🚀 go-pugleaf

>> From INFO-A16@EARN.DEARN Thu Mar 30 17:06:37 1989
>> Received: from earn-relay by uk.ac.lancaster.central1; Thu, 30 Mar 89 17:06:32 -0100
>> Received: from UKACRL by UK.AC.RL.IB (Mailer X1.25) with BSMTP id 4408; Thu, 30
>>           Mar 89 17:02:17 BS
>> Received: by UKACRL (Mailer X1.25) id 4429; Thu, 30 Mar 89 17:02:05 BST
>> Date:     Thu, 30 Mar 89 15:33:43 BST
>> Reply-To: INFO-ATARI16@EDU.STANFORD.SCORE
>> Sender: INFO-ATARI16 Discussion <INFO-A16@EARN.DEARN>
>> Comments: Warning -- original Sender: tag was INFO-A16@MARIST
>> From: USQB015@UK.AC.LIVERPOOL
>> Subject:  What?????????
>> To: Alan Phillips <pdsoft@UK.AC.LANCASTER.PD-SOFTWARE>
>> 
>> I saw this site name mentioned in a news item and wondered....
>> What exactly is it?
>> Could anyone tell me? Am I getting through? Is this something to do with
>> Atari ST's ?
>>  
>>        Mark Powell
>> 
Mark,
    Please find a full explanation of the PD software archive below.

Regards,

Steve Jenkins
--

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| THE NATIONAL PD SOFTWARE ARCHIVE  (Alan Phillips & Steve Jenkins)          |
|       LANCASTER UNIVERSITY        JANET : pdsoft@uk.ac.lancs.pdsoft        |
|                                   BITNET: pdsoft%uk.ac.lancs.pdsoft@ukacrl |
|                                                                            |
| Terminal/FTP access : username "pdsoft" password "pdsoft" (lower case)     |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+

       ANNOUNCING THE NEW NATIONAL PUBLIC DOMAIN SOFTWARE ARCHIVE
       ----------------------------------------------------------

Finally, after many years devoted service, the LANCS.VAX1 system will be
powered down for the last time at the end of January 1989.  The
Lancaster Kermit Distribution Service and Micro Software Archive has
migrated to Lancaster's new Sequent Symmetry UNIX machine, and we've
taken the opportunity to make some major changes.  Some are to offer new
facilities; others are to correct aspects of the design that we either
got wrong initially or were forced into by the way VMS worked but which
we never much liked. 

The major thing you'll notice is that both the old services are now combined
under the heading of the "National P.D.Software Archive".  The new name
reflects the fact that we are now funded by the Computer Board as a national
service (watch the newsletters for news of developments!).  There is now one
account only, and all software is accessible via this.  The software can be
collected by FTP (the preferable method) or in terminal sessions as before. 


How to reach the new machine
----------------------------

The machine to call for the National PD Software Archive is registered in the
NRS as "lancs.pdsoft" or "lancaster.pd-software", and its address is
000010401000 for terminal calls, 000010401000.ftp for FTP, and
000010401000.ftp.mail for e-mail. 

The username you give to access the service is "pdsoft", which has password
"pdsoft".  NOTE THAT YOU MUST GIVE BOTH USERNAME AND PASSWORD IN LOWER CASE. 


What the filestore looks like
-----------------------------

The filestore is arranged in a hierarchical way.  At the top level are
directories "kermit" and "micros", that contain the current two major areas of
software. 

Under directory "kermit" you'll find sub-directories for each implementation,
each of which contains all the necessary files. Under directory "micros" you'll
find further directories "ibmpc", "mac", "atari" and so on, and beneath these
the directories holding the actual packages.

The format of filenames is UNIX-like. Thus, the directory

              micros/ibmpc/f77/f77int.boo

contains the BOO-encoded file for a package. Note that the filename must be
given in lower-case; upper-case is NOT equivalent.

Within each directory there'll always be a file called "00contents" (the first
two characters are zeros), which gives you an up-to-date list of the names of
all the other files in the directory. [Users of the old service should note
that the name "00files.txt" is no longer used for these indexes]


Access for terminal sessions
----------------------------

If you access the Archive in a terminal session, you'll find yourself talking
to a custom UNIX shell that has a small, but adequate repertoire of commands.
UNIX users should note that this is NOT the C-Shell, Bourne Shell, or any other
shell you've ever come across; don't expect extrapolations from these to be
valid!

Probably the best place to start is with the command "help": this takes into a
new interactive help system that you can browse around and should, we hope,
tell you all you need to know.

You can always get a list of available commands by typing the command "?", but
here's a brief summary of what you can do

          cd       changes the directory you're working in
          pwd      prints the name of the current working directory
          help     starts the interactive help system
          type     displays a file on the screen
          dir      gives you a directory listing
          search   looks for a string in a file
          news     displays a news-of-the-day file
          kermit   runs the UNIX Kermit program for downloading
          logout   logs you out


You can stay logged in as long as you wish, provided that you actually do
something; if your terminal is idle for more than 30 minutes you'll be logged
out automatically.


Access by FTP
-------------

As always, the preferred way of acquiring files from us is for you to use FTP;
log in to your *own* machine and issue the appropriate FTP commands to pull the
files you want.

FTP is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Exactly how you do it will, of
course, depend on what your own system expects, so consult your local support
people if you're in doubt. Remember that you need to give the full pathname of
a file in order to FTP it; so, to access the package we mentioned above, you'ld
ask your system to pull

                     micros/ibmpc/f77/f77int.boo

where you start the name relative to the top-level directory. You will not be
able to specify filenames that are absolute (i.e. those that begin with "/"),
nor can you access the Archive from any username other than "pdsoft".

Remember that you MUST give username, password and filename in LOWER-CASE. Make
sure that your system isn't translating lower-case to upper-case without
telling you - users of VAX/VMS must be careful here when using the $TRANSFER
command. If you have problems, talk to your local Computer Centre support staff.

You might like to start by pulling the file "help/basics" which gives you some
starting information on the new system. The file "help/00contents" will give
you a full list of the other help files in this directory.


Some useful files
-----------------

Useful files you might like to look at are listed here (note that the names
are not always the same as they have been on the VAX system!)


    kermit/index.mch     Kermit index in machine name order
    kermit/index.pfx     Kermit index in prefix code order
    kermit/index.sys     Kermit index in Operating System order

    micros/index         Index of microcomputer software

    news                 The main news of the day file
    kermit/news          The Kermit-specific news of the day file
    micros/news          The micro-software-specific news of the day file

    help/basics          The introductory part of the help information, in
                         text form. The directory "help" contains other help
                         files as well

    00contents           One of these exists in every directory, and is a list
                         of all the other filenames in that directory


Our new e-mail address
----------------------

Our address for e-mail has changed, of course, with the new machine: you should
now contact us as

                    pdsoft@lancs.pdsoft


Some major additions
--------------------

The Archive now contains a collection of PC-SIG, PC-BLUE and COMUG software for
IBM PC and compatible systems.  This has been purchased on behalf of the
Academic Community by CHEST and is mounted at their request.