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<p>I have been finding myself getting curious about the <font
size="4"><tt>COM911</tt></font> patch. It's received little to
no response on alt.sys.pdp10, which is perhaps unsurprising as
Tops-10 (sadly) never had an officially DEC sanctioned IP stack.<br>
</p>
<p>On HECnet, there are 15 registered Tops-10 systems, viz: ATLE
(1.605), AURORA (1.606), BITXT1 (7.80), EYN (18.105), FREJ
(1.608), LOKE (1.607), NOMAD (1.610), NYE (18.103), PANDA
(35.629), TIPSY (1.604), TOPSY (1.601), TWONKY (31.37), VENTI
(2.20), YMER (1.609) and MARLEY (9.10).<br>
</p>
<p>Unless you happen to be a lucky user on <font size="4"><tt>VENTI</tt></font>,
you are going to <b>crash</b> in about four days, at which point,
you can do a patch or set the wrong date.<br>
</p>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">That would bother the <i>HEC</i> out
of me... So, I haven't heard a peep; what are you all doing,
anyhow?<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:ca9e12c8-7455-00a9-b9d0-802e2b536ea9@gmail.com">
<hr width="100%" size="2">
<p>On 11/5/21 2:21 PM, Thomas DeBellis wrote:<br>
<br>
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>
</blockquote>
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