jansen@archone.tamu.edu (Mark Jansen) (02/13/91)
1) Is NextWorld the only commercial magazine for the Next machines, or the best? What magazine should I be reading? If someone can email me an phonenumber for starting a subscription or an address it would be appreciated. 2) What is this NextAnswers thing discussed on the net? 3) There is too much mail here to read, I am specifically interested in the music and music programming ends of things. I think there is a mailing list but has no activity. Us beginners that want to learn how to do the music should band together. 4) the graphics bulletin board, when pushed to its huge size has gone to a weekly announcement of the 10 most often asked questions I think we should go to the same thing. 5) What do I need to know about Mach to program the Next? thanks -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mark Jansen jansen@archone.tamu.edu Visualization Laboratory Department of Architecture ph:409-845-0199
eps@toaster.SFSU.EDU (Eric P. Scott) (02/14/91)
In article <12069@helios.TAMU.EDU> jansen@archone.tamu.edu (Mark Jansen) writes: > 1) Is NextWorld the only commercial magazine for the Next >machines, or the best? Only: no Best: of the all-NeXT publications, I'd have to say "I think so"--but that's only based on one issue (so far). > What magazine should I be reading? I don't think there's any _one_ magazine--every one has a slightly different perspective (or ax to grind). > 2) What is this NextAnswers thing discussed on the net? NextAnswers is NeXT's official publication of questions-and- answers that (1) elaborates on material in the Release documentation (2) provides a mechanism for distributing documentation between releases (3) answers a number of frequently-asked questions. You can get it from sonata.cc.purdue.edu [128.210.15.30] pub/next/docs/NextAnswers_Jan_91.tar.Z If you don't have anonymous FTP capability, you should also be able to request this through the Purdue e-mail server (archive-server@cc.purdue.edu). Closely related are TechSupportNotes--most of which started as longish NextAnswers items. The whole collection currently fits in 3MB, but expect it to grow in future editions: 457 NextAnswers/.index [this is from a 1.0 system] 1636 NextAnswers/Jan_91 668 NextAnswers/TechSupportNotes 2762 NextAnswers > 3) There is too much mail here to read, I am specifically >interested in the music and music programming ends of things. I think >there is a mailing list but has no activity. Maybe it needs to be promoted more often. :-) > 4) the graphics bulletin board, when pushed to its huge size >has gone to a weekly announcement of the 10 most often asked questions >I think we should go to the same thing. I don't know about weekly, but a monthly FAQ wouldn't be such a bad idea. Volunteers? > 5) What do I need to know about Mach to program the Next? Very little, unless you want to do some rather esoteric things. -=EPS=-
garnett@cs.utexas.edu (John William Garnett) (02/14/91)
In article <12069@helios.TAMU.EDU> jansen@archone.tamu.edu (Mark Jansen) writes: > > 4) the graphics bulletin board, when pushed to its huge size >has gone to a weekly announcement of the 10 most often asked questions >I think we should go to the same thing. > Here is a list of FAQ I put together about a month ago. The answers come mainly from answers posted to comp.sys.next. Some of the questions at the bottom of the file are unanswered (these questions have been answered on the net but I haven't had the time to sort through the answers). Please, if you have the time and are willing to make the effort, send me ready-to-use answers for one or more of the questions at the end of the file. Please also send suggestions or corrections regarding the answered questions. Realize that this FAQ hasn't yet been faced with net.scrutiny and thus you should not take any of the answers as gospel if doing so would affect your livelihood (read as "verify, then use"). --- cut here---- FAQ 900115: Frequently Asked Questions pertaining to the NeXT computer. The information contained in this post is a compilation of answers posted by participants in the comp.sys.next USENET group. No guarantees are made regarding the correctness of these responses. Note: I am not affiliated with any of the companies mentioned in this posting. 0. Where can I find additional questions and answers regarding the NeXT computer? (this question is really never asked but really should be :-) Get NextAnswers for Digital Librarian from one of the many ftp sites that have NeXT software. If you don't have ftp access, you can obtain NextAnswers by sending an optical disk to: NextAnswers Technical Support NeXT Computer, Inc. 900 Chesapeake Dr. Redwood City, CA 94603 1. How may I contact NeXT Computer, Inc.? NeXT Computer, Inc. 900 Chesapeake Drive Redwood City, CA 94063 1-800-848-NeXT (1-800-848-6398) Phone: 1-800-848-NeXT (Redwood City #) 1-408-437-0400 (BusinessLand) 1-800-800-NeXT (NeXT Connection-software and peripherals) 44-81-565-0005 (U.K. #) 44-81-565-0016 (U.K. fax #) 044-549-5295 (NeXT marketing div. of Canon - Japan) 044-549-5462 (NeXT Japan fax #) +41-22-788-2890 (NeXT Europe - Geneva, Suisse) 2. Is there a mail order company that sells NeXT-related peripherals? Yes, its called NeXTconnection. Address: 9 Mill Street Marlow, NH 03456 Phone: 1-800-800-NeXT 3. Is there a NeXT specific magazine? Yes. There are also many NeXT specific newsletters, many of which are available via ftp from the NeXT specific ftp sites. The Boston Computer Society also produces a NeXT newsletter called "What's NeXT?". The first magazine is called NeXUS and is published bi-monthly for $36/year. Contact Alfonso Guerra at {emory|gatech}!nanovx!nexus. The second is called NeXTworld and is published six times a year ($23.95). NeXTWORLD 501 Second Street San Francisco, CA 94107 415 978 3182 415 978 3196 (fax) NeXTworld email address: nextwrld!ddinucci@uunet.uu.net If you have any concerns about the NeXT computer that you would like to see appear in the "Letters to the Editor" section of the first issue of NeXTWORLD magazine, you may submit them to one of the following addresses: NeXTWORLD attn: Letters to the Editor 501 Second Street San Francisco, CA 94107 Or electronically to: nextwrld!dlavin@uunet.uu.net, with a subject field of "Letters to the Editor" 4. What are the names of some of the ftp sites that have NeXT-related files? There are too many to list them all, so are here are just a few: cs.orst.edu, sonata.cc.purdue.edu, aeneas.mit.edu, princeton.edu, sumex.stanford.edu, cs.ubc.ca, umd5.umd.edu, ftphost.cac.washington.edu, ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu. See NextAnswers for more sitenames. 5. Why does my 030 NeXT system using Release 1.0 hang a few seconds after attempting to boot from the optical disk? Release 1.0 contains a bug that can corrupt the kernel /odmach if a user attempts to launch /odmach from the browser. The solution is to copy a clean /odmach from another NeXT system. Be sure to change the permissions of the newly installed /odmach to remove execute permissions to prevent future occurrences of the same problem. 6. What is the claimed performance of the new 040 NeXT machines? NeXT advertizes the new 040 machines at 15 MIPS and 2 MFLOPS. 7. Where can I get the most recent version of Kermit? The source for version 5A(163) (30 Nov 90) is available via ftp from watsun.cc.columbia.edu in the directory named kermit/sw. Get the file ckaaaa.hlp to get started and see what files are required. Note that this version of Kermit does have a NeXT specific compile option. A binary only version is available via ftp from cs.orst.edu as kermit5a.tar.Z. This file is currently stored in the /pub/next/sources directory but may be moved to /pub/next/binaries at some point in the future. 8. How much free space is available on the NeXTstation and NeXTcube? As shipped, the 105MB NeXTstation has approximately 25.2 MB free. Note: The swap space is by default configured to 16MB with a low water mark of 20MB (the system does not attempt to reduce the size of the swapfile space until the swapfile grows past the low water mark). The extended release reportedly requires approximately 250MB of disk space [is this still true?, JWG]. 9. What software is bundled with the new 040 NeXT machines? Both the 105MB and 200MB systems come with Release 2.0 preinstalled. The systems with larger hard disks have Release 2.0 Extended preinstalled. The price of all of the new systems includes the cost of the software license. Note that the price of the 040 upgrade for 030 machines does not include the cost of the software license. RELEASE 2.0 includes *End User Applications Workspace Mgr(tm), NeXT Mail(tm), WriteNow(r) Word Processor, Digital Webster(tm) (9th Collegiate Dictionary(r) and Collegiate Thesaurus(r)), Digital Librarian(tm), Edit, Mathematica(r)-for higher education customers only, DataViz/Bridge(tm), Installer, FaxReader, Preferences, Preview for Post Script, PrintManager *Developer Tools VT100(tm) Terminal Emulator [based on Stuart] *System Administration Applications BuildDisk, InstallTablet, Mail Manager, NetInfo Manager, NetManager, Printer Tester, User Manager, Installer RELEASE 2.0 (extended) adds.... *End User Applications Oxford(r) Dictionary of Quotations, William Shakespeare-The Complete Works (for Digital Librarian), TEX(tm) Document Processing System (Radical Eye Software), Improv (Improv is only free if 040 NeXT machine or upgrade ordered before end of March 1991) *Developer Tools Interface Builder(tm), Objective-C(r) Language Compiler, C++ Language Compiler, Objective-C Class Definitions, 56001 DSP Tools, GNU Emacs, GNU Debugger, BUG-56(tm) Debugger (Ariel), Malloc Debugger, AppInspector(tm), PostScript Tools, Application Kit(tm), Music Kit(tm), Sound Kit(tm), On-line technical documentation 10. What type of microphones work with the NeXT? Some NeXT owners use the RadioShack (Realistic) Tie Clip Microphone ($19.95) cat 33-1052. Others have successfully used WalMart (~ $6) and Sony brands (~ $60). [please send me model numbers for the Walmart and Sony brands if you have them, JWG]. 11. How do I connect a modem to the NeXT? In short, for the 030 NeXT you need a Mac II serial modem cable. Note that some Mac II cables will not allow successful dial-in (because of incompatible pin wiring). Any Mac II cable should work for dial-out. The Businessland part number for a NeXT modem cable is reportedly 235739. Most use tip or kermit to control the modem. SLIP and/or UUCP may also be used (but are more complicated to set up and require the remote machine to also have SLIP and/or UUCP (respectively)). For more information, its highly recommended that you obtain and read the documentation from NeXT in their TechSupportNotes series called SerialPortDoc.wn. This document is available from most FTP sites that carry NextAnswers. Also, try to obtain the comp.sys.next note by Mark Adler entitled "How to connect a modem" (reposted 5 Jan 91) [Adler's note does contain info on the changes required to connect a modem to the 040 NeXTs] 12. Where can I obtain a NeXT version of X-Windows? There is a X11R3 version named XNeXT developed by MIT. This version is available in binary only and does not work under Release 2.0 of the NeXT OS. XNeXT is a 1-bit black and white server. XNeXT is available from most ftp sites that have NeXT software. McGill University (der Mouse) has produced a beta version of an X11R4 server named mouse-X available via ftp from 132.206.1.1. cd to X/XNeXT and fetch one of the files with names beginning with "distribution". This version only uses NeXTstep for keyboard and mouse events. This version does has problems getting events under Release 2.0. McGill is reportedly waiting on some necessary technical information to be provided by NeXT Computer, Inc. Pencom Software of Austin, TX has announced and has a working alpha version of X11R4 called "co-Xist". A 4-bit beta version is scheduled for February 1991 and a released version for March 1991. Color is planned in a future release. Cost has been announced at $149 educational, $249 commercial. Co-Xist runs inside of a NeXTstep window. Contact Pam O'Neal at pensoft!pam@cs.utexas.edu. 13. Where can I obtain a NeXT version of SLIP? A binary version is available via FTP from bbn.com. The name of the file is Dialup2.0.tar.Z. Source for this version is apparently unavailable. 14. What type of memory may be installed in a NeXT? Use Mac II-style low profile SIMMS, 100ns or faster. SIMMS must be installed in groups of four. The NeXT can use either 1MB or 4MB SIMMS. Most people are buying 80ns SIMMS in order to be more sure of future compatibility. Also, note that the horizontally mounted SIMMS are easier to install than the vertically mounted SIMMS because of the small height clearance above the SIMM slots. It is possible to install the vertically mounted SIMMS but you will be required to slide the CPU board and the hard drive in simultaneously. Note that parity (9-bit) RAMS can be used in both the 030 NeXT and the 040 NeXT. Parity and non-parity SIMMS can be mixed in both the 030 and the 040 (however, the boot on 040 boxes will generate a warning). Only the 040 NeXT can use the parity memory to detect parity errors (parity and non-parity may not be mixed if you wish to have parity errors detected). 15. What can be done about older 030 NeXTs that have a fan that turns in the "wrong" direction? The fan on older 030 NeXTs sucks air out of the back of the cube which means that it draws unfiltered air in through the optical disk on the front of the cube. This causes optical disks to succumb to dust must sooner than cubes with the new-style fan which turns in the opposite direction. According to NeXT, it is now okay to reverse the fan direction in older cubes [do not reverse polarity, just reverse the whole fan assembly]. Apparently, the original concern was that people would install third party hardware cards which when installed with the reversed fan, would overheat the cube. It seems that not many third party cards have been installed. You should also obtain the cleaning kit and dust filter from NeXT. 16. Are there any alternative sources for the SCSI-II to SCSI-I cable required to attach external SCSI devices to the 040 NeXTs? Yes. This cable is the same as the one used by Sun SparcStations and DecStation 5000's (but not DecStation 3100's). 17. What disk drives will work with the NeXT? 18. What fax modems will work with the NeXT? 19. Can I run DOS software on the NeXT? Yes, there is a product called Soft-PC that has been announced for the NeXT and publicly demonstrated on the NeXT. 20. What comes with the 040 Upgrade? 21. What are some good references on Objective C? 22. What alternative printers (laser or otherwise) may be used with the NeXT? Are there limitations or other considerations of which I should I be aware. 23. How may I attach more than two serial ports to the NeXT? -- John Garnett University of Texas at Austin garnett@cs.utexas.edu Department of Computer Science Austin, Texas