stevens@hsi.UUCP (Richard Stevens) (11/21/87)
We're a VAX 4.3 BSD site with an existing TCP/IP LAN between three
VAX'es and a bunch of PCs. We're about to get an IBM 9370 that will
run VM and are interested in IBM's TCP/IP for VM product. It looks
like we could use the 4.3 BSD tn3270 software for something like an
rlogin access to VM from a VAX, depending on the IBM software. The
tn3270 README file refers to it being originally developed at Univ. of
Wisconsin and IBM selling it to commercial sites, but reference is also
made to other, non-compatible TCP/IP implementations for IBM
mainframes. Does anyone know if the current IBM product (which has
been available only since July 87) is really compatible with tn3270 ??
The IBM Product Sheet that I have also refers to a C language interface
to allow program access directly to the TCP and UDP protocol boundary.
Does anyone have any experience with this ?? I'd assume a program
under VM using this could communicate with a program on the VAX that
was using a BSD socket ??
Finally, the Product Sheet lists the one-time license charges (from $4k
to $16k, depending on processor group) but then indicates that the
source code for this can be obtained for another $350. This low charge
makes me think the code was developed elsewhere.
Richard Stevens
Health Systems International, New Haven, CT
{ uunet | ihnp4 } ! hsi ! stevensalan@cunixc.columbia.edu (Alan Crosswell) (11/23/87)
In article <723@hsi.UUCP> stevens@hsi.UUCP (Richard Stevens) writes: >.... Does anyone know if the current IBM product (which has >been available only since July 87) is really compatible with tn3270 ?? Yes. In fact, the PC implementation is quite good and includes a nice utility for selecting your favorite 3270 to PC keyboard mapping. It also does colors the same way the Yale ASCII IUP (Series-1 stuff which is these days done by 7171's) does. It doesn't do 3279, but assigns a different color to each combination of attributes like hilight, protected, etc. Nobody has done 3279 (yet) since it wasn't until VM/SP 5 that the "Logical Device Facility" was extended to support the so-called 3279 extended data streams. >The IBM Product Sheet that I have also refers to a C language interface >to allow program access directly to the TCP and UDP protocol boundary. >Does anyone have any experience with this ?? I'd assume a program >under VM using this could communicate with a program on the VAX that >was using a BSD socket ?? They provide a means to roll your own TCP/IP programs. The C library is simply a stub interface to the VS Pascal library. You get source, so you can use it as a model for your own program (since everyone knows you can't write a program just from the docs :-). Vace Kundakci, the Academic Systems Manager here, has written (and modified) several clients and servers for things like LPD, Imagen spooling, FINGER, SMTP/SEND interactive messaging, etc. Join the IBMTCP-L list distributed by CUNY. Send mail to LISTSERV@CUNYVM with this as the body: "SUBSCRIBE IBMTCP-L My Name". >Finally, the Product Sheet lists the one-time license charges (from $4k >to $16k, depending on processor group) but then indicates that the >source code for this can be obtained for another $350. This low charge >makes me think the code was developed elsewhere. > You are partially right. The PC stuff is based on MIT PCIP with additional work done by joint studies with CMU and Maryland. The VM stuff is based on Wiscnet, which was an IBM-funded project at Wisconsin. Parts of the VM stuff have been adapted from Wiscnet. Other parts have been totally rewritten (SMTP for example). The "product" is provided (and supported) by a group within IBM's Research Division at Yorktown Heights -- not one of the usual product divisions -- in conjunction with IBM's ACIS (Academic Information Systems) Independent Business Unit. ACIS is the group that runs the Advanced Education Program, AEP, which many schools are beneficiaries of. > Richard Stevens > Health Systems International, New Haven, CT > { uunet | ihnp4 } ! hsi ! stevens Alan Crosswell Columbia University PS: We (have) run Wiscnet, PCIP, TCP/IP for VM and the PC (using both the DACU and the new LAN Channel Station) but have no experience with the 9370. Don't let them sell you a 9370 just to be a network front-end for a larger VM machine -- get a LAN Channel Station instead. It's just a tweaked AT with a channel cable!
JBVB@AI.AI.MIT.EDU ("James B. VanBokkelen") (11/24/87)
As far as I know, their stuff has WISCNET ancestry, and functions with Greg Minshall's Unix TN3270 (and IBM's PC version, and ours). One thing to note is that TN3270 burns up a lot of a Unix box. Our PC code on an XT is considerably faster than TN3270 was on a Sun with one user, when I saw Greg using it last spring. I assume IBM's is, too. Of course, Greg may have fixed this. The alternative, Spartacus's translation of full-screen 3270 to VT100 escape sequences, is easy on the Unix box, but hard on the mainframe. You pay your penny, and you take your choices. You might want to look at both, if possible. James B. VanBokkelen FTP Software Inc.