[comp.os.vms] VAX/L&T SIG Tape Reviews: LT90B - RANKIN

ted@nieland.DAYTON.OH.US (Ted Nieland) (04/16/91)

Tape:		LT90B
Submission:	[.RANKIN]
Reviewer:	Marc Shannon

Ease of installation:	4
Documentation:		5
Intended audience:	General
Ease of use:		4
Usefulness:		4
Sources included:	Yes
	Language(s):	FORTRAN, MACRO, C
Objects included:	Yes

 From Pat Rankin we have two useful programs and a couple games.
First, EXTRACT is a utility which can be used to extract pieces of
data from files.  You may specify a number of lines at the
beginning, at the end, or from some range in the middle of a file.
You can also select out certain columns of interest.  (A small
added utility included with EXTRACT is RC which counts the number of
records in a file.)  Second is GAWK - GNU's implementation of Unix's
"awk" for string processing.  As an added bonus, NetHack and UNO are
included in the games directory.

Both EXTRACT (and RC) and GAWK come precompiled and ready to be
installed on your system.  Both work really well and can be useful
for just about anyone.  I had trouble unpacking the games (they are
stored in a compressed backup saveset), but with some fidgeting with
the file attributes, I'm sure I can get the files out of there.