.PAGE SIZE 58, 85 .NONUMBER .; for VAX .LEFT MARGIN 10 .RIGHT MARGIN 75 .; for RSX .;.LEFT MARGIN 0 .;.RIGHT MARGIN 65 .AUTOPARAGRAPH # .lm +30 .SKIP 5 .CENTER THE RSX/IAS MULTI-TASKER .SKIP .CENTER September 1989 .SKIP .CENTER "In hoc signo foobar" .SKIP .CENTER Fine Realtime Commentary .c Since 1975 .SKIP 14 .lm -30 .CENTER ^&TABLE OF CONTENTS\& .SKIP .LIT RSX/IAS SIG NEWS Editor's Corner RSX-1 Submitting Articles to the Multi-Tasker RSX-3 Bulletin Board Notes RSX-3 ARTICLES Anniversary PDP RSX-4 Fifteen Years Ago RSX-5 RSX/IAS Hall of Fame RSX-7 .eli .s4 Opinions expressed in the Multi-Tasker are those of individual members. They do not represent the official position of the RSX/IAS SIG or that of DECUS leadership in general. .pg .C *************** ^&RSX/IAS SIG NEWS\& *************** .s2 .C Editor's Corner .S .lit Phil Hannay, RSX Editor Frank Borger, IAS Editor Bruce Mitchell, Minister of Propaganda .eli .s3 .C ----- Editorial: Topics of Regional Interest ----- .SKIP 2 .CENTER Bruce R. Mitchell .CENTER Machine Intelligence and Industrial Magic, Consultants .CENTER 390 North Shore Drive, RR _#1, Box 216 .CENTER Fountain City, WI###54629 .SKIP 4 Sliding across my desk today (probably due to the slime leaking out) is a registration kit for the Minnesota regional conference. I think I'll ignore it, though I'd like to see some folks I haven't since the LUG folded - but that is another story, as Conan says. Your obedient servant once made it a practice to attend the regional conference in Minneapolis every fall. Registration was around 40 - 50 bucks, which is about right for a two-day 8-to-5 conference with four session streams. Although little of really riveting interest was said or done, it was a chance to see old friends and maybe meet some new ones. Well, all that is changed now. Registration for the conference is now up to 100 smackers, $125 at the door. Other bargains include DECUS library tapes at $130 each, and pre-conference seminars at $225 - or $335 at the door. That seems a bit high, eh wot, for a regional conference? You don't suppose that part of that price jump could be due to the new and efficient management of DECUS HQ, which insists that someone from US Chapter leadership attend - expenses paid from receipts - to "supervise"? Useta be that regional people fronted their own money, ran their conference without "supervision", and kept their profits to make the next conference bigger and better. Now that money goes to the US Chapter at Marlboro, not to local folks who sweat blood and give their time to put on the show. All hail the "New DECUS" and its professional bureaucracy - ah, ^&management\&. It's no surprise to me that the New Mexico conference people squealed like stuck pigs when they were told to fork over their limited profits. They got ^&real\& programmers down there. What did all the other regional conference organizers do? Why, of course! They rolled over and let US Chapter shove a hot poker up. After you get used to it, it don't hardly hurt very much at all. So, once again, the membership loses. And, even better, local leadership loses interest, handing over a money-making plum to the US Chapter. Is it worth $100 to me to hear about All-in-One, when what I want is to shoot the bull with other hackers for two days? You get one guess. Looks to me like the camel, having stuck its nose into the tent, decided that it would be a good idea to crowd us smelly Ayrabs out. .pg .C ----- Submitting Articles to the Multi-Tasker ----- .s1 You are encouraged to submit articles to the Multi-Tasker. No article is too big or too small. They can be serious or funny, and of any techinical level. Please submit machine readable media if possible. Hardcopy submissions are okay if they are fairly short. Illustrations and drawings that can be photocopied may accompany the article. Most any media is acceptable, however RX50, RX01/2, TK50 and 1600 BPI magtape are preferred. All RSX volume formats are acceptable, and VMS formats are also acceptable on RX50, TK50 and 1600 BPI magtape. You can also submit articles through the RSX bulletin board system at (612) 777-7664. Kermit the file into your account and then send it via MAIL to username MULTITASKER. The Multi-Tasker begins life as a RUNOFF file, so feel free to submit your articles in RUNOFF format. The page size will be 80 columns by 58 lines, with the left margin at 10 and right margin at 75. Use literal format for code examples. If you change margins, use incremental changes rather than absolute. Mail your articles and other submissions to the expansive Multi-Tasker offices: .LITERAL Phil Hannay Cargill Research Bldg Box 9300 Minneapolis, MN. 55440 tel. 612-475-5433 (daytime) .END LITERAL .C ----- Bulletin Board Notes ----- .s1 The RSX Bulletin Board is online. RSX Network Mail, Kermit, old issues of the Multi-Tasker, and various other goodies are available. Free advice as well. (often worth the price...) Contact Jim Bostwick, at 612-475-6264 (daytime) if you wish to donate some equipment. You can log into the BBS at 612-SPR-PONG (612-777-7664). The line will always do 100-1200 baud, and often 2400 (depending on when the owner of the 2400 modem last went looking for it). New users should log in with username ACCOUNT and password REQUEST. This will get you a registration procedure. You'll need your DECUS membership number in order to get a permanent account. .pg .c *************** ^&ARTICLES\& *************** .s6 .CENTER;------ Anniversary PDP ------ .BLANK .lit From: Arnold De Larisch Dept: SIG Steering Comm Tel No: 407 367-2225 Subject: PDP 11/15 for Anaheim .eli Hi Folks, If some of you are scratching your heads as to what a PDP 11/15 is ... it is the OEM version of the first PDP 11 ... the PDP 11/20. We replaced the muffin fan and reinstalled the power supply (after checking voltages) ... and powered the sucker up ... Well as expected, its sick! You can help ... yes YOU ... the DEC board collectors of America! We are in need of spares ... If you have any of the following boards you are willing to ... donate to the cause ... G102, G103 H207 (we need several!) M224, M7216-YA, M7218, M724-YA, M725-YA, M727-YA, M728-YA, M7290 M7800, M787, M822-YA, M8251, M920 Any technical info or Processor Handbook info would be greatly appriciated (and much Needed). I will return any documentation after (or at) the symposium. Please help! -Arnold .pg .CENTER;------ Fifteen Years Ago ------ .BLANK .CENTER;Frank Borger .p The August 1974 issue of the RSX-11 SIG Newsletter marked the inaguration of monthly publication. It was also noted, "However, the removal of the DEC printshop to a new location has resulted in an increased delay between submittal of final copy and distribution." (Some problems never go away, ed.) .p An error in the teletype handler caused DH11 lines that were specified as non-parity lines to end up transmitting 9-bit characters. .p The newsletter also reported on the totally undocumented feature of Batch, the $MCR switch. Yes folks DEC left the most important command in the first batch command language as an undocumented feature. .fg 2 .c Ten Years Ago This Month .c From the RSX11M Spring DECUS Q and A: .fg 1 [Q] I have a problem where EDI has control of a terminal and my FORTRAN task would like to print a STOP message. As I do not have enough memory for both to be in memory the terminal gets locked up and I have to re-boot the system. .fg 1 [A] Try not running so much at once. .fg 1 [Q] We would like to be able to submit SPR's on a machine printed form. We would probably submit twice as many. .fg 1 [A] We agree with all except the last sentence. .fg 1 [Q] Why does TKB take so long compared to the equivalent program under other systems, (e.g. RT-11)? .fg 1 [A] No answer on tape. .fg 2;.c From the IAS/RSX11D Spring DECUS Q and A: .fg 1 [Q] Will batch ever be changed so that job limit time is taken as CPU time as opposed to elapsed time? .fg 1 [A] In IAS 3.1 (laughs.) .fg 1 [Q] if _ looks like an EOF to FCS, would it be possible to backspace or rewind the terminal to get back from the end of file? (An early bug existed that if you gave a program a control-z from your terminal, all subsequent reads terminated with a control-z too, ed.) .fg 1 [A] It would be nice, but it wouldn't surprise me if it didn't work. .fg 1 [Q] After I modified an exec routine, SGN1 went fine. When I booted in PHASE 2, I got a 'YUK>' prompt. Does anyone know where it's coming from? .fg 1 [A] No. (Many laughs.) .fg 1 [Q] How can I read paper tape with parity on my PC11? .fg 1 [A] If it doesn't work now, there are no plans to change it... .p And finally, Alan Frisbie submitted a classic SPR. .fg 1 Our graphics system uses a separate partition, GAM, as a refresh data buffer. To aid in debugging we use a program, CLEARPAR, to zero the entire partition except for the pointers in the first two words. CLEARPAR starts by issuing a GPRT$ directive... .fg 1;.nofill GETPAR: .BYTE 65.,4 .RAD50 /GAM/ .WORD PARADR PARADR: .WORD 0 PARSIZ: .WORD 0 PARFLG: .WORD 0 .FG 1;.FILL Under RSX-11D V6.2, this correctly returns the address (1/64) and length (1/64) of the GAM partition. Under IAS V3.0 this returns the address and length of the GEN partition. The subsequent clearing of the GEN partition leads to a marked decrease in system throughput. .pg .CENTER;------ RSX/IAS Hall of Fame ------ .BLANK .CENTER;T. R. Wyant, Curator .CENTER;E. I. DuPont de Nemours As the RSX/IAS SIG matures (or at least grows older), there is a tendancy to reflect on what has gone before, savoring those things that make the PDP-11 and RSX unique. The RSX/IAS Hall of Fame was inaugurated during the Fall 1988 Symposium to honor and preserve for posterity the most famous/notorious (pick one) features of the computing environment we have come to know and love. Eight categories were selected, field-tested, presented, and voted on. The winners will receive recognition in a quasi-periodic series of MultiTasker articles, beginning now. .s 4 .c; ** Most Descriptive Comment in the Exec ** .s 2 The category that inaugurated the RSX/IAS Hall of Fame was "Most Descriptive Comment in the Exec". One of the great features of RSX is simply this: YOU GET THE SOURCE. Not only is the executive source the ultimate documentation (specifying exactly what RSX does, as opposed to what you, the documenter, or even the developer THOUGHT it did), it is also a repository of deathless prose. And if you, like the great hackers of old, decend into the depths of RSX, learning to know the exec modules on a first-name basis, this is what you'll find: .LIST "*" .BLANK .LE;"MY MOTHER TAUGHT ME NOT TO CODE LIKE THIS" .BLANK The nominator of this comment did not specify the module it was found in. Perhaps it's better that way ... .BLANK .LE;"; Output the character .BREAK "; Decrement the count .BREAK "; Loop until done .BREAK "; Just like they taught you at the Famous Programmers School" .BLANK This lyrical snippet of pseudocode appears in the character output subroutine in XDT. Now, if only someone would come up with a pseudoassembler we could do away with the code completely. .BLANK .LE;"Oh, no you don't!" .BLANK Terse and to the point, this comment appears in the CRASH module just below the HALT instruction that terminates the crash dump. The branch instruction it comments takes the CPU right back to the preceding HALT, thus foiling anyone who thinks CONTINUEing a corrupted system is a good idea. .END LIST .BLANK And the winner is (drum roll, please!) .BLANK .CENTER;"Shove horrendous byproduct on stack" .BLANK Fresh from its recent gala appearance in HELLO's password encryption algorithm, this comment swept all others from the field, proving once again that REALLY TOUGH code simply can not be commented. .BLANK 3 .s 4 .c; ** Most Requested/Least Implemented Feature ** .s 2 The second category voted on in the RSX/IAS Hall of Fame does not commemorate the features that RSX has; rather, it honors features that it DOESN'T have. Through the years, certain features have been consistently requested for RSX. And through the years, these same features have consistently not been implemented. Here are the best of the best (or, from the developers' point of view, the worst of the worst): .LIST "*" .BLANK .LE;COPY/BOOT .BLANK One of the real (ahem) inconveniences of RSX is the rigamarole you have to go through to make a bootable disk: you copy RSX11M.TSK, then you run VMR, then you BOOT the disk, then you SAVE it -- you really have to go around your euphemism to get to your elbow. .BLANK Many other systems have clean ways to handle this. RT-11, for example, has COPY/BOOT. You want a boot block, you write a boot block. No big deal. You can even COPY/BOOT to a virtual disk (though how you boot the thing when you're done is another matter). No muss, no fuss, no preservatives, no artificial ingredients. .BLANK .LE;CREATE/DIRECTORY [.SUB1] .BLANK Here's a little goodie. A directory is simply a sequential file with 16-byte fixed length records. If only it didn't have to be in [0,0]. Hierarchical directories are a great way to organize things, and named main directories just don't quite fill the gap. The usual rebuttal is that BRU can't find the things to back them up; I know what Tony Scandora would say to that! .BLANK Just to add insult to injury, UFD actually parses this command. The error message returned is: .BLANK;.INDENT 5;"Not implemented yet." .END LIST .BLANK The winner is a request that has been around for most of the life of RSX: .BLANK .CENTER;ABORT/I__REALLY__MEAN__IT .BLANK It has long been noted that ABORT is a partial implementation; there are various states that a task can get into where it just doesn't help. There are, of course, various options: rebooting; the Ralph Stamerjohn OPEN tcb+2 (which sometimes leads to rebooting), and the like. But it would be REALLY nice to have a clean way to shut down any task, anytime, anywhere. .BLANK 3