July Vol. 2 No. 2 1980 Editor's Comments At the Spring Decus Symposium the VAX SIG underwent some massive rework under the guidance of Al Siegel. Having worked with Al for a while now, I can report that he has a lot of good ideas and I feel the SIG will continue to improve under his leadership. The SIG owes a debt of gratitude to the past chairman Roger Vossler. He really put in the hours and elbow grease to start the SIG and nurture its growth to the third largest SIG. Thanks, Roger, for a job well done. The SIG leadership has experienced growth pains as the SIG has changed from a few people meeting in smoky rooms to a full fledged SIG with sessions that regularly attract over 500 attendees. It was apparent that the structure, which was fine for a small SIG, was overloaded for one the size we are now. In the steering committee meetings in Chicago several new offices were created and the whole leadership relationship was revamped to more nearly reflect the needs of the SIG. The new officers are listed below: Chairperson: Al Siegel Battelle-Columbus Laboratories 505 King Ave. Columbus, OH 43201 614 424 4664 Page 2 Vice Chairperson: Dennis Perry Mail Stop 828 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos, NM 87545 505 667 7193 Editor: Donald P. Golden, Jr. Litton Resources Systems 3930 Westholme Drive Houston, TX 77063 713 781 8871 Symposia Coordinator: Art McClinton The MITRE Corporation/Metrek Div. 1820 Dolley Madison Blvd. McLean, VA 22102 703 827 6000 Vice-Symposia Coordinator: Jim Ebright Software Results Corporation 1229 W. Third Avenue Columbus, OH 43212 614 421 2094 Librarian: Roger Lipsett Intermetrics Incorporated 4733 Bethesda Ave. Bethesda, MD 20014 301 657 3775 SIR Coordinator: Doug Wilson Joint Computer Facility Massachusetts Institute of Technology Room 1-106 77 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02139 617 253 2043 Past Chairperson: Roger Vossler Defense and Space Systems Group TRW Inc. One Space Park Redondo Beach, CA 90278 213 535 2804 European Chairperson: Paul Schrager Swiss Institute for Nuclear Research CH52345 Villigan, Switzerland Page 3 Working Group Chairpersons Special Software: Joe Sventek Bldg 50B, Room 3224 Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory Berkeley, CA 94724 415 525 8470 System Management: Rod Burr I. S. D. 25th Floor Commercial Union Assurance 1 Beacon Street Boston, MA 02108 Real Time/Process Control: Dennis Frayne McDonnell Douglas 5301 Bolsa Ave. Huntington Beach, CA 92646 714 896 2487 Documentation: Ray Whyde Battelle-Columbus Laboratories 505 King Ave. Columbus, OH 43201 614 424 4664 Engineering: Hugh 'Skip' Slawson McFarland-Johnson Engineers Incorporated 171 Front Street Binghampton, NY 13905 607 723 9421 Commercial: Stu Katz Commercial Computer Services, Inc. 3000 Dundee Road Suite 402 Northbrook, IL 60062 312 480 9800 Educational: Jeff Jalbert Denison University Granville, OH 43023 Page 4 One charter of this new group is to develop bylaws for the SIG (although I don't think we can use the word bylaws). Currently the SIG is run as a self perpetuating, benevolent oligarchy. This may be fine but it could become non-responsive to the overall needs of the membership. Therefore the steering committee is in the process of developing some SIG operating ground rules which will include, among other things, mechanisms for adding and deleting offices. Another major area of concentration for the next year is to foster the growth of local user groups and to enhance the cooperation and communication among the various VAX LUGS and between the LUGS and the SIG. A final goal of the reorganization was to broaden the base and lighten the load on the steering committee. By adding new positions and providing backup for key positions, the steering committee feels that it is taking the first step in improving the service provided by the SIG to its membership. One other member of the steering committee who deserves recognition is Art McClinton, the symposium coordinator. He did a lot of work behind the scenes in Chicago to get the thing to come off as well as it did. He and Jim Ebright are dedicated and I expect we will see a fine set of VAX SIG sessions in San Diego. Those of you who attended the recent Symposium may have had the same reactions that I did. There was a notable shortage, once again, of user contributed papers. I certainly think many of DEC's sessions are useful and worthwhile, but seeing the innovative and creative things other users are doing (like sticking a PDP11 on the VAX UNIBUS) stimulates all of us. This same sense of apathy appears to pervade the user community with respect to contributions to this rag. I am sure that many of you have done neat and interesting things which have applicability outside your own shop. Please share these with the rest of us. There are several mechanisms: article for the Pageswapper, poster paper, mini-paper, full paper or session at a Symposium. Probably by the time you read this the deadline for the Fall meetings in San Diego will have passed, but think just how fantastic a paper you can put together for Spring. In the announcements section of the Pageswapper, I ask for short recommendations and testimonials on software or hardware products which may be of interest to VAX users. These are solicited from both users and vendors and will be included so long as they remain within the realm of recommendations or reports and do not include pricing or other advertising type information. The problem I have been facing is that I receive a stack of information with brochures about neat stuff to stick into this section of the newsletter---all in printed form. These are almost Page 5 always fliers from the vendor. I like hearing about these items, but I refuse to type up a synopsis of these sales brochures. If a vendor wants something included in the Pageswapper Announcements section, at least read the directions for submitting articles and follow the format. If your announcement is not here, now you know why---and how to correct the situation. ANNOUNCEMENTS The VAX symposium tape copy seems to have been a big success. Lots of software of various types was received. I have tried to categorize all of it as best I could, and apologize for any gross errors. I have not had the time to test much of the software, even to the extent of making sure that it compiles, so no guarantees are made. Here is a short description of the types of software, and occasionally a description of the software itself, appearing in each container file on the tape. CARLETON This directory contains a set of utilities received from Carleton College. They were not classified according to function because they have a large set of auxiliary subroutines in common. To avoid duplication, I have left the directory essentially intact. CWRUTAPES This directory contains a set of tape reading/writing utility programs designed to facilitate/make possible tape transfer between the VAX and many other systems. All the utilities were written at Case Western Reserve. The only reason that this directory is not merged with TAPES is organizational: the documentation provided with this set is not easily separable into a collection of HLP files, one for each program; to avoid confusion, this directory was left intact. DRIVERS This directory contains two device drivers, one for the RK05, the other for the XYLOGICS-CDC disk. FILETOOLS This directory contains a collection of individually documented file manipulation tools. It includes, among others, programs to fix up file headers, to give a nicely formatted directory listing of a directory and all its subdirectories, to display all useful information from the file header about a file, to perform file mapping, and to make FORTRAN and Pascal look like compile-load-and-go compilers. GAMES This directory contains what few games and game-type things I received. There must be some good games out Page 6 there. Bring them to San Diego. LOGINOUT The routines in this directory, submitted by Iowa State University, implement login/logout quotas under Version 1 of VMS. MISCUTIL This directory contains two miscellaneous programs which do not fit anywhere else. They are DEFLOCAL, which allows the definition of local symbols from within a program, and TOPSUM, which computes the sum of a column of trailing overpunch sign numbers. MITER The collection of subroutines in this directory, from Miter Corp., allow remote copy programs to maintain a current copy of a data base. NEWSLET This directory contains all back issues of the VAX SIG newsletter, The Page Swapper. PROCONTRL The programs in this directory allow the user to control other processes in various fashions. ROLLINOUT This directory contains a system to allow rollout and rollin of the entire system. It was written largely by DEC and submitted by Boeing. SCIUTL This directory, submitted in its entirety by Systems Control Inc., contains what appears to be an extensive set of supplemental utilities. I have not looked at it in detail at all yet, but there seems to be some good stuff there. SYSMGR This directory contains a collection of programs which may be useful in managing your system. The routines are individually documented. TAPES This directory contains a collection of tape-handling programs, including a program to rewind a tape from the DCL level. TECO1, TECO2, TECO3, TECO4 These directories contain Version 36 of TECO. They were submitted in VMSUPDATE format on four floppies. The command file VAXTECO14 in directory TECO1 sets things off. TERMTOOLS This directory contains several routines to make your life easier at the terminal. Page 7 It appears as though more useful software was received at this DECUS than at the last one. Keep it up. Bring your software to San Diego, but try to avoid duplication of previously submitted software. Please consider submitting "complete" pieces of software to the DECUS Program Library, where the visibility is greater and the dissemination is potentially greater. I may be talking to some of the submitters about particular pieces of software received at this symposium. If you have software which you would like to see on the symposium tape from San Diego, you may either bring it to San Diego or send it to me anytime between now and then. In either case, you will eventually get your tape or floppy back (no commitment as to when). If you want to send me something before San Diego, you will have to get a release form, fill it out, and send it to me along with the software. To protect both DECUS and myself, I just cannot accept software which is not accompanied by a release form. In addition, if the software contains DEC copyright notices, a signed release from some responsible DEC person will be necessary. Release forms can be obtained from the DECUS office, 1 Iron Way, Marlboro, Mass., 01752. Tapes will be accepted in ANSI format or RMS BCK format only, with machine readable documentation. Floppies will be accepted in ODS-1, ODS-2, or FLX format, also with machine readable documentation. My address is: Roger Lipsett Intermetrics, Inc. 4733 Bethesda Ave. Bethesda, MD. 20014 (301) 657-3775 Please feel free to call me with any questions. Bob Rock would like to announce the formation of a Site Management SIG. This SIG will address the problems and challenges that a small to large DEC system manager faces and will work to stimulate discussion on various topics of mutual interest. The SIG has been formed already and received approval at the last board meeting. Although, the SIG will span product lines and hardware systems, it will also feature hardware and software system specific features. A major goal of the SIG will be the development of a system manager's manual. Proposed manual topics are: 1. How to write a shop users guide, user training. 2. Backup procedures and administration. 3. Media integrity protection. 4. Site installation and expansion. Page 8 5. Maintenance and repair. 6. Accounting for system management purposes. 7. System managers training. 8. Security procedures. Contributions and recommendations for additional topics are needed. This manual is intended to function as a framework for an installation to build upon. The Newsletter will publish 4 to 6 issues per year depending on the quantity and quality of contributions. If you would like to get on the mailing list, send your request for the SIG newsletter to the DECUS office. Bob would also like to hear from you directly since mailing lists are not published. Bob is with Northern Telecom Inc., P. O. Box 649, Concord, NH 03301, 603-224-6511. VAX/VMS SPR's of Interest [Editor's note- In this column we wish to present SPR's that are useful, informative, interesting, aggravating... The purpose is to share common problems and solutions. This column is also designed to fill in the gaps left by the absence of a VAX/VMS Software Dispatch. Another purpose is to disseminate DEC's SPR responses which solve problems for many users. The final purpose is to get real solutions to SPR's which DEC has closed without solving. Send me copies of SPR's (and responses if approporiate) and I'll try to put the essence into this column. Please be aware that the folks who respond to SPR's are willing to review their responses when we, the users, feel that they are inadequate. The mechanism to activate this review is a second SPR. This SPR should reference the number of the original SPR, redefine the problem, indicate that the solution presented in the initial response is inadequate, and give details as to why this solution is inadequate.] ------------------------------------------------ The user requests the availability of update files to allow updating his modified release 1 sources. Response We understand your problem. Unfortunately, however, there are no plans to distribute the update files. ------------------------------------------------ There is no way to delete a process that is in a MUTEX wait. A STOP/ID= deletes only the process name. There should be a method to accomplish this from a privileged and/or operator account. Response Page 9 No response to date. [Editor's comment: This is a sticky problem. If the process is in the MUTEX waiting for something that will never occur, then it is difficult for VMS to disengage it without compromising system integrity. There are, however, cases where I think VMS could do some overriding of privileges and/or quotas to get totally rid of a MUTEXed process. ------------------------------------------------ Dump gives the error message "DMP--illegal switch" when you try to dump beyond logical block 65536 of a device. Cause: This is because BACKTRANS just passes the starting and ending blocks through without any range checking. Since DMP, which actually dumps the information, is a compatibility mode program, it has a limit of 65536 on a switch value. Solution: Implementing the DUMP command using a native mode program, or modify BACKTRANS to do range checking and use the /BA switch when the logical block number exceeds 65536. ------------------------------------------------ Editor's note: There are very few SPR's in this issue. There is a very good reason for this. The remainder of the SPR's I have received are concerned with problems in VMS 1.5, 1.6 and 1.7 and its ancillary routines. I have it on good authority that these problems have been fixed in 2.0 and since 2.0 is really, finally imminent, I felt like not including them in this issue. Unsolicited Random Input [Editor's note: In this section we will present interesting trivia and helpful facts about VAX/VMS. The sources will be unnamed at present to protect the innocent.] Art McClinton has a transcript of the VMS developers Q&A session from the Chicago DECUS but it is not yet ready for inclusion in the Pageswapper. It will most probably be in the next issue. A lot of time in Chicago was devoted to discussions of VMS Version 2.0. There was a DEC sponsored 'What's in it?' session which cannot be repeated in San Diego. There was a Field Test panel where staff members from field test sites presented their experiences and impressions of VMS 2.0. This short article will rehash some of the field test panel members' comments and impressions. In general the panelists were pleased with having been a Page 10 field test site for VMS 2.0. They pointed out their original fears of continual down time and bug chasing to the detriment of their own goals. The concensus was that these fears proved to be largely unfounded. VMS test releases proved to be as stable, reliable, well planned and safe as the previous major releases had been. There was universal praise for the field test discrepancy reporting system. This QAR system, implemented on the VAX in Tewksbury, allowed dial-in reporting of problems, questions, bugs and solutions. It also allowed the field test sites to read the other QAR's as well as to read the answers provided by the VMS developers. The common comment was that such an electronic reporting system cut the turnaround time dramatically, with same day response the rule rather than the exception. It was also noted that if something similar could be implemented for SPR's, both Digital and its customer base would benefit. [Editor's note: I agree with this in that it is difficult to get an SPR put together and typed accurately. This difficulty sometimes outweighs the advantage of submitting the SPR. Secondly, with response time measured in months, SPR's are only worthwhile for problems for which there is NO workaround.] Closely tied in with the praise for the QAR system was the panelists' praise for the VMS development teams' responsiveness and understanding. It was noted that most patches and fixes required only a day or two to effect. Also the VMS team was realistic enough to realize that people would put non-DEC gear on VAXEN, so their support of foreign device driver development was as serious as fixing a system service bug. The new EDT with a screen editing mode was a hit with the panelists. One reported that his TECO shop converted to EDT in less than a week with no holdovers. This same panelist reported that the system performance under EDT was significantly better when TECO was used throughout his software development shop. Diskquotas, disk ACP cacheing, the new Librarian, the PFN mapping facility, the personal mail facility, the improved System Dump Analyzer, DEC Standard Runoff, the new help libraries, automatic working set adjustment, better protection, better privilege management, FORTRAN 77, the DR780 support, and DECnet virtual terminals were all features mentioned as significant by one or more of the panelists.