30 Oct
2004
30 Oct
'04
7:55 a.m.
Charlie Root <root(a)huey.classiccmp.org> wrote:
|I would be very interested in running Edusystem-20 on my 8e. I also have
|a good paper tape reader/punch combo hooked up to my pc and would be
|happy to make copies of this tape.
|
|Are full installation and user guides for Edusystem-20 around?
I'm pretty sure I still have the Edusystem Handbook around somewhere. I
think that has all the necessary information because I was able to use it
to start from scratch (toggle in the initial loader, etc.) a couple of times
in high school. Didn't the Edusystem tapes modify the RIM loader to start
themselves or such? Once they started the interactive configuration dialog
really didn't need any extra documentation.
Dan Lanciani
ddl(a)danlan.*com
31 Oct
31 Oct
5:56 p.m.
Dan Lanciani wrote, quoting Charlie Root:
|Are full installation and user guides for Edusystem-20 around?
I don't recall seeing guides for individual systems (and it seems to me
there probably are some, a.k.a. teachers' guides and such), but they're
all documented reasonably well in DEC's _Edusystem Handbook_ (1973). The
noble Mr. Kossow has got a copy up at Bitsavers:
http://bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/pdp8/EduSystemHandbookJan73.pdf
I'm pretty sure I still have the Edusystem
Handbook around somewhere. I
think that has all the necessary information because I was able to use it
to start from scratch (toggle in the initial loader, etc.) a couple of times
in high school. Didn't the Edusystem tapes modify the RIM loader to start
themselves or such? Once they started the interactive configuration dialog
really didn't need any extra documentation.
They did indeed start themselves from the RIM loader - they loaded a BIN
loader in the first few feet of tape, and the final instruction loaded
from RIM forces a jump to the new loader; that loader,
in turn, loaded the
body of the program, and jumped to the Edusystem initialization
routine
when no character had been read from the tape for one second or so (e.g.,
once the tape had run out of the reader). It was a simple and clever
little trick. I disassembled it once to have a look at it, about, oh,
twenty-five years ago. A little frightening to remember it with such
clarity. :)
-O.-
3 Nov
3 Nov
10:05 a.m.
New subject: EduSystem questions
It was written....
I don't recall seeing guides for individual
systems (and it seems to me
there probably are some, a.k.a. teachers' guides and such), but they're
all documented reasonably well in DEC's _Edusystem Handbook_ (1973).
Being as I'm so enamored with timesharing systems, especially basic oriented
ones... I'd like to see about getting EduSystem up on my 8E. I skimmed
through the Edusystem handbook and find some information unclear.
1) It appears that for all versions of EduSystem, the Timesharing Extension
board isn't required. So what OS's DID use the timesharing extension board?
More importantly can someone confirm that no edusystem versions require this
board?
2) The edusystem handbook is a bit unclear with regards to disk drive
support in edusystem-25. At the beginning of the section they say an RK05
can be used in place of dectape, but no mention is made of that anywhere
else in that section. In addition, the mention of a disk drive at the
beginning of the -20 section is crossed out along with a delete mark. So
what's the deal? Can you save program files to hard disk on edusystem-25?
And most importantly, in skimming through the capabilities in the handbook,
Edusystem-50 looks MOST impressive. It does something my beloved HP/TSB does
not, and that is allow other languages (focal, fortran, and assembler) to be
used in addition to basic (apparently) DURING timesharing. So my obvious
next question is, does anyone have a installable copy of Edusystem-50??
I may go the RSTS/E route on my 11/45, but will probably do RT-11/TSX+
instead. But on the 8E, Edusystem-50 looks quite nice.
Any advice is most appreciated!
Jay West
7137
days inactive
7141
days old
2 comments
3 participants
participants (3)
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ddl-cctech＠danlan.com -
jwest＠classiccmp.org -
ohh＠drizzle.com