	This is the RSX/IAS SIG Symposium Tape from the 1981
Spring DECUS meeting in Miami, Florida.  The tape contains material submitted 
by the user community to the SIG at the Spring DECUS meeting.
A very important submission was made to this tape.  Ralph Stamerjohn
submitted a document that has an abstract for each program on all past
RSX/IAS sig tapes.  In addition he supplied an index at the end so that
you can pick a subject and look to see which sig tape the program is on.
This is a very valuable tool and should be printed right away.
	The programs on this tape are from user submissions.  The DECUS
staff, the RSX/IAS SIG staff, and DEC are all in relative ignorance of the
contents of the tapes.  No warranty of any kind is implied in the
distribution of these tapes.  The programs may or may not be well documented,
they may or may not work, they may even crash your system.  If you have a
problem with the contents of the tape,
contact the author of the program.  Do not contact DECUS, DEC, or
the RSX/IAS SIG.
	The tape contains approximately 48,690 blocks of software in 2891 files.
Since 48,690 blocks would require four 2400-foot reels of tape in FLX DOS format
at 800 bpi, we elected to distribute the tape in BRU format.
The distribution fits on one 2400-foot tape in BRU format at 1600 bpi.
The distribution at 800 bpi will be two 2400 foot reels.  I intend to
use BRU with the length switch so that the first reel is only 2000 feet
long.  This will leave librarians who have two tape drives and do reel to
reel copies plenty of spare room at the end of the first reel.
At the time of this writing I have not actually used the length switch,
I think it will look something like :
	BRU /REW/DENS:800/VERIFY/LENGTH:2000  MM: DB0:
I think BIGTPC will correctly treat the two 800 bpi tapes as
separate entities and faithly reproduce them.  However, I have not
tried it.  
One other note on the distribution, I think the collection will 
fit on an RK07 but one might have to use the /HEADERS switch on BRU.
	If you are a VAX site and, for whatever reason, cannot read theh
contents of this tape (so graciously submitted by the hard-working
RSX/IAS SIG members), please contact Philip Cannon.
	UIC account [300,1] contains several files of interest.  The
file RSXSPR81.DIR contains a directory of the contents of the tape
(BRU does not produce nice directories).  The file RSXSPR81.DOC contains
an abstract of the contents of the tape by UIC.  The file
READ1ST.ALL contains a concatenated list of all the README.1ST files on the
Collection.  The file SUBMIT.DOC contains the guidelines for submissions to 
the RSX/IAS sig tape collection.  This is must reading for everyone who
desires to submit a program to the SIG tape. 
A copy of this letter appears in the file BEGINS81.TXT in
the same account.  The file UICSETS81.CMD contains the UFD commands
to create all the needed UIC's on device XX:.  Edit it to match
your needs before using BRU to extract the tape contents.  Note that
a partial extraction can be achieved by only creating the desired
UIC's.
	The UIC account [300,2] contains the program that is used to
copy this and other tapes, BIGTPC.  This is a new version of TPC that
does not choke at the end of the copy (did not effect data).  To use
TPC with the 1600 bpi distribution one needs a disk with at least
48,690 blocks of free space, not necessarily contiguous.
 
To read in a copy of the master tape onto your disk,
one enters the following command:

	RUN BIGTPC
	TPC> DN:RSXSPR81.BRU=MT:

To make a copy of the tape for someone, one enters the following
command line:

	RUN BIGTPC
	TPC> MT:=DN:RSXSPR81.BRU

	The distribution is again being made through the SIG tree-structured
distribution system.  A geographically oriented distribution scheme
is used, where each LUG makes a few copies of the tapes and sends
them on to other LUGS, who in turn make a few copies of the tape and send
them on to other LUGS, and so on.  The SIG is relying on each node to
contact the next higher node for necessary tape-transfer arrangements.
Since this is a volunteer operation, sincere interest on the part of
soon-to-be participants is very helpful in assuring a timely distribution.
Remember since it is a volunteer operation, DECUS is NOT paying for 
postage or free copies of magnetic tapes.  Make arrangements so that this
does not cost anybody a lot of money or magnetic tapes.
The Tape Copy tree will be mailed in advance to all the nodes with
two post cards included.  The first post card is to be mailed on receipt
of the tree, to acknowledge receipt.  If there is some reason why
a node cannot participate in the distribution, please contact Philip
Cannon IMMEDIATELY.  The second post card is to be returned when
the Tape Collection copy is received.
	Now for a new project, we are in the beginning stages of
compiling a tape which contains the most popular programs on all
past sig tapes.  This tape "best of the RSX/IAS sig tape" will be
kept updated.  The problem is how do we determine the most popular
programs.  If you have taken a program off the SIG tape and
used it, write me (Philip Cannon) a letter and let me know.  This
be a start anyway.  Let me know about things that did not work also.
Some programs to start with would be TECO,SRD (which one ???),
RUNOFF (whose mods ? or no more mods ?),Ralph's INDEX, and
Jim Downward's KMSKIT (includes CCL).  Write and let me know what
other programs are being used and WHERE YOU FOUND THEM.  Tell me
which tape and what uic.
	Speaking of writing letters, if you use a program off the 
SIG tape, take the time to write to the author and let him know. 
If you find a bug or make an enhancement, write and let him know.
Don't call (we all get too many phone calls) and don't expect a bug
fix, but a little positive feedback can go a long way.  Just think
we have over 200,000 blocks and 12,000 files.  With a little 
positive feedback we will all have to get 6250 bpi tape drives.
Anyway my thank you to all the people who have submitted to the sig
tape.  You are the ones who have made it the huge success it is.
	The following people burned the midnight oil to create the 
1981 spring RSX/IAS sig tape:
 
	Angel Li (generously provided the Collection assembly site)
	James Brown,Joe Sventek,Wayne Graves,George Hamma,Philip Cannon
	Glen Everhart,Jim Neeland,Tony Scandora, and Mark Weston 

				Respectfully submitted,

				Philip Cannon
				RSX/IAS SIG Librarian
				Science Applications, Inc.
				1211 West 22 nd street
				suite 901
				Oakbrook, Il.
						60521
 
				(312) 655-5960
