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What's Up, DOCumentation?
Robelle Consulting Ltd.
Unit 201, 15399-102A Ave.
Surrey, B.C. Canada V3R 7K1
Toll-free: 1-800-561-8311
Phone: (604) 582-1700
Fax: (604) 582-1799
Email: support@robelle.com
Date: July 24, 1995
From: Robert M. Green, CEO
David J. Greer, President
Paul Gobes, Editor
To: Users of Robelle Software
Re: News of the HP 3000 and HP-UX, 1995 #4
What You Will Find in This News Memo:
News Tidbits
Technical Tips
Book Review: "BUGS in writing"
SLIP Connections from home
About Robelle
Robelle at Toronto Interex
Robelle Products: Problems, Solutions, and Suggestions
News Tidbits
PKZIP Virus Alert.
PKWARE Inc., the makers of the popular PKZIP data compression and archival
software for PCs, inform us that someone has created a trojan horse program
which masquerades as PKZIP. The filename is PKZ300B.EXE or PKZ300B.ZIP, which
makes it look like a new PKZIP. The trojan horse program will wipe your hard
disk if you execute it. PKWARE says that the current version of their product
is 2.04G.
SYMTOOL: Windows Front End to Suprtool
Symple System has announced the release of Symtool version 1.0. Designed to
provide an intuitive Windows-based front end to Robelle's Suprtool. Symtool
will provide a set of GUI s which when responded to by the user will produce
a usefile containing syntactically correct Suprtool commands. The usefile
can then be transferred to a HP3000 host for subsequent execution (all without
leaving Symtool). If you are an experienced Suprtool user, the interface
should be fairly evident and after a few test sessions should become second
nature. If you are not an experienced Suprtool user, Symtool can be an
effective way to become proficient with Suprtool.
Symtool uses WRQ's Reflection for Windows to download Image schemas into its
data dictionary and to upload the usefile for easy testing. Priced at $995 per
installation this product shows a lot of potential. For more information on
Symtool contact Dan Lawson of Symple Systems at (608) 276-7937.
Iworks merges with Interex.
Interworks, the HP-UX Workstation users group has decided to merge with
Interex and provide a single focus for HP-UX users. Iworks, as it is also
known, is noted for its vast library of contributed software and for its
annual conferences. These conferences were well attended by HP Lab personnel
and provided a great atmosphere for learning. It is retaining it's unique
identity by becoming the InterWorks Technical User Forum. The focus of the
Forum will include workstations, technical servers and X terminals as well as
significant technical markets, including CAD/CAM, software engineering and
electronic design automation. Also, the Forum is responsible for preserving
and expanding current services provided to InterWorks members.
On Aug. 1, InterWorks members will become affiliate members of Interex.
InterWorks members who attended the annual InterWorks conference in May in
Phoenix, Ariz., will receive a complimentary one-year contributing membership
in Interex, with all accompanying privileges.
MPE CI Enhancements
It looks like Jeff Vance and his MPE Labs team at HP have been pretty busy
lately. He recently posted on the internet HP3000-L discussion list some
enhancements that are scheduled for the Express 3 release of MPE/iX 5.0. This
should be available for request around mid-September. What's really
encouraging is how Jeff is involving users in shaping the final outcome of the
features being added to MPE. There was much discussion back and forth on the
HP3000-L about these and other requests.
The REDO command will soon be able to upshift and downshift characters and
words, you will be able to delete words and even delete characters up to some
defined delimiter. This processing is also possible for both 'at end-of-line'
and 'to end-of-line' by using the '>' character.
For command file processing there will be these new evaluator functions:
REPL for string replacements
DEBLANK for removing blanks in a string
DELIMPOS for determining the position of a delimiter in a string
WORD for extracting 'words' from a string
PMATCH for testing if a string matches a specified pattern
Also look for changes to the RHT and STR functions that will allow negative '
chars' to indicate index numbers rather than number of bytes.
In another of Jeff's posts, he mentioned some new CI variables, we have
installed Express 2 release and here are the new HPvariables since MPE/iX 4.0.
HPFILE = {identifies current command file name}
HPLASTJOB = #J4796
HPOSVERSION = B.79.06
HPPIN = 151
HPRELVERSION = C.50.00
HPSTREAMEDBY = PAUL,MGR.ROBELLE (#S768)
HPSYSTIMEOUT = 0
Technical Tips
Store/Restore Bug.
Last issue we told you about a bug in MPE/iX store/restore. The simplest
workaround discovered so far to avoid the problem completely is to Store the
files on the 5.0 system using the ;TRANSPORT option. When the files are
restored onto the 4.0 system using Restore;Account=, the GUIDs will not become
corrupted, because the files on the tape do not contain any GUIDs at all. Paul
Taffel of VESOFT reports that MPEX can correct the faulty file labels if you
run into the problem.
WINDOWS 95, ready for prime-time?
We have been using Beta versions of Windows 95 for several months. If you are
considering upgrading to Windows 95, here is some common sense advice.
Be absolutely, positively certain that every piece of your hardware and
software is compatible with Win95, or will be upgraded to work with Win95.
Win95 is a significant upgrade to Windows 3.1. Although Microsoft has done a
good job of providing compatibility with existing hardware and applications,
not everything is compatible. For example, Windows software for inputting and
display Chinese characters fail, as well as some third-party installation
Be prepared to add memory to your PC. Microsoft has said that Win95 will work
with only 4Mb of RAM. In practice, consider 8Mb as the minimum. Having
12-16Mb is even better, because Win95's performance is much better with more
memory. [Dave Lo]
"Programming the CI" bitten by PROSE
With the last issue of WUD we included two papers printed back to back, one of
which was Programming the CI. Thanks to feedback from a few people, a couple
of typos were spotted and reported. There are three occurences of missing @
signs in some examples. You see, our text formatter, Prose, loves to eat @'s
if there is no preceding &. A @ indicates a hard space.
Example Current Should be
checkjobshowjob job=j;exec >sojfileshowjob job=@j;exec >sojfile
sja showjob job=j;exec >sojfile showjob job=@j;exec >sojfile
jobhist showvar jobhist > jobhist showvar jobhist@ > jobhist
Creating Compound Variables in the CI
If you've ever had the need to use a compound variable in the CI, but gave up
trying to find out how to do it, then read on.
The use of a compound variable is slightly different, depending on whether you
are assigning or referencing them. Assignment (the left hand side of the
setvar or input command) can be done simply by concatenating the names of the
variables. i.e.
setvar myvar!cnt 5
Reference - using the compound variable on the right hand side - is a bit more
difficult. You must do some clever variable de-referencing to get it to work.
The format would look like
!'prefix_name!suffix_name'
i.e.
setvar some_var !'myvar!cnt'
In other words, the format is made up of an exclam (!), a single quote, the
prefix variable name without an exclam, followed by any variables that may
make up the variable name, and terminated with a single quote.
Jeff Vance from HP, after reading my CI programming paper, sent me these
details with the remarks, "...we do this kind of thing all of the time...".
[Ken Robertson]
Modem Inactivity Timeout.
Last month we got our phone bill and were shocked by a $750 phone call lasting
over 25 hours. This was on one of our modem lines that we use for dialing out
to customers' computers. The only explanation we can think of is that the
remote HP 3000 did not drop the Data Terminal Ready (DTR) modem signal when we
logged off, so the modem did not know to hang up the phone. Alternatively the
remote modem might have been set to ignore DTR, which is a common factory
default setting. Luckily we were able to convince the phone company to drop
the charge (Thanks, BC Tel!), but they warned us that it was the last time
they would do that.
Since then we have discovered that our USRobotics modems have an inactivity
timeout feature that will disconnect the call after a specified period of
inactivity. For the USRobotics Courier modems we set register 19 to the
desired number of minutes. E.g., ATS19=10 for hangup after 10 minutes of
inactivity. Other brands of modems may also have this feature, activated via a
different command sequence. [Mike Shumko]
Book Review: BUGS in Writing
by Mike Shumko
BUGS in Writing: A Guide to Debugging Your Prose by Lyn Dupre, Addison Wesley,
1995.
ISBN 0-201-60019-6
I'll start by admitting that I am fond of books about words: I have half a
shelf of dictionaries, lexicons, thesauri, and style handbooks, which I read
for fun. The newest book is BUGS in Writing, which is actually fun to read,
and has a style that makes it more useful than other books I have seen. There
are over a hundred little sections of a few pages long, each one discussion a
specific idea or principle. Each section has plenty of examples of that
principle: Good, Bad, Ugly, and occasionally Splendid. By looking at the
examples, you get an Ear for what is right and what is wrong. Each of these
articles can be read like a bedtime story that is just a few pages long. Or as
a reference, where you open up the book to the short section that deals with a
specific problem you are grappling with. There is no need to read the book
from cover to cover. In fact BUGS in Writing is designed with no flow from one
section to the next. These are all discrete separate little articles that
could very well have been a daily installment in a newspaper column on
technical writing.
Proofreaders and copy editors will find this book indispensable. What makes
this book particularly valuable to WUD readers is that much of the material is
geared towards writers of technical communications such as computer
documentation, manuals, procedures, and online helpfiles. Lyn Dupre's
experience and expertise is in the area of editing technical manuscripts -
things written by computer nerds, scientists, etc. These people know their
stuff but may not be the best writers. Lyn highlights the mistakes she
commonly encounters. Everybody can benefit from these tips, from the novice
writer to the long established author. Each will have his particular foibles
and blind spots. Get this book; learn it; apply it. Your readers will thank
you.
SLIP Connections from Home
by Paul Gobes
For the last few years we have been enjoying the benefits of our office LAN:
increased speed, multiple sessions, connections to different hosts,
integration with PC programs and lately Internet access. But all of our
programming staff work from home and have been forced to dial in via modem to
a DTC and 'dsline' or 'vt3k' to whichever host machine they need to work on.
This all changed last month when we bought a Livingston PortMaster
communications server. This device looks like a DTC in that you connect your
incoming modems to the back of it but what it does is it initiates a SLIP
connection that extends your office LAN all the way to your home PC.
SLIP stands for Serial Line Internet Protocol and it 'packetizes' your serial
modem dataflow to resemble LAN traffic. On the home PC side we installed WRQ's
3000/Connect (RNS), selecting the SLIP option (not the ODI or NDIS protocols).
Your home PC does not need a network card nor does WRQ require that you
purchase a separate copy of RNS as long as your office PC is licensed for RNS.
Configuring the PortMaster took a some trial & error but with a little help
from our friends at WRQ, Allegro and Telamon we soon had it up. The device
also supports PPP which we've heard is better but we'll wait until that's
included in RNS before we try that. We are now upgrading our modems to 28,800
Kbps V.34 to take advantage of the greater speed capabilities. When we get our
new T1 Internet feed in August I'm sure we'll see a lot of late-night
Netscaping.
What's to come? We're looking into Norton's "PC Anywhere" which is supposed to
allow us to run any program that can be run from our Office PC, but testing
will show if this includes Windows for Workgroup applications like Schedule+.
We've already had Mike from home connect to Neil's home PC and pickup a
program via ftp. This stuff is amazing, the only question now is what to do
with those empty DTCs?
About Robelle
Welcome to Robelle, Trevi.
Trevi Caroline Spronk has recently joined our Sales and Marketing department
as an Account Representative. Currently she is getting up to speed with our
product line. In the near future she will be taking care of customer inquiries
and providing input to our product marketing. In the past Trevi has worked in
technical support, 4GL programming, as an MIS supervisor and for last few
years has been involved in the marketing of application software. In her spare
time she enjoys long walks in Vancouver's West-End, hikes in the wilderness
and is an amateur watercolorist.
Beyond the Call of Duty.
It was Friday night, and I was lying on the bathroom floor, subjected to the
virus that became known as the Robelle Revenge. I had been worshiping at the
porcelain alter for some time now, and I finally felt that I could go back to
bed. I glanced at the clock. "Oh no, it's quarter to four," I thought to
myself. "Oh well. At least I didn't wake up the kids."
I returned to bed, and finally began to drift off. Rringgggg.
At this point my admiration for my wife, Aly, became slightly clouded - she
picked up the phone and handed it to me without even waking up.
"Hello," I said, trying to sit up. "Hi, sorry to call so late, this is the
answering service."
Suddenly, a wave of nausea swept over me. I wasn't sure if this was from
sitting up, or from hearing that this was the answering service. I ran to the
bathroom, (luckily we have a cordless phone); the wave of nausea subsided, and
I started to ask the answering service who had called.
My immediate problem was finding the right tools with which to write down the
name and telephone number of the computer operator in distress. My wife's eye
liner and toilet paper just were not working, so I had to run to my office for
pen and paper, having retrieved that, I felt that I needed to be in the
bathroom again, writing down the name and number to call.
I sat down on the bathroom floor and tried to collect myself and wake up some
more. Ok, now dial the phone number. A voice as tired as mine answered the
phone, and quickly outlined the problem. I described the steps needed to make
the problem better. The caller thanked me and hung up. Then, on the mats on
the bathroom floor, I slipped off to sleep.
[Neil Armstrong]
Robelle at Toronto Interex
This year's North American Interex conference is being held at the Toronto
Convention Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada August 14th to 18th. Robelle
has planned another great selection of talks and tutorials for this year.
Featured speakers include Bob Green, David Greer, Paul Gobes, Hans
Hendriks, and Ken Robertson. In order to assist your conference planning,
we have included Robelle's Handy Toronto Guide and Calendar in your
delegate bag. It includes spaces for session planning as well as a quick
guide to some of Toronto's restaurants and night spots.
Wednesday Speaker Topic
8 a.m. Hans Hendriks Speeding Up Quiz with Suprtool
10 a.m. (2 hrs) David Greer How Messy is My Database?
2 p.m. Paul Gobes Ensuring Data Integrity with
Suprtool
3 p.m. David Greer Client Server, Internet, & WWW
4 p.m. Bob Green Qedit Cookbook for Novices
Thursday Speaker Topic
9 a.m. Ken Robertson Programming the Command Interpreter
10 a.m. Bob Green Suprtool Tables, Keys & 3rd Party
Indexing
11 a.m. Hans Hendriks Qedit's Forgotten Commands
3 p.m. Paul Gobes Combining Data Files Without Keys
4 p.m. Bob Green Qedit Master Class
Friday Speaker Topic
10 a.m. David Greer Suprtool Master Class
Enter to Win
Visit the Robelle booth (number 600) for contest details on how you can
win one of four fabulous prizes. The draw will take place Thursday
afternoon in the Robelle booth.
Special Interex Prices!
If you have been holding back on ordering Qedit or Suprtool, now is the
time to take advantage of a special one-time Interex offer. Bring your
purchase orders to our booth during the Interex conference in Toronto and
save up to $800 on your order.
All orders processed at the show will be eligible for 20% off the first
CPU license. This offer will not be available after the close of the
conference on August 18, 1995. If you are not attending the conference,
contact the Sales Department for more information about how you can take
advantage of our Interex promotion.
Toronto Tips
by Neil Armstrong
Since I lived in Toronto for years before moving to Robelle on the left coast,
I know a little about the city where this year's Interex conference will be
held. Here is this edition's tip for traveling to and around Toronto: Book
Stores. Toronto has two of my favourite book stores. The first is Bakka which
is found on Queen Street West. (This is a fun street to just walk down and
watch some of the interesting people!) This is a used book store that
specializes in Science Fiction, I highly recommend it.
If Science Fiction isn't your thing, you could always visit the World's
Biggest Bookstore which is two HUGE floors of books and magazines. The store
is found just off Yonge St. (the main street running North/South in the
downtown core) and is one block North of Dundas. When you visit you will see
terminals and PCs behind some counters, which are, interestingly enough
connected to an HP3000.
Robelle Products: Problems, Solutions, and Suggestions
Suprtool Version 3.7
Delayed Installation tip.
When installing new versions of Suprtool (or Qedit) the steps are:
1.) Restore and stream Robelle.Pub.Sys
2.) Restore @.@.Robelle
3.) Stream Install.Suprjob.Robelle (or Install.Qeditjob.Robelle)
4.) .... various optional steps
You can setup the account and restore the files (steps 1 & 2) while users are
on the system using Suprtool, and defer the rest of the installation steps
(step 3 onward) until the middle of the night when nobody is using the system.
e.g.
:stream install.suprjob.robelle;at=02:00
Validating field relationships.
The IF command can now support arithmetic operations between fields, even
fields of different numeric data types. This is useful in checking some of the
'business rules' that most applications have. These rules are usually included
in the data entry programs but sometimes 'stuff happens' and the data gets
messed up. Here is a simple task that uses this new feature to isolate which
records are breaking the rule of "Invoice amount = price times quantity".
>base sales.db,5,reader
>get d-invoices
>if price * quantity <> amount
>list standard title "Price * Qty not = Amount" device LP
>xeq
This idea can be used in a monthend job that prints exception reports. [Taken
from the "Ensuring Data Integrity Using Suprtool" tutorial given at Interex in
Toronto.]
Qedit Version 4.3
Editing PC files
John Conway from Stockton Unified School District really wanted Qedit to be
able to edit PC files (he staked his whole $100 from the survey on this).
Well, we haven't done what he really wants yet, but we did come up with this
little command file that does allow editing of PC files. It makes use of the
REFLECT command which invoke WRQ's Reflection to do the actual up and
downloading of the file. Here is a listing of command file:
parm pcfile
continue
purge mpefile
/reflect send !pcfile to mpefile
file edttext=mpefile
run qedit.pub.robelle,basicentry;parm=4
/reflect receive !pcfile from mpefile delete
We kept this command file as PCTEXT, so to use it from within Qedit:
/pctext \windows\system.ini
Powerhouse 7.29c2 no longer suspends.
Cognos have been distributing their latest "rolling bug fix" for HP3000s,
version 7.29c2 which introduces a new problem for customers running the
PowerHouse components with the ";SUSPEND" option (as is done from within our
supplied command files QZ, QD and QP.QEDCMD.ROBELLE).
Version 7.29C2 introduces a bug where the program is successfully suspended,
but does not notify the parent process, and subsequent invocations create new
processes which are in turn also suspended. So, over time, the same module
will be held suspended multiple times, wasting system resources.
Cognos are aware of the problem, which has been elevated to "hot site" status.
Their problem reference number is 111002. They are hoping to have it fixed in
7.29c3. In the meanwhile, we would suggest that if you're running PowerHouse
version 7.29c2, you temporarily remove the ";SUSPEND" parameter from the run
command in the QD, QP and QZ command file.
[thanks to James Wilkinson, Commonwealth of Virginia]
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need a new tape when I get a new CPU?
Even though your new CPU will have a different HPSUSAN (or SPU) number than
what is currently encoded into your Robelle software, it is not necessary to
wait for a new tape. Simply call us and let us know the new number. We can
generate the authorization codes that you feed into a program that you already
have. On a HP3000 it is Extend.Pub.Robelle, on a HP9000 it is
/usr/robelle/bin/extend. It usually takes about 5 minutes.
How do I get this newsletter via email?
If you have electronic mail at your site and you are a Robelle customer on
current support then you can get 'What's Up DOC?' sent to you automatically
via email. This is great where many people at your site want their own copy.
Just email us at 'support@robelle.com' and let us know which address to send
it to. We'll still also send you a regular copy via 'snail-mail'.