vch@rruxo.UUCP (Kerro Panille) (09/10/85)
We have a locally-developed package here that performs various desk-top
type things, one of which is 'message display'. Message Display (md)
displays the time (large banner-type numbers), date, contents of your
'new' mailbox, and any posted reminders (rem, calpost). You have to enter
your login password to free the terminal.
I have yet to see one that was able to be broken, and sometimes it gets
stuck if you turn your terminal off. We have a Micom data switch, which
usually drops the line if the terminal is shut off. Sometimes you can pick
up a port where md was on, and have to turn off your terminal to get rid of it.
Anyway, If anyone would like it, I'll mail it to you since it is made of
some 25 modules and a makefile. (I have no idea how to make archive shells,
and I'm not making 25 postings.)
PS: One minor problem. We are running SysVr1. Don't ask me how portable
it will be, but it is certianly worth the trouble.
--
Vince Hatem ---------------- A
Bell Communications Research | UZI |----------|_ _ _\/ T
Raritan River Software Systems Center | |----------| /\ &
444 Hoes Lane ---------------- ROGER GUTS T
4D-360 / /\ DON'T NEED NO STINKIN'
Piscataway, NJ 08854 / / TIES
(201) 699-4869 /-----/
...ihnp4!rruxo!vch
TRUE GRIT MYSTERIES - The detective series for those who NEVER eat quiche!
(WARNING - MAY BE EMOTIONALLY DISTURBING TO HAMSTER LOVERS)wcs@ho95e.UUCP (Bill.Stewart.4K435.x0705) (09/12/85)
> We have a locally-developed package here that performs various desk-top > type things, one of which is 'message display'. Message Display (md) > displays the time (large banner-type numbers), date, contents of your > 'new' mailbox, and any posted reminders (rem, calpost). You have to enter > your login password to free the terminal. > > I have yet to see one that was able to be broken, and sometimes it gets > stuck if you turn your terminal off. We have a Micom data switch, which > usually drops the line if the terminal is shut off. Sometimes you can pick > up a port where md was on, and have to turn off your terminal to get rid of it. > > Anyway, If anyone would like it, I'll mail it to you since it is made of > some 25 modules and a makefile. (I have no idea how to make archive shells, > and I'm not making 25 postings.) > > PS: One minor problem. We are running SysVr1. Don't ask me how portable > it will be, but it is certianly worth the trouble. > > -- > Vince Hatem ---------------- A > Bell Communications Research | UZI |----------|_ _ _\/ T > Raritan River Software Systems Center | |----------| /\ & > 444 Hoes Lane ---------------- ROGER GUTS T > 4D-360 / /\ DON'T NEED NO STINKIN' > Piscataway, NJ 08854 / / TIES > (201) 699-4869 /-----/ > ...ihnp4!rruxo!vch ARRRGH, NO! md is not a bad package, but it wasn't developed to be commercial quality software. A department hacked together an office aautomation system for themselves a few years ago, and everybody wanted a copy, so it's grown and multiplied, and somehow still vaguely works on System V. They weren't a commercial-OA-development department, they were doing microprocessor work and they wanted to keep their offices working while they did it. I use md a lot (my 5620 has multiple windows and spare real estate), and I like it. But everytime we get a new machine, or a new OS version, I have to go hack it some more. IT'S VERY VERY VERY NON_PORTABLE CODE!!!. (Presumably someone has adapted the PCS package to un on 3B20s, but md and sendmail were two parts that we couldn't do without major pain. It is relatively effective as a terminal locker, but many of the early versions would crash if you tried to display your calendar and reminders at the same time. Also, the human factors are ugly. You access the HELP feature by typing ESCAPE-? which is not real obvious. Also, it is only made for standard uucp-style mail reading. It does a nice jobs of displaying my mail messages, complete with subject lines, but if the mail came from the ARPAnet, or from a 4.2BSD site with internet-style mail headers, it gets confused about which field is which. Since you work for Bellcore, and the people who wrote the package are mostly with AT&T Information Systems, there may not be proprietary-software issues with giving the stuff away. However, remember that the authors weren't writing a package they planned to support for the rest of the world. They don't. They were relatively friendly about advice, but they aren't in the business of supporting this package they put together for themselves years ago, and they weren't in that business when they wrote it. Disclaimer: All this flaming is my own opinion, and is not necessarily the policy or opinion of my management, AT&T Bell Labs, AT&T Info. Sys., the authors of the PCS package, or my cat. Bill -- ## Bill Stewart, AT&T Bell Labs, Holmdel NJ 1-201-949-0705 ihnp4!ho95c!wcs
levy@ttrdc.UUCP (Daniel R. Levy) (09/12/85)
In article <319@rruxo.UUCP>, vch@rruxo.UUCP (Kerro Panille) writes: >We have a locally-developed package here that performs various desk-top >type things, one of which is 'message display'. Message Display (md) >displays the time (large banner-type numbers), date, contents of your >'new' mailbox, and any posted reminders (rem, calpost). You have to enter >your login password to free the terminal. > >I have yet to see one that was able to be broken, and sometimes it gets >stuck if you turn your terminal off. We have a Micom data switch, which >usually drops the line if the terminal is shut off. Sometimes you can pick >up a port where md was on, and have to turn off your terminal to get rid of it. > >Anyway, If anyone would like it, I'll mail it to you since it is made of >some 25 modules and a makefile. (I have no idea how to make archive shells, >and I'm not making 25 postings.) > My apologies to the net, I tried several ways to mail Vince and got bounced. It's no biggie to make an archive shell. All you gotta do is run the follow- ing shell script with the names of what you want to archive as arguments and catch the standard output in the file which forms the archive shell. Be careful of course if you use wildcard arguments that you don't allow the output file itself to be named in them, creating a loop. :---------------ALL BETWEEN THE DOTTED LINES FORMS THE "SHAR" SCRIPT------------ : Create a shell script that can be run to extract a bunch of files. echo ": This is a shar archive. Extract with sh, not csh." echo ": The rest of this file will extract:" echo ":" "$*" for file do echo "archiving - $file" > /dev/tty echo "echo extracting - $file" echo "sed 's/^X//' > $file << '!EOR!'" /bin/cat $file | sed 's/^/X/' echo "!EOR!" done :------------------------------------------------------------------------------- So post the sources--we'd love to see 'em. (You would have the same problem if you mailed without creating a shell archive--you would need to mail 25 different messages....) -- ------------------------------- Disclaimer: The views contained herein are | dan levy | yvel nad | my own and are not at all those of my em- | an engihacker @ | ployer, my pets, my plants, my boss, or the | at&t computer systems division | s.a. of any computer upon which I may hack. | skokie, illinois | -------------------------------- Path: ..!ihnp4!ttrdc!levy or: ..!ihnp4!iheds!ttbcad!levy -- ------------------------------- Disclaimer: The views contained herein are | dan levy | yvel nad | my own and are not at all those of my em- | an engihacker @ | ployer, my pets, my plants, my boss, or the | at&t computer systems division | s.a. of any computer upon which I may hack. | skokie, illinois | -------------------------------- Path: ..!ihnp4!ttrdc!levy or: ..!ihnp4!iheds!ttbcad!levy
vch@rruxo.UUCP (Kerro Panille) (09/12/85)
Well guys, it seems that SOMEONE around here thinks that 'md' is proprietary,
so I really can't be sending it out. I don't like it either, but I'm not
going to argue with the legal dept. about it. The code is approx. 109,000
lines anyway, and I understand that it is far less than portable anyway.
Sorry, you know how it is.
--
Vince Hatem ---------------- A
Bell Communications Research | UZI |----------|_ _ _\/ T
Raritan River Software Systems Center | |----------| /\ &
444 Hoes Lane ---------------- ROGER GUTS T
4D-360 / /\ DON'T NEED NO STINKIN'
Piscataway, NJ 08854 / / TIES
(201) 699-4869 /-----/
...ihnp4!rruxo!vch
TRUE GRIT MYSTERIES - The detective series for those who NEVER eat quiche!
(WARNING - MAY BE EMOTIONALLY DISTURBING TO HAMSTER LOVERS)vch@rruxo.UUCP (Kerro Panille) (09/17/85)
I guess that I have to post this again.
I cannot send copies of the desktop package to anyone not directly associated
with either Bell Communications Research, Inc, or AT&T. It seems that the
code is proprietary in nature (god knows why) and the legal dept would
f*ck me fur sure if I gave it out.
I did not know this when I made the original offer, and I am very sorry for
getting so many people's hopes up.
Next time I'll find out if the code is proprietary BEFORE I post.
--
Vince Hatem ---------------- A
Bell Communications Research | UZI |----------|_ _ _\/ T
Raritan River Software Systems Center | |----------| /\ &
444 Hoes Lane ---------------- ROGER GUTS T
4D-360 / /\ DON'T NEED NO STINKIN'
Piscataway, NJ 08854 / / TIES
(201) 699-4869 /-----/
...ihnp4!rruxo!vch
TRUE GRIT MYSTERIES - The detective series for those who NEVER eat quiche!
(WARNING - MAY BE EMOTIONALLY DISTURBING TO HAMSTER LOVERS)