Microfiche scanning - test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

23 Apr 2005

Hey guys,

	Last year at a local hamfest I bought some DEC microfiche source code 
for $5 just as a vintage computer curiosity.  Only last week did I pull 
it out of the closet and realized that it says, "VAX/VMS v2.0 SRC LST 
MCRF/226" -- and it occurred to me that it might be rare and somebody 
might want to see it for historical reasons.  But I know nearly nothing 
about VAX stuff.  Does that mean that I've got the source to the 
VAX/VMS 2.0 operating system itself?  I do have a hefty little stack of 
fiche here.  How common is this, and is it important that I archive it 
in some other medium while I have the chance?  A few other things it 
says on the label are "AH-H159B-SE" and "Copyright 1980 Digital 
Equipment Corporation" and a printed "NR" up in the right corner of the 
label.  Each fiche "slide" is numbered and they go up to about 192.  
Come to think of it, maybe it's the source for "AH-H159B-SE," whatever 
that is -- the more I think about how it's written on here, the more 
likely that seems.

Thanks for your help,
Benj

On Apr 23, 2005, at 11:47 AM, cctech-request at classiccmp.org wrote:

...
  Message: 8
 Date: Fri, 22 Apr 2005 19:36:20 +0100
 From: "Antonio Carlini" <a.carlini at ntlworld.com>
 Subject: RE: Microfiche scanning
 To: "'General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts'"
 	<cctalk at classiccmp.org>
 Message-ID: <001b01c5476a$2f3ed6c0$5b01a8c0 at flexpc>
 Content-Type: text/plain;	charset="us-ascii"

  DEC sold software listings on fiche, but not on
paper.  A lot of that
 software was either not available in machine readable form, or
 ridiculously expensive.  For example, RSTS or VMS listing fiche can
 probably be found, but source kits of either are hard to come by.  The
 same only more so is likely to be true for "layered products"
 (compilers etc.) 
 The VMS listings switched from fiche to CD when the fiche had
 grown to nearly two boxes per release. AFAICT the CD source
 listings kit has the same stuff that went into the fiche: the
 .LST files.

 There was a source kit, from which you could produce your
 own VMS, but I believe that rather than being a $1K/annum
 subscription, it was a $200K per release cost. I don't know
 when the last one was done, but I do remember someone with
 Engineering saying that they'll do another one when someone
 actually asks.

 I don't know if all layered product groups used fiche as
 an archival medium, but I know that PSI, DECnet-RSX and
 ALL-IN-1 did on at least some oocasions. Just as well really,
 because I'm willing to bet that most of the archived source
 tapes have ended up in the bit-bucker. I remember hearing
 (probably via Bob Supnik) that DEC had a big clear out of
 the archives that they were paying someone (Iron Mountain?)
 to maintain.

 Pity really, as I'd bet that the entirety of the sources
 (and build tools etc.) for everything up to and including
 the PDP-11 would have fit on a single CD, or at most, a
 single DVD.

 Antonio

 -- 

 ---------------

 Antonio Carlini arcarlini at iee.org 