Moving around in simh for a newbie?

[kber...@gmail.com]

Steve, et al,

Steve Tockey sent me some great info in another tread

https://groups.google.com/g/pidp-8/c/PNS6YyOCoAE

part of which is:

"Regarding the thumb-drive disks, they are actually pretty easy to use. But also, you can have RK05, RX01, RX02, DecTapes, and paper tapes as simulated media NOT on thumb drives. I do lots of access to these extra devices without involving thumb drives, they aren't necessary. All you need to do is type CTRL/E to drop into SIMH. From there, issue the appropriate "attach" command, then type "go" to return to the PiDP-8/i.

For example, I added a new directory, /opt/pt. This is where I keep all of my simulated paper tape images. All I need to do from OS/8 on the PiDP-8/i is:

.<ctrl/e>

simh> attach ptr /opt/pt/mypt.txt

simh> go

."

As I looked at that email it occurred to me that I don't know much about the simh and should read up on it.  So, I am thinking that the  reference:  Of course, I am new to all of this. :-(

PDP-8 Simulator Usage 30-Apr-2020

and I found this

SIMH Users’ Guide, V3.10-0 23-May-2018

I am assuming both would be helpful to understand the environment.  I was also wondering if  there is an update version of:

PiDP-8/I
USER MANUAL
& SYSTEM DESIGN
DRAFT
(work in progress, v 20150816)
August, 2015

I am also reading  How to use the PiDP-8/I.

I feel like I walked into a class that I don't have all the prerequisites for.

Thanks,

Kent.

[Steve Tockey]

Hi Kent,

I am not aware of any updates to the PiDP-8/I draft manual since 2015. A bunch of stuff in it is out of date, particularly the installation instructions. The parts on rebooting into different configurations and media on USB haven't changed, and I don't think they are documented anywhere else.

That SIMH User' Guide and PDP-8 Simulator Usage are the latest published versions, as far as I can tell. There are also SIMH-related videos on YouTube. They may not be specific to the PDP-8, but you might be able to learn things about SIMH in general from them.

There are a ton of on-line PDFs of DEC publications about the real PDP-8, OS/8, TSS-8, and the various -8 programming languages out on the web. Bitsavers probably has the widest collection although I don't think they have everything. Some of us can probably make recommendations if you're trying to find something on a specific topic.

There is also an alt.sys.pdp8 Google group that's aligned more to the real PDP-8's but they are also a good resource for non-PiDP-specific information.

Regarding walking into a class without the prerequisites: don't sweat it, there are no exams. Don't hesitate to ask a question here. The PiDP-8/I community is a fairly friendly bunch. we rarely bite. Anymore...    :^)

-- steve

[Mike Katz]

Steve is right, we don't bite any more but we definitely still byte frequently.  But we don't need to have words about it.  Have fun nybbling away at learning SIMH and learning the PDP-8.

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[kber...@gmail.com]

Thanks Steve, and Justme. I appreciate the help that I get here and after reading the documentation I hope to be enlightened by my nybbling  :-))))