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<p>Tops-20 gives you essentially the same functionality being able
to launch the monitor of your choice, having (I believe) the
similar restriction that the monitor in question has to be on a
locally attached disk (I.E., no CFS).</p>
<p>Personally, I prefer Tops-10's syntax format because I have to
type less at BOOT time. Historically, a system being out of
operation was a time of extremely high pressure to get it back
online (data center phones would glow white hot...) <br>
</p>
<p>And then there was the sneezing which could fat key you.
Although we had four 20's in one room, we had some 55 tons of
glycol chiller plus environmental HVAC; Translation: the machine
room was <i>arctic</i>. Pre-global warming.<br>
</p>
<blockquote>
<p>So the less you type, the better...</p>
</blockquote>
<p>One problem I have (if you want to call it that) is forgetting
that I've booted a different monitor. So my 'production' 20
(TOMMYT) has been up some 7,021 hours whilst the development
machine (VENTI2) is currently at a relative paltry 3,279 hours.</p>
<p>So in certain cases, I've gone and completely forgotten what the
heck I've been running... Consequently, on a reboot, the previous
monitor comes up and I'm clueless, the result being I start asking
myself, "Gee, why am I seeing this failure mode? I wonder what I
missed when I fixed this?"</p>
<p>As far as I can remember, the only way you can tell what monitor
you're running is by updating the version, typically the edit
level, so that <font size="4"><tt>INITIA</tt></font>, <font
size="4"><tt>SYSTAT</tt></font> or <font size="4"><tt>INFO</tt></font>
<font size="4"><tt>MON</tt></font> can see it. I only remember to
do that when everything is debugged. Most of the time...</p>
<p>One assumes that Bob will bump the edit number sometime after the
9<sup>th</sup>.<br>
</p>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 11/5/21 6:59 AM, G. wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:84de4522-6703-6413-b3b1-743d561e3b7f@mail.com">
<blockquote type="cite"> FWIW, you don't actually need to do a
MONGEN in this case, assuming you've previously done one and
you're not changing any selections. Just skip straight to
relinking...
<br>
</blockquote>
<br>
Yup! Those instructions were originally written for someone doing
a new
<br>
installation, hence the need to run a MONGEN too as they had to
setup several
<br>
parameters. For example, I have used it to configure DECnet and
LAT, change
<br>
the default buffer size and hello timer, and so on... :)
<br>
<br>
<blockquote type="cite">
<blockquote type="cite">12. Copy the new monitor to the system
directory giving it some unique name:
<br>
<br>
.COPY SYS:MYMON.EXE=DSK:SYSTEM.EXE
<br>
</blockquote>
<br>
This works fine, however the other common option is to copy
your new monitor to [1,5]. On TOPS-10, [1,5] is NEW:, [1,4] is
SYS: and [1,3] is OLD:. At the BOOT> prompt you can simply
type "[1,5]" (assuming you used the name SYSTEM.EXE) and BOOTS
will load the new one. If all is well, then you rename the
[1,4]SYSTEM.EXE to [1,3], and then [1,5]SYSTEM.EXE to [1,4]. In
the future BOOTS will load the one from [1,4] by default, and if
you ever find that you need to go back then you can tell BOOTS
"[1,3]" and it'll load the old one.
<br>
</blockquote>
<br>
Indeed, both solutions work perfectly. :)
<br>
<br>
Personally I find it more practical to type some monitor name
rather than
<br>
brackets because I'm not a native English speaker hence my
keyboard is mapped
<br>
differently. Now that I think of it, maybe having several monitors
with
<br>
different "speaking" names may come handy in some experimental
situations...
<br>
<br>
Thanks for your thanks, :)
<br>
G.
<br>
<br>
<br>
</blockquote>
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