[HECnet] Projects...?

[Johnny Billquist]

Brett Bump wrote:
On Mon, 6 Oct 2008, Johnny Billquist wrote:
Sampsa Laine skrev:
Then again, if we find nothing, it could be an amusing project of
course, writing a BBS package in PL/I or Cobol or something...
Or even Basic.   About 20 years back I wrote a simple BBS implementation in
Basic for RSTS/E.   It used 2 run-time-systems that I wrote to make RSTS a
bit more appealing (to me) for the average MS-DOS/unix user.   But everyone
at that time seemed to be running Fidos and I couldn't really afford to
pay for multiple phone lines running modems to my PDP-11.
I don't know if Angela's comment that Wikis have superseded BBS programs
is correct or not (I just assumed the internet and http did that job).

I don't know if I'd say Wikis have superseded BBSes, but I think various web-forums have.

But I have the most wonderful BBS-like system I think ever has been written here. The main reason I don't run it is because it's written for RSTS/E. :-)
I've occasionally been thinking of porting it to RSX, but time...
Anyway, if anyone knows about a system called KOM, developed in Sweden in the 70s and 80s, this is an independent implementation done by a few guys in Sweden in the 80s. I know them, and they did an astounding work. If anyone have a RSTS/E system, and would be willing to play with this, let me know and we could try to get it working together.
I don't know how it would behave today, as it was last being worked on at RSTS/E V8. It uses its own RTS, and a lot of tricks to get the most out of the system. We used to run this on an 11/60, and usually had quite a lot of concurrent users in there.

Speaking of which.
Are people doing any fun projects nowadays?

Me, I'm currently playing aorund with three bigger things on RSX, apart from all
the small stuff.

o Writing a TCP/IP implementation.
    ARP, IP, ICMP and UDP are done. TCP is halfway, and I'm still fooling around
    with different tricks and ideas on how to do this best. I've also written a
    few clients and servers that talk UDP, just for the fun of it.
    (This is actually my forth implementation, but you learn things at every
      iteration. :-) )
Here is a real play on words.   Did Johnny write this in the language Forth
or is this the version he wrote after writing it three times before?   ;-)
Or maybe he wrote three versions before and this time he decided to write
it in Forth.

Gha! :-)
Fourth, of course. And all in MACRO-11.
The first two iterations never made it past IP, the third got as far as this one have, but was written using ACPs. The current version are all device drivers.

This is probably the biggest requested email that I receive about RSTS,
"Where can I get a copy of TCP/IP for RSTS?".   Sorry, it doesn't exist
but maybe Johnny will write one. ;-)

Maybe one day, but I wouldn't hold my breath. Don't know enough RSTS/E internals to have a chance, and I suspect things work so different in RSX and RSTS/E that a port of my code would be less than straight forward. (I do play some fun tricks with RSX.)

I know of one guy who atleast started on a TCP/IP for RSTS/E, but I don't know what have come of that.

o Writing a CONQUEST lookalike
    CONQUEST is a game under VMS that I remember fondly from the 80s. I recently
    hunted down the VMS implementation, and peeked under the hood, and then
    started implementing it from scratch for RSX. Original is written in RATFOR,
    but I'm doing one in C.
    Universe works, planets and ships move around. Players can talk with each
    other and check out things. Screen handling and so on is done. I'm currently
    at the point where I should start implementing the shooting of each other,
    but it's in a hiatus because of lack of time. :-)
The first game I ever played was Adventure (Colossal Cave) on an Apple II
(That was before I found out there was a version that ran on the PDP-11).
The only game I play now is Tomb Raider (all of them), but I doubt I could
ever write that for my PDP-11. lol

Hmm. I do have a VSV-21 for my 11/93. And of course I also have a PRO-380 system. Not sure which gaphics system would be best though.
However, the much faster 11/93 compared to the PRO probably makes the 11/93 the preferred system.

But CONQUEST, even though it's character based, is really a rather graphic game. If you haven't tried it you all should.
Multiplayer realtime space game in which you have several teams trying to conquer the whole universe.

o Setting up a really good web resource for RSX.
    I want to collect all the information and software that I have in a nice,
    organized manner for everyone to access. I have patches for the kernel,
    DECnet, and god knows how many tools. To fix bugs, give enhancements and
    new features. But much of this is probably totally unknown to others,
    but would be very useful for people who still use RSX to have. I have
    started on a prototype, using Drupal, but haven't gotten far yet.
    Once more a problem with time.
This would be a really GOOD thing.   I never really spent much time running
any RSX versions, but I occasionally get an email asking if I know of any
good resources (web sites) for RSX.   RSTS still has a sprinkling of users
out there but most of them live in solitude and those emails are few and
far between.

I know... I really should get this off the ground. I'm just such a analfabet when it comes to web design. I just hate that kind of work.

	Johnny

And then of course, I have lots of smaller software projects in RSX that work,
but which I occasionally bugfix or improve when someone comes with comments, or
I'm bored.

So what are other people doing around here? :-)

(And yes, I also have both VAXen and Alphas running VMS at home, but almost all
my time, I sit by the PDP-11 anyway.)

	Johnny

--
Johnny Billquist                                   || "I'm on a bus
                                                                    ||   on a psychedelic trip
email: bqt at softjar.se                         ||   Reading murder books
pdp is alive!                                         ||   tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol

Projects?   Hmm...   Well there is my 7foot tall empty rack that I've been
wanting to put my 5 Alpha's in (along with 2 PCs running RSTS/E via SimH)
but I think the heat will be too much for my spare bedroom to handle.   If
(like Johnny and everyone else around here) I can find some spare time I
would like to get that running to put on hecnet and get my students to do
something more than click a mouse on a Windows box.   My Micro-11 pretty
much just hibernates (off) in the closet and I'm betting my nephew tossed
out my home-brew 11/73 (that he took and wanted to learn how it worked).
I love my 11s, but I just don't have the room to run them right now.
2m repeater or IRLP?:   A nice company in Texas leased us a 70-100 foot
tower for wind research (yes, SD is a good place for wind energy) which
still sits idle in a field (gas too expensive for them to come get).   The
idea had crossed my mind about putting a 2meter repeater on it, OR an IRLP
node that anyone could monitor the current audio via the school web site.
No, this really wouldn't involve any PDP-11s/VAXen or Alphas, but it might
be nice for a HAM driving through the badlands when there is absolutely NO
cell coverage.
Then there is always my project of wanting to do something more with the
RSTS.ORG web site.   I should put up a runnable disk container file with an
assortment of built in toys (Tim was wanting to help me with this one).
The hardest part is finding time when I'm not working on my real job,
teaching students in the upper division classes, or spending time with the
family to do any "fun" projects (or think of new projects to do).
Brett