[comp.sys.mac.comm] UUCP for the mac?

palkovic@linac.fnal.gov (John A. Palkovic) (09/12/90)

Mosemann@hoss.unl.edu (Russell Mosemann) writes:
>Tim Endres writes:
>>In regards to the Unix<-->Mac connectivity, ICE Engineering is about
>>to relaese uMail, a Macintosh UUCP/Mail/News product running on the
>>[etc.]
>   Probably true, but it's certainly not the only option or even one of
>just a few.

OK, I'll bite. How many different UUCP implementations are there for the mac?
I know of UUPC 2.0 (public domain) and AUX's UUCP. What else is available?

-- 
John Palkovic (708) 840-3527	linac!palkovic, palkovic@linac.fnal.gov
University of Wisconsin-Madison, Dept. of Physics
Home: johnny@linac.fnal.gov, linac!jpmac!johnny

nagel@wintermute.ics.uci.edu (Mark Nagel) (09/12/90)

palkovic@linac.fnal.gov (John A. Palkovic) writes:

>OK, I'll bite. How many different UUCP implementations are there for the mac?
>I know of UUPC 2.0 (public domain) and AUX's UUCP. What else is available?

There is Mac/gnuucp, which is available in /mac/think-c/programs (it
includes source) on ics.uci.edu (128.195.1.1) for anonymous ftp.  I
just tried it this weekend and it seems pretty nice.  An obvious
extension would be to build a nice interface around the main
uucico-like program, but the mail stack is pretty nice.
--
Mark Nagel
UC Irvine Department of ICS   +----------------------------------------+
ARPA: nagel@ics.uci.edu       | Help!  Somebody!  I'm being repressed! |
UUCP: ucbvax!ucivax!nagel     +----------------------------------------+

stui@caladan.wa.com (Stuart Burden) (09/13/90)

In article <26ED4F55.21783@ics.uci.edu>, nagel@wintermute.ics.uci.edu (Mark Nagel) writes:
  | There is Mac/gnuucp, which is available in /mac/think-c/programs (it
  | includes source) on ics.uci.edu (128.195.1.1) for anonymous ftp.  I
  | just tried it this weekend and it seems pretty nice.  An obvious
  | extension would be to build a nice interface around the main
  | uucico-like program, but the mail stack is pretty nice.

Well seeing there was so much chatter about gnuucp I went and downloaded
it and I'm not that impressed.  I think if MacUUPC users want to use
the hypercard stack as a front end for mail, then they may be quite
happy, but the back end, the uucp engine, looks just like MacUUPC.

But then, is sending mail all you want to do?.. if so then you might
opt for this option.  I used MacUUPC to run my site manually for well
over a year, and was not satisfied at all.  With the uMail beta I'm
grinning big time :-) .. It is just QUANTUM leaps ahead of MacUUPC
and gnuucp.. MacUUPC and gnuucp don't deliver power, but they provide
another way, for sure.

Ultimately it will depend on how much of a power user of mail you
are, and how much time you have to dink with something that just does
the job, rather than does the job well.

You CAN get MacUUPC to do news.. you just have to munge with the spool
files and build your own headers.. not that much fun but if you have
the time and patience it can be done!  I would think that
the same is true for gnuucp, as the docs did not mention news at all,
only mail.

Currently I'm taking USENET News every hour, automatically polled, weeded,
and propagated to other Macs on my appletalk net by uMail. In fact I'm doing
it all in the background right now (an ADSP session just transfered
400+K of news to a leaf node!!).  When I complete this article a call
will be automatically placed to my news server and the article will
be posted!  News and Mail is a piece of cake!

Again it comes down to how easy do you want it to be, and how powerful do
you want the software.  I settled for the ONLY solution available
to me when I used MacUUPC...  I don't have to settle for that kind
of overhead anymore, and that's important to me and my schedule :-)

I know it's not "proper" to talk about unreleased software, but Tim
has just done a stand up job with this application, and just a little
bit more patience will see it released.  I'm sure it will make a lot
of others, like myself, very very happy!

Stu.

--
stui@caladan.uucp
stui@caladan.wa.com

mha@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu (Mark H. Anbinder) (09/22/90)

In article <2298@linac.fnal.gov> palkovic@linac.fnal.gov (John A. Palkovic) writes:
>
>OK, I'll bite. How many different UUCP implementations are there for the mac?
>I know of UUPC 2.0 (public domain) and AUX's UUCP. What else is available?

With the risk of repeating myself, saying the same thing as I did in a
message posted a few minutes ago (which should be relatively near this one,
in one direction or another), UMCP\QM is an excellent implementation of
UUCP for the Macintosh.  It works with QuickMail to provide a real Mac
interface for mail and file transfer.

As for A/UX... I think calling that a UUCP implementation for the Mac is
kinda pushing it. :-)

If you want to know more about UMCP\QM, just ask.




-- 
Mark H. Anbinder        *************************   mha@theory.tn.cornell.edu
BAKA Computers          *                 *******  ...!batcomputer!memory!mha
200 Pleasant Grove Rd.  H: (607) 257-3480 ******
Ithaca, NY 14850        W: (607) 257-2070 ***** Memory Alpha BBS 607-257-5822

stui@caladan.wa.com (Stuart Burden) (09/23/90)

In article <1990Sep21.204217.7813@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu>, mha@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu (Mark H. Anbinder) writes:
  | If you want to know more about UMCP\QM, just ask.

Does it do News?  If so, how is it implemented (how are news groups
handled etc)?

  | Mark H. Anbinder

Stu.

--
stui@caladan.uucp
stui@caladan.wa.com

jtt@cunixd.cc.columbia.edu (James T. Tanis) (09/23/90)

I second that - how _is_ news handled?

more specifically, If I have a UUCP account somewhere feeding my network,
can I get news? How do I post to unmoderated groups?

help!

-JT

mha@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu (Mark H. Anbinder) (09/24/90)

In article <b.SSRWYU@caladan.wa.com> stui@caladan.wa.com writes:
>In article <1990Sep21.204217.7813@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu>, mha@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu (Mark H. Anbinder) writes:
>  | If you want to know more about UMCP\QM, just ask.
>
>Does it do News?  If so, how is it implemented (how are news groups
>handled etc)?

Stu, it doesn't have a fully implemented news handling system yet, though
they are working on one.  Currently it can receive news in one of two ways:
into the Public mailbox in QuickMail, or to a user with the name News.
If you put news into Public, you can read it happily, though there's no
division of newsgroups.  If you put it into a News user, you can either log
in to QuickMail as News and read it the same way, or you could write a
program that would do various things to the messages, like sorting them
into groups.

They are planning to add a very complete news handler, and don't want to
do so until they can get it right. :-)  I approve.

-- 
Mark H. Anbinder        *************************   mha@theory.tn.cornell.edu
BAKA Computers          *                 *******  ...!batcomputer!memory!mha
200 Pleasant Grove Rd.  H: (607) 257-3480 ******
Ithaca, NY 14850        W: (607) 257-2070 ***** Memory Alpha BBS 607-257-5822

mha@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu (Mark H. Anbinder) (09/24/90)

In article <1990Sep22.230700.14459@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu> jtt@cunixd.cc.columbia.edu (James T. Tanis) writes:
>I second that - how _is_ news handled?
>
>more specifically, If I have a UUCP account somewhere feeding my network,
>can I get news? How do I post to unmoderated groups?

Oh, I should have mentioned in my response to Stu... UMCP\QM ALREADY 
handles posting of messages.  It comes with a QuickMail form that you
can fill out to specify newsgroup, etc. so you can post messages to
unmoderated groups.

In order for your UMCP\QM mailcenter to RECEIVE news in any fashion,
your mail feed site has to a) be receiving news or be willing to start,
and b) set up a news feed so new messages will be sent to your site.
This isn't difficult at all.



-- 
Mark H. Anbinder        *************************   mha@theory.tn.cornell.edu
BAKA Computers          *                 *******  ...!batcomputer!memory!mha
200 Pleasant Grove Rd.  H: (607) 257-3480 ******
Ithaca, NY 14850        W: (607) 257-2070 ***** Memory Alpha BBS 607-257-5822

drinkard@figur8.enet.dec.com (Rich Drinkard) (09/25/90)

Sounds great, how much does UMCP/QM cost and where can I get it ?


Rich Drinkard

magik@chinet.chi.il.us (Ben Liberman) (09/25/90)

There is an article in the new MacWeek (9.25.90) about a new product from
a company called ICE Engineering.  It is called uAcess and should be out
next month.  There number is 313-449-8288.  This one sounds good, so far...

-- 
	------------    ------------   ----------------------
	Ben Liberman    USENET         magik@chinet.chi.il.us
	                GEnie,Delphi   MAGIK

mha@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu (Mark H. Anbinder) (09/27/90)

In article <1990Sep25.074105.12875@chinet.chi.il.us> magik@chinet.chi.il.us (Ben Liberman) writes:
>There is an article in the new MacWeek (9.25.90) about a new product from
>a company called ICE Engineering.  It is called uAcess and should be out
>next month.  There number is 313-449-8288.  This one sounds good, so far...

The product does sound quite good, but the article is somewhat misleading.
Unless I'm mistaken, uAccess is providing such features as its VT100
terminal emulation and XMODEM file transfer simply by providing Comm
Toolbox capability, and the ALREADY-EXISTING VT100 terminal emulation and
XMODEM file transfer CTB tools.  My understanding is that these features
are NOT part of what ICE is developing.

I was also quite disappointed that the review in MacWEEK mentioned
Information Electronics so casually, without mentioning their product,
UMCP\QM.  Carolyn Said, the review author, trumpets the approach of
uAccess as "breaking barriers" and "opening windows on the world of UNIX
communications" for the Macintosh, when in fact Information Electronics
broke these barriers and opened these windows months ago.  It's not as
though MacWEEK or Ms. Said are unaware of IE or UMCP\QM... they simply
seem unwilling to acknowledge the true level of innovation that the
company provided.




-- 
Mark H. Anbinder        *************************   mha@theory.tn.cornell.edu
BAKA Computers          *                 *******  ...!batcomputer!memory!mha
200 Pleasant Grove Rd.  H: (607) 257-3480 ******
Ithaca, NY 14850        W: (607) 257-2070 ***** Memory Alpha BBS 607-257-5822

kdb@macaw.intercon.com (Kurt Baumann) (09/28/90)

In article <1990Sep27.014419.4169@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu>,
mha@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu (Mark H. Anbinder) writes:
> It's not as
> though MacWEEK or Ms. Said are unaware of IE or UMCP\QM... they simply
> seem unwilling to acknowledge the true level of innovation that the
> company provided.

I've been staying out of this one, but let's take a look at this comment.

Doing a QM to whatever gateway does not equate to creating an entire    
application.  You seem to think that because someone wrote some forms and
a gateway for QM that this is gods gift to computing.  The level of effort,
and by the way I am not putting UMCP/QM down just into perspective, of doing
UMCP/QM does not in anyway approach the level of effort needed to do what
these other folks have done.  (by the way I have not seen their product (hint
hint), but I do know something about what it takes doing similar products
to both of these and it isn't the same)

"Innovation comes when you cut your own path through the jungle not by paving
it afterwards.", obscure computer scientist.

--
Kurt Baumann                       InterCon Systems Corporation
703.709.9890                      Creators of fine TCP/IP products
703.709.9896 FAX               for the Macintosh.

mha@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu (Mark H. Anbinder) (09/28/90)

In article <27025972.5B6@intercon.com> kdb@macaw.intercon.com (Kurt Baumann) writes:
>
>Doing a QM to whatever gateway does not equate to creating an entire    
>application.  You seem to think that because someone wrote some forms and
>a gateway for QM that this is gods gift to computing.  The level of effort,
>and by the way I am not putting UMCP/QM down just into perspective, of doing
>UMCP/QM does not in anyway approach the level of effort needed to do what
>these other folks have done.

I never said that UMCP\QM was God's gift to computing.  I simply said that
UMCP\QM provided the innovation of complete uucp to Macintosh connectivity (as
opposed to UUPC, which offered a kludgey, though useful, half-step).  That's
all that I'm trying to say.  I don't want to get into an argument about how
easy it is to create a QuickMail gateway (though I, for one, would rather
write a standalone application...); that isn't relevant.  Information
Electronics has provided a complete mail and file transfer solution for
linking Macintosh networks to unix systems and therefore to the Internet,
and that is NOT, repeat NOT, a negligible contribution.  Saying that all
that's involved is "writing some forms and a gateway for QM" demeans the
efforts of the programmers and designers by implying that this did not
involve significant effort.

-- 
Mark H. Anbinder        *************************   mha@theory.tn.cornell.edu
BAKA Computers          *                 *******  ...!batcomputer!memory!mha
200 Pleasant Grove Rd.  H: (607) 257-3480 ******
Ithaca, NY 14850        W: (607) 257-2070 ***** Memory Alpha BBS 607-257-5822

kdb@macaw.intercon.com (Kurt Baumann) (09/29/90)

In article <1990Sep28.150025.11854@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu>,
mha@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu (Mark H. Anbinder) writes:
> Saying that all
> that's involved is "writing some forms and a gateway for QM" demeans the
> efforts of the programmers and designers by implying that this did not
> involve significant effort.

Please read again what I said.  It was simply that writing a MailGateway
for QM is not the level of effort of writing a complete UUCP connectivity
application for the Mac.  You are doing very little user interface with the
MailGateway, on the other hand there was most likly a large effort put into
the UI of the UUCP application that is being sold commercially.  They are
not the same effort.  As I also said that was not to put down the level of
effort for the MailGateway.

--
Kurt Baumann                       InterCon Systems Corporation
703.709.9890                      Creators of fine TCP/IP products
703.709.9896 FAX               for the Macintosh.