From:	CSBVAX::MRGATE!RELAY-INFO-VAX@CRVAX.SRI.COM@SMTP  6-AUG-1988 04:45
To:	ARISIA::EVERHART
Subj:	Undocumented 'features' in LATSYM


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Date: Thu, 4 Aug 88 12:41 EDT
From: TODD%DSS.MED.NYU.EDU@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU
Subject: Undocumented 'features' in LATSYM
To: info-vax@kl.sri.COM
X-VMS-To: IN%"info-vax@kl.sri.com"

                >>>-Line-eater-killer->

I  just  learned of  yet another  undocumented  feature  in  VMS, so I
thought I'd pass it along to all my  friends who may  be  in need of a
little sanity...

The  LAT print symbiont became  multi-threaded (serving more  than one
device) as  of version 4.6. The  maximum  number of devices  is 32,  I
belive.  How nice,  right? Well apparently   not  well-enough planned,
since   the  VAX/VMS Librarian  has a   limit     of 16 libraries open
per-process and the SYMBIONT OPENS ITS DEVICE CONTROL LIBRARY ONCE PER
DEVICE, even if it is the same library :-(.  When it goes  to print to
device  number 17 and needs to  open  the  library,  you get  a  nasty
message about your print job:

      %PSM-F-OPENIN, ...
      -LBR-E-TOOMNYLIB, ...

From observation, it  seems that you  won't be prevented from printing
additional jobs to  the devices  (why?  I don't know).  Maybe  it just
doesn't do device control, or maybe it tries to reuse channels. In any
case, the end   result of  a talk   to CSC was the  disclosure  of the
uncodumented logical name "LAT$SYMPARAMETER" which tells the  symbiont
the number of devices it may serve. I don't know which version of  the
symbiont  began checking for the  name,  but  it is worth   a try.  An
example clarifies things:

        $ DEFINE/SYS/EXEC LAT$SYMPARAMETER 16

This will match the LATSYM device limit with the Librarian's limits.

The versions of LATSYM and LTDRIVER in question may help:

Image        Ident         Link Date
LTDRIVER     "LAT X7N-18"  20-APR-1988
LATSYM       "V2.7-002"    29-APR-1988

LTDRIVER X7N-18 and  LATSYM V2.7-002 are recent  patches from  CSC for
another problem.  The  4.7 distribution provides  LTDRIVER X6N-8   and
LATSYM V2.1.

Regards,
Todd Aven
Datability Software Systems, Inc. [(212)807-7800]

Reply-to: Internet: todd%dss@med.nyu.edu
--------- Bitnet:   todd%dss@nyumed

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