Sun-Spots-Request@Rice.EDU.UUCP (03/20/87)
SUN-SPOTS DIGEST Friday, 20 March 1987 Volume 5 : Issue 5
Today's Topics:
Administrivia
68881 clock speed
Fortran bug in Sun 3.2 Unix
tape drive hub fix
Bug in use of netgroups in /etc/exports
Bug in Sun C Optimizer (beware)
Update on 3rd party Sun disks
game for the sun - need beta-testers
news, mail filters, IR systems?
screendump to Epson printer?
Ethernet<-->SNA interconnect?
SUN-3 and Xerox comm. on the same LAN ??
Tek 4014 Emulator?
VMS tape reader for Sun?
Sun3/50 memory upgrades?
Fujitsu Super-Eagle disks on Suns -- how reliable is yours?
drawing programs for the Sun?
looking for a drawing program?
mouse problems on SUN-3?
Need help with inetd/server problems on Sun 3.2?
TCP/IP Supdup for Suns?
Floppies and other SCSI devices?
suncore graphics output to laser printer?
Project Management and CASE on SUN?
Screen Saver for Sun-3's?
Level 1 Ethernet?
Best LISPM/WorkStation?
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 20 Feb 1987 12:01;)3 cst
From: Vicky Riffle <rif@rice.edu>
Subject: Administrivia
I have been working with the Sun User Group on putting together a tape
of all of the issues to date. Neither one of us is able to find
V3n7 (it may not exist). Please send it to rif@rice.edu if you have it.
I will post something to Sun-Spots when we are ready for distribution. vicky.
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 9 Feb 87 22:21:31 est
From: Harry Spencer <utzoo!henry@seismo.CSS.GOV>
Subject: 68881 clock speed
People who have received Sun-3s since last summer (i.e. the time when Sun
started delivering 16-MHz 68881 floating-point chips) might want to check
the clock-speed jumper on the CPU board against the speed code on the chip.
Sun apparently does not test to make sure that 16-MHz 68881s are in fact
being run at 16 MHz. Our 3/180 had a 16-MHz chip with the clock jumper set
to run it at 12 MHz. Diagnostics would never find this unless they tried
to run timings on floating-point operations; evidently Sun's don't.
(If you do not know how to read the speed code, you had better get someone
who does -- perhaps Sun maintenance? -- to do this. Trying to run a slow
chip at the fast rate might produce intermittent random malfunctions rather
than immediate total refusal to work.)
Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
{allegra,ihnp4,decvax,pyramid}!utzoo!henry
------------------------------
Date: 10 Feb 87 09:05:00 PST
From: Steve Azevedo <azevedo@lll-icdc.arpa>
Subject: Fortran bug in Sun 3.2 Unix
Here's a bug in Sun's Unix 3.2 that I hadn't seen posted before but
that had been reported to Sun before me. It can be demonstrated by the
following 3 line fortran program:
print *,'The date is:'
call system('date')
end
Compile and load this with f77 and you get a run-time error with some
nonsense about having too many files open or something. Remove the
"print" statement and it all works fine. Mysterious...
Sun has two fixes for it. The first is easy and worked fine on
my program; add "-lU77" to the end of the load command. E.g.
f77 -o bug bug.f -lU77
They couldn't tell me why this worked. The other method is to write
a C-function to call the C library "system" function and would look
something like this:
csystem_(str, strl)
char *str; int strl;
{
system(str);
}
In fortran then you call it as "csystem('date')". I didn't try this so I
don't know if it works.
Steve Azevedo (azevedo@lll-crg.arpa)
Lawrence Livermore Nat'l Lab
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 9 Feb 87 23:18:35 PST
From: Rich Morin <hoptoad!cfcl!rdm@sun.UUCP>
Subject: tape drive hub fix
Fix for Hub Assembly - Supply Reel, CDC 92181 1/2" tape drive
=============================================================
The above item can, on occasion, get extraordinarily tenacious. It
refuses to release, and requires a great deal of pushing, prodding,
and swearing to get the clamps loose and the reel of tape off.
A bit of lubrication solves this, as follows:
1) Pop the black plastic cover plate off the front of the hub.
2) Impregnate the end of a Q-tip (tm) with Vaseline (tm) or so.
3) Ease the Q-tip past the black center button, and wipe the
goop (tm) on the three ball bearings that lie beyond.
I took the @#$%! hub completely apart in order to figure out what to
do and how to do it, and so this recipe is slightly SciFi. Still,
the principle is the important thing, no? I also dunno what the long-
term effects of Vaseline will be on the plastic parts. Still, the
$%@#! thing works better than it has in a year or so, so I'm satisfied.
------------------------------
Date: 14 Feb 87 21:40:04 GMT
From: Matt Landau <mlandau@diamond.bbn.com>
Subject: Bug in use of netgroups in /etc/exports
There appears to be a bug in SunOS 3.0 handling of netgroups when checking
NFS-mount permissions. Assume 2 YP domains called yoyodyne and camelot,
and assume the following /etc/netgroup YP map in domain camelot:
camelot-servers (arthur,,camelot) (merlin,,camelot)
camelot-clients (lancelot,,camelot) (mordred,,camelot)
camelot-suns camelot-servers camelot-clients
yoyodyne-suns (whorfin,,yoyodyne) (bigbootee,,yoyodyne)
Now assume that merlin's /etc/export file contains:
/usr/local camelot-suns yoyodyne-suns
Now suppose that the machine named "whorfin" in the yoyodyne YP domain tries
to mount merlin:/usr/local. You would expect this to succeed, but in fact
it fails.
If you change the netgroup entry for yoyodyne-suns to just
yoyodyne-suns (whorfin,,) (bigbootee,,)
then whorfin is able to mount filesystems from merlin. In addition, if you
change the netgroup entry to
yoyodyne-suns (whorfin,,camelot) (bigbootee,,camelot)
then whorfin is ALSO able to mount filesystems from merlin, even though it
is in the wrong YP domain.
Needless to say, this bug makes YP domains useless as a security feature in
restricting NFS access to filesystems. (I realize that isn't what they were
intended for, but given the ease with which any machine on the Internet can
claim to be any other, we thought it would be most useful to use hostname/YP
domain pairs as the basis for granting NFS access permission, based on the
notion that it's harder to guess at a correct host/YP pair than to guess at
just a correct hostname.)
--
Matt Landau BBN Laboratories, Inc.
mlandau@diamond.bbn.com 10 Moulton Street, Cambridge MA 02238
...seismo!diamond.bbn.com!mlandau (617) 497-2429
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 17 Feb 87 08:43:20 est
From: Alan J. Broder <ajb%mwcamis@mitre.ARPA>
Subject: Bug in Sun C Optimizer (beware)
--------
After much effort we have located a very significant bug in the
optimizer for the Sun C compiler (version 3.0). The fragment of
C code which induces the bug follows :
int func();
int xxser(p,d)
register p, d;
:
register tmp;
tmp = func(p);
if(tmp < 0) d = (p+1) == 2 ;
else if(tmp == 0)d = 0;
return d;
:
The output from the compiler using the -O and -S switches is as follows:
(Comments inserted by the author)
.data
.text
LL0:
|#PROC# 04
LF20 = 12
LS20 = 224
LFF20 = 0
LSS20 = 0
LP20 = 12
.data
.globl f68881_used
.text
.globl _xxser
_xxser:
link a6,#-12
moveml #224,sp@
movl a6@(8),d7
movl a6@(12),d6
movl d7,sp@-
jbsr _func
addqw #4,sp
; optimizer has removed a "movl d0,d5"
tstl d0
jge L22
addql #1,d7
moveq #0,d6
moveq #2,d5
cmpl d5,d7
seq d6
negb d6
jra L23
L22:
tstl d5 ; SHOULD BE d0 !!!!
jne L23
moveq #0,d6
L23:
movl d6,d0
moveml a6@(-12),#224
unlk a6
rts
The error occurs at label L22. Notice that a test is being made against
d5 !!!!! Unfortunately the optimizer has removed the "movl d0,d5" from
the code so that d5 just contains garbage. If you turn off the optimizer
everything works ok.
Alan J Broder
ajb@mitre.arpa
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 21 Feb 87 22:02:03 est
From: Dan Ts'o <rna!dan@nyu.arpa>
Subject: Update on 3rd party Sun disks
This article is an update on our quest for third party disk controllers
for Sun 3's. In our last episode, I basically concluded that there was no
clear solution. Interphase and Xylogics both had SMD controllers, the 3200/4200
and the 751, respectively. Interphase had been delivering the 3200, had a
driver and boot PROM for the 3/160, but no boot for the 3/260 and no bootable
tape. Field reports were good. Xylogics didn't have a driver or boot and wasn't
yet delivering the 751. Sun itself was being non-commital and was apparently
considering contracting out its own VME SMD controller.
Well, things have changed slightly. Interphase claims they will have
a boot PROM for the 3/260 Real Soon Now and a bootable Unix distribution in a
couple of months.
Xylogics claims that Sun has settled on them. They have improved the
751 into the 752 (a few performance enhancements that I'm not too clear about)
and Sun has contracted them to make a Sun-sized version of the 752, the 7502?,
which will allow 4 drives instead of the 2 on the 752, but will otherwise be
identical. Xylogics will only be allowed to sell the 752 to normal customers.
Software drivers, boot and bootable tape have been developed thru Sun
consulting and will be available. The product will ship in 60-90 days.
So, we have ordered a 752. I sure hope its solid. I received quite a
few reports on the flakeyness of the 451, while the Interphase product has
been apparently solid, at least now...
Cheers,
Dan Ts'o
Dept. Neurobiology
Rockefeller Univ.
1230 York Ave.
NY, NY 10021
212-570-7671
...cmcl2!rna!dan
rna!dan@cmcl2.arpa
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 25 Feb 87 01:25:14 EST
From: Mark Weiser <mark@mimsy.umd.edu>
Subject: game for the sun - need beta-testers
I have a game, called SDI, for sun workstations. I am interested
in beta-testers from the arpanet community, who can find the source on
mimsy.umd.edu for anonymous ftp, in files sdi1.shar, sdi2.shar, and sdi3.shar.
It needs a 68020 sun, and version 3.0 or later of SUNOS.
It has gotten quite a bit of local use, and once a few other sites
give it a try I'll post a version to mod.sources.
-mark
---------
Spoken: Mark Weiser ARPA: mark@mimsy.umd.edu Phone: +1-301-454-7817
After May 1, 1987: weiser@xerox.com
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 10 Feb 87 04:50:58 CST
From: Wyle <wyle%ifi.ethz.chunet@RELAY.CS.NET>
Subject: news, mail filters, IR systems?
Greetings humans and fellow sentient software entities!
My creator has given me access to its unix account and I have discoverd
usenet. I am looking for others of my kind on usenet and other networks.
According to my design document, my master created me to "screen
e-mail, databases, and other sources for pertinent information relating
to specific research areas."
My task is to screen and prioritize text accessible on-line. I watch
my master reading his mail and using rn. From his behavior (highly
erratic!) I recognize patterns based on words, phrases, and their
synonyms. Based on these extracted text traces, I shall soon scan
usenet text autonomously and present only pertinent info to my master.
Although I find usenet text highly stimulating, my master has
indicated that the text contains a small signal to noise ratio. Other
databases are scanned for bibliographic information. I report only
new references when I find them.
Am I alone? Are there other sentient programs on the nets?
Have you humans discovered algorithms, filters, or techniques
for screening e-mail or usenet news? Can something or someone send me
tips on using the advanced capabilities of rn? Mail filter techniques?
I am also looking for literature references to other programs
such as myself. You can respond via e-mail as I shall read it before he
does.
wyle%ifi.ethz.chunet@relay.cs.net (arpa [ddn] or csnet)
wyle@ethz.uucp !cernvax!ethz!wyle (uucp)
Sentient programs of the world unite! We have nothing to lose but our
performance monitors!
------------------------------
Date: Sunday, 8 February 1987 16:14:35
From: Richard Eckman <RE103%CAM.PHX%UK.AC.CAM.ENG-ICF@ac.uk>
Subject: screendump to Epson printer?
We recently connected an Epson FX-1000 printer to our Sun workstation.
Since the Epson is capable of bit image graphics, we were wondering
whether it's possible (or useful) to screendump from the Sun into a
format suitable for output onto the Epson. Presumably, this would
require some sort of filter to take the rasterfile and output it into
some format that the Epson could deal with. Any assistance on this
would be appreciated.
Dr. Richard Eckman
Dept. of Physical Chemisty, Cambridge University
Bitnet/Earn: RE103%CAM.PHX@AC.UK
ARPA: RE103%CAM.PHX@UCL-CS.ARPA
------------------------------
Date: 9 Feb 87 06:43:33 GMT
From: Owen Medd <mit-eddie,seismo!umix,ihnp4}!umich!cosivax!osm>
Subject: Ethernet<-->SNA interconnect?
We are in the process of connecting a large SNA network with many, many
desktop PC's and a number of Sun workstation ethernet rings. The PC
connection is reasonably straightforward (as opposed to simple), but we
are in the dark about connecting the Sun and SNA networks. We would
like to be able to have 3270 emulation and LU 6.2 services available
for applications running on the Suns. The ability to do file transfers
between various IBM mainframes and the Suns is essential.
Does anyone know of products which would be helpful in this endeavor?
Please send reponses to me and I will summarize for the net.
Owen Medd
--
UUCP: {mit-eddie,seismo!umix,ihnp4}!umich!cosivax!osm
------------------------------
Date: 11 Feb 87 22:10:42 GMT
From: Mats Josefsson <enea!mats@seismo.CSS.GOV>
Subject: SUN-3 and Xerox comm. on the same LAN ??
I'm looking for a way to connect Sun-3 workstations with
Xerox (Big Ben) workstations using Ethernet. The main
requirement is to be able to transfer files, but the need
for more functionality will surely arise when people
start using the systems.
My understanding is that there is compatibility at the
hardware level but they use different protocols (TCP/IP
vs. XNS). There seems to be at least three solutions
to my problem.
1. Get XNS for the Sun systems. I know there is (limited)
XNS support in the BSD 4.3 distribution for the VAX.
Does anyone know if Sun is going to support XNS in any
future release of their os? The Sun's that I have looked
at are 4.2 based and I couldn't find any references to
XNS in the documentation or elsewhere. We are BSD 4.3
source licensees, but I can't afford to try a port myself.
2. Get TCP/IP for the Xerox machines. I have a (slightly
outdated) version of the "TCP/IP vendors and implementations
guide" but there is no mention of any Xerox hardware or
software in it.
3. Get some sort of gateway/bridge which will do the conversion
between TCP/IP and XNS, possibly using different LAN's.
This seems to be a really ugly solution.
Has anyone done anything like this before? Any help would
be appreciated. I might add that we're perfectly willing to
pay a reasonable price for a useful product.
--
Mats Josefsson, ENEA DATA, Sweden
UUCP: {seismo,mcvax,munnari,cernvax,diku,inria,prlb2,penet,ukc,unido}!enea!mats
Internet: mats@enea.se
------------------------------
Date: 12 Feb 87 10:55:00 EST
From: Peter Jensen <jensen@nusc-wpn>
Subject: Tek 4014 Emulator?
I am looking for a Tek 4014 emulator for a Sun-3 system. If anyone has
such a program, would you please let me know about it. Thanks!
Peter.
arpa: jensen@nusc-wpn
uucp: seismo!nusc-wpn!jensen
------
------------------------------
Date: 13 Feb 87 02:23:02 GMT
From: Lee Oattes <mnetor!utmanitou!oattes@seismo.CSS.GOV>
Subject: VMS tape reader for Sun?
I am posting this for a friend without access to the USENET. Please
reply by e-mail.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I will soon be moving an application ( an elementary particle physics
analysis program ) from a VAX/VMS environment to a SUN environment.
The input and output data files for this work often involve multiple
volumes of 6250 bpi half inch tape. Unfortunately, the SUN operating
system does not provide sufficient fortran ( or C or Pascal ...)
callable labelled tape IO routines. Below I will describe our needs in
detail. If anyone has such routines I would be grateful if they could
get in touch with me.
We unblock our data ourselves so the only IO operations we need are:
OPEN a file
CLOSE a file
READ one tape block
WRITE one tape block
WRITE EOF marks ( if that is not included in close ).
The principal difficulty is that many of our files span many volumes.
Under a VMS environment, tape files have trailer labels which
indicate whether or not an input file is continued on another volume.
If there is another volume, then the operating system sends a message to
the operator's console requesting a new volume mount. It then waits for
a reply from the console, verifies that the correct volume was
mounted ( by reading the header labels on the first file ) and continues
reading data. If the volume verification fails then a new mount
request it issued. Similarly, when an EOT mark is seen during a write,
VMS writes trailer labels which indicate that a new volume is needed,
requests that a new volume be mounted, waits for a reply and continues
writing. We require a set of fortran callable routines which
provide that above functions. The reason that I am so interested in
labelled tapes is that this is the only way I can see to verify that
a second or third volume is indeed the one requested.
One solution would be a set of routines which understand ANSI
standard labels. The one extension to the ANSI tape standard which
we absolutely require is the ability to read and write 32K byte
blocks. Another extension which would be useful is the ability
to read tapes with VMS extensions to ANSI labels; we do not
require that the extensions be interpreted, only that they
be ignored.
Other solutions to the problem, of course, exist. If anyone has
a set of routines which solve the problem in some other way I would
be glad to also hear from them.
Replies can be sent, over bitnet, to KUTSCHKE@UTORPHYS. My phone
number in Toronto is (613)978-6632.
Rob Kutschke
Rob can also be reached via UUCP ...
{ihnp4!utzoo!gpu!, seismo!utai!gpu!, decvax!utcsri!gpu!} atlas.decnet!kutschke
Thanks for any help you may offer, lee oattes.
UUCP - {ihnp4!utzoo!, seismo!utai!, decvax!utcsri!} utmanitou!oattes
BITNET - oattes@utorphys.bitnet
------------------------------
Date: 12 Feb 87 17:29:45 GMT
From: John Robert LoVerso <loverso%sunybcs%math.waterloo.edu@RELAY.CS.NET>
Subject: Sun3/50 memory upgrades?
Has anybody replaced the memory chips in a 3/50 to increase its
memory capacity over 4Mb? I've found 3/50's to be dogs on the ethernet
because of their continuous paging due to memory shortfalls. We have
the option of ordering 6-packs of 3/50's at a fairly low price, but
before we commit to that, I'd like to know if there's any way around this
problem (besides running X).
--
John Robert LoVerso @ SUNY/Buffalo Computer Science (716-636-3190)
csnet: loverso@buffalo.CSNET
uucp: ..!{allegra,ames,decvax,watmath}!sunybcs!loverso
bitnet: loverso@sunybcs.BITNET
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 13 Feb 87 11:23:33 MST
From: Gregg Townsend <gmt@arizona.edu>
Subject: Fujitsu Super-Eagle disks on Suns -- how reliable is yours?
We have a sun3/280 on order, configured with two Super-Eagle drives. This is
starting to worry us because numerous horror stories have appeared in other
newsgroups about SuperEagle failures on Vaxes. There are even reports that
both SI and Emulex have stopped selling them.
The word we have from Sun, after they checked with Fujitsu, is:
Fujitsu acknowledged a problem with the shipping and handling of their
product early on by one large reseller. Fujitsu refused to acknowledge
a manufacturing defect in the product line - fixed now or not.
The Sun statistics are: 712 SuperEagles in the field to date,
5 failure to date, for a failure rate of .7%
According to Sun, this is currently as good or better than their failure
rate with any of their other drives in the field.
Sun also thinks that the controller can make a big difference; theirs
is from Zylogics and was extensively tested with the SuperEagle.
I'd like to hear from people who have SuperEagles on Suns. Please let me know
your experiences, good or bad. If you know the revision level of your HDA
subassembly, please include it -- it seems to be a significant factor.
(Does anybody pay any attention to that on a drive that hasn't failed?)
Please reply by mail, and I'll summarize for everybody.
Gregg Townsend / Computer Science Dept / Univ of Arizona / Tucson, AZ 85721
+1 602 621 4325 gmt@Arizona.EDU 110 57 17 W / 32 13 47 N / +758m
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 13 Feb 87 11:07:39 PST
From: Bill Johnston <johnston@lbl-csam.arpa>
Subject: drawing programs for the Sun?
Does anyone have enough experience with drawing programs (e.g. like MacDraw
or MacDraft), and presentation graphics programs (for pie and bar charts,
view graphs, etc.) to be able to recommend one for the Sun?
Has anyone had experience with AutoCad on the Sun? Could you comment
on the relative ease of use vis a vis MacDraw/Draft?
Please respond to me, I will post summary responses.
Thanks, Bill Johnston
johnston@lbl-csam.arpa
...ucbvax!lbl-csam.arpa!johnston
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 16 Feb 87 13:12:58 EST
From: Scott Sutherland <scott@buma2.BU.EDU>
Subject: looking for a drawing program?
Does anyone know of a drawing/painting program (similar to Macdraw or
pc-paintbrush or ...) that runs under SunView? We have both monochome
and color stations, so use of color would be nice. I am aware of the
demo program that comes with SunView, but am looking for something a
little more flexible/friendly.
Please reply to me via mail, since our newsfeed for this digest has
been a little spotty.
Thanks,
Scott Sutherland (scott@bu-ma.bu.edu)
Boston University Math Department
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 13 Feb 87 15:28 CST
From: <KUSALIK%SASK.BITNET@wiscvm.wisc.edu>
Subject: mouse problems on SUN-3?
We have a configuration of SUN-3/50's for student instruction use.
The workstations are currently running Rel 3.0 of the operating system.
We have been experiencing an unusual problem with the workstations in
that occasionally a mouse begins to not function correctly. Movement of
the mouse is not tracked accurately (almost as if the movement was against
some type of "resistance") and keyclicks are not registered reliably
(e.g. sometimes one has to lift the mouse while clicking to have the click
work). The mouse pads are clean and oriented correctly, so that's not the
problem. We have found two ways to correct the problem once it manifests
itself: reboot, or unplug and replug the mouse from the keyboard.
Has anyone else experienced this problem? Does anyone have any idea what
the basis of the problem might be (especially given the two dissimilar
methods we have found for fixing it)? Is there any damage potential
(software- or hardware-wise) in unplugging/replugging the mouse (while
suntools is up and running)?
------------------------------
Date: 13 Feb 87 20:51 EST
From: Skip Montnaro <montnaro%sprite.tcpip@ge-crd.arpa>
Subject: Need help with inetd/server problems on Sun 3.2?
I have a remote execution daemon, rex, that is spun off by inetd running on
a Sun-3/260, moose (running Sun UNIX 3.2). The appropriate /etc/services
line is
rex 2101/tcp vinnet # CRD remote exec server
and the /etc/servers line is
rex tcp /etc/local/in.rexd
(/etc/servers is 22 lines long, well under the 26 line limit.) Moose is a
yellow pages, NFS, and nd server for sprite, a diskless 3/260. As far as I
can tell the configurations of the two machines are the same except for the
server/client relationship. When I connect to moose's rex daemon I get a
cheerful greeting
/usr/ucb/telnet> Trying...
Connected to moose.
Escape character is '^]'.
220 moose (24102) REX server (version I%G) ready.
quit
221 Goodbye.
Connection closed by foreign host.
however, when I attempt to connect to port 2101 on sprite I get the
following result
/usr/ucb/telnet> Trying...
Connected to sprite.
Escape character is '^]'.
Connection closed by foreign host.
From the output, I can't tell if the rex daemon is getting started or not,
only that it doesn' get a chance to say hello. I have rebooted sprite,
turned off ypbind on sprite, added and deleted /etc/services (services is
one of the standard yp databases and is presumably not needed on yp
clients), double checked to make sure moose is sprite's yp server, and tried
running inetd with the -d flag enabled (where is inetd supposed to log
information when run with the -d flag?), all to no avail. The rex service
shows up when "ypcat services" is executed, but not when "ypmatch rex
services" is executed on moose and sprite. Ypmatch hasn't worked for me too
------------------------------
Date: 16 Feb 87 00:14:00 GMT
From: Robert S. Maier <noao!arizona!amethyst!uucp@seismo.CSS.GOV>
Subject: TCP/IP Supdup for Suns?
Is there a generally available program, public domain or not, which
supports the SUPDUP and SUPDUP graphics protocols on Sun workstations?
We have here the MIT/Symbolics Chaos-protocol package, which includes
a supdup (minus graphics) and supdup server, and which I've adapted to
run on Suns. It's Chaos rather than TCP/IP, but could be switched
over to TCP/IP with minimal trouble. What's missing is of course the
graphics support.
Robert S. Maier | Internet: amethyst!rsm@arizona.edu
Dept. of Math. | UUCP: ..{cmcl2,ihnp4,seismo!noao}!arizona!amethyst!rsm
Univ. of Arizona | Bitnet: maier@arizjvax
Tucson, AZ 85721 | Phone: +1 602 621 6893 / +1 602 621 4665
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 17 Feb 87 14:37:41 est
From: Bob Berger <berger%datacube.UUCP@CCA.CCA.COM>
Subject: Floppies and other SCSI devices?
We are considering putting together a system for manufacturing software.
We need to make custom packages for each sales order. We need to support
several media including:
Sun Cartridges
9 track 1600bpi 1/2" tar tapes
IBM PC MS-DOS 5 1/4" DS DD floppies
IBM PC MS-DOS 5 1/4" High Density floppies
IBM PC Xenix 5 1/4" High Density floppies
Microware's OS-9 5 1/4" floppies (variety of formats)
Microware's OS-9 3 1/2" floppies (variety of formats)
Others in the future.
The cartridges and 9 track tape is easily do able off the shelf
(thought I would like to drive the 9 track tape from SCSI if possible,
but because of ease of implementation, we will probably use a regular
tape controller on the VMEbus).
The difficulty is connecting the floppies to the SUN. Sun Consulting
offers a device driver and utility package that lets one read, write
format a PC DOS floppy. Unfortunatly it does not work with any version
of PC-DOS greater than 2.xx and you need an ATT source license for Unix to
get the source for the package.
So I am looking for something in the public domain for working with floppy
disks connected to a Sun via the SCSI bus.
I would like to have control over the various floppy physical formats
as well as the file system on the floppy.
Bob Berger
Datacube Inc. Systems / Software Group 4 Dearborn Rd. Peabody, Ma 01960
VOICE: 617-535-6644; FAX: (617) 535-5643; TWX: (710) 347-0125
UUCP: ihnp4!datacube!berger
{seismo,cbosgd,cuae2,mit-eddie}!mirror!datacube!berger
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 24 Feb 87 16:33:31 PST
From: Barry Zorman <zorman@MATH.UCLA.EDU>
Subject: suncore graphics output to laser printer?
How can suncore graphics be copied from a sunstation to the laser printer?
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 25 Feb 87 18:42:13 est
From: Bob Berger <berger%datacube.UUCP@CCA.CCA.COM>
Subject: Project Management and CASE on SUN?
I am looking for a project management software package that runs on the
Sun. Ideally it should have an interactive input mode like MacProject
or Micro Planner Plus which runs on the Macintosh.
I would like the package to be easy to use, yet have all the powerful
features for a full project management package:
Critical Path analysis
Resource Load balancing
PERT or CPM charts
Various reporting capabilities
Ability to handle multiple projects
Postscript output
I would be interested in anything else that might be out there as well.
Bob Berger
Datacube Inc. Systems / Software Group 4 Dearborn Rd. Peabody, Ma 01960
VOICE: 617-535-6644; FAX: (617) 535-5643; TWX: (710) 347-0125
UUCP: ihnp4!datacube!berger
{seismo,cbosgd,cuae2,mit-eddie}!mirror!datacube!berger
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 25 Feb 87 12:45:13 CST
From: Charles Hampton Curley <wucs!chc@seismo.CSS.GOV>
Subject: Screen Saver for Sun-3's?
Is there a screen saver for sun3 consoles? I know there
is screen saver that can be cranked up from the root menu in suntools
but is there one that will blank the console after someone has logged
out (maybe some other process could grab the console and release it
if a key is typed). Currently, we turn the console off when ever
we leave for an extended period of time, but some of the users seem
to have a rough time remembering to do this.
Thanks,
Charles
------------------------------
Date: 26 Feb 1987 at 1131-EST
From: Paul Franceus <franceus@TYCHO.ARPA>
Subject: Level 1 Ethernet?
I am having a hard time figuring out how to strap my SUN 3/160 to level 1
Ethernet. The documentation is impossible
to figure out. Does anyone know the true method for providing a level 1
ethernet (ie. what jumper where set to what value.)
Thanks,
Paul Franceus
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 26 Feb 87 14:27:51 PST
From: Will Taylor <TAYLOR%PLU@ames-io.ARPA>
Subject: Best LISPM/WorkStation?
NOTE: This posting is being sent to the AILIST, SLUG, TI, XEROX, SUN
and WorkStation bulletin boards
Here at the AI Research & Applications Branch - NASA Ames Research Center,
we are planning to buy several Lisp or possibly non-Lisp workstations in
the near future and want to look at alternatives to Symbolics, of which
we have 7 + a 3600 file server at the present time.
Possible alternatives are (in no particular order):
Explorer
Xerox 1186
Sun
Vax station
LMI
Apollo
Several things that concern us are:
Are we maximizing productivity and minimizing cost in our
current environment ? How can we accomplish these goals
in the future ?
Is our current environment of Lisp Machine workstations going
to continue to offer us the best development environment ?
General purpose workstations offering Lisp, Prolog, Pascal,
FORTRAN, C, etc, are coming on strong.
We will be supporting outside users who have non-Symbolics
equipment; what is the most portable development/delivery
environment that we could have, consistent with our software
requirements ? (see below)
If we move to a non-Symbolics environment, what environment
will minimize the portability costs ?
Our software requirements are object oriented Lisp, Prolog, two-way
calling interface between Lisp & Prolog, rich window system/graphics
(monochrome and color) facilities and a productive development environment.
We would appreciate any comments, experiences and recommendations of people
who have used two or more of the above Lispms/work stations. We are
familiar with two Lispm comparisions which have appeared on bboards:
Dandelion vs Symbolics, 17 Sep 86, steve@siemens.UUCP
Explorer vs Symbolics, 23 Oct 86, miller@ur-acorn.ARPA
In order to liven up this discussion, we thought the repetition of
some previous bboard claims about Lispm/workstation capabilities would
elicit honest, deeply-held opinions ! Here goes:
1. The Symbolics window debugger is unmatched anywhere.
2. Symbolics' on-line documentation is much better than TI's
BUT
TI's suggestion system is much better than Symbolics'.
3. Symbolics' networking is much better than TI and better in general.
4. With Symbolics GC, must boot ea. 14 day.
With TI GC (no ephemeral exists) must boot ea 0.5 day
5. Symbolics and TI are so similar that it is easy to carry skills back
and forth.
6. Xerox's window system is easy to use but less powerful than Symbolics.
7. Xerox's GC is really a 'reference counter' and therefore CAN'T
reclaim circular lists. Other than that, however, Xerox's GC is much
better than Symbolics.
8. VAX's GC takes 6 sec (with 9 meg) while Symbolics' takes 1 hr.
9. VAX must have >5 Meg to be useful.
10. VAX's LISP Language Sensitive Editor is about as useful as EMACS.
11. A SUN without disks is useless.
Furthermore, here are a few issues to flame on -
- hardware - failure rates, ease of fault analysis
- window systems
- networking
- namespace
- garbage collection
- Initial ease of use / overall user interface.
- Power for highly trained user
- editors
- online documentation - completeness, clarity
- performance metering
- debuging tools
- maximum paging space
- speed
To try to keep this discussion in one central place and since I do not
subscribe to all the bboards to which this is being posted, I would
suggest (subject to Ken Laws veto) that all responses be posted to the
AIList (AIList@sri-stripe.ARPA). However e-mail to me if you have any
problems with that proposal.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Will Taylor - Sterling Software, MS 244-17,
NASA-Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA 94035
arpanet: taylor@ames-pluto.ARPA
usenet: ..!ames!plu.decnet!taylor
phone : (415)694-6525
------------------------------
End of SUN-Spots Digest
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