🚀 go-pugleaf

Well you've already heard from a number of people on this
issue so I'll just fill in a couple of gaps that you might
not be aware of.

>>  I have an opportunity to inherit a TI Explorer I.  I
>>  like its development environment, but have to consider
>>  whether it can fulfill my other needs as well.  We
>>  generally use a UNIX network here with Suns and
>>  Apollos connected by ethernet.  I am wondering if it
>>  is worth the trouble to try and hook the Explorer up
>>  to the ethernet (means I will have to find an ethernet
>>  card).

I believe that it is well worth the effort.  You may not
have to hunt around for an Ethernet board.  Almost every
Explorer sold had one, so if you're inheriting one and
don't know the configuration then you may well be in luck.

You will need an Ethernet tranceiver but the machine will
probably come with the appropriate drop-cable.

Explorers know about Unix boxes on the same Ethernet and
can talk TCP and NFS if need be.  If you choose to run NFS
then you end up with a huge security hole in your network
but that may be ok if it's not well connected to the
outside world.  Actually, this is a bit of a problem with
Suns anyway, I believe, but at least you need some sort of
password to get onto a Sun as a rule.  This is not the
case with an Explorer, as you might have detected.

>>  I know the Explorer can act as a VT100
>>  terminal.  Is this the extent of it's ability to
>>  interact with the UNIX machines?  Is it possible to
>>  open more than one UNIX window on the Explorer?  Can
>>  more than one VT100 session go on simultaneously over
>>  the ethernet?

Yes, you can have an arbitrary number of VT100 windows
open to an arbitrary number of hosts as long as you have
entered them into the Explorer namespace (we have a good
patch that allows you to make the vt100 window any size
you want and so that it doesn't take over the whole
screen) but this is typically not the way that people
interact with unix boxes from Explorers here at least.

Because Explorers can talk to unix file systems (over TCP
or NFS), you usually need never have a VT100 window unless
it is important to you to type unix commands to the unix
machines.  The sorts of things that you want to do on a
unix box are (typically) sufficiently different from those
that you would do on an Explorer that you normally need
not worry about anything other than file service.  A
simple bit of code is available that allows you to have a
Common-Lisp functional interface to running REXEC commands
on the remote unix hosts if this is important.

Explorers also Support X windows (both clients and
servers).  I have never used it and I gather that it's a
little slow and conses like a bear, but that may not be a
problem to you.  If you are wedded to using GNU on unix
boxes then you might choose to do so under X from an
Explorer.

>>  Is there any way to use a modem with the Explorer?

Yes, though given that you already have a heterogeneous
net and the fact that you can talk to/from the Explorer
from your unix machines it's not obvious why you would
want to do this, unless your Explorer is going to be your
primary machine.  Unix machines (typically) don't crash as
often so if you want to dial in then you will probably get
less burned by fixing it to some other machine.  If you
want to dial out then it doesn't really make much
difference, I suspect.  Telnet to the Explorer works but
the debugger isn't really accessible, so it is inadvisible
to mistype anything.

>>  Thanks very much in advance for any info or pointers.
>>  At this point, I don't know whether to take the
>>  Explorer or pass it up.

Explorers are wonderful machines for LISP development.
Sadly, the Explorer I is the slow, old version, but it's
still not unreasonable to believe that your development
time, relative to that on a unix machine for Common-Lisp
applications would be better on an Explorer.  The Explorer
supports CL in such a way that it is really pretty easy to
develop pure CL programs, so there's nothing to stop you
from using the Explorer for development and then porting
your code to run under some stock machine's Lisp.

Explorers are complex and sophisticated machines, so if
you don't really want to do Lisp work then it may not be
worth getting up the learning curve.  Since TI has pulled
out of the Lisp machine business you might well expect to
find cheap second-hand Explorer hardware on the market, so
you may well have an upgrade path if you like the machine
and choose to go that route.

>>  --Jim

I use an Explorer II as my primary computing facility (I
use a Mac for writing papers and such) and, at least for
the time being, I wouldn't willingly swap it for anything
other than a better equipped Explorer.



Rice.