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From: gabriel@anl-mcs.ARPA (John Gabriel)
Newsgroups: net.sources
Subject: Re:  request for SIDEKICK on Unix
Message-ID: <2225@brl-tgr.ARPA>
Date: Thu, 17-Oct-85 13:57:21 EDT
Article-I.D.: brl-tgr.2225
Posted: Thu Oct 17 13:57:21 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 19-Oct-85 04:00:19 EDT
Sender: news@brl-tgr.ARPA
Lines: 40

Some of the features requested can be provided by the window mgrs already
in net.sources, but they work better at 9600 baud than at 1200, and better
still on an ANSI terminal at 9600 baud.

I am writing a control program running on 4.2 bsd for a set of 8 super
micros - actually a small MIMD machine. When it is done it will be
fairly readily adaptable to do SIDEKICK like things, i.e. substitute
the utilities you want, change some defines and alter the help
messages. It has an escape to the shell built in as one of the commands
which is the mode where you would do most of your work running as
SIDEKICK's alter ego.

It turns out to rather full of ioctl() calls which would make it quite
a job to move to non 4.2 bsd, but the other 75% would go easily. As
soon as it is fit for public consumption, and I have met our legal
requirements by publication of a report etc. etc. I will post it to the
net.

The really tricky things in my control program were learnt from Ron
Jacob's window mgr, which is gratefully acknowledged. All the rest is
the usual attention to detail and microscopic hacks necessary in any
communications program talking either to real lines or to other
processes. It is sort of an evil business. The main reason for posting
it at all is not as a directly usable program execept to control some
number NPROCS of micros, but to save other folk from all the little
gotchas. If there are any FLAMES about posting that kind of junk
to net.sources, please let me know before I do it. It will be some
while before it is ready, but since it, together with the cross
support for the micros is the MIMD O/S, I have to write a user manual
ASAP but not before the thing is bullet proof.

							John Gabriel

Snail Mail: J.R. Gabriel MCSD Bldg. 221 C244
			Argonne National Laboratory
			  9700S. Cass Ave
				Argonne, IL 60439

Phones:		AT&T (312) 972-7240, FTS 972-7240, Home (312) 739-5572
ARPA/MILNET  gabriel@anl-mcs