[Info-vax] Attaching an actual 3.5" floppy drive to SIMH-VAX RXV21 device?

[John Wallace]

On Aug 15, 1:02 pm, Paul Sture <paul.nos... at sture.ch> wrote:
> On Tue, 14 Aug 2012 12:15:42 -0700, John Wallace wrote:
> > On Aug 14, 9:05 am, Paul Sture <paul.nos... at sture.ch> wrote:
>
> >> I once installed the layered software on an 11/730 using a pile of
> >> floppies.  It wasn't much fun.  I also had to use the VMSä$TAILOR stuff
> >> to leave enough space on the undersized system disk to do anything.
>
> >> This was a case where the owner's son had got involved in specifying a
> >> system.  Of course a computer needed floppies and a BASIC compiler!
>
> >> <shudder>
>
> > Who remembers the 11/725? A 730 (OK, not the world's speediest, but it
> > runs VMS) in a neat little pedestal package, with RC25 disks, a
> > removable and a fixed one on the same spindle, each holding a
> > magnificent 25MB? And with 2*TU58 as the other removable media.
>
> > Happy days.
>
> I never got my paws on one of those.
>
> > Well, happy in comparison with the alternative available to me at that
> > time in the mid 1980s, which was some flavour of System V on a 68k of
> > some kind, or transatlantic access to a Gould/SEL UTX32 system via
> > dialup or BT X.25 (we had to phone BT every few weeks to get them to
> > retune the echo suppressor suppressor reed relays in the exchange so our
> > Racal MPS1222 modems would actually connect).
>
> I remember a customer getting a dedicated BT line between two buildings
> in the mid 1980s.  It tested OK but a few weeks elapsed before they
> wanted to use it regularly and by that time it wasn't working.  It turned
> out that when installing new phone lines, the BT engineers would simply
> look for a wire with no signal and assume it was free.
>
> > Back in 1985, System V left a great deal to be desired for software
> > development, whereas VMS, especially VMS V4, was quite respectable, and
> > certainly more productive than the System V box (even if the System
> > V/68K was nominally higher performance).
>
> MicroVAXes were also portable.  In 1980 we used a consultant who could
> have any company car he liked within a fairly generous budget, as long as
> it could carry a PDP of that era.  He and a couple of colleagues really
> put some effort into getting one into a VW Scirocco, without success.
>
> I will probably never forget the first time I saw a VAX 2000, circa 1988.
> We had flown to Glasgow to demonstrate some software at DEC Livingstone
> and it was my job to install that software.  When the system started
> crashing the DEC guy simply unplugged it and brought us another.
>
> The carrying handle on those 2000s was a very neat idea.  When I
> eventually got my own VAXstation 2000 I would think nothing of popping it
> into the car and taking it to another location.  My productivity also
> went up - prior to having that I was regularly using two VT220s for
> development and testing, and now I had multiple windows on one screen,
> and could copy and paste around them.
>
> > Try telling that to the young people of today (etc).
>
> Aye lad.
>
> --
> Paul Sture

My recollection is that the "carrying handle" on the MicroVAX/
VAXstation 2000 was officially a cable management device, despite its
obvious use as a carrying handle.

I have a vague recollection that the frequent (ab?)use of it as a
carrying handle led to one or both of formal guidance on its use
(don't use it as a handle, or else) and/or an FCO to replace the
weakest bits with stronger bits.

Maybe the faulty MicroVAX 2000 in Livingstone had been accidentally
dropped when the cable management broke?

All this was a loooooong time ago, and the above is subject to
correction if a definitive reference (owner's guide, etc) says
otherwise. I couldn't quickly find one just now, and although I still
have an MV 2000 of some unknown status (and probably an expansion
unit) in the loft awaiting eventual disposal to a good home somewhere
in the UK, I don't think it has any docs.