Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!seismo!rutgers!mtune!codas!novavax!booboo!amir From: amir@booboo.UUCP (Amir Majidimehr) Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc Subject: Re: Who sells PC/VI?: Now MKS Toolkit Message-ID: <335@booboo.UUCP> Date: Wed, 20-May-87 15:34:08 EDT Article-I.D.: booboo.335 Posted: Wed May 20 15:34:08 1987 Date-Received: Sat, 23-May-87 08:02:28 EDT References: <42900004@uicsrd> <413@qiclab.UUCP> <2168@tekgvs.TEK.COM> <242@mks.UUCP> Distribution: comp Organization: Gould CSD, Fort Lauderdale, FL Lines: 79 In article <242@mks.UUCP>, alex@mks.UUCP writes: > In article <2596@watdragon.UUCP>, absary@watdragon.UUCP (Al Sary) writes: > > >On a scale of 1 to 10 I give MKS a 9. They only lose 1 point because > > >I can't figure out how to send things to the printer without > > >invoking command.com - and staying there while the printer finishes. > > > > I discovered the same problem; I don't know how to get around it either. > > > > I am not sure I would scale it at 9 for reliability just yet. Our > > system seems to die quite frequently without much reason. The ps > > command also shows some strange memory allocations at times. I have > We'd appreciate it if you would phone our technical support department > -- we haven't had any reports of `strange memory allocations'. Or for > that matter `system seems to die quite frequently without much reason'. The release 2.0 (or whatever came out in January) was a fiasco. I bought the package for "vi" and the *promissed* ksh. The vi had serious bugs that were mostly fixed in 2.0 but as I mentioned in another article, it added new ones. > If you are having problems we would like to try to sort them out. > We do indeed know of several problems in early Korn-shells that went out - > anybody who phones will get sent a later release with these problems fixed. > [We would send to everybody automatically except that with so many utilities > in the toolkit, a majority of people probably don't even use the shell, but > just vi, or just awk or such.] How could you send out the ksh in the state that it was in? I have *never* had a buggier piece of software in my life (public domain included)! It crashed the machine every four or five commands (either hangs or refusing to execute any commands). I finally lost so much work that had to revert back to command.com. Now I see that you have a new version but didn't even bother to send a notice for updates much less an updated disk? What kind of customer support is this? Granted, your people fixed the problem with vi when I called them. But there is more involved in trying to keep your customers happy. Your package would have been excellent had it not been for these problems. > > MKS version 2.1, and hoping that version 2.2 (available soon hopefully) > > will fix some of the problems. It is also advertised to have job > > control feature. > Hang on - who advertised that? To have the job control feature requires > writing multi-tasking which requires all kinds of ms-dos violations. In What? why would having a built-in "fg" or "jobs" command violate MSDOS? (Well, maybe fg but certainly "jobs" could be done as an internal command). > all the 70-odd different .exe's you get with the toolkit we violate ms-dos > only for > 1) fast screen updates in vi by bypassing bios and direct access to the screen, Have you used the latest version of vi yourself? Try doing a ^E or ^Y (to scroll up or down). It takes at least a second on an AT and it can not keep up with the repeat rate of my keyboard. The old version worked in real-time. What gives? > To set the record straight on what will be in the next release of the toolkit, > version 2.2 it is as follows: > pr fold expand unexpand uname env deroff fmt pack unpack pcat > new AWK -multi-dimension arrays, symtab, garbage collection. > New SH - vi&emacs editing mode and many small things > VI - ega-support for >24 lines > login, init, passwd I wish you would spend more time fixing useful commands than coming up with yet another "awk" command. Do you really think people use awk more than vi and ksh? By the way, "vi&emacs" editing are an essential part of ksh. How could you omit them in the first version and still call it ksh? > Date for release 2.2 is not set yet - we hope to go to beta release at the > end of this month, with real release by June. But no promises! > And let me guess. You are going to charge for this release, right? -- Amir H. Majidimehr Gould Inc, Computer Systems Division {sun,pur-ee,brl-bmd}!gould!amir