[GreenKeys] DEC connectivity

[Dave Emery]

On Sun, Nov 07, 2004 at 11:18:48AM -0700, gil smith wrote:

> I have not done much with it, but I'd like to have it talk to my M33.  I 
> believe the 33 was the console provided by DEC with the early PDP machines.

	Sure was - I date back to that era - and I actually wrote real
PDP-8E assembler code for the damn things for real money as part of my
job - and used several different model 33s as consoles to debug (with
ODT if I remember right) my software.    

	I even suffered through the tortuous process of using the 33  to
punch tapes and assemble and compile programs - though thank G*d we soon
acquired hard disks (with the vast capacity of 2.5 megabytes per 14 inch
cartridge) and DECTAPE.   And not too much later an  early CRT terminal
(which really made editing source much easier - running of course
TECO... and the original emacs macros for it...).

	Seems to me that a PDP-8E, core memory for it (really expensive
and came in 4 Kw (12 bit) increments), CRT terminal, disk and disk
controller, high speed paper tape reader, and of course model 33 ASR
added up to about twice my annual salary at the time... even at OEM
prices.

	And I suffered 33's for quite a while longer - still
occasionally used one as a console on a machine at work as late as the
late 70s when I was at DG - the ability to get a hard copy printout of
debugging sessions was occasionally very useful in figuring complex OS
bugs while staring at listings.   And naturally enough, I had a 33 on my
personal DG mini at home in my parent's basement during the 70s too...

	Of course by the late 70s both DG and DEC had developed dot
matrix replacements for the 33s - much faster and upper/lower case but
pretty poor quality printout and with none of that Teletype smell and
sound...  but by then everything was CRT terminal based (and of course
early PCs were emerging too) and actual hard copy printout was rare.

-- 
   Dave Emery N1PRE,  die at dieconsulting.com  DIE Consulting, Weston, Mass 02493