HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: system@micromed.com (Duane Davis)
Newsgroups: comp.os.coherent
Subject: Re: Coherent - the ultimate BBS in itself?
Keywords: BBS
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 92 18:32:03 PST
Organization: Micro-Medic BBS - +1 408 279 5240 - Public Access

messina@netcom.com (Tony Porczyk) writes:

> I've read the posts regarding BBS software for Coherent with great
> interest since I would like to set up one also.  It struck me,
> however, that most posts seemed to suggest a DOS BBS model ported to
> unix platform, which to me would be a step back.  After thinking about
> it for a sec I realized that unix offers a superior model for BBS just
> in itself, simply by implementing tools that are already there.  With

There are a few problems with your reasoning...

   Although the Coherent (or any unix) environment is much more power-
   full and flexible that a DOS BBS, it also takes alot longer to learn.
   Most BBS users are used to simple to use DOS BBS' and don't want to
   have to "learn" how to use something new. With as many simple BBS'
   available why should they hassle with it?

   How are you going to handle ANSI color, or IBM extended keyboard
   characters, or users that are using terminals that aren't 80x25.

   You also take a chance of creating a security hole. With a BBS
   program your user is "locked" into a program. Suppose you make
   a mistake and assign the wrong permissions to a file, or a user
   not understanding permissions creates a file and someone else
   deletes it.

The whole idea of writing a menu based BBS program is to make it
easy to use. The faster a user can login, do what they need to do,
and logoff, the better. If you make it too difficult they will call
elsewhere.

I've been running a BBS for almost 10 years now (7 years running a
DOS BBS) so I pretty much know what users like. If I were to run
something like you suggest I would loose at least 90% of my users. 
   

--- 
system@micromed.com (Duane Davis)                   voice (408)293-3299
Micro-Medic                          public access usenet (408)279-5240
711 Lincoln Avenue                  public access pcboard (408)280-1610
San Jose, CA 95126                    FileServer - FTPMail@micromed.com
From: ray@rgm.com (Ray Mendonsa)
Newsgroups: comp.os.coherent
Subject: Re: trouble making a program
Date: 23 Nov 92 13:05:35 GMT
Organization: RGM *nix - Sacramento, CA

tundra@eskimo.chi.il.us (Tundra Tim Daneliuk) writes:

>>
>> I'm trying to make a program using the Makefile created by GNU
>> s configure program, and keep getting the error
>>
>>      make: 5: multiple actions for .c.o
>>
. . .
>>
>>      .c.o:
>>            $(CC) -c $(CFLAGS) $(CPPFLAGS) $(DEFS) -I$(srcdir) $<
>>
>> Is there a way I can work around this error?
>>
>> -John D. Boggs     uunet!erato!jdb
>>
>The make shipped with COH is dain bramaged - use dmake (available from
>mwcbbs) instead.

It's true that it's brain damaged, but to slip past this error, just put
a space between .c and .o .  For example:

      .c .o:
              $(CC) . . .

It'll work perfectly.  (Or you can use another make. )
-- 
Ray Mendonsa ----- ray@rgm.com ---- Admin., rgm.com --------->
916/923-5013 8n1,HST -- login: new -- Public access Usenet -->
Oh yes. . .  It WILL be mine.
From: bob@dalek.mwc.com (Bob Hemedinger)
Newsgroups: comp.os.coherent
Subject: Re: UUCP and net woes
Date: 20 Nov 92 18:37:27 GMT
Reply-To: "Coherent operating system" <COHERENT@indycms.bitnet>

>
> Help and double help,
> 	Apparently I've been unable to post for more than month
> and (it is insidious torture to post, see the post locally and then wait
> by the tube waiting for a reply that will never come!). My litany
> of problems are:
> 	1. Can't post using the installable wnews from Bob@mwc.

When you try to post an article, is there any information written about it
into wnew's logs? Does the article get copied to the batch directory?

> 	2. Can't get Taylor binaries from Bob@mwc to work.
> 		*	*	*
> > uucp dsinc (10/30-00:09:59,6899,0) Calling system dsinc (port com1fl)
> > uucp dsinc (10/30-00:10:38,6899,0) Login successful
> > uucp dsinc (10/30-00:10:40,6899,0) Handshake successful (protocol 'g' packet
>  size 64 window 7)
> > uucp dsinc (10/30-00:10:42,6899,0) ERROR: Received garbled command "S"
> > uucp dsinc (10/30-00:12:52,6899,0) ERROR: Timed out waiting for packet
> > uucp dsinc (10/30-00:12:52,6899,0) Protocol 'g' packets: sent 1, resent 0,
>  received 3
> > uucp dsinc (10/30-00:12:52,6899,0) Call complete (145 seconds)

Run a level 9 debug on the Taylor uucico. The output (if you used the same
logging I used) will be written to /usr/spool/uucp/.Admin/audit.local.
This should allow us to see what came across at the packet level.

--
		   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: udo@umunk.GUN.de (Udo Munk)
Newsgroups: comp.os.coherent
Subject: Re: mwcbbs contents...
Date: 15 Nov 92 16:57:27 GMT
Organization: Udo Munk's private BBS
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL6]

Alex Dumitru (alex@meadow.uucp) wrote:
: one hears a lot about all the stuff that mw makes available on their bbs.
: how about a monthly posting of the contents of /usr/spool/uucppublic
: on mwcbbs? 
: i realize that they have a content file (info/whatever), but being kind of
: lazy i would prefer to see it in the newsgroup, rather than having to dial
: up and uucp it across.
: 
: anybody else have any opinions on this?

Good idea, this would save a lot of $. If there is any interest I could also
post the /usr/spool/uucppublic/files from my system every two weeks or so.
Because many of us have to pay for net access (me to), I'll post it only,
if there is *no* voice against that.
--
Udo Munk     | voice:      +49 2131 275348             | uucp: +49 2131 278869
Oberstr. 21  | mail :      udo@umunk.GUN.de            |     2400/1200/300 8N1
4040 Neuss 1 | ...!{mcshh,smurf,unido}!easix!umunk!udo | MYNAME=bbsuser
Fed. Rep. of | CompuServe: 100021,2515                 | login: uucp
Germany      | first get /usr/spool/uucppublic/info    | pwd:   public
From: Richard.Scranton@f430.n226.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Richard Scranton)
Newsgroups: comp.os.coherent
Subject: vt100
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 92 13:48:24 EST
Organization: FidoNet node 1:226/430 - Mt. Olympus BBS, Worthington OH

>> To  : All                      
>> From: Bradley " b " Kuhn       
>> Subj: Terminal emulation                  
>> Area: Comp.Os.Cohe
>> 
>> Hi.   I am  curious what  people use  to emulate  terminals under
>> coherent.  I  need to emulate a vt*** or  a wyse** style terminal
>> to  connect  to the  systems  that  I use.   I  have tried  using
>> screen's   vt100,  but   this   didn't  work   very  well.    Any
>> suggestions/comments?
>>
I  use  the  "iScreen"  package  posted  on  mwc  under  the  386
directory.   In  addition  to  a  useable  vt100,  it  implements
multiple remote  terminal sessions on a  single serial link, much
as the virtual terminal  facility  works  locally.  I use iScreen
to communicate with the mainframes at work without real problems.
I  think  some  of  the  defaults  chosen  for  representing  the
character set  might have been done  differently, but considering
how I  abuse it, it seems  to work OK.  What  isn't it doing that
you need?
-
my particular abuse of emulations <G>:
me <==> VAX/VMS-DecNet/SNA <==> MVS/ESA-VTAM/3270-ROSCOE|TSO|SAR
-
Is this what you were using?
 390664 Wed Oct 28 11:20 /x/usr/public/coherent/screen.tar.Z
+==========================================================+
|| Richard Scranton  614-279-9719  3/12/24 8N1 "newuser"  ||
|| * Cat fur expands to fill all available disk drives. * ||
+=====[User Hostile from Columbus, Oh]====[Coherent 386]===+

--  
Richard Scranton via cmhGate - Net 226 fido<=>uucp gateway Col, OH
UUCP: ...!n8emr!bluemoon!cmhgate!430!Richard.Scranton
INET: Richard.Scranton@f430.n226.z1.FIDONET.ORG
From: fredex@fcshome.UUCP (fred smith)
Newsgroups: comp.os.coherent
Subject: Re: Com port troubles..very confusing..
Date: 17 Nov 92 08:25:51 GMT
Organization: What?!? Absolutely none!
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL5


 (mauritz_c@spcvxb.spc.edu) wrote:
: I'm getting very frustrated with my system. :-)  Suddenly, without
: any apparent reason, my uucico cannot dial out anymore.  I have
: cranked up the debug level and I can only get it to say "line problem".
: I remembered in the past that I got this error when all of the baud
: rates in the various config files didn't agree.  However, this should
: not be the case as I haven't changed anything and it worked yesterday!
: 
: When I invoke uucico, it:
: 
: disables the port
: sends the init string to the modem
: immediately (1 second later) enables the port again
: says that I have a "line problem"
: Abnormal completion
: 
Didja check the permissions on the ports, as well as all the uucp
configuration files? When I first set up 3.2.1 I had a similar weird
problem, and it turned out I didn't have all the permissions right.

: 
Didja check the permissions on the ports, as well as all the uucp
configuration files? When I first set up 3.2.1 I had a similar weird
problem, and it turned out I didn't have all the permissions right.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 .----   Fred Smith    /                Office: 508-663-2524|Home: 617-438-5471
( /__  ,__.   __   __ /  __   : /                  fredex%fcshome@merk.merk.com
 /    /  /   /__) /  /  /__) .+'                   or uunet!merk!fcshome!fredex
/    /  (__ (___ (__(_ (___ / :__   BIX: fredex    or    primerd!fcshome!fredex  
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: udo@umunk.GUN.de (Udo Munk)
Newsgroups: comp.os.coherent
Distribution: world
Subject: Re: MGR (was Re: Are we dead??)
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL7]
Organization: Udo Munk's private BBS
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 92 03:19:57 GMT

H.C. Pulley (hcp@csx.cciw.ca) wrote:
: This sounds like a great idea to me too.  Where can the source code for MGR be
: found?  I have found the sources for MGR under linux everywhere and for minix
: too, but I cannot find the general distribution.  I will start looking at the
: linux MGR sources tonight.  If someone knows of a better set of sources, please
: let me know.

I have the general distribution here, and I've done some work on the
Makefile and the sources of the window manager. Unfortunately it's
a 950KB compressed tar archive, a little to much to mail it several times.
I would suggest you mail me your snail mail address Harry, and I'll mail
it on a disk to you.

: I guess we will all need to write drivers for our different video cards unless
: we want to stick with a set of standard modes.  What do people think about the
: video modes we should use?  I for one would like 640x480x16 standard VGA.  This
: is the first one I will try to write.

I'm running an Herkules MDA, maybe it could be used with that to.

: Once I have looked at the source (and you can too!) we should discuss how it
: might be parcelled out if others want to help.  It looks big enough that a 
: group effort would be beneficial (at least it should speed things up a little).
: Anyone else want to take a crack at MGR?

It could be spitted up to the window manager, graphics drivers, mouse drivers
and applications.

: A mouse driver for Microsoft Mouse is listed as one of the drivers already 
: included in the device driver kit.  Thus we shouldn't need to write that unless
: people have wierd mice. (Most mice are Microsoft Mouse compatible.)

Yes but for a bus mouse and I have a serial mouse.

: I have not looked at the source for MGR yet, but since it has been ported to 
: Minix386, I assume it doesn't need any sockets or TCP/IP?

It doesn't use networking, the window manager and the application clients
must run one the same system.
--
Udo Munk     | voice:      +49 2131 275348             | uucp: +49 2131 278869
Oberstr. 21  | mail :      udo@umunk.GUN.de            |     2400/1200/300 8N1
4040 Neuss 1 | ...!{mcshh,smurf,unido}!easix!umunk!udo | MYNAME=bbsuser
Fed. Rep. of | CompuServe: 100021,2515                 | login: uucp
Germany      | first get /usr/spool/uucppublic/info    | pwd:   public
From: GREGL@DELPHI.COM (Greg Law)
Newsgroups: comp.os.coherent
Subject: Re: various questions
Date: 18 Nov 92 05:47:39 GMT
Reply-To: "Coherent operating system" <COHERENT@indycms.bitnet>

Udo Munk asks about a portable version of Lint...

The only version of I'm aware of is available from Gimple Software.
You can purchase PC-Lint and PC-Lint/386 for DOS and FlexeLint for
some other environments such as OS-9/68000 for about $100, although
some versions may be about $200. If Gimple doesn't have binaries for
the particular operating system you want, you can purchase shrouded
source code and port it yourself. You can also obtain a license to
sell the ported versions, and I believe Gimple also sells some ported
versions -- I mean those that were ported by others. I assume this is
case because Gimple advertises the OS-9/68000 version (or at least mentions
this version is available) and I know it was ported by another party.
For more information, contact:

	Gimpel Software
	3207 Hogarth Lane
	Collegeville, PA 19426
	(215) 584-4261 (voice)
	(215) 584-4266 (fax)

By the way, it is spelled G-i-m-p-e-l. I have PC-Lint/386 and FlexeLint
for OS-9/68000 sitting in front of me and both are exceptional products.
I also have PC-Lint integrated with Borland C++ 3.1's IDE and you can't
really tell PC-Lint isn't a standard part of the IDE. :-)

	-- Greg
Newsgroups: comp.os.coherent
From: deelw@zeus.franklin.edu (William Deel)
Subject: VI problem using it on remote machine
Organization: Franklin University (Columbus, OH)
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 1992 22:37:23 GMT


When i connect to a remote machine, and i want to edit a file using vi
my screen blanks out. I'm using ckermit as a communications package.
My modem does not disconnect and i know that i am still communicating
with the system because i can do :q! and then logout but nothing will
echo on screen.
Can anyone help me?

Thank you in advance.
William /DAN/iel Deel
Newsgroups: comp.os.coherent
Subject: Re: Tcl to replacement most of /bin & /usr/bin (was: Tcl on Linux
From: magus@drktowr.chi.il.us (Louis Giliberto)
Newsgroups: comp.os.coherent
Subject: Re: vn won't save files
Date: 17 Nov 92 07:20:06 GMT
Organization: DarkTower Software
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL6]

John D. Boggs (jboggs@news.weeg.uiowa.edu) wrote:
: Since both permissions are the same, it seems unlikely to me that it
: would be a permission problem.  Any suggestions?  Anyone else had this
: problem and solved it?

Yeah, I solved it.  I use w-news and tin.  tass is OK, but the other
one is a dog, IMHO.

Seriously, I had the same problem and gave up since vn is not that
great of a reader.  Tass is better, and tin is even more better (if
you have 4.0).

-Louis
--
---------------------------------------------------------
 Louis J. Giliberto, Jr.   ! magus@drktowr.chi.il.us
   -sysadmin drktowr       ! lgilibe@orion.it.luc.edu
  Chicago, IL  USA         ! 
---------------------------------------------------------
From: udo@umunk.GUN.de (Udo Munk)
Newsgroups: comp.os.coherent
Subject: Re: What type of flow control?
Date: 15 Nov 92 17:02:31 GMT
Organization: Udo Munk's private BBS
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL6]

Dan Simoes (dans@danix.UUCP) wrote:
: 
: Anyone know what type of flow ctrl Coh uses?
: 
: My Trailblazer manual lists the following:
: 
: S58=0 no flow control
:    =1 RTS/CTS flow control in half duplex mode
:    =2 RTS/CTS  "    "      "  full duplex mode
:    =3 XON/XOFF "    "
:    =4 Both RTS/CTS and XON/XOFF is used
:    =5 ENQ/ACK  flow control
:    =6 Both ENQ/ACK and XON/XOFF
:    =7 Transparent XON/XOFF is used

If you're using the 'f' devices set up the modem to use RTS/CTS flow
control full duplex mode. If not use XON/XOFF flow control.
--
Udo Munk     | voice:      +49 2131 275348             | uucp: +49 2131 278869
Oberstr. 21  | mail :      udo@umunk.GUN.de            |     2400/1200/300 8N1
4040 Neuss 1 | ...!{mcshh,smurf,unido}!easix!umunk!udo | MYNAME=bbsuser
Fed. Rep. of | CompuServe: 100021,2515                 | login: uucp
Germany      | first get /usr/spool/uucppublic/info    | pwd:   public
From: h235_003@ccvax.ucd.ie (ARE WE HAVING FUN YET)
Newsgroups: comp.os.coherent
Subject: Coherent News Software
Date: 16 Nov 92 12:22:21 GMT
Organization: University College Dublin


I'm hoping to set up a news feed using Coherent 4.0.0 - I' (mailer, news-
reader - SLIP / UUCP, etc)

Ronan Mullally
(H235_003@ccvax.ucd.ie)
From: kkress@phent.UUCP (Kenneth R. Kress)
Newsgroups: comp.os.coherent
Distribution: world
Subject: Coherent quibbles
Keywords: coherent errors ram awk stty ls
Organization: That's Entertainment BBS
Date: Mon, 23 Nov 92 01:42:05 +0100


	 _______________________________________________________
	| I discovered my /etc/timezone was messed up and	|
	| this may have halted dissemination of some of		|
	| my posts. If this is a repeat, I apologize.		|
	 -------------------------------------------------------

Here are a few of my quibbles. These are minor points not worth
devoting an individual post to, so I thought I'd combine them and get
the whining out of my system.
	A. Coh v.4.0 manual, p. 996 (also true of Coh386):
	[!xyz] - Exclude characters xyz from the string search.

ls ../db/e.*[!-i] produces:
../db/e.dates-i
../db/e.descs-i
../db/e.descs.junk-i
../db/e.hours-i
../db/e.prices-i
../db/e.telnos-i
../db/e.types-i
../db/e.vnums-i

	B. Coh r.4.0 Releaes Notes, p. 61:
	The command stty now requires redirection of stdin instead of
	stdout.

But /bin/modeminit ships under 4.0 with:

# /usr/bin/modeminit 9/5/91
# Initialize modem, typically called from /etc/rc.
# This example initializes a Hayes-compatible modem for echo off, autoanswer.
# The sleep is required to keep the desired baud rate for the cat command.

DEV=/dev/modem
BAUD=2400
sleep 2 >$DEV&
stty $BAUD >$DEV
cat >$DEV <<\!
AT E0 V0 Q1 S0=1
!

# end of /usr/bin/modeminit

	C. In "Sed & Awk" (O'Reilly & Associates, Inc., 1991), p. 263:
	There are fixed limits within any awk implementation.
	The only trouble is that the documentation seldom reports them.
	Figure 10-1 lists the limitations as described in "The AWK
	Programming Language."
	...
	Characters per input record 	3000
	Characters per output record	3000
	Characters per field		1024
	...

In Coherent, it's 399! This limitation also applies to sort and grep!
This has a negative impact on /rdb, which uses Coherent's awk and sort
for its 'row' command.

	D. If you want to install a ramdisk under Coh 4.0, the manual
	says (p. 949):
	The next example replaces the default /dev/ram0 with a one-
	megabyte device containing a COHERENT file system. ...
		rm /dev/ram0
		/etc/mknod /dev/ram0 b 8 136
		/etc/mknod /dev/rram0 c 8 136
		...

But, if you do this, you will have created a filesystem on ram1, not ram0
and lots of things will break. The minor number should be 16, not 136.

I'm sure I've more quibbles stored somewhere around here, but the
trouble with quibbles is you can't always put your hands on them when
you want them.
				Ken.
===================================================================
	Ken Kress, Glenside, PA * dsinc!phent!kkress 
The moment one commits oneself then Providence moves too.
			W.H. Murray, "Scottish Himalayan Expedition
-------------------------------------------------------------------
From: jmcmahon@cwis.unomaha.edu (Jim McMahon)
Subject: fdisk failure on install
Keywords: Coherent fdisk fail
Organization: University of Nebraska at Omaha
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 1992 02:04:17 GMT


I am the proud new owner of Coherent 4.01a, but I can't get it installed. I
believe the problem is in talking to my hard drive, but I'm including any
other information that I think might be pertinent.

I have a Gateway 2000 386/20 with 4 Mg ram, two floppies (5 1/4 & 3 1/2) and
an RLL 65 Mg hard drive.  The bus type is ISA/AT/Classic bus.

I believe that the hard drive is a MicroScience HH-1060.  According to my DOS 
system, the drive has 1024 cyclinders, 5 heads, and 26 sectors/track.  Before
attempting to install, I backed up and ran DOS FDISK, setting one active DOS
partition of 35 Mg, and leaving the rest unused.  (There was no option to
create a non-DOS partition).  I then re-installed DOS and everything was fine.

I was able to begin the installation by booting from the Coherent boot floppy
in drive A, and ran through the beginning of the setup OK.  After it asked if
I wanted to use the Coherent master bootstrap, I said "yes".  I had also told
it to use normal polling, since that was what it suggested I do unless I had
timeout errors.

Coherent seemed to detect my hard drive OK, because it told me that:

[BEGIN QUOTE]

 According to your computer system:

 Drive 0 has 1024 cyclinders, 5 heads, and 26 sectors per track
 It contains:
   1024 cyclinders of 66560 bytes each,
   5120 tracks of 13312 bytes each,
   133120 sectors of 512 bytes each,
 or a total of 68157440 bytes (68.16 megabytes).

 Do you think the above values are correct [y or n]? y
 
 at0:TO
 at0:TO
 at0:TO
 at0:TO
 at0:TO
 at0:TO
 at0x: bno=0 head=0 cyl=0 <Write Fault> retrying ...
 at0:TO 
 at0x: bno=0 head=0 cyl=0 <Write Fault> retrying ...
 at0:TO 
 at0x: bno=0 head=0 cyl=0 <Write Fault>
 /etc/fdisk: read error on "/dev/at0x"
 /etc/build: command "/etc/fdisk -cBb /conf/mboot /dev/at0x" failed
 
 Installation aborted before completion.
 The COHERENT system initialiation failed, please reboot and try again.
 #
  
[END QUOTE]

I did try again, but the same thing happened.  I cannot find anything in
the installation instructions that addresses this problem, so I am posting
here and sending a copy to the Mark Williams Company.  Any help at all would
certainly be appreciated.  I'm hoping that this is a relatively minor problem.

Ideas I have (though I'm not too bright) are:

  ** Low-level format my hard drive and try again
  ** Not use the Coherent master boot
  ** Use the alternate polling (really getting out of my depth here!)
  ** Tell the bootstrap that it is wrong about my hard drive data
     - why did it show 5120 tracks instead of 512 ?
     
Any ideas anyone ?
--
Jim McMahon 
jmcmahon@cwis.unomaha.edu or 
sacosxoxc@sacemnet.af.mil
Being ordinary and nothing special is a full-time job.