Callan Unistar 200 problems

[gcw at lanl-a.UUCP]

This article is to warn others of the problems encountered with a Callan
Unistar 200 running UN*X System V.  We purchased a Unistar 200 from BMDP
StatCat.  The documentation was incredibly poor, with numerous serious
mistakes.  In addition:
 1) the a, i, and c commands in ex cause a core dump;
 2) uucp does not talk to 4.2bsd machines;
 3) no means to generate nroff printer driving tables is provided;
 4) the f77 compiler (from Absoft) is totally unreliable.

Specific problems with FORTRAN are:
 1) bad code is generated;
 2) numerous deviations from the ANSI standard, usually significant;
 3) does not use the floating point processor as documented.

In response to numerous phone calls, plus now nasty letters, we get the
run around (that's a System V problem, etc. etc.).

Besides all this, the hard disk (43M) has begun to suffer from bad blocks.

Let potential buyers beware.
   Gary C. White (lanl!gcw, csu-cs!csufwb!gcw)