Re: Never Got Used To Those New-Fangled VMS Filename Extensions ...

On 28 Jul 2024 15:14:17 -0400, Rich Alderson wrote:

TOPS-20 (based on TENEX) used the .EXE extension on sharable
executables, although TENEX used .SAV on both sharable and nonsharable
executables.  Tops-10 used .SAV (or .LOW and .HGH for executables with a
sharable segment), until late in the game when TOPS-20 style sharable
executables came to Tops-10.
 
I believe that RT-11 got .EXE from the larger systems.

I think the significance of .SAV was that it was essentially a straight
memory dump, so loading it into memory was very simple. Whereas .EXE
required a bit more setup.