[HECnet] RSTS/E started emitting "?EVTLOG (BLDNIC) -- %Integer error" messages

[Johnny Billquist]

I must have been misremembering about TOPS-20 in that case. I thought it 
did to memory dumps. I know OS/8 and RT-11 do it. I believed both 
Tops-10 and TOPS-20 did as well, but I must admit it's been a while, and 
my brain might just have parity errors.

But I also do think it's a pretty cool solution. In OS/8, the link load 
program read in object files into memory, and then it exits. It don't 
directly give you a runnable binary, but give you your program ready in 
memory. From there you can either just immediately execute what you 
have, or you can give the command SAVE, which writes out memory as a 
save image, which can be RUN.

Which also means, if you want to patch and fix things, you LOAD the 
program into memory, then you can use ODT to patch your memory in any 
way you want, and then SAVE the thing back again.

RSX do not have anything like it. Virtual memory is created as needed to 
start a program, and when the program exits, the memory is gone again. 
No way to have it just sitting there and being able to poke at it.

   Johnny

On 2021-11-12 21:49, Thomas DeBellis wrote:
> I'm not sure I follow you.  The only DEC supplied system program I can 
> think of in Tops-20 that bulk inputs a pre-compiled binary is SETHOS, 
> which it does to (significantly) speed boot up.  The only other examples 
> I can think of were /non/-DEC developed software: the EXEC, the mailer 
> and (Columbia) LPTSPL.
> 
> None of the Tops-10 CUSP's that I've updated do this.
> 
> I'm forgetting something obvious, right?
> 
> On 11/12/21 10:57 AM, Johnny Billquist wrote:
>> On 2021-11-12 15:24, Paul Koning wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>> On Nov 11, 2021, at 6:22 PM, Johnny Billquist <bqt at softjar.se> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> I must admit that I hadn't considered the possibility of just saving 
>>>> the core. Which of course can accomplish the same thing in a neat way.
>>>
>>> That's a bit like how RSX-11/D and IAS boot -- by reloading the image 
>>> of memory when you issued the SAV command.  Pretty clever: you set 
>>> things up the way you want them to be, and then you make that state 
>>> persistent.
>>
>> Same with -11M. But it's only used for the kernel.
>>
>> However, in TOPS-20 as well as some other DEC OSes, this is a common 
>> pattern for all programs.
>>
>>   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