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University of St Andrews
COMPUTING
LABORATORY
FILE RESTORES
NEC SPINWR lTERS
USE OF RUNOFF
GLOBAL SYMBOLS
TRANSFER OF BBC CASSETTE DATA TO VAX
MICROCOMPUTER
DEMONSTRATIONS
NAG LIBRARY MARK
10
SURFACE-II GRAPHICS SYSTEMS
VAX SERVICEABILITY FIGURES
NEWSLETTER
February 1984
I
I
'.-" . ,.• l
...�""'·o' 'f
•
et
Andrews
KY16 9SX,
Scotland.
Telephone 76161
(1)
FILE RESTORES
Currently,
the operators receive frequent requests for files
Several points
to be restored which users have accidentally deleted.
should be borne in mind:
o
The regular backups of the user disks are primarily
intended to ensure that, in the event of a disk crash,
the disk can be restored to as recent a state as possible.
o
The backups are NOT designed to guard users from accidental
Of course, in cases where a
deletion of their-0wn files
user has lost a significant amount of data which he cannot
readily recreate, the Laboratory will take a sympathetic
view and do its best to recover a recent copy of the file
This may not always be possible.
from its dump tapes.
o
The availability of the tape drives,
and the load on the
system, will be adversely affected if the operators have to
do restores too frequently.
Consequently,
the
Advisory
all requested for file restores should be made to
Service,
not the operators.
Requests should only be made
if the amount of information lost is substantial.
NEe SPINWRITERS
�HO NEe Spinwriters have been purchased and are now available
to users;
one is situated in the User Area of the Computing
Laboratory and replaces the existing Qume terminal.
The other has
been sited with the terminals in the Psychology cluster.
These
new terminals complement the Spinwriter in the computer room, which
currently serves the
print queues A4$QUME and SYS$QUME.
The intention is that users with specialised requirements for
the output of their documents can now use the publicly-available
Spinwriter.
Such needs include the use of single sheets, 'thimbles'
containing special character sets or a different character pitch
The operator-manned service on the Spinwriter will continue as
before with continuous paper, a standard thimble (Elite 12UK) and
12 characters per inch pitch.
Note that the hash symbol (#) appears
as the sterling pound sign
(E)
on this thimble.
You should note that the Spinwriters are high-quality output
devices and should only be used to produce final copies of documents.
the Spinwriters are
The documents must have some academic purpose;
Draft copies can be
not provided for typing personal letters.
printed on the line-printer (on normal 8" paper or A4 forms).
instead,
Multiple copies must not be printed on the Spinwriters;
these should be obtained by photocopying the final copy.
The
Spinwriters do not have a keyboard of their own, but instead run off
Prior to printing
the printer port of a Hazeltine display terminal.
a document on the Spinwriter, you should type the locally-written
corr@and QUME which will set the terminal characteristics appropriate
for the Spinwriter.
It is possible to use the terminal as an
ordinary VDU by leaving the Spinwriter switched off.
alternatively
You can buy your own ribbon from the operators;
you can use the ribbon already in the Spinwriter, which will give
a light print density towards the end of its life.
thimbles
can be obtained by special
order;
Non-standard
consult the Advisory
February
1984
(3)
USE
RUNOFF
OF
The
in the
There
following three points of difficulty
use of DSR - the Digital Standard
package.
It is not immediately
get round these difficulties
Firstly,
does not start
users often
at
frequently crop up
RUNOFF
text-formatting
that
size'
is the maximum number of lines that can be
inch,
the
the paper
being
.DISABLE
possible:
here.
To explain this phenomenon,
'page size'
used for
the
the
output
for this
the
exceed the for'"'! size
• PAGE
SIZE con�and.
DSR normally
form-feed
it
and
is
the output
causes the printer to
However,
the same number of
3
a form-feed would generate a blank page and
default form size has been used
lines will
thinks that the printer is
result,
the
page.
next
page
then
(66)
any page following
not start with a form feed
because
at the top of the form already,
a page
DSR
!FORM_SIZE
qualifier
override the default form size by
as a
on the
RUNOFF command.
512£=72 should be used for A4 output.
incorporated into the
user the
The
(locally-written)
opportunity to
change
second point concerns
.FLAGS
underlining.
in
file will appear as
"underline this"
By default,
front of it so
For example,
i n the
.MEM file.
the
hyphenation and the
where.
are potential candidates for
sign indicates where the word can be broken.
Note that a word can contain more than one
several places.
=
if it can be broken
in
If it is not necessary for the work to be hyphenated,
the hyphen flag naturally does not appear
use .DRY and
1984
HYPHENATION and .NO FLAGS
at situation
signs to indicate
.EHY
is not to
3 above).
hyphenation
(to
by
all
Alternatively,
points,
but
you can have
recognise the
respectively before and after
ce used.
signs are both recognised and used
.FLAGS HYPHENATE,
co��and,
the
in the output document.
is given-.--
=
signs),
those sections
as hyphens if only
.FLAGS HYPHENATE command may be used to
the hyphenation indicator for all or part of
•
for
the
instance,
remarks
in the
text
E'LAGS HYPHENATE
will recognise
relating to the
=
the text:
%
% as the hyphenation indicator, and all
any = signs
sign will now refer to %,
will now be output as
ordinary
characters.
GLOBAL SYMBOLS
The following global symbols,
log in,
are now
redundant and have
the global login file:
A4PRINT
JOBSTART
DC
RSUBMIT
APPLYTREE
February
of
HYPHENATE set for the whole text
in the .RNO
To indicate where a word can be hyphenated, the equals sign '=' is
When the hyphenation facility is enabled,
used as a 'hyphenate flag'.
=
otherwise it will not appear
you must use _= to output an
avoid actual hyphenation in certain sections,
Additionally,
then use
Lastly, the way in which DSR does hyphenation often causes
confusion.
There is NO automatic hyphenation facility within DSR.
then any words containing an
Again,
(and thus arrive
have text full
means that
spaces will
The user must decide whether a word can be hyphenated, and if so,
(hyphenation enabled)
do is to precede the relevant section of text
hyphenation
that it is treated as any other
''''&underline_this\&''
and .EHY set
Thus the existence of two enabling commands allows a greater
flexibility in use, and the�fault setting of .ENABLE HYPHENATION
one
If you want a space to be underlined,
used and so does not appear in the
_=
in this case anywhere you
the
RUNOFf/FORM_
DSR command to give
disabled)
see that to use the hyphenation faCility,
.FLAGS HYPHENATE
if you
and then
An additional question has been
the form-size.
not be underlined.
the ACCEPT flag ( )
printable character.
For example,
using
(hyphenation
settings are .ENABLE
you have to
wish to
continues on the same form as the previous
is to
HYPHENATE
As
it.
where
The solution
set
You must use
in the output text.
=
sign in such text.
in this
so DSR omits
and .DHY
hyphen only where necessary;
then the printer
form,
whether HYPHENATION is
Any = sign in the text is recognised and is converted to a
a
This sytem �Drks satisfactorily provided that the form size has been
set correctly.
If the actual form size is 72 (for A4 paper) and the
of exactly 66
.FLAGS
•
if the preceding page had contained
to the top of the next
There are three distinct situations
want an = sign to appear in the output text.
advance to the top
lines as the form size,
.EHY) ,
sign in the text is recognised as a potential
=
output text.
this will not
.MEM file with
(or
.NO FLAGS HYPHENATE and
of
hyphen but is not
set within the .RNO file by the
starts each page of
would have already advanced
event,
usually
output document;
character which
of the next page.
exactly
Any
11" paper is the commonly-used size for
The 'page size' is the number of lines to be
used in each page of
hyphenation
sign in the text is output as
.FLAGS HYPHENATE
2.
is that
continuous forms.
(.DHY).
it is.
8" lineprinter paper used by the Laboratory can hold 48'
lines and the continuous A4 paper can hold 72 lines.
DSR, by default,
the
assumes that the output form size will be 66 lines per page;
reason
HYPHENATION
enabled
on
lines per
disabling commands
In this
ef
accommodated
at 6
document;
the
.FLAGS HYPHENATE and .ENABLE HYPHENATION
.NO FLAGS HYPHENATE has been set:
1.
form
must first be understood.
are two commands to allow use of
corresponding
the top of the physical page when continuous
is being used.
and
described
a new page of their document
paper
'form size'
with
apparent from the manual how to
and so t.he cures are
find
facility:
JOBEND
defined automatically when you
been ear-marked
OLDBASIC
NEWBASIC
for removal from
OLDFORT
NEWFORT
February 1984
(5;
TRANSFER OF BBC
C A SSE T T E
SURFACE-I I GRAPHICS SYSTEM
DATA TO VAX
The Micro Group in t�e laboratory can now offer a file transfer
service for micro users wishing to transfer programs on BBC-format
The cassette files should be
c�ssettes to the VAX mainfra�es.
recorded at 300 baud if pOSSible, but 1200 baud cassette files can
To record a file at 300 baud, type
be handled by arrangement.
*TAPE3 then save in the normal way.
To use the service, contact
Alan Young (ext. 8205).
The SURFACE-II Graphics System, which can produce contour
maps and 3-dimensional block diagrams from spatially distributed
data, has now been interfaced to the GHOST-Ba graphics system.
Thus SURFACE-II pictures can now be produced on any of the graphics
In particular, pictures can
devices attached to the VAX systems.
now be submitted to the Printronix printer/plotter and the high
quality Benson
9211
plotter from any terminal.
The new implementation of
SURFACE-II
is
invoked with the
command
MICROCOMPUTER DEMONSTRATIONS
SURFACE2
A demonstration of Rank Xerox Microcomputer equipment has been
�
arranged for Wednesday 14th and Thursday 15th March • . It wil
take
olace in the Microcomputer User Area of the Mathemat�cs Inst�tute.
Contact B. Campbell (ext. 8114) or P. Robertson (ext. 8112) for
Ll:-ther details.
On Wednesday 21st March, Gate Microsystems of Dundee will be
demonstrating their range of microsystems, which includes the
Commodore and Apple products.
The demonstration will be in the
Microcomputer User Area (room Cl, level 1 of the Maths. Institute)
between
10 am and
4 pm.
All
interested are invited to attend.
NAG LIBRARY MARK 10
The latest versior. (Mark 10) of the FORTRAN NAG library will
be available on the VAX system from Tuesday 2Bth February 1984.
There are 28 new primary
latest version.
("user-callable")
routines in this
Users will access this library if they specify NAG/LIB in
the LINK command.
Only one routine that was available at Mark 9
of the library, C05NAF, has been withdrawn.
The recommended
replacement for this routine is either C05NBF or C05NCF.
Another
routine, DOIFAF, has been scheduled for replacement at the next
As before you will be
This command cannot be abbreviated.
prompted for the names of the files containing the SURFACE-II
commands to be executed and the data to be processed, and the files
to which the execution report and text output should be directed.
addi ticn you wi l l be asked for the name of the (GHOST-80) gridfile
to take the graphical output.
The pictures thus deposited in this
le can subsequently be produced on
GHOST-BO.
any
In
of the devices supported
Further details on SURFACE-II are contained in a free usernote
4) available from the Computing secretaries and from the SCRFACE-II
R ef er ence �Ianual which is kept in the Computing terminal area.
be found
pictures from GHOST-80 gridfiles
Information on
in the
U ser Manual (especially chapter 3) and in
GHOST
GRIDFILES on the V.sX.
(No.
It
is
requires no
to note that this implementation of
SURFACE-II
i c at i on to existing files of SURFAC2-II co�mands
files of g r aph i cal output that are in a
or data, but does
different format
those produced by the SU RFAC E command.
EXisting
users are urged to start using the new system as soon as possible
and to contact Malcolm Bain in the Computing Laboratory (CLSMB,
ext 8203) if they cannot.
release of the library.
Any users of this routine should start
using its replacement, DOIGBF, as soon as possible.
Further details about
the NAG library can be found
in
the
VAX HELP files and in the NAG library Manuals which are kept in
the main terminal cluster areas.
Note that the NAGHELP command is
also available for use in getting on-line information about NAG
routines.
It may be of some interest to users to know that 11 of the
example programs listed in the NAG manuals are also supplied with
the NAG library.
In view of the shortage of disk space, however,
these are not kept on-line at present.
If you wish to obtain copy
of
a
particular example program this can generally be arranged,
although for relatively brief programs it would be quicker to type
in the example yourself.
Please contact Malcolm Bain (CLSMB,
ext 8203) with requests for particular example programs.
February
1984
(6)
VAX SERVICEABILITY FIGURES
Overall service froli1 7
am
5th December 1983 to 7
Period covered time
Scheduled Preventive Maintenance
Scheduled Software Maintenance
Scheduled Back-up Dumps
Scheduled Systems Development
User Service
(1)
SAVE
(2)
SAVE
hrs:mins
672:00
2:30
0:00
0:45
1:50
605:40
672:00
2:30
0:00
0:30
0:00
663:10
0:00
61:15
0:00
0:00
0:00
(1)
4:15
1:35
0:00
0:00
0:00
(2)
(2)
-- Formatting and restoring RP07 with Bad Blocks 21:15 hrs
6-7/12/83
+ RP07 down "unsafe light"
on 40:00 hrs 31/12/83 - 1/1/84
Reboots
5, 3 scheduled plus 2 unscheduled.
wes, pes, Power Supply and Controller replaced 7/12/83.
Reboots = 4, 1 SCheduled, 3 unscheduled.
Overall service from 7
am
2nd January
Period covered time
Scheduled Preventive Maintenance
Scheduled Software Maintenance
Scheduled Back-up Dumps
Scheduled Systems Development
User Service
Unscheduled maintenance
Hardware faults
Software faults
Other lost time
System Recovery Time
SAVB
2nd January 1984.
SAVA
hrs:mins
Unscheduled maintenance
Hardware faults
Software faults
Other lost ti'TIe
System Recovery Time
SAVA
am
to 8
am
30th January
1984.
SAVA
hrs:mins
SAVB
hrs:mins
672:00
2:30
0:00
1:30
3:05
588:55
672:00
3:00
0:00
1:00
3:50
626:40
2:45 (2)
57:00 (2)
0:00
16:15 (1)
0:00
0:25 (4)
4:50 (4)
0:00
32:15 (3)
(1)
(2)
system put down 16/1/84
light" on 2-4/1/84
Reboots = 10;
Scheduled = 5:1pm, 4 S.Dev.Unscheduled =5:
1
power fault,
Hardware faults
4.
(3)
(4 )
Power fluctuations, system put down 2, 3, 4 16/1/84
System disc corrupted 2, 16/1/84
Reboots
13;
scheduled =1, unscheduled=12:
Power faults
3.
=
5, System hun,} = 2, Bug-checks = 2, Systems disc
February