sommer@BINAH.CC.BRANDEIS.EDU (03/08/91)
First, a warning to people using 1.2 GB disks with VAX/VMS $<$ 5.4. My sys
manager has informed me that our disk (where all my latex stuff is located)
will be inaccessible until we upgrade to VMS 5.4. It seems that there is a
"bug" in the DEC controller software that only counts up to 1.0 GB. It
might accidentally overwrite block 1 of $>$ 1 GB disks and wipe out your
disk, disk access and all of its contents! (This is a non-cosci/non-ee
person's understanding of the situation; so check the details with {\it
reliable\/} sources.)
Anyway, a while back someone posted a correction to rotate.tex. The
corrected line was:
\def\rotfinish{\escspec{currentpoint currentpoint grestore setfont moveto}}
^^^^^^^
but now when I LaTeX foo.tex I get an error that \escspec is undefined.
Sure enough, in my original rotate.tex, there is no \def\escspec . I think
these are the relevant lines from the original I use:
[...]
\def\vspec#1{\special{ps:#1}}% passes #1 verbatim to the output
\def\rotstart#1{\vspec{gsave currentpoint currentpoint translate
#1 neg exch neg exch translate}}% #1 can be any origin-fixing transformation
\def\rotfinish{\vspec{currentpoint grestore moveto}}% gets back in synch
[...]
I'd try a few simple replacements on my own but can't access my files for a
few days so I am asking the net in advance: Should I SIMPLY change \escspec
to \vspec? or the \vspec's to \escspec's? Will it matter which? Is there a
fully fixed version of rotate.tex archived somewhere? Where, please?
THANKS!
E-mail or post is fine by me.wyman@blumon.enet.dec.com (Bob Wyman) (03/09/91)
In article <00945462.A1A74800@BINAH.CC.BRANDEIS.EDU>, sommer@BINAH.CC.BRANDEIS.EDU writes: |>First, a warning to people using 1.2 GB disks with VAX/VMS $<$ 5.4. My |>sys |>manager has informed me that our disk (where all my latex stuff is |>located) |>will be inaccessible until we upgrade to VMS 5.4. It seems that there |>is a |>"bug" in the DEC controller software that only counts up to 1.0 GB. |>It |>might accidentally overwrite block 1 of $>$ 1 GB disks and wipe out |>your |>disk, disk access and all of its contents! It isn't a "bug" and it isn't a problem limited to VMS or DEC. The root of the problem lies in the definition of the SCSI interface standards and the fact that there are different "levels" of SCSI. Well, it seems that the SCSI implemented on VMS 5.3 and earlier doesn't support disks bigger than 1GB. Newer VMS version use a different SCSI interface. The same problem exists with the old versions of many SCSI controllers. The important thing is that everyone who is formatting a disk with more than 1GB for use with ANY SCSI controller shipped or sold by ANYONE for use on ANY computer should ensure that the level of SCSI they are using actually supports the formatted disk size. If not, you'll have to format the disk at 1GB or less. If you try to use more than 1GB, you'll end up with a mess. Disclaimer: I don't speak for my employer and I'm probably wrong. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Bob Wyman | Internet: wyman@blumon.enet.dec.com | or: wyman%blumon.enet@decwrl.dec.com | Easynet : BLUMON::WYMAN | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------