Message # 239 0 replies Reply to # 233 Left by: RICHARD B. GILBERT On 05-Aug-89 At : (609) 452-5130 Subject: CPU EXHAUSTED/MEMORY AVAILABLE Tim, _Only_ if your application is suffering from lack of memory. If you are doing a lot of paging, you might get a little CPU power back by increasing your working sets. Note that paging cannot be eliminated entirely no matter how big you make your working sets. When an image is activated, it is paged into memory as required. You should not expect a whole lot of improvement even if you can eliminate some paging. The 11/750 is not built for speed. If you need more thruput or better response time, look to a faster CPU. One of the 3000 series uVAXen would give you something like five to six times the horsepower you have now. One other possibility is to use some spare memory for I/O buffers. If you are reading from or writing to sequential files, doing it in bigger blocks might eliminate some overhead. Again, you should not expect a whole lot of improvement. Unless your system or your application is horribly mistuned, a faster CPU is probably the only answer. RSTS SIG Message # 413 0 replies Left by: Brett Bump On 06-Aug-89 At : Here Subject: MORE ON MULTI.TSKING Kelvin Smith. Sorry I haven't replied to your mail. I left a newer copy of Multi on Phil Anthony's system. I'd been so involved with fixing these prob- lems as they popped up in the windowed version that I overlooked fixing them in the hardcopy versions. When I get a chance, I'll see if I can find the version that handles batch files, if you're interested. DATA/FILE TRANSFER SIG Message # 581 0 replies Left by: MALIK RAHMAN On 07-Aug-89 At : (413)499-4660 Subject: KERMIT BETWEEN VAX & DG Help please!!!!!! We are migrating from a AOS/VS Data General ma MV10000 to a VAX. We have Kermit on both but cannot seem to make them communicate. We need the pin-out for a cable between the two, and the proper port configuration for each side. Any help will be appreciated since we have tons of files to be transferred. If anyone has experienced the same pains, please leave your phone number so we can call. Thanks. MISCELLANEOUS SIG Message # 561 0 replies Reply to # 560 Left by: ERIC S. DUNGAN On 07-Aug-89 At : 612-334-3633 Subject: MODEM ON TERMINAL SERVER I'm not sure where in DEC Pro that was, but I have 2 MicroCom 9600 Baud Modems attached to terminal server ports (A DECSERVER 200) This is how I have the ports configured: Char size: 8 Primary Speed 9600 Flow COntrol XON Alternate Speed 2400 Parity None Modem COntrol Enabled Access Dynamic Local Switch ^] Backwards Switch None Name MODEM1 Break Local Session Limit 4 Forwards switch ^\ Type ANSI Preferred Service: NONE Authorized Groups: 0 Current Groups: 0 Enable characteristics: Autoprompt,Broadcast,Dialup,dtrwait,inactivity logout Input Flow Control,Loss notification,Message Codes, output Flow Control Password,verification I define a SERVICE MODEM1 so users on other terminal servers can access the modems. Then in my system startup files I do the following so I can access the modems from VMS using KERMIT or SET HOST/DTE run sys$system:latcp create port lta1 create port lta2 set port lta1/application/node=SERVER1/port=MODEM1 set port lta2/application/node=SERVER1/port=MODEM2 exit Then using kermit I use the command CONNECT LTA1 to connect to modem1 Using SET HOST I use the command SET HOST/DTE LTA1 MISCELLANEOUS SIG Message # 562 0 replies Reply to # 560 Left by: Phil Anthony On 07-Aug-89 At : Here Subject: TERMINAL SERVERS AND MODEMS The following came up in a text search (Option 46 on the main menu) of the last year's issues of DEC Pro, using the search command "Terminal server FILTER modem". I didn't browse through them to see which might be most ap- propriate to you, but at least this should give you a start: . Matches in File . 1 DECPRO 7-89 Workstations & Graphics Terminals . 12 DECPRO 4-89 Security Checklist . 2 DECPRO 3-89 Products . 4 DECPRO 2-89 From The Lab . 2 DECPRO 1-89 Products . 2 DECPRO 12-88 Products . 4 DECPRO 11-88 From The Lab . 1 DECPRO 10-88 CommUnity-Mac . 9 DECPRO 10-88 Products . 5 DECPRO 9-88 Products . 14 DECPRO 8-88 Networking Editor . 1 DECPRO 6-88 Products Good hunting! DATA/FILE TRANSFER SIG Message # 582 1 replies Reply to # 581 Left by: Phil Anthony On 08-Aug-89 At : Here Subject: NULL-MODEM PINOUT Malik, I don't know if the DG uses standard DB25 RS232-C connectors - you'll have to check that out - but if it does, the following is a standard config- uration for a null-modem cable: . Pin(s) Pin(s) . 1 (PG) ----------------- 1 (PG) . 2 (TD) ----------------- 3 (RD) . 3 (RD) ----------------- 2 (TD) . 4 (RTS) and 5 (CTS) ---- 8 (CD) . 6 (DSR) ---------------- 6 (DSR) and 20 (DTR) . 7 (SG) ----------------- 7 (SG) . 8 (CD) ----------------- 4 (RTS) and 5 (CTS) Good luck! DATA/FILE TRANSFER SIG Message # 583 0 replies Reply to # 582 Left by: ROBERT G. SCHAFFRATH On 08-Aug-89 At : 914-335-9792 Subject: DG connectivity Data General interfaces are definitely non-standard! In fact, the OP port is wired differently from the CON ports. Are you connecting to IAC-8's, IAC-16's or something else? I have found that a standard null modem cable will not work on a DG to VAX connection. If you are unable to get anymore information, I can hunt down some old contacts and see if any more information is available. Also, a good source of information is equipment manuals. If I recall, they do provide information on the pinout and signal requirements for their ports. Forgive the lack of information, it's been two years since I worked with DG equipment. Robert G. Schaffrath System Manager General Foods Corporation White Plains, NY 10625 VMS SIG Message # 1035 1 replies Left by: PAUL A. LUCERO On 08-Aug-89 At : (805) 388-5700 Subject: SYS$SYSROOT AND SYS$COMMON (V5.1) I have just upgraded my system to 5.1 and everything works fine. The only thing that I am curious is the way this (5.0) version defines SYS$ROOT, I mean SYS$SYSROOT and SYS$COMMON. I have a standalone system, VAX 8200, and the first thing that failed after the upgrade is my nightly backup. My backup line goes like this: BACKUP/LIST=SYS$SYSROOT:[SYSMGR.BACKUP]FN.EXT etc... The log file gave me an error: Directory not found for the creation of the LIST file. I set the default to SYS$MANAGER and SHOW DEFAULT shows SYS$SYSROOT:[SYSmgr], then when I set the default to [.BACKUP], SHOW DEFAULT shows SYS$COMMON:[SYSmgr.backup]. Do a directory while in this directory and it shows two sets of directories with different (or repeated) files. I just want to know why it is done this way in VMS 5.n. I have some hunches since my WordPerfect 4.2 won't run the first time, and the simple solution was to change all occurences of SYS$COMMON to SYS$SYSROOT in the WordPerfect startup COM files. I can do the same with my backup program. But can anyone give me a true explanation, and do I have to do some fixing (like redefining SYS$SYSROOT)? -Paul CE-Environmental, Inc. Camarillo, CA 93010 VMS SIG Message # 1036 0 replies Left by: STEVE LOOS On 08-Aug-89 At : (414) 447-4451 Subject: MOVING SATELLITE DUMPFILE IN LAVC I am building a LAVC (I suppose this should be in the cluster SIG) using a Microvax 3300 as a boot server and Vaxstation 3100s as the satellites. I am quickly running out of system disk space on the 3300 and would like to move the satellite's dump files down to their local page and swap disks. I have already set their dumpstyle parameters to one, but thanks to the increadibly small RF30, I still need more room. Has anybody tried moving dump files down to the satellite's local page and swap disk? If so I would greatly appreciate a few words on the technique. Thanks! SYSTEM PERFORMANCE SIG Message # 240 0 replies Left by: JIM SHELLY On 08-Aug-89 At : HERE Subject: SPM LOST TIME I'm working on a CI based cluster of 2-785's and a 6220 that has been running VMS V5.n since July 1988. We also have SPM V3.3-03 installed and I'm using the SPM$MANAGER.COM to collect and report CAPACITY data on the cluster. The problem started around the begining of July of this year when SPM started sending me a report every morning like clock work to tell me that "LOST TIME" had exceeded the 5.0% average threshold on the 6220 for the previous day. After investigating the problem I found that LOST TIME would go as high as 20.2% during the course of a day and most of that time the CPU was idle and the system disk had PAGING I/O in progress. The amount of time lost seems to be directly proportional to the response time for the system disk and the length of it's queue. The statistics for the system disk might look something like this where PAGE WAIT = 18.6% and SWAP WAIT = 3.7% . . . WORK AVAIL% PAGING% SWAPING% CONTLR% RATE/S READ% SERVTIME RESPTIME QUELENGTH 33.8 32.1 25.7 67.6 11.5 60.4 29 52 0.6 The average LOST TIME for a day only exceeds the 5.0% threshold for the day by 1-2% per day. Should I just raise the threshold? Should I look somewhere else for the problem? What can be done to reduce the amount of LOST TIME?(I already have a secondary page file for the 6220). VMS SIG Message # 1037 1 replies Reply to # 1010 Left by: JOHN BRIGGS On 08-Aug-89 At : (301)231-3061 Subject: 64000 SECONDS /= 1 HOUR That's 17 hours. VMS SIG Message # 1038 1 replies Reply to # 1037 Left by: JOHN BRIGGS On 08-Aug-89 At : (301)231-3061 Subject: SYS$SYSROOT SEARCH LIST That was cute. How did that response get filed here? Anyway... SYS$SYSROOT translates to a search list, SYS$SYSDEVICE:[SYSn.] and then SYS$COMMON:. When you create a file, it is created in the first directory in a search list. In your case, SYS$SYSDEVICE:[SYS0.SYSMGR.BACKUP]. The VMS installation procedure created a [SYS0.SYSMGR] and [SYS0.SYSCOMMON.SYSMGR] directory for you. It catalogued your BACKUP subdirectory in [SYS0.SYSCOMMON.SYSMGR] (alias SYS$COMMON:[SYSMGR]) rather than [SYS0.SYSMGR]. You have several options. RENAME BACKUP.DIR into [SYS0.SYSMGR] (alias SYS$SPECIFIC:[SYSMGR]) or change your backup command to reference SYS$COMMON:[SYSMGR.BACKUP] or create an empty [SYS0.SYSMGR.BACKUP] directory. I personally try to stay away from subdirectories of search lists. When I do create subdirectories from [SYSMGR], I always use SYS$COMMON rather than SYS$SYSROOT. VMS SIG Message # 1039 0 replies Reply to # 1038 Left by: PAUL LUCERO On 08-Aug-89 At : (805) 388-5700 Subject: SYS$COMMON AND SOME MORE... These changes in SYS$ROOT and SYS$COMMON definitions are creating some confusion. Now, I have to make sure I use specifically, SYS$COMMON when I do a SET DEFAULT command. When I did a SET DEF SYS$SYSROOT:[SYSMGR.BACKUP] and tried to EDT the backup file, EDT failed because of the same reason. Anyway, thanks. One more thing - SHOW MEMORY has a new column at the last line called "Reservable", and at the PAGEFILE row, negative numbers are displayed. Believe me, I tried the manuals for answers first but didn't get it, are these negative numbers something significant? VMS SIG Message # 1040 0 replies Reply to # 1039 Left by: ROBERT G. SCHAFFRATH On 09-Aug-89 At : 914-335-9792 Subject: SYS$COMMON AND SOME MORE. Gee, ARIS changed again! Now it doesn't prompt me for a 'Subject'! The 'Reservable' does seem to cause some confusion. It really shouldn't cause you any trouble unless your system suddenly pages or swaps madly. Basically, it is telling you that more space is being requested in the file than is actually available. Sort of like banking in principle. As long there isn't a run on the bank, everything is fine. Otherwise, they will find themselves in a cash flow problem. The file is fine unless everyone suddenly wants a piece of it! MISCELLANEOUS SIG Message # 563 0 replies Reply to # 557 Left by: BRUCE A. GREMBOWSKI On 09-Aug-89 At : 408/291-3364 Subject: DEC SERVICE Richard, Thanks for sharing your "war stories." We have a problem in that our DEC service is through our VAR, the Saddlebrook Corporation (they used to produce 4GL financial packages using their own 4GL, but they recently went belly-up). We just got an additional DHU-11 and paid for DEC installation. The two distribution panels had to be "mounted" in our TS11 cabinet. DEC knew this before they came out, yet they did not bother to bring the necessary hardware to properly mount the distribution panels. The panels are just hanging off the frame by one screw each, and that can't even be tightenend; one touch, and the boards fall off. And I'm still waiting for our latches to be fixed. But that's okay, our service rep has walked off with both of our hex wrenches, so I guess we don't need latches. COMMUNICATIONS SIG Message # 292 0 replies Left by: BRIAN DESANTIS On 09-Aug-89 At : (201)670-0286 Subject: MICROSEVERS I have been having a problem that possibly could be solved.... I have a DCA 355 telecommunications network hooked up through Ethernet. I have two lines coming from the 355 going to a Microserver (DEC Router) and then a line to a DELNI and then to Ethernet port on VAX. The problem that we are having is that DECnet would start sending error messages to consoles about errors (flow control, etc) and I would get one saying 'adjacency down' and the users would all get knocked off. I am not able to connect to that node via NCP nor am I able to trigger it. I have to power it off and on for it to reboot. Software support recommended unplugging one of the lines from the 355 to microserver, and that, so far, has had the best results. Anyone have any experience with this??? CONTROLLERS/MEMORY SIG Message # 116 0 replies Left by: On 09-Aug-89 At : Subject: COMMUNICATIONS SIG Message # 293 0 replies Left by: RON MCCARTHY On 10-Aug-89 At : ARIS Subject: SHARED 3780 - RECEIVE SIGON We are going to be using 3780 communications in the shared mode and will need the ability to give others a sigon and have the means of security verification as to who they are and if we should allow them to send. We have a VAX 8530 w/DMB32 + SIDRIVER VMS V5.1 VAX 2780/3780 Protocol Emulator V1.7 Any hints or direction to documentation will be appreciated. Thanx, SYSTEM MANGLER APPLICATIONS SIG Message # 356 0 replies Left by: ROB VUGTEVEEN On 10-Aug-89 At : (602) 792-3010 X334 Subject: SOFTPC ON PVAX 3100 We are testing Insignia's SoftPC on our VAXstation 3100. Seemed easy to install, but I'm curious to hear from others who may have been using it. ?1 There appear to be other device drivers besides CGA, but SoftPC won't let me select them from the menu--only CGA. Can I use the CONFIG.SYS file to select EGA instead? ?2 I've set my PVAX to use the alternate font so I get larger letters on my 15-inch monitor. SoftPC still uses the little ones. Can I change that? ?3 Files exchanged from DOS to VMS and VMS to DOS get their carriage control messed up. This will be a major problem to our use. Any fixes for it? FORUM - DEC SIG Message # 72 0 replies Left by: JOHN H. GREBLE On 10-Aug-89 At : 215-383-3078 Subject: WHAT IS GENESIS? I HAVE HEARD OF A SOFTWARE PRODUCT/COMPANY NAMED GENESIS WHICH RUNS ON VAX. I HAD NOT HEARD OF THEM BEFORE. WHAT IS GENESIS? THANKS. MIGRATION ISSUES SIG Message # 52 0 replies Left by: PAUL FLEMING On 10-Aug-89 At : 303 490 3565 Subject: RSTS --> VAX HELP! I have a RSTS/E V9.0 magtape backup of a record I/O data file (512 bytes/record) that I need to restore on our VAX (VMS 4.7). The restore went OK but I can't read the file. When I use analyse/rms_file/fdl I find that it is organization: sequential, format: stream, size: 0. It needs to be format: fixed, size: 512. When I used convert I get "-RMS-W-RTB, 536 byte record too large for user's buffer". If I try to read the file with a BASIC program using a large recordsize (20480 byte) it reads several records with varying sizes until it encounters a record bigger that 20480 bytes. I do not have access to the RSTS system any longer. Paul Fleming Poudre School District 2407 La Porte Ave Ft. Collins CO 80521 (303) 490-3565 SITE MANAGEMENT SIG Message # 309 0 replies Reply to # 304 Left by: PAUL DEANGELIS On 10-Aug-89 At : 215 783-7200 Subject: UPS SYSTEMS We have an American Power Conversion (APC) 1200 VX that has kept the system up through five or six power interruptions (single MicroVax II, mux & modem.) I love it. Cost $940 delivered by truck from Knapco (800/541-8126?) It has a 9-pin port to signal the host to shut down, but I've never rigged it up. Only one problem to date: last summer, the electric utility cut the line voltage by about 5 volts for an extended period of time. I called APC tech support and they faxed instructions to lower switchover voltage (which I may get around to THIS summer.) Power switch a bit exposed. LEDs tell you load, charge and more. APC sent out great literature (401/789-5735.) SYSTEM PERFORMANCE SIG Message # 241 1 replies Reply to # 240 Left by: Phil Anthony On 14-Aug-89 At : Here Subject: SPM LOST TIME Jim, it looks to me as if the culprit isn't the size, number, or location of your paging files, but simply the amount of paging you're doing and the fact that paging requires you to go to disk. MONITOR will be enough to give you a handle on how much time your system spends paging, and what percentage of page faults require disk access. It'll also show if you have an inordinate amount of demand zero paging - new processes being activated that require loading the image, which would suggest that a hard look at the flow of your application(s) is in order. Did you modify your applications toward the end of June, or add users to your system? If the problem isn't demand zero paging and you have the memory to do it, your best bet would be to increase your working set size parameters. The next step after that would be to buy more memory ... or upgrade your 11/750s to machines that have more disk I/O bandwidth. Or, as you suggested (and if the users aren't complaining), you may decide to live with the situation and simply bump SPM's reporting threshhold a little so that you aren't getting the annoying warnings. After all, the users' ability to do their job is the real test of whether you're getting adequate performance out of your system. FORUM - 3RD PARTY SUPPLIERS SIG Message # 107 2 replies Reply to # 106 Left by: Phil Anthony On 14-Aug-89 At : Here Subject: PARADYNE MUX/MODEMS No experience, Andi, but you might call DEC and some of the third-party maintainers and see what they have to offer. Try CDC, Scopus, Unisys. As I'm sure you're aware, low price and slow response time usually go hand in hand, so you may be looking at some trade-offs to get something acceptable. DATA/FILE TRANSFER SIG Message # 584 1 replies Left by: RON MCCARTHY On 14-Aug-89 At : HERE Subject: 3780 SIGN ON We are going to be using the 3780 communications protocol in shared mode and will need the ability to givothers a sigon and have the means of s security verification as to who they are and if we should allow them to send. ANY CLUES will be appreciated. VAX 8530/VMS 5.1 VAX 2780/3780 PROTOCOL EMULATOR V.1.7 SIDRIVER TERMINALS/PLOTTERS/PRINTERS SIG Message # 313 1 replies Left by: SIMON BROWN On 14-Aug-89 At : HERE Subject: MAC VT220 EMULATOR Hi - I'm looking for a recommendation for a VT200 compat. term emulator for a MAC - has anyone got anything they would recommend? Much apprecaited. Cheers, Simon - Switzerland 1 236 49 01 (just showing off!) MISCELLANEOUS SIG Message # 566 0 replies Left by: SIMON BROWN On 14-Aug-89 At : HERE Subject: CASE TOOLS Hi - this isn't really misc, but I don't know where else to leave the message. I've read with much interest the CASE articles in the DEC Pro., and my Boss here at U.B.S. Switzerland would like to solicit recommendations or otherwise for any CASE products, SPECIFICALLY AETHERTON or the VIRTUAL SOFTWARE FACTORY from Systematica. Anyone there in ARIS-land with a CASE product they can recommend? We're looking at something to take us from design through to delivery of the completed product. All replies are welcomed. Cheers, Simon Switzerland 1 236 49 01 (U.B.S Zurich). SYSTEM PERFORMANCE SIG Message # 242 0 replies Reply to # 241 Left by: JIM SHELLY On 14-Aug-89 At : HERE Subject: SPM LOST TIME Thanks for your reply Phil. I think I mentioned this in my original message, the VAX that's having the problem is a 6220, no problem with bandwidth there. Also, I should have mentioned that paging is around 73 page faults per second with 4 to 5% of those being hard faults. I checked the demand zero faults and I found that the amount of time lost does not increase in direct proportion to the number of demand zero faults. We have plenty of memory so I am going to take a harder look at increasing working set sizes but I suspect that except for the All-in-none hogs, no one else will use the extra pages I give them. I did not add that many more users (3-4) nor has there been any major change to application areas that I am aware of. If you or anyone else thinks of something else, I'd appreciate your reply. DATA/FILE TRANSFER SIG Message # 585 1 replies Reply to # 584 Left by: ROBERT G. SCHAFFRATH On 14-Aug-89 At : 914-335-9792 Subject: 3780 SIGN ON I am not quite certain what you want to do? Do you want the IBM people to sign on to the VAX or are you trying to use multiple sign on files for the IBM. If you are trying to access the IBM, I would recommend coding the LOGONID and PASSSWORD into the //JOB card. If you are trying to access the VAX, there are some routeback facilities available that might be able to help you out. You can then use the VAX to authenticate the user. Robert G. Schaffrath System Manager General Foods Corporation White Plains, NY 10625 PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES/AI SIG Message # 418 3 replies Left by: LANCE BUCHMILLER On 14-Aug-89 At : 505-262-1566 Subject: SET TERM CHARACTERISTICS FROM COBOL I am trying to design an inquiry program that needs a lot of screen space. Can't seem to set screen width to 132 from the COBOL program. Have found examples of calling $QIO SET_MODE in VaxPro, but they are in Basic and Fortran. Also wondering if third party terminalmay not be emulating VT220 correctly. I have had success calling other system routines from COBOL so I'm at a loss for info on this one. PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES/AI SIG Message # 419 0 replies Output off LANCE BUCHMILLER On 14-Aug-89 At : 505-262-1566 Subject: COBOL SET TERM CHAR I am trying to set termil characteristics from a COBOL program. More details in message 418. (My title was truncated.) MISCELLANEOUS SIG Message # 567 2 replies Left by: SIMON BROWN On 15-Aug-89 At : HERE OR SWITZ. 1 236 49 01 Subject: DECUS SUBMISSIONS Hope this is the correct SIG - anybody out there know by what date a tape has to reach DECUS for submission to the FALL 89 or SPRING 90 VMS SIG tape collections? We've rewritten, debugged and greatley extended the SWING hierarchical directory and file manager in C and wish to submit it to DECUS. Simon, U.B.S. Zurich, Switzerland. MISCELLANEOUS SIG Message # 569 0 replies Reply to # 567 Left by: ANNE SCHRAUGER On 15-Aug-89 At : HERE Subject: DECUS SUBMISSIONS Simon, It's great to see you on the board....all the way from Switzerland! The deadline for papers for the Fall Symposium is passed.....May 22. However, there's still time for Spring. The deadline is November 20, 1989. You can request submission guidelines from DECUS at: 219 Boston Post Rd. BP02 Marlboro, MA 01752-1850 UTILITIES SIG Message # 394 0 replies Reply to # 384 Left by: KEVIN GRINDHEIM On 15-Aug-89 At : (804)359-0800 X483 Subject: CODE MANAGEMENT WE CURRENTLY STARTED USING PVCS (Polytron), IT WORKS GREAT.......THE PRICE IS RIGHT TOO! UTILITIES SIG Message # 395 0 replies Reply to # 377 Left by: KEVIN GRINDHEIM On 15-Aug-89 At : (804)359-0800 X483 Subject: CODE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS We recently started using Polytron PVCS, It has worked great. The price is right also! Let me know if this product works for you. Thanks MICROVAX SIG Message # 212 2 replies Left by: KEN PAPWORTH On 15-Aug-89 At : (602)9623667 Subject: BINARY DUMP Could somebody tell me how to do a binary dump on a non-ASCII file. COMMUNICATIONS SIG Message # 294 1 replies Left by: RUSSELL On 16-Aug-89 At : 513-322-0648 Subject: TERMINAL SERVER WANTED I am looking for a terminal server for my microvax II that has more than 8 lines. I currently have 4 decserver 200's and would like to add 16 lines. I am also interested in avoiding the cost of a mod-tap 25 pin connector and just plug straight into the terminal server. I would appreciate any suggestions. thank you! Russell C. Yeley ARIS or 513 322-0648 PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES/AI SIG Message # 420 0 replies Reply to # 418 Left by: JOHN BRIGGS On 16-Aug-89 At : (301)231-3061 Subject: SET TERM CHARACTERISTICS A $QIO SETMODE call to change terminal width will not have the side effect of changing your terminal into 132 column mode like the DCL SET TERMINAL /WIDTH=132 does. To change the physical terminal's screen size, you'll have to send the appropriate escape sequence ([?3h). To determine whether your SETMODE QIO has worked, a DCL $ SHOW TERMINAL command work. MICROVAX SIG Message # 213 0 replies Reply to # 212 Left by: JOHN BRIGGS On 16-Aug-89 At : (301)231-3061 Subject: BINARY DUMP Use the DCL DUMP command. $ DUMP /RECORD filename NOTE: The hexadecimal portion of VAX dumps is read from right to left. That is, the first byte in a line is the rightmost byte. It's strange, but, given the VAX convention of least significant byte first, it makes sense. TERMINALS/PLOTTERS/PRINTERS SIG Message # 314 0 replies Reply to # 313 Left by: V. JAMES KRAMMES On 16-Aug-89 At : (614) 228-2001 X 341 Subject: MAC VT220 EMULATOR I can Highly recommend Walker-Richer-Quinn's REFLECTION. I am using the PC version and have no direct experience with the mac version, but if it is the same, then it include file upload/download, scripts, user-definable keymaps and very good vt220 support. For the mac, you could probably get vt241/340 support. Look for their ads. --Jim MISCELLANEOUS SIG Message # 570 1 replies Left by: CHRIS CHRISP On 16-Aug-89 At : (703)478-9690 Subject: KEYBOARD OVERLAYS NEEDED I am looking for manufacturers of keyboard overlays and custom character labels for keyboard redefinition. In particular, I would like to purchase transparent, flexible, keyboard overlays for a Sun Microsystems Sun386i keyboard to which custom key labels could be affixed (to the underside) so that I may easily redefine an entire keyboard. Entire overlays could then be switched to provide a different character set on another overlay. If you know of any manufacturers which do this, please leave me a message or contact me at the above number. Thank You. FORUM - 3RD PARTY SUPPLIERS SIG Message # 108 2 replies Reply to # 107 Left by: ANDI DURBIN On 16-Aug-89 At : 303-861-7000 Subject: PARADYNE MUX/MODEMS THANKS. I'LL TRY THEM.. COMMUNICATIONS SIG Message # 295 0 replies Reply to # 294 Left by: RALPH BRANDT On 16-Aug-89 At : 717-7515210 Subject: TERMINAL SERVER WANTED Dec has a server 300 which is 16 lines - DEC 423 format. Cost is abut 50% high er than the 200. There are a lot of others, the one I keep seeing is emulux but corp policy says DEC. COMMUNICATIONS SIG Message # 296 0 replies Left by: RALPH BRANDT On 16-Aug-89 At : 717-7515210 Subject: DEBET RH Has anyone tried to use DEBET/DEREP RH on the other end of a fiber with a DEBET/DEREP RA? We had one hooked up for a few minutes and it didn't work. Since we had the luxury of an available RH we swapped it and it worked. Wish now I had tried to see if I could make it work or not. We have one fiber at over 1KM DEBET RH to DEREP RH. It's been fine for months. It's just over 1.2KM. DATA/FILE TRANSFER SIG Message # 586 2 replies Reply to # 585 Left by: RON MCCARTHY On 16-Aug-89 At : HERE Subject: 3780 SIGN ON Our goal is to leave the 3780 line open all the time (shared mode) which means that anyone can call our VAX and merely issue a send (on their machine) to send us data. We want to know who is calling us and authorize transmission at our discretion via some sort of automated security feature similar to the sigon card in the blue world. I would like to create a security mechanism where I can issue a predetermined sign on procedure to those who I have invited to call and validate that procedure when an incoming connection is made. I am not familiar with the ROUTBACK procedures that you mentioned, are these VMS services? Thanx for your time, Ron McCarthy RSX SIG Message # 280 0 replies Left by: LARRY HUISINGH On 16-Aug-89 At : 509-373-4244 Subject: ACCESSING FILE ON VMS BACKUP TAPE I have received a tape that is apparently a VMS BACKUP tape. I am running RSX-11M-PLUS v.4.0. The tape has a single file on it and apparently this file contains the files I need within it. Is there any way I can use my system to get at that data? It is a reel-to-reel tape and I am using a TSV05 tape drive connected to my Micro-11/73 system. I found out the type of tape it is via the MAG SET command and PIP. It is also a labeled tape (I imagine all VMS BACKUP tapes are). MASS STORAGE SIG Message # 268 0 replies Left by: DAVID RAICH On 16-Aug-89 At : (415) 895-1313 Subject: READ MS-DOS FROM RX23? Does anyone know of a program (hopefully public domain) for reading and writing MS-DOS-format 3-1/2 inch floppies on the RX23 drive of a VAXstation 3100? I hear there is something (expensive) that requires DECwindows, but I don't have that environment available. DATA/FILE TRANSFER SIG Message # 587 0 replies Left by: DAVID RAICH On 16-Aug-89 At : (415) 895-1313 Subject: READ MS-DOS FROM RX23? Does anyone know of a program for reading and writing MS-DOS-format 3-1/2 inch floppies on the RX23 drive of a VAXstation 3100? I hear there might be something that only runs under DECwindows, but I can't use that. APPLICATIONS SIG Message # 358 0 replies Left by: MILTON F. LOPEZ On 16-Aug-89 At : (619) 546 7041 Subject: NPL MENUS 2.0 I am looking for the source code for NPL Menus 2.0, described in an article in the DECUS SIG Newsletter of July '89. The author is Dr. David Heddle, who makes reference to a description of NPL Menus 1.0 in VAX Professional of October '87. Any clues? UTILITIES SIG Message # 396 0 replies Left by: JACK J. LEONE On 16-Aug-89 At : 212 525-8138 Subject: SCHEDULING PACKAGES INFO I would like to know if anyone has been using or knows of any good VAX/VMS Job Scheduling packages that are available. I'm particulary interested in a package that can either display jobs, generate some type of run sheet, or even schedule jobs to run automatically. Auto running should be able to run several command procedures with some type of error trapping prior to continuing with the next steps. I can be reached either by phone at (212) 525-8138, or by mail for brochures at : Jack Leone Vice President Republic Info. & Comm. Svcs. 452 5th Ave. New York, NY 10018 Thanks Jack :-) DATA/FILE TRANSFER SIG Message # 588 3 replies Left by: JOHN BRIGSTAR On 17-Aug-89 At : (805) 983-7941 Subject: PC'S COM PORTS Does anyone know of a program that can redirect the output of the MS-DOS PRINT command to a COMn port instead of the printer port? I'm not an MS-DOS expert and I need to know how to send data from the PC to the COMn port that is connected to the VAX via RS232 cable. I've got the program on the VAX side already and had tested it with a regular VT terminal and it worked, but when I tried it on a PC using the COPY filename.ext >COM1, nothing happened. Any help will be appreciated. Thanks. DATA/FILE TRANSFER SIG Message # 589 0 replies Reply to # 588 Left by: JOHN BRIGSTAR On 17-Aug-89 At : HERE Subject: PC'S COM PORTS Oops, I forgot to mention that the VAX program is a program that opens a TX port and reads data coming from that port. (My mind was faster than my fingers). It works with a terminal connected at the TX port, but not with a PC. Thanks again for any assistance. John B. PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES/AI SIG Message # 421 0 replies Reply to # 418 Left by: JIM SHELLY On 17-Aug-89 At : HERE Subject: SET TERM CHARACTERISTICS I've written a number of programs in COBOL that do some screen manipulation, scrolling in differeent areas etc. We used to call a program to change the terminal width but darned if I can get it to work now. The easiest way that we found to change the terminal width is to define the following under WORKING STORAGE . . . 02 80-COLS. 03 FILLER PIC S9(04) COMP VALUE 27. 03 FILLER PIC S9(04) COMP VALUE 91. 03 FILLER PIC S9(04) COMP VALUE 63. 03 FILLER PIC S9(04) COMP VALUE 51. 03 FILLER PIC S9(04) COMP VALUE 108. 02 132-COLS. 03 FILLER PIC S9(04) COMP VALUE 27. 03 FILLER PIC S9(04) COMP VALUE 91. 03 FILLER PIC S9(04) COMP VALUE 63. 03 FILLER PIC S9(04) COMP VALUE 51. 03 FILLER PIC S9(04) COMP VALUE 104. When you want to go to 132 chars. just "DISPLAY 132-COLS." and of course you can "DISPLAY 80-COLS." to go back again. Hope this helps. DATA/FILE TRANSFER SIG Message # 590 1 replies Reply to # 586 Left by: ROBERT G. SCHAFFRATH On 17-Aug-89 At : 914-335-9792 Subject: 3780 SIGN ON I recommend you check pages 3-7 and 3-8 of the 'VAX 2780/3780 Protocol Emulator User's Guide'. In particular, I believe the '***$VAX-ACCOUNT=' specification may be what you are looking for or at least may give you the ability to verify a username and password. Robert G. Schaffrath System Manager General Foods Corporation White Plains, NY 10625 DATA/FILE TRANSFER SIG Message # 591 0 replies Reply to # 588 Left by: Phil Anthony On 17-Aug-89 At : Here Subject: PC'S COM PORTS John, take a look at the MODE command in your MS-DOS manual for description of how to turn COM1 (or COM2) into your default print device. The easiest way is to put the following commands in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file: MODE COM1:,,,,P MODE LPT1=COM1 The final "P" in the first command tells DOS that this is to be used as a print device and therefore DOS should retry continuously if a timeout occurs - given your application, you may not need it. Also, take a look at the documentation for the PRINT command. It may help to add a line in AUTOEXEC like the following: PRINT /D:LPT1 /B: which makes sure PRINT.COM knows that it should print to "LPT1" (previously defined as COM1) and that it should use a larger buffer than the default 512 bytes - it can be as large as 16,384 bytes. Incidentally, part of the problem you've been having may be the syntax of your COPY command. Redirection won't work with COPY, which expects *two* arguments, source and destination: COPY FILENAME.EXT COM1: I don't know if this will do the job for you, though, since VMS will never know when end of file is reached: PRINT assumes that what's being sent is text and therefore never transmits a Ctrl-Z at the end. The COPY command can handle Ctrl-Z if you append the /B switch after the name of the file, but this may get messed up by DOS' default handling of "printer" ports. You probably would be better off picking up genuine communications software for both the PC and the VAX and using that for your transfers. One good, inexpensive choice is Kermit, available for both systems. It can be obtained from Columbia University for the cost of handling and media. See Message #314 in this SIG for the address, and also for the phone number of the University of Toledo Kermit BBS if you prefer to get it for the cost of the phone call. If you order from Columbia, check on the price first. I think it's gone up since that message was posted - it's now something like $35 for the MS-Kermit floppy diskette, and the cost for the tape with Kermit-32 for VMS may have changed as well. MISCELLANEOUS SIG Message # 572 2 replies Reply to # 570 Left by: Phil Anthony On 17-Aug-89 At : Here Subject: KEYBOARD OVERLAYS NEEDED Chris, I don't know of any manufacturers, but why don't you try calling one of the computer accessories companies such as Inmac? If you don't get their catalogues (I do, but I usually throw them out after they've been lying around for about a week), I'm sure somebody here will have one handy and can leave their phone number/address. Remember that the items they put in their catalogue aren't their full line, just their best-selling products, so even if it's not listed, they may still have it. MISCELLANEOUS SIG Message # 573 1 replies Reply to # 572 Left by: CHRISTOPHER CHRISP On 17-Aug-89 At : (703) 478-9690 Subject: KEYBOARD OVERLAYS NEEDED Phil, Thanks for the suggestion, but I have already tried Inmac and several other catalogue companies to no avail. Inmac was willing to check with their supplier of keyboard overlays, but their supplier did not make them for the Sun386i. I know in the past I have received a card or two advertising companies that make the keyboard overlays in the card decks I have received from DEC Professional or some other publication, but have long since thrown these cards out (because I did not need the overlays at that time), and no longer have the company names to contact. Is it possible that you may have a listing of companies that put adds in your card decks and what the company was advertising? If so, please let me know if you have any listed for keyboard overlay manufacturers or similar products. Thank You. VMS SIG Message # 1041 1 replies Left by: Phil Gravel On 17-Aug-89 At : Here Subject: Image Activation - VASFULL Error I have read a number of messages from people who have run programs that were compiled and linked under VMS V4 without problems on machines running VMS V5. A program that I copied from a V4 system and tried to run on a VAXstation 3100 (running VMS V5) produces the follow error message: %DCL-W-ACTIMAGE, error activating image $DISK1:[USER]TESTPROG -CLI-E-IMGNAME, image file $DISK1:[USER]TESTPROG.EXE;1 -SYSTEM-F-VASFULL, virtual address space is full This program runs fine on a VAX running VMS V4.7. It is about 1100 blocks in size and my pagefile quota is 64000 pages. On the VAXstation, the pagefile quota is 70000 pages. Relevant process information is: Process Quotas: CPU limit: Infinite Direct I/O limit: 40 Buffered I/O byte count quota: 32576 Buffered I/O limit: 40 Timer queue entry quota: 9 Open file quota: 18 Paging file quota: 69063 Subprocess quota: 8 Default page fault cluster: 16 AST quota: 99 Enqueue quota: 100 Shared file limit: 0 Max detached processes: 0 Max active jobs: 0 Process Dynamic Memory Area: Current Size (bytes) 25600 Current Total Size (pages) 50 Free Space (bytes) 21760 Space in Use (bytes) 3840 Size of Largest Block 21632 Size of Smallest Block 8 Number of Free Blocks 5 Free Blocks LEQU 32 Bytes 3 Accounting information: Buffered I/O count: 58 Peak working set size: 539 Direct I/O count: 42 Peak page file size: 24384 Page faults: 760 Mounted volumes: 0 Charged CPU time: 0 00:00:02.33 Elapsed time: 0 00:00:05.30 Could this error be caused by a V4 image running under VMS V5? If not, what could it be? As nearly as I can tell virtual address space is sufficient. (The program may have been compiled and linked with the /DEBUG option since the directions state that it should be invoked with RUN/NODEBUG). And why does the error occur upon image invocation? The obvious solution is to recompile and/or relink the program, but I have to get someone to retrieve the source and object from archives. Thanks, Phil VMS SIG Message # 1042 0 replies Reply to # 829 Left by: LARRY SIEGLER On 17-Aug-89 At : 215-822-4483 Subject: MOVING SYSTEM DUMP FILE While it may not presently be possible to create the dump file on a separate disk under VMS, I don't think it should be that difficult for DEC to make it possible to do this. When the System crashes they can jump to an address that requests you mount your scratch media in a drive specified using SYSGEN, and then halt the processor. After the scratch media is loaded you can restart the processor at some address that writes the dump file onto the selected device. While this may sound difficult, I doubt that DEC should have a problem implementing it, since they have been doing it this way under RSX-11M+ for several years. Cheers, LMS VMS SIG Message # 1043 1 replies Reply to # 827 Left by: LARRY SIEGLER On 17-Aug-89 At : HERE Subject: REGARDING DUMPFILES... I have not had a need to analyze a VMS Crash Dump, but I have had several opportunities to analyze RSX dumps, and they do help, once you figure out how to read them. Cheers, LMS VMS SIG Message # 1044 1 replies Reply to # 1041 Left by: RICHARD B. GILBERT On 17-Aug-89 At : (609) 452-5130 Subject: IMAGE ACTIVATION - VASFUL Phil, I have heard of this same problem before and, without checking my sources, I believe that you need only relink your program. A program that linked against SYS$SYSTEM:SYS.STB under V4 would not be referencing the correct locations/values under V5. If the program got into the guts of VMS in any way you would need to relink because of the major changes DEC made to the structure of VMS in V5. What used to be SYS$SYSTEM:SYS.EXE is now several different images which are loaded only if you need them. If relinking fails to solve the problem, come back and we'll give it another try. MISCELLANEOUS SIG Message # 574 1 replies Reply to # 567 Left by: RICHARD B. GILBERT On 17-Aug-89 At : (609) 452-5130 Subject: DECUS SUBMISSIONS Simon, Material for the DECUS Fall and Spring Symposium tapes is collected at the symposia. The Fall Symposium is being held in Anaheim, CA. the week of November 6. If you bring your tape or send it with someone to the Symposium your program should go on the Fall tape. If you can't bring the tape or send it with someone, I would suggest contacting the DECUS Library. The staff at the Library should be able to put you in touch with the people preparing the Symposium tape. If you have access to BITNET or the internet, you could try sending a message to "everhart@arisia.ge.com". If you use BITNET the message would have to be routed through a BITNET-Internet gateway. DATA/FILE TRANSFER SIG Message # 592 1 replies Reply to # 588 Left by: RICHARD B. GILBERT On 17-Aug-89 At : (609) 452-5130 Subject: PC'S COM PORTS The syntax of your COPY command is incorrect. COM1 is a device, not a file and therefore must be followed by a colon, e.g. COM1:. If you omit the colon you are refering to a file on the default drive named COM1. This is obviously not what you want. I would suggest that you get a terminal emulation program with file transfer capabilities. There are several such in the public domain. There are also several commercial products. Names such as Crosstalk Mk.IV, Relay Gold, Smartterm, and Reflection come to mind. Kermit and XMODEM are both available for the VAX from DECUS. Kermit is available from Columbia University for both the VAX and the PC. DATA/FILE TRANSFER SIG Message # 593 0 replies Reply to # 592 Left by: Phil Anthony On 18-Aug-89 At : Here Subject: PC'S COM PORTS A quick clarification, Richard: MS-DOS, thanks to the infinite wisdom of Bill Gates and his merry band of programmers at Microsoft, doesn't require a colon to tell the operating system that a string represents a device. The strings are handled internally as reserved words, and colons are optional. In V3.3, this applies to COM1 through COM4, LPT1 through LPT3, PRN, AUX, CON, and NUL - the only devices MS-DOS recognizes. Earlier versions (V2.1 and V3.x) work the same way but may not recognize COM3/4. See the IBM Disk Operating System Version 3.3 Reference, pp. 2.5 and 2.6, for details. I agree with you completely about a communications package, though. The only reasons I restricted my remarks to Kermit were cost and simplicity (a single source for both the VAX and the PC software, with no limitations on number of users or installations). MISCELLANEOUS SIG Message # 575 0 replies Reply to # 573 Left by: Phil Anthony On 18-Aug-89 At : Here Subject: KEYBOARD OVERLAYS NEEDED Sorry, Chris, I chuck those shrink-wrapped packets of cards as soon as they come in the door (unless my six-year-old grabs them first to play with them). Saves a lot of wear and tear on the fingernails trying to get them open .... Somebody else? UNIX/ULTRIX SIG Message # 44 1 replies Left by: STUART MASCH On 18-Aug-89 At : (516) 379 9200 Subject: ULTRIX TO VMS CONVERSION NEED SOME HELP. I WILL BE RECEIVING TK50 TAPES FROM AN MVII RUNNING ULTRIX. WHEN I GET THE TAPE I WANT TO EXECUTE THE FOLLOWING ON VMS: MOUNT/FOR/BLOCK=256/REC=256 MXXX: COPY/LOG MXXX: []NEW.FILE UNFORTUNATELY I KNOW NOTHING ABOUT ULTRIX AND THE GUY I'M GETTING THE TAPES FROM KNOW EVEN LESS. COULD SOMEONE EXPLAIN TO ME HOW TO CREATE A NO LABEL ASCII TAPE IN ULTRIX SO I CAN THEN EXPLAIN IT TO MY OTHER HALF? I'M NOT ON ARIS VERY OFTEN SO I'D APPRECIATE A VOICE CALL. THANKS VMS SIG Message # 1045 1 replies Left by: STUART MASCH On 18-Aug-89 At : (516) 379 9200 Subject: REMOVING ULTRIX, INSTALLING VMS I'M A VMS SYSTEM MANAGER WITH TWO PROBLEMS I COULD USE SOME HELP WITH. FIRST, I'VE GOT AN MVII RUNNING ULTRIX. WE WOULD LIKE TO REMOVE ULTRIX AND INSTALL VMS IN ITS PLACE. I KNOW HOW TO DO A VMS UPGRADE, BUT HOW DO YOU OVERWRITE ONE OPERATING SYSTEM WITH ANOTHER? ANY ADVICE, SUGGESTIONS, OR EXPERIENCES?? SECOND, WE'VE BEEN ASSUMING THAT AT SOME POINT THE DISK WILL BE REINITIALIZED. IF THIS IS SO, WE NEED TO DUMP ALL OUR DATA TO TK50'S AND THEN RELOAD THEM AFTER VMS IS CONFIGURED. UNFORTUNATELY I KNOW NOTHING ABOUT ULTRIX. HOW DO I TELL THE ULTRIX TECHIES HERE TO MAKE THE TAPES SO WE CAN READ THEM BACK IN UNDER VMS. SINCE I'M NOT ON ARIS TOO OFTEN, I WOULD APPRECIATE A VOICE CALL. THANKS VMS SIG Message # 1047 0 replies Reply to # 1045 Left by: ERIC S. DUNGAN On 18-Aug-89 At : 612-334-3633 Subject: REMOVING ULTRIX, INSTALLI Sorry, about cut-off message, the line dropped. As I was saying, If you can boot VMS STANDALONE BACKUP off of a tape, you can get VMS installed. And I think the VMS 5.0 installation instructions tell you how do do this (VMS Installation & Operations: VaxStation I,II,II/GPX and MicroVax I,II; Chapter 5, page 5-4ff). This will initialize the system disk (page 5-5). I do not have experience with Unix, so I do not know how to solve the second part of your problem. RSTS SIG Message # 416 0 replies Reply to # 415 Left by: KELVIN SMITH On 18-Aug-89 At : (203) 357-0504 Subject: SPEEDY DH-11 Thanks, Phil. I'll look it up. I still have that issue. I'm generally leery of putting unsupported patches in the monitor, but it's worth trying out on a scratch monitor to see what the results are. UNIX/ULTRIX SIG Message # 45 0 replies Reply to # 44 Left by: Phil Anthony On 19-Aug-89 At : Here Subject: ULTRIX TO VMS CONVERSION Stuart, I don't know exactly how to do what you're asking, though I suspect it'd involve putting together a quick-and-dirty program that would open the TK50 in raw mode and write 256-byte blocks to it. But it may be easier for to simply create a tar-format tape on the ULTRIX side and then read it under VMS. Message 563 in SIG 42, Data/File Transfer, provides a source for VMS software that reads tar-format tapes; it's dated 17-Jul-89, so I'm sure the address and telephone number are still good. CLUSTERING/NETWORKING SIG Message # 430 1 replies Left by: MARK L. GRIMES On 19-Aug-89 At : 415-864-3895 Subject: E-MAIL I have two questions regarding E-mail. The first is one I have asked in a Letter to the Editor section already. Namely, Where is Gage Educational publishers? I have been trying to order the book E-MAIL by Stephen A. Caswell and my bookstore can't find this company. I would also like to solve the following problem. I am connected to academic computer networks (BITNET, BIONET, Internet) and I would like to send a text file to a person with a MCI mailbox. Perhaps someone who uses this BB knows how to send mail from BITNET to MCI and the converse. If it is possible. Thanks for your help! PC'S SIG Message # 231 0 replies Left by: MARK L. GRIMES On 19-Aug-89 At : 415-864-3895 Subject: PRO 8086 BOARD I am one of those DEC Professional readers who actually owns the unfashionable DEC Professional computer. Recently, I obtained an 8086 board made by Virtual Microsystems (PC-Bridge). Since VM is nearby, they were kind enough to give me the software to drive the board, set up "virtual floppies" and transfer files to them. But there are no more of the chips that install on the diskette controller board that allow the RX50 drives to read IBM PC-formatted diskettes. So I have what is called a "boot-strap" problem. That is, to get software into the "virtual floppies" (actually RMS files on my Pro hard disk), I must bring it in over the phone. Unfortunately, binary files are truncated when transferred from RMS 512 byte record length to the 128 byte record length in virtual floppies. Text files come through fine. The brute-force solution to this problem is to write a DeHEXification program in 8086 assembly language and compile it using the MASM compiler that is part of the operating system on my virtual floppies. However, before I jump into this unfamiliar territory, I would like to ask if there is anyone else out there who knows of such a DeHEX program written in MASM. I can also think of other solutions, if there is a Pro user out there who has one of these VM boards. A virtual floppy file containing a functioning deHEX or communications program that drives the Pro COMM port would do the trick. My motivation is to extend the life of this useful but isolated computer by tapping into a very large software base. VMS SIG Message # 1048 0 replies Reply to # 1044 Left by: Phil Gravel On 19-Aug-89 At : HERE Subject: Image Activation - VASFUL Thanks for the suggestion, Richard. It turns out that the SYSGEN parameter VIRTUALPAGECNT was set at 24384. Resetting this value fixed the problem. Apparently this image gets a lot of demand zero pages when it is invoked. Phil CLUSTERING/NETWORKING SIG Message # 431 0 replies Reply to # 398 Left by: DOUGLAS KAIP On 20-Aug-89 At : (214) 931-9097 Subject: DYNAMIC ASYNC DECNET We current run Dynamic async decnet over a telebit t2500 and a cds dialaccess 296 we do not seem to have any trouble. we even run decwindows applications over them albiet slowly. I talked to DEC about modems and ddcmp a while back they said ddcmp over a modem was supported at 2400 baud or less...because the modems tend to packet data that is not necessarily on ddcmp packet boundries if a retransmit etc. occurs a ddcmp timeout could occur. They suggested disabling the comm processor on the modem on the cds we can do that. We have configured the modem to act as a solid wire. The 9600 baud decnet seems to work fine. The only problems we have are with the DTR on the ports...and the modems trying to log in on occation. dsk MISCELLANEOUS SIG Message # 576 1 replies Reply to # 574 Left by: SIMON BROWN On 21-Aug-89 At : SWITZ 1 236 4901 Subject: DECUS SUBMISSIONS 1) Thanks for the info - do either of you or anyone else have Mr. Everhart's address or telephone no? - I'd appreciate that. Then I'll get my s/w off for the November meeting. Unfortunatley I'm hourly paid, and don't get the luxury of visiting U.S.A. . Or is there someone out there who'll be going and could take a TK50 for me? 2) VAX C v2.4 under VMS 5.1 is giving me problems with /opt - it's destroying my code. Anyone else got the same problem? Cheers, Simon DATA/FILE TRANSFER SIG Message # 595 0 replies Reply to # 586 Left by: RON MCCARTHY On 21-Aug-89 At : HERE Subject: 3780 SIGN ON The sparse documentation on the VAX-ACCOUNT indicates that this is used when renaming files received by 3780. It is true that I could probably manipulate file ownership etc. however this field is NOT MANDATORY and therfore offers no real security. Does everyone that uses shared 3780 allow just anyone to transmit? or does no one use 3780 in the shared mode? Thanx for your time Ron DATA/FILE TRANSFER SIG Message # 596 0 replies Reply to # 590 Left by: RON MCCARTHY On 21-Aug-89 At : HERE Subject: 3780 SIGN ON I forgot to ask about the ROUTEBACK features you spoke of earlier. Do you know where I can find some documentation on this? DATA/FILE TRANSFER SIG Message # 598 1 replies Left by: MARC E. MCNEAL On 21-Aug-89 At : GENERAL BUS. SERV. Subject: PC TO VAX FILE TRANSFER Our site has installed a barcode data collection system on a PC. We need to transfer the records collected from the devices on the PC to the vax. I would like to have a detached process read one of our serial ports to collect the records being transfered and write them to a file on the vax for processing. Can someone inform me as to which system routines are best to handle this and also how to guard against data loss. This procedure must be done automatically without needing someone to manually run a program on the PC to transfer a file to the VAX. The PC transmit program and the VAX reciever program must run unattended. I don't believe that a program such as KERMIT, etc. will work the way I have described. If anyone has suggestions or knows of a product that will accomplish this please reply. Thanks Marc E. McNeal (301) 428-1040 ext. 384 RSTS SIG Message # 417 0 replies Left by: WILL On 21-Aug-89 At : 408 3710575 Subject: MOUNT SECOND MSCP DRIVE We have a new disk drive installed on our PDP 11/73 system running RSTS v8.0 The drive is a RA81 look alike. I can DSKINT it at the Option level but once the system is up I cannot MOUNT, DISMOUNT, DSKINT, SAVRES, or anything with- out a "Device not available error". I have tried to ALLOCATE, ENABLE, and SEIZE it without any luck. Any ideas???? DATA/FILE TRANSFER SIG Message # 599 1 replies Reply to # 598 Left by: Phil Anthony On 21-Aug-89 At : Here Subject: PC TO VAX FILE TRANSFER Marc, I did some research on PC software (and hardware) to read bar codes about a year ago. At that time I didn't find any software that interpreted the bar code reader's signals, built records, and then transmitted the records out a serial port on a PC. And you're right, Kermit won't do the trick: Kermit running under single-user MS-DOS can't handle anything but files that already exist. On the VAX side, Kermit or any other file trans- fer protocol would probably time out in between transmitted records. Unless somebody's come up with software for both the PC and VAX sides in the past year, I think you're in for some custom programming. It can be done, of course. The easiest way would probably be to get both MS-Kermit and Kermit-32 source from Columbia University (address in several messages on this SIG) and also purchase the source code for the bar code reading program. The latter would become the front end, feeding a modified MS-Kermit with all timeout code (except for receiving ACK or NAK from the VAX) removed; it would transmit to a modified Kermit-32, again with timeout code deleted. The modified MS-Kermit would have to send appropriate header packets at the beginning of the job, and EOF and EOT packets when the user is done reading bar codes. Both it and the modified Kermit-32 would have to be made sensitive to loss of carrier between the two machines because of the lack of timeout information. Why Kermit? Well, if you're going over telephone lines, XModem is too sen- sitive to line hits (particularly stray CANs), and ZModem is somewhat more complicated code than Kermit. Also, I haven't heard of ZModem source for VMS that you could use as a starting point. Good luck! MISCELLANEOUS SIG Message # 577 0 replies Reply to # 556 Left by: DAVE KAPLAN On 21-Aug-89 At : 919-878-0204 Subject: RAINBOWS Thanks Bonnie - I've got a couple of Rainbows here that I'm not using and I was just wondering if I should scrap them! Seems that Rainbows are mostly good when seen at a distance under the proper conditions. Once you finally see what's at the end of the Rainbow, well... Thanks. DATA/FILE TRANSFER SIG Message # 600 1 replies Reply to # 576 Left by: DAVE KAPLAN On 21-Aug-89 At : 919-878-0204 Subject: ARC FOR VMS Thanks Richard and Phil. From the response, the situation is about what I guessed. As you know, it would be nice if you could avoid extra mini-to-PC-to-mini transfers just to benefit from file archiving when telecommunicating VAX and/or PDP software. However, anything but a fully current-version-compatible item for either operating system would just substitute incompatibility and uncertainty for speed. Thanks anyway! P.S. Phil - if you and Brett do write a RSTS ARC program, I'd certainly be interested... DATA/FILE TRANSFER SIG Message # 601 2 replies Reply to # 599 Left by: DAVE KAPLAN On 21-Aug-89 At : 919-878-0204 Subject: PC TO VAX FILE TRANSFER Marc - here are some additional thoughts: 1) If it's an option, there's at least one company which offers a barcode reader which you can daisy-chain with a VT220 keyboard. When the barcode is scanned, the data is transmitted to the host system just as if it had been typed at the VT220's keyboard, followed by a . Using this method, no special software is required, though all barcode stations are just "dumb" terminals hooked directly to your VAX. If this interests you, give me a call and I'll pass along the info. We've been using this method for about three years with good results. Note also that the keyboard then provides a built-in backup if you have an un-scanable barcode. 2) Assuming you must keep the barcode scanners on the PC (i.e. you can't use option 1), you don't say much about your PC system/software. However, if your PC's are currently reading barcode data and writing it to the PC's hard-disk, then you might consider looking at a product like Mirror III. This is a PC terminal emulator/communications package (I'm using it right now - Phil uses it also) which provides extensive programming capabilities as well. Depending on your specifics, you could use Mirror in it's background mode to poll the disk periodically, looking for "new" data. Once found, it could then perform various possible tasks to transfer this data to a VAX. For example, if the VAX is local (directly connected), it could simulate data entry directly into a running program on the VAX, or possibly fire up KERMIT on the VAX and transfer an entire file. If the VAX is remote to the PC, a telephone call could be placed, logon effected, and then the data transfer tasks could be performed just like a local VAX. All this could be done transparently while your "primary" PC task is running in the foreground (subject to the PC's memory limitations). Phil is much more experienced with Mirror, so he can probably add to this, but I will say that while I believe this method is perfectly feasible, a fair amount of Mirror programming would be required. One final note on barcodes. If anyone needs to print 3-of-9 barcodes on an LN03, I've got BP2 subroutines for RSTS, and VAX Basic subroutines for VMS ... FORUM - 3RD PARTY SUPPLIERS SIG Message # 109 0 replies Reply to # 108 Left by: DAVE KAPLAN On 21-Aug-89 At : 919-878-0204 Subject: PARADYNE MUX/MODEMS Andi - We've been using Paradyne DCX815's and DCX861's for about 5 years. We originally used Paradyne for our service vendor, but switched to GE (General Electric) about 2-1/2 years ago. Generally we're pleased with the service, with one caviot (sp?). As a rule, it seems that GE doesn't keep local parts inventory (you've got to moan and groan a bit!) so if you don't speak up, you end up waiting 24 hours for a Fed-X replacement. Then there's always the possibilty of getting the wrong part, or one that's DOA. In our case, we now have 4 pairs of DCX861's, so GE keeps a local spare unit. With the local spare, we haven't had any significant downtime. I should mention that we had lots of thermal failures with the older DCX815's which didn't have a cooling fan. The newer DCX861's have a fan (and a built in modem), and are much more reliable. However, both units can lockup from otherwise un-noticed power impulses. Give me a call if I can give you any more info or if you can't locate GE in your area. VMS SIG Message # 1049 0 replies Reply to # 1030 Left by: DAVE KAPLAN On 21-Aug-89 At : 919-878-0204 Subject: MAGTAPW Thanks Richard and Andrew. I was really hoping to avoid QIO's, but I figured sooner or later I'd have to deal with them! I'll be giving you a call Andrew as I would like to take you up on your offer. MIGRATION ISSUES SIG Message # 54 0 replies Reply to # 53 Left by: DAVE KAPLAN On 21-Aug-89 At : 919-878-0204 Subject: RSTS --> VAX Paul - If you don't have any luck with Andrew's suggestion, we've got a RSTS 9.6 system and a VMS 4.7 system here, both with 9track tape. If I can find time, I'd be willing to load your file back up on RSTS and move it over to the VAX (we've got a couple of ways, even KERMIT works if you're not in a hurry). Then I could give you a VMS backup tape from there... MIGRATION ISSUES SIG Message # 55 0 replies Left by: DAVE KAPLAN On 21-Aug-89 At : 919-878-0204 Subject: AM I CRAZY? Seems like when we were running our PDP-11/70 w/RSTS V7.1 we could transfer a fixed-length sequential file from our MicrovaxII w/VMS v4.7 to the PDP on 9-track tape by making a tape with DCL COPY on the VAX, and then mounting the tape ANSI on the PDP and PIPing the file from tape to disk using the "/RMS" qualifier in the right place. Now that we've replace our 11/70 with an 11/83 w/RSTS V9.6, this doesn't seem to work any more (no - I don't remember exactly where it fails right now!). Am I crazy??? DATA/FILE TRANSFER SIG Message # 602 0 replies Reply to # 601 Left by: BRIAN DESANTIS On 22-Aug-89 At : (201)670-0286 Subject: PC TO VAX FILE TRANSFER Regarding bar code readers for VT200's. About 130 of my 135 terminals are equipped with bar code readers - hooks up to terminal cable from host, and to terminal using null modem cable. These readers are programmable as to what bar codes it can read - 3 of 9, codabar, upc, etc, and also as to communcations parameters, etc. Light pens or laser 'guns' are used to actually read the labels, and, as previously mentioned, they act as if the info came right from the keyboard. VMS SIG Message # 1050 0 replies Reply to # 1043 Left by: PAUL DEANGELIS On 22-Aug-89 At : 215/783-7200 Subject: REGARDING DUMPFILES... In July, our MicroVax II rebooted itself without warning. We had bought a few new utilties, including an idle process killer that was still in beta testing. The VMS support person logged in to analyze the crash dump. Later that afternoon, she calls back and tells me an idle process killer is stopping outswapped processes and causing the Bug Check! I had a fix in a few days :) CLUSTERING/NETWORKING SIG Message # 432 1 replies Reply to # 430 Left by: ANNE SCHRAUGER On 22-Aug-89 At : HERE Subject: E-MAIL According to Bill's article, most of the books listed can be found at: Computer Literacy, 2590 N. 1st St., San Jose, CA 95131 (408) 435-1118 or Taylor's Technical Books, 5455 Beltline Rd., Dallas, TX 75204 (214) 239-TECH. DATA/FILE TRANSFER SIG Message # 603 1 replies Reply to # 600 Left by: Phil Anthony On 22-Aug-89 At : Here Subject: ARC FOR VMS Dave, I uploaded the ARC V6.02 source code to Brett last week. Let's see how he makes out. There will be incompatibilities with MS-DOS ARC, because of incompatible features on the two operating systems: RSTS doesn't sup- port subdirectories, and ARC is now capable of compressing and storing an entire subdirectory structure. We expect the compression algorithms to be compatible, however, so long as you don't want translation to RMS file structure. RMS is a major reason why it's hard to port ARC to VMS, in fact. MS-DOS files are essentially byte streams (with a totally superfluous Ctrl-Z tacked on to the end of text files by some, but not all, MS-DOS software). It's difficult for ARC under VMS to know what sort of record structure to impose on files that were created and then stored with no concept of record blocking. DATA/FILE TRANSFER SIG Message # 604 1 replies Reply to # 601 Left by: Phil Anthony On 22-Aug-89 At : Here Subject: PC TO VAX FILE TRANSFER Dave, I thought about using Mirror as a background process to send bar code records across to the VAX, and discarded it. There are two problems with that approach: (1) Kermit (or whatever) on the VAX side would time out waiting for data from the PC, as I noted in my first reply, and (2) MS-DOS doesn't update directory information until an output file is closed, so there wouldn't be any way for Mirror or another background process to learn that more information had been added. All new MS-DOS files are zero-length until they're closed .... If Marc doesn't need on-line update of the VAX database, the information could of course be collected on the PC and batched across to the VAX auto- magically by Mirror working in background mode on completion of a run. But since the spec called for immediate transmission to VAX, I didn't mention that possibility. I also didn't mention the fact that if the PC is hard- wired into the VAX via null-modem cable or short-haul modem, no special transfer protocol would be required at any reasonable speed (up to 9600 Baud). If it's feasible, I think Brian's and your suggestion of hooking bar code readers up to a VT220 is Marc's best bet. Otherwise - if the equipment investment has already been made, for instance, and management won't spring for new wands and software - it looks to me as if Marc is stuck with some custom coding. UTILITIES SIG Message # 397 0 replies Left by: BRIAN P. JENKINS On 22-Aug-89 At : 215-988-1359 Subject: EXECUTE_DCL PROCEDURE I used the EXECUTE_DCL routine available for download, upon execution of the test module supplied I noticed that the created subprocess was not deleted but the parent process was gone. The test calls EXECUTE_DCL twice, why did the first call (to set default) delete the process but the second call (to obtain a directory) allowed the subprocess to remain ? I find this type of utility very useful and would like to determine this problem. FORUM - 3RD PARTY SUPPLIERS SIG Message # 111 0 replies Left by: DAVID L. WATSON On 22-Aug-89 At : (505) 678-1163 Subject: INFO ABOUT PRECISION STANDARD TIME INC. Does any one know anything about the where abouts of Precision Standard Time Inc. formaly of Frmont, CA.? We have one of their products. When we upgraded to V5 their software stoped working and now the phone numbers I have for them have been disconnected. APPLICATIONS SIG Message # 359 0 replies Left by: JIM CHAMBERS On 22-Aug-89 At : (916) 478-3823 Subject: FREIGHT CARRIER SELECTION We are looking for a software package that runs on the VAX or DOS machines that will help us in deciding which freight carrier and class of service really is the "BEST WAY". Some of the variables we want considered are cost, time, destination, insurance, etc. We ship our products both domestically and internationally. It sounds like an AI application to me. Does anyone know of a package out there that does something like this? Thanks. MASS STORAGE SIG Message # 269 0 replies Left by: PETER J. MORGAN On 22-Aug-89 At : (916)638-5282 Subject: THIRD PARTY DISK -SCSI I have 5 VAXstation 3100's running VMS with 5 Micropolis drives model # 1558. DEC has stated that when they introduced their SCSI adapter for these workstations some third party drives would work and some wouldn't. I got stuck with some that don't want to work. If anyone has any experience with any third party drive on this system I would appreciate hearing from you via ARIS or by phone. Thanks. MISCELLANEOUS SIG Message # 578 0 replies Reply to # 576 Left by: RICHARD B. GILBERT On 22-Aug-89 At : (609) 452-5130 Subject: DECUS SUBMISSIONS Simon, I have sent an E-mail message to Glenn Everhart asking for an address that you can write to. I'll let you know if and when he replies. The E-mail address that I left for him in my last message was incorrect. Try EVERHART%ARISIA.decnet@CRDGW1.GE.COM if you have network access. DATA/FILE TRANSFER SIG Message # 605 0 replies Reply to # 603 Left by: DAVE KAPLAN On 22-Aug-89 At : 919-878-0204 Subject: ARC FOR VMS As I've been thinking about this, I realize (I'm slow; but I get there...) that compatibity with MS-DOS ARC is not really necessary for the purpose of improving mini-to-mini transfers. Any "proprietary" compression program would be fine, provided you could transfer the comp/decomp program itself to all interested systems, thereby providing bi-directional compressed transfer capabilities. That being said, I suppose that DEC's BACKUP might do the job without re-inventing the wheel. For example, on VMS we usually do our backups to magtape. The few times I've put the backup "container" file on disk, I haven't paid any attention to the relative storage of the container file v.s. the individual files being backed up. My guess is that there's some benefit? Obviously, BACKUP is ideal from the standpoint that it can certainly restore all "contained" files with their original attriutes, something which would be impossible with an ARC-compatible program as you've said. P.S. Is Brett's system up at any special time? I've given up trying to login as I've never succeeded except the first time when he and I were also doing a voice conversation at the same time... DATA/FILE TRANSFER SIG Message # 606 0 replies Reply to # 604 Left by: DAVE KAPLAN On 22-Aug-89 At : 919-878-0204 Subject: PC TO VAX FILE TRANSFER Phil - I agree with you. However, since Marc may not be familiar with Mirror III (or other similar products), I don't think we should rule it out as a suggestion, but rather qualify the suggestion with the condition that some accomodations would need to be made in the existing PC's barcode-reading software. For example, if the PC software could be modified to write the info. to be transferred to the VAX into a separate file, then close the file, using Mirror becomes feasible. Another possibilty I'm just realizing is that Mirror does have the capability of actually monitoring the DOS foreground screen while Mirror itself is running in background. So, even if mods. can not be made to the existing PC software, Mirror might still be able to "capture" the info. to be transferred directly from the screen. With regard to using Kermit on the VAX side and possible timeouts, I think this too could be avoided. If the transaction rate is to slow to support a single Kermit-32 server session, Mirror could invoke a Kermit-32 session once for each transaction and then send the data immediately; terminating the Kermit-32 session upon completion. This is different from having a detached process on the VAX waiting for some input, but would still provide the stated functionality; i.e. unattended operation. Having said all this, it's still safe to say that programming would be required, either in Mirror's own language, or something else (a rose by any other name...). PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES/AI SIG Message # 422 1 replies Left by: DAVE KAPLAN On 22-Aug-89 At : 919-878-0204 Subject: PROGRESS 4GL FOR VMS Has anyone heard of PROGRESS, a 4GL available for VMS? I'm trying to find out how to get some product information and/or user perspectives. CLUSTERING/NETWORKING SIG Message # 433 0 replies Reply to # 432 Left by: ANNE SCHRAUGER On 23-Aug-89 At : HERE Subject: E-MAIL ooops! Just got more information. Gage Educational Publishers apparently does not exist. E-Mail by Stephen A. Caswell, ISBN #0-89006-303-6, published by Artech House, 1988. CLUSTERING/NETWORKING SIG Message # 434 0 replies Left by: ROBERT VENARD On 23-Aug-89 At : 609 683 6144 Subject: VAX TO RSTS SET HOST TROUBLES We do SET HOST's from a VAX 11/785 (VMS 4.7) to a remote PDP 11/70 (RSTS 8.0-07). The connection is a 9600 baud leased line. No major problems in the past with this. Suddenly, escape characters (i.e., arrow and keypad functions in EDT, field-to-field movement in screen-oriented data entry programs) are not working properly. Also, during fast typing, "stray" characters become intermixed with user input. Strays includes lots of foreign and special character set characteres not available on the standard US keyboard. DEC has not been able to help us as they say that SET HOST from VAX to RSTS is not supported (officially). We are using the NETUNS.TSK which enables the unsupported capability, and do remember to do the CONTROL-P ODT combination after logging in, but still the aggravating problem. Anyone with a similar configuration seen and solved this problem? PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES/AI SIG Message # 423 0 replies Reply to # 422 Left by: ROBERT VENARD On 23-Aug-89 At : ARIS Subject: PROGRESS 4GL FOR VMS PROGRESS fourth generation language is available from: PROGRESS Software 5 OAK PARK BEDFORD, MA 01730 617-275-4500 I don't know PROGRESS from first hand, but I did find this address in DATA SOURCES handbook. PC'S SIG Message # 232 0 replies Left by: DAN DONOHUE On 23-Aug-89 At : (215)439-3276 Subject: INT 14 REDIRECTION Has anyone using PCSA come across PC software which requires INT 14 redirection to work? I've got a terminal emulator with that requirement but I'm not entirely sure how to implement it. According to the DECnet programmer's reference manual, the NETBIOS emulator should be capable of intercepting synchronous request via INT 14 and redirecting them across the network. The specifics are unclear. Anyone with a communication package which normally uses the serial port may have come across this problem. I'd appreciate any help at all! RSX SIG Message # 281 0 replies Left by: DOUG LOTEN On 23-Aug-89 At : 1-519-337-2301 X280 Subject: RSX WON'T SHUTDOWN We are running RSX-11M+ v2.1D. When invoking RUN $SHUTUP, the shutdown procedure goes as planned until it exits from LB0:[1,2]SHUTUP.CMD at which point a message comes up that "Logins are now enabled" and the console terminal session is logged off. The rest of the SHUTUP procedures (ie. halting QMG, dismounting disks never occurs and the system never goes all the way down. I have to ^P to halt the CPU. I have talked with DEC Software Support (CANADA) and the only hint they could give was to check that no priveleged task was still attached to the console. So I tried aborting every task, dismounting every disk, stopping the QMG with the same end result. Anybody have any ideas? MICROVAX SIG Message # 214 0 replies Left by: JOHN SCHLITTER On 23-Aug-89 At : 312-321-3018 Subject: BUILD A MICROVAX 3400 We are currently a self-maintaining PDP 11/35 (yes, 11/35s) site wishing to purchase a MicroVax to install a text retrieval system. Is it possible to "build" a MicroVax 3400 from 3rd party hardware suppliers with the following configuration: 1 DEC MicroVax 3400 CPU (from a DEC re-seller, any $uggestion$) 20MB of RAM (Clearpoint) 2 GB of disk storage (CDC 1GB Sabre disk drives) Disk controller (??) 8 Asynchronous serial ports (Emulex) 1 Synchronous port (Emulex) VMS, manuals, & diagnotics MISCELLANEOUS SIG Message # 579 0 replies Left by: SCOTT VIVIAN On 23-Aug-89 At : TX MEDICAL FOUNDATION Subject: DOWNLOADING PRO-PRESS FILES To the great powers that be, I was wondering if there is a quick way to down load all the files from a single author, i.e. R Jaeschke, without writing down all of the file names from the cumulative index. Also, what are the numbers on the right side when I list files from the cumulative index. Thanks, Scott Vivian Tx Medical Foundation 901 MOPAC S, Suite 200 Austin, Tx 78746-5747 PC'S SIG Message # 233 0 replies Reply to # 232 Left by: Phil Anthony On 23-Aug-89 At : Here Subject: INT 14 REDIRECTION Dan, according to Terry R. Dettmann's "DOS Programmer's Reference" (Que Cor- poration, 1988), Int 14h invokes a BIOS - not NETBIOS - function to do various desirable things to a serial port without writing to the metal. For example, Subfunction 00h of Int 14h simply initializes COM1 or COM2 (or COM3 or COM4 on AT-compatibles) for a given speed, parity, number of stop bits, and word length. Subfunction 01h writes a single byte, 02h reads a single byte, and so on. Vector redirection - actually changing the interrupt vector to point to your own code instead of the BIOS code - is normally done within programs that need to do something special, such as preprocessing output or grabbing hold of something before the system gets it (such as the system timer interrupt). DEC's NETBIOS may redirect Int 14H, or at least be able to; IBM-compatible NETBIOTA don't. But I've never heard of any MS-DOS program requiring *you* to write your own interrupt service routine. Are you sure you're reading the terminal emulator's documentation correctly? DATA/FILE TRANSFER SIG Message # 607 0 replies Reply to # 605 Left by: Phil Anthony On 23-Aug-89 At : Here Subject: ARC FOR VMS Dave, Brett is definitely up (so long as there isn't a crashing thunderstorm at the time) every Saturday night at 11:00 EDT. I've left a message for him on my BBS asking when else he may be running; when I get an answer, I'll let you know. MISCELLANEOUS SIG Message # 580 0 replies Reply to # 579 Left by: Phil Anthony On 23-Aug-89 At : Here Subject: DOWNLOADING PRO-PRESS FIL As the least of the lesser powers, a quick response: 1. Afraid not (but maybe if we ask nicely, the folks who do the ARIS programming will put it on their wish list), and 2. The numbers are volume, number, and page of the magazine in which the article appeared. Of course, instead of writing it all down, you could simply capture the re- sult of your scan to disk and print it out ... or even write a script file (if your comm program permits this) to download automatically all the titles you've captured during Step 1. The former would be pretty easy, but the latter would require a fair amount of script language programming, including a mess of pattern matching to pick off the correct articles to download. DATA/FILE TRANSFER SIG Message # 608 0 replies Left by: Phil Anthony On 24-Aug-89 At : Here Subject: MULTITECH BIOS PROBLEM A question for Dave Kaplan: A while back, you mentioned that older Multi- tech modems had a faulty BIOS that prevented proper MNP syncronization. A friend who uses Multitechs asked me to get as much information as I could about the problem - BIOS rev numbers, dates, etc. Anything you can tell him will be much appreciated. DATA/FILE TRANSFER SIG Message # 609 0 replies Left by: GEORGE BRENCKLE On 24-Aug-89 At : (302)733-3685 Subject: VAX/FAX INTERFACE I am interested in connecting to a FAX to send reports from my VAX. I am interested in determining what options and products are available. PLease contact me, or leave me a message if you have some experience in this. Thanks. MISCELLANEOUS SIG Message # 581 0 replies Reply to # 578 Left by: RICHARD B. GILBERT On 24-Aug-89 At : (609) 452-5130 Subject: DECUS SUBMISSIONS Ok, here's the scoop on submitting to the VAXSIG Symposium tape. I just got this, straight from Glenn Everhart. From: EVERHART%ARISIA.decnet@crdgw1.ge.com 24-AUG-1989 10:07 To: Dragon@nscvax.princeton.edu Subj: DECUS VAX SIG Tape submissions Return-Path: Richard - Material can be submitted to the VAX SIG tapes by sending it to me by the time of the symposium involved. There are some formatting conventions which make it easier to use material: 1. Try to place a AAAREADME.TXT file somewhere at the top of the directory tree that acts as an introduction to what you submit. This file may point to other more detailed documentation (and should be relatively brief). This file will be widely useds to determine how interested they are in your submission so make it as descriptive as possible. 2. Try to have complete documentation machine readable. The SIG tapes get wide circulation, and many recipients don't get, for example, the DECUS symposium proceedings document. 3. Please include a DECUS sig tape submission form, or at least a signed statement that there is no proprietary code included and that you release the programs to DECUS for distribution. 4. I will try to read ANY format the data comes in. However, I prefer tape (or TK50) in VMS Backup format. I will have a lot of trouble with paper tape, card decks, RK05's, or DECtape I's among others. I can read 8" floppies, some flavors 5.25" floppies (yes, MS-DOS 360K format is fine, as is RX50 MSDOS format or 1.2MB 5.25" or PCDOS 3.5" floppy formats). I can read tape at 800, 1600, or 6250. I can read TAR format and some others; contact me in case of questions. I PREFER VMS Backup format at 1600 or 6250 on tape. 5. Mail or ship to me: Glenn Everhart 25 Sleigh Ride Rd. Glen Mills, PA 19342 voice: 215 354 7610 office 215 358 3866 home Internet: Everhart%Arisia.decnet@crd.ge.com If you need your media back please indicate so with a note which also should have your return address on it, and try to send the tape in a re-usable container. Richard - Please get the foregoing to your correspondent if you will, please. Feel free to print it or otherwise circulate it too. By the way, your correspondent might be able to get hold of Alan Silverman over at CERN lab in Geneva (Computer Operations). He frequently comes to US symposia and may be willing to carry tape there too. His site gets VAX tapes direct from me, providing a return path for the stuff. Thanks for your letter. Glenn Everhart DECUS VAX SIG librarian MIGRATION ISSUES SIG Message # 56 0 replies Left by: STEPHANIE LYON On 24-Aug-89 At : (609) 737-0425 Subject: UNIX SEMIPHORES FOR VMS We are about to under take the task of implemeting a UNIX System V semiphore compatability lib for VMS. If anyone out there has tried this and may be willing to part with some pearls of wisdom, it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in Advance FORUM - 3RD PARTY SUPPLIERS SIG Message # 112 0 replies Reply to # 111 Left by: Phil Gravel On 24-Aug-89 At : (312)420-5474 Subject: INFO ABOUT PRECISION STAN We have the same problem. We have done extensive checking (Dunn & Bradstreet, California BBB, etc) and as nearly as we can tell, PSTI has disappeared without a trace. If anyone else knows more, I too would appreciate hearing about it. I have mixed feelings about this situation. On one hand, I'm disappointed becauseTime Source is a useful product. On the other hand I'm angry because I've lost my investment in this product. Phil MISCELLANEOUS SIG Message # 582 0 replies Reply to # 580 Left by: SCOTT VIVIAN On 25-Aug-89 At : TX MEDICAL FOUNDATION Subject: DOWNLOADING PRO-PRESS FIL Thanks ! Unfortunately, I know absolutely zip about script programming. About asking the programmers - is there a formal way of doing that or is the message center the place? If I use the message center, then what SIG should I use? About my original question - should those questions be sent to 'Dear Sysop' or is there a SIG in the message center to ask those types of questions?? And, by the way, is there such an animal as a 'users guide to ARIS' ?? Thanks for the quick response !!!!!!!!!!!! Scott Vivian RSTS SIG Message # 418 0 replies Left by: PHIL On 25-Aug-89 At : HERE Subject: NONSHARABLE DEVICE LP: We are currently running on a 11/73 V9.5. Our problem is when more than one user is in an application and they want to print, whoever opens the I/O device first locks out the next user when they go to open device. (Nonsharable I/O devic I can solve the problem by directg output to a file and then haprinting the files. BUT is there a better WAY..?????? Thanks Lads. VMS SIG Message # 1051 0 replies Left by: SASAN KASRA On 25-Aug-89 At : GENERAL DATACOMM -- MIDDLEBURY, CONN. Subject: MAILBOXES AND SUBPROCESSES Has anyone tried the program in Aug' 89 issue of VAXPRO (PP. 21-26) to spawn a subprocess and execute DCL commands through the subprocess via temporary mailboxes? I am experiencing a problem with LIB$SPAWN -- %RMS-E-FNF. It seems that this RTL routine does not accept the mailbox equivalent names, created by SYS$CREMBX, as the redirected SYS$INPUT and SYS$OUTPUT filespecs. Any insights? SITE MANAGEMENT SIG Message # 310 0 replies Reply to # 288 Left by: David Beorn On 25-Aug-89 At : 804-788-7410 - Reynolds Metals Subject: SHUTDOWN From BATCH Yeh - I tried running SHUTDOWN in BATCH and it died before rebooting - after giving all these REPLYs saying it was going down. Then it stopped the BATCH queue as one of the last things it does and aborted itself. I thought it was pretty amusing (and dumb that I didn't think of that). So, I created a command procedure that runs SHUTDOWN and I created a symbol to run it DETACHed much like the other program I saw here. One thing you can do with a symbol to run it - you can add the /SCHEDULE qualifier and have it run later - but of course if you start the DETACHed process from BATCH, you can also delay the BATCH job. But at an rate - it works very nicely. You don't have to tie up your terminal watching it do the shutdown - you can do something else for a while or just log out w/o stopping the SHUTDOWN and/or REBOOT. David COMMUNICATIONS SIG Message # 297 0 replies Reply to # 283 Left by: David Beorn On 25-Aug-89 At : 804-788-7410, Reynolds Metals Subject: HP-1000 / HP TERMINALS Well - not ALL HP terminals can't talk to DEC - I have a 2623A that has an ANSI mode that works rather nicely with my VAX (connected directly to a port). It does, however, need to be cut down to either 4800 or 2400 baud to hanle output to the screen w/o being "overflowed" resulting in garble characters when you send multiple screens of info at it consecutively. I'm not sure why this is (no buffering and/or no XON/XOFF ???) but has proven to be a satisfactory set-up this way. I just use it as a spare, but am considering using it for home, since I only have 2400 baud to dial-up anyway. David VMS SIG Message # 1052 0 replies Reply to # 961 Left by: David Beorn On 25-Aug-89 At : 804-788-7410 Subject: CHARACTER ATTRIBUTES Your question about MAIL was answered corrctly but I didn't see a reply in the thread about the HELP files. You unfortunately, as mentioned, CAN'T put video attributes in MAIL messages (guess you have to get All-In-1 - yech!!). You CAN. however, put the proper escape sequences in the .HLP file and it will work just fine in a HALP file. You can even include them in the HEADER or label or whatever it is called - keyword??? for the topic, as long as you don't put the escape as the first character (I think I'm remembering this correctly). Also, with putting 's in the keyword, you may need to create the library with LIBRARY /CREATE = KEY = 31 to allow a longer keyword, since the codes take up more space. I think 31 is the MAX. Hope this message isn't TOO late. David UTILITIES SIG Message # 398 0 replies Left by: SAM JANNEY On 25-Aug-89 At : INTEGRATED SYSTEMS ANALYSTS Subject: OLD MAILUAF.COM - NEW? On vms 4.x a utility, SYS$EXAMPLES:MAILUAF.COM, was provided that allowed having generic or special usernames inserted in to the system mail file, VMSMAIL.DAT. Under vms 5.x the format and names have been changed. From this board and from another I have gotten the format of the new file, VMSMAIL_PROFILE.DATA. Prior to my jumping in and modifying MAILUAF.COM to work under vms 5.x, has anyone else already done this so I don't spend my time re-creating the wheel??? This utility was heavily utilized at three on my sites and my phone keeps ringing!!! Thanks, Sam Janney, Senior Principal Systems Analyst Integrated Systems Analysts, Inc. 740 Bay Blvd Chula Vista, Ca 92010 (619)422-7100 TERMINALS/PLOTTERS/PRINTERS SIG Message # 315 0 replies Reply to # 310 Left by: David Beorn On 25-Aug-89 At : 804-788-7410 Subject: Downloading Soft Fonts To VT-300 Series Terminals Yes - I have wondered how to do that and/or where the documentation (if any) exists on it. I also have a .COM file that sets my prompt and it won't work now that I have a VT-300 series terminal. well, actually it works 0 but not RIGHT. Snoopy is "inverted" partly or something, the Star Ship Enterprise doesn't look right, etc. Only the alligator looks normal but he's kinda "squished". I assume these things are bit-mapped using the characters that are loaded into the registers but I haven't been able to figure it out. David RSTS SIG Message # 419 1 replies Reply to # 378 Left by: David Beorn On 25-Aug-89 At : 804-788-7410 Subject: .PLAS(TER) UU(YOUR) .RTS Well - this is not about RSTS, so I hope that's OK but it IS about the "auto-reboot" that was mentioned. I have had that problem with an RT-11 system - it seems to auto-reboot over night or something. It is a PDP-1103 "MINC" machine (yeh - really!). I thought maybe it was a voltage dip that might cause it to auto-boot, then it remains in a strange mode, i.e. it doesn't re-boot all the way. I don't know RT or PDP much so I don't know what this is but I assume it's something like the boot prompt on a VAX???? HELP, please!!!! Thanks David RSTS SIG Message # 420 0 replies Reply to # 419 Left by: David Beorn On 25-Aug-89 At : 804-788-7410 Subject: .PLAS(TER) UU(YOUR) .RTS By the way - it is NOT caused by power failure and "as far as we know", the power is "well conditioned" (whatever that REALLY means) but I'm suspicious. Also, I've had this happen with SYTEK LOCALNET modems - when the voltage dropped below 100 volts, they reset (analogous to reboot). They fixed it in a later release but since this RT-11 system ius old, I figured it might have the same problem (but DEC has fixed it since then). RT SIG Message # 23 0 replies Left by: DB On 25-Aug-89 At : 804-788-7410 Subject: PDP-1103, RT-11 SYSTEM AUTO-REBOOT PROBLEM I noted a problem in the RSTS SIG about an auto-reboot problem that occurs with this system. The details are there but basically it happens overnight and seems to possible be a voltage dip that cuases it???? David RSTS SIG Message # 421 0 replies Reply to # 383 Left by: David Beorn On 25-Aug-89 At : 804-788-7410 Subject: CLE IS SAFE (I THINK) By the way - one more thing, the reason I think it's a power/voltage dip is that this is in Chicago area, it happens moslty in the summer (maybe humidity?) and usually in the later afternoon when peak A/C load would likely occur. DATA/FILE TRANSFER SIG Message # 610 1 replies Left by: David Beorn On 25-Aug-89 At : 804-788-7410 Subject: VAXNET HISTORY.TXT AND REF.EXE Does anyone know where to locate these files??? I got a download of VAXNET.ARC that mentioned them but didn't include them. The REF.EXE reformats the LOG file that VAXnet creates, since it (apparently) is not readable because the 's etc aren't in the right places and the file format itself is a little screwy, I think. David DATA/FILE TRANSFER SIG Message # 611 0 replies Reply to # 610 Left by: RICHARD B. GILBERT On 25-Aug-89 At : (609) 452-5130 Subject: VAXNET HISTORY.TXT AND RE David, I believe you will find both the sources and the object files for REF on CompuServe's VAX Forum. They are in LIBrary 8 as REF.TLB and REF.OLB. I'm not sure whether or not HISTORY.TXT is available there. The entire VAXNET package is available from the DECUS Library. MISCELLANEOUS SIG Message # 583 0 replies Reply to # 582 Left by: Phil Anthony On 26-Aug-89 At : Here Subject: DOWNLOADING PRO-PRESS FIL As I said, Scott, I'm not sure that programming a script to do the job would be worth the time and effort it would take to do it in any case. So just put that part of my message down to idle musing. I have programmed scripts to download ARIS messages to disk on my PC using the Mirror III communica- tions package, however, since that's something I do quite frequently. If you, or anybody else, can use them, just ask and we'll arrange a transfer. I suspect the folks responsible for ARIS have already read your message (right, Bonnie?). As you guessed, though, the official method is to leave a message at Dear Sysop. A user's guide to ARIS would be helpful, especially to new users. No such animal exists at present, and it'd take a lot of time to write - and maintain, since things change at irregular intervals - but I certainly think it'd be another good addition to the wish list. Until it gets done, if it ever does, please feel free to leave any questions in this SIG. RSTS SIG Message # 422 0 replies Reply to # 417 Left by: KELVIN SMITH On 26-Aug-89 At : (203) 357-0504 Subject: MOUNT SECOND MSCP DRIVE I doubt I'll be able to help you, since I only have DEC disks, but you'd be more likely to get assistance, I think, if you can tell us what kind of disk it is that you're actually using. "RA-81 lookalike" could mean any of a number of disks, which might each have subtly different characteristics. Also, is the disk on the same controller as other disks that you can access, or is it all by itself? RSTS SIG Message # 423 0 replies Reply to # 418 Left by: KELVIN SMITH On 26-Aug-89 At : (203) 357-0504 Subject: NONSHARABLE DEVICE LP: Phil, what are you hoping for? Do you want to be able to intersperse output from two separate sources; do you want to complete all output on the first and then automatically switch to the second, or what? In either case, if the two outputting jobs are running simultaneously, I think you'll find it almost mandatory to have a supervising job that actually controls the output device. If you want the first form of output, the easiest way might be using message send-receive between the generating jobs and the controlling job, which could then put the information out to the device. For the second form, you're essentially asking for a queue-style arrangement. What kind of an output device is it? If you can make it look like a KB, an easier way (for interspersed output) might be using the broadcast SYS function; don't let either outputting job allocate the "terminal" in that case. If this doesn't meet your needs, give us a little more information on exactly what you want to do (output device, form of output, etc.) and we can try to offer other ideas. RSTS SIG Message # 424 0 replies Reply to # 418 Left by: JERRY VEZZOSI On 26-Aug-89 At : 201 802-6249 Subject: NONSHARABLE DEVICE LP: What kind of application are you running? (We currently have an 11/83 running V9.7.) We avoid most of our conflicts with lp0: by using it with PBS. If your application is a BASIC program then I could understand why you have conflicts. The first application that opens the printer as an I/O device would have lp0: assigned to it's job. Any other application trying to access it in the same way would get error 8 Device not available. The user who has lp0: assigned can deassign lp0: by closing the I/O channel within the program. User written applications can trap error 8, but then you would need to decide what you wanted the program to do. I don't think you would want to stall the program until the printer was free. You can get other errors with the printer not being available. You will get error 14 Device hung or write locked, if your printer is out of paper or offline. When you say your device is non-sharable do you mean that two jobs can't open lp0: at the same time or that you used the DCL command SET SERVER lp0:/NOSHARE? If your writing your own applications then the best bet is to use PBS. We use the SYS call for PBS extensively. CPU'S SIG Message # 62 0 replies Left by: FRANK H. ROBISON On 26-Aug-89 At : 513-866-3300 EXT 228 Subject: 11/84 - CAN RUN RSTS V8? WE ARE PLANNING ON GETTING AN 11/84. CAN WE RUN V8.0 RSTS/E ON IT? OR DO WE HAVE TO UPGRADE TO V9.X? (NOW USING 11/70) 73 PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES/AI SIG Message # 424 0 replies Left by: FRANK H. ROBISON On 26-Aug-89 At : 513-866-3300 EXT 228 Subject: 4GL POWERHOUSE - USERS/GROUPS? We have Cognos Powerhouse here running on VMS. Am interested in contacting other users and/or groups doing business applications. Discuss various problems, etc. APPLICATIONS SIG Message # 360 0 replies Left by: FRANK H. ROBISON On 26-Aug-89 At : 513-866-3300 EXT 228 Subject: MFG SW PKGS 4 ELECT. MFG LOOKING FOR ELECTRONICS MANUFACTURERS USING MRP I & II PACKAGES RUNNING ON VAXES FOR MAKE-TO-STOCK AND MAKE-TO-ORDER. LIKE TO DISCUSS HARDWARE/SOFTWARE AND ANY ASPECTS OF IMPLEMENTATION, ETC. (HAS ANYONE A LIST OF VMS-BASED PACKAGES AVAILABLE?) VMS SIG Message # 1053 0 replies Left by: ELDRED MABRY On 26-Aug-89 At : 304-529-4343 Subject: PEEKING USERS DOES ANYONE KNOW OF ANY PUBLIC DOMAIN SOFTWARE AVAILABLE THAT 'PEEKS' A USERS TERMINAL SESSION. I WANT TO BE ABLE TO TRAIN REMOTE USERS VIA TELEPHONE, BUT I NEED SOMETHING THAT WILL ALLOW ME TO WATCH WHAT THE USER IS ENTERING AND WHAT IS BEING DISPLAYED ON HIS/HER CRT. ANY HELP WOULD BE MUCH APPRECIATED. CLUSTERING/NETWORKING SIG Message # 435 0 replies Reply to # 434 Left by: Brett Bump On 26-Aug-89 At : Here Subject: VAX TO RSTS SET HOST TROU Robert. Right off the top of my head it sounds like someone changed your terminal configuration. Check both the setup on the terminal and the O/S to see if it's set 7bit or 8bit. Rsts V8 ran EDT V2 (unless you have patch C), so this may very well be your problem. DATA/FILE TRANSFER SIG Message # 612 0 replies Reply to # 603 Left by: Brett Bump On 26-Aug-89 At : Here Subject: ARC FOR VMS Phil. I wish to restructure your sentence (for my own benefit). It should read, "DEC doesn't support subdirectories on RSTS." Actually, after a quick browse, I did think about implementing the message send to my resident SUBDIR manager. But since I'm the only person I know using a subdirectory structure, I didn't think it would benefit anyone else (gee, it's hard to be humble). I am however thinking about having it prompt: Subdir to DEV:[P,PN] ? for extraction. But first I'll have to get Phil to send me an ARCed file with subdirectories to play with (only compiled version I have is 5.0). But he's pretty good about that. And I actually think the RMS attributes could be included (why, I don't know). Anyway, I'll be looking it over. DATA/FILE TRANSFER SIG Message # 613 0 replies Reply to # 605 Left by: Brett Bump On 26-Aug-89 At : Here Subject: ARC FOR VMS Dave. Sorry I missed you. The Duke will be moving off of the mini and onto a pc in the very near future (snif). This will release this line from the local calls that neglect to log out (or even hang up). Even sooner than this I hope to remove the call waiting (oops!) feature that I noticed is on the wrong line (guess which one). MIGRATION ISSUES SIG Message # 57 0 replies Reply to # 55 Left by: HAL-9000 (alias Brett Bump) On 26-Aug-89 At : Here Subject: AM I CRAZY? Gee, Dave. It could have just been a static charge in one of your synapses. I really don't think a lobotomy is in order (yet). I believe that you should expand on what exactly happened before we can determine if your brain is having a malfunction. Was this a tape that you had previously loaded onto RSTS V7.1? Did you do something different when you created it on VMS this time or are you running a newer version of VMS? Can you tell me how you feel about this subordinate machine not doing what you told it? Do you feel any resentment that maybe this machine is out to get your job? You haven't purchased a pair of wire cutters within the last week or so have you? Dave? Please feel free to talk to your screen! RSTS SIG Message # 425 0 replies Reply to # 417 Left by: Brett Bump On 26-Aug-89 At : Here Subject: MOUNT SECOND MSCP DRIVE Will. It's been some time since I ran a V8 (vroom), but I think that you may need another drive genned in. The normal configuration for V8 was 4 drives to a controller. However someone could have edited CONFIG.MAC to support less (read below). The reason you can work with the drive from INIT is because the jam table hasn't been created yet. I'm sure that the next time you boot your system you will notice: 1 device disabled. (or more) after startup. It wasn't until V9 that DEC decided that 16 devices should be the default (or make that fixed) amount for MSCP devices. FYI V9 users that are tired of seeing a long list of MSCP devices that don't exist on a SHOW DEV can edit CONFIG.MAC to reflect less than the 16 default. But please make it a multiple of 4 (e.g., 4, 8, 12, 16). RSTS SIG Message # 426 0 replies Reply to # 417 Left by: BOB DUDLEY On 27-Aug-89 At : (314) 731-3444 OR HERE Subject: MOUNT SECOND MSCP DRIVE It truly is a small world. One of my customers encountered EXACTLY the same problem with a 3rd-party RA and V8 of Rsts. Unfortunately, my grey cells are diminishing as the years go by, and I don't remember what his fix was. I do remember it was something minor. Call him at (314) 621-0600, Jack Goralnik, 8-4 CDT, and I'm sure he would be glad to share his solution. I sure wish they had memory pills available... Bob Dudley RSTS SIG Message # 427 1 replies Reply to # 424 Left by: PHIL MACDONALD On 28-Aug-89 At : Subject: NONSHARABLE DEVICE LP: I'll try to provide you both with some more information about our site. We are programming in Dibol, and RSTS in very new to me. PBS is up and running, Logical LP: is assigned to KB: when the first application is started. When more than one user try's to open LP: thats when I get my Device in use. (Application is trying to open a channel to a device that is non-sharable). One way around it was to assign LP: to a unique file every time it was open and then have a batch job running that uses the print command to send to the printer. When I was Running Dibol under VMS I never had this problem, So I guess what I'm asking for is a sort of queuing program that works on RSTS. Plus I wanted to know how others handled this problem. Thanks Again CLUSTERING/NETWORKING SIG Message # 436 1 replies Left by: FRAN SHIELDS On 28-Aug-89 At : 215-293-0410 Subject: VAX DISTRIBUTED FILE SERVER I AM INTERESTED IN FINDING OUT MORE ABOUT THIS PRODUCT (DEC INFO IS NOT THAT CLEAR). I HAVE SEVERAL APPLICATIONS WHICH ACCESS REMOTE FILES (USING THE DCL ASSIGN COMMAND OR HARD CODED FILE SPEC NODE::). I HEAR THAT THIS PRODUCT WILL SPEED ACCESS OF THIS TYPE. ANY USERS OUT THERE? MY QUESTIONS ARE: 1. DO I HAVE TO CHANGE MY CURRENT PROGRAMS OR COMMANDS TO USE A NEW FILE SPEC NAME (LIKE DFS:..) 2. DOES THIS SERVICE REDUCE THE NUMBER OF "FAL_.." ON MY NETWORK (EX. IF MORE THAN 1 USER IS RUNNING THE REMOTE FILE APPLICATION)? THANKS CLUSTERING/NETWORKING SIG Message # 437 3 replies Left by: David Beorn On 28-Aug-89 At : 804-788-7410 Subject: PC To MicroVAX Communication I have a MicroVAX that I need to talk to with a PC - what is the best way??? i.e. low overhead but fairly fast? I am looking at PCSA but DEC can't tell me how much overhead is involved for the PC. The PC is running a real-time process and needs to get some signals from the M-VAX to indicate how it is to procede, etc. There will be only a small amount of communication during the "real-time" process, then the PC will upload the data to the M-VAX for data crunching, printing, archiving, etc. Sugesstions anyone?? Anyone have experiance with PCSA (I noticed one person there that had). Thanks, David SYSTEM PERFORMANCE SIG Message # 245 1 replies Reply to # 242 Left by: David Beorn On 28-Aug-89 At : 804-788-7410 Subject: SPM LOST TIME You didn't do anything like upgrade to version 5 or anything, did you??? That might have caused your system to slow down some (???). I've heard that's a problem, but I assume you would have mentioned that. UNIX/ULTRIX SIG Message # 46 1 replies Reply to # 45 Left by: David Beorn On 28-Aug-89 At : 804-788-7410 Subject: ULTRIX TO VMS CONVERSION Well, I may be wrong, but I don't think you have a CHOICE of block size on a TK50 on the VMS end - it defaults to and is RESTRICTED to 2048 byte blocks, I believe. I remember seeing something on this in the documentation but I can't find it right now - maybe someone can confirm this??? David MISCELLANEOUS SIG Message # 584 0 replies Reply to # 573 Left by: David Beorn On 28-Aug-89 At : 804-788-7410 Subject: Keyboard Overlays Needed Well - I don't know if they have what you want, but you might try SYNCTRONICS in San Diego - 916-692-6304. Daryl Schuster or Michael Sinclair might have what you need. I bought custom keys for DEC keyboards from them, but they may, by now, be making them for other keyboards as well. I think they may have overlays too, if that's what you prefer (which is what it sounded like you wanted). Hope this is of some help. David PC'S SIG Message # 234 0 replies Reply to # 223 Left by: David Beorn On 28-Aug-89 At : 804-788-7410 Subject: DIGITAL MODEM I'm not sure what the problem is, but we have aPBX too, and we do just fine with a "standard" (I as far as I know) modem. We use USRobotics modems and they work just fine with our PBX - but of course WHICH PBX you have is probably significant!!!! Ours is AT&T, I believe - some "other" brand may be causing your problem. David COMMUNICATIONS SIG Message # 298 0 replies Reply to # 286 Left by: David Beorn On 28-Aug-89 At : 804-788-7410 Subject: MODEM CONFIGURATION? I agree with Phil - it doesn't sound like (or look like, from the garbage in your message) that it is the MODEM setting that are a problem; unless it is just noise you are getting and you're not set to error correcting mode or something. Phile suggested you look at the VAX device setting - also look at the terminal emulator settings - it might not be emulating what you think it is and/or it may be that your emulator doesn't do XON/XOFF or something and you may need to slow down your baud rate - I had a simlar problem with an HP terminal (see the earlier message about it). If it also gives you "noise" or garble when you type a large file to the screen, this might be your problem. If so, just reduce the baud rate til it goes away or turn on XON/XOFF if possible. David APPLICATIONS SIG Message # 361 0 replies Reply to # 346 Left by: David Beorn On 28-Aug-89 At : 804-788-7410 Subject: Conference Room Scheduling Well, i don't know if it's a "custom" application (or whether you would want it - it works from inside All-In-1), but DEC supports/wrote one for DuPont and they may have it available for general use - I don't know. Call me for more info, if you like. David DATA/FILE TRANSFER SIG Message # 614 1 replies Reply to # 565 Left by: David Beorn On 28-Aug-89 At : 804-788-7410 Subject: XMODEM FOR VMS Well - I have a copy of XMODEM for VAX but I've not really used it because I didn't know how to use it (someone else left it on our system before I got here). I could tranfer this to someone if they like (with source). I use VAXNET, though, when I do use XMODEM because it has intructions for use. Let me know if you want it. David DATA/FILE TRANSFER SIG Message # 615 2 replies Reply to # 573 Left by: David Beorn On 28-Aug-89 At : 804-788-7410 Subject: ARC/DEARC FOR VMS OR RSTS Well, as far as I know, the ARCVAX software is compatible (somewhat compatible??) with the PC version. I think I can un-arc PC .arc files if they are from the right version of PC-ARC. I don't do this so I don't know exactly how "compatible" they are but you could try it. David DATA/FILE TRANSFER SIG Message # 616 0 replies Reply to # 588 Left by: David Beorn On 28-Aug-89 At : 804-788-7410 Subject: PC'S COM PORTS Well, you use an MS-DOS MODE command to re-route the output and/or configure the com1 port to the right parameters, etc., assuming you're using MS-DOS 3.3(?) or above (not sure on the .3). It would be something like this: MODE LPT1:=COM1 ;this re-routes it MODE COM1:9600,N,8,1 ;set baud,parity,nits,stop-bits see the DOS manual for more details - also, you might need a ,P at the end of the second command above - it is needed for our laser printer to printer through the com port but I can't remember what it does right off. David DATA/FILE TRANSFER SIG Message # 617 0 replies Reply to # 605 Left by: David Beorn On 28-Aug-89 At : 804-788-7410 Subject: ARC FOR VMS Unfortunately, VMS BACKUP, every time I've compared, takes up MORE room than the individual files it stores - so there's definitely no data compression going on here. David DATA/FILE TRANSFER SIG Message # 618 1 replies Reply to # 611 Left by: David Beorn On 28-Aug-89 At : 804-788-7410 Subject: VAXNET HISTORY.TXT AND RE Well, I don't have access to either the DECUS tapes OR CompuServe. I was hoping someone had them. I got my copy from SYS$OUTPUT (412-854-0511), Kevin Barkes' BBS, but the HISTORY.TXT and REF.EXE weren't in the .ARC file nor did anyone there seem to know where I might get them. I also couldn't get the author, Robin Miller at Northern Telecom - where did s/he go to?? Maybe someone can direct me to a BBS that has this??? David EDITORS SIG Message # 227 0 replies Reply to # 223 Left by: David Beorn On 28-Aug-89 At : 804-788-7410 Subject: IN EDT Also, you can program your keys to have an on them; for instance, to program it to be Gold-E to put an in your file use this line in the EDTINI.EDT file or whatever command file you use to start up your EDT editor: define key gold e as "^[." !inserts an escape char. where the ^ and the [ are just just the regular characters you have on your keyboard. You can get ANY control character this way too, as a matter of fact. The ^ character causes EDT to make the next char. it sees be the corresponding control char (^Z, etc.) David PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES/AI SIG Message # 425 0 replies Reply to # 417 Left by: David Beorn On 28-Aug-89 At : 804-788-7410 Subject: UNUSED PARAMETER The wat to keep all the definitions from being listed is to write your INCLUDE statements as follow: include 'file-name.for/NOLIST' I think this should do what you want, if I understand what you want correctly. David UTILITIES SIG Message # 399 0 replies Reply to # 388 Left by: David Beorn On 28-Aug-89 At : 804-788-7410 Subject: NEWMAIL COUNT IN VMS 5.1 Well, I had this utility too and as you may have read, the file format changed. I think David Bynon was the one who wrote this utility and I have asked him to check it and see what changes need to be made. He will reply to me on SYS$OUTPUT, I assume (and maybe here, if he's "listening"). I tried to fix it, but DCL has trouble parsing non-printing characters with certain lexicals, which is the way the old one was written (assuming you have the same one). David UTILITIES SIG Message # 400 0 replies Reply to # 398 Left by: David Beorn On 28-Aug-89 At : 804-788-7410 Subject: OLD MAILUAF.COM - NEW? I don't know anything about this utility, but it sounds interesting and I would like to see a copy of it. Davide UTILITIES SIG Message # 401 0 replies Reply to # 390 Left by: David Beorn On 28-Aug-89 At : 804-788-7410 Subject: FUNCTION KEYS Well, if I understand what you are trying to do, you want to hit the PF1 key 3 times to get it to log you out??? If that's the case, then what you have there should workl - it does on my terminal. Also, the MAIL command should occur after hitting PF1 then PF2??? Because that also works for me. David UNIX/ULTRIX SIG Message # 47 0 replies Reply to # 46 Left by: RICHARD B. GILBERT On 28-Aug-89 At : (609) 452-5130 Subject: ULTRIX TO VMS CONVERSION The default blocksize is 2048 without a doubt. Other tape devices, including those using the same driver allow both larger and smaller blocksizes. I can think of no reason why the TK50 should be restricted to any particular blocksize. If you can find your source for that restriction, would you let us know what it is please? DATA/FILE TRANSFER SIG Message # 619 0 replies Reply to # 614 Left by: RICHARD B. GILBERT On 28-Aug-89 At : (609) 452-5130 Subject: XMODEM FOR VMS To use your XMODEM program: 1. Define XMODEM as a foreign command ($ XMODEM:==$DUA0:[MYDIR]XMODEM.EXE) 2. Say 'XMODEM RT filename' to receive a text file. For binary files, leave off the 'T'. Make it RC or RTC to use CRC instead of checksum. This works only when receiving. The protocol specifies that the receiver makes the selection. 3. Say 'XMODEM ST filename to send a text file, etc. The complete XMODEM package includes a HELP file. DATA/FILE TRANSFER SIG Message # 620 0 replies Reply to # 618 Left by: RICHARD B. GILBERT On 28-Aug-89 At : (609) 452-5130 Subject: VAXNET HISTORY.TXT AND RE Kevin Barkes has an account on CompuServe. If you asked him, he might grab a copy of REF and put it on his BBS. VMS SIG Message # 1054 1 replies Left by: ABRAHAM ABOU-SULEIMAN On 29-Aug-89 At : UNITED CEREBRAL PALSY OF NYS Subject: VMS SECURITY: Break-ins from Captive DCL PROCEDURES In a previous message, somebody warned System Managers about using INQUIRE in their CAPTIVE DCL procedures. I took the problem one step further and investigated the consequences of doing so, and here's what I found out: If a user responds with 'F$VERIFY(1)' to $ INQUIRE/NOPUNCT JUNK "Press Enter To Continue " that user will have done the equivalence of SET VERIFY, and will therefore be able to see the rest of what th procedure does. Now this is not so bad compared to the next case. If a user responds with 'F$PID(LOGOUT)' to the same prompt, the lexical function F$PID will set LOGOUT to a value other than "LOGOUT", particularily the address of the next process in the process list; therefore disabling the LOGOUT DCL command. And if the same person does the same to several commands as ON, SET, GOTO and IF, the DCL interpreter will respond with a warning message when it tries to execute any of these instructions, and the person will gain access to the $ prompt. SOLUTION: at the beginning of the Captive procedure type the following to disable F$VERIFY & F$PID: $ F$V*ERIFY := JUNKJUNK1928379DLKJ ! Any unusual $ F$PI*D := JUNKJUNK098OQIWE019238 ! string will do. SYSTEM PERFORMANCE SIG Message # 246 0 replies Reply to # 245 Left by: JIM SHELLY On 29-Aug-89 At : HERE Subject: SPM LOST TIME Nope. We've been at V5.0 or above for over a year and upgraded to V5.1-1 after this problem started. After looking through some rather thick piles of SPM reports I can't honestly say that I can find a direct relationship between anything and the amount of LOST TIME (except my blood pressure). CLUSTERING/NETWORKING SIG Message # 438 0 replies Reply to # 437 Left by: V. JAMES KRAMMES On 29-Aug-89 At : (614) 228-2001 X 341 Subject: PC TO MICROVAX COMMUNICAT I've never tried PCSA, but how about REFLECTION 2 and an Asynch port? Reflection will run in the background and has an extensive script/programming capability including file transfer. It will run directly on an asynch port or connected to a terminal server. Low cost; connection speeds up to 19200 bps. Jim VMS SIG Message # 1055 1 replies Left by: ED BASS On 29-Aug-89 At : (713)220-4534 Subject: BYTLM/BUFIO - V5.1 VS V4.7 I am having problems with detached processes freezing in the MUTEX state due to them exceeding their BYTLM quota under VMS V5.1 on a VAX 6310. The same software that creates these detached processes and controls them, however runs fine under VMS V4.7 on a Microvax II. I've watched the detached processes (they're a type of networked workstation server process) run in SDA under 4.7 and 5.1. What appears to be happening is this: Under 4.7 after the process grabs some memory (and the SDA BUFIO byte count goes down) and does its processing it seems to release most of the memory with some sort of garbage collection scheme. However, the same process under 5.1 doesn't seem to perform any of this garbage collection and the SDA BUFIO byte count continually goes down until the process freezes in the MUTEX state trying to get more memory. It cannot allocate any of this memory, however because it's reached it's quota on this pooled limit. It's nasty because the only way to get rid of these frozen processes is to re-boot! Has a system memory allocation routine been changed in V5.1? Am I missing something very obvious? Any ideas? By the way, the BYTLM for these detached processes under V5.1 is at 600,000 and sometimes the processes still freeze. The limit under V4.7 is only 20,480 and the problem never occurs! Help! CLUSTERING/NETWORKING SIG Message # 439 0 replies Reply to # 437 Left by: ED BASS On 29-Aug-89 At : (713)220-4534 Subject: PC TO MICROVAX COMMUNICAT We're using PCSA here mostly to allow PCs to act like VT220s and for the FAST file transfer capability. However, PCSA seems to be a PC memory hog and we've also had problems with software compatibilty between PCSA and other PC software (e.g, the PC package won't run at the same time PCSA is active). If you're going the PCSA route, however, and you want speed, do it over Ethernet rather than asynch through the COM port. I'd test everthing out VERY carefully in your situation if you do go the PCSA route to make sure that PCSA doesn't screw up your more-than-likely critical real-time software. RSTS SIG Message # 428 0 replies Reply to # 427 Left by: JERRY VEZZOSI On 29-Aug-89 At : 201-802 6249 Subject: NONSHARABLE DEVICE LP: I am not a DIBOL user, but a guy that works for us is. Anyway we don't quite understand how you do your assign command, but if I understand you correctly then what you have done will cause all output to be displayed on your screen. If for instance at the DCL prompt I typed $ASSIGN KB: LP0 then any application I run which opens the lineprinter as device will divert all output to my terminal screen (kb:). This assign command is a user logical and would not cause any problem with the lineprinter. Instead of opening the lineprinter at all, couldn't you open a unique filename.type and then use the DIBOL command LPQUE? You would want to make sure your filename were unique, maybe base it on the time of day (XCALL TIME) or something like that, Let me know how you make out. RSTS SIG Message # 429 0 replies Left by: JERRY VEZZOSI On 29-Aug-89 At : 201 802 6249 Subject: 3780 PROTOCOL ON RSTS V9.6 DEC no longer supports 2780/3780 protocol and I am wondering what alternatives we may be able to pursue. Has anyone worked with any 3rd party packages? I am currently doing it myself by hooking up a protocol converter to my DHQ11 port and then from there to a bysnc auto-dial modem (208b/d) from Black Box. I know very little (my co-workers will attest to this fact) about synchronous communications so any insight will be appreciated. Time is a constraint, I am coding my program as you read this so I can't spend too much time searching for a solution. I may try and convince our client at the other end of this communication to buy NON-IBM (only kidding they wouldn't go for that idea). CLUSTERING/NETWORKING SIG Message # 440 0 replies Reply to # 437 Left by: BILL NADDY On 30-Aug-89 At : HERE Subject: PC TO MICROVAX COMMUNICAT PCSA would be overkill if you just want to do file transfer. PCSA is a network server package allowing you to set up shared/private disks on the VAX, to boot the PC off the VAX, etc. At the low end you could use Procomm $25 for serial connection (19l2Kbaud max) or for a few hundred dollars you could install DECNet on one of your PC's and Ethernet connect to your VAX for file transfers about 100 times faster. DATA/FILE TRANSFER SIG Message # 621 0 replies Reply to # 615 Left by: BILL NADDY On 30-Aug-89 At : HERE Subject: ARC/DEARC FOR VMS OR RSTS You should try this shipping files back and forth a few times. I haven't done this for about a year but at that time I found that the VAX ARC wouldn't work with PC ARC, or even with ARC files from another VAX. Maybe there've been some upgrades in the meantime but I wouldn't promise anybody anything until I'd done it successfully a few times back to back. UTILITIES SIG Message # 402 1 replies Left by: SIMON BROWN On 30-Aug-89 At : ARIS Subject: LIB$SPAWN AND THE CLI R.Gilbert - Thanks for the DECUS info re G. Everhart. Appreciated. LIB$SPAWN - is there any way I can get LIB$SPAWN (or similar?) to inhert any additions I have made to my DCL tables via set command? I'm only a user, and would like these extra VERBS propogated when I go LIB$SPAWNING around. From my undertstanding of the documentation, I'll get a fresh set of tables from SYS$SYSTEM or wherever. I just thought I'd ask in case anyone knows - I've looked at the fiche for DCL SPAWN, and that doesn't use LIS$SPAWN - it creates a det. proc. with mailboxes and all the rest. That's too much for what I want. Thanks in anticipation, Simon COMMUNICATIONS SIG Message # 299 0 replies Reply to # 297 Left by: ROBERT G. SCHAFFRATH On 30-Aug-89 At : 914-335-9792 Subject: HP-1000 / HP TERMINALS HP devices, by default, do not use XON/XOFF flow control. They use the modem signals RTS and CTS to do their control. We are playing with an HP Laserjet II and it wants modem flow control. I haven't checked recently but I believe DECserver 200/MC's can run in RTS/CTS flow control mode. VMS SIG Message # 1056 1 replies Reply to # 1053 Left by: ROBERT G. SCHAFFRATH On 30-Aug-89 At : 914-335-9792 Subject: PEEKING USERS There are several products available to do what you are asking. Their is VAXwatch from Advanced Systems Concepts, CONTRL from Clyde Digital, and PEEK and SPY from a company whose name escapes me at the moment. We use VAXwatch and are happy with it now that the worked out some problems with SMP synchronization. It still, however, seems to have a problem with monitoring OPA0:. I evaluated CONTRL about two years ago so I can't really tell you anything about it now. PEEK and SPY I have never tried but I did have some technical specs on it. Robert G. Schaffrath System Manager General Foods Corporation White Plains, NY 10625 CLUSTERING/NETWORKING SIG Message # 441 0 replies Reply to # 436 Left by: ROBERT G. SCHAFFRATH On 30-Aug-89 At : 914-335-9792 Subject: VAX DISTRIBUTED FILE SERV I haven't used DFS extensively. Essentially, it makes remote disk devices appear local to your system. There are some glitches involving file access protection. I have worked on a system with all privileges enabled, and I receive a protection violation! There was a good article on DFS, DQS and DNS in DEC Professional sometime ago. You may want to use the text retrieval feature to locate this information. Robert G. Schaffrath System Manager General Foods Corporation White Plains, NY 10625 VMS SIG Message # 1057 0 replies Reply to # 1054 Left by: ROBERT G. SCHAFFRATH On 30-Aug-89 At : 914-335-9792 Subject: VMS SECURITY: DCL PROCEDU A rather interesting solution. I myself had never thought of trying to use F$PID or F$VERIFY to reassign a symbol (we hackers can't think of everything!). An interesting note though on the INQUIRE problem and CAPTIVE accounts in general. Under VMS V5.2, captive accounts will be tightened. Under V5.2, the following changes, as related to captive accounts, will be made: 1) CAPTIVE accounts under V5.2 will be denied access to DCL command level. If the command procedure aborts, the process will be terminated. 2) The INQUIRE verb will be disabled. All procedure using this verb will have to be re-written to use READ/PROMPT=" ". 3) For those people who use captive accounts now just for disabling the login qualifiers, DEC hasn't forgotten you. A new flag called RESTRICTED will be added to preserve the pre-V5.2 functionality of captive accounts. In addition, the DCL SPAWN qualifiers restrictions and the MAIL SPAWN command restriction for these types of accounts will be lifted. Programmers note: The symbolic value for the captive flag, UAF$M_CAPTIVE will be changing!! The current value will be assigned to the new UAF$M_RESTRICTED. You will have to edit, recompile and relink any programs which use this flag in order to preserve functionality. 4) Another new UAF flag called (I believe...) DISIMAGE. This will disable the RUN and MCR verbs as well as the foreign command facility. This means that in order to run a program, it must be defined in the command tables and accessed through a command verb. Robert G. Schaffrath System Manager General Foods Corporation White Plains, NY 10625 P.S V5.2 is due for release on or around September 5, 1989! VMS SIG Message # 1058 0 replies Reply to # 1055 Left by: ROBERT G. SCHAFFRATH On 30-Aug-89 At : 914-335-9792 Subject: BYTLM/BUFIO - V5.1 VS V4. It is hard to say what might be causing your problem without some more insight into your application and the system services it is using. However, it is quite possible the V4.x was a bit more tolerant to coding problems than V5.x is. If you have access to DSIN, they have an interesting article on how to track down MUTEX problems using SDA. You might want to check into it. One comment on your BYTLM, 600,000 is definitely not right. There are several things I can think of off the top of my head which would cause it to be eaten up. Exactly which mutex wait are you in? RWAST, RWMBX, RWMPB, etc.? Or is it just plain MUTEX? Robert G. Schaffrath System Manager General Foods Corporation White Plains, NY 10625 FORUM - 3RD PARTY SUPPLIERS SIG Message # 113 1 replies Reply to # 112 Left by: DAVID L. WATSON On 30-Aug-89 At : (505) 678-1163 Subject: INFO ABOUT PRECISION STAN When I get the time I plan to write a simple program that will access the clock and set the system time. This should not be to involved. When this is completed I will let you know. PC'S SIG Message # 235 0 replies Reply to # 233 Left by: DAN DONOHUE On 30-Aug-89 At : (215)439-3276 Subject: INT 14 REDIRECTION Finally! A knowledgeable voice in the wilderness! My documentation says network support is available "for systems which have Int 14 redirection." The program "communicates with the network using a call to software interrupt 14 hex. In order to use this mode, the supplier of your network must supply int 14 redirection software which takes characters sent to int 14 and sends them to the network. Any characters sent through the network to the terminal are saved in an int 14 buffer" for the program to receive. The setup information for the emulator includes 2 16 character fields for host and local network names, but that's the only reference to network support at all. Apparently, the company that developed it had it tested out-of-house (at Sytek, I believe) so they are not sure exactly how it works-"It just does." One DEC source said it would not work. Another, more reliable DEC source said it would as long as NETBIOS was definitely invoked instead of NETSESS (loading one does not replace the other in RAM). A compuserv source says the key is CTERM (we are not using LAT). DEC's Atlanta support center said it should work, and directed my attention to page 7-34 of the DECnet-DOS Programmer's Reference Manual where the NETBIOS "send" command shows a command code 14H for synchronous requests. How this helps me, I haven't the slightest. A utility I ran showed that the local adaptor name was present and valid. I just can't seem to connect to the VAX host, or at least verify that it has a host adaptor name defined. Again, any light you could shed is really appreciated! DATA/FILE TRANSFER SIG Message # 622 0 replies Left by: JERRY VEZZOSI On 30-Aug-89 At : 201 802-6249 Subject: RSTS/E 3780 EMULATION I'll be brief. We need to transmit to an IBM (yech) mainframe from our PDP 11/83. We have RSTS/E V9.6. DEC no longer provides RJ 2780/ 3780 emulation for RSTS/E. I purchased a Black Box protocol converter and a 208B/D synchronous modem. Has anyone had any success with this type of arrangement. I have hooked it up to my DHQ11 and intend to write a program in BP2 to transmit data to through all these devices over the public switched network (fancy way of saying phone lines). Does anyone have any idea what switch settings would work best, (there's too many options)? Is there a better alternative, maybe 3rd party software? Any help would be appreciated. DATA/FILE TRANSFER SIG Message # 623 0 replies Reply to # 611 Left by: BRIAN DESANTIS On 30-Aug-89 At : (201)670-0286 Subject: VAXNET HISTORY.TXT AND RE David, I have the REF.EXE which I believe is also called FIXFILE or FIX. If this is what you need, let me know and we can arrange a download or something.. DATA/FILE TRANSFER SIG Message # 624 1 replies Left by: JOHN LINDQUIST On 30-Aug-89 At : (408) 737-8000 X424 Subject: XMODEM NEEDED VAX/VMS We currently have KERMIT for vms but find that we need XMODEM for some applications. I know there is source for XMODEM running around but we are very limited on our microvax and currently do not have any compilers. Our system supports either 9trk(1600bpi) or TK50. Any assistance in getting XMODEM for our system would be greatly appreciated. VMS SIG Message # 1059 1 replies Reply to # 1056 Left by: BRIAN DESANTIS On 30-Aug-89 At : (201)670-0286 Subject: PEEKING USERS Peek/Spy/Advisor are available from: SPC Software Services 61 Broadway - 27th Fl New York, NY 10006 There is also a Macro program available through some VAX/VMS bbs' that accomplish basically the same things, with some limitations. I have one, that was downloaded from Kevin Barkes' SYS$OUTPUT bbs. VMS SIG Message # 1060 0 replies Reply to # 1053 Left by: JOHN LINDQUIST On 30-Aug-89 At : (408) 737-8000 X424 Subject: PEEKING USERS I have yet to locate any public domain programs that will allow peeking at users however I have been checking out PEEK & SPY from networking dynamics corp. It provides the ability to PEEK at users and also enter commands for them. I am trying to get my company to purchase it. Seems like a good product. They can be reached at: Networking Dynamics Corp 1234 No Edgemont St, Suite 214 Hollywood, CA 90029-1559 (213) 668-0077 FAX: (213) 662-8815 The person I have been in contact with there is TRUDY KINGSBURY. VMS SIG Message # 1061 0 replies Reply to # 1053 Left by: NORA On 30-Aug-89 At : 503-222-5161 Subject: PEEKING USERS I have been a dedicated CONTRL user (from Clyde Digital Systems in Provo, Utah) for several years. It has proven invaluable--and the latest version is even smoother and faster. I use it to do backups from home, by CONTRLing the system console, starting backups, then logging later to see how it is going. I have a hard-copy of the backups, and I didn't have to tie up my phone line. I also use it help users at the other end of the office--my daily mileage has dropped dramatically now that many problems are handled by my grabbing the screen and saying "Here, do it like this..." Of course, this isn't public domain, but Clyde's prices are quite reasonable and they have regular updates. Good luck in your search. Nora Miller NW Power Planning Council Portland OR UTILITIES SIG Message # 403 0 replies Reply to # 402 Left by: RICHARD B. GILBERT On 30-Aug-89 At : (609) 452-5130 Subject: LIB$SPAWN AND THE CLI Simon, This time I'm going to have to disappoint you. When LOGINOUT.EXE creates your process for you, it grabs SYS$LIBRARY:DCLTABLES.EXE and copies the tables into your P1 space. Anything you do to your process tables with SET COMMAND is done to the copy in P1 space. I won't say "you can't take it with you" when you spawn a subprocess but there is no easy way to copy those tables into the context of a new process. If you are determined, and very brave, take a look at the VMS Microfiche. Some study of the code for LIB$SPAWN might show you how things like logical names and DCL symbols are moved over. LIB$SPAWN probably invokes SYS$CREPRC to create the subprocess and you might have to study that too. The tables would have to be copied in kernal mode, and the risk of crashing your system would be very high. It might be far easier to create your own copy of DCLTABLES.EXE and try to get LIB$SPAWN to load that instead of the "official" tables. DATA/FILE TRANSFER SIG Message # 625 0 replies Reply to # 624 Left by: RICHARD B. GILBERT On 30-Aug-89 At : (609) 452-5130 Subject: XMODEM NEEDED VAX/VMS XMODEM is available from the DECUS Library for a modest charge. They could certainly supply 1600BPI magnetic tape and probably a TK50 as well. If you want to send me a tape (600') and return postage, I could send you a copy (3-4 years old, DECUS may have a newer one). VMS SIG Message # 1062 0 replies Reply to # 1051 Left by: ALEX MEASDAY On 31-Aug-89 At : (301) 497-2413 Laurel, MD Subject: MAIL BOXES AND SUBPROCESS Hi! I'm the author of EXECUTE_DCL; Anne Schrauger of Professional Press notified me about your problem. Unfortunately, EXECUTE_DCL was written several years ago (VMS 4.3) and I no longer have a VAX to work on. I do, however, have access to documentation for VMS 4.7 and VMS 5.0, so I looked up SYS$CREMBX and LIB$SPAWN in their respective manuals to see if I could shed any light on your %RMS-E-FNF (file not found) error. No luck! Assuming the %RMS-E-FNF error returned by LIB$SPAWN was caused by a problem with the mailboxes (which ought to show up in the WRITEMBX routine), you might try the following: (1) On one login session, run the test program using the debugger. Stop the program after the two calls to WRITEMBX and before the call to LIB$SPAWN. Examine the mailbox names. (2) On another session, verify that the mailbox logical names, "CLI_INPUT_MBX_" and "CLI_OUTPUT_MBX_", appear in the appropriate logical name table (SHOW LOGICAL/? - my VMS is rusty!) and that the mailbox devices in the equivalence names exist (SHOW DEVICE ?). If this exercise doesn't point up any problems, I don't know where to look next. I thought maybe you didn't have the privileges necessary to create the mailboxes, but such an error should be detected in WRITEMBX. Is there some privilege or quota regarding subprocess creation? Brian Jenkins (Utilities SIG, message #397) appears to have successfully run the test program, but had a different problem related to process termination. Sorry I can't help you more. If you find out anything else, please post a message. Feel free to contact me at work in Laurel, Maryland, (301) 497-2413, if you have any questions. Alex Measday Integral Systems, Inc. USENET address: ...!uunet!pyrdc!isi!alex P.S. I downloaded EXECUTE_DCL from ARIS to an IBM PC and the code came out double-spaced. Did yours download that way? Strange! UTILITIES SIG Message # 404 0 replies Reply to # 397 Left by: Alex Measday On 31-Aug-89 At : (301) 497-2413 Laurel, MD Subject: EXECUTE_DCL Procedure Hi! I'm the author of EXECUTE_DCL. In searching for another message about my program (VMS SIG, message #1051), I happened upon yours. I wrote EXECUTE_DCL 3 or 4 years ago and I haven't touched a VAX in 2 years (all Sun workstations and UNIX, now), so my VMS is kind of rusty and I have no VAX on which to research your problem. Here are some thoughts on the subject, anyway. The CLI subprocess does NOT go down after executing the SET DEFAULT command (the first call to EXECUTE_DCL in the test program). The subprocess should stay up to execute all the commands you issue via EXECUTE_DCL and should go away when its parent process goes away. As I was writing this, it suddenly occurred to me that, under VMS, programs run from the DCL command line (e.g., "RUN TEST") execute within the login process (in UNIX, each command is a separate process). If that's true, your login process is the parent of the CLI subprocess created by EXECUTE_DCL and the CLI subprocess will hang around until you log out. (If that's not true, someone please correct me!) In any case, your program can explicitly terminate the CLI subprocess by sending it a LOGOUT command before exiting: . CALL EXECUTE_DCL ('LOGOUT', , result, , dcl_status) I hope the discussion above helps you. Sorry I can't test it myself! If you figure out anything, please post another message or feel free to phone me at work in Laurel, Maryland, (301) 497-2413. . Alex Measday . Integral Systems, Inc. . . USENET address: ...!uunet!pyrdc!isi!alex FORUM - 3RD PARTY SUPPLIERS SIG Message # 114 0 replies Reply to # 113 Left by: ANNE SCHRAUGER On 05-Sep-89 At : HERE Subject: INFO ABOUT PRECISION STAN David, please let me know when you've written that program. Our clock has been sitting idle for quite a while too! To the best of our knowledge, Precision Standard is out of business. VMS SIG Message # 1063 0 replies Reply to # 1059 Left by: ANNE SCHRAUGER On 05-Sep-89 At : HERE Subject: PEEKING USERS And Kevin Barkes' BBS number is (412) 854-0511. CPU'S SIG Message # 63 0 replies Reply to # 62 Left by: KELVIN SMITH On 05-Sep-89 At : (203) 357-0504 Subject: 11/84 - CAN RUN RSTS V8? My understanding was that V8.0 was the first release of RSTS to officially support the 11/84. I'm not positive about that; when we got our 11/84, we moved to V9. I'm sure that V7.2 did not support the 11/84. However, I think we moved to V9 because we wanted to get back on software support (we had been running 7.2), not because we had to have it to run the new CPU. What type of work do you plan to do? It might make sense to switch to V9, despite the perceived loss of performance, because V9 offers a number of new features that can make life a lot easier. The DECUS RSTS SIG Newsletter had a couple of columns late last year, I think, offering pros and cons on moving to V9. A few of the Pros: Multiple privileges allow more control over access; larger programs available (I&D space allows 64K programs with BP2 and some other RSX-based languages--with V9.7, that can now go up to 72K with the addition of an 8K RMS library in supervisor mode); software support (which may or may not be a plus); command interface closer to VMS (again, may or may not be a plus, depending on whether your users also deal with VMS). A lot of the performance problems have gotten a hefty amount of attention; I don't think even Digital would claim it's as fast now as V8 was, but you have to pay somewhere. A few of the Cons for moving to V9: Cost of license upgrade (the 11/84 is one of the few "high-end" machines, which means RSTS costs more than twice as much as on some others); need to learn a whole new set of procedures for handling accounts (REACT, MONEY, & co. are history, replaced by a slew of DCL commands); slowly diminishing support for older peripherals (but does anyone really still use DECtape?). If you want the full list published in the columns, give me a call and I'll dig them out of my library. We're running RSTS V9.6, soon to be 9.7, on our 11/84, and I'm reasonably happy with the set-up. MISCELLANEOUS SIG Message # 585 1 replies Left by: SIMON BROWN On 06-Sep-89 At : HERE Subject: OPEN FILES Hi - I have a program from an old DECUS tape that shows the files that a process holds open - I think it was written by Bruce Ellis. Anyway, that was for v4.?, and now that I'm on v5.1 I've got new VMS structures etc., so the plea here is - anybody out there in ARISland who has converted / written a prog. to show the files held open be a process for v5.1? I'd very much appreciate it - If you have, I could do a Kermit / XModem or maybe snail mail? Thanks in anticipation, Simon ++41 1 236 49 01 PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES/AI SIG Message # 426 1 replies Left by: MICHAEL W. ONUFER On 06-Sep-89 At : (213) 553-4330 X266 Subject: READ RELATIVE FILE W/ DCL using the index qualifier, the next sequential record is read instead of the requested relative record. $ OPEN/SHARE/READ/WRITE/ERROR=OPEN_ERROR IO_FILE DUA0:[DATA]RELATIVE_FILE.DAT $! $READ/INDEX=10/END_OF_FILE=ENDIT/ERROR=READERR IO_FILE BITMAP $! $ SHOW SYMBOL BIT The symbol BITMAP should contain the 10th record but I always come up with the very first record in the file. WHY??? Can anyone help ? PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES/AI SIG Message # 427 1 replies Left by: MICHAEL W. ONUFER On 06-Sep-89 At : (213) 553-4330 X266 Subject: PROCESSES AND SUBPROCESSES Help! I am experiencing a problem when tring to attach back to a main process. I create a subprocess from a "C" program using the system library routine. The subprocess then runs a DCL (4.6) command procedure. After the command procedure is done doing it's thing, I attemp to attach back to the main process via the command procedure. (Deleting the subprocess is not a workable solution). I need to put the subprocess into hibernation and return to the main process. Below is some coding fragments: "C" program system("@com_file"); command procedure: $! COM_FILE $ DIR $ SHOW TIME $ SHOW USER $... $... $ ATTACH MAIN_PROCESS %DCL-E-REFUSED, You cannot attach to that process Can anybody help? MISCELLANEOUS SIG Message # 586 0 replies Reply to # 585 Left by: RICHARD B. GILBERT On 06-Sep-89 At : (609) 258-5130 Subject: OPEN FILES Simon, I don't know of the program that you have, but until you can get an updated version, try SHOW DEVICE /FILES /NOSYSTEM DUcn:. This will show all the files open by non-system processes. It will be much less convenient but it should supply the information you need. PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES/AI SIG Message # 428 0 replies Reply to # 426 Left by: RICHARD B. GILBERT On 06-Sep-89 At : (609) 258-5130 Subject: READ RELATIVE FILE W/ DCL Michael, I hate to have to tell you this but READ /INDEX=10 is not supposed to return the 10th record. The number refers to the KEY of an indexed file; a 1 would refer to the primary key for the file, a 2 to the secondary key, etc. Indexed files (or ISAM (for Indexed Sequential Access Method)) are files which have index records which allow a program to retrieve a pointer to the location of a record. An example is your MAIL.MAI file which is keyed with the name of the sender and the date of receipt (I think that's right, as usual my doc set's at work and I'm at home. ) I believe that the only way to read the tenth record of your file from DCL is to read the first nine records first. PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES/AI SIG Message # 429 0 replies Reply to # 427 Left by: RICHARD B. GILBERT On 06-Sep-89 At : (609) 258-5130 Subject: PROCESSES AND SUBPROCESSE Michael, Are you certain that the process you are trying to attach to is named "MAIN_PROCESS"? If you don't have the name right, it is guaranteed not to work. The other reasons given in the manual for failure of the command are "The process is your current process." and "the process is not part of your current job. The manual does say that you can attach to the parent process if the current process was created with SPAWN /WAIT. PC'S SIG Message # 236 0 replies Reply to # 235 Left by: Phil Anthony On 06-Sep-89 At : Here Subject: INT 14 REDIRECTION Dan, you're beyond me now. To the best of my knowledge, IBM and Novell NETBIOTA (the only ones I'm reasonably familiar with) do *not* redirect Int 14H; if they did, you wouldn't be able to access your COM ports through the BIOS while NETBIOS was loaded. Your software apparently uses the BIOS in- terrupt to communicate over serial ports in its native mode, and can be kluged to work over a network with a replacement for the Int 14H code that intercepts its calls to access the serial port and redirects them to the network card. It seems to me you'd have to know a lot more about both how your emulation software uses Int 14H (which functions does it require?) and what the DEC NETBIOS does to replace the BIOS code (how closely does it conform to the actual BIOS code in terms of what it expects and what it returns? which functions does it handle?) even to know if it'll work. If you can get the information from the emulation package distributor, you might want to try writing your own replacement for the Int 14H code as an interrupt service routine to load after NETBIOS. Your replacement would have to translate in- tercepted Int 14H functions into the appropriate NETBIOS calls, and then grab hold of genuine NETBIOS interrupts to return information (result codes, data) as required. CPU'S SIG Message # 64 0 replies Reply to # 63 Left by: Phil Anthony On 06-Sep-89 At : Here Subject: 11/84 - CAN RUN RSTS V8? Kelvin, RSTS V8.0 *does* run on 11/73s, 11/83s, and 11/84s. I believe Patch Kit G is required, though I can't recall if that was needed for the disk drives or for DHU/DHV service. RSTS SIG Message # 430 0 replies Reply to # 426 Left by: Phil Anthony On 06-Sep-89 At : Here Subject: MOUNT SECOND MSCP DRIVE They do, Bob. Memory pills come in various speeds and sizes. Normally they're swallowed, along with your hard-earned cash, by various computers at sites where people have bought into the ideas that (a) memory is cheap and (b) when you have a problem with an application, throw some memory at it. They're most likely to be seen at VMS installations immediately following an operating system upgrade. If you decide to use 'em on yourself, though, watch out: Them little feet are pretty scratchy in the throat on the way down. RSTS SIG Message # 431 0 replies Reply to # 429 Left by: Phil Anthony On 06-Sep-89 At : Here Subject: 3780 PROTOCOL ON RSTS V9. I don't know very much about Big Blue myself, Jerry, but you may be coming at it from the wrong direction. Quite a number of companies, including both Black Box and IBM themselves, market protocol converters to attach on the Blue side. They work by remapping the characters generated by DEC VT10x function keys and/or control characters to desired IBM function keys. They were originally designed to permit users with async terminals to access mainframes. The input is RS232, so standard async modems over telephone lines or twisted-pair between short-haul modems would be suitable, and the output is whatever mainframes eat (for some reason LU6.2 sticks in my mind). By now, converters that handle VT220 sequences should be available if this would be better for you; my information is a couple of years old. DATA/FILE TRANSFER SIG Message # 626 0 replies Reply to # 615 Left by: Phil Anthony On 06-Sep-89 At : Here Subject: ARC/DEARC FOR VMS OR RSTS If memory serves, the VMS version of ARC was written to the specifications of ARC V4.x, which is several years old now. With V5, System Enhancement Associates changed their "Crunching" algorithm to a more efficient one, and also added the capability of unpacking Phil Katz's ".ARCs" created with PKARC (later PKPAK). There are even more goodies in V6.02, which came out last spring. PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES/AI SIG Message # 430 0 replies Reply to # 427 Left by: Phil Gravel On 07-Sep-89 At : HERE Subject: PROCESSES AND SUBPROCESSE I think the problem you are having has to do the the process name that you are using in the ATTACH command, that is ATTACH is not finding a process whose process name is "MIN_PROCESS". The following pieces of code work for me from a FORTRAN program: FORTRAN Program: COMMAND = '@COM_PROC' STATUS = LIB$SPAWN(COMMAND) Command Procedure: $ MAIN_ID = F$GETJPI("","MASTER_PID") $ ATTACH/ID='MAIN_ID' -or- $ PROC_NAME = F$GETJPI("''F$GETJPI("","MASTER_PID")'","PRCNAM") $ ATTACH 'PROC_NAME' Phil MISCELLANEOUS SIG Message # 587 0 replies Reply to # 586 Left by: ROBERT G. SCHAFFRATH On 07-Sep-89 At : 914-335-9792 Subject: OPEN FILES Simon, Another way of determining which files are open for a process is to go into SDA and type SHOW PROCESS/INDEX=pid/CHANNEL. That will give you a display of all files and devices that a process has open. On another note, several months ago you had contacted me about documentation for SET WATCH. Unfortunately, when I tried to send it to you over TELENET, I received an error that the call was refused. I still have the information if you are interested. Robert G. Schaffrath System Manager General Foods Corporation White Plains, NY 10625 RSTS SIG Message # 432 0 replies Reply to # 428 Left by: PHIL MACDONALD On 08-Sep-89 At : Subject: NONSHARABLE DEVICE LP: Thanks for the help Jerry I'm gonna direct output to a unique file every time we do a print. To print these files I'll have a .com file running in batch which will contain the command $ print/delete directory]file.name" The .com file will resubmit itself every 2 minutes. I can't think of any other way around this. Thanks again Jerry One other question, did you say your running on a 11/83??. We are on the 11/73 and want to upgrade to and 11/83. What can I expect in terms of system performance.?? Phil MISCELLANEOUS SIG Message # 588 0 replies Reply to # 587 Left by: SIMON BROWN On 08-Sep-89 At : HERE OR ++41 1 236 49 01 Subject: OPEN FILES Thanks bob - 1) re the original request - I printed out (after some time) the .CLD from the VMS distribution to get the set watch parameters, and now I'm very happy wid dat. Thanks for your help though. I'm now in Zurich (Switzerland), and don't have x25 at present, but soon will have for contact with customers etc.. Re the open files, this is a request for some developers (in the loosest sense of the word) who don't know what files they have open in the live applications, which open and close files quicker that I thought possible or even desirable. The software I had allowed me to continually monitor a process, showing just what these chappies were up to. Now we're on V5.1, I don't have fiches, and I don't have the update to the internals book, so basically I can't do anything. It's been great before ... . So I guess I'll just have to use the SDA. Maybe there'll be something on the `89 DECUS tapes. Maybe DEC'll deliver the fiches. Or even a CD - we bought the player, .... Cheers, thanks for your trouble, Simon LASER PRINTERS SIG Message # 76 0 replies Left by: SHERRY KAPPEL On 08-Sep-89 At : (312) 705-7700 Subject: APPLE LASERWRITER TO VAX... Hello. I, too, would be interested in finding out if anyone's had success in connecting an Apple LaserWriter (specifically the 2NT) to a VAX system. Thanks! Sherry Kappel A. M. Hamilton, Inc. (312) 705-7700 PC'S SIG Message # 237 0 replies Reply to # 234 Left by: DAVID M DESROCHES On 08-Sep-89 At : (508) 872-8383 Subject: DIGITAL MODEM We also use standard modems to dial out through a PBX. To get out of my PBX, I have to dial a trunk access number first (i.e. ATDT901,18005551212). This may solve your problem as well. PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES/AI SIG Message # 431 0 replies Reply to # 428 Left by: DAVID M DESROCHES On 08-Sep-89 At : (508) 872-8383 Subject: READ RELATIVE FILE W/ DCL Just to clarify the previous explanation, the primary index would be 0, not 1. Accessing the 10th record does require multiple READs after the appropriate index has been initiated. RSTS SIG Message # 433 0 replies Reply to # 432 Left by: Phil Anthony On 09-Sep-89 At : Here Subject: NONSHARABLE DEVICE LP: Phil, instead of running a batch .COM file to queue your reports, with all the associated overhead, you might want to look at Jerry Vezzosi's sugges- tion of using the DIBOL command LPQUE. Syntax, according to the DIBOL-11 Reference Manual, is LPQUE (, [LPNUM:dexp] [,COPIES:dexp] [,FORM: | | ] [,ALIGN] [,DELETE]) (note that the decimal expressions for line printer number and number of copies, and the alpha form designation *must* be adjacent to the colon - no spaces allowed). So you should be able to create the file within your DIBOL program and then submit it for printing with a statement such as LPQUE ("FILE.PRT", DELETE) ; Queue the print file, delete when printed I agree with Jerry that you'd be best off creating a unique file name for each print file (probably using XCALL TIME) instead of a hard-wired name like "FILE.PRT", to avoid having a second report clobber the first before it's printed. Hope this helps you out! RSTS SIG Message # 434 0 replies Left by: JOHN HEINZ On 09-Sep-89 At : 513 866-3300 X210 Subject: RSTS USER IN MIAMI VALLEY IF ANYONE USES RSTS AND LIVES IN THE MIAMI VALLEY (OHIO), I WOULD REALLY APPRECIATE IF YOU WOULD GIVE ME A CALL TODAY. THANKS... LASER PRINTERS SIG Message # 77 0 replies Reply to # 76 Left by: Phil Gravel On 09-Sep-89 At : (312)420-5474 Subject: APPLE LASERWRITER TO VAX. We have an Apple LaserWriter NTX connected to a terminal server port. It is available as a printer to several VAXs which have queues set up to print to it. Phil LASER PRINTERS SIG Message # 78 0 replies Reply to # 76 Left by: RICHARD B. GILBERT On 09-Sep-89 At : (609) 258-5130 Subject: APPLE LASERWRITER TO VAX. I have not done it myself but I understand that other people have done so using the DEC Scriptprinter (LN03R) symbiont. This takes a little hacking to make it work and is, of course, not supported by DEC. If you already have software that generates PostScript output, you would not need the Scriptprinter symbiont unless you also want to print ASCII text, sixel graphics, ReGIS graphics, and Tek 4010/4014 graphics. APPLICATIONS SIG Message # 362 0 replies Reply to # 361 Left by: RALPH BRANDT On 09-Sep-89 At : 717-751-5210 Subject: CONFERENCE ROOM SCHEDULIN We use allin1 for all meeting and conference room scheduling. We have about 350 users on a slightly overloaded 8530 - about 100 active users. We do extensive E-mail and WPS as well as the scheduling function. The schedular on the new release of A-1 is a big improvement. We had a custom written one in the earlier release. When I want to schedule a meeting, I type in the names and add a Dist list to request the meetint rooms. I pick the place and time and delete te unneeded rooms, then request the system to schedule. But of course, nobody wants to use WPS / ALLIN1. It's not user hostile, the system requirement all DECcie TECHie's want most. That's why IBM sells computers, it sure isn't because they are better. CLUSTERING/NETWORKING SIG Message # 442 0 replies Reply to # 440 Left by: RALPH BRANDT On 09-Sep-89 At : 717-751-5210 Subject: PC TO MICROVAX COMMUNICAT I have to agree with everything said about PCSA. It is a memory hog - a large hog If we configure Local Area Disk only, we loose about 70K. You just about have to take LAD to get anything. If you add LAT it adds about 65K and RDR for File and Print server takse about another 80K. Dont hold me to exact numbers but they are close. And the 200k overhead is without windows.... We have been unable to run Harvard graphics and Autocad with anything more than LAD support. This means starting each function individually as the user needs it and reboot when memory is needed. We're just now stating to work with it in a multi function Mfg controller DEC promises the next release will be better. If you run it on a "non-supported" clone, you may have trouble. Some of our TANDON AT's cant do a soft reboot, the DEPCA gives an error. They have to be powered off and back on. We have had some success with the product, have it used for terminal emulation on 125 PC's including about 50 PS/2's model 50 and 70. We use the LK250 kbd on all because WPS is user friendly. I'd go carefully into any use of PCSA but I feel it is a powerful product, in spite of it's obvious shortcomings. The worst of these is that DEC doesn't have anyone in our area that knows anythng about it. We bought DECSTART ($4000) and I doubt if we got $.04 out of it. COMMUNICATIONS SIG Message # 300 0 replies Left by: RALPH BRANDT On 09-Sep-89 At : 7177515210 Subject: TERMINAL SERVER 300 We just got a brand spanking new servr 300 and found out that the DECCONNECT jacks out on it use 6 lines, not 4 as on the DL version of the 200. These two additional lines look like possibly the hardware flow control that is missing on the other server to me. Does anyone else know about this. I don't have the book here right now but I remember it is the CTS/RTS lines and are wired to 4/5 on the RS232 DB25 connector. PS in case any of you haven't seen this and your DEC pedler is as incompetent as ours and can't get any info on this, DEC put 16 MMJ's on the back of the server and did away with the Harmonica too. It's the same size as the 200. In addition it has a transceiver cable port AND a thinwire port so if you wnat to attach to thinwire you don't need a DESTA. (The last DESTA I bought had the BNC on the top held on with the same pins that attach the electronics of the H4005 and otherwise it looked like an H4005. CLUSTERING/NETWORKING SIG Message # 443 0 replies Left by: RALPH BRANDT On 09-Sep-89 At : 717-751-5210 Subject: DSEPR/DEMPR I have 4 DEMPR and 5 DESPR units on my network. On the DEMPR, the H4005 has a switch that has to be set to heartbeat off. On the DESPR, AA I have been running with the switch on. Now, I get a DESPR EF model - looks like a DELNI in size - and there is a note inside to turn heartbeat off. It doesn't tell me for sure that it applies to a DESPR. My unit came in DOA, it failed the self tests. Does anyone know if the DESPR EF does require heartbeat off? RSTS SIG Message # 435 0 replies Reply to # 416 Left by: KELVIN SMITH On 09-Sep-89 At : (203) 357-0504 Subject: SPEEDY DH-11 Phil, I finally had a chance to take a look at the DH11 article. Unfortunately, I don't think it'll be any use for me. Most of the big character generators on our system are canned programs for which I don't have source (editors, the spooler for an LA120 that we have set up as a pseudo-line printer, etc.). Since to use the undocumented feature described, you have to do the prints with a special mode, I can't make use of it. (I don't know why DEC doesn't make use of it themselves for their programs.) CPU'S SIG Message # 65 0 replies Reply to # 62 Left by: Brett Bump On 10-Sep-89 At : Here Subject: 11/84 CAN ALSO RUN RSTS V9 Frank. Yes, you can run V8 on an 11/84. No, you don't have to upgrade to V9. But you may find it easier to do it anyway. The amount of time spent digging out the patches (some you may not even have), and seeing what patch works with this device, and what device doesn't work with that patch, would be better spent watching your 11/84 up and running. Simply put, you should be able to plug and play. I presume that you wish to move out old hardware. What are your software concerns? RSTS SIG Message # 436 0 replies Reply to # 419 Left by: Brett Bump On 10-Sep-89 At : Here Subject: .PLAS(TER) UU(YOUR) .RTS No, David, this is not about RSTS. But ... Yeah, I guess it's OK. By your description, I would definitely believe that this could be voltage drops. Most PDPs (maybe even your precious MINC stole) will trap to location 24 on BPOK H (anything under 95 volts). It's very possible that this old version of RT11 has something else wandering around low memory other than power/fail code. If this is the case maybe the power is restored before the processor runs into a HALT. If the HALT is executed before power is completely restored, your machine "should" assert BINIT and bootstrap itself. If not, well, maybe you get an ODT prompt similar to: 000320 @ The real question is, Is it important to keep this system up? Or is it just a nuisance to reboot in the morning? A new version of RT11 may be a simple fix. Then again, if this is really old RT11 (a la V1, V2 stuff), I can understand where you may have code problems (don't feel bad about your MINC, I still know lots of people using PDT 11/150s). If keeping the old code up is a must, you may want "REALLY well conditioned" power. Yeah, you could build an amplidine (a "good" electrician will know how.) RSTS SIG Message # 437 0 replies Reply to # 435 Left by: Phil Anthony On 10-Sep-89 At : Here Subject: SPEEDY DH-11 Y'know, Kelvin, I've often wondered that myself ... and also why DEC doesn't support the DMA feature even though they (a) sell devices that are capable of it (DH11s, DHU11s, DHV11s), and (b) include the code in TTDVR and the hook in CONFIG.MAC. The applications I found it most useful for were those that generated full- screen menus with all kinds of escape sequences (cursor positioning, reverse video and underlining, double-width and double-height characters) embedded in them. The output was concatenated into a single string, and then output as a single .WRITE to the screen (I provided a Macro-11 interface for the applications programmers). Since the major application on the system used a lot of fancy menus, the high-speed DH11 code reduced the system uncharged CPU overhead by a sig- nificant amount. That was one of the tricks I used to get up to 56 jobs running with reasonable response time on a PDP-11/70 under V8. If I could've figured out a reasonable method to permit user programs to open about 24 to 32 files, it would've been even better. And if I could've trained the applications programmers to use well-planned overlays instead of CHAINing all over creation, we might actually have gotten up to the theoretical 63-job limit. RSTS SIG Message # 440 0 replies Reply to # 433 Left by: PHIL MACDONALD On 11-Sep-89 At : 416-8463181 Subject: NONSHARABLE DEVICE LP: Phil, I agree with you that I can save on overhead if I use Jerry Vessosi's suggestion and use LPQUE instead of submitting a batch command to print a file. But, correct me if I'm wrong, LPQUE queues a file to be printed by the printer SPOOLER. If I'm to send print to the SPOOLER I must start the OPSER spooling package. I currently have PBS running and from what I've heard and read its more efficient and flexible than OPSER. Can I have OPSER and PBS running simultaneous (would I want to ?), if not will LPQUE work with only PBS running? Thanks Phil SYSTEM PERFORMANCE SIG Message # 247 2 replies Left by: ABRAHAM A. SULEIMAN On 11-Sep-89 At : UNITED CEREBRAL PALSY OF NYS Subject: PAGEFILE.SYS UNDER VMS 5.1-1 I have recently upgraded my VAX 8200 to vesion 5.1-1 of VMS, and have noticed that response time is longer than it was under 4.7. With 20 interactive processes and 1 or 2 batch jobs the computer feels sluggish; under 4.7 we would normally reach capacity at 25 interactive and 3 batch jobs running simultaneously. I also noticed something that I don't recall seeing under 4.7 When I type $SHOW MEMORY /FILES Free Reservable Total UCPA$DISK0:SYS$SYSTEM:SWAPFILE.SYS 41000 41000 41000 UCPA$DISK0:SYS$SYSTEM:PAGEFILE.SYS 52008 -4393 54000 What confuses me is the -ive number under "reservable" knowing that we have 24 MB of physical memory and that this number decreases greatly with the number of processes. Can anyone exaplain What "reservable" means and whether I have a problem or if this is normal. DATA/FILE TRANSFER SIG Message # 628 0 replies Reply to # 490 Left by: MIKE MCGOVERN On 11-Sep-89 At : (412)776-7560 Subject: NETBIOS FOR VMS? JOHN, We are currently using the DECnet/DOS NETBIOS emulator with FactoryLink running under DESQVIEW for task-to-task communications with VMS DECNET applications written in Fortran (via Ethernet). The current system has two Micro-Vaxes sending data to and receiving data from four Compaq PCs running FactoryLink's NETBIOS interface. We've been running since April and to date have had no communications problems whatsoever. It's been so successful that we plan on using this configuration on the next project which will be using 13 Micro-Vaxes and 13 FactoryLink nodes. We have not had the need for file transfers, so this may be a problem for you. I am dubious about DECnet/DOS's capability to run NFT and the NETBIOS emulator concurrently. If you need additional information, give me a call. SYSTEM PERFORMANCE SIG Message # 248 0 replies Reply to # 247 Left by: V JAMES KRAMMES On 11-Sep-89 At : (614) 228-2001 X 341 Subject: PAGEFILE.SYS UNDER VMS 5. Under VMS 4.7, space in the page file was actually "grabbed" for each process as it was created. Under 5.0, space is merely "reserved" in the page file, so that it is possible to have more space "reserved" by your work load than is physically available in the page file. I'm no expert, so I'm not sure what it really "means", except that you may need to enlarge your pagefile. Jim SYSTEM PERFORMANCE SIG Message # 249 0 replies Reply to # 247 Left by: RICHARD B. GILBERT On 11-Sep-89 At : (609) 258-5130 Subject: PAGEFILE.SYS UNDER VMS 5. The negative value listed under reservable indicates the number of pages you would be short if everything had to be paged out to disk at once. Since it is extremely unlikely that everything would ever be paged out at once, I don't think you need to worry about it. VMS V5 is slower that VMS V4. Some portions are much slower and some are much faster but there is a net overall loss of performance amounting to about five percent. UTILITIES SIG Message # 405 1 replies Left by: ABRAHAM A. SULEIMAN On 12-Sep-1989 At : (212) 947-5770 Subject: INTERACTIVE/BATCH COUNT There is an easy way to show number of interactive & batch jobs running a VAX/VMS; If you're running VMS 4.x the interactive and batch job counts are stored at %x80002C00 & %x80002C04 respectively. If you're running VMS 5.x the interactive and batch job counts are stored at %x800044C0 & %x800044C4 respectively. To display this information at DCL level type the following: $ ! FOR VMS 4.x $ WRITE SYS$OUTPUT - " Interactive = ", F$CVSI(0,32,F$FAO("!AD",8,%x80002C00)), - " Batch = ", F$CVSI(0,16,F$FAO("!AD",8,%X80002C04)) $ ! For VMS 5.x $ WRITE SYS$OUTPUT - " Interactive = ", F$CVSI(0,32,F$FAO("!AD",8,%x800044C0)), - " Batch = ", F$CVSI(0,16,F$FAO("!AD",8,%X800044C4)) Abraham Abou-Suleiman Director Of Data processing United Cerebral Palsy 330 West 34 Street Newy York, NY 10001 UTILITIES SIG Message # 406 0 replies Reply to # 405 Left by: ABRAHAM A. SULEIMAN On 12-Sep-89 At : (212) 947-5770 Subject: INTERACTIVE/BATCH CONT [Correction] Under VMS 4.x, the Interactive Job Count is at address %x80002BFC the Batch Job Count is at address %X80002C00 VMS SIG Message # 1064 3 replies Left by: MARK STONE On 12-Sep-89 At : (617) 578-8665 Subject: WHERE HAS ALL THE CPU TIME GONE? I know this is an old (V5.0 and beyond) subject, but, how can I find out the amount of time that the CPU has spent in its various modes (USER, KERNEL, EXEC, etc). I know MONITOR and SPM can do it, but what about your average (Am I average?) system manager? I'm looking for a little for than just the idle time. VMS SIG Message # 1065 0 replies Left by: MARK STONE On 12-Sep-89 At : (617) 578-8665 Subject: PUTTING ALL-IN-1 ON A DIET I'm in the tinkering stage of writing a BASIC program to reduce the size of inactive ALL-IN-1 users. This involves scanning the process list (done), determining the image (done), its WS size (done), andforcing it to perform SYS$ADJWSL (not done). The latest VAX PRO shows the art of forcing an AST to another process. Is it somewhat doable from an HLL w/o crashing the system every other adjustment? How do I enter the procedure entry mask from BASIC? Lastly, do I need to get the EPID of the process and if so how? I'm new at delving this deep into VMS and my boss'll flip if I start guessing and "POP" goes the VAX. VMS SIG Message # 1066 0 replies Reply to # 1064 Left by: ABRAHAM A. SULEIMAN On 12-Sep-89 At : (212) 947-5770 Subject: WHERE HAS ALL THE CPU TIM I was annoyed by the removal of the NULL process which used to tell me the wasted CPU time since the last BOOTUP. In order to monitor CPU time spent in USER, KERNEL, EXECUTIVE, IDLE etc.. try $ MONITOR SYSTEM /ALL Good luck and Happy Performance Management :-) VMS SIG Message # 1067 0 replies Reply to # 1064 Left by: RICHARD B. GILBERT On 12-Sep-89 At : (609) 258-5130 Subject: WHERE HAS ALL THE CPU TIM Mark, MONITOR MODES is how the "average system manager" would do it. Is there some reason why you can't use MONITOR? You can get either get a realtime display or have MONITOR record to a disk file and summarize later. The realtime display is good for a quick peek. The recording mode is used when you want to see how the system behaved over a period of several hours. You can get the minimum, maximum, average and current values for the percentage of time spent in any mode. I think that MONITOR gets its information by grubbing around in the system data structures. Believe me, the average system manager seldom gets that deep into the system. RSTS SIG Message # 443 0 replies Reply to # 440 Left by: Phil Anthony On 12-Sep-89 At : Here Subject: NONSHARABLE DEVICE LP: Hm. Blush. You're right, of course - unless DEC has changed how LPQUE works in the latest release of DIBOL, which you may not have in any case. Okay, how about this one? If you have a recent DIBOL distribution, you have a copy of UNSUPP.OLB, an unsupported library of routines for DIBOL, and also UNSUPP.DOC, the documentation for same. Since submitting files for printing under PBS is implemented as a RSTS system call (albeit not the same call that talks to OPSER), you should be able to set up FIRQB and XRB using the external subroutines listed under FIRQB in the documentation, and then send the file off to the print queue with XCALL EXEMT. Check the RSTS/E Program- ming Manual and the RSTS/E System Directives Manual for details of the EMT. As a nice side effect, once you've written your routine to submit files for printing under PBS (as an external subroutine, of course), you'll probably find other places where it would be helpful. And yes, you can have OPSER and PBS both active on the same system, though not spooling to the same device. VMS SIG Message # 1068 0 replies Reply to # 1065 Left by: ROBERT G. SCHAFFRATH On 13-Sep-89 At : 914-335-9792 Subject: PUTTING ALL-IN-1 ON A DIE Theoretically, it should be possible. However, be advised that anytime you start playing with internals, your VAX will go "POP". I don't know of anybody who hasn't at one time or another crashed the system when first starting with internals. As for the EPID, that is the External PID and is what you view with SHOW USERS, SHOW SYSTEM, etc. What you will probably need is the Internal PID (IPID) and that can be obtained with the system routine EXE$EPID_TO_IPID. However, you mention you are going to write this in BASIC. That is okay for the user interface routines, but you are definitely going to have to sit down and write MACRO subroutines. You will need access to various registers and memory locations that can really only be accessed with MACRO (or BLISS). Robert G. Schaffrath System Manager General Foods Corporation White Plains, NY 10625 CLUSTERING/NETWORKING SIG Message # 444 0 replies Left by: NICHOLAS ABBOT On 13-Sep-89 At : (914) 347-2700 Subject: A NODE BY ANY OTHER NAME. We upgraded PCSA from 2.1 to 2.2. I started the upgrade and went to get lunch. When I got back and ran PCSA_UPGRADE_WS_V22.EXE. there were no nodes in the database. The upgrade procedure converts the database file from sequential to indexed. The conversion failed because I had two records with the same node name but different node numbers, a duplicate entry in the database. I didn't know this then, so I ran the upgrade again...big mistake. The upgrade procedure copies the original database to a .OLD and I selected to purge. So the .DAT,(new indexed), was empty and the old .DAT,(sequential), was purged. However after the second go of the upgrade and selecting purge, I successfully purged the .OLD file, which contained my true database. Now I have nothing resembling ANY database, This is when I reached for the latest image backup of my system and BAC/SEL=PCSA$BOOT_DATABASE.DAT from the save set. Using PCSA_ADMIN.COM, it is possible to create two node entries with the same name. You'll get an error, but the entry will still be there. So if you have remote boot PC's, check SYS$COMMON:[PCSA]PCSA$BOOT_DATABASE.DAT and make sure everything is unique. If you have a duplicate entry, you can use PCSA_ADMIN.COM to delete it, but it will delete the first one it sees and the one you may want to get rid of may be the second. You can delete both and re-register, but this is easier: $ ANA/RMS/FDL PCSA$BOOT_DATABASE.DAT ! make a .FDL $ EDIT PCSA$BOOT_DATABASE.DAT ! delete second entry $ CONVERT/FDL=PCSA$BOOT_DATABASE PCSA$DATA_DATABASE.DAT * !gimme back attribs $ DELE PCSA$BOOT_DATABASE.FDL;* $ PURGE PCSA$BOOT_DATABASE.DAT Then do the upgrade...A node by any other name is just a node. Two nodes with same name is a pain in the A**! DATA/FILE TRANSFER SIG Message # 629 1 replies Left by: PRABHAKARA R VINTA On 13-Sep-89 At : (713)486-1712 Subject: TCP/IP INTERFACE ON VMS I have an application where tasks running under VMS need to send and receive messages from a non-VMS system using TCP/IP on an Ethernet circuit. DEC provides two products 1) WIN TCP/IP from Wollongong Group and 2) Fusion TCP/IP from Network Research Corporation. I am looking for some recommendations or comments or any known problems with the above two products(like CPU utilization). Or are there any other products? Thankyou. Prabhakara R Vinta Modular Data Systems, Inc. 2525 Bay Area Boulevard Third Floor Houston, Texas 77058 DATA/FILE TRANSFER SIG Message # 630 0 replies Reply to # 587 Left by: ROB VUGTEVEEN On 13-Sep-89 At : (602) 792-3010 X334 Subject: READ MS-DOS FROM RX23? We have seen SoftPC from Insignia software. It is S L O W, but it does work. Call me if you want a more candid opinion. DATA/FILE TRANSFER SIG Message # 631 0 replies Reply to # 629 Left by: RICHARD B. GILBERT On 13-Sep-89 At : (609) 258-5130 Subject: TCP/IP INTERFACE ON VMS See message 402 and replies in the Clustering/Networking SIG. These messages contain a fairly extensive discussion of the available TCP/IP packages available for VMS. I use CMU-TEK TCP/IP from Carnegie Mellon University. It's not perfect but the price is right. See message 415 in Clustering/Networking SIG. MISCELLANEOUS SIG Message # 589 1 replies Reply to # 566 Left by: Phil Anthony On 14-Sep-89 At : Here Subject: CASE TOOLS Simon, I've been waiting for somebody to answer your question, just like I've been waiting for somebody to speak to another CASE question that was left here last December. I personally don't have any CASE experience, and from the lack of responses, I suspect not many other people do either. It's a concept that's certainly ripe for the plucking, but I'd guess that everybody's waiting for somebody else to take the first bite and find out if the fruit is poisoned. You *will* let us know, won't you? FORUM - DEC SIG Message # 73 0 replies Reply to # 72 Left by: Phil Anthony On 14-Sep-89 At : Here Subject: WHAT IS GENESIS? From the lack of replies, I'd say everybody here shares your lack of infor- mation. If you find out, and if it's a worthwhile product, would you let us know too? SYSTEM PERFORMANCE SIG Message # 250 1 replies Reply to # 232 Left by: Phil Anthony On 14-Sep-89 At : Here Subject: DISK THROUGHPUT - BI BUS Matt, I expected somebody like Richard Gilbert to jump on this one. But he hasn't, and I suspect none of the ARISians has ever looked into that particular metric. I also suspect it'd depend on how you forced the saturation point - reads, writes, or a combination; a single process or multiple pricesses hitting the disk; etc. MISCELLANEOUS SIG Message # 590 0 replies Reply to # 589 Left by: SIMON BROWN On 14-Sep-89 At : HERE (JUST IN CASE) Subject: CASE TOOLS Dear Phil, I'll let you know what we buy. We'll probably buy the virtual software factory. Me, I don't need it, but the Boss says the `developers' do, so there we are. I'll keep you posted when we buy it, or whatever we do buy. Maybe you could come over to Zurich for a demo. Ha ha. Cheers, Simon VMS SIG Message # 1069 0 replies Reply to # 1064 Left by: Phil Gravel On 14-Sep-89 At : HERE Subject: WHERE HAS ALL THE CPU TIM For a single processor system, the following segment of FORTRAN code will return the CPU ticks (10 ms time slices) of the processor in the various modes (K,E,S,U,I,C,SL,N) and calculate the total CPU time. (Note that the spinlock time is included in the kernel mode time and that the null time is included in the interrupt stack time.) From there you can do what you like with this information. EXTERNAL SMP$GL_CPU_DATA,CPU$L_KERNEL INTEGER*4 CPU_DATA,KERNEL_OFF,ACT_KERNEL INTEGER*4 CTIME(8),TOT_CPU,NULL_CPU CALL LIB$MOVC3(4,SMP$GL_CPU_DATA,CPU_DATA) CALL LIB$MOVC3(4,%LOC(CPU$L_KERNEL),KERNEL_OFF) ACT_KERNEL = CPU_DATA + KERNEL_OFF CALL LIB$MOVC3(8*4,%VAL(ACT_KERNEL),CTIME) TOT_CPU = CTIME(1)+CTIME(2)+CTIME(3)+CTIME(4)+CTIME(5)+CTIME(6) NULL_CPU = CTIME(8) Compile your program and then link it with the following options: $ LINK program_name,SYS$SYSTEM:SYS.STB/SELECTIVE,SYSDEF.STB/SELECTIVE Phil VMS SIG Message # 1070 0 replies Reply to # 1064 Left by: MARK STONE On 14-Sep-89 At : (617) 578-8665 Subject: WHERE HAS ALL THE CPU TIM Thanks for the replies. I wasn't clear on what I was going to do with the info. I'm building and automatic system load pilot for our cluster. If the CPU time is repeatedly high and the compute queue is long, disable logins on that node until the system quiets down. If memory goes short, turn on AWSA. If we're in AWSA and there's too much kernel mode, turn off AWSA. If there's a lot of EXEC mode time, send a mail message to the system manager (ME) to remind me it's time to rebuild and tune the RMS files. Also if there's sufficient idle time, play with the batch queue limits. Although I don't have FORTRAN here, it looks convertable enough (BASIC or PASCAL). We're a college here. DATA/FILE TRANSFER SIG Message # 632 0 replies Reply to # 609 Left by: HOWARD PARKER On 14-Sep-89 At : 301-290-8150 X5016 Subject: VAX/FAX INTERFACE I'M AWARE OF A FAX FRONT END FOR MOST MINIS MFG'D BY BISCOM IN BILLERICA, MA. THE TRADE NAME IS FAXCOM 1000. CALL 508-670-5521. SYSTEM PERFORMANCE SIG Message # 251 0 replies Reply to # 250 Left by: RICHARD B. GILBERT On 14-Sep-89 At : (609) 258-5130 Subject: DISK THROUGHPUT - BI BUS Phil, As you correctly deduced, I didn't attempt to answer Matt's question because I don't know how to answer it. He evidently has a much bigger hardware budget than I do. :-) In considering the matter, I think that the BI bus may well have no effect on the problem since disk performance is usually affected most strongly by the access time. You have to move a lot of data before transfer rate or bus bandwidth become significant. DATA/FILE TRANSFER SIG Message # 633 0 replies Left by: FRAN SHIELDS On 14-Sep-89 At : 215-293-0410 Subject: HOW DO I TALK TO A DEVICE? I HAVE A DEVICE (WEATHER STATION) WHICH I WOULD LIKE TO "TALK TO". THE SPEC'S INDICATE THAT I CAN SEND A COMMAND (EX. :GETTEMP) TO THE DEVICE AND IT WILL SEND BACK THE REQUESTED INFO. I UNDERSTAND THAT I SHOULD BE ABLE TO DO A DCL "COPY" COMMAND (EX: COPY FILE_WITH_COMMAND.DAT TXA0:) TO SEND THE COMMAND TO THE DEVICE USING PORT TXA0: AND I THINK I SHOULD BE ABLE TO READ THE INFO USING THE READ COMMAND (READ TXA0:)..... IF ANYONE CAN HELP FILL IN THE BLANKS HERE OR SUGGEST THE BEST APPROACH I WOULD APPRECIATED IT?? I WOULD LIKE TO USE DCL HOWEVER TO ACCOMPLISH THIS TASK. THANKS MUCH RSTS SIG Message # 444 1 replies Reply to # 431 Left by: Brett Bump On 15-Sep-89 At : Here Subject: 3780 PROTOCOL ON RSTS V9. Phil. You're talking about a "Mars" box. We had a number of them hooked up to a machine that will remain unmentionable. And for some reason, the name "Gandalf" also rings in my ears, but I'm not sure they made the "Mars". They were quite expensive ($3,000+ ea) when you consider what was being used on the other end (8-bit 6502 computers that will also remain unmentionable). I guess they worked ok (considering what they were connected to). But they sure seemed to get hung a lot. The person on the terminal end has to remember that he/she is communicating with non-interactive equipment (the Mars took the type-ahead, but gets hung trying to send it on). And my information is probably even older than yours. Jerry. As far as the Rsts side, I am not aware of any 3rd party packages (any wonder!). However, DEC did release "RSTS/E 2780" and "RSTS/E HPE 2780/3780" to DECUS. The DECUS order numbers are 110875 and 110877 respectively. No, I haven't used them. I prefer your solution (Non-IBM), and refuse to fence cattle with chain link fences. But you may want to give the DECUS package a try (since you must). RSTS SIG Message # 445 0 replies Reply to # 444 Left by: Phil Anthony On 15-Sep-89 At : Here Subject: 3780 PROTOCOL ON RSTS V9. No, Brett, the protocol converters I had in mind are made by a variety of companies including the Biggest and Bluest of all, which came out with its offerings about a year and a half ago (one of its earlier recognitions that there are terminals out here that don't speak EBCDIC, and talk quite ad- equately over unconditioned voice-grade phone lines - amazing). I saw tests done on some of them about two years ago, when I was called in only to con- figure the VT100 terminals: The CICS people didn't understand such niceties as parity and stop bits. None of the offerings under consideration had the problems you report with the Mars box. And don't knock the 6502; it, like the 6809, is still a very viable chip for communications and process control. Just because people can't program it - FORUM - DEC SIG Message # 74 0 replies Reply to # 73 Left by: SPIKE On 15-Sep-89 At : Subject: WHAT IS GENESIS? From what I've Heard GENES is a 4th Gen. Lang. developed by Digital for Digital and is in use by Digital. GENESIS is not on the market and it's very difficult to find out information on this. Don't ask me how I know this. SPIKE FORUM - DEC SIG Message # 75 0 replies Reply to # 74 Left by: Phil Anthony On 16-Sep-89 At : Here Subject: WHAT IS GENESIS? Thanks for the help, Spike! No, I won't ask ... some things are better not known. The only reference I could find was to a (thankfully) now defunct brand of computer that made the IBM System/34 look good. (What would *you* say about a "mini" that supported two to four users and ran off 8-inch floppy disks?) Maybe Dr. R or Dr. Gonzo could fill us in a little more? SYSTEM PERFORMANCE SIG Message # 252 0 replies Reply to # 237 Left by: DICK KRAMER On 16-Sep-89 At : (309)765-6564 Subject: DECWINDOWS I have been running DECwindows on a VAXstation 3100 for a couple of months now and love it. I have experienced none of the problems you are describing. I believe the problems you're having are caused by two things... memory, and processor speed. My DEC Field Engineer had tried DECwindows on his VS2000 with 6 MB and had the same comments as you. He was surprised at how well it performed on my VS3100. He was going to check into more memory for his VS2000, but the latest I heard from the local DEC office is that they're getting a bunch of VS3100's MISCELLANEOUS SIG Message # 591 0 replies Left by: DR. R On 16-Sep-89 At : BACK FROM THE SHADOWS Subject: GNU RUMOURS Yes. Perhaps it was due to the 16 August lunar eclipse, perhaps not, but much has happened in DECland since I set forth for the land Down Under last month. Disk defragmentation continues to be a hot topic amongst system managers, and reliable sources tell me that defragmentation capabilities will be incorporated into VMS version 5.4 (due out in midsummer 1990). Will VMS Engineering be able to fold this goodie into the O/S during this brief time window? I think not. In fact, I think DEC may be forced to purchase a third-party defrag product from certain Left Coast software executives. The Age of Aquarius draws near. Look for DEC to announce the VAX 9000 series on or about 31 October 1989. Why Halloween? Easy--it's the 5th anniversary of DEC's last high-end system, the VAX 8600. This date may slip by a week or two, however--sources report that Ken Olsen is tied up in board meetings on All Hallow's Eve. Aquarius initially will be available (Jan. '90) as the bounded, entry-level VAX 9000 Model 210. The VAX 9000 Models 410 through 440, which feature in-cabinet expansibility and price tags to match, won't begin shipping until midsummer '90. Seems that the Model 400s will be accompanied by an on-site Field Circus engineer, and DEC doesn't want to fill these non-revenue positions until it absolutely has to. Ultrix Version 4.0, the SMP UNIX with all the fiber and none of the cholesterol, will ship in January-February 1990. Believe it. What's all this brouhaha about 8mm backup devices? DEC will spurn 8mm technology--relegating it to VCR-land--and instead will offer a 4mm solution. "DAT" is the way to go, DEC . . . Datatrieve is not dead. Quite on the contrary, the soon-to-be-announced Datatrieve version 5 is DECwindows-compatible. Trust me. Finally, much paranoia in DEC about the unauthorized release of proprietary information. In fact, DEC is busy scanning the telephone records of certain employees in an effort to find out who's hobnobbing with the Doctor or--perish the thought--bearing false witness to false rumourmongers! Caveat confessor. Doctor R. CLUSTERING/NETWORKING SIG Message # 445 1 replies Reply to # 432 Left by: MARK GRIMES On 17-Sep-89 At : 415-864-3895 Subject: E-MAIL Thanks for the reply. I actually called that bookstore but they did not have that book and didn't know of Gage Educational Publishers either. CLUSTERING/NETWORKING SIG Message # 446 0 replies Reply to # 445 Left by: MARK GRIMS On 17-Sep-89 At : SAME Subject: E-MAIL Thanks again! I will try to get this now. Any ideas for how to send E-mail from BITNET or Internet to an MCI mailbox? MASS STORAGE SIG Message # 270 0 replies Reply to # 268 Left by: DAVID RAICH On 18-Sep-89 At : 415-895-1313 Subject: READ MS-DOS FROM RX23? See replies in message thread #587 of File/Transfer SIG #42. DATA/FILE TRANSFER SIG Message # 634 1 replies Reply to # 587 Left by: DAVID RAICH On 18-Sep-89 At : (415) 895-1313 Subject: READ MS-DOS FROM RX23? I have just discovered that there is a program PCDISK that does exactly what I want. It comes as part of PCSA. While this does require licensing/whatever from DEC, it may already be there for you. In our case, we have some PCSA nodes installed at our site (though I am not currently on one of them), so the program was already there for "free" (so to speak) for me to use. RSTS SIG Message # 446 0 replies Reply to # 432 Left by: JERRY VEZZOSI On 18-Sep-89 At : 201-802 6249 Subject: NONSHARABLE DEVICE LP: Phil, I see you got plenty of advice on how to handle your files. I think you will be able to find a good solution from the information Phil Anthony gave you. (how's that guy know so much about everything?) As far as our 11/83 performance: I can't find my performance charts, but it's the fastest Q-bus PDP that DEC will sell. It has the same CPU chip as the UNIBIS 11/84. We migrated from and 11/70 to an 11/83 and am quite pleased. Our configuration comsists of 5-DH's (40 ports), a lineprinter, 8mm tape drive, TSV05 tape drive, RA81 and RA82 disks. We just recently converted the majority of our most used system files to RMS indexed files. RMS can beat up the disks if your not careful, but over-all our performance is great up to a point. I just installed V9.7 of RSTS/E, but have experienced 4 crashes. I think I have the problem nailed down to a bad 9.7 distribution. I got a new one today and will re-install 9.7 in the next day or so. I also have several lab analyzers connected to my DH ports and we upload a lot of lab results to our PDP. We do somtimes tax RSTS/E, especially when we use the BP2 compiler, but other than that my users don't complain too much. I would think you would expect to see a marked improvement over that of your 11/73. How many jobs do your PDP support? When you get over 30-32 RSTS/E gets a little slower. PS. (Phil Anthony: Do you need part-time work?) DATA/FILE TRANSFER SIG Message # 635 0 replies Reply to # 634 Left by: STEVEN P. DAVIS On 18-Sep-89 At : 714-956-9159 Subject: READ MS-DOS FROM RX23? PCDISK will do what you want. In order to get it all you need to do is purchase the media and documentation for VAX/VMS Services for MS-DOS. The right-to-use is included with a DECnet-VAX license. The license can be purchased indepently if you don't have DECnet-VAX. I believe the license is $500 and the media and documentation around $650. PC'S SIG Message # 238 0 replies Left by: DENNIS HAUGHN On 18-Sep-89 At : 614-276-4000 Subject: PC SERIAL PORTS I am trying to use my MV3600 as a print server for PC AT's using the COM ports on the PC. I want the PC and all applications on it to believe that there is a printer connected to the COM port. The PC is not co-operating. Every time I try to send data out of the COM port it gives me a "printer not on-line or not turned on" message. Is there any way to set the COM port up so that it does not look for a signal, on what pin I don't know, from the printer. I only have four wires to work with; one to transmit, one to receive and one for ground. The fourth wire I am not using. CLUSTERING/NETWORKING SIG Message # 447 0 replies Reply to # 446 Left by: RICHARD B. GILBERT On 18-Sep-89 At : (609) 258-5130 Subject: E-MAIL Mark, There is a company or a service (I'm not sure) that serves to route mail from one service to another, doing appropriate protocol and format conversions along the way. I believe it's called DASNET. MISCELLANEOUS SIG Message # 592 0 replies Reply to # 591 Left by: DR. R On 18-Sep-89 At : ON THE E-NET Subject: MORE RUMOURS Don't look for Digital to incorporate a vector coprocessor on the DECsystem family of fine CPUs. No, dear friends, it's much more likely (almost certain, in fact) that a VMS-bus will find its way onto the once and future DECsystem! The secret word for future RISC performance is SUPERSCALAR, and the secret prediction for a VME-based VAX is NO WAY (but the Ultrix V4.0 VME drivers already passed their road test). The future of DEC's fault-tolerant hardware is crystal clear, but not as close as I once expected. The much-vaunted Cirrus processor is not due to hit the streets until early 1990; originally the fault- tolerant box was supposed to debut with the VAX 9000 and Superclusters. And finally, a question from my good friend MERLIN: What do RAVEN, EAGLE, KESTREL and DEC Advanced Development have in common? Anxiously awaiting your answers, gentle readers-- Dr. R MISCELLANEOUS SIG Message # 593 0 replies Reply to # 590 Left by: STEPHANIE D. LYON On 19-Sep-89 At : (609) 737-0425 Subject: CASE TOOLS While this response may be too late to have any impact on your search...I will go at it anyway. I have experience using 2 case products - DEFT on a MAC and Cadre's Teamwork on a SUN. I found DEFT very easy to learn and painless to continue to use ... this being an important point since developers tend to dispise going back to change design documents. Teamwork was a bit more complex. I found it took longer to learn and it was easier to forget, but it was a more flexible product in that you could customize it to your needs. Both products offered the same tool sets - ERs, DFDs, PSDs and dictionaries. Important for my needs was that they both interfaced with the VAX and provided utilities to produce database schemas from ERDs. From what I have seen, developer acceptance is an important consideration when choosing the tool. I am a consultant and these products were encountered at different client sites. I found the DEFT users achieved a faster startup and stuck with it. On the other hand, the TEAMWORK users were happy to turn the setup and learning curve over to me in hopes that I could translate it into only the facts and teach them. When I left they pretty much let TEAMWORK fall into the cracks. Unless you have a team that is committed to the use of structured design (and it's tools) finding the 'right' product is only half the battle. Good Luck. MISCELLANEOUS SIG Message # 594 0 replies Left by: STEPHANIE D. LYON On 19-Sep-89 At : (609) 737-0425 Subject: UNIX2VMS MIGRATIONS I am convinced that there are other people out there who are doing UNIX/ULTRIX to VMS (or reverse) software ports...we could not possibly be the only bozos doing it. Come out of the closet!! I would be interested to share the pits (and triumphs if we get there) with others. DATA/FILE TRANSFER SIG Message # 636 0 replies Reply to # 609 Left by: PHIL MACDONALD On 20-Sep-89 At : 416-8463181 Subject: VAX/FAX INTERFACE George: You might want to give Ken Isaacs a call at DMG System Inc. in Toronto. 416-225-3219. He might be able to solve your problem. Phil RSTS SIG Message # 447 0 replies Reply to # 446 Left by: Phil Anthony On 21-Sep-89 At : Here Subject: NONSHARABLE DEVICE LP: Many thanks, Jerry, for the kind words! But as I'm sure you know already, I know everything by asking lots of questions, especially of the amazingly well-informed ARIS users. PC'S SIG Message # 240 0 replies Reply to # 238 Left by: Phil Anthony On 21-Sep-89 At : Here Subject: PC SERIAL PORTS Dennis, how come you only have four leads in your cable? Most RS-232C ca- bles I know of come with eight: TD, RD, CD, SG, DSR, DTR, CTS, and RTS. And what command are you using to output data? If it's COPY, you'll need to hold DSR high, and I think PRINT requires RTS/CTS handshaking as well. Also, make sure you've used the DOS MODE command to set your speed, parity, data bits, and stop bits; you may or may not have to add the "P" argument (which tells the PC to ignore timeouts when trying to connect). But it's the software that looks at the COM port registers. There's no- thing in the hardware to keep you from issuing an OUT instruction without first finding out what state the lines are in - if you really want to. MISCELLANEOUS SIG Message # 596 1 replies Left by: Phil Anthony On 21-Sep-89 At : Here Subject: RU_FACILITY Just out of curiosity - what is RU_FACILITY, and how come the ARIS VAX can't find it in the system tables when I happen to log out shortly after midnight? Bonnie? Kevin? Dave? Carl? MISCELLANEOUS SIG Message # 597 0 replies Reply to # 596 Left by: ROBERT G. SCHAFFRATH On 21-Sep-89 At : 914-335-9792 Subject: RU_FACILITY The RU_FACILITY is part of the RMS Journaling package. Now why there would be problem with ARIS and journaling is good question... VMS SIG Message # 1071 0 replies Reply to # 939 Left by: Comet On 21-Sep-89 At : (408)982-5238 Subject: CHECKMAIL CHECKMAIL is found on the Spring 1987 Symposium Tape VAX87A in [.JMU.CHECKMAIL]. VMS SIG Message # 1072 2 replies Reply to # 920 Left by: Comet On 21-Sep-89 At : (408)982-5238 Subject: SPAWN MAIL $ ! KEPT.COM -- procedure for executiing a command in a "kept" procedure $ ! (e.g. kept MAIL, kept EDIT /TPU, kept ANALYZE /SYSTEM) $ ! $ _name = F$TrnLnm("TT") - "_" + p1 ! Set up a process name... $ _name = F$Extract(0,15,_name) ! ...that says something useful. $ _mess = F$Environment("MESSAGE") ! Save the message state and $ Set Message/NoFacility/NoSeverity/NoIdentification/NoText ! turn it off. $ On WARNING Then $ GoTo NEW ! This jump happens when the Attach fails. $ Attach '_name' ! Attach to a KEPT procedure $ Set Message'_mess' ! On returning, restore the message state. $ Write Sys$Output "Attaching to ",F$GetJpi(0,"CLINAME"),- " in directory ",F$Environment("DEFAULT") $ Exit $ NEW: ! This section is for creating a new KEPT process. $ Set Message'_mess' ! Restore message state. $ Write Sys$Output "Creating new process for kept ",p1 ! p1 is what's kept. $ _priv = F$SetPrv("ALL") ! Turn on privs, so kid process inherits. $ Spawn/NoLog/Process=&_name 'p1' 'p2' 'p3' 'p4' 'p5' 'p6' 'p7' 'p8' $ Set Process/Privilege=('_priv') ! Restore privileges. $ Write Sys$Output "Attaching to ",F$GetJpi(0,"CLINAME"),- " in directory ",F$Environment("DEFAULT") $ Exit VMS SIG Message # 1073 0 replies Reply to # 1072 Left by: Comet On 21-Sep-89 At : (408)982-5238 Subject: SPAWN MAIL The following has been extracted from my LOGIN.COM file: $ Comet$Disk=F$TrnLnm("SYS$LOGIN_DEVICE","LNM$JOB",,"EXECUTIVE") $ K*ept:==@'Comet$Disk'Kept $ Tp*u :==Edit/Tpu/Journal=Sys$Scratch: $ Define/Key/NoEcho/Erase/NoLog/Terminate F17 "Kept TPU /NoJournal" $ Define/Key/NoEcho/Erase/NoLog/Terminate F18 "Kept MAIL" $ Define/Key/NoEcho/Erase/NoLog/Terminate F19 "Kept ANALYZE /System" This illustrates the usage of the KEPT command file (see message #1072). I do not invoke MAIL from my LOGIN file, but the first time I do, a subprocess is created which is re-used for all other MAIL invocations. In the fragment above, Comet$Disk is NOT given a hard-coded value, but is determined dynamically to facilitate moving my directory from one disk to another. I only use my login file from my own account. TPU, MAIL, and ANALYZE are the only utilities which let me ATTACH back to the parent process. I use initialization files for all of them. VMS SIG Message # 1074 0 replies Reply to # 1072 Left by: Comet On 21-Sep-89 At : (408)982-5238 Subject: SPAWN MAIL & NOTES ON KEPT.COM. I wrote KEPT.COM, and give permission for anybody to copy it, publish it, and use it, as long as I'm given credit as author of this version. KEPT.COM is related to a family of KEPT programs written for specific processes. For example, there is a "keptedit" program on page A-6 of the VMS 5.0 VAXTPU Manual. The KEPT.COM file I have entered, though, is the only general-purpose KEPT file I've seen, and you're welcome to modify it. I don't guarantee that it'll work, and I'm not responsible if it blows up your system. _name, _mess, and _priv are local variables that are inherited by the KEPT subprocess. The underscore is an attempt to minimize symbol conflicts. All the privileges you are allowed to use are enabled for the subprocess, because the subprocess cannot enable a privilege it didn't have at creation. The lines referring to privileges can be removed without loss of functionality to the KEPT procedure. For POWER tasks, such as user account creation, deletion, DECnet mucking, etc. I just invoke KEPT without any parameters. This places me into a subprocess and I can do the job in this context. When I log out, I get my old privileges and default environment restored. VMSINSTAL, for one, nukes one's current global symbols, and there is not SET PROCESS/PRIVILEGE=DEFAULT yet. Any bugs, fixes, comments, and so on can be sent here to the BBS or you can call me at my work number (above) or write me at home: Comet 505 Chiechi Avenue, Apt. #8 San Jose, CA 95126-3303 Happy Trails. UTILITIES SIG Message # 408 0 replies Reply to # 203 Left by: Comet On 21-Sep-89 At : (408)982-5238 Subject: KEPT MAIL subprocesses On the VMS (37) topic, there is a procedure (message #1072) which I've found useful in keeping subprocesses for MAIL (and TPU and ANALYZE /SYSTEM). You can easily add a SET TERMINAL/(NO)APPLICATION command where the subprocess returns control to the parent, as well as writing any escape sequences, etc., you want to in order to set your environment to a known state. FORUM - DEC SIG Message # 77 0 replies Reply to # 76 Left by: DR. R On 21-Sep-89 At : DEEP SPACE Subject: APPLIC INTEGRATION ARCH Yes. AIA is Digital's internal name for an "umbrella" spanning DECwindows, NAS, CDA and all the other goodies from the TLA*. Give one of the market research firms a call, (e.g. dataquest, gartner, etc.) maybe they have more details. To the best of my knowledge AIA will not be announced as a product--it's a CONCEPT. conceptually, Dr. R *What's TLA? Why, Digital's much-vaunted Three Letter Acronym department, of course! VMS SIG Message # 1075 0 replies Left by: DR. R On 21-Sep-89 At : EVERYWHERE Subject: FRAGMENTATION Rumour has it that Digital will include defragmentation capabilities in VMS version 5.4 due out next summer. Chances are pretty good that VMS Development is too resource-constrained to deliver in this timeframe; mayhap an agreement (a la Ingres) will be made with the leading third-party defrag vendor . . . RSTS SIG Message # 448 0 replies Reply to # 443 Left by: PHIL MACDONAL On 22-Sep-89 At : 416-846-3181 Subject: NONSHARABLE DEVICE LP: Sorry about the delay in getting back to you Phil. I'll try and use your suggestion, but first I'm gonna have to get my hands on a newer version of Dibol. We don't have a copy of UNSUPP.OLB on our system (what else is new eh.). Maybe (keeping fingers crossed) in the newer version of DIBOL LPQUE does support PBS. Thanks again...you've left me with alot to think about.... Phil RSTS SIG Message # 449 0 replies Reply to # 446 Left by: PHIL MACDONALD On 22-Sep-89 At : 4168463181 Subject: NONSHARABLE DEVICE LP: Yea that Phil Anthony is a GOD. We currently are trying to support 16 users with not much luck. I'm looking into a new board called an SBC M90 which I'm told is alot faster than an 11/83 board. We also are looking into a new disk controller SDC-RQD11-EC and new disk XT-4170E. I believe the manufact. is Sigma Information Sys. in CA. I hope this will solve a few of our problems and get the users of my back. Phil EDITORS SIG Message # 230 0 replies Reply to # 212 Left by: HAL SCOGGINS On 22-Sep-89 At : ARIS Subject: EDT FOR MS-DOS Bruce, I have been using EDT+ for almost a year now, and I love it. Understandable, since all I had before was EDLIN. If you haven't already sprung for a new keyboard, let me suggest that you consider the DEC LK250. It's more expensive than most other keyboards available for the PC, but the layout is exactly what you're used to when using EDT on a VAX (assuming you use a VT200/300 or compatable). I was able to duplicate my entire EDTINI, including MACROs, which is quite extensive, in EDT+. The LK250 is also a very solid keyboard with what I consider to be an excellent feel. Good luck, in any case. FORUM - 3RD PARTY SUPPLIERS SIG Message # 115 0 replies Left by: DR. R On 22-Sep-89 At : REHAB MANSION Subject: FRAGMENTARY EVIDENCE Yes. Rumour has it that System Industries is about to announce its own proprietary disk defragmentation utility for SI VAX/VMS disk subsystems. As usual, when it comes to late-breaking information, ARIS HAS IT NOW. Dr. R CPU'S SIG Message # 66 1 replies Reply to # 59 Left by: DR. R On 22-Sep-89 At : ENROUTE TO THE LEFT COAST Subject: AGE OF AQUARIUS Yes. Once again Digital has found it necessary to confirm one of my prognostications. On Monday September 25th Digital will lift its kimono re: HDSC packaging for the VAX 9000 series at a briefing that's being held in the Aquarius planar module assembly facility. Rest assured that the good Doctor will be in attendance when Bob Glorioso tells all at the Advanced Technology Development Center in Cupertino, CA. The facts just keep on coming, Dr. R CPU'S SIG Message # 67 0 replies Reply to # 66 Left by: DR. R On 22-Sep-89 At : IN THE ETHERHOSE Subject: AGE OF AQUARIUS Oops. Almost forgot--current best guess for VAX 9000 rollout is Tuesday 24 October. At least that's when Field Circus is slated to debut the supersecret INCA system management software/service combo that's designed to propel Aquarius into the glass house environment. Believe it, Dr. R VMS SIG Message # 1076 0 replies Reply to # 1074 Left by: DAVE MAUSNER On 23-Sep-89 At : 312 266 4444 OR ARIS Subject: SPAWN MAIL comet, thanks for your reply. i figgered that six months without any signs of interest by any aris reader meant doom for my subscription to vax/prof... after all if nobody reads the bb, what's the point? the difference between your .com and mine is that i SPAWN/WAIT and you SPAWN/NOLOG without the wait option. i am not sure what this does for the MAIL diagnostics i have been missing when attached to the spawned process. remember, my main point was not how to spawn & attach but how to get the diagnostics MAIL issues. i will try your command qualifiers and see what happens. by the way, i am not sure i will renew my subscrip to vax/prof anyway... i have noticed too many articles by hunter goatly on silly topics. turning your login.com into a MACRO program instead: what a waste of time! and the recent evrything you wanted to know about vms written like a dr. who episode: this is professional technical writing? i am disappointed with the way aris/bb works, too. if we are vax professionals then why is this bb structured like a minor-league pc bbs instead of vms MAIL or NOTES? huh? thanks for your help. DATA/FILE TRANSFER SIG Message # 638 0 replies Left by: Phil Anthony On 23-Sep-89 At : Here Subject: WHAT HAPPENED TO 300 BAUD? A note for ARIS users (well, where else should I leave it?): Apparently the Xyplex terminal server that ARIS uses to talk to our dedicated 11/750 doesn't handle 300-Baud connections. The modem makes the connection perfectly, and then nothing .... So much for the fallback position I've recommended for years to handle excessive line noise on ARIS lines. RSTS SIG Message # 450 0 replies Reply to # 448 Left by: Phil Anthony On 23-Sep-89 At : Here Subject: NONSHARABLE DEVICE LP: Many thanks for the embarrassingly kind words, Phil. I never understood why DEC positioned DIBOL as an OEM language aimed at people turning out turnkey systems (often with their own proprietary name tacked on a PDP-11/34, for some reason). It was the first computer language I learned, and I still think it's the best one DEC has for writing commercial applica- tions. At one time, there were more DEC boxes running DIBOL than any other language - a fact DEC carefully kept under wraps. If memory serves, it was also the only language except for FORTRAN that RSTS and RT11 had in common. Its biggest failing was the lack of any official interface with operating system calls. We developed our own, of course, but then we had to go through the painful process of updating it every time DEC came out with a new release that flipped the stack, or hid RSTS channel numbers in some new and unspecified place. The creation of UNSUPP.OLB (and UNSUPP.DOC, which is where I pulled my information from - I still have a copy of it lying around, packrat that I am) was the best thing DEC ever did for old unrecon- structed DIBOLlers. Maybe it's not supported, but it's become an essential component in a good number of programs over the years. VMS SIG Message # 1077 0 replies Reply to # 1076 Left by: Phil Anthony On 23-Sep-89 At : Here Subject: SPAWN MAIL Dave, you're being a little unfair, don't you think? Sure, five months went by before anybody replied to your particular message; but a lot of people's less esoteric problems got solved (and some that were quite a bit more esoteric as well) in that time. You can't expect everybody who works under VMS - or RSTS, or RT11, or RSX, or ULTRIX, for that matter - to be tinkering with the same things you are. And the more obscure the problem, and the less general application it has to our daily work, the longer it's likely to take before you run across a kindred soul. I won't presume to speak for VAX Pro, and Hunter Goatley can defend himself quite adequately, but ARIS doesn't exist to write other peoples' code for them. Nor is there a paid staff that promises to take hours researching the problems people ask about. It's an information exchange system for readers of Professional Press' publications. What you seem to want might be better obtained by purchasing a DEC software support contract. Then you could call DSIN for a response from people who are paid to do it and can get hold of the MAIL and VMS source code if needed - if the question you're asking doesn't involve "unavailable, pro- prietary information." So far as "nobody reading the bb" goes, maybe you noticed that the message I'm replying to was No. 1076 in the VMS SIG alone. About 90 VMS messages were posted since you left yours in mid-April. That doesn't represent 1,076 different users, of course, but it does show a fair degree of activi- ty. My weekly download of all ARIS messages comes to something between 30,000 and 40,000 bytes with all the screen-handling escape sequences stripped out, or almost 2 megabytes a year. At 1,000 bytes a message or thereabouts, that's a lot of messages. There's an amazing amount of experience with DEC equipment and operating systems here in the ARIS community - more than DEC has in its entire soft- ware support staff. There's also an amazing willingness to share it free of charge. But all of us make our livings by keeping the companies we work for happy and productive, not by replying to questions on ARIS. We're pleased to be able to help others when we can, but don't expect us to do much more than that. MISCELLANEOUS SIG Message # 598 0 replies Reply to # 596 Left by: KELVIN SMITH On 24-Sep-89 At : (203) 357-0504 Subject: RU_FACILITY Phil, I don't think the problem is really with RU_FACILITY. I just got the same error message logging out a bit after midnight, but there was a previous error message complaining, "Invalid absolute time - use DD-MM-YYYY:HH:MM:SS.CC" and then giving as the offending line "/00:08:13.67 - 23-SEP-1989 23:42:16.33/" Note the space between 1989 and 23:... My guess is that ARIS is trying to figure out how long we've been on, but it doesn't seem to be including the date correctly, using a space rather than a colon as the connector, and DCL is unhappy. Bonnie, you may want to put this on your bug list, since I think a fair number of us tend to dial in when the phone rates are cheaper and the wolves are howling (not that there are any wolves within 200 miles of where I am, more's the pity). RSTS SIG Message # 451 0 replies Reply to # 445 Left by: Brett Bump On 24-Sep-89 At : Here Subject: 3780 PROTOCOL ON RSTS V9. A year and a half ago? Hmm. Well, that's a lot more recent than the Mars boxes we had. We started installing Mars boxes ... six years ago (NACK. Has it been that long?). So I guess they must have been quite advanced for what they could do. They handled the EBCDIC to ASCII translation OK. And we had them hooked up as RS232 to Hayes 1200s. But like Jerry's, these things had so many switch settings, they could have been hanging because we were trying to make it as dumb as the mainframe. But Phil and I are looking from the IBM side. Jerry! Do you have access to the IBM side, or must you do all from the PDP? Phil. I didn't intend to knock the 6502. I taught 6502 assembler to college students for five years. It was the computers that education nor- mally purchased that I was knocking: Irqset: SEI ; Wait, I'm thinking. . LDA IRQVEC ; Get Phil's next message . STA NEXTSR ; It becomes a service routine . LDA IRQVEC+1 . STA NEXTSR+1 . CLI ; OK. I'm ready. Wait: JMP WAIT ; Waiting a reply. DATA/FILE TRANSFER SIG Message # 639 0 replies Left by: PICHETTE On 25-Sep-89 At : 514-878-9090 Subject: UUCP FOR VMS Hi, I need a version of uucp for my Vax/vms. I already use it with my Mips and Ncr (undex unix). If somebody already have it, or know where to find it , please give me some news. Thank's Jacques-Bertrand Pichette Sobeco Group {attcan,mcgill-vision,telly}!sobeco!jbpiche MISCELLANEOUS SIG Message # 599 0 replies Reply to # 596 Left by: EILEEN On 25-Sep-89 At : ARIS Subject: RU_FACILITY Phil, Robert, and Kelvin; Kelvin is correct. The problem is with our tracking system. It currently has a problem dealing with someone logging in before midnight and logging out after midnight. The two different dates are the problem. I'm fixing it for you night owls. Thanks for the information. MISCELLANEOUS SIG Message # 600 0 replies Left by: SIMON BROWN On 25-Sep-89 At : HERE Subject: MEMORY Howdy Aris people - can anyone tell me at which global location VMS v5.1 hides the size of the physical memory on the system as shown by good old show mem ? I'm writing a prog to show how we're doing - I've got the bad blocks, amount free and amount modified, but where oh where is the amount I paid for in the first place? I'll be renwing my VAX Pro sub and not be slating Gunter Hoatley. Cheers, Slimbionic the programmer. MISCELLANEOUS SIG Message # 601 2 replies Left by: SIMON BROWN On 26-Sep-89 At : HERE Subject: KERNEL MODE ASTs and DEC WINDOWS Hi - this is a plea from the heart. I've written a kernel mode AST which reads the file id's held open by another process. It works fine (I think) except - the following scenario VAX - Workstation 3100, VMS 5.1-1 Major =1 Minor = 0 Process B - a tight loop of DCL with the line that does anything doing $ set process/name="Simon" Process A - my progam, firing off this Kernel mode AST every 0.15 seconds to show me files as they are opened and closed. I open a new window with the session manager, and out go all the lights, system dump etc.. you've seen it before. The crash dump analysis tells me that it was process B which crashed, whilst in kernel mode, running set.exe, error code 44C! (The system only crashes when prcess A is running). Question ======== In the AST queued to Process B I read the CCBS (from CTL$GL_CCBASE), the associated UCBs, WCBs and FCBs to gather the information I require. I also read the registers from the PHD. Is it safe to assume that once my routine has started in process B that I don't need to change my IPL, and also that the structures- their addresss etc. that I'm accessing will not be moving around whilst my routine is executing? What precautions should be taken in this routine to ensure integrity? I'm PROBERing the addresses I read, but that doesn't help? I don't queue the AST if proc B is delpen or suspen bits set. The system only crashes when I start a new window via the session manager. I can do what I want in other windows with impunity - or luck? You thoughts are welcome - thanks in anticipation, Simon RSTS SIG Message # 452 0 replies Reply to # 451 Left by: JERRY VEZZOSI On 26-Sep-89 At : (201) 802 6249 Subject: 3780 PROTOCOL ON RSTS V9. Brett, I unfortunately (or fortunately) do not have access to the Blue Box. My only help is conversing with a guy at the IBM end working in the Teleprocessing Division. Apparently he is using some canned software on the IBM mainframe called (or pronounced) TRAX. I was able to transmit data successfully to his system, but I had to babysit my hardware. It seems I cannot get the synch modem to re-dial without physically resetting it. Before I am willing to support this communications link I told them I must be able to depend on the hardware. They know their IBM protocol real well and know something about sychronous communications but know diddly about what I'm doing at this end. All very frustrating. I looked up the DECUS products that DEC turned over to them. One states the required hardware must be UNIBUS, the other does not auto-dial. We're QBUS and need unattended auto-dial. I here the VAX emulation package does not auto-dial either. Oh well.... By the way I'm in Newark, NJ and the IBM system is in Minnesota. MISCELLANEOUS SIG Message # 602 1 replies Reply to # 601 Left by: SIMON On 26-Sep-89 At : HERE Subject: KERNEL MODE ATSS Well, some more info - to stop my monitoring software using all the CPU, I stuck in (in the user mode bit) a lib$wait(&0.15) to allow other software to run. Removing this lib$wait stops the crashes! Also, if procs A and B run at a high priority, e.g. 8, then there's no crash (forces decw$... to run slower ) ? I'm using EFs to indicate when the AST has finished. Now then, anyone any the wiser? me - I feel a headache coming over here to Switzerland very soon. Thanks - Simon DATA/FILE TRANSFER SIG Message # 640 0 replies Reply to # 639 Left by: ROBERT G. SCHAFFRATH On 26-Sep-89 At : 914-335-9792 Subject: UUCP FOR VMS UUCP software is available from VAX/VMS. Currently, DECUS has a package called UUCP V1.1. According to the cover letter dated 19-MAY-1989, it will allow the exchange of Mail and Network News with other systems (including UNIX) using UUCP "G" protocol (whatever that is?). The submission was coordinated by Jamie Hanrahan who can be reached at 619-565-1865 x 116. This package was previously known as VMSNET. Robert G. Schaffrath System Manager General Foods Corporation White Plains, NY 10625 DATA/FILE TRANSFER SIG Message # 641 1 replies Reply to # 639 Left by: Phil Anthony On 26-Sep-89 At : Here Subject: UUCP FOR VMS VMS uucp was discussed in this SIG, No. 42, in a thread that started with Message No. 357. Take a look at that thread; it may provide you with a place to start looking, anyway. Note to other users: Option 1, Scan for subjects, provides a good way to locate previous messages that might interest you. Unfortunately, you have to choose a SIG to scan, instead of being able to scan the subject lines for the entire ARIS message base. Maybe if we ask politely, Anne, Eileen, and Bonnie will put a modification on their wish list that will allow checking out all SIGs with one command. It'd be slower than going through a single SIG, but a lot faster than hav- ing to hit six or eight SIGs before you find a half-remembered message that you *know* is here somewhere. GRAPHICS SIG Message # 90 0 replies Left by: GARY UNDERWOOD On 26-Sep-89 At : 716-879-5877 Subject: PROJECT PLANNING ON A VAX Is anyone out there using Primavera Project Planner on a VAX, if you are please let me know of your experiences. If you have a Project Planner that works - talk to me ! FORUM - DEC SIG Message # 78 1 replies Left by: PETER G. PERRY On 26-Sep-89 At : 301-217-9563 Subject: MUMPS - AN OVERVIEW Can anyone out there provide an overview of MUMPS. What's it do, who uses it, why they use it and whats it do to the system. Does anyone know of any good articles on MUMPS? Thanks - Peter Perry EDITORS SIG Message # 231 0 replies Reply to # 230 Left by: RALPH BRANDT On 26-Sep-89 At : 717-751-5210 Subject: EDT FOR MS-DOS I agree with you on the LK250. We have it on 100 PC's and 55 PS/2's DEC officially doesn;t list it for the PS/2 but there is a cable adapter that makse it work. We are heavy WPS users and without it things get dicey. Most users can't remember CNTL/S..... We had one or two problems with NL and ESC but were able to fix them to use ORACLE. VMS SIG Message # 1078 0 replies Reply to # 1076 Left by: RALPH BRANDT On 26-Sep-89 At : 717-751-5210 Subject: SPAWN MAIL Why should the BB be structured so that only the high techies can use it? Isn't the idea of the BB to be able to help the rest of us who need help? Or is it to be an elite club that only deals in bits and busses? PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES/AI SIG Message # 433 0 replies Reply to # 432 Left by: ROB VUGTEVEEN On 26-Sep-89 At : (602) 792-3010 X334 Subject: VAX/VMS COMPAT. FORTRAN Haven't actually done what you want to do, but I recall that Microsoft's FORTRAN claims a high degree of VAX FORTRAN compatibility. GOOD LUCK! DATA/FILE TRANSFER SIG Message # 642 0 replies Reply to # 641 Left by: ROB VUGTEVEEN On 26-Sep-89 At : HERE Subject: UUCP FOR VMS oh yes yes yes yes yes yes yes, a global pan-SIG search would be wonderful!! APPLICATIONS SIG Message # 363 0 replies Left by: ROB VUGTEVEEN On 26-Sep-89 At : (602) 792-3010 X334 Subject: SUPERMAP ANYONE? A FEW EMPLOYERS AGO, I had a version of SUPERMAP which I learned to like! We don't have it here, and I would like to get a similar world/U.S mapping and map projection package somewhere. Does anyone know where I can get a PUBLIC_DOMAIN (a.k.a. FREE or CHEAP) distribution of SUPERMAP/HYPERMAP/whatever-MAP with SOURCE CODE? Thanks! FORUM - DEC SIG Message # 79 0 replies Reply to # 78 Left by: RICHARD B. GILBERT On 26-Sep-89 At : (609) 258-5130 Subject: MUMPS - AN OVERVIEW Peter, MUMPS is a programming language much used by hospitals. It is very rare otherwise. I have never used it and can't tell you much about it. It is, however, a product available from DEC. If you hold your salesman's feet to the fire, he can probably turn up some info for you. In addition to the sales literature, there should be a documentation set that you could buy if you _really_ want to find out about it. MISCELLANEOUS SIG Message # 603 0 replies Reply to # 601 Left by: RICHARD B. GILBERT On 26-Sep-89 At : (609) 258-5130 Subject: KERNEL MODE ATSS Simon, To be sure that the data structures that you are accessing are in a consistant state, you should raise IPL to IPL$SYNCH (this will be sufficient for a uni-processor system, for an SMP system you would have to acquire one or more spinlocks to insure that you have exclusive use of the database). Your kernal mode AST is executing at ASTDEL (IPL 2) which only guarantees that another AST can't be delivered to the process. I/O in progress would be able to interrupt at device IPL. The device driver would then schedule a fork process that would execute at IPL$FORK (IPL 7, I think) and raise IPL to IPL$SYNCH when it needed to lock the I/O database. The I/O database could be changing between one instruction in your AST code and the next. Check the driver writing manual for information on acccessing the I/O database and the spinlocks you need to acquire to be sure that it is not being changed behind your back. The Internals and Data Stuctures Manual for V5 would also have some useful information. CPU'S SIG Message # 68 0 replies Reply to # 67 Left by: DR. R On 26-Sep-89 At : BACK ON THE LEAST COAST Subject: AGE OF AQUARIUS Yes. I am delighted to report that Digital did in fact fulfill my prognostications about HDSC packaging, planar modules and related technical stuff during yesterdays briefing session in Cupertino. Digital plied the assembled multitude with facts and figures, a tasty cold-plate* luncheon and tours of the assembly facility. To be sure, Digital set new standards for corporate hospitality and marketing savoir faire (complimentary Aquarius technology videotapes were issued to all!). And speaking of hospitality, to ensure that none of its visitors got lost, Digital stationed not one but two employees at every intersection of every corridor in the building! (These may have been some of the 7,000 workers that Digital is redeploying from obsolete assembly facilities; each wore a blue blazer and was equipped with a walkie-talkie that presumably was used to receive on the job training instructions) Stay tuned for further details, the jet_laggeg Doc FORUM - DEC SIG Message # 80 1 replies Reply to # 78 Left by: Phil Anthony On 27-Sep-89 At : Here Subject: MUMPS - AN OVERVIEW Peter, I've never used MUMPS, but I've been intrigued by it ever since a colleague of mine described it to me a couple of years ago. Originally, I understand, it was developed for Massachusetts General Hospital not as a language but as an operating system running on the DECsystem-20. It never gained much popularity outside the health care field. As it was described, it's a system whose primitives aren't disks and files, but rather the database concepts now usually referred to as rows and col- umns. Instead of opening files and examining them, one accesses rows and queries their columns. Because of the design, one can set up databases quickly without having to deal with a lot of irrelevant concepts such as file types and search algorithms. If you need any more detail than this (and if you want to make sure that what I remember is strictly accurate), Richard Gilbert's advice makes good sense. I've also heard there's a MUMPS implementation for PCs. You might want to check out its features on that relatively low-cost platform before you drop a bundle of money on DEC. Also, Tony Williams at (205) 293-8781 left a question about MUMPS under VMS in SIG 37 in February 1987. It was never answered, but you might want to give him a call, see if he's still there, and ask him what he can tell you about it. MISCELLANEOUS SIG Message # 604 1 replies Reply to # 603 Left by: SIMON BROWN On 27-Sep-89 At : HERE Subject: KERNEL MODE ATSS Mr Gilbert - thank-you! That's what I really wanted to know - so I'll now LOCK up a SPINLOCK at IPL$SYNCH or whatever in the KAST that actually executes in the other chap's process. This is the info I couldn't find anywhere - I was living under the false illusion that once a KAST had started in his process, it would run through to completion, other processes would not get a look at the CPU etc.. I hope I've understood you right anyway. Where is all this info documented - I have the most recent VAX Pro, with the KAST article, but what I'm doing is a little more complex - it's akin to exe$getjpi but accesses more data structures. Of course, I can read the fiches, but ... I guess you can't help me in my quest for the location where VMS hides the phys mem count - that can wait. Are the V5 fiches available yet - are they on CD even? I'd like to be able to search for subjects SIG-wide also. Thanks a million, Simon MISCELLANEOUS SIG Message # 605 0 replies Reply to # 604 Left by: SIMON BROWN On 27-Sep-89 At : HERE Subject: KERNEL MODE ATSs Attn. Richard Gilbert - thanks for the suggestion re IPL$_SCHED. I'm narrowing down the problem (I think). I'm now able to detect that the process which I targetted the AST to trying to page fault while the AST is executing. Unfortunately, raising the IPL prohibits page faulting - BANG. So my problem is that while I'm sailing down the CCBs (held in dynamic P1 space), reading the UCBS, DDBs, FCBs and WCBS that are being linked together, behind my back there are other things going on which are causing the structures to change. However, the process also exhibits a desire to page fault. My code and data are located in nonpaged pool, so it ain't my Kernel stuff that's paging. If I read the book right, the CCBs will not be paged, so I guess the paging is coming in as a result of something else with a mega-IPL. Guess I'll have to wait for the solution in the VAX Pro... - unless anyone out there has got any idea - Thanks once more - Simon UTILITIES SIG Message # 409 0 replies Reply to # 404 Left by: PAUL MORRICE On 27-Sep-89 At : AMSTERDAM EFFECTENBEURS Holland +20 5234537 Subject: EXECUTE_DCL PROCEDURE On the second activation the spawned process still exists so you get a status message ss$_duplnam. By putting the following if statement around the code that tests if the spawn command has been successful, you can reactive execute_dcl as many times as you want. By entering "logoff" when you have completed all your work will clear up all the mailboxes and spawned process. STATUS = LIB$SPAWN(, INPUT_MAILBOX, ETC...........) IF (STATUS .NE. SS$_DUPLNAM) THEN IF (.NOT. STATUS) THEN CLI_SUBPROCESS_ACTIVE = .FALSE. GOTO 90 ENDIF ENDIF I hope this is of some help, Paul... UTILITIES SIG Message # 410 1 replies Left by: PAUL MORRICE On 27-Sep-89 At : AMSTERDAM EFFECTENBEURS Holland +020 5234537 Subject: MAPPING DCL IN A DETACHED PROC Can anyone tell me how to map DCL into a detached process. I want to use execute_dcl utility in a detached process, it works in batch mode and interactivly but not detached. Paul... FORUM - DEC SIG Message # 81 0 replies Reply to # 79 Left by: PETER PERRY On 27-Sep-89 At : 301-217-9563 Subject: MUMPS - AN OVERVIEW Richard, Thanks for your reply. I was completely unfamilar with MUMPS but now have enough to start tracking down more info. Regards - Peter Perry FORUM - DEC SIG Message # 82 0 replies Reply to # 80 Left by: PETER PERRY On 27-Sep-89 At : 301-217-9563 Subject: MUMPS - AN OVERVIEW Phil, Thanks for your reply on MUMPS and the reference for further info. Regards - Peter Perry VMS SIG Message # 1079 0 replies Reply to # 1078 Left by: Comet On 27-Sep-89 At : (408)982-5238 Subject: Szechuan food and twinkies to go! Ralph, Sorry I didn't reply to you sooner; I had a hack attack and pulled a couple all- nighters. VAXes are for techies. You appear to have been brainwashed by an Apple "evangelist", and like GUI stuff, and think the McIntosh is a Good Idea. VMS was written for command-line usage and doesn't require a Mickey MOUSE. You're possibly thinking about DECwindows and VWS. These products are written to coddle users. Ahh, for the good old days when people realized the value of memory. Excuse me, while I go to my console and toggle in some microcode to shave a few CPU cycles. Comet UTILITIES SIG Message # 411 0 replies Reply to # 410 Left by: RICHARD B. GILBERT On 27-Sep-89 At : (609) 258-5130 Subject: MAPPING DCL IN A DETACHED The traditional and, as far as I know, the only way to map DCL into a detached process is to have your detached process run SYS$SYSTEM:LOGINOUT.EXE. You set up the SYS$INPUT logical to point to a command file that tells the process what to do. This can be done either with RUN /DETACH or with the $CREPRC system service. DATA/FILE TRANSFER SIG Message # 643 0 replies Left by: SIMON BROWN On 28-Sep-89 At : HERE Subject: CLUSTER-WIDE EVENT FLAGS We have here two processes on the same node which communicate via a CEF. However, they will shortly be split across a cluster of VAX 9000s. What's the easiest way for these two procs. to share event flags or pseudo event flags? What manual haven't we (I) read? Thanks for all the help, Simon VMS SIG Message # 1080 0 replies Left by: TOM CACHAT On 28-Sep-89 At : ARIS OR 714 496-1243 X354 Subject: VMS 4.2 TO 4.4 UPGRADE I am planning to upgrade from VMS 4.2 to 4.4 Friday night, 9-29, and Saturday. I have a few questions: 1. The documentation states that Decnet will need to be reinstalled. I can't find Decnet installation instructions. Would they be on the Decnet RX01 floppy (DECNET-VAX V4 END NODE RX1)? 2. Will Basic 2.4 run under VMS 4.4? 3. Is it possible to run multiple versions of Basic (2.4 and 3.x) on the same system? Thank you. (I have also submitted this to DSIN). UTILITIES SIG Message # 412 0 replies Reply to # 293 Left by: COMET On 28-Sep-89 At : (408) 982-5238 Subject: RABBIT-7 & DEFRAGMENTERS Since their is no pan-SIG subject search (first requested by Phil Anthony to Bonnie on message 196 in the Applications SIG, in 24-FEB-88), here's a ?brief bibliography of messages relating to disk framentation: Messages 114 & 203 in System Performance Messages 68, 110, 121, 127, 133, 138, 266, 319, 346, and 353 in UTIL And NO messages in the Mass Storage SIG. This is just a list to get you started; I know it is incomplete. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hello Jan! Things appear to have changed since 24-AUG-88. Now RAXCO charges money for evaluating RABBIT-7, and Executive Software offers free DISKEEPER evaluation. I sent in a reader response card, and spoke with salesmen from both companies and received the defragmenters for evaluation. DISKEEPER arrived quickly via Fed Ex and RABBIT-7 came much later via U.S. Snail. Anyway, I was VERY surpised to find upon opening the cardboard RABBIT hutch to find a notice inside the documentation binder stating that if I didn't purchase RABBIT-7, I'd have to send the RABBIT food back to RAXCO, or else I'd be billed some odd bucks for their effort and materials in preparing the evaluation copy. I immediately called my rascal salesman, and he told me that RAXCO reserves the right (usually exercised) to deduct the cost of the evaluation package from the purchase price of RABBIT-7, so that it wouldn't cost you anything IF YOU BUY THEIR PRODUCT. Also, I'd like to add that if a person wanted to return the product after evaluation, it is NOT a postage pre-paid. CLUSTERING/NETWORKING SIG Message # 448 0 replies Left by: JIM MCGERIGLE On 28-Sep-89 At : (408) 439-1153 BORLAND INTL. Subject: CLUSTERING A MICRO VAX 3800?? Dear Fellow Readers; We are purchasing a Micro VAX 3800 for R n' D. We would like to Cluster this Micro into our VMS V 5.1 VAX Cluster, an 8530 HSC-70 and our related disk farm. Is this possible with this little beast? Digital Sales Rep says NO, the Systems and Options says YES. Can you connect to cluster directly or just attach to DECNET? Thanks in advance; Jim McGerigle Programmer Analyst BORLAND International, Inc. CALL Collect: (408)439-1153 if you can talk directly. DATA/FILE TRANSFER SIG Message # 644 1 replies Reply to # 643 Left by: RICHARD B. GILBERT On 28-Sep-89 At : (609) 258-5130 Subject: CLUSTER-WIDE EVENT FLAGS Simon, You might be able to use the lock manager to synchronize your two processes. It might also be possible to use mailboxes but I think that the lock manager would be preferable. VMS SIG Message # 1081 0 replies Reply to # 1080 Left by: RICHARD B. GILBERT On 28-Sep-89 At : (609) 258-5130 Subject: VMS 4.2 TO 4.4 UPGRADE VMS SIG Message # 1082 0 replies Reply to # 1080 Left by: RICHARD B. GILBERT On 28-Sep-89 At : (609) 258-5130 Subject: VMS 4.2 TO 4.4 UPGRADE Tom, VMS V4.4 is ancient history by now so you may have considerable difficulty in finding answers to your questions. You install DECnet by using VMSINSTAL and specifying the product name and the device to install from. You can find the proper string to use as a product name by getting a directory listing for the floppy. You should see a file named something like DEVNETEND042.A. Drop the .A and use the file name as the product name. You can probably have two versions of BASIC on your system simultaneously. Needless to say this is not supported. I would tackle it by trying to use logical names to point to the proper executable and library files. CLUSTERING/NETWORKING SIG Message # 449 0 replies Reply to # 448 Left by: RICHARD B. GILBERT On 28-Sep-89 At : (609) 258-5130 Subject: CLUSTERING A MICRO VAX 38 Jim, You should be able to cluster your 8350 and a 3800. What you want is called a mixed interconnect cluster. The 3800 cannot connect to the CI that connects the 8350 and the HSC. Instead, it will connect via Ethernet to the 8350. VMS SIG Message # 1083 0 replies Left by: RANDALL C. NEWCOMB On 28-Sep-89 At : (612) 778-7216 Subject: FROM DCL, WHERE IS SYS$OUTPUT? I am writing a general purpose error handler for DCL .COM procedures. If there is an error I want to mail a message to the user stating that there was a problem and, if there is a log file, where to look for more information. The translation of SYS$OUTPUT comes back as just a device; no file name or type is included. Testing for BATCH and using F$GETQUI might work unless SYS$OUTPUT has been reassinged. I'd like whatever I do to work correctly regardless of whether the procedure is run in BATCH, INTERATIVE, or as a SUBPROCESS. What I'd really like is F$ENVIRONMENT("OUTPUT_SPEC") Any TESTED ideas? - Randall GRAPHICS SIG Message # 91 0 replies Reply to # 90 Left by: RANDALL C. NEWCOMB On 28-Sep-89 At : (612) 778-7216 Subject: PROJECT PLANNING ON A VAX I client of mine (3M) just began using Primavera about a week ago. No horror stories yet, but I'll keep you posted if anything interesting show up. - Randall DATA/FILE TRANSFER SIG Message # 645 0 replies Reply to # 644 Left by: RANDALL C. NEWCOMB On 28-Sep-89 At : (612) 778-7216 Subject: CLUSTER-WIDE EVENT FLAGS Please not that both the lock manager and mailboxes are slower than event flags, so if you are doing lots of state transitions be prepared to see some degredation. - Randall RSTS SIG Message # 453 0 replies Reply to # 452 Left by: ROBERT G. SCHAFFRATH On 29-Sep-89 At : 914-335-9792 Subject: 3780 PROTOCOL ON RSTS V9. Regarding the VAX, you are correct. The 2780/3780 emulator does not autodial. However, having experimented with a CODEX 2296 modem which autodialed through the sync port (V.25 Auto Caller), anything is possible. I managed to write a piece of software to perform the autodial operation and then turn control over to the emulator. Some modems have the ability to automatically dial a number when DTR is raised. This might also help your situation. On a side note, that IBM system in Minniapolis wouldn't be Nielsen would it? Robert G. Schaffrath System Manager General Foods Corporation White Plains, NY 10625 VMS SIG Message # 1084 1 replies Reply to # 1083 Left by: ROBERT G. SCHAFFRATH On 29-Sep-89 At : 914-335-9792 Subject: FROM DCL, WHERE IS SYS$OUTPUT The crux of your problem is to generate a logfile of the error messages and send them to a user via mail. This could probably be done as follows. This will forward the error message but could probably be enhanced to include the logfile as well. Normally your batch job will generate a logfile. An interactive job will not: $ on warning then $goto fatal_error $ define sys$error errorlog.tmp $ set process/privilege=noall $ stop/cpu ! will always generate an error if no privilege $ exit $fatal_error: $ deassign sys$error $ mail/subject="Fatal error" errorlog.tmp 'f$getjpi("","username")' $ delete errorlog.tmp;* $ exit Robert G. Schaffrath System Manager General Foods Corporation White Plains, NY 10625 VMS SIG Message # 1085 0 replies Reply to # 1084 Left by: On 29-Sep-89 At : Subject: FROM DCL, WHERE IS SYS$OU This is a test. Please ignore it. The Sysop. TERMINALS/PLOTTERS/PRINTERS SIG Message # 316 1 replies Left by: CHUCK LEWIS On 29-Sep-89 At : (503) 641-4141 Subject: VT320 ON A HP3000 We are considering one of the newer HP3000 systems to our network of two DEC 20s and 5 VAXen. Does anyone have any experience in attempting to use a DEC VT320 on an HP system? I know the HP terminals will emulate a 320 but suspect there are some problems trying to use any of the over 300 DEC terminals we currently have installed. Plus the fact that an HP terminal will cost us twice what we pay for a VT320. TERMINALS/PLOTTERS/PRINTERS SIG Message # 317 0 replies Reply to # 316 Left by: RICHARD B. GILBERT On 29-Sep-89 At : (609) 258-5130 Subject: VT320 ON A HP3000 Chuck, It has been almost five years since I last had a Hewlett-Packard system under my care. We replaced it with a VAX. We could not use any of our H-P terminals as other than "glass teletypes". The H-P terminals (2645A, 2621A) used their own set of control codes for screen and cursor control. I suspect that if you connect a VT320 terminal to an H-P system, it will be no more than a "glass teletype". H-P's screen editor(s) will, no doubt, use H-P control codes. Applications that do fancy screen handling will, likewise, use H-P control codes. There is an ANSI standard for screen and cursor control sequences. As far as I can see, except for DEC and companies trying to sell emulations into the DEC market, the standard is being honored more in the breach than in the observance! LASER PRINTERS SIG Message # 79 0 replies Reply to # 62 Left by: RANDALL C. NEWCOMB On 30-Sep-89 At : (612) 778-7216 Subject: MORE STUFF We have been using a few different things for Postscript Text processing on the Vax. One which is either loved or hated by people is Scribe. It is a mark-up language like Runoff but it handles proprotional spaced fonts. It can do really nice boxed/lined tables if you obey the rules. Our spec writers lke it and our Tech writers hate it. We also use Interleaf on Vax Stations. If you can afford it, it is a nice package. Interleaf has an flter to import Scribe files. It can also import a number of other file formats. We recently got in DecWrite for evaluation. We are a little leary of it because it is Version 1.0, and we know what that means. It looks a lot like Interleaf but is about half the money. It too requires a workstation. - Randall LASER PRINTERS SIG Message # 80 0 replies Left by: RANDALL C. NEWCOMB On 30-Sep-89 At : (612) 778-7216 Subject: NO FORM FEED FROM VAX STATIONS We have VaxStations 2000s running VWS (not DecWindows) and VMS 5.0. When we choose the print portion of screen option it does not put a at the end so we get a constant 6 displayed and if you don't grap your printout quickly, the next print job will be on the same page as your printout. DOes anyone have a fix for the VWS print-from-screen option? - Randall