Although this list is semi-public, I thought it best to keep this
inquiry a bit more limited than immediately posting this in
alt.sys.pdp11 and vmsnet.pdp-11. If I don't receive any
replies from classiccmp, then I will try those two newsgroups,
but any feedback from classiccmp would be greatly
appreciated so that obvious (but not to me) aspects of
this content that are inappropriate can be changed.
Note that since V5.03 of RT-11 was released in 1985, I
am abiding by the ten year rule.
Please note that I realize that there is almost no interest in
fixing bugs in RT-11, let alone producing enhancements.
If you feel that such activity is best left to Mentec or you
don't wish to participate, then read no further. As for why
I enjoy fixing bugs in RT-11 and making enhancements,
the reason must be the same as for someone who climbs
Mount Everest - because it is there!
As of November 2002, V5.07 of RT-11 was 4 years old,
having been released in November 1998. Even if Mentec
does eventually allow hobby use of versions of RT-11
subsequent to V5.03, especially V5.07, I just can't believe
that Mentec will ever spend the money to decide to release
another version of RT-11 when there are already insufficient
sales to even support selling RT-11 and all of the layered
products.
My suggestion is that the very few individuals who are still
interested in fixing bugs and writing code to enhance RT-11
pool their resources.
While there are many minor and several major bugs still
in RT-11, it no longer seems likely that there will be a
further release. If you are interested in bug fixes and
extensions to RT-11, along with support for V5.03 which
may be used as a hobby version of RT-11 under the Supnik
(SIMH) emulator, I would appreciate being part of, even
leading if no one else is willing, a small group to share and
define future extensions to RT-11 as well as fixing the
current bugs. If no one replies, I guess I will lead a one
person group. But even someone who is interested, but
might only wish to comment on how and which bugs,
along with any enhancements should be undertaken,
would be extremely helpful.
Also if you are only interested in using the enhanced
features of a future RT-11 and NOT even in being a
beta tester, you can still provide valuable help by stating
which features would be of use.
For example, at the very least and until the hobby license
allows later versions of RT-11 after V5.03 to be used,
a Y2K compliant V5.03 of RT-11 would seem to be
reasonable. While I would rather spend my time fixing
the bugs and making enhancements to V5.07, there may
be sufficient interest to make V5.03 Y2K compliant until
the hobby license for at least RT-11 (as opposed to RSTS/E
and RSX-11) is extended.
Another extension that would seem to be in order while
there is sufficient expertise around is to allow for dates
beyond 2099. For example, current VMS 64 bit
implementations probably allow for the year 25,000.
Extending the DATE value significantly beyond 2099
to at least 9999 will require at least 5 MORE bits to be
used for the DATE value within the resident monitor
and in random file directories.
I also have looked at the implementation of a PH: (PATH
pseudo device HANDLER) that could act like the Symbolic
Name List in VMS or the PATH NAME in DOS. And an
enhancement I have thought about would be the ability
to boot and execute RT-11 within a DSK file, i.e. allow
the LD: to be a System Device bootable using DUP.
Another might be to allow more RT-11 partitions to
be active for MSCP device drivers instead of only 64
RT-11 partitions - and if feasible, 256 RT-11 partitions
depending on how RT-11 handles characters in the third
character of the device name. Of course, 2 extra bits
would need to be found in the queue element.
As far as I understand, all future changes to RT-11 (both
bug fixes and extensions) are unlikely to be used by any
commercial sites. Further, in order to attempt to be compliant
with the current and any future hobby license from Mentec,
I suggest that all changes to RT-11 be made available ONLY
for hobby use unless they have Mentec's approval for use
by commercial users. If anyone at Mentec is reading this,
I suggest that contact be made to arrange for this aspect
of the use of any changes made to RT-11 that are not made
by Mentec. Obviously, if there is no contact with Mentec,
NONE of the changes will be approved of or supported by
Mentec - which is probably the BEST solution since then the
users will do all the work and coordination for the changes
that are needed as well as being responsible to ensure that
the changes are bug free and work correctly.
However, a win/win solution might be for Mentec to allow
V5.07 of RT-11 to be used by hobby users and for the
bug fixes (especially the bug fixes) and enhancements to
continue to be sold by Mentec to the commercial users
after they are provided without charge to Mentec by the
hobby community. I don't know if this arrangement has
ever been made between the manufacturer and the hobby
community, but I can't see how it would hurt Mentec. In
this regard, a completely ISO 9000 compliant version of
RT-11 might even be possible. About the only utility still
needing 4 digit years is MACRO-11 and that is already
done - in a private version I did in 1997.
Sincerely yours,
Jerome Fine
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Received on Sat Nov 09 2002 - 20:23:01 GMT