Sun-Spots-Request@RICE.EDU (William LeFebvre) (02/29/88)
SUN-SPOTS DIGEST Sunday, 28 February 1988 Volume 6 : Issue 22 Today's Topics: Sun User Group is forming a Finance Special Interest Group Re: Need info on PostScript Laser Printers Re: :? fucntion returning void Re: Using 3rd and 4th serial port on Sun CPU board dial in / dial out on same tty line (2) Bogosity in SunView Programmer's Reference Manual Artecon - Not a Clone but a real Sun UREP on SUN problem with "pr_load" Question about Hardware flow control on SUN 3 Installing Racal-Vadic modems? importing and exporting NFS? "Dragon" icon for Chinese New Year! 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 stored on "titan.rice.edu". For volume X, issue Y, "get sun-spots/vXnY". They are also accessible through the archive server: mail the word "help" to "archive-server@rice.edu". ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 17 Feb 88 10:03:05 PST From: Brent Chapman <capmkt!brent@cogsci.berkeley.edu> Subject: Sun User Group is forming a Finance Special Interest Group Suns are quickly becoming commonplace tools in high-tech finance applications on Wall Street, throughout the United States, and around the world. Recognizing this, the Sun User Group is forming a Finance Special Interest Group to address the special concerns of Sun users in this field, including (but not limited to) reliability, availability, security, performance, data acquisition, management, storage, and retrieval, legal issues, tools, and anything else concerned with the design, creation, or operation of Finance applications using Sun systems. I'm the coordinator of the SUG Finance SIG. I'm a Senior Programmer/Analyst for a Berkeley, CA, financial services company that uses Sun systems in its business of managing foreign exchange risk. I encourage all interested parties to join the Finance SIG mailing list by sending Email to capmkt!sug-finance-request@cogsci.berkeley.edu or sun!ucbvax!cogsci!capmkt!sug-finance-request, or by contacting me directly: D. Brent Chapman SUG Finance SIG Coordinator c/o Capital Market Technology, Inc. 1995 University Ave., Suite 390 Berkeley, CA 94704 Phone: 415/540-6400 -Brent Brent Chapman Capital Market Technology, Inc. Senior Programmer/Analyst 1995 University Ave., Suite 390 {lll-tis,ucbvax!cogsci}!capmkt!brent Berkeley, CA 94704 capmkt!brent@{tis.llnl.gov,cogsci.berkeley.edu} Phone: 415/540-6400 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 17 Feb 88 18:02:52 PST From: Alan Stebbens (aks@hub.ucsb.edu) <aks%mondas@hub.ucsb.edu> Subject: Re: Need info on PostScript Laser Printers >> From: (Jeffrey A. Edelheit) <edelheit@community-chest.mitre.org> >> >> In the past, we have purchased Imagen printers. However, it >> has been suggested that we now start using PostScript printers. Imagen is now beta-testing their PostScript-like language (called UltraScript) printers, which is available as an upgrade to existing 3320, 5320, 6320, 7320 printers, at a reasonable price. We are part of the beta-test, and cannot [legally] say much about it, except that with one printer, we now support imPRESS, Tektronix, and PostScript output. This is important, as we have many people with various existing graphics tools producing plots, which print just fine on the Imagen using the Tektronix language feature. We have run the Transcript cookbook against both a LaserWriter Plus and the Imagen, and the output is pretty much identical. Imagen seems pretty serious about supporting UltraScript, as they are doing this beta-test pretty intensively. We are completely happy with the reliability and multi-language support that our 5320 gives us. Moreover, since we have the Ethernet interface, our printer's bottleneck is NOT the communications channel. The Apple LaserWriter Plus works very well also, but its paper volume is less than the Imagen 5320, and its serial port interface (to a Vax 780) is a little slow at 9600 baud, as compared with the Imagen's Ethernet interface. It may be possible to spool to the LaserWriter faster with a Kinetics FastPath box, by putting the FastPath on the Ethernet, and the LaserWriter on AppleTalk (which it already is). We will find this out pretty soon, as we are getting a FastPath. Of course, with the LaserWriter, only PostScript documents are supported. After our beta-test committment is over, I'll be more specific in comparisons. Alan Stebbens System Manager Center for Computational Sciences and Engineering. University of California, Santa Barbara 3111 Engineering Santa Barbara, CA 93106 ARPA: aks@hub.ucsb.edu BITNET: aks@sbitp.bitnet CSNET: aks%ucsb@relay.cs.net UUCP: ...{ucbvax,sdcsvax,cepu}!ucsbcsl!aks VOICE: (805) 961-3221 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 18 Feb 88 2:56:55 EST From: aja@i.cc.purdue.edu (Miek Rowan) Subject: Re: :? fucntion returning void It isnt just the Sun compiler that chokes on this. I had trouble on a number of C compilers (and with cdecl) when I wanted an array of pointers to funtions returning void. Anyone know why? miek [[ I think this is a long-recognized bug in the portable C compiler that Berkeley (and many others) used. Did Sun develop their C compiler by starting with pcc, or did they start from scratch? The former wopuld explain (at least in part) the origin of the bug. --wnl ]] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 18 Feb 88 11:18:39 PST From: Sandy Wells <swells@cowell.ai.sri.com> Subject: Re: Using 3rd and 4th serial port on Sun CPU board We have used the 3rd and 4th serial ports on some sun3's (a sun3/160 release 3.4 and a euroboard sun3) The basic story is that the mouse and keyboard ports are asynchronous serial ports much like the 1st and 2nd ports, EXCEPT that they are TTL level signals instead of EIA levels. They can by accessed by creating /dev/ttyc and /dev/ttyd using mknod. They should have the same major device numbers as ttya and ttyb and minor device numbers which follow those of ttya and ttyb: mknod ttyc c 12 2 mknod ttyd c 12 3 We found a nice TTL <-> EIA level translator chip which will translate all four lines, and only needs +5 volts to run (and a few capacitors). Since +5 is available at the keyboard/mouse connector on the CPU we were able to make an electrical adaptor which just connects in line. The IC is a Maxim dual RS232 receiver/transmitter, sold by Jameco Electronics, 1355 Shoreway Road, Belmont, CA 94002. Note that all 4 ttl signals need to be inverted to have the proper EIA polarity in this scheme (we used a 74LS04). The serial signals in and out of the mouse connector are spec'ed in the sun hardware installation manual (for our sun-3/160). Note that modem control lines are not available! Since SUN does not feature this use of the mouse/keyboard port, there is probably no guarantee that this hack will continue to work forever. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 17 Feb 88 22:49:42 EST From: perry@sambation.bellcore.com (Perry Metzger) Subject: dial in / dial out on same tty line (1) Most of the answers I have recieved have been of the form "use the cua device drivers documented in so and so a place." I knew about cua already; it doesn't quite do the trick. The problem is that I want dialback, not dialout. I want to be able to call someone to let them log in, not to dial another machine to log in to it. I am guessing at this point that one solution might be to send the command to the modem through the cua port and then either somehow get out and tell getty it can open the line or start login on the line I have just dialed out on. I am going to see if I can use the latter solution (because I know how do it and I don't want to fool with what can and can't be opened at any given time given the state of the carrier). If that works, I will let everyone know. If anyone else has a yet better solution, please let me know. And if anyone can figure out how to use this scheme so that the users processes will properly get sighup if the modem carrier dies, that would be doubly useful, but I suspect I need a non-cua (i.e. a line that dies when carrier drops) line to do this. Any additional comments? Perry ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 17 Feb 88 16:22:59 PST From: roode@pisa.orc.olivetti.com (David Roode) Subject: dial in / dial out on same tty line (2) See the Sun Installing Unix manual in the section on communications. Basically you mknod a device special file which has the same major number and a minor number that is 128 more than the port you are interested in, calling it say cua2. You then configure your kernel to not have software carrier on the port in question. At that point you can enable in /etc/ttys getty for the line in question but it will only come up when the modem on the line provides carrier, ie. when a call comes in. Meanwhile you can go out the line by refering to it as /dev/cua2, which locks out getty on the corresponding device for incoming use. The device with the 128-plus minor number no longer requires carrier detect in order to send characters out the line. Sun's documentation on this is good, but it fails to give a little bit of extra motivation and explanation which makes the information much more useful. It is easy to read the section and not realize what you can do with it. David Roode roode%orc.uucp@unix.sri.com roode@orc.olivetti.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 17 Feb 88 18:14:51 EST From: Matt Landau <mlandau@diamond.bbn.com> Subject: Bogosity in SunView Programmer's Reference Manual One-Line description: SunView system programmer's manual lies about wmgr_figureiconrect. Elaboration and examples: If you're programming at the Suntools/Sunwindows level instead of going through the SunView library interface, you still want to be able to position windows and icons in a way that obeys the SunView icon gravity policies. According to the SunView System Programmer's Manual (pg 172), you can use wmgr_figureiconrect to compute the next available icon slot, then use win_setsavedrect to bind it to the window. This is a lie. Examining the source for wmgr_rect.c and wmgr_policy.c reveals that wmgr_figureiconrect turns out to be nothing more than a call to wmgr_acquire_next_icon_rect, which is a NO-OP! The same is true for wmgr_figuretoolrect, by the way. The right way to do this is to use the (undocumented?) function wmgr_set_icon_rect(int rootfd, int windowfd, rect *r), which both computes the icon slot and binds it to the window. The documentation should be updated to reflect this fact. ------------------------------ Date: 18 Feb 88 08:38:36 GMT From: munnari!ditmela.oz.au!worsley@uunet.uu.net (Andrew Worsley) Subject: Artecon - Not a Clone but a real Sun I posted a query a week or two ago about Artecon workstations and here is the conclusion, slightly delayed because of uunet not being available for 4-5 days, Australia's link to US. Artecon's use Sun boards and OS but provide their own ESDI disks, cabinets and fans etc. They provide simple "User friendly" interface on top of SunOS which is just like some sort of shell. They are really a VAR (Value Added Reseller) which "provide Sun components in configurations you cannot get from Sun." I have been assured by various people that you can apply Sun patches/upgrades with no problems. In particular they are rumored to be quieter, have wood grained panel, up to a Gigabyte of disk and only use one pedestal. I would like to thank those who responded with info: weiser.pa@xerox.com, darin@lll-lcc.llnl.gov, jim@boeing.com, tony@artecon (Works at Artecon for those who want more info). PS: I am afraid I cannot comment on price as we are in the middle of a Request for Quotes, which is like a small tender and the rules forbid any such comments. Andrew Worsley ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 18 Feb 88 17:39:35 +0200 From: leonid@TAURUS.BITNET Subject: UREP on SUN Concerning my previous message on this subject: 1. I was wrong claiming the code is Public Domain. The zs_bisync.c pseudo device driver is based on the old UREP dup.c device driver written by Robert M. Owens, thus the code is Copyright by the Penn-State University. Please accept my apologies. 2. There has been a bug in the driver which caused occasional system crashes. This bug has been fixed, if you need the patch, please drop me a line. Leonid ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 17 Feb 88 18:44:30 EST From: warsaw@cme-durer.arpa (Barry A. Warsaw) Subject: problem with "pr_load" I'm having some trouble with the "pr_load" function when the colormap argument is not NULL. For background I'm using sunOS 3.2 on a 3/160C. I have a sun raster file called "rasterfile.im8" which is a 1150x900x8 image. I can preview the image using sun's screenload program. Looks great, full 8 bit image with colormap. I'm trying to write my own program that will read this rasterfile into memory, complete with colormap. In example 1 below, if I call 'my_read_raster_func' with filename = "rasterfile.im8", it works as documented. Note that here I'm setting the colormap argument to NULL in pr_load so it will ignore any colormap header info. Example 1: my_read_raster_func(filename) char *filename; { FILE *input; struct pixrect *tpr; if ((input = fopen(filename, "r")) == (FILE *) NULL) { /* do error handling */ } if ((tpr = pr_load(file, NULL)) == (struct pixrect *) NULL) { /* do more error handling */ } /* no error reading pixrect from file so continue as normal */ } Now, in example 2, I've modified the colormap argument so that pr_load should stuff the colormap info into the 'colormap' structure. However, pr_load bombs out and returns NULL. Example 2: my_read_raster_func(filename) char *filename; { FILE *input; struct pixrect *tpr; colormap_t colormap; if ((input = fopen(filename, "r")) == (FILE *) NULL) { /* do error handling */ } if ((tpr = pr_load(file, &colormap)) == (struct pixrect *) NULL) { /* do more error handling */ } /* no error reading pixrect from file so continue as normal */ } Now, I'm sure that the rasterfile has a colormap header on it since screenload works perfectly. I'm also sure that it's not just using the default colormap or < 8 bit image. I guess I should also mention that this effect is observed without regard to whether the rasterfile was created by screendump or by pr_dump with a non-NULL colormap. I can dump the colormap header but never read it back, though it pr_dump-ed pixrects DO work with screenload also. Has anyone else seen this happen? What am I doing wrong? What does screenload do differently to load the colormap from file? Is there a bug in pr_load and if so what function does screenload use? Any help would be appreciated. Any actual working examples would also be great. Thanks in advance. NAME: Barry A. Warsaw TELE: (301) 975-3460 USMAIL: National Bureau of Standards ARPA: warsaw@cme-durer.arpa Rm. B-124, Bldg. 220 UUCP: uunet!cme-durer!warsaw Gaithersburg, MD 20899 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 17 Feb 88 13:41:29 PST From: Alex Kreis ("Thypton Coore") <alex@hub.ucsb.edu> Subject: Question about Hardware flow control on SUN 3 We have a Printronix P300 line printer which we are trying to interface to a SUN 3/260. The printer uses an rs232 interface, but we are having problems getting the two to handle flow control correctly. The printer only supports hardware flow control -- when its buffer is full, it changes the state of pin 20 (DTR) of the rs232 connector from high to low, which is requesting the SUN to stop sending data until its buffer has emptied a bit. Attaching this line to CTS/RTS has no effect. I have also tried the kernel modification mentioned in the manual of changing the flags from 0x3 to 0x0, and that enabled CD/DTR but did not effect actual CTS/RTS flow control. Thus far we have only been able to get the SUN to recognize software flow control (ctrl-S, ctrl-Q). We have temporarily used a terminal with a printer port to act as a "buffer", converting the hardware control signals to software, but we are running into this problem more and more and need a more permanent solution. I have not been able to find anything in the manual sections on how to enable flow control so that the actual data will stop when an rs232 line goes low. If anyone has any experience in this area and/or knows how to get this working on a SUN, I would appreciate the help. -Alex Kreis (alex@hub.ucsb.edu) ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 18 Feb 88 14:24:50 est From: mlijews@nswc-wo.arpa Subject: Installing Racal-Vadic modems? Has anyone installed a Racal-Vadic VA3450? If so I would appreciate a copy of the relevant /etc/ttys and /etc/remote entries as well as any other helpful hints. I am running SunOS 3.3 on various Sun-3 machines. Thanks in advance. Mike Lijewski (mlijews@nswc-wo.arpa) Code R44 NSWC Silver Spring, MD 20903-5000 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 18 Feb 88 14:16:05 PST From: conrad@cgl.ucsf.edu Subject: importing and exporting NFS? I heard a rumor that if you both import and export NFS on a single host, the performance of the host may decrease significantly. Is there any truth to this? If so, what are possible solutions, given that not all data may be stored on a single host? Thanks, Conrad conrad@cgl.ucsf.edu ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 17 Feb 88 11:58:42 PST From: simran@sun.com (Simran Singh Khalsa) Subject: "Dragon" icon for Chinese New Year! /* Je shr "Long" tze (This is the Chinese character for "Dragon") -- Shen Lan */ /* Format_version=1, Width=64, Height=64, Depth=1, Valid_bits_per_item=16 */ 0x0000,0x0000,0x0000,0x0000,0x0003,0x8000,0xF000,0x0000, 0x0003,0xC000,0xF003,0x0000,0x0003,0xC000,0xF03F,0x8000, 0x0003,0xC000,0x70FF,0x8000,0x0003,0x8000,0x71FF,0x0000, 0x0003,0x0000,0x73C0,0x0000,0x0000,0x77E0,0x7E00,0x0000, 0x1FFF,0xFFE0,0x7800,0x0000,0x3FFF,0xFFC0,0x7000,0x0000, 0x1F00,0x0000,0x7000,0x0000,0x0000,0x0000,0x7000,0x0000, 0x0060,0x0600,0xE00F,0xE000,0x00F0,0x0700,0xFFFF,0xF000, 0x00F0,0x0600,0x7FFE,0xF800,0x0070,0x0E00,0x7C00,0x3800, 0x0030,0x0C00,0x0000,0x3800,0x0030,0x0C00,0x0000,0x3800, 0x0018,0x1C00,0x0000,0x3800,0x0018,0x3800,0x0000,0x3800, 0x001C,0x30F0,0x0000,0x3800,0x000C,0x7FF0,0x77FF,0xF000, 0x0F3F,0xFFF0,0xFFFF,0xE000,0x1FFF,0xF800,0xFFFE,0x0000, 0x1FE0,0x0001,0xFC00,0x0000,0x0000,0x1E01,0xE000,0x0000, 0x0001,0xFF00,0xC000,0x0000,0x001F,0xF700,0xC003,0xC000, 0x001E,0x0700,0xE01F,0xE000,0x0030,0x0700,0xE0FF,0x0000, 0x0030,0x0700,0xE1F0,0x0000,0x0030,0x1F01,0xEFC0,0x0000, 0x0030,0x7F00,0xFF00,0x0000,0x0033,0xFF00,0xFC00,0x0000, 0x0037,0xC700,0xE001,0xE000,0x003C,0x0700,0xE007,0xF000, 0x0030,0x0700,0xE07F,0x8000,0x0030,0x0F00,0xE0FE,0x0000, 0x0030,0x3F00,0xE3F0,0x0000,0x0030,0xFF00,0xEF80,0x0000, 0x0077,0xE700,0xFC00,0x0000,0x007F,0x0700,0xF001,0xF000, 0x0078,0x0700,0xC00F,0xF000,0x0060,0x0600,0xE01F,0x8000, 0x0060,0x0700,0xE07C,0x0000,0x0060,0x0700,0xE1F0,0x0000, 0x0060,0x0700,0xE7C0,0x0000,0x00C0,0x0700,0xFF00,0x0200, 0x00C0,0x0700,0xFC00,0x0600,0x00C0,0x0300,0xE000,0x0700, 0x00C0,0x0700,0xE000,0x0700,0x00C0,0x0700,0xE000,0x0F80, 0x0080,0x0700,0xE000,0x1F80,0x0180,0x3F00,0x7000,0x7F00, 0x0180,0x1F00,0x7FFF,0xFF00,0x0300,0x0F00,0x3FFF,0xFC00, 0x0600,0x0700,0x0F9E,0x8000,0x0C00,0x0200,0x0000,0x0000, 0x0000,0x0000,0x0000,0x0000,0x0000,0x0000,0x0000,0x0000, 0x0000,0x0000,0x0000,0x0000,0x0000,0x0000,0x0000,0x0000, 0x0000,0x0000,0x0000,0x0000,0x0000,0x0000,0x0000,0x0000 ------------------------------ End of SUN-Spots Digest ***********************