SDROPPERS@pbs.uucp (Seton R. Droppers) (09/19/89)
What sort of problems are there running two different versions of NEWS? Do I
need to set up two complete different environments so that if I define one set
of logicals I am using one version and if I use the other set of logicals I am
using the other version of news? Has anyone done this very much, what sort of
success have you had?
--
Seton Droppers -- "Anything that I say is my opinion and not my employer's."
Public Broadcasting Service, 1320 Braddock Pl. Alexandria, VA 22314
(UUCP) ...{ida,vrdxhq}!pbs!sdroppers
(VAX/VMS running DECUS UUCP 1.1, ANU News 5.8A)kenw@NOAH.ARC.CDN (Ken Wallewein) (09/20/89)
>What sort of problems are there running two different versions of NEWS? Do I >need to set up two complete different environments so that if I define one set >of logicals I am using one version and if I use the other set of logicals I am >using the other version of news? Has anyone done this very much, what sort of >success have you had? >-- >Seton Droppers -- "Anything that I say is my opinion and not my employer's." We did this with ANU NEWS V5.2 and V5.4, so that we could maintain separate news facilities, one for external news, and a couple for internal newsgroups. It was an ugly kludge. I went through the source and renamed all references to files and logicals, and in the version using V5.4, I changed some of the screen prompts as well. The process takes at least half a day, and, of course, it's easy to miss things. And you have to do it all over again when you upgrade releases. On the other hand, it worked just fine. Now, let me suggest that it's probably no longer necessary. At least partly as a result of conversations between Geoff and myself (I believe), Geoff has implemented features which will allow one to maintain the _appearance_ of multiple facilities with one executable and data base. It involves the use of the CLASS qualifiers applied to the newsgroups, and the NEWS/CLASS command to invoke NEWS. The only thing that is a little awkward as of yet is the assignment of classes to newsgroups; as I recall, that is pretty much a user-specific function (workaround with SUBMIT/USER batch procedures). I tried to persuade Geof to use logicals to keep track of classes for flexibility, but as far as I know, it hasn't happened yet. /kenw Ken Wallewein A L B E R T A kenw@noah.arc.cdn R E S E A R C H (403)297-2660 C O U N C I L