final brainteaser for the day

From: Tom Uban <uban_at_ubanproductions.com>
Date: Mon Jun 24 13:36:51 2002

At 02:13 PM 6/24/02 -0400, you wrote:
>>Alex White wrote:
>
>> Can you describe all the PDP OSen and variants out there?
>> *grins*
>> Alex
>
>Jerome Fine replies:
>
>YES!!
>*grins* (You just asked "Can you" - not to actually describe them!)
>
>Now, to actually describe them "all", I don't think it is worth while
>to spend all that amount ot time (a few centuries) or the space. But,
>The major 3 are (there are many more):
>
>RSTS/E
>
>RSX-11
>
>RT-11 which is the only one I currently use. It would take about
>10 years to describe completely - the DOCs for V5.07 are about
>18" high double-sided 8" * 11" sheets without the binders. The
>program listings for each distinct version of the operating system
>are about the same size and there are at least 2 major flavours,
>unmapped (RT11SB and RT11FB) and mapped (RT11XM and
>RT11ZM) with significant differences (15% to 25%) between
>the unmapped and mapped flavours. The listings for the utilities
>are probably another 48". The DOCs can be purchased. The
>source code licenses can also be purchased. DEC probably had
>internal documentation as well, but no information seems to be
>publicly available, including the DEC (and the Mentec) RT-11
>Bug List. Megan Gentry can probably confirm the information
>about the DOCs and the source listings. There is probably an
>NDF (Non-Disclosure Agreement) that prevents anyone who
>knows about the "secret" stuff from even admitting that they know
>anything about the "secret" stuff. Otherwise, those who know and
>may even have copies could at least say how many pages of internal
>documentation existed and how many bugs are in the "secret" DEC
>(and the Mentec) RT-11 Bug List.
>
>*grin* Perhaps you can understand why I suggested it would take
>about ten years to completely describe RT-11.
>
>Sincerely yours,
>
>Jerome Fine
>--
>If you attempted to send a reply and the original e-mail
>address has been discontinued due a high volume of junk
>e-mail, then the semi-permanent e-mail address can be
>obtained by replacing the four characters preceding the
>'at' with the four digits of the current year.
>
>

Now you've done it! Didn't you really mean to say that the major
OSes are Unix V6, V7, 2.9, 2.10, 2.11, etc.? :-)

--tom
Received on Mon Jun 24 2002 - 13:36:51 BST