VAX SIG Spring 1987 Tapes Initial Documentation This directory contains general documentation for this and previous tapes and an index. It is intended to replace previous distributions of [VAX000...] but there may be some older files you want to keep. The top level description summary to the Spring '87 VAX SIG tapes is contained in ABSTRACT.TXT and VAX87AB_TAPECOPY_USERS_FORUM.HANDOUT in this directory. For a longer description see AAAREADME.87A and .87B, the concat- enated AAAREADME.TXT files from the respective submissions. AAAREADME.TXT's back through the Fall 1984 tape are in a sub-directory [.OLD_AAAREADME]. The tapes are in VMS Backup format in three save-sets - one each for [VAX000...], [VAX87A...] and [VAX87B...]. As usual VAX000 and VAX87A will fit on one 2400 foot tape at 1600 bpi. Many of the filenames violate VMS version 3.x naming conventions so you will get RMS errors if you try to load the tape on a version 3 system. Since most people are on version 4 by now no attempt has been made to make the names compatible with version 3. However, the few filenames with - in them (on which nothing depends this time out) were renamed so that the "-" signs are replaced with underscores ("_") to help sites still running V4.3 and earlier VMS to read the tapes. This will not continue to be done indefinitely, but it was felt that since only 6 files needed to be renamed and since many sites still run earlier VMS versions, this would be done for the Spring 1987 tapes. Many large directory trees (such as [VAX87B.GNUEMXV18]) are compressed as VMS Backup savesets. The restoration procedure is given in the AAAREADME.TXT file in [VAX87A.LZW] and is the same for all savesets. More detailed information about LZCMP and LZDCM may be found in [VAX87A.LZW] also, as well as the utilities themselves. Extensive use of this utility allows us to fit the material on two reels of tape. We have tried to use compression without hiding the contents of the submission. That is the AAAREADME.TXT's are not compressed and in most cases an uncompressed directory listing is provided. The convention is that there will be a compressed Backup saveset named something like THIS_DIR.BCK_LZW and an accompanying THIS_DIR.LIS, a directory listing of the contents of the directory tree prior to backup. Recovery is accomplished by: $LZDCM:==$(somewhere)LZDCM $LZDCM THIS_DIR.BCK_LZW THIS_DIR.BCK $! THIS_DIR.BCK is now a VMS Backup saveset. If you are going to be making copies of the tape for others from your copy on disk be sure you do any expansions in another directory structure. There are no compressed files in VAX87A. There are lots of compressed files in VAX87B. You will also run accross .ARC files on some directories. For those of you not familiar with ARC it is an excellent file compression and archiving program that is widely used in the microcomputer world for distributing programs via floppy and bulletin boards. You can use [VAX87B.RCAS87.MISC] - VMSSWEEP to read these files on a VAX. All areas have ONE AAAREADME.TXT (and possibly many something.DOC or something.1ST or something .MEM or something_else.TXT or *READ*.something). This is so the AAAREADME.TXT's will be short enough to help you find a program without being cluttered up with how to install or how to use the software. If you are making up a submission for the next tape you can make it easier for us to put the tape together if you will follow this convention. Be sure and look through the tapes for all backup sets present. Note that we again have an index of the tapes. In order to minimize the preparation time of this tape we have not put its index on, we have, however included the index for the Fall 1986 tape and a composite index for all the tapes. The composite index is quite large and has been compressed. This tape was put together from submissions at the Spring 1987 DECUS Symposium, Nashville, Tennessee, by Joe Bingham Glenn Everhart Librarian, VAX Systems SIG RCA A&D Technology ManTech Services Corporation and Rt 38, Bldg 206-1 2320 Mill Road Cherry Hill Alexandria, VA 22314 New Jersey 08358 (703) 838-5600 (609) 486-6328