Difference between revisions of "User talk:Vaxorcist"

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:: Thanks! I wonder why Web search engines don't know of them? They must have robots.txt files, or something. Alas, I didn't see any PDP-11 information there, though! :-) [[User:Jnc|Jnc]] ([[User talk:Jnc|talk]]) 13:45, 31 May 2022 (CEST)
 
:: Thanks! I wonder why Web search engines don't know of them? They must have robots.txt files, or something. Alas, I didn't see any PDP-11 information there, though! :-) [[User:Jnc|Jnc]] ([[User talk:Jnc|talk]]) 13:45, 31 May 2022 (CEST)
  
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== CMI clarification ==
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== Template:Nav PDP-11 red links ==
  
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I think we need to be more careful the [[CMI]] material. It turns out that is only one large backplane in the 750, into which plug:
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Hey, when you added the PDT'S, etc, to [[:Template:Nav PDP-11]], you should write them at some point, so they don't show up as red links in the nav box! I don't care enough about them to do it myself, alas. [[User:Jnc|Jnc]] ([[User talk:Jnc|talk]]) 21:05, 13 June 2023 (CEST)
  
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* the KA750 cards (which have internal busses, such as the MBus and WBus, running between them)
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: You're right, red links in the nav box are not optimal, but at least there's a hint now that there are some more (special) PDP-11s. I'm in my first steps to VAX MACRO-32 right now, and at the moment I need all my available resources to cope with that. I will cone back later and start PDT pages. [[User:Vaxorcist|Vaxorcist]] ([[User talk:Vaxorcist|talk]])
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* /750 CMI option cards (RH750, etc)
 
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* memory array boards (in a separate section of the backplane, with different connectors from the other two types of boards)
 
  
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The CMI appears on the CPU backplane, and goes to some slots/cards, but most of the 'main' slots (specifically, slots 1-6 and 10) are 'special'; i.e. they are customized to a particular board, which ''has'' to go in that slot - and that slot can't hold anything else. (An example is the MIC board's slot, 10; the CMI runs to it, but the internal memory bus to the memory array boards - which does not seem to have a formal name - also goes to this slot.) Similarly, according to the KA750 TD, pg. 15, the MBus and WBus both run to the DPM, MIC and FPA cards/slots; but the UBI card/slot has only the WBus, but not the MBus. The CMI runs to some cards/slots - MIC and UBI - but not others: not the DPM, nor the FPA.
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:: All sounds good! 20:32, 16 June 2023 (CEST)
  
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So it would be wrong to describe the FPA as a 'CBI' card. It's not; it's part of the KA750, and plugs into the /750 backplane which carries the CMI to ''other'' slots, but that's all.
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== Split up Category:DEC VAX systems? ==
  
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I think we shouldn't put much weight on whether boards plug into the 'main' slots (1-10) on the /750 backplane, because that section holds a mix of special-purpose slots, and 'CMI option' slots (7-9). Although cards that the CMI goes to (MIC, UBI, RDM, WCS) are in some sense 'CMI' cards... because they have dedicated, customized, slots, I would rather reserve the term 'CMI card' for the cards that can go in the CMI option slots: RH780, etc.
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See [[Category talk:DEC VAX systems#Split up category?]] It is pretty big. [[User:Jnc|Jnc]] ([[User talk:Jnc|talk]]) 21:20, 11 August 2023 (CEST)
  
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Does this make sense? [[User:Jnc|Jnc]] ([[User talk:Jnc|talk]]) 19:10, 2 June 2022 (CEST)
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== Uniform naming ==
  
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: Yes, you are right! I read some manuals again caring how DEC named its components.
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The only thing uniform about my naming choices is that I ''uniformly'' use the name DEC used in their documentation. So if you see an 'RAxx Disk Drive' and an 'RAyy disk drive', go argue with DEC. [[User:Jnc|Jnc]] ([[User talk:Jnc|talk]]) 00:47, 17 August 2023 (CEST)
  
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:There is neither a "Memory Backplane" nor a "CMI Backplane", but only ONE "CPU Backplane" with 10 "Extended hex slots" for CPU cards including 3 "CMI option slots" (7, 8, and 9), and 9 "Hex slots" for memory boards. The 9-slot UNIBUS Backplane DD11 is a separate unit, of course.
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Did you find a DEC document calling it 'RA82 Disk Drive'? Because I did find EK-ORA82-UG-001, which calls it "RA82 disk drive". (I don't use the name as given in the manual titles; book titles are often capitalized. So I look in the early text to see what they use. Both "About This Manual" and "1.1 General Information" use that.) Please, don't 'fix' things unless you have the time to do some research, and do it right. [[User:Jnc|Jnc]] ([[User talk:Jnc|talk]]) 14:00, 17 August 2023 (CEST)
  
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:So there is a CMI bus, and there are three CMI option slots in the CPU backplane, but there is no CMI backplane.
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== Cut and pasting manuals ==
  
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:May I leave the corresponding corrections to you? [[User:Vaxorcist|Vaxorcist]] ([[User talk:Vaxorcist|talk]]) 13:18, 3 June 2022 (CEST)
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I notice that much of the content in the new page [[VT36 Color Graphics Display Control System]] seems to be cut and pasted from the brochure. If you will notice, at the bottom of the 'edit' page, the page says:
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You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource. Do not submit copyrighted work without permission!
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This text is not anything I wrote; I am not sure if it is still applicable (and I do not know if HP cares about the copyright on DEC content anyway), but it is probably good advice. [[User:Jnc|Jnc]] ([[User talk:Jnc|talk]]) 22:31, 3 October 2023 (CEST)
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:Ha, you caught me – I forgot the introductory headline. Would a sentence like "I would like to quote the VT36 brochure (I couldn't word it better):" be OK? [[User:Vaxorcist|Vaxorcist]] ([[User talk:Vaxorcist|talk]])
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== Reproduction of that sample table you sent me ==
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[[User:Jnc/750Backplanes|Here]] is a sample I put together which more or less duplicates that [http://ana-3.lcs.mit.edu/~jnc/jpg/tmp/vtbl.png VAXC-11/750 backplane diagram] that you sent me. So with the 'VerticalTextUp' and 'VerticalTextDown' templates, we do, I think, now have all the tools one needs to replicate such diagrams. (Although I did have to move the slot numbers up to the top; the Mediawiki 'wikitable' mechanism depends on the 'header line' to tell it how many columns the table has. So I had to have ''something'' up there; I decided to use the slot numbers.)
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That mechanism was not really designed to allow precise control of things like the sizes of all the boxes (although use of HTML attributes may allow a lot of that - e.g. for positioning text inside boxes), but I do not have a lot of experience in using them. E.g. the 'M9202' is not centered in its box; I may try and fix that. There are 'kludges' that fix some things; e.g. [https://gunkies.org/w/index.php?title=User:Jnc/VerticalTable&diff=34157&oldid=34155 this change] used a lot of 'nbsp' characters to increase the height of the third row boxes, so they more or less match the first and second rows. [[User:Jnc|Jnc]] ([[User talk:Jnc|talk]]) 15:53, 15 April 2024 (CEST)

Latest revision as of 09:31, 16 April 2024

Duplicate links

The Wikipedia Manual of Style's guidance on 'Duplicate and repeat links' seems sound (good) to me: "Generally, a link should appear only once in an article, but it may be repeated if helpful for readers". Not that it is a real problem to have a repeated link in a page! Jnc (talk) 17:49, 22 May 2022 (CEST)

750 option manuals

Do you have documentation for the CI750/DR750? I looked, but was unable to find anything on them (even the 1986 'VAX Hardware Handbook Volume 1') I did find mention of the second DW750 (I forget where I saw it - probably in the KA750 TD). Jnc (talk) 19:12, 29 May 2022 (CEST)

I will add that, I promise! Vaxorcist (talk) 21:56, 29 May 2022 (CEST)
That was not a 'push' to add content, but a real query. :-) RH750 Massbus Adapter mentions them, but I was unable to find any DEC documentation that mentions them. (Oh, I see BitSavers has the CI750 FMPS.) Jnc (talk) 23:38, 29 May 2022 (CEST)

750 Revision Control document

I am curious; where did the VAX-11/750 & VAX-11/751 Revision Control document come from? (It is a very interesting document, by the way; thank you for putting it online.) It does not seem to be online anywhere else. Did you scan/OCR a physical document that you have? Or did some VMS or diagnostics release include it? Jnc (talk) 00:29, 31 May 2022 (CEST)

See new page: "DEC MDS" Vaxorcist (talk) 09:26, 31 May 2022 (CEST)
Thanks! I wonder why Web search engines don't know of them? They must have robots.txt files, or something. Alas, I didn't see any PDP-11 information there, though! :-) Jnc (talk) 13:45, 31 May 2022 (CEST)

Template:Nav PDP-11 red links

Hey, when you added the PDT'S, etc, to Template:Nav PDP-11, you should write them at some point, so they don't show up as red links in the nav box! I don't care enough about them to do it myself, alas. Jnc (talk) 21:05, 13 June 2023 (CEST)

You're right, red links in the nav box are not optimal, but at least there's a hint now that there are some more (special) PDP-11s. I'm in my first steps to VAX MACRO-32 right now, and at the moment I need all my available resources to cope with that. I will cone back later and start PDT pages. Vaxorcist (talk)
All sounds good! 20:32, 16 June 2023 (CEST)

Split up Category:DEC VAX systems?

See Category talk:DEC VAX systems#Split up category? It is pretty big. Jnc (talk) 21:20, 11 August 2023 (CEST)

Uniform naming

The only thing uniform about my naming choices is that I uniformly use the name DEC used in their documentation. So if you see an 'RAxx Disk Drive' and an 'RAyy disk drive', go argue with DEC. Jnc (talk) 00:47, 17 August 2023 (CEST)

Did you find a DEC document calling it 'RA82 Disk Drive'? Because I did find EK-ORA82-UG-001, which calls it "RA82 disk drive". (I don't use the name as given in the manual titles; book titles are often capitalized. So I look in the early text to see what they use. Both "About This Manual" and "1.1 General Information" use that.) Please, don't 'fix' things unless you have the time to do some research, and do it right. Jnc (talk) 14:00, 17 August 2023 (CEST)

Cut and pasting manuals

I notice that much of the content in the new page VT36 Color Graphics Display Control System seems to be cut and pasted from the brochure. If you will notice, at the bottom of the 'edit' page, the page says: 

You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource. Do not submit copyrighted work without permission!

This text is not anything I wrote; I am not sure if it is still applicable (and I do not know if HP cares about the copyright on DEC content anyway), but it is probably good advice. Jnc (talk) 22:31, 3 October 2023 (CEST)

Ha, you caught me – I forgot the introductory headline. Would a sentence like "I would like to quote the VT36 brochure (I couldn't word it better):" be OK? Vaxorcist (talk)

Reproduction of that sample table you sent me

Here is a sample I put together which more or less duplicates that VAXC-11/750 backplane diagram that you sent me. So with the 'VerticalTextUp' and 'VerticalTextDown' templates, we do, I think, now have all the tools one needs to replicate such diagrams. (Although I did have to move the slot numbers up to the top; the Mediawiki 'wikitable' mechanism depends on the 'header line' to tell it how many columns the table has. So I had to have something up there; I decided to use the slot numbers.)

That mechanism was not really designed to allow precise control of things like the sizes of all the boxes (although use of HTML attributes may allow a lot of that - e.g. for positioning text inside boxes), but I do not have a lot of experience in using them. E.g. the 'M9202' is not centered in its box; I may try and fix that. There are 'kludges' that fix some things; e.g. this change used a lot of 'nbsp' characters to increase the height of the third row boxes, so they more or less match the first and second rows. Jnc (talk) 15:53, 15 April 2024 (CEST)

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