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.# .he 'Software Tools Subsystem Newsletter''[ldate]'
.he 'Software Tools Subsystem Newsletter''July 23, 1984'
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.ar "Change in Personnel"
The administrative and technical personnel on the SWT project have changed.
Dr. Enslow is busy with several research projects and with designing
and teaching a new set of networking/communications courses.
John Passafiume is the new project director.
Peter Wan has left Georgia Tech for another post, but
will still be working on his MS degree.
Ed Hunt is now working in the private sector.
Terry Countryman has also moved to the private sector
and is no longer involved in the Software Tools Project.
Arnold Robbins and Jeff Lee are the two people involved in finishing up
Version 9 of Software Tools.
.sp
Please note the phone numbers listed below. Administrative and
licensing questions should be addressed to John Passafiume.
Technical questions should be addressed to Jeff Lee and
Arnold Robbins.
The 894-2746 phone number is no longer associated with the
Software Tools Project in any manner. Please use one or the other
of the numbers listed below, [ul only].
.sp
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General Information and Licensing:
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John Passafiume   (404) 894-3982  (Project Director)
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Technical Information and Maintenance Support:
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Jeff Lee          (404) 894-3658
Arnold Robbins    (404) 894-3658
                  (This number will have the answering machine
                   when no-one is in the office)
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.fi
.ar "Conversion to PRIMOS Revision 19"
Most licensees are probably running PRIMOS 19.2 now. There are several reasons
why you have not received SWT 9 for PRIMOS 19. The first of these is
that staff changes have
left us with a much smaller working group.
The second reason is that we have been having trouble with our tape drives
breaking down.  We finally have one tape drive working.  Our second
drive will not be repaired, since we do not expect to be using
Prime computers at all for very much longer.
.sp
We expect to begin mailing releases for SWT 9 by September 4, 1984,
and you should receive them soon afterwards.
.#
.ar "Overview of SWT Version 9"
Along with many bug fixes, there are several improved tools,
and several new packages.  The major features of SWT 9 are
described in the following paragraphs.
.# No EOS=-2 compatiblity library
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With SWT 9, there will no longer be a compatibility library where
the value of EOS is equal to -2.  This was a kluge put in to allow
gradual program conversion to the new SWT.
.# New math library
.sp
SWT 9 includes the "Software Tools Math Library".  This is a library
of mathematic routines which provide greater precision and better
bounds checking than the standard PRIMOS mathematical libraries.
The old unsupported math library, "vswtml", has been integrated
in with this new library, "vswtmath".
A guide for the math library is included.
.# ACL support (more flexible than Prime's commands)
.# New file attributes (19.2)
.# Disk quota support
.sp
We have finally made the necessary changes to support
the new features of the
Rev 19 PRIMOS file system.  In particular there are commands which
provide more flexible ACL support than Prime's commands, access to the
new file attributes of Rev 19.2, and disk quota support.
.# Remote ID support ---> not going to be supported
.# more/new terminal types
.sp
We have extensively modified and improved the 'se' screen editor.
'Se' will now read commands in a startup file, allow you to leave
off trailing delimiters in pattern searches and the 's', 'j' and 't'
commands, allow you to use UNIX style pattern matching characters and
command letters, and do several other nice things.
Also, we have fixed up the help files for 'se'.
Every command and every option has a related help file.
All applicable changes have been made to 'ed' as well, and
the guide has been updated to reflect their new capabilities.
.sp
Several new terminal types have been added to the screen editor and
to the vth terminal handling library.  The vth library itself is now
part of the shared Subsystem library, vswtlb, instead of a separate
library.
.# extended fmt (traps and environments)
.sp
We have extended the 'fmt' formatter to allow conditional
processing of a line (.if).
Several new functions are provided which make testing conditions
easy.
Some more new functions provide increased formatting functionality.
We have documented some features which were in the code, and used by
the Subsystem macro packages, but not documented.
We have also added code to implement features which were documented,
but not in the code!
.# Command Interpreter library (under development)
.#    vars available in programs
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The shell has been extensively revised, and is now available as
a subroutine.  In fact, there is a whole library of routines for
obtaining and changing your shell variables, as well as for
calling the shell from within a program.
We have added vastly improved error handling to the shell,
and some new control structures.
A UNIX-like history mechanism is also under development.
.sp
.# dynamic =home= for logins with multiple projects
With Rev 19 of PRIMOS, projects are supported in the operating system.
Template handling has been revised to make =home= the initial
directory to which you are attached for each project.
This is computed dynamically, instead of being in a static file.
.# No SWT entry password??
.sp
If =varsdir= is an ACL directory, then SWT will not ask for a
Subsystem entry password, since that isn't necessary.
The file system does the protection for us.
.# STACC supports new languages Pascal, Pl1g, Plp
.sp
'Stacc' has been improved, and will now generate a parser in any
of five languages: Ratfor, C, Pascal, PL/1g, and PLP.
.# a Cron program
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We have written a program which performs functions similar to
the UNIX 'Cron' program.  For those of you who don't know, 'Cron'
reads a file containing times and dates and commands to execute
when that time is reached.
This is a very useful system management facility.
.sp
The 'pg' program and 'page' subroutine have been improved.
They now use the vth library, along with 'help' and the shell's
gossip facility.  'Mail' now also uses the vth version of 'page'.
.# C compiler many bug fixes
.# VCG generates object code directly
.sp
For those licensees who have also purchased the Georgia Tech
C Compiler, we will start preparing
a new release of the C compiler and its associated libraries
and other paraphenalia as soon as SWT is released.
There have been many bug fixes made to the C compiler,
and VCG now generates object code directly, instead of first
producing PMA.
This considerably improves compile time.
The C Standard I/O Library will also undergo some revision
before we release the C compiler package.
.#
.ar "Mailing Releases by Airmail"
Our policy is to mail release tapes and associated documentation
by regular (third class) mail.  If  you wish to receive
any of this material by air mail please make prior arrangements
with us for your payment of the airmail postage, e.g. send us
your Federal Express Number, an account number to which we can
charge, indicate that you would like it sent C.O.D. (not
applicable to customers located in other countries),
prepay us, or indicate that you would like us to bill you (there
will be a $5.00 billing charge).
.sp
For those of you wishing to prepay us, the release tape, conversion
guide, subsystem manager's guide and the cover letter weigh
approximately 3 pounds (1.3 Kg).
.bp
.ar "Customer Information for our Files"
In order to update our records and insure that we correspond to
the proper person, please fill out the form and return it to the
address below:


.nf
John F. Passafiume
Georgia Institute of Technology
School of Information and Computer Science
Atlanta, GA   30332


Primary SWT Contact at your Installation: ________________________________

Finance Office Contact:                   ________________________________

Prime Models (e.g. 400, 450 .... 850)     ________________________________

       Do you have Primenet?              ________________________________

Primos version currently being used:      ________________________________

Primos version to be used with SWT 9:     ________________________________

Is Software Tools actively being used?    ________________________________
.fi
.bp
.ar "Final Release Announcement"
The School of Information and
Computer Science at Georgia Tech
will not be providing continual support for SWT after
the current release.
SWT 9 is the [ul final] release of Software Tools.
We no longer have the manpower to support software for
outside licensees, and, in all probability, we will not have any
Prime computers around at all within a short while.
The machines we do have (one P400 and two P550-I's) are getting
old; as mentioned earlier, we have had problems with the tape
drives and other hardware.
.sp
It is our judgement that SWT 9 qualifies as a major release,
with many new features.
We anticipate that SWT 9 will be usable for many more releases of PRIMOS.
.sp
As you are aware, the current wording of the licensing agreements under
which you are using GTSWT would only allow you to use GTSWT for a
limited period after our decision to terminate support.
However, we do intend to make provision for those who wish to continue
to use GTSWT to do so in perpetuity for a one-time fee.
In addition, we intend to offer copies of the entire
body of the source code for an additional one-time fee.
You will be advised of
the details of these offerings in a separate letter which is now being
reviewed by our legal staff. 
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Software Tools Subsystem Newsletter
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.tl /Volume 3, Number 1//July, 1984/
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Published by:
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Software Tools Project
School of Information and Computer Science
Georgia Institute of Technology
Atlanta, Georgia   30332
404-894-3982
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