"John_D._Sybalsky.AISNorth"@XEROX.COM (11/09/88)
In mild defense of the 1186, it's perhaps worth pointing out that the hardware was designed as a single-user, never-booted, OA workstation, and took no account of Xerox AIS's needs as a Lisp workstation. Given that (myopic) viewpoint, the elimination of a reliable hardware clock might seem sensible.... --John
"Carl_Gadener.AISNorth"@XEROX.COM (11/09/88)
The 1108 has a builtin hardwareclock as opposed to the 1186. Once you set the time on it, you don't have to reset it as long as it is not powered down (why a battery backup was not thought of , I don't know). The 1186, not having a clock, has to "grab" the time from the net. I guess the intention was that these machines most likely were going to be installed on some kind of network and therefore would not require a clock. Provided the time on the net is right, you are always sure that all machines on it have the right time and are not running off on their own. I personally use "AFTERLOGOUTFORMS, which is evaluated every time I log in to the system. In it I check if I am on the net and if not, I am automatically prompted for the right time. Carl Gadener AISoftSupport.Aisnorth@xerox.com