Looking for VAXSET Software Engineering Tools for VMS 4.x

[Malte Dehling]

On Wed, Apr 21, 2021 at 09:53:26PM +0100, Antonio Carlini via cctalk
wrote:
> I've managed to reconstitute my SIMH config and I've checked out a few
> of the ISO files I managed to generate using ddrescue.
> 
> The Mar 89 CONOLD and May 89 CONDIST do not even show up as media
> under Linux. If I get the chance I'll try out the Oxford GAME store
> polisher for one at least of them. As a backup I'll dig out my 3000
> grit sandpaper and try that out.

I have to say I'm a little worried about the sandpaper...  do you have a
spare CD to test the effect on?  Another option might be to send the CD
to someone who does have a store nearby with a CD polisher.  Either way,
I guess the first step would be to find out whether the Oxford GAME
store has one.  Thanks again for your effort!

> I've only looked at a few CONDIST volumes and none of the
> corresponding CONOLD volumes.
> 
> The oldest working one is the 1989 July CONDIST, which read 99.99%
> with ddrescue. It mounts quite happily and I can see the directory.
>
> [...]
> 
> Anyway, it looks like it is all there. However (and there's always a
> "however") the VAXSET kit that started this all off is VAXSET*080* and
> not the hoped for *070*. Interestingly the [.LINE] subdirectory does
> contain some doc files but the [.KIT] directory is empty. I've
> included the CD_CONTENTS.DAT below. From that you can see:
> 
> "VAXSET" **** N V8.0 SUB N Y VAXSET080 NO_BINARIES
> 
> which would suggest that the kit didn't ship although the SPD and so
> on did.  No idea why. Until I saw that I assumed that this was the one
> set of files to get whacked, but that seems very unlikely. Especially
> since the 1989 JUL AD CONDIST is the same.

VAXSET is just a combined package consisting of CMS, LSE, SCA, MMS, PCA,
and DTM.  Here's a table of corresponding version numbers I've compiled
from various sources (likely not 100% correct):

|===
| VAXSET      | v5.0 | v6.0 | v7.0 | v8.0 | v9.0 | v10.0
           
| CMS         | v2.3 | v3.0 | v3.1 | v3.2 | v3.3 | v3.4
| LSE         | v2.1 | v2.2 | v2.2 | v2.3 | v3.0 | v3.1
| SCA         | v1.1 | v1.2 | v1.2 | v1.3 | v2.0 | v3.0
| MMS         | v2.2 | v2.3 | v2.4 | v2.5 | v2.5 | v2.6
| PCA         |?v1.2 | v2.0 | v2.0 | v2.1 | v2.2 | v3.0
| DTM         | v2.2 | v2.3 | v2.3 | v3.0 | v3.1 | v3.2

| Release     | 1987 | 1988 | 1988 | 1989 | 1990 | 1990
| Minimal VMS |?v4.4 | v4.6 | v4.6 | v5.1 | v5.3 | v5.3
|===

It looks like the individual components of VAXSET v8.0 are on the
1989-07 CONDIST even if VAXSET is listed as NO_BINARIES.  While VAXSET
v8.0 requires VMS v5.1, I'm not sure about its components.  Some of them
may run on (Micro)VMS 4.7.

> I also ran up the MENU.EXE that is included and VAXSET is listed under
> "New Products" and not "Updated Products". My interpretation would be
> that it is not on any earlier CONDIST CDROMs. But it would be nice for
> earlier ones to get flushed out and published!

That's entirely possible, I have no reason to believe VAXSET was on
earlier CONDIST CDs.  Either way, I'm very interested in the older
CONDISTs, too!  This one already contains a few other things I have been
looking for for a while.

> Anyway, over the next few days I'll package up these early CDROMs and
> put them up on either google drive or dropbox. I'll post a link here
> and whoever wants them can grab them. If Al wants them for bitsavers
> that's OK by me.
> 
> I plan to include the ISO, a README.TXT that explains that these are
> all incomplete and I'll attach the ddrescue output, a scan of the CD,
> a SHA256 of the files. I'll tar it up and compress with xz.
> 
> If anyone would prefer some other format or compression or whatever,
> I'm open to suggestions.

Maybe a ZIP file is easier for some people?  Otherwise this sounds good!

Cheers,
Malte

-- 
Malte Dehling
<mdehling at gmail.com>