HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: edwardj@microsoft.com (Edward Jung)
Subject: Re:   Why, Why, WHYYYY?? USE OBJECTIVE-C for IB??
Date: 13 Dec 92 10:08:29 GMT
Organization: Strategy Division, Microsoft Corp.

Matthew Dillon writes:

>    I should mention that a strong run-time system cannot be optimized
>    easily (or at all) whereas a strong compile-time and load-time system
>    can both be optimized AND handle interface portability concerns without
>    any run-time system getting in the way, but that generally entails
>    building part of the compiler into every machine to handle
>    'installation' (integration) of an application.  C++ has yet to reach
>    this capability and may never do so as it insists, as most languages
>    do, on sticking to a strict compile time paradigm.

In fact I would argue that the interface run-time should be
completely language-independent as well as very fast. As Matthew
points out, a compile and load oriented system such as fast
RPC interfaces is advantageous. What this means is that in
local bindings between code and an externally-supplied module
(or "software IC"), the performance hit can be as small as
a single register or memory indirection -- less if you are
willing to do relocation on load (just depends where you want
to spend your CPU cycles and when). When you go cross-machine,
you convert to a messaging system using standard RPC techniques.

Objective-C and the NeXT run-time always use messaging, and
perform language-specific optimizations for in-process
invocation. The messaging system also brings synchronization
issues in multi-threaded environments since the message 
encapsulates synchronization semantics whereas compiler
invocations do not. The developer that therefore writes
a software component must use messaging, think about
thread safety in the client run-time, and therefore
worry about distribution transparency (i.e. where the
component code runs).

Issues such as how to write a reusable and distributable
component should really not be addressed in a language.
They should be addressed as an infrastructure for an object
system that is language independent. Then you can worry
about language bindings and new languages that are semantically
identical to the object system's model. It is hard to imagine,
esp. given the religion on languages, that any one language
will meet all needs.

--
Edward Jung, Software Architect     edwardj@microsoft.com
Advanced Systems, Microsoft Corp.
From: rsrodger@wam.umd.edu (Yamanari)
Subject: Re: 100 Mips Intel NeXT.
Organization: University of Maryland, College Park
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 1992 12:50:34 GMT

In article <1992Dec14.165125.4207@cubetech.com> andrew@cubetech.com (Andrew Loewenstern) writes:
>They wouldn't be competing with clones.  A NeXT box based on Pentium
>would be very different from a Pentium PC.  Just as Amigas,
>Macintoshes, and NeXT's are all different.  Sequent and Scitex put out
>boxes with 486's in them and they don't compete at all with PC's.

	OTOH, these boxes would be running NS486, right?  What 
	"features" could NeXT put into these machines to take them
	out of the (*fierce*)Intel-box competition?  A DSP?  
	There are DSP cards now and coming.  Sound?  Same.  Video?
	Frankly, there are already better alternatives to the NeXT
	video (if the current display standard and/or the fiasco
	with the NeXTDimension are any example).  HD floppy drives??
 
	They could add things, sure, but if they radically changed
	the architecture, they would be breaking compatibility--and
	who wants to buy an Intel box if it's too incompatible
	to run anything but NS--might as well buy a slab.
 


-- 
	"If you can't eat sand, why the hell are you living in a desert?"


	Nuclear redevelopment for a better world!
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.misc
From: gvh@metrosoft.com (Gordon Van Huizen)
Subject: Re: Problems reading Mac disks
Reply-To: gvh@metrosoft.com (Gordon Van Huizen)
Organization: Metrosoft
Date: Sun, 13 Dec 1992 17:42:21 GMT

In article <1992Dec11.180711.14260@news.nd.edu> stukas@mbolo.cc.nd.edu  
(jim stukas) writes:
> I remember someone posting some info on some   sort of
> problem with the Mac file system when using FW under 3.0.  A  
> search of the FAQ and a WAIS archive of the last 10 days of
> this group   revealed nothing. 
>    Can someone remind me what the problem might be and/or
> tell me how to   search through any older archives of this
> group? 
> 

If you have been running FloppyWorks, you need to remove
/usr/filesystems/macintosh.fs before NeXTSTEP 3.0
will correctly mount a Mac filesystem. 

Gordon

-- 
----------------------------------------------------------------
Gordon Van Huizen           vox: 619.488.9411  fax: 619.488.3045
Metrosoft                   gvh@metrosoft.com [NeXTmail welcome]
----------------------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.misc
From: paul@seer.demon.co.uk (Paul Lynch)
Subject: Re: Librarian Services?
Organization: P & L Systems
Date: Sat, 12 Dec 1992 21:20:09 GMT

In article <1992Dec12.155758.6008@wam.umd.edu> gaia@wam.umd.edu (L.  
Anathea Brooks) writes:
>  I have some trouble with the services menu with the 
> Librarian headings. First, I have the choice "Jot selection in 
> Bible", although I removed the Bible some months ago. How 
> do I change this? 
> 
> Second, jotting a selection simply creates a new ascii file 
> called "Bible". Totally useless. 
> 
> Third, I can "Search in Bible" but there is no bible. How can
> I switch to various items on my real bookshelf? Note that I have 
> no bookshelf with the name "Bible".
> 
> Are there ANY docs concerning Librarian 3.0? It might be useful
> but at present it's a nuisance.

Open ~/.NeXT/services/Librarian in Edit; you will see which lines control  
the individual Target services.  Just Edit them out.  You put them there  
by using Librarian's Target Inspector (Services option).

There is a chapter in the printed User Guide on Librarian.

Paul
-- 
Paul Lynch
P & L Systems                   (NeXTmail) paul@seer.demon.co.uk
Tel: (0494)671501                      paull@cix.compulink.co.uk
Fax: (0494)680228                       76711.451@compuserve.com
From: S.A.McIntyre@durham.ac.uk (Scott A. McIntyre)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.misc
Subject: Re: Mail buttons stop working
Date: 17 Dec 92 17:07:19 GMT
Reply-To: S.A.McIntyre@durham.ac.uk
Organization: University of Durham

In article <1992Dec15.193410.22205@Princeton.EDU>, sbgreene@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Steven Greene) writes:
|> Since upgrading to 3.0, I've had an intermittent problem in which
|> the Delete, Compose, Mailboxes, and Find buttons (as well as the
|> arrow buttons) occasionally cease to function in Mail.app.  Nothing
|> at all happens when I try to click on them.  I have to restart
|> mail, and then everything's fine again.
|> 
|> Anyone else have this?  Anyone know why?

I have this happen all the time.   I mostly get it when I read a email message from a
particular mailing list I was on (Computers in Composition, ironically enough).  I have
since signed off that list and have had no more problems.  The solution is obviously that
NeXTmail interprets the beginning of some mail messages in a wonky way...or at least that
is what it seems to be to me.

Scott

-- 
EMAIL: S.A.McIntyre@durham.ac.uk   OR scott@shrug.dur.ac.uk (NeXTmail)
SNAIL: Pyschment of Departology, University of Durham, Durham, DH1 3LE
SUN Computers:  "Nice chips, shame about her OS"
"If a virtual tree falls in a virtual forest, does it make a virtual sound?"
From: nweaver@soda.berkeley.edu (Nicholas C. Weaver)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.misc
Subject: Re: Good NeXT ps font collection loaded to sonata!
Date: 15 Dec 1992 17:42:10 GMT
Organization: U.C. Berkeley, CS Undergraduate Association
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: soda.berkeley.edu

In article <BzB8AC.3pE@news.cso.uiuc.edu> erno@mrcnext.cso.uiuc.edu (Ernest F.B. Pena) writes:
>Are these fonts public domain or shareware? From the names, it seems these are
>commercial fonts sold by Adobe or ITC or whoever for $150+?

	I've downloaded them and looked at em, and they do appear to be
Adobe issue.  I believe Garamond is a very specific font by Adobe, and all
of them seem to be of REALLY high (read Commercial) quality.  I downloaded
the earlier known PD/Shareware fonts, and none of them look as good as
these.  Also, most PD/Shareware fonts aren't designed as something you would
write a book in, while these things are (for the most part), text you would
use for good looking titles or printing.  Furthermore, they are whole font
families, in many cases including bold and italic.  Most PD/Shareware fonts
seem to be just one typeface.  I'm quite suspicios.  

	Glen, are you out there?  Could someone please definatly tell us the
status of these fonts?

	On a related topic, can you buy individual font families, and if so,
how much are they?  (If Brush Script is Adobe issue, I'd like a ligit copy
of it, and I am also intersted in getting the Sonata font.  The rest of the
fonts I could cair less about.  I'm a Times/Courier kinda guy.)

-- 
Nicholas C. Weaver                                nweaver@soda.berkeley.edu
It is a tale, told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, .signifying nothing.
From: bstone@acs.ucalgary.ca (Blake Stone)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.misc
Subject: Re: 100 Mips Intel NeXT.
Date: 20 Dec 92 19:51:22 GMT
Distribution: na
Organization: The University of Calgary, Alberta

> Why lose the DSP?  Why bog down the CPU with all those other
> functions?  Have chips for sound, compression,
> graphics/PostScript, etc.

As a NeXT employee once pointed out, given the choice of adding
cost by:

1) Adding special purpose hardware dedicated to a given task or
2) Throwing in a few more processors on a multiprocessing system

Which would you choose?  Have you tried using the Hayes ISDN
connector while running ScorePlayer?  Special purpose hardware is
always a stopgap measure until the CPU can catch up and subsume
the tasks.

> Take a look at the Amiga.  By not loading down the CPU, it's
> able to make a 68000 look as fast as a 68040 when doing it's
> fancy graphics/sound demos...

Unfortunately the Amiga graphics and sound hardware is looking a
little long in the tooth these days.  It certainly reaped an
advantage for a while, but it VERY difficult to keep special
purpose hardware up to spec with the latest and greatest general
purpose.  I'd rather see NeXT put in sockets for a few more CPUs
and let ME decide what they'll be doing!

Blake Stone
bstone@acs.ucalgary.ca
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.misc
From: mgb@moksha.uucp (Michael Branton)
Subject: Re: Zxytel 1496E modems
Keywords: modem logins
Reply-To: mgb@moksha.uucp (Michael Branton)
Organization: Totally Disorganized
Date: Sun, 13 Dec 1992 03:01:04 GMT

Someone seemed to indicate that logging in via modem was a problem w/ NXFax.  
Can anyone confirm or deny this ?

---


-Michael


  mgb@moksha.UUCP
  mgb@stetson.BITNET

  NeXT mail welcome !
-- 


-Michael

Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.misc
From: gbrown@raven.ctr.columbia.edu (Glenn Brown)
Subject: Re: Printing on remote Apple LaserWriter
Organization: J. Random Misconfigured Site
Date: Fri, 18 Dec 1992 08:22:05 GMT
Reply-To: gbrown@raven.ctr.columbia.edu (Glenn Brown)
X-Posted-From: raven.ctr.columbia.edu
NNTP-Posting-Host: sol.ctr.columbia.edu

>I have a NeXTstation running NeXTstep 3.0, and I would like to print to  
an    
>Apple LaserWriter connected to the network.  Does anyone know how to do    
>this?

You can also print to Apple Laserwriters on unix hosts easily.  Details  
are int NeXTSTEP Network and System Administration, page 306.   
Installation is easy, and then the printer works as if it's connected  
directly to the NeXT.

--Glenn
From: madler@cco.caltech.edu (Mark Adler)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.misc
Subject: Re: Interest in Full Motion video, without
Date: 13 Dec 1992 07:18:47 GMT
Organization: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena
NNTP-Posting-Host: sandman.caltech.edu


>> All this talk about video compression.  Did anyone stop to think about 
>> what happens to the audio?

Of course.  MPEG I defines a video stream, an audio stream, and a
system stream, the latter of which provides the synchronization of
the video and audio.  The audio compression scheme of MPEG I takes
stereo CD (about 1.4 Mbits/s) and compresses it to 256 Kbits/s,
about 6:1.  The resulting uncompressed audio is almost always
indistinguishable from the original, and when there is a difference
to be perceived, it takes training in the artifacts to notice them.

I believe that, with a little work, the DSP on the NeXT could
handle the decompression of the audio on its own.

Mark Adler
madler@cco.caltech.edu
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.misc
From: andrew@cubetech.com
Subject: Re: NRW- coming soon
Organization: Cube Technologies, Inc.
Date: Sun, 20 Dec 1992 22:25:46 GMT

In article <1gugnqINNbmt@mirror.digex.com> hacker@access.digex.com (Dark Hacker) writes:
>
>I don't think the Mach architecture can support multiple threading across
>seperate CPUs.  I may be wrong but I don't think this "drop in CPU boards"
>stuff is going to work without massive OS and architecture restructing.

Mach is really awesome at multiprocessing.  In fact, it was originally
designed for a DEC massively parallel supercomputer that got
scrapped...  Anyway, it does support multiple threading across
separate CPU's.  You can also define "processor groups" and confine a
thread to a particular processor group.


Start writing multithreaded apps now so they scream if NeXT puts out a
multi-cpu box in the future...


andrew
-- 
andrew@cubetech.com      | "I'm allergic to cigarette smoke, but THIS
Andrew Loewenstern       |  kind of smoke I can handle!"
Cube Technologies, Inc.  |  John Draper, aka Captain Crunch Dec 18, 1992
0000000701B61D1ADF0DFC9C16185CEA055200000007EB4A9FEB1922065D471A89E905B5
From: hacker@access.digex.com (Dark Hacker)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.misc
Subject: Re: Is the wait over? Upcoming NeXT CD-ROM drive
Date: 19 Dec 1992 06:44:16 GMT
Organization: Express Access Online Communications, Greenbelt, MD USA
NNTP-Posting-Host: access.digex.com
Keywords: Late, late, late...

In article <1gh2fkINNoou@usenet.INS.CWRU.Edu> don@b62178.STUDENT.cwru.edu writes:
>In article <1992Dec14.040203.1639@news.acns.nwu.edu>  
>garyc@lenny.acns.nwu.edu (Gary I. Chang) writes:
>> 
>> Hi,
>> 
>> 	For those of you like me waiting for the 3.0 CD-ROM bundle for  
>> almost 4 months, are you getting your NeXT CD-ROM drive now? 
>
>Nope, and I've been waiting for nearly 5 months!

Received my bundle months and months ago.  Everything works fine.

- Hacker

-- 
Dark Hacker @ Black Silicon, Fortress Of Computation
hacker@black-silicon.mclean.va.us

"Life itself is... COMPUTATION!"
From: rbp@investor.pgh.pa.us (Bob Peirce #305)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.misc
Subject: Re: Purdue NeXT Archives
Date: 16 Dec 92 12:43:46 GMT
Reply-To: rbp@investor.pgh.pa.us (Bob Peirce #305)
Organization: Cookson, Peirce & Co., Pittsburgh, PA

In article <Byyn2M.CHv@mentor.cc.purdue.edu> ab@nova.cc.purdue.edu (Allen B) writes:
>"What are those guys doing?"  "Why hasn't anything been
>filed in ten years?"  "Why do my transfers fail
>sometimes?"  "Argh!"
>
>I've been hearing a lot of this stuff, and that's OK,
>things have been rough around here.  You see, after a few
>years of operation, we finally filled up the drive the
>Archives are on.  Ouch!

Cheer up!  You guys are doing a great job as far as I am concerned.  For
people who do not have direct access to the internet, mail-servers like
yours provide an unequaled service.
-- 
Bob Peirce, Pittsburgh, PA         rbp@investor.pgh.pa.us         412-471-5320
venetia@investor.pgh.pa.us [NeXT Mail]  !uunet.uu.net!pitt!investor!rbp [UUCP]
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.misc
From: dlewine@nf01.webo.dg.com (Donald Lewine)
Subject: Re:   Why, Why, WHYYYY?? USE OBJECTIVE-C for IB??
Date: Fri, 11 Dec 92 16:39:06 GMT
Reply-To: dlewine@nf01.webo.dg.com
Organization: Data General Corp.

In article <dillon.0sh6@overload.Berkeley.CA.US> dillon@overload.Berkeley.CA.US (Matthew  
Dillon) writes:
|       No, you are picking up a discussion in the middle.	If you had read my
|       previous postings you would have noted that I acknowledge the
|       portability and compatibility issues as something Objective-C is good
|       at and C++ is not so good at, mainly due to the emphasis on the
|       run-time system in Objective-C.  My discussion above is related to the
|       efficiency issues of that trade-off.  Many people, myself included, do
|       not believe that either Objective-C or C++ are the proper solution.
|       Objective-C because it is impossible to optimize it and C++ because,
|       rightly, it should have been designed from scratch instead of hacked
|       onto C.
|   
In my experience (over 30 years of professional programming), your choice of
algorithm has a much larger effect on performance than your choice of programming
language or compiler technology.

If programmers spent more time working on their algorithm and less time arguing 
about the efficiency of their compiler, they would produce faster programs sooner.

I have been able to speed up programs by a factor of 1000X or more by changing the
basic algorithm.  I have never seen a speedup that large from a compiler.  [Except
in cases where the compiler changes the basic algorithm (e.g. loop unrolling)]


--
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Donald A. Lewine                (508) 870-9008 Voice
Data General Corporation        (508) 366-0750 FAX
4400 Computer Drive. MS D112A
Westboro, MA 01580  U.S.A.

Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.misc
From: zalta@mally.Stanford.EDU (Ed Zalta)
Subject: Please respond! Will Emacs2.1 work with ADB?  With Alt as Meta-key?
Organization: DSO, Stanford University
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 92 21:42:30 GMT

I plan to upgrade to the ADB keyboard.  Can anyone tell me whether  
Emacs (the front end) works as usual when you upgrade to the ADB  
keyboard?  Would someone actually using Emacs with ADB (and using the  
Alt key as a meta-key) please respond?  I use Emacs and LaTeX more than  
any other programs, and will not upgrade if the former is not  
compatible with ADB (i.e., if the keymappings for Emacs were altered).
  Thanks very much.
Ed
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.misc
From: henry@trilithon.mpk.ca.us (Henry McGilton)
Subject: Re: Expert set fonts questions
Organization: Trilithon Software
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1992 01:21:56 GMT

In article <1992Dec16.020109.11507@socrates.umd.edu> ice@socrates.umd.edu  
(Fredrik Nyman) writes:
    *  I'm wondering a little about how the expert set fonts work,
    *  particularly with respect to ligatures.

    *  Suppose you have a font that does not have ligatures, e.g.
    *  vanilla Adobe Garamond.  Exactly what happens when I install
    *  the "Expert Set" which *does* contain ligatures?  Is the
    *  expert set a separate font as far as the NeXT is concerned,
    *  or will the Adobe Garamond character set become "extended"
    *  with the glyphs defined in the Expert Set font file?
The regular font and the expert font are two separate fonts.  No
merging or extension takes place.  Applications have to be hip.

    *  Also, do all/most/some of the NeXT text processing support
    *  ligatures?  Will, for example, WriteNow, WP and FrameMaker
    *  print the /ffl glyph if it exists in the chosen character
    *  set, or will they cop out and print the glyphs f, f, and l?
As far as I can tell by casual looking, WriteNow doesn't understand
ligatures.  Put more correctly, I don't know how to make WriteNow
understand ligatures.  If I use a font that has ligatures, I can
get the ligatures by typing the correct combination of keys.  For
example, in Adobe Garamond, I can get the  fi  ligature by typing
Alt-Shift-j.


        ........  Henry
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.misc
From: lemson@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (David Lemson)
Subject: Re: Load Meter
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Sun, 13 Dec 1992 08:36:33 GMT

Charles William Swiger <cs4w+@andrew.cmu.edu> writes:

>If you're on a network, don't make /dev/kmem world readable or
>writable...that definitely is a security hole.

Or even if you're not on a network, but others may be logging into
your machine (via dialup or whatever).
If someone can read /dev/kmem, they can basically find out
everything that is going on with every program. 
If they can write /dev/kmem, ... well, you might as well give them
the root password. :-)

It's probably not a terrific idea, but one way around this fixing
permissions is to put yourself into group kmem.  That way, you can
read/write /dev/kmem, but others still cannot.  The only 'risk' here
is to make sure that you don't accidentally modify /dev/kmem by
writing to it.  You are not likely to do this unless you really
try. 
-- 
David Lemson                                                (217) 244-1205
University of Illinois NeXT Campus Consultant / CCSO NeXT Lab System Admin
Internet : lemson@uiuc.edu                UUCP :...!uiucuxc!uiucux1!lemson 
NeXTMail accepted                                  BITNET : LEMSON@UIUCVMD
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.misc
From: andrew@cubetech.com (Andrew Loewenstern)
Subject: Re: 100 Mips Intel NeXT.
Organization: Cube Technologies, Inc.
Date: Sun, 20 Dec 1992 08:06:10 GMT

In article <92353.084626NLF102@psuvm.psu.edu> <NLF102@psuvm.psu.edu> writes:
>  Okay, good point.  Why replace the DSP when you don't have to.  If removing
>it would lower the cost of the NeXT, then do it, but otherwise, sure, keep
>it there.

With or without a DSP, a theoretical NeXT computer with some type of
beefy processor, mulitprocessor support of some kind, a nice fat
288-bit bus for moving gobs of data around, and real sharp video
circuitry is going cost much more than a NeXTstation mono 8/105.


andrew
-- 
andrew@cubetech.com      | "I'm allergic to cigarette smoke, but THIS
Andrew Loewenstern       |  kind of smoke I can handle!"
Cube Technologies, Inc.  |  John Draper, aka Captain Crunch Dec 18, 1992
0000000701B61D1ADF0DFC9C16185CEA055200000007EB4A9FEB1922065D471A89E905B5
From: madler@cco.caltech.edu (Mark Adler)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.misc
Subject: Re: lha vs compress (use zip instead)
Date: 18 Dec 1992 19:11:31 GMT
Organization: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: sandman.caltech.edu


>>     to anyone who is having disk-space problems that unix 'lha' (of lharc
>>     fame) does a hellofabetter job compressing stuff the compress.

And zip does better than lha, and is faster.  And is far more portable.
And works as a filter.  And lots more.  It is on the usual NeXT archive
sites in both source and compiled forms.  It is also on the NeXT
Educational Sampler CD.

If you want the very best compression, you can pay a quite reasonable
price and get Squash, which in its high compression mode compresses
better than zip, but at the cost of being rather a lot slower.

Mark Adler
madler@cco.caltech.edu
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.misc