[Info-vax] OS Ancestr

[Jonathan]

On Thursday, May 13, 2021 at 10:23:17 AM UTC-4, Dave Froble wrote:
> 
> Back in 1974 I was introduced to a PDP11/40 running RSTS V04b. At the 
> time, the only supported language was Basic+, an interpreter. 
> 
> Where RSTS came from, I don't know, but what I was told was that David 
> Hart of Evens, Griffith, and Hart wrote the original Basic+. David is 
> no longer with us, but, perhaps John Santos might have some information 
> of the earlier days.

Tim Hart, not David. Tim also wrote the first LISP compiler. He hired me out of college in 1978 and I’m still at EGH.
A great friend, mentor and boss.

> 
> While DEC ended up with RSTS and Basic+, what it seemed like to me is 
> that the software people at DEC considered RSX as a proper OS and RSTS 
> "that other thing". Perhaps where their NIH started, or, perhaps they 
> already embraced that concept. 
> 
> I wasn't a user of RSX at the time, so I really don't have any memories 
> of it on the PDP11. 
> 
> Some time after 1974, don't know exactly when, DEC produced some type of 
> RSX subsystem for RSTS, which allowed MACRO-11, and other RSX languages 
> to run on RSTS. These included BP2 (Basic Plus 2) which was a compiled 
> version of Basic Plus. 

I think the first macro-11 ran under an RT-11-emulating RTS (Run Time System)

> 
> When VAX and VMS came along, VMS inherited much from RSX, as that seemed 
> to be the preferred choice for the DEC software people. VAX and VMS was 
> aimed at the scientific market initially. Only when DEC wanted into the 
> business market did they start incorporating capabilities from RSTS, 
> since RSTS was heavily used in the business market. 
> 
> So yeah, VMS was based initially on RSX, and later had RSTS capabilities 
> added. The result was something better than the sum of RSX and RSTS. 
> 
> I never heard any stories of where RSTS came from ... 
> 
> -- 
> David Froble Tel: 724-529-0450 
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