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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQS);faqs.007
The Glass patch was posted to the newsgroup after V6.0-2 was released. The
archives for the newsgroup are accessable from listserv@vm1.nodak.edu.
here's an example of what you should send to listserv@vm1.nodak.edu:
//ListSrch JOB Echo=No,Reply-via=mail
Database Search DD=Rules
//Rules DD *
Select glass v6.0-3 patch in anu-news since 1-jan-1991
print
/*
i believe you can send mail there with a subject (or is it body?)
of "help", and it'll send help.
Q: Does anybody have documentation for ANU News?
A: At the anonymous FTP sites, you will find another compressed backup
saveset called something like news-v60-3_doc.bck_z. It contains the
documentation for ANU News. The documentation is excellent. It comes
in several formats. The news_sit.hqx is a BINHEXed Stuffit archive
which contains the Microsoft Word version of the document. News.ps
is the Postscript version designed for A4 papersize. Finally, there
is an ASCII version called news.txt. By all means, use the Word or
Postscript versions if possible. They include some screen dumps and
are nicely formatted.
For installation, there is an additional installation document found in
the NEWS_DOC saveset in the version on KUHUB. A newer version of this
installation document can be found via anonymous FTP to FTP.UNT.EDU in
the VMS directory. It is called ANU.INSTALL. The major difference
between the two version is that the newer one has information on using
NNTP over DECnet.
Stanley Wong of the University of Sydney has written a document called
"Network News on the VAX/VMS System." It is an entry level document
that is pretty good. It can be acquired by anonymous FTP to
DECO.UCC.SU.OZ.AU in the resource-guides directory. It is available in
both PostScript and ASCII formats.
FYI: several people have asked me about the UNT documentation on
ANU News. All it is an edited form of the original documentation
reprinted with Geoff Huston's permission on the UNT campus. I do
not redistribute it off-campus as the original documentation is
more complete and more global than my edited version.
Q: I'm having problems printing the Postscript documentation on my printer.
A: The Postscript file is setup for A4 page size. In the US, a different
page size is commonly used. In this case, you will need to use the
Microsoft Word version of the document and print it via Word.
Q: NEWS is sending everything I get back to my feed system. What do I do?
A: Make sure that the system name in NEWS.SYS matches what your feed
system puts in the Path: header.
Q: Why do I sometimes fall into newsgroups when using the arrow keys?
A: DEC's SMG routines have a bug in which they return the wrong value
on 44th attempt and at other times. The discussion and workarounds
for the problem are available via anonymous FTP on ftp.unt.edu
in the vms directory filename NEWS-SMG.PATCH. This is an UNOFFICIAL
patch and is a "use at your own risk" program.
Q: ANU is not sending my local posts to other sites.
A: There are many possible causes. One possible problem and work around
is described in the file ANU.UCX-NNTP-FIX on ftp.unt.edu in the vms
directory. This file describes a problem and workaround for a problem
with the UCX NNTP code. It may or may not be valid for other NNTP drivers.
Q: I am remote reading (diskless client) with ANU from a Cnews site and
my users regularly crash due to memory problems.
A: Verify that NNTP on the Cnews side is returning the correct message
numbers on the list command. If not, then a patch exists somewhere
on the net for Cnews to take care of this. (where?) Nothing is
wrong with ANU.
Q: How do I connect to an NNTP server?
A: Try "news/netsever=newshost/netproto=tcp" where "newshost" is the name
of the NNTP server. Note this connects over a TCP/IP network and requires
that News was built to support to support that service. Also requires
that the server accept a connection from your system.
Q: News is awfully slow to start up. Especially for NNTP connections.
A: News> set profile/fastload
Will configure news to only load those newsgroup in which you are registered.
This makes the start up considerably faster but you don't have access to
groups you're not registered in. However, if you try and access a group
that you are not registered to, ANU will access load all the groups off
the NNTP server at that point.
Q: News is still slow to start up to an NNTP server.
A: News> set profile/display=(unseenstack,nolines,nopost)
Will configure news to only show you new articles and will not retrieve
the line count or posting date. This is especially useful if you're
running off of an NNTP server that doesn't support ANU extensions to NNTP.
Retrieving line counts and posting dates is notoriously time consuming.
Q: How do I get a signature file appended to my articles?
A: News> set profile/signature=file.name
Note you should keep your signature file brief -- no more than three
lines.
Q: How do I get my full name into my return address?
A: News> set profile/personal_name="Your Name"
Q: I want to use emacs as my editor.
A: News> set profile/editor=emacs
Note this requires, of course, that you have emacs installed on your
system.
Q: Command recall doesn't work.
A: Of course it does -- use CTRL-B to go back a command. The arrow keys
have been bound to other commands.
Q: Do I need this big newsrc. file?
A: News> set profile/rcfilter
Will store only the registered groups in your newsrc. file, this makes
rewritting the file quicker. Not required if you have /fastload set in
your profile.
Q: I want to display groups in a different order.
A: News> set profile/rcorder
Will display newsgroups in the order they are listed in your newsrc.
file -- edit the file to order things accordingly.
Q. I have just installed the NEWS server software. When I ran it the first
time, I got the message:
RMS-E-FNF, file not found
RMS-F-IFI, invalid internal file identifier
A> Either there is some problem with your NEWS logicals, the NEWS
executable is not properly installed, or the account that you started
NEWS from the first time doesn't have the NEWS manager id granted to it.
Xref: bloom-picayune.mit.edu rec.aviation.answers:26 news.answers:4765
Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!enterpoop.mit.edu!hri.com!spool.mu.edu!darwin.sura.net!sgiblab!news.kpc.com!kpc!peck.com!geoff
From: geoff@peck.com (Geoff Peck)
Newsgroups: rec.aviation.answers,news.answers
Subject: Netiquette on rec.aviation (regular posting)
Message-ID: <1992Dec23.083007.8659@peck.com>
Date: 23 Dec 92 08:30:07 GMT
Expires: Wed, 13 Jan 1993 08:00:00 GMT
Reply-To: geoff@peck.com
Followup-To: poster
Organization: Geoffrey G. Peck, Consultant, San Jose, CA
Lines: 246
Approved: geoff@peck.com, news-answers-request@mit.edu
Original-from: geoff@peck.com (Geoff Peck)
Last-modified: 22 Dec 1992 by geoff@peck.com (Geoff Peck)
Archive-name: aviation-netiquette
[This article is posted to rec.aviation.answers twice per month. It is
likely that it has been slightly revised since the last time you read it.
Change bars in the left margin indicate revisions, but it is probably
worth your while to at least quickly read the entire posting.]
Welcome to rec.aviation. This is one of two regular postings designed to
introduce new readers to the dynamics of this newsgroup, and to provide
repositories of information which may be helpful to posters both old and
new. For those of you who may be new to this forum, you may be interested to
know that there are approximately FIFTY-THREE THOUSAND readers of rec.aviation
worldwide. This is not "just another BBS" -- in fact, the difference between
a conventional BBS and rec.aviation is approximately the difference between a
personal copy machine and the _New_York_Times_. So, yes, you may have access
to the rec.aviation "soapbox", but please use it wisely.
Please see the Frequently Asked Questions posting for a listing of
the 13 newsgroups which comprise rec.aviation.
Before posting an article, please follow the "golden rule" which will make
reading rec.aviation more palatable for all of us:
**** THINK BEFORE ENGAGING THE KEYBOARD ****
Herewith are some specific guidelines, most of which have been culled
from previous postings by me and a few others:
1. Please check your line lengths. Many readers utilize 80-column
terminals, and articles with line lengths in excess of 79 characters
cause problems for them. If you wish for others to be able to easily
quote your articles, a line length of 72 columns is suggested. On a
UNIX system, consider running your articles through "fmt" -- for
example, "fmt -72".
Justified text ("flat" right margins) may look "prettier" in some sense,
but it is almost always harder to read than leaving ragged right margins.
2. Trim down your quotes. Summarize when possible. Use ellipses ("...").
PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE minimize the number of lines which you quote from
others' articles. If you must quote verbatim, use the standard prefix
'> ' before quote lines so those who are attempting to automatically trim
the quotations out may do so. Quote only when absolutely necessary.
And never, ever quote others' .signatures. That's totally wasteful.
Remember that many readers read their news over lower-speed lines -- 2400
or even 1200 baud. Excessive quoting is very hard on these folks. And
most people who read rec.aviation do so regularly -- they don't need to
read the same article three, four, or ten times in order to understand
others comments on the article.
| 3. Since individuals post to rec.aviation from all over the world, and
| stories and pilots' perspectives frequently are at least somewhat tied
| into the area in which they reside, it would be helpful if you included
| somewhere in your article or the header where you are from. Sometimes,
| this appears in the "Organization:" field (see sample in this article),
| but if it doesn't, it would be nice if you included something to this
| effect at the end of the article in your signature.
4. Check the "Distribution:" line in your header. Some systems gratuitously
set this to "USA" or some such. Remember that rec.aviation is a worldwide
group, and posters throughout the world are most likely interested in
what you have to say, especially if you're participating in an ongoing
discussion which has up to this point had no distribution restrictions.
The simplest thing you can do is to change it to "Distribution: world".
Also, if you are posting about a topic of interest to only a smaller
region, then please use the "Distribution:" line to _limit_ the
distribution. Examples of such postings would be inquiries about
aircraft, training, or maintenance availability; smaller airshows;
smaller fly-ins; or extended discussions about U.S. regulations. Typical
useful distributions include: ba (S.F. Bay Area), ca (California), ne
(New England), usa (USA), and so on. Check with your site administrator
to determine other useful distributions.
5. Please DO NOT include glossaries with standard vocabulary entries.
There is now a bi-weekly "frequently-asked questions" (FAQ) posting
which includes a large glossary. If you want something added to it,
please contact me. These "mini-glossaries" eat net.bandwidth and are
distracting for frequent readers.
6. If you're asking a "basic" question, please read the "frequently asked
questions" posting _first_. It's posted about every other week. If you
need a copy right away, send mail to geoff@peck.com. If you're asking
for "relatively vanilla" information, rather than a discussion, please
consider requesting that people *mail* the information to you; you should
normally volunteer to post a summary or a digest of the responses you
receive.
7. Only post if you have something *valuable* to add to the discussion.
"I don't know about X, but here's what I don't know about X" postings
are a waste of net bandwidth, not to mention the time of other readers.
Remember that when you post something to rec.aviation, you are causing an
estimated 53,000 people to read what you wrote. If the appropriate
audience for what you are writing is considerably smaller (the poster to
whom you are responding, for example), please use e-mail instead.
To add some urgency to these comments, here are Brian Reid's statistics
(for the month of August 1992) on rec.aviation:
+-- Estimated total number of people who read the group, worldwide.
| +-- Actual number of readers in sampled population
| | +-- Propagation: how many sites receive this group at all
| | | +-- Recent traffic (messages per month)
| | | | +-- Recent traffic (kilobytes per month)
| | | | | +-- Crossposting percentage
| | | | | | +-- Cost ratio: $US/month/reader
| | | | | | | +-- Share: % of newsrders
| | | | | | | | who read this group.
V V V V V V V V
53000 1151 77% 1876 3586.8 2% 0.14 2.1% rec.aviation
As Paul Kube commented,
When answering someone's posted question, if you find yourself typing
"I don't remember exactly, but..." or "I don't have the book here,
but I seem to remember...", STOP. Take some time (a day or two won't
hurt) and do a little research. Look things up or think them through
and get it right. Post a nice authoritative response that we can all
learn from.
If you've got a bona fide question, or don't understand something, or
sort of understand it, by all means, speak up in an interrogatory vein --
that's a great way of getting a discussion going.
8. Don't post your version of something which has been commented upon and
resolved recently -- post only if you have something new and interesting
to add. Posting to show off only that you also know something is neither
required nor encouraged.
The volume of traffic on rec.aviation is quite high, making it easy
to get behind by dozens of articles. It's often preferable to hold
off replying to articles until you've read all the followups; the
issue may already be resolved. Users of "rn" should find the "M"
(capital M) command helpful -- it marks an article as unread, for the
current session. Make your first session "read only" and then go back
and respond (or don't) to the articles you've marked.
9. Ensure that your posting will be of value to a *wide* audience. If
your posting is really only of value to a single individual, or a few
individuals on the net, use e-mail instead. If your posting is really
only of value to yourself, send it to /dev/null.
10. Sometimes, humorous threads are great. But, sometimes, the first posting
has been mildly amusing and we've gone *way* downhill from there. So, if
you're trying to be funny, please post a follow-up only if it's
*screamingly* funny. Original funnies are usually no problem -- it's
the follow-ups which are.
11. There have been a number of interesting discussions on rec.aviation
recently in which there has been too much verbatim inclusion of previous
articles. Please, folks, remember that the readership of rec.aviation is
a relatively static and loyal community -- chances are that someone
reading your article will have read the original, and will quite possibly
even remember it. Thus, it's not necessary to include entire articles
(or even paragraphs) in your posting in many cases -- a simple summary,
like:
In article <12345@foo.bar.COM>, redbaron@foo.bar.COM (The Ace Himself)
asked about using a recycled prefromulated framastat as a replacement
the infamous Continental engine in the Piper Malibu.
I think this sounds like a good idea, but you'd need to get an autogas
STC to make it work, and Piper doesn't seem to like autogas...
will usually suffice. If you do wish to quote, please, please, gentle
writers, trim those quotations down. You are welcome to use ellipsis
("...") to minimize the lines you're quoting.
12. Please don't include signature lines from the original message in the
reply. Again: DO NOT QUOTE OTHER PEOPLE'S .signature LINES!
13. Please, if you're a netter in the USA, consult the Federal Aviation
Regulations (FARs) and/or the Airman's Information Manual (AIM) before
asking simple regulatory questions. Presumably, most readers have a copy
of the FAR's, and they can look up and find a simple answer that way. If
the answer given in the FAR's is vague, or is contradicted by other
FAR's, then it's a fine topic for net discussion. Otherwise, let's try
not to waste bandwidth with trivial questions (*reader* bandwidth is
really the critical quantity here).
14. Please speak and write in plain English. When one needs to use technical
terms, acronyms, or other words which might not be understood by all who
are listening or reading, the speaker or writer should define these terms
on first use. (It is better to do this "in line," parenthetically, than
to include a glossary at the end of your posting.) Since aviation does
make use of many acronyms, there is a list of many of these in the
frequently-asked-questions (FAQ) posting which appears regularly. Feel
free to use these terms and acronyms in this forum; assume that readers
know enough to refer to this posting if they don't know a particular term.
15. If you use location identifiers (the 3- and 4-letter "abbreviations"
for airports and weather-observing stations), PLEASE define them unless
they appear in the frequently-asked-questions (FAQ) posting. If you find
yourself frequently having to give this definition for a few places,
let geoff@peck.com know and the location(s) can be added to the FAQ.
16. Don't post silly "conversational" notes -- these are best left to
e-mail. Occasionally, these are fine, but when half of the daily
rec.aviation volume is consumed by these things, it's very, very
discouraging to the average reader (or even to me).
Basically, if you can't decide whether what you're sending is
appropriate to a posting or to e-mail, choose e-mail.
17. Your subject line should be indicative of the content of the article.
"Dumb question #1" or "There I was ..." is NOT a good subject line --
"Logging Flight Engineer Time in Piper Warriors" is a good one. If the
subject has changed since the subject line was originally written,
**replace it**. You might also consider deleting the list of referenced
articles if they are no longer relevant.
18. If you are writing about more than one subject, please, please post
*separate* articles for each subject, with appropriate header lines.
19. If you are responding to a group of articles on the same subject,
it is easiest for readers to read your comments if you make a
single, consolidated response.
20. For those of us who selectively archive rec.aviation, it would help
tremendously if you would include something of the form "in article
<xyz@foo.bar>, zardoz@foo.bar (Mr. Science) wrote..." in the *body* of
any article which is a direct follow-up to someone else's article.
This is particularly important if your news-responding software does
not include the "References:" line in the header.
21. Last, but not least:
Praise in public, criticize in private.
Rec.aviation is not a forum in which flame wars are well received.
However, it is very important that we maintain rec.aviation as a forum
in which constructive criticism can be given after-the-fact.
Real-world pilot experiences are important, and we can all learn from
the mistakes of others. When posting an original "experience",
expect some criticism and second-guessing. When commenting on someone
else's actions, do so gently, positively, constructively, and with
reason.
Again, what is required here is for the poster to exercise a bit of
judgement and take a bit of time before posting so that the thousands of
readers of this group don't have to take so much time reading it. I thank
you, thousands of times.
Comments on this article are, of course, welcome.
Geoff
Xref: bloom-picayune.mit.edu alt.lang.basic:722 news.answers:3387
Newsgroups: alt.lang.basic,news.answers
Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!tamsun.tamu.edu!bcm!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!noc.near.net!news.cs.brandeis.edu!chaos.cs.brandeis.edu!cos
From: cos@chaos.cs.brandeis.edu (Ofer Inbar)
Subject: FAQ for alt.lang.basic, 8 October 1992 (2.1)
Message-ID: <1992Oct8.043619.295@news.cs.brandeis.edu>
Followup-To: alt.lang.basic
Summary: Frequently Asked Questions about BASIC
Sender: news@news.cs.brandeis.edu (USENET News System)
Organization: Brandeis University Computer Science
Date: Thu, 8 Oct 1992 04:36:19 GMT
Approved: news-answers-request@mit.edu
Expires: Tue, 1 Dec 1992 23:00:00 GMT
Lines: 636
Archive-name: basic-faq
Version: 02.10
FAQ for alt.lang.basic, fifth revision, 8 October 1992
[0.1] Is this the only BASIC newgroup?
[0.2] Why an alt.* group, rather than comp.lang.basic?
Microsoft Products
[1.1] What is the difference between QuickBASIC and QBASIC?
[1.2] Is there any version of QuickBASIC later than 4.5?
[1.3] Visual BASIC for DOS press release.
[1.4] How do I program the mouse in QuickBASIC?
[1.5] What are the differences between PDS 7.1, VB/DOS, and VB/DOS Pro?
PC General Questions
[2.1] Whatever happened to Turbo BASIC?
[2.2] How can I write TSRs in BASIC?
Other Platforms
[3.1] What is available for the Macintosh?
[3.2] TrueBASIC
[3.3] Is there BASIC on Unix platforms?
[3.4] Business BASIC
Appendixes
[A] Addresses & Phone Numbers
- TrueBASIC
- Crescent Software (QB libraries)
- MicroHelp (QB Libraries)
- Spectra (Turbo BASIC)
- ZEDCOR (ZBASIC / FutureBASIC)
- Staz Software (?)
- Ariel Publishing (BASIC on the Mac...)
[B] Periodicals
- Basic Magazine
- BasicPro
- Windows Tech Journal
[C] Notes from the FAQ author
----------
[0.1] Is this the only BASIC newsgroup?
Yes, alt.lang.basic is currently the only netnews group devoted
primarily to BASIC. There exist other newsgroups where it is possible
to discuss BASIC, such as comp.lang.misc, but none of those are
primarily BASIC groups. There also exists on FidoNet an active BASIC
echo conference.
[0.2] Why an alt.* group, rather than comp.lang.basic?
The comp.* hierarchy is part of Usenet, and follows Usenet's lengthy
group creation guidelines. AltNet, on the other hands, has no such
rules. People are expected, for the sake of courtesy, to propose new
groups before they create them to see if anyone has any objections.
But basically, anyone may create any group they want.
It is possible in the future to convert alt.lang.basic to
comp.lang.basic through a Usenet vote. However, now is probably not
yet the time. In order to pass a vote, the group should be able to
demonstrate sufficient volume of postings to justify its own group.
If alt.lang.basic continues as is for a while, it will have a stronger
case to join Usenet later on.
To have a group created on Usenet, one must:
- Post a Request For Discussion to news.groups,
news.announce.newgroups, and all other groups related to the topic.
- Allow a period of discussion in news.groups about the merits of the
proposed group. Issues will be brought up that include "Is there
interest in this group?", "Is this the right name?", "Will there be
enough traffic to justify it?", and so on.
- Post a Call For Votes at the end of the discussion period. Someone
must the collect all votes for the duration of the voting period,
check for duplicates, keep a count of yes and no votes, and post
periodic mass acknowledgements of who has voted.
- At the end of the voting period, if the results indicate at least
100 more yes votes than no votes, and if yes votes account for at
least 2/3 of the total, the group will be created. A few days are
allowed after the results are made public, for people to make any
final objections.
- If there was controversy during the discussion, or any allegations
of an unfair vote or a biased vote taker or whatever, then some
systems may choose not to carry the new group even if it does get
created.
----------
Microsoft Products
[1.1] What is the difference between QuickBASIC and QBASIC?
Microsoft QuickBASIC is a standalone product that has been available
since 1987 (?). It includes an integrated debugger/editor/compiler
working environment, can create standalone .EXE files, and can create
.OBJ files for linking with other modules created in other languages.
When MS-DOS 5.0 came out, Microsoft included a replacement for the
GWBASIC interpreter of past versions of DOS, called QBASIC. QBASIC is
a stripped down version of QuickBASIC 4.5. It includes most of the
capabilities of QuickBASIC, including the integrated environment, but
it is not a compiler. Consequently, it cannot create .EXE or .OBJ
files. It also does not support call interrupts, and is limited to
only one 64Kb module per program.
QuickBASIC is still on sale as a standalone product. Any program
written in QBASIC should work under QuickBASIC, but the opposite is
not necessarily true. If you're not sure which of the two you're
using, check the Run menu to see if it allows you to create an
executable file. Also, QBASIC.EXE is QBASIC, while QB.EXE is
QuickBASIC, unless you've renamed it on your machine.
[1.2] Is there any version of QuickBASIC later than 4.5?
With the release of Visual BASIC for DOS, QuickBASIC 4.5 has been
discontinued. Version 4.5 was the last release. However, Microsoft
also sells the Microsoft Basic Professional Development System, or
BASIC PDS, which is currently in version 7.1. BASIC PDS is an
optimizing compiler that is upward compatible with QuickBASIC in the
same way that QuickBASIC is with QBASIC. In addition to optimized
compilation, the PDS has several extra features, including a character
mode windowing system, built-in database library, and mouse support.
VB/DOS is apparently the 'upgrade' for QuickBASIC. It's actually a
new product with significant new features. VB/DOS retails at $199,
but student discounts are available, as well as upgrade prices for
owners of QuickBASIC or the PDS. Microsoft's press release
introduction VB/DOS is reproduced here on a temporary basis.
From: oconnell@bandelier.cs.unm.edu (Pat O'Connell)
>
>The offer to upgrade QBasic 4.5 to 7.1 is certainly worthwhile, if for
>no other reason than the manuals that come with the compiler, which
>are much better than QB 4.5's.
(Is this offer still around now that VB/DOS is out?)
[1.3] Visual BASIC for DOS press release.
Microsoft Introduces Microsoft Visual Basic for MS-DOS
REDMOND, Wash. -- Sept. 1, 1992 -- Microsoft
Corporation today announced the Microsoft* Visual Basic*
programming system for MS-DOS*, Standard and Professional
Editions. Visual Basic for MS-DOS is based on the same easy-to-
use, visual programming model pioneered in Visual Basic for the
Windows* operating system. Combining the ease of graphical
design with the power and versatility of traditional programming,
developers simply draw the user interface and attach code that
responds to events.
Designed to offer developers the fastest and easiest way to
create portable applications, Visual Basic for MS-DOS provides the
same collection of objects available in its counterpart for Windows.
Forms, menus, 15 standard controls and a compatible programming
language allow developers to simultaneously develop applications
for MS-DOS and Windows. Finished applications can be compiled
into native 80X86 standalone executable files. No runtime library is
required.
"This extension of the Visual Basic product line addresses
many issues for organizations in transition between MS-DOS and
Windows," said Tom Button, group product manager for the
applications programmability product unit at Microsoft.
"Applications written in Visual Basic for MS-DOS will smooth the
path to Windows for developers, PC managers and their users.
Developers can leverage their code, PC managers can preserve their
investment in older PCs, and users can benefit from similar
applications on both platforms. Corporations, VARs and
independent software vendors can now focus their resources on
developing a consistent set of applications, targeted to the two
most popular PC platforms," he continued.
In addition to compatibility with Visual Basic for Windows,
Visual Basic for MS-DOS runs the existing Microsoft QuickBasic* development
system, Basic professional development system, and MS-DOS