SYSGEN memories, Re: [HECnet] Silly RSX questions....

[Dave McGuire]

On 07/08/2012 12:30 PM, Johnny Billquist wrote:
Either you have never done an 11M SYSGEN, or else your requirements on
"user friendly" are pretty high. The M+ SYSGEN gives you help and
information at all times, gives sane questions that are understandable,
and can be answered pretty straight forward.
11M SYSGEN on the other hand does not give much information, asks that
you provide whole sequences of magic as responses sometimes, and is
pretty much arcane. A manual beside you is recommended. :-)

  Oh MAN!   A manual beside you is REQUIRED! ;)

  I first did an 11M v4.1 SYSGEN when I was about 17.   I was fortunate
to have a friend at work who gave me lots of advice, but as he was at
work and my 11/34 was at home, the "question/answer latency" was very
high!   It took me a few nights and a few tries to get it right, but in
the end those scripts were very well-written and everything worked out fine.

  This was in 1986, the band Genesis was touring, and I went to see
them.   I came into work the next day wearing the T-shirt I got at the
concert, and my friend Richard (the guy helping me along with the
SYSGEN) told me that "Genesis" should've been spelled "GEN-A-SYS"!

  I was intent on doing a SYSGEN because the installation I had on the
machine had no printer support, and I was given an LA180 with an LS11
controller and was dying to get it running.

  (I have a weird duality about printers and books...I firmly believe
that paper has been obsolete for decades, but I've got a library of
1000+ books here and a HUGE printer fetish...I have no explanation!)

  Eventually I did get it running and was happily printing out my
Macro-11 and Swedish Pascal program listings all day long. :-)   The
LA180 is a unidirectional printer, so its characteristic noise is
"aaaWEEEEE!   aaaWEEE!   aaaWEEE!"   That sound on my current LA180 always
brings back great memories.

                    -Dave

-- 
Dave McGuire, AK4HZ
New Kensington, PA