chalup@PRESTO.IG.COM (Michael Chalup) (05/04/91)
I recently spoke to Larry Cole at Digital Equipment Corp.; he wrote the new ISO-9660 compatible driver for VAX VMS. Some information: 1. The driver is now available - DEC part number YT-GS001-01, cost $275.00 . The software has been in use for 18 months; however it is distributed 'unsupported' . An improved ISO-9660 driver will be available as part of a new release of VMS 'later in the year'. 2. The current driver supports only ISO-9660 level one implementation - restricted to 8 + 3 character (12 byte) file names. The VMS release will support the full standard (level 2 or 3?) which allows 31 byte file names. A known bug with the current software is that you can't have a subdirectory with the same name as its root'ed directory (example: [mydir.mydir]foo_bar.txt will not work). The driver doesn't support the proposed Rockridge ISO-9660 extensions - Larry said these are 'very preliminary'. For those contemplating producing a CD-ROM with a file structure that can't conform to the current ISO-9660 standard (examples: file names too long), an alternative is to pre-master in FILES11 format. FILES11 is a native VMS file system that will be usable on VAX's but not on platforms using a different OS. Mike Chalup Data Banks Group IntelliGenetics, Inc. Phone - 415-962-7344 Internet - chalup@presto.ig.com Disclaimer: I have no connection with DEC nor can I independently confirm the accuracy of the above information.
kristoff@GENBANK.BIO.NET (Dave Kristofferson) (05/04/91)
Dear GenBank Users, Michael Chalup handles database releases for IG's commercial software, and when he told me about this development I requested that he post it to the GenBank bulletin board. Although we have not had an opportunity to test this driver, the GenBank database is available on an ISO 9660 CDROM and filenames conform to the 8+3 character convention, so we believe that this software may allow VAX users to utilize the GenBank CD instead of magnetic tape. Apparently the ISO 9660 driver will become a part of VMS in a later release, but you might want to confirm this with Dec. Sincerely, Dave Kristofferson GenBank Manager kristoff@genbank.bio.net
Davison@UH.EDU (Dan Davison) (05/04/91)
Dave Kristofferson said: > Although we have not had an > opportunity to test this driver, the GenBank database is available on > an ISO 9660 CDROM and filenames conform to the 8+3 character > convention, so we believe that this software may allow VAX users to > utilize the GenBank CD instead of magnetic tape. Apparently the ISO I haven't seen the GenBank CD, but the JPL drivers work fine on the VAX and let me look at almost any CD -- am I missing something here? Also, there is another excellent driver, free, on the EMBL and UH servers, by the great biohacker Peter Stockwell. It's called CD-ACCESS in the VMS sections. I assume the FTP sites have it also. If I am mis-understanding something here, please let me know! dan -- dr. dan davison/dept. of biochemical and biophysical sciences/univ. of Houston/4800 Calhoun/Houston,TX 77054-5500/davison@uh.edu/DAVISON@UHOU Disclaimer: As always, I speak only for myself, and, usually, only to myself.
kristoff@GENBANK.BIO.NET (Dave Kristofferson) (05/04/91)
> I haven't seen the GenBank CD, but the JPL drivers work fine on the > VAX and let me look at almost any CD -- am I missing something here? > Also, there is another excellent driver, free, on the EMBL and UH > servers, by the great biohacker Peter Stockwell. It's called CD-ACCESS > in the VMS sections. I assume the FTP sites have it also. > > If I am mis-understanding something here, please let me know! > > dan Dan, I personally spend about 10 hours per year on VMS systems, but I was led to believe that DEC was using VAX drivers that favored a proprietary format and caused problems reading ISO 9660 CDs. I would be delighted to learn that I am wrong in this impression. Dave
Davison@UH.EDU (Dan Davison) (05/04/91)
Dave Kristofferson said: > > I haven't seen the GenBank CD, but the JPL drivers work fine on the > > VAX and let me look at almost any CD -- am I missing something here? > I was led to believe that DEC was using VAX drivers that favored a > proprietary format and caused problems reading ISO 9660 CDs. I would > be delighted to learn that I am wrong in this impression. Actually, this is true, as far as it goes. The DEC software on CD is distributed with a VMS file system format so that you can do COPY and DIR and other VMS-ish things to one's heart's content. (Most of the DEC software on site license here at UH is mounted on a set of CD-ROM drives). So yes, if you want to read DEC's CD-ROMS you need the DEC driver, but if you want ISO CD reading, the JPL or Stockwell drivers will work fine and are just the right price. I will check on the re-distribution of the JPL drivers and if they are available I will put them on the UH Gene-server and send them to the FTP sites and EMBL. dan -- dr. dan davison/dept. of biochemical and biophysical sciences/univ. of Houston/4800 Calhoun/Houston,TX 77054-5500/davison@uh.edu/DAVISON@UHOU Disclaimer: As always, I speak only for myself, and, usually, only to myself.