Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!WSMR-SIMTEL20.ARMY.MIL!WANCHO From: WANCHO@WSMR-SIMTEL20.ARMY.MIL ("Frank J. Wancho") Newsgroups: comp.binaries.ibm.pc.d Subject: Tenex mode Message-ID: Date: 29 May 89 00:59:00 GMT Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Lines: 74 Earl, I have not seen the original message(s) which prompted your message. So, quite possibly the answers below are out-of-context. Nonetheless, they beg for comment and explanation... >If you download from grape, you'll need to set the "binary" mode, >NOT the "tenex" mode, as is also true about almost every ftp site >BUT SIMTEL20. The key word is "almost." You MUST use tenex (type l 8) *command* between hosts which do not have the same byte ordering within words or bit ordering in bytes or have word sizes which are not 32 bits. The tenex command guarantees correct retrieval and storage for 8-bit binary data. you must switch to ascii mode in order to do a directory listing... If the damn software can detect this situation, why can't it flip the toggle itself? A properly implemented user ftp should always keep track of the current settings and temporarily change the settings for certain commands which it knows require certain settings, such as a dir command, and restore the original settings on completion. The ftp server must not change any modes unless commanded by the remote end to do so. given its apparent function, TOPS20 must be near, if not dead on, the poorest OS choice for the system that could have been made. SIMTEL20 was originally purchased as a network host to run simulation and graphics FORTRAN programs transferred from local 36-bit machine. At the time, the DECsystem-20 and its TOPS20 operating system met those key criteria. Most of the machines on the net were TOPS20 or TENEX hosts; the VAX VMS machines did not have network software, and only a small handful of Unix machines, mainly PDP-11s, and some Berkeley VAX Unix machines were on the net. The primary purpose of SIMTEL20 is to function as a very reliable mail host for various Army and other federal agencies and their contractors. It must be said, from my point of view of exposure to many different operating systems in various capacities in almost 30 years, that TOPS20 is still by far THE best I have ever had the pleasure to use and maintain. SIMTEL20 fell into its current *secondary* function as an archive host when the organization which ran the original archive host was dissolved (almost six years ago), and SIMTEL20 had some otherwise unused disk space. We could have run another OS on this machine, but the filenames would have been severely contrained, among other limiting factors. Could it be that this system was acquired through the same mechanism that gives us 800 mega-buck planes that can be shot down by one misguided bird and other triumphs of Pentagon procurement? No. This was an off-the-shelf, competitive procurement, not a design-and-build to spec procurement. I suppose complaining about SIMTEL20 falls into the category of looking a gift horse in the mouth (or some other portion of its anatomy),... Probably so. We certainly do not claim any exclusive right as an archive host. In fact, there are *many* other archive hosts to use; most of them are Unix machines. Moreover, we have no plans to switch over to another machine and/or OS; we are quite satisfied, for our *primary* purposes, to continue as we have been and for quite some time to come, and to add additional (cheap) mass storage to support the archives as the need arises and the funds become available. Frank Wancho System Manager SIMTEL20