rja@edison.cho.ge.com (rja) (10/02/89)
I copied the News 3.0/TMNN sources via anonymous FTP from Berkeley a couple of weeks back and have spent some frustrating time trying to bring it up here on edison. I suspect that the problems lie mostly with Ultrix peculiarities, but the folks working on News 3.0 need to know that none of the shell scripts to do automatic configuration and such work properly under Ultrix 3.x. So I tweaked the header files and tried to then run 'make install' -- no dice. I have a number of compilation errors and can't make any progress. If I had more time to play with, I'd try to fix things (but I haven't the time). I'm looking forward to the official release of News 3.0 and hope that it can be brought up here eventually. This shouldn't be misconstrued as criticism of the News 3.0 folks -- I'm grateful that folks are even working on the news software. The other thing about B News 3.0 is that it seems to be tightly coupled to the supplied news readers and I'm uncomfortable with that. We have users here that use all of ( readnews, vnews, rn ) and aren't going to switch newsreaders. I hope that B News 3.0 will be compatible with all of these ( or supply the sources to current patched versions that will run fine with 3.0 transport). I'm hoping that I misunderstood the warnings in the TMNN documentation about this... Ran rja@edison.CHO.GE.COM
prc@erbe.se (Robert Claeson) (10/03/89)
In article <8910021303.AA01805@edison.CHO.GE.COM> rja <rja@edison.cho.ge.com> writes: > I copied the News 3.0/TMNN sources via anonymous FTP from Berkeley a couple >of weeks back and have spent some frustrating time trying to bring it up here >on edison. I suspect that the problems lie mostly with Ultrix peculiarities, >but the folks working on News 3.0 need to know that none of the shell scripts >to do automatic configuration and such work properly under Ultrix 3.x. I got a copy of TMNN 7.8 sent to me and tried to bring it up on an Encore Multimax running UMAX V 2.2. There were a couple of problems with Makefile.dst, a few source files that needed to be corrected and so on. After a couple of evening's worth of work, I succeeded to compile it without any errors, but, after having installed the package, expire wouldn't run, even though I asked it to rebuild the history file from the existing news files. I got some error with the history file. The install script created .../history, where it really should've been history.{pag,dir,map} (or something similar; anyway, three files). I created those (empty) files, but expire still wouldn't work. So I finally gave up. This is absolutely not a flame. The source looks very well written and easily maintainable. It's just that it needs some further work to compile and run properly on a number of machines. It's still a beta release, after all, and I'd love to bring it up on our system. -- Robert Claeson E-mail: rclaeson@erbe.se ERBE DATA AB
greg@cheers.uucp (Greg Onufer) (10/04/89)
rja@edison.cho.ge.com (rja) writes: > The other thing about B News 3.0 is that it seems to be tightly coupled to >the supplied news readers and I'm uncomfortable with that. We have users No, the News 3 newsreaders ( vnews, vrn, readnews ) are tightly coupled to News 3, not vice-versa. The point is that News 3 provides libraries of routines that make writing a news reader very easy. Its newsreaders use those libraries, that's all. >here that use all of ( readnews, vnews, rn ) and aren't going to switch > newsreaders. It comes with a nicer readnews, a nicer vnews, and an alomost-there rn, and your old rn will work too. >I hope that B News 3.0 will be compatible with all of these ( or supply the >sources to current patched versions that will run fine with 3.0 transport). >I'm hoping that I misunderstood the warnings in the TMNN documentation about >this... I use nn in everyday life and it works fine... News 3 has not changed anything that a normal news reader would need to access. (Now if your news reader depends on four fields in the active file, *then* you're up a creek). Cheers!greg
srg@quick.COM (Spencer Garrett) (10/04/89)
In article <840@maxim.erbe.se>, prc@erbe.se (Robert Claeson) writes: = In article <8910021303.AA01805@edison.CHO.GE.COM> rja <rja@edison.cho.ge.com> writes: = = > I copied the News 3.0/TMNN sources via anonymous FTP from Berkeley a couple = >of weeks back and have spent some frustrating time trying to bring it up here = >on edison. I suspect that the problems lie mostly with Ultrix peculiarities, = >but the folks working on News 3.0 need to know that none of the shell scripts = >to do automatic configuration and such work properly under Ultrix 3.x. = = I got a copy of TMNN 7.8 sent to me and tried to bring it up on an Encore = Multimax running UMAX V 2.2. There were a couple of problems with = Makefile.dst, a few source files that needed to be corrected and so on. = After a couple of evening's worth of work, I succeeded to compile it without = any errors, but, after having installed the package, expire wouldn't run, = even though I asked it to rebuild the history file from the existing news = files. I got some error with the history file. The install script created = .../history, where it really should've been history.{pag,dir,map} (or = something similar; anyway, three files). I created those (empty) files, = but expire still wouldn't work. So I finally gave up. Alas, this is exactly the same experience I had on one of the systems they claim to fully support (Sun 3/50 running Sunos 3.5). I sent a list of all the problems I found (and corrected, until I hit the expire bogosity) to eric, but I haven't heard anything. I'm sorry to have to snipe like this, but it's clear from the nature of the problems I found that the TMNN folks haven't done a from-scratch install of this release on *any* system, much less the ones they claim are solid. (The installation document really does claim that, on any of the listed systems, you should be able to just run Configure and "make install". Hah!)
greg@cheers.uucp (Greg Onufer) (10/07/89)
srg@quick.COM (Spencer Garrett) writes: >Alas, this is exactly the same experience I had on one of the systems >they claim to fully support (Sun 3/50 running Sunos 3.5). I sent a list >of all the problems I found (and corrected, until I hit the expire >bogosity) to eric, but I haven't heard anything. I'm sorry to have >to snipe like this, but it's clear from the nature of the problems >I found that the TMNN folks haven't done a from-scratch install >of this release on *any* system, much less the ones they claim >are solid. 1) It is still in Beta; expect to spend time on getting it to work. Although at this point I can install it using Configure and make with no problems (other than editing the resulting Makefile to use the Gnu C Compiler). 2) I have been running it for a least two months now on a Sun-1 running SunOS 4.0, other Suns should have *fewer* problems :-) 3) There are many bugs in 3.8; many I have fixed and talked to eric about. There should be some patches showing up in this newsgroup "Real Soon Now" 4) Many personal sacrifices were made (not really by me!) to take News 3 from an idea to a working system. Don't knock those that are working for free... Cheers!greg PS. Since the patches were supposed to appear already, I will, against my better judgement, mail my un-official patches to anyone who asks. Just remember that they are unofficial, but they do make news3 work!