[GreenKeys] Happy birthday, PDP-8!

[Doug Alderdice]

Speaking for myself, a PDP8 provided my first exposure to a Teletype 
product, namely the ASR33 that was the main I/O terminal on said 
computer, thus lighting the fire of interest in all things Teletype when 
I was but a middle-schooler in the late 70s.

So, perhaps the computer isn't on topic, but its attached terminal 
certainly is!

FWIW, YMMV, etc.

73,

Doug, KA2WFT



On 3/21/2018 7:04 PM, Wa3frp via GreenKeys wrote:
> Agreed!
> 
> Russ - WA3FRP
> wa3frp at aol.com
> i-Telex 834328 WUTMPAM CHIL
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Steve Garrison <steve.n4tty at gmail.com>
> To: Richard Knoppow <1oldlens1 at ix.netcom.com>
> Cc: greenkeys <greenkeys at mailman.qth.net>
> Sent: Wed, Mar 21, 2018 6:49 pm
> Subject: Re: [GreenKeys] Happy birthday, PDP-8!
> 
> I'm like Paul (and probably should not have done a reply all) but can't 
> see a shred of evidence of how this could be "on topic" for Greenkeys. 
> Let's keep it TTY related. Steve G./N4TTY Sent from my iPhone > On Mar 
> 21, 2018, at 6:07 PM, Richard Knoppow <1oldlens1 at ix.netcom.com 
> <mailto:1oldlens1 at ix.netcom.com>> wrote: > > Well, my introduction to 
> computers was not much later. It was the Hewlett-Packard small main 
> frame meant to compete with the PDP-8 or maybe it was the PDP-11. It 
> rand on Hewlett-Packard Basic. It used an ASR-33 as the terminal 
> although I think the one in our shop used a KSR-33 with separate tape 
> punch and reader in the rack. I taught myself to program it using this 
> machine. It had 32 _kb_ of memory. Could be expanded to 64 Kb with a 
> second rack. Had flashing lights and toggle switches on the front to 
> wake it up and tell it where the tape reader was. -hp- got into making 
> them because it wanted something better than the PDP for automated 
> measurement systems. > Teletype machines are really sort of elementary 
> computers, converting serial to parallel and then to analog. > 
> Unfortunately the computer "expert" in our facility was a psychopathic 
> bully so I had to learn whatever I knew on my own. > >> On 3/21/2018 
> 2:48 PM, Paul Heller wrote: >> I hate controversy, but much as I like 
> the PDP-8 I really do believe it’s not appropriate for this board. (Gil 
> did ask us to self regulate...)...