hart@blackjack.dt.navy.mil (Michael Hart) (08/03/90)
Hi all in net-land!!! Unless I've used up my question quotient for the month, I have still more general questions. PLEASE feel free to answer any or all. (Sorry, no flames accepted for dumb questions!) Also, please don't give RTFM as a general answer. In most cases, I have. Maybe my FM's are different from everyone else's: they don't tell WHEN to use or do something, only the specifics of _how_ to do it when you already know you need to! Trust me, I spend plenty of time with both paper and screen manuals!! I should also mention my general hw/sw setup(s). These are the specific machines and operating systems I'm interested in using. ________MACHINE_______ ________OPERATING SYSTEM_____ SGI 4D/25 Personal IRIS IRIX (svr3(?) with BSD stuff) Mac IIcx,ci,fx,etc A/UX (bsd??) 386 or 486 based ESIX? Seems cheap enough for home! I have the SGI and Mac IIcx; would like to get the 386/486 and Esix for home (when the $$$ are there). Now, on with the show.... ======================================= Question 1 ======================================= What's a good, portable, nice looking way to do screen interfacing: i.e. the look of your program? Like, if I wanted to do the old menu style: (clear screen) 1) choice a 2) choice b 3) choice c 4) choice d 5) choice e Enter your choice: ===> Would you/I use curses? Just blast lines out to stdout? How about windowing packages/libraries? I realize they can be platform/OS specific; any general purpose packages? And of course this leads into: Where does one get info on using this stuff? ====================== AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT Question 2 ====================== Can someone explain or point me to a good description of the various progs such as nroff, troff, ditroff, ***roff ad infinitum? I have a general idea of what they do, but, why one over the other? How do I get man pages to print nicely - bolded, underlined, etc? How do I get man pages to install well? How do I write my own man pages so they look like all the others? ====================== AND NOW FOR SOMETHING ELSE COMPLETELY DIFFERENT Question 3 ====================== I have too many things I want to learn, and not enough time to learn them. Below are the things I'm interested in gaining some knowledge about; at least enough to talk somewhat sensibly about it, and hopefully enough to work smartly! 1. C programming I tinker now; just took an LTI course, and am trying hard to do some writing everyday. I have 2 or 3 small projects that can keep be busy. 2. Bourne shell programming I've discovered that this is always handy for anyone who spends more than 4 minutes a day at the controls of a *nix box. 3. Perl programming Not positive, but seems to fall somewhere between numbers 1 & 2 above. 4. System admin tricks. The last time I "improved" my system into junk was several weeks ago. Usually, I can avoid destroying anything. I'd like to learn more about system security, lp admin, so on. In general, how do I be a good or better sysadmin?? (Let's say, good enough to freelance/consult??) 5. Using *roff, as above in question 2. 6. Would like to learn more about networking. I have a pretty good foundation on serial comm, ethernet, X25, T1. Would like to be able to write a 'network' program ie. something that would run on 2 or more systems, and talk to each other. 7. Would like to learn more about mail systems. (Is there really anyone who understands sendmail.cf??) 8. Need to learn about domains and naming services. 9. Want to learn more about netnews. I have nn6.4.9, running as an NNTP client. I want to learn enough about the physical aspects of news that if I ever go somewhere else, I'd be able to set up a system, find a news feed, etc. (The thought of being without news terrifies me; how did I ever live without it??) OK. Now that I've listed enough to keep 8 people busy throughout most of their adult lives.... Please give recommendations, suggestions, etc about my list. Should some things be given only cursory exam, like the *roff stuff? Should some things wait until other things are more thoroughly learned? Should I blow it all off, and be a beach bum? A street bum? Any comments/suggestions? Okay, I guess you can get back to real work now!!! thanx, as always!~!!!!!! -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Michael G. Hart hart@blackjack.dt.navy.mil / mhart@dtrc.dt.navy.mil DTRC/DoD | "Wherever you go, there you are."- me DISCLAIMER: If you want the Navy's opinion, talk to Secretary Cheney.