Subject: Linux-Misc Digest #452
From: Digestifier <Linux-Misc-Request@senator-bedfellow.MIT.EDU>
To: Linux-Misc@senator-bedfellow.MIT.EDU
Reply-To: Linux-Misc@senator-bedfellow.MIT.EDU
Date:     Mon, 20 Dec 93 08:13:21 EST

Linux-Misc Digest #452, Volume #1                Mon, 20 Dec 93 08:13:21 EST

Contents:
  [Q] Tape-like device (Ole Tange)
  [Q] Aglier mouse (Ole Tange)
  Re: Linux in a hospital? (Lars Wirzenius)
  Re: Linux in a hospital? (Lawrence Foard)
  UMSDOS and pl14? email address of Jacques Gelinas? (Harald Koenig)
  *** PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE POSTING *** (misc-2.07) (Ian Jackson)
  BogoMips just leapt half a point (Zack Evans)
  Linux counter - people report available (Harald T. Alvestrand)
  APOLOGY (Tony Phillips)
  Re: Windows emulation was Re: Microsoft Invented Inferior Personal C (Tim Cutts (Zoology))
  Re: d2utxt-0.1.tar.gz -- tools for converting Unix and MS-DOS text files (Jan Arne Fagertun)
  Windows help is so nice, but.. (was Re: Windows emulation) (Harald T. Alvestrand)
  Question about fractal compression (Dr Eberhard W Lisse)
  Can't live without EDT! (Zlatko Rek, IJS)
  Re: BogoMips just leapt half a point (Doug DeJulio)
  Re: /etc/passwd (Bernd Eckenfels)
  Re: Update on Linux International (RFD) (Damian Hamill)
  PASCAL compiler wanted (Stefan Griesser)
  Re: Want xterm replacement with low memory usage (Zack Evans)

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

From: tange@daimi.aau.dk (Ole Tange)
Subject: [Q] Tape-like device
Date: 20 Dec 1993 09:54:14 GMT

I want to make a device that behaves like a tape but operates on a diskfile.
(i.e. all my scripts for a real tape-device works also for this 
phoney-tape-device.)

How is that possible?

Please email - this group expires much too fast at my site.

TIA.
--
--
                                                        tange@daimi.aau.dk

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

From: tange@daimi.aau.dk (Ole Tange)
Subject: [Q] Aglier mouse
Date: 20 Dec 1993 09:56:43 GMT

I have an aglier mouse. To enable its 3rd button you have to hold a button
at boot time. Does anyone have a script that tells the mouse to enable 
the 3rd button, so I don't have to sit holding the button?

Please email - this group expires much to fast at my site.

--
--
                                                        tange@daimi.aau.dk

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

From: wirzeniu@klaava.Helsinki.FI (Lars Wirzenius)
Subject: Re: Linux in a hospital?
Date: 20 Dec 1993 11:55:18 +0200

rob@pe1chl.ampr.org (Rob Janssen) writes:
> What worries me more is "will Linus ever graduate"....   with such a large
> project his studies may well suffer, and in the end we may be left with
> a nice operating system but a person who has overrun the time allocated
> for his study and no graduation...  That would be a high price to pay for
> being famous.
> Or maybe that cannot happen in Finland?

The university system in Finland doesn't impose an upper limit for the
time ones studies take, or at least none that matters in practice
(courses can get old in ten years or so, and may have to be re-taken).
Since there are no fees paid to the university, it also doesn't cost
that much to study slowly.  Typical study times for the level which
corresponds to MSc (I think) in Finland are 6 to 8 years.

(Linus started studying in 1988, and has been absent for one year to
serve in the army.)

--
Lars.Wirzenius@helsinki.fi  (finger wirzeniu@klaava.helsinki.fi)
Humans are unreliable, computers are non-deterministically reliable.

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

From: entropy@world.std.com (Lawrence Foard)
Subject: Re: Linux in a hospital?
Date: Mon, 20 Dec 1993 11:01:22 GMT

In article <2f1f2i$d9l@mailgzrz.tu-berlin.de>,
Kai Petzke <wpp@marie.physik.tu-berlin.de> wrote:
>
>>> I don't
>>>think, that lifes will depend on the system, because in that case I
>>>wouldn't trust SCO or any other PC Unixsystem.
>
>The system is for printing labels in a blood bank.  A system failure
>wouldn't endanger anybody (they can return to writing labels from
>hand).  The thing, that must not happen, are exchanged blood groups.
>There are precautions in my system, like storing the blood group
>several times in different tables, checksumming the blood group, etc.

This is a good example of where trusting any OS is a bad idea. An incorrect
label will kill someone. You have to assume that anything in the system can
and will fail, a perfect OS running over broken hardware will still fail,
what if the printer decides that its only going to print the letter O that
day :) 

If at all possible you should make sure it is double checked by hand, for
example the person applying the label should know what it should be. There
is a good example of an Xray/radiotherapy device which killed 5 people
because of a combination of software bugs and the fact that the new release
lacked mechanical interlocks which had been in previous versions. Never
depend on a system of 100 million parts when a simple relay+switch
contraption can double check for you.

The mechanical switchs in microwave doors make me feel much better than
it would if it went through the micro controller....

Simple answer to your question:
 No OS Linux included is reliable enough for life critical work, computers
 are to complex to comprehend all the failure modes (sorry I don't take 
 people who claim to "prove" programs seriously), make sure there is
 something simple and failsafe as a backup.
-- 
====== Legalize:          >==<o | I confess to an unatural, and abnormal . 
\    /  :-)-~             o>--< | act I have programmed a computer.     . .
 \  / You are ~1,000,000,000,000,000 .1ms NAND gates have a nice day.  . . .
  \/ The true theory of everything will run on a finite turing machine. . . .

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

From: koenig@ceres.tat.physik.uni-tuebingen.de (Harald Koenig)
Subject: UMSDOS and pl14? email address of Jacques Gelinas?
Date: 20 Dec 93 11:04:36 GMT

Hi,

has anyone patches for umsdos and Linux 0.99pl14f (or newer)?

I tried to send mails to jacques@solucorp.qc.ca but they all 
bounce (host unknown).

Does anyone know the correct addres or mail path from Jacques?

Thanks,
Harald
-- 
Harald Koenig, Inst.f.Theoret.Astrophysik  (koenig@tat.physik.uni-tuebingen.de)

    All SCSI disks will from now on be required to send an email
         notice 24 hours prior to complete hardware failure!

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

From: ijackson@nyx.cs.du.edu (Ian Jackson)
Subject: *** PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE POSTING *** (misc-2.07)
Date: Mon, 20 Dec 1993 11:03:00 GMT

Please do not post questions to comp.os.linux.misc - read on for details of
which groups you should read and post to.

Please do not crosspost anything between different groups of the comp.os.linux
hierarchy.  See Matt Welsh's introduction to the hierarchy, posted weekly.

If you have a question about Linux you should get and read the Linux Frequently
Asked Questions with Answers list from sunsite.unc.edu, in /pub/Linux/docs, or
from another Linux FTP site.  It is also posted periodically to c.o.l.announce.

In particular, read the question `You still haven't answered my question!'
The FAQ will refer you to the Linux HOWTOs (more detailed descriptions of
particular topics) found in the HOWTO directory in the same place.

Then you should consider posting to comp.os.linux.help - not
comp.os.linux.misc.

Note that X Windows related questions should go to comp.windows.x.i386unix, and
that non-Linux-specific Unix questions should go to comp.unix.questions.
Please read the FAQs for these groups before posting - look on rtfm.mit.edu in
/pub/usenet/news.answers/Intel-Unix-X-faq and .../unix-faq.

Only if you have a posting that is not more appropriate for one of the other
Linux groups - ie it is not a question, not about the future development of
Linux, not an announcement or bug report and not about system administration -
should you post to comp.os.linux.misc.


Comments on this posting are welcomed - please email me !
--
Ian Jackson  <ijackson@nyx.cs.du.edu>  (urgent email: iwj10@phx.cam.ac.uk)
2 Lexington Close, Cambridge, CB4 3LS, England;  phone: +44 223 64238

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

From: zevans@nyx10.cs.du.edu (Zack Evans)
Subject: BogoMips just leapt half a point
Date: Mon, 20 Dec 93 11:26:03 GMT

A quick puzzle for kernel hackers...

I just upgraded the kernel from PL13<somethingZ to PL14f and suddenly I get
2.odd BogoMips rather than the 1.96 I have been getting previously.

Why?

(And when am I going to get round to upgrading the 386-16...)

Zack
--
 Zack Evans - pyc081@lancaster.ac.uk - closer to home than zevans@nyx.cs.du.edu

 UNIX was not designed to stop its users from doing stupid things,
 as that would also stop them from doing clever things.

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

From: hta@uninett.no (Harald T. Alvestrand)
Subject: Linux counter - people report available
Date: 20 Dec 1993 11:45:17 GMT

Hello,
I have now generated a list of 203 people who have agreed that I could
make their name public.
After thinking for a while, I decided that I would like to see how much
interest there was for this feature, so I implemented a command for fetching
the report from the counter, rather than posting it in this group.
As a side effect, the machines statistics and the standard short report are
now available by E-mail.

You can get a report from the counter by specifying the command

  //REPORT <reportname>

The following reports are available:

  short    - The standard listing of Linux usage, including per-country data
  machines - Statistics on registered Linux machines
  persons  - Persons who use Linux, sorted by country, and some statistics

A request for a report will *NOT* get you registered or re-registered with
the counter.
Happy Linuxing!
-- 
                   Harald Tveit Alvestrand
                Harald.T.Alvestrand@uninett.no
      G=Harald;I=T;S=Alvestrand;O=uninett;P=uninett;C=no
                      +47 73 59 70 94
My son's name is Torbjxrn. The letter between "j" and "r" is o with a slash.
    Register with the Linux Counter! Send E-mail to linux-counter@uninett.no!
                    (type "help" for help)

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

From: tphillip@cracker.NoSubdomain.NoDomain (Tony Phillips)
Subject: APOLOGY
Date: 20 Dec 93 08:57:14 GMT
Reply-To: tphillip@uk.oracle.com

Hi,

I wish to apologise to anyone who was upset bymy use of this group as a test; 
I'm new to 'News' and wasn't aware of the .test groups.

Thanks to those of you who mailed me directly, some useful hints on the 
etiquette and a couple of flames. 

Seasons Greetings

 
===================================
Tony Phillips, Case*Core, Oracle Uk
     tel:0932-872020 ext 2136
   email: tphillip@uk.oracle.com
===================================
   Postings are my own and don't  
   necessarily reflect the views
          of my employer
===================================

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

Crossposted-To: comp.os.ms-windows.advocacy
From: tjrc1@mbfs.bio.cam.ac.uk (Tim Cutts (Zoology))
Subject: Re: Windows emulation was Re: Microsoft Invented Inferior Personal C
Date: Mon, 20 Dec 1993 11:40:35 GMT

Listen guys, don't bash Windows for a bad app.  In my experience, Windows
usually recovers well enough from one program crashing to carry on until the
natural end of the session, though this is rather dependent on what the app
does.  For example, an app which is a message filter can seriously bugger the
entire system, but $ORDINARY_PROGRAM usually does not.  The only times in
Windows I get complete system crashes are when developing my own programs,
especially when using Turbo Debugger for Windows.

I'm not surprised TCP/IP apps crash so often.  You are trying to run what
should be pre-emptively multitasking software in a cooperative environment,
which is asking for trouble. Don't blame Windows if it can't do what it was
never really designed to do.

This is the point you are all missing.  Windows and Unix/X are desgined for
utterly different purposes.  Windows is designed to be easy to use, and
primarily for single desktop computers with at most a couple of programs
running at once for the average user.  Unix/X is designed more to be flexible
and robust due to the multi-user nature of the beast.

Windows does the best it can as far as protection goes given that it is sitting
on top of DOS, and I don't think it does a bad job.  I love programming it,
and I think for ease of use it beats the shit out of X.  The standardised
help system is one of the best things about it.  Show me a standard hypertext
help system under X that is as easy to write help files for as Windows Help.
And if anyone says emacs info I'd like to point out just how bloody huge emacs
is.

And for those of you saying Unix/X never crashes, just the other day Linux
locked up completely on me.  All I did was type in an emacs window, with
nothing else running except an xterm and the window manager.  The software
was:

kernel 0.99.14
XFree86 2.0 (S3)
lib[cm].so.4.4.4
emacs 19.19

In other words, about as up-to-date as possible.  The crash was total.  Not
even the num lock light would toggle.  I had to physically reset the machine.
It had only been running for about 10 minutes as well, and had about 3Mb of
memory free.

Tim.
-- 
===============================================================================
Tim Cutts: tjrc1@cus.cam.ac.uk               | Refs 7.2 the academic reference
CRC Mammalian Cell DNA Repair Research Group | database for Windows 3.1 is now
Please support the Cancer Research Campaign! | on ftp.cica.indiana.edu

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

From: jafitv@termo.unit.no (Jan Arne Fagertun)
Subject: Re: d2utxt-0.1.tar.gz -- tools for converting Unix and MS-DOS text files
Date: 20 Dec 1993 12:03:03 GMT
Reply-To: jafitv@termo.unit.no (Jan Arne Fagertun)


In article <2f2poo$dna@klaava.Helsinki.FI>, Dave Hudson <dave@humbug.demon.co.uk> writes:
|> 
|> Announcing the release of d2utxt-0.1.tar.gz
|> 
|> I've just uploaded d2utxt-0.1.tar.gz to sunsite.unc.edu.  It contains two
|> utilities - one to convert Unix format text files to DOS format (adds a CR
|> for every LF in the file), and one to do the reverse (strips out the CR's).
|> 
|> I guess that there's probably a nice way of doing this via something like
|> sed, but I couldn't find how to do it, and besides I can build this under
|> DOS as well - to help my colleagues who've not yet discovered the one true
|> O/S :-)


I've made two small scripts for doing this :

From Unix to DOS:

#!/bin/sh
#
# transform a (number of) file(s)
#       from UNIX to DOS format,
#               and copy the result back to the source file(s)
#
set -e
SCRTCH="/tmp/"$$".todos"
#
for FILE in $*
do
        echo -n "type.dos: "`ls $FILE`
        cat $FILE | sed -e s/$/^M/ | sed -e s/^M*$/^M/ > $SCRTCH
        echo " - OK"
        cp $SCRTCH $FILE
done
rm $SCRTCH


and from DOS to Unix:

#!/bin/sh
#
# transform a (number of) file(s)
#       from DOS to UNIX format,
#               and copy the result back to the source file(s)
#
set -e
SCRTCH="/tmp/"$$".tounix"
#
for FILE in $*
do
        echo -n "type.unix: "`ls $FILE`
        cat $FILE | sed -e s/^M*$// > $SCRTCH
        echo " - OK"
        cp $SCRTCH $FILE
done
rm $SCRTCH


^M is <CR>. With vi you'll write it as <CTRL>V<CR>, where <CTRL>V<CR>
means "hold the <CTRL> button while you press v, then press the <Enter>
button".


|> Dave Hudson
|> dave@humbug.demon.co.uk
--

+---------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Jan Arne Fagertun, Research Engineer, SINTEF Division Thermodynamics|
| E-mail: Jan.A.Fagertun@termo.unit.no                                |
| Phone : +47 73 59 68 90                      Fax  : +47 73 59 35 80 |
| Mail  : SINTEF/Varmeteknikk, 7034 Trondheim, Norway                 |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------+


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

From: hta@uninett.no (Harald T. Alvestrand)
Crossposted-To: comp.os.ms-windows.advocacy
Subject: Windows help is so nice, but.. (was Re: Windows emulation)
Date: 20 Dec 1993 12:04:41 GMT

In article <1993Dec20.114035.15685@infodev.cam.ac.uk>, tjrc1@mbfs.bio.cam.ac.uk (Tim Cutts (Zoology)) writes:

|> Windows does the best it can as far as protection goes given that it is sitting
|> on top of DOS, and I don't think it does a bad job.  I love programming it,
|> and I think for ease of use it beats the shit out of X.  The standardised
|> help system is one of the best things about it.  Show me a standard hypertext
|> help system under X that is as easy to write help files for as Windows Help.
|> And if anyone says emacs info I'd like to point out just how bloody huge emacs

It turns out that the Windows Help system is "protected" by a couple
of Microsoft patents, so it is illegal to copy it.
See a recent issue of DDJ (approximately October), the "Undocumented Windows"
column, for the details of what it is illegal to do with the help system.

For a *standardized* hypertext system, as in "ISO standard", you would
have to look at HyTime; for standardized as in "agreed to by a lot of people",
you would have to look at HTML (WorldWideWeb).

This is a sidetracking, so I changed the subject.
-- 
                   Harald Tveit Alvestrand
                Harald.T.Alvestrand@uninett.no
      G=Harald;I=T;S=Alvestrand;O=uninett;P=uninett;C=no
                      +47 73 59 70 94
My son's name is Torbjxrn. The letter between "j" and "r" is o with a slash.
   Register with the Linux Counter! E-mail to linux-counter@uninett.no!

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

From: el@lisse.NA (Dr Eberhard W Lisse)
Subject: Question about fractal compression
Date: Mon, 20 Dec 1993 09:10:33 GMT

Hi,

does anyone know of a program with which to compress images by way of
fractal compression to run on linux (X)?


greetings, el


PS: I can't afford c.o.l.help.
-- 
Dr. Eberhard W. Lisse   \         /                 Windhoek Central Hospital
<el@lisse.NA>            \ *      |  Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology
Private Bag 13215         \      /  61 203 2106/7 (Bleeper)  61 224014 (home)
Windhoek, Namibia         ;____/

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

From: Zlatko.Rek@ijs.si (Zlatko Rek, IJS)
Subject: Can't live without EDT!
Date: 20 Dec 93 09:28:42 +0100

  Hello,

  Does anybody know for VAX-EDT like editor other than Emacs emulation?
  Is commercial EDT+ from Boston Business Computing available for linux?

                                          Zlatko

  -----------------
  zlatko.rek@ijs.si

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

From: ddj+@cs.cmu.edu (Doug DeJulio)
Subject: Re: BogoMips just leapt half a point
Date: Mon, 20 Dec 1993 11:59:02 GMT

In article <1993Dec20.112603.9913@mnemosyne.cs.du.edu>,
Zack Evans <zevans@nyx10.cs.du.edu> wrote:
>A quick puzzle for kernel hackers...
>
>I just upgraded the kernel from PL13<somethingZ to PL14f and suddenly I get
>2.odd BogoMips rather than the 1.96 I have been getting previously.
>
>Why?
>
>(And when am I going to get round to upgrading the 386-16...)

Yow!  What does this statistic mean?  I've got a 486DX2-66, and mine
is somewhere upwards of 32 or 33 BogoMips.  Does that mean by some
metric I'm getting 16x the performance of that 386-16?
-- 
Doug DeJulio
ddj+@cmu.edu

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

From: ukd1@rzstud1.rz.uni-karlsruhe.de (Bernd Eckenfels)
Subject: Re: /etc/passwd
Date: 20 Dec 1993 12:23:44 GMT

Alfred Longyear (longyear@citrus.SAC.CA.US) wrote:
: lho@shockley.ee.rochester.edu (Ling Cherd Ho) writes:


: >Can someone tell me how to execute a program which I put
: >in the shell field of /etc/passwd with arguement?
: >eg. i want to run screen -e tcsh as soon as someone login.

: 3. Secure the file for execution (i.e., make the file have "x"
: authority for the proper user who is identified by the UID field
AND "r"!!!
: of the /etc/passwd entry.)

--
Bernd  Eckenfels  ukd1@dkauni2.bitnet               "eckes"@irc
Wittumstrasse 13  ukd1@ibm3090.rz.uni-karlsruhe.de  Student of Comp. Science
76646 Bruchsal 4  ukd1@rz.uni-karlsruhe.de          University Karlsruhe 
 G E R M A N Y    s_eckenfel@iravcl.ira.uka.de      Germany, Europe, ... 

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

From: damian@abacus.demon.co.uk (Damian Hamill)
Subject: Re: Update on Linux International (RFD)
Date: Mon, 20 Dec 1993 10:32:40 +0000

In article <Dec.16.08.42.35.1993.12189@pilot.njin.net>,
David Alan Black <dblack@pilot.njin.net> wrote:

>I think that consideration should be given to choosing a name (assuming
>the organization does come into being) which does not have the word
>"Linux" in it.

        [case for the above deleted]

This doesn't seem to be such a bad idea.  How about PC-Unix International.

As for the vote, I would rather here the position of the many people
who have made Linux a reality, particularly that of Linus.

    I agree whole heartedly with the arguments for the existence of
such an organisation, in fact I believe it is imperative that
something happens to ensure this doesn't become planet Microsoft, and
surely Linux is the best thing to combat the Microsoft disease.
However I would be apprehensive about supporting a 'Linux
International' organisation if any one of the many people who have
contributed to Linux development felt that their creation had been
taken away from them.

   Linus has done a tremendous job thus far, I would be less sceptical
if this proposal had come from him.  I would be very happy to vote for
this organisation if Linus fully supported the proposals, or even
better if he would be at the centre of the said organisation.


regards
Damian.  (in support of a PC-Unix organisation)


-- 
Damian Hamill                           | damian@abacus.demon.co.uk
Abacus Software Ltd                     | pstn: +44 71 930 4884

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

From: griesser@vivilo.uni-passau.de (Stefan Griesser)
Subject: PASCAL compiler wanted
Date: 20 Dec 1993 12:34:49 GMT

Hello,

  I'm looking for a native Pascal-Compiler for LINUX (not p2c!!),
if possible compatible to Berkeley Pascal.
Are there any ports, and if so where can I find them?

Please email answers since I do not get to read news over Christmas!

Thanks

Stefan

-- 
===========================================================================
  Stefan Griesser                         griesser@kirk.fmi.uni-passau.de
  94032 Passau                   ,,,
  Germany                       (.~.)  
============================oOO==(_)==OOo==================================

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

From: zevans@nyx10.cs.du.edu (Zack Evans)
Subject: Re: Want xterm replacement with low memory usage
Date: Mon, 20 Dec 93 12:52:24 GMT

In article <CIBCCC.HEr@sleeper.apana.org.au>,
Andrew McNamara <andrewm@sleeper.apana.org.au> wrote:
>Can anyone suggest a replacement for xterm that uses less memory?

rxvt by Robert Nation is a damn fine piece of software. He has also written a
low resources window manager called fvwm. You can get rxvt from:

monu1.cc.monash.edu.au:/pub/linux/X11/xutils/terms

It doesn't look like the latest fvwm has made it across the net yet so it'll
have to be 

sunsite.unc.edu:/pub/Linux/X11/window-managers

Xterm uses stacks of memory because of code bloat and creeping featurism like
the rest of stock X11 :) If you have a long scrollback that uses memory fast by
the way.

Zack



--
 Zack Evans - pyc081@lancaster.ac.uk - closer to home than zevans@nyx.cs.du.edu

 UNIX was not designed to stop its users from doing stupid things,
 as that would also stop them from doing clever things.

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


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