Help me! Before I take the plunge

[Lyle Bickley]

On Thursday 31 March 2005 22:49, Ethan Dicks wrote:
--snip--
> OS/278 has the necessary patches to deal with the differences in the
> console IOT behavior that was well described in another post.  Dunno
> about download, but you'd have a problem with the downloaded file,
> since the RX02 format can _not_ be written by a PC FDC (it's a hybrid
> format that only the RX02 drive (and DEC-compatible 3rd-party
> drives/controllers) can write.

I have a couple of DECMATE IIs and I use PUTR (running under DOS) to format 
RX50 diskettes and transfer files to the diskettes.  I've also used TELEDISK 
to copy entire diskettes that I have downloaded  and have created virtually 
all of the system programs on RX50 diskettes (OS/278, Word Processing, DIBOL, 
etc.) that run on a DECMATE II.

I haven't worked with a DECMATE I since the original one I used at work many 
years ago - but as I recollect it is not anywhere near as flexible as a 
DECMATE II (which has HDD capability - which I've implimented in both my 
DECMATE IIs).

The DECMATE I could still be a fun system to own - and if you can find DECMATE 
I system images, both PUTR and TELEDISK will make it easy for you to create 
entire copies of diskettes (TELEDISK), format (PUTR) and transfer files 
(PUTR).

Cheers,
Lyle
-- 
Lyle Bickley
Bickley Consulting West Inc.
http://bickleywest.com
"Black holes are where God is dividing by zero"