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Ron Seybold
Editor In Chief
3000 NewsWire

In this month's Online Extra:

ORBiT steps away from buyout by SER
No hurry on Spoolmate Y2K fix
Python snakes into the 3000 world
A better platform for all of the 21st century: MPE
Sign up for this week’s MPE/iX 6.0 online seminar
HP adjusts its sales force as part of reorg
Still multiple sources to search for all 3000 documentation
Command your 3000 to get that patch, automatically
Updates on management UDCs on Jazz
Watch for the discounts vs. broker benefits
Making good use of ()word in MPE/iX
PatchWatch: Using environment files on non-HP printers

ORBiT steps away from merger with SER

ORBiT International CEO Paul Meszaros dropped us a quick note just as the Extra was being written to report that the company has declined an offer of a merger with German data storage management firm SER. Meszaros said his company, which sells its backup software for both the 3000 and HP 9000 and markets the Hourglass 2000 date simulator, plans to focus on HP 3000 business after declining the SER offer. Meszaros said the privately-held ORBiT will remain independent.

SER announced signing of a letter of intent in August "with the major shareholders of ORBiT AG for purchase of 100 percent of ORBiT's issued share capital." SER hoped to wrap up the acquisition by the end of October. SER's Web site reported that ORBiT's 1997 revenues were 12.5 million German marks, about $7.5 million US dollars.

Meszaros said ORBiT is wrapping up "the best year in our 15-year history," and is greatly encouraged by the rebound in the HP 3000 marketplace. ORBiT plans to work with SER in some other way now that the merger is off. We'll have more details on ORBiT's plans in our January issue.

No hurry on Spoolmate Y2K fix

While Tivoli is ready to make the Maestro datacenter management product work beyond the Year 2000 (see your December FlashPaper for more details), it looks like Spoolmate customers might not be so lucky. As of the mid-December, the product for MPE/iX systems "breaks big-time," according to several sources. A fix has been promised, but it's still in beta test, according to Tivoli's support resources. Version B.04 will fix a problem the Spoolmate Analyzer has with dates beyond 1999.

One customer pointed out that the Tivoli/IBM support organization doesn't seem to know much about when Spoolmate will be ready to handle dates in the next century. He said he received a message which read, "The Spoolmate, UNI0006, is not ready.. This is an old product and it has not been tested and will not be tested so it has been marked as not ready... There is no replacement product shown, so you may want to talk to your IBM representative for options."

Python snakes into the 3000 world

A new programming language for HP 3000s is slithering from the HP Jazz Web site this month, as Python/iX becomes available for free download. It's another result of the Posix capability in MPE/iX, like Samba/iX, Internet Domain Name Services and the Apache Web server. Python is an interpreted, interactive, object-oriented programming language with great flexibility and power, according to its supporters, along with very clear syntax. It has modules, classes, exceptions, very high level dynamic data types, and dynamic typing. It's being used as the scripting language for a new Web application platform called Zope, which can build high-performance, dynamic web sites. Since Python has been ported to the HP 3000, Zope is something that could make its way to the 3000 from one of the six Unix versions Zope runs on today.

Python is another example of open-source software, products created by teams of programmers around the world who make the source code open for modification and charge nothing for it. Python is also being enhanced to support the Web's Extended Markup Language (XML). Some say XML is the King's English compared to the pig Latin that is HTML.

Joe Geiser, chairman of the SIGWEB special interest group, said that such open source software, ported as a result of work completed in 1995 by Mark Klein on the Gnu C++ compiler, is making the HP 3000 as open a system as any under the Unix banner:

"In the not too distant future, a Unix-literate person can sit down at a 3000, in the shell, and work on the 3000 as if they were on a Unix system. Posix provides that functionality (Posix is not an operating system - the OS is still MPE). It's nice to see the "open-ness" come out." Software like Samba or Python begins its life as shareware, gets popular with the customer base, then finds its way into MPE/iX as a supported product.

Python/iX is being enhanced by Joseph Koshy, an engineer in HP's Bangalore, India MPE/iX operations. The 1.5.1 version at the Jazz Web site supports dynamic loading of extension modules under MPE/iX, Koshy says. He plans to keep enhancing Python/iX to support "access to IMAGE data from Python scripts, and providing an MPE/iX OS personality module — allowing people to use Python for what earlier required bringing out the COBOL or MODCAL compiler." For more details on what Python can squeeze out of your coding efforts, you can visit the Python main page at http://www.python.org

A better platform for all of the 21st century: MPE

Stan Sieler, author of the HourGlass 2000 date simulation tool for HP 3000s, posted a note explaining how MPE/iX handles dates -- a note that seems to show the platform is ahead of its HP-UX brethren. We'll replay it here without much comment:

"HP-UX (and most UNIX implementations) runs into a brick wall in 2038. This is a pretty fundamental limitation, because HP-UX stores timestamps as a signed 32-bit integer number of seconds since 1970, with the maximum being 2038-01-19 03:14:07.0.

MPE/iX runs into a brick wall at the end of 2027-12-31, because of the CALENDAR intrinsic date type. Or does it?

As every date/time simulation tool vendor/author should know, over 99 percent of the internals of MPE/iX use a timestamp which is a 64-bit integer number of microseconds since 1970. This provides a limit of well past 9999 12-31. (A little bit larger than the HP-UX limit .)"

We'll leave the commentary to Alfredo Rego of Adager, another supplier of date tools for MPE/iX:

"Conclusion: MPE shows, once again, that it is ahead of the crowd. I did not know any of this! To me, this feature alone is worth a lot of press outside of the HP 3000 installed base. It shows Stan's wisdom for marketing the strengths of MPE versus the weaknesses of other operating systems."

Sign up for this week’s MPE/iX 6.0 online seminar

HP packed the meeting room to the rafters this summer at HP World to talk about new features in MPE/iX 6.0. Now you can get the briefing without even packing a bag, let alone packing yourself into a crowded meeting room. The 6.0 backgrounder is being offered online Thursday, at a special HP education site by CSY Alliance Development Manager Kriss Rant and Software Product Manager Ozlem Ozturk. Audio is provided over the phone for a simulcast kind of event. You browse to http://www.education.hp.com/mpeix6 ..htm to register online. Then at 1 PM Eastern time Thursday you log in, then dial 800.326.6621 (or 816.650.0729 if you’re outside the US) to get your briefing with a slide show. The HP site has a test facility to ensure you can get online okay. (You’ll need a 4.0 version of either Navigator or Explorer browsers, and minimal firewalls between your desktop and the Internet).

This was a popular seminar the last time HP offered it in October, so you want to sign up early. If you want to test drive the experience before the MPE/iX briefing you can try it out on Tuesday with an IA-64 Technology Overview offered at the same time. Browse to http://www.education.hp.com/ia64.htm to sign on. The seminars run about 90 minutes -- less time than it took to travel HP World this year.

HP adjusts its sales force as part of reorg

Promoting Ann Livermore to head up a $15 billion chunk of HP’s business (now called ECSO and including the HP 3000) wasn’t the only shift in assignments at HP’s management team. The deal that combined the Enterprise Systems Group with the Software and Services Group (see our November 1998 story) puts the ESG’s marketing chief in charge of the new combined group’s business plan.

Nick Earle, marketing manager for the former ESG, will lead the marketing function for ECSO. Working with Deb Nelson, marketing manager for the former SSG, Earle will produce an overall marketing plan and a cohesive outbound communication plan for ECSO. Earle will also serve as marketing manager for ESSG. This will be an ongoing, dual role for Earle.

HP said it has evolved its sales force over the past year, balancing the need for a true "one face to the customer" with the specialization required to represent its vast portfolio of products and services. "The new organization will continue to support this model," said HP press manager Keith Corbett.

"The Enterprise Accounts Organization under Keith Goodwin will remain the lead sales team for enterprise customers, with the addition of software sales. As a result, customers will see Software Product specialists even more closely integrated into the overall solutions selling process."

If you are a big enough site to deal with HP directly in your sales matters, you may find more HP software specialists' help on-hand as a result of the reorganization. For the vast majority of HP 3000 sites, the reorg will manifest itself in a better message from Earle's group, tricking down through the existing channel of resellers and software vendors.

For our part we're pleased to see HP promote a woman to such a high position. It only took a matter of days after the reorg for the Wall Street Journal to identify Livermore as the leading candidate to succeed CEO Lew Platt. Livermore, like any good HP vice president, responded by saying she wants only to focus on the job at hand.

Still multiple sources to search for all 3000 documentation

Customers are raving over the improvement to the CD-ROM based documentation in HP Instant Information, shipped with the new MPE/iX 6.0 operating system. (See our First Look review in the November FlashPaper) Even if you don't intend to install 6.0 anytime soon, you can enjoy the CD sent with the push release. It's a great addition to the new Web-based documentation site for HP 3000 manuals. And of course, the paper manuals are still out there if you can't read docs from a screen.

However, the 3000 managers are noting there are still manuals not available in every format, and that no one format is considered a comprehensive one yet -- except paper. Some manuals haven't made the transition from the old LaserROM documentation service, and probably won't. For example, the MPE/iX HP 3000 Series 99X Software Startup Manual, or the Openview DTC Technical Reference Manual aren't available in any electronic format -- like most HP manuals more than three years old, for the most part. Other documents remain on paper and on the Web, but have never made it into a HP CD, like the ODBCLINK/SE Reference Manual. And still others aren't available on the Instant Information CD, but have a place on the old LaserROM CD, like the HP Symbolic Debugger/iX User's Guide. These last kinds of manuals appear on the HP Web site -- so a good rule of thumb is that if it's in the Instant Information CD, it's on the HP Web site.

HP publishes a guide to finding the source and part number for any HP 3000 manual products, an appendix in the 6.0 Communicator shipped with the 6.0 release. It lists a table for all the manuals, their ordering numbers and whether they are on LaserROM, Instant Information, or the Web (or in multiple sources.) And you can look up this table on the HP Web site, too at http://docs.hp.com:80/dynaweb/smpe/b1015/b975/@Generic__BookTextView/19859

For the time being, HP hasn't announced any plans to drop any of its documentation mediums for the HP 3000. Customers at the recent Strategic Forums reminded HP there are times when going online isn't possible (due to firewalls and limited Internet access) to read a manual.

The Web site remains one of the most useful compendiums of HP documentation, however. One customer found that while debugging a Posix problem , C programs apparently do an implicit HPCIGETVAR at startup for the variables HP_PASCAL_MINIMUM_HEAP_BLOCK and HP_PASCAL_HEAP_DUMP. These variables aren't mentioned anywhere in the HP ESC Technical Knowledge Base.

These variables are documented in the 5.5 Communicator from 1996, in the article on Pascal/iX Run-time Library Heap Changes. That's a document you might only be able to read on the Web, unless you're a real pack rat about Communicators. HP's James Overman notes that "The Heap is created and controlled by the Pascal Run-time intrinsics, which are invoked by the C language (which then performs its own sub-heap management). The CI VARs were added for some performance tweaking of customer applications and for Heap problem analysis, respectively."

Command your 3000 to get that patch, automatically

Gary Biggs of Performing Technologies posted a really clever command file which retrieves patches by ID number over Internet FTP links to HP's Response Center. It's another powerful example of the automation available to HP 3000 managers who use command files. Gary said:

"I've gotten really tired of having customers retrieve patches from the ESC and then calling me with all sorts of problems in transferring them and unpacking. For those of you who might like to use this, here is a command file that will get a patch directly from the ESC and place it in INSTALL.SYS on an HP 3000 with Internet access. All you need to specify is the patch ID.

If you want to try this, the MPE 5.5 patch SIMEDG4A is very small. Copy the remaining text to your 3000 and give it a try!"

GETPATCH Starts HERE

parm patchid,host='us-ffs.external.hp.com',version='!HPRELVERSION' &
user='anonymous',password='!HPSUSAN@HPSUSAN.MPE'
echo
echo *** GETPATCH Internet MPE Patch Retrieval (1.0) ***

comment This command file retrieves a patch for MPE
comment from the HP MPE Patch Server by Anonymous FTP

comment Under normal Circumstances, one needs to only specify
comment the 8 Character Patch ID. If one needs a patch for
comment a version of MPE that is not currently installed
comment the VERSION parameter must also be specified as shown:

comment GETPATCH SIMEDG4A;version='C.55.00'

comment Copyright Gary L. Biggs, November 30, 1998
comment All Rights Reserved -- Internet Distribution of this
comment document is permitted. It is not to be included as a
comment portion of any commercial product without the express
comment written permission of the author.

comment The latest version of GETPATCH may be obtained from the
comment author Gary@biggs.dallas.tx.us or by Anonymous FTP from
comment ftp.biggs.dallas.tx.us

comment This builds a temporary BLDPARMS file that makes sure
comment that the MPE FTP client can retrieve a patch up to
comment 2 gigs in size

purge patchprm;temp >$null
build patchprm;rec=-72,,f,ascii;temp
file patchprm,oldtemp

echo ;REC=-80,,F,ASCII;DISC=204800 >>*patchprm
echo ;REC=128,,F,BINARY;DISC=8000000 >>*patchprm
echo ;REC=,,B;DISC=2048000000 >>*patchprm

file BLDPARMS.ARPA.SYS = patchprm,oldtemp

comment This creates an FTP script that will retrieve the
comment patch by Anonymous FTP.

purge ftpin;temp >$null
purge ftpout;temp >$null

file ftpin,oldtemp
file ftpout,new;temp

build ftpin;rec=-72,,f,ascii;temp

echo exitonerror >>*ftpin

purge !patchid.INSTALL.SYS >$null

echo Retrieving !PATCHID from !host -- !hptimef

echo OPEN !host >>*ftpin
echo >>*ftpin
echo USER !user !password>>*ftpin

setvar directory 'mpe-ix_patches/' + dwns('!version')
echo cd !directory >>*ftpin

echo binary >>*FTPIN
echo GET !patchid !patchid.INSTALL.SYS >>*ftpin

echo EXIT >>*ftpin

comment GET the PATCH

errclear
run ftp.arpa.sys;stdin=*ftpin;stdlist=*ftpout

comment Check for errors and clean up

if !ftplasterr <> 0 then
echo FTP Transfer of !patchid Failed -- Error Follows
echo !FTPLASTMSG
file ftpout,oldtemp
print *ftpout
else
echo !patchid.INSTALL.SYS is ready for UNPACKING -- !HPTIMEF
purge ftpout,temp >$null
endif

echo **************************************************

reset ftpin
reset ftpout

purge ftpin,temp >$null
purge ftpout,temp >$null

deletevar directory

comment END of GETPATCH

Mark Bixby noted that a copy of UNPACKP, required to unpack the patches, is available online at ftp://us ffs.external.hp.com/export/bin/unpackp

Updates on management UDCs on Jazz

HP CSY engineer Jeff Vance put a new version of the Vol Mgmt UDCs on HP's Jazz Web server. The new PURGEACCT only prompts once, unless you want to confirm the purge of each unique volume set the account lives on," Vance reported. "NEWACCT alters the AM user to add CV,UV caps." You can find the UDCs at http://jazz.ext ernal.hp.com/src/scripts/udcvol/index.html

Watch for the discounts vs. broker benefits

NewsWire subscriber Gary Jackson noted that finding the HP discounts on trade-ins -- however complicated that might be -- can be worth a considerable savings while upgrading. He reported his reseller told him no deals could be had in trading from a Series 947 to a Series 929. Jackson didn't want to believe it and checked with us, leading him to find a $24,000 discount on the MPE/iX software as part of the upgrade.

The savings really swamped the no-deal policy he'd been given. Jackson said that if he had sold his used system to a broker, he would have earned only $3,000 for the unit. This makes looking for the HP discounts a $21,000 enterprise, in this case. Be sure to check with your reseller, or even the 3000 division's product marketing manager (try an e-mail to vicky_symonds@hp.com), as you upgrade this year. We can think of thousands of reasons why it might be a better deal than selling to a broker.

Making good use of ()word in MPE/iX

NewsWire subscriber Glenn Cole found a way to make the relatively new ()word function in MPE/iX work for data manipulation The function was part of the CI features Jeff Vance introduced during a MPE/iX 5.5 Express release:

"I needed to parse a line (actually several) of comma-separated fields, like

john,brown,ca,95014

My first thought was to use

setvar first_name word( line,,1 )
setvar last_name word( line,,2 )
setvar state word( line,,3 )
setvar zip word( line,,4 )

(These aren't the real fields; this is just an example.)

But what happens if 'city' is added later, between 'last_name' and 'state'? I would have to renumber the indices for 'state' and 'zip'.

It turns out that the 4th and 5th parms to word() -- the resulting index after the parse, and the starting index for the parse -- can be the same field name! So, while not as obvious which field is being referenced, the following should be more maintainable:

setvar first_name word( line,,1,x)
setvar last_name word( line,,1,x,x+1 )
setvar state word( line,,1,x,x+1 )
setvar zip word( line,,1,x,x+1 )

Adding 'city' requires inserting one line, and NO other modification to the code! Great job, Jeff Vance!"

PatchWatch: Using environment files on non-spooled printers

HP released on November 21 a patch that lets MPE/iX 5.5 systems use environment files when printing to a non-spooled (hot) printers. The environment files have been ignored on both HP-IB and serial printers. It's fixed with patch MPEKX24A.