It's not like ye olden days; I was able to actually create two Google Groups without kissing any rings or horsetrading minutia about the process of shutting up some self-appointed net.cop on the control group.
After getting much of my life back in order and finally joining what some euphemistically call the "retired" class, I now have lots of time to devote to PDP-8 subjects [and I am busier than ever]. For those who don't know me, I personally started alt.sys.pdp8 many moons ago, and periodically there are posts claiming to either deny my existence or my breathing. The short version is: I didn't die, but i did have a bout with a bad disease; I am in a holding pattern: The bad news is I am not getting any better; the good news is I am not getting any worse. I am boringly stable and the intrusion into my life I am managing, etc. As such, I have gone back to developing P/S/8 after a slight respite of about 28 years give or take. Actually, I have been writing technical notes to myself since around 2007, and a whole lot more since 2012. I am also working on a companion project, turning the SIMH PDP-8 simulator into a serious PDP-8 software development environment. The standard release to me is merely a cute toy, and very frustrating to get any actual development work accomplished; few use it other than for superficial reasons; I don't begrudge what others spend their time playing on or with. For me, this is a matter akin to serving up very cold vengeance: writing wrongs long after few care. Yet, what I could not have expected is there is a widespread interest in 12-bit computing which is quite nice. However, I am doing this for myself; all who want to indirectly benefit are welcome, and I do take comments and criticisms [short of why are you doing it]. I don't think cctalk is a good forum for this particular set of subjects; as such, I have created two Google Groups [actually three] to handle it. Please request an invite here or e-mail me at clasyst...@gmail.com directly. I will add you into the group[s] as time permits, etc. There are three such groups currently: 1) P?S/8 Yep, that is the exact name of the group [but I doubt if you could search for it. Sorta makes it a sort-of secret group! All things related to the past present and future of the P?S/8 operating system are discussed here, or I may refer people to some on-line documents [and I am in the process of writing some of them!]. 2) pepswin. The enhanced SIMH PDP-8 simulator requires Windows XP or newer. I doubt if it can run on wine because it uses arcane aspects of the Windows desktop and registry patches in some cases. The group title is derived from: P?S Extended PDP-8 Simulator [PEPS] for Windows. I am also somewhat of an expert regarding configuring Windows [having made eating money that way in more recent years] and there are a lot of tricks that can be done so the result is actually not a toy. It even passed my definition of a development environment and I am its worst critic. But now it has achieved a critical mass; it's time to release it. This package runs both OS/8 and P/S/8 and they interact for mutual benefit for serious users of the PDP-8. For decades, as P?S/8 was only partially implemented, there was a lot of dependencies on OS/8. Today, hardly any. In fact, the shoe is on the other 12-bit foot. P?S/8 can help out some users of OS/8 due to its deficiencies when compared to P?S/8. When you combine that with the PEPS for Windows package, that dependency has gotten down to very pale shadow of what it once was. I can see it becoming zero shortly in fact. 3) altpidp8. If any are familiar with the group pidp8, you know what this group has to exist. By and large, that group is dominated and indoctrinated by linux freaks not interested in the machine as anything but a Rasberry Pi with some unusual toy blinkylights. Few if any there actually know a damn thing and worse, the attitude is to trivialize all things PDP-8 as just some laziness on your part not getting off your butt and reading some manual. Surely a manual has the answer to all your problems, right? Well, you get the picture. This group is where you come to find out the REAL answers to the questions, and also some criticisms of the product and perhaps solutions to the issues raised. It's only broken because of vast software neglect. But of course any linux gem that can make the SIMH run 400% slower but looks kewl to a millenial is welcome. Come here if you are frustrated and thought the purpose of the product is why you bought the kit and spent time constructing it. For those of you who just like blinkylights, don't bother us here, etc. I also run a 12-bit file archive on Ibiblio.org, formerly sunsite.unc.edu. Many things get stored there from these topics and more. [I am also unearthing a lot of archival material, some thought long-lost]. Announcements are made on whichever group[s] are appropriate. cjl -- "In the future, OS/2 will be on everyone's desktop" Bill Gates, 1992
