[comp.os.misc] Coherent Digest Vol. 91.1, No. 20

rose@galtee.cs.wisc.edu (Jody Foster) (03/14/91)

Coherent Digest Vol. 91.1, No. 20      Thu Mar 14 09:35:20 CST 1991

Today's Topics:

   Re: com1l
   UUCP revisited
   Sources for ZOO
   Re: Sources for ZOO 
   MGR window manager
   ZOO
   lp problems
   Re:  ZOO
   files on piggy

Administrivia:

  The Coherent Digest is a forum for discussion of the MWC Coherent 3.x 
  operating system.  Send submissions to "coherent@cs.wisc.edu" and 
  administrivia to "coherent-reqeust@cs.wisc.edu".  Previous issues are 
  archived for anonymous FTP access on piggy.ucsb.edu in the directory
  "pub/coherent/mail-list".

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

Date: Tue, 12 Mar 91 15:43:49 EST
From: brendan@cs.widener.edu (Brendan Kehoe)
To: coherent
Subject: Re: com1l

Pat Quairoli (quairoli@cs.widener.edu) wrote:
> 	We have just installed coherent on a 286 dtk pc.  We haven't
> had any major problems except with the com1l driver.  We were able
> to connect a vt100 to com1 one night then we connected the pc to a
> sun sparc.  After this we have not been able to get com1l to work.

   We also had UUCP running well between the PC & the Sparc for about
   a week .. then *something* was changed (null modem switched,
   something) that made it not work anymore.

   We're both totally baffled.

- -- 
     Brendan Kehoe - Widener Sun Network Manager - brendan@cs.widener.edu
  Widener University in Chester, PA                A Bloody Sun-Dec War Zone

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

Date: 12 Mar 91 16:07:42 EST
From: Stephane Doucet <73207.1247@CompuServe.COM>
To: <coherent>
Subject: UUCP revisited

UUCP, :)
    Well...for all to know. My box accepts logins just fine. I dial in
to it all the time. So far from what I can gather...that end of things
is fine. Not for all the world would I modify it. Yes...the port is
enabled fine. UUCP does a good job of disabling getty to dial out and
then re-enabling afterwards. Thats good. :) 
   One thing the uulog says is that ACU Problem...dialed failed message
even though I heard it connect. Then uulog shows that the modem
said ^M0^M^M10 which is basically numeric result codes for OK and 
CONNECT 2400. I was talking to MWC and was told that UUCP should NOT
hear any messages from your modem. Just from the other end. If it
does see stuff from your modem it gets confused (obviously).  I am going
home to see if I can set the modem to Q1 instead of Q0 (results off) and
try again. If that doesn't work....who knows? Also the tech did not know
why UUCP went and read the MODEMCAP file. Be careful of that file. That
is basically where all my problems with UUCP have been so far: bad baud
rate, resetting the modem back to verbose instead of numeric, etc. 

I'll let you know what happens and if anyone knows anything...let me 
know. :)

- -Stephane


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

Date: Tue, 12 Mar 91 15:56:07 -0600
From: lark@greylock.tivoli.com (Lar Kaufman)
To: coherent, dhesi%cirrusl@oliveb.ATC.olivetti.com
Subject: Sources for ZOO

Rahul, 

This is an open letter (cross-posted to the Coherent mailing 
list) for your attention and information.

A number of Coherent users have used ZOO on other platforms, 
and some of us have expressed an interest in using ZOO as 
the archive program of choice with Coherent.  Unfortunately, 
several people's attempts to port ZOO to Coherent failed, 
probably because of Coherent size limitations.  I received 
email from Joachim Riedel notifying me that he had a working 
port of ZOO to Coherent, and I responded by asking him for 
the sources for Coherent.  Today I received a facsimile 
from Joachim Riedel, which I herewith transcribe:

(from Joachim@jrix.radig.de)

To Lar Kaufmann  (sic)

Sources for ZOO

   Hello Lar

   I just received your Mail about the sources for ZOO.
   Yesterday my harddisk stopped moving (something in 
   the stepper electronic) and so I have no possibilities
   to receive news for some days, weeks or whatever.  For
   Mail I just tried my Laptop (with Coherent) and just 
   received your letter.  But there are still 4 MB of 
   News for my Machine in the queue (still waiting for 
   WNEWS 2.0 from the MINIXUG).

   So I send you this fax.

   Today I asked a friend of mine and he agreed to send 
   the sources to Piggy.  There is only one problem that
   there is no hint who adapted the sources for Coherent
   (I don't want to send him new sources just with my 
   name added).

   When you find a file named zoo.taz (zoo.tar.Z) in the
   next days on piggy please be so kind and add my 
   address.

   If there are problems with it, please blame me.

   Thanks

   Joachim

Anyway, Rahul, I wanted you to be aware that we are 
seeking a viable ZOO package for Coherent, and to 
allow you to comment/contribute to the anonymous 
adaptation of ZOO sources to work in the Coherent 
environment.  I would rather have attributed sources, 
frankly, but in any case I would be happier if you 
were aware of what adaptations were made to the ZOO 
package.

Thank you for your attention.  

- -lar

P.S. My thanks also to Joachim Riedel for his contribution
and for going to the trouble (and cost) of faxing me 
from Germany to let us know what he is doing for us.  

P.P.S.  I have no connection with the Coherent Newsletter 
or the host system "piggy", except as a contributer to 
the newsletter via correspondence.



Lar Kaufman            I would feel more optimistic about a bright future
(voice) 512-794-9070   for man if he spent less time proving that he can
(fax)   512-794-0623   outwit Nature and more time tasting her sweetness 
lark@tivoli.com        and respecting her seniority.  - E.B. White

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

Date: Tue, 12 Mar 91 14:44:19 -0800
From: Rahul Dhesi <dhesi%cirrusl@oliveb.ATC.olivetti.com>
To: lark@greylock.tivoli.com (Lar Kaufman)
Cc: coherent
Subject: Re: Sources for ZOO 

Hi Lar,

Thanks for your message re zoo on Coherent.  I don't know anything
about such a port.  However, I would be interested in officially
supporting it if I can.  It is actually a little surprising that
somebody got it to work, because as I understand it Coherent supports
only small memory model programs.

I will be away on vacation and out of touch with the email world from
March 14 to March 28.  After that I'll get in touch with you and try to
get a copy of the ported source from you.  Thanks.

Rahul Dhesi <dhesi@cirrus.COM>
UUCP:  oliveb!cirrusl!dhesi

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

No from field?
Bad format.

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

Date: Tue, 12 Mar 91 17:48:03 CST
From: rosevax.rosemount.com!grante%rutgers.UUCP@spool.cs.wisc.edu (Grant B. Edwards)
To: coherent@spool.cs.wisc.edu
Subject: MGR window manager

I received a message from the author of MGR yesterday.  It gives an
overview of the display/keyboard/mouse/process interfaces expected by
MGR.  If anybody would like a copy, let me know.  I built MGR on a Sun
3/60, and it's a very nice package.

Porting MGR to Coherent will probably consist of several stages:

Write a pty device driver.  (MGR doesn't require a pty driver, but
it's the easiest way to do a lot of things).

Write a graphics device driver that implements bit-blit operations to
and from the display.  The graphics drivers included in the device
driver kit only implement direct writes to video RAM and an ANSI type
console interface.  The drivers also appear to run in real mode since
they do things like load 0xB000 and 0xB800 into the ES register.  I'm
pretty sure that they won't work on a protected mode system.

Write a mouse driver.  The mouse driver included in the device driver
kit can probably be modified for use with MGR.  However, it's for a
bus mouse.  A serial mouse device driver would need to be written for
those of us with a serial mouse.

Actually do the port.  This could be tricky since we've only got 64k
of text space to play with and MGR usually takes about 100k of text
space.  There are two approaches to this problem: First, start
throwing stuff out and optimizing what's left to make it smaller.
Second, split MGR into two tasks that use shared memory, semaphores,
or message queues to communicate with each other.

The 64k limit on data space could be a problem as well since the MGR
system implements what X calls "backing store."  If an application's
window is partially or entirely obscured by other windows, the system
remembers what is supposed to be in the window so that when it is
uncovered the system repaints the window.  Most X servers require the
application to re-generate the contents of a window when a window
becomes uncovered.  Having the system keep bitmaps of covered windows
makes life for the application much simpler, but it will eat up 64k of
data space pretty quickly.

Right now I'm working on a pty device driver.  Once that is working I
plan on implementing "virtual terminals."  ALT-something will be used
to switch from one terminal session to another.  It's not bit mapped
windows, but it's better than nothing.

The next step would be to write a graphics driver that implements the
bit-blit and line drawing operations that MGR utilizes.  Maybe by the
time that and the mouse driver are done, the 386 version of Coherent
will be available.

I've used up more than enough bandwidth and time for today...

                                  Grant Edwards
Rosemount Inc, CB7                                            He who dies with
12001 Technology Drive      grante@hydro.rosemount.com        the most manuals
Eden Prairie, MN  55344     uunet!rosevax!hydro!grante        wins.

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

Date: Wed, 13 Mar 91 12:31:36 -0500
From: jwall@hub.cs.JMU.EDU (jay wall)
To: coherent
Subject: ZOO

I have no problem with adopting ZOO.  However, I don't see why we need it.
ustar and uncompress work well, and I have never had a problem with them,
so I really don't want to switch to something different now.  I won't stand
in anyone's way, but from what I know, there is *no* good reason to move
to the ZOO format :-).  Anyway, that's my 2 cents worth on the subject...

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

Date: Wed, 13 Mar 91 12:51:13 EST
From: Chet Creider <creider@csd.uwo.ca>
To: coherent
Subject: lp problems

I would appreciate some help with a small problem: after updating to
v. 3.1.0, the command "pr filename > /dev/lp" elicits the message,
"Can't open /dev/lp". The command works fine, however for when I
am logged in as root. The ownerships for lp, lpt1, lpt2 are
c-w--w--w- root root. I've tried changing these to "bin bin" (as
their analogs are on Xenix: crw-rw-rw- bin bin, but this doesn't
help.Can anyone tell the piece of know how I'm evidently missing?

Thanks,

Chet <creider@csd.uwo.ca>

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

Date: Wed, 13 Mar 91 13:00:29 -0600
From: lark@greylock.tivoli.com (Lar Kaufman)
To: coherent, jwall@hub.cs.JMU.EDU
Subject: Re:  ZOO

Why I like ZOO:  

   * It is public domain.
   * It is available for more operating systems than any other archive 
     program (This is a premise, not a proven fact.)
   * It is efficient.
   * It is more trouble-free than any other archive program I've used.
   * Because it is public domain, and because the original author 
     maintains an active interest in it, ZOO is probably the 
     best-supported archive tool available.

Yes, there are more "Unix-traditional" tools.  There are faster tools.
There are tools with more features.  There are tools that compress 
more efficiently.  But my opinion is that ZOO is the best overall.

This message needs a big disclaimer, however:  This is only my opinion.

- -lar

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

Date:  Wed, 13 Mar 91 14:47:09 -0500
From: shim@zip.eecs.umich.edu
To: coherent
Subject: files on piggy

   Does anyone have a full list of descriptions for the files on
piggy.ucsb.edu?  I'm curious as to what some of the files are, but
I don't have the time to download all the files that I want to
look at.  Thanks!

- -Sam-

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

End of Coherent Digest Vol. 91.1, No. 20
****************************************

-- 
	Scott Rose
	rose@cs.wisc.edu
	(608) 238-3801