Subject: Linux-Development Digest #159
From: Digestifier <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 12 Sep 94 00:13:10 EDT

Linux-Development Digest #159, Volume #2         Mon, 12 Sep 94 00:13:10 EDT

Contents:
  Re: Multiprocessing Pentium Systems (David Willmore)
  PCI m/boards + PCI scsi : what do you think? (Angelo Haritsis)
  Re: Alpha Linux (Bill Spitzak)
  Pointer to cyclades (Daniel Gelinas)
  Re: 480x360 Res works for me. (Mark A. Bentley)
  Re: Status of Mac Linux & PPC Linux? (Blake Sobiloff)
  Re: Survey: who wants f77,cc,c++,hpf for linux? (Richard Maine)
  Re: 480x360 Res works for me. (Mark A. Bentley)
  Re: Multiprocessing Pentium Systems (Hugh Emberson)
  Re: Non-ANSI constructs in the kernel (was Re: Unicode...) (David Holland)
  Re: News Spool File System - new filesystem type?? (Michael Dillon)
  Linux T-Shirts. Get your order in NOW! :) (Jean-Paul Chia)

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [email-masked] (David Willmore)
Subject: Re: Multiprocessing Pentium Systems
Date: 11 Sep 94 22:25:17 GMT

[email-masked] (Keith Smith) writes:
>Richard Lamont <[email-masked]> wrote:
>>Apparently compilations run about five times as fast with two Pentiums
>>compared to one. I have no idea why this should be the case.

>Because a compile is not a single process it is like 5 or 6ish

>cpp -> cc1 -> cc2 -> cc3 -> [as ->] ld -> object_file

>Depends alot on your compiler and how it does stuff like pre-processing,
>and symbol resolutions.  Most masssage your program for at least 4
>passes.  And they all run in a kernel pipleine, so you cut context
>switching to do the compile in half for starters. and of course later
>stages get a processor each to themselves.

One of the causes of greater than 1.0 scalability occurs in multiprocessors
is because some resources are duplicated.  For example, 8 processors
have 8x the cache that one has.  For simple tasks like some of the phases
of a compile, this can really pay off.

Cheers,
David
-- 
___________________________________________________________________________
[email-masked] | "Death before dishonor" | "Better dead than greek" | 
David Willmore  | "Ever noticed how much they look like orchids? Lovely!" | 
===========================================================================

------------------------------

From: [email-masked] (Angelo Haritsis)
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.help
Subject: PCI m/boards + PCI scsi : what do you think?
Date: 12 Sep 94 01:09:04 GMT

Hello all,

I plan to buy a pentium PCI mboard v. soon and I have scsi devices to use.
I will need a board & scsi controller that will work with linux/dos/os2/nt.
The NCR53c7/8xx range of pci controllers seems to be the best choice (?).

Could you share some of your experience on the following:

- Which is better/faster: on-board SCSI OR independent pci scsi board?
  Is the former much cheaper?
- Which are the NCR chips available (53c7xx/53c8xx)? What are the
  differences? Which is better/faster?
- Do all pci scsi boards have bios? Which are the versions to go for?
- Do they support >1Gb disks for DOS? I have a 2.1Gb.
- According to your opinion, what are the things to watch when buying a 
  pci mboard and pci scsi?
- Do you own a pci mainboard + scsi ? 
  Which one(s)? 
  Bios versions?
  Compatibility?
  Price?

Please reply via personal email.
I will summarise if I collect useful info.

If someone HAS collected ifno like this I would like to share it.

Thanks in advance,
Angelo
-- 
#include <standard.disclaimer.h>
 Angelo Haritsis, Applied Systems Section
 s-mail: Dpt of Computing,Imperial College, 180 Queen's Gate, London SW7 2BZ, UK
 e-mail: [email-masked] - !!!NEW!!! tel:+44 71 594 8434 - fax:+44 71 589 7127

------------------------------

From: [email-masked] (Bill Spitzak)
Crossposted-To: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: Alpha Linux
Date: 11 Sep 1994 01:00:34 -0700

[email-masked] (Kjetil Torgrim Homme) writes:

>+--- Richard Coleman:
>| I've always thought that C should have some way of letting you
>| decided how many bytes to use for your computation.

>I once saw someone on Usenet suggest this convention:

>  int8, int16, int32, ...:
>     Variables that should be exactly this size.
>  int8u, int16u, int32u, ...:
>     Variables that can be larger to increase speed. Many machines
>     would have a 32-bit int16u.

>In addition, you'd want unsigned versions like "uint8" etc.

I suggested that this be done with field notation:

        int:8 // use at least 8 bits
        int:8:8 // use exactly 8 bits
        int:8:32 // use somewhere between 8 and 32 bits

Bill

------------------------------

From: [email-masked] (Daniel Gelinas)
Subject: Pointer to cyclades
Date: 9 Sep 1994 12:21:57 -0400

I keep on hearing of this Cyclades board.  What is it exactly? How well is
it tested under linux, and where can I get one?

Just curios, I need a 16 port card and will have to go with a bocaboard
if nothing else presents itself.

Thanks.

Daniel Gelinas
[email-masked]

------------------------------

Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.misc
From: [email-masked] (Mark A. Bentley )
Subject: Re: 480x360 Res works for me.
Date: Sun, 11 Sep 1994 19:59:20 GMT

Mihail S. Iotov ([email-masked]) wrote:
: [email-masked] (Daniel L Moore   ) writes:
: >DOOM runs fine, now to find solutions to the ctrl, alt - arrow keys
: >combinations, (my window manager takes over), and getting the sound
: >to work, probably need to upgrade my driver.

: same here.

Use twm while you play doom.  The key-bindings don't conflict with the
game like fvwm, or you can edit your .fvwmrc file to fix the problem.

Otherwise your alt key will act like a toggle key and the ctrl-arrow
will change the virtual screen.  Not good...
-- 
[+]=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-[+]-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=[+]
Mark Bentley A.K.A. Seeklore      |  [email-masked] (DEC/Ultrix)
University of Minnesota, Morris   |  [email-masked] (NeXT)
==========================================================================
     The Linux Rebellion is here!  It is useless to resist us!
[+]=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=[+]

------------------------------

From: [email-masked] (Blake Sobiloff)
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.help
Subject: Re: Status of Mac Linux & PPC Linux?
Date: Sun, 11 Sep 1994 18:57:13 -0400

In article <[email-masked]>, [email-masked] (Hamish
Macdonald) wrote:

> I haven't heard any progress reports about the Linux/68k port to the
> Mac for a while.  I understand that getting information about the
> Macintosh hardware is difficult.

No more difficult that tracking down information about Linux;
ftp.support.apple.com has lots of information in /dts/mac/*, and you can
always buy a copy of "d e v e l o p" for $10 and get a CD-ROM full of tech
docs.

-- 
Blake Sobiloff <[email-masked]> | University of Maryland
Laboratory for Automation Psychology       | College Park, MD  20742-4411
Department of Psychology                   | 301/405-5936 (Voice)
       http://www.lap.umd.edu/LAPFolder/People/Sobiloff.html

------------------------------

Crossposted-To: comp.lang.fortran
From: [email-masked] (Richard Maine)
Subject: Re: Survey: who wants f77,cc,c++,hpf for linux?
Date: Sun, 11 Sep 1994 23:13:34 GMT

On 10 Sep 1994 19:00:37 GMT, [email-masked] (Steve Allen) said:

Steve> In article <[email-masked]>,
Steve> Bill McKinney <[email-masked]> wrote:
Bill> f2c/gcc works about 2/3 of the time for me. When it does work, I
Bill> am not really sure about how efficient the code is, but it runs.

Steve> I must admit to being a bit confused by Bill McKinney's remarks here,
Steve> because I find that f2c does just fine with any Fortran code that
Steve> conforms to the ANSI standard.

Steve> When f2c does produce results which differ from commercial compilers,
Steve> it has always been the case that there is some non-standard assumption
Steve> being made by the code.

I've got 100% f77 standard code that doesn't compile at all under f2c/gcc.
And I don't mean gives different results - I mean doesn't compile.
I don't have a sample handy at the moment; I don't do serious work
with f2c/gcc, so I haven't spent much time on it - just enough to try
out some of my favorite codes.

Off the top of my head, the code that I recall giving f2c/gcc the most fits
combined COMMON and EQUIVALENCE something like

  common /com/ a,b,c
  real x(3)
  equivalence (x(1),a)

The object here was to allow variables to be used by their individual
names (the real case had more pertinent names that a,b,c) in one set
of routines, while another set of routines operated only on the vector
as a whole.  (I might not have recalled every detail correctly, but it
was something close to this).

One might question the style, but this is perfectly standard.  And at
least the copy of f2c/gcc that I had barfed badly on this.  (Giving
very confusing error messages out of the C compilation stage).  I never
figured out how to send in bug reports, so I just dropped it.  But
I was left with the impression that, while "ok" for some purposes,
f2c was no competition with comercial products, at least for me.
I've *never* seen *any* commercial compiler have any trouble with
that construct.

--
--
Richard Maine
[email-masked]

------------------------------

Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.misc
From: [email-masked] (Mark A. Bentley )
Subject: Re: 480x360 Res works for me.
Date: Sun, 11 Sep 1994 20:07:50 GMT

Steve VanDevender ([email-masked]) wrote:
: In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Daniel L Moore   ) writes:

: What I really miss is using the mouse.  I switched to using the
: mouse some time ago during a period when I was doing a lot of
: intense deathmatch play, and while I have gotten a little better
: at using the keyboard in the Linux version, I tried running the
: DOS version again with the mouse and it was _so_ much easier to
: do things.  I just can't seem to find the right layout for the
: key commands that lets me comfortably run, turn, strafe, and fire
: all at the same time even half as well as I can with the
: mouse/keyboard combination.

I found a good key map for playing doom.  Here is my .doomrc:

mouse_sensitivity               5
sfx_volume              8
music_volume            8
show_messages           1
key_right               174
key_left                172
key_up          173
key_down                175
key_strafeleft          100
key_straferight         102
key_fire                157
key_use         103
key_strafe              115
key_speed               32
sndserver               "sndserver"
mb_used         2
use_mouse               1
mouseb_fire             0
mouseb_strafe           1
mouseb_forward          2
use_joystick            0
joyb_fire               0
joyb_strafe             1
joyb_use                3
joyb_speed              2
screenblocks            10
detaillevel             0
snd_channels            4
usegamma                4
chatmacro0              "No"
chatmacro1              "I'm ready to kick butt!"
chatmacro2              "I'm OK."
chatmacro3              "I'm not looking too good!"
chatmacro4              "Help!"
chatmacro5              "You suck!"
chatmacro6              "Next time, scumbag..."
chatmacro7              "Come here!"
chatmacro8              "I'll take care of it."
chatmacro9              "Yes"

d & f  for strafe left or right
s      for strafe on (default is alt)
space  for running (Default is shift)
g      for opening doors and such.  (default is space)
ctrl   fire (use your right hand's thumb.  works nicely, you can fire
           while you strafe without getting your figers tied in knots.)
arrows to turn left, right, move forward and backword

I find this layout to give me very good play control...comprable to
using the mouse.  When I play doom for dos i use the mouse to turn
left and right, and the arrows for moving forward and backword and a
similar layout for strafeing and such.  Anyone who uses the mouse to
move forward and backward should be shot.  bad bad bad...  :-)

Hope this helps...
-- 
[+]=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-[+]-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=[+]
Mark Bentley A.K.A. Seeklore      |  [email-masked] (DEC/Ultrix)
University of Minnesota, Morris   |  [email-masked] (NeXT)
==========================================================================
     The Linux Rebellion is here!  It is useless to resist us!
[+]=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=[+]

------------------------------

From: [email-masked] (Hugh Emberson)
Subject: Re: Multiprocessing Pentium Systems
Date: 11 Sep 1994 08:36:45 GMT

>>>>> "David" == David Williams <[email-masked]> writes:
[chomp]
David> Anybody have any thoughts about how hard it might be to make
David> Linux one of the first OS's to take advantage of these systems?

Judging by the number of threads on this subject, there seem to be a lot
of people who have had the same idea.

Everyone has been saying that doing a proper SMP kernel is hard. So I'm
wondering why no one has said anything about doing it the easy/kludgey
way, at least for the time being.  

The easy way is the way that SunOS 4.1.3 does it, or is rumoured to do
it.  Allegedly 4.1.3 has a single spin lock around the entire kernel, so
that only one processor can be executing inside the kernel at any time.

Would it be possible to do this with Linux? 

4.1.3 with its big spin lock seems to perform better than multithreaded
Solaris 2.x on multiprocessor machines, though this is probably due to
other problems with Slowaris.

Disclaimer: The content of this message is based on unsubstantiated (sp?)
net.rumour and an idea I had 5 minutes ago, believe it at your own risk

Cheers,
        Hugh
-- 
Hugh Emberson              | ... from the end of the Information 
[email-masked] | Super-four-wheel-drive-track.

------------------------------

Subject: Re: Non-ANSI constructs in the kernel (was Re: Unicode...)
From: [email-masked] (David Holland)
Date: 9 Sep 94 17:28:56

[email-masked]'s message of Wed, 7 Sep 1994 21:26:43 GMT said:

 > I think it will be a while before we all get used to thinking about pro-
 > gramming in a new light.  Perhaps it is an advantage to have a system
 > that lacks a lot of baggage from the 70s....

Surely you can't be talking about Linux here...

--
   - David A. Holland          | -- "Do you have a moment?"   -- "Yes.
     [email-masked] | Unfortunately, it's a moment of inertia."

------------------------------

From: [email-masked] (Michael Dillon)
Crossposted-To: news.software.b
Subject: Re: News Spool File System - new filesystem type??
Date: Sun, 11 Sep 1994 13:17:00 +0100

> >>    1) eliminate/minimize directory traversal for article access
> >>    (opens?). 
> >
> >If a program issues an open for comp/os/linux/development/22334 the file
> >system is free to use an implementation that does not involve the
> >normal UNIX directory tree traversal.
> 
> As a friend of mine wisely noted recently, log file systems are almost
> ideally designed for usenet news. Coincidentally, I recently came
> across an old paper while cleaning out my office. Someone else may
> have more contemporary references to share.
> 
> "Beating the I/O Bottleneck: A Case for Log-Structured File Systems"
> John Ousterhout and Fred Douglis
> Tech Report No. UCB/CSD 88/467
> October 1988
> Computer Science Division (EECS)
> University of California
> Berkeley, CA 94720
> 
> Undoubtedly, they probably have an FTP or WWW server for tech reports
> by now. Track down the CS Tech Report FAQ for the location.

And Linux has a User File System that will allow a user process to
function as a file system. This makes it fairly easy to experiment
with log-structured file systems and news spool file systems
without requiring any kernel hacking. Do other OSes support
a similar file system type?

cruisin' down the information highway, lookin' for a blast
breakin' all the speed limits as I come zoomin' past!
--
Michael Dillon                 Internet: [email-masked]
C-4 Powerhouse                  Fidonet: 1:353/350
RR #2 Armstrong, BC  V0E 1B0      Voice: +1-604-546-8022
Canada                              BBS: +1-604-546-2705

------------------------------

From: [email-masked] (Jean-Paul Chia)
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.admin,comp.os.linux.help,comp.os.linux.misc
Subject: Linux T-Shirts. Get your order in NOW! :)
Date: 11 Sep 1994 16:26:25 +0800

Hello..
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or White on Black, Long or Short Sleeved T-Shirts. "Linux! Not UNIX!" is
written on the back of the shirt, and on the front left corner a neat litle
"Linux." is printed.

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on either Long or Short sleeved. White T-Shirts. I will only print a limited
amount of these T-Shirts, so please get your order in now.

"Linux.. The Choice of a GNU Generation" T-Shirts have the slogan printed in
Black across the back of a Long or Short sleeved, white, T-Shirt. With  
"Linux." printed on the front.

Thank you.
- JP

==============================================================================
Please Complete and Email to: [email-masked]
or Fax to +61-9-447-4098 or if you have to.. Mail it to: 
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12 Guinevere Way
Carine WA 6020
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 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -         

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Email Address(es):

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Phone Number or Fax Number:

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================| Small | Medium | Large | XLarge |=====|==========|=======|
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 Blue on White  |       |        |       |        |     |          |       |
===========================================================================|
Linux! Not UNIX |       |        |       |        |     |          |       |
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===========================================================================|
 GNU Linux.. *  |       |        |       |        |     |          |       |
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===========================================================================|
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Postage within Australia and USA - Express       (2-4 days) US$25  _________
                                 - Airmail  (within 7 days) US$15  _________
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                                     12 Guinevere Way,
                                     Carine Western Australia 6020,
                                     Australia

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===========================================================================

Thank you.
- JP

--      
        Jean-Paul Chia                      TheWiz @ IRC
        Drasnian Technologies,  Perth, Western Australia
        PH +61-9-447-6261             FAX +61-9-447-4098
        [email-masked], [email-masked]

--

--      
        Jean-Paul Chia                      TheWiz @ IRC
        Drasnian Technologies,  Perth, Western Australia
        PH +61-9-447-6261             FAX +61-9-447-4098
        [email-masked], [email-masked]

------------------------------

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End of Linux-Development Digest
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