trn | 1 year ago | on: Technology history: Where Unix came from
trn's comments
trn | 1 year ago | on: Hardware FPGA DPS-8M Mainframe and FNP Project
While we do want to support GCOS, it'll be GCOS-3, and that is if we can find system tapes. We are actually planning another blog post soon that will touch on this.
Now, Multics does have GTSS (GCOS Time Sharing Simulator), which Dean has helped us get working.
There is an general information page available: https://dps8m.gitlab.io/sb/MR12.8/documentation/info_segment...
This facility is based on GCOS-3 4JS3, and it does work, although the software that we have available for it is minimal.
GCOS-8 is a different beast entirely. While there is the possibility that a future version of the simulator could theoretically run GCOS-8 in the future (as most of the work necessary overlaps with supporting CP-6), this is not something that we're going to support as GCOS-8 is a current commercial product.
If you want to run GCOS-8, you'll have to purchase an Atos BullSequana M9600 mainframe - https://atos.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/BullSequana_M_Br...
trn | 2 years ago | on: SIMH – Old Computer Emulator
> you're not allowed to add additional usage restrictions to GPL software
SIMH is not GPL'd software.
trn | 2 years ago | on: Interactive GCC (igcc) is a read-eval-print loop (REPL) for C/C++
I'll give an unpaid plug to https://www.softintegration.com/ for their Ch product, which is beyond excellent (and has existed for a very long time.) Clang-Repl/Cling is, however, nice to see, especially as it is open source.
trn | 2 years ago | on: Multics Simulator
We should also mention that the PDF documentation has some graphics showing how these components are (physically) connected together at https://dps8m.gitlab.io/dps8m-r3.0.1-archive/R3.0.1/omnibus/... (pages 49 through 52).
If you'd prefer not to have to view the PDF, the images are reproduced here: https://imgur.com/a/x3fy4nO
trn | 2 years ago | on: Multics Simulator
Yes, I was simplifying a bit :) Those who are interested should take a peek at https://dps8m.gitlab.io/dps8m/Overview/#supported-components to see all the various components that make up the DPS mainframe system.
trn | 2 years ago | on: Multics Simulator
Perhaps, however, SIMH (http://simh.trailing-edge.com/, https://opensimh.org/) also calls itself a simulator rather than an emulator. Six of one, half dozen of the other, I guess!
trn | 2 years ago | on: Multics Simulator
Yes, this interpretation is correct.
It should be noted that not all of the hardware is strictly "emulated" (or simulated, if you prefer that term) in the traditional sense of interpreting each hardware instruction. The DPS in the name means "distributed processing system", and this is not merely a marketing term.
The DPS series, like many other mainframes, have multiple independent systems working together. For example, IO is handled by a FNP (frontend network processor) which was a (physically) separate minicomputer, with its own CPU, OS, etc. There were various FNP models (16-bit and 18-bit systems) produced. The DPS8M software implements the FNP at a high level, rather than running its original software (though there is both an FNP software simulator and a FPGA FNP project underway).
We did have some internal debate on if the system is a "simulator" or an "emulator", but really, it can be both, depending on how pedantic you want to be.
The biggest reason for the name being what it is, however, is that since the beginning, the software was called the "DPS8M Simulator", and even if emulator might be (arguably) a better name, it's not worth changing it at this point.
Disclosure: I'm one of the developers.
Edit: There are also some optimizations in place (https://dps8m.gitlab.io/dps8m-r3.0.1-archive/R3.0.1/global/S...) that blur the lines between emulator, simulator, and virtual machine.
trn | 2 years ago | on: Multics Simulator
See the homepage at https://dps8m.gitlab.io/ as well for more details.
trn | 4 years ago | on: OpenVi: Portable OpenBSD vi for Unix systems
I will confirm that Vile is an excellent editor. I don't know if I'd consider it a vi-clone, because the vi-ness is kind of skin-deep, but it's performant and works well.
(In school, early 90's, there was a large vile following on VMS, which is where I mostly used it. I don't recall why it was preferred to Vim on VMS, however. Perhaps we didn't have Vim easily available or installed. But I digress.)
trn | 4 years ago | on: OpenVi: Portable OpenBSD vi for Unix systems
Do you have a summary of those changes or a repo up anywhere? If they are general-purpose you might consider sending a PR upstream to n-t-roff
trn | 4 years ago | on: OpenVi: Portable OpenBSD vi for Unix systems
It should be simple, mostly fixes and no major features or refactoring.
trn | 4 years ago | on: OpenVi: Portable OpenBSD vi for Unix systems
pEmacs is "even better" for minimalists.
https://github.com/hughbarney/pEmacs
Stripped -Os build using link-time GC on Linux x86_64 glibc:
30 KB pe*
132 KB mg*
278 KB bin/vi*
56 KB src/xvi*
Even tinier ersatz-vi clones exist (`levee`, `s`, `VIrus`) but these are not complete implementations.
trn | 4 years ago | on: OpenVi: Portable OpenBSD vi for Unix systems
OpenVi uses only secure functions (snprintf, strlcpy, etc.) as a matter of policy.
This may lead to a more secure editor for untrusted files, but it depends on how careful the other editors are. (I haven't examined them at that level.)
trn | 4 years ago | on: OpenVi: Portable OpenBSD vi for Unix systems
I dogfood OpenVi and use it for OpenVi development, however, 99% of my normal programming workflow is (terminal-based) NeoVim.
The other 1% is Eclipse or VSCode ... and I have VSCode setup to use the embedding functionality of NeoVim.
trn | 4 years ago | on: OpenVi: Portable OpenBSD vi for Unix systems
Of particular note, the lack of `expandtab` in Nvi and Traditional vi may be more of a showstopper than lack of multibyte glyph rendering for many.
trn | 4 years ago | on: OpenVi: Portable OpenBSD vi for Unix systems
Cleanly doing UTF-8 support (the "right" way) is planned but is certainly non-trivial ... for example, see:
https://www.openbsd.org/papers/eurobsdcon2016-utf8.pdf and http://www.usenix.org/events/usenix99/full_papers/hagino/hag...
Nvi2 (and Nvi1) are excellent editors, but I wouldn't want to copy the Nvi2 implementation directly. This has been talked about elsewhere*
* https://misc.openbsd.narkive.com/9NHoQv8L/nvi-and-unicode#po...
trn | 4 years ago | on: OpenVi: Portable OpenBSD vi for Unix systems
To give a quick overview of ':set'-able options (`:set all` output) of the various editors that derive from 'nvi' ... [no Nvi2 here ... yet] ...
Nv1 [nvi-1.81.6-45-g864873d3 (2022-02-21)]:
noaltwerase nocomment noignorecase nomodeline noreadonly noshowmode nottywerase
noautoindent noedcompatible keytime=6 msgcat="./" noredraw sidescroll=16 noverbose
autoprint escapetime=1 noleftright noprint="" remap noslowopen warn
noautowrite noerrorbells lines=24 nonumber report=5 nosourceany window=23
backup="" noexrc nolisp nooctal noruler tabstop=8 nowindowname
nobeautify noextended nolist open scroll=11 taglength=0 wraplen=0
cdpath=":" filec="" lock optimize nosearchincr tags="tags" wrapmargin=0
cedit="" flash magic path="" nosecure noterse wrapscan
columns=117 hardtabs=0 matchtime=7 print="" shiftwidth=8 notildeop nowriteany
nocombined noiclower mesg prompt noshowmatch timeout
directory="/tmp"
fileencoding="UTF-8"
inputencoding="UTF-8"
paragraphs="IPLPPPQPP LIpplpipbp"
recdir="/var/tmp/vi.recover"
sections="NHSHH HUnhsh"
shell="/bin/zsh"
shellmeta="~{[*?$`'"\"
term="screen-256color"
noaltwerase nocomment noiclower mesg report=5 taglength=0 nowindowname
noautoindent noedcompatible noignorecase noprint="" noruler tags="tags" wraplen=0
autoprint escapetime=2 noimctrl nonumber scroll=11 noterse wrapmargin=0
noautowrite noerrorbells keytime=6 nooctal nosearchincr notildeop wrapscan
backup="" noexpandtab noleftright open nosecure timeout nowriteany
nobeautify noexrc lines=23 path="" shiftwidth=8 nottywerase
nobserase noextended nolist print="" noshowmatch noverbose
cdpath=":" filec=" " lock prompt noshowmode novisibletab
cedit="" noflash magic noreadonly sidescroll=16 warn
columns=117 hardtabs=0 matchtime=7 remap tabstop=8 window=22
imkey="/?aioAIO"
paragraphs="IPLPPPQPP LIpplpipbpBlBdPpLpIt"
recdir="/var/tmp/vi.recover"
sections="NHSHH HUnhshShSs"
shell="/bin/zsh"
shellmeta="~{[*?$`'"\"
term="screen-256color"
noaltwerase escapetime=1 noleftright path="" noshowmatch warn
noautoindent noerrorbells lines=36 print="" noshowmode window=35
autoprint noexpandtab nolist prompt sidescroll=16 nowindowname
noautowrite noexrc lock noreadonly tabstop=8 wraplen=0
backup="" noextended magic remap taglength=0 wrapmargin=0
nobeautify filec=" " matchtime=7 report=5 tags="tags" wrapscan
cdpath=":" noflash mesg noruler noterse nowriteany
cedit="" hardtabs=0 noprint="" scroll=17 notildeop
columns=108 noiclower nonumber nosearchincr timeout
nocomment noignorecase nooctal nosecure nottywerase
noedcompatible keytime=6 open shiftwidth=8 noverbose
paragraphs="IPLPPPQPP LIpplpipbpBlBdPpLpIt"
recdir="/tmp/vi.recover"
sections="NHSHH HUnhshShSs"
shell="/usr/local/bin/zsh"
shellmeta="~{[\*?$`'"\"
term="screen-256color"
noautoindent nomodelines noshowmode
autoprint nonumber noslowopen
noautowrite open nosourceany
nobeautify nooptimize tabstop=8
directory=/var/tmp paragraphs=IPLPPPQPP LIpplpipbp taglength=0
noedcompatible prompt tags=tags /usr/lib/tags
noerrorbells noreadonly term=screen-256color
noexrc redraw noterse
flash remap timeout
hardtabs=8 report=5 ttytype=screen-256color
noignorecase scroll=17 warn
nolisp sections=NHSHH HUnhsh window=35
nolist shell=/usr/bin/zsh wrapscan
magic shiftwidth=8 wrapmargin=0
mesg noshowmatch nowriteanytrn | 4 years ago | on: OpenVi: Portable OpenBSD vi for Unix systems
Don't confuse OpenVi/OpenBSD-vi, nvi1, and nvi2. These are all different programs that share the same heritage.
OpenVi is derived from OpenBSD vi, which derives from nvi version 1.79, released in 1996. There has been 25+ years of independent development as part of the OpenBSD base system and has diverged greatly in that time, with the development going in a different direction.
Nvi1, currently on version 1.8x, is maintained at https://repo.or.cz/nvi.git - I believe the latest version of this editor does have multibyte support, but this is not the OpenVi/OpenBSD version of the editor.
Nvi2 shares heritage as well but also, quite far removed from the original code, is actively maintained at https://github.com/lichray/nvi2 and also includes multibyte support.
(IIRC) the multibyte support in both Nvi1 and Nvi2 derives from nvi-m17n, developed as part of the KAME project by the late itojun - http://www.itojun.org/itojun.html ... the last update to nvi-m17n was about 3 years ago, and is available at https://cgit.freebsd.org/ports/tree/editors/nvi-m17n/files
Currently, optimizing for size using link-time garbage collection with GCC 11.2 on an x86_64 glibc Linux system gives a good idea of the changes over time and the different direction these editors have taken. OpenVi is also simplified in structure and does not have the three levels of abstraction of Nvi 1.8x - there is no library interface layer.
For OpenVi, the compiled binary is 280K, and for Nvi1 (nvi-1.81.6-45-g864873d3) the compiled binary is 528K (36K for vi, 528K for libvi).
OpenVi has a single configuration standard with no dependencies beyond curses.
Nvi1 has many options beyond trace/debug ("widechar" "gtk" "motif" "threads" "perl" "tcl" "db3/4" "internal-re") - so at least 255 different build variations are possible.
(I've not yet built Nvi2 myself on Linux so I can't provide an really fair comparison yet, but I will, and I'll summarize the data in an FAQ section of the README)
Nvi1 (https://repo.or.cz/nvi.git) looks like:
36K vi
24K vi-ipc
108K vi-motif
492K libvi.so.0.0.0
660K total
280K bin/vi
But, these are all different editors at this point. A lot happens in 25 years.
trn | 4 years ago | on: Maximally Permissive Software Licensing: A look at some unloved licenses
https://copyfree.org/standard/licenses is worth a look
page 1
See https://dps8m.gitlab.io/ for more information.