Subject: Linux-Misc Digest #843
From: Digestifier <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 29 Sep 94 10:13:13 EDT

Linux-Misc Digest #843, Volume #2                Thu, 29 Sep 94 10:13:13 EDT

Contents:
  Re: P5-90 MHz beats SGI R4000-100MHz. (C.Engelmann)
  Accessing a Printer on a Novell Network from Linux (James Kaufman)
  Re: "voice+data" without special hardware (Maciej Marciniak)
  Re: P5-90 MHz beats SGI R4000-100MHz. (Michael Staats)
  SCSI CD-ROM and TMC-850M wont work... (Paul Pearson)
  Re: max line length (Anselm Lingnau)
  Re: Beers for Linus (was: Contrib. $s for Linux Dev) (Ian McCloghrie)
  Re: Pentium-optimized compiler is slower then 486 gcc-2.5.8 on P5 !!! (Joel Scotkin)
  WD8013 or NE2000 for linux network (WONG SIU MING STEPHEN)
  unctrl.h: No such file or directory (zachary brown)
  [Q] Anyone working on aOpenGL port ? (Harald Milz)
  Re: NEWBIE!: How do i Print from GS (not over LPR!) (David MacRae)
  Re: e ? for menu (David MacRae)
  Re: Don't use Linux or it's to academic! (Alan Cox)
  Mosaic w/ term AND wais support (Bob Leap)
  Create boot disk (Another Totoro)
  Re: P5-90 MHz beats SGI R4000-100MHz. (Bill Broadley)
  Re: [Q] SW Technology (Jeff Kesselman)
  Re: [Q] SW Technology (Jeff Kesselman)
  BSVC Distribution... (Bradford Wayne Mott)
  Re: Assembler for LINUX??? (Jeff Kesselman)
  Oracle ? (D. Centeno)
  Re: New Linux Distribution (Kelly Lee Setzer)
  Re: Copyright and licensing - a plea to software authors (Russell Nelson)
  Source copyable software is better than artificial life (Aaron Watters)

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

From: [email-masked] (C.Engelmann)
Subject: Re: P5-90 MHz beats SGI R4000-100MHz.
Date: Sun, 25 Sep 1994 21:57:27 GMT

[email-masked] (Chree Haas) writes:

>Bill Broadley ([email-masked]) wrote:

>: :    You should note the the Indy has a MIPS R4600 processor, which is
>: :    much faster than Pentium.  Also, the SCSI Drive is faster and more
>: :    expandable than the Dell IDE.  Overall, the Indy will have much
>: :    higher throughput and lower price/performance.
>BTW, when you ran the benchmark, did you add the -mips2 to the command
>line for the SGI?  That can easily make a 5-10% speedup in the code over
>the default -mips1 option.  BUT I don't know what using a pentium optimized
>compilers effects would be...

I think that the SpecInt92 values which are published by Intel
or MIPS are the results of the best available compilers with
the most suitable options.
The pentium gains about 15% with GCC2.5.8p vs. GCC2.5.8.

Carsten

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

From: [email-masked] (James Kaufman)
Subject: Accessing a Printer on a Novell Network from Linux
Date: Tue, 27 Sep 1994 13:02:15 GMT

I have built a 1.1.46 kernel with IPX support. Can I access a
printer on a Novell network?

How?

-- 
This is a test signature.

JMK

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

From: [email-masked] (Maciej Marciniak)
Subject: Re: "voice+data" without special hardware
Date: 28 Sep 1994 17:02:19 GMT

[email-masked] wrote:
: >Alex Ramos ([email-masked]) wrote:
: >: I have an idea, which I plan to implement soon unless someone writes

[lots of stuff deleted]

: If you are interested, I'll send it to you.

Could you post the information, I would also be interested in it.

--
|=-=|=-=|=-=|=-=|=-=|=-=|=-=|=-=|=-=|=-=|=-=|=-=|=-=|=-=|=-=|=-=|=-=|=-=|
|  Eric F. Sorton   |  Always yield to temptation, it may not come      |
| [email-masked]  |         your way again.   -- RAH                  |
|=-=|=-=|=-=|=-=|=-=|=-=|=-=|=-=|=-=|=-=|=-=|=-=|=-=|=-=|=-=|=-=|=-=|=-=|

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

From: [email-masked] (Michael Staats)
Subject: Re: P5-90 MHz beats SGI R4000-100MHz.
Date: 27 Sep 1994 13:19:36 GMT

[email-masked] (Valery Petrov) writes:

>       3-D GL libraries is also freely available for Linux and they are
>almost compatible with Silicon Graphics GL format.

Could you please tell us what software this is? I hope you don't speak
of vogl. What exist is a quite fast (and free) implementation of the 2-D  
GL functions (ftp.thp.Uni-Duisburg.DE:/pub/source/X11/Ygl*).

        Michael
--
Michael Staats, Theoretical Physics, Uni-GH Duisburg 
email: [email-masked]
<a href="http://WWW.thp.Uni-Duisburg.DE/">Click</a> me!
<a href="http://WWW.thp.Uni-Duisburg.DE/cuaix/cuaix.html">A c.u.aix archive</a>

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

From: [email-masked] (Paul Pearson)
Subject: SCSI CD-ROM and TMC-850M wont work...
Date: Mon, 26 Sep 1994 16:42:12

Can somebody give me some suggestions regarding access to my CD-ROM?  I am 
using the Slackware 2.0 dist. with kernel version 1.0.9; I have a Future 
Domain TMC-850M scsi card and a Texel CD-ROM (SCSI of course, SCSI ID #2)... I 
have read the HOWTO regarding SCSI and CD-ROM; I have recompiled my kernel 
with SCSI CD-ROM and generic SCSI support turned on as well as iso9660 file 
system support;  I have created the device files as per the HOWTO.....

HOWEVER....  When I boot up I see the message:

scsi : 0 hosts.
scsi : detected 0 SCSI disks 0 CD-ROM drivers total.

ANY help will be greatly appreciated.  Thanks in advance.
Oh, by the way, is there somewhere that I need to tell the driver what I/O 
address to use and what IRQ to use?  I don't remember supplying this 
information during setup -- or, is the driver auto-configuring?  Thx again.

Please respond via email.

--Paul Pearson
  [email-masked]
  "Please Wait... Brain booting from floppy."

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

From: Anselm Lingnau <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: max line length
Date: 27 Sep 1994 14:35:15 +0100

In article <[email-masked]>,
zachary brown <[email-masked]> wrote:

> Hi. I had a file containing a VERY long list of files, and I tried
> 
> # cat `cat files.list`
> 
> and got an error on the length of the line. For some reason I thought
> there was no limit on the line length in Linux. How big is the limit,
> anyway?

This doesn't have anything to do with the `line length in Linux' because
there is no such thing. Individual programs may put limits on the length
of lines that they process, but these days this is no longer considered
Politically Correct -- the GNU coding conventions, for instance,
discourage this.

It is likely that you've run up against a limitation either on the
command line length or the input-buffer size in the shell you're
using, or else a limit on the size of the command line arguments of a
process in the kernel. From the description you're giving it is
difficult to tell which. RTFM for `xargs' to find a solution, perhaps.

Anselm
-- 
Anselm Lingnau ......................... [email-masked]
I bet the human brain is a kludge.                            --- Marvin Minsky

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

From: [email-masked] (Ian McCloghrie)
Subject: Re: Beers for Linus (was: Contrib. $s for Linux Dev)
Date: 27 Sep 1994 15:44:52 -0700

[email-masked] (Mats 'MaDsen' Wikholm) writes:
> You might   try  sending it  with the   contents described  as 'dirty
>underwear' or something like that, then they wont  open the package in
>customs. Be  sure to wrap  the bottles  up  in something so that  they
>don't make any sound (or break) when the package is rattled... :)

I think the term you're looking for is "smuggling"...  I don't
recommend trying it.

"Oh!  must have been a vest... going off..."

--
Ian McCloghrie    work: [email-masked]     home: [email-masked]
  ____   GCS d-- H s+:+ !g p? au a- w+ v- C++$ UL++++ US++$ P+>++
  \bi/   L+++ 3 E+ N++ K--- W--- M-- V-- -po+ Y+ t+ 5+++ jx R G'''
   \/    tv- b+++ D- B-- e- u* h- f+ r n- y*

The above represents my personal opinions and not necessarily those
of my employer, Qualcomm Inc.

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

From: [email-masked] (Joel Scotkin)
Subject: Re: Pentium-optimized compiler is slower then 486 gcc-2.5.8 on P5 !!!
Date: 26 Sep 1994 13:35:57 GMT

Michael Griffith <[email-masked]> wrote:
>Valery Petrov <[email-masked]> wrote:
>>Hello Linuxers,
>>I thought it would be interesting to know:
>>
>>I've just got a DELL XPS-90 and I installed and tested pentium-optimized gcc-i2.4.0p and the patched version found on sunsite.unc.edu (gcc-i2.5.8p). I've done some benchmarking for
>>integer and floating point calculations (plain C) and results for "pentium-optimized: -O4 -mpenium" code turned out to be even slower (5% on integer, 20% on floating point calculations) then the standart distribution gcc-2.5.8 code !!! So, don't mess with that Intel optimized compiler.
>
>I found different results.  A few months ago, when I was playing with
>an mpeg decoder, I regularly saw 10-15% faster results with 2.4.0p.
>YMMV.

FWIW, I have the same DELL, and I went and got that compiler (note that
this is *not* the one Intel released, but 2.5.8 that someone merged
in with the intel patches).  I had the same result as Valery - programs
ran exactly the same speed as the 486 optimized one, or a tiny bit
slower.  I tested it with a few real-world programs, like POVray.
The -04 option even crashed the compiler in a few cases.

So, either the compiler has problems, Dell lied to me and shipped 
a 486x200 (POV is amazingly fast anyway! YAY!), or there is some real
problem with the compiler/Dell architecture (which is an Intel motherboard).
Anyone else try this lately with a Petium and the gcc-i2.5.8p version?

Joel

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

From: [email-masked] (WONG SIU MING STEPHEN)
Subject: WD8013 or NE2000 for linux network
Date: 27 Sep 1994 16:49:54 GMT

As I know, both Western Digital (now SMC?) 80x3 series and NE2000
series NIC work in linux, but which one will give better performance?

From manuals, WD80x3 uses memory mapped buffer (dual port?) but
NE2000 uses I/O ports, which one is faster in response, or which one
is more capable in sending/receiving back-to-back packets?

Then which (WD80x3 vs NE2000) one requires more CPU cycles to take
care with, let say per packet?

All the above is in the context of current linux (1.1.51?) kernel
network code.  What about in general, ie. disregard the relative
robustness of driver code in linux, what's the inherit merits of
the above cards?

Any comment is welcome, please either post here or email me.  I'll
summarize if I get sufficient replies.

                                                          \//////
Stephen Siu Ming Wong     Internet: [email-masked]   [ O O ]
Dept of Computer Science              [email-masked]    \_-_/
Chinese University of                                      _| |_
Hong Kong                                                 / \_/ \
________________________________________________________oOOO___OOOo__

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

From: [email-masked] (zachary brown)
Subject: unctrl.h: No such file or directory
Date: 28 Sep 1994 22:44:25 -0400

Hi. Has anyone seen this? I #include <ncurses/ncurses.h> and compile
with -lncurses, but I get an error saying it can't find unctrl.h.

If I make a link from /usr/include/ncurses/unctrl.h into /usr/include,
everything works fine.

I use a recent Slackware on a 386 with kernel 1.1.18.

-ZB-

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

From: [email-masked] (Harald Milz)
Subject: [Q] Anyone working on aOpenGL port ?
Reply-To: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 29 Sep 1994 10:59:29 GMT

Subject sez all: Is anyone working on an OpenGL port for Linux? I mean
the 3D part, not the 2D implementation.

-- 
"Gee, Toto, I don't think we are in Kansas anymore."
-- 
Harald Milz ([email-masked])      WWW: http://www.ix.de/editors/hm.html
iX Multiuser Multitasking Magazine      phone +49 (511) 53 52-377
Helstorfer Str. 7, D-30625 Hannover     fax   +49 (511) 53 52-378
Opinions stated herein are my own, not necessarily my employer's.

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

From: [email-masked] (David MacRae)
Subject: Re: NEWBIE!: How do i Print from GS (not over LPR!)
Reply-To: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 29 Sep 1994 12:55:13 +0000

In article: <[email-masked]>  [email-masked] writes:
> 
> Hello Brothers & Sisters :)
> 
> I have a PostScript File that's over 1.6 Megs great, and if i
> try to Print over the LPR Daemon, i got after some time and many
> Pages an errormessage like:
> 
> "Spoolfile to great", or so... (Sorry, I haven't noticed it,
>                                 and now i'am sitting in my office :/(  .)
> 
> 
Try "lpr -s xxxx", this will craete a symbolic link between the 
origiona output file and the spool directory. No extra space taken 
up. ;)

-- 
Dave MacRae                 |The views expressed here are mine and
Edinburgh                   |mine alone and do not reflect the views
Scotland                    |of my employers in any way.

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

From: [email-masked] (David MacRae)
Subject: Re: e ? for menu
Reply-To: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 29 Sep 1994 12:55:15 +0000

In article: <[email-masked]>  [email-masked] (Sumner West) 
writes:
[lots of crap deleted]
> 
> 
Well that was on of the more informative posts.

-- 
Dave MacRae                 |The views expressed here are mine and
Edinburgh                   |mine alone and do not reflect the views
Scotland                    |of my employers in any way.

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

From: [email-masked] (Alan Cox)
Subject: Re: Don't use Linux or it's to academic!
Date: Thu, 29 Sep 1994 11:22:51 GMT

In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (David E. Fox) writes:
>: 1. There is no support for the more sofisticated disk handlings like
>:    RAID 5 or STRIPING.
>In DOS or OS/2? You've got to be kidding that such support will ever
>happen. At least in the case of Linux, it's an open-developed system, and

Actually I can get OS/2 RAID support from various places. Good raid arrays
do it away from the CPU and just look like a very fast scsi drive anyway.

-- 
  ..-----------,,----------------------------,,----------------------------,,
 // Alan Cox  //  [email-masked]   //  GW4PTS@GB7SWN.#45.GBR.EU  //
 ``----------'`----------------------------'`----------------------------''

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

From: [email-masked] (Bob Leap)
Subject: Mosaic w/ term AND wais support
Date: 27 Sep 1994 13:34:46 GMT

Where can I find Mosaic with term (prefer bin2) with proper
support for wais url's?  

--
___________________________________________________________________________
Samir Malak                  |"Because in the age of information overload, 
[email-masked]       | the ultimate luxury is meaning and content."
http://www.uncg.edu/~malaks/ |                        -  Louis Rossetto

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

From: [email-masked] (Another Totoro)
Subject: Create boot disk
Date: Mon, 26 Sep 1994 20:52:27 GMT

I would like to know how to create a boot disk.  In case my system won't 
start, at least I have a second mean of reaching it, and hopefully fix the
problem.  Can anyone tell me how to approach this?  Since I don't use Linux
that often, I consider myself a newbie.  If possible, please give me detail
instructions.  Or if a FAQ exists, just point me to it.

Thanks for all your input.

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

From: [email-masked] (Bill Broadley)
Subject: Re: P5-90 MHz beats SGI R4000-100MHz.
Date: 26 Sep 1994 23:08:57 GMT

Just thought I'd mention that the Pentium CPU is a match for ANY SGI
except ones based on the R8000, even the R8000 isn't muich faster
on INT but is 3-4 times on fp.  Yes even the ones with the 1 MB
L2 cache.  Not that the SGI's won't win some benchmarks, just that
the P-90/100 are in the same class.

SGI's are great for visualization because of software not some
other inherent advantage.

Of course when compared to machine in the same price range (running
at 100 Mhz, without L2 cache) it's even more favorable to the
Pentium.

Most low end Indy's don't have a Z buffer, or accelerated 3-d video,
I don't see any reason they should be any faster at 3-d visualization.
Of course SGI's come with much more software for such things, compared
to Linux.

If anyone has a benchmark that shows SGI's totally outclassing Pentiums,
I'd be interested in seeing it.

                                           INT    FP
===========================================================================
Intel XPRESS Pent815   100    512+8/8      100.0  80.6 Mar94 comp.arch(Intel)
Intel XPRESS Pent735   90     512+8/8       90.1  72.7 Mar94 comp.arch(Intel)
SGI IndyR44  R4400     75/150 1M+16/16      88.1  96.6 Jan94 c.s.sgi.anno
SGI IndySC   R4600     66/133 512+16/16     93.7  72.9 Aug94 SGI anno
SGI IndyPC   R4600     50/100 16/16         62.8  49.9 May94 SGI anno
SGI IndySC   R4000     50/100 1M+8/8        59    61   Jul93 SGI anno
SGI IndyPC   R4000     50/100 8/8           34    35   Jul93 SGI anno

--
Bill Broadley           [email-masked]           UCD Math Sys-Admin
Linux is great.         http://ucdmath.ucdavis.edu/~broadley            PGP-ok

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

Crossposted-To: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.systems,comp.os.linux.help
From: [email-masked] (Jeff Kesselman)
Subject: Re: [Q] SW Technology
Date: Thu, 29 Sep 1994 01:02:11 GMT

In article <[email-masked]>, A.R.R.Torres <[email-masked]> wrote:
>
>I am about to order a system from SW Technology.
>I am planning to run dos/windows and Linux.
>Does anyone have any experience dealing with 
>them? 
>-- or would anyone recomend another dealer with 
>a similar price?
>They are offering a P90 (intel plato), 8MB, 540 M Quantum  HD, NCR SCSI,
>2x CD-Rom for $2499.
>
>

There is a guy in this news-group who was VERY unhappy with his experences 
with this company, I believe.  Look back through the posts of the last 2 
weeks or so.

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

Crossposted-To: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.systems,comp.os.linux.help
From: [email-masked] (Jeff Kesselman)
Subject: Re: [Q] SW Technology
Date: Thu, 29 Sep 1994 01:03:39 GMT

In article <[email-masked]>, A.R.R.Torres <[email-masked]> wrote:
>
>I am about to order a system from SW Technology.
>I am planning to run dos/windows and Linux.
>Does anyone have any experience dealing with 
>them? 
>-- or would anyone recomend another dealer with 
>a similar price?
>They are offering a P90 (intel plato), 8MB, 540 M Quantum  HD, NCR SCSI,
>2x CD-Rom for $2499.
>
>
>Thanks 
>
>Ana
>

Either my machine is screwing up, or thsi is a cross post.  In eitehr 
case, i already answered you.  (If this IS a cross post, such things are 
generally frowned upon...)

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

From: [email-masked] (Bradford Wayne Mott)
Subject: BSVC Distribution...
Date: 27 Sep 94 13:43:56 GMT

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

    BBBBBB   SSSSS  VVV VVV  CCCCC
     BB  BB SS   SS VV  VV  CC   CC
     BB  BB SS      VV  VV  CC
     BBBBB   SSSSS  VV  VV  CC         "A Microprocessor Simulation Framework"
     BB  BB      SS VV  VV  CC        
     BB  BB SS   SS  VVVV   CC   CC                Version 1.0b3
    BBBBBB   SSSSS    VV     CCCCC 

===============================================================================
                      Third BETA Distribution Announcement
===============================================================================

BSVC is a microprocessor simulation framework written in C++ and Tcl/Tk.
It was developed as a senior project at North Carolina State University
by Bradford W. Mott.  BSVC provides a graphical user interface and a
collection of C++ classes to facilitate the development of microprocessor
simulators.  So far the BSVC framework has been used to developed a 
Motorola 68000 simulator and a HECTOR 1600 simulator.  The BSVC distribution 
contains the following:

  * BSVC Graphical User Interface (written in Tcl/Tk)

  * BSVC Simulator Framework (C++ classes)

  * Motorola 68000 simulator & assembler (including the M68681 Dual UART)

  * Hector 1600 simulator & assembler

CHANGES
=======

This is the third BETA release of BSVC.  The following changes have been made:

  1.0b2 to 1.0b3:

    a) Added an INCLUDE directive to the 68000 assembler
  
    b) Fixed a bug in the Program Listing window that caused it to
       only work for programs listed in ascending order
           
    c) Corrected a small problem with the file selector that caused it
       to "grab" the mouse while reading a directory (This causes problems
       with networked file systems that take a long time to read)

    d) Fixed bugs in two of the Framework classes that caused them not
       to compile under GCC 2.6.0

  1.0b1 to 1.0b2:

    a) Added a BREAK instruction to the 68000 simulator and assembler
       that acts like a breakpoint.  When the simulator executes this
       instruction while "running" it will stop running like it
       hit a breakpoint.

    b) Added a new file selector to the user interface

    c) Fixed several small bugs in the HECTOR 1600 simulator

Supported Systems
=================

The BSVC distribution supports the following systems:

  * Linux 1.x.x
  * Ultrix 4.3
  * SunOS 
  * HP-UX 9.0

Required Software
=================

BSVC requires the following software to compile and run:

  * gcc and the g++ library

  * Tcl/Tk (Needs the "wish" executable with the addinput extension.
            I'm working on making "wish" binaries available for the
            supported systems listed above)

Distribution Site
================= 

The BSVC distribution can be obtained from ftp.eos.ncsu.edu in the 
pub/bsvc directory as "bsvc-1.0b3.tar.Z". 

Contacts
========

If you have any questions regarding the BSVC distribution send mail to:

  [email-masked]

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

From: [email-masked] (Jeff Kesselman)
Subject: Re: Assembler for LINUX???
Date: Thu, 29 Sep 1994 01:06:44 GMT

In article <[email-masked]>,
greek <[email-masked]> wrote:
>Does anyone know if there is any assembler available for linux?  Something like
Gcc comes with a basic asssembler, as.

>
>Macro Assembler?  Thanks! 
If you want macro capability, GNU has a precprocessor for as called gasp.

>
>
>       -Joan
>

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

From: [email-masked] (D. Centeno)
Subject: Oracle ?
Date: Thu, 29 Sep 1994 12:39:56 GMT

HI,

Does Oracle database work with LINUX?

Thanks
D.Centeno

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

From: setzerkl@vvcs (Kelly Lee Setzer)
Subject: Re: New Linux Distribution
Date: Wed, 28 Sep 1994 23:11:46 GMT

S. Lee ([email-masked]) wrote:

: Is it possible to make a "Instant DOS-installable Linux"?  What if
: somebody

: 1) installs slackware on a Umsdos partition
: 2) Installs Loadlin under DOS
: 3) zip the whole X:\Linux and X:\Loadlin directory into LINUX.ZIP (I'm
: against .tar.gz here because it is easier to get zip under DOS)

I have just jumped (headfirst, without looking) into the linux world,
and it was a bit scary, even though I'm not so much of a DOS/Win
weenie.  A "quickie" distribution of this type would be great for
people wanting to see what Linux was all about.  Going through boot
disk, root disk, setup, etc...is a bit much if it's for a trial
installation.  
        Anyone that actually does this should be careful so as to keep
the setup open enough such that the user can just add to it instead of
starting over with native linux fs (and the works).

Kelly

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

From: [email-masked] (Russell Nelson)
Subject: Re: Copyright and licensing - a plea to software authors
Date: 29 Sep 1994 10:02:19 -0400
Reply-To: [email-masked] (Russell Nelson)

   Date: Wed, 28 Sep 1994 23:59:02 +0500
   From: Theodore Ts'o <[email-masked]>
   Cc: [email-masked]
   Address: 1 Amherst St., Cambridge, MA 02139
   Phone: (617) 253-8091

      Date: Wed, 28 Sep 94 23:53 EDT
      From: [email-masked] (Russell Nelson)

      An odd kind of interface copyright if you can unilaterally take the
      "copyright" away from the "copyright holder", by actually programming
      to that interface.

      In other words, if you don't like the gmp "interface copyright", write
      a package that is compatible with it (that people would seriously
      use).  That act takes away the "interface copyright", which could not
      happen under copyright law if an actual copyright on the interface was
      claimed.

   So whether or not package A can be distrbuted only under the terms
   attached to package B depends on the existence or non-existence of
   package C, where A, B, and C do not share any lines of codes and are not
   otherwise derived from one another?

   This is rational?

Sure, because the copyright for B says that if you use it, you're
making a derivation, and copyright law says that you can control the
use of derivations.

What you're hoping for is a world where every rule can be written down
in advance, and no interpretation of rules is ever necessary.

   I suppose that since no one else has written a freeware distribution of
   MS-DOS, the fact that your drivers dynamically link with MS-DOS means
   that they are "one program", and you are therefore misappropriating
   Microsloth's program by using the subterfuge of distributing drivers
   separately from MS-DOS?

No, because neither MS-DOS nor the packet driver spec were written as
an escape from the GPL.

-russ <[email-masked]>    http://www.crynwr.com/crynwr/nelson.html
Crynwr Software   | Crynwr Software sells packet driver support | ask4 PGP key
11 Grant St.      | +1 315 268 1925 (9201 FAX)  | What is thee doing about it?
Potsdam, NY 13676 | LPF member - ask me about the harm software patents do.

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

Crossposted-To: comp.lang.tcl,gnu.misc.discuss,comp.lang.perl,comp.lang.python
From: [email-masked] (Aaron Watters)
Subject: Source copyable software is better than artificial life
Date: Thu, 29 Sep 1994 13:08:40 GMT

I don't know a lot about this artificial life stuff
-- but I'm suspicious of anything Newsweek gets goofy about
-- and I suspect its primary use is as another money extraction tool
to be applied by ai labs to the department of defense
(and more power to 'em).

Nevertheless in wondering why free software is so good these days
it occured to me that the propagation of free software is one gigantic
artificial life evolution experiment, but the metaphor isn't perfect.

Programs are thrown out into the harsh environment, and the bad ones
die.  The good ones adapt rapidly and become very robust in short
order.

The only problem with the metaphor is that the process isn't random
at all.  Python _chooses_ to include tk's genes;  Linux decides
to make itself more suitable for symbiosis with X, etcetera. 

Free software is artificial life, but better.
        Aaron Watters
        Department of Computer and Information Sciences
        New Jersey Institute of Technology
        University Heights
        Newark, NJ 07102
                phone (201)596-2666
                fax (201)596-5777
                home phone (908)545-3367
                email: [email-masked]

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End of Linux-Misc Digest
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