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Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!rutgers!sri-spam!ames!ucbcad!ucbvax!hplabs!pyramid!ncc!lyndon
From: lyndon@ncc.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.sources.wanted
Subject: Re: ksh wanted
Message-ID: <1438@ncc.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 11-Jun-87 19:41:40 EDT
Article-I.D.: ncc.1438
Posted: Thu Jun 11 19:41:40 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 13-Jun-87 10:56:46 EDT
References: <180@ttrdd.UUCP> <20374@sun.uucp> <6957@alice.UUCP>
Organization: Nexus Computing Corp.,  Edmonton, AB
Lines: 46
Keywords: public domain?
Summary: More info on toolchest

In article <6957@alice.UUCP>, ark@alice.UUCP writes:
> 
> You can browse to your heart's content without enrolling.  To enroll,
> pick the proper menu items and you will eventually get a license
> agreement in the mail to sign and return.  They used to charge
> an enrollment fee; I'm not sure whether they still do.

There is a one time fee of US$100, payable when you return the
license agreement. After that, you pay only for the software
you download. BEWARE that there is a hidden cost in all the
packages! In addition to the fee for the source, you will be
billed for the telecommunications (ie long distance) charges
involved with the download (the ToolChest system calls your
site to perform the transfer). In most cases, this fee will be
insignificant compared to the cost of the source you are purchasing,
however you can get a bit of a surprise - I purchased rogue for
$75, and had to pay $52 (!) for the download.

The ToolChest currently supports 1200 baud. They are threatening
to upgrade to 2400 this summer, but I'm not holding my breath.

It would be *nice* if the TC people included the communications
costs along with the source costs.

My only real complaint with the TC is the SLOW response in getting
the initial agreement into place. It took over a month to get our
copy of the license forms sent out, and an additional month to have
the paperwork processed (I don't know if this is due to our being
located in Canada).

Once the paperwork is out of the way, the service is excellent.
We ran into some problems on our first transfer. The TC technical
staff were very helpful in debugging the link problems, and finally
sent the stuff in the middle of the afternoon so I could watch the
transfer (they usually call during late evenings). Support people
are easy to reach by voice or email.

Another suggestion I would like to make is that a copy of the
current catalog be made available in "line printer" format.
While it's nice to browse the menu system they have, I would
rather tell it to dump the catalog without all the cursor
control sequences. This could be saved into a local file to
be printed later, saving substantially on my phone bills.

Lyndon Nerenberg  (Just another satisfied TC customer)
Nexus Computing Corporation