3 Mar
2025
3 Mar
'25
11:13 p.m.
On Mon, Mar 3, 2025 at 6:01 PM Rob Gingell <gingell(a)computer.org> wrote:
[snip]
The UNIX-related part of this was that among the things we used BLISS
for was a package called PAUNIX that attempted to implement the V7 UNIX
interfaces using the mechanisms/form used to implement TOPS-10
compatibility (PA1050). Like the TOPS-10 compatibility it was a run-time
veneer over TOPS-20 that mapped the UNIX functionality onto it and
buffered the differences. I describe it as "attempted to" as it was
successful as far as it got but it was a hobby project that got to about
80% done (meaning about 80% of the total effort remained) before life
and other assignments preempted it.
(Although, with my PiDP-10 running TOPS-20, a fun exercise in nostalgic
futility might be to haul PAUNIX out of the closet and try to finish it.)
As an aside, Ken Harrenstein wrote a C compiler for the PDP-10 and a
support library that was "good enough" to port a number of GNU tools
to TOPS-20, including bash:
@i vers
Indra, PANDA TOPS-20 Monitor 7.1(21733)-4
PANDA TOPS-20 Command processor 7.1(4453)-4
@sh
bash$ echo $BASH_VERSION
1.12.1
bash$
bash$ exit
exit
@@
@
Kind of impressive, really.
- Dan C.