** ** ****** ** ** ******** ** ** ***** ** ** ** * ** ** ** *** ** ** ** ** ** * ** ** ** * **** **** ** * ** ** ** ** ** **** ** ** ** ** ** *** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** * ** ** ** ** ** ****** ** ** ** ***** ***** ** ** ** ****** ****** ***** ** **** ******** ****** ****** ** ** ** ** * ** ** * ** ** ** ** ****** **** ** ** ** ** **** ****** ** ** ** ** **** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** * ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ****** ***** ** **** ** ****** ** ** **** KY REGISTER **** KY REGISTER **** KY REGISTER **** KY REGISTER *** DECEMBER 1988 TABLE OF CONTENTS MVS Job Costs Now Available. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 BITNET: A CMS Primer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151 Electronic Mail on CMS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 611 Electronic Mail on the PRIME . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 741 Electronic Mail on the Wang Office . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 843 The WHOIS Directory Service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1070 Electronic Mail Customs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1176 SIS Registration a Success . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1263 UKCC Short Courses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1309 Online Short Course Registration Now Available . . . . . . . . . . . 1596 Holiday Schedule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1641 Micro Lab Hours . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1652 Good-bye Cards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1681 Virtual Machine Assignments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1698 New VM Logo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1788 SPSS-X 3.0 Now Available on CMS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1797 BMDP-88 Available on OS Batch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1851 Suggestions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1906 Service Directory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1977 ************************************************************************* INDIVIDUAL MVS JOB COSTS NOW AVAILABLE If you've been wondering how much it costs to run an MVS batch job, we now have the answer for you. In the past the only way you could keep track of your account balance was the CMS command BALANCE which showed your balance as of the previous day. Since balance information is only updated once a day, you couldn't be sure if running an MVS job would exhaust your account balance until the next day. We've made some changes which should help ease this problem. On November 3, 1988, the MVS system was enhanced to print the cost of your jobs. On your job log for MVS jobs you'll find a block of information that lists the execution cost of that particular job and an updated account balance. A sample job log is shown below. There are two important things to keep in mind when checking your MVS balance: * If your MVS job doesn't produce printed output, the cost shown in the online job log reflects the execution costs of that job. * If your MVS job does produce printed output, the trailer page of the output will show the execution cost, the printing cost, and a total job cost. It will also shown an updated account balance. If your MVS job produces output on more than one printer, you'll have more than one trailer page. In these cases, the print cost on the trailer page is the cost for the individual output attached to that trailer. The total job cost shown on the trailer page is the sum of the execution cost and the print cost for that individual output. For an accurate total cost for a job that produces multiple output, add the job execution cost from the online job log (or any of the trailer pages; they'll be the same) to the print cost from each trailer page. The balance shown when you enter the BALANCE command is only updated once a day and includes all charges, including CMS, PRIME, and MVS. The costs of running MVS jobs won't show up in the BALANCE figure until the next day, so the balance shown on your MVS job log will probably be different from your actual balance. Remember, the balance printed on MVS jobs is the balance as of the previous day minus any MVS job charges for the current day. The MVS balance does not include any non-MVS charges for the current day. This is a new service and we'd like to hear your questions or problems. Use the SUGGEST command or contact Matt Simpson at 7-2228 or SYSMATT@UKCC. -- Matt Simpson ********************************************************************** --TIMINGS (MINS.)-- JOBNAME STEPNAME PROCSTEP RC EXCP CPU SRB ELAPS SERV PG PRINT *JOB TERMINATION* 00 27 .00 .00 .0 695 1 ----PAGING COUNTS--- PAGE SWAP VIO SWAPS 0 0 0 0 PGMR NAME-MATT ACCOUNT #1013-90034 JOB EXECUTION COST (EXCLUDING PRINT COST): .02 BALANCE 20,890.43 *********************************************************************** ELECTRONIC MAIL FOR EVERYONE Electronic mail (e-mail) is one of our most popular services, and nearly everyone is interested in learning more about it. To help you through the technical maze, we've asked staff members to discuss the basics of using electronic mail on the various systems around campus; what it is, how it works, and how you can use it (it's really easy). The following articles discuss electronic mail for the CMS user, the PRIME user, the WANG user, and how to use the Wang Office gateway. There's also a BITNET primer with helpful information for both the beginner and the more experienced user, and an article on basic electronic mail etiquette. In January the UKCC will offer a short course on electronic mail, especially for beginners. Details are included in this issue. If you have a terminal and an userid, you automatically have access to the networks across campus and around the world. Our Consultants will be happy to answer any questions you might have about getting started, or help you with any problems you might encounter. Just call 257-2249 or stop by 110 McVey Hall. ************************************************************************* BITNET: A CMS PRIMER There are lots of electronic mail networks available, and BITNET (Because It's Time) is one of the most popular networks, worldwide. It's easy to use, once you learn a few simple basics. While this article discusses BITNET for the CMS user, BITNET can also be accessed from the PRIME and the Wang systems. For more information, contact a Consultant in 110 McVey Hall (257-2249) and the online documentation. This article was written for new users of BITNET services, but it also includes helpful information for those of you who are already using it. A quick perusal of the text here will familiarize you with the basic concepts behind BITNET and how to communicate with people through it. A longer look will show you the many types of information services available in the network and explain how to access them. A companion online file to this article is BITNET SERVERS, which lists the currently available servers and services. A copy is available on the BITNET disk. To look at the BITNET disk GRAB BITNET ( F BITNET FOR THE BEGINNER If you intend to make any sense out of this article, you should first have a basic understanding of some computer concepts: mainframes, userids, and the like. Since you're reading this there's a good chance you already understand these things. If not, go back, read some documentation on your system, and get comfortable with "logging on," "editing," and all those other fun activities. Then you can begin communicating through BITNET. The concepts we present here aren't terribly Earth-shattering, but you shouldn't dive into them totally unprepared. If you already understand computer networking, you'll find this section entirely dull and pedantic. We would advise you to skip to the next part, Messages. For the rest of you, we'll try to make this quick and painless. The word "computer" still scares many people. When BITNET is described simply as a "computer network," that one word can send chills up your spine. Sometimes a phrase like "communications medium" can make the technology a little more accessible. That's how we like to think of it. It's not some awful computer-techie sort of thing. Rather, it's a tool for communicating with people and exchanging information; just like your telephone, only a little more complex. This doesn't mean that there isn't a lot of gee-whiz technical stuff behind BITNET. If that's the sort of thing that tickles your fancy, you'll find it in BITNET. The rest of you, however, won't need to know the gory details in order to use BITNET effectively. That mainframe you log onto is connected to mainframes at other universities and institutions. The connection is usually a leased line, a special sort of telephone connection. You might say these computers are always on the phone with each other. Our particular network is what is known as a "store and forward" network. This means that if I send something from Kentucky to someone in Los Angeles, the computers in the network between Kentucky and California will store and forward it from computer to computer until it reaches its destination. In BITNET there's only one way from Point A to Point B. A small piece of the network might look like this: A -- B -- C | D --E -- F -- G -- H | | I -- J K -- L | M -- N These letters represent computers in the network, and the dashes between them are the leased lines. If I'm at A, and I send a file to someone at N, it would travel the following path: A - B - D - E - F - G - K - N Each of the computers in BITNET is called a "node" and has a unique name that identifies it to the other nodes. For example, one of the mainframe computers here has the nodename "UKCC." You might liken this to a state or country abbreviation: In the postal service: KY = Kentucky In BITNET: UKCC = University of Kentucky Your userid in combination with the name of your node is your "network address." It's usually written in the format userid@node (read "userid at node"). For example, the name of my node is YALEVM, and my userid is CONDON. Therefore, my network address is CONDON@YALEVM. If I know the userid@node of someone in the network, I can communicate with them, and they can communicate with me. The same goes for you. All you need to know are a few commands. MESSAGES There are three basic methods of communicating via BITNET: mail, message, and file. The reason to choose one over the other for a particular application will become clear after a little explanation. The message (sometimes called "interactive message") is the fastest and most convenient method of communication available through BITNET. It's the network's equivalent of a telephone conversation. The difference is that the words are typed instead of spoken. What you type is transmitted immediately (well, quickly) to its destination. In BITNET this destination is the network address (userid@node) of the person you want to contact. If the person you're contacting is logged on, the message will be displayed on their screen. If not, their computer will tell you so, and your message is lost forever. In other words, no one is there to answer the phone. The syntax to send messages depends on your computer and system software. People on VM/CMS systems would type something like this: TELL userid@node message For example: TELL KRISTEN@YALEVM Hey Kristen, What's up? userid@node your message UKCC's systems documentation has more information on TELL and its capabilities. When a message arrives on your screen, it will look something like this: FROM YALEVM(KRISTEN): Hello! It's been a while, no? Now for the disadvantages: Text sent by message must be short. In general, your message length can be one line about the width of your screen. In other words, you won't be sending someone a copy of your thesis via the TELL command. Also, you can only communicate with someone in this way when they're logged on. Considering time zone differences, this is often quite inconvenient. Lastly, there's the problem of links. If the connection to the node you want to contact is not up, you'll receive an error message and whatever you sent is lost. However, this doesn't make the command totally useless. As you'll see later on, TELL is extremely helpful in accessing the various BITNET services. FILES Files are another way to communicate over BITNET. The text files and programs you store on your computer can be transmitted to users at other nodes. People on VM/CMS systems would use a syntax like this: SHIP filename filetype userid@node For example: SHIP BITNET USERHELP KRISTEN@YALEVM file you're sending recipient's address These commands are useful for sending programs or large volumes of data over the network, but you shouldn't use them for your everyday communication. The mail utilities (covered below) are easier to use. People on VM/CMS systems would use the ACCEPT or RDRLIST commands to process files sent to them in this way. Check online HELP for more information on these commands. MAIL The other form of BITNET communication has been given a very apt name: mail (often called "electronic mail" or "e-mail"). Just like regular postal service mail ("snail mail"), you provide an address, return address, and text. Software for sending mail differs from site to site, but we may be able to shed some light on what most mail looks like and how it works. Mail files are really just specially formatted text files. One thing that makes them different is the "mail header." This tells a BITNET system and your mail software that it's not a regular text file. It looks something like this: Date: Fri, 10 Sep 88 23:52:00 EDT today's date From: Ted Kord your address Subject: COBOL declared illegal subject To: Kristen Maryrose Shaw recipient's address An entire mail message would look like this: mail header Date: Fri, 10 Sep 88 23:52:00 EDT From: Ted Kord Subject: COBOL declared illegal To: Kristen Maryrose Shaw + ================================================================== + Have you seen the newspapers? Is this good news, or what? I think that the ramifications are startling. This is one more step on the road to a higher civilization. We may make it out of the Computer Age yet. Or is it the Space Age? I keep forgetting... mail text Mail has a number of advantages. The size of a mail file is limited only by your long-windedness (though we don't recommend that you transmit anything longer than 3,000 lines). If the person at the destination address is not logged on, the message will be stored until they read it. If the links to that particular node are disconnected, your mail will be held until it can get through. Also, mail is the only way you can communicate with people in networks outside of BITNET. The disadvantage of mail is that it is, indeed, slower than messages. The longer your mail file, the longer it will take to get from Point A to Point B. If your mail is less than 100 lines you won't have to worry about that too much. By the way, there's documentation about UKCC's electronic mail facilities. BITNET Introduction: MAIL and MAILBOOK is available with the VIEW UKCC MANUALS command. SERVERS AND SERVICES One of the first things experienced BITNET users will tell you about is the variety of file servers, name servers, relays, and so on. They might describe them to you as "virtual machines" or "server machines." This kind of talk makes plenty of sense if you're a typical IBM techno-nerd, but for the novice this terminology might as well be Gaelic. Luckily, the concept is really very simple, despite everyone's efforts to make it confusing. A "server" is a userid much like yours. It may exist on your computer (node) or on some other BITNET node. The people who set up this userid have it running a program that will respond to your commands. This is a server. The commands you send and the way in which the server responds to them depends on the particular program being run. For example, the servers NETSERV@MARIST and LISTSERV@BITNIC offer different types of services, and so require different commands. The various kinds of servers are described later in this article. You can send your commands to servers in one of two formats: mail or message. Not all servers accept commands via both formats, but this information is included in BITNET SERVERS. People on VM/CMS systems would send commands something like this: TELL userid@node command For example: TELL LISTSERV@BITNIC INDEX Many servers can also accept commands via mail. Indeed, some will only accept your commands in that format. The syntax for the commands you send remains the same. You send mail to the server as if you were sending the mail to a person. The text of your message would be the command. Some servers will take the command as the first line of a text message, others require it in the "Subject:" line. Some servers will accept more than one command in a mail message, others will take only one. Here's an example of a mail message sent to LISTSERV@BITNIC requesting a list of files: Date: Fri, 10 Sep 88 23:52:00 EDT From: Rebecca Estelle Shaw To: Listserv ================================================================== INDEX Throughout this document we'll use examples where commands are sent to servers via message. However, for many of the cases we'll present, you have the option of using mail. The choice is up to you. There are two particularly confusing aspects of servers of which you should be aware. First, servers in the same category (say, file servers) don't always accept the same commands. Many of them are extremely different, and others are just different enough to be annoying. There are many approaches to setting up a server, and everyone is trying to build a better mousetrap. The second problem is that many servers fill two, sometimes three categories of server. For example, LISTSERV works as a list server and a file server. Many LISTSERVs have been modified to act as directory servers as well. FILE SERVERS Remember that a server runs on a userid much like yours. Like your userid, it has many capabilities, including the ability to store files. The program that a file server runs enables it to send you files from its directory, as well as a list of files available. These may be programs or text files. Those of you with PCs and modems would liken these servers to dial-up bulletin boards. You will generally send three types of commands to a file server. The first type is a request for a list of files the server offers. The second is a request that a specific file be sent to your userid. The third, and most important, is a HELP command. The HELP command is very important because it's one of the few commands that almost all servers accept, no matter what the type. Because the commands differ from server to server, you'll often find this indispensable. Sending HELP to a server will usually result in a message or file sent to your userid listing the various commands and their syntax. Keep some documentation handy until you're comfortable with a particular server. To request a list of files from a server, you'll usually send it a command like INDEX or DIR. The list of files will be sent to you via mail or in a file. For example: TELL LISTSERV@BITNIC INDEX To request a specific file from the list you receive, you would use a command like GET or SENDME. For example, to request the file BITNET USERHELP from LISTSERV@BITNIC you would type: TELL LISTSERV@BITNIC SENDME BITNET USERHELP In many cases, the files are organized into subdirectories or filelists. This can make requesting a file more complicated. As always, this makes it even more essential that you keep documentation about a particular server handy. Some file servers offer programs that you can run which will send commands to the server for you. DIRECTORY SERVERS Directory servers (sometimes called "name servers") are offered for two reasons. One is to help you locate the network address of a specific individual, and the other is to help you find people in BITNET with specific interests. You might call them the "phone books" of networks. There are a number of directory servers in BITNET. Unfortunately, few of them accept the same commands or respond in the same way. Worse, there's no guarantee that an individual you're looking for is registered on a particular directory server. There is no central directory server or requirement for people to be registered in one. Given these problems, you might wonder what good these servers are at all. They're disparate, disorganized, and often difficult to access. However, if you have a good idea of who or what you're looking for, they can be useful. Let's say I'm looking for the network address of Scott Free. He may or may not be registered with one of many directory servers. Searching all of them would be time- consuming, considering the number of servers. However, this time I'm lucky, because I have some information: 1. Scott Free goes to Drew University. 2. The nodename for Drew is DREW. 3. There just happens to be a directory server at Drew: NAMESERV@DREW The lucky point here is that Drew University has a directory server. There's a good chance that he may be registered there. I retrieve the documentation for NAMESERV@DREW (remember the HELP command?) and send a query: TELL NAMESERV@DREW SEARCH/NAME Scott Free Unfortunately, there's no entry for "Scott Free," and I'm stuck. I'll have to call Scott and ask him for his network address. Just because Scott didn't register himself with the server doesn't mean you shouldn't. Some name servers allow people at other nodes to register themselves. Others don't. More information on these servers is available in BITNET SERVERS and via their HELP commands. I'll use NAMESERV@DREW as an example of how name servers take your registration, but you should note that these commands are specific to this server. The syntax to register myself would be: TELL NAMESERV@DREW REGISTER first last keywords For example: TELL NAMESERV@DREW REGISTER Chris Condon cars money I entered only two keywords there ("cars" and "money"), but I could have entered as many as five. These are useful when people make searches for groups of people with the same interests. For example, if I were looking on NAMESERV@DREW for people with an interest in "money," I would have used a command like this: TELL NAMESERV@DREW SEARCH/FIELD MONEY FORUMS, DIGESTS, AND ELECTRONIC MAGAZINES The idea of mailing lists has been given new life with the advent of computer networks. Most of us are on mailing lists, be they for magazines, bills, or those silly pamphlets you get from your Senator. Computers have brought a whole new degree of speed and function to mailing lists, as we'll see. In BITNET, mailing lists are used mainly to keep people with similar interests in contact. There are several formats in which this contact can take place. These are "forums," "digests," and "electronic magazines." Forums are a good example of how the utility of mailing lists has been expanded in BITNET. Let's say you've subscribed to a forum for people interested in COBOL (gack!). How you could subscribe to such a list will be described later. Someone (anyone!) on the mailing list sends mail to a server where the list is kept. This server forwards the mail to all of the people in the forum. When mail from a forum arrives in your computer mailbox, the header will look much like this: Date: Fri, 10 Sep 88 23:52:00 EDT Reply-To: COBOL Discussion List Sender: COBOL Discussion List From: Ted Kord Subject: No More Perform-Through-Varyings! To: Daniel Lawrence Shaw ============================================================ This looks a little confusing, but there really isn't much to it. In this example, Ted Kord ("From:") sent mail to the COBOL-L list address. This server then forwarded the mail to everybody on the list, including Daniel Lawrence Shaw ("To:"). Note the line named "Reply-To:". This line tells your mail software that when you reply to the note the reply should go to the list . . . meaning everybody on the list. People will, in turn, reply to your mail, and you have a forum. This is usually very interesting, but it can lead to problems. First among these is the volume of mail you can receive. If you're in a very active forum, you can get fifty or more pieces of electronic mail in a single day. If you're discussing a controversial or emotional topic, expect more. Many people have a tendency to "flame." The speed and immediacy of electronic mail makes it very easy to whip out a quick, emotional response, to which there will be similar replies. We advise you to take some time and think out your responses to forum postings before inadvertently starting a "flame war." Digests provide a partial solution to these problems. In this case, mail that is sent to a mailing list is stored rather than sent out immediately. At some point, the moderator for the list organizes and condenses all of the correspondence for the day or week. She then sends this out to the people on the mailing list in one mailing. The drawback with this setup is that it requires a lot of human intervention. If the moderator gets sick, goes on vacation, or quits, activity for a particular digest can come to a screeching halt. Electronic magazines take the digest concept a step further. These mailing lists actually mimic the organization and format of "real" magazines. BITNET is used as a convenient and inexpensive distribution method for the information they contain. The frequency of distribution for these electronic magazines ranges from weekly to quarterly to whenever-the-editor-feels-like-it. This is the most formal, structured form of BITNET communication. LIST SERVERS In the previous section we mentioned servers that are used to control mailing lists. As you might guess, a server that performs this function is called a "list server." Most of these have the terribly original userid of LISTSERV. One of these servers can control subscriptions to many mailing lists. The most difficult concept behind list servers is the difference between a LISTSERV and its list- ids. When you subscribe to a mailing list, you send the appropriate command to a LISTSERV. When you want to communicate to the people on the mailing list, you send mail to the list-id. For example, there's a list named LIAISON. To subscribe to this list, you would send a command to LISTSERV@BITNIC. You could then correspond with people on that mailing list by sending mail to LIAISON@BITNIC. LIAISON is a list-id, a "satellite" of the LISTSERV. We mention this because many people make the mistake of sending commands by mail to list-ids. This annoys people to no end and creates a lot of unnecessary network traffic. To subscribe to a list, you would send the LISTSERV a SUBSCRIBE command: SUBscribe listname your name In this example, Kristen Shaw is sending LISTSERV@BITNIC the command to subscribe to LIAISON: TELL LISTSERV@BITNIC SUB LIAISON Kristen Shaw If she had misspelled her name when entering a SUBscribe command, she would simply re-send it with the correct spelling. To delete her name from the mailing list, she would enter an UNSUBscribe command: TELL LISTSERV@BITNIC UNSUB LIAISON Those are the basic commands you need to know in order to access LISTSERV controlled mailing lists. However, LISTSERV has a multitude of features, so we encourage you to read the LISTSERV documentation. Enter TELL LISTSERV HELP For more information or help with BITNET, contact a Consultant in 110 McVey Hall, 257-2249. -- Chris Condon Editor's Note: This article was adapted with permission from the BITNET Services Library. ************************************************************************* ELECTRONIC MAIL ON CMS Electronic mail is becoming more and more important as our users become acquainted with its potential. You can exchange messages and files with other local users or with colleagues at other institutions using BITNET and other networks on the Internet (Type HELP BITNET for more information). It's helpful to have some way of organizing and filing incoming and outgoing mail so that it can be retrieved easily later. Mail notebooks are provided for this purpose. SENDING MAIL To send mail to another user, you need to know that person's userid and node. There are a few nodes at UK besides UKCC; like UKWANG, CCOL, UKPR, UKAG, and UKMA, as well as many other nodes at other institutions. The UK telephone directory includes a listing of userids and nodes. The command format for sending mail is MAIL userid@node If the nodename isn't entered, the mailer will assume the node is the same as the node from which you're sending mail. Next, you'll be prompted for the person's name and the subject of the correspondence. (The name and subject are optional; press enter to skip them. You can permanently associate the name field to a userid by using a NAMES file. Type HELP NAMES for more information.) The screen should then display the mail header so that you can enter the text of your message, using the PF keys to add or delete lines, scroll backward and forward, and to send the mail. There are several options available from within MAIL. For details, type Help MAIL MENU When you send mail, it's automatically logged into your ALL NOTEBOOK, unless you've changed the default logging procedure. You can change the name of your default notebook for particular correspondents with the NAMES command. Keep as many separate notebooks as you like. RECEIVING MAIL When you receive mail from someone, it will appear in your reader as a mail file. Mail may be personal correspondence from another user at UKCC, from someone at another institution, or a newsletter or digest from a mailing list. Many lists are available from special interest groups on various list servers on BITNET. To read your incoming mail, type MAIL. This causes all mail files from the reader and items from your unread notebook to be displayed in a menu. When MAIL is entered, there may be a short delay while the mail files are being read, depending on how many mail files need to be processed. When the menu is displayed, the PF keys are defined to serve special functions within MAIL. To tailor a mail profile to serve your special needs, you can create a file called MAILUSER XEDIT and change the default options. Enter Help MAILUSER PROFILE for more information about customizing the mail environment. Mail is stored in a file on your A-disk called UNREAD NOTEBOOK until you dispose of each item in some way. You can save mail by LOGging it to another notebook, or delete it with DISCARD or BURN. By using PF keys, mail items in the notebooks can be displayed, printed, forwarded to another user, replied to, or deleted with a single keystroke. In addition, mail items can be copied, sorted on any field, or moved to another notebook. All mail items with a certain field in common may be selected for viewing. LOG or DISCARD your mail in a timely manner to conserve disk space and save time required while loading mail. ORGANIZING YOUR NOTEBOOKS If you have several notebooks and need help keeping them organized, try using the MAILBOOK command. It enables you to display the names of all your notebooks and to display the individual mail items in each notebook, listing the return address, the address, date, and subject. Help is available within MAILBOOK by pressing the PF1 key, or enter HELP MAILBOOK to see the help screen. To view all the options available within MAILBOOK, enter Help MAILBOOK MENU and you'll be able to read more information about each option by moving the cursor to that option and pressing the ENTER or PF1 key. To display the names of all notebooks, enter MAILBOOK. To display the mail items in a particular notebook, move the cursor to select the notebook and press the PF10 key. Another way to display the contents of a notebook is to enter MAILBOOK filename or MAILBOOK filename filetype and all the mail items in that notebook will be displayed. The function of each PF key is displayed across the bottom of the screen during a mailbook session. Each time you enter the MAIL command, with no arguments, all new mail in your reader is entered into the unread notebook. You can look at all the items in the unread notebook without adding the newest files from your reader by typing MAILBOOK UNREAD or MAILBOOK UNREAD NOTEBOOK COST FACTORS There are some factors which can influence the cost of using MAIL and the speed at which it displays your MAIL files. We recommend that you keep few files in the unread notebook since the entire notebook must be read into memory each time you use MAIL. It's best to either discard mail items or move them to other notebooks when you've finished reading them. As an alternative to MAIL, you can view the list of files in your reader before reading them into the unread notebook by typing RLIST or RL. This gives a menu of all files in the reader. You can browse or delete each mail file while in RLIST. Query RDR ALL, RBrowse, Purge RDR nnnn, or BURN nnnn can also be used. All these commands are less expensive to use than MAIL, but considering the ease of using MAIL for mail files, we recommend that you use MAIL whenever appropriate. If you'd like more information or help with using electronic mail on CMS, contact a Consultant in 110 McVey Hall or by calling 257-2249. -- Chris Corman ************************************************************************* ELECTRONIC MAIL ON THE PRIME Using electronic mail on the PRIME is easy. To send mail to another PRIME user, just type MAIL TO userid where userid is the userid to which you're sending the mail. Press the RETURN key. You'll be asked for a subject line for your message. Type a one-line subject and press the RETURN key. (You don't have to give a subject. If you'd rather not, just press the RETURN key.) Now you're ready to enter the message you want to send. Because mail doesn't wrap around while you type, be sure to press the RETURN key at the end of each line. When you're finished with your mail message, type: QUIT on a separate line and press the RETURN key. Or type .. (two periods) on a separate line. If you enter QUIT, you'll be asked if you're "Ready to quit now?" Answer with YES and the letter will be sent. If you type .. instead of QUIT, the letter will be sent without asking if you're ready to quit. That's how easy it is to send electronic mail on the PRIME. MAIL FROM THE PRIME TO CMS It's also easy to send mail to a userid on CMS; just add a BITNET address to the userid. For example, if you wanted to send mail from the PRIME to the Editor of The Kentucky Register whose account is on the IBM, you would type MAIL TO EDITOR@UKCC and press the RETURN key. RECEIVING MAIL If you receive mail from another user, a message will be sent to your screen. If you're not logged on when the mail arrives, the message "You have mail waiting" will be displayed when you log on. To look at this mail, type: MAIL R and press the RETURN key. The first mail item waiting for you will be shown on your screen. If the item is longer than one screen, the prompt "More" is displayed at the bottom of the screen. When you're ready to see more of the letter press the RETURN key and another screen of the letter will be shown. When you've seen all of the letter the prompt "Disposition:" will appear at the end. At this point, you'll have to decide what you want to do with the mail. If you want to keep it, just press the RETURN key. If you want to delete it, press the letter D and then the RETURN key. To save the contents of the letter into a file, type: FILE filename and press the RETURN key. The contents will be stored in the file named filename. If you'd like to reply to the mail, type the letter R and press the RETURN key at the "Disposition:" prompt. Then you can complete mail as you did when you were sending it to a user, but you don't have to type MAIL TO userid. When you've finished with the first letter you'll be given the next letter you have waiting. OPTIONS You can use electronic mail to send something you've stored in a separate file. Just type MAIL TO userid -F filename where filename is the name of the file you want to send to the recipient whose userid you specified, and press the RETURN key. You'll be prompted for a subject, and the file will be sent to the person. If you'd like to write part of a letter and then include one of your files and add more text to your letter, type: MAIL TO userid Press the RETURN key and enter the subject when you're asked. Type in as much of the letter as you want and when you're ready to include your file, type on a separate line: .INSERT filename and press the RETURN key. You can continue to type more of the letter and then quit, or end here by typing the word QUIT (or ..) on a separate line. There are many other options available while using MAIL. You can also access the window editor and use it while typing in or reading mail. For online information about the mail system on the PRIME, type: HELP MAIL and press the RETURN key. If you'd like more information or help with using e-mail on the PRIME, contact Peggy Akridge at PEGGY@UKPR or 257-2237, 100 McVey Hall. -- Peggy Akridge ************************************************************************* ELECTRONIC MAIL ON THE WANG OFFICE Wang Office Mail is a network of VS Wang machines sending mail electronically to one another. As in all mail services, you'll probably want to have your mailbox on the same system as the people you usually correspond with electronically. Although there is a gateway to BITNET and mail does pass from one Wang Office machine to another, the more machines the mail has to go through, the longer it takes. For access to one of the Wang Office machines, send a memo to one of the Wang Office Administrators. The memo should include the following information: Your name Department Working Title Initials Campus phone number Here are the names of the Wang Office Administrators and the sites for which they're responsible. Administration Bldg. Janet Cabannis 7-1080 Admissions Marcia Wright 7-1194 Business & Econ. not available Communications Dan Short 7-7682 Development Kathy Farrah 7-5184 Food Services Sue Clark 7-6156 Grad. & Res. Studies Jeannie Taylor 7-8308 Info. Support Center Jayna Cheesman 7-1088 Law School Paul VanBooven 7-8321 Medical School Diane Gagel 3-6382 MC Chancellor Patsy Lyons 3-8064 M.M.I. Lana Spicer 3-8967 Student Fin. Aid Loretta DeToma 7-3172 University Exten. Frank Solomon 7-1046 MOST COMMONLY ASKED QUESTIONS 1. How do I get training? >>>There's an online training module on the first Wang Office Menu. Simply log on to your machine and choose the computer-based training module. You can also buy a manual from Wang Laboratories: Wang Office - VS Office User's Guide, order number 715-1163 7-88. 2. I've read everything in my mailbox and I still get the prompt "Message(s) not read." Why? >>>You've probably deleted a "NOT READ" mail item. Look in the folder called WASTEBASKET for the not-read items. The WASTEBASKET" works just like a wastebasket in "real life;" until someone (usually the Wang Office Administrator) empties it, it's still there. 3. Who has access to my mail? >>>There are only two ways other people can get access to your mail: You can give someone access to all or some of your Wang Office functions through "USER ADMINISTRATION," or you can give someone your password. We don't recommend that you give others your password since that gives them access to everything you have access to. Electronically speaking, they are you. 4. Every time I log on I see the same BROADCAST. How can I stop this? >>>If you press the Return/Enter key on this screen when BROADCAST is displayed, you'll never see the BROADCAST again. However, if you press PF16 on this screen, it will continue to show up each time you access Wang Office. 5. What do I do if my mail doesn't seem to be delivered? >>>Contact your Wang Office Administrator. Since you're dealing with multiple pieces of software and multiple machines, any one of a number of problems could have occurred. Your Wang Office Administrator can check the problem out for you. 6. Can I send and receive mail from BITNET? >>>Yes, there is a gateway between BITNET and the WANG OFFICE. See the accompanying article for specific instructions. 7. How long will the system keep my messages and calendar entries? >>>This is determined for each system by the Wang Office Administrator. The factors the Wang Office Administrators use to determine this include the available disk space, individual need for retention, system response time, etc. If you need to know the exact number of days, contact your Wang Office Administrator. THE GATEWAY FROM WANG OFFICE The Wang Office mail gateway provides e-mail access among academic and administrative users by connecting the 1,500 Wang Office mailboxes and the rest of the campus. The mail gateway was developed by Lexington Campus Data Processing, a computing department reporting to the VP for Information Systems. Lexington Campus Data Processing was supported in this effort by the UKCC Systems Programmers and by Wang Labs. The gateway development was made possible by a software exchange agreement with the University of Wisconsin. The following directions will help you use the new system. If you have specific questions or problems, call Janet Baynham at 257-1535 or Judy Kisil at 257-2241. SENDING MAIL THROUGH THE GATEWAY Select "Mail." Then select "Send: Memo" or "Send: Package" from the Wang Office Menus. If you select "Create Package," you can specify the address either in a memo or in a document as the first item in the package. As in the sample below, type BITNET after "To:" as the recipient, and enter the subject. To: BITNET Subject:Meeting on Thursday On the FIRST line, first position (left-justified) of the document, type TO:, the mail name, and address of the recipient. To: BITNET Subject:Meeting on Thursday to: mickey@ukcc.uky.edu Type the text of your memo and send the memo or package as you normally would, using PF1 (Send). To: BITNET Subject:Meeting on Thursday to: mickey@ukcc.uky.edu Mickey, Please note that we have a meeting on Thursday at 8:00 a.m. in the Office Tower. Thanks. Jasmine Be sure to specify TO: BITNET for all mail users not on the Wang Office Network, even if they aren't on BITNET (if they're on the Internet, for example). SENDING MAIL TO MULTIPLE MAIL GATEWAY RECIPIENTS You send mail to more than one recipient the same way you send mail to one recipient, with one exception. After you type the first mail name and address, list the other non-Wang Office mail recipients, using a comma to separate each recipient. Each mail name and address must be completely on one line (not split between two lines), and the first character of each additional line must be blank. To: BITNET Subject:Office Bash to: mickey@ukcc.uky.edu, mimi@ukcc.uky.edu, raoul@ukcc.uky.edu, oscar@ukcc.uky.edu Hey Gang, Everyone invited to the Office Bash! Walt SENDING MAIL TO GATEWAY AND WANG OFFICE RECIPIENTS You can send mail to mail gateway and Wang Office recipients at the same time. After you've typed in all the network mail addresses and after you've typed your memo, press PF9 (Address) to go to the Wang Office directory. Select BITNET along with anyone else in the Wang Office directory to whom you want to send mail. (With BITNET in the distribution list, the program will look for an address on the first line of the first item in the package.) Then continue to send the memo or package as you would normally. Be sure to include the names of the Wang Office recipients in the salutation of your message, because the other recipient or recipients will be unable to "View Recipient" as you can in Wang Office. To: Distribution Subject:Softball Game of Friday to: mickey@ukcc.uky.edu, mimi@ukcc.uky.edu, raoul@ukcc.uky.edu, peggy@ukpr.uky.edu Mickey, Mimi, Raoul, Peggy Softball game at diamond, Friday. All must attend and remember we will be shorthanded until Barney returns from Sri Lanka. Jasmine P.S. Maybe you could wash those uniforms! REPLYING TO MAIL RECEIVED FROM THE MAIL GATEWAY You can reply to mail from non-Wang users just as you reply to mail received from Wang Office users. To reply to mail from another network, use PF1 (Reply). You do NOT have to type in a mail name and address; just reply to "BITNET." Sending Mail from a Non-Wang System to a Wang Office System Use the mail program on your system to send mail to firstname.lastname@UKWANG.UKY.EDU For example, on CMS, MAIL HERMAN.COLLINS@UKWANG.UKY.EDU DELIVERY TIMES Although e-mail is often delivered almost immediately, sometimes there are delays. Of course, if the target machine is down, the mail can't be delivered until the target machine is brought back up. Less obviously, mail sometimes must be passed through several machines to reach its target, and if any intermediate machine is down, the mail will wait until that machine is back up. In addition, some machines send and receive a great deal of mail, and often the communications lines are too slow to handle the traffic in a timely manner. This can cause delays of an hour or more on campus, and as much as several days to some off-campus sites. Mail to Wang Office users is affected by these delays, plus additional delays as the Wang Office machines pass the letters from the gateway machine to the target user's machine. GETTING HELP Since the e-mail network includes a large number of disparate machines, there can sometimes be problems passing mail from one system to another. If you should get stuck, please contact your System Administrator (Wang Office users), or the UKCC Information Center (257-2241). -- Janet Baynham Jayna Cheesman Herman Collins ************************************************************************* THE WHOIS DIRECTORY SERVICE A problem with electronic mail is getting your potential correspondent's network address, a problem not unlike getting someone's postal mail address or telephone number. As with these more traditional identifiers a good way to get someone's network address is to ask them. Many people now list their nework addresses on their business cards and letterhead. Also, when you receive electronic mail from someone their address will appear in the "From" field in the header. Most mail systems will allow you to reply to that address automatically. Since it sometimes isn't possible or convenient to ask someone for their address the UKCC provides an online directory service. The service is called WHOIS, and it's available to all users with BITNET or Internet access. This includes CMS users, PRIME users, Wang Office users, and users of systems in Engineering and Mathematical Sciences. Although only users at the University of Kentucky and the Community Colleges can be registered, WHOIS can be queried by anyone with network access from anywhere on BITNET or the Internet. Your listing is available worldwide. WHOIS accepts a simple set of commands for examining and updating the directory. For example, if you needed to locate someone on campus named (Fred Nietzsche) you could send WHOIS the command: find fred nietzsche and WHOIS might respond with something like: * fred@ukcc Fred Nietzsche WHOIS commands can be sent by mail or interactive message; the details differ from system to system and are described below. CMS users can send commands to WHOIS any of three different ways: with the WHOIS command: whois find ... with the TELL command: tell whois@ukcc find ... or by sending mail to WHOIS@UKCC.UKY.EDU: mail whois@ukcc.uky.edu using the WHOIS command as the text. (When sending commands by mail the word "whois" isn't included in the text). PRIME users use the command: mail to whois@ukcc.uky.edu Wang Office users communicate with WHOIS by sending mail through the Wang Office gateway. The mail is addressed to BITNET and in the text the WHOIS commands are preceded with the line: to: whois@ukcc.uky.edu Some systems on campus automatically register new users with WHOIS when they're added; with others you must add yourself. You can check your entry by sending the WHOIS command SHOW and you can add yourself to the directory or change your entry with the WHOIS command NAME. For example: name Fred Flintstone would set your name in the directory to Fred Flintstone. WHOIS records your network address as a part of your entry automatically, so you need supply only your name. You can, in addition, supply a telephone number for your entry with the PHONE command: phone 257-2900 You can remove yourself from the directory with the WHOIS command DROP, giving yourself an unlisted network address. If you have userids on several campus systems you should DROP the entries for all but the one you use as your home network address, making it much easier for someone to decide which listed address should be used to contact you. You have control of your own directory entry. Other users can examine it, but only you and your system|s administrator can change it or remove it. WHOIS checks common alternative spellings and nicknames when searching the directory. It also checks for partial matches. If you sent a query like this, for example: find fred WHOIS might respond with something like: * fred@ukcc Fred Nietzsche * fff@ukcc Fred Flintstone It|s usually a good idea to begin searching with a first and last name and then try more or less restrictive searches as necessary. WHOIS also has a GUESS command that tries to locate misspelled names, so if FIND fails you can try GUESS. GUESS works best with a single word, like a last name. WHOIS provides a HELP command that will give you a very brief summary of its functions. A listing of the WHOIS directory is published in the "University of Kentucky Faculty-Student-Staff Directory" each year, but the most up-to-date information is always available online. -- Dave Elbon ************************************************************************* SMILEY FACES, FLAMES, AND OTHER CUSTOMS ON E-MAIL A newcomer to electronic mail (e-mail) will find that a message generally looks like the notes or memos he or she is accustomed to seeing on paper. It will begin with a header section that indicates who sent it, who the addressee is, and when it was sent. It also will generally be written in more-or-less straightforward prose. But e-mail is not the same as paper communication and, naturally, the people using this method have adopted some customs that are different from those used with paper media. These customs are still evolving, and vary from person to person and network to network. You could think of these quasi-conventions as being somewhat like the customs of spelling English words were a couple of centuries ago. Writers do what looks right to them, and readers rely heavily on context to find their way through the results. Usually there is no problem. E-mail is a written medium, but it doesn't presently allow the flexibility of writing on paper. For instance, you can't easily draw a picture for your reader and you usually can't even underline a word. There is nothing inherent in the concept of electronic mail to force this limitation; messages simply must accommodate the lowest common denominator of today's systems. When we talk to each other, we communicate along many channels besides the bare words we use. The tones of our voices, our postures, and our facial expressions send crucial information to our interlocutors. Most of this information is eliminated from phone calls, less is present in handwritten notes, and little or none is available in e-mail. The symbol known as the "smiley face" is probably the best example of e-mail's response to this need. Formed by a colon, a hyphen, and a right parenthesis, it looks like this: :-) The smiley face is used to indicate that the words it follows were meant (at least partially) in jest. If you rotate this page ninety degrees clockwise, you should be able to see how the symbol gets its name. If, however, you dislike rotating paper, you should lay your left ear down on your shoulder [ :-) ]. The smiley face seems to be widely used and understood on the networks, especially on USENET. It is not, however, completely standardized. I have seen these variations: :-> ;-) The one made with a semicolon pleases me; I imagine it as a grin with a wink. Careful use of the smiley face to indicate jokes can help avoid misunderstandings that might lead to what networkers call "flaming." Flaming (from the verb "to flame") is the use of intemperate language, especially in anger or derision. Because e-mail transmits no tonal cues outside the plain message, and because it makes an immediate response so easy, inappropriate flaming is a danger. The best way to protect yourself from making that mistake is to draft your reply, do something else for a while, and then re-read it before deciding to send it. Though you may be looking at a video screen, the entities to whom you are actually sending your messages are almost always members of the species Homo sapiens, organisms whose feel- ings are notoriously fragile. Take care not to hurt them unintentionally. Which is not to say you should never flame. Expressions of anger, vigorous criticism, or even ridicule are sometimes useful. It often helps if you indicate to your readers that you are consciously choosing to phrase your message in that mode, and are not just suffering from rabies. Do so by enclosing that part of your message with the warning messages "FLAME ON" and "FLAME OFF." I have seen this done most often when the person or group being flamed (yes, they also use it as a transitive verb) is some third party other than the addressee or is a small minority among the addressees. In any case, flames on the networks seldom consist only of vituperation; with a few exceptions, they usually contain logical or factual arguments. Many of those arguments are about the use of the networks themselves. Because uppercase letters are heavily used in the acronyms and names of system components, capitalization loses its visual impact as a way of indicating emphasis. An alternative is to capitalize the emphatic portion *AND* to enclose it in asterisks. Similarly, message segments that should be read as being _underlined_ are enclosed in single underscore characters. This convention is especially useful in a bibliography; the titles of books (enclosed in underscores) can be easily distinguished from articles (enclosed in quote marks). -- Russell Herman Editor's Note: This article was reprinted with permission from the July 1986 issue of NCSU Computing Center Newsletter. ************************************************************************* SIS REGISTRATION A SUCCESS At this writing, it is Wednesday, November 9. The first online registration using the new Student Information System (SIS) has been in progress for ten days, and so far, it has been an almost unqualified success. Over 10,000 students have received confirmed enrollments in classes for the Spring semester. If all goes as well in the later days of the registration period, all eligible students will have completed their registration by Thanksgiving. Colleges and departments have been monitoring their classes online throughout the registration, and have been adding to capacities and, when necessary, adding sections. They have also been analyzing demand based on lists of unfulfilled requests being kept at the registration center. Using this information, college and departments will be making additional capacity and section additions available to students during a schedule adjustment period on November 28, 29, and 30. The combination of in-stream changes and the schedule adjustment period should give students the ability to construct the best possible schedules during advance registration and cut down on the add/drop activity at the beginning of the Spring term in January. SIS is the first major system to run under the IDMS/R database management system at the University. With the help of our fine DBA staff, IDMS/R has been more than equal to the task of handling large numbers of concurrent users with excellent response time. The SIS software provided by Information Associates, Inc., has also performed well. I would like to publicly commend the DBA staff and other UKCC staff members who have been extremely responsive in dealing with the problems that have emerged with registration. Likewise, the Communications staff has been dealt quickly with any UKnet or other communications problems. Finally, the entire SIS project staff and our college and departmental colleagues have unfailingly done whatever was necessary to make this registration a success. Registration is only a start. SIS still has a long way to go to fulfill all the functions required of it. Admissions is presently being implemented, and Financial Aid, Degree Audit (the advising system), Billings and Collections, and other aspects of records and grading have yet to be put into effect. But a successful registration is a very good start that bodes well for the future of SIS and the University community. -- Jon Hesseldenz SIS Project Director ************************************************************************* UKCC SHORT COURSES The following short courses are free to all UK faculty, staff, and students, but preregistration is required. If you register for a course and then find that you will be unable to attend, you must cancel your registration by calling 257-UKCC. Failure to do so may jeopardize your right to register for future UKCC short courses. There are several ways you can register, depending on the class: * You can register online (see line 1596 for specific directions) -- some classes require online registration; or * You can register by calling 257-UKCC (this is Voice Mail Exchange, your registration will be confirmed by phone within five days). Many of these classes don't require any knowledge or experience with any computer system. If there are prerequisites for a particular class, they'll be listed in the class description. If you have questions about class content or bypassing prerequisites, call the instructor for that class. Introduction to VM/CMS and XEDIT Tuesday, January 17 and Thursday, January 19 Noon to 2:00 p.m. 104 M.I. King Library Saturday, February 11 and Saturday, February 18 10:00 a.m. to Noon 103 McVey Hall Monday, March 27 and Tuesday, March 28 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. 103 McVey Hall A basic introduction to interactive use of the IBM mainframe systems, this class presumes no previous knowledge of the IBM systems or any other computer system. You'll learn how to access the computer, how to create and manage files on your account, and how to use online tools such as CALENDAR and VIEW. You'll also learn how to use the CMS text editor, XEDIT, to create and modify individual files. This course will be taught in two two-hour sessions. Both sessions will provide hands-on practice of the commands that are covered. You will be given a class computer account which will remain active for the duration of the course. This course will be offered three times during the Spring semester. Your instructor will be Pat Murphy (257-2244). Introduction to Electronic Mail on the IBM Thursday, January 26 Noon to 2:00 p.m. 103 McVey Hall An introduction to the MAIL command on the IBM 3084, this class is for the beginner. You'll learn how to create mail files and send them to other IBM system users, to WANG system users, or to PRIME system users. We will also cover the use of BITNET to communicate with individuals at other academic centers around the world. You will learn how to read incoming mail and some techniques for storing old mail. We'll also discuss how to create and maintain a NAMES file of individuals with whom you frequently correspond. You will be taught the logon sequence and some basic CMS background before we begin the discussion of MAIL. This class presumes no previous knowledge of the IBM systems or any other computer system. You'll be given a CMS account for the duration of the course and will receive hands-on instruction for all the commands covered. Your instructor will be Pat Murphy (257-2244). Introduction to PRIMEWORD Tuesday and Thursday January 31 and February 2 Noon to 1:00 p.m. 103 McVey Hall The UKCC has recently installed a new word processing package on the PRIME computer which behaves much like the full screen word processing packages available on most PC's. It is modeled after a PC software package, WordMarc. It is menu-driven to a large degree, making it easy for even the novice computer user to generate professional looking documents with a minimum of effort. There is a laser printer connected to the PRIME which is accessible through PRIMEWORD providing letter-quality printout. This class presumes no previous knowledge of the PRIME system or experience with any other computer system. There are no prerequisites for this class. You'll be given a class computer account and receive supervised hands-on practice in using the commands. Your instructor will be Pat Murphy (257- 2244). Introduction to PHOENIX Monday through Wednesday February 13 - 15 Noon to 1:00 p.m. 103 McVey Hall The UKCC has recently purchased PHOENIX, a courseware authoring and presentation system, to run on the IBM 3084. This software greatly simplifies the task of creating computer-based training packages and computer test bank applications. The system provides a powerful full screen editor for creating presentation screens. Standard question types which are supported through a complex answer analysis feature are short answer, fill-in-the-blank, multiple choice, and true-false. The entire system from sign-on to sign-off is menu-driven, making it relatively easy even for non-programmers to develop quality computer courseware to supplement or enhance existing classroom instruction. Students can access courseware written for the IBM 3084 from any of the terminal cluster sites on campus. This introductory course is intended for anyone who has an interest in developing computer-aided instruction. No previous computer experience is required. Pat Murphy will be your instructor (257-2244). Graphics Tools and Concepts Monday, Wednesday, and Friday January 23, 25, 27 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. 326 McVey Hall (CCS) An introduction to mainframe graphics fundamentals, the three-day course will examine the terminology, techniques, devices, and software systems commonly used for graphics applications on the IBM systems. You'll learn how these tools and concepts may be integrated into instructional and research programs, and how to identify and develop potential graphics applications. Online demonstrations and exercises will be used extensively. No previous graphics or programming experience is necessary, but some knowledge of interactive computing and CMS will be helpful. Your instructor will be Bob Williamson (257-2227). Introduction to FORTRAN Wednesday, January 18, 1989 3:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. 103 McVey Hall An introduction to using VS FORTRAN and WATFOR-77 on the IBM 3084. The course will cover the statements used to compile and run FORTRAN source code using the CMS or MVS system. Useful options available with the VS FORTRAN compiler will be covered. Converting older FORTRAN code (FORTRAN G, FORTRAN H, etc.) to compile and run with the VS FORTRAN compiler will be discussed. Prerequisites are familiarity with CMS and XEDIT for file building and editing, and a solid background in FORTRAN coding. This is NOT a course about learning to program in FORTRAN. Tom Faller will be your instructor (257-2236). Online registration is required for this course. Introduction to Vectorized FORTRAN Wednesday, January 25 10:00 a.m. to Noon 103 McVey Hall An introduction to coding VS FORTRAN programs to use the Vector Facility on the IBM 3090 computer. Vectorization reduces the amount of time needed to process DO loops by concurrently processing the DO loop elements. Vectorization will work on unmodified code, but program speedup can be increased by proper coding techniques. Emphasis will be on using a vector compile log to find out which parts of a program need attention, and strategies for increasing the amount of code that is vectorizable. A good background in FORTRAN is prerequisite, as well as familiarity with CMS and XEDIT. Vectorizing works only with VS FORTRAN, so the FORTRAN class described above is a useful prerequisite if your code is in an older version of FORTRAN. Your instructor will be Tom Faller (257-2236). Online registration is required for this course. Introduction to Parallel FORTRAN Thursday, January 26 10:00 a.m. to Noon 103 McVey Hall The course will cover the basic concepts of parallel computing, and the extra statements in VS FORTRAN necessary to controlling a parallel job. Parallel FORTRAN allows a single job to execute across the multiple processors of an IBM 3090. Work is assigned to several tasks, which can execute concurrently. Parallel FORTRAN is available on the VM/XA system at UKCC. Vectorization of a parallel program will also be discussed. You should have a strong VS FORTRAN background, possibly with the other two FORTRAN short courses above. Your instructor will be Tom Faller (257-2236). Online registration is required for this course. Introduction to SAS Monday through Friday January 30 through February 3 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. 103 McVey Hall SAS is a collection of powerful and flexible data management and statistical analysis procedures that allow you to create and analyze libraries of data files on the IBM 3084. The course will emphasize simple data manipulation and general syntax and is designed for new and inexperienced SAS users. CMS and XEDIT knowledge is prerequisite. Your instructor will be Steve Thomson (257-2259). Online registration is required for this course. Introduction to DI3000 Monday, Wednesday, and Friday February 6, 8, and 10 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. 326 McVey Hall (CCS) DI3000, from Precision Visuals, Inc., is a device-independent, general purpose graphics software system. Primarily a toolkit of FORTRAN subroutines for the graphics programmer, it's easy to understand and use, and functionally rich and diverse. In this three-day class you'll learn to apply DI3000 tools to charts and graphs, illustrations, contour and three-dimensional surface maps, and high-quality text applications on the IBM systems. No previous graphics experience is necessary, but knowledge of FORTRAN and CMS will be helpful. Bob Williamson will be your instructor (257-2227). Online registration is required for this course. Introduction to SAS/GRAPH Tuesday and Thursday, February 7 and 9 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. 103 McVey Hall SAS/GRAPH is a collection of SAS PROCs that can be used to draw text in various fonts; plot values in the x-y plane with various curves; draw three-dimensional and contour plots of functions; display bar, pie, star, and block charts; and plot several different map displays using SAS datasets for county, state, and country boundaries on the IBM 3084. The Introduction to SAS short course, described above, is a prerequisite. Lorinda Wang will be your instructor (257-2204). Online registration is required for this course. Introduction to SCRIPT Tuesday and Thursday, February 14 and 16 3:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. 103 McVey Hall An introduction to the text processor on the IBM 3084. This course will be particularly helpful if you must prepare large documents for research work or for routine course work. This class will cover the basic script commands and commands for generating letter-quality output on the Apple LaserWriters. Completion of Introduction to VM/CMS and XEDIT, described above, is an adequate prerequisite. Your instructor will be Dave McCreary (257-2264). Online registration is required for this course. Introduction to graPHIGS Monday, Wednesday, and Friday February 20, 22, and 24 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. 326 McVey Hall (CCS) This course will deal with the basic capabilities of the IBM graphics software system "graPHIGS." It is a very powerful graphics modeling and drawing subroutine system based on the PHIGS graphics standard. It is normally accessed on the IBM 3090 using IBM 5085 workstations. This will be a "getting started" kind of session. Participants will learn to access the software, attach the workstations, write simple programs, and display and manipulate output. They will also learn to use IBM supplied reference materials. A knowledge of CMS and FORTRAN are essential. Some experience with DI3000, GDDM, Zeta library, or any other graphics subroutine system will be helpful. Your instructor will be Bob Williamson (257-2227). Online registration is required for this course. Introduction to SPSS-X Tuesday through Thursday February 21 through 24 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. 103 McVey Hall SPSS-X is a powerful program for displaying and analyzing data on the IBM 3084. This course is designed for those who have little or no knowledge of SPSS-X, but experience with CMS, or completion of the Introduction to VM/CMS & XEDIT, is prerequisite. Your instructor will be Lorinda Wang (257- 2204). Online registration is required for this course. Introduction to SCRIPT Equation Processing Tuesday, February 28 3:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. 103 McVey Hall The UKCC recently installed Release 88.1 of SCRIPT which provides commands for including very complex equations as part of a text document. These commands will be discussed in this class. Experience with using SCRIPT or completion of the Introduction to SCRIPT class described above is a prerequisite for attendance in this course. Your instructor will be Dave McCreary (257-2264). Online registration is required for this course. Advanced Graphics Programming Tools Monday, Wednesday, and Friday March 20, 22, and 24 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. 326 McVey Hall (CCS) This course will concentrate on more advanced features and capabilities of DI3000 and other mainframe Precision Visuals software modules. Topics will include the use of "metafiles" and the PVI Metafile Translator, fundamental modeling and animation techniques, retained segments and segment storage data structures, and contour and 3-D mesh surface mapping on the IBM systems. Newer additions to the PVI software family will be introduced and demonstrated. Participants in this workshop should be familiar with CMS, VS FORTRAN, and basic DI3000 programming. Bob Williamson will be your instructor (257-2227). Online registration is required for this course. ************************************************************************* ONLINE SHORT COURSE REGISTRATION You can now register for UKCC short courses using the new SHORTCOURSE calendar on the IBM 3084. (Some short courses require online registration.) To use this utility, access the Public disk. Type PUBLIC Press enter, and then type SHORTCOUrse You'll see a calendar on your screen that displays all UKCC short courses offered during a three- week period. Place the cursor on a specific course and press PF4 to register for that class. You can access the HELP facility for SHORTCOURSE, which also includes registration, by pressing PF1. After you've pressed PF4 on a specific date, you'll be asked to choose one of the courses offered on that day. These will be displayed in a numbered list. Enter the number of the course. You'll be asked a few questions about your experience on the UKCC system. These are all yes/no questions, such as "Have you used XEDIT previously?" If you don't meet the prerequisites, you should contact the instructor before registering. If you do meet all the recommended prerequisites, you'll be prompted for your name, address, phone, and e-mail address. After each prompt, enter your response. Once you've entered the necessary information, the program will display your registration status and return you to the SHORTCOURSE facility. If the course you want isn't displayed, press PF8 to scroll forward through the calendar. If the class is full, you'll be informed that your name is being put on a waiting list for that course. In the event you're moved onto the roll at a later date, the instructor will notify you. To leave SHORTCOURSE, press PF3. If you experience any problems with this procedure, contact Bob Crovo at 257-2258, 109 McVey Hall, or CROVO@UKCC. Of course, you can still register for some short courses by calling 257-UKCC. -- James McGillivray ************************************************************************* HOLIDAY SCHEDULE Monday, December 26, 1988 through Monday, January 2, 1989 is an official UK holiday, as well as Monday, January 16. The UKCC offices, Consulting Room, and Micro Lab will be closed on these dates. The Data Center and Users Rooms in 103 and 111 McVey Hall will be open from Noon until 12:30 a.m. The IBM and PRIME systems will be in operation, as usual. ************************************************************************* MICRO LAB HOURS The Micro Lab in 107 McVey Hall will be operating on an abbreviated scheduled during the months of December and January due to the holidays. Regular hours will be observed until finals week. Those hours are Monday through Thursday from 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m., Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., and Sunday from 1:00 to 9:00 p.m. Here's the schedule for December and the beginning of January: December 5 to 8 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. December 9 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. December 10 CLOSED December 11 1:00 to 9:00 p.m. December 12 to 16 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. December 19 to 23 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. December 24 to January 2 CLOSED January 3 to 6 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. January 9 to 13 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. January 16 CLOSED Micro Lab hours for the new semester beginning January 17, 1989, will be Monday through Thursday from 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m., Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., and Sunday from 1:00 to 9:00 p.m. If you need more information, contact Lavine Thrailkill at 257-2257, UKC105@UKCC. -- Lavine Thrailkill ************************************************************************* GOOD-BYE CARDS If you're still using cards as an offsite backup medium, this announcement is for you. Due to the lack of demand for card-oriented equipment and the shortage of space for new equipment, all card readers, card punches, and keypunches will be removed from McVey Hall by January 1, 1989. Any cards kept for backup purposes should be copied to magnetic tape, CMS or OS disk, or microcomputer diskettes before the first of the year. Please contact a Consultant if you're unsure how this affects you. Any data or programs kept on cards could become unrecoverable if action is not taken soon. ************************************************************************* VIRTUAL MACHINE ASSIGNMENTS As a result of recent and significant increases in installed computing hardware capacity, the UKCC is able to make substantial changes in the size and allocation of machine resources available to VM users. The guidelines outlined in the following sections offer options for larger virtual machine allocations to all VM/HPO users on either the IBM 3090-300E 3VF or the IBM 3084Q systems. In the future, this facility will be extended to VM/XA users as well. The following guidelines will be used to provide CMS users under VM/HPO large virtual machines as needed for certain software systems and applications. Contact Lavine Thrailkill at UKC105@UKCC, 7-2257, 121 McVey Hall, if you have questions or need more information. VIRTUAL MACHINE, 2 - 4M All users are assigned 2M machines which can be increased to 4M by using the STORAGE command (e.g., STORAGE 4M). VIRTUAL MACHINE, 4 - 8M Users who regularly need up to 8M should see User Account Services (105 McVey Hall) to request up to a maximum 8M authorization. The default will remain 2M; once authorized, a user may request up to 8M using the storage command (e.g., STORAGE 8M). Larger machine sizes should only be authorized/used when needed. In general, there are three types of these users: UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS IN A CLASS A class instructor may request a larger than standard virtual machine allocation for all students assigned to a class. The increased virtual machine limit for each student will expire at the end of the semester. All students enrolled in that class will receive the option to go to 8M on demand (e.g., STORAGE 8M). GRADUATE STUDENTS An advisor/major professor can authorize a large machine allocation and should estimate the length of time the large machine size is needed. These accounts will be reviewed in January and at renewal time (July). These users will have the option to use the STORAGE command (e.g., STORAGE 8M) to access up to 8M. FACULTY Any faculty member may request the larger machine size and should estimate the duration of time needed. Requests should be sent directly to the User Account Services Office at 105 McVey Hall. All such authorizations should be reviewed and renewed at least annually. These users will have the option to use the STORAGE command (e.g., STORAGE 8M) to access up to 8M. VIRTUAL MACHINE, 8 - 15M Certain software applications require a known, large minimum virtual machine allocation in order to run. Any user who will be using any of this software will be authorized access to the Large Machine software list, below, subject to the provisions outlined above. For users who require a large virtual machine, not related to using any of the software in the Large Machine list, a review of the proposed application/code with a member of the Technical Services or Academic User Services groups is required. As with all large machine allocations, including Superusers, this authorization will be reviewed and must be renewed at least annually. "HAPPY HOUR" LARGE MACHINE AVAILABILITY, UP TO 15M Users who do not want to go through the formal process of asking for larger virtual machines can use Large Machine Happy Hours available during low usage hours. Maximum virtual machine size available will be 15M. Users may request up to a 15M machine (see HELP MAXSTOR for further information) on demand. Happy Hour users will automatically revert to their standard machine allocation limits at the expiration of each daily Happy Hour period. Present plans call for this service to be available as follows: Fall/Spring Semesters Weekdays - 9:00 p.m. till 9:00 a.m. All Weekend/Holidays - Friday 9:00 p.m. till Monday 9:00 a.m. Summer (beginning one week after the last day of finals, Spring semester, and extending to one week before the first day of classes, Fall semester) LARGE MACHINE SOFTWARE LIST Application Minimum Machine Size ADA 5M (minimum) may need more ANSYS 11M (minimum) may need more for large problems SAS Graph 4M (minimum) often need 6 to 8M REDUCE 4M (minimum) may need up to 8M ASPEN 5M (minimum) may need up to 8M SCRATCHPAD 12M may need more -- Doug Hurley ************************************************************************* NEW VM LOGO A new VM system logo has been placed on all logon screens. It shows the new University logo. The University logo includes a stylized "UK," with an outline of the Memorial Hall bell tower between the letters. ************************************************************************* SPSS-X 3.0 NOW AVAILABLE ON CMS Version 3.0 of SPSS-X has been installed on the IBM 3084 and is now available to CMS users. To access CMS SPSS-X 3.0, enter the following commands: STORAGE 3M GRAB SPSSXX I To execute an SPSS-X program in a non-interactive mode, you must first enter your source program in a file with a filetype of SPSSX, and records must be fixed 80. After the SPSSX source program is created, execute the program by SPSBA filename You can now run SPSS-X in an interactive as well as a batch mode. In interactive mode, each command is executed as soon as you finish entering it. The command for starting an interactive session is SPSBA * (Once you've accessed SPSSXX I and are in interactive mode, you can access online help by typing HELP.) The names of some procedures have been changed. BREAKDOWN is now called MEANS, CONDESCRIPTIVES is called DESCRIPTIVES, and PEARSON CORR is called CORRELATIONS. The FILE HANDLE statement is now optional. To refer to a file, you may use the actual file identifier (in quotes) in such subcommands as FILE, OUTFILE, MATRIX, and WRITE. DATA LIST FILE='survey data a' SAVE OUTFILE='survey spssxfil a' The new MATRIX DATA command reads raw matrix materials and converts them to a matrix system file that can be read by SPSS-X procedures that handle matrix materials, such as FACTOR, REGRESSION, etc. The new macro facility allows you to build your own blocks of SPSS-X syntax elements and to control the execution of those blocks. There are two stages to using a macro: the macro definition and the macro call. Two new procedures, CNLR and NLR, have been added to provide non-linear regression analysis. For more information about the new version of SPSS-X, please refer to the SPSSX User's Guide, 3rd Edition. A reference copy is available in the Consulting Room, 110 McVey Hall. It's also available from the UK Bookstore. If you need more help or have problems with SPSS-X 3.0, contact Lorinda Wang at 257-2204 or UKC333@UKCC. -- Lorinda Wang ************************************************************************* BMDP-88 AVAILABLE ON OS BATCH The latest release of the BMDP statistical subprogram library is available for testing. BMDP is only available under MVS. This version features the following new subprograms: * BMDP5V - A program for the analysis of repeated measures with missing data and alternative within subject covariance structures, e.g., autoregressive errors, mixed model, factor analytic structure, etc. * BMDPCA - performs correspondence analyses, essentially principal components for cross-classification tables. These are described in some detail in the BMDP technical reports "86. BMDP 5V - Unbalanced Repeated Measures Models with Structured Covariance Matrices" and "87. BMDP CA - Correspondence Analysis." A reference copy of each is available in the Consulting Room, 110 McVey Hall on the Lexington campus. Other enhancements are described in NEWS for the 1988 Release of the BMDP Statistical Software. A reference copy of this is also available in the Consulting Room. Alternatively, if you execute a subprogram using the new release, you can specify the /PRINT NEWS. paragraph to get an overview of changes and a more detailed description of changes to that specific subprogram. Until January 17, the following JCL EXEC statements access the indicated version: // EXEC BIMED (to access the "old" BMDP-87) // EXEC BIMEDX (to access the "new" BMDP-88) To incorporate FORTRAN subroutines with these, use // EXEC BIMEDT (BMDP-87) // EXEC BIMEDTX (BMDP-88) After January 17, these are scheduled to change as follows: // EXEC BIMED (BMDP-88) // EXEC BIMEDT (BMDP-88) // EXEC BIMEDOLD (BMDP-87) // EXEC BIMEDTOL (BMDP-87) For more information or help with BMDP, contact Steve Thomson at 257-2259 or STEVE@UKCC. -- Steve Thomson ************************************************************************* SUGGESTIONS 1. Is there any way to have the cost of an MVS job reported? >>>Yes, it's now possible to find out the cost of your MVS jobs. The cost of a job will be displayed in two places: your job log and, for jobs that produce printed output, on the trailer page of the output. 2. I'm having more difficulty all the time getting on to the network via the dial-up ports. 257-9200 is a special problem, particularly late in the evening. I dial up and get a CONNECT response, but then I can't get the network prompt, no matter how often I hit RETURN. Most of the time I can get on using 257-2400, but not always. If usage is this heavy, you MUST add more dial-up ports! Why can't it be done, especially when the University is encouraging the use of e- mail? You can't use e-mail if you can't get into the system! Is anybody in authority listening? >>>Analysis indicated we had a modem problem, and it's been resolved. We realize we still need more modems, and as funding becomes available, we'll be adding them. 3. When will the IBM support the TVI965 terminal? Televideo 965 doesn't seem to be one of the choices for terminal types. >>>Thanks for the suggestion. The TVI965 may be enough like a supported type to be used. You might try TVI955. 4. Would it be possible to modify the MAIL and NAMES facilities in such a way as to allow greater flexibility in designating the files to which mail is automatically logged? I find it helpful to keep two files for each of my correspondents, one for incoming and one for outgoing mail, but the way the NAMES file works NOTEBOOK is the only filetype allowed. If one specifies OUTGOING as the outlog filetype in a mailuser XEDIT file, the result is that all outgoing mail is logged to a file called ALL OUTGOING. >>>Thanks for the suggestion. 5. I recommend that RBROWSE be set up so that wider and longer pages can be viewed. My PC, which I use as a terminal with a modem, can handle 143 x 43 text, but the system apparently won't send it. This is a particular problem when viewing output with data on the left side of the page and results on the right. I'm sure that when other users get extended graphics cards such as the Paradise VGAPLUS, they'll also want such a feature. Thanks. >>>It isn't possible to display more than 80 columns using an asynchronous connection at this time, but we're aware of the need. When using RBROWSE, you can use the RIGHT and LEFT commands to move the text to deal with wide lines. 6. It would be more convenient for users if printouts were filed in the Data Center by id numbers instead of printout numbers. As the system is now, each user has to write down the number of each specific printout and report these numbers to the Operator in the Data Center. Then the Operator has to locate printouts in the various boxes. It would be more efficient if the user provided her/his id number (which is already memorized). Then the Operator would only have to check one box, and if there was a question about a specific printout, it could be checked against the listing on the screen (which is frequently done anyway). >>>Plans are being made for a total reorganization of the Data Center, including easier distribution of printouts. Several methods of filing are being considered. Your idea of using logon ids is one of the best ones we're considering. Thanks for the good idea. ************************************************************************* UKCC SERVICE DIRECTORY McVey Service E-Mail Address Phone Hall Vice President, Information Services Eugene R. Williams DPS128@UKCC 257-3609 Director, University Computing Services Dr. Douglas Hurley HURLEY@UKCC 257-2900 132 Director, Communications & Distributed Systems Doyle Friskney DOYLE@UKCC 257-6225 Director, Computational Sciences Dr. John Connolly CONNOLLY@UKCC 257-8737 324 Academic Consulting Services Lavine Thrailkill UKC105@UKCC 257-2257 121 CMS Consulting Bob Crovo CROVO@UKCC 257-2258 109 Complaints Carol Lotz LOTZ@UKCC 257-2213 129 Consultant for Remote Sites Wanda Dixon Spisak WANDA@UKCC 257-2206 115 Consulting Consultant on Duty SUGGEST@UKCC 257-2249 110 Contingency Planning & Security Jack L. Coffman UKA051@UKCC 257-2273 218 Database - IDMS Rick Chlopan DBA003@UKCC 257-2211 230E Data Center 257-2222 61 Data Entry Pat Taylor DEN101@UKCC 257-2216 121 Disk Rental Janet Hyatt HYATT@UKCC 257-2212 105 Larry Johnson JOHNSON@UKCC 257-2217 105 Facilities Operations Joe Williams UKA048@UKCC 257-2231 72 Graphics Consultation Bob Williamson ROBERTT@UKCC 257-2227 207 Information Center Judy Kisil UKA041@UKCC 257-2241 222 Information Resources Dr. Jon Hesseldenz UKA045@UKCC 257-3904 230D Instructional Software Wayne Beech WAYNE@UKCC 257-2238 100 Machine Room 257-2222 59 Management Information Systems Forrest Hahn UKA006@UKCC 257-2260 205 Memos and Manuals Consulting Room 257-2249 110 Micro Lab 257-2207 107 Network/Telecommunications George Broomell UKT101@UKCC 257-2229 127 New Accounts Janet Hyatt HYATT@UKCC 257-2212 105 Larry Johnson JOHNSON@UKCC 257-2217 105 Numerical Analysis Consulting Anne Leigh ANNE@UKCC 257-2205 109B Optical Scanner - NCS Chris Corman CHRIS@UKCC 257-2243 109 Bob Crovo CROVO@UKCC 257-2258 109 Passwords Janet Hyatt HYATT@UKCC 257-2212 105 Larry Johnson JOHNSON@UKCC 257-2217 105 PRIME Information Peggy Akridge PEGGY@UKCC 257-2237 100 Program Documentation/Libraries Consulting Room 257-2249 110 Publications Office Marguerite Floyd EDITOR@UKCC 257-2219 200 Refunds Consulting Room 257-2249 110 SAS and SPSS Consulting Steve Thomson STEVE@UKCC 257-2259 120 Lorinda Wang UKC333@UKCC 257-2204 109B Statistical Consulting Steve Thomson STEVE@UKCC 257-2259 116 Tapes to Borrow, Tape Storage Data Center 257-2222 61 Tours of UKCC Lavine Thrailkill UKC105@UKCC 257-2257 122 User Account Services Janet Hyatt HYATT@UKCC 257-2212 105 Larry Johnson JOHNSON@UKCC 257-2217 105 Vectorization Consulting Tom Faller TOMFAL@UKCC 257-2236 314 ************************************************************************* UNIVERSITY COMPUTING ADVISORY COMMITTEE Douglas E. Hurley, Central Administration H. Clay Owen, Central Administration A.J. Hauselman, Community Colleges James W. Phillips, Community Colleges Raphael Finkel, Lexington Campus Leonard K. Peters, Lexington Campus N. Clare Detraz, Medical Center David A. Nash, Medical Center T. Earle Bowen, Ex Officio Ben W. Carr, Ex Officio Wimberly C. Royster, Ex Officio Donald E. Sands, Ex Officio Eugene R. Williams, Ex Officio *************************************************************************