kroger@glinda.cognet.ucla.edu (James Kroger) (10/14/90)
Please excuse what probably seems like a very simple question to most of you. I am afraid I am a bit of a novice to Explorers. I have an opportunity to inherit a TI Explorer I. I like its development environment, but have to consider whether it can fulfill my other needs as well. We generally use a UNIX network here with Suns and Apollos connected by ethernet. I am wondering if it is worth the trouble to try and hook the Explorer up to the ethernet (means I will have to find an ethernet card). I know the Explorer can act as a VT100 terminal. Is this the extent of it's ability to interact with the UNIX machines? Is it possible to open more than one UNIX window on the Explorer? Can more than one VT100 session go on simultaneously over the ethernet? Is there any way to use a modem with the Explorer? Thanks very much in advance for any info or pointers. At this point, I don't know whether to take the Explorer or pass it up. --Jim
cerys@BBN.COM (Dan Cerys) (10/15/90)
Sure, you can use your Explorer as a terminal emulator for you UNIX boxes. You can have as many VT100 windows/connections as you can deal with. Just type "SYSTEM Control-V" to create new ones. As you may have noticed, the Explorer comes with a rather nice editor. It would be a shame not to use it, so you should when editting your files on remote UNIX boxes. I'd recommend checking out the NFS that is available on the Explorer. Lastly, sure you can use a modem with your Explorer. Just connect it to the serial port. If you want to use it from a VT100 window, you used to need a patch that could be found in the sys:public; directory. Yes, in addition to your modem VT100 session, you can still maintain a number of them via ethernet. Dan
killoran@XN.LL.MIT.EDU (10/16/90)
Hello, I use the X window feature of my Explorer I most of the time. This lets me log into any machine on our ethernet as well as allowing all of the nice Xwindow tools and window managers. One problem I have had is the version of X I have with my Explorer is Release 3 of Xwindows and all of the other systems here are using Release 4. This still works with alot of programs but I have some problems. Terminal windows and that type of thing are fine however. If anyone knows where I could get a copy of Release 4 for the Explorer I, please let me know. Mike Killoran killoran@xn.ll.mit.edu
Rice@SUMEX-AIM.STANFORD.EDU (James Rice) (10/16/90)
Well you've already heard from a number of people on this issue so I'll just fill in a couple of gaps that you might not be aware of. >> I have an opportunity to inherit a TI Explorer I. I >> like its development environment, but have to consider >> whether it can fulfill my other needs as well. We >> generally use a UNIX network here with Suns and >> Apollos connected by ethernet. I am wondering if it >> is worth the trouble to try and hook the Explorer up >> to the ethernet (means I will have to find an ethernet >> card). I believe that it is well worth the effort. You may not have to hunt around for an Ethernet board. Almost every Explorer sold had one, so if you're inheriting one and don't know the configuration then you may well be in luck. You will need an Ethernet tranceiver but the machine will probably come with the appropriate drop-cable. Explorers know about Unix boxes on the same Ethernet and can talk TCP and NFS if need be. If you choose to run NFS then you end up with a huge security hole in your network but that may be ok if it's not well connected to the outside world. Actually, this is a bit of a problem with Suns anyway, I believe, but at least you need some sort of password to get onto a Sun as a rule. This is not the case with an Explorer, as you might have detected. >> I know the Explorer can act as a VT100 >> terminal. Is this the extent of it's ability to >> interact with the UNIX machines? Is it possible to >> open more than one UNIX window on the Explorer? Can >> more than one VT100 session go on simultaneously over >> the ethernet? Yes, you can have an arbitrary number of VT100 windows open to an arbitrary number of hosts as long as you have entered them into the Explorer namespace (we have a good patch that allows you to make the vt100 window any size you want and so that it doesn't take over the whole screen) but this is typically not the way that people interact with unix boxes from Explorers here at least. Because Explorers can talk to unix file systems (over TCP or NFS), you usually need never have a VT100 window unless it is important to you to type unix commands to the unix machines. The sorts of things that you want to do on a unix box are (typically) sufficiently different from those that you would do on an Explorer that you normally need not worry about anything other than file service. A simple bit of code is available that allows you to have a Common-Lisp functional interface to running REXEC commands on the remote unix hosts if this is important. Explorers also Support X windows (both clients and servers). I have never used it and I gather that it's a little slow and conses like a bear, but that may not be a problem to you. If you are wedded to using GNU on unix boxes then you might choose to do so under X from an Explorer. >> Is there any way to use a modem with the Explorer? Yes, though given that you already have a heterogeneous net and the fact that you can talk to/from the Explorer from your unix machines it's not obvious why you would want to do this, unless your Explorer is going to be your primary machine. Unix machines (typically) don't crash as often so if you want to dial in then you will probably get less burned by fixing it to some other machine. If you want to dial out then it doesn't really make much difference, I suspect. Telnet to the Explorer works but the debugger isn't really accessible, so it is inadvisible to mistype anything. >> Thanks very much in advance for any info or pointers. >> At this point, I don't know whether to take the >> Explorer or pass it up. Explorers are wonderful machines for LISP development. Sadly, the Explorer I is the slow, old version, but it's still not unreasonable to believe that your development time, relative to that on a unix machine for Common-Lisp applications would be better on an Explorer. The Explorer supports CL in such a way that it is really pretty easy to develop pure CL programs, so there's nothing to stop you from using the Explorer for development and then porting your code to run under some stock machine's Lisp. Explorers are complex and sophisticated machines, so if you don't really want to do Lisp work then it may not be worth getting up the learning curve. Since TI has pulled out of the Lisp machine business you might well expect to find cheap second-hand Explorer hardware on the market, so you may well have an upgrade path if you like the machine and choose to go that route. >> --Jim I use an Explorer II as my primary computing facility (I use a Mac for writing papers and such) and, at least for the time being, I wouldn't willingly swap it for anything other than a better equipped Explorer. Rice.