This book is a beginner's guide, not a comprehensive programming guide. It will help you build and test the PiDP-11 kit and get started with navigating around the many included operating systems, loading a few games, and experimenting with some high-level programming languages. It is an introduction to the PiDP-11 kit produced by Oscar Vermeulen and the PDP-11 SimH emulator originated by Bob Supnik and refined by many people over the years.
After I finished building the kit, I realized that I had no idea how to make it do anything. Luckily, there is a wealth of websites, GitHub repositories, YouTube videos, and links to hundreds of original PDP-11 documents. I quickly went from not knowing what to do to not being able to remember which reference source contained the information I needed. This book integrates a lot of that information and provides links if you want to explore in more detail.
The book is not intended for Wizards, Hackers, Internet Trolls, people using real PDP-11 hardware, or people using SimH on other platforms.
I am standing on the shoulders of giants. All the hard work has been done by Oscar Vermeulen, the creator of the PiDP-11 kit, Bob Supnik for the original SimH, and Mark Pizzolato, the developer of the PDP-11 simulators for the PiDP-11. Jörg Hoppe created the BlinkenBone project, which has been used to interface the SimH emulation with the lights and switches on the PiDP-11 front panel. Many other enthusiasts contribute to the preservation of the PDP-11 software and architecture.
Mark Matlock and Johnny Billquist, Manfred Koethe , John Bruner, and a few others, were very helpful, answering my dumb questions with patience and kindness.
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