Rick Merrill is doing well last time I exchanged comments with him. We wired in 8 engineering, DecComm11, and LCG together over the years. I will have to rattle his cage just for fun now. bb
On Tue, Apr 28, 2020 at 12:29 PM Lyle Bickley via cctalk <cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote: > > On Mon, 27 Apr 2020 10:58:59 -0400 > Chris Zach via cctalk <cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote: > > > NL7776 /SETUP -2 > > TAD (-7776) /COMPARE TO EXPECTED VALUE > > SZA CLA /SKIP IF OK > > JMP IMA8S /JUMP IF RETARDED BROTHER > > > > / IF WE GET HERE, WE'RE NOT A PDP-8/S. > > > > Ok, that made me laugh..... > > Charles and I have many emails over the years going back and forth regarding > OS/8 vs. P?S/8. > > He was one of those folks that when you sent him a five line email, you would > often get a five page response. Charles was definitely opinionated - but often > proven to be right. > > Both Charles and Merrill (author of FOCAL) teased me when I got my PDP-8/S > running. It was definitely SLOW (8/S where S=Slow). Merrill told me that DEC > management was furious when FOCAL displayed which kind of 8 it was running on. > Management wanted folks to think all 8's were totally compatible. > > Charles designed P?S/8 to run in a 4K PDP-8 - making it feasible to run on a > basic 8/S (OS/8 requires a minimum of 8K). I hope it gets "released" someday > :) > > I'll miss Charles and his passion for P?S/8. > > Lyle > > -- > > On 4/27/2020 10:40 AM, Pontus Pihlgren via cctalk wrote: > > > On Mon, Apr 27, 2020 at 09:08:24AM -0500, John H. Reinhardt via cctalk > > > wrote: > > >> Charles Lasner. He passed the weekend of April 3rd due to > > >> complications from the COVID-19 virus. I'm fuzzy on his exact > > >> biography, but he was big in the development of OS/8 for the PDP-8 at > > >> DEC. His current project was an update of OS/8 which he called > > >> P?S/8. Apparently he owned multiple LINC-8's according to comments on > > >> the Facebook group. > > > > > > He also worked onKermit-12, for instance the code that identifies which > > > PDP-8 machine it is running on. It is quite fun to follow that code. It > > > can, impressively, separate between a PDP-5, LINC-8, PDP-12, Straight-8, > > > 8/S, 8/I, 8/L, 8/E, 8/A, 6100 and 6120. > > > > > > Here, search for "MACHINE,.-." > > > http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/ftp/d/k12mit.pal > > > > > > A lot of PDP-8 know-how and trivia went with him, sorry to see him go. > > > > > > /P > > > > > > > -- > 73 NM6Y > Bickley Consulting West Inc. > https://bickleywest.com > > "Black holes are where God is dividing by zero"