Looking for VAXSET Software Engineering Tools for VMS 4.x

[Antonio Carlini]

On 12/05/2021 13:58, Malte Dehling wrote:
>
> Here are the links to the relevant archive.org uploads:
>
> https://archive.org/details/vms-conold-1989-07
> https://archive.org/details/vms-ad-condist-1989-07
> https://archive.org/details/vms-condist-1989-07
> https://archive.org/details/vms-condist-1989-11
> https://archive.org/details/digital-standards-1993-03
>
> Let me know what you think!

Thanks. Nice work, particularly grouping them together, pulling out the 
JPEGs and seemingly mounting them to suck out the CD_CONTENTS.DAT!


As a reward for your hard work here are a few more for you :-)


I've now uploaded ag-nc67a-re.tar.xz, ag-mn36d-re.tar.xz and 
ag-pcy4c-xe.tar.xz.

These are:

AG-NC67A-RE - VMS Online Documentation Library        1989-03 Disc 1 of 1
AG-MN36D-RE - VMS Consolidated Software Distribution  1989-05 Disc 1 of 1
AG-PCY4C-XE - InfoServer V2.0 Software Base Level 10  1991-11 Disc 1 of 1

AG-MN36D-RE in particular took over 5 days to rescue. In the end it 
managed 99.41% and couldn't get any more data off the CDROM when run 
with -R. So, despite the internet saying use 2000 and 3000 grit 
sandpaper, I went against all the advice and recklessly tried a seven 
minute does of 1500 frit sandpaper, followed by the usual vigorous 
polishing. I've included a "before" image of the rear (non-label) side 
of the CDROM and a triangular "blemish" is clearly visible near the 
centre and extending out into the data region. 2000 grit didn't touch 
it, I could still feel it afterwards with my fingernail. 1500 grit wiped 
it away completely and ddrescue got to work immediately and took just 10 
minutes or so to recover the missing data (apart from 4096 bytes).

I had previously tried the image out using SIMH back when it was at a 
mere 99% and it mounted happily (although it complained that it could 
not find the alternate home block). I copied all the files to NLA0: and 
there were no errors. I don't think that means that all the data blocks 
were good (since VMS would have no way to tell) but there were no errors 
noted in the filesystem structures, so that's at least some comfort. I 
haven't tried BACKUP/ANALYZE on all the savesets but that might be one 
way to test the integrity of those files.

The InfoServer CDROM I included because it has some nice cover art with 
(I presume) the faces of five of the develpment team. Anyone know who 
they are? I suspect that if you really want to use an Infoserver you 
might be better off with the most up to date version on the most recent 
OpenVMS Freeware release.

Incidentally, I'm currently working through my OpenVMS VAX (and a few 
Alpha) CONDIST CDROMs and pulling out all the CD_CONTENTS.DAT so I can 
put together a script to build a list of which sets hold any given 
version of a product. So if anyone has any missing sets, and wants to 
supply some, please do. This will all end up on github eventually. To 
save you some time, for versions sometime before MAR-1992, you need the 
CD_CONTENTS.DAT from every disc in the set as they each contain details 
of only the products on that disc. Beyond that data the format changed 
and the contents are identical on each disc. The old style looks like this:

LABEL CD_BIN_92932
%TYPE CONDIST
!
! NOVEMBER CONDIST: DISC 2 OF 2
!
!PRODUCT NAME UPI INST VERSION KIT CH DIS ROOT SAVESET(S)

and the new style looks like this:

%DISC_PRODUCT_NAME1 VMS Consolidated
%DISC_PRODUCT_NAME2 Software Distribution
%KIT_PART_NUMBER QA-VWJ8A-A8. U01
%SPINE_PART_NUMBER AV-MN37Y-RE
!
%DISC_PART_NUMBER 
AG-MN36Y-RE,AG-PASMS-RE,AG-PCXXM-RE,AG-PFXCJ-RE,AG-PJ4YD-RE,AG-PNTPA-RE
%DFARS Y

I already have 1989-05/07/11, 1992-03/05/07/09/11, 1994-11, 1995-01, 
1996-03/06/09/12, 1997-03/06/09/12 and 1998-03, so anything else (or 
anything from any Alpha CONDIST release) would be cool.



Antonio



-- 
Antonio Carlini
antonio at acarlini.com