[HECnet] VT-62?

[Snip] NO, I will probably stay with the emulated VT100 terminal support provided by Ersatz-11 which includes support for more than 24 lines. When I first used that feature, it was a minor disadvantage since the text characters did seem a bit challenged (in a vertical sort of manner). But now that I have used the feature for over a year with K42.SAV (either 80 columns by 50 lines OR 132 columns by 44 lines - largest options supported by my video card for my monitor in FULL SCREEN mode), going back to 24 lines seems like SHOUTING when I look at the text characters, especially for 80 columns by 50 lines. In fact, I almost always use the 132 columns by 44 lines even for non-KED displays so that I don't need to change my focus as I switch back and forth from and to each emulated VT100 "terminal" under Ersatz-11 using <ALT/Fn>. My real DEC PDP-11/83 system has SIX DEC VT100 terminals on the desktop (I have a huge desk and they are stacked two high). With just the <ALT/Fn> key to switch back and forth, the same monitor can be used to display all of the terminals. And since my eyes can focus on only one "terminal" at a time, using <ALT/Fn> instead of turning my head seems like a useful alternative. I'd like to know more about what your MACRO-11 projects involve and I'm sure we'd all like to see a photo of your PDP-11/83 with terminal!! Regards, Mark. A simple still photo would just show SIX VT100 terminals on a desktop with a lot of wires which connect them to the PDP-11/83 system in a BA123 box which stands on the floor under a table behind the chair that I sit on in front of the desk. So the PDP-11/83 can't even be in the same photo. Actually, in practice, some of the terminals on the top are VT220s rather than a VT100. There is also a 3 position switch a bit hidden behind the left most VT100 pair which is able to transfer the circuit to another PDP-11/73 which I also have available that I use when I need a SCSI interface. Near the end of using the PDP-11/83, my primary backup hardware became a Sony SMO S-501 magneto optical drive rather than the TK70 tape drive I had been using for a a few years. That turned out to be extremely convenient since I also managed to acquire an Adaptec SCSI host adapter for the Windoze system and connect the same Sony SMO S-501 drives which allowed me to transfer all the files back and forth under Ersatz-11. As for the PDP-11/83, the BA123 box is standard. The only non-standard aspect was that I use 3 Hitachi 600 MB EDSI drives in production which run rather hot. Rather than load the power supply on the BA123 (since a couple have failed over the years possibly due to the load of so many drives, I keep the 3 Hitachi drives outside the BA123 box on their own power supply and their own individual fans to cool them. The Hitachi drives originally arrived in a box with four drives, power supply and fans and some sort of emulation, maybe DSSI. Since 600 MB for RT-11 is a really good size and I was already using an EDSI controller that looks like MSCP to RT-11, I just substituted the Hitachi drives and connected everything. The Hitachi drives replaced the 600 MB Maxstor XT8760E drive which was still expensive at the time. As for the MACRO projects, my current challenge is to make a few enhancements to the RT-11 Debugger, SDHX.SYS, which runs under a Mapped Monitor. In addition to reducing the number of words of Low Memory that are required, saving the Program Counter Locations in a buffer so that the user can determine which instructions have been executed to arrive at any given point in the code should help when it is not feasible to step through all the instructions up to that given point. The first hurdle to overcome was how to expand the available extended memory since the standard 8192 bytes that can be managed with relative ease were all used up - well except for about 34 bytes which does not provide enough to do anything that is worth while. Now that I have as much extended memory available as can be reasonably used, the goal is to make the final product as user friendly as possible. I am not sure how many Program Counter Locations the buffer should hold. Does 1000 Locations seem sufficient? What about 2000 Locations? Does anyone reading this have any experience with a Debugger which can save the last 1000 Program Counter Locations and is that enough? Another MACRO project was to add additional variants to the nine KED variants that DEC supports for RT-11 and RSTS/E. DEC supports the VT100, the VT52 and the VT62. I added the VT420 which supports more than 24 lines as I mentioned in my last post. Having a "terminal" with 44 lines was a huge advantage when I started to enhance SDHX.SYS, as I find when I type this post under Netscape and have about 36 lines in additional to all the tool bars. On the few occasions when I revert to a 24 line "terminal" under Ersatz-11 for some special testing, I find it to be a great disadvantage. Jerome Fine