Newsgroups: comp.sys.hp
Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!helios.physics.utoronto.ca!alchemy.chem.utoronto.ca!system
From: system@alchemy.chem.utoronto.ca (System Admin (Mike Peterson))
Subject: Re: BSD and HPUX, The Questions Continue...
Message-ID: <1991May3.155830.19814@alchemy.chem.utoronto.ca>
Organization: University of Toronto Chemistry Department
References: <1991May2.202710.5152@odin.diku.dk> <KIMMO.SUOMINEN.91May3093915@kannel.lut.fi>
Date: Fri, 3 May 1991 15:58:30 GMT

We too are considering switching to a 720/730, coming from the Apollo
BSD environment. I have been using a 720 for the past few days, and
these items are of concern. Any pointers/responses appreciated.

Major problems with f77 compiler using -O:
I found 2 routines which give incorrect numerical results with
-O (but no compiler complaints). This is not good news, although I
understand from other sources (Apollo users meeting last week and the HP
product intro a month ago) that the compiler actually running on the 7x0
is not the greatest (i.e. benchmarks were actually compiled on other HP
systems and then run on the 720/730).

Other problems in no particular order:

- no 'renice' command.

- BSD f77 libraries missing, though the f77 man page implies that these
  libraries are provided (they are not in /usr/lib, and there are no
  man pages, so I assume these will not be provided). This is a royal
  pain since "etime", "dtime", "itime", "getenv", "system", "lnblnk"
  and "rindex" (to name a few popular f77 routines) are not available,
  nor do there seem to be any replacements.

- my script which runs all my test jobs sequentially just died in the middle
  with "Missing name for redirect", yet rerunning it worked fine
  (looks like a flaky 'csh' to me).

- unit 7 output is mixed with unit 6 output in f77; unit 7 can be
  opened as a real file (which works properly) but can't be opened
  as a scratch file. It appears that units 5, 6 and 7 are mapped to
  stdin, stdout and stderr, and can't be reopened under some
  circumstances.

- vi doesn't redraw the screen properly in rlogin sessions from
  xterms (xterm is not recognized as a valid terminal type, 
  so I was using vt100 on the 720). Working from a real vt100 does
  work properly, so it might be just a matter of supplying a terminfo
  file for an xterm.

- core dumps hang the shell ('csh') producing the dump for 1-2 minutes.

- rlogin does not handle flow control properly (an issue for rlogins
  from a terminal server where you can have multiple sessions).

- default stty settings are retarded (most default 'csh' keys are not set!).
  Easily fixed in the login files, but shouldn't be needed. "Features"
  like this are worrisome in that if basic things like this are screwed
  up, who knows what else is.

- no BSD printing!

Already mentioned in this group:

- limited user licenses (we regulary have more than 16 users logged in
  to our central mail/compute server); I didn't know anyone sold such
  restricted UNIXs these days.

Mike.
-- 
Mike Peterson, System Administrator, U/Toronto Department of Chemistry
E-mail: system@alchemy.chem.utoronto.ca
Tel: (416) 978-7094                  Fax: (416) 978-8775
