If you’ve been waiting for a supermicro with UNIX* System V on a 68010-based processor, stop. Introducing the Callan Unistar™ 300. It’s the single best supermicro you can buy. For a couple of reasons: One, the 10MHz 68010 CPU . It’s the newest, fastest, best. It crunches numbers in a snap. And works beautifully with the new UNIX. Two, the new UNIX System V It’s faster than UNIX System IH. On the Unistar 300, it supports a host of languages. And when it comes to portability, flexibility and system support, nothing comes close. There’s more. The Unistar 300 allows for expansion to 172M bytes of high-speed disk storage with integral tape backup—all within one enclosure that easily fits under a desk. Its convenient 12-slot Multibus* chassis lets you easily add options like networking, communications, floating point array processors and more. Up to 2M bytes of main memory provide real power for every user. And nationwide service is available through ITT/Courier. Unistar 300. Finally a supermicro with super every¬ thing. Available today from Callan. For more information contact Callan Data Systems, 2645 Townsgate Road, Westlake Village, CA 91361. (800) 235-7055. In California (805) 497-6837. TELEX 910 3361685. Callan Hfefeto *Callan and Unistar are trademarks of Callan Data Systems. UNIX is a trademark of Bell Labs. Multibus is a trademark of Intel Corporation. Circle No. 150 on Inquiry Card THE FIRST. RDS was the first to offer you a Relational Database Management System for Unix™ Today informix is still the only database system that provides you with all the capa¬ bilities you need. From its Custom Screen Package to its full Report Writing Language, informix tools are the most useful you'll ever find. PROVEN. informix has met the challenge of information management requirements in thousands of installations around the world. End users and systems integrators alike use informix to build systems they can depend on. FAST, EFFICIENT. informix is based on the fastest b-tree access method available, c-isam.™ Sleek, powerful, and efficient, c-isam is the de facto standard ISAM for C programmers and has been incorporated into many operating systems and langu¬ ages. Among these are the Zeus™ Operating System from Zilog and the popular Micro Focus COBOL products. COMPREHENSIVE, POWERFUL. ihformix is selected again and again because it has the power and full range of capabilities demanded by information management professionals. Easy-to-use menus and extensive help commands swiftly guide you through data entry, reporting, and query by forms procedures. These capabilities, combined with informix's full-featured languages and advanced data access techniques, make informix the optimal base for all applications R & D COMMITMENT. RDS is committee! to provid¬ ing you with the highest quality information management tools available. Whether developing new products or enhancing existing ones, our ongoing Research & Development Effort incor¬ porates the latest advances in software technology. and AVAILABLE. informix is available today on a of single and multi-user systems running both Unix The list includes Altos, BBN, DEC PDP 11 and VA! Forward Technology, IBM PC and XT, Masscomp, Onyx, Perkin-Elmer, Pixel, Plexus, Radio Shack, Wic, Zilog and many more. Demonstration versions are a most machines. Call us for more information. jvide range MS-DOS. Fortune, ly\omentum, at, Zentec, mailable for RELATIONAL DATABASE SYSTEMS, INC. 2471 E. Bayshore Road, Suite 600 Palo Alto, California 94303 Tel: 415/424-1300 Telex: 467687 infoiHlix .. to make your business day even more aroductive. informix and c-isam are trademarks of Relational Database Systems, Inc. Zeus is a trademark of Zilog, Inc. Circle No. 269 on Inquiry Card Unix is a trademark of Bell Laboratories. In one independent competition after another, UNIFY has proved itself the fastest UNIX data base management system. No wonder it’s been selected by more computer manufacturers than all other UNIX data bases combined. UNIFY speeds you through devel¬ opment and expedites program execution with some of the most powerful utilities of all, including: Fully menu-driven design. A powerful screen handling pack¬ age that helps you format screens quickly, with no coding required. Raw I/O, that lets you bypass the UNIX file system for up to 40% faster performance in large data bases. Built-in optimizers that select the fastest of four data access methods. Industry standard IBM SQL query language, plus our powerful report writer, for easy access by end-users. Ninety subroutines for advanced program development... the most complete package of its kind. UNIFYs integrated design links program modules like screens, query language and report writer to help you quickly create complete, friendly, easily expandable applications. Horsepower for the long run. Unlike other data bases, UNIFY won’t slow down under the weight of additional data or multiple users. It’s built with the power to support new features later. Judge for yourself. Send for our 300-page tutorial and 500-page refer¬ ence manual—yours for only $95— that show you how to build virtually any application. Gintact UNIFY, Dept. UR-7, 9570S.W. Barhur Blvd., Portland, OR 97219, 503/245-6585. unm® THE PREFERRED UNIX DBMS. Circle No. 268 on Inquiry Card UNIX REVIEW THE PUBLICATION FOR THE UNIX COMMUNITY Volume 2, Number 4 July 1984 The design for the cover of this month's issue was provided by Ritch McBride of Aurora Borealis, San Francisco, CA. DEPARTMENTS: FEATURES: 1 4 3B2/300 UNVEILED A UNIX REVIEW exclusive: The first independent evaluation of AT&T's supermicro anywhere. 6 Viewpoint 8 Devil's Advocate by Stan Kelly-Bootle 20 Industry Insider by Mark G. Sobeli 56 C Advisor by Bill Tuthill 60 Human Factor by Richard Morin 64 Rules of the Game by Glenn Groenewold 68 /usr/lib by Jim Joyce 7 3 Problem Solver by Bob Toxen 80 The UNIX Glossary by Steve Rosenthal 100 Recent Releases 105 Calendar 107 Advertisers' Index 20 EXECUTIVE VIEW OF AT&T Industry Insider columnist Mark Sobell tells of the ques¬ tions high-tech executives are asking. 20 Ye of little faith. THE AT&T FAMILY 26 A IMEW DAY DAWNING AT&T's 3B Product Manager explains why AT&T com¬ puters will sell. 34 The company line. 52 PRODUCT FACT SHEETS Easy-to-reference 3B2 and 3B5 vitals. 14 The inside scoop on 3B2. 34 THE GREAT VERSION GAP The gulf between the System III standard of IBM's PC/IX and the System V standard of the 3B line may be purely illusory. 38 INTERVIEW WITH LARRY CRUME The chief of UNIX development at AT&T Bell Laboratories looks into a crystal ball. 38 Larry Crume ponders the future. UNIX REVIEW (ISSN: 0742-3136) is published monthly by REVIEW Publications Co. It is a publication dedicated exclusively to the needs of the UNI> Subscriptions are $28.00 per year (12 issues). Canada and Mexico add $7/year. Overseas add $20/year for surface mail. Address corresponden editorial, press releases, product announcements to 901 South 3rd Street. Renton, WA 98055. Letters to UNIX REVIEW or its editors become thi the magazine and are assumed intended for publication and may so be used. They should include the writer's full name, address and home telephi may be edited for the purpose of clarity or space. Opinions expressed by the authors are not necessarily those of UNIX REVIEW. Entire contents cor All rights reserved and nothing may be reproduced in whole or in part without prior written permission from UNIX REVIEW. Editorial phone 206 UNIX is the trademark of Bell Laboratories. Inc. UNIX REVIEW is not affiliated with Bell Laboratories, Inc. Application to mail at second class postage rate is pending at Renton, Washington 98055. community. :e regarding property of ione. Letters pyright* 1984. 271-9605. EDITOR: Mark Compton MANAGING EDITOR: Pamela J. McKee ASSOCIATE EDITORS: Ken Roberts Scott Robin EDITORIAL ADVISORS Dr. Stephen R. Bourne, Software Engineering Manager, Silicon Graphics, Inc. Jim Joyce, President, International Technical Seminars REVIEW BOARD Dr. Greg Chesson, Technical Staff, Silicon Graphics Ted Dolotta, Senior Vice President of Technology, Interactive Systems Corp. Gene Dronek, Director of Software, Aim Technologies David Fiedler, President, InfoPro Systems Bill Joy, Vice President of Research and Development, Sun Microsystems John Mashey, Software Engineering Manager, Convergent Technologies Deborah Scherrer, Computer Scientist, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory Jeff Schriebman, President, Unisoft Corporation Walter Zintz, Executive Director, Uni-Ops CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Ned Peirce, Systems Analyst, Bell Laboratories PRODUCTION COORDINATOR: Nancy Jorgensen PRODUCTION STAFF: James Allen Dan Arthur Cynthia Grant Florence O'Brien Denise Wertzler CIRCULATION/DEALER SALES: Barbara Hamblin Tracey McKee BUSINESS MANAGER: Ron King ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVES: Jules E. Thompson, Inc. 1290 Howard Avenue Suite 303 Burlingame, CA 94010 Lucille Dennis 415-348-8222 303-595-9299 - Colorado 312-726-6047 - Illinois 617-720-1888 - Massachusetts 713-731-2605 - Texas Jules E. Thompson, Inc. 2560 Via Tejon Palos Verdes Estates, CA 90274 Mary Winchell 213-378-8361 212-772-0933 - New York TELECOMMUNICATION TYPESETTING: Data & Staff Service Company PRINTING: Thomas Ogle VIEWPOINT AT&T crosses the threshold Those of you who saw a copy of last month’s issue may recall our focus on IBM’s first UNIX offering, PC/IX. This month, we offer the obvious companion piece, an issue devoted to AT&T’s entry into the world of computer merchandizing. Not only are IBM and AT&T now the two largest players in the UNIX field, they’re also apparent¬ ly intent on wooing the same market: Fortune 1000 accounts. Developments in the race should keep industry watchers entertain¬ ed for months. To familiarize you with the 3B products AT&T has to offer and the directions it intends to take, we have included articles from a variety of perspectives. Harry Avant and Andy Felong, two systems analysts working with Jet Propulsion Laboratories, offer the first independent hands-on review of the 3B2 to appear anywhere. Fact sheets developed by UNIX REVIEW in conjuction with Lillian Bjorseth, senior public relations officer for AT&T’s Com- marize specifications for the 3B5 and 3B2 computers. Both Don Anselmo, AT&T product manager for the 3B line, and regular UNIX REVIEW columnist Mark Sobell assess the directions AT&T will take in its new role as a computer company. Comparisons between AT&T and IBM are drawn by Ned Peirce, a systems analyst at Bell Laboratories. And Larry Crume, director of Systems Engineering and Planning at Bell Laboratories, shares his thoughts on the future directions of UNIX. If this lineup seems heavily weighted with AT&T input, it’s only because nobody knows the company or its products as well as those working on the inside. We’ve also tried to include as much independent comment as possible, but on the whole we’ve gone straight to the source to get the best information available. We hardly expect this to be the last word on the 3B family of computers. Articles by the score are sure to appear in the months ahead as more information becomes available. But, if any more exhaustive assessment of AT&T’s entry into the computing business has been made to date, we’re unaware of it. In the months to come, UNIX REVIEW will move away from vendor-specific issues to cover more generic topics, such as docu¬ ment production and system ad¬ ministration under UNIX. Themes related to product announcements are unusual for us, but when giants such as AT&T and IBM make major UNIX announce¬ ments, it’s news. And our commit¬ ment is to bring you all the UNIX news that’s fit to print. That’s a promise we mean to keep. Circle No. 300 on Inquiry Card ► 6 UNIX REVIEW JULY 1984 Follow The Leader. There’s no substitute for leadership. Espe¬ cially in a market that’s moving as fast as the UNIX™ market. Four years ago we put millions of dollars into developing a new kind of office auto¬ mation software: powerful software that could “tame” UNIX. Software designed by a physician for simplicity: easy to learn, easy to use. The result is the Horizon Software System™ —an integrated set of sophisticated office productivity tools for shared-logic systems. The core is Horizon WordProcessing™. It’s as functional as any you’ll find, for any operating system. It’s integrated with the Horizon Spreadsheet™, which offers the largest electronic worksurface anywhere: 256 cells square. They’re supported by clerical shortcuts like spelling correction, mail/merge and sorting. And the Horizon system is even available in French, Ger¬ man and Italian. NOW. The best part is, they were designed from the start to be integrated, and they were designed from the start for UNIX. The lan¬ guage is C, and that means easy portabil¬ ity. Documentation? It’s complete. Ask any Horizon user (there are thousands of them). Don’t risk “Johnny-come-lately” software that’s been moved from another operating system. Don’t risk software that isn’t proven in the market. If you want software you can learn in min¬ utes, if you want to join the largest installed base in UNIX, if you want powerful, ele¬ gantly simple software right now, then fol¬ low the leaders. To Horizon. The standard for office auto¬ mation in the UNIX world. (flh)RIZON v software system The Standard in UNIX™ Office Automation Horizon Software Systems Inc., China Basin Building-185 Berry Street, Suite 4821, San Francisco, Calif. 94107 *(415) 543-1199 Horizon WordProcessing, Horizon Spreadsheet, and Horizon Software System are trademarks of Horizon Software Systems, Inc. UNIX is a trademark of AT&T Technology. DEVIL'S ADVOCATE The world according to Stan by Stan Kelly-Bootle This is the second of my reader-friendly columns. Owing to the wonderful advances in CAD (Computer Aided Delay) and the publishers’ cranky deadlines, it is being penned before any feedback on my June contribution, positive or otherwise, has hit either me or my fan. Rumor has it that the jury is out to lunch and refuses to come back. However, some of my col¬ leagues who follow that branch of Statistics and Measure Theory known as Baseball assure me that I can already claim a streak. In BASEBOL, a streak is a fun¬ damental two-dimensional data type of the form [integer N, boolean B], where N is the length and B is the type of streak, with values 1 for “winning” and 0 for losing. The BASEBOL Standards Committee has yet to assign a value for “ties,” but a decision is promised before the ALL* break of 1997. At any rate, I hereby claim a [1,X] streak, with X to be deter¬ mined. “Way to go! Hang in there!” I hear you cry. Yet your sarcasm is misplaced - I have made that quantum leap away from the null-streak. Move over Mencken! Cool it Caen! Resign Royko! My [1,X] is the stuff that dynasties are made of. Last month, I left you as the IBM/AT&T battlelines were being drawn. As you may have heard, 8 UNIX REVIEW JULY 1984 UNIX REVIEW successfully out¬ bid NBC for exclusive news coverage of the conflict, so I hasten to assuage your natural curiosity. “O For a Muse of Fire,” indeed, for the events I am to un¬ fold are momentous, cosmos- shattering and unreported elsewhere. First, though, let me invoke the copious pen of James Michener to trace the roots of the war which entwine deeply within the corporate compost of the past. Shortly after the Big Bang, silicon appeared, and then from the swirling galaxies the Earth was formed, bringing algae, dinosaurs, primates and inventors like Alexander Graham Bell. It is 1873, and we find Bell busy perfecting his prototype telephone. One day, in a blinding flash of prophecy, he realized that Information Processing would need both Communications and Computing. Further, Bell reason¬ ed, Computing would need a flex¬ ible multitasking, portable Operating System...but, wait, he thought, one thing at a time: let’s get this damn phone off the hook first. Nervously, he dialed his first number ever, no mean feat in those pre-directory days, and lost his only dime. The dour, inventive spirit is undeterred by such set¬ backs: Bell immediately dashed out to the nearest 7-11 for change. His diary for that day tells us, “Good progress with the coin recovery mechanism, but perhaps the answer lies in some form of en¬ coded credit card.” Experience had, of course, taught Bell to confine these fertile speculations Stan Kelly-Bootle is a grizzled mainframer who worked on the pioneer EDSAC I at Cambridge University in the early 1950s. As founder/President of the LISA Moaners' Club , he urges more machismo and less user-molly¬ coddling in software. In spite of some reservations , he feels that UNIX is a bandwagon heading in the right direction. His expose of computer scientific epistemology in the lexicographic environment, “The Devil's DP Dictionary" (McGraw- Hill[ 1981), is to appear soon in a Japanese language edition (Shizen Sha, Tokyo). Circle No. 299 on Inquiry Card ► UNIX* UNLIMITED ON THE DEC SYSTEM OF YOUR (HOKE. Now, when you choose from our large selection of VAX, and Q-bus 68000 systems, we’ll integrate the power, flexibility, and portability of UNIX.. .so all you have to do is open the box, plug in and run! That’s how Cambridge Digital gives you “The Edge” in system in¬ tegration. To make your job easier and more productive. First, choose from a selection of FOUR UNIX operat¬ ing systems-each a fully supported implementation of AT&T’s UNIX: ■ UNIX System III and V for VAX and PDPs with all the commercial enhancements and support features you’d expect. ■ Real-time UNIX for PDPs with the best elements of versions 6 and 7 plus a text-editor, database manager, and communications package. ■ UC Berkeley 4.2 BSD for VAX with all the Berkeley utilities and systems features including optional Ethernet networking. ■ UNIX System III for Q-bus-based Univax 68000 gives you VAX performance in a low-priced system. Next, add the UNIX tools you’ll need from our broad line of proven layered products. Database Managers. Word processors. Spreadsheets. Languages. Cross compilers. Emulators. Menu shells. Networking pack¬ ages. You name it. Cambridge Digital has your solution. The result: you get the power of UNIX, the perfor¬ mance of a DEC-based system, and the confidence of dealing with a PROFESSIONAL organization, totally dedicated to satisfying your needs. That’s The Edge you get only from Cambridge Digital. The system integrator’s system integrator since 1979. To find out more or to receive our latest fact-filled catalog, call us at 800-343-5504 or write to us at Dept. 7508, P.O. Box 568, 65 Bent Street, Cambridge, MA 02139. *UNIX is a trademq 1 want The Edge: Name Title rk of Bell Laboratories Organization/Company Address City Rtate/Provinoe 7ip/Postal Code Count r y Phone No ^ ^ 7508 I i_i Cambridge ■■Digital The Edge in System Integration 800 - 343-5504 In Massachusetts call 617-491-2700 DEVIL'S ADVOCATE to his diary and deaf-mute housekeeper. His financial backers were growing restless. “He’s a rum one, and no mistake,” they mused. “Keeps coming back for more seed money. Twenty dollars a week in nickels and dimes.” Bell pressed on, though, driven by reports that his rivals were getting closer. His diary en¬ tries were becoming brief and frantic. “Am going crazy! Heard ghostly voices today say, ‘The ser¬ vice you have reached is uninvented at this time.’ Then got three busy signals! Who? How? Perhaps the answer lies in some form of clandestine tapping device?” By 1876, Bell had ironed out most of the gremlins and felt ready for his master stroke: the birth of teleprocessing. During his first public demonstration of the telephone, he was going to propose a merger between his fledgling Bell Telephone Company and IBM, or to avoid blatant anachronisms, IBM’s precursor, CTR (Computing-Tabulating- Recording Corporation) in En- dicott, NY. His famous proposal echoed round the world: “Watson, come here! I want you!” The world cheered the first- ever telephone call but had no understanding of its profound significance; nor until now, was T.J. Watson’s reaction ever reveal¬ ed. Watson simply grunted, “No. You come here,” and hung up. They were never to meet. The golden chance had slipped away. They each took separate roads, built separate Romes. And the rancor of that brief altercation smoldered for a hundred years... It is 1981. Peter Drucker writes, “IBM is at a point where its product is becoming the ‘wrong’ product... even AT&T, despite the intelligent management of its monopoly, is now at the point where its product is the ‘wrong’ product.” The two giants, thus eyeing the other’s domain with growing envy, had reached their respective positions via radically different routes. AT&T’s monopoly had been “thrust upon it” but carried the increasingly irksome burden of regulation, especially in the form of consent decrees against competing outside the com¬ munications arena. On the other hand, IBM’s ef¬ fective monopoly in computers, which it had always hotly, expen¬ sively and successfully denied in the courts, had been gained the hard way, namely by outselling every dwarf on the block. It had even made significant incursions into AT&T’s preserve by acquiring CML Satellite Corporation and Rolm Corporation. Consider, then, two of life’s most risible ironies (see my for¬ thcoming book, Life’s 50 Most Risible Ironies ): IBM’s predomi¬ nance is the result of Bell Labs’ technical innovations (the work of such pioneers as Stibitz, Shannon, Bardeen, Brattain, Shockley...) Stan and his wife Iwonka are ready to take advantage of the great marketing war. ...housewives, the soft belly of the marketplace, completely ignored by IBM I 10 UNIX REVIEW JULY 1984 Circle No. 298 on Inquiry Card COMPUTER METHODS LIMITED o CO E CD C CO = 2 0 Q. 0 (0 0) § m '03 0 O O CO C 0 iS £ m 0 *- o O 0 0 .E c E _Q co ^ E .E co co ^ +-• C C/) 0 O •- OT W c JE o < § = C3 S £ o ® — CO Q. O O 03 c -t-» ^ i- cz =5 =3 _C 0) < < CL H C O _ CO 03 5k- 0 03 CO >> 03 C >,< 0 ^ £2 c 0 03 0 Jd 0 Q. Q- tr c >0 .2 0 2 O E P m ^ o -o 'o E g jS r c 0 o — ^.E Q_ S CL LL LU Q UL O _ c c o LU O 0 Box 709 Chatsworth, CA 91311 — (818) 88 4 -2000 TWX910- 4 9 4-1 716 — tot -1 T l x 292-662 XED UR DEVIL'S ADVOCATE and NCR’s marketing finesse (in¬ herited and honed by T.J. Wat¬ son, Sr. via marketing masters Patterson and Flint). Also, IBM’s monopoly extends to anti¬ antitrust legal expertise, leaving AT&T defenseless against US Government plans to dismantle Ma Bell’s Gang. It is 1983. At a secret AT&T facility, a marketing consultant brought in from Drano Inc., is addressing a newly formed sales team. “I have some good news, some not-so-good news and some thoroughly depressing news. The good news is that, at long last, we are free to compete outside the telephone business. Compete? Oh, yes, let me sell that out for you on the chalkboard.” “The not-so-good news is that others can now compete with us in the telephone business, so come on fellas, eh? Let’s pull our socks up before we’re flooded with cor¬ dless junk from Outer Mongolia.” “The depressing news is that your board has decided to go for the big one. Yes, friends, we are going to sell computers, and whichever way you shuffle that pack, let’s face it, we’ll be up against IBM. Need I warn you that IBM is the most cunning, subtle force in corporate history? Take its devious reaction to our impen¬ ding attack on its citadel. It had the brazen effrontery to offer us manufacturing and marketing rights to the IBM PC Jr., exclusive and free of charge! Your board, quite rightly, rejected this Trojan horse manure. No sir. we need no outside help in screwing up a product. Next, to confuse the public, it rushed out versions of our beloved UNIX.” ‘‘This ploy will fail, gentlemen, because we have developed a can’t-fail promotion to bring UNIX to millions of housewives across the nation - housewives, the soft belly of the 12 UNIX REVIEW JULY 1984 marketplace, completely ignored by IBM! In conjunction with Del Monte Foods, we are offering substantial discounts and free gifts. Open your brochures to page 12. There you’ll find a delighted couple that has just clipped their 50th fruit salad label. If you read the caption, you’ll find that he is screaming, ‘We have won the Bourne Shell special!’ while his wife coyly whispers, ‘Yes, and a free weekend with Steve!’ ” It was at this point that a grim-faced spy from IBM slipped out of the room. The confrontation can be ex¬ amined in broad, abstract terms as the archetypical struggle be¬ tween Good and Evil, or as James E. Olson, vice chairman of AT&T might have put it, between Engineering and Marketing. Such grandiose dialectics, however, do not reveal the human face of the Second Civil War, with its countless daily glories and follies. I know...because I was there! During the early days of the so-called Phoney War, I recall wandering round the AT&T camp one evening sensing that morale was low. The ragged, ill-equipped volunteers, known as the Ma Belligerents, seemed no match for the slick, mechanized ranks of the Big Blue Brigade massed across the river. Rumors were rife, the rifest being that the US Government’s peace overtures had collapsed, that IBM had hired the entire Senate, Congress and Department of Defense, and that the President had accepted a life¬ long IBM Fellowship. It was David and Goliath; sheep and lions; phone jacks and FI fighters. AT&T’s supply of ammo was down to a couple of antiquated shells brought in by the Berkeley Irregulars. High above, twinkling and mocking, glided a CML satellite looking for intelligence but finding only despair. AT&T’s counter¬ measures, two ragged, tetrahedral kites from the Bell Museum, summed up the wide gulf in technologies. A pale rookie was chatting with his slightly less pale Sergeant as a plaintive harmonica vamped in the distance, ‘‘All Quiet Along the Poughkeepsie.” ‘‘What will you do when it’s all over, Sarge? You know, sup¬ posin’ we...” ‘‘Don’t you worry now. sonny, we’ll win through.” ‘‘But I hear they’ve recruited the whole bleedin’ CIA, coverts and all.” ‘‘Recruited? That’s a laugh. Why, the CIA has been an IBM subsidiary since 1936. Know your enemy, lad. Know your enemy. Anyway, it’s time you was turning in. Early start tomorrow. Phone jack drill at five.” ‘‘Lord, not again , Sarge ...seems so useless against that lot.” We all looked across at the huge Big Blue encampment, ablaze with lights. We could ac¬ tually see the crack T.J. Watson Senior Division lining up at the automatic time-recording stations and clocking off with their mag¬ stripe plastic ID cards. Again, the depressing disparity in equipment and logistical methodology stood out. ‘‘God,” whispered the Sergeant, ‘‘we could sure use some of that discipline. Take those Berkeley Irregulars, supposed to be our secret weapon. They’re a real shower of starve-the-barbers, make no mistake. Bright bastards, granted, but they spend half their time arguing among themselves, echo this, echo that, day in, day out. What we need is a uniform command structure, and that takes discipline.” ‘‘Oh, I dunno, Sarge. Them Berkeley chaps have been through hell lately. Did you hear that some Continued, to Page 79 Circle No. 297 on Inquiry Card ► MAINFRAME DATABASE ACCESS WHAT-YOU-SEE-IS WHAT-YOU-GET SCREEN DISPLAY ONE KEY STROKE COMMANDS The Handle Family of Integrated Office Automation Products works with the day-to- day flow of information used by executives, professionals and decision-makers. Handle pro¬ vides the right tools to effective¬ ly create, store, send, receive, analyze, calculate and plot the timely data necessary for effec¬ tive business management. HANDLE THE POWER OF UNIX. today's most powerful tools available for business plan¬ ning, financial analysis and decision making. • Handle Business Graphics is fully integrated with all Handle products offering graphics within text or spread¬ sheets, and/or text on graphs and plots. Any graphic or multiple graphics can be dis¬ played with any document. • Handle works with existing information through Handle Access. Existing fi .es can be "imported" from other systems and mainframe da:abases. In a similar manner, Handle can "export" to standard system files and onto any net. The Handle Family of Products is a comprehensive set of office tools specially designed to "handle" the power of UNIX. MULTI-USER MANAGEMENT Handle manages multiple users. Information is processed reflecting the way different indi¬ viduals work. Handle's con current functions ensure total integration of all Handle products. A complete system of pass¬ words and profiles maintain the security of sensitive data. Completely function key driven, Handle provides special screen labels that cor¬ respond to eight easy-to-reach keys. One key stroke is all that is required for execu¬ ting Handle commands. FULLY INTEGRATED GRAPHICS IN TEXT OR SPREADSHEETS TEXT ON GRAPHS & PLOTS Handle's unique "what-you- see-is-what-you-get" feature allows for complete on-screen assembly of documents. • At the center of the Handle Family of Products, Handle Writer is a comprehensive full- function word processor and filing system working in con¬ junction with a sophisticated database and interactively managing data for all Handle products. • Handle Spell, a state-of-the- art interactive spelling checker, offers automatic spelling verifi¬ INTERACTIVE SPELLING PROOFER SPECIAL SCREEN LABELS cation and correction and multiple dictionary services featuring an 80,000 word dictionary. • Information management is quickly and easily accom¬ plished with Handle List's full records processing capabilities. Simple user defined forms allow for a variety of data to be accessed, updated and/or manipulated. • Handle Calc is at the fore¬ front of electronic spreadsheet development. Its advanced capabilities make it one of IMPORT/EXPORT DIF FILES & SYSTEM FILES VIRTUAL ELECTRONIC SPREADSHEET ARCHIVE MANAGEMENT OF OFF-LINE DOCUMENTS HANDLE CORP 140 MACKINAW ROAD PO BOX 7018 TAHOE CITY. CA 95730 (916)58 3 7283 IM HANDLE HANDl.h WHITEH HANDU. SPfcLi. IIANDi.L l.iSi MANDih N l:;|M-s.> < ;i-.Ai H.* • HAND. I ‘ . ANi ilAMAi A*vj..SAi-.l I BAH WALK: •* HANK I . '• i-.i i UNIX IS A IHADLMAHK OF Bl-.l I I.ABOHA iOHIhS 3B2/300 UNVEILED UNIX REVIEW offers the first independent assessment of AT&T's supermicro by Harry Avant and C. Andy Felong Many 3B2 users will have Teletype 5620s like this sitting at their workstations. The 5620 makes good use of the 3B2's bit-map capabilities. 14 UNIX REVIEW JULY 1984 Photos courtesy of AT&T Bell Laboratories A HANDS-ON REPORT --- AT&T’s announcement of its entry into the general purpose computer market at COMDEX/ Winter signaled the first availa¬ bility of the WE 32000 CPU to the general marketplace. The chip will make its initial appearance in several of AT&T’s new computers, the low end of which is the 3B2 Model 300, billed as a “desktop supermicro.” The 3B2 is set apart from other makes by its unique CPU, its support for up to 18 users, its full integration of hardware and operating system and its petite dimensions (the 3B2 fits into a box only slightly larger than many 16-bit desktops). It’s hard to believe that a computer with this much power actually only measures 22 inches in width by 17 inches in depth by 3-1/2 inches in height. Unlike many other multiuser supermicros that are too bulky to sit on a desk, the 3B2 fits comfortably. THE 3B2 HARDWARE For evaluation, AT&T sent us a 3B2 Model 300 equipped with 2 MB of memory, a 32 MB Win¬ chester drive and an additional I/O card. Two Teletype terminals, a Model 5420 and a Model 5620, and a Penril/DATACOMM 300/ 1200 Data Modem completed the package. Bundled in with the hardware was the UNIX System V Core Software Package and several utilites. When we removed the cover, we found that the 3B2 is truly sim¬ ple in appearance. Its interior layout is very clean and modular in construction. While the 3B2 is indeed a complex computer, its in¬ terior is not crowded in the least. AT&T has made it possible to expand memory and add acces¬ sory cards without any major disassembly. The 3B2 hardware consists of four major units: 1) System Board 2) Hard Disk Drive 3) Floppy Disk Drive 4) Power Supply The system board contains the CPU, DMA controller, timers, interrupt handler, memory, memory management unit, It's really hard to believe that a computer with this much power is this small. PROM, RAM, disk controllers (for both floppy and hard disks) and connectors for I/O “feature” cards. For all that, the board only oc¬ cupies a modest 8 by 15 inch space. The machine we used features a Western Electric WE 32002 Processor Module micro¬ processor. This is a true 32-bit CMOS CPU, with 32-bit data and address buses. The CPU, along with its associated memory management chip, bus interfacing and interface controllers, is mounted on a small sub-board, about 2 by 3-1/2 inches in size. As yet, AT&T has not released clock speed data, nor specific CPU inter¬ nal architecture information. Bit¬ wise operations of byte, halfword or word length (32 bits) are possible. Up to 4 GB of virtual memory or 2 MB of physical memory may be addressed. Self-testing, bootstrapping and auto configuration are per¬ formed by 32K of PROM. During power-up, memory is initialized, diagnostics are started and PROMs execute what AT&T refers to as “sanity tests.” After a minute or two, if all is well, the console will display a system ready message and ask for a console login. Additionally, diagnostic system checks can be run under a Diagnostic Monitor Utility Pro¬ gram supplied with the basic software set. Random Access Memory varies from a minimum of 512K to a 2 MB maximum. The memory chips are AT&T’s own 256K Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM) devices that use NMOS technology. These chips are organized as 256K by 1 bit and are stated to have a 105 nanosecond access time. Two memory card connector slots are provided on the system board. Memory is available in three configurations: two 256K memory cards, a single 1 MB memory card or two 1 MB memory cards. The cards are only 8 by 1-3/4 inches - pretty impressive for a megabyte! Disk controllers for both flop¬ py and hard disks are located on JULY 1984 UNIX REVIEW 15 AT&T FEATURE ROM TIMERS INTS NV RAM CSR CPU MMU J n 1_ 1 INTE PER CON GRAL IPH TROL DM - 7 IAC \- LEGEND: CPU - CENTRAL PROCESSING UNIT CSR - CONTROL AND STATUS REGISTER DMAC - DIRECT MEMORY ACCESS CONTROLLER INTS - INTERRUPT CONTROLLER MMU - MEMORY MANAGEMENT UNIT NVRAM - NON VOLATILE RAM RAM - RANDOM ACCESS MEMORY ROM - READ ONLY MEMORY 16 ,'' I/O BUS 3B2 BACKPLANE DUAL PORT MEMORY CONTROL 3B2 SYSTEM BOARD L. Y\ i - _ i / i i I/O, I/0 2 • • • I/0 4 _I 3B2 PERIPHERAL CONTROLLERS MEMORYg MEMORY 1 Architecture of the 3B2/300. the system board. The 5-1/4 inch floppy disk drive is capable of reading and writing both single and double density formats. This drive is a 96 track per inch type, resulting in a maximum storage capacity of 720K of data. The flop¬ py disk is used for software loading and archive purposes but is not otherwise used during nor¬ mal operations. Two different 5-1/4 inch hard disks are available for the com¬ puter. The first offers 10 MB capacity while the more sensible option offers 32 MB. The UNIX System V Core Package occupies a megabyte or two in a minimal usable configuration, disk paging for virtual memory probably needs at least a megabyte and the C language and its associated utilities require about 2.4 MB, so it is hard to understand why a 10 MB drive is even offered - especially on a system that will support so many users. Input and output is handled via serial ports for the console and additional terminals. The basic configuration provides two ports, each being RS-232C asynch¬ ronous, full duplex and capable of operating at up to 9600 baud. Four connectors are provided on the backplane that allow for expanding the system I/O. Each connector can accept a “feature” card. Each of these cards allows for the addition of up to four addi¬ tional serial ports, as well as a single Centronics parallel printer interface port. Each feature card contains an 80186 microprocessor, 32K of static RAM, 16K of read-only memory and uses 2681 dual UARTS. That’s a lot of “horse¬ power” for an I/O card measuring about 6 by 7 inches. A 16-bit data bus is used by the feature card in conjunction with direct memory access for bulk data transfers. Specifications for the cards indicate a 19,200 baud maximum per serial port, with a 38,400 baud maximum per card. Since the feature cards share a common I/O bus with the main board, some reduction in I/O speed will occur as more cards with ac¬ tive I/O are utilized. Each card will support simultaneous output to four serial ports at a full 9600 baud if less than 80 percent of the I/O channel’s capacity is utilized. A feature card drops to 4800 baud rating with all four ports running at 100 percent of capability. Feature card physical I/O uses a standard Centronics type connec¬ tor for the optional parallel printer port and an eight-pin telephone modular jack for the serial output. A second type of feature card, used for interfacing to Ethernet, is also available. Use of this card reduces the maximum number of system users to 14. Data is available to qualified OEMs that provide complete specifications for interfacing third- party cards. This could open up an interesting spectrum of add-on cards for such items as built-in modems, color graphics and inter¬ faces to various non AT&T mini and mainframe computers. The system board also con¬ tains nonvolatile RAM (with bat¬ tery backup) that is used to preserve essential information, such as terminal settings in case power is accidentally lost. The normal power down for the 3B2 consists of an automatically in¬ duced “soft” power down that Hushes file buffers to prevent loss of data. This same RAM stores diagnostics results that repair per¬ sons can review in the event of a system failure. A battery-powered time-of- day clock is used to keep correct date and time even when power is off. CRASH HISTORY Despite the many nice features of the 3B2, our review did have its rough moments. A typical UNIX machine is normally powered up and online 24 hours a day, seven days a week. This is the mode in which we operated the 3B2. On the sixth day of operation, while no one was logged on, the system experienc¬ ed an unrecoverable kernel-related 16 UNIX REVIEW JULY 1984 WHY DEC AND INTEL CHOSE THE MARK WILLIAMS C-COMPILER. DEC and INTEL wanted the best C technology avail¬ able, with excellent code density, supporting the full C language and their specific operating environments— all at a competitive price. They found it all at Mark Williams. WHY YOU SHOULD CHOOSE THE MARK WILLIAMS C-COMPILER. Our C-compiler supports the dominant 16-bit micro¬ computers—68000, PDP-11, Z8000, 8086—with a proven reliable, high-technology product. We are shipping versions of C for a large number of environments includ¬ ing CP/M and PC DOS. Both cross and native compilers are available. Call us for the distributor nearest you. OEM's should contact us directly about their specific requirements. Mark Williams Company, 1430 West Wrightwood, Chicago, Illinois 60614, 312/472-6659. Mark Williams Company Circle No. 267 on Inquiry Card AT&T FEATURE error. The diagnostic message printed out on the console ter¬ minal was, “Panic: Kernel MMU Fault (3)“ along with a note to con¬ sult the Owner/Operator's Manual for help. In our case it was not necessary for the computer to tell us to “Panic”! The system was powered down and rebooted following directions in the Owner/ Operator's Manual. This was suc¬ cessful and all seemed well. In the day and a half following the first crash, the system failed another two times. A different er¬ ror message, “Panic: Kernel Align¬ ment Fault”, was displayed on the console. A frantic call to the sup¬ port team at AT&T resulted in the suggestion to check RAM boards. The low memory addressed board, containing 1 MB of mem¬ ory, was removed and replaced with the other megabyte RAM board. Another crash within 24 hours indicated the problem was not solved, though, so another call to AT&T was made. This time the speculation was that the version of the UNIX System V operating system resi¬ dent on our 3B2’s Winchester may not have been the current release. During a midnight visit, an AT&T representative swapped out the 32 MB drive for a new drive preloaded with newer soft¬ ware. No system problems have been experienced since. Upon analysis, our AT&T con¬ tacts determined that while the operating system on the original hard disk was not the latest release, the cause of our problems laid elsewhere. The fault appar¬ ently, was caused by a separately available utility package that reconfigures the UNIX System V operating system on the 3B2 for improved performance. Called the System Reconfiguration Utilities Package , this software was design¬ ed to allow the system to be tuned to a particular set of hardware. AT&T has fixed the problem we uncovered and the correction will be incorporated in the next utility software release. SOFTWARE OVERVIEW Software for the 3B2 consists of the UNIX System V operating system, standard UNIX utilities, diagnostics and optional pack¬ ages. For the most part, only soft¬ ware supplied with the evaluation unit will be discussed here. A 3B2 Core UNIX Package which encompasses the system kernel and essential utilities is resident on both the hard disk and four floppy diskettes (for restora¬ tion in the event of a disk error or crash). This enables booting the system and running immediately upon “plug in.” A diagnostic monitor program enables users to isolate system problems as well as perform additional utilities. Op¬ tional packages include program¬ ming languages and networking, communications and graphics utilities as well as other areas not addressed in the essential utilities package. The Essential Utilities Pack¬ age provides system commands that support basic computer use. One of its most important commands is the Bourne Shell command interpreter (sh). Most frequently used UNIX file manipulation commands such as cat, cp, ed, mv and rm are pres¬ ent. Common directory com¬ mands such as cd, mkdir and rmdir are also here. There are about 80 commands in all includ¬ ed in the “essentials.” Two areas worthy of note are the Simplified System Admin¬ istration subcommands and restricted access commands. The sysadm (system administration) command invokes a menu mechanism that enables access to four sub-menus addressing: media management, machine management, system setup and user services. The media manage¬ ment menu allows for diskette for¬ matting, backup and restoration of files to or from floppies and the installation of new software from floppies to hard disk. Curiously, it includes the ability to run a pro¬ gram resident on a diskette. One wonders if this command is pro- An inside view of the 3B2. 18 UNIX REVIEW JULY 1984 The Teletype 5620 dot-mapped graphics terminal is a common companion of the 3B2/300. vided for use in conjunction with copy-protected software. In any case, the format and run com¬ mands, among others, are not implemented in the supplied release. Machine management and system setup menus enable a user to display disk usage, set the cor¬ rect time zone, shutdown the system and set administrative passwords. A nice touch here is the ability, at the time of system setup, for a user to login to the system as “setup”. This invokes an interactive program that enables the creation of user ac¬ counts, groups and associated passwords. This ability may also be gained by invoking the user service menu. Several restricted rights com¬ mands are included in the Essen¬ tial Utilities Package. The rsh shell is a restricted version of the standard shell used to set up login names and execution environ¬ ments. Its capabilities are con¬ siderably more controlled than are those of sh. The rsh shell only allows files in the current directory to be edited. It prohibits execution of shell commands while in the editor. So businesses with sensitive or compartmental¬ ized data and applications should be able to use rsh to create very secure user environments. A diagnostic monitor utility program supplied with the system is used for setting the time-of-day clock, system exercising and trou¬ ble isolation. A floppy disk may In our case it was not necessary for the computer to tell us to "Panic"! also be formatted by this program. This appears to be the only way to accomplish this at the present time. To enter the diagnostic pro¬ gram, UNIX must be shut down. Upon program exit, UNIX may be rebooted from either hard disk or floppy disk. Utility packages other than the essential utilities supplied with the 3B2 range from system administration utilities to calcula¬ tor utilities. Packages are included for advanced shell programming, directory and file management and text editors including vi from Berkeley UNIX. Over 35 com¬ mands are included in the system administration utilities package alone. These commands are in¬ tended to allow the experienced user to control and maintain the system. Typical commands in¬ clude mkfs for the initialization of formatted floppies, sync for the flushing of RAM resident data to disk and makekey for generating cryptographic keys. While there are literally hun¬ dreds of commands contained in the standard utilities packages, the absence of several normally associated with UNIX is perplex¬ ing. Missing from AT&T’s System V are tar and any version of more, spell, nroff, troff or man. The tar utility is the usual method of disk backup, so its absence raises ques¬ tions of how multivolume and incremental disk backups are to be performed. It is understandable that Continued to Page 90 JULY 1984 UNIX REVIEW 19 INDUSTRY INSIDER An executive view of the new by Mark G. Sobell In case you just tuned in, AT&T has entered the hardware marketplace with a line of machines ranging in price from $10,000 to over $300,000. It’s also deep into the software marketplace with UNIX System V, the operating system driving each of the new machines. Because of AT&T’s recent breakup and its history as a utility company, many people are questioning the company’s ability to manufacture, market and support its hardware and software. I spoke with several promi¬ nent Bay Area executives to get their responses to some of those questions. Dick Murphy, Vice-President of Marketing at Relational Database Systems, manufacturers of INFORMIX database software, was very clear in his views. “Without qualification, AT&T is a viable computer company,” he said. Murphy made the point that AT&T has been manufactur¬ ing computers in quantity for 30 years. However, he sees the com¬ puter industry questioning the company’s ability to market a high volume of computers - an area in which it has minimal experience. Murphy’s perspective is that of a former management consul¬ tant to utilities, including telephone companies. “Controlled monopolies, such 20 UNIX REVIEW JULY 1984 as AT&T before the breakup, must provide quality products and reliable services - it’s part of their charters,” he explained. “They have a strong corporate attitude that makes service very impor¬ tant. Just look at the service and product reputation of the phone company. On the downside, they are usually not proficient at marketing in a competitive en¬ vironment, and are very slow to make decisions. In today’s com¬ puter market, a manufacturer cannot afford to delay critical decisions.” The view of AT&T depicted by Murphy is that of a competent manufacturer venturing into a cut-throat marketplace. AT&T knows how to play ball, but it’s only played in its own ballpark according to an unusual set of AT&T rules. Now it’s trying to move in¬ to a new league full of seasoned teams. Murphy thinks it’s handling the transition pretty well. “AT&T has shown that it is willing to take the risks associated with moving quickly,” he said. “It is trying new tactics, such as the System V Library project it’s working on with Digital Research Inc. In the five months since the breakup, AT&T has repackaged and laun¬ ched an entire line of computer products.” Murphy questioned, though, whether AT&T’s aggressive marketing posture will carry over to its product pricing. “AT&T may run into some problems if it succeeds in main¬ taining its reputation for quality and service, but prices it products at the high end of the market.” Similar reservations were ex¬ pressed by Dr. Harry Garland, president of Cromemco, the long time manufacturer of diverse Mark G. Sobell is the author of "A Practical Guide to the UNIX System" (Benjamin/Cummings , 1984.) His 10 years in the computer industry include programming and technical writing experience. Mr. Sobell has been involved in UNIX for four years and is currently a consultant in the San Francisco Bay Area. Circle No. 296 on Inquiry Card ► UNIX EVALUATION NEWS!! AIM OFFERS APPLICATION - CONFIGURABLE UNIX BENCHMARK DO YOU HAVE TO MAKE A UNIX PURCHASE DECISION IN THE NEAR FUTURE? THERE IS MORE TO COMPARING UNIX SYSTEMS THAN VENDOR STATISTICS ALONE. UNIX SYSTEMS RANK DIFFERENTLY WHEN COMPARED IN SPECIFIC ENVIRONMENTS!! If you have to compare competitive UNIX systems in the marketplace or even evaluate the performance of your own system in light of new enhancements available, you know it can be a bewildering task. How do you decide which UNIX system should be the standard for your company? You could compare published vendor data sheets but you would not be sure how they support your specific needs. If your target needs are heavily database oriented, obviously the disk transfer rate of each system dominates your selection criteria, but if you need graphics capability, then the CPU resource becomes the center of evaluation. You might even need to select a system which does both functions well. A UNIX BENCHMARK TAILORABLE FOR YOUR ENVIRONMENT IS AVAILABLE. AIM Technology's second UNIX benchmark product, SUITE II, is parameterized so that you can evaluate how various UNIX systems, (such as Version 7, System III, System V, Xenix, etc.) would perform in your processing environment. Application characteristics (such as word processing, spreadsheet, graphics, communications, compilations and scientific requirements) can be weighted to reflect how much they are a factor in your overall evaluation. This testing can be run, tuned, and re-run on as many as 20 systems for comparison CALL OR WRITE FOR FREE “EVALUATING UNIX COMPUTERS” MANUAL" This manual discusses how to evaluate the performance of various UNIX systems in specific processing environments. It will be most valuable to the multiple-purchase buyer who must decide which UNIX system is best suited for the application mix representative of his company's requirements. AIM TECHNOLOGY While the 60-day introductory 25% discount is in effect. AIM's Suite II Benchmark is available for $2575. It can be ordered for immediate delivery from AIM Technology, 4655 Old Ironsides Drive. Suite 390, Santa Clara, CA 95050. For manual or additional information contact Ms Jamie Mendez (408-727-3711). UNIX is a trademark of AT&T Bell Laboratories Offer ends July 31, 1984 ‘Additional copies of the manual can be obtained for $9 75 microcomputer boards and sys¬ tems. While enthusiastic about the effect AT&T’s efforts will have for the UNIX industry as a whole, he was a bit cooler about the pro¬ spects for AT&T itself. Garland’s faith in AT&T will be demon¬ strated at NCC when Cromemco announces it is going with the AT&T standard. System V. But when I asked Garland what he thought Cromemco could offer above and beyond the AT&T line, he compared the 3B2 to a Chevy - reliable, but lacking in features. “The 3B2 is a solid machine designed for the mass market,’’ he said. “It will open up this market to higher capability machines, those that can support several users and run many processes at once. AT&T’s announcement also supports a standard operating system, UNIX System V, that will allow this multiuser, multitasking market to grow.” “With the mass market wide open, more users will be deman¬ ding more features in this type of system. With our 2048MSU memory board, Cromemco can provide 16 MB of RAM storage in a System V machine. Only the top- of-the-line AT&T machine, the 3B20D can provide that much memory. The 3B2 is limited to 2 MB of RAM and does not provide error correction facilities - Cromemco provides error correc¬ ting memory. The Cromemco bus structure provides expandability and flexibility that the 3B2 doesn’t have. With a Cromemco system, you will be able to use our floating point hardware board or graphics board with System V. The bottom line is: we provide hardware that the user can customize to his or her needs while AT&T provides off-the-shelf systems for the mass market.’’ When I asked Garland about possible AT&T weaknesses, he said, “A lot of money can cover up a lot of weaknesses. With the money it is spending, AT&T will be strong in promotion. But it is a large company that is pumping out a lot of machines. It has a big mass and cannot respond to market demands as quickly as a 22 UNIX REVIEW JULY 1984 smaller manufacturer.” Jim Campbell, president of Fortune Systems, had similar observations. He described AT&T as ‘‘a big guy certifying the use of a multiuser operating system on smaller machines.” The use of multiuser UNIX on the 3B2 is trendsetting, deviating from single-user MS-DOS and CP/M systems. Even IBM’s PC/IX is designed to support only one user. When asked about the affect of AT&T on Fortune, Campbell said that he thought AT&T’s marketing thrust would be at For¬ tune 1000 companies and OEMs. As a smaller company, he said Fortune would be able to take ad¬ vantage of niches and respond to customer needs more quickly than AT&T. “Fortune is quicker on its feet than AT&T. It can pick and respond to its market in a more timely manner.” As far as head-to-head com¬ petition goes, Campbell said, “Although the machines (AT&T’s 3B2 and Fortune’s 32:16) are similar, because the 3B2 is priced higher, the 32:16 can out perform the 3B2 dollar for dollar.” Campbell said that because Fortune can supply software to AT&T on the 32:16, his company is still selling Fortune computers to AT&T. “The place that AT&T is vulnerable is in its lack of applica¬ tions software,” he said. “You look at an IBM machine with its com¬ munication packages, office automation software and accoun¬ ting programs, and compare it to what AT&T is offering: nothing.” It is obvious that AT&T is not unaware of this weakness. Witness the AT&T/DRI UNIX System V Library project. But it will have to move quickly to develop software that runs on its machines if it wants to sell in this marketplace. To get the perspective of someone who might potentially use the AT&T machines, I spoke with Dave Scott, vice-president of systems development at Logisti- con, a VAR manufacturing ma¬ terial management systems. “We started several years ago, JULY 1984 UNIX REVIEW 23 INDUSTRY INSIDER knowing we wanted to build our system on UNIX,” he said. ‘‘Logisticon started with a 68000 Sun board in a Forward Tech¬ nology machine running UNIX and INFORMIX database software. We established a distributed pro¬ cessing environment, a database server and an Ethernet com¬ munications facility. Now we are bringing our system up on an HP-9000 running HP-UX.” Scott said Logisticon Was taking a wait-and-see attitude to assess how AT&T does on tech¬ nical support of its machines. “If you look at AT&T’s marketing policy for UNIX, you’ll see that it is not enlightened about how to sell to OEMs and VARs. It may come to understand the needs of this market segment; we’ll have to see.’’ “AT&T’s marketing stance contrasts sharply with that of IBM, DEC and HP. These manufac¬ turers understand how to struc¬ ture OEM pricing, that they need to be flexible in their licensing policies and that different customers desire different levels of technical support.” Also of major concern to Scott is the lack of support for network¬ ing and demand paging under System V. “Because of the size of some of our programs and our requirements for networking, Logisticon requires this Berkeley 4.2 facility - AT&T’s System V just doesn’t give us what we need,” he explained. SUMMARY Everyone seems to agree that AT&T will have no problem mass- producing the machines it has promised. It also seems that AT&T will be going after the larger sales and the mass market, leav¬ ing many niches open for the smaller manufacturers. Areas that have been spotted as possible problems for AT&T are pricing, support and training. But, as Dr. Garland pointed out, “AT&T will invest what it takes. Now that it has committed to UNIX, it will use its enormous resources to solidify its place in the market.” ■ /USR/TROFF TM ROUND TRIP NEW YORK/ PORTLAND $36 « — o o From the Big Apple to UNIX™ Paradise and back. 5 minutes out, 48-hour return. TYPESETTING at 15 Vi feet-per-minute —wider than this entire UNIX™ Review page (about IVi" wider). Telecommunication of documents, including mathematical formulae, gets TYPE SET and RETURNED on first class ACCUCOM-ODATIONS. No waiting at the TYPESETTING counter, and no reservations required. We also "book" passage for magnetic tape and raw text. Call for details—1-800-ACCUCOM (222-8266) UNIX is a registered trademark of BELL LABORATORIES (503) 684-2850 /CCUCON\ 9730 SW Cascade Blvd. / Suite 200 / Tigard, Oregon 97223 Circle No. 46 on Inquiry Card Circle No. 295 on Inquiry Card ► 24 UNIX REVIEW JULY 1984 ^ 1 WESTERN ELECTRIC • PEACHTREE SOFTWARE INC. • CRAYRESEARCH • UP|OHN • RCA • DYSAN CORP. • WESTINGHOUSE • AMERICAN BELL • SOFTWARE BAN( • JOHNSON & IOHNSON • FIOFFMAN LaRO( HE • AT&T • TIME LIFE • BALLY MANUFAC TURING • APPLE COMPUTER • C ' un y* o y. cm: “ o The AZTEC C product is a complete development system. In addition to a full "C" compiler, the basic product includes assemblers, linkage editors, development utilities, and full run time libraries. New products to be released in late 1983 and early 1984 include graphics development tools, data base managers, program editors, screen management systems, and other development tools that work in conjunction with the AZTEC C system. CROSS DEVELOPMENT SYSTEMS The AZTEC C cross development systems include all of the utilities and library support routines avail¬ able with the native versions including a cross assembler. The binary image created in the host environ¬ ment is downloaded and tested in the target environment. MANX has been using its own cross compilers on a daily basis since 1980. HOSTS PDP-11 UNIX 68000 UNIX ports 8086/8088 UNIX ports PC DOS MS DOS CP/M-86 8080/8085/Z80 CP/M-80 I r- S • v £ P JO X 0 Z X 3- • £ z •2 i 5 c > 7Z JO °n > o • z > s * 2 9* O SS 2 O n Z ° * S » 5 0 > O o n -n §• ■o £ C 2 c • 1 l 2 > o 2 2 ° 2 o z < 5 “ u • z *1 2 = P t z u o QC a z 2 < o £ t/» 00 Z Z un 0 d 1 SI II 2 £ o 5 u z < -TARGETS 8086/8088 PC DOS MS DOS CP/M-86 8080/8085/Z80 CP/M-80 TRSDOS (12/83) LDOS (12/83) DOSPLUS (12/83) 6502/65xx APPLE DOS APPLE ProDOS (2/84) COMMODORE 64 Other host and target environments will be released in early 79 84. NATIVE COMPILERS The AZTEC C native 8080 compiler was first released in 1981. Since that time it has been acquired by more than 300 colleges and universities, thousands of corporations, small business, and government agencies. The compiler has been ported to the 6502 and 808 6. Plans for future ports include the 68000, 16032, and IBM 370. All native versions are source compatible. Source developed in one environment can therefore be transferred to another environment and compiled, linked and executed. For prices and information call: 800-221-0440 (outside Nl) 201-780-4004 (inside 191) Or write to: MANX SOFTWARE SYSTEMS P.O. BOX 55 • SHREWSBURY, N) 07701 MANX ® s oftware Circle No. 230 systems - < oc z -»■ m £ S O C X> 5? S z >5 w > 2 • | m n p O ;i 13 r- JO ii z • < i— ^ < t *NOiHSv •idvioaivsTHDOH • da co swtisas DIHIHONOW • dao )iN3wdOT3A3asniOT • h )nat niHH3v\ • noind N« 3is3M • s TiHdvao a3indwo ) vaiaon • 3 OS • 3 I D • MMJL • SDIIOBOM S fl • aUVYOVd iiaTM3H • ODNOIMON • aNIVNO-VBa3IS • UDN • M3WT3 N 1)013d • ONI SW31SAS 03aiA313i • NITXNVTH • DNIHSITBCTd 3BVM NEW DAY DAWNING AT&T tells its own story by Don Anselmo and Tom Arnold hen you want information, it's best to go straight to the source. We wanted to find out more about how the 3B line evolved and what AT&T means to do to market it, so we went to Don Anselmo, director of product management for AT&T's Computer Divi¬ sion. Here's his response: A new era opened for AT&T on March 27 with the announcement that it would be entering the com¬ mercial computer business. That culminated a series of events which began in January, 1983, with the company’s announcement of its commitment to establish UNIX System V as an industry standard. AT&T’s commitment to support System V, an¬ nounced at UniForum 1983, was one step in that direction. Later in the year, we took several more by signing agreements with Intel, Motorola, National Semiconductor and Zilog to produce and support System V for their next generation of microproces¬ sors. A further commitment came with the announce¬ ment of the AT&T/DRI UNIX System V Library at UniForum ’84 in Washington, D.C. The library was our first major step towards in¬ suring that a large base of applications software would be available for computers running System V. The Independent Software Vendor (ISV) Support Pro¬ gram announced at COMDEX/Spring in Atlanta is another step in that direction. The signal AT&T is sending is clear: we mean to be a major player in the commercial computing arena. AT&T brings several strengths to this new 26 UNIX REVIEW JULY 1984 endeavor: (1) communications (2) silicon (3) software (4) quality and reliability and (5) staying power. AT&T’s creation of the best telecommunications net¬ work in the world has shown our communications capability. We also plan to set new standards for reliability and uptime in the computer business. AT&T software strengths come from long- established dependence on an efficient systems development environment capable of meeting the needs of our extensive telecommuncations network. Software reliability and use of high-level languages and operating systems were driven by a need to bring order to the development of very large software systems. The UNIX operating system was developed in that environment. AT&T quality and reliability standards stem from stringent requirements we place on ourselves to keep the telephone system working at all times. Meeting this standard requires built-in quality and reliability from the chip all the way through service and support. In computer design, it means achiev¬ ing downtime objectives measured in minutes per year. MARKETS FOR THE 3B COMPUTER FAMILY The market for AT&T’s 3B computer family has been created over the last decade. We paved the way with the UNIX operating system. It was developed in the late 1960s by AT&T Bell Laboratories for use within the Bell System - one of the world’s largest markets. During those years of internal use, it was continually improved and enhanced. In the mid-70s, UNIX software was made available to educational and corporate licensees. This widespread licensing activity moved the UNIX software culture outside AT&T and started a new approach to developing software. UNIX software was designed to be easily ported to a variety of hardware. The portability that helped protect AT&T’s software investment from hardware obsolescense is now generally available - from micros to mainframes. At least 100 different comput¬ ers in all run on UNIX systems. Before January, 1983, AT&T was a passive par¬ ticipant in the UNIX systems marketplace due to regulatory constraints. While we licensed the pro¬ duct, we did not guarantee future releases nor offer support. Companies and educational institutions produced their own version of the UNIX operating system (XENIX and Berkeley are two examples). While these activities helped commercialize UNIX, they also introduced a new problem: loss of portabili¬ ty through lack of a standard. Even AT&T was not immune, as several variants materialized internal¬ ly. UNIX System V evolved as an answer to the need for a standard. Today, we estimate that more than 70,000 computers run the UNIX operating system and that this number will at least double by year’s end. More than 6000 installations have been issued UNIX systems source licenses. There are more than 100,000 UNIX program¬ mers today, thanks in large measure to the educa¬ tional licensing program of the past decade. These programmers and the companies they work for, want hardware that supports UNIX software for their system solutions. This is the market AT&T has created and now serves with a family of compatible computers. AT&T HARDWARE ENTRIES AT&T entered the commercial marketplace with six computers and two local-area network products. The UNIX software marketplace that AT&T created covers such a broad range of computer products that only a major introduction could adequtely serve it. With industry analysts now projecting a UNIX system-related market of $7 billion annually by 1986, it’s important that AT&T have as wide a coverage as possible. AT&T’s product line starts under $10,000 for a 32-bit multiuser desktop system and extends up to large superminis capable of supporting more than 150 users. Such a launch could not be made by a start-up company. Before entering the commercial market, AT&T was using its computers widely throughout AT&T FEATURE the corporation and in its now- divested operating companies. At the time of announcement, more than 1500 computers had already been deployed. That experience has brought us face to face with all kinds of customers and applica¬ tions. They, in turn, have helped us tune our ability to sell, order, make, deliver, install, service, repair and consult all over the United States. AT&T enters this part of the marketplace well prepared. AT&T experience in hardware and software brings much to the customer. First, AT&T assures that its hardware and software products will be optimized for UNIX System V and that it will of¬ fer support. Also, AT&T promises to apply its considerable strength to meet two emerging market needs. First, it will look for better solutions to customer problems by attacking both computing and communications requirements simultaneously. Secondly, it will address the need for better reliability. AT&T will set new standards for reliability as technology allows us to produce - at a reasonable cost - machines that never go out of service. The roll-out of AT&T comput¬ ers is proceeding in two steps. A large number of applications that can be ported to 3B computers have already been developed within the UNIX systems in¬ dustry. Software companies are now acquiring 3B computers and beginning to port this software. Of course, AT&T is also bringing out applications of its own. During this early phase, AT&T’s em¬ phasis is on companies that can bring their software quickly to 3B computers: OEMs, VARs, ISVs and large corporations with inter¬ nal programming staffs. The se¬ cond phase consists of marketing AT&T’s computers broadly to all potential users, backed by a large volume of internal and third-party software. In planning this roll-out, AT&T has paid careful attention to different distribution channels and ways to best support them. Direct sales are generally handled by the AT&T Information Systems sales force. Exceptions to this rule occur where AT&T has an ex¬ isting sales force for a specialized customer group, like the AT&T Network Systems group that sells products to AT&T’s divested We plan to set new standards for reliability and uptime in the computer business. operating companies, and the Federal Systems Division that sells to the US Government. Indirect sales (OEMs and VARS) are handled by both AT&T’s Computer Systems Divi¬ sion and AT&T Information Systems. A comprehensive pro¬ gram supports VARs in their needs for marketing assistance, technical support, service and financial programs. Through an ISV program, AT&T offers development support, software publishing and software reference catalogs to help vendors develop UNIX System V applications soft¬ ware. AT&T is also entering the international arena. In Europe, 3B sales and support are already pro¬ vided by AT&T’s partner, C. Ing. Olivetti. AT&T is studying how best to sell its computers in other foreign markets. Additional distribution chan¬ nels will be added to meet market needs and the introduction of new products. THE 3B LINE The AT&T 3B family of 32-bit computers range from desktop single-user/multiuser supermicros to high performance superminis. Networking products provide communication links among computers and between comput¬ ers and such expensive com¬ puting resources as disks and printers. The 3B family includes the low-end desktop 3B2 series, the mid-range 3B5 series and the high-end 3B20 series. In the 3B2 series, there is one announced pro¬ duct - the 3B2/300. The 3B5 series offers two models, the 3B5/100 and the 3B5/200; and the 3B20 series spans three products, the 3B20S, the 3B20A and the 3B20D. All 3B computers share a common operating system, robust environmental tolerances, quiet machinery, energy efficiency and ease in use and maintenance. All are true 32-bit machines. Leading edge silicon technology provides an important foundation for the 3B family. Using this technology, 3B designers were able to shape the products around the operating system - UNIX System V - and ultimately achieve an optimized marriage of software and hard¬ ware. For example, the CPU in the 3B2 and 3B5 is based on the WE 32000 microprocessor, a full 32-bit microprocessor designed specifically for the UNIX operating system. Future generations of the WE 32000 family will be used to enhance performance and func¬ tionality and maintain com¬ patibility within the family. The 32-bit memory manage¬ ment unit (MMU), the 256K dymanic RAM memory chip and customer VLSI devices such as the X.25 protocol control chip are further examples of devices used in 3B computers. The 3B2/300 is compact, easy to install, easy to operate, quiet 28 UNIX REVIEW JULY 1984 The 3B20D represents the top of the AT&T line. and suitable for desktop place¬ ment or vertical mounting. It has been designed to achieve a high degree of flexibility in function¬ ality and number of users. The 3B2 computer offers more processing power than any other machine of its size and weight. A single cabinet - only 22 inches wide, 17 inches long and 3.5 inches high - houses the en¬ tire computer, all its standard peripherals and four feature-card slots. Typical applications include packages dedicated to profes¬ sional engineering and scientific use, office automation, software development and small business functions. Like other members of the 3B family, the 3B2/300 is ex¬ pandable. Its flexibility is heightened by several optional add-on features that allow users to customize the system. The 3B2/300 operates a half million instructions per second and has up to 2 MB of main memory. In addition, the 3B2 sup¬ ports a 720K byte, 5-1/4 inch flop¬ py disk drive and either a 10 or 32 MB hard disk. Add-on components include AT&T Teletype terminals, auto¬ matic dial/answer facilities, printers and feature cards (plug-in circuit boards). The options currently available include a high- performance 3BNET interface card, an intelligent RS232C serial port and a parallel port for connec¬ ting the 3B2 to peripherals. Other option cards are being developed and will be available soon. A MID-RANGE MINICOMPUTER AT&T offers two models of the 3B5, a mid-range minicomputer that’s ideal for office, business in¬ formation processing, operations support and communications applications. The 3B5/100 provides a range of small-to-medium capacity ver¬ sions for up to 30 users. It operates at 0.6 million instructions per se¬ cond, and has 1 to 8 MB of main memory and 48 to 640 MB of disk memory capacity. The 3B5/200 provides a range of medium-to- large capacity versions for up to 60 users. Intended primarily for high-throughput applications, the 3B5/200 operates at 0.8 million in¬ structions per second and has 2 to 8 MB of main memory and disk capacity of 48 to 1280 MB. Both models have cache memory capable of storing sixty-five 32-bit words. The 3B5 computer is easy to operate and maintain. The computer diagnoses its own faults through an off-line diagnostics system. When the 3B5 is powered up, the system’s low-level main¬ tenance feature automatically determines what equipment is attached to the computer. This provides self-configuring capa¬ bilities that enable UNIX System V to respond differently to dif¬ ferent devices connected to the computer. TOP-OF-THE-LINE SUPERMINIS The three 3B20 systems can each accomodate up to 150 users. They’re distinguished by varying amounts of duplicated hardware, processing capacity and software fault tolerance. As a result, they offer varying degrees of perfor¬ mance and system availability. The 3B20S is a supermini that meets the high-capacity needs of data centers, office-serving organizations and manufacturing locations. Its microprogrammable CPU is based on 32-bit architec¬ ture with a 24-bit address and sup¬ ports up to 16 MB of main memory. In addition, the CPU operates at about one million in¬ structions per second and has 8K bytes of 250-nanosecond data cache. The 3B20A is a 3B20S with a second processor using parallel processing. It operates at between 1.5 and 1.9 million instructions per second and has an I/O capabili¬ ty equivalent to the 3B20S. The 3B20A comes as a complete JULY 1984 UNIX REVIEW 29 Photo courtesy of AT&T UNIX SYSTEM V. FROM AT&I FROM Marketability. Serviceability. Portability. UNIX System V has the ability to open a lot of new business doors. That’s why it has emerged as an industry standard. And that’s why good business decisions are based on UNIX System V. For hardware vendors. For OEMs and VARs. For software houses. UNIX System V from AT&T provides a wealth of new business opportunities. Because UNIX System V is the operating system capable of realizing the full potential of the expanding multi-user and multi-tasking business computer market. The profits of standardization For software houses, the portability of UNIX System V software means that it can be run on hardware from many differ¬ ent vendors. So you can sell the same applications packages for a wide variety of computers. From micros to mainframes. Without expensive rewriting. And UNIX System V allows your customers to update their hardware. Without making all their software obsolete. Hardware vendors can profit from UNIX System V’s built-in nonobsoles¬ cence, too. Because your customers won’t need to invest in new software every time they buy a new computer, they’ll be more receptive to the new hard¬ ware technology you offer for sale. It’s not hard to sell programmers on UNIX System V. A large pool of program¬ mers is already familiar with its advanced programming capabilities, high-level “C” language, and modular design. You'll enjoy increased programmer productivity. And a high return on investment. Small wonder that so many companies are jumping on the bandwagon—with hard¬ ware and software products based on UNIX System V from AT&T Service that goes on and on AT&T is backing up its commitment to UNIX System V with a program of NMATU PLICATII mm E EDUCATI NMATU PLICATII AILIARI1 rO LEARI VARE Ml IIAINTEI\ NMATU PLICATII /IILIARIT TO LEARI VARE SO EDUCATI NMATU PLICATII /IILIARIT rO LEARI VARE IN EDUCAT IMATU NOW ON, CONSIDER ITSTANDA training, support and documentation that is second to none. Including a problem-reporting system. Newsletters. A hotline. And periodic updates. Best of all, the source of this service is AT&T, whose own Bell Laboratories developed the UNIX Operating System over ten years ago. That gives you (and your customers) access to the scientists and technicians who created the UNIX System V in the first place. “Is it based on UNIX System V?” You're going to be hearing a lot about AT&T's UNIX System V. Especially from companies in the market for business computers. Or software to run on those computers. They’re going to be asking a lot of questions. And the first one will be, “Is it based on UNIX System V?” From now on, the future belongs to those who have the right answer. To get all the answers about UNIX System V, just fill out the coupon. We’ll send you our brochure, “Why Good Business Decisions are Based on UNIX System V," as well as full pro¬ duct and service information. UNIX System V. From AT&T. From now on, consider it standard. ©1984 AT&T Technologies, Inc. r ^ l Mail to: AT&T, P.O. Box 967, UR 0700 AA Madison Square Station, New York, NY 10159 Name_ Title_ Company_ Address.__ City_ Phone_ State .Zip. AT&T ' My business category' (check one): □ OEM/VAR □ Software House □ MIS/DP Mgt. □ General Business Mgt. Other___ UNIX System Licensee □ Yes □ No □ Don’t know AT&T FEATURE system, or can grow on-site with the addition of one cabinet to a 3B20S. The 3B20D, a duplex version of the 3B20S, has duplicates of all I/O units as well as the CPU. Automatic switching between the redundant units virtually eliminates computer downtime resulting from hardware failures. The 3B20D offers the UNIX RTR operating system, which adds new real-time and fault-tolerant features. The 3B20’s distributed I/O architecture is based on a cen¬ tral I/O processor and specialized microprocessor-based peripheral controllers. Its disk I/O subsystem uses up to eight intelligent disk- file controllers, each supporting from one to eight 300 MB removable disks or 675 MB nonremovable disks. The 3B20’s I/O system also supports a full line of smart peripheral devices such as medium and fast-speed tape drives, low and high-speed data links and medium to high-speed printers. A major design feature of the 3B20 computers is high reliabili¬ ty - demonstrated by the 3B20s already in use in AT&T and other telecommunications companies. The 3B20S and 3B20A, for exam¬ ple, should run reliably 99.7 per¬ cent of the time. The 3B20D’s record is even more remarkable; system downtime resulting from any sort of hardware, software or procedural error averages less than 10 minutes per year. By design, the 3B20 is especially resilient, adapts easily to any business environment and has a wide range of environmen¬ tal tolerances. The computer operates reliably in ambient temperature ranging from 32 degrees to 120 degrees Fahrenheit and relative humidity from 20 to 80 percent. As a contingency against commercial power failure, the 32 UNIX REVIEW JULY 1984 3B20 computers also include built-in battery backup. The 3B computer family is already used extensively in the telecommunications network. The many different telecommunica¬ tions applications of these computers have required a range of local and wide area networking capabilities. The 3BNET high-speed local data network connects 3B The signal AT&T is sending is clear: we mean to be a major player in the commercial computing arena. computers to the industry- standard Ethernet network. It also provides centralized administra¬ tion with automatic backup, enabling users to monitor and define their own network conven¬ iently from a single terminal. The 3BNET offers such features as improved reliability, UNIX System compatibility, easy administration and maintenance that doesn’t interfere with opera¬ tion. Its hardware is based on the WE 32000 microprocessor and supports a bandwidth of 10 mega¬ bits per second. Its intelligent DMA interface also minimizes CPU cycles spent at the host computer for networking. And the 3BNET controller features self¬ diagnostics and fault isolation. In addition, 3BNET is highly flexible. The entire network is in¬ terconnected by coaxial cable. 3BNET supports up to 65 logical channels and permits selectable packet sizes up to 4K bytes. Furthermore, 3BNET’s UNIX software integrates a complete package of network services. Us¬ ing UNIX systems commands, a user can send a message to users on other computers, transfer data files among different machines or gain secure access to the network. The AT&T PC Interface inter¬ connects the 3B2 microcomputer with IBM-compatible personal computers, providing UNIX System V service to PC owners. The PC Interface gives PC users the opportunity to share ex¬ pensive peripherals - such as hard disks and line printers - connected to the 3B2/300. In link¬ ing 3B2s and PCs, the PC Interface effectively joins the two most popular operating systems on the market today: MS-DOS and UNIX. With PC Interface, a user can move files transparently between machines that use either operating system. Normally, a user would have to make changes to files before moving them, but PC Interface makes the translation automatically. The user can also work on either machine, with PC Interface doing all necessary translations. PC Interface was developed by the Locus Com¬ puting Corporation of Santa Monica in cooperation with AT&T. In addition, several members of the 3B computer family offer an X.25-compatible, long distance in¬ terface that can connect to the NSC Hyperchannel Network. 3B SUPPORT AND SERVICE Responsive support and high quality service are as important to many customers as the products they buy. AT&T offers a variety of sup¬ port agreements, with the level of support and number of coverage hours negotiable. An 800 tele¬ phone number allows customers to call in problems. Service is pro¬ vided from about 150 locations na¬ tionwide. For smaller machines Continued to Page 94 Circle No. 294 on Inquiry Card ► SCO is proud to announce the release of the XENIX™ Operating System and a comprehensive line of compatible applications software for the IBM Personal Computer and the Apple Lisa 2. With XENIX, the personal computer achieves its full potential as a multi-user, multi-tasking, file-sharing system that can communicate with any other computer in the UNIX environment. XENIX from SCO has more features, better documentation and higher quality support than any other version of AT&T’s UNIX'™ Operating System for the personal computer. XENIX has been installed on more microprocessor- based computers than all other UNIX-based operating systems combined, and now the power of XENIX is available from SCO to set a new standard for personal computer productivity. Let’s go to work. sco a Till: SANTA CRUZ OPERATION 500 CHESTNUT STREET, F.O. BOX 1900 SANTA CRUZ, CA 95061 *(408 >425-7222 *TWX: 910-598-4510 SCOSACZ XENIX is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation UNIX is a trademark of Belt Laboratories ®1984 The Santa Cruz Operation, Inc Illustration by Hope Epstein THE GREAT Ned Peirce is a systems analyst working as a consultant at Bell Laboratories in Summit , NJ. He supports AT&T's UNIX develop- " tfjnent organization as part of the fDedicated Facilities Management Group. by Ned Peirce Some observers might regard IBM’s decision to base its recent¬ ly released PC/IX software on System III as an effort to undercut AT&T’s System V as the defacto UNIX industry standard. But it will take more than a disagree¬ ment over “standards” to slow the growth of UNIX. Commercial packaging and distribution of software that is already developed and used will drive the market onto spiraling heights - and push the standards issue well into the background. Many applications are now ready to go to market with only a minor investment in documentation development. The System III vs System V debate is irrelevant to this market explosion because UNIX was specifically designed for com¬ patibility. Unless you happen to be part of an organization developing applications requiring special “hooks” into the kernel or are ac¬ tually in the business of support¬ ing the operating system itself, it really makes very little difference which version of UNIX your machine is running. Naturally, tools will differ from version to ver¬ sion, but an even greater variation among the tools available for per¬ sonal computers has not impeded growth in that realm. Likewise, the change in options for certain commands from System III to System V Release 2 is really a minor distraction. PC/IX, in any event, is generally distributed 34 UNIX REVIEW JULY 1984 VERSION GAP DEBATE Is System III vs System V really an issue? without source so it is unlikely that users will be tinkering with the operating system itself, except perhaps to write device drivers. SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT While IBM’s entry into AT&T’s UNIX domain has con¬ jured up visions of clashing titans, the reality is somewhat different. In one sense, IBM’s UNIX an¬ nouncement can only help AT&T market the system. UNIX, until only recently, had the reputation of being an unwieldy non¬ production operating system for “egg head’* software developers. AT&T can only benefit in the long run from the credibility IBM’s en¬ try affords, especially as UNIX begins to expand into the Fortune 1000 market. AT&T is not yet treading on Big Blue’s consumer turf since it is marketing solely to OEMs and VARs as it eases into the computer hardware business. IBM’s corpo¬ rate strategy is much more focused on end users. AT&T’s support of OEMs and VARs is not likely to be greatly affected by any debate of System III vs System V either. It is not inconceivable that many of these application developers will actual¬ ly use both System III and System V to develop packages. By so do¬ ing, they can take advantage of the improvements incorporated in the newest UNIX version while still retaining the ability to sup¬ port kernels already in their customer base. MARKET IMPACT IBM is providing AT&T with useful marketing lessons by its foray into UNIX. AT&T can be expected to hang in the back¬ ground until it’s more certain of the direction and strategies in¬ volved in selling outside the telecommunications realm. AT&T can also be expected to land with both feet solidly planted and take a large share of the market. Remember that each piece of the Bell system is a For¬ tune 500 company many times over. It should be very interesting to watch what happens when AT&T finally starts selling to the end user market. IBM’s introduction of PC/IX is an indication of its regard for the market potential of UNIX. In this respect. Big Blue might feel AT&T has a significant edge. Based on previous experience, though, IBM can be expected to be very effective in eroding AT&T’s advantage. The debate over stan¬ dard UNIX versions is a red her¬ ring in this unraveling mystery. AT&T is widely expected to lose money as new markets are developed before it blossoms into an industry leader. This percep¬ tion provides the opportunity to use a variety of strategies not available to IBM. If gambles lose money, so be it - people expect it anyway. But if AT&T makes money from computers soon, IBM has much to fear from the newcomer. PORTABILITY OF SOFTWARE The UNIX environment sup¬ ports just about any language or language-like tool imaginable, but C and assembly language are the two most commonly found. Scripts for the Bourne shell, C shell and awk are also widely used. There is an enormous amount of code available for the UNIX en¬ vironment. Applications which adhere to the “standard” Bell compatible syntax of System III or later can take advantage of this to increase the value of their packages without incurring development overhead. Nevertheless, software ven¬ dors will often arbitrarily depart from standard syntax. Les Hancock’s positive review of COHERENT in the April/May issue of UNIX REVIEW pointed out an incompatibility in ed com¬ mand syntax. Mark Williams Company, the makers of CO¬ HERENT, appears to have decid¬ ed to add functionality without preserving compatibility. Soft¬ ware vendors will find that UNIX tools have plenty of room for im¬ provement but they will have to demonstrate concern for compat¬ ibility to avoid disenfranchising their market. Programs requiring people to unlearn procedures and alter existing code will not be encouraged in the increasingly competitive UNIX world. Shell scripts offer great portability. In tandem with in¬ creasingly powerful CPUs, they also achieve satisfactory perfor¬ mance. Writing a program in C, FORTRAN or some other fast ex¬ ecuting language will usually improve performance, but often only at the sacrifice of portability. Bell Laboratory’s Murray Hill Computer Center uses shell scripts for most housekeeping utilities because they can be transported without modification JULY 1084 UNIX REVIEW 35 AT&T FEATURE to the center’s multitude of UNIX systems. This is particularly im¬ portant since the MHCC runs UNIX on AT&T, DEC, IBM and CRAY hardware. No language could offer the same convenience. And execution speed on the large systems is rarely an issue. SYSTEM V's C COMPILER The C compiler provided with System V recognizes variables of any length. Previous compilers used only the first eight characters and ignored the extras that pro¬ grammers frequently used to increase readability. There is much code from many sources, in¬ cluding Bell Laboratories and UC Berkeley containing variable names longer than eight charac¬ ters. Much of this code cannot be compiled as before without first correcting typos in the suffixes of long variable names. In this case, it is obvious that longer names are desirable and in¬ compatibility with earlier work is inevitable. The new compiler also offers the option of treating variable names in the same man¬ ner as before, which makes for a good compromise. DISTRIBUTION FORMATS With the introduction of System V, UNIX has become an AT&T “product.” For the first time, it comes with support and is aggressively marketed. Part of that marketing effort revolves around a new bundling concept. UNIX used to come com¬ plete with compilers, text process¬ ing software, graphics and docu¬ mentation tools. UNIX look-alikes, though, have been unbundling their offerings for years. Perhaps AT&T is following their lead. The repackaging of UNIX in separate bundles may actually help the average user since even “core UNIX” typically offers more than 10 MB of executables and contains more useful utilities than most other operating systems. Packaging the application soft¬ ware in small chunks allows users to buy only what they want. SYSTEM ADMINISTRATION AS A STANDARDIZATION ISSUE It is well to recall that UNIX grew up on small 16-bit DEC machines in university en¬ vironments populated with com¬ puter “gurus.” Much of what UNIX evolved into over those years is inappropriate to the business and personal en¬ vironments the system is now entering. Changes taking new users into account need to be made. Incremental backups, file system repairs and software in¬ stallations will have to be made a lot easier. System administration will become a standardization issue. UNIX suffers from the lack of standard repositories for “add¬ on” software. Commands added by software developers are often placed in the system according to whim. Many users might disagree, but I submit that this makes system administration unduly aggravating. The lack of a standardized location for “add-on” software in the UNIX tree creates two general problems. First, finding a com¬ mand can be difficult. A tree direc¬ tory structure quite literally creates a forest of places for hiding commands. Second, system up¬ dates are made more difficult since it is often hard to separate the wheat from the chaff. OFFICE AUTOMATION AND UNIX STANDARDIZATION System administrators have no monopoly on confusion. Business users, too, could be greatly aided by standards in the form of an office automation inter¬ face. That way, everyone using an OAS system could be uncon¬ cerned with operating system issues and competition among vendors could focus on features. Interchange media formats and interprocessor communication standards would continue to be contested but operating system choices would become less impor¬ tant. The choice of which UNIX version to base OAS systems on will not, therefore, be much af¬ fected by debate over the standard office automation interface. THE BOTTOM LINE IBM may not have disturbed AT&T in the least by introducing a UNIX operating system for its PC. The IBM name is synonymous with off-the-shelf software. Recall also that market research drives the IBM product line. IBM clearly thinks UNIX’s time is near. IBM’s product line spans the entire range of computing muscle - from the PC Jr. to an assort¬ ment of mainframes. AT&T is bas¬ ing its 3B line on its “super” 32-bit micros and has announced that it intends to extend its range both upward and downward. UNIX seems well suited to the midrange VAX-power computers offered by AT&T, and IBM ob¬ viously also thinks it is a useful system for micros. It will be in¬ teresting to see how far up the power spectrum UNIX can go. UNIX has historically thrived because of its ability to do useful things that were not easy to do in other environments. It owes very little of its current widespread use to marketing or commercializa¬ tion in general. If application developers, UNIX look-alike vendors and AT&T itself can stay in touch with what is intrinsically good and useful about the operating system, UNIX will be with us for a long time. It’s doubtful that any amount of arguing over what con¬ stitutes “real” UNIX will negate the system’s “Horatio Alger” suc¬ cess story. ■ 36 UNIX REVIEW JULY 1984 Circle No. 293 on Inquiry Card In microcomputers today, UniSoft sets the standard. AT&T has recently been advertising that their UNIX™ operating system will be the standard OS for microcomputers. That’s true. But if you want AT&T’s UNIX software on micros today, talk to UniSoft Systems. UniSoft has been delivering AT&T’s UNIX adapted for 68000-based microcomputers for two years. More than 75 different computer systems run the UniSoft software, UniPlus+.™ At each Bell release level, all these systems are object code compatible. This means that applications software developed on any UniPlus+ system will work on any other. This is where software portability pays off. UniSoft enhances Bell’s vanilla UNIX with the best features from the Berkeley BSD research version of the UNIX operating system. IP/TCP networking, record and file locking, and virtual memory from UniSoft turn UNIX into a commercial product. All this added value is still Bell-compatible. Don’t wait six months to get System V running on your hardware. UniSoft’s customers can ship it now. If you’re building or selling a 68000-based UNIX system, your operating system should come from UniSoft Systems, the UNIX experts. THE BERKELEY PORT AUTHORITY ‘UNIX is a trademark of Bell Laboratories 739 Allston Way, Berkeley, CA 94710 • (415) 644-1230 TWX II 910 336-2145 • UUCP ucbvaxlunisoftlunisoft 38 UNIX REVIEW JULY 1984 T JL he title on Larry Crume’s business card reads: Department Head , UNIX Systems Engineering and Planning. Behind the title is the man influencing the course of UNIX. Before assuming this mantle, Crume was Project Manager of System V development and microports efforts. Other projects he has been associated with during his 17 years at Bell Laboratories have run the full gamut of software research and development. UNIX REVIEW sent Mark Compton to Crume’s Summit, NJ, office to find what sort of software support is in store for the 3B fami¬ ly of computers and to inquire about where UNIX in general is headed. REVIEW: The first area I want to go into is applications. What can you tell me about the Digital Research Library? CRUME: The Digital Research Library provides an opportunity for a number of independent soft¬ ware vendors. In order for the in¬ dustry to meet the needs of the masses, you’ve got to get a lot of people writing software. It’s not cheap to write software. It can be a good investment, but in order to get a return on that investment you need high volume sales. So you can’t take every one of these independent software ven¬ dors and have them set up their own marketing and publishing organizations. What the library provides is a mechanism for these suppliers or writers of applications software to distribute their soft¬ ware to the masses. It’s a publishing business in a sense. REVIEW: Do you envision Digital Research getting ahold of packages developed by companies with enough muscle to actually go to market themselves? CRUME: That’s a debatable thing. In other words, The Library will have to make a business choice about how much they want to go INTERVIEW WITH LARRY CRUME JULY 1984 UNIX REVIEW 39 AT&T FEATURE after those. Again, they have to see the benefit they would get for paying for those kinds of packages. Nothing would exclude them from doing that, however. REVIEW: When is the end user ac¬ tually going to actually see something of the library? CRUME: I believe by the end of this year. REVIEW: Is that roughly the same timeframe in which end users will be seeing the 3B computers? CRUME: Yes. REVIEW: What application needs do you see being addressed first? CRUME: I don’t have the data to say exactly how they’ll pick but here’s a thought taken from the in¬ dustry point of view: the industry is actually moving through what I would call utilities. Some people would call a graphics package an application, but I call a graphics package a utility. that’s needed. Some people might call a database management system an applica¬ tion, but I call a database manage¬ ment system a utility. So I would imagine that the first wave of pro¬ ducts in the library will include the kinds of primitive utilities that people will need in order to write more and more applications. REVIEW: Does that also include compilers? CRUME: I would imagine you will see compilers because that is one way to get additional languages with the UNIX system. But again, I don’t call those applications because 1 think of them as utilities that are needed on a system. REVIEW: Isn't it also true that some applications must appear before others can come in their wake? CRUME: Sure, some must clear the way or actually provide the en¬ vironment that allows us to go on to other things. One of the things 1 frequently hear about is that the "We still talk about computers talking to other computers. But we've got to start talking about people talking to each other." UNIX system distributed out of AT&T licensing does not have menus or windowing systems apart from those on the 5620 package. So some of the things that I think you will see appearing in that library are menu and win¬ dow packaging. Now, that is one of the areas we need to move to so that people can start writing their applications to a consistent inter¬ face for the UNIX system. REVIEW: So will those menu and windowing packages be developed by AT&T? CRUME: I think AT&T has to come up with a package it can support as a standard. It has to be one that we want to ship with the UNIX system that will move peo¬ ple to build a more consistent user interface. I mean, in the UNIX system we have today, there are some 400 commands. There are very few people I know of that can keep track of 400 commands. I think that what people do is they subset that into a small set of com¬ mands they use regularly. But the beauty of the UNIX system that is shipped is that it gives access to all the commands, which is exactly what the experts want. So when a new command comes out, the ex¬ perts have access to it and can choose to use it or not. They can also choose to envelope it with applications soft¬ ware or not. But that doesn’t work for the novice person. My secretary, for instance, uses the UNIX system. But when a new release comes out, she doesn’t go searching through to see what new commands or options were added. She tends to stay with the functions she already knows. REVIEW: Chances are she'll be upset if her favorite command was altered. CRUME: That’s right. She will at least ask what happened. You can’t make those sorts of changes as you go forward. That’s why the user interface has to set a consis¬ tent framework. Furthermore, since the UNIX system provides a basis for many of the interfaces we’re moving to, it makes sense to have standard menus, windows and icons so that people will have a consistent interface for all the packages they get. A good analogy would be the standard plugs at the back of the headlights on your car. Now, most of us don’t see those plugs, but anybody who wants to manufacture headlights has to match them. Since there’s a con¬ sistent interface, almost anyone can manufacture something to work with that system. That’s also very key in our business, especial¬ ly when you have an operating system that runs across the broad range of computers that the UNIX system does. With a standard in¬ terface, you get the added dimen¬ sion of being able to move your 40 UNIX REVIEW JULY 1984 software and applications across the whole spectrum of computing. REVIEW: Do you see an evolution in the development of applica¬ tions? CRUME: I think the evolution will occur the following way: there will be a number of what I would call horizontal packages, spreadsheet calculators, graphics packages and the like. Many of these will probably be written with no specific business customer seg¬ ment in mind. Although I’m just guessing, I think you will probably see marketing people encouraging more and more vendors to go out and find special markets they can build end-to-end systems solu¬ tions for. I think that the whole vertical package phenonenon will prob¬ ably come in very quickly over the next few years. The reason I say that is because of the horizontal package growth of the past couple of years. It’s been phenomenal. That growth will continue to occur rapidly but I think at the same time adjustments must be made so that computing power can become more accessible. First, the user interface must be made simpler for the masses. Secondly, we need to offer a means for sharing resources without having to share logic. To see what I mean, take a look at the minicomputers of today. In a time¬ sharing environment, users not only share resources but com¬ puter logic. After a time, though, people don’t want to share with anybody else. It’s just too slow and it’s against our nature to want to share something like that. But we’ve got to share data. If you and I work for the same company, you will have some data that I need and I will have some data you need. It doesn’t make any sense for us to ship data back and forth because it will probably be chang¬ ing at a good clip. But what does make sense is for your machine to come over into my computer and grab data as it’s needed - without disturbing my work. Then your machine can work with the data and put it back when it’s done. That makes all the sense in the world. You can’t continue to do that in the clumsy way that it’s done today. REVIEW: So you're advocating transparent networking? CRUME: You’ve got to have transparent networking because people need to share information. We still talk about computers talk¬ ing to other computers. But we’ve got to start talking about people talking to each other. That’s what happens in an office, after all. People pass paper between each other. That’s how they make something happen in a company. Now you need to have these same people talking to each other via that computer and it can’t be pain¬ ful. When people want informa¬ tion, they don’t need to know all the steps the computer has to go through to get it. They just want the data so they can do their job. A lot of people, though, still think they need to pull information off the company mainframe, work with it and then put it back when they’re done. That all fits in with the image of the corporation. But people will quickly move to where they want to talk through the mainframe to other people. They are going to find out that the number of other people they need to intercommunicate with re¬ quires a network that will allow them to talk very easily. It needs to be transparent. REVIEW: There's always been a lot of software inside of AT&T that has not been available to non- AT&T people. Do you see some of that now being refined for general distribution? If so. what areas of need will be served first? CRUME: There are several vari¬ eties of software that have been developed at Bell Labs. One type includes the tools that support software development. There are also tools that we use for ad¬ ministering the telephone net¬ work called Operations Support Systems. We are still a heavy user of UNIX software text processing, so we have some software available for that. And we have a number of analysts and systems engineers who have built an assortment of tools to help them do their jobs. Exactly which of those we’ll take outside is not clear yet. Some we’ll bring forward and license. For instance, we just recently announced a 68000 C compiler. We were using that in¬ side but we took it out to help the industry do its work. We have people investigating our internal software to see whether it will be economical to package some for outside sale. You have to remember that these tools were created for many of our people with Masters and Ph.D.s in "Novices whove never used a computer may very well accept it as something that can be thrown away." JULY 1984 UNIX REVIEW 41 AT&T FEATURE Computer Science. Not all of that is going to be appropriate for public distribution. REVIEW: Do you feel as though most of the AT&T software pro¬ ducts will be in the software development arena? CRUME: Yes, I’d say they’ll be mostly in that arena. That’s not to exclude others, though. We have a number of tools in the CAD area but no decisions have been made about whether we should take those out. Furthermore, a lot of tools that are in the software development area could also be easily classified in the office automation area because of the many refinements that occur within Bell Laboratories. I think one of the things that people out¬ side the Labs overlook is that we have a mini-market within our own company. We build and develop the UNIX system and then give it over to other AT&T development organizations. The computing centers of AT&T Bell Laboratories contain a broad customer segment of people who have purchased general time¬ sharing systems to do software development. Many of these peo¬ ple add some value to the system. People in the operations support area also add some value. It is ac¬ tually like dealing with a group of Value Added Resellers. So if you look at the UNIX system, you can see why it’s built the way it is, assuming that we always build it for Value-added resale, even in¬ side. REVIEW: Before we leave the arena of applications, I want to ask about the Olivetti connection. Since Olivetti offers 16-bit pro¬ ducts that run MS-DOS, and AT&T now owns a healthy chunk of Olivetti, is it right to assume there might soon be an AT&T MS- DOS bridge? CRUME: The AT&T PC Interface that was announced earlier this year and has been shown at COM¬ DEX in both Los Angeles and Atlanta is an MS-DOS bridge. It works with machines that run MS- DOS. There is a software package you have to license that runs on the MS-DOS based machine and you clearly need the hardware connections. But there are three that have been announced - RS-232, Omninet and 3BNET. REVIEW: Do you see 3B products containing 8088 chips and run¬ ning MS-DOS applications? CRUME: Are you asking if AT&T means to make its machines adap¬ table to the raft of products developed for the 8088? REVIEW: Right, exactly. Is MS- DOS software going to become part of the off-the-shelf matrix that AT&T offers? CRUME: I believe it was announc¬ ed in New York that we would have more announcements com¬ ing throughout the year. You will have to wait for those announce¬ ments to see. REVIEW: Then let's turn to the unbundling of UNIX under System V. You said at the recent UNIX Market Forum show in San Francisco that this was due to the hue and outcry of OEMs and VARs complaining that UNIX was too unwieldy. Obviously, I think there is some benefit to AT&T as well. One analogy might be that of sell¬ ing a car with nothing more than an engine, steering column and four wheels. CRUME: I don’t buy that. I mean, if you look at the automobile in¬ dustry, I don’t think you’ll find anybody that buys that basic an automobile. People buy the package. I think (William) Agee (chairman of Uniform Software) is the one who said that there’s a synergy and a competitiveness between the parts suppliers and the manufacturers of automobiles. They need each other in order to survive. Now if you look at it from an unbundling point of view, there are a number of people in the business who have said, “Hey, I really need just the operating system.” There are several reasons why they are saying that’s all they need. Perhaps they just want to envelope it with an ap¬ plication and sell a solution - a turnkey system. They don’t want to include all the other utilities because it would just complicate their products and end up costing them more in service down the road. There is also another area of need that is showing up. If you look at computer systems, you’ll find there are many intelligent subsystems. I/O processors now are basically small computers. There are people coming after us who want to run their I/O pro¬ cessors with the UNIX operating system only. They don’t want all "Some people might call a graphics package an application, but I call a graphics package a necessary utility ." 42 UNIX REVIEW JULY 1984 §i WWM Operating Systems are becoming MIS the versatile, powerful back- w 11 mm\ bones of more and more computer systems. Helping people build the many advantages of the tried-and-true UNIX" 1 Operating System into their systems is our business. Our UNITY"" adapta¬ tion of Bell Laboratories UNIX Operating System is available for the DEC PDP-1T, and for the DEC VAX’ m both under VMS'" and stand-alone. We also have UNITY for systems based on the National Semiconductor 16032 and the Motorola 68000 available for OEMs. our growing array of software based on the UNIX Operating System in¬ cludes all the major languages; for example C, FORTRAN, PASCAL and BASIC. We also have packages for word processing, typesetting, and relational database management; an electronic worksheet; and a user friendly menu shell. can build these benefits into your system with full confidence, because we also back up all our software products with full customer training and support. Hundreds of customers around the world are now using HCR software products. To find out how we can put you and the UNIX Operating System together, call or write: Human Computing Resources Corporation 10 St. Mary Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4Y 1P9 (416)922-1937 UNIX is a trademark of Bell Laboratories UNITY is a trademark of Human Computing Resources Corporation. PDP-11. VAX and VMS are trademarks of Digital Equipment Corporation AT&T FEATURE of the commands. It’s not necessarily economical for them if they have to license the whole package. So they just want access to a smaller piece. REVIEW: These pieces are not the sort of thing users are going to see. Does that suggest that UNIX is go¬ ing to disappear from end user view? CRUME: Yes, I think the operating system is going to disappear. I think it should disappear. It will be hidden from the end user. I mean, people don’t buy operating systems. People buy applications to solve problems. If you look at 7 think the operating system is going to disappear. I think it should disappear." the history of computing, you’ll see it’s been run by what I call high knowledge professional workers. In many universities, you can’t even get into real com¬ puter science until you’re into a master’s program. The whole con¬ cept until now has been to train people like myself about operating systems. We were trained how to use the available tools, so when we came out that was our focus. But the masses don’t want to know about the operating system. They may not even want to know about the processor, if you really get down to it. What they want is some capability. Marketing people have learned that there are certain buzzwords that can draw atten¬ tion to your product. UNIX is just one of those words for now. REVIEW: With the unbundling of UNIX, it seems as though you might inadvertently throw a lot of third-party software off your trail. That is, when a user tries to install a program written for a fully im¬ plemented UNIX system on an un¬ bundled UNIX system, it's likely that program is going to want to make use of utilities that just aren't there anymore. Isn't that going to offend some of your customers? CRUME: Yes, there is that poten¬ tial. But I think there are two dif¬ ferent possible responses. One is that options may need to be sold with software packages. In other words, when a customer buys a software package, it may well be that there are also separate bun¬ dles of utilities that must be pur¬ chased with it. The other possibili¬ ty is that the optional utility bundles and software packages appropriate to the customer’s needs can be packaged in with the system when it’s sold. We’re already at the point where if you buy a software package, it’s not likely that some¬ one is going to send you updates. In fact, it might even be likely that you don’t care if you ever get an update so long as the software keeps doing what you want it to do. Ultimately, though, somebody is going to come along and try to convince you to buy a new package. It’s much like the ob¬ solescence of automobiles. REVIEW: Still, when users of un¬ bundled UNIX look about for soft¬ ware, won't they need to exhibit special care to insure that the utilities necessary to support the software they're looking at are at their disposal? CRUME: The consumer may not have to do it at all. Much of that responsibility will fall to systems manufacturers and software sup¬ pliers. REVIEW: Do you think VARs will also be able to take care of ig¬ norant consumers who, say, might buy into vi but not know that nroff would make a good mate? CRUME: There’s a possibility that those kinds of things could hap¬ pen. How that will play out, I don’t know. One of the things that con¬ cerns us is this problem of dependency of consumers on ven¬ dors. It can cause a great deal of confusion for both alike. Resolving that is a problem that will occupy us for the next few years. But we will do it. I think we have to. Let me give you another ex¬ ample, though, of things happen¬ ing in the marketplace that will have an effect on this. Right now, there are a good number of people out buying spreadsheet calcula¬ tors, word processing systems and database management systems. Have I missed any? Those are cer¬ tainly the three most popular. Before very long, people are going to want those integrated into a single package. How are they go¬ ing to get integrated? Are you go¬ ing to sell applications that require those utilities and then sell the utilities separately or will you bun¬ dle the applications and utilities together? It’s not clear. I don’t know how that’s going to be sold yet. But that kind of a situation will occur. Now maybe what will happen 44 UNIX REVIEW JULY 1984 Operating Systems provide the standard environment for appli¬ cations so they can be ported across advanced multi-tasking and multi-user systems. Word processing, spreadsheets, and database management are some of the applications already available under UNIX. Until now, no business and financial software has been avail¬ able. Until now, the only solution has been to retrofit existing financial packages — packages that were written for systems with limited storage resources and limited interactive capability. Until HCR’s Advanced Business Applications Software for UNIX. software designed especially for the UNIX environment is now available from Human Computing Resources. Incorporating an ever-growing series of integrated modules with a powerful relational DBMS, the package presently includes Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, and General Ledger in a form that users can query and interact with directly. HCR’s software takes advantage of System V, making it the first truly multi-user system. like this could only come from HCR. This new applications family is designed so OEMs, distributors and dealers can easily support, extend and adapt it. Demonstration versions are now being evaluated by OEMs. To find out how we can put our business software into your UNIX system, call or write: Human i Computing 1 Resources 4 Corporation 1 ID pi 1 4:11!” 1 R 10 St. Mary Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4Y 1P9 (416)922-1937 UNIX is a trademark ol Bell Laboratories Circle No. 261 on Inquiry Card AT&T FEATURE is that we will make some soft¬ ware obsolete by simply encourag¬ ing people to throw out what they’ve got so that they can replace it with a whole new package fully integrated from top to bottom. And I don’t think it will be just software that this approach is adopted with. I think you will find that the industry will move through work stations quickly as well. There’s even a question of how long system lifetimes will be. I know the analogy I’m searching for: the calculator. Remember the calculator? There are people who still use calculators they bought when they first came out. Those calculators work fine for them. They don’t need new ones. But, boy, there must still be a lot of peo¬ ple buying calculators because when I was in Japan, I couldn’t believe the number of calculator manufacturing lines I was shown. Clearly, people are buying new calculators and roaring through them as new ones appear with more functionality. REVIEW: So far, we’ve talked mostly about the end user. But now I want to shift our focus to the software development communi¬ ty, which, after all, has been the traditional environment UNIX has run in. What do you anticipate the response to unbundling will be in that community? CRUME: If we package the system the way we should, they won’t feel it. What that means is that you can take all of these packages, put them on a machine and ship the machine to them just like we’ve done all along. REVIEW: What was the key im¬ petus behind unbundling UNIX? Was it OEM and VAR pressure only? CRUME: There’s been a strong de¬ mand from manufacturers who want the UNIX system packaged for I/O processors or want a smaller subset of the system for any number of reasons. Fortune Systems pushed this concept a few years ago and I thought they had a nice package. REVIEW: Let's go onto some other fields, then. Tell me about the robustness features that AT&T in¬ tends to offer on System V.2. CRUME: There are some things already done in System V Release 2 that went into the file system for doing writes of directories and in¬ odes. It’s a matter of the order in which you create and remove directories and inodes. For instance, let’s say you create a new file and you write the directory entry first but something happens to the system before the inode entry gets written. Then you’ve got this file hanging off your directory that doesn’t exist. If you write the inode first and then write the directory, it makes a lot more sense. The same applies when you go to remove the file. You erase it out of the directory first and then you erase the inode. If you don’t use care like that, you can leave the file system in a messy state that can cause a lot of confusion. It’s that kind of stuff that we’ve gone after in the last several releases. At the same time, we’ve also developed tools to help people check the file system faster. Remember, we were still pretty much focused on site administra¬ tors and traditional users. Now, in future releases, you’ll see see us focusing on things like record and file locking. Some peo¬ ple may not regard that as a robustness feature but I treat it as one because two users can clobber each other if they’re accessing the same file at the same time. REVIEW: Not very robust. CRUME: I’m a little concerned about possible performance hits with record and file locking but we’re experimenting right now with the /usr/group standards to understand the full impact of that. REVIEW: I was just about to ask you whether you intended to adopt the /usr/group record lock¬ ing standards. CRUME: We are using /usr/group standards. But we’re finding some things that are causing us difficul¬ ty. We have a view of UNIX soft¬ ware and how it should go together but those people that put together the /usr/group standards are very smart. We’re committed to going after the /usr/group stan¬ dards. But as we’ve started to put in record locking, we’ve come up against some issues. There are some areas where they’ve chosen System III as a basis but we’ve already added some capabilities in System V. REVIEW: Does that mean you're going to backslide so as to be in agreement? CRUME: It doesn’t make any sense to backslide. But it didn’t make any sense for /usr/group at the time to go with other stan¬ dards. They had started off with Version 7 as the standard, but then we announced System III so they decided to go with System III. But then System V was announc¬ ed and they had to make a choice to get a proposed applications standard out. Remember, they were focusing on an application interface. I think they made the right choice. They can go forward from there. They will see capabilities in System V that they will like and ultimately add. REVIEW: Just like IBM? CRUME: I don’t know. We have PC/IX running right over here in one of my people’s offices. It’s got some System V on it. IBM can do it. They have a System V license. That’s their choice. It’s a nice system. I hope they sell a lot of them. I’m serious about 46 UNIX REVIEW JULY 1984 Circle No. 292 on Inquiry Card Gould... Innovation and Quality in UNIX-based systems Our Firebreathers are scorching old performance standards. Gould's Power Node™ 9000 blasts through UNIX* benchmarks at 4.5 times the speed of the VAX™ 11/780. Sound impossible? Give us your real production code or benchmarks and let us prove it. Firebreathing Performance. Now you can run software devel¬ opment and production at the same time, with highly responsive performance. Tightly coupled dual processors nearly double through¬ put and virtual memory accom¬ modates large programs. Hard¬ ware fixed point and floating point accelerators retain high perform¬ ance in heavy number-crunching situations. The PN9000 handles mainframe jobs in a multi-user UNIX system or serves as a backend processor in a widely distributed network. Unique UNIX Software. Gould's own high performance UNIX-based operating system (UTX/32™)—a unique combina¬ tion of Berkeley 4.2 with special | Bell System V features—makes it easy for you to use your VAX- based UNIX software. This allows easy conversion from your sys¬ tem to the increased power of a Firebreather. Compatible Family. Gould s'Compatibility Suite is a collection of application software packages that are compatible across the entire PowerSeries™ product line. Use C, Cobol, BASIC, or Pascal languages inter¬ mixed. This close-knit processor family offers all the advantages of a dedicated system plus the lower-cost-per-user option of sharing resources with Gould's standard networking capabilities including Ethernet™. The Fire- breathers are the high end of the widest range of UNIX-based sys¬ tems in the industry. Gould's Firebreathers are scorch¬ ing the UNIX market. Gould Inc., Computer Systems Division Distributed Systems Operation ,6901 West Sunrise Boulevard Ft. Lauderdale, Florida 33313 (305) 797-5459 UNIX is a trademark of AT&T Bell Labs ^PowerNode, PowerSeries and UTX/32 are trademarks of Gould Inc. :M Ethernet is a trademark of Xerox Corporation '•'VAX is a trademark of Digital Equipment Corporation ■> GOULD Electronics AT&T FEATURE that. I have this philosophy that the growth curve on the UNIX operating system is going to be longer than the growth curve on things like MS-DOS. It didn’t have a sharp spike of growth; it had a continuous growth curve - 15 years of it, in fact. I doubt that it’s going to come down quickly. Bas¬ ed on things that I’m seeing in in¬ dustry, I think that steady growth pattern is going to continue. REVIEW: Well. I think the 15 years of development time has certainly discouraged some other people from trying to come up with alternatives. UNIX has been kicked around in a lot of different environments fora very long time. You’re not going to come up with something in very quick order that is going to be as bug-free as UNIX. CRUME: I like to look at it another way. I like to think people chose to go to the UNIX operating system because they realized that they’ve got to get to a basis where applica¬ tions are the focus. If they spend time writing other operating systems, that’s an expense they don’t need. These proprietary operating systems are not main¬ tained for free. They cost money. REVIEW: Getting back to system management matters , what measures do you foresee for handling bad blocks of data? CRUME: There are two things you 48 UNIX REVIEW JULY 1984 can do for bad block handling. One is that it can be put into a device driver which resides on the CPU. Or it can be put into the I/O processor. There are a number of systems that have intelligent in¬ put/output processors that control the devices. So you could hide bad block handling from the UNIX operating system totally if you wanted to by putting it into the I/O processor. There have been a number of customers I know of that have handled it that way. The other dimension is that block handling is that our com¬ puter systems will have to provide both the generic and the device¬ specific approaches. At this point, I think we do bad block handling in the input/output processor on the 3B20. But we’re not doing it there on the 3B2. There will be a generic part we want to provide to the industry so it shows an inter¬ face to bad block handling. I think the thing the industry has come after us for most is to point the way to what that generic part is. They know they have to do "The masses don't want to know about the operating system. They may not even want to know about the processor, if you get right down to it.” there is what I call the generic part of bad block handling and the device-specific part of bad block handling. What I mean by generic is if you choose to go the device driver route, there is a part where you can format disks to detect bad blocks and obtain a list such that you can map around them. There is a part that’s got to be specific about the device, though. The device may want those bad blocks to be in some particular place, like on the disk. So what does the driver do when a bad block is hit? For in¬ stance, if you’re out reading data that’s been written and a bad block is found, what happens? The interface back to the system is generic. The fact that a bad block was found is device specific, so it has to pass it back to the generic part of the software saying it has found a bad block. The way I like to look at bad the specific part because they have their own devices. But they would like to see a consistent in¬ terface for the generic part. That’s not consistent right now across the industry. The generic part can get pretty tricky too. It can be got¬ ten around dynamically. It may mean a message to the user ask¬ ing what to do. It may mean the machine will advise the user to run a particular program. That’s pretty touch and go for a novice customer. I’m not too keen on that but I think we’ve got to start pro¬ viding the tools and then start working with novice customers to find a way through that satisfies them. That gets at another issue I didn’t have much luck getting across at the UNIX Market Forum. It’s something I call “system administration.’’ Let me use my automobile analogy again. I’ve got to put gasoline in the silly thing. I’ve got to fill up the windshield washer. I’ve got make sure there’s water and oil. I may even change my own oil and, if I’m smart enough, I may even change my own tires and stuff like that. But typically there’s a lot of people who don’t want to do any of that so they may have somebody do it for them — at a service station or something. There at least are some sensors in the car to tell you when you need a fillup or are running low on oil. We may have to adopt those kinds of measures for bad block handl¬ ing. Clearly, we’ve got to search for the system administration capabilities we want to provide people with. REVIEW: So you want system ad¬ ministration to be machine- operated to some extent? CRUME: Yes. There are some fair¬ ly nice ways to get through it. For instance, in a multitasking en¬ vironment like the UNIX system, you can kick off a process in background that goes through the system and prints out files that haven’t been touched in so many days. Since we’ve licensed UNIX software and it’s been so heavily used inside of AT&T, there are an awful lot of administration pro¬ grams that people have built locally for their systems. That’s another thing to draw from in providing this administration capability on future systems. REVIEW: Actually, this touches on exactly the area I wanted to go into next. That is, the hardened file system you alluded to. You Ve already touched on some of the components of that. Maybe you can give an overview. CRUME: As far as I’m concerned, a hardened file system consists of the following: power can go up and then you can slam it off by jerking the cord out of the wall. And when that thing comes back up, I don’t want to find that some¬ thing’s been dropped. Neither do I want to find that I have to do something in order to get my files back online. I want the machine to come back up and be ready for me to start using it again. REVIEW: So wouldn't hardening also apply to other administration functions, like the ones we were just talking about? CRUME: Well, I think hardening is a combination of the capabilities you put in and the person who ad¬ ministers the machine. How do you balance those? Hardening is a different kind of issue in com¬ puter centers where you have pro¬ fessional operators and operations support people who have been handling system administration for years. But what do we do for a novice who has a very powerful computer that’s sitting on the desktop? We’ll clearly have to automate. That’s another capabili¬ ty that will consume horsepower. But we’ll have to do it. We, as users, cannot take the pain associated with that going down and coming up again. You can’t repair stuff — most of us wouldn’t know how to repair it. REVIEW: Are you talking about automatic fsck and fsdb functions? CRUME: You can do those but you’ve got to make some in¬ telligent choices in order to repair a system too. We’ve been doing a lot of work on that with our 3B2, where we will take it off line and do all kinds of crazy things to it, plug a floppy in, start to write something, jerk the floppy out, put it back in and see what it does. Those are all file hardening measures. We want the system to survive. REVIEW: I'd like to get back to fsck, though. I know from ex¬ perience that the 3B2 has a fsck-y default. Don't you think that's a bit dangerous? CRUME: You can change that. REVIEW: But will novice users know to change that? CRUME: They may not want to even know about it. Remember, now, novice users are a little different... REVIEW: But if the user is going to lose his file, don't you think he might want to be advised about that? CRUME: Absolutely. But there will also be some people who will be quite happy that it’s just gone. REVIEW: That depends on what's in the file! CRUME: I agree with you. That’s why it’s hard to make these kinds of choices. You can’t sell an end user a computer system that has 500 options that must be decided among before using the machine. In that situation, you lose. You can’t do it. So far, we’ve made computers for computer people who want lots of flexibility and power. But remember, novice people who’ve never used a computer may very well accept it as something that can be thrown away. For instance, my kids definitely expect something different from a com¬ puter than I do. We have to take the novice into account. But we can’t just throw away the experts who have gotten computing to the place it’s at. You have to provide them with the capabilities they want. So where is the happy ground? We’re moving through such a transition. The UNIX system was built for experts to use and build other systems on top of. It was designed as a software develop¬ ment system, plain and simple. But now it has moved very, very rapidly into the hands of a dif¬ ferent set of users. These new Continued, to Page 96 JULY 1984 UNIX REVIEW 49 MICROSOFT STOKES GOLD. This is what paydirt looks like when it’s turned into silicon. Intel’s iAPX 80286 microprocessor. Together, Microsoft and Intel used this gem to create another: the XENIX* 286 Operating System. The most power- fill implementation of UNIX* on the market today for any micro¬ processor. And the most reliable, functional, com¬ mercial enhancement of the UNIX operating system ever created. The XENIX 286 Oper¬ ating System includes UNIX enhancements available from both AT&T™ and U.C. Berkeley But Microsoft has also added loads of other com¬ mercial enhancements to make your life richer, in more ways than one. For instance, there are record and file locks, sema¬ phores to help manage multiuser/multitasking data, and auto¬ matic disk recovery for better reliability Which makes XENIX 286 an ideal Operating System for applications software devel¬ opment. Over one hundred and fifty customized business soft¬ ware packages have been developed for XENIX, making it one of the most useable multiuser Oper¬ ating Systems available today For Microsoft, the unique advantages of Intel’s 80286 micro¬ processor were most appealing. As Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft, said, “On-chip memory management and protec¬ tion offered by the 286 ensures code compat- ability and makes it easy to pon XENIX between different OEM systems!’ In addition, its ability to run in fast 8086 mode makes the 286 the only processor that can sup¬ port both XENIX 286 and MS-DOS without addi¬ tional hardware. “With this ability, users get the best of both worlds in one piece of hardware’,’ said Gates. What’s more, it’s the only microprocessor architecture with the flex¬ ibility to offer you entry at whatever level of inte¬ gration you choose: chips, boards, or com¬ plete systems (including, of course, our new 286/310 supermicro system.) So you get to market when you want, in the way you want. Why not dig a little deeper, and call us toll- free at (800 ) 538-1876. In California, (800) 672-1833- Or write Intel, Lit. Dept. #S9,3065 Bowers Avenue, Santa Clara, CA 95051. And don’t be surprised if you hear shouts of “Eureka!” coming from your product develop¬ ment team. irrtel Bill Gates, Chairman of Microsoft Corp. * XENIX and MS-DOS are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. UNIX is a trademark of Pell Uibs, Inc. AT&T is a trademark of American Teleplx>ne & Telegraph. © 1984 Intel Corporation. 3B2 MODEL 300 PROCESSOR • 32-bit WE 32000 microprocessor • 8, 16 or 32-bit operations • Virtual addressing • 32K byte ROM for self-test, automatic configuration, bootstrapping MEMORY • Dual ported dynamic RAM • 512K bytes expandable to 2 MB STORAGE • Winchester hard disk: 10 MB or 32 MB • Floppy disK : 720 Kbyte I/O • Two RS232C ports (serial, asyn¬ chronous, full duplex): 9600 Baud I/O EXPANSION • Optional feature cards include: I/O expansion ports card Four serial RS232C asyn¬ chronous ports Centronics parallel printer interface COMMUNICATIONS • 3BNET local area network option card for connection to other 3B computers • High speed (10 Mbit) Ethernet compatible protocol SOFTWARE • UNIX System V core package • Optional UNIX System V utilities POWER REQUIREMENTS • AC Voltage: 120 VAC, 15 Amps • Frequency: 60 Hz • Power Consumption: less than 200 Watts PHYSICAL SIZE • Dimensions: 3.6” high x 22” wide x 17” deep • Weight: approximately 30 lbs. 52 UNIX REVIEW JULY 1984 3B5 MODELS 100 AND 200 PROCESSOR • CPU: WE 32000 • Internal Data Path: 32 bits • CPU Performance: (Model 100) .63 MIPS, up to 40 users; • (Model 200) .8 MIPS, up to 60 users MEMORY • Main Memory Capacity: 8 MB • Cache Memory Size: 8 KB • Word Size: 32 bits • Memory Access Time: 500 ns • Hamming Error: 2-bit detection, 1-bit correction STORAGE • 48 MB drive (9.677 MHz transfer rate, 8.55 ms rotational delay, 35 ms average seek time) • 160 MB drive (9.677 MHz transfer rate, 8.33 ms rotational delay, 30 ms average seek time) I/O • Asynchronous Data Link Inter¬ face (8 asynchronous RS232C ports per board) • Automatic Call Unit Interface (2 RS366 ports per ADLI) • Synchronous Data Link Inter¬ face: Remote Job Entry Link (8 synchronous RS232C/RS449 ports • Teletype Teletypewriter Terminal Interface (16 Standard Serial In¬ terface ports per board) COMMUNICATIONS • 3BNET for connection to other 3B computers • Batch file transfer • Ethernet (10 Mbit/second) stan¬ dard interface SOFTWARE • UNIX System V • C and FORTRAN POWER REQUIREMENTS • AC Voltage: 120 VAC, 15 Amps • Frequency: 60 Hz • Power Consumption: 1.36 Kilowatts PHYSICAL SIZE • Four cabinets: Basic cabinet (31” high x 30” wide x 31” deep); Horizontal cabinet (31” high x 30” wide x 31” deep); Vertical cabinet (19” high x 30” wide x 31” deep); Tape cabinet (38” high x 30” wide x 31” deep) • Total weight: 1100 lbs. JULY 1984 UNIX REVIEW 53 Introducing TPs Climb on the 32 - Nu Machine, bit NuBus now. The Nu Machine™ Computer. The first system in the Texas Instruments Nu Generation Com¬ puter family. The only system now available built on a modem 32-hit bus. The processor-independent NuBus™ architecture helps meet your advanced-technology design requirements today. And tomorrow. First high-performance 32-bit bus The NuBus technology, designed at M.I.T., is optimized for 32-bit data and address transfers. Its 37.5-Mbyte/sec bandwidth com¬ bines with an elegant arbitration scheme to ensure fast and fair data flow. Innovative, flexible architecture The NuBus design was developed to support sophisticated system architectures and eliminates the s' M V/68 w built-in obsolescence of processor- dependent systems. It lets you concentrate on developing applications, not architecture. Your significant investments are protected as new technologies develop. The Nu Machine’s open archi¬ tecture solves your make vs. buy dilemma. Multiple-processor con¬ figuration support combines with the NuBus high bandwidth, high- resolution graphic displays, cache memory, and high-speed disks to make the Nu Machine system attractive to sophisticated end-users, systems integrators, and OEMs in the engineering and scientific marketplace. Anticipating industry trends, the power and expandability of TI’s Nu Machine allow it to accept 32-bit processors of the future. Open system supporting industry standards TI’s Nu Machine system is currently available with a Combining innovative NuBus architecture with advanced graphics, powerful peripherals, and UNIX-based software, TI’s Nu Machine provides the outstanding performance and flexibility required by scientific and engineering systems designers. 27-7379 © 1984T1 10-MHz 68010 processor support¬ ing a UNIX™-based operating system with enhancements for windowing and high-resolution displays. Those who want to design their own system processors and con¬ trollers can now license the NuBus design from Texas Instruments. Also, a NuBus-to-Multibus™ converter allows the use of exist¬ ing interface cards and peripherals from third parties. The system you can build on from now on Because its high performance and flexibility are designed for the long run, TI’s Nu Machine can be updated when other systems are outdated. And, Nu Machine computers are backed by TI’s service and customer-support network and by TI’s commitment to quality and reliability. To climb on the NuBus bandwagon, call toll-free: 1-800-527-3500. Or write Texas Instruments Incorporated, P.O. Box 402430, Dept. DNA203UR Dallas, Texas 75240. Nu Machine and NuBus are trademarks of Texas Instruments Incorporated Multibus is a trademark of Intel Corporation System V/68 is a trademark of Motorola, Inc. UNIX is a trademark of Bell Laboratories Texas Instruments Creating useful products and services for you. c ADVISOR Terminal interface manipulations by Bill Tuthill Changes are often made for good reason. One example is the System III terminal driver, which differs so much from its Version 7 predecessor that some source code is incompatible across ver¬ sions. Though we might quibble with some of the particulars the new driver represents a significant step forward. System V’s terminal driver is almost identical to the one found on System III, so programmers us¬ ing one of AT&T’s recently releas¬ ed 3B computers will benefit from the improvements. The System V terminal driver provides the following advantages over the “old” Version 7 and the “new” Berkeley terminal drivers: • Input modes, output modes, control modes and local modes can all be controlled separately. However, different input/output baud rates are not supported. • The programming interface is more elegant. Naming is more consistent, and everything is together in one structure. On 4.1 BSD there are three separate structures! • There is support for synchronous terminals, which are common on IBM mainframes. There is also support for the KMC-11, a DEC line driver that helps reduce system load. • The command set is orthogonal. You can, for example, send and receive 8-bit wide data, without having to resort to RAW mode. Despite these System V advantages, it is only fair to mention that the “new” tty driver on Berkeley UNIX has a much better user interface. Here are some advantages of the Berkeley interface: • Line erase (i.e. kill) and word erase (^W) remove characters as they are erased. On System V, on¬ ly character erase does this. • Control characters are displayed as they are entered to help naive users identify typing er¬ rors. Erasing of tabs and control characters is done properly, whereas on System V column alignment is not attempted. • The new terminal driver gives the user access to job control facilities, so that processes may be suspended Z), placed in background or brought back into foreground. • Separate input/output baud rates are theoretically possible, although it doesn’t work in practice because of device limitations. As a programmer, I prefer the USG (UNIX Support Group) terminal driver, but as a user, I like the Berkeley interface and find it hard to work without. Note that what is called “job control” on System V.2 is not really job control at all but a half-hearted im¬ plementation of windowing. To show how to perform some common opera¬ tions on the terminal interface, let’s turn to a sampl- Bill Tuthill was a leading UNIX and C consultant at UC Berkeley for four years prior to becoming a systems software analyst at Imagen Corporation. He enjoys a solid reputation in the UNIX community earned as part of the Berkeley team that enhanced Version 7 (BSD 4.0 , 4.1 and 4.2). 56 UNIX REVIEW JULY 1984 ing of programs. All the programs shown here will compile on either Berkeley UNIX or AT&T UNIX, since they have the appropriate # ifdef statements for the C preprocessor. This header file (placed in a file called term.h) will be used in each of the examples: # include #ifdef USC # include # include #else # include # define OJIDONLY O /* would be in fcntl.h */ #endif The initials USG stand for UNIX Support Group, the arm of AT&T charged with maintaining Systems III and V. The Version 7 header file for terminal control, sgtty.h, has been replaced by termio.h. The System III and V header file fcntl.h gives definitions for con¬ trolling open files; 4.2 BSD provides the same facilities and include file, but earlier Berkeley UNIX systems did not. The initials BSD, by the way, stand for Berkeley Software Distribution. These initials are used below to delimit code that will function only on Berkeley UNIX. One general remark about the four programs in¬ cluded below: they are ugly, hard to read and they were hard to write and test. However, ugliness is necessary if you want software to run on all current versions of UNIX. Until a better terminal driver comes along or until everyone agrees on a standard, programs will have to look bad. These programs were written and tested on a VAX running 4.2 BSD and Doug Gwyn’s System V compatibility package. The Berkeley features were tested with /bin/cc while the System V features were tested with /usr/5bin/cc. It is a comment on the relative merits of these two systems that 4.2 BSD can emulate System V, whereas the reverse would be nearly impossible. Over noisy transmission lines, the DEL character, which is the default UNIX interrupt character, looks too much like a string of ones (line closed). If you work over phone lines during a storm, for example, you may find your work getting inter¬ rupted by transmission errors, which generate ex¬ traneous DEL characters. One solution might be to change your interrupt character to something else, such as CTRL-C. That’s what this program does: #include "term.h" main() /* set interrupt to control-C, if possible */ < #ifdef BSD struct tchars ctls; ioctl(O, TIOCGETC, Actls); ctls.t_intrc = 003; /* should use argv[l] */ ioctl(0, TIOCSETC, Actls); ttendif ttifdef USC struct termio term; ioctl(0, TCGETA. &term); term.c_cc[VINTR] = 003; /* should use argv[l] */ ioctl(0, TCSETA, fiterm); #endif exit(0); > There is no way to reset your interrupt character on vanilla Version 7 systems, so this program does nothing on Version 7. On Berkeley UNIX, the tchars structure contains the actual interrupt character, along with the quit signal, the start and stop characters and the end-of-file character. On AT&T UNIX, these characters (with the exception of start and stop) are part of an array in the termio structure. This arrangement is far superior to hav¬ ing two structures, sgttyb and tchars. However, System V provides no way to reset the stop ( S) and start (^9) characters. READ WITHOUT WAITING When writing interactive software and packet- based communications packages, it is often necessary to perform a read to look for input, return¬ ing immediately if there is nothing to be read. On USG UNIX, this is called read-no-delay. On Berkeley UNIX, there is a special ioctl call that tells how many characters are waiting in the input queue. The following program sleeps two seconds, reads a line without hanging if there’s nothing to read and prints what has been entered before exiting: #include #include "term.h" main(argc, argv) /* read from terminal without waiting */ int arge; char *argv[], < char buf [BUFSIZ] ; long n = 0; /* so on v7 sure to read nothing */ int fd; puts("You have 2 seconds to type a line:"); sleep(2); fd = open("/dev/tty". OJIDONLY) ; #ifdef BSD ioctl(fd. FIONREAD, &n); #else if USG fent1(fd. F_SETFL, 0_NDELAY); n = (long) read (fd, buf, sizeof (buf)) ; #endif if (n == 0) puts("You didn't type anything."); else { #ifdef BSD read(fd, buf, sizeof (buf)) ; ttendif printf("You typed: %s", buf); > exit(0); > On Berkeley UNIX, you call ioctl(FIONREAD) to check if there are characters waiting to be read; if there are, you read them. On AT&T UNIX, you call fcntl(0_NDELAY) to specify that further reads should be done without waiting. This can also be ac¬ complished from the open call, but then your code wouldn’t work on Berkeley UNIX. Vanilla Version 7 systems provide no features for doing non-blocking JULY 1984 UNIX REVIEW 57 C ADVISOR reads, so on V7 systems, the above program will always say, “You didn’t type anything.” TWO-WAY CONTROL FLOW The following program causes the terminal driver to send a CTRL-S when its buffer is half full, and a CTRL-Q when it is ready to receive data again. The terminal driver does not normally do control flow. This is helpful when you are uploading data from a microcomputer onto a larger UNIX system. Unless two-way control flow is enabled, data will probably be lost when buffers overflow. You can set this mode from the shell simply by typing stty tandem on Berkeley UNIX, or stty ixoff on System V UNIX. However, for writing file transfer software, it would be best to set this mode from within a C pro¬ gram for the sake of efficiency, as in the following: #include #include "term.h" main (argc, argv) /* enable two-way XON/XOFF control flow */ int argc; char *argv[]; < ttifdef USG struct termio term; ttelse struct sgttyb term; #endif if (argc == 1) { fprint f (stderr , "Usage: %s [on|off]\n'\ argv [0]) , exit(1); > if (strcmp(argv[1] , "on") == 0) { ttifdef USG ioctl(0, TCGETA, &term); term.c_iflag |= IXOFF; ioctl(0, TCSETA, &term); ttelse ioctl(0. TIOCCETP, &term); term.sg_flags |= TANDEM; ioctl(0, TIOCSETP, &term); ttendif > if (strcmp(argv [1] , "off") = 0) { ttifdef USC ioctl(0. TCGETA. &term); term.c_iflag &= “IXOFF; ioctl(O, TCSETA. &term); ttelse ioctl(0, TIOCCETP. &term); term.sg_flags &= “TANDEM; ioctl(0, TIOCSETP. Aterm); ttendif > exit(0); > On Version 7, the terminal control structure was called sgttyb; on System III and V it is called termio. Most of the differences here are matters of name on¬ ly. What used to be called TANDEM is now called IXOFF. The Version 7 field sg_flags was separated into c_iflag for input, and c_oflag for output. The arguments to ioctl are now TCGETA and TCSETA rather than TIOCGETP and TIOCSETP. Note that we could have used gtty and stty instead of the ioctl calls for non-USG systems; ioctl is used merely to show the similarity between the old way and the new way. 58 UNIX REVIEW JULY 1984 When writing screen-oriented software such as editors, database forms editors and visual games, it’s best to use a terminal control state somewhere be¬ tween cooked and raw mode. This half-baked mode is sometimes called “rare” mode. On Version 7 and BSD systems, you set CBREAK mode. On USG systems, you disable canonical input processing. The following program sets the terminal line to rare mode, after saving the original tty state. It then calls a function that would ordinarily handle the screen. In this example, however, it just executes the stty command, to show the terminal line settings. Finally, it resets the terminal to its original state and exits. The screen function would normally be filled in with code to handle screen input and output. Note that for most programming applications, however, it would be better to use curses, if this package is available at your site: ttinclude ttinclude "term.h" main(argc, argv) /* set tty to rare mode for screen work */ int argc; char *argv[]; < ttifdef USG struct termio tty, save; ttelse struct sgttyb tty, save; ttendif ttifdef USG ioctl(0, TCGETA, isave); ioctl(0, TCGETA, Stty); tty.c_iflag &= “ICRNL; tty.c_oflag &= “(TAB3|0NLCR); tty.c_lflag &= “(ECHO|ICANON); ioctl(0, TCSETA, &tty); ttelse gtty(0, &save) ; gtty(0, i&tty) ; tty.sg_flags |= CBREAK; tty.sg_flags &= “(ECHO|XTABS|CRMOD); stty(0, &tty) ; ttendif screen () ; ttifdef USG ioctl(0, TCSETA, isave); ttelse stty(0, Asave); ttendif exit(O); > screen() /* handle screen-oriented functions */ < system("stty"); /* just test for now */ > On USG systems, you turn off the input mapping of carriage return to newline by doing a bitwise and into the input flags of the one’s complement of ICRNL. You turn off the output mapping of tab to spaces, and the output mapping of carriage return to newline, by doing likewise with TAB3 and OCRNL, into the output flags. Finally, you turn off local echoing and canonical input processing by do¬ ing the same thing with ECHO and ICANON, into the local flags. On Version 7 and Berkeley systems, input and Continued to Page 95 Circle No. 291 on Inquiry Card Announcing the WY-75. Adding elegance to your DEC* computer never cost less. Just add the WY-75, VT-100* software-compatible terminal. It’s a lot more than just an accessory. The WY-75 has a compact, ergonomic design. With a finely sculpted, low-profile keyboard. And a swivel and tilt non-glare 14" screen, tailored with an 80/132 column format. A combination of features other VT-100 soft- ware-compatible terminals just don’t offer. The WY-75 lists for only $795. A price that won’t tie you down. Contact Wyse Technology for more informa¬ tion and you’ll see why we’re so well-suited for your DEC. Dress up your DEC for $795. WYSE I I I I Make the Wyse Decision. Wyse Technology, 3040 N. First Street, San Jose, CA, 95134,408/946-3075, TLX 910-338-2251, Outside CA call toll free, 800/421-1058, in So. CA 213/340-2013. •VT-100 and DEC are trademarks of Digital Equipment Corporation. THE HUMAN FACTOR Visions of automated expertise by Richard Morin The goal of the UNIX Consultant expert system is to provide a natural language help facility that allows new users to learn operating systems conventions in a relatively painless way. UC is not meant to be a substitute for a good operating system command interpreter , but rather an additional tool at the disposal of the new user, to be used in conjunction with other operating system components. Robert Wilensky The Al Magazine (Spring 1984) UNIX, because of its pervasive usage in academia and its ability to adapt to changing require¬ ments, has become a favored research environment for studies of computer-related human fac¬ tors questions. Occasionally we see the results of such research entering the mainstream of UNIX use. This column reviews a par¬ ticularly promising research effort and fantasizes on how it might become, or at least inspire, a valuable UNIX tool. Last month’s column alluded to the lack of gurus, useful documentation, helpful error messages and other aids for novice UNIX users - particularly in the now prevalent binary license environment. It is a non¬ trivial task for beginners to understand baffling bits of operating system behavior or to discover how to use new com¬ mands. Novice system adminis¬ trators are in even worse shape due to the extreme lack of UNIX system management literature. UNIX help facilities are of lit¬ tle use to users needing to perform tasks but unfamiliar with the specific UNIX command names they need. The man facility offers no help because it requires that the user specify the name of the desired command. The apropos command (now integrated into the man command as option -k) is somewhat more helpful in that it will search for relevant keywords. Still, it is only useful when the “correct” keyword is given. Similarly, the permuted index for BSD 4.2, with over 3000 lines of text, is of no utility to someone unaware of which synonym to use. A programmer wishing to cause a 10-second delay, for in¬ stance, would find no helpful references under either “second” or “delay”. This lack of useful documen¬ tation and help facilities could be made less painful by a mass clon¬ ing of gurus. Genetic engineering is not yet up to the task, but an automated approximation may be on the way. THE UNIX CONSULTANT EXPERT SYSTEM Dr. Robert Wilensky’s UNIX Consultant (UC) is an expert system on UNIX coupled with a natural language interface. It can converse with humans in a reasonable facsimile of natural English and can provide useful assistance even when given inex¬ act or elliptical questions. If a user inputs, “How do I delete a file?” followed by “A directory?”, UC will infer that a request has been made for information on how to delete a directory. Richard Morin is an indepen¬ dent computer consultant specializing in the design , development and documentation of software for engineering , scientific and operating systems applications. He currently operates the Canta Forda Computer Lab in Ft. Washington , Maryland. 60 UNIX REVIEW JULY 1984 SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT TOOLS "One-Stop Shopping" OASYS provides a “One-Stop Shopping” service for software developers and managers in need of proven, cost effective, cross- and native- development tools. OASYS can save you time, energy and money! We understand what it means to be a developer. Over the past 3 years, we’ve built over 1MB of working code. We not only develop our own tools, but also specialize in evaluating, selecting and distributing the best complementary tools from other suppliers. Our tools are currently in use in over 1,000 installations worldwide on micro-, mini-, and mainframe computers for a variety of 8 -, 16- and 32- bit UNIX (and non-UNIX) systems. Most likely, we have what you’re looking for (even if it doesn’t appear in the tables shown). But, if we don’t, we’ll be glad to tell you who does. So, call or write today for more information and start shopping the smart way, the fast way, the economical way. “The One-Stop Shopping Way.” ACROSS TOOLS PRODUCTS') HOST 2) TARGET < 3 > C COMPILERS VAX, PRIME 68000 16000 8086/88 PASCAL COMPILERS VAX PDP-11, LSI-11 PRIME 68000 16000 8086/88 FORTRAN COMPILERS VAX PDP-11, LSI-11 68000 16000 8086/88 (4) ASSEMBLERS VAX, PDP-11, LSI-11, PRIME, IBM/PC, IBM 370 68000,16000, 8086/88, Z8000, 680X, 808X, Z80 SIMULATORS VAX, PDP-11 LSI-11, PRIME, IBM/PC, IBM 370 68000, 8086/88 808X, Z80 (1) WE DISTRIBUTE PRODUCTS FOR: GREEN HILLS SOFTWARE, VIRTUAL SYSTEMS, COMPLETE SOFTWARE, PACER SOFTWARE; SOFTWARE MANUFACTURERS (2) HOST OPERATING SYSTEMS INCLUDE: VMS, RSX, RT-11, PRIMOS, UNIX V7, III, V, BSD 4.1, 4.2, UNOS, IDRIS, XENIX, MS/DOS, VM/CMS, CPM 68K (3) OTHER TARGETS ARE: M6801-6803, 6805, 6809, 8080, 85, 28, 35, 48, 51; Z-80 (4) ALL ASSEMBLERS INCLUDE LINKER. LIBRARIAN AND CROSS-REFERENCE FACILITY (5) AVAILABLE ON: CALLAN, OMNIBYTE, CHARLES RIVER DATA, PLEXUS, SAGE, FORTUNE, WICAT ... to name a few. /UNIX NATIVE TOOLS □nsvs 60 ABERDEEN AVENUE CAMBRIDGE, MA 02138 (617) 491-4180 NATIVE ASSEMBLERS FOR 68000s < 4 5 > SYMBOLIC C SOURCE CODE DEBUGGER C-TIME PERFORMANCE UTILITY UP/DOWN LINE LOAD UTILITIES COMMUNICATION UTILITIES BASIC-TO-C TRANSLATOR C-BASED FLOATING POINT MATH PACKAGE . . . AND MORE TRADEMARKS UNIX IS A TRADEMARK OF BELL LABORATORIES, XENIX AND MS/DOS ARE MICROSOFT CORPS. IBM/PC. VM/CMS. AND IBM 370 ARE INT’L BUSINESS MACHINES. VAX. PDP-11. LSI-11. VMS. RSX. AND RT-11 ARE TRADEMARKS OF DIGITAL EQUIPMENT CORP. CPM 88K IS DIGITAL RESEARCHES. PRIMOS IS PRIMES; UNOS IS CHARLES RIVER DAT AS; IDRIS IS WHITESMITHS LTD Circle No. 50 on Inquiry Card HUMAN FACTOR The program is currently able to answer, albeit slowly, the kinds of questions typically posed by naive users. An average query is now answered in perhaps a minute of VAX time, which in most cases is acceptable, if tedious. Dr. Wilensky feels that the speed problems can be solved, however, and says that a fast demo system should exist within a couple of months. UC can even show a degree of “common sense.” The request, “I’m trying to get some more disk space”, should not, for instance, generate the response, “Type rm *”, since there is an unstated but vital desire to retain important current files. As Dr. Wilensky notes: “...the answer lacks a cer¬ tain cooperative spirit. A more felicitous answer might be ‘Delete all the files you don’t need’ or ‘Ask It is a non-trivial task for beginners to understand baffling bits of operating system behavior or to discover how to use new commands. the systems manager for more storage”. Perhaps some notes on expert systems should be interjected here. Expert systems are pro¬ grams that act as though they were expert in some discipline re¬ quiring a substantial amount of knowledge. They are generally not used in situations where an algorithm can be used to calculate the desired information. UC is a typical expert system in that it acts as a consultant, assisting humans by means of dialogue. An expert system is made up of facts, rules and an “inference engine.” When presented with a problem situation, an expert system tries to find a path from the problem to a solution through a chain of logic. As these systems work by means of heuristic “rules of thumb” rather than by means of algorithms, there is no guarantee that the optimal solution to a given problem will be found - or, for that matter, that any solution whatsoever will be produced. Since the expert system’s chain of reasoning is not known in advance, and may even be faulty, some check on the system is very much in order. Generally, an ex¬ pert system is able to indicate the form of reasoning it takes to reach its conclusion(s). This is useful to both users and designers, and keeps the system from seeming like a mysterious oracle. THE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE CONNECTION Expert systems originated as a means of exploring artificial intelligence (AI) questions. They are now being produced by a number of companies, both for sale and internal use. Their ap¬ plications are diverse and grow¬ ing, including medical diagnosis, computer system configuration and oil well drilling. Since expert systems are expensive to produce, they are generally used in fields where expertise is both valuable and scarce. Natural language interfaces also had their start in AI, and are in fact still an area of active research. Techniques for under¬ standing natural language have matured enough to allow for com¬ mercial use, with some products i already being sold. UC is largely a research effort into natural language and common sense rea¬ soning, as opposed to expert systems, per se. It allows abbre¬ viated queries, using conversa¬ tional context and a simple model of perceived goals to assist in the understanding process. This lack of useful documentation and help facilities could be made less painful by a mass cloning of gurus. Is UC a first step toward the desired “cloning” of UNIX gurus? Let’s “blue sky” a little about this, but first, a disclaimer: since UC is an experimental system at this time, the reader should be careful not to confuse the following mix¬ ture of facts and columnist fancy with either present reality or Dr. Wilensky’s intended goals. UC is written in FRANZ LISP and PEARL, and so should be reasonably portable. Given this portability, sufficient effort could turn UC into a common UNIX utility. It may well be, though, that UC itself is not the ap¬ propriate basis for an expanded system. Let us talk, therefore, about “GURU: a UNIX Reference Utili¬ ty” - that’s GURU, as in a “Gar¬ rulous UNIX Reference Utility,” or perhaps a “Generally Useful Reference on UNIX.” In any case, GURU is hereby proposed as a col¬ laborative effort by the AI and UNIX research communities. GURU, like UC, must be able 62 UNIX REVIEW JULY 1984 to handle a wide and expanding range of UNIX questions. This would allow GURU to form the basis for a help facility for the en¬ tire UNIX community. Not limited to the simple questions posed by novices, it could assist program¬ mers, system administrators and other souls drowning in the tur¬ bulent C of UNIX usage. GURU might even know about the use of some common languages or some of the more difficult utilities. To be most useful, GURU would need to have an idea of the context in which the user is work¬ ing. It could derive this from the current machine state and from a log of recent user commands. A user faced with an incomprehen¬ sible system message would thus be able to enter, “Huh?” and get a sympathetic or even informative explanation from the resident GURU. Since the members of the UNIX community have varying levels of sophistication, GURU should be able to converse at a level that is neither patronizing nor confusing. Advice that is at the level of a systems programmer will baffle a novice, and novice¬ level advice will infuriate a systems programmer. GURU will need to collect in¬ formation both on UNIX and the types of problems most common¬ ly faced by UNIX users. If GURU is to adapt to the needs of its users, it must be able to keep track of both its successes and its failures. Resident human experts should also be able to add to GURU’s store of knowledge without being familiar with GURU’s internal workings. Finally. GURUs at all participating UNIX sites should be able to share their knowledge in some automated way. The collection and organiza¬ tion of the large body of UNIX lore into a single knowledge base would be an immensely valuable accomplishment, but it is not a trivial task. Knowledge com¬ munication, storage and integra¬ tion are difficult problems. The problem of communication is made somewhat more tractable by UNIX’s networking facilities. A bit of database magic, at the very least, though, would be involved in storing the raw UNIX lore. THE BIG CHALLENGE The integration of knowledge acquired from multiple individ¬ uals is perhaps the most difficult problem. The AI field does not yet have a fully automated solution to the problem of integrating know¬ ledge from disparate sources. In all probability, however, a semi- automated system of some sort could be developed to assist in knowledge base integration and maintenance. With this assist¬ ance, a staff of human gurus would be able to integrate the arriving lore into GURU. “But who would pay for it?” I seem to hear. Well, UC was fund¬ ed in part by the Office of Naval Research (a long-standing sup¬ porter of AI), the National Science Foundation and the Defense Ad¬ vanced Research Projects Admin¬ istration, which funded both AR¬ PANET and Berkeley UNIX. These same folks might be interested in exploring the development of a system like GURU. DARPA, in particular, has good reason to support such an ef¬ fort since it seems to be grooming a BSD version as a replacement for the TENEX/DEC-10 systems it currently uses. If and when DAR¬ PA changes systems, it faces a monumental retraining task. If a GURU is around to help, DARPA’s job might be made considerably easier. All sorts of nice things can be made to happen when money, technology and the efforts of a supportive user community come together. Is anybody interested? In the market for UNIX™ hardware? software? perhaps a whole system? Maybe you’re not sure? In any case remember RULE #1: USERS KNOW [with a little help) Whatever you’re about to buy, it’s always smart to talk to someone who already uses it. At B.A.S.I.S. we routinely use a score of UNIX " software and hardware configurations. Our staff can tell you about the strengths, weaknesses, and quirks of our hardware and software products...from a user’s perspective. Remember, whether you need a big system, a little system, or just a piece of a system, ask someone who uses big systems, little systems, and all the pieces: B.A.S.I.S. B.n.s.i.s. “The UNIX ” Users” 1700 Shattuck Avenue Suite 1 Berkeley, CA 94709 (415) 841-1800 UNIX v is a trademark of Bell Laboratories. Circle No. 290 on Inquiry Card JULY 1984 UNIX REVIEW 63 RULES OF THE GAME Setting the groundrules for copyright law by Glenn Groenewold We call this monthly feature Rules of the Game not only to have a catchy title, but to reflect the game-like quality of our topic. Software law certainly can be a test of wits worthy of any games enthusiast, but there's little risk of it being mistaken for a Parker Brothers creation, which we would assume would at least in¬ clude a comprehensive set of instructions. Games are often valued by the extent to which their rules allow for variety while still anticipating all possible situations. There are very real differences, though, be¬ tween the rules devised for recrea¬ tional pursuits and those that have been developed to govern business activity. This is par¬ ticularly true whenever new technology is involved, since the rules tend to evolve as the game is being played. Participants, therefore, find themselves in the disconcerting position of guessing in advance what the rules will be, knowing that wrong guesses could be disastrous. This, pretty much, has been the situation in the computer in¬ dustry since its inception. Recent¬ ly, though, some high-stakes play has resulted in a court decision which is generally thought to go a long way toward establishing rules for the software game. But it doesn’t go all the way: the deci- f \ _ j sion may raise as many questions as it answers. THE PLAYERS The players in this instance are Franklin Computer Corpora¬ tion and Apple Computer, Inc. Franklin copied 14 Apple II operating programs and incorp¬ orated them in its ACE 100 com¬ puter, making it compatible with software designed to run on the Apple II. Apple called foul and hauled Franklin into court, where Franklin’s activity was at first held legal. Apple then took the case up a notch to the United States Court of Appeals in Philadelphia. Franklin claimed it was not feasible to write its own equiv¬ alents to the Apple operating pro¬ grams and contended that it was allowable to copy Apple’s prog¬ rams since they were not capable of being copyrighted. Apple, hav¬ ing spent an estimated $740,000 on the programs, felt differently, claiming copyright protection for its efforts. In making its defense, Franklin relied on a fundamental contradiction running through the American set of rules for business activity. On the one hand, our society claims dedication to the ideals of full competition and free exchange of ideas. But on the other, we also claim to believe in the protection of private property, including intellectual property. With respect to the latter, these concepts run counter to each other. The law itself embodies this contradiction. Anti trust laws standing for the first concept and laws providing for copyright, pa¬ tent and trade secret protection representing the second. HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE Of course, computer tech¬ nology has presented special pro- Glenn Groenewold is a Cali¬ fornia attorney who divides his time between computer law and service as an administrative law judge. He has been active in trial and appellate work and has argued cases before the state Supreme Court. 64 UNIX REVIEW JULY 1984 E PLURIBUS UNIX* Out of many-there is UNIX E PLURIBUS UNIX EXPO Out of many-there is ... THE UNIX OPERATING SYSTEM EXPOSITION & CONFERENCE October 16, 17, 18, 1984 Sheraton Centre Hotel, New York City— Conference Marina Expo Complex, New York City— Exposition The comprehensive, practical, business/learning event designed solely and specifically to address the myriad technical and business aspects of the UNIX OPERATING SYSTEM. This national trade show is created to bring together manufacturer, ISO and sophisticated end-user in order to facilitate the transaction of business in this dynamic field. Exhibiting in UNIX EXPO will ensure that your firm can position itself in the vanguard of the UNIX revolution, and claim your share of the market dollar. The UNIX Exposition Experience State-of-the-art exposition featuring more than 350 exhibit booths of UNIX related hardware, software, peripherals, professional associations, trade publications, and service organizations Penetrating, multi-track conference pro¬ gram focusing on major technical, marketing, and sales aspects of UNIX Coordinated by noted UNIX advocate James Joyce, the program will assemble industry leaders to address topics of vital interest to all segments of the UNIX environment An innovative, on-site Job Fair hosted by PENCOM SYSTEMS, INC, the nationally recognized leader in UNIX recruiting, will permit exhibiting firms to disseminate information concerning employment oppor¬ tunities Career objectives can be discussed, and meetings with company representatives scheduled New York City —the core of the largest computer marketplace in the world National Expositions, a leader in show management for more than three decades will conduct a massive audience promo program to ensure maximum attendance of qualified UNIX resellers and sophistic ated end-users THE COMPLETE UNIX EXPO EXPERIENCE IS A MUST FOR: MANUFACTURERS WISHING TO SELL, ISO'S, TECHNICAL PERSONNEL AND WHOLESALERS WISHING TO LEARN, END-USERS WISHING TO EXAMINE, COMPARE, AND SELECT. For Complete details regarding exhibit spate availability or attending UNIX FXPO contact National Expositions Co., Inc. 14 West 40th Street, New York, NY 10018. Telephone 212/391-91II Telex: 135401 DIMCOMM •UNIX'"’ IS A REGISTERED TRADEMARK OF BELL LABS UNIX EXPO IS NOT AFFILIATED WITH BELL L>VBS RULES OF THE GAME blems since it doesn’t fall neatly into the law’s traditional cate¬ gories. Early in the 19th century, it was easy to tell the difference between a literary work, which could only be copyrighted, and an invention which could only be patented. But the law has had to decide which category computer programs fit into. At various times they’ve been held to be either both or neither. In copying Apple’s programs, Franklin was betting that the courts would come down square¬ ly on the side of competition. Franklin argued that an operating system is analogous to an ac¬ counting system, which the courts have ruled to be ineligible for copyrighting. In essence, Franklin claimed that an operating prog¬ ram is a process or system, which really means that it is an idea. Franklin followed this line of reasoning because the law dic¬ tates that ideas cannot be copyrighted. The Court of Appeals did not agree with Franklin’s view. It determined (hat Apple’s operating programs constituted a copyright- able expression of an idea. Moreover, the court found that, whether permanently embedded in ROM or not, an operating pro¬ gram is not merely part of a machine - it is a literary work eligible for copyrighting. Beyond the Court of Appeals, there is only the United States Supreme Court. Though Franklin hastened there, the Supreme Court declined to hear its appeal, so the Court of Appeals decision is the last word on the subject for the time being. The story isn’t over yet, though. The Court of Appeals sent the lawsuit back to the lower court with instructions to consider some of the matters not covered in the original decision favoring Franklin. One of the most impor¬ tant of these is whether it would be possible to write other operating programs capable of achieving the same result as Apple’s. If the answer is yes, Ap¬ ple’s copyrights are valid. But if the answer is no, so that as a prac¬ tical matter there is no other way of expressing the idea underlying an Apple program, copyrighting will not be possible. Under the last scenario, it could be said that a “merger” of an idea and its expression has oc¬ curred. When this happens, all bets are off for copyrighting. If the notion of merger seems confusing to you, take comfort in the fact that platoons of lawyers and judges have been puzzled as well. ALTERNATIVES TO COPYRIGHTS Even where such mergers have taken place, program owners may still find protection. There is the possibility that the programs might be patentable , on the theory that they constitute part of the machine operating process. This serves to illustrate why people in the field of computer technology are well advised to always remain aware of the three basic types of protection for intellectual proper¬ ty: copyrights, patents and trade secrets. With the Apple vs. Franklin decision now final, we should at least have a good grasp on the rules for copyright protection, right? Unfortunately, not entirely. To begin with, the Court of Appeals located in Philadelphia is only one of several such courts scattered over the United States. Another lawsuit involving exactly the same question could come before one of the other courts of 66 UNIX REVIEW JULY 1984 appeal and produce different results. If this should happen, the United States Supreme Court could then be expected to resolve the inconsistent holdings. Congress, moreover, is under pressure to change the copyright laws. While this has been the case ever since the present law was enacted, pressure has intensified in the wake of the Supreme Court’s recent Betamax decision. That, you’ll remember, was when the court ruled that people could tape television broadcasts on home VCR units, copyright or no. While the changes being pushed by people unhappy with the Betamax decision won’t be aimed at software, it’s impossible to predict where the horsetrading in Congress will stop once it’s under¬ way. Sometimes even innocuous changes in the law can have unanticipated results. Finally there’s the question of exactly how far a copyright on computer software will actually extend. How completely need a program be rewritten in order to be considered a new expression of an underlying idea? Adam Osborne, for one, has taken the dim view that software copyrights serve to do little apart from preventing outright ripoffs. He points out that if the specifications for a particular objective are given to 100 programmers, there will be virtually no recognizable similari¬ ty among the programs they come up with. “If you cannot copyright the way a keyboard is being used, you have a problem,’’ Osborne asserts. In his view, as soon as the retail cost of a software package drops to about $50, economic considera¬ tions alone will minimize copying problems since it simply won’t be worth the trouble to copy any longer. But stay tuned. There are sure to be exciting developments to come. ■ ©1984 by Glenn Groenewold Help Wanted Tt&gfcimmeiS Work on the most powerful multi-user micros in the business. If you have a background and in-depth knowledge of any of the following give us a call: • Z-80 Assembly • OASIS • UNIX . "C" IBC is looking for a few good programmers to work on the Middi-Cadet, Super-Cadet, and the ENSIGN. If you want a challenge and the satisfaction of seeing your work at the leading edge of technology, Call IBC. 21621 Nordhoff Street Chatsworth, CA 91311 (818) 882-9007 Circle No. 289 on Inquiry Card 1 he chief difficulty was in managing her flamingo. She succeeded in getting its body tucked away with its legs hanging dou 72 , but generally ; just as she got its head nicely straightened out , it would twist itself round and look up in her face'.' Until now, software for office systems has been like the flamingo: As one area is brought under control, another problem pops up. Alis' u changes all that. Alis is the most sophisticated, elegantly integrated, architecturally-open office software system, ever. Alis is portable, and available now to major OEMs. A next-generation office software system from APPLiX ™ Finally, some answers in Wonderland. See Alis at NCC, Booth C3464. /usr/lib as to be misleading. Again, it seems the writing of this chapter was broken off prematurely. Yet another curiosity can be found in the example of logging in where the first letter of the login name is typed in upper case. If my knowledge about various flavors of UNIX is accurate, the typed login: login: Chris Forbes Magazine (Nov. 1983) recently acclaimed Computer Horizons Corp. as one of the best small companies in the United States today: while making us a member of their Up and Comers List for 1983. UNIX Professionals Discover a whole new dimension in professional growth at Computer Horizons Corp. Learn why we are among the top 15 software services firms in the country with a client list that includes numerous Fortune 500 leaders. Currently state-of-the-art projects include development of soft¬ ware modifications to meet specific client applications, as well as de¬ veloping solutions to client problems relating to software computer de¬ sign, evaluation and analysis. If your background includes experience in any of the following areas, we definitely have the opportunity for you. • UNIX ‘C’ • GRAPHICS • SHELL • DATABASES • NETWORKS • INTERNALS Opportunities exist in our offices in New Jersey, New York, Chicago, In¬ diana, Denver and Jacksonville. As a Computer Horizons consultant, you’ll be rewarded with an above av¬ erage salary and comprehensive benefits including major medical, dental and life insurance, relocation assistance, unlimited tuition refund, defer¬ red income savings plan (401K) and our intensive, in-house educational training program to keep you at the top of your profession. So, if you would like to break away from routine and career-limiting as¬ signments ... get on the Computer Horizons road to success ... Please call or send your resume to: Mr. Bob Palmieri, Vice President Personnel In New York Call (212) 371 -9600 Outside Of New York Call (800) 847-4097 |® COMPUTER HORIZONS CORP. 747 Third Avenue, Department U 7/84 New York, NY 10017 An Equal Opportunity Employer M/F “UNIX is a trademark product of Bell Labs should elicit: PASSWORD: if UNIX decides the user is on an upper case only terminal. Other¬ wise, the login will succeed as it does on several UniSoft ports of UNIX to Motorola 68000-based systems. The example of incorrect login cited by Yates and Emerson on page 33 seems incorrect itself. My notes include a long list of typos that apparently eluded reviewers of the original manu¬ script. Perhaps there were too many people involved in the proj¬ ect to allow for proper product con¬ trol. In any event, I hope the typos are corrrected by the next printing. TABLE OF CONTENTS FOR THE BUSINESS GUIDE TO THE UNIX SYSTEM 1. The UNIX System for Busi¬ ness Users (13pp) 2. Getting Started in the UNIX System (33pp) 3. Creating and Editing Docu¬ ments (86pp) 4. The UNIX File and Directory System (45pp) 5. The UNIX File and Directory System, Part 2 (49pp) 6. Making the Shell Work for You (52pp) 7. Communicating with Yourself and Other Users (40pp) 8. Formatting Text Files and Documents (37pp) 9. Advanced Text Formatting with nroff (39pp) 10. System Management and Maintenance (26pp) Appendices A. The Basics of Computer Ter¬ minology (4pp) B. Glossary (lOpp) C. Bibliography (7pp) D. Resources Directory (1 lpp) Indices Symbols (lp) Subject Index (12pp) ■ 72 UNIX REVIEW JULY 1984 PROBLEM SOLVER^ Shell environment settings that make life easier by Bob Toxen Greetings from The Problem Solver. I specialize in finding han¬ dy UNIX solutions to vexing data processing problems - and I mean to pass them on to you. Anything from shell scripts to kernel enhancements on any com¬ mon UNIX version and hardware is fair game. This month, my focus is on shell environments, with an em¬ phasis on how you can specify your terminal type so that pro¬ grams such as vi and rogue work correctly. By “shell environ¬ ments” I mean the information you give the system regarding the type of terminal you are using, the place you want your programs kept, the style you want for programs such as vi and the abbreviations you prefer for commonly used long commands. With a bit of effort up front, you can avoid speci¬ fying your terminal type each and every time you login. One way to specify your terminal type is to enter: % setenv TERM type (if you typically use the C shell) or: $ TERM = type $ export TERM above. This will work great if you always use the same terminal, but most of us are not so static! U. C. Berkeley has solved this problem by creating a database called /etc/ttytype that contains the name of the terminal connected to each port of the computer. The Berkeley people also supplied a program to interpret this database called tset. Almost all UNIX im¬ plementations have /etc/ttytype and tset. The file /etc/ttytype may be edited with any text editor. It con¬ sists of one entry per line. Each entry has the name of the terminal followed by the port it’s connected to. These items must be separated by a tab. One can then put a line in .login or .profile that will allow tset to find the correct entry in /etc/ttytype and set the appropriate environment variable TERM. This can be done by entering: tset -Q -s > /tmp/$$ source /tmp/$$ /bin/rm -f /tmp/$$ in your .login file or by entering: eval ^tset -Q -s^ (if you prefer the Bourne shell) each time you login. (You should, of course, enter the appropriate term- cap description in the place of the word “type. ) This is rather repetitive, though, and is best done automatically. Each time you login, the shell can automatically invoke commands stored in a file in your directory called .login if you use esh, or .pro¬ file if you use sh. If such a file does not already exist, create it and enter the lines given in the example in your .profile file. Bob Toxen is a member of the technical staff at Silicon Graphics , Inc. He has gained a reputation as a leading uucp expert and is responsible for ports of System V for the Zilog 8000 and System III for the Motorola 68000. JULY 1984 UNIX REVIEW 73 PROBLEM SOLVER The -s option causes tset not to print the message. "Erase is Control-H” or "Kill is delete" (these messages may vary slightly depending on what your erase and kill characters are). The -9 op¬ tion causes tset to generate the shell commands needed to set the TERM and TERMCAP variables. Since tset knows which shell you are using, it tailors the commands it generates to be appropriate. One must get the shell to read and process these commands. For csh (the first example) we do this by directing tset output into the file /tmp/$$ and order¬ ing csh to read it with the source command. We then remove the temporary file with the rm command. The $$ in /tmp/$$ is converted to a different number (process ID) each time you login and is unique among all current users, so as to guard against two users accessing the same file simultaneously. The Bourne shell tset command shown above is surrounded by back primes ( ' ) in order to invoke the command inside and supply its output as parameters to eval. which in turn causes the shell to treat the parameters as though they were from standard input. In effect, the shell processes tset out¬ put as a command. There are several things besides setting the ter¬ minal type that can be done automatically by .login or .profile at login time. For example, the addition of the line: msgs -f -p to .login will automatically give you a listing of of¬ fice messages when you login under csh. The -f op¬ tion causes msgs to give the message "No new messages” if there aren’t any. The -p option causes msgs to filter long messages through more so they won’t fly off the screen. Since different terminals have screens holding different numbers of lines (mine displays 40), more must be informed how many lines it should display before stopping. You can do this by specifying your terminal type in .login or .profile. That is why msgs should be executed only sifter one’s terminal type has been specified with tset. To check news, use the command: news -n LOTUS 1-2-3* MOVE OVER QUALITY SOFTWARE ANNOUNCES Q-CALC (version 3.0) • spreadsheet • data management • forms processing • graphics PLUS it runs on UNIX For more information write/call Quality Software Products 348 S. Clark Dr. Beverly Hills, CA 90211 213-659-1560 * Lotus 1-2-3 is a trademark of Lotus Development Corp. Circle No. 52 on Inquiry Card Now Affordable Power and Performance Get all the power you need and all the performance you want from a computer system unmatched in its class - at a realistically affordable price! The M-5 combines the processing speed, large instruction space and sophisticated instruction set of the Motorola 68010 processor with the wide variety of peripherals avail¬ able and fully supported under UNIX* 4.2BSD. The M-5 system features 1.22 MIPS performance, 32 bit internal addressing, and allows you to expand the high-speed memory to 4 megabytes of dual-port no wait state memory. Basic configuration of the M-5 system is: 68010 CPU, 2V4 MB memory, 10 user, 80 MB removable disk drive, 75 ips, 1600 bpi tape drive, and UNIX 4.2BSD. jj i**~’-*r*’ » - f We've saved the best for last. Price for the f M-5 computer system is $29,885. When j you compare power and price, you can't *■ afford not to have an M-5 system. ’ UNIX is o registered trademark of Bell Laboratories Medical Informatics, Inc. 12023 Lakeshore Blvd. • Cleveland, OH 44108 216-249-8353 74 UNIX REVIEW JULY 1984 Circle No. 287 on Inquiry Card to list all current news items. Certain terminal characteristics such as the erase and kill (line delete) characters may be set with stty in .login or .profile. To set your erase character to CNTL-H and your kill character to CNTL-U, give the command: the command: umask 022 The command: umask 077 stty erase kill In some UNIX implementations, one can enter a ^character followed by an H character. In others, you have to enter an actual CTRL-H (by holding down the CTRL key and pressing H). If you have to enter an actual CTRL-H, you will probably have to precede it with a backslash ( \ ). Likewise for CTRL- U. If you are using vi to edit, you can precede either CTRL-H or CTRL-U (or any other special character) with a CTRL-V to be certain it is entered correctly. will prevent others from accessing any file you subse¬ quently create in any way whatsoever. There are also a number of environment variables, like our friend TERM, that can be set so as to save you legwork when writing programs. One such variable is EXINIT, which can be set to make ex and vi act according to your preferences. For ex¬ ample, a C programmer at a company called Silicon Graphics might want to give the command: setenv EXINIT ‘set ai aw r.ab sg Silicon Graphics’ Another common command to issue is the umask command. This will determine the access permissions of any files you subsequently create. To allow anyone to read, write or execute your programs and shell scripts, issue the command: umask 000 To prevent others from writing to your files, enter if she is using csh and: EXINIT = ‘set ai awi:ab sg Silicon Graphics’ export EXINIT if she is using sh. This will set auto indent so that when she enters program source, the current indent level will be maintained (although she can also reduce it by entering a CNTRL-D on a new line). This en- MEDICAL INFORMATICS . . . NIQUE to the WORLD of UNIX'USERS Medical Informatics, your one source for all the computer help you need or only the support you want. Medical Informatics - don't let the name throw you. The industrial, management, university, research and accounting professionals at Ml know data: get¬ ting, organizing and displaying it. Our computer medicine may be just the prescription for your business. Rely on Ml to perform a thorough and unbiased analysis of your operation and to set up a turnkey system, or to just supply that "right" element to enhance your already strong system. You can tailor Ml's service to match your re¬ quirements with a basic system or a greatly expanded system that includes a broad array of Ml hardware and software. Take the Medical Informatics Report Writer and Applica¬ tions Generator (MIRAGE), for example. MIRAGE gives you an information management system to organize and pro¬ cess data from any source. It actually builds custom com¬ puter software to exactly fit your particular needs. MIRAGE allows you to rapidly define the data you want to enter into the computer; it uses your definitions to prompt you to enter, revise and delete data, without error; and, it allows you to quickly specify what data you want retrieved and in what form. But that's what you'd expect from the company that makes computers work the way you always thought they should. TM UNIX Is a trademark of Bell Laboratories. M Medical Informatics, Inc. 12023 Lakeshore Blvd. • Cleveland, OH 44108 216-249-8353 Circle No. 31 on Inquiry Card JULY 1984 UNIX REVIEW 75 PROBLEM SOLVER try will also set auto write mode to automatically write out an edited file whenever she wants to start editing another file. Finally, it will also set up sg to be an abbreviation for “Silicon Graphics” that will be expanded during text entry when followed by a space, punctuation or carriage return (this feature is only available on System III vi and later versions). Rogue players may set their desired options by defining an environment variable called ROGUEOPTS. I use: setenv ROGUEOPTS “fruit Orange, ( jump, askme, flush, name Bobby’’ USEFUL COMMAND ABBREVIATIONS The C shell allows one to create abbreviations for commonly used long commands (this is also possi¬ ble under sh in System V.2, though with different syntax). Some abbreviations are useful to almost everyone and some are useful only in particular ap¬ plications. The C shell has a history capability that can remember recently invoked commands. This history list can be displayed and particular com¬ mands can be re-invoked (even with changes). To set history to keep track of the most recent 20 com¬ mands, give the command: * V?ofU i0 " al9 ,- n g for » ot , c *^S“ k '“' i “S“* e Va•"St'*'”’' eS<* et ' pacificSbell set history = 20 This can be put in one's .cshrc file (or entered at the keyboard). It is also useful to give the command: alias h history to create an abbreviation for the history command itself. Thus to have csh display the last 20 com¬ mands invoked, you can enter: h Each command is numbered, so to re-invoke any of them you can simply refer to the desired one by preceding the appropriate number with a ! char¬ acter such as: ! 17 To avoid having to issue the history (or h) com¬ mand frequently, you can have csh put the history number into the prompt itself by issuing the command: set prompt = ’%’ This will cause the screen to look like this: 1% who 2% mail itsjim What time is the party? Outstanding Learning Motivates And it saves you money. CALL NOW user TRamma (408)370-9710 CORPORaTIOII 591 W. Hamilton Ave. • Campbell, CA 95008 76 UNIX REVIEW JULY 1984 Circle No. 286 on Inquiry Card j user05 s , Saved ;Maii £File HANDS-ON TRAINING SEMIN/UIS • VIDEO-BASED TRAINING • AND NOW INTERACTIVE VIDEO Select your training medium according to the type of training you prefer and the number of people to be trained. VIDEO-BASED TRAINING. The Computer Technology Group’s Video-Based Training integrates professionally de¬ veloped and produced video and text material, as well as hands-on exercises, into complete training programs. Our courses are produced with the highest standards of video quality, applying the latest techniques of instructional design in¬ cluding the use of computer graphics and animation techniques to compress learning time. The students’ time is not wasted with the “camera at the back of the classroom” or “chalk talk" approach which is so inefficient, and often ineffective, in transfer¬ ring skills. Our Video-Based Training courses are completely self-contained, including the hardware-independent hands-on exercises. All you need is a video cassette player. Number of Modules COURSE Video-Based Interactive Computers at Work UNIX—An Executive Perspective UNIX Overview UNIX Fundamentals C’ Language Programming INTERACTIVE VIDEODISC TRAINING. Our new UNIX Videodisc Training Curriculum combines the benefits of our Video-Based Training with the flexibility of microcomputer access. Designed as a one-on-one tutor, our interactive system asses¬ ses the training needs of each student and dynamically tailors the training to his/her specific needs, thus eliminating redundant training. Through engaging exercises and interactive video, we are able to increase student comprehension while reducing train¬ ing time. Developed by the Computer Technology Group and Interactive Training Systems, the curriculum uses the latest laser videodisc technology—including IBM PC, color moni¬ tor and Interactive Training System Controller. PUBLIC AND IN-HOUSE SEMINARS. Both public and in-house seminars are offered on a wide variety of UNIX and ‘C Language subjects, including: UNIX Overview • UNIX Fundamentals for Non-Programmers • UNIX Fundamentals for Programmers • Shell as a Command Language • ‘C Language Programming • Shell Programming • Using Advanced UNIX Commands • UNIX Internals • UNIX Administra¬ tion • Advanced C Programming Workshop • Advanced ‘C’ Programming Under UNIX • Berkeley UNIX Fundamentals and “csh" Shell. TM UNIX is a Trademark of Bell Laboratories Call toll-free: (800) 323-UNIX or in IL (312) 987-4082 310 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago. IL 60604 COMPUTER TECHNOLOGY GROUP Telemedia, Inc. user05 I I Circle No. 35 on Inquiry Card PROBLEM SOLVER DEC ^ TO IBM/SNA Now available...full SNA capability for your DEC computer! Comboard/SNA gives your terminals access to IBM interactive applications. Data can be transfered between systems trans¬ parently, all in the complete fully sup¬ ported package, Comboard/SNA from Software Results. Comboard/SNA is a proven and reli¬ able, single-board, 256KB com¬ munications computer that plugs into your DEC Unibus. Teamed with Corn- board software, the system is a cost- effective solution to troublesome SNA communications problems. Comboard/SNA allows your DEC to emulate an IBM PU Type 2 com¬ munications node. You have a full gateway into your SNA without the trouble of passing through a secondary network. For further information, fill in the coupon below or call Software Re¬ sults... the leader in DEC to IBM com¬ munications. -- SOFTWARE ^ ■■■ ^ RESULTS CORPORATION Call Toll-free 1-800-SRC-DATA ( 1 - 800 - 772 - 3282 ) In Ohio call collect 1-614-267- 2203 2887 Silver Drive, Columbus, Ohio 43211 • Telex: 467-495 SRC DATA Cl COMBOARD'“ Software Results Corporation dec unibus ■ Digital Equipment corporation Circle No. 285 on Inquiry Card IBM, SNA'” International Business Machine Corp -Bob 3% vi mousetrap.c 4% cc -o mousetrap mousetrap.c -Igl -Im ccompiler errors> 5 %! 3 cmore editing stuff> 6 % !4 cmore compiler errors> Still another feature that can be utilized is the terminal bell. Since I can often do desk work during long compiles, I have setup my environment such that my terminal’s bell is rung when my compile is done. I’ve done this by putting the line: alias G echo^G in my .cshrc file and when I want to compile a pro¬ gram, I’ll enter the command: cc -o mousetrap mousetrap.c -Igl -Im ; G to cause a CTRL-G to be sent to my terminal when the cc is done. Printing a CTRL-G on almost any ter¬ minal will cause its bell to be rung. I’ll cover the history facility, including editing, in more depth in a later issue. Another useful feature to put into your .login and .profile file is the command: set mail = (5 /usr/spool/mail/name) (substituting your login name for “name,” of course). This will cause csh to check for new mail belonging to you every five minutes. System III and System V users, however, should use the command: set mail = (5 /usr/mail/name) When one logs out, csh will invoke any com¬ mands stored in a file called .logout. One common set of commands is: /usr/games/fortune -w clear The first command delivers a random fortune message at logout while the -w flag causes fortune to wait for you to read the message before finishing (using the ESP feature). The clear command will then clear the screen in case you have displayed con¬ fidential information (or in case you also gave the -a or -o flags to fortune). The clear program and the enhanced fortune program are from Berkeley. Readers are encouraged to write in with ques¬ tions and suggestions to: Bob Toxen c/o ITS 520 Waller Street San Francisco, CA 94117 ucbvax!Shasta!olympus!bob ■ 78 UNIX REVIEW JULY 1984 DEVIL'S ADV. Continued from Page 12 of them was captured, tortured, then released? I met one of them - he was a vegetable, Sarge, a walkin’ vegetable. He’d given them his name and account number, but they wanted his password. They turned real nasty, 12 hours of OS360, JCL and all - the devils - and reduced him to a zombie.” We shivered and fell silent. The rookie started sobbing. “I never told you, Sarge, but I’ve got a...brother in...IBM. God, it could be him over there, third from the left, the big guy with a Mark III TNW on his shoulder. I tried to warn him. It broke my poor mother’s heart. She used to tell him, ‘Harry,’ she’d say, ‘there’s more to life that making quota in the General Systems Division.’ Know what he said? ‘I know that. Mum,’ he said, ‘but it’s easier than making quota in the Data Processing Division.’ And off he goes.” The Sergeant put a comfor¬ ting arm around the rookie. “There, there, lad. Don’t fret. I know how you feel. I’ve got a sister with Intel...almost as bad, the way things are going.” As I moved on, the loudspeak¬ ers from across the river started up their nightly propaganda onslaught. It was the same stri¬ dent performance, night after night, planned with all the preci¬ sion of a new product launch. “We are your friends,” boom¬ ed the voice of Billy Graham, “We are your brothers. Lay down your phone jacks lest the Lord smiteth thee and tumbleth down thine telegraph poles... Opel three, verse four...” And then the silky, siren voice of Armonk Rose arose, crooning, “Reach Out, Reach Out and Touch My Body! Just Cross the Line and I’m Your Gal!” So the war of nerves con¬ tinued until dawn, when the IBM bombers swept in with impunity, dropping millions of PC-DOS flop¬ pies and forged Del Monte labels. It was a truly awe-inspiring display. Next month: The Tide Turns ■ U N I UniPress Product UPDATE Q-CALC * UNICALC Spreadsheets for Unix Q-Calc ■ Extraordinarily powerful spreadsheet with extensive math and logic facilities. ■ Interfaces with the Unix environment and user programs via pipes, files and subprocesses. ■ Designed for compatibility with our EMACS full¬ screen multi-window editor. ■ Model size 999 by 18,000. ■ Allows sorting and searching. ■ Q-Calc command scnpts supported. ■ Uses termcap. ■ Graphics for bar & pie charts, graphs and color. Pnce: $750 for 68000 2500 for VAX, Perkin Elmer Visi Calc is a trademark of VisiCorp Unix is a trademark of Bell Laboratories UmCalc is a registered trademark of Lattice Inc UniCalc ■ VisiCalc-style spreadsheet for Unix. ■ Powerful Help facilities. ■ Model size: 6*4 by 255. ■ Many math and logical functions. ■ Spreadsheets can be merged. ■ Powerful formatting. Pnce: $350 for 68000 and 8086. $1500 for VAX, Perkin Elmer. Call about other computers. OEM terms available • Much more Unix software, too! Call or wnte for information. UniPress Softuuore, Inc. 1164 Rantan Avenue, Highland Park, NJ 08904 201-985-8000 • Order Desk: 800-222-0550 (outside NJ) Telex: 709418 • Mastercard and Visa Circle No. 37 on Inquiry Card U N I JULY 1984 UNIX REVIEW 79 This is the first installment in a series devoted to alleviating language barriers to UNIX. The focus this month is on the terms new users must first acquaint themselves with. Please note that where terms have multiple meanings, only the ones relevant to starting off with UNIX are given here: # - in the standard UNIX shell (the Bourne shell), the is used as the default character meaning “delete the previous character” on the command line. Successive entries of “ # ”s delete successive characters going back towards the start of the line. Many systems have changed the default from to the backspace (CTRL- H) or the DELETE key (also call¬ ed RUBOUT). You can set your own choice with stty. $ - as a system prompt, this is the common character used by the Bourne shell when it it waiting for user input. The prompt can be changed and in fact appears as dif¬ ferent characters, words or phrases in other shells, such as the Berkeley C shell. % - as a system prompt, the character used by most installa¬ tions running the C shell to in¬ dicate the system is waiting for in¬ put. In many implementations, the “%” is followed by a number THE UNIX GLOSSARY. A boost for beginners by Steve Rosenthal indicating the sequence number of that input line during the cur¬ rent session. * - in filename specifications for the shell, the is a wildcard standing for any sequence of characters. Thus *name matches thisname , thatname , or anyname. Read aloud, it’s usually pro¬ nounced as “star” rather than “asterisk.” . - in a directory listing or pathname, the “.” stands for the name of the current directory. When read aloud, it’s usually pro¬ nounced as “dot”. .. - in directory listings and pathname descriptions, the stands for the parent directory (the directory that includes the current directory as one of its entries). / - commonly called “slash,” this character separates direc¬ tories in pathnames, and stands for the root directory if first in path. It is often called “root” for that reason. > - the “greater than” sign or right angle bracket. When placed after a command name in a com¬ mand line for the shell, it tells the interpreter to redirect output that normally would have gone to the standard output device for that command (usually to screen). The output will go to whatever device or file is specified following the “>” on the command line. > > - used in a command line to the shell, the “>>” says to redirect the output produced by the command on its left to the file named on its right. The new material is appended to the end of the receiving file. ? - as part of a file specification for the shell, the “?” matches any single character. Thus ?file would match ofiie, ifile or afilc. @ - called the “at” sign, this character is used in the standard (Bourne) shell as a request to Steve Rosenthal is a lexicographer and writer living in Berkeley. His columns regularly appear in six microcomputer magazines. 80 UNIX REVIEW JULY 1984 cancel all characters entered on the current line (many installa¬ tions, however, have changed to CTRL-X and CTRL-U for this pur¬ pose, and you can set your own choice with stty). argument - in a command line to the shell, a string, value, filename or other piece of informa¬ tion that is used as data or input by the program invoked by the command. A command may also accept one or more options as well as arguments. at sign — as used in UNIX documentation, the character @. See “@” for more details. baud rate - in the context of configuring terminals or setting terminal characteristics, the rate at which the terminal com¬ municates (it is often referred to as “terminal speed” as a result). For connections of this sort, the baud rate is generally 10 times the number of characters transmitted per second. The usual baud rates are 300 or 1200 baud for dial-up telephone links, and 9600 or 19,200 for hardwired (directly connected) terminals. At many in¬ stallations, login will attempt to recognize baud rate, and you can set the baud rate with stty. block - as applied to system statistics, a unit of disk storage. Blocks were 512 characters until System V, which uses 1024-byte blocks. Berkeley releases use 4096-byte long blocks. Some systems limit the number of blocks that a user can claim and commercial systems often charge users a fee based on average and number of maximum blocks used. break - a special signal sent from a terminal to indicate that it wants to interrupt the normal functioning of the system. At most installations, if the system isn’t set for the correct baud rate (trans¬ mission speed) for your terminal and you attempt to login, you get garbage characters back. If you hit BREAK and then RETURN, the system will attempt to set itself to your baud rate. BREAK also inter¬ rupts running programs and brings you back to the shell. Not all terminals produce the break signal. At many installations, CTRL-P or DEL will also interrupt a running program, but often is useless in resetting the baud rate. u N i UniPress Product UPDATE LEXWORD word processing software LEX is a menu-driven, full-screen, interactive word processing system which allows extensive control over document formatting by use of “rulers” imbedded in the text. Runs on 68000 and 8086-based computers with any kind of terminal. In addition to such standard features as text insertion and deletion, LEX incorporates a four-function math calculator, very powerful cut and paste, a spell-checking system and a built-in customer/contact mass-mailing/database. LEX is easily programmable so that U N I custom forms, menus and prompts can be designed. LEX also permits standard text to be stored and recalled easily into documents. OEM terms available • Much more Unix Software, too! • Call or write for information. UniPress Software, Inc. 1164 Raritan Avenue, Highland Park, NJ 08904 201-985-8000 • Order Desk: 800-222-0550 (outside NJ) Telex: 709418 • Mastercard and Visa Unix is a trademark of Bell Laboratories Circle No. 38 on Inquiry Card R E JULY 1984 UNIX REVIEW 81 UNIX. An ideal has been realized. Some say UNIX is the operating system of the future. We say, why wait till then? Because you can get it right now on a full range of HP computer systems. Yes. It’s running on our MC68000-based machines and our powerful 32-bit systems, so you can pick the right computer for the job. And since our HP-UX operating system is an enhanced version of the industry-standard UNIX operating system, you can take advantage of the growing array of applica¬ tions software available. You can also use the extra features of HP-UX, such as graphics and networking. The UNIX operating system is only one of the high-powered operating systems we offer. And we put our full service organiza¬ tion behind all of them. We’re ready to answer questions and to work with both end users and OEMs to find the best solution for any particular application. Sound interesting? Call your local HP sales office right now about the UNIX oper¬ ating system. Or write to Hewlett-Packard, Attn. Pat Welch, Dept. 100194,19447 Pruneridge Ave., Cupertino, CA 95014. In Europe, contact Henk van Lammeren, Hewlett-Packard, Nederlands B.V., Dept. 100194, P.O. Box 529,1180 AM Amstelveen, The Netherlands. Productivity. Not promises. HEWLETT PACKARD BD02317 UNIX is a trademark of AT&T Bel) Laboratories. Circle No. 39 on Inquiry Card THE UNIX GLOSSARY cat - the concatenate files com¬ mand. The theoretical purpose of this command is to combine several files, but its most common use is to list file contents to screen. It still accomplishes its official pur¬ pose, however, and it can also be used to create a new file from standard input. cd - the change directory com¬ mand. This command sets the current directory (the one used as a starting point for partial or relative pathnames). A new direc¬ tory must first be created before you can make it your working directory. command - at the shell level, an instruction to do something. A command is made of one or more words, with the first word being the name of a program that the system can invoke to carry out the command (often that first word itself is referred to as the com¬ mand). Many commands allow or require one or more options (preceded by a “ - ” or “ + ” sign) and a parameter list of expres¬ sions, filenames or other data values. At least one space must separate each of these elements. cp - the command to copy files. This file makes duplicates of the specified files, leaving the originals where they were. It can also used to create files by copy¬ ing from /dev/tty. date - the command used to display date and time. The superuser can also use this com¬ mand to set the date and time. del - one of the names for the ASCII delete character (code value 127 decimal). At some installa¬ tions, the DEL key is used to delete the last character on the current input line. It’s also used to interrupt a program in progress. end of file character - the character that says that this is the 84 UNIX REVIEW JULY 1984 logical end of file, even though there may or may not be more characters before the physical end of file. For the shell, the character is CTRL-D (ASCII code 4). Many programs that accept multiple lines or free-form input from the console require the CTRL-D to be followed by a RETURN for it to be understood as end of file. erase - the parameter that you use with the stty program to set a new value for the erase character (the one that deletes the last character on the current input line). The syntax is: stty erase x where “x” is the new erase character. erase character - the meta¬ character that the shell takes as an instruction to erase the last character on the current input line. Originally, this was the but most installations now accept BACKSPACE (ASCII 8 decimal) or DEL (ASCII 127 decimal). See “erase” for how to set this value with stty. /etc/motd - the file containing the message-of-the-day, the short news bulletin from the system ad¬ ministrator displayed during login. filter - a program that takes in¬ put from a single file, applies some transformational rule to it and then outputs the result to a single file. Many of the UNIX utilities and commands are filters since the UNIX pipe facility makes it easy to combine filters in pipelines to combine the effects of several transformations. Filters are most often applied to text files, but you can also filter other types of files. finger - a command provided in the Berkeley enhancements that tells more information about other logged-in users than is pro¬ vided by the standard system who command. At most installations, finger shows the real name (in ad¬ dition to login name), address and office phone number where the user can be reached. full duplex - a connection be¬ tween terminal and computer that allows data to be transmitted both ways at once. Even more impor¬ tantly, characters entered at a ter¬ minal are not displayed until they are echoed back by the system (which can change them before sending them back, act on them or swallow them to hide what was entered - as during the password routine). Older printing terminals often ran in half duplex (where the character was printed without be¬ ing echoed back from the system). If you get doubled characters on the screen when you type but not when the system is outputting, it means that your terminal or modem is set for half duplex. To change the duplex setting of the system as it talks to you, use stty. group - a collection of users that can share ownership or rights to files. The system administrator assigns users to groups when the user’s account is created. half duplex - as applied to con¬ nections between terminals and the system, this refers to data transmissions that go only one direction at a time. See “full duplex” for details. home directory - the default directory for a particular user. On most systems, it is assigned by the system administrator and then automatically selected by login. kill - 1) the command to delete the current line. The shell takes a specified character as the instruc¬ tion to kill the current line. In the original shell, the kill character was the sign, but many in- stallations have changed it to CTRL-X or CTRL-U. You can select your own kill character with stty. 2 ) to remove a running pro¬ cess (program) from the system. See a later installment for more details. kill character - the character that the shell interprets as an in¬ struction to delete the current in¬ put line. The original kill character was the sign, but most installations now accept CTRL-X and CTRL-U. You can change your kill character with stty. learn - used both as the name of a general CAI (computer- assisted instruction) program and the name of a program running a set of lessons about UNIX. login - 1) the command to let a user begin a session with UNIX. The command invokes the utility program that checks the user name and password, and sets in¬ itial user-specific parameters such as home directory. It’s normally invoked after getty, and finishes by running the shell scripts /etc/profile (for system initializa¬ tion and messages) and the users own .profile (for user-specific in¬ itialization). 2) a common term for the login name, the name by which the system knows each user. 3) (usually as login:), the common prompt from the login utility requesting that the user enter a login name. On some systems, if the login name is entered starting with an upper case letter, the system assumes the user has an upper case only terminal. login incorrect - a message that some UNIX installations pro¬ vide when the entered login name is not found or the password is in¬ correct. Some installations pro¬ vide no hint of what is wrong in order to make it more difficult to crack the system. login name - the name that a user gives to sign on to the system. It’s usually assigned by the system administrator, and may be a form of the user’s real name, a symbolic name or something completely fanciful. logout - 1) the command to leave the system (you can also THE HARDWARE/SOFTWARE SOLUTION FOR UNIX V Convergent Technology Mini-Frame OEM (32 bit — 8 User System) • Up to 2M Bytes Memory • 26MB, 50MB or 140MB Disk • RS-232, RS-422 ports • PT-100 Intelligent Terminal • GT-100 Intelligent Graphics Terminal • Program Languages: CTIX "C. Cobol. Basic. Fortran. Pascal. RM Cobol, RM Fortran 30 Day Availability Unix V Software • Virtual Memory/Berkley Enhancements • Accounting (includes AR AP GL & Inv.) • Spread Sheet • Word Processing • CAD (Computer Aided Design) • Relational Data Base • IBM PC Networking We will convert your Cobol, Dibol or Fortran & Basic programs to run on Convergent Mini-Frames. Call today for prices and literature Excellent lease programs available SOFTWARE INC. r 5200 W. 73RD ST.* MINNEAPOLIS, MN 55435 (612) 835-4737 Circle No. 284 on Inquiry Card 4 € / c MIPS, SOFTWARE PROVIDES THE APL - UNIX® SOLUTION: DYALOG APL UNIX® based - fully functional commercial APL including nested arrays, upper and lower case data sup¬ port for the UNIX® environment, dynamic workspace size, external functions (callable subroutines written in other languages) full screen editor, error trapping, com¬ mercial formatter and a host of other desirable features. DYALOG APL is available for a variety of UNIX® computing environments including VAX®. PE, Gould, 3 B Series', NCR Tower, Zilog, Fortune, Perq, Ridge 1 . Pyramid 1 , and Sun 1 . For further information about DYALOG APL on your 68(XX), 16032 or 8086 base system, call or write today. MIPS Software Development. Inc. 31555 West 14 Mile Road Suite 104 Farmington Hills. MI 48018 313-855-3552 UNIX* is .i lr.ulcMi.uk nl Boll laboratories VAX’ in a trademark ol Digital Equipment Corporation. I Call liu VailabiliU naOO t Ocj _Op a Circle No. 283 on Inquiry Card JULY 1984 UNIX REVIEW 85 THE UNIX GLOSSARY enter “login”, or a CTRL-D and return to the prompt on most systems) 2) the act of leaving the system. man - the command to display sections from an online copy of the UNIX manual. It shows sections of the actual manual, along with page references to the printed ver¬ sion. If man is followed by a com¬ mand name (e.g. man cat), it displays the section of the manual explaining that command. message-of-the-day - the system identification and news from the system administrator presented by login after the user name and password have been accepted. metacharacters - characters that are presumed to be com¬ mands or arguments for the shell. Typically, the list includes: < > * ? & @ and # In order to be entered as normal characters, they must be “escaped” or “quoted” by a preceding “\” character. mode - the collection of permis¬ sions attached to a file. The owner of a file (and, of course, the superuser) can change the file’s mode. See “permissions” for more details. motd - 1) the file containing the “message of the day,” the news bulletin from the system ad¬ ministrator displayed for users during the login process. Its full name is usually /etc/motd. newline - the characters that end lines for the shell. It is normal¬ ly RETURN (ASCII 13 decimal) for input, and RETURN followed by LINEFEED (ASCII 10 decimal) for output. These defaults can be changed by using stty. parity - an extra check bit that can be added to characters for data communications or in storage. For terminals, parity can be odd, even, mark (1) or space (0). At most installations, the login utility attempts to set the system to match your terminal, but if this doesn’t work or you want to change the setting you can use stty. Circle No. 282 on Inquiry Card ► Circle No. 276 on Inquiry Card 86 UNIX REVIEW JULY 1984 ONE SIZE FITS ALL m m ' Heurikon presents Minibox - a multiuser UNIX workstation based on its powerful HK68™ single board microcomputer and Uniplus+™ UNIX System III or System V operating system with Berkeley enhance¬ ments. Designed with the OEM in mind, one size fits all Both compact and flexible, the Minibox includes within its 10.5"w x 13.9"h x 20.5"l frame a 200 or 400 watt power supply, six slot Multibus™card cage, (4-5 available for user use!), single double density floppy disk drive, streamer tape drive, and 31 or 65 Mbyte Winchester drive (expandable to 280 Mbytes). All this within the same cabinet! System status LEDS on the front panel in¬ form the user of CPU and disk drive activity. With Uniplus+™, Minibox becomes a flexible and affordable tool for program development, text preparation, and general office tasks. Included is a full "C" com¬ piler, associated assembler and linker/loader. Optional languages are: Macro assembler, ISO Pascal compiler, FORTRAN-77 compiler, RM-COBOL™, SVS BASIC (DEC BASIC compatible inter¬ preter), SMC BASIC (Basic-Four BB3 com¬ patible interpreter), and Ada 1M . Other utilities include UltraCalc™ multiuser spread sheet, Unify™ DBM, Ethernet™, and floating point processor. Alternate operating systems available are PolyForth , Regulus™, CP/M 68K™, and others. ’UNIX is a trademark of Bell Laboratories. Unify is a trademark of Unify Corp. UltraCalc is a trademark of Olympus Software. Ethernet is a trademark of Xerox Corp. Uniplus + is a trademark of UniSoft Corp. PolyForth is a trademark of Forth, Inc. Regulus is a trademark of Alcyon Corp. CP/M-68K is a trademark of Digital Research. Ada is a registered trademark of the U.S. government, Ada Joint Pro¬ gram Office. RM-COBOL is a trademark of Ryan- McFarland Corp. HK6S is a trademark of Heuri¬ kon Corp. Multibus is a trademark of Intel Corp. HELRIK0N 3001 Latham Drive Madison. Wl 53713 Telex 469532 800/356-9602 In Wisconsin 608/271.8700 Only Microware's OS-9 Operating System Covers the Entire 68000 Spectrum MICROWARE’S OS-9 UNIX ROM-BASED FLOPPY-DISK BASED DISK-BASED SMALL-SCALE LARGE-SCALE CONTROL PERSONAL INDUSTRIAL TIMESHARING TIMESHARING SYSTEMS COMPUTERS SYSTEMS SYSTEMS SYSTEMS HAND-HELD HARDWARE/SOFTWARE SINGLE USER MEDIUM-SCALE COMPUTERS DEVELOPMENT SYSTEMS MULTI-TASKING SYSTEMS TIMESHARING SYSTEMS SMALL SYSTEMS LARGE SYSTEMS Is complicated software and expensive hardware keeping you back from Unix? Look into OS-9, the operating system from Microware that gives 68000 systems a Unix-style environment with much less overhead and complexity. OS-9 is versatile, inexpensive, and delivers outstanding performance on any size system. The OS-9 executive is much smaller and far more ef¬ ficient than Unix because it's written in fast, compact as¬ sembly language, making it ideal for critical real-time ap¬ plications. OS-9 can run on a broad range of 8 to 32 bit systems based on the 68000 or 6809 family MPUs from ROM-based industrial con¬ trollers up to large multiuser systems. OS-9'S OUTSTANDING C COMPILER IS YOUR BRIDGE TO UNIX Microwane's C compiler tech¬ nology is another OS-9 advantage. The compiler produces extremely fast, compact, and ROMable code. You can easily develop and port system or application software back and forth to standard Unix systems. Cross-compiler versions for VAX and PDP-11 make coordinated Unix/OS-9 software development a pleasure. SUPPORT FOR MODULAR SOFTWARE - AN OS-9 EXCLUSIVE Comprehensive support for modular software puts OS-9 a generation ahead of other operating systems. It multiplies programmer productivity and memory efficiency. Applica¬ tion software can be built from individually testable software modules including standard "library" modules. The modular structure lets you customize and recon¬ figure OS-9 for specific hard¬ ware easily and quickly. A SYSTEM WITH A PROVEN TRACK RECORD Once an underground classic, OS-9 is now a solid hit. Since 1980 OS-9 has been ported to over a hun¬ dred 6809 and 68000 systems under license to some of the biggest names in the business. OS-9 has been imbedded in numerous consumer, industrial, and OEM products, and is supported by many independent software suppliers. Key OS-9 Features At A Glance • Compact (16K) ROMable executive written in assembly language • User "shell” and complete utility set written in C • C-source code level compatibility with Unix • Full Multitasking/multiuser capabilities • Modular design - extremely easy to adapt, modify, or expand • Unix-type tree structured file system • Rugged "crash-proof” file structure with record locking • Works well with floppy disk or ROM-based systems • Uses hardware or software memory management • High performance C, Pascal, Basic and Cobol compilers — 7nuxmvm^~ 0S-9 MICROWARE SYSTEMS CORPORATION 1866 NW 114th Street Des Moines, Iowa 50322 Phone 515-224-1929 Telex 910-520-2535 OS-9 is a trademark of Microware and Motorola. Unix Microware Japan, Ltd 3-8-9 Baraki, Ichikawa City Chiba 272-01, Japan Phone 0473(28)4493 Telex 299-3122 is a trademark of Bell Labs. THE UNIX GLOSSARY partial pathname - a path¬ name (description of where a file is to be found) that starts from the current directory instead of from root. It therefore starts with a directory name rather than with the character. password - a character se¬ quence that the user enters to con¬ firm his or her identity. When a new account is set up by the the system administrator, it may have no password or system-assigned password. Users are responsible for picking a password and ac¬ tivating it for their account with the passwd command. Some systems enforce rules that passwords must be at least six characters long (and usually less than 12). Most people, unfor¬ tunately, pick a familiar word, name or birthday as their password, making it easy for others to access their accounts. permission - the rights to read, write to or execute a file. Each of these three can be granted or withheld to the file owner, the owner’s group and the public (all other users). Permissions are set by the file’s creator and changed with the chmod (change mode) command. The combination of the read, write and execute rights plus two specialized file attributes (the setuserid and sticky bit) jointly make up the mode. prompt - a message that a pro¬ gram is awaiting input. The nor- 88 UNIX REVIEW JULY 1984 mal shell prompt is “$” or with the latter optionally followed by number, but most systems allow either administrators or or¬ dinary users to change their prompt. pwd - the command to print wrking directory, or display the full pathname from root to the user’s current directory. This command should be used to ascer¬ tain your location in the file system when in doubt, especially before deleting files. rm - the command to remove files. It will not remove directories unless used with the -r option. File with multiple links (more than one name or alias) are not lost until the last link is removed. rmdir - the command to re¬ move directories. It will only remove empty directories (be¬ cause otherwise there would be no path to the files the deleted direc¬ tories included). root - 1) the source of the file system (the root directory). All other directories are located relative to root. 2) in frequent usage, the character “/” (which stands for the root directory when located first in a pathname). .profile - a file used to set user interface characteristics. It’s ex¬ ecuted as a shell script just after login. rubout - an older name for the character now called DEL or DELETE on most terminals. It is the control character with ASCII value 127 decimal. See “delete” for more details. sharp - a name used in some UNIX documentation for the character stty - the command used to set the system to your terminal’s characteristics. At most installa¬ tions, the system will try to deduce what settings it can from your login (such as baud rate, pari¬ ty and so on). A common use is to change the default characters used for delete character and kill line to your particular choices, and to set on or off the conversion of tabs to spaces. userid - an integer value that corresponds to a user name, and is used internally by many UNIX system programs to identify a user. who - the command to list who is currently logged into the system. The default display on most systems shows user name, terminal and the date and time logged in. \ - a metacharacter (a character that has special meaning to the command interpreter) used as the escape character, changing the meaning of the character after it. It means, “take the next character literally, ignoring any special meaning.” The “\” is itself a metacharacter, so to enter it into a shell line it must be entered as | - the symbol used to indicate to the shell that a pipe should be set up, sending the output produc¬ ed by a program to the left of the “|” to the standard input of the program on the right. If you have comments , please send them to Rosenthal's UNIX Glossary, Box 9291, Berkeley, CA 94709 . ■ Circle No. 281 on Inquiry Card ► BIZPAK bv CSSI Corp. Full Featured Business Software For UNIX Based Systems Accounts Payable Accounts Receivable General Ledger Inventory ' Order Processing ’ Sales Analysis ' Payroll * Ideal for OEM’s * Source Licenses * Available Now!! Multi-Company Multi-User Multi-Terminal Multi-Warehouse R/M COBOL™ Fully Integrated Scrolling CSSI Corp. 10700 Lyndale Avenue South Bloomington. MN 55420 / 612-881-4501 BlZPAK is a trademark of CSSl Corp R M COBOL is a trademark o» Ryan McFarland Corp UNIX ,S a trademark of Ben Labs Circle No. 240 on Inquiry Card Let 20,000 potential buyers spend four days climbing all oyer your UNIX-related products. UNIX* SYSTEMS EXPO/84 (USE/84) A unique marketing opportunity for suppliers of UNIX-related software, hardware, systems, and services. THE UNIX SHOW FOR USERS AND RESELLERS: USE/84 is the only UNIX-oriented show that focuses on UNIX users, including Fortune 1000 MIS management, as well as critical value-added resellers. In association with Gnostic Concepts, Inc., we have identified high-market- potential user and reseller audiences and have shaped exhibit and confer¬ ence content to meet their concerns. AN EXCITING SHOWCASE: Five hundred booths will be filled by some 200 exhibitors at the modern, spacious Los Angeles Convention Center, an easy-to-reach, profession¬ ally-run facility in the heart of one of the country’s largest computer markets. And both exhibits and conference ses¬ sions are under one roof at the Convention Center. PLUS TOP FLIGHT CONFERENCES: USE/84 is also a compelling profes¬ sional conference featuring many of the industry’s most respected UNIX authorities. Conference sessions, tutorials, and panel discussions are designed with the guidance of Gnostic Concepts, Inc., and David Fiedler, Editor of the influential newsletter Unique . ATTENDANCE-BUILDING PROMOTION: An aggressive advertising and pro¬ motion campaign is aimed at UNIX resellers and users—an audience no UNIX-oriented show has ever before reached. VALUABLE MARKET RESEARCH: Exhibitors will receive an in-depth attendee market analysis created by Gnostic Concepts, Inc., based on extensive interviewing on the exhibit floor. SPECIAL DISCOUNT FOR START-UPS: Start-up companies will have an extra¬ ordinary opportunity to participate in this important marketing event at a significant discount. PROFESSIONAL MANAGEMENT: USE/84 is developed and managed by Computer Faire, Inc., the proven team behind the Ninth West Coast Computer Faire, the highly successful PC Faire, and a growing list of well-focused, user-oriented Computer Faire events across the country. is v ‘s 8 €3 -3 USE/84 Unix Systems Expo/84 September 11-14, 1984 Los Angeles Convention Center Call or write for complete exhibitor information, floor plans, and contracts. Computer Faire, Inc. A Prentice-Hall Company 181 Wells Avenue Newton, Massachusetts 02159 617/965-8350 611 Veterans Boulevard Redwood City, California 94063 415/364-4294 •UNIX is a trademark of AT&T Bell Laboratories. AT&T FEATURE 3B2 REVIEW Continued, from Page 19 AT&T would want to push its highly respected (separately available) Writer’s Workbench software for spelling, punctuation and style checks on text files, but one cannot help but miss the usual spelling checker (spell) and text output formatters (nroff and troff) on the core package. The ability to view a text file a screenful at a time is also mis¬ sing on the 3B2. While one could generate a shell script to perform this function, the addition of more or page would be appreciated. Another missing feature is the online manual, though this is understandable on a limited disk storage machine (if one considers 32 MB to be limited). C PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE AND UTILITIES The optional C programming utilities package is supplied on five floppy diskettes and is divid¬ ed into three subpackages. Two floppies contain the C language and associated library files and commands, while another two 24-hour, UNIX System III timesharing via Telenet. As low as $5.95 per hour connect + S.03/cpu sec nonprime. No additional charge for 1200 baud. C, F0RTRAN77, PASCAL, SNOBOL, RAT- FOR, COBOL, BS, ASSEMBLER, and LISP USENET Bulletin Board System typically brings you over 160 new articles per day in 190+ newsgroups from a network of over 800 UNIX sites worldwide. $24.95 brings you 1 hr. FREE system time + BYTE BOOK Introducing The UNIX System by Morgan & McGilton (556 pp.) + Solution News subscription. ^.rrrrs, 5701 Prescott Avenue Lincoln. Nebraska 68506*5155 .KW'M.roGNM:/ 402-483-2238 Circle No. 272 on Inquiry Card contain the Software Generation Utilities Package and the remain¬ ing one supplies the Extended Software Generation Package. The amount of hard disk storage needed to hold this software is ap¬ proximately 2.4 MB. The C language package pro¬ vides commands that are used to generate and maintain C language programs. Commands present are cc (C compiler), cb (C beautifier), cflow (C flowgraph generator) and lint. The cc command has the usual dozen or so options which allow for specifying output object code filenames, library search order, object-code optimizer in¬ vocation and preprocessor result retention. It is not flawless. We en¬ countered a very frustrating ex¬ perience when we attempted to compile C programs utilizing floating point operations. The cc command produced no error messages upon compilation, but programs would nevertheless abort with an illegal instruction error message. The compiler’s default condition, it turns out, is for hardware floating point sup¬ port. As the 3B2 does not support a hardware floating point unit presently, this seems strange. One must invoke compilation with: cc -f sourcefile This is fine except that the C com¬ piler general utilities section of the C manual makes no mention of the -f option. Examination of the standard UNIX manual page for cc does describe its usage, however. Also noteworthy is mention of an OA (optimize assembler code) op¬ tion under general information but not on the manual page. In actual use, -OA produced a usage error message. The cflow command is an ex¬ tremely useful one that analyzes a collection of C and - optionally - lex, yacc, assembler source and object files to build a graph char¬ ting external references. This graph is in the form of an outline style invocation tree. Its use is in multiple and single program logic debugging. The lint program, considered to be a standard C utility, is a pro¬ gram checker that attempts to detect features that are either bugs, non-portable or wasteful. Type usage is also checked more strictly than by cc. Errors detected include infinite loops, unreachable statements, variables that are declared but not used and logical expressions that never vary (i.e. 1 < = 2 ). The Software Generation Utilities Package supplied with the C language provides commands that are used to write, maintain and debug programs in various languages. Typical commands in¬ clude: ar, an archive and library maintainer; as, a WE 32000 assembler; dis, an object code disassembler; and m4, a macro processor. Additional commands found in the Extended Software Generation Package include lex, yacc and make. DOCUMENTATION Documentation for the 3B2 consists of four 8 by 10 inch loose- leaf binders prepared by Western Electric. The first that should be read is the Owner/Operator Manual , which covers installation of hardware and setting up the operating system for your specific situation. In our case, the com¬ puter was delivered and set up by an AT&T Technologies technician familiar with the system. The Owner/Operator Manual is written to allow even first-time computer users to get the system up and running in a few hours. While the bulk of the software is pre-loaded on the hard disk, some material will have to be loaded from floppy disks by the user. The manual walks through the numerous steps in a gentle man¬ ner, but someone unfamiliar with 90 UNIX REVIEW JULY 1984 RHODNIUS Incorporated lOSt. Mary Street,Toronto,Ontario,CanadaM4Y 1P9 (416)922-1743 Telex:06-986766TOR. Come meet MISTRESS at Comdex (Booth S9424-26) and Uniforum (Booth 703) MISTRESS is the fully rela¬ tional database management system (RDBMS) for UNIX? It features the Structured Query Language (SQL*) for the end user as well as stand¬ ard programming interfaces to the C language for the DP professional. Advanced con¬ cepts include variable-length character fields, dynamic stor¬ age allocation, and B+ Tree indexing. MISTRESS has been designed exclusively for the UNIX environment and is totally written in C. MISTRESS/32 is the advanced relational database management system for extended addressing UNIX products. MISTRESS/32 features enhanced capabilities for security, recovery and data integrity, as well as a fully integrated report writer and screen interface. MISTRESS/32 is the recom¬ mended system for more demanding applications. ‘UNIX is a trademark of Bell Labs. IBM and SOL are trademarks of International Business Machines. Circle No. 266 on Inquiry Card AT&T FEATURE a computer in general and UNIX specifically, may find getting all of the setup parameters correct, assigning passwords and so on a bit bewildering. One of the items missing in this manual is a good overview of just what the system is. Perhaps this type of information will be made available at the retail level, since 3B2 purchases are probably not going to be quite as casual as purchases of some other micros. The User Guide and Essential Utilities Manual , supplied as part of the standard 3B2 system, is unusually well written and organized. That is, it’s well written for a UNIX manual. It comes divid¬ ed into two main sections: a UNIX introduction and an actual utility commands reference. An overview of UNIX in¬ cluding file structure and securi¬ ty features, is presented in the documentation before discussions of system login and command invocation. Fundamental com¬ mands for changing directories, listing or printing text files and user communication are explain- The UNIX System Utilities Manual format is similar in nature to the second half of the User’s Guide. Commands are described in the normal UNIX documenta¬ tion manner but are grouped into packages. While commands are alphabetized within packages, a separate appendix must be con¬ sulted for a complete, alphabetiz¬ ed command listing. A reader is then referred to the appropriate package. In use, this makes sense from a learning perspective but it is a hindrance as a reference guide. Typical chapters in the utilities manual include “Edit¬ ing,” “Shell Programming” and “User Environment.” The user environment chapter contains ex¬ planations of banner (large letter printing), cal (monthly calendar listing) and calendar (an event reminder utility). Also contained are sections associated with C pro¬ gramming. Subroutines which may included in a user’s source program are detailed as well as C program-invokable UNIX system calls. While the manual is generally thorough at over 400 pages, the lack of any type of index is both frustrating and perplexing. ed in clear non-technical terms with many examples. The command summary por¬ tion of the manual is presented in a normal UNIX manner - by name, syntax synopsis, descrip¬ tion of usage and references to associated files or commands. Also present, where appropriate, are bug descriptions and diag¬ nostic message explanations. 92 UNIX REVIEW JULY 1984 The C Programming Lan¬ guage Manual describes C pro¬ gramming commands, system calls, subroutines and libraries. It does not purport to be, and is not, a C language tutorial. Topics that are discussed in depth are C gram¬ mar, functions and lexical conven¬ tions. Another section is devoted to C-associated utility programs. The lint program checker and sdb, a symbolic debugging pro¬ gram, are covered with many ex¬ amples. Appendixes contain UNIX manual pages that provide references for commands relating to the C language, libraries or utilities. While the manual is generally thorough at over 400 pages, the lack of any type of index is both frustrating and perplexing. INTERIM CONCLUSIONS So far we feel that the 3B2 Model 300 is an example of a well designed and implemented com¬ puter. From our experience the machine is supported by a knowledgeable and enthusiastic group at AT&T Technologies. It will be interesting to see how this computer compares to other UNIX systems in respect to perfor¬ mance. We have started bench¬ mark testing and will report results in the second part of this review. We are also looking for¬ ward to evaluating the Teletype Model 5620 dot-mapped graphics display as part of that same effort. Harry Avant's work at Jet Pro¬ pulsion Laboratory involves the evaluation of microcomputer hard¬ ware and software. His articles have appeared in several publications con¬ cerned with microcomputers. C. Andy Felong is a member of the technical staff at Jet Propulsion Laboratory specializing in graphics and system support. He is a long standing member of USENIX and has contributed articles to several computer-related publications. Mr. Felong also co-authored LNWBASIC\ a graphics-oriented BASIC interpreter. ■ ©1984 by Harry Avant and C. Andy Felong R&D Professionals (Software Management & Software Development Engineers) Join me at South Florida’s Racal-Milgo, a solution -oriented company where you’ll participate in the decision-making' unencumbered by excessive layers of management. 99 Address. "Or if your interest is Software Development Engineering, with Racal-Milgo you could develop systems architecture from inception to completion.. .working in an advanced soft¬ ware development environment with all the current 'tools! Right now we’re seeking people with a PhD or MS in Computer Science and/or 5 + years’ experience, including several of the following: • Real-time operating systems • UNIX T ","C" • DBMS • Software tools • Advanced graphics • Local area networks • Distributed control systems • Communications architecture & protocols Name. I I I "As a Software Development Manager, you could lead a team of highly qualified people on technology-driven or market-driven projects, providing systems solutions to data communications problems.. .on a global basis. "We’re the high-tech leader in data communications, with a very large commitment to software development... which creates a stimulating environment for all of us!’ Martin C. Wei, PhD Director of Engineering Communication Networks Division To investigate and pursue these immediate oppor¬ tunities further, let us hear from you. Use the response form below.. .or send us your resume. Engineering Employment Supervisor Racal-Milgo™ 7800 W. Oakland Park Blvd. Dept 12123 U Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33321 An EEO/Affirmative Action Employer UNIX is a trademark of Bell Laboratories -1 Briefly describe a recent project: City. _State_Zip. __ Phone (day) (_)_ __ (evening) (_)- Racal-Milgo, Inc. Dept. 12123 U 7800 W. Oakland Park Blvd., Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33321 I Please enclose a resume if you have one. Degree(s)_ from_ Years of experience. AT&T FEATURE NEW DAY Continued, from Page 32 like the 3B2, carry-in service will also be provided from these loca¬ tions. End users can negotiate support agreements directly with AT&T, or if an OEM or other reseller prefers to provide direct support, AT&T has services to backup the reseller. AT&T’s Computer Systems Division customers also have ac¬ cess to a team of technical specialists who consult on specific applications and recommend the 3B hardware, software, configura¬ tions and approaches most ap¬ propriate to customers’ circum¬ stances. Documentation for end users and technical and promotional documentation for resellers are available. Training courses and support newsletters are also offered. AT&T has entered the computer business, broadening the scope of its environment and enhancing the synergy among all of its product and service offer¬ ings. Its goal to be profitable and be a major force in the industry. It is AT&T’s intention to extend and evolve its products to provide customers with the pro¬ ducts they want, capitalizing on the excellent technological base established by AT&T Bell Labora¬ tories and AT&T Technologies. Don Anselmo is AT&T's Direc¬ tor of Product Management and Development, Computer Systems. He holds a bachelor of science degree from Virginia Poly Tech and a master of science degree in Electrical Engineering from New York Univer¬ sity. He has been with AT&T for 27 years, with specific assignments in¬ cluding military electronics, space vehicle guidance and navigation, electronics technology and computer development and design. Tom Arnold is AT&T's Manager of Marketing, Computer Systems, at its Naperville, IL, facility. He holds bachelor of science and master of science degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a doctorate in engineering science from Columbia University. His background includes 18 years with AT&T Bell Laboratories in the switching and processor area. SYSTEM V TRAINING Now you can get UNIX™ System training directly from AT&T. WHY AT&T FOR UNIX SYSTEM TRAINING? AT&T created these comprehensive, hands-on courses to train our own profession¬ als. This same training can now unlock the power of the UNIX System for you. You get the most current and comprehen¬ sive training available. AT&T created the UNIX System and is the custodian of the UNIX System standard. AT&T COURSES OFFER: The best learning environment with one terminal per student. ©1984 AT&T Technologies, Inc. Job-specific training to provide you with skills for immediate application. Courses range from introductory to advanced levels to increase your on-the-job value. Training facilities open evenings with instructors available for consultation. Conveniently located training centers in Princeton, NJ; Columbus, OH; Lisle, IL; and Sunnyvale, CA. Or we will bring our courses to your company and hold the training at your convenience. For more information, to receive a catalogue, or to register for classes, call 1-800-221-1647, Ext. 87. AIGT 94 UNIX REVIEW JULY 1984 Circle No. 280 on Inquiry Card C ADVISOR Continued, from Page 58 output modes are together, so turning off CRMOD accomplishes the same thing as turning off ICRNL and OCRNL. Echoing is turned off by twiddling the bit for ECHO, and the mapping of tab to spaces is turned off by using EXTABS, which is a slightly bet¬ ter name for this than TAB3. On the other hand, CBREAK has to be turned on, so you should bitwise or it into the tty flags. As a parenthetical note. Ver¬ sion 6 did not have CBREAK mode, so you had to use RAW mode instead. But it’s hardly worth wor¬ rying about Version 6. anyway. Next month's article will show how to use the routines documented in termcap(3)of the Unix Pro¬ grammer’s Manual. These library functions allow you to control any terminal described in the /etc/termcap database in a hardware-independent way. For elementary programming problems, it is easier to use termcap(3) than curses(3). although for more complex screen-oriented tasks, the opposite would be true. M Yoi/i/e 3usr reached amd touched a COMPUTER. LMC’s 32-Bit \firtual Memory MegaiMicro IsThe-State-Of-The-Art UNIX Microcomputer LMC’s 32-bit MegaMicro provides mainframe or super-minicomputer performance at prices com¬ petitive with today’s far less powerful 8- and 16-bit microcomputers. This is made possible by use of the next generation of logic chips-the National Semiconductor 16000-series. LMC MegaMicros incorporate: the NS16032 central processing unit which has true 32-bit internal logic and internal data path configured on the IEEE 796 multibus; demand-paged virtual memory implemented in hardware; and hardware 64-bit double-precision floating-point arithmetic. The LMC MegaMicro is supplied with HCR’s UNITY* which is a full implementation of UNIX** and includes the Berkeley 4.1 enhancements to take advantage of demand-paged virtual memory. Also included are C and FORTRAN. Typical multi¬ user systems with 33 megs, of fast (30 ms. average access time) winchester disk storage, a half meg. of RAM, virtual memory, hardware floating-point arithmetic, UNIX, C, and FORTRAN 77 are avail¬ able for $20,000 (and even less with quantity or OEM discounts). * UNITY is a TYademark of Human Computing Resources. “UNIX is a Trademark of Bell Laboratories. LMC MegaMicros The Logical Alternative™ MC The Logical Microcomputer Company 4200 W. Diversey, Chicago, IL60639(312) 282.9667 111 MAMMON II A member of The Marmon Group of companies JULY 1984 UNIX REVIEW 95 Circle No. 279 on Inquiry Card AT&T FEATURE LARRY CRUME Continued, from Page 49 users have altogether different ex¬ pectations. How those will play out and what we will do with the system is something we’re all kind of guessing about. We’re spending time with end users, though, try¬ ing to find out. REVIEW: What user friendly system administration features have you been able to implement? You made reference to backups a little earlier. Do you foresee automated backups, given that the 3B2 is only equipped with a floppy disk drive for archiving? CRUME: That could be handled in a number of ways. The system could be made to tell you when to mount a floppy so that it could save some information for you. In that way, it can operate much like the gasoline meter on your car. That may be annoying, but we can learn to live with it. Now, you may get into trouble if the system decides to save something onto a floppy for you but you don’t know where to go to access the floppy. The system is going to have to tell you where the archived informa¬ tion is at. If it’s on a floppy, you may have to be told to load that floppy. If it’s somewhere else in your network - if there was a file server that did the storing - it may tell you to wait because that data was saved in a backup space. It will then have to go through the network, get it off the file server and bring it to you. There are many different options, depending on the configuration. REVIEW: In a similar vein , you in¬ dicated that AT&T would be offer¬ ing driver interfaces that place a premium on ease of use. CRUME: The 3B5 offers loads of drivers at boot time. When you boot up the system, firmware goes out and reads which hardware devices are there. According to what it finds, it then decides which device drivers to load in. This is an extremely important concept because no one company can build all of the peripherals that are needed. You’ve got to get to a place where each of the peri¬ pheral manufacturers can supply drivers with their peripherals. All they need is a guide for writing drivers for a particular system. Now it’s key to remember that the UNIX system and C language make an approach like this possi¬ ble because they provide a com¬ mon basis. The same thing applies to the terminal information data¬ base we’ve included in System V Release 2. We haven’t moved as far as I’d like to see us move with that. The terminal information database, of course, is based on the concept started by Berkeley with termcap. It’s a very nice con¬ cept. There’s a database that describes the characteristics of terminals and then there’s a library of routines that gets com¬ piled into the code that accesses that database. In this way, the machine decides how to interface with the terminal you’re using. We’ve named the database where we compile this informa¬ tion terminfo. It’s the next generation of termcap, which was one large database - one large file. The terminfo database is broken into a number of files under a directory. XENIX Communications Available NOW! Put your computers on speaking terms. *295 oo TERM. Communications Software Everyone from Ihe beginning computer user to the expert finds TERM easy to learn and powerful to use Just plug it in and go' In a few keystrokes you can access a remote database or send a group of files to another system TERM allows your computer to perform efficient error-free exchange of binary or text files, over phone lines or hard wired circuits at speeds of up to 9600 baud Available options allow you to include or exclude a group of files for transfer in a single command TERM s data capture feature allows saving transcripts of sessions with remote mainframe and minicompu¬ ters to disk for later editing or printout, if desired 1 Pre-installed and ready to run 1 Automatic error checking and re-transmission Wildcard (* *) file send/receive, capability Xon/Xoff. Etx/Ack Ascii protocols for com¬ munications with non-TERM systems Dumb Terminal emulation mode for remote- systems 1 Modem7 protocol for remote bulletin boards 1 Auto-dial/Answer and Hangup supported on Hayes Smartmodem 300/1200 and compatibles 1 Programmable batch file capability TERM comes ready to run on more than 35 CP/M-80 MSDOS. CP/M-86 and Xenix systems IBM PC * /XT Kaypro Osborne. Televideo Victor. Apple* II—CP/M Heath Vector Sanyo Eagle Molecular Altos and many others 6 CALL OR WRITE FOR FREE PRODUCT CATALOG CENTURY SOFTWARE We make it easy for you. 9558 South Pirredale Circle Sandy, Utah 84092 (801) 943-8386 Circle No. 18 on Inquiry Card CP M is a registered TM of Digital Research 96 UNIX REVIEW JULY 1984 How to capture your share of a new billion dollar market. (or take a larger share of your present one) Industry experts predict “...a phenomenal compound annual growth rate of 71 percent for CAI (Computer Assisted Instruction) programs. A $70 million market in 1982, the market will just graze the billion dollar mark by 1987...during this period, sales of ‘courseware’ will increase from 2.3 million units to an astounding 34 million units.” - (reprinted from PC Magazine, copyright 1983, Ziff-Davis Publishing) Introducing CAST (Computer Assisted Self-Training) A new, powerful and comprehensive authoring and information management tool positioned for this exploding market. Designed for integration with UNIX/UNIX work-alikes and UNIX applications, CAST launches CAI/CBT into the modern multi-user, multi¬ tasking and multi-processor networked environment. CAST shuns archaic ‘‘automated page turning,” bringing a highly interactive environment to computer based education and training. Now, with CAST authors are limited only by their imaginations. UNIX* standard From the desk top IBM PC to the largest mainframe, CAST is as universal as UNIX. Wherever UNIX can be ported CAST can be ported. Experts point to UNIX as the standard for the future. CAST, as a UNIX standard with powerful capabilities and unique features, offers unlimited market potential. CAST markets CAST is for environments where feedback, scorekeeping, recordkeeping, class status ranking, progress tracking, and per¬ formance validation are necessary for qualification or certification. • CAST is for computer manufacturers who wish to penetrate the educational marketplace and/or need cost-effective internal sales or technical training programs. • CAST is for OEM’s and systems houses who need to train both end-users and internal staff on the operation and maintenance of their products. • CAST is for software publishers who wish an economical on-line vehicle for training customers in productive use of their products. • CAST is for industrial and commercial training, continuing education and similar centers which require goal directed education. CAST A matter of course. MC 2 /Measurement Concept Corp. 1721 Black River Blvd., Rome, NY 13440 (315) 337-1000 CAST means sales • As a stand alone product As a powerful new CAI/CBT tool CAST easily stands on its own as a product. Sell CAST to your present customers. Or CAST can complement your current product lines and open new market opportunities. • As part of a package CAST provides an added incentive to your customers to buy your hardware or software product. Both as an integrated tool to train them on the operation of it, and as a valuable asset for subsequent continued training. • Both CAST means profits Whether sold as a stand alone product or as part of a package CAST delivers profits. The power and capabilities of CAST provide broad base market appeal. That means demand. CAST meets that demand. Sold as a stand alone product or with a package CAST will generate sales for you. CAST saves money Why? Because CAST means better training and better training saves money. In addition, CAST reduces or eliminates costs associated with traditional training programs and positively assures employee competency levels. CAST means happy users CAST means happy employees and happy employers. CAST is cost-effective because its users are well-taught without the unnecessary wading through manuals. As a result they work more efficiently, effectively, productively and thus more profitably. If you are interested in aggressively applying CAI/CBT technology, you will find our OEM volume discounts equally aggressive. r~fo:”M C2/MEASU RE ITeITt” ONCEPT~DORp! 1721 Black River Blvd. Rome, NY 13440 | I’d like more information Name_Title_ j Company_ Phone_Interest Area | Address_ I City_State_Zip •UNIX is a registered trademark of Bell Laboratories. CAST is a trademark of Measurement Concept Corp. Circle No. 48 on Inquiry Card AT&T FEATURE What we need to do is to help manufacturers put together the terminal information that will be needed for interfacing to one of our systems. This then could be sup¬ plied to their customers as part of the purchase of a terminal. I think you’ll find the terminal manufac¬ turers enthusiastic about taking advantage of that because they will then be able to use that database to really make the most of all the characteristics of their terminals. REVIEW: Let's talk about the guy who doesn 't have source. He buys a new whizbang terminal and... CRUME: He doesn’t need the source. This is just a terminal database. REVIEW: How is that database updated? CRUME: I would like to get it to the point where terminal manu¬ facturers could provide their cus¬ tomers with the data that needs to be entered at the time of purchase. It would be nice if they provided floppies containing their terminal characteristics that could be simp¬ ly loaded into their machines. REVIEW: But if end users were knowledgeable, then could they do that themselves? CRUME: Yes, but the idea is to get to the point where the user doesn’t have to be knowledgeable. I’d like to think that when you add a ter¬ minal, the machine will tell you to plug in a floppy that has terminal information. At that point, the system would take over and do everything it needs. We can get there, but it’s a matter of pro¬ viding the tools needed for plan¬ ning a new system. People use termcap now. The only difference between termcap and terminfo, though, is that termcap was a database of ASCII characters while terminfo is a compiled version that runs faster and offers more capabilities. REVIEW: But the entry point is still essentially the same? You can still make new entries at the keyboard? CRUME: The termcap and ter¬ minfo databases are incompati¬ ble. If you have a program that has the curses routine for termcap, then you’ve got to have the term- cap database. If you have a pro¬ gram that has the curses routine for terminfo, then you have to have the terminfo database. REVIEW: But does the informa¬ tion go in the same way? CRUME: Yes. REVIEW: Let's move on to some other hardware considerations. Do you see other backup options ap¬ pearing shortly for the 3B2, so that users with 32 MB Win¬ chesters don't end up spending six hours backing up onto flop¬ pies? CRUME: There are several con¬ cepts here. If a 3B2 is in a local area network, you can always back it up through a file server. You can look at cartridge streamer drives or something like that. There are options. REVIEW: How many of the user friendly features that we've discussed will be available on System V.2? How much will come after that? CRUME: You’ll see — it will un¬ fold. There are some things that will show up at different times because of the development cycle. We can’t release everything simultaneously. For instance, the help facility that we’re creating has two components. One compo¬ nent is just for the user to get help. That is a generic help that we’re coming out with across the board. The other component of the help facility is that it will allow software developers to include entries describing the use of their applica¬ tions. That help facility will come out for the 3B line this year. The improved user interface incorporates a lot of things. We’ve already talked about system administration, and there’s also the help facility, menus, windows and command syntax. There’s documentation... REVIEW: About documentation - has it been substantially chang¬ ed? Lord knows that every time a new system or a new standard is adopted, new documentation comes out. But typically it has a new cover on it and looks a bit slicker, but is essentially still the same documentation. What can we expect with System V.2? CRUME: It’s essentially the same. There are seven new documents added. There’s also a System V documentation catalog. REVIEW: What's the bottom line on the direction AT&T UNIX is taking? CRUME: We’re expanding on the original UNIX strengths. In other words, we’re not trying to change the things that the UNIX system brought to the marketplace. Things like continued emphasis on portability are extremely im¬ portant to us. We want to get more portability associated with ter¬ minals. We’re headed that same way with networking so that you can bring in many different net¬ working media. Another thing to bear in mind is that we’re working with a UNIX system that was built to provide productivity for the kinds of workers that have been at AT&T. We’ll continue to look at more and more productivity tools appropriate to other sorts of users. That will steer us as we try to determine what internal AT&T software to take to market. ■ 98 UNIX REVIEW JULY 1984 sTHECODAIAS i difference! A Major Improvement in OEM Microcomputers. With so many microcomputers on the market, and with each manufac¬ turer claiming to have the solutions to everyone’s problems, why are more and more OEM users choosing CODATA? Very simply because the CODATA 3300 works! That’s an important part of what we call THE CODATA DIFFERENCE —a refreshing, new concept in OEM marketing. More performance... Lower price... Extended warranty. We’ve increased the performance of the CODATA 3300 and, at the same time, we’ve lowered the price. That means our CODATA multi-user, multi¬ tasking 16-bit computer systems have price/performance ratios nobody else can match. We’re so confident in our system’s integrity that we’ve extended the warranty on every CODATA 3300 to 180 days. That's the longest war¬ ranty in the business and, let’s face it, you’ve got to be pretty sure of your product to guarantee it for six full months. We're sure. These are more elements of THE CODATA DIFFERENCE. An uncomplicated pricing policy. ■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■ We have only two price sheets: one for suggested retail, the other for OEM prices. Simple, straightforward, easy-to-understand. Beyond that, there are no quantity commitments, no bill-backs, no hassles. Full support and technical assistance if needed. Our customers select the CODATA 3300 because it fulfills their needs, because it does what we say it will do, and because we have taken great pains to assure that it is functionally simple and capable of performing its assigned tasks with no problems. But, if technical support is required it’s only as far away as your phone and avail¬ able at a moments notice via our TOLL FREE number during normal business hours in every U.S. time zone. A multi-user, 33-megabyte system for only $9,600. _ The CODATA 3300 is a powerful 16-bit, 68000-based, MULTIBUS system that can effectively accommo¬ date up to ten users. It’s a complete UNIX system that runs full ANSI standard FORTRAN-77, RM/COBOL, BASIC+, SMC BASIC, APL, and PASCAL. The 3300 provides up to 33 megabytes of unformatted on-line storage via an integrated, high speed Winchester drive, and a removable, quad-density 51/4" floppy disc system. The 3300 features 320 K bytes of parity protected RAM. An expanded CODATA 3300, with 84 megabytes of disc storage, is priced at $13,500. The 3300 is also available as a 12-megabyte system for as low as $7,800. LET US SHOW YOU THE CODATA DIFFERENCE. Write or call us for more information. CODATA SYSTEMS 285 North Wolfe Road Sunnyvale, CA 94086 1-800-521-6543 In California: 1-800-221-2265 Circle No. 265 on Inquiry Card RECENT RELEASES SYSTEM V MICROPORT FOR MC68000 AT&T has announced UNIX System V/M68000, a “port” for the Motorola 68000 micro¬ processor. The product stems from an agreement announced in May, 1983, between AT&T and four domestic microprocessor manu¬ facturers - Motorola, National Semiconductor, Intel and Zilog. Under that agreement, each com¬ pany is to develop a port of UNIX System V, with the goal of pro¬ viding software portability across the four implementations. Motor¬ ola is the first to complete its version. The product, available in source code under license agree¬ ment from AT&T, is targeted to the growing number of resellers who are building hardware and software products around UNIX System V. Priced at $43,000 for the initial central processing unit (CPU) and $16,000 for each addi¬ tional CPU, the software is already available for general distribution. UNIX System V/M68000 will be available on a hard disk car¬ tridge for Motorola’s ExorMacs microcomputer. The product will also be available on nine-track tapes for AT&T’s own 3B20 computers. For more information, contact AT&T Software Sales and Marketing, P. O. Box 25000, Greensboro, NC, 27420, 800/ 828-UNIX. microcomputer board has been announced by Heurikon Corporation. With either a half or full MB of RAM, Winchester and tape I/F, four to eight serial ports, two iSBX I/O expansion plugs, quad channel DMA, MMU, 32K bytes of EPROM, user programmable LEDs and dipswitches, and three programmable 16-bit counter/timer channels, the HK68A has been billed as a complete single-board UNIX system. For more information, contact Heurikon Corporation at 3125 Latham Drive, Madison, WI, 53713, 800/356-9602. 100 UNIX REVIEW JULY 1984 Circle No. 271 on Inquiry Card Brains. Knowledge. Experience. Powerful hardware and the most advanced operating system can’t replace them. At Uniq Digital Technologies, we decided you should have them all. The power of the Digital’s VAX' superminis. The sophistication of the UNIX" operating system. Plus, the Uniq staff of design experts to work with you and bring it all together. Behind every Uniq DEC-UNIX package is a complete support plan. Support that includes the broadest variety of UNIX flavors offered by any Vendor—including the latest versions from AT&T and Berkeley. Additional capabilities include custom driver development, kernel modification and training classes in basic UNIX user skills, system administration and advanced C language programming. We’ve established a Customer Technical Assistance Center staffed with experienced software engineers to provide solutions to those critical calls. And our on-line diagnostics system is designed to find the problems before the solutions get expensive. Uniq also offers software tools, including UNIFY" relational data base, Unicalq electronic spreadsheet, compilers and other software development and office automation products. Today you can’t only depend on the computer environment to solve your company’s problems. You need to look beyond them to the most important part of the package. Support. Uniq support. For more information on how Uniq can make it all work for you, call or write for our free descriptive brochure. UNIX is a trademark of AT&T Bell Laboratories VAX is a trademark of Digital Equipment Corporation UNIFY is a trademark of Unify Corporation Copyright 1984. Uniq Digital Technologies uniq DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES 28 South Water Street. Batavia. IL 60510 • (312) 879-1008 We make it work. AUTHORIZED COMPUTER DISTRIBUTOR See UNIQ at NCC Booth B4010 and 4012. Circle No. 264 on Inquiry Card Presenting the most important part of Uniq’s DEC-UNIX package. RECENT RELEASES OFFICE AUTOMATIOIM use of the XED Document Proces- CONTRACT WITH AT&T sing System on AT&T’s 3B com- Computer Concepts, Ltd., an- puters, running UNIX System V. nounced a contract with AT&T for “XED is a sophisticated full The only UNIX compatible operating system that supports 11 simultaneous users on 1 IBM PC XT O nly NCI COHERENT offers powerful multiuser capability with UNIX compatibility. NCI made COHERENT a multipurpose operating system. We extended it to suit a wide variety of applications. For example, it can now be used to turn a PC into a data multiplexer or an inexpensive database machine in a local area net¬ work. NCI COHERENT can also be used for high speed protocol conver¬ sion and process control. We've even written a real-time version of COHERENT, exclusive to NCI, which will run on an intelligent peripheral board. NCI has enhanced the COHERENT kernel making it much faster. Then we added com¬ mands that make programming easier, including a source code control system, plus many UNIX System V features. We also gave it exclusive support for a wide variety of hardware and PC compatibles. NCI COHERENT comes with full technical support and complete documentation, organized in the UNIX manner. A variety of licensing options are available including runtimes, pro¬ duction runtimes, and driver kits. Remember, when you license COHERENT your license includes multiuser and our low license fees make your ap¬ plication far more economically feasible. The NCI technical design team that engineered the im¬ provements to COHERENT is also available on a contract basis. Performance engineered into every product. NETWORK CONSULTING INC. Suite 110, 3700 Gilmore Way, Burnaby, B.C. Canada V5G 4Ml Phone: (604) 430-3466 ‘UNIX is a trademark of Bell Laboratories. COHERENT is a trademark of Mark Williams Co. IBM PC and IBM PC XT are trademarks of International Business Machines Corp. screen ‘what you see is what you get’ word processor which appeals to the so-called power user’’, said Ted Ferguson, CCL’s national sales manager. “Extensive on-line help and liberal use of function keys allows a novice user to be productive quickly.’’ XED was written in C language for multiuser UNIX systems and has achieved accep¬ tance in federal government departments such as the IRS, FCC, Justice, Labor, and Agriculture; US Army and Navy. For further information, con¬ tact Mr. Ferguson at Computer Concepts, Ltd., P. O. Box 3938, Chatsworth, CA, 91311, 818/ 884-2000. Circle No. 274 on Inquiry Card MOMENTUM ENHANCEMENTS FOR OEMs Momentum Computer Sys¬ tems International has enhanced its Momentum 32 family of super¬ microcomputers by using more cost-effective peripherals and reconfiguring the systems. Momentum’s 32/4, a UNIX- based intelligent workstation, now features a video board operating system which allows users to develop their own applications utilizing multi-windowing and graphics capabilities. Other enhancements include the im¬ plementation of the UNIX System III operating system and MC 68010 dual processor support. The 32/4 also comes standard Circle No. 278 on Inquiry Card with an external disk subsystem that can be configured with a variety of Winchesters, a stream¬ ing tape drive or floppy disk drive. The 32/E is a 16-user super¬ micro that provides near minicomputer performance. Now featuring the UNIX System III operating system and an MC 68010 processor, the 32/E also in¬ cludes up to 2 MB of RAM in half, full or double megabyte configura¬ tions. An RS232 port is available to support terminals at long distances (up to 4000 feet) without degradation in speed. A single-user 32/4, with a half megabyte of RAM, UNIX, an 800K byte floppy disk drive and a 10 MB hard disk subsystem, is priced at $8270 in quantity. A low-end, single user 32/E featuring a half megabyte of RAM, UNIX, an 800K byte disk drive a 10 MB Win¬ chester disk and two serial ports, is priced at $5330 in quantity. A top-end, multiuser 32/E, featuring 2 MB of RAM, UNIX, a 20 MB tape drive, a 130 MB hard disk sub¬ system and 16 serial ports, is pric¬ ed at $13,200 in quantity. The 32/4 and 32/E in their enhanced versions will be available in the next few months. Contact Momentum Com¬ puter Systems International, 2730 Junction Avenue, San Jose, CA, 408/942-0638. Circle No. 277 on Inquiry Card no ll\u = The Relational Database Management System ► Powerful/Easy to Use ► Visual Programming Capability with: Application Generator Integrated Report Writer Integrated Business Graphics ► Integrated Data Dictionary »Non-Procedural Query Language »Exclusive Networking Capability • Supported Around the Clock Available for VAX and MC68000 computers runningtheVMSand UNIX Operating Systems. VAX and VMS are trademarks o! Digital Equipment Corp MC68000 is a trademark of Motorola Corp UNIX is a trademark of Bell Laboratories Relational Technology Inc. 2855 Telegraph Avenue Berkeley, CA 94705 415-845-1700 Circle No. 71 on Inquiry Card JULY 1984 UNIX REVIEW 103 RECENT RELEASES NEW GKS GRAPHICS SOFTWARE FOR UNIX SYSTEMS Visual Engineering has announced the first family of business and engineering graphics software packages for UNIX systems based on the industry standard Graphical Kernel System (GKS). All the products are written specifically for the UNIX environment in C. Two of the products, VISUAL: GKS and VISUAL:C-CHART, offer systems and applications pro¬ grammers graphics functions for simplifying the development of programs incorporating graphics. VISUAL.PRO-CHART provides graphics software for business endusers who need to produce presentation graphics. Visual Engineering’s VISUAL: GKS provides systems pro¬ grammers with the ability of creating multiple graphics windows on multiple workstations in developing applications for CAD/CAM, process control, mapping, simulation analysis and presentation graphics. VISUAL-C-CHART extends the capabilities of GKS to the applications programmer writing business and scientific graphics software. The package contains features not found on many minicomputer or mainframe graphics packages, such as filled fonts, automatic axis and legend scaling, shadowing, multiple graphs per picture and user- defined markers. The third product, VISUAL: PRO-CHART, is an easy-to-use, presentation-quality graphics package designed for first-time graphics users. The novice can enter, format and display data for graphics such as pie and bar charts, and can generate hardcopy using a variety of printers and plotters. The package is designed to be fully integrated with the UNIX operating system, using automatic interactive screen formatting, standard editors and the UNIX shell. It also contains an extensive help facility to insure ease of use for novices. VISUAL:GKS, C-CHART and PRO-CHART are all written in C for optimal performance under UNIX. The products currently support System V and System III, Xenix and BSD 4.2. For more information, contact Visual Engineering at 502 Mace Blvd., Davis, CA, 95616, 916/756-6583. THE INDEPENDENT UNIX - BOOKSTORE OVER 60 UNIX AND C ITEMS IN STOCK INCLUDING ■ UNIX BOOKS The UNIX System by Stephen R. Bourne (Addison-Wesley) Operating System Design: The XINU Approach by Douglas Comer (Prentice-Hall) The UNIX Programming Environment by Brian Kernighan and Rob Pike (Prentice-Hall) A Practical Guide to the UNIX System by Mark G. Sobell (Benjamin/Cummings) ■ C BOOKS The C Puzzle Book by Alan R. Feuer (Prentice-Hall) The C Programming Language by Brian W. Kernighan and Dennis M. Ritchie (Prentice-Hall) Learning to Program in C by Thomas Plum (Plum-Hall) C Programming Guide by Jack Purdum (Que Corp.) H C and vi REFERENCE CARDS ■ PERIODICALS UNIQUE UNIX Review World UNIX & C ■ vi POSTER, UNIX SHELL POSTER ■ T-SHIRTS "UNIX is a Trademark of Bell Laboratories" "-rwxrwxrwx" "grep for it” "awk: bailing out near line 1" ■ NEW ITEM UNIX Coffee Mug “UNIX” in blue on outside “is a Trademark of Bell Laboratories” inside lip imprint Porcelain mug, kiln-fired permanent color Call or write for a complete catalog Mail and phone orders only. We ship anywhere in the U.S. Contact us for shipping elsewhere. • UNIX is a Trademark of Bell Laboratories International Technical Seminars 520 Waller Street San Francisco, CA 9411 7 (415) 621-1593 Circle No. 284 on Inquiry Card 104 UNIX REVIEW JULY 1984 Circle No. 270 on Inquiry Cr.rd CALENDAR JULY July 9-12 National Computer Conference (NCC), Las Vegas, NV: “Enhancing Creativity.” Includes the professional development seminar, “Putting UNIX to Work on a Micro,” by Jim Joyce. Contact: American Federation of Information Processing Societies (AFIPS), 1899 Preston White Dr., Reston, VA 22091. 703/620-8900. July 30 - August 3 Uni-Ops Conference for UNIX and C Users, San Francisco, CA Including (August 2-3) UNIX Software & Services Exposition. Contact: Uni-Ops, PO Box 27097, Concord, CA 94527-0097. 415/689-4382. July 31 Uni-Ops Monthly Meeting, Palo Alto, CA Ex¬ pert panel discussion sponsored by the non-profit UNIX user group. “UNIX Kernel Overview.” Contact: John Bass 408/996-0557. Paul Fronberg 408/988-1755. AUGUST August 28 Uni-Ops Monthly Meeting, Palo Alto, CA “UNIX and IBM PCs.” Contact: Uni-Ops (see July 13). SEPTEMBER September 11-14 UNIX Systems Expo/84, Los Angeles, CA Contact: Computer Faire, Inc., 611 Veterans Boulevard, Redwood City, CA 94063. 415/364-4294, or CFI in Newton, MA, 617/965-8350. OCTOBER October 2-4 East Coast Computer Faire, Boston, MA Contact: Computer Faire, Inc. (see September 11-14). October 16-18 UNIX/EXPO, The UNIX Operating System Exposition, New York, NY Contact: National Expositions Co., Inc., 14 West 40th Street, New York, NY 10018. 212/391-9111. TRAINING CALENDAR JULY July 9-11 Computer Technology Group, Dallas, TX “UNIX Fundamentals for Programmers.” Contact: CTG, Telemedia, Inc., 310 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL 60604. 800/323-UNIX or in Illinois, 312/987-4082. CCA EMACS.THE MOST POWERFUL SCREEN EDITOR FOR UNIX AND VAX/VMS. No other text editor gives you so much power, speed, and functionality as CCA EMACS™. Or makes editing so easy. Close to , 400 built-in commands let you do any task with ' only a few keystrokes. Even things that are impossible on other editors. And with our full extension language, Elisp™, you can custom¬ ize CCA EMACS to meet your program requirements. Multiple windows is another CCA EMACS plus. So you can manage concurrent processes and move information from one window to another. And Unix is a trademark of Bell Laboratories VAX and VMS are trademarks of Digital Equipment Corporation CCA EMACS and Elisp are trademarks of CCA Uniworks, Inc. CCA EMACS is sup¬ ported by a full online documentation package that includes a novice tutorial. So any user can quickly utilize all the power of CCA EMACS. CCA EMACS runs on Berkeley Unix™ (4.1 BSD and 4.2BSD), Bell Unix (System HI and System V), and VAX/VMS™ and requires 500 K of address space. Prices for a full source license range from $350 to $2400. For more information, or to find out how to get a trial copy, call Gwendolyn Whittaker at ( 617 ) 492 - 8860 . CCA Uniworks, Inc. t? A Crowntek Company Four Cambridge Center, Cambridge, MA 02142 Circle No. 263 on Inquiry Card CALENDAR July 9-13 Plum Hall Training, New York, NY “UNIX Workshop.” Contact: Plum Hall, 1 Spruce Ave., Car¬ diff, NJ 08232. 609/927-3770. July 10 Computer Technology Group, Boston, MA & Washington, DC “UNIX Overview.” Contact: CTG (see July 9-11). July 11 Computer Technology Group, Boston, MA & Washington, DC “UNIX Fundamentals for Non- Programmers.” Contact: CTG (see July 9-11). July 12-13 Computer Technology Group, Dallas, TX “Shell as a Command Language.” Contact: CTG (see July 9-11). July 16-18 Computer Technology Group, Boston, MA & Washington, DC “UNIX Fundamentals for Pro¬ grammers.” Contact: CTG (see July 9-11). July 16-20 Plum Hall Training, New York, NY “C Programming Workshop.” Contact: Plum Hall (see July 9-13). July 16-20 Computer Technology Group, Dallas, TX “C Language Programming.” Contact: CTG (see July 9-11). July 18-20 Digital Seminar Program, Washington, DC “UNIX Operating System Overview.” Contact: Digital Educational Services, 12 Crosby Dr., Bedford, MA 01730. 617/276-4949. July 19-20 Computer Technology Group, Boston, MA & Washington, DC “Shell as a Command Language.” Contact: CTG (see July 9-11). July 21-22 International Technical Seminars, Sun¬ nyvale, CA “UNIX System Shell Scripts” (Steve Bourne); “Writing termcap Entries” (Doug Merritt); “Winning Strategies for Management” (John Mashey); “1001 Ways to Sell UNIX” (Jim Joyce). Contact: ITS, 520 Waller Street, San Francisco, CA 94117. 415/621-6415. July 23-24 Computer Technology Group, Dallas, TX “Shell Programming.” Contact: CTG (see July 9-11). July 23-27 Plum Hall Training, New York, NY “Ad¬ vanced C Topics.” Contact: Plum Hall (see July 9-13). July 23-27 Computer Technology Group, Boston, MA & Washington, DC “C Programming Language.” Contact: CTG (see July 9-11). July 25-27 Digital Seminar Program, Washington, DC “The C Programming Language.” Contact: Digital Educational Services (see July 18-20). July 25-27 Computer Technology Group, Dallas, TX “Using Advanced UNIX Commands.” Contact: CTG (see July 9-11). July 30-August 1 Computer Technology Group, Boston, MA & Washington, DC “Shell Programm¬ ing.” Contact: CTG (see July 9-11). July 30-August 3 Computer Technology Group, Dallas, TX “UNIX Internals.” Contact: CTG (see July 9-11). AUGUST August 2-3 Computer Technology Group, Boston, MA & Washington, DC “Using Advanced UNIX Com¬ mands.” Contact: CTG (see July 9-11). August 6-10 Computer Technology Group, Boston, MA & Washington, DC “UNIX Internals.” Contact: CTG (see July 9-11). August 7-9 Computer Technology Group, Dallas, TX “UNIX Administration.” Contact: CTG (see Ju¬ ly 9-11). August 8-10 Digital Seminar Program, Seattle, WA “UNIX Operating System Overview.” Contact: Digital Educational Services (see July 18-20). August 13-14 Computer Technology Group, Dallas, TX “Advanced C UNIX Workshop.” Contact: CTG (see July 9-11). August 14-16 Computer Technology Group, Boston, MA & Washington, DC “UNIX Administration.” Con¬ tact: CTG (see July 9-11). August 15-17 Digital Seminar Program, Seattle, WA “The C Programming Language.” Contact: Digital Educational Services (see July 18-20). August 15-17 Computer Technology Group, Dallas, TX “Advanced C Programming Under UNIX.” Con¬ tact: CTG (see July 9-11). August 20-21 Computer Technology Group, Boston, MA & Washington, DC “Advanced C UNIX Workshop.” Contact: CTG (see July 9-11). August 20-24 Plum Hall Training, Raleigh, NC “Ad¬ vanced C Topics.” Contact: Plum Hall (see July 9-13). August 20-24 Computer Technology Group, Dallas, TX “Berkeley UNIX fundamentals and ’csh’ Shell.” Contact: CTG (see July 9-11). August 22-24 Computer Technology Group, Boston, MA & Washington, DC “Advanced C Programming Under UNIX.” Contact: CTG (see July 9-11). August 27-31 Computer Technology Group, Boston, MA & Washington, DC “Berkeley UNIX Fundamen¬ tals and ’csh’ Shell.” Contact: CTG (see July 9-11). August 28 Computer Technology Group, Dallas, TX “UNIX Overview.” Contact: CTG (see July 9-11). August 29-31 Computer Technology Group, Dallas, TX “UNIX Fundamentals for Non-Programmers.” Contact: CTG (see July 9-11). Dear Readers; If you or your company are planning events of interest to the UNIX community, please send announcements to: UNIX REVIEW Calendar 520 Waller Street San Francisco, CA 94117. Please include sponsor, date and location of event, as well as address of contact and relevant background information. 106 UNIX REVIEW JULY 1984 ADVERTISERS INDEX r \ Accucom Data. . . . .24 Mark Williams. . ... 17 Aim Technology. . .21 Measurement Concept ....97 Amcom Corp. .85 Medical Informatics. . . 74, 75 Applix. .71 Microware Systems. . ....87 AT&T.30. 31. 69, 94 MIPS Software. .... 85 BASIS. .63 Network Consulting. . ...102 Cadmus.108, Cover III Oasys. ... 61 Callan Data. .Cover II Pacific Bell. . ... 76 Cambridge Digital. .9 Quality Software.... . ... 74 Century Software. . .96 Racal Milgo. . ... 93 Codata. .99 Rel. Database Systems.... 1 Computer Corp. of Am.. . 105 Rel. Technology Inc.. ...103 Computer Horizons .72 Rhodnius. ... 91 Computer Methods .11 Robert Half. ...107 Computer Tech. Group. . .77 Santa Cruz Operation .... 33 CSSI Corp. .88 Scientific Placement. ...107 Gould. .47 Software Results. . . . . ... 78 Handle Corp. .13 Texas Instr.. . . Center Spread Heurikon. .86 Unify. . .2, 3 Hewlett Packard. . . . .82, 83 Unipress Software 79, 81 Horizon Software Systems. . 7 Uniq Digital. ...101 Human Comp. Res. . . .43, 45 Unisoft. ... 37 I.B.C. Cover IV UNIX EXPO. . ... 65 Intel. . .50, 51 UNIX Systems Expo. . ... 89 ITS. .104 User Group. . ... 67 Krosmeyer Electronics.... 90 User Training Corp.. . . ... 67 LMC. .95 WYSE Technology. . . . ... 59 Manx Software.... .25 J =Coming up in August= • WRITER'S WORKBENCH OVERVIEW • UNIX TYPESETTING • SHELL SCRIPTS FACILITATING DOCUMENT PRODUCTION • FILTERS • STRENGTHS AND CAVEATS OF troff \ UNIX SYSTEM PROGRAMMING MANAGER 150K + PACKAGE Prestigious software house seeks nationally recognized expert in UNIX systems pro¬ gramming to manage cor¬ porate staff. Must have hands-on experience in de¬ sign and implementation. FEE PAID. OTHER UNIX POSITIONS AVAILABLE CALL JAY BESSE AT 224-0600 ROBERT HALF 1208 First National Plaza Dayton, Ohio 45402 V J -- ^ UNIX JOBS REGISTRY National registry of candi¬ dates and jobs in the Unix field. Please give us a call; send a resume; or request a free Resume Workbook & Career Planner. We are a professional employment firm managed by graduate engineers. 800 - 231-5920 P.O.Box 19949, Dept. UR Houston, TX 77224 713-496-6100 i i H H i H M H 1 1 M-l 0 Scientific Placement, Inc. . ‘Unix is a trademark of Bell Labs Circle No. 9 on Inquiry Card JULY 1984 UNIX REVIEW 107 Circle No. 262 on Inquiry Card With a complete set of tools, you can build almost anything. While other companies offer OEMs a few tools to build with, Cadmus provides the com¬ plete set. For example, the Cadmus 9000 combines all the power of a mainframe, the speed of a mini, the price of a micro and the unlimited application flexibility of UNIX ™ System Y with Berkeley 4.2 enhancements. All in a distributed environment. In fact, the system's unique UNISON ™ networking software provides the full resources of the entire network to any computational node through network-wide virtual memory with demand paging. A10 Mbit Ethernet™ or 50 Mbit fiber optic LAN serves as the interprocessor bus. And comprehensive graphics, development and decision support tools facilitate graphics applications in a windowed, multiple process environment. In addition, we support every Cadmus 9000 with Thunderbolt SM service that puts an engineer at your door anywhere in the country within 24 hours. Guaranteed. To get the complete picture on this high powered graphics-oriented distributed system, call Cadmus at 617-453-2899. The Cadmus 9000. Finally, you've got a complete set of tools. IfL The Distributed WlDvVvUj Mainframe.™ COMPUTER SYSTEMS 600 Suffolk Street, Lowell, MA 01854 USENET:..! wivaxlcadmus TELEX: 948257 UNIX is a trademark of Bell Laboratories. Ethernet is a trademark of Xerox Corporation. UNIX HORSEPOWER! There are a lot of UNIX based systems on the market today claiming to be ''SUPERMICROS". But do they really have what it takes to run multi-user UNIX well? The IBC ENSIGN™ does and here's why: FAST MEMORY: No computer running at any clock speed can run faster than it's overall memory design. The ENSIGN has up to 8MB of 120nsec memory with dual bit error correction. With IBC's proprietary memory management, all of this memory runs with no wait states as fast as the 68000 CPU will go. Compare this to other systems running only small cache memories at full speed. Other multiple user systems cannot load all their programs into a small cache memory. Their systems slow down considerably under a heavy multi-user load. INTELLIGENT SERIAL I/O CONTROLLER: Even the fastest CPU will slow down when it's trying to handle interruptions from multiple on-line users. The ENSIGN provides slave serial I/O CPU's and FIFO buffering for both input and output. The result is the ENSIGN'S ability to support up to 32 users, with heavy serial I/O demand, while leaving the main 68000 CPU free to run with little serial I/O overhead. INTELLIGENT DISK CONTROLLER AND HIGH PERFORMANCE DISK DRIVES: The ENSIGN has a slave CPU to handle all disk operations, plus 16K of disk buffering. IBC's proprietary disk DMA allows high speed data transfer to main memory without slowing down the main CPU. Further, the ENSIGN supports SMD type 8" hard disks with much faster seek times and transfer rates than 5V*" hard disks usuallyfound in personal desk top computers. THE RESULTS: The IBC ENSIGN runs multi-user UNIX at performance levels not attainable by other supermicros. Call IBC and get a copy of IBC's multi-user bench¬ marks—benchmarks that test 8 users running large CPU programs, with heavy disk I/O and heavy serial I/O simultaneously. You'll find that nothing can compare tc If you want to run multi-user UNIX on a high performance system with up to 32 users, 8MB memory, and over 1,000MB disk storage, see the IBC ENSIGN. Within The USA 1140 36th Street Suite 212 Ogden, Utah 84403 (801)621-2294 IRQ/ DISTRIBUTION Outside The USA 21621 Nordhoff Street Chatsworth, CA 91311 (818)882-9007 Telex No. 215349 UNIX Is a trademark of Bell Laboratories Circle No. 202 on Inquiry Card