HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.programmer,comp.sys.next.sysadmin
Subject: Netinfo Q's.
From: scott@nic.gac.edu (Scott Hess)
Date: 13 Apr 92 04:24:38
Distribution: world
Organization: Gustavus Adolphus College

I'm currently working on a project where I need to munge about in
NetInfo to store network-wide defaults and the like.  I finally
think I've got enough of an understanding so that I'm not entirely
lost, but the netinfo stuff (and the NIKit) is a wealth of
undocumentation.  Netinfo is very, very flexible, but alot of
programs simply don't take advantage of it - and after spending
the past week banging at the access routines, I can understand why!

Oh, what's my Q?  Well, does anyone out there have any documentation
on the Netinfo stuff?  Or the NIKit stuff?  I guess I'm looking
for stuff more in the line of tutorial information, though I will
take anything I can get.  Example code is wonderful, _especially_
if it accomplishes modification to the database.

It's not so much that I'm unable to get anything done - I've almost
finished the first stage of the project, and it actually seems to
work.  What I'm looking for, though, are tips and tricks.  What
stuff I shouldn't muck with.  The best way to go about installing
a new set of properties for a directory.  What do the routines
return when there's an error (I know, ni_status, but I'm looking
for something more in line with the ERRORS section most of the 2nd
section of Unix Manual pages includes)?  Does it make more sense
to go insane caching information, or is reply time reasonable?
When do the differences between clone and master servers make a
difference?

I'm interested in any info out there.  Thus far, I see no reason
not to collect any information, bang it around, and pop it onto
the archives.  Netinfo isn't exactly something you want any old
idiot to be messing with, but I'd be interested in making it so
that a sufficiently intelligent idiot can :-).

[After the past week and more of working with Netinfo, I can tell
why the NeXT Netinfo utilities have so many limitations, like to
two-level domain hierarchies.  I wonder if there are only three
people at NeXT who understand the code to the point where they can
write the utilities, and those three people are so in demand that
they just don't have the time to get rid of the limitations :-).]

Later,
--
scott hess <scott@gac.edu>   <A GUI is to a command-line as a TV is to a book>
12901 Upton Avenue South, #326  Burnsville, MN  55337  (612) 895-1208 Anytime!
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.programmer
From: robyn@nabob.cc.mcgill.ca (Robyn Sabourin)
Subject: Devlopers, I'll translate your Apps
Organization: McGill University Computing Centre
Date: Wed, 15 Apr 1992 19:00:46 GMT

**** I'm posting this for a friend, so please please please ****
**** don't send me e-mail.  His phone and fax numbers are   ****
**** below.  Thanx!                                         ****

NeXT developers, are you ready to take on the world?  Well, here's
your chance to take on the French-speaking world.

With NeXT's European success and upcoming 3.0 system release,
localization will soon be both easier and more important.  French
localization should be of interest to you for the France (all 50
million of them) and Quebec (all 6 million of us) markets.

I am francophone by birth, educated in French, with college-level
English courses, and working in an English environment.  I have more
than 10 years of computer experience, starting with Apple II's and
Macintoshes and culminating in NeXTs.  My Macintosh experience
exposed me to many applications in their English and French 
versions, as well as to applications in most--if not all--major
software categories in both French and English.

The offer I am making to the NeXT community is this:

     I will translate the interface, dialog boxes, and Help files of
     an application (not the manuals, on-line or not, see below) for
     one (1) copy of that application, box, manuals, and all.  Since
     I am an active member of the Club Macintosh de Montreal, where
     we have a NeXTcube and often meet in NeXT-specific SIGs, an 
     extra copy, or at least a license to use my copy, of the  
     application would be greatly appreciated.

As far as manuals are concerned, the translation of which should take
considerably more effort, that would have to be done for more   
substantive remuneration (that with which I could feed myself), but
a good on-line Help is worth a thousand manuals, isn't it?

So, if anyone is interested, from the smallest to the mightiest,
please contact me at the coordinates indicated below, and I will be
more than happy to see how I may help you.

NeXTly yours,

Nicolas Dore
4000 Barclay, #3
Montreal, Quebec
H3S 1K8
tel: (514) 342-7027
fax: (514) 935-5946
From: mikhe@majestix.cs.uoregon.edu (Mike Henry)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.programmer
Subject: Re: Putting text on the workspace background
Date: 16 Apr 92 12:12:33 GMT
Organization: University of Oregon Computer and Information Sciences Dept.

In article <1992Apr14.173900.5059@socrates.umd.edu> ice@socrates.umd.edu (Fredrik Nyman) writes:
>Is there an easy way to write text across the workspace background?
>I'd like to have a cheerful "Don't Panic!" written in 72 point
>Times-Roman on the grey desktop background.

1) Use Icon to draw the picture you want or load the TIFF file you want.
2) Save the picture in EPS format from Icon.
3) Get the 'background' shell script from cs.orst.edu
   (under /pub/next/sources/{graphics or screen}/ I think)
4) Run the command 'background imagefile' at the shell prompt to display it.

I currently have my favorite Hagar picture as my background...

Good Luck!

		-Mike
-- 
Mike Henry                    INET : mikhe@cs.uoregon.edu              ///
441 E 13th St. #2                    mikhe@ida.liu.se                 ///
Eugene, OR. 97401                                                 \\\///
USA                           TEL  : +1 (503) 344-5122             \XX/
From: songer@ei.ecn.purdue.edu (Christopher M Songer)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.programmer
Subject: Re: Pipes, Child Processes and Other Uglies
Date: 8 Apr 92 14:39:43 GMT
Article-I.D.: noose.1992Apr8.143943.29156
Organization: Purdue University Engineering Computer Network

I write:

>     It's possible this belongs on one of the UNIX groups, but it
>touches on some NeXT stuff so I thought I'd try here first. I'm in
>the midst of doing an App that uses Allegro for some NLP stuff. I'm
>spawning a cl process and making its stdin one end of a pipe, and its
>stdout another end of a pipe like this:
>
>if((pid = fork()) == 0) {
>	fclose(stdin);
>	dup(cl_stdin);
>	fclose(stdout);
>	dup(cl_stdout);
>	execl(...);
>	}
>
>     Here's my problem. Common Lisp can respond to commands in its
>own sweet time. I don't want to sit around polling on the file
>descriptor all the time. This would hose the user interface. What
>I want to happen is this:
>
>     When the OS detects something to be read on the descriptor it
>wakes up a thread (or whatever) and the thread takes care of all my I/O.
>I think maybe the SIGIO signal sort of does this -- but it seems awefully
>crufty to me. (Not thread based at all, and who wants to poll ALL the
>possible descriptors.)
>

I got loads of great responses for this. Thanks! Just to save time and
bandwidth I figured I'd summarize.

Basically there are two facilities for doing this. The first is a vanilla
BSD routine called select(2). The second is a NeXTstep specific called
DPScallFD(). Alternatively there is a NeXTstep example called Subprocess
which does all this for you. Guess which I'll use :)

-Chris
Xref: sparky comp.sys.next.programmer:3392 comp.sys.next.misc:13937
From: mao@harsof.hard_soft.co.at
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.programmer
Subject: Low-level kernel programming
Date: 13 Apr 92 15:26:14 GMT
Reply-To: rock@brs.de
Organization: Hard + Soft NeXTcenter, Vienna, Austria

For a friend I was asked to post this question: 
Please reply to : rock@brs.de

(I hope I'll get this right though, I have to translate it from German...)

He needs to get more information on the UNIX kernel and how to manipulate it.  
Especially he's interested in Loadable Kernel drivers. (Yes he *has* been  
reading the book "Writing loadable kernel servers" from NeXT)
Furthermore he writes me that he would like to know where the data is put, and  
where he can find the low-level UNIX I/O variable names.

Any UNIX-gurus out there who could help him? 

BTW. If you have any questions, please mail him at rock@brs.de.
Thanks,
-- 
Magne Olsen            | Tlf: ++43 1 716 26 16
Produkt Marketing      | FAX: ++43 1 716 26 26
Hard + Soft NeXTcenter | e-mail: mao@harsof.hard_soft.co.at
Geusaugasse 9, A-1030 Wien, Austria,Europe
From: cnh5730@maraba.tamu.edu (Charles Herrick)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.programmer
Subject: -=?=- dumping text into an invisible text object -=?=-
Date: 9 Apr 92 19:55:58 GMT

Bubalah's,
I've got some email out on this, but it's driving me crazy so ...

I'd like to shove a selected section from one Text object into another so  
I can send the "invisible" target Text object a printPSCode: message and  
get the effect of printing selected text. The source Text object lives in  
a ScrollView, is straight off IB's palette (i.e. setMonoFont:NO) and is:
		docView = [myScrollView docView];

here's code:

BEGIN--CUT HERE--
{
	    NXSelPt	start, end;
	    int		length;
	  [docView getSel:&start :&end];  
	  length = end.cp - start.cp;
	  if (length)	// something selected, print it
	  {
	   id		textObject;
	    NXStream	*stream;
	    NXRect	frameRect = {0.0,0.0,1.0,1.0};
	    	// get an NXStream
	    stream = NXOpenMemory(NULL,0,NX_READWRITE);
		// and dump from source Text object
	    [docView writeRichText:stream from:start.cp to:end.cp];
		// get an invisible target Text object. Am I lost here?	    
	    textObject = [[[Text alloc] 
				initFrame:&frameRect] 
				setMonoFont:NO];
		// dump into the text object
	    [textObject readRichText:stream];
	    NXClose(stream);	    
	    [textObject printPSCode:self];	    
	    [textObject free];
	  }
}

END--CUT HERE--

Now here's what happens ... in Gdb, after the readRichText: message to  
textObject, sending [textObject byteLength] replies 1. And indeed a blank  
page gets printed. I've noodled around with stream->buf_base, and there is  
indeed stuff in the NXStream.

Help??

	Chuck Herrick <cnh5730@maraba.tamu.edu>
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.programmer
From: ice@socrates.umd.edu (Fredrik Nyman)
Subject: Putting text on the workspace background
Organization: University of Maryland University College
Date: Tue, 14 Apr 1992 17:39:00 GMT

Is there an easy way to write text across the workspace background?
I'd like to have a cheerful "Don't Panic!" written in 72 point
Times-Roman on the grey desktop background.
From: xepo@csd4.csd.uwm.edu (Scott R Violet)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.programmer
Subject: Writing a Storage Object
Date: 8 Apr 92 02:35:53 GMT
Article-I.D.: uwm.1992Apr8.023553.17506
Distribution: usa
Organization: Computing Services Division, University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee
Originator: xepo@csd4.csd.uwm.edu

Hi,
	Lately I have been playing around with Storage objects and have
encountered a few problems.  So, hopefully someone out there knows how
to use them and would be willing to help.  First off if I had the following
structure

struct test {
	int aTestInt;
	int arrayTest[25][3];
};

Would the descriptor string be "{i[25[3i]]}"?
Writing the object to a NXTypedStream seems to go ok.  But then when
I try to read it back in I get a bus error.  When you want to read back
in the stream, how should you initialize the object?  I have tried it
with just testStorage = [[Storage alloc] init]; but that doesn't seem
to work.  And I have also tried initialiving it the same way that I did
with the first, with an initCount..., but that doesn't seem to work either.
In both cases I get a Bus error.  I am hopping that it is something 
simple, anyone have any suggestions?
Thanks in advance,
			-Scott Violet (xepo@csd4.csd.uwm.edu)
From: mcgredo@bluto.ie.orst.edu (Don McGregor)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.programmer
Subject: Palette for error checking
Keywords: Form, entry validation, palette
Date: 13 Apr 92 03:48:26 GMT
Article-I.D.: talon.1992Apr13.034826.18099
Reply-To: mcgredo@bluto.ie.orst.edu
Organization: Oregon State University - Univ. Computing Services


I've written subclasses of Form and FormCell that allow data entry  
validation.  They're in the form of an IB palette, so you can just drag the  
Form over from IB and drop it into your app.  Then you can click on a  
specific field within the form and select from a scrolling list of entry  
types (integers, positive doubles, non-negative floats, SSN, etc).

When compiled into the app and run, field entry that doesn't fit the profile  
will cause a beep when the user attempts to move to another field.

Source code is included, so you can modify it if you like.  Or you can tear  
it apart and figure out how to write palettes.

Right now they're on cs.orst.edu and sonata.cc.purdue in the submissions  
directory.  They'll eventually move to the 2.0 source directories, I  
imagine.

--
Don McGregor             | California danger signs: you own more pairs of 
mcgredo@bluto.ie.orst.edu| shorts than you do long pants.
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.programmer,comp.sys.next.misc
From: slh@scire.hampshire.edu (Sean L. Hill)
Subject: Re: Shiny black objects
Followup-To: comp.sys.next.programmer
Reply-To: slh@scire.hampshire.edu
Organization: University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Date: Sun, 12 Apr 1992 18:35:27 GMT

dave@prim.uucp writes
> 
> What I want to see is shiny hard black objects, not sticky objects, not
> objects that are glued into the binary. .....> 
> Dave Griffiths

What I would like to see is the option to select in the Preferences panel  
what text object to use.  I would like to be able to plug in a custom or  
third-party text object and use that.  I would like to see this carried  
over to other objects as well so that third-party developers  and common  
users can take advantage of this object-oriented world without using IB.

For example, I would like to be able to install a new sound object, that  
would have the same abilities as the previous sound object but extend it  
to include surround sound and DAT quality.  This way it would be very easy  
for a third-party to provide hardware that could be used by all software.   
Not just custom written or IBuilt programs.  

This would be good to see taken further so that there will exist a  
NextObjects/ where the standard NeXT-provided objects exist and each user  
can setup a LocalObjects/ from which customized objects can be selected.   
via Preferences either at the system level or within each App.  To have  
that kind of selectivity should be possible with run-time binding  
shouldn't it. 

Comments or problems?

-Sean
slh@scire.hampshire.edu  (NeXTMail+)
From: cnh5730@maraba.tamu.edu (Charles Herrick)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.programmer
Subject: Re: Files in my home directory, and other ruminations
Date: 14 Apr 92 16:36:46 GMT
Followup-To: comp.sys.next.programmer

In article <SCOTT.92Apr13171021@nic.gac.edu> scott@nic.gac.edu (Scott  
Hess) writes:

$ In article <1992Apr13.170727.21749@eagle.lerc.nasa.gov>  
jim@ljkiraly.lerc.nasa.gov (L J "Jim" Kiraly) writes:
$ >developers to agree to put
$ >their stuff into a .Apps directory - one hidden file in your  
account
$ >with appropriate subdirectories for the requirements of each app.

$ how about a default owned by
$ System or GLOBAL called HiddenFiles, which could default to  
~/.Apps,
$ yet could be changed for other programs individually.

I'd prefer ~/Library/.Apps, and the Defaults Database Global get's my  
vote as well. That way the location and name can get reset to fit the  
specific needs and tastes of the user. Once the user sets this  
default, all programs should read it and honor it.
From: eht@cs.cmu.edu (Eric Thayer)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.programmer
Subject: Re: violent crashes
Date: 15 Apr 92 16:06:59 GMT
Organization: School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon

In article <1992Apr15.160230.269051@cs.cmu.edu> eht@cs.cmu.edu (Eric Thayer)  
writes:
> In article <1992Apr15.135020.2758@next.cambridge.ma.us> simsong (Simson L.  
> Garfinkel) writes:
> > In article <1992Apr13.232753.25043@ucsu.Colorado.EDU>  
> > schildba@spot.Colorado.EDU (Wolfgang Schildbach) writes:
> > > every once in a while it happens to me that upon executing my code
> > > the NeXT just kills *ALL* my processes, logs me out and leaves me
> > > with the login screen. My understanding of UNIX is that no matter
> > > how nasty a program, it should never infringe on other processes.
> > > 
> > > What could cause these nasty crashes?
> > > 
> > Kernel bug.
> > -- 
> > 
> > .................................................................simson
> 
> I've noticed this behavior most of the time when I have code which does not  
> interact with app kit objects with graphical representations.  When I have  
> debugged my code, the suddenly vanishing Workspace problem went away.
> 
> ...eric

Gee, I should have read that one more carefully.  That is, when I don't  
interact properly with graphical app kit objects.

..eric
From: rempe@iridium.tucson.az.us (Glenn Rempe)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.programmer
Subject: FOR SALE:  WHO'S CALLING?
Date: 15 Apr 92 00:32:12 GMT
Reply-To: rempe@iridium.tucson.az.us
Distribution: world,local

Hi all!

I have one copy of the excellent client management and scheduling program  
"Who's Calling?", by the innovative folks at Adamation, to sell.  It is a  
brand new, unused copy still sealed in it's original box with manual included  
and two 1.44MB floppies.  I will sell it to the person with the highest bid  
that I receive by this Friday April 17, 1992.  Bidding starts at $200.  This  
is an excellent deal!  The list price is $495 and NeXTConnection sells it for  
$395.

A $275 offer takes it with no more waiting for other bids.

Reply to me immediately at:

rempe@iridium.tucson.az.us

Thanks,

Glenn

--
rempe@iridium.tucson.az.us

GLENN D. REMPE
NeXTMAIL WELCOME!
From: toon@moene.uucp (Toon Moene)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.programmer
Subject: Re: Virtual memory devours my disk
Date: 16 Apr 92 21:00:28 GMT

In article <1992Apr14.120306.2121@cubetech.com> andrew@cubetech.com  
(Andrew Loewenstern) writes:
 
[ ... Me writing about how simple it would be to repair the VM-swapfile
      problems and offering help to NeXT to solve it ... ]

> Maybe you should just break down and spend $300 on a dedicated 
> swap-disk.  You would be able to fix your problem much faster than 
> waiting around for NeXT.

Andrew, the whole point I was trying to make is that I don't have to wait  
for NeXT to fix it, because I measure my swap space in advance (I've been  
using my NeXT 12 Mb Color Station + Mathematica now for 6 months without  
crashing it for lack of swap space). What I wanted to express is that I  
want to help NeXT to overcome these problems, BECAUSE I THINK THEY'RE  
QUITE EASILY FIXED. Don't be fooled by the Organization: line of this  
post; before this life, I was a systems programmer at the largest academic  
computer centre in the Netherlands - I've seen (and corrected - or worked  
around) a lot of OS bugs.

Now the one of the ever increasing swap file is really easy, although the  
details depend on the actual implementation of page-in, page-out and  
page-not-resident-fault routines. The prime observation to make, is that  
the problem is: having a lot of 'actually' free pages in a swapfile bound  
at its highest 'page offset' by a non-free page. This page is used by a  
currently active application, so we have a valid vm-map for it. Now the  
point is that the OS should recognize that a lot of free disk space is  
'helt hostage' by the relatively few pages dedicated to this one process  
that doesn't go away, taking up the high-numbered pages in the swapfile.
This could be implemented by a simple heuristic. The action to take is:  
make the few pages 'at the top of the swapfile' resident (either by  
swapping them in, or by denoting them 'swapped in' because they weren't  
changed), mark them as 'not swapped out' and truncate the swapfile.

'Look ma, no hands'

--
Toon Moene (toon@moene.uucp)
Kantershof 269, 1104 GN  Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Tel.: + 31 20 6982029; Fax: + 31 20 6003411
No Disclaimers; a NeXT at home protects against this occupational hazard.
From: andreas@atlas.physchem.chemie.uni-tuebingen.de (Andreas Haug)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.programmer
Subject: Re: violent crashes (frequent!)
Date: 16 Apr 92 11:20:09 GMT
Article-I.D.: atlas.andreas.703423209
Organization: Comp. Center (ZDV) U of Tuebingen, FRG

Dear community,

such crashes (WindowServer) may be annoying if they occur once in a while, 
but since last week I face the following:

Whenever I log in, the Workspace closes immediately. If I log in via telnet 
from another NeXT, I find the following line in /tmp/console.log:

Apr 10 21:53:51 klaus Preferences[256]: DPS client library error: Could not 
form connection, host local host

I formatted and rebuilded the Hard Disk several times (System 2.1) but that 
had no effect. I even managed to clear the P-RAM but this had, too, no effect.

This is what I see: First, the Cube boots as usual. The Login-Window appears. 
I type loginname and password. The Screen turns grey and the Dock appears. 
Preferences hilites itself. Then (1 sec.) the screen turns grey again and 
after several seconds, the Loginwindow reappears. (contents of 
/tmp/console.log are shown above).

I succeeded to boot _once_ by removing the NeXTdimension driver from the kern_loader 
startup file /etc/kern_loader.conf, but after two hours the WorkSpace died 
with "Internal Error 7". Since then, it refuses to run 
(symptom as above: could not form...)

Wondering why this problem resisted after the System-Disk was rebuilded.... 
I don't have any Idea, how this could happen.

Would someone mind helping me?

Best regards,

Andreas.

--
------------------------------ahaug@mailserv.zdv.uni-tuebingen.de
"It's not too late to start again; days go by and seasons change;
 nothing stays the same; life's an endless game; between strangers."
From: eht@cs.cmu.edu (Eric Thayer)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.programmer
Subject: Re: violent crashes
Date: 15 Apr 92 16:02:30 GMT
Organization: School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon

In article <1992Apr15.135020.2758@next.cambridge.ma.us> simsong (Simson L.  
Garfinkel) writes:
> In article <1992Apr13.232753.25043@ucsu.Colorado.EDU>  
> schildba@spot.Colorado.EDU (Wolfgang Schildbach) writes:
> > every once in a while it happens to me that upon executing my code
> > the NeXT just kills *ALL* my processes, logs me out and leaves me
> > with the login screen. My understanding of UNIX is that no matter
> > how nasty a program, it should never infringe on other processes.
> > 
> > What could cause these nasty crashes?
> > 
> Kernel bug.
> -- 
> 
> .................................................................simson

I've noticed this behavior most of the time when I have code which does not  
interact with app kit objects with graphical representations.  When I have  
debugged my code, the suddenly vanishing Workspace problem went away.

..eric
From: usenet@tamsun.tamu.edu (Read News)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.programmer
Subject: Connecting HP48sx to NeXTstation
Date: 6 Apr 92 20:45:15 GMT
Followup-To: comp.sys.next.programmer
Distribution: usa
Organization: Texas A&M University, College Station

Organization: Texas A&M University
Keywords: HP48sx, kermit, .kermrc, system()
From: n189ds@tamuts.tamu.edu (Ronald Pomeroy)