[HECnet] VT-62?

[Jerome H. Fine]

>Mark Wickens wrote:
>On 01/10/2013 14:43, Jerome H. Fine wrote:
[Snip]

NO, I will probably stay with the emulated VT100 terminal support provided by 
Ersatz-11 which includes support for more than 24 lines.   When I first used that 
feature, it was a minor disadvantage since the text characters did seem a bit 
challenged (in a vertical sort of manner).   But now that I have used the feature 
for over a year with K42.SAV (either 80 columns by 50 lines OR 132 columns 
by 44 lines - largest options supported by my video card for my monitor in FULL 
SCREEN mode), going back to 24 lines seems like SHOUTING when I look 
at the text characters, especially for 80 columns by 50 lines.   In fact, I almost 
always use the 132 columns by 44 lines even for non-KED displays so that 
I don't need to change my focus as I switch back and forth from and to each 
emulated VT100 "terminal" under Ersatz-11 using <ALT/Fn>. My real DEC 
PDP-11/83 system has SIX   DEC   VT100 terminals on the desktop (I have 
a huge desk and they are stacked two high).   With just the <ALT/Fn> key to 
switch back and forth, the same monitor can be used to display all of the 
terminals.   And since my eyes can focus on only one "terminal" at a time, 
using <ALT/Fn> instead of turning my head seems like a useful alternative.
I'd like to know more about what your MACRO-11 projects involve and I'm sure we'd all like to see a photo of your PDP-11/83 with terminal!! 

Regards, Mark. 
A simple still photo would just show SIX   VT100 terminals
on a desktop with a lot of wires which connect them to the
PDP-11/83 system in a BA123 box which stands on the
floor under a table behind the chair that I sit on in front of
the desk.   So the PDP-11/83 can't even be in the same photo.

Actually, in practice, some of the terminals on the top are
VT220s rather than a VT100.   There is also a 3 position
switch a bit hidden behind the left most VT100 pair which
is able to transfer the circuit to another PDP-11/73 which
I also have available that I use when I need a SCSI interface.
Near the end of using the PDP-11/83, my primary backup
hardware became a Sony SMO S-501 magneto optical
drive rather than the TK70 tape drive I had been using for
a a few years.   That turned out to be extremely convenient
since I also managed to acquire an Adaptec SCSI host
adapter for the Windoze system and connect the same
Sony SMO S-501 drives which allowed me to transfer
all the files back and forth under Ersatz-11.

As for the PDP-11/83, the BA123 box is standard.   The
only non-standard aspect was that I use 3 Hitachi 600 MB
EDSI drives in production which run rather hot.   Rather
than load the power supply on the BA123 (since a couple
have failed over the years possibly due to the load of so
many drives, I keep the 3 Hitachi drives outside the BA123
box on their own power supply and their own individual
fans to cool them.   The Hitachi drives originally arrived in
a box with four drives, power supply and fans and some
sort of emulation, maybe DSSI.   Since 600 MB for RT-11
is a really good size and I was already using an EDSI controller
that looks like MSCP to RT-11,   I just substituted the Hitachi
drives and connected everything.   The Hitachi drives replaced
the 600 MB Maxstor XT8760E drive which was still expensive
at the time.

As for the MACRO projects, my current challenge is to make
a few   enhancements to the RT-11 Debugger, SDHX.SYS,
which runs under a Mapped Monitor.   In addition to reducing 
the number of words of Low Memory that are required, 
saving the Program Counter Locations in a buffer so that 
the user can determine which instructions have been executed 
to arrive at any given point in the code should help when it is 
not feasible to step through all the instructions up to that given 
point.   The first hurdle to overcome was how to expand the 
available extended memory since the standard 8192 bytes 
that can be managed with relative ease were all used up - well 
except for about 34 bytes which does not provide enough 
to do anything that is worth while.   Now that I have as much 
extended memory available as can be reasonably used, the 
goal is to make the final product as user friendly as possible.

I am not sure how many Program Counter Locations the
buffer should hold.   Does 1000 Locations seem sufficient?
What about 2000 Locations?   Does anyone reading this
have any experience with a Debugger which can save the
last 1000 Program Counter Locations and is that enough?

Another MACRO project was to add additional variants
to the nine KED variants that DEC supports for RT-11
and RSTS/E.   DEC supports the VT100, the VT52 and
the VT62.   I added the VT420 which supports more than
24 lines as I mentioned in my last post.   Having a "terminal"
with 44 lines was a huge advantage when I started to enhance
SDHX.SYS, as I find when I type this post under Netscape
and have about 36 lines in additional to all the tool bars.
On the few occasions when I revert to a 24 line "terminal"
under Ersatz-11 for some special testing, I find it to be a great
disadvantage.

Jerome Fine