From: ForthNet@willett.pgh.pa.us (ForthNet articles from GEnie)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.forth
Subject: Feedback to the Forth Interest Group
Date: 8 Apr 92 12:33:27 GMT
Organization: (n.) to be organized.  But that's not important right now.

Category 1,  Topic 2
Message 149       Thu Mar 26, 1992
D.RUFFER [Dennis]            at 00:23 EST
 
Brian, I think you are still missing the point.  An excerpt from the ANS
standard document just doesn't mean much of anything without all the other
verbage that goes along with it.  Elizabeth's example of "parse" is a very
good example and only one of many.  I've had to spend more time in the
definition of terms section than in any other.  Given time, a "pocket
reference" might be possible, but right now there is just too much new
technology in there to assume you know what any of it means.

Sorry, but even the RTF files are no longer current and the only way to find
out what is there is to buy the book from ANSI.  Even that is obsolete right
now and due to be updated in a couple of months. However, buying it makes sure
that you are informed of updates and changes.

I'd love to see you windows and graphics proposals.  We are working on those
areas right now, and someone else's ideas always help me think beyond my small
world.  I also like your idea about converters.  I imagine those will come
quickly as people get used to what ANS Forth is all about.

Larry, the system load on GEnie has recently (since Jan.) gone way beyond
everyone's wildest dreams (nightmares for the GEnie programmers).  In almost
all categories (network, hardware, software) we are now running at 120% of
capacity during peak hours. They are working on solutions, but quite obviously
from the numbers, the problems are not going to be solved over night.  The
peak periods are between 9-10pm Eastern time and typically they are seeing 2-
3000 simultanious users.  I highly recommend shifting your usage away from
these peak periods if possible.  There are many programs that can help you
accomplish this and I can point you to help if you need it.  We hope it is
only temporary, but it is hard to tell how long it will last.

BTW they do have a shut down mode when they will no longer let anyone on
GEnie.  It kicked in when Basic*Services was introduced a year and a half ago
and again this last January.  However, that only happens when we have
overloaded the GEnie mainframes.  Typically, the recent problems have been
caused by the local nodes becoming overloaded.  Unfortunately, the local nodes
aren't smart enough to know that they just don't have enough bandwidth left to
handle all their modems being used at the same time.  They only know how many
modems they have.  Some local nodes only have a 9600 baud connection to the
network.  Obviously, those are not going to handle too many 2400 baud
downloads.

It's something like the telephone network.  If everyone picks up their phone
at once, no one will be able to get through.  I just experienced that problem
this last Monday night.  Some concert tickets went on sale at 7pm and there
were enough people who wanted them that the entire phone system shut down. 
For two hours, I couldn't even get a dial tone.  Real scary, especially if
there was an emergency.  Yet, it just is not reasonable to expect the phone
company to have enough resources to handle 100% usage.  There is always a
tradeoff between costs and capability and they have choosen the percentage
that makes the best sense for them and most users rarely experience any
problems.  GEnie management have tried to make the same tradeoffs, but they
have had a very hard time predicting the current usage trends.  Obviously,
they are not to the same level as the phone company is, but their goals are
the same.

Sorry for the inconvenience!   {B-{)>   DaR
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