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  1. ----------------------------------------------------------------------
  2. GNU's Bulletin June, 1990
  3. The GNU's Bulletin is the semi-annual newsletter of the
  4. Free Software Foundation, bringing you news about the GNU Project.
  5. Free Software Foundation, Inc. Telephone: (617) 876-3296
  6. 675 Massachusetts Avenue Electronic mail: gnu@prep.ai.mit.edu
  7. Cambridge, MA 02139 USA
  8. Contents
  9. --------
  10. GNU'S Who
  11. What Is the Free Software Foundation?
  12. What Is Copyleft?
  13. GNUs Flashes
  14. Possible New Terms for GNU Libraries by Richard Stallman
  15. "League for Programming Freedom" by Michael Bloom and Richard Stallman
  16. Free Software Support
  17. GNU Project Status Report
  18. GNU Wish List
  19. GNU Documentation
  20. GNU Software Available Now
  21. Contents of the Emacs Release Tape
  22. Contents of the Pre-Release Tape
  23. Contents of the X11 Tapes
  24. VMS Emacs and Compiler Tapes
  25. How to Get GNU Software
  26. Freemacs, an Extensible Editor for MS-DOS
  27. Thank GNUs
  28. FSF Order Form
  29. GNU's Who
  30. *********
  31. Joseph Arceneaux is developing Emacs Version 19. Jim Kingdon is
  32. working on GDB. Michael Rowan is writing a `login' replacement to
  33. work with `xdm'. Roland McGrath will again be on the payroll
  34. starting in July; he is finishing up the C library and maintains
  35. GNU make. David MacKenzie has been hired as a summer programmer
  36. and is maintaining the file utilities.
  37. Brian Fox is maintaining various programs that he has written,
  38. including the `readline' library, the `makeinfo' and Info programs,
  39. BASH, and the new GNU `finger'. Jay Fenlason continues with the
  40. GNU spreadsheet, Oleo, as well as maintaining `tar', `sed' and the
  41. GNU assembler.
  42. Mike Haertel continues work on the C interpreter; he is also
  43. maintaining and improving the "bin" utilities and species of
  44. `grep'. David Lawrence, who works for us at the Rensselaer
  45. Polytechnic Institute, is maintaining the Lisp libraries for Emacs.
  46. Kathy Hargreaves is now working on Ghostscript, having just
  47. finished making the regular expression routines mostly
  48. POSIX-compliant. Karl Berry is also working on Ghostscript.
  49. Amy Gorin has been hired as a documentation writer, starting with
  50. the manual for `tar'. Diane Barlow Close continues work on the
  51. `BASH Programming Manual'. Grace Sylvan is writing the `GNU C
  52. Reference Manual'.
  53. S. Opus Goldstein is still doing a great job running our office.
  54. Erica Brigid is answering phone calls, handling correspondence, and
  55. making distribution tapes. Robert J. Chassell, our Treasurer, is
  56. working on an elementary introduction to programming in Emacs Lisp,
  57. in addition to the many Foundation issues not related to
  58. programming.
  59. Richard Stallman continues as a volunteer who does countless tasks,
  60. including refining the C compiler, GNU Emacs, etc., and their
  61. documentation. Finally, volunteer Len Tower remains our electronic
  62. JOAT (jack-of-all-trades), handling mailing lists and gnUSENET,
  63. information requests, and the like.
  64. GNU's Bulletin
  65. --------------
  66. Copyright (C) 1990 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
  67. Written by: Michael Rowan, Robert J. Chassell, Richard Stallman,
  68. Leonard H. Tower Jr., and Michael Bloom
  69. Illustrations: Etienne Suvasa
  70. Japanese Edition: Mieko Hikichi and Nobuyuki Hikichi
  71. Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim
  72. copies of this document as received, in any medium, provided
  73. that the copyright notice and permission notice are preserved,
  74. and that the distributor grants the recipient permission for
  75. further redistribution as permitted by this notice.
  76. What Is the Free Software Foundation?
  77. *************************************
  78. The Free Software Foundation is dedicated to eliminating
  79. restrictions on copying, redistribution, understanding, and
  80. modification of computer programs. We do this by promoting the
  81. development and use of free software in all areas of computer use.
  82. Specifically, we are putting together a complete integrated
  83. software system named "GNU" (GNU's Not Unix) that will be upwardly
  84. compatible with Unix. Some large parts of this system are already
  85. working, and we are distributing them now.
  86. The word "free" in our name refers to two specific freedoms: first,
  87. the freedom to copy a program and give it away to your friends and
  88. co-workers; second, the freedom to change a program as you wish, by
  89. having full access to source code. Furthermore, you can study the
  90. source and learn how such programs are written. You may then be
  91. able to port it, improve it, and share your changes with others.
  92. Other organizations distribute whatever free software happens to be
  93. available. By contrast, FSF concentrates on development of new
  94. free software, working towards a GNU system complete enough to
  95. eliminate the need to purchase a proprietary system.
  96. Besides developing GNU, the Foundation has secondary functions:
  97. producing tapes and printed manuals of GNU software, carrying out
  98. distribution, and accepting gifts to support GNU development. We
  99. are tax exempt; you can deduct donations to us on your tax returns.
  100. Our development effort is funded partly from donations and partly
  101. >from distribution fees. Note that the distribution fees purchase
  102. just the service of distribution: you never have to pay anyone
  103. license fees to use GNU software, and you always have the freedom
  104. to make your copy from a friend's computer at no charge (provided
  105. your friend is willing).
  106. The Foundation also maintains a Service Directory: a list of people
  107. who offer service for pay to users of GNU programs and systems.
  108. The Service Directory is located in file `etc/SERVICE' in the GNU
  109. Emacs distribution. Service can mean answering questions for new
  110. users, customizing programs, porting to new systems, or anything
  111. else. Contact us if you want to be listed or wish a copy.
  112. After we create our programs, we continually update and improve
  113. them. We release between 2 and 20 updates a year for each program.
  114. Doing this while developing new programs takes a lot of work, so
  115. any donations of pertinent source code and documentation, machines,
  116. labor, or money are always appreciated.
  117. The board of the Foundation is: Richard Stallman, President; Robert
  118. J. Chassell, Treasurer; Gerald J. Sussman, Harold Abelson and
  119. Leonard H. Tower Jr., Directors.
  120. What Is Copyleft?
  121. *****************
  122. In the previous section entitled "What Is the Free Software
  123. Foundation?" we state that "you never have to pay anyone license
  124. fees to use GNU software, and you always have the freedom to make
  125. your copy from a friend's computer at no charge." What exactly do
  126. we mean by this, and how do we make sure that it stays true?
  127. The simplest way to make a program free is to put it in the public
  128. domain. Then people who get it from sharers can share it with
  129. others. But this also allows bad citizens to do what they like to
  130. do: sell binary-only versions under typical
  131. don't-share-with-your-neighbor licenses. They would thus enjoy the
  132. benefits of the freeness of the original program while withholding
  133. these benefits from the users. It could easily come about that
  134. most users get the program this way, and our goal of making the
  135. program free for *all* users would have been undermined.
  136. To prevent this from happening, we don't normally place GNU
  137. programs in the public domain. Instead, we protect them by what we
  138. call "copylefts". A copyleft is a legal instrument that makes
  139. everybody free to copy a program as long as the person getting the
  140. copy gets with it the freedom to distribute further copies, and the
  141. freedom to modify their copy (which means that they must get access
  142. to the source code). Typical software companies use copyrights to
  143. take away these freedoms; now software sharers use copylefts to
  144. preserve these freedoms.
  145. The copyleft used by the GNU Project is made from a combination of
  146. a copyright notice and the "GNU General Public License". The
  147. copyright notice is the usual kind. The General Public License is
  148. a copying license which basically says that you have the freedoms
  149. we want you to have and that you can't take these freedoms away
  150. >from anyone else. (The actual document consists of several pages
  151. of rather complicated legalbol that our lawyer said we needed.)
  152. The complete license is included in all GNU source code
  153. distributions and many manuals. We will send you a copy on
  154. request.
  155. We encourage others to copyleft their programs using the General
  156. Public License; basically programs only need to include a few
  157. sentences stating that the license applies to them. Specifics on
  158. using the License accompany it, so refer there for details.
  159. *"As we enjoy great advantages from the inventions of others,
  160. we should be glad of an opportunity to serve others by any
  161. invention of ours."*
  162. -Benjamin Franklin
  163. GNUs Flashes
  164. ************
  165. * Emacs Lisp Reference Manual
  166. It's here! We are now shipping the long awaited `GNU Emacs
  167. Lisp Reference Manual'. It describes the GNU Emacs Lisp
  168. programming language in great detail. The manual is about 550
  169. pages and can be ordered from us for $50. Early drafts of
  170. this manual are still floating around from several years ago,
  171. mostly at `ftp' sites. We strongly urge you to update to the
  172. new version since the improvements are innumerable. (As
  173. always you can `ftp' the manual from the usual sources.)
  174. * Smalltalk
  175. GNU now has a Smalltalk system. It was written by Steve
  176. Byrne. We currently have Version 1.0 available on
  177. `prep.ai.mit.edu'. Version 1.1 should be out soon. GNU
  178. Smalltalk is based on the `"blue book"' definition of the
  179. Smalltalk language. It is written in highly portable C and
  180. runs on a number of UNIX machines (Version 1.1 will offer more
  181. ports than the current version, which only runs on 4 or 5
  182. machines). A graphical user interface is also planned.
  183. Response to the system has generally been very favorable,
  184. especially for a young system.
  185. * GNU Finger
  186. GNU Finger is now available. This is a daemon--based finger
  187. program that polls all of the hosts at a site for
  188. finger--related information. With GNU Finger, information can
  189. now be retrieved for a user on a site--wide basis instead of a
  190. host--specific basis. Our finger also displays bitmaps of
  191. users' faces where available. See "GNU Finger" under "GNU
  192. Project Status Report" for more information.
  193. * Donation from the Open Software Foundation
  194. We want to thank OSF for yet another donation of $25,000. It
  195. is also planning significant improvements for the GNU
  196. Assembler and binutils.
  197. * Long-named options
  198. As we have mentioned before, we are adding long-named options
  199. to many of our utilities. We have done this by adding
  200. functionality to our `getopt' library. `getopt_long' can now
  201. be used to parse long options as well as the normal
  202. single-lettered options allowed by the standard `getopt'. For
  203. example, instead of remembering whether to use `-v' or `-V',
  204. you can use `+verbose' (or any unambiguous abbreviation) in
  205. all programs. Eventually we hope to provide command-line
  206. completion for long option names.
  207. * DBM replacement
  208. Version 1.3 of our `gdbm' library has been released. It is a
  209. replacement for the `dbm' and `ndbm' libraries. Our `gdbm'
  210. database is stored in one file which contains no large holes,
  211. supports read/write interlocking, handles keys and data of
  212. unlimited size, and provides routines supporting both the
  213. `ndbm' and `dbm' interfaces. These features separate `gdbm'
  214. from its proprietary predecessors.
  215. Possible New Terms for GNU Libraries
  216. ************************************
  217. by Richard Stallman
  218. We are considering changing the distribution terms for some GNU
  219. libraries, such as `libg++' and the (as yet unreleased) C library.
  220. The GNU General Public License was designed for utility programs,
  221. such as Emacs and GCC. It makes a sharp distinction between using
  222. the program and copying any part of it: Any program containing any
  223. significant portion of the GNU program must be freely
  224. redistributable to be permitted at all. However, merely using the
  225. program (for example, an editor) imposes no restriction on the work
  226. that is done with it.
  227. Libraries blur the distinction between modifying or adding to a
  228. program and simply using it. Linking a program with a library,
  229. without changing the library, is in some sense simply using the
  230. library, and analogous to running a utility program or application
  231. program. However, in a textual and legal sense, the linked
  232. executable is a combined work which is a derivative of the original
  233. library, and the ordinary General Public License treats it as such.
  234. As a result, developers of proprietary software have not used the
  235. GNU libraries.
  236. The goal of the Free Software Foundation is to promote the freedom
  237. to share software, for software developers and for users; we
  238. develop software for sharing as a means to this end. As a
  239. pragmatic matter, if the conditions for use of this software are
  240. such that most developers choose not to use it, then we don't
  241. achieve the goal. At the same time, if the conditions are so loose
  242. that people can use the software without much additional sharing,
  243. then we don't achieve the goal.
  244. It seems that the ordinary General Public License is too
  245. restrictive for libraries, and is discouraging their use rather
  246. than encouraging further sharing. However, it would not be best to
  247. do what proprietary software developers ask us to do---to permit
  248. completely unrestricted use of our libraries in proprietary
  249. software---because then the end users of that software wouldn't get
  250. a jot of additional freedom as a consequence of the use of our
  251. library. We need to find a proper middle ground.
  252. Our idea is to require the distributor of the proprietary
  253. executable to make the source to our library available along with
  254. the object files for the rest of the application. The user could
  255. then recompile the library (perhaps with changes) and relink to get
  256. a usable program. This way the user will, in some sense, get the
  257. benefit of the free status of the library within the executable.
  258. However, not all the details are settled, so we aren't announcing
  259. the precise new library terms just yet.
  260. League for Programming Freedom
  261. ******************************
  262. by Michael Bloom and Richard Stallman
  263. The League for Programming Freedom is an organization of people who
  264. oppose the attempt to monopolize common user interfaces through
  265. "look and feel" copyright lawsuits. Some of us are programmers who
  266. worry that such monopolies will obstruct our work. Some of us are
  267. users who want new computer systems to be compatible with the
  268. interfaces we know.
  269. "Look and feel" lawsuits aim to create a new class of
  270. government-enforced monopolies that would be broader in scope than
  271. ever before. Such a system of user-interface copyright would
  272. impose gratuitous incompatibility, reduce competition, and stifle
  273. innovation.
  274. We in the League hope to prevent these problems by preventing
  275. user-interface copyright. The League is not opposed to copyright
  276. law as it was understood until 1986---i.e., copyright on particular
  277. programs. Our aim is to stop changes in the copyright system,
  278. which would take away programmers' traditional freedom to write new
  279. programs that are compatible with existing programs and practices.
  280. The League for Programming Freedom will act against the doctrine
  281. behind look-and-feel suits by any means consistent with the law and
  282. intellectual liberty. We will write editorials, talk with public
  283. officials, file amicus curiae briefs with the courts, and boycott
  284. egregious offenders. If you have other ideas, please suggest them.
  285. The League members are now voting on the question of opposing
  286. software patents, which threaten to make every design decision in
  287. software development a chance for a lawsuit. The League's founders
  288. consider software patents potentially more dangerous than
  289. look-and-feel copyright, and the members voting so far seem to
  290. agree. Final results will be known at the beginning of June.
  291. The more members we have, the more effective we will be. Even if
  292. you cannot donate any time, simply joining will make a difference.
  293. The dues are $42 for professionals, $21 for others, except students
  294. whose dues are $10.50. To join, write to:
  295. League for Programming Freedom,
  296. 1 Kendall Square #143,
  297. P.O.Box 9171
  298. Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
  299. Phone: (617) 492-0023.
  300. `league@prep.ai.mit.edu'
  301. Note that the League for Programming Freedom is a separate
  302. organization from the Free Software Foundation; please direct all
  303. League inquiries to the above address, not to the Foundation.
  304. Free Software Support
  305. *********************
  306. The Free Software Foundation develops and distributes freely
  307. available software. Our goal is to help computer users as a
  308. community. We envision a world in which software is freely
  309. redistributable. This means software will be sold at a competitive
  310. market price rather than a monopoly established price; often, it
  311. will be given away. We see programmers as providing a service,
  312. much as doctors and lawyers now do---both medical knowledge and the
  313. law are freely redistributable entities for which the practitioners
  314. charge a distribution and service fee.
  315. To help you find support and other consulting services, we maintain
  316. a list of people who offer such services. We call this list the
  317. GNU Service Directory. This list is contained in the file
  318. `etc/SERVICE' in the GNU Emacs distribution. If you want to offer
  319. services, you can use this list to help make yourself known.
  320. (Contact us if you would like a copy of this directory or wish to
  321. be included.)
  322. Most of the listings in the GNU Service Directory are for
  323. individuals, but one is for Cygnus Support, which is the first
  324. for-profit corporation that we know of that provides support *only*
  325. for free software. Their address is `info@cygnus.com' or Cygnus
  326. Support, 814 University Ave., Palo Alto, CA 94301. FSF is not
  327. affiliated with Cygnus Support, but we hope that Cygnus Support is
  328. a harbinger of the future.
  329. If you find a deficiency in any GNU software, we want to know. We
  330. maintain a considerable number of Internet mailing lists for making
  331. announcements, reporting bugs and for asking questions. The Emacs
  332. and GCC Manuals have chapters explaining where to send bug reports
  333. and what information to put in them. Incidentally, on the larger
  334. lists, it is not surprising to see an enquiry answered on the same
  335. day it is posted.
  336. These mailing lists are also gatewayed into USENET news. If your
  337. site receives USENET, you can follow these discussions using news
  338. software. To find out more about the `gnu.*' newsgroups, ask your
  339. system administrator.
  340. If you don't have Internet access, you can receive mail and USENET
  341. news with a UUCP connection. Contact either a system administrator
  342. at a local UUCP site, or UUNET Communications, which can set up a
  343. UUCP connection for a modest fee. (UUNET is a non-profit
  344. organization that provides network connections.) You can contact
  345. UUNET by e-mail at `info@uunet.uu.net' or by paper mail at:
  346. UUNET Communications Services,
  347. 3110 Fairview Park Drive - Suite 570,
  348. Falls Church, VA 22042
  349. Phone: (703) 876-5050
  350. When we receive a bug report, we will usually try to fix the
  351. problem in order to make the software better. This may help you in
  352. the long run; however, we may not provide you with immediate
  353. assistance. This is not and should not be our job. Our task is so
  354. large that we must focus on that which helps the community as a
  355. whole, such as developing and maintaining software and
  356. documentation. We mustn't let ourselves be sidetracked into
  357. helping individuals one by one. We do not have the resources.
  358. Thus, do tell us how an installation script doesn't work or where
  359. the documentation is unclear---but please don't ask us to help you
  360. install the software or figure out how to use it.
  361. If your bug report does not evoke a solution from us, you may still
  362. get one from the many other users who read our bug reporting
  363. mailing lists. Otherwise, use the Service Directory.
  364. GNU Project Status Report
  365. *************************
  366. * GNU Emacs
  367. GNU Emacs 18 is now stable. Only a few important bugs have
  368. been encountered since Version 18.55.
  369. Berkeley is distributing GNU Emacs with the 4.3 distribution,
  370. and numerous companies also distribute it.
  371. Version 18 maintenance continues and a new version, 18.56, is
  372. expected soon. It has no new features, however. Version 19
  373. approaches release with a host of new features: before and
  374. after change hooks; X selection processing (including
  375. CLIPBOARD selections); scrollbars; support for European
  376. character sets; floating point numbers; per-buffer mouse
  377. commands; interfacing with the X resource manager;
  378. mouse-tracking; Lisp-level binding of function keys; and
  379. multiple X windows (`screens' to Emacs).
  380. Thanks go to Alan Carroll and the people who worked on Epoch
  381. for generating initial feedback to a multi-windowed Emacs.
  382. Emacs 19 supports two styles of multiple windows, one with a
  383. separate screen for the minibuffer, and another with a
  384. minibuffer attached to each screen.
  385. More features of Version 19 are buffer allocation, which uses
  386. a new mechanism capable of returning storage to the system
  387. when a buffer is killed, and a new input system---all input
  388. now arrives in the form of Lisp objects.
  389. Other features being considered for Version 19 include:
  390. - Associating property lists with regions of text in a
  391. buffer.
  392. - Multiple font, color, and pixmaps defined by those
  393. properties.
  394. - Different visibility conditions for the regions, and for
  395. the various windows showing one buffer.
  396. - Incremental syntax analysis for various programming
  397. languages.
  398. - Hooks to be run if point or mouse moves outside a certain
  399. range.
  400. - Source-level debugging for Emacs Lisp.
  401. - Incrementally saving undo history in a file, so that
  402. recover-file also reinstalls buffer's undo history.
  403. - Static menu bars, and better pop-up menus.
  404. - A more sophisticated emacsclient/server model, which
  405. would provide network transparent Emacs widget
  406. functionality.
  407. * Kernel
  408. We hope to use the Mach message-passing kernel being developed
  409. at CMU. The current distributed version of Mach is not free
  410. because it contains code from BSD of AT&T origin. However,
  411. Mach developers say that all this will be replaced with free
  412. code, or at least be moved into user processes. Mach will be
  413. free then. This version of Mach should be available in a
  414. couple of months (as of May 1990). Until this happens, and we
  415. see precisely what is available and on what terms, we can't
  416. say for certain whether we can use it.
  417. We will not use Mach unless we can share it with everyone, and
  418. all users can redistribute it. In particular, if an export
  419. control prevents distribution outside the US, we will not use
  420. it.
  421. If we can't use Mach, then we may start developing the GNU
  422. kernel with either MIT's TRIX kernel or Berkeley's Sprite
  423. system. TRIX is a remote procedure call kernel which runs and
  424. supports basic Unix compatibility at about the level of
  425. Version 7. It needs a lot of additional features. Sprite is
  426. at about the same architectural level as BSD Unix, but has a
  427. fancy distributed file system and process migration.
  428. * GNU Debugger
  429. The GNU source-level C debugger, GDB, is now being distributed
  430. along with the GNU C Compiler as GDB Version 3.5. Version
  431. 2.8, that used to be distributed on the Emacs tape, is now
  432. obsolete, and has been replaced by Version 3.5.
  433. We have also started work on GDB Version 4. We have added
  434. watchpoints, remote cross-debugging, and a host of minor
  435. features. We plan to add over-the-ethernet debugging before
  436. the initial release of Version 4.
  437. * C Compiler
  438. The GNU C compiler (GCC) Version 1 is now quite reliable. It
  439. supports ANSI standard C. NeXT builds its entire system,
  440. including its port of the Mach kernel and NFS, with GCC. We
  441. have also been told that GCC successfully compiled a System
  442. V.3 kernel. GCC has compiled almost all of the BSD source
  443. tree.
  444. GCC performs automatic register allocation, invariant code
  445. motion from loops, common subexpression elimination, induction
  446. variable optimizations, constant propagation and copy
  447. propagation, delaying popping of function call arguments, tail
  448. recursion elimination, and many local optimizations that are
  449. automatically deduced from the machine description.
  450. Supported CPUs include the 680x0, Vax, 32x32, 80386, 80860,
  451. Sparc (Sun 4), SPUR, Convex, MIPS, Tahoe, Pyramid, and
  452. Alliant.
  453. We are trying to stabilize GCC Version 1 while incorporating
  454. new improvements into Version 2. Version 2 now has support
  455. for nested functions, a certain amount of CSE between basic
  456. blocks, and a new feature for classifying instructions---which
  457. can be used to choose between long and short branches or to
  458. provide raw data for instruction scheduling. Instruction
  459. scheduling and perhaps global CSE will be added by the time
  460. Version 2 is finished. More general calling conventions are
  461. supported.
  462. Version 2 supports both C++ and Objective C on the same basis
  463. as C itself: the name of the source file selects the language.
  464. Michael Tiemann of Cygnus Support has written the C++ front
  465. end for GCC (which is available in Version 1 as G++). The
  466. front end for Objective C has been donated by NeXT. It will
  467. support the Motorola 88000, AMD 29000, IBM RT, and TRON.
  468. Ports for the IBM 370, the 3b2, the Ncube, a Gould machine (we
  469. don't know which one), and the HP Spectrum may be written.
  470. Front ends for Modula, Fortran and Pascal are being developed
  471. by volunteers. There are rumors about various other
  472. languages. So far, no one has volunteered to write Ada or
  473. Cobol.
  474. * C Library
  475. Roland McGrath and others continue to work on the C Library.
  476. The C library currently contains all of the ANSI C and POSIX.1
  477. functions, and work is in progress on POSIX.2 and Unix
  478. features. This means that the library will have not only all
  479. of ANSI, POSIX 1003.1, and POSIX 1003.2, but almost everything
  480. found in BSD and System V.
  481. The GNU regular-expression functions (`regex') are now mostly
  482. conformant to the POSIX.2 standard.
  483. * Ghostscript
  484. We are distributing Ghostscript on tape. This program
  485. provides nearly all the facilities of a Postscript
  486. interpreter.
  487. Ghostscript release 1.4 is now available. Staff members Karl
  488. Berry and Kathy Hargreaves are working on preparing a new
  489. release of Ghostscript, together with Peter Deutsch, the
  490. original author of the program. Kathy and Karl are also
  491. working on producing free PostScript font files.
  492. Highlights of the new release include drivers for HP's Deskjet
  493. and Laserjet as well as the Epson LX-800 (all in low density
  494. mode). Ghostscript may be built with multiple drivers (e.g.
  495. an X Window driver and a printer driver), and you can switch
  496. between them dynamically.
  497. The new release also includes about 20 scalable fonts
  498. algorithmically derived from the BDF fonts in the X11
  499. distribution. These include Charter, Courier, Helvetica, New
  500. Century Schoolbook, Symbol, and Times fonts. All but the
  501. Symbol are provided in different variations.
  502. Right now, Ghostscript will accept commands in PostScript and
  503. execute them by drawing on an X Window or writing a file that
  504. can be transferred directly to a printer. It also includes a
  505. C-callable graphics library (for client programs that don't
  506. want to deal with the PostScript Language), and supports IBM
  507. PCs and compatibles with EGA graphics as well (but don't ask
  508. us about this; we don't use PCs and don't have time to learn
  509. anything about them).
  510. Ghostscript needs enhancements: to serve as a previewer for
  511. multi-page files; to serve other X clients by drawing on their
  512. windows; to be improved both in its performance and visual
  513. quality; and more fonts. Any suggestions for enhancements are
  514. welcome.
  515. * GNU Finger
  516. Brian Fox has released the new GNU Finger program. Finger is
  517. a daemon-based replacement for (or supplement to) BSD
  518. `finger'. Our finger now handles the newer paradigm of each
  519. user having his/her own small Unix host (workstation). GNU
  520. finger has a per site server that will poll all of the
  521. machines at a site. Thus queries can now be site wide rather
  522. than host specific. For example, fingering
  523. bfox@pogo.ai.mit.edu with our finger would tell you if he was
  524. logged in and what host he is using. If he isn't logged in,
  525. it will tell you what host he was last using.
  526. Our finger also does faces! If a site has face bitmaps online
  527. (and is running GNU Finger, of course) you can get the user's
  528. face in a X Window on your display.
  529. * Oleo
  530. Jay Fenlason is writing a spreadsheet named Oleo (which is
  531. better for you than the more expensive spreadsheet). Oleo is
  532. in alpha test right now; we do not know when it will be
  533. available. Jay says that "really brave" people can contact
  534. him about being alpha testers.
  535. Oleo currently reads and writes SC and Multiplan SYLK files,
  536. but teaching it new formats is fairly simple. It has a full
  537. set of expressions as well as mathematical, financial, and
  538. string functions. Keys may all be rebound and Oleo also has
  539. primitive macro support.
  540. Oleo uses the `curses' library and an X11 interface is
  541. planned. Right now it runs on BSD Unix machines as well as
  542. IBM PC's and compatibles.
  543. * groff
  544. James Clark is writing `groff', an implementation in C++ of
  545. the traditional Unix document formatting tools. So far
  546. `troff', `pic', `tbl', `eqn', `man' macros, and a PostScript
  547. driver have been written. A version of the Berkeley `me'
  548. macros will be included. He is currently implementing a
  549. driver which produces TeX `.dvi' format and a driver for
  550. typewriter-like devices. Useful additions would be `mm' and
  551. `ms' macros, `grap', and `refer'.
  552. * GNU Mailer
  553. Development of Smail is coming to an end. We are satisfied
  554. with the program's current features, except for the queueing
  555. system. We hope we can replace Smail's queueing system with
  556. the queueing system found in Zmailer. Otherwise a new one
  557. will have to be written.
  558. * File Manipulation Utilities
  559. We have added a collection of utilities for file manipulation
  560. to the Pre-Release tape. The collection includes `ls', `mv',
  561. `cp', `cat', `rm', `du', `head', `tail', `cmp', `chmod',
  562. `mkdir', and `ln'. These tools are either fully POSIX
  563. compliant or being worked on to become so. `cp' now has
  564. options to preserve the last-modification timestamp on copies,
  565. thus replacing some uses of `tar' or `cpio'.
  566. * Smalltalk
  567. Our Smalltalk system will be available in tape form when we
  568. release our "Experimental" tape in November. It is currently
  569. available via `ftp' on `prep.ai.mit.edu'. The current version
  570. is 1.1, with Version 1.2 expected to be out soon. Thanks to
  571. Steve Byrne who wrote our Smalltalk based on the `blue book'
  572. definition of the language.
  573. GNU Wish List
  574. *************
  575. Wishes for this issue are for:
  576. * Someone skilled in compiler maintenance who could take over
  577. GCC maintenance for RMS. This would probably be a full-time
  578. job.
  579. * A Sun with a SCSI port to be donated or loaned so we can make
  580. distribution tapes. We also need machines to be donated or
  581. loaned for use by FSF programmers and documentation people who
  582. are not located near our offices in Cambridge.
  583. * Professors who might be interested in sponsoring or hosting
  584. research assistants to do GNU development, with full or
  585. partial FSF support. Several schools have done this and we
  586. welcome others to join in.
  587. * Volunteers to help write utilities and documentation. Send
  588. mail to `gnu@prep.ai.mit.edu' for the task list and coding
  589. standards.
  590. * Speech and character recognition software (if the devices
  591. aren't too weird), with the device drivers (if possible).
  592. This would help the productivity of at least one partially
  593. disabled programmer we know.
  594. * Grammar checking software for English and other natural
  595. languages.
  596. * Copies of newspaper and journal articles mentioning the GNU
  597. Project or GNU software. Send these to the address on the
  598. front cover, or send a citation to `gnu@prep.ai.mit.edu'.
  599. * Money, as always. Please remember, donations are
  600. tax-deductible. With the latest donations, we have been able
  601. to expand our staff again. With the increased staff we have
  602. an even greater need for donations.
  603. One way to give us a small amount of money is to order a
  604. distribution tape or two. This may not count as a donation
  605. for tax purposes, but it can qualify as a business expense.
  606. GNU Documentation
  607. *****************
  608. GNU is dedicated to having quality, easy-to-use, on-line and
  609. printed documentation. GNU manuals are intended to explain the
  610. underlying concepts, describe how to use all the features of each
  611. program, and give examples of command use.
  612. GNU documentation is distributed as Texinfo source files. Texinfo
  613. source yields both a typeset hardcopy and on-line presentations,
  614. accessed by a menu-driven system.
  615. The following manuals, provided with our software, are also
  616. available in hardcopy; see the order form on the inside back cover.
  617. The Emacs Manual describes the use of GNU Emacs. It also explains
  618. advanced features, such as outline mode and regular expression
  619. search. The manual tells how to use special modes for programming
  620. in languages such as C and Lisp, how to use the tags utility, and
  621. how to compile and correct code. It also describes how to make
  622. your own keybindings and other elementary customizations.
  623. The Emacs Lisp Reference Manual covers the GNU Emacs Lisp
  624. programming language in great depth. It goes into data types,
  625. control structures, functions, macros, byte compilation, keymaps,
  626. windows, markers, searching and matching, modes, syntax tables,
  627. operating system interface, etc.
  628. The Texinfo Manual describes how to write documents in Texinfo
  629. source code. It explains the markup language used to create both
  630. an Info file and a printed document from the same source file.
  631. This tells you how to make tables, lists, chapters, nodes, indices,
  632. and cross references. It also describes how to use Texinfo mode in
  633. GNU Emacs and catch mistakes.
  634. The Termcap Manual is often described as "Twice as much as you ever
  635. wanted to know about Termcap." It describes the format of the
  636. Termcap database, the definitions of terminal capabilities, and the
  637. process of interrogating a terminal description. This manual is
  638. primarily for programmers.
  639. The Bison Manual covers writing grammar descriptions that can be
  640. converted into C coded parsers. This manual assumes no prior
  641. knowledge of parser generators. It describes the concepts and then
  642. provides a series of increasingly complex examples before
  643. describing what happens in considerable detail.
  644. The GAWK Manual describes how to use the GNU implementation of AWK.
  645. It is written for someone who has never used AWK, and describes all
  646. the features of this powerful string manipulating language.
  647. The Make Manual describes the GNU Make utility, a program used to
  648. rebuild parts of other programs when and as needed. It covers
  649. makefile writing, which specifies how a program is to be compiled
  650. and what each part of the program depends on.
  651. The GDB Manual explains how to use the GNU Debugger. It describes
  652. running your program under debugger control, how to examine and
  653. alter data as well as modify the flow of control within the
  654. program, and how to use GDB through GNU Emacs, with auto-display of
  655. source lines.
  656. GNU Software Available Now
  657. **************************
  658. We offer Unix software source distribution tapes, plus VMS tapes
  659. for GNU Emacs and GNU C that include sources and VMS executables.
  660. The first Unix tape (called the "Release" or "Emacs" tape) contains
  661. GNU Emacs as well as various other well-tested programs that we
  662. consider reliable. The second Unix tape (called the "Pre-Release"
  663. or "Compiler" tape) contains the GNU C compiler, related utilities,
  664. and other new programs that are less thoroughly tested. The third
  665. and fourth Unix tapes (called the "X11" tapes) contain the X11
  666. distribution from the MIT X Consortium.
  667. The GNU C compiler and various related programs are on a tape that
  668. we have called our "Beta Test" tape in the past. However, this
  669. software is becoming more stable; to reflect this change, we are
  670. renaming the tape the "Pre-Release" tape. (The tape also contains
  671. Ghostscript, which is not stable; for the moment, this is the best
  672. place to put it.)
  673. Sometime in the Fall, probably in early November, we will introduce
  674. a new beta test tape of "experimental" software. We will put new
  675. major, test releases of existing more-or-less stable programs such
  676. as GCC, Emacs, and GDB on this tape when they appear, as well as
  677. new programs such as Smalltalk and the C library. The contents of
  678. the "Experimental" tape will fluctuate because versions will move
  679. to the other tapes when they become stable. We are calling this
  680. the "Experimental" tape to prevent confusion with the older Beta
  681. tape.
  682. We will put Ghostscript on the "Experimental" tape when it appears.
  683. But as a convenience, we will continue to include it on the
  684. "Pre-Release" tape until the current order form expires in January
  685. 1991, even though this action is somewhat inconsistent with the
  686. tape naming conventions.
  687. Please do not order an "Experimental" tape until at least November,
  688. unless you see an announcement sooner than that on the net---we
  689. have put nothing on this tape as yet!
  690. See the order form on the inside back cover for details about
  691. media, etc. Note that the contents of the 1600bpi 9-track tapes
  692. and the QIC-24 DC300XLP 1/4 inch cartridge tapes for UNIX systems
  693. are the same. It is only the media that are different.
  694. Contents of the Emacs Release Tape
  695. ----------------------------------
  696. The software on this release tape is considered fairly stable, but
  697. as always, we welcome your bug reports.
  698. * GNU Emacs
  699. In 1975, Richard Stallman developed the first Emacs, an
  700. extensible, customizable real-time display editor. GNU Emacs
  701. is his second implementation of Emacs. It's the first Emacs
  702. available on Unix systems that offers true Lisp---smoothly
  703. integrated into the editor---for writing extensions. It also
  704. provides a special interface to MIT's free X window system.
  705. The current version of Emacs is 18.55.
  706. GNU Emacs has been in widespread use since 1985 and often
  707. displaces proprietary implementations of Emacs because of its
  708. greater reliability as well as its additional features and
  709. easier extensibility. DEC, Berkeley, and NeXT are all
  710. distributing Emacs with their systems. When Isaac Salzman set
  711. out to review various versions of Emacs, only one company
  712. wanted its product to be compared with GNU Emacs. In his
  713. review, which appeared in the July, 1989 issue of Unix Review,
  714. Salzman concluded, "When it comes to Emacs, GNU is the way to
  715. go."
  716. pGNU Emacs (as of Version 18.55) runs on many Unix systems:
  717. Alliant, Altos 3068, Amdahl (UTS), Apollo, AT&T (3B machines &
  718. 7300 PC), CCI 5/32 & 6/32, Celerity, Convex, Digital
  719. (DECstation 3100; Vax running BSD or System V), Motorola Delta
  720. (running System V/68 release 3), Dual, Elxsi 6400, Encore
  721. (DPC, APC, & XPC), Gould, HP (9000 series 200, 300 or 800
  722. (Spectrum) but not series 500), HLH Orion 1/05, IBM (RT/PC
  723. running 4.2 & AIX; PS2 running AIX), Integrated Solutions
  724. (Optimum V with 68020 & VMEbus), Intel 80386 (BSD, System V, &
  725. Xenix; not MS-DOS), Iris (2500, 2500 Turbo, & 4D), LMI (Nu),
  726. Masscomp, Megatest, MIPS, NCR (Tower 32), Nixdorf Targon 31,
  727. Plexus, Prime, Pyramid, Sequent (Balance & Symmetry), SONY
  728. News, Stride (system release 2), Sun (1, 2, 3, 4,
  729. SparcStation, & 386i), Tahoe, Tektronix (NS32000 & 4300),
  730. Stardent 1500 or 3000, Titan P2 or P3, Pmax, Texas Instruments
  731. (Nu), & Whitechapel (MG1).
  732. GNU Emacs is described by the `GNU Emacs Manual', which comes
  733. with the software in Texinfo form. See "GNU Documentation"
  734. above. Also, since GDB is the only debugger that can debug
  735. Emacs without losing its mind, it is included on this tape as
  736. well as the Pre-Release Tape.
  737. * GNU Emacs Lisp Reference Manual
  738. We now include the Texinfo source to the `GNU Emacs Lisp
  739. Reference Manual' with Emacs. The manual describes the GNU
  740. Emacs Lisp programming language in detail and is for anyone
  741. who is interested in writing programs in GNU Emacs Lisp. See
  742. "GNUs Flashes" and "GNU Documentation" in this bulletin for
  743. more information.
  744. * Bison
  745. Bison is an upwardly compatible replacement for the parser
  746. generator Yacc, with additional features. It has been in use
  747. for several years. Bison is used for compiling GNU C, so it
  748. is included on the GNU Pre-Release tape as well. The `Bison
  749. Manual' comes with the software in Texinfo form (see "GNU
  750. Documentation" above).
  751. * X Window System, V10R4
  752. We are no longer including a copy of X10 on our distribution
  753. tapes. It is no longer supported by MIT, so distributing it
  754. does not make sense. X Version 11 (currently release 4) is
  755. now pretty stable and available from us on two separate tapes.
  756. See "Contents of the X11 Tapes."
  757. * MIT Scheme
  758. Scheme is a simplified, lexically scoped dialect of Lisp. It
  759. was designed at MIT and other universities to teach students
  760. programming and to research new parallel programming
  761. constructs and compilation techniques. MIT Scheme is written
  762. in C and runs on many Unix systems. It now conforms to the
  763. "Revised^3 Report On The Algorithmic Language Scheme" (MIT AI
  764. Lab Memo 848a), for which TeX source is included in the
  765. distribution. Another good source of documentation for Scheme
  766. is "Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs", by
  767. Harold Abelson and Gerald J. Sussman with Julie Sussman, the
  768. MIT Press & McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1985.
  769. * Yale T
  770. A variant of Scheme developed at Yale University, T is
  771. intended for production use in program development. T
  772. contains a native-code optimizing compiler that produces code
  773. that runs at speeds comparable to the speeds of programs
  774. written in conventional languages. It runs on BSD Vaxes,
  775. 680x0 systems, SPARC workstations, MIPS R2000 workstations
  776. (including the Decstation 3100 PMAX), and NS32000 machines
  777. (including the Encore Multimax). T is written in itself and
  778. cannot be bootstrapped without a binary (included), but it is
  779. great if you can use it. Some documentation is included.
  780. * `texi2roff'
  781. `texi2roff', written by Beverly Erlebacher, translates GNU
  782. Texinfo files into a format that can be printed by the Unix
  783. [nt]roff programs utilizing the mm, ms or me macro packages.
  784. It is included on all UNIX tapes so people who don't have a
  785. copy of TeX can print out GNU documentation.
  786. * GNU Chess and NetHack
  787. GNU Chess is a chess program, now in its second major version.
  788. The first was written by Stuart Cracraft. The second was
  789. written and donated by John Stanback. If a successor is found
  790. that is significantly stronger, it could become the new GNU
  791. Chess. GNU Chess has text-only and X display interfaces.
  792. NetHack is a display--oriented adventure game similar to
  793. Rogue.
  794. Contents of the Pre-Release Tape
  795. --------------------------------
  796. The programs on this tape are becoming almost stable. The
  797. exception is Ghostscript, but which we are carrying on this tape as
  798. a convenience until January 1991, when we will distribute it only
  799. on the "Experimental" tape. As always, we solicit your comments
  800. and bug reports. This tape is also known as the Compiler tape, and
  801. used to be known as the "Beta" tape.
  802. * GNU CC
  803. The GNU C compiler is a fairly portable optimizing compiler.
  804. It generates good code for the 32000, 680x0 (optionally with
  805. 68881/2), 80386, 860, 88000, Alliant, Convex, Tahoe, and Vax
  806. CPUs, and for these RISC CPUs: Pyramid, SPARC, and SPUR. The
  807. MIPS RISC CPU is also supported. Machines using these CPUs
  808. include 386 running AIX, Alliant FX/8, Altos 3068, Apollo
  809. 68000/68020 running Aegis, AT&T 3B1, Convex C1 and C2,
  810. DECstation 3100, DEC VAX, Encore MultiMax (NS32000), Genix
  811. NS32000, Harris HCX-7 and HCX-9, HP-UX 68000/68020, HP running
  812. BSD, IBM PS/2 running AIX, Intel 386, Iris MIPS machine, ISI
  813. 68000/68020, MIPS, NeXT, Pyramid, Sequent Balance (NS32000),
  814. Sequent Symmetry (i386), SONY News, Sun 2, Sun 3 (optionally
  815. with FPA), Sun 4, SparcStation, and Sun386i. The current
  816. version is 1.37. It supports full ANSI C. Please refer to
  817. the "GNU Project Status Report" for more detail on GCC.
  818. Included with the compiler are Bison (also on the Emacs
  819. release tape), and the perfect hash-table generating utility
  820. (Gperf), plus the Texinfo source of the `GCC Manual'. This
  821. manual describes how to run and install the GNU C compiler,
  822. and how to port it to new processors. It describes new
  823. features and incompatibilities of the compiler, but people not
  824. familiar with C will also need a good book on C.
  825. * Assembler and Object File Utilities
  826. The GNU assembler (GAS) is a fairly portable, one pass
  827. assembler that is almost twice as fast as Unix `as'. It is
  828. now at Version 1.35 and works for 32x32, 680x0, 80386, Sparc
  829. (Sun 4), and Vax.
  830. We have free versions of `ar', `ld', `nm', `size', `gprof',
  831. `strip', and `ranlib'. The GNU linker `ld' runs significantly
  832. faster than the BSD version. Our `ld' is the only one that
  833. will give you source-line numbered error messages for
  834. multiply-defined symbols and undefined references.
  835. * COFF Support
  836. It is possible to run the entire suite of GNU software tools
  837. on System V, replacing COFF entirely. The GNU tools can
  838. operate on BSD object files with a COFF header the System V
  839. kernel will accept. `robotussin' is supplied for converting
  840. standard libraries to this format.
  841. * `make'
  842. GNU `make' includes almost all the features from the BSD,
  843. System V, and POSIX versions of make, as well many of our own
  844. extensions. These extensions include parallelism, conditional
  845. execution, and text manipulation. Version 3 of GNU make is
  846. fairly stable and we do not anticipate a Version 3 release
  847. after 3.59. Work on Version 4---which will include many
  848. functional improvements---will begin sometime this summer.
  849. Texinfo source for the GNU make manual is provided; see "GNU
  850. Documentation" above.
  851. * Debugger
  852. Version 3.`*' of GDB, the GNU debugger, runs under BSD 4.2 and
  853. 4.3 on Vaxes and Suns (2, 3, and 4), Convex, HP 9000/300's
  854. under BSD, HP 9000/320's under HPUX, System V 386 machines
  855. (with either GNU or native object file format), ISI Optimum V,
  856. Merlin under Utek 2.1, SONY News, Gould NPL and PN machines,
  857. Pyramid, Sequent Symmetry (a 386 based machine), Altos, and
  858. Encores under Umax 4.2.
  859. GDB features incremental reading of symbol tables (for fast
  860. startup and less memory use), command-line editing, the
  861. ability to call functions in the program being debugged, a
  862. value history, and user-defined commands. It can be used to
  863. debug C, C`++', and FORTRAN programs.
  864. GDB also provides for remote debugging over a serial line.
  865. Remote debugging is the most convenient way to develop
  866. software for systems which are too small to run a debugger; it
  867. allows you to have the features of GDB at your disposal even
  868. on such systems.
  869. * BASH
  870. The GNU Shell, BASH (for Bourne Again SHell), provides
  871. compatibility with the Unix `sh' and provides many extensions
  872. found in `csh' and `ksh'. It has job control, `csh'-style
  873. command history, and command-line editing (with Emacs and vi
  874. modes built-in and the ability to rebind keys).
  875. * GAWK, FLEX, and `tar'
  876. GAWK is GNU's version of the Unix AWK utility; it comes with a
  877. Texinfo manual (see "GNU Documentation" above). FLEX is a
  878. mostly-compatible replacement for the Unix `lex' scanner
  879. generator written by Vern Paxson of the Lawrence Berkeley
  880. Laboratory. FLEX generates far more efficient scanners than
  881. `lex' does. GNU `tar' includes multivolume support, the
  882. ability to archive sparse files, automatic compression and
  883. decompression of archives, remote archives, and special
  884. features to allow `tar' to be used for incremental and full
  885. backups of file systems.
  886. * Freed Files from the U.C. Berkeley 4.3-tahoe Release
  887. These files have been declared by Berkeley to be free of AT&T
  888. code, and may be freely redistributed. They include complete
  889. sources for some utility programs, games, and library
  890. routines; and partial sources for many others.
  891. * RCS and CVS
  892. The Revision Control System is used for version control and
  893. management of large software projects. This is the latest
  894. version (4.0).
  895. CVS, the Concurrent Version System written by Brian Berliner,
  896. manages software revision and release control in a
  897. multi-developer, multi-directory, multi-group environment. It
  898. is designed to work on top of RCS Version 4, but will parse
  899. older RCS formats with the loss of CVS's fancier features.
  900. For further details, see Berliner, Brian, `CVS-II:
  901. Parallelizing Software Development,' Proceedings of the Winter
  902. 1990 USENIX Association Conference.
  903. * `diff' and `grep'
  904. These programs are GNU's versions of the Unix programs of the
  905. same name. They are much faster than their Unix counterparts.
  906. * Ghostscript and `gnuplot'
  907. Ghostscript is GNU's graphics language that is almost fully
  908. compatible with PostScript. For more information on
  909. Ghostscript, please refer to the section on Ghostscript in the
  910. "GNU Project Status Report."
  911. `gnuplot' is an interactive program for plotting mathematical
  912. expressions and data. Oddly enough, the program was neither
  913. done for nor named for the GNU Project---the name is a
  914. coincidence.
  915. * `g++', `libg++', and NIH Class Library
  916. G`++' is a set of changes for GCC that compiles C`++', the
  917. well-known object-oriented language. This was the first
  918. compiler to compile C`++' directly instead of preprocessing it
  919. into C, with great benefits for debugging and efficiency.
  920. G`++' also was first with multiple inheritance and other new
  921. features later released by AT&T in `cfront 2.0'. Since G`++'
  922. depends on GCC, it must be used with the correspondingly
  923. numbered version of GCC. GDB Version 3.`*' includes support
  924. for debugging C`++' code, which merges in the functionality of
  925. the old program GDB`+'.
  926. `libg++' (the GNU C`++' library) is an extensive and
  927. documented collection of C`++' classes and support tools for
  928. use with G`++'.
  929. The NIH Class Library (formerly known as OOPS (Object-Oriented
  930. Program Support)) is a portable collection of classes similar
  931. to those in Smalltalk-80 that has been developed by Keith
  932. Gorlen of NIH, using the C`++' programming language.
  933. Note that Interviews has been dropped from this tape since it
  934. appears on the "optional" X tape (See "Contents of the X11
  935. Tapes" below).
  936. * File Utilities and Miscellaneous
  937. The file utilities, which include the programs listed in the
  938. "GNU Status Report," are now included here. We also include
  939. `compress', `perl' (Version 3.0), `c-perf' (Version 2.0),
  940. `f2c' (a FORTRAN to C translator), and GnuGo (the game of Go
  941. (Wei-Chi)) on this tape.
  942. Contents of the X11 Tapes
  943. -------------------------
  944. The two X11 tapes contain Version 11, Release 4 of the MIT X window
  945. system. X11 is more powerful than, but incompatible with, the
  946. no-longer-supported Version 10.
  947. The first FSF tape contains the contents of both tape one and tape
  948. two from the MIT X Consortium: the core software and documentation,
  949. and the contributed clients. FSF refers to its first tape as the
  950. `required' X tape since it is necessary for running X or GNU Emacs
  951. under X. (The Consortium refers to its first two tapes as the
  952. `required/recommended' tapes.)
  953. The second, `optional' FSF tape contains the contents of tapes
  954. three and four from the MIT X Consortium: contributed libraries and
  955. other toolkits, the Andrew software, games, etc. (The Consortium
  956. refers to its last two tapes as `optional' tapes.)
  957. VMS Emacs and Compiler Tapes
  958. ----------------------------
  959. We offer a VMS tape of the GNU Emacs editor, and a separate VMS
  960. tape containing the GNU C compiler. The VMS compiler tape also
  961. contains Bison (needed to compile GCC), GAS (needed to assemble
  962. GCC's output), and some library and include files. Both VMS tapes
  963. include executables that you can bootstrap from, because the DEC
  964. VMS C compiler has bugs and thus cannot compile GNU C.
  965. Please don't ask us to devote effort to additional VMS support,
  966. because it is peripheral to the GNU Project.
  967. How to Get GNU Software
  968. ***********************
  969. All the software and publications from the Free Software Foundation
  970. are distributed with permission to copy and redistribute. The
  971. easiest way to get GNU software is to copy it from someone else who
  972. has it.
  973. If you have access to the Internet, you can get the latest software
  974. >from the host `prep.ai.mit.edu'. For more information, read the
  975. file `/u/emacs/GETTING.GNU.SOFTWARE' on that host. Please note
  976. that the Internet address of `prep' is `18.71.0.38'.
  977. If you cannot get the software from a friend or over the net, or if
  978. you would like to contribute some funds to our efforts and receive
  979. the latest versions, the Free Software Foundation distributes tapes
  980. for a copying and distribution fee. See the order form on the
  981. inside back cover.
  982. There are also third party groups that distribute our software:
  983. they do not work with us, but have our software in other forms.
  984. For your convenience, some of them are listed below. Please note
  985. that the Free Software Foundation is not affiliated with them in
  986. any way, and is not responsible for either the currency of their
  987. versions or the swiftness of their responses.
  988. These Internet sites provide GNU software via anonymous `ftp':
  989. scam.berkeley.edu, itstd.sri.com, wuarchive.wustl.edu,
  990. wsmr-simtel20.army.mil (under `PD:<UNIX.GNU>'), bu.edu,
  991. louie.udel.edu, nic.nyser.net, ftp.cs.titech.ac.jp,
  992. funic.hut.fi, sunic.sunet.se, freja.diku.dk,
  993. gatekeeper.dec.com, mango.miami.edu (VMS G++),
  994. cc.utah.edu (VMS GNU Emacs), and uunet.uu.net.
  995. Those on the SPAN network can ask rdss::corbet.
  996. Information on how to obtain some GNU programs using UUCP is
  997. available via electronic mail from the following people. Ohio
  998. State also posts their UUCP instructions regularly to newsgroup
  999. `comp.sources.d' on USENET.
  1000. hao!scicom!qetzal!upba!ugn!nepa!denny, acornrc!bob,
  1001. hqda-ai!merlin, uunet!hutch!barber, sun!nosun!illian!darylm,
  1002. oli-stl!root, bigtex!james, postmaster@uunet.uu.net, and
  1003. karl@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu (or `osu-cis!karl)'.
  1004. Freemacs, an Extensible Editor for MS-DOS
  1005. -----------------------------------------
  1006. Freemacs, a copylefted MS-DOS editor, is one of the few editors for
  1007. small machines with a full extension language. It is the only such
  1008. editor that tries to be compatible with GNU Emacs. For more
  1009. information contact: `nelson@clutx.clarkson.edu', or: Russell
  1010. Nelson, 11 Grant St., Potsdam, NY, 13676. $15 sent to that address
  1011. will get you a copy. It is also available for `ftp' on
  1012. `sun.soe.clarkson.edu'. Note that the Free Software Foundation
  1013. does not distribute Freemacs; please don't ask us about it.
  1014. Thank GNUs
  1015. **********
  1016. Thanks to all those mentioned in GNUs Flashes and the GNU Project
  1017. Status Report.
  1018. Thanks to the Japanese Unix Society for their large gift.
  1019. Thanks to Delta Microsystems who just donated an Exabyte tape
  1020. drive.
  1021. Thanks again to the Open Software Foundation for their continued
  1022. support.
  1023. Thanks to Digital Equipment Corporation for their gift.
  1024. Thanks to Bil Lewis, Dan LaLiberte, and the volunteers who worked
  1025. on the `Emacs Lisp Reference Manual'. Also thanks to Warren A.
  1026. Hunt, Jr. and Computational Logic, Inc. for their support.
  1027. Thanks to the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory & MIT
  1028. Laboratory for Computer Science for their invaluable assistance of
  1029. many kinds.
  1030. Thanks to Chris Welty as well as the Computer Science Department at
  1031. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute for splitting Dave Lawrence's
  1032. salary with FSF and providing him computing facilities.
  1033. Thanks to Prof. Christof Koch of Caltech for his support of Brian
  1034. Fox.
  1035. Thanks to Prof. Paul Hilfinger of the UCB CS Department for
  1036. allowing Roland McGrath to use UCB resources.
  1037. Thanks to the University of Minnesota Department of Computer
  1038. Science for allowing Mike Haertel to use their computers.
  1039. Thanks to Cliff Lasser of Thinking Machines, Inc. for the help with
  1040. upgrading to SunOS 4.0.
  1041. Thanks to Village Center Inc and Nikkei Business Publishing, both
  1042. of Japan, for their gifts.
  1043. Thanks to Information Systems and the Whitaker College Computing
  1044. Facility at MIT for use of their machines to make our VMS master
  1045. tapes.
  1046. Thanks go out to all those who have either lent or donated
  1047. machines, including Hewlett-Packard for their donation of six 68030
  1048. workstations, Brewster Kahle of Thinking Machines Corp. (TMC) for
  1049. the Sun 4/110, K. Richard Magill for the AT&T Unix PC, Doug
  1050. Blewett of AT&T Bell Labs for two Convergent Miniframes, CMU's Mach
  1051. Project for the Sun 3/60, Intel Corp. for their 386/i860
  1052. workstation, NeXT for a NeXT workstation, the MIT Media Laboratory
  1053. for the Hewlett-Packard 68020 machine, SONY Corp. and Software
  1054. Research Associates, Inc., both of Tokyo, for three SONY News
  1055. workstations, and the MIT Laboratory of Computer Science for the
  1056. DEC Microvax.
  1057. Thanks to all those who have contributed ports and extensions, as
  1058. well as those who have contributed other source code,
  1059. documentation, and good bug reports. Thanks to those who sent
  1060. money and offered help. Thanks also to those who support us by
  1061. ordering manuals and distribution tapes.
  1062. Free Software Foundation Order Form
  1063. ***********************************
  1064. This form is effective June 1990--January 1991.
  1065. Prices and contents of tapes are subject to change without notice.
  1066. All software and publications are distributed with permission to copy
  1067. and redistribute.
  1068. TeX source for each manual is on the appropriate tape; the prices for
  1069. tapes do not include printed manuals.
  1070. All software from the Free Software Foundation is provided on an "as
  1071. is" basis, with no warranty of any kind.
  1072. Quantity Price Item
  1073. For Unix systems, on 1600 bpi 9-track tape in Unix tar format:
  1074. ________ $150 GNU Emacs source code and other software.
  1075. The tape includes:
  1076. * GNU Emacs (the extensible, customizable, self-documenting
  1077. real-time display editor)
  1078. * The GNU Emacs Lisp Reference Manual, as source code.
  1079. * MIT Scheme (a dialect of Lisp)
  1080. * T, Yale's implementation of Scheme
  1081. * Bison (a free, compatible replacement for yacc)
  1082. * Nethack (a rogue-like game)
  1083. * GNU Chess (a chess playing program with an interface to X).
  1084. * GDB (release version of the GNU source-level C debugger)
  1085. ________ $150 GNU prerelease software, for Unix systems.
  1086. The tape includes:
  1087. * GCC (the GNU C Compiler, including COFF support)
  1088. * G++ (the C++ front end to GCC)
  1089. * lib-g++ (the G++ class library)
  1090. * NIH Class Library (formerly known as OOPS)
  1091. * Bash (GNUs' Bourne Again SHell)
  1092. * Bison (a free, compatible replacement for yacc)
  1093. * Flex (Vern Paxson fast rewrite of lex)
  1094. * Ghostscript (a Postscript interpreter)
  1095. * Gawk (the GNU implementation of the AWK programming language)
  1096. * Gas (the GNU Assembler)
  1097. * GDB (beta version of the GNU source-level C debugger)
  1098. * Gnuplot (an interactive mathematical plotting program)
  1099. * Compress (a file compression program)
  1100. * Perl (version 3.0; a programming language interpreter)
  1101. * RCS (Revision Control System)
  1102. * CVS (Concurrent Control System)
  1103. * GNU object file utilities (ar, ld, make, gprof, size, nm,
  1104. strip, ranlib, et al.)
  1105. * other GNU utilities (make, diff, grep, tar, et al.)
  1106. * GNU GO (the GNU implementation of the game of GO)
  1107. * the freed files from the 4.3BSD-Tahoe distribution
  1108. ________ $150 GNU Experimental software. Not ready before Nov. 1990.
  1109. ________ $150 Required MIT X Window System X11R4, core software and
  1110. documentation, and contributed client software.
  1111. ________ $150 Optional MIT X Window System X11R4, contributed software
  1112. including libraries, games, Andrew and toolkits.
  1113. For Suns and other Unix Systems, on QIC-24 DC300XLP 1/4 inch cartridge
  1114. tape, Unix tar format:
  1115. ________ $175 GNU Emacs and other software, as in the first item.
  1116. ________ $175 GNU Beta Test tape, for Suns, as in the second item.
  1117. ________ $175 GNU Experimental software, as in the third item (Nov. 1990).
  1118. ________ $175 Required MIT X Window System X11R4, as in the fourth item.
  1119. ________ $175 Optional MIT X Window System X11R4, as in the fifth item.
  1120. For VMS systems, on 1600 bpi reel-to-reel 9-track tape in VMS BACKUP
  1121. format:
  1122. ________ $150 GNU Emacs source code and binaries.
  1123. ________ $150 GNU C compiler source code and binaries.
  1124. Includes Bison and GAS.
  1125. GNU Emacs manual, ~300 pages, phototypeset, offset printed, spiral
  1126. bound, with a reference card.
  1127. ________ $15 A single GNU Emacs manual.
  1128. ________ $60 Box of six GNU Emacs manuals.
  1129. The following documentation:
  1130. ________ $1 One GNU Emacs reference card, without the manual.
  1131. ________ $5 Packet of ten GNU Emacs reference cards.
  1132. ________ $50 Gnu Emacs Lisp Reference Manual, ~550 pages.
  1133. ________ $10 GDB Manual, ~70 pages, side stapled.
  1134. ________ $10 Texinfo Manual, ~100 pages, side stapled. Texinfo is GNU's
  1135. structured documentation system, included with GNU Emacs.
  1136. Texinfo is used to produce both on-line and printed documents.
  1137. This manual describes how to write Texinfo documents.
  1138. ________ $10 Termcap Manual, ~60 pages, side stapled. Documents the
  1139. termcap library and GNU's extensions to it. The GNU termcap
  1140. library is included with GNU Emacs.
  1141. ________ $10 Bison Manual, ~80 pages, side stapled.
  1142. ________ $10 Gawk Manual, ~100 pages, side stapled.
  1143. ________ $10 Make Manual, ~100 pages, side stapled.
  1144. --------
  1145. ________ Sub Total
  1146. ________ If ordering from Massachusetts: add 5% sales tax.
  1147. ________ If outside of North America and Hawaii, for shipping costs:
  1148. - for tapes or unboxed manuals, please add $15, and then add
  1149. $15 more for each tape or unboxed manual in the order:
  1150. ________ total $ amount for this item = $15 + $15 times number;
  1151. - for each box of Emacs manuals,
  1152. ________ please add $60.
  1153. ________ Optional tax deductible donation.
  1154. --------
  1155. ________ Total paid
  1156. Orders are filled upon receipt of check or money order. We do not have
  1157. the staff to handle the billing of unpaid orders. Please help keep
  1158. our lives simple by including your payment with your order.
  1159. Please make checks payable to Free Software Foundation. Mail orders to:
  1160. Free Software Foundation, Inc.
  1161. 675 Massachusetts Avenue
  1162. Cambridge, MA 02139
  1163. 617-876-3296
  1164. EFFECTIVE: June 1990 to January 1991
  1165. Name:
  1166. ----------------------------------------------------------------
  1167. Organization:
  1168. --------------------------------------------------------
  1169. Street Address:
  1170. ------------------------------------------------------
  1171. City / State / Zip:
  1172. --------------------------------------------------
  1173. ----------------------------------------------------------------------
  1174. -------
  1175. | |
  1176. Free Software Foundation, Inc. | stamp |
  1177. 675 Massachusetts Avenue | |
  1178. Cambridge, MA 02139 USA | here |
  1179. | |
  1180. -------
  1181. ----------------------------------------------------------------------