> On Aug 17, 2024, at 7:17 PM, John Herron via cctalk <cctalk@classiccmp.org>
> wrote:
>
> I still remember how amazing it was to watch the Linc-8 at VCF (west) 10
> being troubleshot by previous developers. I swear I stood there (trying to
> be out of the way) longer than most exhibits just in amazement how they
> were looking at map size schematics and running test programs that still
> felt like futuristic science fiction.
That reminds me of the PDP-11 20th anniversary event at DECUS (in New Orleans,
I think) where we (RSTS team) brought in an 11/05 and tried to get it to run
RSTS-11 V4A. The machine was having trouble, including a DECtape that was
acting very strangely indeed.
At one point Tom Stockebrand walked by and glanced at the system. Then he
looked more closely, inspecting the indicator lights on the DECtape drive.
Then he commented "wait... that should not be possible!" I think he spent a
while helping debug the machine. In the end I think we had it running a
"blinkenlights" loop since it couldn't boot a full OS. But it was neat to have
the white-haired inventor of DECtape help us with that machine.
paul
