ftp.robelle3000.ai 2014/2014.06.ftp.robelle3000.ai.tar/ftp.robelle3000.ai/newsletter/1992/w1992-05.txt

Text File | 1994-04-12 | 24KB | 497 lines

        What's Up DOCumentation



       Robelle Consulting Ltd.
       Unit 201, 15399-102A Ave.
       Surrey, B.C.  Canada  V3R 7K1
       Phone:  [phone]
       Fax:  [phone]

Date:  October 31, 1992

From:  Robert M. Green, CEO
       David J. Greer, President
       Michael Shumko, Editor

To:    Users of Robelle Software

Re:    News of the HP 3000, 1992 #5

     What You Will Find in This News Memo:

       News Tidbits
       Technical Tips
       Robelle Visits Australia and New Zealand
       Backup Tips by David Merit
       About Robelle
       Calendar of Events
       Running Robelle Programs From PowerHouse
       Robelle Products:  Problems, Solutions, and Suggestions
       The New XPRESS 2.9 Improves Screen Interface



                                 News Tidbits

And the Award Goes To ...  Congratulations to Bob Green  and  David  Greer  of
Robelle,  who  picked  up  three  of the top awards at Interex this year.  Bob
received one of three Best Paper awards in the All Platforms category for  his
paper entitled "The Warning Signs, A Pop Quiz on Quality".

And  talk  about  presentation  skills!   David  and Bob each won one of three
Tutorial Presentation awards:  David, for "Suprtool Performance Tips with  the
Developer", and Bob, for "Qedit Problem-Solving with the Creator".

Way to go, team!

SIGLASER  is  Going  Again.   The  special  interest  group for high-end laser
printers (HP 2680  and  HP  series  5000)  is  starting  up  again.  For  more
information    contact    the    INTEREX   office,   or   Steve   Hammond   at
[e-mail]

LaserJet 4.  Once again, Hewlett Packard proves  its  leadership  in  LaserJet
technology  with the recent introduction of the LaserJet 4.  This new LaserJet
produces documents at 600 dots-per-inch (DPI) resolution, compared to the  300
DPI that all previous HP LaserJets offer.

HP  has  listened  to  its customers, and has addressed many of the complaints
regarding the shortcomings of  the  LaserJet  III.   The  LaserJet  4  has  45
scaleable  fonts,  which include ten Windows 3.1 TrueType fonts.  The printing
speed is still eight pages per minute, even at 600 DPI.  It  offers  some  new
printing  modes,  including  "reverse landscape" and "reverse portrait", which
turn your text page upside down.

In continuing with HP's trend to  Open  systems,  new  hardware  and  software
options  help  connect  the printer to any type of machine in any environment.
For example, the printer has new  bi-directional  parallel  and  serial  ports
which  can  both  be  used at the same time.  Support for Printer Job Language
switching has been included, making the printer ideal for  networks.   Context
switching,  as  in  determining if the file is PostScript or PCL, is performed
automatically.

The price is only slightly higher than that of the LaserJet III,  making  this
model an excellent purchase.  [Ken Robertson]


                                Technical Tips

Memory.  When you run out of memory on a 9xx, one of  the  first  symptoms  is
slow  response  time.  We were running our R&D series 922 with 32MB of memory,
with up to  six  users  doing  compiles,  links,  test  suites,  and  document
formatting.   If  we  didn't  touch  the  terminal  for a few minutes, when we
eventually pressed Return, it would take 15 seconds to get the prompt!   After
adding another 32MB of Kelly memory, response time went back to normal.

AT  Commands.   You  can  put  spaces in your modem commands to make them more
readable:

     atb0q0x6&a2&b1&h1&m5&n0
   becomes
     at b0 q0 x6 &a2 &b1 &h1 &m5 &n0


                   Robelle Visits Australia and New Zealand

In  September,  David  Greer  went  on  a  road  trip with Laurie Facer, Julie
Mowinski of Holland House, Mike Butler of D.I.S.C., and David Merit  of  ORBIT
Software.   We  visited  Melbourne,  Sydney,  Auckland, and Wellington, giving
product presentations and seminars.  We met an interesting group of users  and
had  fun  visiting  the  land  down under.  Special thanks to Laurie and Sandy
Facer for organizing the whole trip.


                          Backup Tips by David Merit

While  traveling  in  Australia,  we  listened to David Merit's talk on backup
technologies. The three most important things about a backup are  reliability,
reliability,  and  reliability.   Tape drives will report the number of errors
and retries to the controlling software, but MPE's  :Store  command  does  not
provide any way of finding out what these values are. By default, MPE's :Store
command will abort a backup with a tape error. If you are using a  third-party
backup product, check to see if any JCWs are set with the number of errors and
retries. This should be monitored by your backup job streams. David recommends
that  you  throw  out tapes with more than three errors or ten retries.  ORBIT
has seen cases where the backup completed, but the number of errors or retries
was  high  enough that users could not restore from the backup.  It also takes
longer to write to a bad tape.

According to ORBIT, you can safely use 90M DDS tapes, even  in  older  HP  DDS
drives.   HP does not support 90M DDS tapes in some of their older drives, but
if you are using a third-party backup utility it  doesn't  matter  because  HP
won't  be supporting your backup recovery.  ORBIT has been using 90M DDS tapes
for two years without any problems.  [Unfortunately Robelle has  not  had  any
luck  getting  90M  DATs to work in the C1501A DAT drives on the S922.  Caveat
Emptor.  Ed.] You should clean DDS tape heads  (there  is  a  commercial  tape
cleaner that you just plug into the tape drive).

Use  3600'  tapes  instead of 2400'.  The only caution is that a single backup
should be on all 3600' tapes or all 2400' tapes but not a combination  of  the
two.

Backup  tapes  do  not have an infinite life.  HP recommends that reel-to-reel
tapes are only good for two years, and this assumes that  at  least  once  per
year  you  wind and rewind the tape.  We recently restored some files from ten
year old backup tapes, but they were small 1600  BPI  tapes.   Reels  of  tape
should  only  be  used  20 to 30 times. DDS tapes have an expected life of ten
years or 300 uses.


                                About Robelle

Installing Robelle Updates.

At  a recent user group meeting, Bob Green asked a class of Qedit fans whether
they installed Robelle tapes by simply restoring @.@.@.  Quite a lot of  hands
went  up.  Of course, there is nothing wrong with restoring the files from the
tape -- it's a necessary step.  But it doesn't stop there.  The  new  versions
of  the  programs  on  the  tape  are not stored in their "normal" names.  For
example, there is no file called Qedit.Pub.Robelle on the tape.  Rather, there
are  two programs, only one of which will be the correct version, depending on
whether the install is being done on  MPE V  or  MPE/iX.   Both  versions  are
provided  to  all  customers,  to facilitate our generous upgrade policy.  The
installation job stream (e.g., Install.Qeditjob.Robelle) decides which version
to put into production, saving the old program in the PubOld group of Robelle,
in case you ever need to go back  to  it.   Other  installation  jobs  may  be
required  to install new versions of the bonus and contributed programs, also.
We recommend that you read and follow the instructions in  the  Change  Notice
that accompanies each tape.

Your  HPPA  System  Must Have a Valid Serial Number.  When run on MPE/iX (also
known as MPE/XL, 9xx, or Spectrum), the next versions of all our products will
verify  that  your machine has a valid HP serial number. For now they will not
check for a SPECIFIC serial number, just SOME serial number. A future  release
of the products will only run on the serial numbers that you are licensed for.

When HP first released the Series 9xx machines, some were  shipped  without  a
valid  serial  number.   If  you  do the following and get an error message as
shown, you do not have a valid serial number:

     :showvar hpsusan
     ^ ACTIVE FUNCTION FAILED (CIERR 8159)

If you get the error, you must call the HP Response Center and obtain a  valid
serial  number  before  you can run the program.  You may want to do this now,
before you receive the Qedit 4.1 or Suprtool 3.5 release.

Bob Green Visits UK and Greece.  Bob Green  recently  returned  from  visiting
users in London and Dublin as well as Athens, Greece.  Teaser:  the next issue
of What's Up DOCumentation will include a full report by Bob, who  says,  "The
trip  was a dream come true.  I was finally in Greece, and I was a philosopher
(well, a computer philosopher)."

Robelle Software Rental.  If you require one or more of our software  products
for a short period, or if you can't afford to make a full license purchase for
a while, our rental program may be for you.  You can rent any of our  software
products  for  a  minimum period of one quarter.  Half of the rental fees paid
can be applied to up  to  half  of  the  purchase  price.   A  rental  license
agreement will be required.  Give us a call for more details.



                              Calendar of Events


November 1992* Qedit training in Sacramento on November 3.  Qedit  training
               in  Santa Clara on November 4.  Suprtool two-day training in
               Santa Clara on November 5-6.

             * Qedit training in Boston on November 17.

             * Growth Power User Group Meeting in Boston on November 18.

             * Two-day Suprtool course in Boston on November 19-20.



                   Running Robelle Programs From PowerHouse

Most  Robelle  programs  are capable of suspending instead of terminating when
you exit them.  This includes Qedit, Suprtool, Suprlink, Xpress,  Select,  and
some  other  programs.   This suspension only happens when the programs detect
that they have been run from a program other than the MPE Command  Interpreter
(CI).  The assumption is that any program that is "smart" enough to be able to
run other programs should  also  be  "smart"  enough  to  recognize  when  the
programs suspend, and to act accordingly.  On MPE V that was a reasonable, but
not infallible, assumption.  On MPE/iX it may not be a good assumption at all.
This  is  because  any program that calls the HPCICOMMAND intrinsic to execute
MPE commands can now run programs.  However, the  HPCICOMMAND  intrinsic  does
not recognize suspended child processes.  It simply leaves the child processes
suspended, with no way to re-activate them.

PowerHouse programs have always had the ability to run other  programs.   This
was achieved by PowerHouse emulating the Run command internally through custom
programming by Cognos.  As part of  that  emulation  PowerHouse  was  able  to
detect  suspended  child processes, and hold onto them for later reactivation.
The typical benefit was the ability to resume execution of the  child  process
much more quickly because all its files and databases were still open from the
prior execution.  However the native-mode versions of PowerHouse  programs  no
longer  emulate  the  Run  command.   Instead they simply call the HPCICOMMAND
intrinsic to do the Run for them.  This has the  benefit  of  having  complete
compatibility  with  all the new parameters of the MPE/iX Run command, and all
other MPE/iX commands, with no programming effort at all,  but  gives  up  the
significant extensions that the former emulation of the Run command offered.

From a practical standpoint, this means that if you run Qedit or Suprtool from
inside Quick, then exit from Qedit or Suprtool back  to  your  Quick  program,
Qedit  or Suprtool will have suspended, and you will have no way to reactivate
them.  That can leave Suprtool, for example, with a database open, with no way
to close it except by exiting the Quick application.

Robelle  has  attempted  to get HP to change HPCICOMMAND to kill off suspended
processes (KPR 5000-616615), but the response center closed the call  for  two
reasons:   the  lack  of resources, and their judgment that it wasn't a bug in
the intrinsic, but a design flaw in the programs calling  HPCICOMMAND  or  the
programs being run by HPCICOMMAND.

Fortunately  Robelle  products  provide  a  method  of  overriding the suspend
action.  Run Qedit or Suprtool with parm=32, which tells them  to  shut  their
files  and  terminate  completely,  instead  of  suspending.   In  the case of
Suprtool you can make this a site-wide option by adding the  Set  Suspend  Off
command  to  the  Suprtool configuration file, Suprmgr.Pub.Sys.  Suprtool also
has an option on the Exit command, Exit Abort, that  tells  it  to  terminate.
However,  this  has  the additional, unwanted side effect of not executing the
current task, so be careful.  Qedit does not have an equivalent  Set  or  Exit
option, and relies on the parm=32 on the Run command.

The explanation behind this change to PowerHouse is described in the July 1990
Cognos Support Technical Newsletter:

... users no longer need the SUSPEND option when running PowerHouse, as HP has
indicated there are no savings suspending and reactivating processes in MPE/XL
as there were in MPE/V.

Many  users  would  not  agree  with  this  assessment.   One  example  is  an
interesting  article  published  in  a  subsequent  Cognos  Support  Technical
Newsletter in 1992 (Vol. 2, No. 4), written by  Jonathan  Heywood  of  Xeleton
Systems  B.V. in The Netherlands.  Mr. Heywood describes how he programmed his
Quick application to execute  QTP  with  the  SUSPEND  option,  and  used  the
Activate  intrinsic  to  re-awaken  QTP  instead of restarting it from scratch
every time.  Mr. Heywood says that this saved him 0.2 CPU seconds (on a  S980)
per  QTP  run,  which  accounted  for  17% of the CPU time for that task.  His
estimated saving, when applied to all his background processing,  "is  between
one  and  two  CPU hours per day, and that is considerable on a system that is
running a 80% to 100% CPU load all day." There is no doubt  that  the  process
handling features of MPE are still valuable tools on MPE/iX.

By  the  way,  we don't want to single out PowerHouse as the only program that
will cause orphaned child processes.  For example, HP's LinkEdit and Robelle's
Suprtool  have  the  same  "feature".   In the case of PowerHouse, though, the
powerful suspend-reactivate capability is one that Cognos users have benefited
from for years, and which has now been removed.


           Robelle Products:  Problems, Solutions, and Suggestions

Qedit  Version 4.0

X-Windows and Visual Mode Correction Notice.  In the last  issue  we  reported
that  HP had fixed the problem of lines being deleted in Visual Mode from Unix
X-Windows terminals.  Unfortunately, we printed the wrong patch numbers.   Our
apologies.  The correct ones are:

    PHNE_1025 is for the S300 and S400 systems.
    PHNE_1026 is for the S700 systems.
    PHNE_1027 is for the S800 systems.

Quick  No Longer Suspends.  As of release 6.09 of PowerHouse, the Quick module
no longer suspends properly when run from Qedit.  If Quick 6.09  is  run  with
the  info="suspend" parameter, it will suspend when exiting from Quick back to
Qedit, but will leave the terminal in a state unusable  to  Qedit.   The  only
workaround  is  to  stop  using  the "suspend" parameter.  Starting with Quick
version 7.09 the terminal is  no  longer  messed  up,  even  if  "suspend"  is
specified.  This  is  only  because  Quick 7.09 ignores the parameter totally,
always terminating instead of suspending.

Note:  The other PowerHouse modules  continue  to  support  suspending  as  of
version 7.09.  Only Quick no longer supports Suspend.

We  would  like  to know if this is a concern to you.  Please let us know.  Of
course, since all of this is due to changes made by Cognos,  you  should  also
let them know if you don't like the change.


Suprtool  Version 3.4

This Month's Brain Teaser.

A  user  called  us  with a perplexing situation.  He wrote a Suprtool task to
delete all manual master records which did  not  have  any  associated  detail
records.   After  running  it  there  were  still some of these records in the
dataset.  It took us a while to figure  out  what  had  happened.   Here's  an
interesting puzzle for you.  See if you can find the solution.

     >base doc.log,1,password
     >set ignore on
     >set dumponerror off
     >get log-master     {manual master}
     >output $null
     >delete
     >xeq
     Delete all records from the LOG-MASTER dataset [no]: YES
     Warning:  Using DBGET for the input records
     Warning:  NUMRECS exceeded; some records not processed.
     IN=35814, OUT=35813.  18167 chain-head(s) not deleted

Remember, the task was to delete the master entries which no  longer  had  any
detail  records.   This  accounted for about half the records in the set.  The
way the task was written, Suprtool was instructed to  simply  delete  all  the
records.   The  user  knew  that  IMAGE would reject a Dbdelete for any master
entry which still had a detail chain.  Suprtool  was  configured  to  keep  on
executing,  even  with failed Dbdelete attempts, via the Set Ignore ON and Set
DumpOnError OFF commands.  The problem is that the task  stopped  prematurely;
Suprtool  did  not delete all the records that it should have.  That is, after
Suprtool was done, there remained some master records which had no details.

Answer:  The culprit was our old friend, the  migrating  secondary.   As  some
primary  records  were  deleted,  secondaries moved into the primary location.
Suprtool re-read the location so as not to miss any, but in doing  so  re-read
some  entries that it had already read.  This caused the IN count to be higher
than it should have been, making Suprtool  stop  before  reading  all  of  the
records in the dataset.

Workaround  1:  Do the job again.  This is not guaranteed to work on the first
try, so keep running the job until there are no records to delete.

Workaround 2:  Use SET EOFREAD ON to cause Suprtool to read to the "hard"  end
of  the  dataset  instead  of  stopping  when the initial number of records is
satisfied.

Xpress  Version 2.9

Sending a message - NOT!

When in the middle of sending a message to a list  of  people,  and  you  have
already  typed  some  user  names  or  numbers, you can choose not to send the
message in two ways:

1) Press any function key. Xpress abandons the Out Basket  function  and  goes
immediately  to  the  area  corresponding to the function key pressed. The Out
Basket message is not sent, and is not saved anywhere.

2) Type a "7" at the user number prompt. Xpress sends your message immediately
to the Waste Basket. It is not sent to any of the users you may have specified
up to that point. Your message is waiting in  the  Waste  Basket  for  editing
and/or re-sending.

Cookie  Version 1.8

We  have had complaints from two users regarding one of the fortune cookies in
the last cookie file.   We  apologize  for  the  offense,  which  is  entirely
unintentional.   The  Cookie  program  is designed to amuse you, not cause you
grief.  The fortune cookie in question has been removed from the  file,  along
with   a   number   of  others  which  were  re-evaluated  and  judged  to  be
inappropriate.  The new file will be included on  your  next  software  update
tape, or can be obtained by calling Robelle.

The  fortune  cookies  in  our  file  come  from many sources.  Each cookie is
reviewed and voted on by Robelle staff before inclusion into  the  distributed
file.   Despite  our  best  efforts to remove undesirable messages, the cookie
file may contain a few that don't appeal to everybody.   The  file  is  called
cookie.qlibdata.robelle,  and  is structured to allow fast addition, deletion,
or modification of its messages.

You can edit the file quite easily using any text editor.  This is  especially
easy if you use Qedit, because Qedit can retain the file's user labels.

     :hello mgr.robelle
     :run qedit.pub
     /text cookie.qlibdata,labels
     /find "You can make almost any fortune cookie more"
     /{make changes and deletions}
     /keep
     /exit

If you used Qedit, you are done.  If you used another text  editor,  you  will
have  to go through one extra step after keeping the file.  In this case, make
sure you keep the file under a new name (e.g., Newcook).

     :run cookie.qlib,maint
     7             {Load File}
     Newcook       {File to load from}
     O             {Overwrite}
     [Return]      {Cookie.Qlibdata.Robelle}
     S             {Sequential}
     1             {Exit}

If  you do not want to change the file yourself or wait for your next software
update tape, just give us a call.  We will ship you the latest cookie file  as
soon as we hear from you.

Prose  Version 3.4

Drawing Boxes using Prose.

The newest version of Prose, our text formatter, has the capability of drawing
boxes when printing to a LaserJet printer.  This is implemented  using  a  new
BOX  command,  which  accepts  parameters  and  draws  boxes  such  as the one
bordering the fortune cookie of the month.  This new version of Prose will  be
distributed with the Qedit 4.1 release at the end of this year.


   Fortune Cookie of the Month

   If it weren't for C, we would be using BASI, PASAL and OBOL!
Release Announcement
                                                                       [puppy]
                                                                        [logo]



                 The New XPRESS 2.9 Improves Screen Interface

Xpress  is  an  electronic  mail  system  that is so easy to use you can start
exchanging mail the first day without formal training.  Xpress  works  on  any
HP 3000 hardware, and on all versions of MPE (including MPE/XL).  Xpress has a
streamlined design that keeps the load on your machine low, but  still  offers
all of the functions you need.

Highlights of the new XPRESS Mail:


 * A new screen interface.

   The  new  screen  interface  takes  advantage of the features of your HP
   terminal or emulator, giving a new look to Xpress.  It clears the screen
   between  tasks  and  writes a header line identifying the current basket
   and function.  Entry fields are highlighted to indicate the  exact  data
   length that Xpress is expecting.  The function key labels are updated as
   their meanings change, according to the basket  and  function  selected.
   The result: Xpress is even more intuitive and easy to use.


 * Xpress can connect with MCI Mail to talk to the world.

   Through  a  joint  project  with  E-Mail, Inc., we have given Xpress the
   optional  ability  of  exchanging  messages  with  MCI  Mail,  a  public
   electronic  mail  network.  An Xpress user can now send a message to any
   fax number or MCI user in the world.  You simply type the  message  into
   Xpress and indicate the MCI destination.  Gateway/3000 and MCI Mail take
   over and ensure that the message arrives.  MCI  Mail  can  then  send  a
   message  back  to you confirming delivery.  The interface from Xpress to
   MCI Mail is created  by  adding  the  Gateway/3000  product  of  E-Mail,
   Inc. to  your system.  If you are interested in this capability, contact
   the Robelle sales staff.


 * Send standardized messages with fill-in-the-blanks ease.

   Xpedit, the full-screen editor for Xpress users, now allows you to  send
   form   messages  (such  as  purchase  orders,  operations  requests,  or
   telephone pink slips) and just about anything else that can  be  defined
   in  a  VPLUS  forms file.  You just select a form from a menu of defined
   templates, and fill in the blanks.  If you  like,  using  HP's  Formspec
   program, you can use VPLUS editing to provide default values and enforce
   required fields.

You will find a full description of these and other new features in our latest
change  notice.   All  Xpress  owners  who have service coverage automatically
received a change notice and update  tape.   The  update  tape  also  contains
revised  user  manuals.  You can print copies or use the complete on-line help
instead.

If you are not yet convinced of the benefits of electronic mail, just call for
a free demo.
We think you'll like what you see.