Sun-Spots-Request@Rice.edu (William LeFebvre) (10/26/88)
SUN-SPOTS DIGEST Tuesday, 25 October 1988 Volume 6 : Issue 275 Today's Topics: Re: ALM-2 and hardware flow control Re: Window Lock Broken msgs Re: Is NFS mounted mail safe Re: communication with IBM Re: calentool - how to beep Thanks for info about adding SMD disks SCSI vs. SMD performance Hardware Flow Control with MTI Responses to tape survey 3/50 memory upgrade options icon->cursor conversion Problems with oob data on sockets using the notifier How to dynamically change the font in a tty window? Send contributions to: sun-spots@rice.edu Send subscription add/delete requests to: sun-spots-request@rice.edu Bitnet readers can subscribe directly with the CMS command: TELL LISTSERV AT RICE SUBSCRIBE SUNSPOTS My Full Name Recent backissues are available via anonymous FTP from "titan.rice.edu". For volume X, issue Y, "get sun-spots/vXnY". They are also accessible through the archive server: mail the request "send sun-spots vXnY" to "archive-server@rice.edu" or mail the word "help" to the same address for more information. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 21 Oct 88 14:48:48 PDT From: auspex!guy@uunet.uu.net (Guy Harris) Subject: Re: ALM-2 and hardware flow control >What you can do depends on what version of SunOs you are running: > >SunOs 4.0: > You can set flag CRTSCTS flag on some termio struct "termios", not "termio". > to get hardware flow control on *outgoing* stream. (The hardware doesn't support flow control on incoming data....) > If you want to use that on printer or call-out-modem lines, you > have to patch source of lpd, uucico, tip etc... to set it with > ioctl. (What, no sources. Too bad). Not true for "lpd". Check out PRINTCAP(5), paying special attention to the "ms" capability.... ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 21 Oct 88 11:43:02 MDT From: erik@cadnetix.com Subject: Re: Window Lock Broken msgs Chuck Musicano wrote that you can basically ignore these "Window display lock broken" which appear in the console window. This is true with the important understanding that it will greatly slow down window operations. 1. You acquire a lock, do a bunch of related window operations, then release the lock. This speeds up window access since you acquire the lock once for many operations. 2. If the lock is broken (by a timeout of the lock mechanism), *each and every* subsequent window operation acquires the lock, does its thing and releases the lock. Since acquiring a lock is time consuming, this is *really* expensive. 3. If however, you acquire the lock again before it has been released or broken, you mearly increment the lock count (cheap). This means that you can avoid breaking the lock and it's disasterous side effects by incrementing the lock count every "n" of your window operations in your own code (i.e., reset the timer to prevents a timeout). We have tried hosing with the actual timeout value using one of sun's provided routines, but the value is, as Chuck writes, tied up with other functions in interesting ways, so we were not successful with this method. erik@cadnetix.COM (Erik Hyypia) ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 22 Oct 88 12:51:41 -0400 From: Henry B.J. Krempel <krempel@pacrat.npac.syr.edu> Subject: Re: Is NFS mounted mail safe I don't have an authoritative answer to this, but we have been doing this for some time without any problems like the concern mentioned (file corruption if mail is delivered when it is being read). One thing that might be helping this in our environment is that all the users use MH to read their mail. Since MH "inc's" the mail into the users home directory, the amount of time changing the remote mail file during a read is reduced. Perhaps a safer method that doesn't involve NFS at all is MH "POP" service, where the remote system fetches the mail from the mail server. We haven't had the time to set this up, but it has the advantage of servicing that vanishing breed of Unix machines that don't have NFS. Most of our staff is quite happy with mail reading using MH in GNU-emacs, and with emacs under NeWS or emacstool, it's even somewhat workstation-y. Henry B. J. Krempel <krempel@pacrat.npac.syr.edu> Northeast Parallel Architectures Center (NPAC) Syracuse University 250 Machinery Hall Syracuse, N.Y. 13244 ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 22 Oct 88 19:29:00 CDT From: David Lippke <LIPPKE@UTDALVM1.BITNET> Subject: Re: communication with IBM Even though I understand that it's possible to connect the Sun directly to an IBM channel, I'd vote for changing the angle of attack. I would connect the IBM to the Sun via ethernet. IBM's own TCP/IP product, 5798-FAL, has been getting rave reviews ever since it was released a year ago and would be a good option to take (especially with one of the inexpensive and fast third party ethernet controllers). We ran some benchmarks a few months ago (and will likely run more this December) to compare some of the software and hardware that's available. I'd be glad to forward the results or provide more details on this whole issue to anyone with an interest. In any case, there's more than one software/hardware combination that would give you a solid program interface between a Sun and an IBM. I suspect that you'd be more pleased with one of them than a direct channel interface (which is not as fast or clean as it may seem at first glance). Kind Regards, David Lippke p.s. There's a LISTSERV discussion list called IBMTCP-L at CUNYVM (.CUNY.EDU) devoted to the subject of IBM mainframes and TCP/IP. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 21 Oct 88 17:34:29 EDT From: "Bruce L. Rosen" <brosen@spcb.bbn.com> Subject: Re: calentool - how to beep There was a recent query about how to get calentool to beep at the same time that it is turning the calentool icon into reverse video to inform the user that an appointment is coming up. The following change to calentool.c appears to work OK: 438a439,442 > /* Also ring bell */ > gtime.tv_sec = 1L; /* Set beep time in seconds */ > gtime.tv_usec = 0L; > win_bell(tool->tl_windowfd, gtime, 0); Note that the program appears to go through its "there's an appointment" logic each time it wakes up and notices that there is a current appointment. Since the icon is already in reverse video, you don't see it change to reverse video again, but you will hear the beep again. A little more thought and logic would get the beep to happen only the first time. Regards - Bruce Rosen BBN Software Products ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 21 Oct 88 16:56:21 EDT From: betty symonds <symonds@chagall.cad.bnl.gov> Subject: Thanks for info about adding SMD disks Reference: v6n264-entry Reply of thanks to all who responded to my request for information on adding SMD disks. The information I received is very useful and I will be contacting some people as soon as we discuss the various options offered. THANKS ALL. Betty Symonds ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 21 Oct 88 10:42:54 EDT From: cucard!proexam!glen@nyu.edu (Glen Brydon) Subject: SCSI vs. SMD performance A company here in NYC just made an interesting presentation about disk drives (and high volume tapes) which you ought to know about. First, we have a 3/280 with an SMD/super-eagle drive and a 1/4" tape on a SCSI interface. An outfit called BoxHill Systems Corp at 1841 Broadway, Suite 609/NYC 10023 (800) 727-3863 claims that they can offer up to 4 760MB disks in a single rack-mount cabinet at about half the price of Sun's offerings and about half the access time. All of this is on the SCSI interface and the salesperson claims that they couldn't achieve such performance on the SMD! BTW, the high-end tape drive is rated at 2.3 GBytes on an 8mm cartridge. In NYC they have a relationship with another outfit that offers service on Sun equipment for about half the price again. Sun 3/60, internal SCSI int., BoxHill 380 MB disk subsystem with embedded controller reads at 655 kB/sec under Unix using 512 byte reads. Just how good is this and what about the SCSI vs SMD issue??? Glen Brydon PES (Professional Examination Service, Inc.) 475 Riverside Drive, Suite 740 New York, NY 10115 212-870-2262 glen@proexam ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 22 Oct 88 10:06:59 PDT From: "John D. Polstra" <polstra!jdp@uunet.uu.net> Subject: Hardware Flow Control with MTI Many people have been asking how to get hardware flow control on Sun serial ports. Although it's not guaranteed anywhere in the Sun manuals, I have found that hardware flow control works just fine for outgoing data on the Systech Multi-Terminal Interface (sometimes called the ALM-1, I think). The following statement in MTI(4S) prompted me to try it: "The Systech requires the CTS modem control signal to operate." I found that connecting the flow-control signal to the CTS pin of the MTI (pin 5) did exactly what I had hoped it would do. I've been using this with a daisy wheel printer for over two years, and there has not been a single problem with it. I know that the flow control is working, because I've seen what happens to the printer when there is no flow control. Now for the disclaimer: I've used this on a 3/180, under SunOS 3.0, 3.2, 3.4, and 3.5. I don't know what will happen under 4.0. Also, I've used it only in connection with an output-only device. Conceivably, dropping CTS might cause bad things to happen to input on the port, rendering the technique useless for modems. (I don't know, because I've never tried it. If anybody has experience with this, I'd appreciate hearing from them.) Anyway, if you have an MTI and need hardware flow control for a printer, try using the CTS pin. It works for me. John Polstra (jdp@polstra.uucp) ------------------------------ Date: 17 Oct 88 18:41:39 GMT From: phri!roy@philabs.philips.com Subject: Responses to tape survey A few weeks ago (in Sun-Spots Digest, v6n233) I asked people to let me know what kind of tape drives they had. Now that the flood of replies has stopped, here's the results. BTW, I got 79 replies, far more than I expected; I must have hit a raw nerve. To save space, I won't list everyone by name, but thanks to everyone who took the time to send me mail. Votes Catagory 31 1a) Both 1/4" and 1/2" 19 1b) Local 1/4" with resasonable over-the-net access to 1/2" 9 1c) Local 1/2" with resasonable over-the-net access to 1/4" 2 2) Only 1/4" 12 3) Only 1/2" (I'm one of the 12) I'm not 100% sure why that doesn't add up to 79, but it's pretty close and I'm certainly not going to slog through all 79+- letters all over again to find the error. Some people seemed to delight in chatting about their situation but never actually coming out and stating which category they were in; in those cases, I made the best guess I could. Those people who only had one kind of tape were pretty loud in their anger that companies just don't seem to listen when you tell them which kind of tape to send. From what I can tell (and this is my experience too), Sun is just as bad as anybody else, if not worse (and all they have to do is look up our sales and/or service records to see what kind of drive they sold me). Interestingly enough, some of the people from software suppliers who wrote to me did a pretty good job of making fools of themselves -- I mean, here I am trying to show the world that it really is important to listen to your customers when they say they need a specific kind of media, when along comes: we ship [product name deleted to protect the guilty] for the Sun3 and Sun4 on 1/4" only -- we won't even bother with 1/2", since nobody seems to need it. BTW, the reason I ran this poll is because I'd just finished getting about a half dozen 1/4" tapes from various suppliers when I specified 1/2". Among the recently guilty companies were Sun (who gets the prize for sending me 4 different pieces of software on 1/4" tape in the course of a month), BBN/Prophet, and Sabre. In the not-too-distant past, I've had the same problem from the people who put out FrameMaker and Interleaf. One person said that he has the same problem with DEC, who seems to insist on shipping software on TK-50's. I'm actually surprised at how few people don't have 1/4"; only about 15% said they couldn't read 1/4" if they had to. Lots of people had bad things to say about 1/4" tape, but had them and could use them in a pinch. Meanwhile, the other 15% of us are left out in the cold with companies who insist on blindly shipping 1/4", regardless of what the customer requests. Roy Smith, System Administrator Public Health Research Institute {allegra,philabs,cmcl2,rutgers}!phri!roy -or- phri!roy@uunet.uu.net ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 21 Oct 88 17:20:12 EDT From: "Tim G. Smith" (Mechanical) <tsmith@usna.mil> Subject: 3/50 memory upgrade options < I spoke with a company in Cambridge, MA recently (Cambridge Automation < perhaps?) recently, that claims to have upgrade memory for Sun-3/50s.... Adding memory to a 3/50 would not be the most difficult thing in the world. Some of our local techies were going to come up with the hardware themselves but after talking to third party memory vendors they decided to save themselves some work and wait for the products that the vendors were developing. If anyone wants more info don't ask me- call your favorite third party memory vendor and ask them about it. I got two of the major vendors to admit to working on it at least 6 months ago. One of them is in beta test and expects to have products RSN. The other is hoping for a December or January date. In any event there will be some buyable products on the street Real Soon Now for all of the people suffering from sluggish 3/50s. Tim Smith US mail:ECSD/CADIG mailstop: 11G E-mail: US Naval Academy internet:tsmith@USNA.MIL Annapolis, MD 21402 uucp :...!uunet!usna!tsmith MaBell :(301)267-4413 ------------------------------ Date: 21 Oct 88 13:17:13 GMT From: fedsys!scotty!jwr@kodak.com (Dier Retlaw Semaj) Subject: icon->cursor conversion Is there a way to convert an icon into a cursor? I have a few icons I like, & would like to use one of them for my cursor. Please use E-Mail if you know. Thank you much. Dier R. Semaj {ames,cmcl2,rutgers}!rochester!kodak!fedsys!wally!jwr ------------------------------ Date: 18 Oct 88 19:18:18 GMT From: phri!roy@philabs.philips.com Subject: Problems with oob data on sockets using the notifier Either I'm going crazy, or notify_set_exception_func() doesn't work as advertised (I'm currently using SunOS-3.5.2, but I've gotten similar results on 3.2). I'm trying to write an rlogintool which has essentially the same functionality as running rlogin inside a shelltool window, but all in one process. The rlogin protocol uses out-of-band signals to negotiate window size changes and stuff like that. What I do is register an urgent data handler for the remote socket with the notifier by calling notify_set_exception_func(). Sometimes, however, it seems that my handler gets called when there really isn't any oob data pending; select() says there is no pending exceptional condition, a recv() returns 0, and ioctl (SIOCATMARK) says we're not at the mark, but if I do a read(), I end up blocking. Anybody have any idea what might be going on? Roy Smith, System Administrator Public Health Research Institute {allegra,philabs,cmcl2,rutgers}!phri!roy -or- phri!roy@uunet.uu.net ------------------------------ Date: 21 Oct 88 18:48 +0100 From: Dominique Petitpierre <petitp@cui.unige.ch> Subject: How to dynamically change the font in a tty window? Is it possible to change dynamically the font in a tty or text window under sunview (SunOS 3.4)? Or is it fixed at creation time? I know you can change the default font with defaultsedit(1) or by setting the environmment variable DEFAULT_FONT. But what I want is change my mind after a window is opened (say a shelltool window). I have RTFM, but you know what TFM is like sometimes when you ask the wrong question! The example program /usr/src/sun/suntool/examples/font_menu.c is a nice start, but, at least for me, it doesn't even change the font in its panel (just the name changes)!. At our site, we use the Unipress emacs editor, and it has this feature: you open a window containing the file names of the fonts, click on a name and here you are with courier bold 24 points (for example). But emacs doesn't use a tty window. My purpose is to adapt to various kinds of output produced by a program run under shelltool or commandtool, while giving a demo. It is possible to run it under emacs, but the load is then too big with almost 2 MB (1MB suntools, 1MB emacs) on a 4MB SUN 3/60 => bad response time => bad demo!! Thanks in advance. -- Mr. Dominique Petitpierre |EAN, BITNET, EARN, MHS, X.400: petitp@cui.unige.ch ISSCO, University of Geneva |UUCP: mcvax!cernvax!cui!petitp , petitp@cui.uucp 54 route des Acacias |JANET: petitp%cui.unige.ch@ean-relay.ac.uk CH-1227 GENEVA (Switzerland)|CSNET, ARPA: petitp%cui.unige.ch@csnet-relay.csnet Tel: 0041/22/20 93 33 extension 2117 ------------------------------ End of SUN-Spots Digest ***********************