On Sat, 22 Jun 2013 15:03:32 +0000, Huge wrote:

On 2013-06-22, Bob Minchin
wrote:
Bob Eager wrote:
John later became our site engineer for the ICL 2960 mainframe.
Back in the day, the campus computing power was an ICL 4130 with a
PDP11 bolted on the front running interactive BASIC to 8 (or was it 10)
Teletypes scattered across the campus.
The system was known as KOS - (Kent Online System) and I think a clone
of it was also run at Reading too.

For some reason this post of Bob M's didn't make it to me.

There were 8 teletypes originally - that was the number of ports on the
multiplexer (whose driver I hacked). Plus a control teleptinter in the
computer room. I think two of the terminals (ASR-33s) were in Electronics
and the Registry, and the rest in the Computing lobby area.

The PDP-11 came later (although there were two other PDP-11s for
teaching). They were better multiplexers as we could connect to the
second 4130 instead (when we got it). I wrote part of the PDP-11 code for
that.

KOS was written as a funded research project, and the code was made
available to any university with a 4130 (there were several). I think
Bangor was another.



--
Use the BIG mirror service in the UK: http://www.mirrorservice.org
My posts (including this one) are my copyright and if @diy_forums on
Twitter wish to tweet them they can pay me £30 a post
*lightning surge protection* - a w_tom conductor

On Sat, 22 Jun 2013 15:47:42 +0000, Huge wrote:

On 2013-06-22, Bob Eager wrote:
On Sat, 22 Jun 2013 13:42:26 +0100, Bob Minchin wrote:

Bob Eager wrote:
John later became our site engineer for the ICL 2960 mainframe.
Back in the day, the campus computing power was an ICL 4130 with a
PDP11 bolted on the front running interactive BASIC to 8 (or was it
10) Teletypes scattered across the campus.
The system was known as KOS - (Kent Online System) and I think a clone
of it was also run at Reading too.

Bob

According to Google, York also ran KOS

They did. And Lancaster, Aberystwyth, and a couple of others.

It was however developed at Kent by Peter Brown, Heather Brown, Steve
Binns and Brian Spratt. I started using it in January 1971, but by June
I had stolen the source code. I got the hardware specs from ICL over
the summer and hacked rather a lot of it the following year...

The first hack was setting a bit in the multiplexer status word for a
terminal - which logged it out, allowing someone else to use it!

What did the command "ENTER" do? I still recall juvenile hilarity at
typing "ENTER {toothsome female teaching assistant name}" and having the
system respond;

{toothsome female teaching assistant name} not available now.

These days, it woukd be RUN; it was just to run a program. I think
Elliott (the machine manufacturer, taken over by ICL, well, merged...)
used that terminology.

A number of years ago, I returned to visit Prof Brown on behalf of my
then employers (Xerox) and one of people in the computer centre, who'd
been an operator when I was there as an undergraduate actually
remembered me; quite an achievement, given I was suited, booted &
short-haired, in complete contrast to my undergrad days, 20 years
previously.

Probably Trevor Potts, if male. He retired a couple of years ago.



--
Use the BIG mirror service in the UK: http://www.mirrorservice.org
My posts (including this one) are my copyright and if @diy_forums on
Twitter wish to tweet them they can pay me £30 a post
*lightning surge protection* - a w_tom conductor

In article ,
Bob Eager wrote:

A number of years ago, I returned to visit Prof Brown on behalf of my
then employers (Xerox) and one of people in the computer centre, who'd
been an operator when I was there as an undergraduate actually
remembered me; quite an achievement, given I was suited, booted &
short-haired, in complete contrast to my undergrad days, 20 years
previously.

Probably Trevor Potts, if male. He retired a couple of years ago.

Yep, was going to say Trev

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmchapm...7625490669317/

http://goo.gl/qpmc9

Rather randomly you've just reminded me I've got his snorkeling gear
in the boot of my car :-)

Darren

In article ,
Huge wrote:
On 2013-06-22, Bob Eager wrote:

Probably Trevor Potts, if male. He retired a couple of years ago.

It was a lady. The one in your photo loading what appears to be an RM03
disk pack into a drive - or whatever the ICL equivalent was.

Well, i've heard Trev called a few things, but lady he ain't :-)

Not sure I've seen the photo you mention. You've got me thinking now...

Darren

In article ,
Bob Eager wrote:

It was however developed at Kent by Peter Brown, Heather Brown, Steve
Binns and Brian Spratt. I started using it in January 1971, but by June I
had stolen the source code. I got the hardware specs from ICL over the
summer and hacked rather a lot of it the following year...

http://carina.org.uk/piccies/uni%20b...uters.jpg.html

Darren

In article ,
D.M.Chapman wrote:

http://carina.org.uk/piccies/uni%20b...uters.jpg.html

Actually, given mention of the tunnel collapse and old machines I suspect
a few people here might be interested in some of the other photos on
that site.

http://carina.org.uk/piccies/uni%20book%20piccies/

Never know, some of you might be in one of them

Darren

On Sat, 22 Jun 2013 18:37:10 +0000, D.M.Chapman wrote:

In article ,
Bob Eager wrote:

It was however developed at Kent by Peter Brown, Heather Brown, Steve
Binns and Brian Spratt. I started using it in January 1971, but by June
I had stolen the source code. I got the hardware specs from ICL over the
summer and hacked rather a lot of it the following year...

http://carina.org.uk/piccies/uni%20b...uters.jpg.html

I have that picture (and some others) on file!

--
Use the BIG mirror service in the UK: http://www.mirrorservice.org
My posts (including this one) are my copyright and if @diy_forums on
Twitter wish to tweet them they can pay me £30 a post
*lightning surge protection* - a w_tom conductor

On Sat, 22 Jun 2013 18:29:19 +0000, Huge wrote:

On 2013-06-22, Bob Eager wrote:
On Sat, 22 Jun 2013 15:47:42 +0000, Huge wrote:

A number of years ago, I returned to visit Prof Brown on behalf of my
then employers (Xerox) and one of people in the computer centre, who'd
been an operator when I was there as an undergraduate actually
remembered me; quite an achievement, given I was suited, booted &
short-haired, in complete contrast to my undergrad days, 20 years
previously.

Probably Trevor Potts, if male. He retired a couple of years ago.

It was a lady. The one in your photo loading what appears to be an RM03
disk pack into a drive - or whatever the ICL equivalent was.

EDS100. The pack, not the lady.

That was Ann Benton. We used to call ger 'Little Ann'. She started in
about 1969 straight from school at the age of 16.



--
Use the BIG mirror service in the UK: http://www.mirrorservice.org
My posts (including this one) are my copyright and if @diy_forums on
Twitter wish to tweet them they can pay me £30 a post
*lightning surge protection* - a w_tom conductor

On Sat, 22 Jun 2013 18:40:59 +0000, D.M.Chapman wrote:

In article ,
D.M.Chapman wrote:

http://carina.org.uk/piccies/uni%20b...uters.jpg.html

Actually, given mention of the tunnel collapse and old machines I
suspect a few people here might be interested in some of the other
photos on that site.

http://carina.org.uk/piccies/uni%20book%20piccies/

Never know, some of you might be in one of them

I have an annotated sequence of pictures of the tunnel collapse. It's on
Facebook though.

--
Use the BIG mirror service in the UK: http://www.mirrorservice.org
My posts (including this one) are my copyright and if @diy_forums on
Twitter wish to tweet them they can pay me £30 a post
*lightning surge protection* - a w_tom conductor

On Sat, 22 Jun 2013 18:36:23 +0000, D.M.Chapman wrote:

In article ,
Huge wrote:
On 2013-06-22, Bob Eager wrote:

Probably Trevor Potts, if male. He retired a couple of years ago.

It was a lady. The one in your photo loading what appears to be an RM03
disk pack into a drive - or whatever the ICL equivalent was.

Well, i've heard Trev called a few things, but lady he ain't :-)

Not sure I've seen the photo you mention. You've got me thinking now...

This one. Sorry it's so small, I have the original somewhere.

http://www.tavi.co.uk/tn_disks.jpg

--
Use the BIG mirror service in the UK: http://www.mirrorservice.org
My posts (including this one) are my copyright and if @diy_forums on
Twitter wish to tweet them they can pay me £30 a post
*lightning surge protection* - a w_tom conductor

On Sat, 22 Jun 2013 20:02:25 +0000, Bob Eager wrote:

On Sat, 22 Jun 2013 18:36:23 +0000, D.M.Chapman wrote:

In article ,
Huge wrote:
On 2013-06-22, Bob Eager wrote:

Probably Trevor Potts, if male. He retired a couple of years ago.

It was a lady. The one in your photo loading what appears to be an RM03
disk pack into a drive - or whatever the ICL equivalent was.

Well, i've heard Trev called a few things, but lady he ain't :-)

Not sure I've seen the photo you mention. You've got me thinking now...

This one. Sorry it's so small, I have the original somewhere.

http://www.tavi.co.uk/tn_disks.jpg

Ah, here's a better one:

http://www.tavi.co.uk/2900_ann.jpg




--
Use the BIG mirror service in the UK: http://www.mirrorservice.org
My posts (including this one) are my copyright and if @diy_forums on
Twitter wish to tweet them they can pay me £30 a post
*lightning surge protection* - a w_tom conductor

"Bob Eager" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 22 Jun 2013 20:02:25 +0000, Bob Eager wrote:

On Sat, 22 Jun 2013 18:36:23 +0000, D.M.Chapman wrote:

In article ,
Huge wrote:
On 2013-06-22, Bob Eager wrote:

Probably Trevor Potts, if male. He retired a couple of years ago.

It was a lady. The one in your photo loading what appears to be an RM03
disk pack into a drive - or whatever the ICL equivalent was.

Well, i've heard Trev called a few things, but lady he ain't :-)

Not sure I've seen the photo you mention. You've got me thinking now...

This one. Sorry it's so small, I have the original somewhere.

http://www.tavi.co.uk/tn_disks.jpg

Ah, here's a better one:

http://www.tavi.co.uk/2900_ann.jpg

*ahem* hey Bob, you sound just like the missus and me. Surrounded by
antiquated tat
I'll get me coat.

On Sat, 22 Jun 2013 22:53:15 +0100, bm wrote:

"Bob Eager" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 22 Jun 2013 20:02:25 +0000, Bob Eager wrote:

On Sat, 22 Jun 2013 18:36:23 +0000, D.M.Chapman wrote:

In article ,
Huge wrote:
On 2013-06-22, Bob Eager wrote:

Probably Trevor Potts, if male. He retired a couple of years ago.

It was a lady. The one in your photo loading what appears to be an
RM03 disk pack into a drive - or whatever the ICL equivalent was.

Well, i've heard Trev called a few things, but lady he ain't :-)

Not sure I've seen the photo you mention. You've got me thinking
now...

This one. Sorry it's so small, I have the original somewhere.

http://www.tavi.co.uk/tn_disks.jpg

Ah, here's a better one:

http://www.tavi.co.uk/2900_ann.jpg

*ahem* hey Bob, you sound just like the missus and me. Surrounded by
antiquated tat

Trying to sort out a 'history' thing for work...

Although that doesn't excuse the PDP-11 (or SWMBO).
--
Use the BIG mirror service in the UK: http://www.mirrorservice.org
My posts (including this one) are my copyright and if @diy_forums on
Twitter wish to tweet them they can pay me £30 a post
*lightning surge protection* - a w_tom conductor

On Sat, 22 Jun 2013 22:16:02 +0000, Huge wrote:

On 2013-06-22, Bob Eager wrote:
On Sat, 22 Jun 2013 18:29:19 +0000, Huge wrote:

On 2013-06-22, Bob Eager wrote:
On Sat, 22 Jun 2013 15:47:42 +0000, Huge wrote:

A number of years ago, I returned to visit Prof Brown on behalf of
my then employers (Xerox) and one of people in the computer centre,
who'd been an operator when I was there as an undergraduate actually
remembered me; quite an achievement, given I was suited, booted &
short-haired, in complete contrast to my undergrad days, 20 years
previously.

Probably Trevor Potts, if male. He retired a couple of years ago.

It was a lady. The one in your photo loading what appears to be an
RM03 disk pack into a drive - or whatever the ICL equivalent was.

EDS100. The pack, not the lady.

That was Ann Benton. We used to call ger 'Little Ann'. She started in
about 1969 straight from school at the age of 16.

Well, she had an awesome memory, given how many students she must have
seen over the years.

She always remembered the tall, handsome ones.



--
Use the BIG mirror service in the UK: http://www.mirrorservice.org
My posts (including this one) are my copyright and if @diy_forums on
Twitter wish to tweet them they can pay me £30 a post
*lightning surge protection* - a w_tom conductor

"Bob Eager" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 22 Jun 2013 22:53:15 +0100, bm wrote:

"Bob Eager" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 22 Jun 2013 20:02:25 +0000, Bob Eager wrote:

On Sat, 22 Jun 2013 18:36:23 +0000, D.M.Chapman wrote:

In article ,
Huge wrote:
On 2013-06-22, Bob Eager wrote:

Probably Trevor Potts, if male. He retired a couple of years ago.

It was a lady. The one in your photo loading what appears to be an
RM03 disk pack into a drive - or whatever the ICL equivalent was.

Well, i've heard Trev called a few things, but lady he ain't :-)

Not sure I've seen the photo you mention. You've got me thinking
now...

This one. Sorry it's so small, I have the original somewhere.

http://www.tavi.co.uk/tn_disks.jpg

Ah, here's a better one:

http://www.tavi.co.uk/2900_ann.jpg

*ahem* hey Bob, you sound just like the missus and me. Surrounded by
antiquated tat

Trying to sort out a 'history' thing for work...

Although that doesn't excuse the PDP-11 (or SWMBO).

Just remembered, we had a puter tech at Brum Uni who was the bees knees on
mainframes. Conrad (Spock) Lewis, topped himself maybe 30 years back. Don't
do it, Bob.

On Sun, 23 Jun 2013 00:21:17 +0100, bm wrote:

"Bob Eager" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 22 Jun 2013 22:53:15 +0100, bm wrote:

"Bob Eager" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 22 Jun 2013 20:02:25 +0000, Bob Eager wrote:

On Sat, 22 Jun 2013 18:36:23 +0000, D.M.Chapman wrote:

In article ,
Huge wrote:
On 2013-06-22, Bob Eager wrote:

Probably Trevor Potts, if male. He retired a couple of years ago.

It was a lady. The one in your photo loading what appears to be an
RM03 disk pack into a drive - or whatever the ICL equivalent was.

Well, i've heard Trev called a few things, but lady he ain't :-)

Not sure I've seen the photo you mention. You've got me thinking
now...

This one. Sorry it's so small, I have the original somewhere.

http://www.tavi.co.uk/tn_disks.jpg

Ah, here's a better one:

http://www.tavi.co.uk/2900_ann.jpg

*ahem* hey Bob, you sound just like the missus and me. Surrounded by
antiquated tat

Trying to sort out a 'history' thing for work...

Although that doesn't excuse the PDP-11 (or SWMBO).

Just remembered, we had a puter tech at Brum Uni who was the bees knees
on mainframes. Conrad (Spock) Lewis, topped himself maybe 30 years back.
Don't do it, Bob.

It's OK, I'm not a serious case. I only have one ZX81, two PDP-8
(replicas), four PDP-11s, three VAXes, and about thirty PCs...

Oh, and an Arduino, two Raspberry Pis, ...

I'll get me coat.
--
Use the BIG mirror service in the UK: http://www.mirrorservice.org
My posts (including this one) are my copyright and if @diy_forums on
Twitter wish to tweet them they can pay me £30 a post
*lightning surge protection* - a w_tom conductor

On 2013-06-18 19:01:30 +0000, D.M.Chapman said:

I seem to remember there were a few PDP-11 fans on here...

I joined DEC in 1978 to work on its PDP-11/70 project, which was to be
the biggest model so far, and which the UK side of the company was
leading on the software side. About six weeks after I joined the
project was canned in favour of the Vax.

E.

On Sun, 23 Jun 2013 10:39:15 +0100, eastender wrote:

On 2013-06-18 19:01:30 +0000, D.M.Chapman said:

I seem to remember there were a few PDP-11 fans on here...

I joined DEC in 1978 to work on its PDP-11/70 project, which was to be
the biggest model so far, and which the UK side of the company was
leading on the software side. About six weeks after I joined the project
was canned in favour of the Vax.

But they did go on, didn't they? Plenty of people still wanted PDP-11s.

I have an 11/84 which is a good deal later than that.
--
Use the BIG mirror service in the UK: http://www.mirrorservice.org
My posts (including this one) are my copyright and if @diy_forums on
Twitter wish to tweet them they can pay me £30 a post
*lightning surge protection* - a w_tom conductor

Just remembered, we had a puter tech at Brum Uni who was the bees knees on
mainframes. Conrad (Spock) Lewis, topped himself maybe 30 years back. Don't
do it, Bob.


http://vps.templar.co.uk/Cartoons%20...itics/unix.jpg

--
Ineptocracy

(in-ep-toc-ra-cy) €“ a system of government where the least capable to lead are elected by the least capable of producing, and where the members of society least likely to sustain themselves or succeed, are rewarded with goods and services paid for by the confiscated wealth of a diminishing number of producers.

On 2013-06-23 09:54:58 +0000, Huge said:

The 11/70 wasn't canned - I worked on a number of them!

Sorry yes - I meant the 11/74. Checking
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PDP-11 I now recall that: "The 11/74 was
cancelled because of concern for its field maintainability, though
employees believed the real reason was that it outperformed the 11/780
[ie. the 32 bit Vax]."

I do definitely remember a lot of hacked off UK software engineers and
a lot of time down the pub.

E.

On 22/06/2013 07:42, Bob Eager wrote:
On Sat, 22 Jun 2013 03:14:28 +0100, John Rumm wrote:

On 21/06/2013 23:27, Bob Eager wrote:
On Fri, 21 Jun 2013 23:16:59 +0100, Jeremy Nicoll - news posts wrote:

dave wrote:

Do hope you get mini unix up 'n running. I still have the letter from
Brian Kernighan ...

I've got a cheque for $2.56 from Donald Knuth for finding some
mistakes in one of his text books.

Nothing like that, but I once met Edsger Dijkstra!

And did you ask him how he pronounces his name? ;-)

I have no need...! .-)

I say it many times each year in my lectures...

I had sort of settled on "dike stra", is that close?

--
Cheers,

John.

/================================================== ===============\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\================================================= ================/

On 23/06/13 12:06, John Rumm wrote:
On 22/06/2013 07:42, Bob Eager wrote:
On Sat, 22 Jun 2013 03:14:28 +0100, John Rumm wrote:

On 21/06/2013 23:27, Bob Eager wrote:
On Fri, 21 Jun 2013 23:16:59 +0100, Jeremy Nicoll - news posts wrote:

dave wrote:

Do hope you get mini unix up 'n running. I still have the letter
from
Brian Kernighan ...

I've got a cheque for $2.56 from Donald Knuth for finding some
mistakes in one of his text books.

Nothing like that, but I once met Edsger!

And did you ask him how he pronounces his name? ;-)

I have no need...! .-)

I say it many times each year in my lectures...

I had sort of settled on "dike stra", is that close?

I had always assumed dick-stra with a soft ck as 'ch' with a german
accent -well english doesn't have that phoneme.
I.e start from Reichstag and move on to Dichstrad and then Dichtsra

But I now see that ij is nearest to 'eye' so Dike-stra is probably closer.


--
Ineptocracy

(in-ep-toc-ra-cy) €“ a system of government where the least capable to lead are elected by the least capable of producing, and where the members of society least likely to sustain themselves or succeed, are rewarded with goods and services paid for by the confiscated wealth of a diminishing number of producers.

On Sun, 23 Jun 2013 12:06:21 +0100, John Rumm wrote:

On 22/06/2013 07:42, Bob Eager wrote:
On Sat, 22 Jun 2013 03:14:28 +0100, John Rumm wrote:

On 21/06/2013 23:27, Bob Eager wrote:
On Fri, 21 Jun 2013 23:16:59 +0100, Jeremy Nicoll - news posts wrote:

dave wrote:

Do hope you get mini unix up 'n running. I still have the letter
from Brian Kernighan ...

I've got a cheque for $2.56 from Donald Knuth for finding some
mistakes in one of his text books.

Nothing like that, but I once met Edsger Dijkstra!

And did you ask him how he pronounces his name? ;-)

I have no need...! .-)

I say it many times each year in my lectures...

I had sort of settled on "dike stra", is that close?

Yup.



--
Use the BIG mirror service in the UK: http://www.mirrorservice.org
My posts (including this one) are my copyright and if @diy_forums on
Twitter wish to tweet them they can pay me £30 a post
*lightning surge protection* - a w_tom conductor

On 23/06/2013 12:13, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

But I now see that ij is nearest to 'eye' so Dike-stra is probably closer.

If it helps, the Rhine is the Rijn.

Andy

On 24/06/2013 00:18, Vir Campestris wrote:
On 23/06/2013 12:13, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

But I now see that ij is nearest to 'eye' so Dike-stra is probably
closer.

If it helps, the Rhine is the Rijn.

Andy

Bizarre how minds work. Saw what you posted and thought, no, no, no, the
Rhein is the Rijn.

--
Rod