anderson@sapir.cog.jhu.edu (Stephen R. Anderson) (12/31/90)
I got my cube from businessland, with OS1.0 installed on the HD. No media from which to reinstall it. VERY little documentation. this Sybase SQL server sounds like something interesting, but in my efforts to get it working I have the feeling I'm playing zork. (a) How do I get the server started, and once started, how do I interact with it? (b) In general, where is there any information about the interface between SQL and the system? (c) What's the chance that if I figure out how to use this thing, I'll still be able to get something out of it when my 2.0 upgrade arrives? I've heard (and contributed to) lots of discussion about the status of lisp under 2.0, but I've seen very little little mention of the fate of Sybase under tha new system (which doesn't bundle either, I gather). Steve Anderson
anderson@sapir.cog.jhu.edu (Stephen R. Anderson) (01/02/91)
Mea maxima culpissima. When I finally figured out hwere to go to RTFM, I discovered that all the information I needed was there all along. In the meantime, in my efforts to get SQL-server to work, I spent some time reading the manuals, but everything referred to an Installation Manual for directions on how to get it up in the first place. Not having one, I eventually worked out what was going on by looking at the various shell scripts, and got it up. Shortly after that, I found the Release Notes file (to which there's no pointer in the Documenation/Sybase directory), which is really the "Installationa Manual". I'm consoled by the fact that if I'd just followed those instructions, in fact it wouldn't have worked, for reasons that would have taken me about as long to figure out as I had actually spent. Anyway, my apologies for implying that the cube didn't come with everything it was supposed to, or that BusinessLand (or NeXT) short-changed me. Once you work out where things are, this machine turns out to have an incredible range of stuff on it. Oh, one more thing. There was a description in the latest NeXTAnswers of what will happen with Sybase under 2.0. I'm still surprised not to have heard more discussion of the (a) unbundling and (b) incompatibility of the present SQL-server under 2.0. And does anyone have a more recent projection of when the 4.0.1 server will actually be ready? I'd hate to put the effort into figuring out how the thing works, and then have my upgrade arrive and make that knowledge useless... Steve Anderson
rca@cs.brown.edu (Ronald C.F. Antony) (01/02/91)
As far as I know the state of the affair in regard to Sybase is the following: a) Sybase will be available in the same to 5 concurrent users limited version more or less for free for all users of old and new systems. However, it will not be part of the 2.0 software release but must be requested from Sybase directly and costs a small handling and shipping fee (whatever that means). b) For current owner of old systems, the upgrade should be shipped automatically as soon as the according registration cards for the software upgrades are sent in. This card should work for Mathematica and Sybase if I remember correctly (I already sent it in). c) Lisp should be upgraded automatically for owners of the old OS, as should be Mathematica. For owner of new systems none of these packages are bundled anymore, except Mathematica for academic users. If I should be wrong in any of the above, please let me know as I intend to gfet upgrades for all the software mentioned above and would be quite upset if one day I had to figure out I missed some deadline waiting for upgrades to arrive... Ronald ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ "The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man." G.B. Shaw | rca@cs.brown.edu or antony@browncog.bitnet