[pe.cust.bugs] floating point doesn't work on our awk

dave@lsuc.UUCP (David Sherman) (02/24/85)

Floating-point doesn't work on our awk. (We have a 3220 running
Edition VII, no floating-point hardware, floating point is trapped
by the kernel and works in C.)
Is there a fix?

Dave Sherman
-- 
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steve@lpi3230.UUCP (Steve Burbeck) (02/27/85)

>Floating-point doesn't work on our awk. (We have a 3220 running
>Edition VII, no floating-point hardware, floating point is trapped
>by the kernel and works in C.)
>Is there a fix?

1) this has been reported on the net some months ago by someone.
   The only fix I know of is to use an older version of awk.  You
   are using the v2.4 version I would guess.  Our version (v.2.2.1.1
   or v.2.3 dated Aug 23 1980) works with floats just fine.

2) But this brings up again the question of why PE doesn't make itself
   responsible for maintaining and distributing a bug list so that each
   site doesn't have to find out for itself about each bug.  I'll bet
   that you wasted quite a bit of time before you gave up and decided
   it wasn't something you were doing, it was a bug in awk.  At the
   last Interchange meetings, both Axel and Carl made rather strong
   arguments to PE about just this problem.  There was no response.

3) Another related point is that it would be helpful if PE would at least
   include a list of all commands that have been changed in each new
   distribution.  There are two benefits.  First, if a command such as
   awk seems to have a problem, you could at least see whether it has
   been changed (and hence may be suspected of harboring a new bug).
   Second, if a new distribution has few changes it would be easier to
   install just the changes into your currently working system than to
   have to install the whole thing, and then add back in your own site
   dependent system changes (e.g., uucp patches, permission changes,
   etc.).

					Steve Burbeck
					Linus Pauling Institute

dave@lsuc.UUCP (David Sherman) (02/28/85)

Steve is absolutely right. Which brings up another question:
just who *is* responsible for UNIX development, maintenance
and bug fixes (including Edition VII) at P-E? Are they on the
net? If not, why not? If the answer is that the only people who
really understand Edition VII are TWG or Wollongong people who
are no longer around, then at least let us know.

I think the effort Earl Wallace and the Western Support people
have put into tying the pe.cust net together is excellent. And
now that we have the net, can we optimize its use by making sure
the right people are on it?

Dave Sherman
The Law Society of Upper Canada
Toronto
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