HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: dfilip@colornet.com
Newsgroups: comp.os.coherent
Subject: Re: Colorado Systems - Conversation
Keywords: floppy-based tape drives
Date: 20 Dec 92 22:01:58 GMT
Distribution: world
Summary: Floppy-attached tape drives are cheap and they work
Organization: ColorNet Information Systems

Tony Porczyk writes:
>rmk@rmkhome.UUCP (Rick Kelly) writes:
>>Tony Porczyk writes:
>
>>>That's a noble intention.  Just show me a tape drive first that's as
>>>inexpensive as Colorado and as proven as Colorado.
>>>I think we should try to convince them first.
>>
>>The real answer is SCSI tape.
>>Tape drives that connect to floppy controllers suck.
>
>Agreed.  That still doesn't answer my question, though.  Have you compared
>the prices for SCSI tapes vs. floppy tapes lately?  Also, for many small
>businesses floppy tape solutions are more than sufficient (if a bit slow).

And I finally write :

There is a BIG price differential between floppy-attached drives (i.e., the
Colorado QIC drives) and SCSI drives. For those of us who use this as a hobby,
the price of a SCSI tape may be difficult to justify.

Yes, the floppy-attached tapes are quite a bit slower, however they sure beat
popping in dozens of diskettes ! And since Coherent is a $99 Unix, I would
think that cost would be a factor for many current Coherent users.

Just my $0.02.

Regards,

Dave.

--
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
=   David E. Filip                UUCP   : dfilip@colornet.com              =
=   ColorNet Information Systems  CIS    : 76430,3111                       =
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
=    If David Cutler had been a heavy drug user in the 60's, he probably    =
=                    would have written Unix instead ...                    =
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
From: bob@dalek.mwc.com (Bob Hemedinger)
Newsgroups: comp.os.coherent
Subject: request for beta
Date: 14 Dec 92 17:40:31 GMT
Reply-To: "Coherent operating system" <COHERENT@indycms.bitnet>

I'm looking for a few people who own certain terminals to test some
new termcap and terminfo entries on their systems:

        Wyse 30
        Wyse 50
        Televideo 9060
        Televideo 9065

I also need a few people who love to abuse uucp to test the
current port of Taylor 1.054 gamma to Coherent 4.0. This
port is not just Taylor binaries, but utilities to convert
existing uucp configuration files to Taylor format. I
especially need poeple who will hammer uux, uuxqt and cu.

Please respond to bob@mwc.com...

--
                   MWC Technical Support (bob@mwc.com)
(====================]          _____
         \\             (===================)
   (======\\======]         /// ~~~~~
           \\/             ///       I don't care if you hit the broad side
    ===========================      of a barn.
     =========================(      Why would I aim at such a structure?
From: hph@hphbbs.E.open.de (H.P. Heidinger, Essen)
Followup-To: comp.os.coherent 
Newsgroups: comp.os.coherent
Distribution: world
Subject: Re: Calling man for 'two-word' subjects?
Keywords: Multi-word man pages ... 
Organization: HPHBBS-COHERENT User Conference/Germany (CUC-Ger)
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 92 14:51:41 +0100

In article <3386348@lith.UUCP> kestas@lith.UUCP (Kestutis Sliupas) writes:
>Hi:
>	I was wondering how to access man articles for 'two-
>worded' subjects; ie 'modem control'? I can't find it in the manual,
                      ^_____________^

             Exactly this way! Why didn't you try the most natural?
             i.e.: man 'modem control' ... or ...
             	   man "modem control" ... or even ...
             	   man modem\ control  ... will do!        
                 
>man modemcontrol, man modem-control and man modem_control all fail.
                            ^_____________________^
                    Computers are high-speed idiots - you know!
                    They don't do what you WANT - they do what you SAY!
                    Since neither 'dash' nor 'underscore' have the
                    same character code than a 'blank' - what did you
                    expect? :-)
                    
    
Regards, Peter
--
####################===============================****************************
# H.P. Heidinger   # Call  : +49-201-287433 (data) * ~~ HPHBBS ~~~ CUC-Ger ~~ *
# Steeler Str. 121 #       : V22/32/42bis, 8N1     * COHERENT User Conference *
# 4300 Essen 1     # E-Mail: hph@CUC-Ger.E.open.de *         Germany          *
# Germany          # Login : guest or "anon. UUCP" * UUlog=nuucp/MYNAME=nuucp *
####################===============================****************************
#  UNIX is a trademark of AT&T ...  AT&T is a modem test command ....  :-)    #
--
From: udo@umunk.GUN.de (Udo Munk)
Newsgroups: comp.os.coherent
Subject: Re: Timing less than 1 second
Date: 20 Dec 92 03:24:21 GMT
Organization: Udo Munk's private BBS
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL7]

Tim Frost (tim@rcsl.demon.co.uk) wrote:
: In porting our PANEL Plus II screen manager software to Coherent 
: 4.0, I have had some difficulty in implementing the keyboard 
[...]
: solution I came up with was to pass poll() a valid pointer to an 
: array of pollfd structures but tell it the number of structures is 
: zero.  In this case poll() just waits for the passed number of 
: milliseconds, which is what I need.
: 
: Does anyone know enough about poll() to know whether this trick
: is safe?  Its behaviour is consistent with the documentation but
: it is not really documented.

I'm not sure if this is safe, a better way is give poll the number
of structures one, with fd set to -1. Here is napms() a function
which is included in many versions of curses (for game support ;-)
and will be included in the next release of curses for COHERENT:

#include <poll.h>

int napms(timeout)
int timeout;
{
	int n;
	struct pollfd fda[1];
	
	if (timeout < 1)
		return(0);
	fda[0].fd = -1;
	n = poll((struct pollfd*) &fda[0], 1, timeout);
	return(n < 0 ? n : timeout); 
}

I've tested it under COHERENT 4.0 and several SV, I think this is
save and portable and this is really documented.
BTW, what is the PANEL Plus II screen manager?
--
Udo Munk, Oberstr. 21, 4040 Neuss 1, Germany
udo@umunk.GUN.de   ...!{mcshh,smurf,unido}!easix!umunk!udo   CIS: 100021,2515
uucp: +49 2131 278869 V22/32/42bis 8N1 login: uucp pwd: public MYNAME=bbsuser
request file /usr/spool/uucppublic/info for instructions
From: Jeff.Tomich@p1.f260.n3603.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Jeff Tomich)
Newsgroups: comp.os.coherent
Subject: Linux-Coherent comparison (was Priorities...)
Date: Mon, 07 Dec 92 05:21:38 PDT
Organization: FidoNet node 1:3603/260.1 - #1 Computers, St Petersburg FL

Hello CHRISTOPHER!

Answering a msg of <29 Nov 92>, from CHRISTOPHER MAURITZ to ALL:

Where does one get Linux? I'm currently a Coherent user, would like to see how Linux works. Is it an 32bit system and were do I purchase it?

thanks,

Jeff

--  
Internet: Jeff.Tomich@p1.f260.n3603.z1.FIDONET.ORG
UUCP:     ...!myrddin!tct!mechanic!260.1!Jeff.Tomich
Note: Mechanic is a free gateway between USENET & FIdonet.
      For information write to chief@mechanic.fidonet.org
From: kenji@reseau.rd.macrofield.or.jp (Kenji Rikitake)
Newsgroups: comp.os.coherent
Subject: Taylor UUCP hangs
Date: 12 Dec 92 14:53:59 GMT
Reply-To: "Coherent operating system" <COHERENT@indycms.bitnet>

I tried uucp.zip at raven (1.03-beta). It did protocol handshake successfully,
but it did not proceed further.

If anyone knows about RUNNING Taylor UUCP on Coherent, please email to
kenji@rcac.astem.or.jp or post to comp.os.coherent.

// Kenji
From: fredex@fcshome.UUCP (fred smith)
Newsgroups: comp.os.coherent
Subject: Re: Additional library directories
Date: 15 Dec 92 13:47:42 GMT
Organization: What?!? Absolutely none!
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL7]

Rick Kelly (rmk@rmkhome.UUCP) wrote:
: In article <921212259@fcshome.UUCP> fredex@fcshome.UUCP (fred smith) writes:
: >Back a few months ago when I was trying (spent a LOT of time on this) to
: >get the "performance release" of cnews going on 4.0, I found the
: >same problem. I sent e-mail to support@mwc.com but they apparently didn't
: >think it was a sufficiently important problem to waste their time
: >replying.
: >
: >The only workaround I found was to actually put the library in /lib or
: >/usr/lib.
: >
: >Even trying this didn't work:
: >
: >	cc -o progname foo.o bar.o mylib.a
: >
: >didn't work. The linker gives a cutesey message (almost nauseatingly
: >cutesey, IMHO) about  an "unlikely name" for an object file and refuses
: >to link it.
: 
: 
: Did you get the Cnews performance release running?  Do you have diffs?

No. After wasting literally WEEKS on it (and I don't mean 2 or 3, either!)
I got everything compiled, which required considerable work by hand, and
tweaking of makefiles and shell scripts. Then I embarked on trying to
get it all to pass the regression tests that are part of the package.
I got all but two portions of it to pass. I misremember right now which
ones wuldn't go, but the problems were numerous and seemingly insurmountable.
I finally gave up. I had ported Gnu make, Gnu sed, and Gnu awk, in an
effort to get around the weirdnesses in Coherent's tools, and while those
tools helped a lot, they couldn't fix the broken shell. Some of the 
final problems that caused me to give up were just that--broken shell.
Simple shellscripts that just didn't do the right thing. Sometimes
blatantly wrong. Sometimes just spew out error messages. After consulting
with Udo several times, he and I agreed it wasn't worth the trouble, and
I got his wnews31 port. While it's not as all-encompassing as cnews,
at least it doesn't take a couple of months to bring it up!

I don't have diffs, but I've probably got the whole doggone thing,
subdirectories, test files, et al, in a zipfile somewhere offline. If
the original poster wants it, he should send me via e-mail a snail-mail
address and I can mail him a copy of the diskette. I'll only mail ONE
of 'em, though, so don't everybody ask.

: 
: I haven't had any linker problems like the ones that you describe.

Well, y'know, now that you mention it, I recall another package I
ported (forget now which one) which had its own library and I gave
the linker it's library name on the commandline, and it worked fine.
But it sure didn't work for cnews. I remember that clearly.
: 
: -- 
: 
: Rick Kelly	rmk@rmkhome.UUCP	unixland!rmkhome!rmk	rmk@frog.UUCP
: 
Newsgroups: comp.os.coherent
From: messina@netcom.com (Tony Porczyk)
Subject: Re: Colorado Systems - Conversation
Organization: Messina Software
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 1992 22:50:45 GMT

rmk@rmkhome.UUCP (Rick Kelly) writes:

>In article <1992Dec14.175700.22691@netcom.com> messina@netcom.com (Tony Porczyk) writes:

>>That's a noble intention.  Just show me a tape drive first that's as
>>inexpensive as Colorado and as proven as Colorado.
>>I think we should try to convince them first.
>
>The real answer is SCSI tape.
>Tape drives that connect to floppy controllers suck.

Agreed.  That still doesn't answer my question, though.  Have you compared
the prices for SCSI tapes vs. floppy tapes lately?  Also, for many small
businesses floppy tape solutions are more than sufficient (if a bit slow).

t.
From: udo@umunk.GUN.de (Udo Munk)
Newsgroups: comp.os.coherent
Distribution: world
Subject: Re: installation help
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL7]
Organization: Udo Munk's private BBS
Date: Fri, 18 Dec 92 08:53:44 GMT

Grant Edwards (grante@aquarius.rosemount.com) wrote:
: udo@umunk.GUN.de (Udo Munk) writes:
: :
: : Just to remember: if no partition is active COHERENT's master boot
: : outputs a prompt and lets you enter the partition to boot, without
: : the need to type in the # at the right time.
: :
: 
: That's how I normally run my system -- when I upgraded to a 386
: motherboard the window for hitting a number key shrunk to almost
: nothing.  But I still have to remember that partition 0 is DOS and 1
: is Coherent -- or is it the other way 'round?

Sure, patch the prompt text in /conf/mboot and install this one as
master boot block ;-)
If you really want to do this, please check the license before, I don't
have it handy yet and I don't know if it is allowed!
--
Udo Munk, Oberstr. 21, 4040 Neuss 1, Germany
udo@umunk.GUN.de   ...!{mcshh,smurf,unido}!easix!umunk!udo   CIS: 100021,2515
uucp: +49 2131 278869 V22/32/42bis 8N1 login: uucp pwd: public MYNAME=bbsuser
request file /usr/spool/uucppublic/info for instructions
Newsgroups: comp.os.coherent
From: patbob@sequent.com (Patrick White)
Subject: Re: Additional library directories
Organization: Sequent Computer Systems Inc.
Date: Fri, 18 Dec 92 00:49:38 GMT

In article <9212162115@hphbbs.E.open.de> hph@hphbbs.E.open.de (H.P. Heidinger, Essen) writes:
>       You take COH' as a reliable system - that's your mistake ...
>       COH' is "banana software" (gets ripe at the customer's site) and
>       for $$99 you cannot expect MWC that they test the stuff decently
>       they deliver. Sad to say - but that's the mere truth as the V4
>       release proved in many ways ...

	Actually, I have yet to see a product that isn't "banana software" in
some respects.. and, believe it or not, it's usually the big companies (and
small ones with big company mentalities) that have the worst problem with
it (their survival into the next year does not depend on short term customer
satisfaction).  My interactions with MWC gives me the feeling that they are
perhaps a bit overloaded, but don't have a big company mentality.

	Also, the *only* way to be V.4 compatible is to get a copy of the
source, port it and sell it (along with a >$100 binary license).
	From what I recall, there are test suites out there, but there are many
undocumented "abilities" of the OS that people discover through trial and
error..  and those are not tested for.  The only way to have all the same
"abilities" is to get V.4 source.

># Germany          # Login : guest or "anon. UUCP" * UUlog=nuucp/MYNAME=nuucp *

	I see you are in Germany.. is this not the case there?  (actually, that
wouldn't suprise me too much).

-- 
Pat White (patbob@sequent.com, work: (503) 578-3463)
From: root@rwsys.wimsey.bc.ca (Superuser)
Newsgroups: comp.os.coherent
Subject: Re: game port driver code?
Date: 20 Dec 92 04:16:45 GMT
Organization: RWSYS Exporter BBS system

patbob@sequent.com (Patrick White) writes:
> 	Does anyone have any code for reading joysticks from the gameport under
> Coherent?  A device driver or program code would be fine.
> 
> 	I've got info on what needs to be done and don't want to reimplement it
> if I can avoid it.  Any ideas on how to implement it would be welcome too (eg.
> how to turn off task switching while in the busy wait loop, timers and the ilk
> I might be able to use, more efficient ways to access the I/O port than
> /dev/kmem, etc.)
> 
> 	If I decide it's too much for me to do, I'll summarize if there is
> interest.
> 
> thanks,
> Pat White (patbob)
> -- 
> Pat White (patbob@sequent.com, work: (503) 578-3463)
> 
You will need a device driver. You can't create a dos-style event loop
that reads the hardware and then loops again because application (user)
level software is 'protected' and cannot read/write directly to hardware.

The DDK allows a device driver to use the timeout() function with
10 millisec granularity. Or you can sit in an event loop in a device
driver ( but it really makes the device driver useless if any sort
of multitasking or multiuser stuff is needed. It could also screw
up things like serial port access and disk drive access to monopolize
the processor in an event loop. )

The physical operation of the game port ( ibm version ) is so simple
that a device driver should be easy to write.  According to my
literature, all you have to do is write to 0x201 and then keep
checking back for the the amount of elapsed time before the bit
corresponding to the joystick goes low.

The only possible problem is coherent's 10 millisec granularity. If
it is too long, the read_t0() function can offer shorter timing
but at the cost of a bit more complexity.

One way or another, however, you'll need the DDK.
Randy Wright

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
root@rwsys.wimsey.bc.ca (Randy Wright)      | Exporter BBS     2400 bps
                or                          | (604) 581-0518     8N1
    Randy_Wright@Mindlink.bc.ca             | uucp         ogin: uguest
                                            | interactive login: guest
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Newsgroups: comp.os.coherent
From: batchelor@nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov (Dave Batchelor, Space Phys. Data Facil. 301/286-2988)
Subject: Raves about tsch
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41    
Keywords:  tcsh shell
Organization: NASA - Goddard Space Flight Center
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 1992 21:10:00 GMT

  I ftp-ed tcsh.coh.tar.Z from raven.alaska.edu and installed it (requires
Coherent 4.0.1x), and I just wanted to sing its praises appropriately.  It
has been a joy to use.  You get command history with the up- and down-arrow
keys, fancy prompts like
  Tues 3:30pm Coherent 25 /usr/dave>
(25 is the number of the next command you will type, in the command history),
and command completion with the TAB key.  It's a real productivity accelerator.
Harry Pulley deserves a lot of applause for porting it.

 In case other novices like me get inspired, I am posting tcsh start-up files
that I have cobbled together.  The .cshrc file gives you the prompt I typed
above and a few other nice aliases.

--------- Cut here and save as .cshrc --------
# .cshrc file, with help from p. 228 of _C Shell Programming_ by Anderson**2

# Set up shell variables
set prompt = "%d %t Coherent \! %/%# "                # put event num. in prompt
set history = 20                                # set up history list
set histchars = '#:'                                # chars to issue hist. 
commands
set savehist = 20                                # save last 10 commands on bye
set time = 3                                        # resource util if long time
set ignoreeof                                        # logout protection
set noclobber                                        # redirection protection
set path = ( ~/bin /bin /usr/bin /usr/dave/shorthand . )
set mail = ( /usr/spool/mail/dave )

# Set up aliases
alias al alias                                        # short for alias
al rm 'rm -i'                                        # prompt for delete 
confirmation
al bye logout                                        # signoff
al h history                                        # short for history
al ldir 'ls -l \!* | grep "^d" '                # long list directories
--------- Cut here and save as .login --------
# .login file for tcsh

echo "Welcome to the tcsh shell on Coherent 4.0.1."
date
echo "Free on Coherent partition:"
df
--------- Cut here and save as .logout --------
# .logout for tcsh

echo "Farewell from the tcsh shell on Coherent 4.0.1."
date
------------- Cut here, end of .logout --------

 The only difficulty I had was installing the man pages.  You have to use
nroff -man tcsh.man    and  cp  the result to a directory  man  can find
as described in the Lexicon entry for  man.  Thanks again, Harry for a fine
job!

Enjoy,
])ave

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dr. David Batchelor   Space Science Data Operations Office   Mail Code 632
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center  Greenbelt  MD  20771  USA
batchelor@nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov == &( personal_opinions && !NASA_policy );
From: WARWICKR@SLUVCA.SLU.EDU (Richard Warwick)
Newsgroups: comp.os.coherent
Subject: Re: Colorado Systems - Conversation
Date: 14 Dec 92 19:30:00 GMT
Reply-To: "Coherent operating system" <COHERENT@indycms.bitnet>

DATE SENT:  14-DEC-1992 13:20:32
>David Scholten (scholten@esseye.si.com) wrote:
>:
>: Well, I called Colorado systems today, and they made it clear that
>: they would not support Coherent.  However, if somebody else wrote
>: the device drivers, they might consider becoming the maintainers.
>
>I motion we take our business somewhere else.  If they are so dead set
>against supporting our product, why should we bend over backwards to
>support theirs?  If they had said, "there isn't enough of a user base
>for us to commit R&D and funding to developing one, maybe in a year or
>two" that would still be jerky (IMHO), but at least tactful.
>
>: He did point out that all of the TAPE Drives are compatable with each
>: other.  And that the Specs needed from the QIC committe are:
>:
>:       QIC-40  (JUMBO 120 DRIVES)
>:       QIC-80  (JUMBO 250 DRIVES)
>:       QIC-117 (COMMUNICATION PROTOCOL)
>:
>: The phone number for the committee is (805)963-3853
>:
>
>I'd be willing to try, but I don't own a tape drive.  I am going to purchase
>one (or 2 -- OS/2 has a 120meg drive, and I don't want to back that
>up on floppy!).  I've written a SCSI driver for microchannel before, and
>after that disaster (you should see what MCA is like -- it's great for
>everyone except the programmer) this shouldn't be too bad.  I can look
>at the Linux drivers for the particulars since they also support non-SCSI
>QIC format.
>
>Can anyone recommend a tape drive besides colorado?  If I buy one, I'll
>start playing with it.
>
>: Anybody willing to give this a try?  Or should we try and convince
>: Colorado systems to change their mind?
>
>If they have a lousy attitude, I'd say let's move on.

Unfortunately, for those of us who already own colorado drives, moving on
is not an economically viable alternative.  While I don't have the expertise
to do it, I would encourage the development of QIC-80 support.  I noticed
on the Colorado BBS, documents which purported to give the specs for
software developers.  I am under the impression (please correct me if
I'm incorrect)  that writing a qic-80 driver could be somewhat generic and
support more than one manufacturer fairly easily.  If there is interest,
I could get those documents and post them.

R.

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Richard Warwick, Manager of PC Services  Internet: WARWICKR@SLUVCA.SLU.EDU |
| Saint Louis University                      Voice: (314) 577-8620          |
| Medical Center Computing Services                                          |
| 1402 South Grand Avenue  C308                                              |
| St. Louis  MO  63104                                                       |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Newsgroups: comp.os.coherent
From: hcp@csx.cciw.ca (H.C. Pulley)
Subject: partition hex signatures (Re: installation help)
Organization: Canada Centre for Inland Waters
Date: Fri, 18 Dec 1992 13:11:47 GMT

In article <92121611511@drktowr.chi.il.us> magus@drktowr.chi.il.us (Louis Giliberto) writes:
>: Eventually, OS/2 will decide that your Coherent parition is really
>: a wayward OS/2 partiion and chkdsk will "fix" it.  I do not know why
>: this happens.  The good news is that in my limited testing of linux,
>: I have not seen this behavior.  Try them both and choose the one
>: that works best for you.
>
>It's probably the whatchamacallits -- you know, the hex signature that
>tells what OS is running on that partition.  Linux uses the old Minix
>signature, I belive, and that may be in the OS/2 tables while Coherent's
>is not, and it looks just like a messed up partition to OS/2.  My guess.

Actually, some DOS 'system info' programs report the Coherent partitions to be
'AIX DATA'.  Either IBM's OS/2 doesn't know about IBM's AIX or the signiture 
isn't quite like AIX.

I thought AIX was pretty good guess on the part of the program though.

Harry
-- 
         hcp@csx.cciw.ca          |This message released|It takes all kinds,
   hcpiv@grumpy.cis.uoguelph.ca   |to the PUBLIC DOMAIN.|and to each his own.
----------------------------------+---------------------|This thought in mind,
Stay away from the DOS side, Luke!|Un*x don't play that.|I walk alone.