ftp.robelle3000.ai 2014/2014.06.ftp.robelle3000.ai.tar/ftp.robelle3000.ai/newsletter/1988/w1988-06.txt

Text File | 1999-04-28 | 25KB | 491 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
        Fax:  [phone]

 Date:  October 12, 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 #6

      What You Will Find in This News Memo:

        News Tidbits
        HP World, a New Magazine
        New Release of DBAUDIT
        Technical Tips
        SUPRTOOL Performance on MPE XL Version 1.1, Part II
        Using Powerhouse Inside QEDIT
        About Robelle
        Robelle Products:  Problems, Solutions, and Suggestions


                                 News Tidbits

 Super-Cartridge.  55 fonts on one cartridge, including numerous sizes of
 Times Roman and Helvetica.  Our August News Memo was produced on the
 Super-Cartridge.  Most fonts are available only in the ASCII Symbol set; that
 is, no Roman-8 characters for European users.  We have modified the PCL codes
 in QEDIT and SUPRTOOL to allow for this.  Available for $699 (US) from IQ
 Engineering, PO Box 60955, Sunnyvale, CA 94086, telephone [phone].

 Childcraft / Series 950.  Gary Porto at Childcraft reports that with MPE XL
 1.1 the problem of a serial task in a batch job hogging the system is not so
 bad as it was with 1.0.  This problem can occur with SUPRTOOL, QUERY, or any
 long serial task.  The batch job still hogs the system, but at least people
 can get a minimum of work done.  With 1.0, they couldn't even get a colon!
 Gary reports that he has 65 on-line users on his 64-megabyte Series 950 and
 that the performance is pretty good - as good as his Series 70.  That doesn't
 sound too bad at all.

 Dynamic Cache Optimizer.  The mysterious DCO program has been turned into a
 commercial product by its creators.  DCO runs as a background job, wakes up
 periodically to compare disc caching performance against targets, and adjusts
 the caching parameters dynamically.  DCO will even turn caching off on a disc
 drive if that would improve overall throughput.  Available from Computer
 Tools and Services, PO Box 11226, 1001 GE Amsterdam, Holland, telephone 02159
 45031.

 Spooling Enhancements.  A few years ago, the only spooling news we could
 report was HP's yearly promise, as yet unfulfilled, that they were writing a
 new spooler for MPE.  Then, Holland House (512-287-3417) came out with
 Unispool, for managing spool files around a network of several HP 3000s and
 printers.  NSD (415-573-5923) released Job Rescue, a spool file analyzer that
 allows you to print only those $stdlist files with errors in them.  Now
 Unisom (415-968-7511) has entered the market with Spoolmate, a product that
 combines most of these features, including pre-print analysis, printer
 control, forms control, distribution lists, and network support, plus audit
 reports and archiving.  Of course, Holland House has been upgrading Unispool
 all along with many of the same features, and NSD has announced Spool Rescue,
 a Spook-like program that allows you to look at open spool files (how far has
 that report gone?).  All of a sudden, we have a broad range of alternatives
 to the standard MPE spooler.


                           HP World, a New Magazine

 This summer I have been reading a new magazine for European HP users named HP
 World, which I recommend highly.  It has excellent articles that describe in
 concrete detail how real users, mostly in Europe, are solving real problems.
 The September issue has page after page of well-written news from the Orlando
 meeting.  Here are some samples:

 "Early MPE XL Migration Results.  London Business School is not a typical
 installation.  Much of their software is written using double precision
 floating point Fortran which benefits considerably from the Precision
 Architecture.  MIS Director Gordon Miller says "Our straight line performance
 is up considerably - one program runs 40 times faster - but the performance
 gains are very application dependent and cannot be accurately forecast
 beforehand." Keith Howard of Collier-Jackson in Tampa, Florida participated
 in the Spectrum beta testing and upgraded from a Series 58 to a Series 950 -
 quite a leap.  One application was found to be 6% slower due to constant
 switching between compatibility and native modes, but in most circumstances
 the machine was five to ten times faster than the Series 52 and one batch job
 ran 53 times faster! Glaxo Export has temporarily deferred delivery on its
 second and third 950 systems due to implementation problems on the initial
 machine.  John Walsh of Glaxo related at the Scarborough conference that the
 first processor was due to go live earlier this year, but when the company
 came to do a volume throughput test, the machine was unable to load the full
 operational workload of the Glaxo Series 70.   ... Glaxo's problem was caused
 by the MPE XL 1.0 Loader table being too small, but Glaxo now has a copy of
 version 1.1 and is about to re-run the volume throughput test.
 "Notes from Orlando.  HP promises performance improvment for Precision
 Architecture over the next five years of 40-50% per year.  Some of this will
 be achieved by further tuning of MPE XL -- version 1.1 is said to be at least
 20% faster overall.   ...  There are no plans to port the HP COPYCAT product
 to the 900 Series.  A disc condense utility [for MPE XL] will not be released
 before 1990.  Until then, the only way to reduce disc fragmentation is via a
 system reload...  The 7933XP and 7935XP disc drives are supported under MPE
 XL 1.0.  7937XP drives will be supported under version 1.1, but in all cases
 the XP cache is ignored by MPE XL and the disc drives have similar
 performance profiles to the non-XP drives...MPE XL is designed to handle file
 names longer than eight characters and this may be implemented in the future
 - probably when incompatibilities with MPE V are not so important...MPE XL
 version 1.2 has already been completed and is about to enter testing.  Some
 of the problems encountered in live use with version 1.0 will therefore not
 be fixed until release 1.3.
 "Color Lasers.  Rumors abounded at Orlando of a color LaserJet in the
 pipeline.  It appears that the main technical problem yet to be resolved is
 getting the colors correctly lined up.  2680?  Heavy duty laser printer
 replacements for the 2680 printer are not expected until 1992 and are likely
 to be PCL-based.  High end 25Mhz.  According to Bob Puette, HP's Worldwide PC
 Manager, a high end 386 Vectra is to be launched in early 1989.  This is
 likely to be a 25Mhz version.  Portable Update.  The [HP version of the]
 Zenith Portable is to be introduced late autumn.  The main changes are HP
 logos, HP-colored keytops, HP PAM, and HP version of MS-DOS.  VPLUS.  There
 are no plans to enhance VPLUS to support 132-column wide terminals, due to
 technical difficulties.

 HP World offers free subscriptions to qualified users in Europe, Africa,
 Israel, and the Near East.  Contact them for an application: HP World, 7 The
 Brow, Friston, Eastbourne, East Sussex, England BN20 0ER.  Telephone (44)
 3215 2051.  Fax [phone].


                            New Release of DBAUDIT

 DBAUDIT is intended to help system managers keep tabs on HP 3000 database
 transactions through use of IMAGE logfiles.  You can use it to monitor a
 specific user, a troublesome dataset, a dial-in terminal port, or a suspect
 application program, and see just what changes are being made to your
 databases.  Because transaction dumps can be sorted by up to five keys,
 including dataset field values, you can use them as audit reports instead of
 writing custom programs.  DBAUDIT provides informative, readable summary
 reports of database activity, organized by program, user, dataset, and logon
 device.  Using these reports, you can pinpoint performance bottlenecks in
 your database applications.

 At Robelle Consulting Ltd., we continue to improve our products, releasing a
 new, enhanced version each year.  This year, DBAUDIT version 1.8 has many
 additional features, including full compatibility with MPE XL and the
 logfiles generated by Turbo IMAGE/XL:
   *  Report pages have page numbers, date, and title; to make your account
     auditors happy, these are ON by default.
   *  Checkpoint/Restart on the Input command simplifies daily audit.  You
     won't have to change parameters for the standard DBAUDIT reports you run
     every night; DBAUDIT records the name of the last logfile processed and
     starts the next audit where it left off.
   *  You can exclude selected datasets from the report, and sort all the
     transactions for a given process together.
   *  New Show command lists database sets, items, and fields.
   *  Options to drop "no data changed" Updates from the report or to select
     only null updates.
   *  Two JCWs record the number of inconsistencies in your logfile (usually
     zero, thank goodness), and the number of incomplete logical transactions.
     You can use these JCWs in a batch job to decide whether a database
     recovery is possible and necessary.
   *  Shorthand: @ to select any user or program in a specific account; *
     refers to most recent dataset, field, or record selected.
 These and other new features are fully explained in the new User Manual,
 which is included on the update tape so that users may print as many copies
 as they like, on a lineprinter or LaserJet.  This version of DBAUDIT has an
 updated help file.  All users of DBAUDIT covered by service will receive an
 update tape automatically.  Overseas customers - please allow another month.
 Patience is a virtue.


                                Technical Tips

 NOBUF/MR.  With disc caching enabled, it is always faster to read many blocks
 at a time, rather than one at a time, regardless of whether the blocksize is
 an even multiple of 256 bytes.  This is also true of MPE XL, where blocks do
 not have to start on sector boundaries any more (or even page boundaries).

 Logging Overhead in Turbo IMAGE.  Charles Sullivan has done extensive
 measurements of the overhead imposed by transaction logging.  The last major
 study of this issue that I remember is the one that Dennis Heidner did on
 pre-Turbo IMAGE.  Charles found overhead in Turbo IMAGE, where Dennis found
 little in IMAGE.  The results are in a paper entitled Developing a Faster
 Image in the proceedings of the Orlando Conference.  Possible reason: posting
 to the disc more often for rollback recovery? Importance of Memory on MPE XL.
 Charles also measured the time for basic IMAGE calls on the Series 950
 (version 1.0 of MPE XL).  His surprising results: the 950 was slightly slower
 than the 70.  But, when he increased the size of main memory on the 950, it
 was much faster than the 70.  These MPE XL results were presented in Orlando,
 but are not in the proceedings.

 TouchScreen Tip.  Don't you hate it when you point at something on your
 screen, and your cursor moves?  Me too.  Press Shift-Ctrl-Menu to turn off
 the touch feature.  [mcs]

 Taming the HP 3000, the Seminar.  Bob Lund, who wrote the excellent
 performance guidebook, Taming the HP 3000, is now giving seminars on this
 topic.  For example, for $250 US you can spend December 6th, 1988 with Bob in
 Los Angeles, learning how to make your system perform better.  Arranged by
 GLUG.  Call [phone] for details.

 Query Bug.  One of our users called to report that Query on MPE version
 G.B3.02 has a very serious bug.  When deleting records from a master dataset,
 after it finds a record that matches the search criteria, it deletes that
 record and all synonyms that migrate to that location!.

 MpexHook'd Programs Suspend.  Programs that have been hooked using VESOFT's
 MPEXHOOK procedure can be suspended for later quick reactivation.  This is in
 addition to everything else that the hooks allow, such as access to MPEX
 commands, MPE XL redo stacks, and keeping files into another account.  Just
 type %% at any program prompt, and the hooked program will suspend back to
 QEDIT, where it can be re-activated at any time.


              SUPRTOOL Performance on MPE XL Version 1.1, Part II

 Last month we reported our first test results on Version 1.1 of MPE XL, the
 new improved operating system.  We found that for straight file copies
 version 1.1 was 30% faster than version 1.0 of MPE XL and that SUPRTOOL
 copied as fast, or faster, than the Native-Mode COPY command provided with
 MPE XL.  Our second test measured the time for SUPRTOOL to read a Turbo IMAGE
 dataset and check each entry against selection criteria (i.e., an IF
 command); all entries were selected.  This test read 38,000 dataset entries
 of 90 bytes each, blockfactor 13, reading and writing 19 blocks at a time.

 In order to get a feel for the relative performance of SUPRTOOL access versus
 standard Turbo IMAGE/XL access, we did two extra tests where we used the SET
 PRIVMODE OFF command to force SUPRTOOL to use the DBGET intrinsic for reading
 the dataset.  This comparison may not give the total picture of Turbo
 IMAGE/XL Native-Mode performance, due to the overhead of the CM switch stubs
 that SUPRTOOL had to call.





      :run suprtool.pub.robelle
      >base cust.karnak
      >get notes
      >if sort-item=0 or sort-item<>0
      >out $null
      >xeq





                      MPE XL 1.0           MPE XL 1.1
                      Cpu   Elapsed        Cpu   Elapsed
  Suprtool 3.0 (CM)    21     21            22     22
  Suprtool 3.0 (OCT)    7      7             6      6
  Suprtool DBGET (CM)  59     61            62     62
  Suprtool DBGET (OCT)                      43     43
 In this test, MPE XL version 1.1 was slightly slower than version 1.0.  This
 slight difference could be due to different disc drives and main memory on
 the test machines.  What this test does show is that when your CM program
 such as SUPRTOOL has a lot of processing to do (not just calling the
 operating system), using the OCT can dramatically improve the performance.

 On the new MPE XL, we also measured the portion of SUPRTOOL's time spent to
 read the dataset: 32 seconds with DBGET and .6 seconds with SUPRTOOL's
 NOBUF/MR techniques.  By subtracting this time from the overall time, we can
 see how much of the time in SUPRTOOL is spent processing the records (i.e.,
 IF command, data conversions, formatting output record, etc.).  What we find
 in these tests is that using the OCT reduced the internal processing time by
 63% to 76%, a significant gain.  In order to produce an OCT-version of
 SUPRTOOL on your machine, log on as MGR.ROBELLE and issue this command:
      :octcomp suprtool,suproct
 Now run suproct for an Object-Code-Translator version of SUPRTOOL.

 SUPRTOOL Performance Test #3 -- Query Extract

 This test was similar to test #2, but also created an output file of record
 numbers.  This allowed us to compare the time to extract data with Query
 versus the time to extract data with SUPRTOOL.  Although SUPRTOOL is not a
 full replacement for Query, since it does not generate reports, it is a
 replacement for the use of Query as a data extract tool.





                                MPE XL 1.1
                               Cpu   Elapsed
  Suprtool 3.0 (CM)             22     22
  Suprtool 3.0 (OCT)             6      6
  Query (CM)                   181    181
  Query (OCT)                  143    145
 Notice that the SUPRTOOL results are basically identical to test #2, showing
 that the time to write the output file of record numbers is negligible.  The
 OCT version of Query took 24 times longer than SUPRTOOL and the CM version of
 Query took 8.2 times longer.

 SUPRTOOL Performance Test #4 -- Sorted Extract

 We did a more exhaustive and realistic set of tests using SUPRTOOL to create
 a sorted extract file versus using Query to do the same task.  We selected
 about 1/3 of the entries in the dataset, we sorted by three keys, and we
 converted the fields to ASCII format for the output file.  We designed this
 test to be a "typical" data extract, where the sorted file would then be fed
 into a report program for final reporting.
       :build x2;rec=-96,8,f,ascii;disc=40000
       :file qslist=x2,old;dev=disc
    SUPRTOOL Commands:
       >base cust.karnak,5
       >get notes
       >if sort-item <= 10150
       >output *qslist,erase,ascii
       >sort serial-no
       >sort sort-item
       >exit
    Query Commands:
       >base=cust.karnak
       >mode=5
       >set=notes
       >find sort-item <= 10150
       >out=lp
       >report
        s2,serial-no
        s1,sort-item
        d1,-serial-no,4
        d1,product-code,6
        d1,text-line,86
        d1,sort-item,96
        nopage
        end
       >exit
 We ran this test on both a 950 and a Series 37, for comparison.  Here is what
 we found.





                      MPE V U-Mit           MPE XL 1.1
                      Series 37, 2 mbyte    Series 950, 32 mbyte
                      Cpu   Elapsed         Cpu   Elapsed
  Suprtool 3.0 (CM)   126    174             36     36
  Suprtool 3.0 (OCT)                         23     27
  Query        (CM)  1227   1380            226    230
  Query        (OCT)                        171    180
 On the 950, SUPRTOOL CM was 6.3 times faster than Query CM and SUPRTOOL OCT
 was 6.6 times faster than Query OCT.  On the Series 37, SUPRTOOL was 8 times
 faster than Query and used 10% of the cpu time.  SUPRTOOL on the 950 was much
 faster than SUPRTOOL on the Series 37, as you would expect:  5 times faster
 for CM and 6.4 times faster for OCT.  What is more surprising is that
 SUPRTOOL on a Series 37 outperformed Query CM on a 950 by 24% and even beat
 Query OCT by 3%.


                         Using Powerhouse Inside QEDIT

 QEDIT works well as a homebase for Powerhouse developers for two reasons: 1)
 the Powerhouse tools read QEDIT workfiles, and 2) the Powerhouse tools have
 an option to SUSPEND.  You can start by running QEDIT, then use UDCs to run
 QUIZ, QUICK, QTP, QDD, and QSHOW, holding on to each as you EXIT.  The result
 is that all the Powerhouse tools you need are available for instant
 activation.  You can OPEN a QUIZ report file, modify it, invoke QUIZ to test
 it, OPEN a related QUICK source file, edit it, invoke QUICK to test it, and
 so on.  All without leaving QEDIT and all without waiting.

 For Powerhouse 5.01 and the next release, the UDCs are distributed as the
 file ddudc.current.cognos or ddrudc.current.cognos (if you use
 Dictionary/3000).  The Powerhouse UDCs you may need are QUIZ, QUICK, QTP,
 QDD, and QSHOW.  You should modify these UDCs for best use inside QEDIT.

 The first change is to add a new parameter, make it the first one, to specify
 the name of the source file.  If you do this, you will be able to invoke the
 tool on your current workfile without having to type the name of the file.
 In QEDIT, QUIZ * means invoke the QUIZ UDC and pass the current filename as
 the first parameter.  There are two ways to specify the source file- name: 1)
 via a FILE equation such as FILE QUIZUSE = !source, or 2) via the AUTO=
 parameter of the INFO string (e.g., info = "auto = !source".  For example,
      QQUIZ source ...
      file quizuse=!source
 The filename for QUICK is QKGO, but the others are obvious: QTPUSE, QDDUSE,
 and QSHOWUSE.

 The second change is to specify the SUSPEND parameter in the INFO string
 (e.g., info = "suspend" or info = "suspend auto = !source").  This will cause
 the tool to suspend instead of terminate when you EXIT back to QEDIT.  QEDIT
 will ask if it is okay to hold onto the tool, and you should say YES if you
 might need it again.  The next time you specify the UDC, QEDIT will not have
 to run the tool, only activate it, which is much faster.  With these two
 changes, you will have created an integrated development environment for
 QEDIT and Powerhouse.


                                 About Robelle

 OEMs, VARs, VABs! Do You Need SUPRTOOL?  Please call us if you would like to
 integrate SUPRTOOL or Speed Demon into your application package.  We now have
 a licensing program that allows you to make the speed and convenience of our
 tools available to your customers.  There is no need for your customers to
 sign a separate license agreement with us, or pay us any extra support fees.
 They remain your customers, supported by you.

 User Manuals.  As you probably know, every Robelle distribution tape contains
 the User Manuals as files that you can print on your system lineprinter.
 There are two things you may not know, however:  1) you can also print those
 manuals on the LaserJet with proportional spacing and bold/italics, and 2)
 you can order printed and bound copies of the manuals if you prefer.  The
 price for printed manuals is $20 US each.  Below are the instructions for
 printing your own copies on a LaserJet:

 If you have an HP LaserJet and one of the Font Cartridges for which we
 provide a configuring Include file, you can print the user manual on it with
 Bold, Italics, Underlining, and Proportional Spacing (certain fonts only).
 Do listf @.qlibdata.robelle and see if there is an Include file whose name is
 the same as your Font Cartridge.  For example, F92286F is for the "F"
 cartridge with Times Roman and Helvetica fonts.

 You will need to know the Include filename, the Device Class of your
 LaserJet, and the number of copies you want to print.
     :run qedit.pub.robelle
     /text manual.doc.robelle
     /find ".out(lpt" 1         {find OUT command for LPT}
     /change 1 ".com"           {and Comment it out}
     /find ".out(las" 1         {find OUT command for Laser}
     /change ".com."."          {and Comment it in!}
   If the LaserJet is attached to your CRT:
        /change "r-"r+"         {enable Record Mode printing}
   If you want more than one copy:
        /change "c1"c3"         {where 3 is number of copies}
     /find ".inc" 1             {find the Include file}
     /modify                    {insert name of Include file
                                 for your Font Cartridge}
     /file print;dev=devclass       {use your device class}
     /set udc udc.catalog.robelle   {defines :PROSE command}
     /prose *,*print            {prepare for a long wait!}
     /exit

 The Table of Contents prints last, and must be manually inserted after the
 title page.  For more information on printing documents with Prose, see the
 Prose User Manual (i.e., prose.qlibdoc.robelle), itself formatted with Prose.
 If you don't have a Font Cartridge that we support, you can still print the
 User Manual on your LaserJet -- just follow the instructions for a regular
 lineprinter.


            Robelle Products:  Problems, Solutions, and Suggestions

 MPE XL and Security on the Robelle Account.  The security of the Robelle
 account does not give you Read access to the PUB group, only Xeq.  A bug in
 MPE XL forces certain operating system functions to have Read access to the
 program file.  Otherwise, the system may fail!  To adjust the Robelle
 account, enter these commands:
      :hello mgr.robelle
      :altgroup pub;access=(r,x,l:any;w,a,s:ac)

 QEDIT  Version 3.6

 Migration Toolset Bug.  If you are preparing to upgrade to a 925 or 950, HP
 may run the "Migration Toolset" on your Classic 3000 to analyze programs for
 compatibility.  QEDIT may abort with a privileged instruction trap (program
 error #6) when you press Control-Y.  This is a bug in the Migration Toolset
 monitor, as QEDIT never uses PM.  Workaround: turn off the toolset, :allocate
 qedit, turn on the toolset again.

 SET MODIFY VEMODIFY TAE ON.  If you see V or 87TR1 printed on your screen
 when you do a Modify command, it means you are using QZMODIFY with the
 `Type-Ahead Engine' feature enabled, but don't really have a Telamon
 Type-Ahead Engine.  To disable this, type Ctrl-W Ctrl-T once or twice until
 QZMODIFY says "no TypeAhead Engine".  Then continue modifying your line as
 usual.

 DBAUDIT  Version 1.8

 Spring Ahead, Fall Back.  When you set the clock back one hour at the end of
 October, don't forget that your IMAGE transaction logfile may have a sequence
 inconsistency in it.  This is because the timestamp is supposed to increase
 from one transaction to the next.  But any transactions that occur during the
 `repeated' hour will have earlier timestamps than those that happened just
 before the clock was changed.  This is important to remember, especially if
 you use DBAUDIT to report on your logfiles, or if you have a system failure
 and need to recover from that logfile using DBRECOV.  DBAUDIT can ignore the
 sequence error using set resetonerror off.  DBRECOV ignores the timestamp
 inconsistency using control nostamp.

 QLIB  Version 5.0
 DESKQED.  Version 0.3 uses the file DESQSCR instead of QEDITSCR as the QEDIT
 scratch file.
 PROSE.  We have improved command descriptions in the User Manual.
 QCOPY.  Version 3.4 fixes a number of bugs, especially reading files with
 variable-length records.  Such files are now rejected by QCOPY.
 QHELP.  Version 1.4 fixes a bug where QHELP was not closing the LP file when
 you did a CLOSE command.