Path: utzoo!mnetor!tmsoft!torsqnt!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!usc!apple!portal!cup.portal.com!Kenyon_F_Karl From: Kenyon_F_Karl@cup.portal.com Newsgroups: comp.os.minix Subject: Re: Most requested features in MINIX... Message-ID: <39210@cup.portal.com> Date: 13 Feb 91 01:28:46 GMT References: <137@usna.NAVY.MIL> Organization: The Portal System (TM) Lines: 153 TO: Prentice Hall - Microservice Customer Svc. EMS: Internet MBX: books@prenhall.com CC: Andrew S. Tanenbaum EMS: Internet MBX: ast@cs.vu.nl Subject: Minix 1.5 upgrade Kenyon F. Karl P. O. Box 451, N. Andover, MA 01845 508-689-3147 (answering machine) Internet: 1771813@mcimail.com X.400: C=US / A=MCI / S=Karl / D.ID=1771813 MCI Mail: 177-1813 -or- Telex: 6501771813 February 11, 1991 Robert J. Coll College Division Prentice Hall Englewood Cliffs, NJ 07632 Sirs: Please register my copy of minix 1.5 as follows: Date of Purchase: 02/01/91 Is this your first purchase of MINIX? no Name: Kenyon F. Karl Address: P. O. Box 451 City: N. Andover State: MA Zip: 01845 System for which you will be using MINIX: IBM-PC How did you purchase MINIX: phone (I wanted to order by e-mail but was told to order by phone instead!) How did you hear about MINIX: USENET news group 'comp.os.minix'. Which magazines to I read regularly: PC Magazine Computerworld Comments about the package and the software: I have just completed a seven week long intensive course presented by Boston University's Center for Corporate Education in Tyngsboro, MA. The course covered both Unix Systems Administration and C language programming, and is intended to produce system programmers / system administrators with the equivalent of two years of on-the-job experience. Thus, I needed a modest system that was NOT being used for production purposes, to practice and extend the skills that I had acquired in class. Money was quite impor- tant as I am currently out of work. I was able to install MINIX 1.5 on an otherwise unused IBM-PC clone (8088 CPU) with only moderate difficulty. Even with all of the source code in- stalled, the system occupies less than 8 meg of a 20 meg hard disk. The result is a simple UNIX-like system that seems to fit my current needs for a system adequate for 'self-instructional' purposes quite nicely. Thus, the $117.60 spent for the upgrade (from MINIX 1.2) replaced a much greater expenditure for a new 80386-based machine with the extra RAM and a extra large hard disk drive that would be required for SCO Xenix or UNIX. I am likewise sure that MINIX was much cheaper than either SCO UNIX or even SCO Xenix. The fact that all of the source code is included on the diskettes is a major plus, as I consider the presence of source code to be much more important than any promise of 'free technical support'. Thus, I consider the presence of source code to be 'the best guarantee in the business'. I am even more impressed because the code was written for 'instructional purposes' and hence emphasizes simplicity over efficiency. The presence of source code in the back half of the printed manual strikes me as an attempt to 'pad' the size of the manual to make it more impres- sive! Indeed, the listings have to be ignored in favor of the equivalent files. First the printed versions contain only the kernel code, thus I have to go to the diskettes for the code for the various utilities. Secondly, it is quite likely that the printed version may be out of date! Thus, if it is necessary for 'marketing reasons', I would much rather that you reprinted appropriate chapters of Tanenbaum's book on operating systems that is cited on page 4 of the current manual. I appreciate the presence of the dosread, doswrite, and dosdir utilities in the IBM-PC edition. This critical piece of MINIX software permits me to implement a 'sneakernet' scheme between my MS-DOS machine and my separate MINIX machine. But unless the task is complicated by hardware limitations, assemply language code or the like, I think that all versions of MINIX ought to include all of the 'other-OS disk read-write'. Such software would enable 'sneakernets' between all of the different machines that can ber used for MINIX. My current MINIX machine has a hard disk. But I did NOT have that hard disk when I was experimenting with MINIX 1.2. Thus I suggest that you add a disk to the IBM-PC package containing MS-DOS software to read/write MINIX format disks and also to compress/decompress files. This would be a major conven- ience in the rather common circumstance where much greater resources for examining and compiling source code are available on a separate MS-DOS machine. I would also like to use my Turbo C++ compiler on my MS-DOS machine to produce raw object code for use with MINIX. Thus, if such is practical, I need would need some kind of object code conversion program to convert object produced in the MS-DOS enviroment for use in the MINIX environment. Similar situations may be encountered in other environments. The Kermit and the Zmodem software is a very important new addition for communicating between MINIX and a wide variety of other machines over both RS232 wire and telephone lines. Although I appreciate the fact that Zmodem is more sophisticated, Xmodem is more widely available. Thus, I would suggest that you also include Xmodem software for use when neither Zmodem or Kermit is available! Although I am NOT in a position to use the networking software, I do appre- ciate the ability to study this potentially useful addition to the system. The absence of UUCP software is a major problem in MINIX because of its importance in the traditional UNIX environment. Thus finding UUCP or its equivalent for my system will be my first major 'upgrade' task so I can link my machine to the 'rest of the world'. Note that because of the size of my MINIX machine, I suspect that I need a software setup that allows me to use a 'domain address' in my mail message, but in such a way that the complete 'routing' of that message would not occur until the message cross- es the UUCP link(s) to a much larger machine! UUCP software is now available for the MS-DOS environment as well as sever- al other personal computer environments. Thus the use of this software through serial cables (or phone links) would be another way of linking MINIX to other personal computers. Since this software is available in a 'prtable' source-code format, it may be reasonable to compile and otherw- iuse modify such software for use with MINIX. Also, I would also suggest that the shell script /etc/setup_usr be changed so that the user is NOT required to install all of the source code during the initial installation. Thus an abbreviated installation would merely create empty directories for source code. This option should save consider- able time and disk space for those users that do not need to examine or modify source code immediately, or are trying to operate in the smallest possible MINIX partition. Thus, if I read the output of 'du' correctly, source code occupies 4793 blocks of 7629 total where each block is 1K in size. Thus an abbreviated installation would require less than 3 meg of disk space. Note that I will probably undertake this rather trivial task in the next few days as a practical exercise in 'shell programming'. If suc- cessful, the results of this exercise will be posted on USENET. Finally, the MINIX reference manual currently assumes much more understand- ing of UNIX than I had when I first purchased MINIX 1.2. Thus, in the absence of a major expansion of the manual, I would suggest that a shopping list of basic books about UNIX be printed on the outer box (as well as the MINIX info sheet distributed by the USENET newsgroup) so that a prospective MINIX purchaser is able to purchase all of the books that they need during one 'shopping expedition'. The 'Nutshell Handbooks' by O'Reilly & Associ- ates might be quite useful for this purpose. Because of it value as a 'wish list' for MINIX, a copy of this correspond- ence will also be posted to USENET newsgroup 'comp.os.minix'.