J
12:11 p.m.
This is officially the best news I?ve had this week. Thanks Lyle and Jay both!
Yay! Software and documentation upgrade for my PDP-11/73! :-) When I have time. :-(
Zane
12:39 p.m.
On Thu, Apr 28, 2016 at 3:11 PM, Zane Healy <healyzh at aracnet.com> wrote:
This is officially the best news I?ve had this week.
Thanks Lyle and Jay
both!
Yay! Software and documentation upgrade for my PDP-11/73! :-) When I
have time. :-(
Zane
Wonder if this will work on 11/40 with 96K
--
@ BillDeg:
Web: vintagecomputer.net
Twitter: @billdeg <https://twitter.com/billdeg>
Youtube: @billdeg <https://www.youtube.com/user/billdeg>
Unauthorized Bio <http://www.vintagecomputer.net/readme.cfm>
12:58 p.m.
Bill wrote...
----
Wonder if this will work on 11/40 with 96K
----
ISTR it requires 96kW minimum and 128kW recommended.
Installation guide, section 2.3, page 5&6 (pdf file pages 9-10) will tell...
J
12:56 p.m.
On 28/04/2016 18:22, Jay West wrote:
Several years ago, Lyle Bickley began negotiations
with S&H Computer Systems
to release TSX-Plus
The distribution is at http://tsxplus.classiccmp.org
Well done, Lyle. Thank you for your effort, and thanks too to the
people at S&H. This is great news. And thank you, Jay, for hosting it.
--
Pete
2941
days inactive
2942
days old
15 comments
10 participants
participants (10)
-
billdegnan＠gmail.com -
cctalk＠snarc.net -
healyzh＠aracnet.com -
jhfinedp3k＠compsys.to -
jsw＠ieee.org -
jwest＠classiccmp.org -
lbickley＠bickleywest.com -
pete＠dunnington.plus.com -
rodsmallwood52＠btinternet.com -
useddec＠gmail.com