Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!elroy!cit-vax!tybalt.caltech.edu!christ
From: christ@tybalt.caltech.edu (Christian L. Keppenne)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: simple questions from a novice
Message-ID: <10556@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu>
Date: 2 May 89 14:52:20 GMT
References: <569@hydra.gatech.EDU>
Sender: news@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu
Reply-To: christ@tybalt.caltech.edu.UUCP (Christian L. Keppenne)
Organization: California Institute of Technology
Lines: 30

i just decided to get rid of my mac 2  to purchase a NEXT. (the price at caltech
 is $6500 +3% order fee +6.5% for the basic unit) and have a few simple questions concerning the machine and its use:

1) has anyone used the NEXT with an internal modem. is there an appropriate driver available? i have an epic 2400 internal taken from my mac 2 that i would like to use on the cube.

2) i understand that there does not seem to be any version of kermit around and would like to know how i can transfer files over the phone line (i hope there is a way).

3) has anybody used another scsi hard disk than the ones sold by NEXT? i have a rodime 100 meg internal from my mac 2and would like to use it until i can afford the 330 meg drive.

4) i found the man pages for the fortran 77 compiler but not the compiler itself. can i expect a standard unix fortran compiler to be issued with some later version of the operating system or is the $750 absoft compiler the only one around?
c is great but i have a large numerical model with a lot of complex manipulations for which i prefer to use fortran routines called from a c skeleton.

5) regarding the above model: it runs fine on the macintosh, the sun, the cray x-mp and the cray y-mp but i encounter a segmentation fault when i try to run it on the NEXT.
the error occurs at some point where a lot of dynamic allocation is done using calloc and malloc and i haven't been able to figure out what is triggering it. 
does someone know of an option to the linker or the segment loader or some other trick that would help me get rid of this problem?

6) is NEXT planning to market its machine in europe or will i be the only one to have one when i will eventually return there?

7) i have read of a software base at cs.orst.edu but have no idea of the username and password i should use to log in. does someone know of other similar software bases?

8)
finally, did someone manage to have a next and a macintosh networked together in such a way as to allow transfer of text and graphics files from the one to the other?

some (if not all) of these questions probably have very trivial answers but i would be grateful if some more experienced user were to take the time to point them out to me.

			thank you in advance

			christian

e.mail adress(es): christ@tybalt.caltech.edu  alubias@caltech.bitnet