HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: kiernan@hubble.ifa.hawaii.edu (Elaine Kiernan)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.dec.micro
Subject: Pro software
Date: 6 Apr 92 20:27:26 GMT
Organization: Institute for Astronomy, Hawaii


	A friend of mine has acquired a DEC PRO
(350? -- not sure of its exact name.)
	Anyway, he is having a hard time finding
software for it, are there any ftp sites around
which have DEC PRO software? I guess he could join
DECUS too....

	Another question... if I write an RX50
disk on my RSX system, will he be able to read
it on the PRO?


	Thanks much!!!!
	Elaine Kiernan

	kiernan@koa.ifa.hawaii.edu
Newsgroups: comp.sys.dec.micro,rec.games.moria
From: imp@solbourne.com (Warner Losh)
Subject: Moria on the Rainbow
Organization: Solbourne, User Interface Group
Date: Thu, 9 Apr 1992 04:20:09 GMT


I have ported Moria to the Rainbow.  It is now available via anonymous
FTP from solbourne.solbourne.com in pub/rb/rbumor54.zip.  The version
that was on kukulcan didn't want to work on the Bow, despite the
documentation.

This is umoria ported to the Rainbow.  I ported version 5.4 from
kukulcan.berkeley.edu.  I have only included my changes to the source,
rather than the full source (sorry).  I've included an executable and
the documentation.  Full sources are available in
pub/wilson/umoria_5/umoria (somewhere).

Let me know if you have any troubles with this version.  I haven't had
any problems for over two weeks.  In fact, things have been going well
enough that this release has slipped two weeks. :-)

Note, it REQUIRES PKUNZIP 1.10 (or unzip 4.0) or greater to unzip.
PKUNZIP 1.02 will not work.

Moria is a game like rogue, hack or larn.  It adds its own local color
(shops to shop in, different monsters, lots of odd magic).  The
Rainbow is a PC-like machine made my DEC several years ago.

Warner
-- 
Warner Losh		imp@Solbourne.COM	  MMP to DoD #882
From: CCPN@lure.latrobe.edu.au (Paul Nankervis)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.dec.micro
Subject: Re: new posters to this group . . .
Date: 16 Apr 92 05:51:18 GMT
Organization: La Trobe University
X-News-Reader: VMS NEWS 1.20

In <1992Apr11.063029.25680@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> schwartz@feh.scs.uiuc.edu writes:

>  
>  	It's nice to check this group and find articles to read; and some 
>  of you know a lot of stuff that us rookies want/need to know to keep our 
>  Rainbows, Pro's, and other stuff going strong.  I for one am trying to 
>  soak up any random info I can find on DEC Rainbows, since both information
>  and parts are hard to find at times.

There are probably many people like me who are continually looking for
software and hardware to upgrade their Rainbow systems with. This newsgroup
is potentially very useful for this but there hasn't been much depth to the
discussion for quite a while  :-(   Warner is an obvious exception!! :-)

>  
>  	All this makes me wonder:  How many people read this group
>  on a regular basis?  Is it appropriate to take a brief survey inquiring
>  the readership of this group as to their reading habits, equipment, etc.
>  Or is that a violation of some sort of netiquette to take such a survey?

I see no problem with people mailing to you directly but millions of
people posting to the group would be a bad idea...  :-)

Now for my little question...

Does anyone know much about the TurBOW 286 board? I have thought about
either acquiring (I am a little out of the way!) or building one of
these and wondered if anyone could provide information. In particular I
wondered if they use the standard Rainbow ROMs, run at the standard 4.??
MHz, and if they use a little add on CPU board like the upgrade to the
100A. I have thought that it should be possible to run the CPU chip and
memory at a higher speed and fall back to normal speed to talk to the
other components (shared memory, I/O, etc). 

While I am at it my kids have been playing a couple of graphics games on
the Rainbow and I wondered if anyone had access to others not at the
usual FTP sites? Does anyone have any GOOD games other than PACMAN,
SCRAM, SOLIT, MONSTA, etc?  (I know Warner has now made MORIA available
but I haven't tried it yet) 

And finally does anyone know that status of 'now abandoned' software for
the Rainbow? For instance since no-one is selling Rainbows or Rainbow
software maybe the sources for the Rainbow boot ROMs and the Rainbow
specific bits of MS-DOS 3.1b should be made publicly available? Does
anyone have any suggestions relating to this? 

Paul Nankervis				Rainbow hacker from wayback!
ccpn@lure.latrobe.edu.au
Newsgroups: comp.sys.dec.micro
From: kcwellsc@watdragon.waterloo.edu (Ken Wellsch)
Subject: Re: new posters to this group . . . 
Organization: University of Waterloo
Date: Mon, 13 Apr 1992 14:16:08 GMT

> Then, how on earth does one *put* a boot block on it in the first place? :) 
> Or is this one of those things that you had to buy pre-installed from DEC?

You get a boot block installed by inserting one of the various Pro O/S
installation diskettes into the RX50 floppy drive and booting the machine
(i.e. power it on).  The machine runs software specific to the Pro.

> Also, will an RD53 work on this controller? I've had the same results
> with the RD53 and a couple of assorted disk drives out of PC clones..

The Professional series machines are unique like the Rainbow.

The Pro HD controller would appear to be rather limited, either by ROM
tables on the controller or by the available software.  I vaguely recall
from looking at a service manual the controller has room for up to 1024
cyl and either 4 or 8 heads, I forget (in theory, the registers have the
bits allocated for that ...).

> Btw. I also tried booting an RT-11 floppy from my 11/23+ but "obviously" 
> that didn't work. Which is kind of a bummer... It would have been nice.

The Pro 325/350 may use the F11 chip, but is not a PDP 11/23 (i.e. with
Q-bus devices and standard device addresses etc.) ... memory mapped video,
etc.
Newsgroups: comp.sys.dec.micro
From: bl899@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Michael A. Rees)
Subject: Rainbow hardware wanted
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, (USA)
Date: Sun, 12 Apr 92 19:29:53 GMT




I'll provide a good home and even pay shipping for unwanted
Rainbow parts.  I'm looking for economically-priced upgrade and
replacement parts, specifically

     monitor
     graphics card
     hard drive, any size
     memory parts

     other interesting stuff - let me know what you have

Reply via email.  

-- 
  ..........................................................
  Michael Rees  (University of Nebraska-Lincoln)
  bl899@cleveland.freenet.edu
  ..........................................................
Newsgroups: comp.sys.dec.micro
From: wampler@thoas.microunity.com (Kurt Wampler)
Subject: Re: VT100
Organization: MicroUnity Systems Engineering, Inc.
Distribution: comp
Date: Thu, 9 Apr 1992 22:40:23 GMT

In article <BOUILLIN.92Apr7154008@node_3f5e2.tele.nokia.fi> you write:
> Could anybody tell me if the DEC VT100 standard has ever been 
> published?
> Is it available on paper, in electronic form? Any help would be
> appreciated.
> 
> 	Thanks in advance to anybody wishing to answer me.
> --
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>  Claude Bouillin - Telenokia, Kilo TL4e
>  Nokia Telecommunications, PO box 12, 02611 Espoo, Finland         Tel 511 7736
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Yes, DEC published a detailed programmer's reference manual which documents
all of the escape sequences implemented by the VT100, both ANSI and
DEC-private.

There is also a hardware manual which documents the theory of operation,
contains block diagrams, shows how to program the character ROMs, etc.
I assume you mean the former.  I have copies of both books in my
possession.

Kurt Wampler
wampler@MicroUnity.com

Newsgroups: comp.sys.dec.micro
From: wampler@thoas.microunity.com (Kurt Wampler)
Subject: Re: Pro software
Organization: MicroUnity Systems Engineering, Inc.
Date: Thu, 9 Apr 1992 22:33:23 GMT

In article <1992Apr6.202726.14381@news.Hawaii.Edu>, kiernan@hubble.ifa.hawaii.edu (Elaine Kiernan) writes:
> 
> 	A friend of mine has acquired a DEC PRO
> (350? -- not sure of its exact name.)
> 	Anyway, he is having a hard time finding
> software for it, are there any ftp sites around
> which have DEC PRO software? I guess he could join
> DECUS too....
> 
> 	Another question... if I write an RX50
> disk on my RSX system, will he be able to read
> it on the PRO?
> 
> 
> 	Thanks much!!!!
> 	Elaine Kiernan
> 
> 	kiernan@koa.ifa.hawaii.edu

A couple of years ago, Digital donated all of the latest copies of their
software for the PRO-350 to the DECUS library.  This included P/OS 3.2,
Synergy Windows for the PRO, DECNET, PRO/BASIC, the Tookit w/ DCL,
PROSE Plus word processor, etc.  This software is available on RX50
floppy media from the DECUS library.  Copies of the complete documentation
set are also available.

I personally did a project which rolled all these floppies (70+ if I remember
correctly) onto a single VAX/VMS backup tape, which is also available from
the DECUS library if you want to roll your own floppies.  Just remember
that the PRO can't format RX50's so you will need to buy pre-formatted
blank diskettes or format them on a Rainbow or a PC.

Yes, if you write an RX50 diskette on your RSX system, it will be readable
on the PRO, since P/OS is basically wrapped around an RSX kernel.

I don't know of any ftp sites on the network with PRO software, though.
Gary Rice did a huge compendium of PRO public-domain software and produced
a tape of it all.  It's also available from the DECUS library.

Kurt Wampler
wampler@MicroUnity.com 
Newsgroups: comp.sys.dec.micro
From: outafrl@cc.newcastle.edu.au
Subject: Rainbow FTP sites, Print-Screen CP/M-86
Organization: University of Newcastle, AUSTRALIA
Date: Wed, 15 Apr 1992 22:29:35 GMT

We've got a number of Rainbows which are used as terminals to VMS.
We use CP/M-86 Kermit-86 as the terminal emulator as this gives use of
almost all function keys and is the faster than any MSDOS emulator I've
found. 

The only restrictions I know are:
 - no printer support (Print-Screen key and escape sequences don't work)
 - ESC, BS and LF keys can't send escape sequences for WordPerfect/VMS.

Is there a CP/M-86 equivalent to the PRINT-SCREEN TSR's for MSDOS?

Are there any FTP-sites with Rainbow software available?

Thanks in advance,

Keith Wallace
Sanitarium Research Laboratories
Cooranbong, NSW, Australia
From: richter@stsci.edu (Otto G. Richter(Hera))
Newsgroups: comp.sys.dec.micro
Subject: Help with disk formatting on Rainbow
Keywords: Miniscribe 3650
Date: 8 Apr 92 14:29:04 GMT
Reply-To: richter@stsci.edu (Otto-G. Richter)
Organization: Space Telescope Science Institute

Hello to all remaining RB'ers out there.

I just acquired a second Rainbow 100+.  It had the full complement of boards,
including a hard disk controller (the double disk controller from CHS).  Since
I had a Miniscribe 3650 disk lying around unused I thought this would make a
nice addition and spare my 10 year old daughter the swapping of floppies all
the time ...  Well, yesterday evening I tried with DOS 2.11 and 3.10b and
WUTIL 2.0 and DISKPART, to initialize and format the disk.  I think the "3" in
the disk number stands for half-height, the "6" for 6 heads, and the "50" for
50 MB unformatted capacity.  Thus I thought that it is close to a SEAGATE 251,
maybe a few cylinders less.  Alas, I can't figure this disk out.  Can somebody
tell me what I should tell DISKPART or WUTIL to get this disk properly
initialized ?  I first thought that the connections with the disk controller
or the controller itself were not OK, but the RD53 from my other Rainbow
works flawlessly in this new one, too.  So, the disk is at fault !  Also, the
disk worked without any problems in an IBM clone of a collegue as little as
three weeks ago and was simply stored in its original box since then ...
This disk was not mentioned in Jerry Miller's article in Rainbow news 3 years
or so ago.

Thanks in advance.
			Otto
--
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================================================================================
From: spg@sunquest.com (Steve Gibbons)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.dec.micro
Subject: Re: new posters to this group . . .
Summary: always glad to see you
Date: 11 Apr 92 19:40:00 GMT
Organization: Sunquest Information Systems, Instrument Interfacing
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.4-b1

In article <1992Apr11.063029.25680@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>, schwartz@feh.scs.uiuc.edu (Dwight A. Schwartz) writes...
# 
#	It's nice to check this group and find articles to read; and some 
#of you know a lot of stuff that us rookies want/need to know to keep our 
#Rainbows, Pro's, and other stuff going strong.  I for one am trying to 
#soak up any random info I can find on DEC Rainbows, since both information
#and parts are hard to find at times.

Yup.  I'm still open to suggestions on what to put into the Rainbow
FAQ (where to find stuff, being one of them.)  I'd appreciate any and
all comments/questions/suggestions on this matter.

#	If noone writes to tell me that this is a bad idea, I'll post a 
#brief survey for each reader c.s.d.m. to fill out and send back (if he/she
#chooses to do so, of course).  I would of course post the stats to the net.

I think a survey of this type would not be in violation of "Netiquette."
I'd place an emphasis on having the readers mail their replies to you
rather than posting to the group since you _will_ summarize, right?  :-)

--
Steve (SPG6) spg@sunquest.com
From: mward@milton.u.washington.edu (Mark Ward)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.dec.micro
Subject: Help with QDA50
Date: 8 Apr 92 17:20:36 GMT
Organization: University of Washington, Seattle



  I just got a couple of system industries cabinets, each with a 330mb smd
drive and a qda50 controller.  My question is, what is the qda50? is it
supposed to emulate (from a software pt of view) a uda50 on qbus systems?
Is it then software compatible with the kda50????

  Here's the plan: I've got a US Design Microvip  (Microvax 1 with 2mb ram,
scsi adapter, 140mb drive, and 1/4" tape drive).  I'd like to be able to 
connect the two smd drives to the microvip, but I'm not sure how.  I might
be able to get a qbus smd controller, but it seems like the qda50 might
be trying to do the same thing.  What, do I just run a cable from the QBUS
to the silly qda50, or do I need a card in the qbus to convert the signals
to then go into the si cabinet and (finally) come out smd????????

Extremely confused
-mark

ps if you have a qbus ethernet board and would rather have a unibus one, I'm
just the guy to talk to!
From: ear@wpi.WPI.EDU (Mr. Neat-O [tm])
Newsgroups: comp.sys.dec.micro
Subject: Re: Beginner & WP On Rainbow !
Date: 9 Apr 92 19:05:35 GMT
Article-I.D.: wpi.1992Apr9.190535.20643
Organization: Worcester Polytechnic Institute

In article <1992Apr9.041111.26821@solbourne.com> imp@solbourne.com (Warner Losh) writes:
>892K is the max.  The Rainbow 100A needed an extra adapter card to use
>the large memory expansion card.  The 100B didn't.

Does anyone know where such an expansion card (for the 100A) could be found?
I've got a 100A with EVERYTHING, including RS422 and 2nd floppy unit. 
However, I've only got 256k which isn't enough to run some things such as
Moria.  Also, does anyone know of any software or even just documentation that will
allow me to use the RS422 port?  I do in fact have a potential use for it. 

+---------< Eric A. Rasmussen - Mr. Neat-O (tm) >---------+ +< Email Address >+
|   A real engineer never reads the instructions first.   | | ear@wpi.wpi.edu |
|   (They figure out how it works by playing with it.)    | | ear%wpi@wpi.edu |
+---------------------------------------------------------+ +-----------------+
                     ((( In Stereo Where Available )))
From: ivie@cc.usu.edu (CP/M lives!)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.dec.micro
Subject: Boot block on Pro350
Date: 13 Apr 92 15:49:44 GMT
Article-I.D.: cc.1992Apr13.094944.54409
Organization: Utah State University

Eric, you seem to have an infinite mail forwarding loop set up between
beastie and workstation5. I tried to mail this, but it failed...

>
>Btw. I also tried booting an RT-11 floppy from my 11/23+ but "obviously" 
>that didn't work. Which is kind of a bummer... It would have been nice.

You can build a bootabl PRO floppy on an 11/23+, assuming that you have
all the pieces (like the distribution kit). The PROs floppies are called
DZ and the winny is DW. You also need the PRO's screen driver (it's a
bit-mapped screen) called PI. Finally, you have to have either RT11FB or
RT11XM; SJ won't run on it :-(.

Basically, you should copy (SWAP,RT11XM,DZ,DW,PIX).SYS to the floppy and
then COPY/BOOT:DZ to the floppy. You should then have a bootable RT-11
diskie for the thing. From there you can format the hard disk (if you copy
FORMAT.SAV over) and install on the hard disk.

Roger "I converted a Pro from P/OS to RT-11" Ivie
ivie@cc.usu.edu
From: chaim@linc.cis.upenn.edu (Chaim R. Dworkin)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.dec.micro
Subject: Re: Help with disk formatting on Rainbow
Keywords: Miniscribe 3650
Date: 9 Apr 92 17:00:36 GMT
Organization: University of Pennsylvania


Remember that Rainbow DOS 2.11 cannot recognize partitions larger than
8 or so MB so you must make a dozen or so partitions.  MSDOS 3.1b can
handle larger partitions.  I think up to 32 Mb.

Chaim R. Dworkin
chaim@linc.cis.upenn.edu
Newsgroups: comp.sys.dec.micro
From: imp@solbourne.com (Warner Losh)
Subject: Re: Moria on the Rainbow
Organization: Solbourne, User Interface Group
Date: Thu, 9 Apr 1992 23:26:43 GMT

In article <1992Apr9.042009.27188@solbourne.com>, imp@solbourne.com
(Warner Losh) writes...
>This is umoria ported to the Rainbow.  I ported version 5.4 from

In article <9APR199217204750@rigel.tamu.edu> z0w6103@rigel.tamu.edu
(WU, ZUOGUO) writes:
>Can you say something about your changes?

Basic functionality to get Moria to run on the Rainbow.  Plus some bug
fixes to tcio.c, which is the experimental io.c that was in 5.4.

I had thought of putting in a Dec Salesman on the town level.  It
would do things like beg, drool, etc.  However, I thought better of it
since I didn't want to gratutiously offend people.  Besides, I would
have had to change even more of the code than I did.

All this moria is a port to a new system.  Nothing more.

>Does your version work on VAX/VMS or UNIX?

Yes.  The changes are all #ifdefed.  However, you won't notice the
difference. :-)

Warner
-- 
Warner Losh		imp@Solbourne.COM
If it can't be done with Emacs, you are being too ambitious.
Newsgroups: comp.sys.dec.micro
From: eric@beastie.colby.edu (Eric)
Subject: Re: new posters to this group . . . 
Organization: None whatsoever.
Date: Mon, 13 Apr 1992 06:26:39 GMT

kcwellsc@watdragon.waterloo.edu (Ken Wellsch) writes:
: The Pro will show a HD failure also if it cannot find a "proper" boot block
: on the HD.  The hardware itself may be just fine.

Then, how on earth does one *put* a boot block on it in the first place? :) 
Or is this one of those things that you had to buy pre-installed from DEC?
Also, will an RD53 work on this controller? I've had the same results
with the RD53 and a couple of assorted disk drives out of PC clones..

Btw. I also tried booting an RT-11 floppy from my 11/23+ but "obviously" 
that didn't work. Which is kind of a bummer... It would have been nice.

--
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Eric Volpe                        eric@beastie.colby.edu  or  epvolpe@colby.edu
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups: comp.sys.dec.micro
From: eric@beastie.colby.edu (Eric)
Subject: Re: new posters to this group . . . 
Organization: None whatsoever.
Date: Sun, 12 Apr 1992 06:11:20 GMT

I read it :)

Well, i have some assorted PDP-11's, running RT11...
(they used to run unix, but I had to get rid of the tape drive so I
can't install it any more... :( )

And I have a PRO 350, but I can't use that 'cause apparently the hard
disk controller is no good. Or so says the little diagram that shows up
when I turn the machine on. Of course, I've tried two different HD
controller boards and it does the same thing. Sigh.

I wish I could do something with it, it looks kind of fun to play
with...



--
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Eric Volpe                        eric@beastie.colby.edu  or  epvolpe@colby.edu
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: matt@vulcan.mentec.ie
Newsgroups: comp.sys.dec.micro
Subject: Beginner & WP On Rainbow !
Date: 8 Apr 92 15:13:55 GMT
Organization: Mentec Computer Systems, Dublin, Ireland

Hi,

I have just acquired a DEC Rainbow. After a bit of work it now starts up. Can
anybody answer me a few questions.

o What types of Hard Disk Drives (DEC HDD's) Can It Support, It Currently Has
  An RD51.

o What can the memory be expanded to (it is somewhere around 250Kish).

o Is there a word processor that can be used on it because everything I load
  gives me the error 16. (Interrupts Off). All I want is something to drive a
  Dumb Daisy Wheel (NEC Spinwriter) for one/two page documents.

I have a HDD with MS-DOS V2.05 and no CPM. Three Manuals - Owners Manual, CPM
Users Guide And MS-DOS Adv. Users Guide. No Disks. No Other Software.

Can anybody help me change this beast into something somebody could get some 
use out of ?

Thanks In Advance.

Matt

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Matthew Roxburgh : Mentec International (UK) Ltd, Mentec House, Birchwood Blvd,
                   Birchwood, Warrington, Cheshire WA3 7QX. England.
Voice / Fax      : +44 925 830000 / +44 925 830123    
Internet         : matt@mentec.ie
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"The Surest Sign That Intelligent Life Exists Elsewhere In The Universe Is That
 None Of It Has Tried To Contact Us"                 - Calvin (Calvin & Hobbes)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: spg@sunquest.com (Steve Gibbons)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.dec.micro
Subject: Re: FidoNET Rainbow EchoMail(WAS: new posters to this group . . .)
Date: 17 Apr 92 06:34:00 GMT
Organization: Sunquest Information Systems, Instrument Interfacing
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.4-b1

In article <ROCKER.92Apr16174555@csa.bu.edu>, rocker@csa.bu.edu (The Long Haired One) writes...
# 
#Has anyone heard of someone taking up the reigns of doing crossposting from
#here to there? Someone use to do it, but there hasn't been much in a long
#time. When I've gotten the chance to get on a FidoBBS carrying it, there
#tends to be some useful info or parts that people may want/need.
# 
#Anyone know anything? Are there others besides me interested in this?

Nope, I don't know nuthin'...  Yes, I'm interested.  The newsgroup was a bit
more liveley when the echomail was cross-posted.  I think it was something of a
headache to administer, but...

--
Steve (SPG6) spg@sunquest.com