Nebula 1995 August/NEBULA.mdf/Documents/FAQ/NeXTSTEP-faq/NEXTSTEP-Utilities-FAQ.txt

Internet Message Format | 1995-03-08 | 12.9 KB

From: [e-mail]
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.announce
Subject: NEXTSTEP-Utilities-FAQ
Followup-To: comp.sys.next.misc
Date: 6 Mar 1995 08:39:12 GMT
Approved: [e-mail]
Expires: Fri, 7 Apr 1995 00:00:00 GMT
Reply-To: [e-mail]
Summary: Frequently Asked Questions about NEXTSTEP and NeXT machines.
Originator: nathan@laplace

Archive-name: NEXTSTEP-Utilities-FAQ
Last-modified: Mon Mar  6 03:03:59 EST 1995
Version: 3.1


These FAQs are under significant construction,
and may well change form and content over the
next weeks.

These FAQs focus on various aspects of OpenStep,
NEXTSTEP, and NeXT machines.

The FAQs are kept on-line at several ftp sites,
including:

cs.orst.edu
sonata.cc.purdue.edu

Many FAQs, including these, are available (www, ftp,
email) on the archive site rtfm.mit.edu in the
directory pub/usenet/news.answers.  The name under
which this FAQ is archived appears in the
Archive-nameline above.

Within each section each question will be preceded by
a "Subject:" field, allowing news readers to break up
the file into separate questions.  Each question has
its own unique number. Items that appear within
sections are not in any particular order, and get added
and removed over time.  Questions marked with a "+"
are new to this issue, and questions with changes since
the last issue are marked by a "!".

Submissions, corrections, comments, input, etc.,
should be directed to Nathan Janette
<[e-mail]>.

Some important NEXTSTEP & OpenStep Information WWW sites:

NeXT, Inc.
http://www.next.com/

NeXTanswers
http://www.next.com/NeXTanswers/

Stepwise NEXTSTEP/OpenStep Information Server
http://digifix.digifix.com/


TABLE OF CONTENTS:
------------------

I1.Where can I obtain the most recent version of Kermit?
I2.Where can I obtain a NEXTSTEP version of SLIP or PPP?
I3.Where can I obtain a version of Larry Wall's patch for NEXTSTEP?
I4. Where can I get a NEXTSTEP Usenet reader?
I5. Where can I get plotting software?
I6.Where can I get objective-c mode for emacs?
I7.Is there a backup utility for multi-volume dumps (gnu tar)?
I8.What are these ".z" files which appear all over the archives ?  Should I
just rename them to ".Z" so that compress can uncompress them ?
I9.How do I decompress a file with the extension .compressed?
I10.How do I change the Workspace compression app?

____________________________________________________________________________

Subject: I1. Where can I obtain the most recent version of Kermit?

The source for the latest version is available via ftp from:

kermit.columbia.edu
http://www.columbia.edu/kermit

Older versions of Kermit can also be found on...

The Purdue archive:

pub/next/2.0-release/source/
pub/next/2.0-release/binaries/

The Oregon archive:

pub/next/sources/comm/
pub/next/binaries/

____________________________________________________________________________

Subject: I2. Where can I obtain a NEXTSTEP version of SLIP or PPP?

The free version of SLIP available from purdue was written by Louis
Mamakos and is an excellent implementation. Basic SLIP is free, but VJ
TCP header compression requires a license which is available
inexpensively from Mr Mamakos.


Morning Star Technologies offers a commercial version.

For more information:

email: [e-mail]
ftp: ftp.morningstar.com (anonymous FTP archive
of docs & literature)
phone: [phone].


[From: [e-mail] (Eric P. Scott)]

Louis Mamakos' TransSys-PNI-1.7-beta.tar.gz is
available for anonymous FTP.


[From: Stephen J. Perkins <[e-mail]>]

There is a Public Domain PPP that has been ported to NeXT.  This PPP
is based on the PPP-2.2 distribution.  This distribution offers
several enhancements over ppp-2.1.2.  Especially noteworty is that it
implements BSD packet compression.  Using packet compression can lead
to higher throughput than you get using compressing modems.

The PPP-2.2 distribution is currently in alpha stage (4th release).
However, the NeXT port of this code is very stable.  The NeXT port
will remain in alpha stage as long as the PPP-2.2 remains in that
stage.  Then, the NeXT port will follow the stages of the PPP-2.2
distribution.

The port works on Motorola, Intel (both Mux and NeXT supplied serial
drivers), and HP systems running OS 3.2 and 3.3.  It also works in
conjunction with Black and White's NXFAX software.

Both source and MAB Installer packages are available.  In order to
keep the sources and READMEs up to date with the current status of the
PD PPP-2.2, all current work resides in a centralized location
(ftp://ftp.duq.edu/pub/next/ppp).  For more information on this
work, check out:
   ftp://ftp.duq.edu/pub/next/ppp/README

You may also want to join the mailing list for PPP.  This will keep
you informed of new releases and will provide an arena for discussing
problems with the NeXT specific PPP port.  To add yourself to the list
(or for any other administrative requests), send an email message to:
      [e-mail]

requesting you be placed on the list. Make sure to include your proper
return email address.  To send mail to all the participants on the
list, address your messages to:
       [e-mail].

Please note that at the moment, this list is maintained by hand.
Please be courteous with your requests.

____________________________________________________________________________

Subject: I3. Where can I obtain a version of Larry Wall's patch for NEXTSTEP?

Patch is a utility that allows people to distribute updates to sources
without resending the whole packages.  This is done by detecting
changes between the last release and the new one and creating a file of
differences to each source file in the release. Patches need to be
applied sequentially.  The distribution can be found on the Purdue NeXT
archives.

____________________________________________________________________________

Subject: I4. Where can I get a NEXTSTEP Usenet reader?

By far the most versatile NEXTSTEP-specific newsreader application
is NewsGrazer by Jayson Adams, formerly of NeXT.  It is on the archive
servers.

NewsGrazer is now available as an MAB for both m68k and Intel NEXTSTEP
systems!

Many non-NEXTSTEP-specific newsreaders have been ported to the
NEXTSTEP environment providing the flexibility and familiarity
existing on other platforms.  Most of these may be obtained via
anonymouse ftp:

ftp.uu.net:~ftp/news

____________________________________________________________________________

Subject: I5. Where can I get plotting software?

nxyplot by Tom Pulliam is available from cs.orst.edu


graph is available in source form from 4.3BSD systems.  It is useful  for
dealing with pairs of numbers that need to be viewed.


psplot comes with NEXTSTEP, it takes the output of the graph program and
generates a .ps file that can be previewed with Preview or Yap.


gnuplot is available from prep.ai.mit.edu.

[From: [e-mail] (Boyan I. Boyanov)]

The latest distributions of gnuplot (3.5 or later) include the NeXT
patches. It is not necessary to get them from sonata.  This has the
additional advantage that the arrow keys can be used to recall commands
from the history list (I could not make this work with the Purdue
patches).


jsplot clone of graph that generates ps files directly.


plplot is a library of c routines that generate 2D, 3D and contour plots.
It is available on purdue archive, plplot.tar.Z contains the source,
and NXplplot.tar.Z contains the library, example programs and
documentation.


Mathematica The ReadList command will bring in files containing
sample values and produces a plot on the fly.

____________________________________________________________________________

Subject: I6. Where can I get objective-c mode for emacs?

You can get ObjC mode for Emacs, by Douglas Worthington and Kenneth
Persson from cs.orst.edu

____________________________________________________________________________

Subject: I7.  Is there a backup utility for multi-volume dumps (gnu tar)?

GNU tar has a number of features not found in the tar delivered with
NEXTSTEP, and in some cases it may be a better choice for backups than
rdump and rrestore. The NEXTSTEP supplied rdump/rrestore don't work
when using multiple volumes to non-NEXTSTEP systems (see the man page
for rdump/rrestore). GNU tar will also allow a dump of a portion of a file
system as well as an entire file system. Other useful features of GNU tar
include: incremental dump capability like BSD dump/restore, scripts
for backing up heterogeneous workstations across the network
automatically, multivolume tape and floppy disk support (it can't do
multivolume compressed unfortunately), long filename support, and
scripts for integrating floppy disks into a three level backup scheme.
Source and binary for NEXTSTEP is available on the purdue and orst
archives in tar-1.10.tar.Z.

[From: Carl Edman <[e-mail]>]

GNU tar 1.10 (which lacks many bugs which 1.11 introduced) is also shipped with
NEXTSTEP 3.0.  Just look in /usr/bin/gnutar.


An inexpensive commercial application for backup to DAT and SCSI tape
is available from Impact Software publishing.  The app automatically
configures your tape drive and gives a NEXTSTEP browser interface for
selecting files to save or restore.  The program is distributed
electronically, and a demo version can be obtained from
nova.cc.purdue.edu or sonata.cc.purdue.edu under the pathname:
/pub/next/2.0-release/demos/enTar1.4.tar.Z


[From: [e-mail]]

SafetyNet.  It is commerical, but an excellent app.

____________________________________________________________________________

Subject: I8.  What are these ".z" files which appear all over the archives ?
Should I just rename them to ".Z" so that compress can uncompress them ?

[From: Carl Edman <[e-mail]>]

These files were created with GNU gzip.  Gzip is a replacement for
compress which achieves about 30% better compression rates and
uncompresses faster.  Gzip can also uncompress ".Z" file.
Unfortunately compress can not uncompress ".z" files, so you will have
to get and compile gzip on your machine before you can read any ".z"
files.  Gzip is available via anon ftp from prep.ai.mit.edu and should
configure, compile and install without problem on any NEXTSTEP
system.


[From: [e-mail]]

Needs to be updated to address the .gz file change.
There are also precompiled MAB versions of gzip available on cs.orst.edu.


[Bill Vermillion - [e-mail]  OR  [e-mail]]

Be warned however that not all .z files are gzip.   The .gz extension
was adopted after someone discovered that the  .z was used by the pack
utility in Unix.  The .Z is used by compress.

However - gzip is nice in that it will extract  pack, compress and gzip
files.   It's a universal decoder.

____________________________________________________________________________

Subject: I9.  How do I decompress a file with the extension .compressed?

[From: [e-mail]]

.compressed files have been compressed in the Workspace Manager.
Basically, they are just .tar.Z files.  Even single files are
tarred as well as compressed.

There are several methods of decompressing these files.

-They can be decompressed by selecting them in the Workspace, and
Selecting uncompress from the file menu.

-They can be decompressed by selecting them in the Workspace, and
bringing up the Workspace Inspector. (You can double click to get
there faster)

-You can rename them to be .tar.Z and handle them the way you do
them.

____________________________________________________________________________

Subject: I10.  How do I change the Workspace compression app?

[Stephen Peters <[e-mail]>]

You can change the tools that the Workspace uses to create and read
its .compressed files by issueing the following commands in a terminal
window:

dwrite Workspace compress /usr/bin/gzip
dwrite Workspace uncompress /usr/bin/gunzip
dwrite Workspace AlwaysTarForCompress YES

[Reuven M. Lerner [e-mail]]

This is generally a good thing, except that people might follow your
advice and then try to send NeXTmail to someone who is still using
compress/uncompress. Changing Workspace/uncompress to gunzip
isn't a problem, since it uncompresses all sorts of files, but people
should be very careful not to change Workspace/compress to gzip unless
they will only be dealing with other gzip-equipped users.

____________________________________________________________________________

Editor: [e-mail]
--
Nathan Janette
Systems Manager, Axel T. Brvnger Lab

Internet:[e-mail]
----------------------------------------------------------------