HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: mdw@cbnewsg.cb.att.com (mark.d.wuest)
Subject: Re: WordPerfect Development Continues
Organization: AT&T
Date: Fri, 21 Aug 1992 12:16:49 GMT

In article <1992Aug20.135444.2322@deepthought.uucp> Neil Greene <deepthought!neil@ms.uky.edu> writes:

>I have not seen too many people happy with Word Perfect on the NeXT just
>yet, although I am sure it has to get better.

Just for the record:  my wife and I use WP on our NeXT all the time,
including putting out a little (1 page) weekly newsletter.  We like it.
She likes it better than the Windows version she uses at work (she says
this one is "easier").  I have never seen any other version.

Mark
-- 
Mark Wuest                            *MY* opinions, not AT&T's!!
mark.wuest@att.com
mdw@cheshire.att.com (NeXT Mail)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.software
From: sherwood@fenris.space.ualberta.ca (Sherwood Botsford)
Subject: Re: Ramdisk coming for NeXT
Organization: University Of Alberta, Edmonton Canada
Distribution: na
Date: Wed, 12 Aug 1992 23:17:05 GMT


Actually, what would be nice would be a hardware ram disk.

Take a reasonable scsi interface, and plug a zillion sockets on it. Set it up  
with various optional cards.

SCSI speeds are slow compared to memory.  Then we could go looting through all  
those dead PC's, and haul out that 250 microsecond ram, and start stuffing  
boards.  


I have seen ads in Digital Review for RAM disks for Vaxen.  They are actually  
slower for sustained througput, but a factor of 3 faster for queued I/O. 

Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.software
From: makarewy@rft31.nas.nasa.gov (Alex Makarewycz)
Subject: Supra Fax modem, Fax driver.   Who is writing it????????
Keywords: fax
Organization: NAS Program, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA
Date: Tue, 18 Aug 92 18:10:16 GMT

Hello -


	I saw a posting last week with the address of the company which is  
writing a FAX driver for the SupraFax modem.  Can some one email me the  
info.


Thanks -
Alex Makarewycz
makarewy@rft31.nas.nasa.gov
From: murphy@gibbs.physics.purdue.edu (William J. Murphy)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.software
Subject: Re: WordPerfect Development Continues
Date: 21 Aug 92 15:48:25 GMT
Organization: Purdue University Physics Department

In article <1992Aug19.194749.2430@cgrg.ohio-state.edu> randyj@randy.oac.osc.edu (Randy Jackson) writes:
>In article <1992Aug18.230341.28375@morrow.stanford.edu>  
>hinds@cmgm.Stanford (Alexander Scott Hinds) writes:
>> I got burned by them when I purchased Amiga Wordperfect.  I won't make  
>
>Burned?  In what way?  And why transfer an Amiga-based policy to (all) 
>other platforms?  

Well, the Amiga version was never current with the DOS version for starters.
They (WP) pulled the plug on development once before the rash of user
complaints got them to continue.  When they did continue, they released a 
marginal upgrade that didn't even constitute a major upgrade.  They never
supported the features of the Amiga that might have made WP-Amiga a success:
Scalable fonts, Different fonts, inclusion of graphics (for a few instances).
WP finally killed the development on the Amiga version for lack of sales.  

You tell me, can NeXT sell more machines than the Amiga?  Not any time soon.
Can WP expect to sell more NeXT-WPs than they did Amiga-WPs (which initially
sold ~100,000 I think)?  I doubt that too.  So, if they lost money on Amiga,
and they are going to lose money on the NeXT, why shouldn't we expect WP
to close-up the development team for the NeXT and go where the bucks are?

Face it, even though NeXT provides a superior development environment, it
has to pay for its WP development in sales.  Windoze will probably continue
to lead the way and drive the needs in Wordprocessing.

Bill Murphy               | Old Home Cottage Cheese:  The only cottage 
			  | cheese that's not made from formaldehyde, 
murphy@physics.purdue.edu | arsenic, or rodent parts.
From: prim!dave@germany.eu.net (Dave Griffiths)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.software
Subject: Re: EquationBuilder - WriteNow - Create, questions, etc.
Date: 22 Aug 92 18:03:41 GMT
Organization: Primitive Software Ltd.

In article <1992Aug21.181022.28400@leland.Stanford.EDU> spagiola@frinext.stanford.edu writes:
>Philip McDunnough writes
>> >4. Can you paste into WriteNow ?
>>
>> The problem with pasting into the current WriteNow is
>> that the EPS baseline information is not carried over.
>> This will, I am told, be fixed in the next version of
>> WriteNow. It is supported in PasteUp. It's an addition to
>> the EPS spec. 
>> 
>
>WP has the same problem.  Will the next version of WP  
>(when/if it comes) also have that fix?
>

What is the "EPS baseline information" and what does it let you do?

Dave Griffiths
From: scott@nic.gac.edu (Scott Hess)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.software
Subject: Re: What is Stuart?
Date: 22 Aug 92 00:55:07 GMT
Organization: Gustavus Adolphus College

In article <1992Aug21.133513.25309@Arco.COM>
	dprcta@inetg1.ARCO.COM (Craig Artley) writes:
>In article <HARDY.92Aug20234311@golem.ps.uci.edu>,
>	hardy@golem.ps.uci.edu (Meinhard E. Mayer (Hardy)) writes:
>> 
>> Stuart is a GREAT shareware VT100 emulator written by Scott Hess.
>> Pick it up, try it out and send Scott your registration!
>> No one should leave his NeXT without it,
>
>What can I do with Stuart that I can't do with Terminal?
>A concise list of the advantages and features might entice
>me into checking it out.

I've posted the official announcement for Stuart2.4's existance on
sonata (in 2.0-release/demos) to the csn.announce group, and it will
most likely make its way to you over the course of the next couple
days.  I'd rather not blather on this group, given the latest
net.outrage over such blathering.  Suffice it to say that if you spend
more than a couple of minutes a day at a command-line, you owe it to
yourself just to give Stuart a look.  The biggest driving force behind
Stuart is that I spend upwards of 6 hours a day at a shell prompt ...
(and the other 6 in Edit :-).

Later,
--
scott hess <shess@ssesco.com>  <Who achieved programmer nirvana on Aug 11th>
12901 Upton Avenue South, #326  Burnsville, MN 55337 (612) 895-1208 Anytime!
   <Text: One Class to bring them all and in the darkness bind them ...>
From: yackd@alaska.et.byu.edu (Don Yacktman)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.software
Subject: New versions of PillBottle, Columns, and PacMan
Keywords: Games, PillBottle, PacMan, Columns, NeXT
Date: 17 Aug 92 23:28:00 GMT
Organization: Brigham Young University, Provo UT USA


Hello to all of you who like to play games on the NeXT!

I have recently placed updated versions of my games in
the submissions directories of nova.cc.purdue.edu and
cs.orst.edu.  Here's a brief description of the changes
to all three (PacMan, Columns, and PillBottle).

If you are a registered user of Columns or PillBottle,
you may request the source code for either one.  If you
requested source already, but have not yet received it,
please send me another e-mail message.  My file that
was tracking who to send the sources to got blasted by
a stupid HPUX trick, and so I need to know where to
send the files!  I will be sending the source as NeXTmail.

As always, direct any questions to me at yackd@wombat.ee.byu.edu.

-----------------------------------------------------------

PacMan:

Bug fix:  The high score system shouldn't crash the game
	anymore when given long names.

-----------------------------------------------------------

Columns:

The same as in PacMan.

-----------------------------------------------------------

PillBottle:

Well, I am finally at a release level that merits
a 1.0.  The graphics are now 2X faster, which means
that although the game runs at the same speed, it
doesn't suck up _all_ your CPU resources on the
advanced levels.  The disadvantage to the new drawing
method is that it's RAM-hungry.  (It wants about
2-3 M on a color system for all the buffers.)  There's
also a _real_ bottle for you to play in!

-----------------------------------------------------------

The file names are, specifically:

Columns2.1.app.tar.Z
PacMan1.2.tar.Z
PillBottle1.0.app.tar.Z

and they are located in /pub/next/submissions on both
nova( or sonata).cc.purdue.edu and cs.orst.edu.


Well, try out the new versions and let me know what you think
of them.  I've you've already requested a feature, and it
hasn't shown up yet, don't panic!  I'm working as fast as I
can of these, but there's only so much spare time in the day!

Later,
-Don Yacktman
yackd@wombat.ee.byu.edu
From: sandell@chowning.CNMAT.Berkeley.EDU (Gregory J. Sandell)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.software
Subject: Re: WhichX?
Date: 21 Aug 92 04:59:20 GMT
Organization: University of California, Berkeley
NNTP-Posting-Host: chowning.cnmat.berkeley.edu

In article <171pv0INNfda@agate.berkeley.edu>  
sandell@chowning.CNMAT.Berkeley.EDU (Gregory J. Sandell) writes:

> There is a strange interaction with the Mail program, though.  If you  
> return to X with the NeXT mail program still running, X will.  This only  
> happens intermittently, though.

Sorry for the incomplete sentence.  Should read "X will hang."

And I remembered another thing:  X-mouse comes with the twm window  
manager.
--
Greg Sandell
Research Fellow, Center for New Music and Audio Technologies (CNMAT)
sandell@cnmat.cnmat.berkeley.edu
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.software
From: Brian Bias <rainman!brian@ms.uky.edu>
Subject: soundCheck at archives
Reply-To: Brian Bias <rainman!brian@ms.uky.edu>
Organization: ARCI, Inc.
Date: Fri, 21 Aug 1992 13:09:11 GMT

[Repost to fix Reply-To: field]

I have uploaded version 1.0 of soundCheck, a utility for monitoring and
setting the volume level, mute status, and balance on NeXTstations.  It
also allows for drag-n-drop playing of .snd and .au sound files.  I am
open to all comments on how I can improve this little app, so please let
me hear your comments.  So if you are tired of ramping your volume all the
way up the hard way or frustrated in not knowing if the speaker is muted,
try out this app.  A 3.0 version is in the works, so let me hear from you.


Respectfully,

Brian Bias
Whetstone
email:  rainman!brian@ms.uky.edu    (NeXTmail gladly accepted)
-- 
Neil Greene 
Director, Computer Information Systems ARCI, Inc.
President, Kentucky NeXT User Group, Inc.
Email: deepthought!neil@ms.uky.edu [NeXTmail]
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.software
From: m@crito.stanford.edu (M Carling)
Subject: Re: SCSI drivers
Organization: DSO, Stanford University
Date: Tue, 18 Aug 92 17:32:48 GMT

In article <1992Aug18.072833.15164@leland.Stanford.EDU>  
marcu@leland.Stanford.EDU (Marc Albert Ullman) writes:
> I agree with your comments on using "disk" to benchmark disk  
performance;
> however, I disagree with your conclusions.  When I upraded the original  
Maxtor
> XT-3830S in my cube to a Seagate ST41650N (Wren VIII) last year, I used  
the
> test you advocate to check the before and after performace.  While I did  
see
> a substantial improvement (~400kB/s with Maxtor; ~1.1MB/s with Seagate),
> these numbers are still *far* below the specified theoretical throughput
> from these devices.  The Wren VIII has a sustained transfer rate of
> 1.83 to 3.5MB/s for data coming *off the media* and asynchronous SCSI
> transfer rates of 1.65 to 3.0 MB/s.  

You compare real-world tests with the drive manufacturers' claims  
seemingly in an attempt to show that NeXT's SCSI driver is inferior to  
that of other vendors. Please, if you want to make such a claim, test  
NeXT's SCSI performance against someone else's SCSI performance, not  
against claimed theoretical performance.

> The problem with the NeXT SCSI
> driver is that it doesn't take advantage of various features of SCSI II
> like tagged command queueing and sychronous transfer (for which the
> drive can support transfer rates up to 5MB/s (which is faster than the
> 4MB/s max that the old '040 cubes can do because the 53C90A is only
> clocked at 20MHz).  The current driver operates in lock step with the
> drive, waiting for one command to complete before issuing the next,  
rather
> than overlapping them and allowing the drive to optimize its  
performance.

This is correct. NeXT currently supports neither sychronous SCSI nor  
tagged command queueing. I unsuccessfully lobbied to have them included in  
3.0. Before NeXT will support these SCSI features, they will put every  
type of hard drive that they ever shipped through qualification testing to  
make sure that implementing them won't "break" anyone's system. I am  
confident, however, that NeXT will eventually support these features. I  
therefore strongly recommend that anyone looking for a hard disk for a  
NeXT, who is interested in performance, get one that supports tagged  
command queueing. Don't bother with untagged command queueing.

> The inside story from NeXT is that improving disk performance, while it
> certainly could be done, is simply not a priority in a resource-strapped 
> development environment.

That was true while 3.0 was in development. Many of the engineers in the  
software group have now turned to other things.

M Carling
Director, Bay Area NeXT Group
--
Dan Quayle needs a new running mate.
George Bush undermines his chances of being re-elected Vice President.
Xref: sparky comp.sys.next.software:1148 comp.sys.next.misc:18650
From: cedman@714-725-3165.nts.uci.edu (Carl Edman)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.software,comp.sys.next.misc
Subject: Re: Ramdisk coming for NeXT (and InstantTeX woes)
Date: 13 Aug 92 17:27:18 GMT
Reply-To: cedman@golem.ps.uci.edu (Carl Edman)

Uwe Meyer-Gruhl writes
> 604776   0 400
             ^^^
If you are using binpatch, better make that a 377. Binpatch doesn't understand  
about word patches. Neither does 'cmp -l', so I doubt that the above was direct  
output from it.

	Carl Edman
From: mbehrens@barqs.amd.com (Mikael Behrens)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.software
Subject: Re: WhichX?
Date: 20 Aug 92 14:44:48 GMT
Organization: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.; Austin, Texas

In article <1992Aug19.203442.21031@tandem.com>  
chopper@gumbytsg.tandem.com (Michael Chop) writes:
| Hello fellow netters,
| 
| I will be plopping down some money on a X-package.  Could some  
X-package users post some reviews, reccomendations, or  
experience with them.  
| 
| I understand that the three major packages are co-Xist,  
eXodus, and cub-X.  
| 
| My major concers are I'd like to run an X-applications  
alongside my NeXTstep stuff.  And I'd like the performance to be  
pretty good too!
| 
| Thanks,
| michael...

Well, I've been running Smalltalk with  co-Xist for a few weeks  
now and haven't been very happy with it.  Window updates are  
slow and inaccurate.  You must constantly refresh windows  
manually.  Mouse clicks are often missed or inserted where you  
didn't make one, and you're never quite sure what shape the  
pointer will be.

I'd look at another package.
Mikael
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.software
From: scott@corybant.rmnug.org  (Scott Meyer)
Subject: Re: RAMDISK
Organization: Rocky Mountain NeXT Users' Group
Date: Thu, 13 Aug 1992 03:45:31 GMT

In article <92224.120114MKK2@psuvm.psu.edu> <MKK2@psuvm.psu.edu> writes:
>    There are occasions where largish files get written to disk and t
> then read right back in again.  System builds, for example, write .o files
> and then read them back.  (Does NeXT write intermediate files, too?)
> 
> [...]
> 
>       In short, there should be a way to create memory resident files
> which aren't synced to disk unless absolutely called for.

There is.  It's called creat().

-Scott
-- 
Scott Meyer
scott@corybant.rmNUG.ORG - NeXT mail is welcome.
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.software
From: jblencoe@blencoe.chem.ornl.gov (James G. Blencoe)
Subject: Re: What DTP/WP do tables (other than Frame)?---EqB?
Keywords: EqB, tables
Organization: Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Date: Thu, 20 Aug 1992 16:06:55 GMT

In article <1992Aug18.172935.6287@nsisrv.gsfc.nasa.gov>  
cahalan@clouds.gsfc.nasa.gov (Robert F. Cahalan) writes:
> In article <1992Aug18.023119.19334@lsa.umich.edu> Hal.Varian@umich.edu  
> writes:
> > In article <1992Aug17.213921.9430@athena.mit.edu>  
> > ray@mtl.mit.edu (Ray Ghanbari) writes:
> > > That having been said, we have been toying with the idea of  
> > fleshing out  
> > > our Matrix class so that it can form the basis of a legitimate  
> > table  
> > > editor (TableBuilder?) that does all the wonderful things that  
> > one would  
> > > hope for.  The only question we had was whether there really  
> > was a need  
> > > for this sort of thing.  Comments, wish lists, PO's??? :-)
> > > 
> > > Ray Ghanbari                                
> > > Digital Tool Works
> > > ray@dtw.com
> > 
> > I strongly encourage you to do this.  In fact, I spoke with one  
> > of your representatives at the Mathematica convention in Boston  
> > suggesting that this would be a great product.  A lot more  
> > people produce tables than equations (for better or worse.)
> > 
> > Ideally, TableBuilder should be a palette object.  That way it  
> > can be part of spreadsheets, stat packages, presentation  
> > packages, publishing, etc., etc..  It should produce output in  
> > EPS or in TeX.  You can sell the palette object, along with a  
> > front end for it like EqB.
> > ---
> > Hal.Varian@umich.edu    Hal Varian
> > voice: 313-764-2364     Dept of Economics
> > fax:   313-764-2364     Univ of Michigan
> >                         Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1220
> 
> I second what Hal has said.  The only thing I would add is that, while  
> there will be some non-EqB people wanting TableBuilder (TaB), EVERY user  
> of EqB will also want TaB, especially if it outputs TeX.  Thus, you  
> probably ought to provide a "package deal" and also an upgrade for  
current  
> users of EqB, like me. 

Allow me to add my name to the list of people who would be interested in  
such a product.  I also would like to see it bundled with EqB, as Mr.  
Cahalan suggests in his post.

Jim
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.software
From: andrew@cubetech.com (Andrew Loewenstern)
Subject: Re: WordPerfect columns
Organization: Cube Technologies, Inc.
Date: Sun, 16 Aug 1992 09:32:20 GMT

In article <1992Aug15.211115.27923@pellns.alleg.edu> trimble@pell4l17.alleg.edu (Eric Trimble) writes:
>I have a problems with Word Perfect.
>
>I've scanned several pages that were in 3-column format (like a newspaper)  
>using Scan-X and OCR'd them using OCR-Servant. The result is RTF files  
>that have the columns aligned using spaces. I'd like to be able to turn  
>this file into a WP file that has columns instead. I can import the RTF  
>into WP, but I can't figure out how to get WP to change the doc into  
>columns. I'm not sure it is possble, since WP takes tall text up to a HPg  
>and puts it into the first column, then all the rest up to a HPg in the  
>next column, etc and the files are columnized by using spaces, thus all  
>the info is on the same line. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
>
>-Erik Trimble 
>trimble@alleg.edu
>
>PS - I know I could rescan all the pages, only scanning one column per  
>page per file, but I don't want to rescan ~50 pages.

OCR a single column at a time (you dont have to re-scan), cat them all
together and paste them into a WP doc.  Then just turn the columns on.


andrew
-- 
andrew@cubetech.com     | "We shall not cease from exploration
Andrew Loewenstern      |  And the end of our exploring
Cube Technologies, Inc. |  Will be to arrive where we started
                        |  And know the place for the first time." -T.S. Eliot
From: anwar+@cs.cmu.edu (Anwar Mohammed)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.software
Subject: Review requested: EqB vs. Framemath
Date: 23 Aug 92 14:08:10 GMT
Organization: School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon


I have absolutely no doubt that Equation Builder would be better.  However,
I'd like to see a review posted.  Anyone?

-anwar
-- 
Anwar Mohammed                           Graduate Student
anwar+@cs.cmu.edu  (NeXTmail welcome)    School of Computer Science
Voice: +1 412 268 3043                   Carnegie-Mellon University
Fax:   +1 412 681 5739                   Pittsburgh, PA  15213-3890
From: eps@futon.SFSU.EDU (Eric P. Scott)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.software
Subject: Re: SoftPC for sale - for the *NeXT*
Date: 13 Aug 92 00:58:09 GMT
Reply-To: eps@cs.sfsu.edu
Distribution: na
Organization: San Francisco State University

Please keep this crap out of comp.sys.next.software.
We have market/marketplace groups--they are the ONLY appropriate
place--please use them.

Thank you for your cooperation.

					-=EPS=-
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.software
From: m@crito.stanford.edu (M Carling)
Subject: Re: SCSI drivers
Organization: DSO, Stanford University
Date: Mon, 17 Aug 92 17:27:55 GMT

In article <1992Aug15.032753.15794@shaman.com> jiro@shaman.com (Jiro  
Nakamura) writes:
> My own tests using SCSI SpeedGun which access the "sg" SCSI generic  
driver  
> directly gives some of the following numbers.

You are using the wrong driver. Your tests are irrelevent to the speed of  
the SCSI disk driver (the sd driver) since you are benchmarking a  
different driver.

> Note that I am using the  
> SCSI read command directly at the driver level, avoiding the caching  
> problems noted by other posters.

Note that using the "read" menu command from within the /etc/disk program  
supplied by NeXT uses the same mechanism with the sd driver. Without being  
an OEM/VAR, waiting 4 months, or paying Jiro a nickel, you can do the same  
thing, and with the right driver to boot!
 
> Disk throughput was computed by reading 5000 blocks from block 0 with a  
10  
> block incremement on each read.

This "benchmark" would be irrelevent even if used with the correct driver.  
Notice that it does reads in 10 block chunks. Because some of the disks  
use 512 byte blocks and others use 1024 byte blocks, reads are either 5K  
or 10K. The sd driver uses 8K reads for filesystem access, so in neither  
case is real-world performance indicated. If 8K reads were used in testing  
the same disks that Jiro tested, the numbers would be significantly  
different.

As I posted before, I have yet to see a reasonable benchmark run on a NeXT  
and another workstation using the same SCSI disk that shows NeXT's SCSI  
driver to be inferior. If and when I do, I will lobby NeXT to write better  
drivers. For now, I see no reason to do so.

M Carling
Director, Bay Area NeXT Group
--
Save a SCSI driver, shoot an evil benchmark.
From: iwelch@agsm.ucla.edu (Ivo Welch)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.software
Subject: Re: Mesa --- lack of database functionality
Date: 20 Aug 92 17:12:38 GMT
Organization: UCLA, Anderson Graduate School Of Management

Here  is  why I need  a  swiss-army-knife   spreadsheet (actually most
spreadsheets already have some appropriate database functions, such as
sorting [although merging is a problem]):

I have a lot of academic (often hand-collected) databases where I have
to hand-change and hand-check values all the time.  Believe it or not:
I often stoop to using Emacs to store  this data.  With a spreadsheet,
I  could highlight/boldface questionable data,  browse through it, and
put comments  into column B  for the values in  column A. If I want to
extract values, I simply put
	zmesa s.mesa | cut -f1 | <other functionality handling data>

Spreadsheets are still   the easiest on-the-fly databases for   1-10MB
databases.  Statistical  packages    should   have a   lot   of   this
functionality,  but  unfortunately they do not.   As  to alternatives,
dataphile    is       too      multi-media+report     rather      than
alpha-numerically+storage oriented,  and more   expensive  (factor 6).
SAS is even more expensive and much less user-friendly.

Finally, although there  are   non-trivial implementation  issues   to
consider for how to save tabular text, my requested feature is trivial
to add, because I  want exactly the same output  as that produced by a
"SAVE  TO ASCII/Export-to-tabular-text"  command,   a part  of   EVERY
spreadsheet   package, including Mesa.    I  bet Athena   Design could
repackage the relevant code into a stand-alone program in one hour.

If you agree, here is Athena's e-mail address: feedback@athena.com

/ivo

PS: Also, with a command-line interface, I could invent new uses, such
as the ability to read spreadsheets into GNU Emacs.
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.software