Fwd: is there any word processing software for the pdp11?

[Jon Elson]

On 12/01/2014 09:36 PM, Toby Thain wrote:
> On 01/12/14 12:29 PM, Jon Elson wrote:
>> On 11/30/2014 07:45 PM, Toby Thain wrote:
>> Umm, I'm "pretty sure" I had TeX running on RSX-11M.  It was
>> glacially slow, as in taking minutes per page, but it did 
>> get the
>> job done.
>
> That's interesting. I wonder how it was ported - 
> presumably via the Pascal compiler.
>
Yes, exactly.  Since this is all from 35-year old memory, I 
could be wrong.  But, I
THINK I did get it running on our 11/45 RSX-11M system.  I 
think I ended up running
a binary off a DECUS tape, as I was never able to get the 
whole TeX system to
compile properly.  I did get some other components to 
compile, I think, like
metafont.  It all worked a LOT better on the VAX, though.
> I did web2C-based ports to Classic MacOS (inside MPW) and 
> Inmos Transputer; I'd have thought pdp-11 was quite a bit 
> too small for TeX.
>
It needed to swap a lot, and had a bunch of restrictions, as 
I recall.  if you
exceeded the restrictions, it would crash.

But, then I may be TOTALLY mis-remembering what I did and 
didn't get working.
I know I TINKERED with TeX on the 11/45, it is possible I 
never did get it to
run on that system.

Jon