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From: daniel@netcom.UUCP (Sam Daniel)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: COHERENT?
Message-ID: <12746@netcom.UUCP>
Date: 2 Jun 90 02:59:39 GMT
References: <852@sluga.UUCP>
Organization: NetCom- The Bay Area's Public Access Unix System {408 249-0290 guest}
Lines: 70

In article <852@sluga.UUCP> joakimf@sluga.UUCP (Joakim Fredriksson) writes:
>
>	Is there somebody outthere who has tested COHERENT? I saw the add in 
>	BYTEs may issue. Its developed by Mark Williams Company.


I can't say I've tested it, because I received it only yesterday.  But
I have installed it, and can tell you more about it than the
advertisement.

First of all, it works.  The installation is virtually automatic,
preparing a disk partition and loading 4 very compressed disks took
about 25 minutes.  

The package is very complete, especially for the price.  Partial
contents:
	Lex, Yacc, Awk
	m4, mail, uucp
	c compiler (small model only)
	tar, termcap, curses, 
	bourne shell, man pages
	nroff, troff (with HP LaserJet and Epson drivers)
	all the standard utilities from at to wc
	fortune and other games
	compress, uncompress, zcat
	Dos file transfer and disk formatting program
	kermit (with c source)
	micro-emacs text editor (with c source)
	23 pages of installation guide
	35 pages of uucp setup/user guide
	>1000 pages of other documentation

There are some disappointments:

Coherent requires an entire logical disk partition for itself; it
cannot coreside with Dos in a partition, which is what I thought the
advertisement said.

The small model c compiler is a big limitation, but this is supposed
to be Unix version 6 or 7, not System V Release 3.2.

The console driver imitates a vt100, but without the application
keypad mode.  

There's no cu, so the only way to interactively call other systems is
with kermit, which does not do a terminal emulation mode.

The documentation is thorough, but the c library calls are jumbled
together with the rest of the Coherent commands, rather than in a
separate section.  Commands run together, rather than starting on a
new page each time, but there is a guide at the top of the page to
show what commands are documented on each page (like a phone book).

They ship the manual shrinkwrapped, with the disks and installation
guide stuffed inside, so my manual already has loose pages falling out
of it.  (It's glued together, not sewn.)

Conclusion:  

Despite the quibbles, which are minor, it looks really good.  Give it a try.

					Sam



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