usenet@mcdchg.UUCP (12/03/87)
I am interested in porting a large mainframe package to the PC realm.
For reasons outside of my control, we are restricted to IBM compatible
'386 machines.
As an OS, Microport Unix Ver 5.3, using DOS-Merge appears to be an attractive
environment. Specifically I am interested in replys to the following
questions:
1) Any comments on the quality of the implementation of the Microport
Unix?
2) How PC DOS compatible is DOS-Merge?
3) Can MS Windows 1.X or greater runs under DOS-Merge?
4) Any comments on Microway's NDP FORTRAN 386 running under Microport's Unix
5) Can I switch between Unix and DOS easily?
Thanks. Please reply to me directly.
-------
Terry Harrison
Management Science Department
336 Beam Business Administration Building
Penn State University
University Park, PA 16802
(814) 863-3357
BITNET: hbx@psuvm
UUCP: {akgua,allegra,ihnp4,cbosgd}!psuvax1!psuvm.BITNET!hbx
ARPA: hbx%psuvm.bitnet@wiscvm.arpablair@chinet.UUCP (Douglas M. Blair) (01/07/88)
In article <2739@mcdchg.UUCP> you write: > 1) Any comments on the quality of the implementation of the Microport > Unix? First of all, we run microport sysV/386 on a 386 clone from Trillian Power Systems with 4 meg ram, 80 meg HD, ega display. We are a Beta test site for DOS Merge 386, which is not yet released in final version. Their uinix seems to work just fine - however our shipment included a product called sysviz, designed to take the place of the sysadm utilities. They sent the 286 version which does not include HDB networking utilities, so it attempted to write all sorts of wrong files in the wrong places. The regular sysadm utilities work OK with HDB. > > 2) How PC DOS compatible is DOS-Merge? > As of this writing the Beta 0.2 release does not support all EGA cards. Mine included, doggone it. DOS Merge DOES run just about anything that does not make direct bios calls to the hard disk. It runs all the Turbo languages from Borland, Sidekick, Lotus 123, etc. I have had some difficulty in getting my mouse to work - this is prbably because Merge maps com1 and com2 to /dev/tty whatever &Hnand must go through some sort of translator back and forth, which introduces a delay. Communications Packages, such as Mirror 2 or Crosstalk, also seem to have problems at baud rates > 2400 for the same reason, but if you have unix, cu, uucp and so on who needs a terminal emulator? > 3) Can MS Windows 1.X or greater runs under DOS-Merge? > Can't help you there - but I imagine that once they get the EGA support bugs out it should. > 4) Any comments on Microway's NDP FORTRAN 386 running under Microport's Unix > No > 5) Can I switch between Unix and DOS easily? > Yes. You can enter the DOS environment from any unix directory, which becomes your MSDOS root. Beware of long pathnames - MSDOS has a limit of (I think) 32 characters. There is a utility called dosadmin which lets you set up the dos environment for variuous programs. Once dosadmined you can eneter a dos program directly from unix. You can also run unix programs and utilities under the dos session with the *on* or *newunix* commands - they spawn a new shell. unix and dos handle carriage returns differently in text files. There are dos2unix and unix2dos utilities which strip or add newlines to ascii text files, so you can walk these back and forth. Hope this helps! You might also look in a NEW newsgroup I just noticed: comp.unix.microport Doug Blair {.... ihnp4}!chinet!obdient!blair 312-653-5527
karl@ddsw1.UUCP (Karl Denninger) (01/07/88)
In article <2739@mcdchg.UUCP> you write: >I am interested in porting a large mainframe package to the PC realm. >For reasons outside of my control, we are restricted to IBM compatible >'386 machines. > >As an OS, Microport Unix Ver 5.3, using DOS-Merge appears to be an attractive >environment. Specifically I am interested in replys to the following >questions: > > 1) Any comments on the quality of the implementation of the Microport > Unix? If it's anything like the '286 release, you don't want it. We just tossed Microport '286 out the window and bought SCO Xenix.... not a single regret. Microport has this nasty habit of crashing all the time.....especially if you intend to use serial ports with it. > 2) How PC DOS compatible is DOS-Merge? No idea on the 386 release, the '286 release was about 80% compatible. > 3) Can MS Windows 1.X or greater runs under DOS-Merge? Ought to -- we ran Pagemaker (which runs under windows) on Merge. It's *SLOW* though, good thing you'll have a '386 :-) > 4) Any comments on Microway's NDP FORTRAN 386 running under Microport's Unix No idea. > 5) Can I switch between Unix and DOS easily? Was simple with '286 uport, no idea on the '386 release. I'd wait for SCO's VP/ix release, or talk to Interactive. My problems with uport have led me to take any claim of solidity they make with a large grain of salt.
karl@ddsw1.UUCP (Karl Denninger) (01/15/88)
Several things have changed since [my previous article] with Microport (all this relates to the '286 product): 1) They say the 'panic' problem in the serial driver is truly fixed. 2) The lost character problem (makes Trailblazers useless!) should also be banished. 3) We seem to be communicating; that is, I am hearing from the Microport engineers (asking about specific problems and the like). This was not the case two weeks ago. We still are running 2.3.0-U here; at this point we have not seen the fixes (they are rumored to be in the production process now). I am looking forward to them with great hope! -- Karl Denninger | Data: +1 312 566-8912 Macro Computer Solutions, Inc. | Voice: +1 312 566-8910 ...ihnp4!ddsw1!karl | "Quality solutions for work or play"