[ih] NCP, TCP/IP question

[the keyboard of geoff goodfellow]

there was a substantive change to the file system between Tenex (BBN) and
TOPS-20 (DEC) in that TOPS-20 was much more robust and didn't require
CHECKDISK (and also optionally  BSYS Verify) to be run at (re)boot time.

Dan Lynch hacked CHECKDISK to speed up significantly by creating a FORK
(process) for each disk drive... as the CHECKDISKing took longer and longer
as more and more washing machine disk drives got added. :D

the TOPS-20 file system also had the ability to have sub-directories which
was lacking on Tenex... and file version numbers went from ;'s to .'s...

sadly, there are no Tenex systems on the net today that yours truly is away
of, but if you wish a trip down memory lane: there are a couple of
free/public access TOPS-20 systems available at https://sdf.org/twenex/ which
you can SSH into with "ssh twenex at sdf.org" as well as at
https://livingcomputers.org/ which you can SSH into with ssh
toad2 at tty.livingcomputermuseum.org

geoff

On Mon, Mar 9, 2020 at 11:16 PM Steve Crocker via Internet-history <
internet-history at elists.isoc.org> wrote:

> Lars,
>
> Thanks.  For anyone who hasn't tracked PDP-10 operating systems, I believe
> TOPS-20 and Tenex were the same.  Tenex was developed at BBN.  DEC provided
> the TOPS-10 operating system but it was less capable than Tenex.  DEC
> acquired the rights to Tenex and brought it out as TOPS-20.  I don't know
> if there are substantive changes in the process; I have the impression
> there weren't.
>
> These systems were connected to the Arpanet when NCP was the host level
> protocol.  I didn't follow their history through the transition to TCP/IP,
> but I have the impression they continued to be commonplace on the Internet
> and thus would have had TCP/IP implementations.  Others can fill in the
> gaps here better than I can.
>
> Steve
>
>
> On Tue, Mar 10, 2020 at 5:08 AM Lars Brinkhoff <lars at nocrew.org> wrote:
>
> > Steve Crocker wrote:
> > > I don't think C was used or available on Tenex, but I'm not the most
> > > authoritative source.
> >
> > There were several PDP-10 C compilers, but I'm not sure whether one
> > actually ran on Tenex.  Some ran on TOPS-20, so it wouldn't have been a
> > big leap.
> >
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>

-- 
Geoff.Goodfellow at iconia.com
living as The Truth is True
http://geoff.livejournal.com