🚀 go-pugleaf

I thank others for posting my rambling article about DECmates, etc.  Now that I
can post to the net myself, (although from this other machine: cunixf ONLY) I
will put my own stuff up restricted accordingly.

I just want to mention now about RX50 disks and compatibility.  I understand
that the Rainbow can read/write PC disks somehow.  On the DECmate, the hardware
can do an automatic check for 48 TPI disks, but read-only.  DECmate MS-DOS
supports reading and chkdsking, etc. of PC one-side 160K/180K disks.  It can
also complain that the directory on the disk indicates it is two-sided.  You
have to copy the files to another more "native" disk to process the files,
because many utilities, most notably CONVERT can't access them directly.  No
real problem, just use a COPY command.  CONVERT makes RX50 CP/M disks or WPS
disks.  The Rainbow loves the CP/M or MS-DOS disks directly, but due to some
stupidity, the VAXmate identifies DECmate MS-DOS disks incorrectly yet reads
Rainbow disks ok because they look at some pragmatism on the disk, not the
"right" way by media type.

Only the DEcmate II has the MS-DOS option, but the II and III and III+ can do
CP/M-80.  Due to a hardware bug, the III+ can't read the PC Disks.  I assume
that the II and III both like Robin disks also (read-only), so the III+ loses
on that score too.  DEcmate II with all floppies can have 4 RX50 and 4
RX01/02 drives.  In that configuration, CP/M likes the old 8" CP/M disks from
the 8080 CP/M days.  Any format that was IBM 3740 underneath CP/M should work.

I can do this if someone wants (means I have to dismantle the machine and take
out the hard disk controller.  2 floppies and hard disk or up to 8 floppies is
all you get!).  I can distribute generic KERMIT-80 this way to those people!

If anyone wants rx50 stuff moved to Rx01/02 or vice versa, don't hesitate to 
ask me.  KERMIT can transfer back to OS/8 or RT-11 RX01/02 floppies or even
DECtapes or LINCtapes.  (want paper-tape?)

cjl (lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu)