[Info-vax] RSTS/E and VMS connection

[John H Reinhardt]

On 4/6/2023 6:02 PM, bill wrote:
> 
> WE have often heard that VMS on the VAX was the logical procession
> from RS11 on the PDP.  I was looking around at my bookshelf and saw
> my 1983-84 RSTS/E PDP-11 Operating System book and it kinda piqued
> my interest so I picked it up and did a  little lite reading.
> 
> This brought a couple question to mind.
> 
> But first, the funny part.  Page 2-12 has Table 2-2 Disk Devices.
> Wish I had one of those 104MB RL02's it lists.  Mine were all
> 10.4MB.  :-)
> 
> There is a whole paragraph about compatibility with VAX/VMS.  It
> mentions "The BASIC Transportability Package" for moving BASIC
> program from RSTS/E to VMS.  Of course, VMS BASIC at that time was
> probably nothing like what it is today.
> 
> And there is another note about "The RSTS/E and VAX/VMS Compatbility
> Manual".  I would love to see a copy of that.
> 
> And one other note or rather a kind of question.  The book (and some
> of the other DEC Books) are loaded with pictures of people working
> with DEC systems.  Does anyone know if these were all professionally
> staged pictures or are these people who worked at DEC?  And if the
> latter, any chance someone can identify any of them?
> 
> bill

My first job out of college was as a programmer at DePauw University in Greencastle.  Their adminstrative system was a PDP-11/70 and they had bought a VAX-11/780 and we (me and 3 others) re-wrote their Admissions, Registrar and some financial code from PDP-11 BASIC-PLUS into VAX-11 BASIC.  It was 1983 and took about a year.  I later became the System Manager for that VAX and oversaw the upgrading to a VAXCluster of two 8350's and a MVII in 1987-ish time

John H. Reinhardt