[Info-vax] XENIX VAX / PDP

[Arne Vajhøj]

On 9/29/2019 9:08 PM, Bill Gunshannon wrote:
> On 9/29/19 3:19 PM, Scott Dorsey wrote:
>> Supratim Sanyal  <\"supratim sanyal"
>>   <"qcocal::sanyal\""@NOSPAM.X.mim.X.update.X.uu.X.se.NOSPAM> wrote:
>>> On 09/29/2019 08:09 AM, Scott Dorsey wrote:
>>>> In article <qmq4ac$2v4$1 at dont-email.me>,
>>>> Supratim Sanyal  <\"supratim sanyal"
>>>>    <"qcocal::sanyal\""@NOSPAM.X.mim.X.update.X.uu.X.se.NOSPAM> wrote:
>>>>> On 09/28/2019 08:46 PM, Scott Dorsey wrote:
>>>>>> On the other hand you could just run v7 and get all the good parts
>>>>>> of Xenix without all the bad ones.
>>>>>
>>>>> gunkies wiki worked perfectly. Who are T B London and J F Reiser?
>>>>
>>>> Who is gunkie?
>>>
>>> No idea, but I followed this: 
>>> http://gunkies.org/wiki/Installing_32v_on_SIMH
>>
>> 32v is not v7.  A lot of changes were necessary to extend the word 
>> length.
>> The software tools kit is mostly the same but the kernel has a lot of
>> changes to run on the vax.
>>>> Tom London and John Reiser were the guys at Berkeley who did most of
>>>> the conversion of v7 to V/32 and 32-bittified Unix.  I believe that Tom
>>>> started the Berkeley tradition of putting haiku into source code 
>>>> comments.
>>>
>>> Fascinating stuff! BTW as you know doubt must be aware of, I also
>>> chanced upon a x86 port by Robert Nordier: 
>>> http://www.nordier.com/v7x86/#
>>
>> Not really.  I know there were a few other attempts to port v7 to toy
>> computers but none of them were as successful as Xenix.  Hell, you could
>> buy a computer running Xenix at Radio Shack of all places.  "You've got
>> questions, we've got blank stares."
> 
> I don't think Xenix was derived from v7 as much as from SYS-III.

It would require a look at the code to see what is actually were.

But it was sold as being based on Version 7.

The Wikipedia article has a link to Computerworld 1981 with the
text "The ... Xenix operating system, an enhanced version of Western
Electric's Unix Version 7 developed under its license by Microsoft Inc.,
is ...".

Arne