leaving your terminal for lunch

[Bill.Stewart.4K435.x0705]

> We have a locally-developed package here that performs various desk-top
> type things, one of which is 'message display'. Message Display (md)
> displays the time (large banner-type numbers), date, contents of your
> 'new' mailbox, and any posted reminders (rem, calpost). You have to enter
> your login password to free the terminal.
> 
> I have yet to see one that was able to be broken, and sometimes it gets
> stuck if you turn your terminal off. We have a Micom data switch, which 
> usually drops the line if the terminal is shut off. Sometimes you can pick
> up a port where md was on, and have to turn off your terminal to get rid of it.
> 
> Anyway, If anyone would like it, I'll mail it to you since it is made of
> some 25 modules and a makefile. (I have no idea how to make archive shells,
> and I'm not making 25 postings.)
> 
> PS: One minor problem. We are running SysVr1. Don't ask me how portable
> it will be, but it is certianly worth the trouble.
> 
> -- 
> Vince Hatem          	               ----------------		           A
> Bell Communications Research           | UZI          |----------|_ _ _\/  T
> Raritan River Software Systems Center  |              |----------|     /\  &
> 444 Hoes Lane                          ----------------  ROGER GUTS 	   T 
> 4D-360                                   /     /\  DON'T NEED NO STINKIN' 
> Piscataway, NJ 08854                    /     /          TIES
> (201) 699-4869                         /-----/
> ...ihnp4!rruxo!vch

ARRRGH, NO!  md is not a bad package, but it wasn't developed to be commercial
quality software.  A department hacked together an office aautomation system
for themselves a few years ago, and everybody wanted a copy, so it's grown and
multiplied, and somehow still vaguely works on System V.  They weren't a
commercial-OA-development department, they were doing microprocessor work and
they wanted to keep their offices working while they did it.

I use md a lot (my 5620 has multiple windows and spare real estate), and I like
it.  But everytime we get a new machine, or a new OS version, I have to go hack
it some more.  IT'S VERY VERY VERY NON_PORTABLE CODE!!!.  (Presumably someone
has adapted the PCS package to un on 3B20s, but md and sendmail were two parts
that we couldn't do without major pain.

It is relatively effective as a terminal locker, but many of the early versions
would crash if you tried to display your calendar and reminders at the same
time.  Also, the human factors are ugly.  You access the HELP feature by typing
ESCAPE-? which is not real obvious.  Also, it is only made for standard
uucp-style mail reading.  It does a nice jobs of displaying my mail messages,
complete with subject lines, but if the mail came from the ARPAnet, or from a
4.2BSD site with internet-style mail headers, it gets confused about which
field is which.

Since you work for Bellcore, and the people who wrote the package are mostly
with AT&T Information Systems, there may not be proprietary-software issues
with giving the stuff away.  However, remember that the authors weren't writing
a package they planned to support for the rest of the world.  They don't.
They were relatively friendly about advice, but they aren't in the business of
supporting this package they put together for themselves years ago, and they
weren't in that business when they wrote it.

Disclaimer:  All this flaming is my own opinion, and is not necessarily the
policy or opinion of my management, AT&T Bell Labs, AT&T Info. Sys., the
authors of the PCS package, or my cat.

			Bill
-- 
## Bill Stewart, AT&T Bell Labs, Holmdel NJ 1-201-949-0705 ihnp4!ho95c!wcs