580 lines
21 KiB
Plaintext
580 lines
21 KiB
Plaintext
From: Digestifier <Linux-Development-Request@senator-bedfellow.mit.edu>
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To: Linux-Development@senator-bedfellow.mit.edu
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Reply-To: Linux-Development@senator-bedfellow.mit.edu
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Date: Wed, 7 Sep 94 19:13:08 EDT
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Subject: Linux-Development Digest #136
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Linux-Development Digest #136, Volume #2 Wed, 7 Sep 94 19:13:08 EDT
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Contents:
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Re: Unicode & Linux's future (was Re: Acid) (Darin Johnson)
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Non-ANSI constructs in the kernel (was Re: Unicode...) (Richard L. Goerwitz)
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Re: NET releases and non-8-bit aligned subnet masks (Pete Kruckenberg)
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Re: Future of linux -- the sequel (John Richardson)
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Linux, Laptops, Tallies (was Re: Status of Mac Linux & PPC Linux?) (Zack T. Smith)
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Re: Future of linux -- t (Joachim Schrod)
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Re: how to do shared C libraries (was Re: nvi 1.34, curses and the new Linux C library) (David Barr)
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Future of linux -- the sequel (Corey Brenner)
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Re: News Spool File System - new filesystem type?? (Ian McCloghrie)
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Re: XFconfig86 problems - HELP! (Carlos_Dominguez)
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Re: Linux on Fosa laptops? (Nicolas BOUGUES)
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Re: A thought to improve security (S. Joel Katz)
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Re: Load Balancing (Nicolas BOUGUES)
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Re: IDE Hard Drives w/ over 1024 cylinders (Jim Sun)
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SCSI driver for integrated AMD chip ? (Felix von Leitner)
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Re: Non-ANSI constructs in the kernel (was Re: Unicode...) (Richard L. Goerwitz)
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----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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From: djohnson@arnold.ucsd.edu (Darin Johnson)
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Subject: Re: Unicode & Linux's future (was Re: Acid)
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Date: 07 Sep 1994 03:28:56 GMT
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> >is input methods: Do the keyboard drivers work with the operating system
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> >in such a way that one can, on the fly, change one's keymap? Does it sup-
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> Yes.
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But it's overkill. You don't need special support from the keyboard
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drivers to support input methods. All you need is for the input
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consumer to map internally. Most input methods work by running as
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a separate process rather than being embedded into the OS.
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> >Finally, do the display drivers
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> >and GUIs support multiple wordwrap directions?
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Again, this is best solved in the application, not the GUI (and
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especially not the display driver).
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Of course, this begs the issue of getting 'ls' to display with a
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mixture of left-to-right and right-to-left scripts - but running
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'ls' (or more likely, an 'nls') inside a multilingual window
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solves this. I think it's better to start there and make progress
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than to ponder how to fit all that code into the console device...
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--
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Darin Johnson
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djohnson@ucsd.edu
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Support your right to own gnus.
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------------------------------
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From: goer@quads.uchicago.edu (Richard L. Goerwitz)
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Subject: Non-ANSI constructs in the kernel (was Re: Unicode...)
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Reply-To: goer@midway.uchicago.edu
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Date: Wed, 7 Sep 1994 14:50:38 GMT
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In article <CvqC9C.4Bz@cwi.nl> aeb@cwi.nl (Andries Brouwer) writes:
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>
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>>In the case of the Linux kernel this isn't too drastic. First there is almost
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>>no core operating system assumption about strings present. The single glaring
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>>one is the '/' symbol and ascii NUL....
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>
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>That is why in the UTF-8 encoding of Unicode no ASCII symbol can occur
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>as part of another symbol. This solves both the NUL and the / problems.
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I keep hearing about how UTF-8 is just around the corner, and how the ker-
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nel has removed all assumptions about characters and strings. Yet a quick
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perusal of the source brings to light a host of constructs in the source
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that violate ANSI principles of internationalization. For example, in
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./include/linux/ctype.h we find the following macro:
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#define tolower(c) (_ctmp=c,isupper(_ctmp)?_ctmp-('A'-'a'):_ctmp)
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#define toupper(c) (_ctmp=c,islower(_ctmp)?_ctmp-('a'-'A'):_ctmp)
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Let me quote for a moment from the internationalization FAQ. Admit-
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tedly this applies to ANSIfied user programs. Perhaps the kernel can
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always assume ISO 8859-1 encoding. Still, I suspect that most pro-
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grammers here in the U.S. are still doing things the "old" way:
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**************************** quoted material ******************************
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If you write a program which supports international use, you should
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use the available standardized functions, as only these will be
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influenced by the setlocale call. Thus, if you want to convert a
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capital letter in c to a lower case letter in l, _don't_ write:
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l = c - 'A' + 'a';
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While this will work for characters in the US-ASCII character set, it
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will not work with German, French, or Spanish characters. The
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following, standard-conformant code will:
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#include <ctype.h>
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....
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l = tolower(c);
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Also note that the second code is FASTER (for most implementations),
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as it replaces arithmetic by a simple table lookup!
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Note that this ANSI standard is independent of the character set
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encoding used!
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************************ end quoted material **************************
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Here's another tidbit of the same sort from the HPFS code:
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static inline int memcasecmp(const unsigned char *s1,
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const unsigned char *s2, unsigned n)
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{
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int t;
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if (n != 0)
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do {
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unsigned c1 = *s1++;
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unsigned c2 = *s2++;
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if (c1 - 'a' < 26)
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c1 -= 040;
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if (c2 - 'a' < 26)
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c2 -= 040;
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if ((t = c1 - c2) != 0)
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return t;
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} while (--n != 0);
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return 0;
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}
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Again, I don't pretend to be a guru. I see this sort of thing in much of
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the source code I peruse, thoug.
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>I hope to release a new kbd-0.** this month. It will contain a kernel
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>patch with some Unicode support. (Just a start. The fonts are still
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>missing, but loadkeys will be able to assign 16-bit values to the keys,
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>and the keyboard driver will have a UTF-8 mode converting these 16-bit
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>values into byte sequences.)
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Bless you.
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--
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-Richard L. Goerwitz goer%midway@uchicago.bitnet
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goer@midway.uchicago.edu rutgers!oddjob!ellis!goer
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------------------------------
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From: kruckenb@sal.cs.utah.edu (Pete Kruckenberg)
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Subject: Re: NET releases and non-8-bit aligned subnet masks
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Date: 7 Sep 1994 05:23:16 GMT
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I believe that this has been in for quite a while. I'm using 1.1.18
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with a netmask of 255.255.252.0, so I'd suspect that probably 1.1.0
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and later work, and maybe even 1.0.x. Try it out and see if it works
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with what you've got.
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Pete.
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Larry Augustin (lma@dayton.Stanford.EDU) wrote:
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: A (hopefully) quick question. Which versions of Net and the kernel
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: support non 8-bit aligned networks/netmasks? I couldn't find any
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: mention of this in the FAQs.
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: Thanks,
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: Larry
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--
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------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Pete Kruckenberg School: kruckenb@sal.cs.utah.edu
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University of Utah Work: pete@dswi.com
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Computer Engineering For even more addresses, "finger pete@dswi.com"
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------------------------------
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From: jrichard@cs.uml.edu (John Richardson)
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Subject: Re: Future of linux -- the sequel
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Date: 7 Sep 1994 15:19:22 GMT
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In article <1994Sep7.140138.19849@umr.edu>,
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Corey Brenner <brennerc@saucer.cc.umr.edu> wrote:
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>Well... here's the scoop... Indy will take a major performance hit when
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>SGI dumps IRIX and moves to NT. Sad, but true.
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>
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>Corey Brenner
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>
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What?!?! Is this really true? If so, when is SGI planning to dump IRIX
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and move to NT?
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John Richardson
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jrichard@cs.uml.edu
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------------------------------
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Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.help
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From: zack@netcom.com (Zack T. Smith)
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Subject: Linux, Laptops, Tallies (was Re: Status of Mac Linux & PPC Linux?)
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Date: Wed, 7 Sep 1994 16:10:41 GMT
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In article <34j3i5$chc@bmerha64.bnr.ca> Hamish.Macdonald@bnr.ca (Hamish Macdonald) writes:
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>>>>>> On 06 Sep 1994 19:06:52 EST,
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>>>>>> In message <zackCvqGBG.2IG@netcom.com>,
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>>>>>> zack@netcom.com (Zack T. Smith) wrote:
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>
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>Zack> Can anyone tell me what the status of each of Mac Linux and
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>Zack> PowerPC Linux is? Last time I checked the archives for Mac
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>Zack> Linux, it seem that nothing new had been posted.
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>
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>I haven't heard any progress reports about the Linux/68k port to the
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>Mac for a while. I understand that getting information about the
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>Macintosh hardware is difficult.
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Well, not to worry in my case, I've decided to sell my new Powerbook
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520 and just get a PC laptop. I can always emulate a Mac using Executor,
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which will certainly be necessary, as I'm a Mac developer.
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Of course, the question is which laptop to get. I've posted asking
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whether Linux runs on the Fosa DX4/100 or DX2/66, but I got no
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affirmative responses last time I checked. All I know at this point
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is that I did get Linux running recently on a Toshiba 1910, though it
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was slow. And Linux seems to need 12 MB of RAM, which most laptops
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don't allow (it's either 4, 8 or 16). I found that without 12, the
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beginning of any paging or swapping marks the start of really bad
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performance until a reboot. Though I was using UMSDOS, perhaps that
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was a factor.
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It sure would be nice to have a big list of machines to show people
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tallies of whether Linux runs of machine X or not and comments.
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Speed tests would be helpful too. That way people wouldn't have to
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post asking, and miss making a connection with someone who actually
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has an answer.
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Cheers-
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--
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Zack T. Smith
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Creator of MacShell, the C Shell for the Mac
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Email me if you'd like a demo copy.
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------------------------------
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From: schrod@iti.informatik.th-darmstadt.de (Joachim Schrod)
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Subject: Re: Future of linux -- t
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Date: 7 Sep 1994 15:24:26 GMT
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In article <34goqc$b4a@ionews.io.org>, gabe@io.org (Lau) writes:
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> schrod@iti.informatik.th-darmstadt.de
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> On 09/05/94, Joachim wrote:
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>
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> >Yeah, but he used $33 Ethernet cards (I assume NE2000s) and explained
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> >that 4MB is enough to run Linux+X and compared these parts to
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> >respective workstation equipment. IMHO that disqualified him.
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>
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> I missed some of what Donald wrote but you should take a second look at
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> who Donald Becker is before making the above statement. Donald wrote most
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> of the ethernet code...and is more familiar w/ ethernet than you or I will
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> probably ever be!
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For sure, but I didn't make a comment about his Ethernet programming
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abilities. I made a statement that his description of a work
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environment (i.e., an organizational context) is not appropriate.
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That's a different area. -- And his followup already said that he
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didn't want to imply that NE2000s match typical workstation ethernet
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equipment. So we seem to agree on this point... :-)
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Joachim
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--
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=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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Joachim Schrod Email: schrod@iti.informatik.th-darmstadt.de
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Computer Science Department
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Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany
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------------------------------
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From: barr@pop.psu.edu (David Barr)
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Subject: Re: how to do shared C libraries (was Re: nvi 1.34, curses and the new Linux C library)
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Date: 7 Sep 1994 10:55:20 -0400
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In article <34k71k$8h4@lyra.csx.cam.ac.uk>,
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Mitchum DSouza <Mitchum.DSouza@mrc-apu.cam.ac.uk> wrote:
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>|> that you need simultaneous access to. (Oh, like say X11R5 libX11.so and
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>|> X11R6 libX11.so) In fact a cache needlessly randomizes and obscures
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>
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>Why don't you just use LD_LIBRARY_PATH to point to the different library
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>location.
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LD_LIBRARY_PATH is a hack, and a painful one at that.
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1) It increases load time
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2) It applies for _all_ libraries, not just the one you're interested with.
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3) It interacts badly with ld, such that when things are compiled with
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LD_LIBRARY_PATH set, the program then assumes that it will continue
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to be set.
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--Dave
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------------------------------
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From: brennerc@saucer.cc.umr.edu (Corey Brenner)
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Subject: Future of linux -- the sequel
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Date: Wed, 7 Sep 1994 14:01:38 GMT
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Well... here's the scoop... Indy will take a major performance hit when
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SGI dumps IRIX and moves to NT. Sad, but true.
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Corey Brenner
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------------------------------
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From: ianm@qualcomm.com (Ian McCloghrie)
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Crossposted-To: news.software.b
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Subject: Re: News Spool File System - new filesystem type??
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Date: 7 Sep 1994 12:21:23 -0700
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tal@plts.org (Tom Limoncelli) writes:
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>In <f8bQkapDlfeB067yn@halcyon.com> mpdillon@halcyon.com (Michael Dillon) writes:
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>>I wonder if message-id's could be worked in there somehow?
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>Obviously, $NEWSSPOOL/id.index/message-id could refer to the actual
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>article. You wouldn't haven't to support opendir()/closedir(), just
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>open().
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The Right Way to implement this kind of filesystem would be a
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user-space process, reading and writing the raw device -- essentially
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just using /dev/hd<foo> as a database. Putting it in the kernel gains
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you nothing but more kernel bloat.
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--
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____
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\bi/ Ian McCloghrie | FLUG: FurryMUCK Linux User's Group
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\/ email: ian@ucsd.edu | Card Carrying Member, UCSD Secret Islandia Club
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GCS (!)d-(--) p c++ l++(+++) u+ e- m+ s+/+ n+(-) h- f+ !g w+ t+ r y*
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The above represents my personal opinions and not necessarily those
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of my employer, Qualcomm Inc.
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------------------------------
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Crossposted-To: comp.windows.x.i386unix,comp.os.linux.help
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From: carlos@dorsai.org (Carlos_Dominguez)
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Subject: Re: XFconfig86 problems - HELP!
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Date: Wed, 7 Sep 1994 16:06:28 GMT
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Walter Hunt (walter@mailhost.aimla.com) wrote:
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: If this is the same XFConfig86 that I tried to run, I bet you are
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: telling it to emulate a 3-button mouse. The one I had would place
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: "Emulate3Buttons" before the mouse defs, causing a domino effect that would lead
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: to an empty tmp file (like the complaint you saw) that was supposed to hold the
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: modes available for the card.
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I told it not to emulate the 3-button mouse, but I'll gladly hack that
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file as per your suggestion tonight.
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: If you edit the Template file in the XFConfig directory
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: (/usr/X11/lib/X11/XFConfig?) and move the Emulate3Buttons line down one, you
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: should be a much happier camper.
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^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
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hehehe.. my wife will get a kick out of that :)
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--
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__ __ __ | .__. __. :::: Carlos Dominguez - Cyberdude & Gophermaster
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| __| | | | | |__ :::: gophermaster@dorsai.org
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|__ |__| | | |__| .__| :::: carlos@dorsai.dorsai.org
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____________________________ I'm Looking for employment in the NYC area.
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------------------------------
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From: nicolas@magix.uucp (Nicolas BOUGUES)
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Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.help
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Subject: Re: Linux on Fosa laptops?
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Date: 3 Sep 1994 23:47:36 +0200
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Zack T. Smith (zack@netcom.com) a ecrit:
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: Hello,
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[stuff deleted]
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: PS: Is there any sort of centralized repository for compaitibility
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: with various laptops? I recently install slackware Linux on a
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: Toshiba 1910 and I'd be glad to donate a summary of my experiences
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: if such a repository/document exists.
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It exists. It is the laptop-servey file. It is available on tsx-11 in the
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packages/laptops directory. The maintainer of the list is Marc E. Fiuczynski
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(mef@cs.washington.edu).
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--
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=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+
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Nicolas BOUGUES
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nbougues@renux.frmug.fr.net
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Sysop of magix : ++ 33 (1) 45 21 02 52 (shell & uucp)
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------------------------------
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From: stimpson@panix.com (S. Joel Katz)
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Subject: Re: A thought to improve security
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Date: 7 Sep 1994 13:03:47 -0400
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In <34jvth$ovl@nic.wi.leidenuniv.nl> jvdmost@hupnos.wi.leidenuniv.nl (J.A.vanderMost) writes:
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>Just a thought :
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>Some programs in a Unix system have to be SUID root to do the things they do.
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>Like /bin/passwd /bin/login /usr/bin/lp /user/bin/at etc.. are all SUID root.
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>But being root is MUCH to powerful for these programs, they don't need all
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>the abilities of root, only a very small portion of it. And that's exactly
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>my point, if we give such a program not more than it needs than a security-
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>bug is not so harmful as it is now.
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>If we give lpr just enough permissions to do his job, the user can NOT become
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>root so easily.
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>Now my suggestion :
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>Let's modify the kernel a bit, and redefine the meaning of the UIDs below 256:
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>UID 0 is root ( like it always was, many programs depend on this )
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>UID >256 are normal users, without a special meaning.
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>UID 1-255 are not what they used to be, they have a special meaning :
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Way back in pl14 I did something very much like this. I never
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released the patch because I thought it was a quick hack no one but me
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would be interested in.
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Personally, I like the idea. I would prefer it if the kernel
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asked a user-space daemon rather than hard coding the access rules,
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however. (I didn't do it this way because I am too lazy).
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Unfortunately, changing the user ids on an operating system is a
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damn pain. Maybe we could make the highest 256 user ID's special.
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--
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S. Joel Katz Information on Objectivism, Linux, 8031s, and more
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Stimpson@Panix.COM is available at http://www.panix.com/stimpson/
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------------------------------
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From: nicolas@magix.uucp (Nicolas BOUGUES)
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Subject: Re: Load Balancing
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Date: 5 Sep 1994 17:59:09 +0200
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Tracy R. Reed (treed@ucssun1.sdsu.edu) a ecrit:
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: I noticed that when I compiled 1.1.49, it asked if I wanted load
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: balancing. Could someone explain to me how this works and how well it
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: works? It sounds like a good way to get the equivelant if parallel
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: processing on common PC hardware. How does it divide up the tasks for
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: each machine to do? What is the max number of machines that load can be
|
|
: distributed over? Also, is the load distributed by user, process,
|
|
: subroutine, etc. Although a good ethernet is pretty fast, it is not
|
|
: nearly as fast as the system bus, so is it worth it?
|
|
|
|
Well, Linux's load balancing is not what you think. As you might have seen,
|
|
it is put in the middle of network configuration. Load balancing is a way to
|
|
route packets between different ways, depending on their load.
|
|
|
|
: --
|
|
|
|
: -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
: Mr. Tracy Reed |Every artist is a cannibal.|Two Betazoids walk into
|
|
: San Diego State Univ. |Every poet is a thief. | a bar.
|
|
: Aerospace Engineering |All kill their inspiration |
|
|
: treed@ucssun1.sdsu.edu |And sing about their grief.|One says,
|
|
: treed@tbn-bbs.com |-U2 IRC-Maelcum /me smiles | "I'll have the same."
|
|
: -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
|
|
--
|
|
=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+
|
|
Nicolas BOUGUES
|
|
nbougues@renux.frmug.fr.net
|
|
Sysop of magix : ++ 33 (1) 45 21 02 52 (shell & uucp)
|
|
|
|
------------------------------
|
|
|
|
From: jsun@athena.mit.edu (Jim Sun)
|
|
Subject: Re: IDE Hard Drives w/ over 1024 cylinders
|
|
Date: 7 Sep 1994 22:00:23 GMT
|
|
|
|
>Ack! This isn't needed any more. Linux kernel versions after 1.1.40
|
|
>(or thereabouts) support EIDE drives directly.
|
|
|
|
Not every one installs odd-sub-revision-numbered kernel.
|
|
|
|
Jim
|
|
|
|
------------------------------
|
|
|
|
From: leitner@inf.fu-berlin.de (Felix von Leitner)
|
|
Subject: SCSI driver for integrated AMD chip ?
|
|
Date: Wed, 7 Sep 1994 17:01:47 GMT
|
|
|
|
Hi Folks.
|
|
|
|
Is anybody working on a SCSI driver for the AMD SCSI chip ?
|
|
|
|
Or, is such a driver already in existance ?
|
|
|
|
Please answer quickly before I start disassembling the DOS driver ;)
|
|
|
|
Felix
|
|
|
|
--
|
|
(------------------------------------------------------------------)
|
|
Felix von Leitner, Gervinusstrasse 22, 10629 Berlin, +49-30-32700270
|
|
President of the Council of Ultimate Wisdom
|
|
and student at the Free University of Berlin ;)
|
|
|
|
------------------------------
|
|
|
|
From: goer@quads.uchicago.edu (Richard L. Goerwitz)
|
|
Subject: Re: Non-ANSI constructs in the kernel (was Re: Unicode...)
|
|
Reply-To: goer@midway.uchicago.edu
|
|
Date: Wed, 7 Sep 1994 21:26:43 GMT
|
|
|
|
yseeley@Xenon.Stanford.EDU (Yonik Seeley) writes:
|
|
>>
|
|
>>Also note that the second code is FASTER (for most implementations),
|
|
>>as it replaces arithmetic by a simple table lookup!
|
|
>
|
|
>I highly doubt that it is faster in any implementation. The 'A'+'a' will be
|
|
>performed at compile time, so you get one subtraction (or addition).
|
|
>A table lookup would involve an addition and a dereference.
|
|
|
|
Agreed. This is simply what the FAQ says. Of course the point is that
|
|
speed doesn't matter here. Don't use 'a' to mean 97 if you plan on using
|
|
ANSI C in a portable, localizable fashion. Use 'a' to mean the symbol
|
|
"a" (whatever its underlying representation might be in the character set
|
|
you're using).
|
|
|
|
And of course this is just one small issue. There are many others to
|
|
consider, such as not writing code that assumes a certain date format.
|
|
|
|
And there's the whole issue of avoiding assumptions about character
|
|
width.
|
|
|
|
I think it will be a while before we all get used to thinking about pro-
|
|
gramming in a new light. Perhaps it is an advantage to have a system
|
|
that lacks a lot of baggage from the 70s....
|
|
|
|
--
|
|
|
|
-Richard L. Goerwitz goer%midway@uchicago.bitnet
|
|
goer@midway.uchicago.edu rutgers!oddjob!ellis!goer
|
|
|
|
------------------------------
|
|
|
|
|
|
** FOR YOUR REFERENCE **
|
|
|
|
The service address, to which questions about the list itself and requests
|
|
to be added to or deleted from it should be directed, is:
|
|
|
|
Internet: Linux-Development-Request@NEWS-DIGESTS.MIT.EDU
|
|
|
|
You can send mail to the entire list (and comp.os.linux.development) via:
|
|
|
|
Internet: Linux-Development@NEWS-DIGESTS.MIT.EDU
|
|
|
|
Linux may be obtained via one of these FTP sites:
|
|
nic.funet.fi pub/OS/Linux
|
|
tsx-11.mit.edu pub/linux
|
|
sunsite.unc.edu pub/Linux
|
|
|
|
End of Linux-Development Digest
|
|
******************************
|