[Info-vax] OT: Unix V6 on a PDP11. In your browser. In JavaScript.

[John Wallace]

On Dec 15, 8:22 pm, Bob Eager <news0... at eager.cx> wrote:
> On Thu, 15 Dec 2011 12:02:03 -0800, John Wallace wrote:
> > On Dec 14, 2:11 pm, Paul Sture <p... at sture.ch> wrote:
> >> On Wed, 14 Dec 2011 14:41:49 +0100, Jan-Erik Soderholm wrote:
> >> > Paul Sture wrote 2011-12-14 13:00:
> >> >> On Tue, 13 Dec 2011 14:33:00 +0100, MG wrote:
>
> >> >>> For all the faults of the iPad and iOS, I do really miss the
> >> >>> program "iSSH" a lot!  It included a very capable X server and it
> >> >>> was able to run DECwindows with unpatched VMS V8.4 over SSH.  A
> >> >>> very nice touch, if I may say so.  I even have a video on my
> >> >>> website at DR (hosted at YouTube) demonstrating this.
>
> >> >> One of my friends uses his iPhone extensively for logging into
> >> >> servers and checking the status of out of hours jobs.  He started
> >> >> out by Jailbreaking it to get the apps he wanted, but last time I
> >> >> enquired he didn't need to do that any more.
>
> >> > I tested a few telnet apps for my Android (SonyEricson Xperia 10) but
> >> > never found anything that actualy "worked". I did get the "Username:"
> >> > prompt sometimes but it usualy crashed soon after that.
>
> >> I really wouldn't recommend telnet for logging into remote servers. I
> >> use ssh everywhere nowadays, even on my home LAN.
>
> >> Are there any decent ssh apps for Android?
>
> >> --
> >> Paul Sture
>
> > Maybe someone round here will have tried Better Terminal Emulator Pro?
>
> > It's on my "when I get a roundtoit" list (but fairly low down). It costs
> > a few dollars, and first attracted my attention because it's one way of
> > getting SIMH precompiled for Android (other ways may come for free but
> > involve too much effort for my available free time, e.g. starting from
> > source, Android SDK, etc).
>
> > And when you've got SIMH, what else can you have? You can have VAX/ VMS.
> > Or a PDP11 and a PDP11 OS. Or... well, lots of things. I wonder if
> > VAXELN target environment runs under SIMH (don't see why not, but).
>
> > How silly is that.
>
> > Part of the reason it's fairly low down my list is that I like a phone
> > that works as a phone, primarily. I had a ZTE Blade (as a "free"
> > upgrade) about a year ago but after a few weeks of poor battery life,
> > poor touch compatibility with my fingers, poor signal handling in
> > marginal areas (er, Oxford to Banbury a marginal area?), poor camera,
> > etc I gave up. The price was right though.
>
> > Instead, I upgraded to a 2nd hand Nokia E71 (vintage 2008 or so) which
> > does everything I need, even gets signal between Oxford and Banbury, has
> > decent battery life, a keyboard, and a usable camera. Plus it runs my
> > paid-for TomTom for Symbian, also from a few years ago (who needs up to
> > date maps). But there's not much chance of the E71 running VMS (though
> > in principle the Nokias can do VNC, I used to have VNC on my E65).
>
> > So, who's tried (or willing to try) Better Terminal Emulator Pro?
>
> I have. Works fine for me. I later read that the free version is good
> enough for running SIMH, but they're both very cheap.
>
> I've been playing with SIMH for years (and am even writing a new emulator
> using its framework). It's a good toy on my phone, even if it only uses
> one of the cores!  .-)
>
> I've tried VMS and also BSD 4.2. Both were fine although I had to learn
> some incantations to get the right keystrokes in there. I'm going to have
> a go at UNIX v6 on the PDP-11, but since I've got an SBC6120 I probably
> won't worry about OS/8...
>
> --
> Use the BIG mirror service in the UK:
>  http://www.mirrorservice.org
>
> *lightning protection* - a w_tom conductor

Thanks for that. Maybe I move it slightly up my todo list then.

Wrt PDP11 running Unix V6: have you seen http://aiju.de/code/pdp11/
which appears to be a PDP11 emulator written in JavaScript, running in
your browser, emulating a PDP11 booting Unix V6 off an RK05? An
emulated RK05, obviously, whose 2.5MB of data is initially on the
other end of the Internet from where you are.

There was brief discussion of it in comp.sys.dec in late April when I
first heard about it.

The things some people do in the name of science (or fun).