ftp.robelle3000.ai 2014/2014.06.ftp.robelle3000.ai.tar/ftp.robelle3000.ai/newsletter/1988/w1988-04.txt

Text File | 1999-04-28 | 25KB | 494 lines

         What's Up DOCumentation



        Robelle Consulting Ltd.
        8648 Armstrong Rd., R.R.#6
        Langley, B.C.  Canada V3A 4P9
        Telephone: [phone]  Telex: 04-352848

 Date:  June 25, 1988
 From:  Robert M. Green, President
        David J. Greer, Research & Development
        Michael C. Shumko, Customer Support
 To:    Users of Robelle Software
 Re:    News of the HP 3000, 1988 #4

      What You Will Find in This News Memo:

        News Tidbits
        Technical Tips
        About Robelle
        Squeezing the Last Bit Out of Your HP 3000
          Part Six:  Get OMNIDEX for Fast On-line Database Searching
        European Challenge From SI-IMAGE
        Using QEDIT for the Occasional Memo
        Robelle Products:  Problems, Solutions, and Suggestions


                                 News Tidbits

 Swedish Users Conference.  The recent users conference in Sweden was a great
 success.  This was the first conference to present any real papers on
 Spectrum performance.  Three of us from Robelle attended:  Marie Froese, Bob
 Green, and Mike Shumko, and we had a great time.  Many thanks to the
 conference organizers.  Marie set up and ran our booth very capably and
 looked after the requirements of our European users and prospects.  Bob
 presented a new paper, "The Spectrum Instruction Set:  A 3000 Hacker's View",
 which he will also present at Orlando in August.  Hewlett-Packard sponsored a
 surprise evening on Monday, which consisted of a boat ride to a remote island
 topped by an immense stone fortress.  After climbing about a mile to the peak
 of the island's fortress, we 900 attendees were treated to a Medieval feast
 (wine from horns, chunks of lamb and beef eaten from boards, strolling
 minstrels, etc.).  Robelle sponsored Wednesday evening's entertainment for
 the conference, consisting of a Fishing Boat Party and a visit to the
 Liseberg amusement park.  At Liseberg, Mike Shumko gathered together all the
 devotees of roller coasters and founded Sig Thrill.

 SUPRTOOL Performance on 950.  We have our first two results from users who
 have run our suggested SUPRTOOL performance tests on the Spectrum.  Please
 keep in mind that these results are extremely limited -- only two sites, only
 batch processing -- and may not be transferable to other applications.

 Leonard Berkowitz of Warren, Gorham & Lamont was the first user to send in
 test results.  He used SUPRTOOL to get 100,000 records from an IMAGE detail
 dataset with 200-byte records, selecting entries with IF and selecting fields
 with EXTRACT.  He ran the test with and without a SORT field and on both his
 Series 70 and his Series 950 with 64 megabytes of main memory.  The only
 thing non-typical of his test was that his IF command selected every one of
 the 100,000 entries read.  His results:

      Task           CPU Time (Seconds)   Elapsed Time (mm:ss)
                      S/70 S/950   %Chg     S/70  S/950   %Chg
   Extract              51   105  +106%     3:48   2:42   -30%
   Extract Plus Sort   324   293   -10%    19:22   7:36   -62%

 For the straight extract, the 950 used twice as much CPU time but completed
 30% faster.  For the sort task, the 950 used 10% less CPU time and completed
 in about one third the elapsed time (62% faster).  The elapsed time actually
 spent in the sort routines was reduced from 1151 seconds to 424 seconds (63%
 less).  These tests used MPE XL version A.01.10 and a CM version of SUPRTOOL
 (not an OCT version).

 P.A. Vickers of Mallison-Denny Limited also tried our tests on his new 950.
 His test was similar to the previous one, but his record size was 158 bytes
 and he selected 157,000 out of 157,000 entries (apparently it isn't as easy
 as we thought to make up an IF command that will select a subset of a
 dataset).  He also tested the OCT version of SUPRTOOL.

             Task         CPU Time (Seconds)    Elapsed Time (mm:ss)
                         S/70  950-CM 950-OCT    S/70  950-CM 950-OCT
           Extract          46    99     36       2:02   1:48   1:01
           Extract + Sort  394   334    265      19:55   8:41   6:34

 The simple extract without sorting reported 115% more CPU time on the 950 (in
 compatibility mode), but completed 11% faster.  After SUPRTOOL had been run
 through the Object Code Translater, it reported 22% less CPU time than on the
 70 and completed in half the time of the 70 (50% faster).  When sorting, the
 950-CM version of SUPRTOOL cut Series 70 CPU time by 15% and elapsed time by
 56%.  The 950-OCT version of SUPRTOOL was even faster, with CPU down by 33%
 and elapsed down by 67%.

 From these two tests, it appears the sorting is significantly faster on the
 950 and that the OCT does produce a faster program.  It is not clear that CPU
 time can be directly compared between the Series 70 and the Series 950 -- the
 methods of allocating CPU time to processes may differ between MPE V and MPE
 XL.

 A third user called to complain that SUPRTOOL was too fast on his 950 - when
 it got going it was locking out the on-line users.  It appears that this is a
 bug in the current version of MPE XL that can occur with many programs that
 do long serial reads.

 Falcon Disc Drives.  One customer installed four EMC Falcon disc drives on
 his Series 68.  He kept getting short hangs which would clear themselves
 after a few seconds.  He also would get long hangs which would go away when
 he typed DOMAIN commands.  EMC looked into the problem and found the answer:
 the user had a 7933 and two Falcon drives on a high-speed GIC, with the other
 two Falcon drives on a slow-speed GIC.  No one had been aware that there were
 low- and high-speed GICs.  The slow-speed GIC could not handle the throughput
 of the two Falcon drives.  Moving a Laser Printer from the high- to low-speed
 GICs and the two Falcon drives from the low- to high-speed GICs solved the
 problem.
 The user has also discovered that setting the domain to 1024 causes SUPRTOOL
 batch jobs to crawl, but domain of 9000 makes SUPRTOOL really smoke.  His
 initial benchmarks showed that on his system the Falcons were just a little
 slower than HP's Eagle disc drives.  But the lower price of the Falcons
 tipped the scales in their favor.  [Tom Smyth]

 HP Vectra RS/20 Wins 386 Shootout! HP finally has a winner in its PC line,
 according to PC Magazine, June 28, 1988.  In a comparison of 13 high-end 386
 PCs (20 mhz), the Vectra RS/20 was the winner and only "Editor's Choice",
 beating out the IBM PS/2 Model 80-111 and the Compaq Deskpro 386/20.  PC
 Magazine summarizes its choice as follows:
    "The HP Vectra RS/20 is a breakthrough for Hewlett-Packard.  With its
    incredibly fast drives, generous expansion space, and rock-solid
    construction, the RS/20 stands a step above its competitors.  Of
    course, high quality often carries a high price tag, and the $9,995
    (with 150MB hard disk) RS/20 follows the rule."
 The reviewers were particularly impressed with the disc-caching scheme used
 in the Vectra.  [Could the experience with MPE disc caching have helped?]
    "The RS/20 starts with an 18-millisecond drive and uses caching
    software to quadruple its performance on our small-record DOS File
    Access test, give it more than twice the speed of any other drive
    tested...Hewlett-Packard's Vectra Disk Cache Program gives the user
    total control without being overwhelmed and yields the best power boost
    of the lot...When writes are made, they are collected in cache memory
    until the next disk rotation brings the correct sector to the
    read/write head.  Volatility is reduced to one disk rotation, with a
    gain in write speeds of 100 percent."  [Write cache is optional.]

 DCO Now Supported.  DCO, Dynamic Cache Optimizer, is a performance booster
 that we have mentioned in previous What's Up, Docs, and in our award-winning
 paper, Squeezing the Last Bit Out of Your HP 3000.  Until now, DCO has been
 available only from HP performance specialists on an as-needed unsupported
 basis.  DCO is now available as a fully supported third-party tool from
 Computer Tools & Services in Holland.  CTS's glossy advertisement features
 the catch phrase, `Squeeze the last bit out of your HP 3000'.  Hmmm.  Sounds
 familiar.

 Quick Reference Card From HP.  A new card from HP, the Precision Architecture
 and Instruction Reference Card has the Spectrum instruction set on it.  HP
 part number 09740-90027.

 Smallest Spectrum Yet?  HP is rumored to be preparing a new, smaller MPE XL
 machine, code-named "Burgundy", for release as the Series 810 and the Series
 915.  The CPU is smaller than a Micro-3000 and fits easily on your desk.  No
 word on performance yet.


                                Technical Tips

 HP Slate Gotcha.  If you try to convert an MPE file named SLLIST into Slate
 format, you will get a system failure 8609.  [Jayvis Rowland]

 HP 150 Insert With Wrap.  Shift-Insert-Char on the HP 150 is the same as on
 the 2393 -- it gives you Insert Mode with character wrap.  That is, if you
 insert so many characters that the line will overflow, characters are wrapped
 from the end of the line to the next line.  Shift-Delete-Char does the
 opposite, pulling up characters from the next line as you delete characters
 from the current line.

 MPE XL vs MPE V File Compatibility.  In a recent news memo, we discussed the
 potential compatibility problems that can occur because MPE XL files can have
 more than 32 extents and because CM programs are created on MPE XL with two
 or more extents, instead of just one.  Now Evan Rudderow reports that you can
 avoid these problems when moving files between systems if you use DSCOPY for
 the copy and use the TRANSPORT option when you STORE files on MPE XL to be
 RESTOREd on MPE V.

 MPE XL Tip From VESOFT.  Eugene Volokh of VESOFT didn't like the Native-Mode
 stack trace that the Spectrum produces when a Compatibility-Mode program
 aborts.  Eugene found that the :Setdump command has new options on MPE XL:
      :setdump ;debug="debug string"
 Eugune uses the following command before running CM programs:
      :setdump ;debug="cm;tr"
 The "cm;tr" parameter forces a CM Symbolic Trace using the FPMAP (when
 available) on aborts.  In fact, you can put any System Debugger commands in
 the :Setdump string.

 Saving Disc Space on MPE XL.  When you close a file on MPE XL and the EOF is
 less than the LIMIT, you can give back any disc space beyond the EOF (without
 reducing the LIMIT) by settings bits (11:2) of the disposition parameter of
 FCLOSE to 2.  This is useful for small data files which will otherwise occupy
 a minimum of 250 to 500 sectors, regardless of what you specified for
 EXTENTs.

 Conditional USE Files.  QEDIT version 3.6 supports the :IF and :ELSE commands
 in USE files as well as UDCs.  Qedit commands are always executed, regardless
 of the :IF and :ELSE commands.  This means that you can create USE files that
 compile your program, but only :PREP it if there are no errors and only :RUN
 it if the :PREP is successful.  For example,

     comp.use
       shut;comment close the current workfile, if any
       purge report1.usl
       purge $oldpass
       build temp.david;rec=-80,16,f,ascii;
       file l=temp.david,old;acc=append
       setjcw jcw=0
       spl report1.source,,*l
       if jcw=0 then
          save $oldpass,report1.usl
          file qmaplist=report1.qmap,old;dev=disc
          purge report1.qmap
          build report1.qmap;rec=-81,49,f,ascii;cctl
          purge report1.pub
          prep report1.usl,report1.pub;qmap;maxdata=30000;cap=ph
          if jcw=0 then
             run report1.pub;lib=p
          else
             display Prep of Report1 failed! Run skipped.
          endif
       else
          display Compile of Report1 failed! Prep skipped.
       endif
       reset qmaplist
       reset l
       open *;comment re-open source file for editing

 "Pause" Feature.  Randy Medd of Telamon reports an extremely odd but useful
 feature of the PAUSE intrinsic.  If you call PAUSE to delay for a time (say
 10 seconds) and you have Control-Y enabled, you can do the following.  In
 your Control-Y trap routine, put a zero into the variable that you passed to
 the PAUSE intrinsic.  That action will immediately cancel the "pause" upon
 exit from the Control-Y routine.  A side effect of this feature is that after
 Control-Y the pause function starts over with whatever value is now in the
 variable that you originally passed to the PAUSE intrinsic.  I always
 wondered why this parameter was passed by reference instead of by value.  You
 would be wise to ensure that it is global and not local; otherwise, the value
 after Control-Y could be random!

 Running HPDESK Within QEDIT.  Here is an undocumented feature of HPDESK.  We
 are not certain which release of HPDESK this is in, so don't complain if it
 doesn't work on your machine.  Go into the workarea and create an item named
 "suspend".  The item should contain one line "&suspend".  At any prompt, type
 "xeq suspend".  E.g.,
   in tray> xeq suspend
 If you are running inside QEDIT, HPDESK will suspend.  You can re-enter with
   /:a hpmail


                                 About Robelle

 Party in Orlando.  If you are coming to the Interex Conference in Orlando,
 Florida this August, don't forget the Robelle User Party on Monday night
 (August 8th).  All Robelle users and guests are invited to drop in for
 appetizers and drinks, in congenial surroundings.  Time:  8:00 PM.  Place:
 Grand Ballroom (next door to the vendor fight for 1989 booth space).


                  Squeezing the Last Bit Out of Your HP 3000

          Part Six:  Get OMNIDEX for Fast On-line Database Searching

 Last year we did an informal survey of large HP shops to find out how the
 successful ones avoid topping out the HP 3000 line.  An unusual percentage of
 these sites had OMNIDEX for fast on-line database searching.

 IMAGE provides calculated read, chained read, and serial read.  OMNIDEX, a
 software package from DISC, adds record selection across multiple fields,
 generic retrieval and sorted sequential access, multiple keys in masters, and
 keyword retrieval on text data.  It does this by adding another structure to
 IMAGE's: the binary tree.  Traversing this tree is fast.  Once some data is
 reasonably static (i.e., you no longer modify it (much), but you need to ask
 numerous complex questions about it), OMNIDEX gives you the ability to index
 everything.  The primary cost is disc space.  Users also apply OMNIDEX to
 replace KSAM.  The index-sequential part of OMNIDEX (called IMSAM) will
 reindex about one million keys per hour on a Series 70 (versus 20 to 30 hours
 with KSAM).

 Hewlett-Packard uses OMNIDEX in the Response Center to index bug reports.
 That is how they can find out instantly who else has had a system failure 916
 on Series 37 under T-MIT with a full moon.  OMNIDEX indexes every word, not
 just the manually-assigned "keywords" as in the old SSB system.  Doug Iles of
 HP says, "We could enter partial values and/or full values from several
 different fields and find five qualifying records out of 50,000 in seconds."

 Consolidated Capital.  Kim Everingham reports that they use OMNIDEX
 extensively in their tracking system for investors and investments.  The
 power of OMNIDEX indexing allows their offical IMAGE structure to be very
 simple:  masters for entities and details for transactions.  They have 4.5
 million sectors of data, 250 QUICK screens, 12-15 databases, and 35-40 users
 on a Series 70.  Without OMNIDEX the application would require an IBM
 mainframe.  Within 1 or 2 seconds they can identify an investor and the
 investments he is involved with, even if the investor gives only a vague or
 partial description of himself (e.g., trust company, Ralph, Minneapolis).
 They do all updates on-line, including updates of the OMNIDEX indeces; the
 only exception is the entry of new investments  -- that is done in a nightly
 batch job due to the serious impact on response.  They have plenty of
 horsepower with the Series 70.

 Kitsap County Government is an HP site that gets a lot of work done without
 hitting the limits of the HP 3000 line.  Jim Kellam, the manager, started
 with a Series 48, overloaded it, then added a Series 68 and left the 48 for
 development.  He reports that OMNIDEX inquiries are unbelievably fast (`find
 all the voters named Smith' instantly replies `1200 entries found'), but can
 be abused, just like any tool.  For example, one of their programs opens all
 eight databases at the start, in case you might need them.  Installing
 OMNIDEX implies an extra open and another extra data segment, the equivalent
 of 16 DBOPENs per user.  The users sometimes get in and out of the
 application to access other software, so they pay this startup overhead more
 than once per day.  The IMSAM part of OMNIDEX allows you to define
 concatenated keys with pieces from three different datasets.  Jim feels that
 they may have overused these features, because he observes slow response with
 some of these bizarre keys.


                       European Challenge From SI-IMAGE

 An IMAGE database can provide you with the Customer Master information if you
 provide the exact Customer Number or Name, but it cannot quickly provide you
 with all the Customers whose Names start with "ARMST".  An IMAGE database can
 provide you with all the Orders for a given Part Number, but it cannot easily
 provide them in alphabetic order by Customer Name.

 North American users are about to have their choices expanded when it comes
 to adding access capabilities to their IMAGE databases.  For several years,
 the German company IABG has been selling and enhancing its product SI-IMAGE
 in Europe.  SI-IMAGE adds indexed sequential, generic key, and multikey
 access to IMAGE applications.  IABG has a large number of installations in
 West Germany, including a deal with HP to include SI-IMAGE in HP's financial
 package FA/3000.  (Rumor has it that the latest version of FA/3000 has
 SI-IMAGE built into it, but HP does not tell all customers about it -- only
 the ones who complain.)

 Until now, the only serious choice for this type of access in North America
 was OMNIDEX, a fine product we have described in our "Squeezing" paper.  Now
 IABG has struck a deal with one of the existing third-party tool vendors to
 market SI-IMAGE in the United States, perhaps world-wide.  The competition
 should improve both products:  in order to attract a US distributor, IABG had
 to add keyword searching and a Powerhouse interface to SI-IMAGE.

 SI-IMAGE works by adding new modes to the DBFIND and other intrinsics.  For
 example, if you call DBFIND with Mode -110, SI-IMAGE constructs a temporary
 chain consisting of all entries where the first ten bytes of the key value
 matches the specified search value.  Mode -120 matches for 20 bytes, etc.
 You then use normal DBGET calls to retrieve the records.  Modes 15 and 16 of
 DBGET allow you to retrieve entries which are greater than or less than the
 specified search value.  To provide this extra access capability, SI-IMAGE
 maintains B-trees within a special dataset that it adds to your database.

 An experienced SI-IMAGE user whom we interviewed was very positive about the
 product, pointing out that with B-trees you do not need master datasets at
 all.  This user found the software reliable and the performance excellent.
 For more information on SI-IMAGE, contact IABG in West Germany (telephone
 089/60 88-30 77) or watch for the US introduction of the product, probably
 under a new name.


                      Using QEDIT for the Occasional Memo

 Some users would like to use QEDIT's full-screen editing to write an
 occasional memo, but find the range of features and options in QEDIT
 daunting.  You can make QEDIT more accessible to such users by providing them
 with a special UDC and USE file (see listings below).

      :QMEMO  [filename]

 To invoke QEDIT to create a new memo, use :QMEMO without any parameters.
 QEDIT will be invoked directly in VISUAL mode, with configuration options
 suitable for processing a memo.  Any existing QEDITSCR file is purged, so
 that the user will not be faced with an "Okay to clear?" message.  When the
 user presses f8 to exit VISUAL, QEDIT will update the screen, KEEP the new
 document as the file Memo in the logon group, and ask the user to verify
 Exit.

 To invoke QEDIT to modify an existing memo, use :QMEMO filename, where
 filename is a KEEP file or QEDIT file.  When the user presses f8, QEDIT will
 KEEP the file back into filename, asking if it is "Okay to Purge?".  The
 users should answer YES to save their work or NO to discard it.

 The text file is configured for 74 columns so that it will fit exactly in the
 columns available in VISUAL mode.  VISUAL mode will save and restore the
 user's function key labels, if any, and will automatically update the screen
 when the user presses a function key.  You will need to show first-time users
 how to use DEL-LINE and INS-LINE (etc.) to edit the screen, and f5 or f6 to
 move backward or forward.  You should also teach them the MPE :RENAME command
 so that they can rename the file Memo.  Later you might show them how to use
 CHANGE and JUSTIFY in the command line (p.s., JUSTIFY is configured with
 right margin in column 68).

 Here is the listing of the QMEMO UDC:

 QMEMO filename = "$NULL"
 file memofile=!filename
 run qedit.pub.robelle;parm=68;info="UQ usememo.catalog.robelle"
 reset memofile
 ***

 The QMEMO UDC requires a USE file to drive QEDIT:

 :comment Usememo.Catalog.Robelle.  QEDIT USE file for QMEMO UDC.
 set list page on
 set window (upshift)
 set wraparound on
 set tabs hp on
 set shift up 2 down 2
 set check on
 set vis update on save on
 set justify margin 68 twospaces on
 :setjcw rlabeldefault=2
 set udc
 open
 set lang text
 set length 74
 set keep name memo
 text *memofile
 set keep num off
 vis first
 keep
 exit


            Robelle Products:  Problems, Solutions, and Suggestions


 SUPRTOOL  Version 3.0

 USE Files for DEFINEs.  SUPRTOOL DEFINE commands are wonderful for databases
 where the IMAGE items have sub-structure.  Combining the DEFINE command with
 USE files adds power to SUPRTOOL.  You can put all the defines for a dataset
 or file in a separate USE file, and you can USE it in SUPRTOOL anytime you
 access that file or dataset (not just at the start of SUPRTOOL, and you don't
 leave SUPRTOOL after a USE).  Remember that DEFINE names can be up to 16
 characters, so you can usually make the names in each USE file unique.  This
 allows you to activate several USE files of DEFINEs at the same time without
 conflict!  [Longs Drug Stores]


 QEDIT  Version 3.6

 Training Notes.  We enclose an introductory guide for new users of QEDIT.  It
 is intended for your novice, non-technical, or occasional users of QEDIT.
 The QEDIT reference manual can be intimidating to beginners, who may not need
 all the advanced features.  We would like to hear your comments on the
 training notes.  Do you have users it can help? Is it basic enough, or too
 advanced?

 Editing Roman-8 Characters.  In Sweden recently, several users asked why they
 saw only dots (.) on the screen when they tried to edit accented European
 characters using QEDIT VISUAL.  The reason is that these are Roman-8
 characters; they have decimal values greater than 128 because they use the
 first bit of the character as a data bit instead of a parity bit.  By
 default, QEDIT thinks that these characters are line noise.  However, there
 is a SET option to inform QEDIT that these are valid characters.  Use
      /set editinput extend on
 We are considering changing QEDIT so that this option is ON by default.

 Limiting QEDIT to 80 Columns.  When you use VISUAL with Reflection, QEDIT 3.6
 automatically widens display memory to accommodate the widest possible line
 in your file.  For Language = Job files, this means that QEDIT will never
 print the "!" warning at the start of lines which are more than 76 columns
 long.  If you find the "!"  to be a useful warning, you can get it back by
 using this undocumented SET option:
      /set visual rlimit on


 HowMessy  Version 1.6

 Please apply the following patch to version 1.6 of HowMessy.  This makes
 HowMessy a little less paranoid in its database integrity-checking.
     :hello mgr.robelle,pub
     :run patch.pub.sys
     Filename:  HowMessy
     ?m,5,1050
     141205,141605
     ?{Return}


 QLIB  Version 4.7

 QCOPY 3.3.  We have produced a new version of QCOPY with a FTN option.  When
 QCOPY is converting a file from KEEP format to QEDIT format, if the file has
 80-byte records with sequence numbers in the last eight columns, QCOPY cannot
 tell whether the file contains an SPL, Pascal, or FORTRAN program.  By
 default, QCOPY converts such files to SPL-type QEDIT workfiles.  With the FTN
 option, QCOPY converts them into FORTRAN-type QEDIT files.

 SUE.  Bob Borwick at Veteran's Administration has discovered that SUE will
 try to read a command file named INFILE when you start it up.  You can put
 SUE commands in this file to execute `canned' tasks.  SUE will stop when the
 commands are exhausted.