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From: daveb@ingres.com (Dave Brower, UNIX Group, [415] 748-3418)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.3b1
Subject: Re: MGR, vidpal, etc.
Keywords: MGR
Message-ID: <1991May6.054157.8717@ingres.Ingres.COM>
Date: 6 May 91 05:41:56 GMT
References: <15777@helios.TAMU.EDU>
Reply-To: daveb@Ingres.COM (Dave Brower, UNIX Group, [415] 748-3418)
Distribution: comp
Organization: ASK Computer Systems, Ingres Products Division
Lines: 35

In <15777@helios.TAMU.EDU> n138ct@tamuts.tamu.edu (Brent Burton) writes:
[ stuff in priase of vidpal ].

Let me second his comments.  I had my vidpal working in a hell of a lot
less time than I'd spent fiddling with the blit code in MGR to get it to
compile with Gnu-CC, and when I was done, some 'rops' tests I'd run with
the vidpal-emulator driver in ~45 seconds were running in 0:04.  This is
a _noticabable_ improvement, as they say, and make MGR usable.

Those using MGR seriously will almost certainly want to have the "vtem"
package running on both their local machine and any remote ones they
access regularly.  VTEM is not without problems (no graphics chars ofr
function key mapping), but for much of the world the only good terminal
is still close to a VT100.

My experience installing MGR suggests that it is still not ready for the
masses.  While all of the problems I had turned out to be my own fault
once I'd figured them out, it's still far from easy to do.  Problem #1
is that you don't know where to load the source, or what to use as the
INSROOT directory, and this causes a good deal of grief.

A binary distribution would help a lot.

I'm still reserving judgement on the whole experience. I have had
difficulty using the rmgr program on Suns (everything hangs).  I haven't
figured out why I can't get my ^U kill character to work either.   But
it's clearly good enough that I have no plans to run UA for anything but
routine administration ever again.

cheers,
-dB

--
"If it were easy to understand, we wouldn't call it 'code'"
David Brower: {amdahl, cpsc6a, mtxinu, sun}!rtech!daveb daveb@ingres.com