bill@twg.bc.ca (Bill Irwin) (12/23/90)
I'm going to try this once more, then give up. The reason I am going to try again is that I can't believe that among all the systems connected to the Net, no one is running RM/Cobol-85 with SCO XENIX/V 2.3 who have the file "runtime.o" in their RM distribution set. This file got accidentally blown away, our original RM diskettes were misplaced during an office move, our diskette copies are corrupted and can't be read, and our tape archive of the entire Cobol application, which was supposed to include the rmcobol directory, doesn't. I really do need just the one file "runtime.o". I will explain why. We use RM/Cobol-85 2.02 to run our accounting system, MCBA Classic. When you buy MCBA, you have the choice of buying a "preconfigured" Cobol runtime from them, or buying the Cobol separately and configuring it yourself. Since we were distributing Texas Instruments products at the time, our discount on RM/Cobol was better than MCBA offered, so we bought it separately. Part of the MCBA installation involves taking an MCBA supplied file (mcba.o) and moving it into your rmcobol directory. You then make a couple of small modifications to Makefile and sub.c, so they know about mcba.o. Then you type "make runcobol" and you "configure" the Cobol runtime to be able to work in a special way with the MCBA accounting system. My problem began when I was shipped a 286 version of Cobol development rather than 386. The compile complained that I was mixing 286 and 386 code together (all the .o Cobol files were 286 and the mcba.o was 386), so I moved the mcba.c file into the directory and began experimenting with different compile flags. I finally hit the "-compat" flag which supposedly was to make 286 binaries. This compiled the mcba.c into a 286 mcba.o and the rest of the compile went fine. The resultant "runcobol" that this produced worked fine...for one user! As soon as a 2nd user tried to run the accounting they got a library error and kicked out. I was able to have an analyst at MCBA duplicate this problem. The bottom line is: if you compile a 286 runtime on a 386 system and run on a 386, it only supports one user; if you compile a 286 runtime on a 286 system, then move the runtime to a 386 system, it supports multiple users. Great! All I needed now was a 286 system running SCO XENIX so I could load RM/Cobol-85 onto it, recompile the runtime, then move it back to my 386 and live happily ever after in multiuser land. I have located two people through the Net who are running the right environments and have offered to compile my runcobol for me. I have sent them the files needed for this (including the mcba.c file), but I have lost the file "runtime.o" from my RM distribution. I don't know how significant the version of RM is to this runtime.o file. It is not even distributed in all versions. I have a client running an Altos system and their same RM/Cobol-85 2.02 doesn't have a runtime.o file in the "/usr/rmcobol" directory. I think it must be specific to the SCO XENIX V platform. If you have a "runtime.o" file in your rmcobol directory, I would love to have it. I have a properly licensed copy of RM/Cobol-85 development 286. Following is the output from the runcobol command on our system. RM/COBOL-85 Runtime (Ver 2.02.04) for XENIX. Configured for 016 users. (c) Copyright 1985, 1986 by Ryan-McFarland Corp. All rights reserved. Registration Number: A890000-00000-16 I don't think I should have much problem getting what I am looking for, with all the thousands of systems on the Net. Since I am only asking for one file which, without the rest of the RM/Cobol-85 system is useless, I don't anticipate any ethical concerns. If you have stayed with me so far perhaps you can help me. If this last plea fails I see no alternative than to buy another RM runtime. I have even contacted Ryan-McFarland to see if they would sell me another runtime.o. I was told it was not their policy to do this and to make an exception for me ..... you know the line someone gives you when they are trying to justify their position of non-assistance. If you think you have what I need, please email me before sending the file. The last time I asked for this I received a couple in the mail that were from the wrong versions of Xenix. Here's hoping.... -- Bill Irwin - The Westrheim Group - Vancouver, BC, Canada ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ uunet!van-bc!twg!bill (604) 431-9600 (voice) | UNIX Systems bill@twg.bc.ca (604) 430-4329 (fax) | Integration