Info-Vax-REQUEST@KL.SRI.COM (Ramon Curiel) (05/20/87)
Info-Vax Digest Wednesday, 20 May 1987 Volume 0 : Issue 28 Today's Topics: "We interrupt this mail connection..." Re: LXY22 Printer LXY22 answers Machine readable forms RUNOFF and Printronix printers (was LXY22) SWING sources. Questions on DEC/Test Manager Logical names in MAIL Re: Info-Vax Digest V0 #9 Re: Info-Vax Digest V0 #9 Searching for lint Re: Information about DECUS C needed Re: Has anyone tried the Gbyte storage tape devices? WPS+ to runoff conversion VMS Security Hole Submission for mod-computers-vax ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 18 May 87 14:17:29 PDT From: xrjjm%scint.span@Jpl-VLSI.ARPA Subject: "We interrupt this mail connection..." A while back I kept running into the problem of sending mail across the SPAN Decnet and losing the logical link before the mail was done. I did a bit of experimenting, and found out the following. 1) Mail writes a temporary file during the editing process. 2) Mail deletes that temp file during sending, no matter what. (I suppose a SEND/KEEP command might be nice...) Now if we could prevent #2, at least the mail would be recoverable. My solution was the following: 1. Add the following to my EDTINI file: ! !Define a special exit macro for MAIL !This writes a temp file SYS$LOGIN:MAIL.TMP before exiting ! FIND = MEX INCLUDE COM$:MAILEXIT.MAC DEFINE MACRO MEX ! ! !Go back to main buffer ! FIND =MAIN %BE This routine basically defines a new editor command called MEX. MEX does what- ever is defined in the macro file COM$:MAILEXIT.MAC (COM$: is a logical name, it points to my command file directory). COM:MAILEXIT.MAC SET SUMMARY WRITE sys$login:MAIL.TMP EXIT Now, while in mail, if you use the command MEX, instead of EX, your mail will be written to a temporary file prior to sending. If anything blows up, your mail is saved for future sending. Good Luck! John McMahon xrjjm%csdr.span@vlsi.jpl.nasa.gov (Jpl-Vlsi.Arpa) ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 18 May 87 19:08 EDT From: <LAV%BRANDEIS.BITNET@wiscvm.wisc.edu> (John Lavagnino) Subject: Re: LXY22 Printer Getting boldface on the LXY from Runoff is not hard: you just let Runoff create it the way it does by default, by overstriking. Under VMS 4.5, however, underlining on the LXY22 is impossible using Runoff. The LXY has the odd feature that to underline something you must print the text, then a carriage return, then the underscore characters; if you do (underscores)(CR)(text), the underscores do not appear. But in VMS 4.something, DEC changed the way Runoff does underlining from (text)(CR)(underscores) to (underscores)(CR)(text), apparently so that if you type the file on your terminal you see the text instead of the underscores. To cater to LXY users, DEC later added the /REVERSE_EMPHASIS qualifier to Runoff, to recover the old behavior; while it fixes this problem, this qualifier creates others, such that the output winds up being even more garbled. I think all this was true under VMS 4.4; it's certainly so under 4.5. We had guys from DEC out here repeatedly trying to "fix" our LXY until I learned about this feature (from a Scribe manual, not from DEC, although the software people at DEC know all this). John Lavagnino (lav @ brandeis.bitnet) Systems Programmer, Feldberg Computer Center, Brandeis University 415 South Street Waltham, MA 02254 USA (617)736-4594 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 18 May 87 16:33:59 PDT From: nagy%warner.hepnet@lbl.arpa Subject: LXY22 answers >From: Dan Stewart <STEWART_SYS%uta.edu@RELAY.CS.NET> >Subject: LXY22 Printer question. >We've got a DEC LXY22 printer (basically a Printronix 600, actually) and are >trying to get underlining and bold print from Runoff. Does anyone know how >to do it? I can't find a manual which has the control sequences that the >printer understands, and am not sure if Runoff has any flags for a printer >type, etc. We've had an LXY22 for years. First of all, you cannot print bold text on the LXY (or any Printronix 300/600 printer) due to the way the printer functions: a line of text is printed as rows of dots, once a line has been printed the printer cannot backspace the paper and print it again. Thus the LXY cannot overprint either. THe underlining is a problem. Digital broke RUNOFF with a V4.x release (4.2?). RUNOFF under VMS V2.x and V3.x printed underlined text by sending the line of text, a carriage return and then the line of underlines ended with a carriage return and line feed. This worked perfectly until the order (underlines then text) was reversed under VMS V4.x. A new RUNOFF qualifier was added to restore the old behavior but when this qualifier first appeared, it did not work. I do not know if RUNOFF has been fixed in VMS V4.4 or V4.5 since I now use other software (TeX among them) for doing documentation. =Frank Nagy =Fermilab Research Division EED/Controls =FNAL::NAGY.HEPNET or NAGY@FNAL.Bitnet ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 19 May 87 05:15 EDT From: RBrooks@MIT-Multics.ARPA Subject: Machine readable forms An application I am working on at the moment involves doing statistical evaluation of questionaires. At the moment we have people entering the data. I believe that for us it might be much more effective to have machine readable data instead of our traditional questionaires (something along the lines of the fill in the dots scheme used by the SATs and ACTs.) If anyone uses a system like this or could give me the address of a company which might be able to give me information about some product of this kind (or equivalent) that runs on the VAX I would be quite grateful. Thank you, Richard R. Brooks, System Manager RFE-RL RBrooks -at MIT-MULTICS.ARPA ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 19 May 87 05:50:10 PDT From: nagy%warner.hepnet@lbl.arpa Subject: RUNOFF and Printronix printers (was LXY22) The qualifier needed in RUNOFF to reverse the printing order of the text and the underline characters is /REVERSE_EMPHASIS to get the underlined text to print as such on a Printronix printer. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 19 May 87 13:48:08 PDT From: TOLLIVER%ORN.MFENET@nmfecc.arpa Subject: SWING sources. I would like the SWING sources. Just where is comp.sources.misc? Is this an FTP'able place? If not, how can someone on ARPAnet get the sources? Thanks, Tolliver%orn.mfenet@nmfecc.arpa ------------------------------ Date: 19 May 87 00:32:44 GMT From: cca!timb@husc6.harvard.edu (Tim Burchell) Subject: Questions on DEC/Test Manager I am evaluating DEC's Test Manager. I would like to hear from anyone that is using it. I have several questions: + Is the system easy to learn? Does it takes weeks or days if your are new to VMS? + I found the examples to be very simple. Our test suite will have several thousand tests. All the examples were for collections of 1-3 tests. How effective is the software in reporting the results of this many tests? + How do you differentiate between different versions of the software you are testing? Does the use of VARIABLE's help? + I would like to keep the test results of failed tests for historical purpose. Test Manager does not seem to facilities for keeping different versions of test results. Any comments? + Did the software meet your expectations? Did you have to write workarounds to interface effectively with it? + If you had thousands of tests did you have to have a person allocated to this tool full time just to manage it? If anyone out there using this tool is in the New England area, may I visit you to see it in action? Thanks, Tim Burchell Quality Assurance 617-492-8860 ------------------------------ Date: 19 May 87 17:49 EST From: JOHNC%26673.decnet@ge-crd.arpa Subject: Logical names in MAIL Many thanks to all who responded to my plea regarding logical names in Mail. Unfortunately, none of them work! To recap, I have to use some long network addresses which include special characters (notably !). I cannot define a logical for these which MAIL will translate properly in those cases. Some examples: 1) with triple quotes: $ def celeste """csbvax::mrgate!celeste%bcvax3.bitnet @wiscvm@smtp@tcpgateway""" $ sh log celeste "CELESTE" = ""csbvax::mrgate!celeste%bcvax3.bitnet @wiscvm@smtp@tcpgateway"" (LNM$PROCESS_TABLE) $ mail MAIL> s To: celeste %MAIL-E-SYNTAX, error parsing 'csbvax' MAIL> Exit 2) with the triple quotes only around the 'peculiar' part: $ def celeste csbvax::mrgate"""!celeste%bcvax3.bitnet @wiscvm@smtp@tcpgateway""" $ mail $ sh log celeste "CELESTE" = "CSBVAX::MRGATE"!celeste%bcvax3.bitnet @wiscvm@smtp@tcpgateway"" (LNM$PROCESS_TABLE $ mail MAIL> s To: celeste %MAIL-E-SYNTAX, error parsing 'CSBVAX::MRGATE"' MAIL> Exit 3) with the address in a distribution file $ cre celeste.dis csbvax::mrgate!celeste%bcvax.bitnet@wiscvm@smtp@tcpgateway *EXIT* $ mail MAIL> s To: @celeste.dis Subj: a test Enter your message below. Press CTRL/Z when complete, or CTRL/C to quit: this is only a test MAIL> Exit $ looks fine, but is returned by the message router at CSBVAX because the address following the ! looks like a comment. This is just what happens when I do the $DEFINE without quotes. Sigh. Am I condemned to typing long addresses in perpetuity? John Child "I _love_ the digest format. Let's never go back" General Electric -Ali Jihad Aircraft Engines Lynn MA ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 19 May 87 16:29:40 PDT From: ian@bananaPC.sgi.com (Ian Clements) Subject: Re: Info-Vax Digest V0 #9 There was a program on the '85 DECUS tape called "observe". It can be run interactivly from one terminal to monitor/record another terminals I/O. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 19 May 87 16:33:04 PDT From: ian@bananaPC.sgi.com (Ian Clements) Subject: Re: Info-Vax Digest V0 #9 Another way to ring the bell is to define a symbol like so; $ bell[0,32] = %X07 Now when you want to ring the bell simply; $ write sys$output bell, "Error statement" ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 19 May 87 17:01 EDT From: James Jones <JAMES%vaxe.coe.northeastern.edu@RELAY.CS.NET> Subject: Searching for lint Hi, Could anyone tell me where I can get the UNIX program lint? I know that it comes with UNIX operating systems but I need to use it under VMS. I am particularly interested in public domain lints but would like to here about commercial programs as well. I am even interested in lint from UNIX systems, if the source code is available. Please respond directly to me (my net address is below) and I'll summarize to the net. Thanks in advance for your help! James Jones College of Engineering Northeastern University Boston, Massachusetts 02115 CSNet: james@vaxe.coe.northeastern.edu ARPAnet: james@vaxe.coe.northeastern.edu@relay.cs.net ------------------------------ Date: 19 May 87 23:49:16 GMT From: decvax!minow@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (Martin Minow) Subject: Re: Information about DECUS C needed Decus C is a C compiler for PDP-11's. It implements Unix V6 C with a few later enhancements. It does not implement a number of "modern" (K&R and post-K&R) features, such as direct initialization of auto variables, bit-fields, enums, macros with arguments, structure assignment, and a few others). A number of better compilers are available for Vax, both VMS and Unix. If you want to run it under VMS, you must acquire a license for "compatibility-mode" support (the "RSX-emulator" package). The performance will be unsatisfactory on Microvax-based systems. The compiler is available as 11-SP-18 from Decus. There is no support available, beyond the source code which is included in the distribution. The distribution is quite large (about 27,000 disk blocks) and about 400 pages of documentation are provided. Martin Minow decvax!minow ------------------------------ Date: 20 May 87 00:01:40 GMT From: jtk@mordor.s1.gov (Jordan Kare) Subject: Re: Has anyone tried the Gbyte storage tape devices? In article <543@acer.stl.stc.co.uk> dww@stl.UUCP (David Wright) writes: >I hear rumours of new tape drives offering >2000 MBytes of storage, using video >tapes or cartridges. Does anyone have hard information about such things, >and in particular does anyone have practical experience in using them? > > David Wright STL, London Road, Harlow, Essex CM17 9NA, U.K. >dww@stl.stc.co.uk <or> ...seismo!mcvax!ukc!stl!dww <or> PSI%234237100122::DWW I cannot speak for commercial devices, but I built a videotape data recording system for storing digitized CCD images (for an automated astronomical telescope); it stores about 600 Mbytes on a 2-hour Beta tape, and we are rapidly approaching a terabyte stored. Videotape is a ghastly medium; with my (low density) storage scheme the bit error rate was about 10^-3, and errors tend to occur as long (up to >100 bit) dropouts. All videotape systems thus must use extensive error correction and/or redundancy; the "Vault" microcomputer backup of some years back used 6x redundancy. The combination of redundancy and inherently limited bandwidth (single channel recording) means the transfer rate is limited; possibly very limited (20K bytes/sec). Videotape is not particularly made as an archival medium (at least home tape) so unless you have excellent storage conditions (temp. controlled, dust free) don't expect tapes to last more than a year or so, or more than a few tens of "plays". "Consumer" tape decks are also not made for extended use; the heads must be cleaned frequently and replaced every ~500 hours. Also, of course, videotape is strictly a streaming medium, and VCR storage is not standardized (heck, even for _video_ there are 3 incompatible formats) so if your drive breaks you may not be able to find anyone else who can read your tapes. However, if you can live with these limits, videotape is hands down the cheapest storage medium available, both in cost per bit stored and cost per bit on line (drive cost/capacity). For non-archival backup use, if you can live with the low transfer rate, the only major concern is the lack of standardization. I would seriously consider getting at least two identical drives; otherwise, if your drive dies, you could find yourself in deep s... uh, trouble. Jordin Kare jtk@mordor.uucp ------------------------------ Date: 19 May 87 06:10:56 GMT From: mcvax!cernvax!cui!andre@seismo.css.gov (DIDELOT Andre) Subject: WPS+ to runoff conversion Having WPS+ under ALL-IN-1 and trying to exchange text with a photocomposer system, I found easier to go thru an intermediate (documented) format like the runoff one. Other conversions already exist in A1, including DECmate or other proprietary DEC format, but none is documented. Some can be decoded if necessary, but if easier solution exists ... Does anybody heard about such conversion ? cui!andre@cernvax.UUCP or DIDELOT@CGEUGE51.BITNET ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 20 May 87 08:58:17 SET From: KA%DDAESA10.BITNET@wiscvm.wisc.edu Subject: VMS Security Hole Subject: VMS Security Hole ---------------------------- I would like to inform our European VMS users that DEC in Germany and Holland have the patch that is needed to plug this security hole. I received it this week from TSC in Munich and it is rather short. There was no explanation as to why it was needed and it was described as an "unofficial" patch, the "official" one being made available with VMS 4.6. No doubt, the other European offices have it too. Jenny Franks, European Space Operations Centre, Robert Bosch Strasse 5, Darmstadt, West Germany. Telephone: +49 - 6151-886-297 EARN address: KA@DDAESA10 BITNET address: KA@ESOC.BITNET ------------------------------ Date: 20 May 87 07:15:58 GMT From: <uwvax!uwmacc!hobbes!uucp@RUTGERS.EDU> Subject: Submission for mod-computers-vax Path: hobbes!uwmacc!uwvax!husc6!cca!timb From: timb@cca.CCA.COM (Tim Burchell) Newsgroups: mod.computers.vax,comp.os.vms Subject: Questions on DEC/Test Manager Message-ID: <15961@cca.CCA.COM> Date: 19 May 87 00:32:44 GMT Organization: Computer Corp. of America, Cambridge, MA Lines: 45 I am evaluating DEC's Test Manager. I would like to hear from anyone that is using it. I have several questions: + Is the system easy to learn? Does it takes weeks or days if your are new to VMS? + I found the examples to be very simple. Our test suite will have several thousand tests. All the examples were for collections of 1-3 tests. How effective is the software in reporting the results of this many tests? + How do you differentiate between different versions of the software you are testing? Does the use of VARIABLE's help? + I would like to keep the test results of failed tests for historical purpose. Test Manager does not seem to facilities for keeping different versions of test results. Any comments? + Did the software meet your expectations? Did you have to write workarounds to interface effectively with it? + If you had thousands of tests did you have to have a person allocated to this tool full time just to manage it? If anyone out there using this tool is in the New England area, may I visit you to see it in action? Thanks, Tim Burchell Quality Assurance 617-492-8860 ------------------------------ End of Info-Vax Digest **********************