HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: Monty Solomon <monty%roscom@think.com>
Subject: Re: Files in my home directory, and other ruminations
Reply-To: Monty Solomon <roscom!monty@think.com>
Organization: Proponent
Date: Sun, 12 Apr 1992 04:45:24 GMT

In article <1992Apr11.032459.1552@asw.com> jayson@asw.com (Jayson Adams)  
writes:
> I think this is exactly the problem Sam is talking about.  Why would  
> someone in expert mode want to see a bunch of %$&# dot files in their home  
> folder?  Sam has the right idea:  create the folder ~/Library/AppName and  
> place whatever crud your app needs to run in there.  A dot file in a  
> user's Library folder is at least better than a dot file in a home folder  
> (most people don't go to their Library folders very much, but they do go  
> to their home a hell of a lot).
> 
> Please, app writers:  no more dot files in home folders!  Thank you.

From the NeXT UI Guidelines:

Creating Unrequested Files and Folders


Applications sometimes need to create files and folders for a user, other than  
as the result of a Save command.


If the files are associated with a particular document, they should be grouped  
with that document and placed in a file package.


Otherwise, where the files are located and what they're named depends on  
whether the user needs to have direct access to them:


 	If the user never needs to get at the files or folders independently of  
using the application that creates them, they should be placed in the user's  
home folder but preceded by a dot prefix so they stay hidden from view.  If an  
application needs to create many such files, it should put them in its own  
folder, similar to the .NeXT folder.


 	If the user might sometimes need to get at the files or folders  
independently of the application that creates them (for example, template  
files), they should be placed in the user's home folder, but only after the  
user has been informed that they're being created.  If possible, the panel that  
conveys this information should give the user the opportunity to choose another  
name and location for the file or folder.


The guiding principle here is that the user's home folder belongs to the user.   
An application should not leave anything there that belongs to it, not to the  
user.  And when creating something that the user must live with, it should at  
least let the user know.
-- 
# Monty Solomon / PO Box 2486 / Framingham, MA  01701-0405
# monty%roscom@think.com
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.misc
From: esky@marathon.cs.ucla.edu (Eskandar Ensafi)
Subject: Final Word on 88110, 96002, and US Robotics Modems
Keywords: 88110 96002 56001 USR US Robotics modem
Reply-To: esky@mayhem.icsl.ucla.edu
Organization: UCLA, Computer Science Department
Date: Fri, 17 Apr 92 16:53:52 GMT

Hi,

Here is a summary of the information I received about the 88110, 96002, and USR  
Courier v.32bis:

1) No information on MFLOPS rating of 88110 -- we only know that it
   processes up to 100 MIPS, and about 75 MIPS on average.
2) Sorry, the 96002 is NOT binary-compatible with the 56001.  But NeXT
   should at least keep the 56001 (maybe at a faster clock speed) if
   they intend to build a RISC machine -- many users bought NeXTs for the
   integrated DSP.
3) Buy the USR Courier v.32bis -- it's a great modem.  The NeXT will
   probable never get up to 57.6bps (modem to computer), but who ever
   does achieve these high rates anyway?

- Eskandar
  (esky@mayhem.icsl.ucla.edu)
  (esky@marathon.cs.ucla.edu)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.misc
From: jiro@shaman.com (Jiro Nakamura)
Subject: Re: Chinese on the NeXT?
Organization: Shaman Consulting
Date: Fri, 10 Apr 1992 06:41:18 GMT

In article <1992Apr9.061650.24829@Happy-Man.com> irving@Happy-Man.com  
(Irving_Wolfe) writes:
> Can anyone give me information about the ability or lack thereof,
> of NeXTs to handle Chinese characters, preferably in documents with
> mixed Chinese and English text?

No luck right onw!  I expect Canon is working on Hangul, but the Chinese  
market for NeXT is so small as to be worthless (unless they sell royal in  
Hong Kong and Singapore (hi Bill!)).   

Chinese is non-trivial, even more Kanji than Japanese and Korean and a  
lack of a real standard input system. But then again, NeXT uses Unicode,  
so it isn't out of the question. THe question is, does Adobe or anyone  
else sell Chinese kanji PS faces?

If it is short and undiscerning people are reading it, you might try to  
use 2.1-J (Japanese). A lot of Kanji's are the same or slightly  
different.....


	- Jiro ==  tsugi + rou == "next"  + "man" == NeXTman!   ;-)
-- 
Jiro Nakamura				jiro@shaman.com (NeXTmail)
NeXTwatch / Technical Editor		76711,542 (CIS)
The Shaman Group			+1 607 277-1440 (Voice/Fax)
From: ddj@zardoz.club.cc.cmu.edu (Doug DeJulio)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.misc
Subject: Re: WRI 1-800 # & MMA 2.0.4
Date: 10 Apr 92 14:32:53 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: The Castle Anthrax

In article <1992Apr10.023306.7429@cs.rose-hulman.edu> snyderre@NeXTwork.Rose-Hulman.Edu (Robert E. Snyder) writes:
>When I called Wolfram Research, via their normal phone number, non 1-800-  
>I got the run around quite a bit.  I then finally got to some one in the  
>correct department. (which I'm not sure what it was)  They asked me if I  
>had any problems with the MMA I was using at current.  I said no, but I  
>wanted the new MMA so I could just load the 'thin kernal' to save my self  
>time etc.  (I thought it was a valid reason)  They told me that I had to  
>have something wrong with the program and just because I wanted to save  
>myself time, that was not good enough to warrant a new copy of MMA  
>2.0.4.5.  Anyway, thought you guys might like to know.  If I find  
>something wrong I shall call back, but I guess I won't waste my time or my  
>phone bill on trying to make up a reason to get a new version.

A while back I bugged Wolfram about a bunch of files that were missing
with my Mathematica distribution (the stuff to render graphics on
graphic terminals).  They sent me the files.  I asked if I could share
those files with other licensed owners of Mathematica, and Wolfram
said *yes*.

So, if I can prove to someone that I have Mathematica 2.0.0 on my
machine, is it kosher for me to just copy 2.0.4?  Sounds like it'd
save headaches all around.
-- 
Doug DeJulio
ddj@zardoz.club.cc.cmu.edu (NeXT mail, AMS/ATK mail, and MIME mail welcome)
From: sunthej@alleg.edu (Jake)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.misc
Subject: Re: Mime
Date: 14 Apr 92 12:55:39 GMT
Organization: Allegheny College

In article <1992Apr14.021700.25520@research.canon.oz.au>  
andy@research.canon.oz.au (Andy Newman) writes:
> In article <1992Apr12.225527.5132@pellns.alleg.edu> sunthej@alleg.edu  
(Jake) writes:
> >	However, I think your "object lesson" is a failed one.  If people  
> >were posting to the SUN, AT&T, [insert other computer brand here]  
> >newsgroup, yes, the posting of an RTF post would be as assinine as  
yours  
> >was.  The point, as I see it, is that this group is intended for NeXT  
> >specific information, and the use of a NeXT specific formating language  
> >seems far more appropriate then yours.
> 
> Why? Too many people, yourself included, are assuming that only NeXT
> users read the NeXT news groups. Do you read the Mac newsgroups for
> instance? Should they post a Mac specific format? No!

	No actually, I said that we should NOT post RTF in the vast  
majority of cases, specificly because non-NeXT users DO and SHOULD read  
this News Group (if you'ld bother reading the entire post).  It's  
completely pointless to stick a picture of your dog in your .sig file.   
What I'm saying is that there are times where a message is only of  
interest to NeXT users (ie new icon).  In those cases, it's far more  
appropriate to send it out RTF then to send it out in another format (save  
maybe uuencode).
	Please don't quote my posts so blatently out of context.

						Jake
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.misc
From: nathan@laplace.biology.yale.edu (Nathan F. Janette)
Subject: Re: NewsGroup Causes NewsGrazer to crash
Reply-To: nathan@laplace.biology.yale.edu
Organization: Yale University, Department of Computer Science, New Haven, CT
Date: Tue, 14 Apr 1992 22:20:01 GMT

In article <1992Apr15.035159.813@prim.uucp> dave@prim.uucp (Dave Griffiths)  
writes:
> >I also hope that NeXT has not given exclusive rights to the source code to  
> >any specific developer because this will violate the level playing ground  
> >principle. 
> 
> But surely it's obvious why NeXT won't release the source of NewsGrazer?
> It's authour, Jayson Adams, has left and set up his own company. They are
> rumoured to be working on their *own* News reader

Sorry, but I received email from Jayson Adams to the effect that NeXT
wouldn't release the rights to the code to him.

--
Nathan Janette		"I'm a NeXTstep man,
Dept MB&B, Yale Univ	 I'm a NeXTcube guy"
New Haven, CT
nathan@laplace.biology.yale.edu (NeXT)

Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.misc
From: m@crito.Stanford.EDU (M Carling)
Subject: Re: Old Cube as a diskless station?
Organization: DSG, Stanford University
Date: Thu, 9 Apr 92 00:59:17 GMT

In article <1992Apr5.013526.5274@cube.handheld.com> Jim De Arras  
<jmd@banana.handheld.com> writes:
> In article <1992Apr4.032400.8520@leland.Stanford.EDU>  
m@crito.Stanford.EDU (M
> Carling) writes:
> >A better solution would be to get a hard disk for the cube. A 105MB  
disk  
> >costs about $250.
> 
> Where?!  And $0 beats $250.

Look in the back of MacWeek.

M Carling
Director, Bay Area NeXT Group
--

Bill Clinton lied to his wife. Can his country trust him?
George Bush lied to his country. Can his wife trust him?
From: simsong (Simson L. Garfinkel)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.misc
Subject: Re: NeXT Ad Sighting... (was: Re: NeXT at SunWorld Expo!)
Date: 5 Apr 92 13:20:08 GMT
Article-I.D.: next.1992Apr5.132008.8214
Reply-To: simsong@next.cambridge.ma.us
Organization: NeXTWORLD Magazine

In article <1992Apr3.154000.25775@bmw.mayo.edu> brunkhorst@mayo.edu (Geoff  
Brunkhorst) writes:
> btw, SunWorld is published by the same company as NeXTworld, and supposedly
> shares offices with same in S.F.
> 

NeXTWORLD does not "share offices" with SunWorld, although we are both on the  
4th floor of the building at 501 Second Street.

ComputerWorld, MacWorld, Publish, and many other magazines are also published  
by the same company.

-- 

................................................................simson
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.misc
From: dlisoski@bluff.galcit.caltech.edu (Derek L. Lisoski)
Subject: Wither HippoDraw?
Reply-To: dlisoski@cco.caltech.edu
Organization: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena
Distribution: na
Date: Thu, 16 Apr 1992 06:34:24 GMT

A while back there was some talk about a histogram plotting program named, I  
believe, HippoDraw. Neither Archie nor myself can find this program...does  
anybody know where or if it still exists?
Thanks
derek (dlisoski@cco.caltech.edu)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.misc
From: Jim De Arras <jmd@banana.handheld.com>
Subject: Re: Is the NeXT Computer DEAD? (Response to SunWorld NeXT review)
Organization: Hand Held Products, Inc.
Date: Fri, 10 Apr 1992 12:37:20 GMT

In article <1992Apr5.161700.8486@next.cambridge.ma.us> simsong (Simson L.
Garfinkel) writes:
>I'm surprised that you say that 12-bit color is not satisfactory, as you get  
>more colors on the screen than with an 8-bit color map.
>
>I've spoken with people at the MIT Media Lab about  the NeXTstation Color,  
>including some professional animators.  Much to their surprise, they told me, 

>12=bit color is good enough so that you really can't see the difference.  This
 
>is probably due to PostScript's superior rendering capabilities.
>
>Have you actually looked at a 12-bit color system, or are you just saying that
 
>it is not satisfactory because of dogma?
>-- 
>
>.................................................................simson
>
I'm entering this in mid-stream, and hence, out of context, however, as an
owner of a NeXT dimension, I can say that the image IS better than the Color
station.  Not a world of difference, but more 'depth'.  The steps are yet
visible across subtle shade changes on a color station, they are all but
invisible on a ND.  I studied both, in detail, at NeXTWorld.

Jim De Arras
From: wave@waits.media.mit.edu (Michael B. Johnson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.misc
Subject: Re: List of poor educational dealers (MIT)
Date: 8 Apr 92 00:58:58 GMT
Organization: MIT Media Laboratory

Daniel K Hartman writes
> I'm afraid I have to disagree about MIT being a god educational dealer.
> They do seem to promote the NeXT line, altough not anymore that anyother  
line,
> though this is questionable.
> 
> My main problem is that they seem very disorganied.
> 
> <couple of examples deleted>

> also, many people I have talked seem to have bad impressions of the MIT
> Microcomputer center at worst, and neutral at best. No one I know has
> actively praised them, but then again, maybe I just don't get out enough.
> 8-) 8-)
> 
> Of course, this may just be all a fluke, how about any other MIT students'
> experiences?
> 

Well, I must concur.  My experiences have either been neutral (i.e. they did  
what I would have expected) or negative (less than I would have expected).   
Never have they exceeded my expectations (unlike, let's say Stone Design or  
HSD).  The neutral experiences have been when I first bought a NeXTStation for  
personal use last year.  I walked in and walked out with the machine.  Went  
quite smoothly.

Just the other day, I needed a long monitor cable, they had them in stock. I  
went in and walked out with the cable.

Fine.

The negative experiences center around the fact that there seems to be only one  
person authorized to do any thing at all with the NeXT at the MIT MicroComputer  
Center.  His name is Jafar, and he's a reasonable enough person.  He's very  
hard to get a hold of, though, and no one else will help you.  

For example, a few months ago I tried to get the technical documentation set.   
I talked to Jafar, he said it would be a special order, and could I call him  
back in a day or two.  After about three weeks, over a dozen phone calls (most  
of which were never returned), a couple of e-mail messages (none of which was  
returned), it basically came down to the fact that I should wait until  
Addison-Wesley published the doc and buy it from them. Note that I didn't get  
this info from Jafar, I figured it out myself when I was over at Quantum books  
looking for any NeXT books they had and they mentioned that they were expecting  
the NeXT Technical Documentation set in two months.  *I* told Jafar (who didn't  
know). 

That experience, and a few others like it, don't lead me to believe the MIT  
Microcomputer Center or Jafar is out to get anybody - it's just that they're  
VERY disorganized, and the current method (all NeXT stuff goes through Jafar)  
doesn't work.  If he was more available, if he always returned calls and  
e-mail, I would think differently, but he doesn't.

Just another data point...

--

-->  Michael B. Johnson
-->  MIT Media Lab      --  Computer Graphics & Animation Group
-->  (617) 253-0663     --  wave@media-lab.media.mit.edu
-->  NeXT Mail accepted at  wave@waits.media.mit.edu
From: jmann@vineland.pubs.stratus.com (Jim Mann)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.misc
Subject: Re: New Slogan?
Date: 15 Apr 92 17:41:19 GMT
Reply-To: jmann@vineland.pubs.stratus.com

In article <GUMBY.92Apr15072800@Cygnus.COM> gumby@Cygnus.COM (David V.  
Wallace) writes:
> I heard a talk from Chairman Steve recently, in which he said that
> Windows was the real target of NeXTStep x86.  Which suggests to me the
> following slogan:
> 
> 		   NeXTStep: Curtains for Windows!

Not at $1000 a pop it isn't.  (And $1000 is a low end, seeing that
you need a high end 486 to run the thing.)


--
Jim Mann                                       
jmann@vineland.pubs.stratus.com 
Stratus Computer
From: a10j102@titan.ucc.umass.edu (Matt Kimmel)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.misc
Subject: Re: NeXT info II
Date: 6 Apr 92 15:41:08 GMT
Organization: University of Massachusetts, Amherst

In article <1992Apr5.205321.2328@cubetech.com> andrew@cubetech.com writes:
>In article <sknapp.702374069@vincent1.iastate.edu> sknapp@iastate.edu (Steven  
>M. Knapp) writes:
>>  3: Printers. The NeXT lazer is GREAT, hooking anything else up to it is an
>>  insult. Tho if I EVER were to get one (A big and growing dream!) could I '
>>  hook
>>  a HP DeskJet 500 up to it? W/ NS3.0? How does it work? Quirky? Does that 
>>  take
>>  up another serial port? Or could it go on the lazer spot?
>
>Yes, a DeskJet will work fine.  There are commercial and shareware drivers for  
>it and NS-3.0 will have better support.  I have not used one on a NeXT, but  
>reports from the Net are positive.  Nothing quite beats the NeXT laser printer.   
>You can only hook up the DJ to the serial ports.  NeXT's printer port is  
>proprietary and only works with their printers.

Where are these commercial and shareware DJ drivers available?  I could
definitely use one.

-Matt
-- 
Matt Kimmel            University of Massachusetts              Amherst, MA

Internet: a10j102@titan.ucc.umass.edu
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.misc
From: dahead00@nx17.mik.uky.edu (Duval A. Headley II)
Subject: gl viewer for the next
Organization: University Of Kentucky, Dept. of Math Sciences
Date: Thu, 16 Apr 1992 19:38:04 GMT
X-Bytes: 

I am working on a NeXTstation color that can run X, xView, and co-Xist
I am trying to find a viewer for .gl files that will run on the NeXT.
I would also like to find a program that will zip/unzip .zip DOS files.
I have tried to use xgrasp.1.7d and xviewgl_v1.1 with this result:

DAH nx17> ls
total 774
   3 ./                   59 exec.c               32 readfiles.c
   1 ../                  12 fades.c               2 strdup.c
   4 .dir.tiff            12 gif.c                 2 usleep.c
   1 Imakefile             8 glib.c              320 xgrasp.1.7d.tar
   1 Makefile              2 glib.man            128 xgrasp.1.7d.tar.Z
  10 Makefile.ow           6 grasp.h               6 xgrasp.c
   3 README                7 parser.c              2 xgrasp.man
 152 docs                  1 patchlevel.h
DAH nx17> make
cc -O -c xgrasp.c
cc -O -c parser.c
cc -O -c exec.c
cc -O -c readfiles.c
readfiles.c: In function readimage:
readfiles.c:918: warning: argument passing between incompatible pointer  
types
readfiles.c: In function readpcximage:
readfiles.c:1108: warning: argument passing between incompatible pointer  
types
cc -O -c gif.c
gif.c: In function readgifimage:
gif.c:185: warning: argument passing between incompatible pointer types
gif.c:400: warning: argument passing between incompatible pointer types
cc -O -c fades.c
cc -O -c usleep.c
cc -O -c strdup.c
cc -o xgrasp xgrasp.o parser.o exec.o readfiles.o gif.o fades.o usleep.o  
strdup.o -L/usr/local/X11R4/usr/lib/X11 -lX11 -lm
/bin/ld: Undefined symbols:
__XErrorFunction
__XIOErrorFunction
__Xdebug
__XHeadOfDisplayList
__qfree
*** Exit 1
Stop.


Any suggestions????  No flames please:-]
From: eht@cs.cmu.edu (Eric Thayer)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.misc
Subject: Re: DSP: It's about time for the 96002
Date: 17 Apr 92 00:16:15 GMT
Organization: School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon

In article <1992Apr16.231453.25321@cs.ubc.ca> sritchie@cs.ubc.ca (Stuart  
Ritchie) writes:
> I speculate that special purpose onboard processors like the DSP
> will give way to fast and inexpensive general purpose processors.
> The DSP is an intermediate stage until we get a general purpose
> CPU that can do everything.

I truly hope this is the case, however, people have been saying this for some  
time now (since the early 80's) and it still hasn't come to pass.  Seems that  
as soon as the technology exists to speed up a general purpose processor, it is  
applied to DSP's as well.  So, the DSP always keeps its edge for what it is  
supposed to do.

What would be even more enabling would be for Mach to have real-time scheduling  
algorithms that would allow real-time tasks to be scheduled on some set of  
processors (maybe one) and then let the non real-time stuff duke it out on  
whatever is left.  At least give people the option to run in this way.

This way, you could use rate monotonic analysis to help set the priorities on  
the real-time tasks and then let Mach handle the scheduling.  This would be  
truly cool.

..eric
From: h2o@cup.portal.com (Miljenko - Horvat)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.misc
Subject: Re: The Neuron thread
Date: 9 Apr 92 20:53:20 GMT
  <1992Apr6.041923.4474@utstat.uucp>
Organization: The Portal System (TM)

From what I read in various Neuron related posts it seems that it 
is by now a well recognized fact that 96+'s don't work. That makes 
me feel better since I thought I was just stupid and unable to figure 
it out. On the other hand it makes me mad as hell at the company and 
think they have to get nailed for this. They should watch it since I/m 
not that far from Princeton and one day in a fit of rage I just 
might drive over .....
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.misc
From: andrew@cubetech.com (Andrew Loewenstern)
Subject: Re: NeXTcube Turbo SIMM Slots
Reply-To: andrew@cubetech.com
Date: Wed, 8 Apr 1992 06:43:13 GMT

In article <1992Apr7.151703.9710@cs.yale.edu> nathan@laplace.biology.yale.edu  
(Nathan F. Janette) writes:

>  I still think it's a stingy choice to only use four SIMM slots
>  for the cube Turbo board.  Since the primary choice, economically
>  speaking, would be 4 and 8 MB SIMMs at this time, the effective
>  max RAM is 32 MB, which is a (another) step backward for the new
>  board.


I think so too, but there were a lot of considerations...   Less slots mean  
faster accesses and less cost.  The disadvantages will eventually go away once  
fatter simms become more mainstream.


andrew
-- 
andrew@cubetech.com
Andrew Loewenstern            |  "listen: there's a hell of a good universe
Cube Technologies, Inc.       |   next door; let's go." --- e.e. cummings
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.misc
From: scotty@gagetalker.com (Scott Turner)
Subject: Re: NeXT's RISC Workstation
Organization: L5 Computing
Date: Wed, 15 Apr 1992 09:27:32 GMT

In article <1614@ltb.ltb.bso.nl> wierda@ltb.ltb.bso.nl (Gerben Wierda) writes:
|> 
|> Poor NeXT... Any new announcement hurts current sales. I think they hoped to
|> keep this secret until 8/92. It all depends on price strategy for NRW and
|> Turbo machines of course.

And not just NeXT. I hear that SoftPC has hit a sales calm over the belief
that the current 2.0 version is useless and the 3.0 version is the one to
have.

Alot of this is based on the fact that graphics speed is horrible. But now
there's a new reason, SoftPC doesn't run Windows 3.1. And as if that wasn't bad  
enough, the lastest versions of Borland's and Microsoft's development
tools don't work either. There's also some new real-world software that
doesn't work either.

Insignia, picture of a company getting slaughtered by new announcements.

Scotty