11 Apr
2026
11 Apr
'26
4:58 p.m.
The annoying thing is that I do remember taking copies of stuff.... and even copying them
over the course of years from tape to tape cartridge (tk50/tk70) to cd, etc.. and then
stopped for no reason I can recall.
As for the emulation, I don't remember the product.
If I remember rightly, VMS when it was installed on the likes of MicroVAX (2 ?) included
emulation for G and H floating and various other instructions - the decimal string stuff?
- but I'm pretty sure the vector emulation was extra.
K
-----Original Message-----
From: Dave McGuire [mailto:mcguire@neurotica.com]
Sent: 11 April 2026 15:16
To: The Hobbyist DECnet mailing list <hecnet(a)lists.dfupdate.se>
Subject: [HECnet] Re: quick help on RSX FORTRAN problem?
On 4/11/26 07:03, Keith Halewood wrote:
The VAX vector process was also a great deal of fun
for an implementation of Algol 68 we were working on.
We had access to a VAX 9000 for some testing but from what I remember, we used DEC's
vector emulation software mostly.
We had "great fun" with the attribution for implicit vectorisation of array
processing and collateral clauses and we almost actually got into trouble for including
the RS extensions for loops, the FOR identifier IN (unit delivering [] of some mode) DO
... OD.
Trouble = exceeding our remit.
Anyway, it's all effectively lost. Nobody remembers where any of the project
materials actually went. I hate that.
That's infuriating. I just cannot fathom that there are programmers out there who
don't take copies of their stuff home.
Also just paged into my memory, we wrote prediction
code - part of the code generator which would output a profile. Along with the runtime
profiling, it could (and did accurately) predict how fast the code would run on the real
hardware. We also got into trouble for that too - disassembling the vector processor
emulator code. Did we use Xdelta for parts of that?
Does that emulator code itself survive anywhere? It doesn't come with VMS, does
it?
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire, AK4HZ
New Kensington, PA
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