16 Mar
1999
16 Mar
'99
6:17 p.m.
<together. A group known as =93The Blue Ribbon Committee=94 included three
<hardware engineers -- Bill Strecker, Richie Lary, and Steve Rothman --
<and three software engineers -- Dave Cutler, Dick Hustvedt, and Peter
< Lipman. They simplified early designs and created a plan that would be
< possible to execute. The fifth design evolution was perfected and accepted
<in April of 1976, exactly one year after the design work began."=
<
<So I guess Dave Cutler was there from the beginning of VMS development.
Never said he wan't there... His pride and joy was RSX-11, which was the
foundation for the VMS filesystem. Wats forgotten is the VMS was originally
loaded with 16bit code mostly for the utilities but some in the core. this
was part of the roll out as the VAX-11/780 could execute PDP-11 code
directly.
The blue ribbon committe was comprized of chief and principle engineers
and while they spec'ed the whole project and planned a great deal they
didn't "write all the code". It was a far larger organization that did
that. Same was true for hardware. By the early '80s the design of the
VAX and VMS was reduced to a DEC STD... n All vaxen were based off that
as was VMS.
Allison
17 Mar
17 Mar
4:09 a.m.
At 19:17 16/03/99 -0500, Allison J Parent wrote:
Never said he wan't there... His pride and joy was
RSX-11, which was the
foundation for the VMS filesystem. Wats forgotten is the VMS was originally
loaded with 16bit code mostly for the utilities but some in the core. this
was part of the roll out as the VAX-11/780 could execute PDP-11 code
directly.
I remember the "good old days" when most of what we ran on our 11/780 was
-11 code. Time dims the memory, but I seem to recall that the only non -11
thing we ran was FORTRAN. Most other things such as DTR-11, backup and so
on we used -11 documentation to find out how it was put together. In fact,
looking at the book shelves here at home I spy a DTR-11 manual!
The blue ribbon committe was comprized of chief and
principle engineers
and while they spec'ed the whole project and planned a great deal they
didn't "write all the code".
Sorry, I didn't mean to imply that. Just looking at the small amount of VMS
source code that I've studied closely shows the hands of about 10 different
programmers. People should try to read the source code for the VMS
scheduler and also the fancy code used to turn Virtual Memory on (this
isn't trivial...)
It was a far larger organization that did
that. Same was true for hardware. By the early '80s the design of the
VAX and VMS was reduced to a DEC STD... n All vaxen were based off that
as was VMS.
Indeed, one of the best things about VAX/VMS was the close ties between the
hardware design and the software, although with hindsight, some of the
instructions were a waste of time, the INDEX instruction immediately comes
to mind....
Huw Davies | e-mail: Huw.Davies(a)latrobe.edu.au
Information Technology Services | Phone: +61 3 9479 1550 Fax: +61 3 9479
1999
La Trobe University | "If God had wanted soccer played in the
Melbourne Australia 3083 | air, the sky would be painted green"
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