srotoole@vax1.tcd.ie (10/23/90)
I am posting this on the behalf of Thomas Rolfs. Message from TROLFS@vax1.tcd.ie: ------------- Start of Message ---------------- Hello Forthers! I am sorry to have to report that I no longer have an account at the above address (TROLFS@vax1.tcd.ie). This also means that OLIS will not be on-line for some time. Hopefully I will be able to get UseNet access in the near future. Then maybe I can get OLIS going again. Actually, OLIS has been down for most of the summer. I had hoped to get the new version up and running, but alas it wasn't to be. Anyway, it's academic now. [ For those who have not heard of OLIS let me elaborate. Two years ago I gained access to Usenet. I was stunned to find that people actually used Forth! Not only that, there was a Forth Interest Group (though some might argue that there's not much interest anymore). There were Forth chapters where people meet and talked Forth. And a network of BBSs and other resources which made up a thing called ForthNet, where people could get advice, exchange ideas/gripes and code electronically. In short, there was a lively, and increasingly active, Forth community. FIG might have been loosing members, but the Net was hotting up with Forthers. However, being new to all this, I was a bit bewildered. Everytime I asked someone a question I had to ask another ten just to understand the answer to the first one. People in c.l.f are always very obliging to newcomers, but it's embarrassing to be always asking stupid questions. To cut a long story short, I came up with the idea of OLIS. OLIS stands for On-Line Information Service. The idea was to collect useful info about the Forth community and the Forth language and make it available via electronic mail. I was originally hoping that someone with ample resources (i.e. time and disk space) who undertake the project, but no one was forthcoming (pardon the pun). So, I decided to do a tentative version of OLIS myself. The main aim was to see if OLIS was a worth while venture. Thanks to the support of many people on the net who supplied many articles, OLIS was indeed useful to many. I hope that in the not too distant future I will have OLIS running again, but who can tell. Maybe someone else would like to carry on OLIS. ] But don't dispair! With the death of OLIS comes the birth of FNEAS, Doug Philip's ForthNet E-mail Archive Server (Hope I got the name right, Doug.). I'm sure that we will hear more from Doug about this soon. And speaking of Doug, I would like to thank him and Gary Smith for all the work they have done to link up ForthNet and c.l.f. A really thankless job. It is exciting to see threads (especially the ANSI stuff) span both networks. It certainly added to the discussions no end. I'd also like to thank all those who have contributed to c.l.f and made it, IMHO, one of the most interesting and enjoyable newsgroups on the Net. I will miss it greatly. If anyone needs to get in touch with me, mail KPJEACLE@vax1.tcd.ie and hopefully I'll get the message. Remember, don't send mail to OLIS@vax1.tcd.ie or TROLFS@vax1.tcd.ie as they no longer exist. Bye all, Tommy. ---------------- End of Message ------------------