Thank you so much. That's a wonderfully complete and very helpful answer. I will save your email for future reference.
On Thu, 28 Jan 2016 12:04:17 -0500 Paul Koning <paulkon...@comcast.net> wrote: > > > On Jan 28, 2016, at 5:28 AM, li...@openmailbox.org wrote: > > > > Hi, > > > > Since there are some ex-DEC people here and many people knowledgeable in > > VAX can anybody tell me the [major] differences between these books if > > any? The Brunner book is very expensive, the 1987 copy is very > > affordable. What do I miss out on by buying the one by Timothy Leonard > > from 1987? > > > > I realize the scans are up on bitsavers but I usually find real books > > easier to deal with. > > I assume by "Brunner book" you mean the copy of DEC Std 032, the VAX > Architecture Standard. And "Leonard book" is the "VAX Architecture > Reference Manual" edited by Tim Leonard, published by Digital Press. > > Ok... The DEC Std is a DEC internal document, labeled as such. Some DEC > standards were considered quite sensitive, and issued as numbered, > individually-tracked documents. I had one such for Alpha, which I duly > returned to the document custodian when I left. > > The DEC Std is the full, authoritative description of what a VAX is. If > you want to build a VAX (a new design, not a clone of an existing one), > that document will tell you how to do so. If you do everything it says, > the result *should* be a correct VAX implementation, and VAX software > should run on it. > > (This is the "conformance implies interoperability" principle of standard > design. This was the definition of proper standards design that was used > at DEC. For example, if you want to implement DDCMP, all you have to do > is carefully code what the DDCMP spec say, and if you do so, it WILL > work. Unfortunately, most of the rest of the world does not believe in > this level of quality. I was involved at one point in IETF standards > work, and I mentioned this principle in a meeting. The document editor > actually objected to what I said and stated that it was unreasonable to > expect protocol standards to do this. And sure enough, the document he > produced is NOT good enough that you can just do what it says and expect > the result to be a working implementation -- you have to hack on it and > test against other implementations to come up with the right combination > of hacks and tweaks and bug workarounds for things to work. Sigh.) > > On the other hand, the Digital Press book is a public document. Its > purpose is to describe to VAX *users* what a VAX is. If you want to port > an OS, or a compiler, to VAX, you'll want this book. If you want to > write applications for VAX, it will certainly work as well (though it > might be more than you need). > > In other words, the book is a subset of the DEC Std. If you want the > ultimate reference, grab the standard. If you want to debug an emulation > (say, if there is debate about whether SIMH gets the VAX correct), the > DEC Std will be the authority to settle the question. For other software > work -- say, the NetBSD port for VAX, or the VAX backend of GCC -- the > published book is likely to be sufficient. > > paul > > _______________________________________________ > Simh mailing list > Simh@trailing-edge.com > http://mailman.trailing-edge.com/mailman/listinfo/simh -- Please do not copy me on mailing list replies. I read the mailing list. RSA 4096 fingerprint 7940 3F02 16D3 AFEE F2F8 ACAA 557C 4B36 98E4 4D49 _______________________________________________ Simh mailing list Simh@trailing-edge.com http://mailman.trailing-edge.com/mailman/listinfo/simh