Date : Wed, 11 Dec 1985 19:07:15 GMT
From : Bruce Eckel <morgan%fluke.uucp@BRL.ARPA>
Subject: Re: Unix on cpm
> Is anybody familiar with "C/NIX"? I received a catalogue from SPITE
> SOFTWARE, Portland, OR, with the following ad:
>
> C/NIX adds most of the power of Unix to any CP/M 2.2 system. C/NIX
> features include named hierarchical directories, redirectable I/O, and
> many of the commands and utilities of Unix (ls, cd, mkdir, tree, walk,
> grep, etc.) Even on-line Help! [...] You can even turn on a "log"
> file, which captures everything that appears on the screen and places it
> in a file. [...] Even with all these features, you can still use DIR,
> TYPE, PIP or any other operatings system utilities you have become
> familiar with. At $59.95, C/NIX is a remarkable package. It's a big
> package though, and we recommend it for daily use only for those with
> double-sided or hard disks.
>
> Apparently they have it available for Morrow, Kaypro, Epson QX-10,
> Osborne Exec, Osborne 1, and a few others.
>
> Anybody any experience with this? Is it as good as it sounds? I sure
> wouldn't mind a couple of Unix features on my CP/M, but at $59.95 I'm
> afraid it's going to be a kind of trivial product...?
>
> Rik Verstraete
> 3804G Boelter Hall rik@LOCUS.UCLA.EDU
> University of California ...!{ihnp4,ucbvax}!ucla-cs!rik
> Los Angeles, CA 90024
Yes, I have C/NIX; I was given a copy to review and I played around
with it for a while on my Kaypro 2X. If you are really stuck on the
*details* of Unix, don't bother. You can see where the patches and
limitations of CP/M are encountered. It lives on top of CP/M and
hooks into the BDOS like anything else; I believe it replaces the CCP.
It executes piping by creating temporary files which are redirected
into the next program (you didn't really expect it to fork a process,
did you?); but piping and redirection must be supported by the
programs you are using. The programming language it is apparently
written in, and "supports" is C/80 (which is a good system). You can
even "relocate" a program up to 200H if it is in C/80 rel format and
is assembled accordingly (I never did this so I am not sure whether I
got the description right).
The help function is quite similar to the man pages in unix, and is
satisfactory.
The tree-structured directories use (what else) user areas; a
directory is simply a file with the names of the files in the other
user area in it; 'cd' changes you to the user area. I am not sure if
you can have 16 or 32 subdirectories. It would probably have been
nice on the kaypro 10 with the hard disk, but even with 400k on a
floppy I found it rather distracting. I think tree-structured
directories are great when you have one big storage space, but when
things are broken up into 400k sections which you have to manipulate
by hand it is bothersome (but then, so are floppies).
To sum, I think if you are a C programmer and are setting up a C
programming environment, and are using a plain-vanilla cpm system,
this would be an enhancement and probably useful to you (however, I
don't know whether datestamper programs, and their accompanying 'make'
programs will work with the system -- they might -- and I think 'make'
would be of more use). If you use a lot of cpm programs it might be a
hassle. Don't let the price scare you (you thought it was too low?);
when I got the review copy it was over $100, I believe, and I think
that was too much, but for 60$ it could provide a unix adherent with
some comfort (and you don't *have* to use treed directories).
Of course, the best system would be a 68020, 32032 or 80386 system
with 8Mb and a 40 Mb disk running GNU at under $5k. Hopefully, in the
next five years. In the meantime, I will be satisfied if I can get
gnuemacs on a micro.
Bruce Eckel
uw-beaver!fluke!morgan
From postnews Wed Dec 11 10:56:57 1985
Subject: Re: Unix on CP/M 2.2
Newsgroups: net.micro.cpm
Distribution: net
References: <7856@ucla-cs.ARPA>
> Is anybody familiar with "C/NIX"? I received a catalogue from SPITE
> SOFTWARE, Portland, OR, with the following ad:
>
> C/NIX adds most of the power of Unix to any CP/M 2.2 system. C/NIX
> features include named hierarchical directories, redirectable I/O, and
> many of the commands and utilities of Unix (ls, cd, mkdir, tree, walk,
> grep, etc.) Even on-line Help! [...] You can even turn on a "log"
> file, which captures everything that appears on the screen and places it
> in a file. [...] Even with all these features, you can still use DIR,
> TYPE, PIP or any other operatings system utilities you have become
> familiar with. At $59.95, C/NIX is a remarkable package. It's a big
> package though, and we recommend it for daily use only for those with
> double-sided or hard disks.
>
> Apparently they have it available for Morrow, Kaypro, Epson QX-10,
> Osborne Exec, Osborne 1, and a few others.
>
> Anybody any experience with this? Is it as good as it sounds? I sure
> wouldn't mind a couple of Unix features on my CP/M, but at $59.95 I'm
> afraid it's going to be a kind of trivial product...?
>
> Rik Verstraete
> 3804G Boelter Hall rik@LOCUS.UCLA.EDU
> University of California ...!{ihnp4,ucbvax}!ucla-cs!rik
> Los Angeles, CA 90024
Yes, I have C/NIX; I was given a copy to review and I played around
with it for a while on my Kaypro 2X. If you are really stuck on the
*details* of Unix, don't bother. You can see where the patches and
limitations of CP/M are encountered. It lives on top of CP/M and
hooks into the BDOS like anything else; I believe it replaces the CCP.
It executes piping by creating temporary files which are redirected
into the next program (you didn't really expect it to fork a process,
did you?); but piping and redirection must be supported by the
programs you are using. The programming language it is apparently
written in, and "supports" is C/80 (which is a good system). You can
even "relocate" a program up to 200H if it is in C/80 rel format and
is assembled accordingly (I never did this so I am not sure whether I
got the description right).
The help function is quite similar to the man pages in unix, and is
satisfactory.
The tree-structured directories use (what else) user areas; a
directory is simply a file with the names of the files in the other
user area in it; 'cd' changes you to the user area. I am not sure if
you can have 16 or 32 subdirectories. It would probably have been
nice on the kaypro 10 with the hard disk, but even with 400k on a
floppy I found it rather distracting. I think tree-structured
directories are great when you have one big storage space, but when
things are broken up into 400k sections which you have to manipulate
by hand it is bothersome (but then, so are floppies).
To sum, I think if you are a C programmer and are setting up a C
programming environment, and are using a plain-vanilla cpm system,
this would be an enhancement and probably useful to you (however, I
don't know whether datestamper programs, and their accompanying 'make'
programs will work with the system -- they might -- and I think 'make'
would be of more use). If you use a lot of cpm programs it might be a
hassle. Don't let the price scare you (you thought it was too low?);
when I got the review copy it was over $100, I believe, and I think
that was too much, but for 60$ it could provide a unix adherent with
some comfort (and you don't *have* to use treed directories).
Of course, the best system would be a 68020, 32032 or 80386 system
with 8Mb and a 40 Mb disk running GNU at under $5k. Hopefully, in the
next five years. In the meantime, I will be satisfied if I can get
gnuemacs on a micro.
Bruce Eckel
uw-beaver!fluke!morgan