> >There is one minor issue I should also mention that has a bearing on
> >why we would go with a trimmed clone rather than start from scratch.
> >The version of TOPS-20 that BI is using is essentially a copy of the
> >SRI-NIC system, which used a monitor that was locally modified to
> >handle structures of extended size -- more bits in the disk addresses.
> >This affects enough things (like BOOT, MTBOOT, CHECKD) that they all
> >have to be used together. AUGMENT itself doesn't depend on it, but
> >until we have the luxury of learning how to re-install AUGMENT on a
> >more "vanilla" TOPS-20, we have to keep using what's there.
> >
> >(Also, Doug's current incarnation does not include the SRC: structure,
> >which contained all of the source code for the SRI-NIC TOPS-20 monitor
> >and utilities. He has a tape, and I may have a copy of that tape, but
> >we've never tried to repopulate/regenerate things from source.)
>
> I can see both technical and licensing issues here if we were ever
> to turn this cloned system into an initial release to the community.
> Presumably SRI still "owns" these monitor hacks, and not Boeing,
> who presumably owns Augment. If the size of the Augment system
> and journals is large enough to require the hacked monitor, then
> we'd need to "kit" the monitor as part of a future Augment release
> that installs on a "vanilla" TOPS-20. We'll burn that bridge once
> we've crossed it. (01)
Actually, these particular mods came from Stanford University. There
were many others floating around the net, as people shared their
TOPS-20 improvments with each other (waiting for Digital to adopt
their patches was guaranteed to be a long or infinite wait). (02)
I don't think Augment requires any special mods; it just happens that
the filesystems and monitor we currently have to work with were built
with them, so it's safest to start there. (03)
--Ken (04)
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