A beta-version of release 1.5o has been distributed to a small number of
sites, for a short testing period. Release 1.5o contains the following changes
from 1.5n:
- Everything that was in the 15N1 and 15N2 fix shipments, which ought to have
been installed everywhere a long time ago.
- The dynamic disk access code, and subsequent fixes, which have already been
beta-tested on a wide scale. I'll try to remember to post a description of
these new functions to the list.
- A new COUNTRY FILE to reflect the country-code changes in BITEARN NODES.
- Changes to make DIST2 the "default" DISTRIBUTE processor:
o DIST2 is now used for all types of "internal" distribution (PUT command,
LISTS database, AFD "batch" distribution, etc).
o Files sent to a list operating with "Files= Yes" are now processed by
DIST2.
o "Mail-via= DISTRIBUTE" is now an exact synonym of "Mail-via= DIST2". A
new option, "Mail-via= DIST1", forces the use of the old processor.
o The DISTRIBUTE command, when received from a "user" (ie not a LISTSERV),
now invokes the DIST2 processor. The DIST2 command will remain available,
while a new command, DIST1, will force the use of the old processor. A
"DISTRIBUTE" command from a LISTSERV machine is treated as DIST1, for
compatiblity with those servers which are still running 1.5n (or older).
- Changes for VM/XA SP support. Please note that VM/XA SF is not (and will
never be) supported.
Since almost everything has already been seriously tested a few months ago,
1.5o will be distributed to everybody in a few days, if nothing wrong happens
at the hub sites (eg CEARN and DEARN) where it is now running.
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I know that I had "promised" more new things for 1.5o, and that I had also
promised to finish it earlier. I have received a number of private notes
expressing concern about the future of LISTSERV and asking when 1.5o would be
released, and I would like to answer them here to save time. First, I find
these questions perfectly normal, and anger is not the reason why I didn't
answer or made very short answers when I did. I simply didn't have time, and
will probably not have any time at all for a number of days. Some smart ass in
the CERN administrative service discovered that my sponsor was paying me more
money than I could ever get if I were a CERN employee, considering my age
(here people are paid according to their age and number of children, not
productivity - it's supposed to be less immoral, although I have always failed
to understand that logic). If he had been clever, he would have concluded that
this is the reason why I'm not a CERN employee, and dropped the matter since
this is not CERN's money anyway and CERN has absolutely no control on how it
is spent. Instead of that, he declared that this was immoral and froze 3
months' worth of payment orders, which were slowly wandering through the CERN
administration on their way to the bank. I've been working full time 5 days a
week on getting the money back for about 1 week, and the problem is far from
being solved. CERN has a wonderful administrative system where some of the
people work only during the morning and some of them work only during the
afternoon; of course, you need the help (read rubber stamps) of both to get
any work done, so that it takes 2 days to see 2 persons and learn they were
not the ones you had to see. Anyway, what little time is left to me is usually
spent on the work I'm "paid" for, wonderful SNA-SNI network reconstructions,
meetings, plus CEARN HDA problems and of course, the Daily EARNTECH Flame :-)
The future of LISTSERV is not affected by the withdrawal of my support to
EARN, except as far as EARN nodes are concerned. That is, I will keep
maintaining LISTSERV as long as I remain on the network, will make the updates
available to EARN sites to avoid creating large-scale release compatibility
problems, but will NOT make LISTSERV available to new EARN sites and will NOT
help EARN postmasters to solve their local problems. To answer a question I
heard several times, I am not IBM and I will not stop providing source code to
EARN sites "just to be nasty".
The future of LISTSERV might, however, be affected by the CERN administrative
system, which is why I told you the whole boring story. By the way I apologize
if you felt that my description implied that the CERN administration is worse
than the one you have to deal with for your own money :-) I really didn't mean
to say that, although I do sometimes get this impression :-) Anyway, it now
seems quite likely that CERN is allowed to and will refuse to be involved in
the payment of my salary, which would mean we'd have to find another way out,
like sending the money to Caltech (my official employer) and thence back into
my bank account (the sponsor can't pay directly for legal reasons). This would
be very likely to take a few months to be set up, and if this happens I am
VERY likely to be extremely pissed off at CERN and anything related to payment
delays, if that were not already the case. My chances of deciding to keep my
present job would then be very low, which might imply that I could go and work
in a place where I would be paid at the end of the month (EVERY month), but
which might not be connected to EARN (with which I am considerably pissed off,
as you know), thus making it difficult to work on LISTSERV.
Eric
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