[net.micro.mac] demo-slideshow for program LabView available to ARPA for FTP

werner@ut-ngp.UUCP (Werner Uhrig) (09/08/86)

RE: program LabView from National Instruments, Austin TX

Net-friends,

a little while ago, I posted an article on LabView, a DataFlow-inspired
programming system to simulate electronic instruments and expressed my hope
to be able to provide more information soon.

Today I uploaded a complete 'slide-show' which describes the product.
However, given that the files are rather large (~500K, 30+ Paint-files)
and the information is provided "as is" from NI and is not a "critical"
review (may even include a little 'marketing hype') I can only make them
available for FTP for a limited time on UT-NGP.ARPA alias "ngp.utexas.edu"
( login with "Anonymous" and change to directory "public/LabView" )

Our site-entry in NIC's HOSTS-table is:
HOST : 10.0.0.62, 128.83.1.24 : NGP.UTEXAS.EDU,UT-NGP.ARPA,UT-NGP,UTEXAS-NGP,NG!
P : VAX-11/780 : UNIX : TCP/TELNET,TCP/FTP,TCP/SMTP,ICMP,UDP,UDP/DOMAIN :

please, be considerate and do not FTP our site during prime working hours
to access large files like these.  my neck (which is stuck out) thanks you (-:

I will leave it to the moderator of INFO-MAC to decide if all/some of the
material should be archived at SUMEX (I doubt it, though) and I'll, probably,
make some selected Paint-docs available on a USENET news-group.  People with
serious interest (and intentions to spend Kilo-bucks) can, probably, get the
slideshow on disk directly from NI (my guess, I didn't ask them about it).
They can be reached via 1-800-531-4742 (outside TX) and (512)250-9119 or TELEX
from overseas.

I have another piece of "good news".  The folks at NI got hold of my earlier
posting and are now seriously considering my suggestion of making a crippled
demo available (maybe even an "educational version", who knows) - your support
of this idea when you contact them, might help.  My personal guess is also
that researchers with "track record" and ideas to use LabView in something
resulting in publications, may also be in a good position  to negotiate with
NI to become a "Beta-test-site".  NI also plans to establish a BBS to support
their customers, and, hopefully, find some unused microVax to hook into USEnet.

(I was told Friday that NI plans to ship a release-version before the
end of this month, and, given that I DO NOT have a beta-version, I have no
idea how close the actual product is to the one described in the slide-show)

If nothing else, I hope you appreciate and enjoy what seems to me to be a
great user-interface and very nicely prepared demo-slideshow.  As you all
know, the *REAL* programs tend to have bugs, caveat emptor ....  If the
program (and related hardware) has no "monster-bugs", I expect this program
to receive its share of industry-praise ...

Ohh, and don't miss looking at the Paint-docs on paper or with the likes of
DA PaintGrabber or MacPaint; slideshow only displays the top-left corner,
there is explanatory text in the lower half of the Paint-doc.`

			------------------

[ a sample FTP-session follows .... first under UNIX then TOPS-20 ]
[ try first with only file SlideShow.pit.hqx and 1 or 2 small Slide-files ]

ftp
ftp> open ngp			[ or ut-ngp, ut-ngp.ARPA, ngp.utexas.edu, ...]
Connected to ngp.utexas.edu.
220 ngp FTP server (Version 4.82 Tue Jan 3 14:56:35 CST 1984) ready.
Name: anonymous
Password:					[use 'guest' or your userid]
331 Guest login ok, send ident as password.	[right, now you tell me ...]
230 Guest login ok, access restrictions apply.
ftp> cd public/LabView			[ upper/lower case significant !!! ]
200 CWD command okay.
ftp> dir
200 PORT command okay.
150 Opening data connection for /bin/ls (128.83.1.24,5008) (0 bytes).
total 507
-rw-r--r--  1 807      20           5036 Sep  7 16:16 SlideShow.pit.hqx
-rw-r--r--  1 807      20          65207 Sep  7 12:50 Slides.a1-9.pit.hqx
-rw-r--r--  1 807      20         111799 Sep  7 13:13 Slides.b1-9.pit.hqx
-rw-r--r--  1 807      20          58045 Sep  7 13:56 Slides.c1-5.pit.hqx
-rw-r--r--  1 807      20          54978 Sep  7 14:14 Slides.c6-9.pit.hqx
-rw-r--r--  1 807      20          43007 Sep  7 14:37 Slides.d1-4.pit.hqx
-rw-r--r--  1 807      20          31978 Sep  7 15:16 Slides.d5-9.pit.hqx
-rw-r--r--  1 807      20          39189 Sep  7 15:51 Slides.e1-5.pit.hqx
-rw-r--r--  1 807      20          25088 Sep  7 15:58 Slides.e6-9.pit.hqx
-rw-r--r--  1 807      20          32132 Sep  7 16:05 Slides.f1-4.pit.hqx
-rw-r--r--  1 807      20          25638 Sep  7 16:12 Slides.f5-7.pit.hqx
226 Transfer complete.
834 bytes received in 5.48 seconds (0.15 Kbytes/s)
ftp> get Slides.f5-7.pit.hqx				[ for example ...]
........
ftp> bye
221 Goodbye.
ngp_werner>

			-----------------	[ from TOPS-20 .... ]

EXEC: ftp ngp.utexas.edu
[Keeping Ftp]
< ngp FTP server (Version 4.82 Tue Jan 3 14:56:35 CST 1984) ready.
Setting default transfer type to ascii, byte size 8.
FTP>logIN (user) anonymous
Password:
< Guest login ok, access restrictions apply.
FTP>connECT (to directory) public/LabView
< CWD command okay.
FTP> get .....


[ All Disclaimers apply !!!  Just Mac-excitement, that's all....
	.... but, I understand that the recognized Mac-authorities really
	flipped over the program at Boston, and that the local IBMers
	pushing RTs just sadly shook their head when given a demo.....   ((-: ]