haapanen@watdcsu.UUCP (Tom Haapanen [DCS]) (01/22/85)
< Posted for decvax!duke!dr > \tom haapanen decvax!watmath!watdcsu!haapanen ----------------------------------------------------------------------- I read your interesting summary of UNIX for PCs, etc. I have been using PC/IX for some time now and think the summaries left a few misconceptions. I'll leave it to you whether it's worth posting any of this to the net. The most important misunderstanding seems to be whether it is multi-user or not. I have not read the license carefully, so I am not sure what was intended, but it does seem to support at least two simultaneous users. I put two asynch boards on the XT (the maximum). I use one for another user and the other for uucp (mail, etc.) via a smartmodem. I can simply give a mail command and the system automatically calls our departmental VAX. It also transfers files directly via uucp. It can also handle calls from a remote machine if the port is configured for incoming rather than outgoing traffice (modem in auto-answer mode, a getty, etc). I have tried it just to check it out, but don't like to have calls coming in at odd times. When I expect mail or file transfers from our VAX, I initiate the connection (uucico -r1 -sSystemname). Meanwhile, two users can do work. I suspect it would support three users, but I have never tried it. It also supports connect (causing it to dial the remote machine and then emulate a terminal). Unfortunately the terminal it emulates with the console is very primitive (no line insert or delete; no character insert or delete.) However, the user logged in on the asynch port can just a easily run connect and then has the characteristics of the terminal he is actually using (an H19 in my case.) What impressed me most was the ease of installation. I consider myself to be knowledgeable about UNIX but not a guru. I had few problems and my 11 year old figured out what I couldn't (like by reading the instructions). I agree with the negative comments about the screen editor (and it doesn't work with anything but the console.) Mainly, I just don't want to have to learn a new editor. I want vi, or something else good that will work on the other UNIX systems I use. Dietolf Ramm