User:Meganbg

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Hello, all.

I've been involved with computers since 1967, when I was 13. Although I've always been into electronics to some degree or other, software is what I love working with.

I used a DEC PDP-8 in high school and multiple PDP-11s and a DECSystem-10 in college (WPI), so when I went to work from college, I endeavored to join Digital Equipment Corporation. I got my foot in the door in 1977, working as a third-shift computer operator on several DECSystem-10s.

From there I joined the RT-11 development group and was involved in maintenance of RT-11 V3B and later, and in the design and development of V4 and later. I have worked on all parts of the RT-11 system, from the monitor to device drivers to utilities to libraries. Occasionally I would assist PDP-11 hardware development groups when it came time to attempt to boot RT-11 on a new PDP-11.

I stayed with the RT-11 group until 1992, when the final DEC version of RT-11 (V5.6) was released and all of PDP-11 software was transferred, first to Colorado support, and then to Mentec. Even though the RT-11 group was disbanded, I continued to do private development and maintenance of RT-11, and I provided some early support to Mentec, helping them to get their build environment working, and then I provided a number of the changes I made to them. (I cannot say whether or not they actually included any of my coding changes into V5.7) I have a number of RT-11 machines at home, including the machine on which I put together the build environment which was eventually sent to Mentec.

From the RT-11 group, I joined the Ultrix-32 development and support group. From there, I moved to the DEC OSF/1 support group (and the name was changed to Digital Unix, then Compaq Tru64 Unix and then HP Tru64 Unix.

Besides science fiction, amateur radio, magic, flying, and building and flying RC model helicopters, my favorite hobby is collecting DEC-related hardware, software and memorabilia. I have a moderate collection of machines consisting of PDP-8s, PDP-11s, a PDP-10, Vaxen, MIPS, Alphas and numerous DEC notebooks. I have a very large collection of DEC microfiche, manuals, handbooks and reference cards. I also have a growing collection of '|D|I|G|I|T|A|L|'-branded items distributed to employees, available at trade shows, and obtained from other collectors.

I also maintain the 'PDP-11 Field Guide'.