Notable comments in RT-11 source code

Software
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Various quotations found sprinkled about the source code for this PDP-11 operating system:
https://cybre.space/@niconiconi/107101692082714219 (sorry dead link now, new profile here but I haven’t yet found the missing post)

  • the code which aborts a job
  • the blinkenlights code
  • the code which blocks a waiting task
  • the error handling routines
  • the system halt routine
  • the interrupt handler entry point
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Sadly, the mastodon instance with the toot in question is gone now. I’d love to find the original source or image!

In the meantime, Megan Gentry (large collection of PDP-11 things here) did post in 2003 over at alt.folklore.computers the following:

“G. Wolfe Woodbury” <ggw_@no_spam.wolves.durham.nc.us> writes:

Well, PDP-11 RT-11 Source code had extensive quoting from Gilbert&Sullivan to mark relevant sections, like:

Behold the Lord High Executioner

on the process dispatch code.

Actually, that comment (actually a full verse of the song) is for the code which handles program exits, if I remember correctly…

heck, let me consult the source…

from rmon.mac:

;+
; “Behold the lord high executioner!
; A personage of noble rank and title -
; A dignified and potent officer,
; Whose functions are particularly vital.”
; - W.S. Gilbert, “The Mikado”
;
; The following entry point is used to abort a running job.
; It switches to System State, sets the abort bit for the user,
; and falls into the abort code.
;-

There are quite a few things in the RT sources… I posted a number of them someplace a few years ago, maybe I should collect them and make them available somewhere…

Megan Gentry
Former RT-11 Developer

Also in 2003:

One of my favorites (other than the verse from The Mikado) is the comment for the code which moves the KMON (keyboard monitor) and USR (User Service Routines) up and down in memory as handlers are loaded and unloaded, or foreground or system jobs are installed or removed.

;+
; “The awful shadow of some unseen power
; Floats, tho’ unseen, amongst us”
; - Shelley, “Hymn to Intellectual Beauty”
;-

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