dslreports logo
 
    All Forums Hot Topics Gallery
spc
uniqs
22

chrisretusn
Retired
Premium Member
join:2007-08-13
Philippines

chrisretusn to RazzyDOS

Premium Member

to RazzyDOS

Re: Do you still use Windows?

I am well aware the are a lot of DOS.

Unix and Linux is not one of them.
dave
Premium Member
join:2000-05-04
not in ohio

1 recommendation

dave

Premium Member

Sure it is - DOS is just generic for 'disk operating system'. If it runs from rotating rust, and supports a file system, it's a DOS. We said 'DOS' long before MS-DOS.

Though I'll grant you that (as far as I remember), PDP7 Unix was a TOS.

And by that argument, Windows is a DOS, so it's meaingless to say that a DOS is simpler than Windows.

StuartMW
Premium Member
join:2000-08-06

StuartMW

Premium Member

Paper or magnetic?
dave
Premium Member
join:2000-05-04
not in ohio

dave

Premium Member

DECtape, gods' own block-structured medium.

chrisretusn
Retired
Premium Member
join:2007-08-13
Philippines

chrisretusn to dave

Premium Member

to dave
You can play on words all you like it does not change the fact the acronym DOS "Disk Operating System" refers to operating systems such as IBM-DOC, PC-DOS, MS-DOS and the several other like operation systems.

StuartMW
Premium Member
join:2000-08-06

StuartMW to dave

Premium Member

to dave
Real masochists load the OS via paper tape using a Teletype ASR-33 at 110 baud
dave
Premium Member
join:2000-05-04
not in ohio

1 recommendation

dave

Premium Member

I have no use for new-fangled UIs. The Friden Flexowriter was an earlier and better device.

(Better because you could write algol60 that looked like algol60: begin rather than BEGIN, 'begin', .BEGIN, etc.)

Plus if you had a boat that tended to drift, a Flexowriter was heavy enough to make a servicable anchor, unlike the flimsier ASR33.

StuartMW
Premium Member
join:2000-08-06

StuartMW

Premium Member

quote:
You're gonna need a bigger boat!

Jaws (1975)
StuartMW

1 edit

1 recommendation

StuartMW to dave

Premium Member

to dave
Of course Real Programmers used binary code and entered their stuff via switches

(Did my share of that)



All this "DOS" stuff is for wimps
dave
Premium Member
join:2000-05-04
not in ohio

dave

Premium Member

Yeah, I admit to never having had to memorize the PDP11 absolute loader. The ones I used had the 32-word diode ROM bootstrap. (My officemates: "kids today don't know shit...")

Keys'n'lights for kernel debugging, of course.

StuartMW
Premium Member
join:2000-08-06

1 recommendation

StuartMW

Premium Member

said by dave:

My officemates: "kids today don't know shit..."

Yup. The "Golden Days" of computing are gone. Computers are just another appliance nowadays.

BTW Silicon or Germanium diodes?

Hank
Searching for a new Frontier
Premium Member
join:2002-05-21
Burlington, WV

Hank

Premium Member

Hey, qualify the age for being a "kid", after all it becomes relative after one reaches a certain age. Our community thinks of "kids" being those under 55 years old.
dave
Premium Member
join:2000-05-04
not in ohio

dave to StuartMW

Premium Member

to StuartMW
Good question, and now I am totally bummed out because I can't find my PDP11 peripherals handbook.

I'd guess germanium, they weren't required to do anything fancy except conduct or not.
dave

dave to Hank

Premium Member

to Hank
I meant my officemates back then thought that it was the end of civilization because I could not recite the abs loader from my head. (I was twenty-something at the time)

StuartMW
Premium Member
join:2000-08-06

StuartMW to dave

Premium Member

to dave
said by dave:

I'd guess germanium...

Prolly. Germanium diodes can't switch for sh*t but in those days nothing else could either. Modern silicon diodes can switch in ns.

Blackbird
Built for Speed
Premium Member
join:2005-01-14
Fort Wayne, IN

Blackbird to StuartMW

Premium Member

to StuartMW
said by StuartMW:

Of course Real Programmers used binary code and entered their stuff via switches

(Did my share of that)


...

Actually, on a long-ago black project, we used an Intellec 8 (very much like your IMSAI illustration), but we got clever and loaded our programming in each morning using punched tape and a reader wired into the Intellec. We could alter our code via the Intellec's front-panel switches, and repunch a new tape via wiring from the Intellec into the Friden. The only problem was that the code made the rolls of punched tape classified, and in order to keep an audit trail of the programming changes over the several years of the project, the number (and size) of rolls of tape became quite cumbersome and bulky to keep in secure storage. But I can still conjure up the unique smell of that tape - it was lightly impregnated with some kind of oil that had its own 'fragrance'.

Ah, the good old days, when men were men and you could actually see your computer program...

StuartMW
Premium Member
join:2000-08-06

StuartMW

Premium Member

Here ya go. Enjoy the memories



Blackbird
Built for Speed
Premium Member
join:2005-01-14
Fort Wayne, IN

Blackbird

Premium Member

said by StuartMW:

Here ya go. Enjoy the memories
...

Yep... that's the puppy. Only ours had the metal shell removed, with a bunch of long extender cards, plug-ins, and wire bundles hanging out the top - looking for everything like a big blue dis-embowled cat.

antdude
Matrix Ant
Premium Member
join:2001-03-25
US

antdude to chrisretusn

Premium Member

to chrisretusn
said by chrisretusn:

You can play on words all you like it does not change the fact the acronym DOS "Disk Operating System" refers to operating systems such as IBM-DOC, PC-DOS, MS-DOS and the several other like operation systems.

IBM-DOC?

chrisretusn
Retired
Premium Member
join:2007-08-13
Philippines

1 recommendation

chrisretusn

Premium Member

So what. It's an obvious mistype. You know exactly what I meant.

EGeezer
Premium Member
join:2002-08-04
Midwest

1 edit

1 recommendation

EGeezer to StuartMW

Premium Member

to StuartMW
said by StuartMW:

Yup. The "Golden Days" of computing are gone. Computers are just another appliance nowadays.

I don't miss rewiring boards, or using a wire wrap tool and land cutter on IBM System/3.

Loading programs onto IBM Series 1s was a great leap forward. We used a plug-in console with a touch pad to enter commands in hex to load software from an 8" diskette.

There was no backspace, so if you screwed up on an entry, you had to start over.

God, we're old...

AVD
Respice, Adspice, Prospice
Premium Member
join:2003-02-06
Onion, NJ

AVD to dave

Premium Member

to dave
not a floppy disk?

antdude
Matrix Ant
Premium Member
join:2001-03-25
US

antdude to chrisretusn

Premium Member

to chrisretusn
said by chrisretusn:

So what. It's an obvious mistype. You know exactly what I meant.

:P
dave
Premium Member
join:2000-05-04
not in ohio

dave to AVD

Premium Member

to AVD
Not invented then. Or at least not in common production use.

A little later, likely in the time of PDP11 Unix, 2.5MB occupied a single rigid 14" platter. I still remember being given my own RK05 pack when I started work. How could I ever fill it up?

(I likely never did: in those days, storage expanded faster than my capability to fill it).

StuartMW
Premium Member
join:2000-08-06

1 recommendation

StuartMW

Premium Member

Yeah, and one will never need more than 640KB of RAM either

(Yes, I know Bill Gates never said that)
dave
Premium Member
join:2000-05-04
not in ohio

dave

Premium Member

Maybe, maybe not, but that was after Microsoft had negotiated the limit up from 512K -- the original IBM plan had the address space split evenly between RAM and IO.

So Microsoft was more right than IBM, though not right enough.

antdude
Matrix Ant
Premium Member
join:2001-03-25
US

antdude to StuartMW

Premium Member

to StuartMW
said by StuartMW:

Yeah, and one will never need more than 640KB of RAM either

(Yes, I know Bill Gates never said that)

Al Gore invented the Internet. (Yes, I know he didn't say that).

AVD
Respice, Adspice, Prospice
Premium Member
join:2003-02-06
Onion, NJ

AVD

Premium Member

said by antdude:

said by StuartMW:

Yeah, and one will never need more than 640KB of RAM either

(Yes, I know Bill Gates never said that)

Al Gore invented the Internet. (Yes, I know he didn't say that).

I thought he did.
AVD

AVD

Premium Member

my bad, he said he took the initiative to create the internet.
dave
Premium Member
join:2000-05-04
not in ohio

dave

Premium Member

And the guys that invented the internet agree with him.