ted@nieland.DAYTON.OH.US (Ted Nieland) (05/25/90)
Fall 1989 VAX/L&T SIG Tape Reviews
Earle Ake
Science Apllications International Corporation
Todd Aven
COmputer Associates International
E. Loren Buhle, Jr.
Univeristy of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
Geoffrey Brunkhorst
Mayo Foundation
Tom Comeau
Space Telescope Science Institute
David Hittner
Pioneer Standard Electronics
Ray Kaplan
Ted Nieland
Control Data Corporation
Mark Shannon
Carnigie-Mellon University
Ric Steinburger
SRI International
This is part of the review of the Fall 1989 VAX/L&T SIG Tape.
Due to the large amount of overlap between the L&T and VAX SIG tapes, the
Tape editors decided to combine the tapes into one large tape with no
overlap. This SIGs tape contains many useful items for people with VAX
Computers and people interested in Languages and Tools.
The reviewers have scoured through most of the tape and have jotted down the
following notes on the material that is on the tape. Not everything on the
tape is reviewed due to the shear volume of material, but it is hoped that
this review will help people in deciding what on the tape might be useful to
them.
The SIG tapes are a project started by the SIGs a while back as a method of
distributing free software that might be helpful to others. Not all of the
material on the tapes are "finished" products.
This review is sponsered by the VAX and L&T SIGs and is coordinated by
the L&T Public Domain Working Group. Anyone wishing to help with future
reviews can contact the the Public Domain Working Group Chair, Ted Nieland. He
can be contacted on DCS at NIELAND or at TED@NIELAND.DAYTON.OH.US on the
Internet.
This is the fourth SIG tape to be reviewed. The VAX and L&T SIGs are
interested in your comments on the reviews and what can be done to improve
them. Comments can be sent to DECUS_REVIEWS@NIELAND.DAYTON.OH.US or
to NIELAND on DCS. Or contact any VAX or L&T SIG Steering committee member.
The material reviewed here is all part of the L&T section of the tape.
The encapsulated reviews are rated on a 1-5 scale with 5 being excellent.
[.BULLETIN]
Ease of installation: 4
Documentation: 5
Intended Audience: System Managers, General
Ease of Use: 5
Usefulness: 5
Sources included: Yes, MACRO, FORTRAN
Objects Supplied: Yes, Object Library
The BULLETIN utility permits a user to create messages for
reading by other users. Users may be notified upon logging on
that new messages have been added, and what the topic of the
messages are. Actual reading of the messages is optional. Messages
are automatically deleted when their expiration data has passed.
Bulletin is a handy way to pass messages around between project teams,
or general interest messages from the system manager without having to send
multiple copies of messages to everyone in the team or system. You can enable
users to view the topics of new messages created since they last logged in or
force them to read the message when they do login. Automatic message delete
is present so you don't have to worry about deleting that message about the
system coming down for maintenance you posted last week and forgot about.
Messages are organized into folders based on like subjects. This a way to get
messages through to a lot of users easily.
[.COY]
Ease of Installation: 4
Documentation: 4
Intended Audience: General
Ease Of Use: 4
Usefulness: 5
Sources Included: Yes; TPU, Fortran
Objects Supplied: Yes
This submission contains one program, WPE. WPE is a WPS+ (tm)
emulator that is TPU based. The program gives most of the functions of
WPS+ keyboard. This is a good program for those who are used to the WPS+
keyboard style, but occasionally need to use an editor for ascii files.
An interface is provided so that if DECSPELL is on your system, it will
be used for a spellchecker. Documentation is provided, and details
differences between WPS+ and WPE, but it assumes that you know how to
use WPS+, since this is an emulator. Since this is based on TPU, it can
be easily modified to add features not normally found in WPS+, and does
include some extensions the author found useful. Good for normal WPS+ users.
[.EPUBS]
Ease of Installation: 2
Documentation: 3
Intended Audience: General, TeX Users.
Ease of Use: 3
Usefulness: 4
Sources Include: Yes
Objects Supplied: In most cases.
The EPUBS submission contains several utilities for use with TeX and
LaTeX, including a TeX previewer and a description of how to include
Macintosh drawings in LaTeX documents.
Len Schwer's paper is a pretty complete discussion of how to get various
DVI to PS converters to include MAC drawings. He includes descriptions
of (and solutions to) many common problems, and points to several useful
resources. The TeX X-windows previewer is less useful, since it is
buggy and somewhat difficult for a VMS user to use. The program's
author admits all these shortcomings, but has gone to some lengths to
provide a DECWindows previewer that is at least useable, and has
succeeded.
[.EPUBS.DVIPS]
Ease of Installation: 3
Documentation: 3
Intended Audience: General, TeX Users with PostScript (tm) printers.
Ease of Use: 5
Usefulness: 5
Sources Include: Yes
Objects Supplied: Yes
DVIPS is a converter which takes .DVI files (TeX output) and creates .PS
files, which can be printed on a PostScript printer. It includes all
sources, objects, and executables, documentation with notes on how to change
site-specific parts of the manual,".TFM" files, and a replacement set of
LaTeX "style files" which use PostScript fonts. A separate utility to
include MacIntosh figure files is also included.
The code is very well written and internally documented. If you are a
VMS-only user, some comments will be confusing, as will the use of
"-option" instead of DCL-style qualifiers. Installation is
straightforward, but does require understanding something about how TeX
fonts are defined and used. If you've installed TeX, DVIPS will be
easy. The utility is easy to use, and produces .PS files which are
(sort of) readable, something not all DVI-to-PostScript converters do not
do. If you are also a PostScript programmer you'll appreciate that
feature.
[.GPLOT]
Ease of Installation: 2
Documentation: 3
Intended Audience: Experienced TeX users
Ease of Use: 3
Usefulness: 4
Sources Included: Yes.
Objects Supplied: Yes.
GPLOT and GTEX take input from Computer Graphic Metafiles generated by
DISSPLA and NCAR graphic systems and combine them with .DVI files
generated by TeX to produce TeX documents with graphics. Samples,
documentation, installation instructions, and help files are included.
The code runs under both VMS and UNIX, and the VMS version uses DCL
style qualifiers, while the UNIX version expects the "-option" format.
Like many converters and previewers, installing this system requires
substantial knowledge of how TeX builds documents and finds fonts. The
documentation is fairly good, but the help files make many site-specific
references to Pittsburg Supercomputing Center. Once installed, however,
the system is fairly easy to use if you are already familiar with how
TeX and most DVI-to-device converters work, and how NCAR, DISSPLA, or
other CGM generators work. Documentation on adding device drivers to
the interface is pretty good, and the range of output devices supported
is fairly broad, which is helpful for those who don't yet have
postscript printers.