Remote job submission from PDP-11

[Jay Jaeger]

On 10/7/2020 8:41 AM, Ethan Dicks via cctalk wrote:
> On Wed, Oct 7, 2020 at 5:07 AM Peter Allan via cctalk
> <cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
>> I am looking for the following software products for a PDP-11, ideally to
>> be run on RSX-11M.
>>
>> RJE/HASP
>> 2780/3780 Protocol Emulator
> 
> I used to do this with specialty hardware...
> 
> http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/softwareResults/Software_Results_Comboard_Brochure_1983.pdf
> 
>> ...
>> My aim is to be able to submit a remote job from a simulated PDP-11 on simh
>> to a simulated IBM/370 on Hercules. The products that I mentioned seem the
>> obvious way to do this, but anything that works would be helpful.
> 
> I think the idea is fantastic.  At the very least, after you identify
> a suitable software package for your target, there would need to be
> emulation written for whatever sync serial devices that the package
> can talk to, for the PDP-11 side.  I have no idea what sort of sync
> serial emulation is provided by Hercules, but if you can configure a
> TCP socket that pretends to be a BSC port, then that's what you'd
> need.
> 
> This is eminently do-able, but would likely require a fair bit of
> plumbing to get operational.
> 
> -ethan
> 

Hercules does have 2703 emulation, and bisync emulation does seem to be
present in SimH.  I think both support some level of TCP, so you might
be able to lash them up that way - but I would expect some hiccups along
the way.  But that would indeed still leave the software question from
the original post.

I remembered reading a man page for 2780/3780 emulation under UNIX back
in the day (turns out it was for AT&T PWB UNIX), and found it:

http://quintile.net/pwb/rje_guide.pdf    Manual

Code seems to exist in

http://minnie.tuhs.org/Archive/Distributions/USDL/spencer_pwb.tar.gz

(And maybe other copies of PWB UNIX at tuhs.org)

And then there is this, too, from 15-17 years ago, which would take work
to move to the PDP-11, of course, as this is a PC program.

https://hercules-390.yahoogroups.narkive.com/gGgUdOKm/rje80-3780-emulator-for-hercules-beta-version-available

It still seems to exist in the files area of hercules-390 in groups.io
under the "Yahoo Group files archive".

I'd love to do the same thing with a UNIVAC 1004 talking to an 1108
(actually, an IBM 1410 with a telegraph attachment emulating the 1004),
but I don't think the current modern OS/2200 emulation would support it.  ;)

JRJ