D. Peschel wrote:
> A month ago I visited my brother at Dartmouth College (in New Hampshire).
> I did my usual "what books on old computers are at the library?" search,
> and found someone's thesis describing a mini-timesharing system for the -9.
> The whole document is VERY thick since it describes the system and includes
> full source code.
>
> It was written to coexist with other OS's -- DEC's PDP-9 software, something
> called GROWTH, and Dartmouth's large DTSS timesharing system (which ran on a
> different computer family -- I don't know which). And it can't assemble
> itself (since it doesn't include an assembler). But with enough work this
> could be an interesting lead.
(some skipping)
> Incidentally, DTSS was the system that BASIC was developed for. And DTSS still
Not necessarily. New Hampshire is a funny place, where if something
almost works they'll keep doing it for the next 300 years. I spent
my latter teen years there (after reaching age 15 in Los Angeles), my
family is there to this day. I've been there once in the past twenty
years. However, besides the creation of BASIC, New Hampshire gave us
(as classic computer collectors) Wayne Green and therefore "Byte",
"Kilobaud" and their many descendents. (I realize that "Byte" is just
another PC rag these days, but backalong it was a damned fine piece of
work under Green and then Helmers, rivalled only by other now-defunct
[or even more mutated, i.e. Dr. Dobbs] magazines).
--
Ward Griffiths
They say that politics makes strange bedfellows.
Of course, the main reason they cuddle up is to screw somebody else.
Michael Flynn, _Rogue Star_
Received on Thu May 14 1998 - 21:27:03 BST