mss+@ANDREW.CMU.EDU (Mark Sherman) (10/12/89)
We are in the process of beta testing the next release of the Andrew Toolkit Software (which we plan to contribute to X.V11R4 tape). We have a set of beta sites who are trying to shake down the system on various configurations. Other sites have asked us if they can get copies of the beta release as well. Anyone who has access to FTP can get a copy of the beta release. However, we can only support our beta sites. You are welcome (even encouraged) to send comments, suggestions, and bug reports, but messages from other sites will be probably not be acknowledged. It is not that we don't want to help, it's just that we are not now in a position to support people who are expecting turn-key operation. If you like, we can add you to our mailing list of people receiving notifications of changes as we distribute them. The new release contains many new pieces: the complete Andrew Message System (including message server and white pages), the ADEW user interface building system, the NESS embedded language, the ODA tool kit (including sample translators for ATK and raster conversions), and support for a variety of machines and operating systems. The beta release also contains a place for "contributed" software for Andrew. For example, the release contains code from IBM, McDonnell Douglas, and Interleaf. If you want to contribute something to this release, please let us know. The new release is available by anonymous FTP from emsworth.andrew.cmu.edu (128.2.11.64). You should probably retrieve the README file that describes the directory. The files andrew-beta-p*.tar.Z represent tar files with various levels of patches applied (those receiving andrew on the X.V11R4 beta tape from the X consortium should correspond to patch level 3.) The file andrew-beta.tar.Z contains the latest released (patched) compressed tar file. The directory "patches" contains updates to the distribution fixing known problems. The tree rooted at andrew-beta is an up-to-date tree of the source with all patches and fixes applied. We intend to send out patches once a week. Comments and requests for patch notifications should be sent to info-andrew-bugs@andrew.cmu.edu. A warning: the compressed tar files run about 12 megabytes and expands to about 35 megabytes. The size of the object tree varies with the machine architecture, but expect a minimum of another 30 megabytes. Enjoy. Mark Sherman Manager, Applications Group