cu/ecu through TCP/IP (plus ecu porting status)

[Warren Tucker]

In article <7525 at spdcc.SPDCC.COM> rbraun at spdcc.COM (Rich Braun) writes:
>On a related topic, I'm wondering if there's a way to run cu through
>a TCP/IP connection.  I've got a few workstations running System V, and
>
>There's a really great program called 'ecu' which looks something like
>Procomm, but it runs on System V and is free.  I'd love to be able to
>run this program and have it automagically connect to a modem on the
>RS/6000 via TCP/IP.

Thank you for the compliments on ecu.  However, it insists on
talking to a tty driver directly.  The driver must reside on the
same system as the port unless you have an, er, ahm, more recent
generation of UNIX than I do.

One solution would be to rlogin to the 6000 through conventional
means and run ecu -on the 6000-.  This would work well except
that ecu has not been ported there.

I have a new version in work that does well to pave the way for
porting ecu to any System V-ish system which also supports
select(2).  select(2) is a very popular thing for System V these
days with TCP/IP and X11 running on so many of them.

The new version appears ready to work on ISC very soon.  This
means more than you may think, because though both SCO and ISC
are very similar in many ways, the vagaries of shared in/out
modems, locking, tty naming and so forth are very, very
different.  I miss SCO's dialer features on ISC and will be
carrying that concept over for ecu's private use.

There is a gentleman in California that is looking into a port
for the 6000.  It (AIX) has a very bizarre mixture of System V
and BSD and just plain IBMisms in it, so a successful port to it
will uncover so many areas of system dependence that it may
become readily apparent what needs changing for a port to the
Commodore 64 :-).  (I do expect ecu procedures will run faster on
the 6000 than they ever have anywhere else, though.)

I hope to post ecu 3.10 this summer.  If anyone is seriously
interested in helping port, I will be happy to send copies of the
work in progress and to assist.  I give good credit.
 
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Warren Tucker, TuckerWare     emory!n4hgf!wht or wht at n4hgf.Mt-Park.GA.US
"An ANSI C elephant: just like the real one, but the position, shape and
length of the trunk and tail are left to the vendor's discretion." -- me