pc@ukc.ac.uk (R.P.A.Collinson) (02/06/86)
European UNIX(Tm systems User Group SPRING CONFERENCE AND EXHIBITION Florence, Italy, April 21-24 1986 Pre-Conference Registration Information ``Firenze Incontra'' Centro Affari / Centro Congressi Conference and Exhibition Centre Florence, Italy This news item refers to two forms which cannot be replicated easily on the news. You should contact the EUUG office address below to get copies of the forms - but time is short....... IMPORTANT NOTICE: DUE TO A COMBINATION OF ITALIAN HOLIDAYS IT MAY BE EXTREMELY DIFFICULT TO FIND HOTEL SPACE AFTER THE RESERVATION DEADLINE HAS PASSED. THE HOTEL RESERVATION OFFICE IS UNDER STRONG PRESSURE TO CANCEL ALL PRELIMINARY, NON CONFIRMED RESERVATIONS AT THE DEADLINE DATE. DEADLINE DATE FOR HOTEL RESERVATIONS: FEBRUARY 28, 1986 Please address any questions on this news item to the EUUG office. Please do not send me any questions, it will cost you time. I will simply forward them. Programme Items --------------- The EUUG spring conference and exhibition spans a total of four days from April 21st to April 24th. This news item contains information regarding the conference, exhibition, tutorials and accommodation facilities. Plenary Session April 21 (Monday afternoon) Technical Conference Programme April 22-24 (Tuesday-Thursday) Industrial Conference Programme April 22-24 (Tuesday-Thursday) Advanced Tutorials April 21 (Monday) Introductory Tutorials April 22 (Tuesday) Exhibition April 22-24 (Tuesday-Thursday) Also, the IEEE working group P1003 will hold its meeting in conjunction with the EUUG conference in Florence: IEEE - P1003 meeting April 16-18 (Wednesday-Friday) Due to the pressure on hotel accommodation in Florence at the time of the conference, it is essential to act immediately if a booking is to be secured. Use the Hotel Booking form which is appears later in this item. Plenary Session --------------- The Technical Conference Programme and the Industrial Conference Programme will be preceded by a common Plenary Session, to be held on Monday April 21st (afternoon). During this plenary session, there will be a debate on: Research and Technology Policy of Europe For this session, officials from the European Economic Community and Italian Government, along with other influential persons will be invited. Technical Programme ------------------- The technical programme will run for three days from April 22nd to April 24th. Topics to be addressed include: uses of the UNIX system in the real world; distributed filesystems: design and implementation; management of a large software distribution; database management systems; ISO/OSI implementations for UNIX; and process management under Berkeley 4.2. Some of the most interesting papers in previous conferences have not been related to the implementation details of UNIX, but of how the system is really used, and for what purposes. The implementation details of UNIX are relatively well understood now. The only area where any real new development is taking place is that of distributed filesystems. There are only really two serious contenders: RFS available in V.3 from AT&T and NFS designed by Sun Microsystems. A number of the papers will present the respective merits of each system. Only time will tell which becomes more widespread. The following selection of speakers have already been secured. The technical programme will be finalised by the end of January. A full programme will be made available to all delegates at the registration desk. Previous experience has suggested that releasing the programme early is a mistake in view of the considerable number of last-minute alterations that inevitably occur. The information presented below should be used as an indication of the topics and major interest areas for the conference. Dave Presotto: The Eighth Edition IPC Mechanism Real UNIX has often been described as ``the system currently running on Dennis Ritchie's machine'': that is Edition VIII. Dave and Dennis designed the IPC mechanism for this research version of the system. In his talk, Dave will examine the IPC facilities offered with particular reference to the implementation of network-wide service providers and how these are named. Peter Weinberger: The Eighth Edition Remote Filesystem Peter is famous for at least two pieces of work. Firstly, he is the W in AWK (Aho, Weinberger and Kernighan), that useful pattern matching and scanning language the we all use daily. His second well known work is in the area of distributed filesystems, in particular he was responsible for the initial design and implementation of the Edition VIII remote filesystem. In Florence, Peter will explain the motivation behind this work on the remote filesystem and study the model of the world it assumes. Andy Rifkin: RFS in System V.3 RFS is AT&T's answer to the ``I want my system to use those files over there'' problem. RFS will be available with V.3 (beta releases for which are still three months away). Andy is the person currently working on RFS within AT&T. In this talk he will explain how it is implemented under System V.3 and highlight its features and limitations. Russel Sandberg: The Sun Network File System - NFS In direct ``competition'' to RFS is the Sun Microsystems Network File System - NFS. The design objectives of the two systems were different as will be explained by Russel during this talk. Following an initial overview of NFS, he will concentrate on a comparison of NFS and RFS. Some problems of implementation will also be studied. Additional papers on NFS will explain how a real implementation was performed by the introduction of vnodes into the UNIX kernel as an alternative to the standard inode as the focus of all filesystem activity. Tom Killian: Computer Music Under Eighth Edition Under the heading of applications to which the UNIX system has been put, Tom will describe his work with the music system at the Labs. All the implementation has been performed under Edition VIII, some of whose more interesting features will be explained. A surprising number of standard UNIX tools are utilised in the production of input for ``m'', a music compiler. Examples of pieces written in ``m'', C and the Bourne Shell will be shown and played. Bill Joy: Workstations in the Future At the EUUG conference in Paris 1982 Bill predicted the future of UNIX workstations and the technology associated with them for the three years which were to follow. That time has elapsed and therefore he has offered to update that talk with further insights into the developments in the next few years. The talk will not only cover UNIX workstations, but developments the in technology applicable, regardless of operating system. Lauren Weinstein: The Stargate Project Stargate allows the transmission of netnews type information over cable television and satellite systems. The techniques employed allow the additional netnews information to be broadcast at the same time as existing audio and visual signals without any adverse effects. Lauren will discuss both the technical and organisational aspects of the project. Mike Hawley: Developments at Lucasfilm Mike will discuss UNIX and computers at Lucasfilm. The excitement comes from combining information technology with the richest possible kinds of communication media. Examples range from the high-end graphics and audio work done there (with the PIXAR and ASP systems) to earthier projects involving large databases of sound effects, books, poetry, etc; and of course, music. Most of the work exemplifies Unix applications and systems development with an artistic bent. IEEE - P1003 Meeting -------------------- The IEEE working group P1003 will hold its meeting at the end of the week preceding the Florence conference: April 16th to April 18th. The IEEE-P1003 meeting will be a unique opportunity to get into contact with the official UNIX standardisation efforts. During the meeting, there will be a ballot for the Strawman standard and an attempt will be made to identify, and set priorities for, issues required for a full-use standard. Among the topics under consideration are: locking real-time systems ioctl and termio signals networking internationalisation character sets terminal control timezones IEEE are interested to learn of similar and related efforts in Europe and obtain an update on the X/OPEN position. Formal reports will be presented on: status of the above ballots; co-operation with the ANSI C committee; and a report from the shell and utilities working group. In addition, there will be a report from the real-time sub-comittee and the SVID working group. There are plans to setup further activities in the area of the network news, on which European input is sought. Air fares within Europe usually drop to half the price when you spend a Saturday night at your destination. This might well compensate for additional hotel expenses, plus it will give you a full weekend to visit the unique city of Florence itself. Further information can be obtained from: Craig Lund / Jim Isaac Charles Rivers Data Systems 983 Concorde Street Framingham Massachusetts 01701 Tel: +1 617 6261000 Industrial Programme -------------------- The industrial Programme will run for three days from April 22nd to April 24th (in parallel with the Technical Programme). Preliminary Outline The industrial conference programme is oriented towards people interested in understanding the trends of UNIX System V, and especially the application areas where UNIX is used or is suitable to use. The main objective is not the presentation of products by hardware manufacturers, independent software vendors, value added resellers etc., but the discussion of real cases, important projects, and problems involved in different situations and environments. On the first day of the industrial sessions (April 22), the presentations will be in English, with simultaneous translation into Italian. The day's programme is devoted to international themes. The second day (April 23), talks will be in Italian, without translation; only items of specific concern to the Italian market will be presented here. The third day (April 24) will be a ``free session'', where people can present their software products in a limited time frame, without any kind of pre-screening; the choice of the language is up to the speaker but no translation will be available. The following topics have been planned for the first two days: Tuesday April 22, morning: UNIX Standards. The UNIX standardisation activities will be presented, with specific attention to the problem of ``real'' portability over different systems by different manufacturers. This topic will be treated with the X/OPEN Group and the IEEE-P1003 working group as the main protagonists. Not only the operating system, but also development tools (languages, file access methods, environment) are involved in the issue of portability. The X/OPEN group will describe its activities and explain the main objectives behind the ``Portability Guide''. Tuesday April 22, afternoon: UNIX in the European Institutions Some interesting cases of using UNIX will be presented by representatives from the EEC (European Economic Community) and its various research centres, in order to give a review of the involvement of UNIX in the ``European'' world. This will be a good occasion to see different and particular applications in a world well known for its skill in advanced technology, and also to have a clearer view on the meaning of European efforts to have a common strategy. Wednesday April 23, morning: UNIX in the University In most countries, UNIX has the roots of its history in the Universities. In Italy, the situation is quite different. With the exception of some ``pioneers'', UNIX only started to spread over the Italian Universities during the last year. This session is an opportunity to examine the situation: to analyse the perspectives of UNIX in the universities, to examine the projects and the areas where UNIX is strongly involved, in order to understand the role that the universities will play in the UNIX world. Wednesday April 23, morning and afternoon: UNIX in industrial and commercial applications The diffusion of UNIX in the industrial and commercial world is now growing very rapidly. The focus of the lectures will be on the problems involved in using UNIX for commercial applications in different sectors of the market (banks, manufacturing, business, graphics). More than a review of real or possible applications, the emphasis will be on the choice of the correct development tools, on the need to integrate existing environments (PC or mainframe), and on different views on these problems. Thursday April 24, morning and afternoon Free presentations of software products running under UNIX. Advanced Tutorials ------------------ After the success of the Copenhagen tutorials, the programme committee decided to organise once again a day of ``advanced'' UNIX tutorials in combination with this EUUG conference. There will be two parallel sessions on Monday, April 21st. Mike Tilson, of Human Computing Resources Inc. (Toronto, Canada) will present a one-day tutorial on: Porting UNIX to New Machines. The Instruction Set Ltd (London, UK) will present a series of six short tutorials (one hour each) on topics at an advanced level: System V Inter Process Communication Make for the enthusiast The Source Code Control System - SCCS System V Documenters Workbench Software (including Device Independent Troff) AWK Advanced features of the Bourne Shell. A comprehensive set of course notes will be distributed with each tutorial. Availability of the course notes can only be guaranteed for registration and payment in advance. Advanced Tutorials are an extra cost item, and must be specifically booked. Check the booking forms which are enclosed in this Program Booklet. Abstract of Mike Tilson' tutorial Porting UNIX to New Machines'': The UNIX system is highly portable, but it still will not run on a new processor without significant effort. Because the use of UNIX is growing, many people are involved in moving or ``porting'' UNIX to new machines. These ``ports'' range in complexity from writing a few drivers to a full re-targeting of UNIX to an entirely new architecture. This tutorial is aimed at technical staff and technical managers who are involved in adapting UNIX systems to new processors. The tutorial will cover the full range of issues that must be considered in order to bring up UNIX on a hardware configuration that has never before run it. The tutorial will also be of interest to those responsible for adapting UNIX support libraries and/or C compilers on new machines, and in general to everybody with an interest in ``heavy duty'' program portability issues. Mike Tilson has been involved in porting UNIX to the Computer Automation 4/95, the PERQ graphics workstation, the National 32000, the Motorola 68010, Prime 50 Series, CDC Cyber 180, as well as several other proprietary systems. Mike's lecture ``A tutorial on program portability'' at the EUUG conference in Dublin was a success on its own, and one of the best lectures of the entire conference. Mike Tilson is certainly among the worlds top experts in the area of UNIX program portability. Introductory Tutorials ---------------------- Introductory Tutorials will be presented on the second day of the conference, April 22nd. The introductory tutorials are meant to serve a local, Italian need, since in most European countries there are sufficient ways of obtaining introductory information about the UNIX system. For this reason, they will be presented in Italian, with no simultaneous translation. The purpose of the tutorials is to give a general overview of UNIX; the system-architecture, the development environment, and the market opportunity offered by UNIX. The tutorials are aimed at an audience of technical or managerial background, approaching UNIX to check the possibilities to adopt it, or to understand the real opportunities that UNIX can provide to them. Bookings for the introductory tutorials are not handled by the EUUG, but by the local organisers only. If you plan to attend any introductory tutorials, you should contact the Italian User Group I2U for registration details. Exhibition ---------- The exhibition opens on April 22nd and runs for three days. It will offer attendees the opportunity to see the full range of hardware, software and support services available for the UNIX system. More than 50 booths are planned with a total amount of approximately 2500 sq. mtrs. Invitations to participate have been sent out to all major suppliers of UNIX related equipment or services. A number of important technical demonstrations are planned for the Exhibition. Useful addresses ---------------- Conference Venue: Piazza Adua 1 50123 Firenze, Italia (this is one block away from the Central Railway station) Centro Affari tel: +39 55 27731 tlx: 571265 European UNIX systems User Group: Mrs Helen Gibbons EUUG secretariat Owles Hall Buntingford Herts SG9 9PL, England tel: +44 763 73039 Local organisers, on behalf of the I2U Italian UNIX systems User Group: Mr. Giuseppe Molinari I2U - Italian UNIX systems User Group Secretarial Office Piazza Solferino 7 10121 Torino, Italia tel: +39 11 538608/548134 tlx: 224064 Mr. Fulvio Fagiani Olivetti SA Via Meravigli 12 20123 Milano, Italia tel: +39 2 88362165 fax: +39 2 88362466 uucp: olhqma!olita2!itasupp The local organisation includes the organisation of the plenary session, of the exhibition, of the introductory tutorials, and of the industrial conference programme. Hotel bookings: Centro Servizi di Segreteria attn. EUUG Via Andorra 4 tlx: 572534 corium i 50126 Firenze, Italia tel: +39 55 6810592/3/4 tlx: 572534 corium i Programme chair for the technical conference and for the advanced tutorials: Mr. Nigel Martin The Instruction Set Ltd. 152-156 Kentish Town Road London NW1 9QB, England tel: +44 1 4822525 uucp: inset!nigel General Information ------------------- Conference desk" At: Firenze Incontra, Centro Affari Opening hours: Sunday, April 20th, from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. and during conference hours. Final registration and final programme Participants must register at the Registration desk upon their arrival in Florence (see opening hours above). The registration desk will be open one day in advance of the conference program. People arriving ten minutes before the start of the first conference lecture cannot be guaranteed quick service. A fully detailed conference program, plus other appropriate documentation, will be handed to all delegates upon arrival. Languages English is the official language at the EUUG event. The technical conference programme and the advanced tutorials will be entirely English spoken. The industrial conference programme will be in English (with translation to Italian) on April 22, and in Italian (with NO translation to English) on April 23. On April 24 - the free session programme - the choice of language is up to the individual speaker but there will be no translation facilities. The introductory tutorials will be Italian spoken, with NO simultaneous translation. Luncheons Luncheons are included in the fees for the conference programs but NOT for the tutorials. In any case, there are ample restaurants in the immediate neighbourhood of the conference venue. Transport Florence can be reached easily by train and by the Italian motorway system. For air traffic, Florence is served by Pisa Airport which is about 80 Km from Florence. There are direct train connections, approximately once an hour, between the airport railway station and Florence's Central Railway Station (``S.Maria Novella''). Since Pisa is not well serviced by international airlines, and since the train connections are not very frequent, the trip might be time consuming. It is recommended to plan your return trip for the day after the conference, instead of the evening of the last day. Liability and Insurance Neither EUUG, nor I2U will assume any responsibility for damage to property or injury to persons during the entire event. Participants are recommended to arrange for their own personal travel and health insurances. Tape Service The Spring conference will host a tape distribution service. The tape will contain various public domain programs in source and/or binary form taken from the net and also MH6, GNU Emacs (hopefully 17.36), the Langston games (with all binaries), MMDF and hopefully other contributed software. People wanting to contribute software should contack mcvax!frankk or mcvax!diku!keld immediately. The price will be 35 pounds per tape including the cost of the tape. Do NOT bring a tape with you, as tape copying will not be done on site. You will be required to fill out an agreement form with a special clause covering MMDF usage. If you would like to buy a tape in Florence, please add a line to your registration form stating "conference tape required" and add 35 pounds to the total amount due. Your tape can be collected on arrival. Student Scholarships There are a very limited number of student scholarships available to students wishing to contribute to the conference programme. These are jointly sponsored by EUUG and UNIX Europe Limited. Please apply to the Program Chairman (Mr. N. Martin) for more details. Buffet Reception UEL have kindly agreed to sponsor a reception for all delegates to be held early one evening. Details will appear in the final registration pack. Booking Information Hotel Reservation, for ALL delegates IMPORTANT NOTICE: DUE TO A COMBINATION OF ITALIAN HOLIDAYS IT MAY BE EXTREMELY DIFFICULT TO FIND HOTEL SPACE AFTER THE RESERVATION DEADLINE HAS PASSED. THE HOTEL RESERVATION OFFICE IS UNDER STRONG PRESSURE TO CANCEL ALL PRELIMINARY, NON CONFIRMED RESERVATIONS AT THE DEADLINE DATE. DEADLINE DATE FOR HOTEL RESERVATIONS: FEBRUARY 28, 1986 Hotel reservations are handled by: Centro Servizi di Segreteria attn: EUUG conf Via Andorra 4 50126 Firenze, Italia tel: +39 55 6810592/3/4 tlx: 572534 corium i The enclosed Hotel Reservation Form must be completed, and returned to the Centro Servizi di Segreteria, together with payment of the appropriate hotel deposit. Conference registration and hotel reservation are handled separately. Do not interchange addresses or payments; submit every form to its own appropriate destination, which is clearly indicated on all forms. Neither the EUUG, nor the I2U will handle any hotel reservations themselves. Advance Booking for the Conference Bookings and registrations for which no advance payment has been received cannot be guaranteed in any way. When payment has not been received in time, you will be expected to pay (cash) at the registration desk. The rate appropriate for on-site registration will be charged. If a duplicate payment is received later, the cash payment will be reimbursed minus a small handling fee. The moral: book early, please. Cancellations No refund of fees will be possible in case of cancellation. Cancellations can only be accepted when communicated at least one month before the start of the conference. In this case, the hotel will refund the deposit minus a Lire 30.000 handling fee. After this date, no refunds will be given. All cancellations must be in writing. Procedure for Italian delegates Italian Delegates should contact their local organiser for registration details: I2U Italian UNIX systems User Group Piazza Solferino, 7 10121 Torino, Italia In most cases, the brochure will be mailed to Italian delegates along with a supplement for local registration, supplied by I2U. In addition, the Hotel Booking Form should be completed and returned to the appropriate address (see ``Hotel Reservation''). Please note the fact that Hotel booking (and payment of the hotel deposit) is handled separately from the conference registration. Do not interchange the different addresses nor the different amounts to pay and/or different addresses to remit the payment to. Fees For Italian Delegates (For Advance Payment Only) Members Non-members Full conference programme, including 400.000 500.000 technical and industrial sessions, and exhibition. Does not include tutorials. Advanced tutorials (one full day) 250.000 350.000 Introductory tutorials (one full day) 100.000 150.000 One day attendance to industrial pro- 300.000 350.000 gramme; includes exhibition. All prices in Italian Lire. There is a special student rate for the conference programme; members: 50.000, non-members 80.000. There are no reduced rates for the other program items. The student rate does not include a copy of the proceedings. Students applying for the reduced rate, must submit evidence of their student status together with their registration form. The EUUG/I2U organisation decides whether any submitted evidence will be accepted. Procedure for non-Italian delegates The enclosed Registration Form for Non-Italian delegates must be completed and returned to EUUG, Owles Hall, Buntingford, Herts. SG9 9PL, England, together with payment of the appropriate registration fees. Payment for non-Italian delegates' registration fees must be remitted by banker's draft or cheque, made payable to EUUG. All payments must be made in Pounds Sterling. Please refer to EUUG, and state your NAME on all payments. From the European mainland, a banker's draft is probably the most convenient way. Do not send checks if your government imposes restrictions on international money transfers this way. In addition the Hotel Booking Form should be completed and returned to the appropriate address (see ``Hotel Reservation''). Please note the fact that Hotel booking (and payment of the hotel deposit) is handled separately from the conference registration. Do not interchange the different addresses nor the different amounts to pay and/or different addresses to remit the payment to. Fees For Non-Italian Delegates (For Advance Payment Only) Members Non-members Full conference programme, including 160 200 technical and industrial sessions, and exhibition. Does not include tutorials. Advanced tutorials (one full day) 100 140 One day attendance to industrial pro- 120 140 gramme; includes exhibition. All prices in Pounds Sterling. There is a special student rate for the conference programme; members: 20, non-members 32. There are no reduced rates for the other program items. The student rate does not include a copy of the proceedings. Students applying for the reduced rate, must submit evidence of their student status together with their registration form. The EUUG/I2U organisation decides whether any submitted evidence will be accepted. On-site Registration Fees Members Non-members Full conference programme, including 550.000 650.000 technical and industrial sessions, and exhibition. Does not include tutorials. Advanced tutorials (one full day) 250.000 350.000 Introductory tutorials (one full day) 100.000 150.000 One day attendance to industrial pro- 300.000 350.000 gramme; includes exhibition. All prices in Italian Lire.