12 Mar
2023
12 Mar
'23
3:53 p.m.
Johnny Billquist <bqt(a)softjar.se> wrote:
The sources for DECNET-8 can be found. And you need to run RTS-8 for it.
And it can only talk DDCMP, so you need a serial line connection.
The manuals for the whole thing can also be found online. But there is
very little beyond the basic framework. You were expected to write your
own tasks that the communicated over DECnet under RTS-8.
Exactly - there are no applications for DECnet-8, not even the "standard"
ones. There's no FAL, no NML, no CTERM/RTERM, nothing. If you want it to do anything
you have to write an RTS application to do that.
Also it's not clear to me that DECnet-8 was ever actually "finished". I
don't think DEC ever got around to actually selling it, and I've never heard an
example of anyone getting it working.
If you want to put a PDP-8 on HECnet I think a more practical plan would be hook up the
console serial line to a VAX or PDP-11, and then create a pass thru where you can log
into the host machine (with user name PDP8?) and it just connects you to that serial
line.
Bob