Subject: Help for a Newcomer

From: [email-masked] (Joe LoCicero)
Date: 6 Mar 1993 01:31:57 -0500

Well, folks, I managed to do it.  After using a PDP 11/44a for a number of 
years during grammar school (hope I don't make too many of you feel too old)

:-)

But seriously... I just got (out of the school's dumpster) a PDP-11/23
with 2 RL01s, what looks like a home-spun (but I'm probably wrong) RX01/02,
some sort of peripheral bus, and a whole shebang of RL01 platters.

Disks labled RT-11 were left in the 8" drives.  RL01 packs labled various
things.

So, before I try and hook the thing up and turn it on, a few questions:

1)  Is there a FAQ for people such as myself who need some help starting
    up a system like this?  (It's been a while since I've even seen the
    Orange wall.)

2)  Is there a list somewhere of what these Mxxxx boards that fit in the
    backplane do?  I'd like to be able to mix & match about 20 of these
    boards that are lying here

3)  There is also (sitting in a less conspicuous place) a pair of RX07 drives
    with platters that read VAX/VMS Diagnostics (Jul. 86), an RX611, and a
    BA11E, amongst a digital corp. printer from 1961 or something :).  Can
    these be used with the PDP-11/23?
`
4)  Can I get a hold of some useful utilities if they aren't on the platters
    easily (eg TECO, Basic Plus, & so on)?  

I'm sure that this will be a continuing saga, and this is only Chapter 1...
but I feel that these new types that think the first computer was the Apple 
//e need to learn what REAL computers were like, and I'm going to prove that
the PDP-11 systems were actually quite useful!  ( I even have some old listings
that I could try to use, but they are in PASCAL - must find that first...  )

Thanks in advance!  Hope this will be the beginning of a new friendship...
or the rebirth of one!

;-)

-- 
---------------------------------------------------------------------
-Joe LoCicero                         [email-masked] -
---------------------------------------------------------------------