> From: Maciej Jan Broniarz
> Our local Hackroom acquired some VAX Station machines.
Exactly what sort of VAXstations? There are several different kinds; one:
http://gunkies.org/wiki/VAXstation_100
doesn't even include a VAX; it's just a branding deal from DEC Marketing.
Start with finding out exactly which kind(s) of VAXstation you have.
Noel
Hello Everyone,
Our local Hackroom acquired some VAX Station machines. The problem is, we
have absolutely no docs or knowledge how to run the machine or how to test
if it is working properly. Any help would be appreciated
All best,
--
Maciej Jan Broniarz
Was an upgrade for ethernet TCP/IP for Unix V7 ever
done when running under SIMH?
Was an upgrade ever done for Unix V7 when running
under SIMH to read and set the date/time? I have a
work around but it doesn't work because when running
the sim it inserts boot code then when the 'run 2002'
is issued further startup commands in the 'conf' file are
ignored.
System was built from unix_v7.tm dated 20 June 2006.
run.conf contents:
echo
echo Unix V7 startup 2-19-2023 KenUnix
echo
set cpu 11/45
set cpu 256k
set rp0 rp04
attach rp0 system.hp
d cpu 2000 042102
d cpu 2002 012706
d cpu 2004 002000
d cpu 2006 012700
d cpu 2010 000000
d cpu 2012 012701
d cpu 2014 176700
d cpu 2016 012761
d cpu 2020 000040
d cpu 2022 000010
d cpu 2024 010061
d cpu 2026 000010
d cpu 2030 012711
d cpu 2032 000021
d cpu 2034 012761
d cpu 2036 010000
d cpu 2040 000032
d cpu 2042 012761
d cpu 2044 177000
d cpu 2046 000002
d cpu 2050 005061
d cpu 2052 000004
d cpu 2054 005061
d cpu 2056 000006
d cpu 2060 005061
d cpu 2062 000034
d cpu 2064 012711
d cpu 2066 000071
d cpu 2070 105711
d cpu 2072 100376
d cpu 2074 005002
d cpu 2076 005003
d cpu 2100 012704
d cpu 2102 002020
d cpu 2104 005005
d cpu 2106 105011
d cpu 2110 005007
echo
echo To boot type boot enter then hp(0,0)unix enter after 'mem =' press
ctrl-d
echo To cancel press ctrl-e then at sim> type exit enter
echo At login: type root enter at password type root enter
echo To shutdown sync;sync wait 5 then press ctrl-e then at sim> type exit
enter
echo
echo Copy / paste date at #
echo DATE 2302191116
run 2002
Thanks,
Ken/--
WWL 📚
Hello there,
I recently watched an old Unix promotion video by AT&T on YouTube (AT&T
Archives: The UNIX Operating System: https://youtu.be/tc4ROCJYbm0) and
they mention a design tool for integrated circuits (apparently named
L-Gen or lgen; timestamped link: https://youtu.be/tc4ROCJYbm0?t=1284).
Part of this software is a language implemented with YACC that appears
to describe the behavior of digital logic, like modern hardware
description languages, i.e. Verilog and VHDL.
Does anyone have information about this, in particular:
- Documentation
- Which projects were realized with this?
- Source code, if possible
I asked this question on retrocomputing.stackexchange.com (see
https://retrocomputing.stackexchange.com/q/26301/26615) but so far there
is no satisfying answer. A "Circuit Design Language" (CDL) is mentioned
and there is some good information about it but it has another syntax
(as shown in the video vs. the documentation about CDL) and apparently
another purpose (description of board wiring vs. logic behavior).
Best regards,
Christian
Here is a simplified 'more' command for Unix V7:
/*********************************************************************
* UNIX pager (v7 compatible) Chipmaster and KenUnix
*
* cc -o more more.c
*
* Usage examples:
* man wall | more
* more xyz
* more abc def xyz
*
* Started February 15th, 2023 YeOlPiShack.net
*
* This is the ultimately dumbest version of more I have experienced.
* Its main purpose is to illustrate the use of /dev/tty to interact
* with the user while in a filter role (stdin -> stdout). This also
* leaves stderr clear for actual errors.
*
*
* NOTES on Antiquity:
*
* - The early C syntax didn't allow for combining type information
* in the parenthesized argument list only the names were listed.
* Then a "variable" list followed the () and preceded the { that
* declared the types for the argument list.
*
* - There is no "void", specifically there is no distinction
* between a function that returns an int or nothing at all.
*
* - Many of the modern day header files aren't there.
*
* - Apparently "/dev/tty" couldn't be opened for both reading and
* writing on the same FD... at least not in our VM.
*
* - Apparently \a wasn't defined yet either. So I use the raw code
* \007.
*
* - Modern compilers gripe if you do an assignment and comparison in
* the same statement without enclosing the assignment in (). The
* original compilers did not. So if it looks like there are too
* many ()s it's to appease the modern compiler gods.
*
* - I'm not sure where they hid errno if there was one. I'd think
* there had to be. Maybe Kernighan or Pike knows...
*
*********************************************************************/
#include <stdio.h>
/*** Let's make some assumptions about our terminal columns and lines. ***/
#define T_COLS 80
#define T_LINES 24
/*** Let's set up our global working environment ***/
FILE *cin; /* TTY (in) */
FILE *cout; /* | (out) */
int ct = 0;
/*** message to stderr and exit with failure code ***/
err(msg)
char *msg;
{
fputs(msg, stderr);
exit(1);
}
/*** A poor man's CLear Screen ***
*
* Yup! This is how they used to do it, so says THE Kenrighan & Pike!
* termcap?!?! What's that?
*/
cls()
{
int x;
for(x=0; x<T_LINES; ++x) fputc('\n', cout);
ct = 0; /* reset global line count */
}
/*** The PAUSE prompt & wait ***/
pause()
{
char in[T_COLS+1]; /* TTY input buffer */
fflush(stdout); /*JIC*/
fputs("--- [ENTER] to continue --- Ctrl-d exits ", cout);
fflush(cout);
if(!fgets(in, 81, cin)) {
/* ^D / EOF */
fputc('\n', cout); /* cleaner terminal */
exit(0);
}
}
/*** Read and page a "file" ***/
int pg(f)
FILE *f;
{
char buf[T_COLS+1]; /* input line: usual term width + \0 */
/*** read and page stdin ***/
while(fgets(buf, sizeof(buf), f)) {
/* page break at T_LINES */
if(++ct==T_LINES) {
pause();
ct = 1;
}
fputs(buf, stdout);
}
return 0;
}
/*** Let's do some paging!! ***/
int main(argc, argv)
int argc;
char *argv[];
{
FILE *in;
int x, er;
/*** Grab a direct line to the TTY ***/
if(!(cin=fopen("/dev/tty", "r")) || !(cout=fopen("/dev/tty", "w")))
err("\007Couldn't get controlling TTY\n");
/*** with CLI args ***/
if(argc>1) {
er = 0;
for(x=1; x<argc; ++x) {
if(argc>2) {
if(!er) cls();
er = 0;
/* remember all user interaction is on /dev/tty (cin/cout) */
fprintf(cout, ">>> %s <<<\n", argv[x]);
pause();
}
/* - is tradition for stdin */
if(strcmp("-", argv[x])==0) {
pg(stdin);
/* it must be a file! */
} else if((in=fopen(argv[x], "r"))) {
pg(in);
fclose(in);
} else {
/* errors go on stderr... JIC someone want to log */
fprintf(stderr, "Could not open '%s'!\n", argv[x]);
fflush(stderr);
er = 1; /* this prevents cls() above. */
}
}
/*** no args - read and page stdin ***/
} else {
pg(stdin);
}
return 0;
}
End...
--
WWL 📚
In 'more.c' there is a typo
Line 154
replace
fprnntf(stderr, "Could not open '%s'!\n", argv[x]);
with
fprintf(stderr, "Could not open '%s'!\n", argv[x]);
--
WWL 📚
All,
If you think unix ends without x, just move along, nothing to see here.
Otherwise, I thought I would share the subject of my latest post and a
link with those of you interested in such things.
Recently, I've been tooling around trying to wrap my head around x
windows and wanted to give programming it a shot at the xlib level... on
my mac, if possible. So, I bought a copy of Adrian Nye's Xlib
Programming Manual for Version 11 R4/R5, aka Volume One of The
Definitive Guides to the X Window System, published, get this... 30+
years ago, in 1992 :) and started reading like a madman. As usual, this
was an example of great technical writing from the prior millenium,
something rarely found today.
Anyway, I hunted up the source code examples as published, unpacked
them, did a few environmental things to my mac, and built my first xlib
application from that source. A few tweaks to my XQuartz configuration
and I was running the application in twm on my mac, with a root window.
To read about it and see it in all of its glory, check it out here:
https://decuser.github.io/operating-systems/mojave/x-windows/2023/01/24/x-w…
The same sort of setup works with Linux, FreeBSD, or my latest
environment DragonFly BSD. It's not the environment that I find
interesting, but rather the X Window System itself, but this is my way
of entering into that world. If you are interested in running X Windows,
not as an integrated system on your mac (where x apps run in aqua
windows), but with a 'regular' window manager, and you haven't figured
out how, this is one way.
On the provocateur front - is X part of unix? I mean this in oh so many
nuanced ways, so read into it as you will. I would contend, torpedoes be
damned, that it is :).
Will
I found mention of Cadmus CadMac Toolbox/PCSMac when reading more
about the RT PC. It is interesting that this would later be sold to
Apple. Something not often mentioned in histories of PCS,
Cadmus Computer Systems or Apple.
"Cadmus Computer Systems had created the CadMac Toolbox, a Macintosh
Toolbox implemented in C on a UNIX base), and under a special agreement
with Cadmus, we received a license to port the CadMac code from their
hardware base to the RT"
Norman Meyrowitz - Intermedia: The Architecture and Construction of an
Object-Oriented Hypermedia System and Applications Framework
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/28697.28716
A video presentation of Intermedia and CadMac running on
IBM ACIS' port of 4.2BSD for the RT PC, with kernel changes
https://vimeo.com/20578352
they later moved to A/UX on the Macintosh II
InfoWorld 13 Jun 1988
https://books.google.com/books?id=-T4EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PT11
'Meyrowitz: It was before Apple Unix. There was a workstation company
called Cadmus that was producing workstations largely for CAD and
Tom Stambaugh took the Macintosh APIs and reprogrammed them to run
on Unix workstations. We went up to Cadmus and convinced them to
license that to us for the university. We were using Mac APIs on
Unix systems because we wanted systems that supported the network
file system, that had virtual memory, that had bigger disks. So we
did that and it was a beautiful system. Eventually, convinced Apple
to create a A/UX [Apple Unix] which was a Unix system and we ran
on that. Cadmus went out of business, and we had the only license
to CadMac, and Apple wasn't that happy to have it around. We had
actually convinced them that they should release it to universities,
because having that API around, especially if they could sell it
to other companies to put it on their workstations, could actually
be lucrative. We almost convinced them to do that. We were actually
having a celebratory dinner at McArthur Park in Palo Alto to celebrate
this and then Jean-Louis Gassée walked in and said, "The deal is
off."'
Oral History of Norman Meyrowitz
http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/access/text/2015/05/102658326-…
"we chose the Apple Macintosh front-end, or rather our local version
thereof (CadMac, now PCSMac) which was available on the
Cadmus 9000 computers."
https://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/p/pod/dod-idx/development-of-an-intelligent-…
"Apple Workstation Efforts Get Boost from Cadmus
Although Apple Computer Inc, won't say so, industry analysts believe the
company's acquisition of software technology from Unix workstation maker
Cadmus Computer Systems may speed up the introduction of high-end Unix
workstations from Apple.
...
At Apple's analysts' meeting April 23, chairman John Sculley said Apple
had acquired the rights to the technology from Cadmus of Lowell,
Massachusetts, to use in long-term advanced product development
efforts for the Macintosh. He said the Cadmus software would help the
company develop a workstation for the engineering community and federal
government markets, which use Unix-based systems, according to Apple's
transcripts.
Although Sculley has not detailed what Apple will do with the Cadmus
technology, Cadmus introduced last summer a graphics workstation
equipped with Cadmac, a graphics environment that is compatible with
Apple's Macintosh graphics routines."
InfoWorld 19 May 1986
https://books.google.com/books?id=SS8EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA3
Sandy wrote the original CDL tool set. It had a graphical front end that provided for chips , pins,
wires etc and generated a connectivity list which was then consumed by wire wrap and other back end
tools. We had Tek 4014 terminals at the time (late 70s is what I recall) which made all this
reasonable.
I took it over the code base at some point and among other things added macros so that repeated wire
to chip connection patterns and names could be generated without the labor intensive one wire at a
time e.g. wire[0-7] connects to pin[0-7]. The macro would be expanded so that wire0 connected to
pin0 etc. This later system was call UCDS - Unix Circuit Design System.
UCDS was used by Joe Condon for the chess machine that he and Ken built. Ken may remember more
about this. It was also one of the reasons that BTL got a $1B Navy contract.
Steve
