Software for small-memory PDP-11s?

[Paul Koning]

> On Nov 14, 2015, at 10:07 AM, Jerome H. Fine <jhfinedp3k at compsys.to> wrote:
> 
> ...
> I then attempted to confirm with V2 and 16 KB of
> memory and that also worked with the RK05 device.
> Obviously, it is not possible to do very much with
> just 16 KB (8KW) of memory.

Actually, 8 kW is quite functional with V2.  I used it in college, with RT Basic and that worked just fine.  Software development ditto; I'm pretty sure I did editing and assembling and the like on that system.  Presumably with TECO, and of course RT MACRO and LINK.  I made significant mods to that BASIC, and also added an RC11 driver to RT11.

I believe I used the SJ version, but I'm not entirely sure.  The FB version is certainly larger overall, but I don't remember anymore if it requires more memory just for the resident OS.  (I don't expect the foreground feature to be all that practical in such small memory, though, not unless the foreground program is quite small.)

	paul