🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <6546@blake.acs.washington.edu> (Dale Larson) writes:
> I plan to use the network in a small law office which already has three
> amigas sharing a harddrive ... it would be nice [to] add UNIX boxes 
> in the future.  

Ok, this says you probably want your networking software to support NFS
which the existing Ameristar product does. What is currently unavailable
is an NFS server for the Amiga. Writing one is fairly straightforward 
(I did a test one using the RAM disk.) if you know networking code. 
The amiga file system makes it a bit difficult to write stateless file
systems but the Commodore folks are aware of this and may make changes.
(basically all that is needed is a "reuse" count that lets you know when
the lock you are holding is now invalid.) 

> It would be asking too much for the networking hard/software to 
> consider remote access via modem, but there will soon be at least 
> one machine off site which would like to share files and I guess 
> we'll use dnet for that. 

If you use something like SLIP or another TCP/IP type product this
stuff can be made to work over modems. You just have to be aware of
what can happen when a crackers modem finds your modem.

> Having a shared electronic calendar is wonderful, but even with mere file
> sharing collitions result since people leave their calendars open all day
> and it is asking too much for them to keep track of wether the file has
> been updated since they opened it.  We would also like a fairly simple,
> but none-the-less shared, special purpose database.  Since I have 
> several years of experience programming the amiga and am about to 
> get a degree in cs, I am going to do a six month internship to write 
> these programs.  Hence, the network needs IPC using the net.  

You can port the freely available Sun RPC sources to the Ameristar 
sockets library and use that for IPC. I caution you though that writing
distributed databases is something that is fraught with pitfalls. 
Look up the available literature on name services for some ideas. 
You might even be able to use a name service as the basis for the
calendar program.

> The attorney is hoping to market these programs, but I have made clear 
> to him that my intent is to give his office a solution to
>their problems, and that even if there are other people interested in the
>software, they are probably not running networked Amigas (in other words,
>the market would probably be to small to bother with).

Let him decide, and remember to make sure you get a piece of the action 
if he does.

>Because I'd like to leave open the possiblity of adding networks in the
>future, and because I'd prefer not to learn a non-standard ipc protocol,
>I'd love to use a socket library.  Since I need file sharing without
>a UNIX server, the Ameristar is, unfortunately, not an option.  

You don't understand, the Ameristar board doesn't *require* a UNIX server
it can use an _NFS_ server. The protocol for which is distributed with the
Sun RPC package. (You can ftp it from titan.rice.edu, look for RPCSRC 4.0)
If you want to write an NFS server that runs on the Amiga that is an
excellent start. Many people have done so. You might also ask Ameristar if
they have one and if so if you could use it. Anyway, the sockets and stuff
are completely usable with no UNIX boxes anywhere in sight.


--Chuck McManis						    Sun Microsystems
uucp: {anywhere}!sun!cmcmanis   BIX: <none>   Internet: cmcmanis@Eng.Sun.COM
These opinions are my own and no one elses, but you knew that didn't you.
"I tell you this parrot is bleeding deceased!"