Plexus Print Problems!

[ignatz at ihuxx.UUCP]

Just a caveat to anyone else out there who got stuck with a Plexus...
the latest release of the software is out.  Two particularly annoying
problems surfaced in this release:

1) They've gotten rid of _doprnt in the libc library.  Now, while this
   is an undocumented routine, and yes, Virginia, you shouldn't be using
   it, the raw truth is that routines DO use it.  Most notably, Berkeley
   curses!  So, expect problems when rebuilding any program using curses,
   and the possibility that other software--esp. Berkeley--expects this
   routine to be there. (It is, and as far as I know, will be, present
   ad infinitum in BTL Unix(Tm).)

2) Ah, well, this isn't a print problem...but I thought of it after I
   started the article, and it's important enough to mention.  The Plexus
   uses a z8000 CPU, which talks to a z80-based I/O board.  This is a
   reasonable way to deload the CPU, but it takes somebody with a good
   grasp of the system to program it.  Somebody didn't; they forgot that
   when carrier is gone, the line should be dropped.  Yes, if you hang up
   on a dial-in line, and then are disconnected or hang up without
   terminating the shell, you have the new feature that you can dial back
   in on that line *days* later, and still be logged in, at the same
   point in your session that you left it.  *Wonderful.*

Keeping in the spirit of funny middle names,

		Dave "I told 'em not to buy it" Ihnat
		ihuxx!ignatz