Subject: [--- DECmate ---]

From: [email-masked] (Winston Smith)
Date: Sat, 20 Feb 1993 12:43:53 GMT

Is this the correct Newsgroup for discussing the D.E.C. DECmate ?
Thank you.

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From: [email-masked] (Charles Lasner)
Date: Sun, 21 Feb 1993 02:56:10 GMT

>Is this the correct Newsgroup for discussing the D.E.C. DECmate ?

Absolutely.  In theory, comp.sys.dec.micro is also, but in general, there
are readers of c.s.d.m who believe that means either Rainbow only, or
Pro only, or possibly will let each other co-exist.  One of the reasons
that a.s.p exists is to not waste time telling those people that the
DECmates also qualify :-).

In any case, I have tended to post articles to c.s.d.m where the common
thread of supporting RX50's on other machines is of interest to all who
have an interest in the RX50 format media.  The bulk of the topics usually
cover auxiliary issues such as formatting media on PC's, or supporting
various native DEC systems on RX50 from other vantage points, such as
RT-11 RX50 support for MS-DOS, Files-11 RX50 support for MS-DOS, CP/M-80
RX50 support for MS-DOS, etc.  Clearly those issues are important to
DECmate users as well, etc.

For any other aspect of DECmates, a.s.p is the proper venue, although
either group might be appropriate for non-PDP-8 issues such as DECmate
MS-DOS and CP/M-80 depending on specifics.

The main purpose of this group is the discussion of the PDP-8 and all of
its brethren, whether treated by DEC as bastard step-children or not.  The
DECmate is a PDP-8 that happens to have a few rough edges to it, and also
some interesting extensions.  The extensions are welcome, but are generally
unavailable to the PDP-8 world.  (Some could be the topic of hardware
upgrades!)  The rough edges are causing a lot of effort that is tending to
dilute the overall effort of advancing PDP-8's, but there is a predictable
end to this problem.  A unification effort is underway to produce newer
software that is both DECmate and PDP-8 compatible unconditionally.  After
this is accomplished, all DECmate and PDP-8 users can "unite" under a
single set of O/S'es, instead of the "littered battlefield" of obsolete
versions.  (OS/8 is the worst case in point: there are older versions that
can run on any PDP-8 model, but not on DECmates.  There are other versions
that can't run on every -8 model.  And there are versions that can only
run on DECmates or certain -8 models.  Each version has a set of deficient
quirks that are being eradicated, etc.)

I will post to a.s.p at some point a FAQ file with the working title:
Why a DECmate isn't (quite) a PDP-8.  Hopefully in the future this 
document will become obsolete :-).

cjl