rconn@BRL (12/22/82)
From: Rick Conn <rconn@BRL> Hi -- With all the interest expressed in ZCPR2 over the past few months, I thought you would be interested in what the current release schedule is. ZCPR2 is rapidly nearing completion, and it currently looks like the following schedule of events will be realized: 31 Dec -- Release of Draft Documentation on ZCPR2 and its utilities on MIT-MC 1-9 Jan -- Final Testing of Utilities; ZCPR2 has already been thoroughly tested as of 22 Dec, and one more minor mod is planned followed by a few more tests, but the current bottle- neck is with the utilities 10 Jan -- Release of all selected utilities and ZCPR2 itself to MIT-MC and SIG/M (note: it will take SIG/M a little while to place ZCPR2 into the system) 11-14 Jan -- Fielding initial questions from INFO-CPM 21-23 Jan -- CPM 83 Conference in San Francisco; I'll be making a presentation on ZCPR2 as part of Sol Libes session on Public Domain Software 27 Jan -- (still in planning stages and subject to cancellation) Micro Conf at Ft Leavenworth, KS, where I may be making another presentation on ZCPR2, SYSLIB, ARPA Net Communication via Micros, and other topics 4 Feb -- Presentation on ZCPR2 and SYSLIB at ACG-NJ SIG/M meeting Status: 1. ZCPR2 itself is up and running very nicely now at all the Beta Test Sites. One very minor mod is planned, but no problem at all is expected wrt the release date. 2. ZCPR2 utilities will be undergoing Beta Test- ing right up to the release. Most are performing as they should be so far, and no problem is anticipated in meeting the release date on approx 90% of the utilities. The other 10% are still un- dergoing some design changes and bug fixes. There will probably be about 30 utility programs released with ZCPR2. 3. A Draft of the documentation will be released for those interested in early information on ZCPR2 and for com- ments from those who wish to in case they have some major hangup about an aspect of the documentation before the release. This will hopefully catch some problems which may be faced by people seeing ZCPR2 the first time before the actual release is done. Four manuals and a series of Help files on ZCPR2 are currently planned. The Concepts Manual (currently at 50+ pages) covers basic ZCPR2 ideas and explains the philosophy of use of ZCPR2 and the Installation Manual (currently at 20+ pages) gives detailed installation instructions and examples. Both of these manuals are well along. The other two, namely the Rationale and User's Guide, are less well along but I hope they will also be ready on time. Those interested in obtaining ZCPR2 or more information on ZCPR2 are invited to subscribe to INFO-CPM. Due to the nature of INFO-MICRO, further release data to it is not planned. Rick