davidsen@chinet.UUCP (02/11/87)
I recently had about four hours to use the MKS Toolkit from Mortis Kern Systems. This is Korn shell for DOS, with a large number of utilities, such as vi, ls, df, du, od, etc. Being an emacs user, I'm not real thrilled with vi, but it seems to be a complete implementation (I am *not* a vi heavy) as far as I have used it. The program which makes my day is cpio, which allows me to move files to/from UNIX with minimum hassle and preservation of mod dates for make use. This is a solid product, and the UNIX SIG in upstate NY is going to do a bulk purchase to get a discount. Disclamer: just a user.
gnome@oliveb.UUCP (02/12/87)
in article <1086@chinet.UUCP>, davidsen@chinet.UUCP (Bill Davidsen) says: > > This is a solid product, and the UNIX SIG in upstate NY is going > to do a bulk purchase to get a discount. Not only that, but they are on the NET as well! They are at ...watmath!mks!toolkit You can even order it via EMAIL, if you dare! I have a copy of it and I like it a lot. The idea of having the same editor on the PC and UNIX machines makes my life a lot easier (being efficient while switching between editors is an impossibility with me). Gary
tj@mks.UUCP (08/24/87)
In article <1155@mind.UUCP>, romero@mind.UUCP (Antonio Romero) writes: > > Where I work for money nowadays we're having our share of problems > with a couple of the utilities. Most of them (especially the VI) > are really nice-- gotta love being able to "suspend a VI session" > in DOS-- but ls, of all things, doesn't seem to work if you're > running Novell network software and you try to ls a network drive. > Kind of a pity. > Also, the Kornshell they provide doesn't work with Novell network. This would appear to be because Novell does not implement a complete emulation of the DOS calls that it intercepts. We are actively working on achieving the operations we need within the functionality provided by Novell. > Plus it seems to go insane if you type ^P in "vi" command-line-editing > mode. These two bugs make it almost unusable. > A real shame-- we almost had the best answer to the problem of > the feebleness of COMMAND.COM. Actually this only happens when you are NOT in any command line editing mode. This effect is a "feature" of DOS. ^P is treated the same as ``Ctrl-Prt Sc'' (copy all screen echo and output to the printer). If you don't have a printer attached, the only recourse is to reboot. Observe that the same thing happens in command.com. I agree that you are unlikely to discover this feature until you start using the shell in emacs mode, get used to typing ^P to recall previous commands, then type it when not in emacs mode. The cure is to put a "set -o [vi|emacs]" in your environment file (named in exported variable ENV), or export "EDITOR=[vi|emacs]", so you never forget to be in your favorite editing mode. This solves the problem because the shell reads chars by direct keyboard input in editing modes, but reads lines by buffered keyboard input otherwise. This strategy is used so that your familiar DOS editing works by default (ESC for line kill, arrow keys for editing, F3 for last command recall, and of course ^P for hardcopy). -- ll // // ,'/~~\' T. J. Thompson {decvax,ihnp4,seismo}!watmath!mks!tj /ll/// //l' `\\\ Mortice Kern Systems Inc. (519) 884-2251 / l //_// ll\___/ 43 Bridgeport Rd. E., Waterloo, ON, Can. N2J 2J4 O_/ 1079253000 km/h: It's not just a good idea, it's the law
bill@ssbn.UUCP (Bill Kennedy) (08/25/87)
I watched, with interest, the flaming contest that went on between MKS
and users a few months ago. I just concluded a similar session with
them via email and the net should know what can make it malfunction. I
experienced everything from scribbled files to "reset required" hang ups
when running the Toolkit and I got *really* upset when MKS didn't reply
to my inquiries as fast as I thought they should (that grumble remains).
If you plan to use the Toolkit under DOS 2.x, do so at your own risk.
MKS says it works, other users say it works, but I can tell you how/why
it won't work. The Korn shell requires a fair amount of space in the
ENVIRONMENT and DOS 2.x is very skimpy, 256 bytes I think. If you do not
use SET's, other than the Toolkit or very short ones it will probably
work just fine. If you do use SET's or very long ones, you are at risk
of overflowing the ENVIRONMENT space and if you are unsuspecting, you will
assume that MKS broke your computer (I did).
DOS 3.x is more forgiving than 2.x and even gives you some ways to stretch
the space beyond the default. As a minimum, use 3.x and if you need to,
expand the ENVIRONMENT space beyond the default and you should have no
trouble with the Toolkit. If you do have problems, use the telephone, they
aren't very prompt about answering email and there are some things that are
more easily explained verbally. Besides, it's not fair to use other people's
phone bills for email traffic that is more appropriately done orally on your
own phone bill. Finally, if you are running DOS 2.x, spend the money for 3.x
before getting the Toolkit, you'll spend many more dollars in grief and
stomach acid if you do. In my case some things I wanted to do were just not
possible and none of it was MKS' fault.
--
Bill Kennedy {cbosgd | ihnp4!petro | sun!texsun!rrm}!ssbn!billfeg@clyde.UUCP (08/26/87)
In article <348@ssbn.UUCP>, bill@ssbn.UUCP (Bill Kennedy) writes: > I watched, with interest, the flaming contest that went on between MKS > and users a few months ago. I just concluded a similar session with [deleted] > If you plan to use the Toolkit under DOS 2.x, do so at your own risk. > MKS says it works, other users say it works, but I can tell you how/why > it won't work. The Korn shell requires a fair amount of space in the > ENVIRONMENT and DOS 2.x is very skimpy, 256 bytes I think. If you do not ........................ The default space is 160 bytes for 2.x & 3.1 The environment space for 2.x can be increased via a patch as discussed in PC Tech Journal Nov.'86 p.49 . If you don't have the issue email me for the instructions. V 3.1 and on use SHELL in config.sys to increase environment space. If MKS Toolkit doesn't work, in Dos 2.1, it isn't because of lack of environment space as a little work with DEBUG can fix that problem. Forrest Gehrke
martyl@rocksvax.UUCP (Marty Leisner) (08/27/87)
In article <348@ssbn.UUCP> bill@ssbn.UUCP (Bill Kennedy) writes: > >If you plan to use the Toolkit under DOS 2.x, do so at your own risk. >MKS says it works, other users say it works, but I can tell you how/why >it won't work. The Korn shell requires a fair amount of space in the >ENVIRONMENT and DOS 2.x is very skimpy, 256 bytes I think. If you do not >use SET's, other than the Toolkit or very short ones it will probably >work just fine. If you do use SET's or very long ones, you are at risk >of overflowing the ENVIRONMENT space and if you are unsuspecting, you will >assume that MKS broke your computer (I did). > I'm not sure I totally agree with the above, although I've never used dos 2.x. Command.com allocates some small amount of space for the environment. Once you run another shell, that shell can allocate environment space out of its user space. When execing a child process, if you tell it the environment is not the default, will DOS set up environments of > 256 bytes? marty
avram@mtuxo.UUCP (XMRH2-A.AUMICK) (02/19/88)
Has anyone installed MKS Toolkit at the config.sys level? I placed in my config.sys file: shell=c:/etc/init c:/bin/login files=24 buffers=50 When I checked to see how much memory was availabel I had only 317k left. The rest was used by the shell and the TSR programs I use. Under Dos using the same TSR programs I have appr. 500k of memory available. Is this normal? Avram Aumick
mmccann@hubcap.UUCP (Mike McCann) (01/12/89)
A co-worker asked me about a piece of software called MKS Toolkit for the PC. I havent heard much about it and couldnt find a write-up on it. Could someone please give me a short description of what it does and what situations it would be useful for. Thanks for the help in advance, -- Mike McCann Internet = mmccann@hubcap.clemson.edu Poole Computer Center (Box P-18) UUCP = gatech!hubcap!mmccann Clemson University Bitnet = mmccann@clemson.bitnet Clemson, S.C. 29634-2803 DISCLAIMER = I speak only for myself.
damien@hprmokg.HP.COM (Steve Aldrich) (01/14/89)
> / mmccann@hubcap.UUCP (Mike McCann) / 10:21 am Jan 11, 1989 / > A co-worker asked me about a piece of software called MKS Toolkit for > the PC. I havent heard much about it and couldnt find a write-up on it. > Could someone please give me a short description of what it does and > what situations it would be useful for. > > Thanks for the help in advance, > > -- > Mike McCann Internet = mmccann@hubcap.clemson.edu Mike, I have the MKS Toolkit and I am very happy with it. It is available from: Mortice Kern Systems, Inc 35 King Street North Waterloo, Ontario, Canada N2J 2W9 (519) 884-2251 UUCP: ...!uunet!watmath!mks!inquiry Basically it is a toolkit of unix utilities (grep, vi, awk, ls, etc...) that work on DOS machines. They are very nice if you spend a lot of time each day on both DOS and unix machines. I got it from a mail order company called Software Central on a company discount since I use it at work. I found it very much worth the price. Steve Aldrich
mbrands@idca.tds.PHILIPS.nl (Manfred Brands) (03/03/89)
In article <7374@killer.DALLAS.TX.US> wnp@killer.Dallas.TX.US (Wolf Paul) writes: > [ .... ] >>cpio >Very good! It has a (non-standard) option to compress each file before >adding it to the archive; unfortunately limited by the fact that MKS' >compress does not support 16-bit compression. Another limitation is >that of course, such compressed cpio archives are not directly >unpackable under UNIX -- you have to unpack them, and then manually >run each extracted file through uncompress. Maybe this feature could >be added to afio or pax, or maybe MSK could release the source for >their cpio to the net? But I'd understand if they didn't :-). cpio doesn't compress each file, but only the resulting cpio archive. So you can type: uncompress "packed-archive" > "unpacked archive" which then can be handled by your UNIX cpio. You'll proberly have to use the -c option to cpio to create ASCII headers. > [ ... ] >>uname >Uses the volume label of the boot disk as the node name; the other options >return the DOS version/release and the CPU type The node name used depends on whether you have your machine running in a network or not. In the first case uname returns the network name of your machine, if you have set it. >>compress >>uncompress >>zcat >Unfortunately these handle only 12-bit compression and can't handle >UNIX-compressed files (usually 16-bit) zcat has nothing to do with LZ compression. It belongs to the pack/unpack family which does Huffman coding. zcat can read a packed file and unpacks it to standard output. compress and uncompress, can handle up to 14-bit compression. >>vi >By itself, worth the price of the Toolkit. >I have no connection to MKS either, except as a satisfied customer. Me too. >Wolf Manfred Brands.
wnp@killer.DALLAS.TX.US (Wolf Paul) (03/04/89)
In article <316@ssp2.idca.tds.philips.nl> mbrands@idca.tds.PHILIPS.nl (Manfred Brands) writes: :In article <7374@killer.DALLAS.TX.US> wnp@killer.Dallas.TX.US (Wolf Paul) :writes: :> [ .... ] :>>cpio :>>compress :>>uncompress :>>zcat : :>Unfortunately these handle only 12-bit compression and can't handle :>UNIX-compressed files (usually 16-bit) : :zcat has nothing to do with LZ compression. It belongs to the pack/unpack :family which does Huffman coding. zcat can read a packed file and unpacks it :to standard output. : :compress and uncompress, can handle up to 14-bit compression. It does too, only MKS does not even include it. What you are describing is called "pcat"; "zcat" is the analogous variant for uncompress. In fact, MKS' uncompress acts more like UNIX zcat than UNIX uncompress, in that it does not do in-place uncompression. And yes -- MKS [un]compress does handle 14 bits not 12 as I had said -- correction accepted. -- Wolf N. Paul * 3387 Sam Rayburn Run * Carrollton TX 75007 * (214) 306-9101 UUCP: killer!wnp ESL: 62832882 DOMAIN: wnp@killer.dallas.tx.us TLX: 910-380-0585 EES PLANO UD
igp@camcon.co.uk (Ian Phillipps) (03/10/89)
mbrands@idca.tds.PHILIPS.nl (Manfred Brands) writes: >>>compress >>>uncompress >>>zcat >>Unfortunately these handle only 12-bit compression and can't handle >>UNIX-compressed files (usually 16-bit) >zcat has nothing to do with LZ compression. It belongs to the pack/unpack >family which does Huffman coding. zcat can read a packed file and unpacks it >to standard output. >compress and uncompress, can handle up to 14-bit compression. Not so: this is from Sun Release 4.0: COMPRESS(1) USER COMMANDS COMPRESS(1) NAME compress, uncompress, zcat - compress or expand files, display expanded contents zcat produces uncompressed output on the standard output, but leaves the compressed .Z file intact. I.e. zcat most certainly DOES do LZ decoding (at least on Suns). -- UUCP: igp@camcon.co.uk | Cambridge Consultants Ltd | Ian Phillipps or: igp@camcon.uucp | Science Park, Milton Road |----------------- Phone: +44 223 420024 | Cambridge CB4 4DW, England |
pete@tsc.dec.com (Peter Schmitt) (03/22/89)
What is the current price from Mortis Kern on their Toolkit and do they offer an educational discount? -- Pete Schmitt pete%tsc.dec.com@decwrl.dec.com There are two fundamental facts of human enlightenment: #1, There is a God. #2, You are not Him!