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Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!news.rmit.EDU.AU!news.unimelb.EDU.AU!munnari.OZ.AU!news.hawaii.edu!news.uoregon.edu!newsfeed.internetmci.com!in2.uu.net!news.sprintlink.net!hermes.is.co.za!testbench.inet.co.za!paul From: paul@testbench.inet.co.za (Paul Sephton) Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.development.system,comp.unix.bsd.386bsd.misc,comp.unix.bsd.bsdi.misc,comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.misc,comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc,comp.os.linux.advocacy Subject: Re: Historic Opportunity facing Free Unix (was Re: The Lai/Baker Followup-To: comp.os.linux.development.system,comp.unix.bsd.386bsd.misc,comp.unix.bsd.bsdi.misc,comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.misc,comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc,comp.os.linux.advocacy Date: 26 Apr 1996 08:43:23 GMT Organization: No organisation supplied Lines: 40 Message-ID: <4lq2bb$dqf@hermes.is.co.za> References: <4ki055$60l@Radon.Stanford.EDU> <4lgq8c$ffc@vulture.dmem.strath.ac.uk> NNTP-Posting-Host: testbench.inet.co.za X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL2] Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.os.linux.development.system:22195 comp.unix.bsd.386bsd.misc:807 comp.unix.bsd.bsdi.misc:3469 comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.misc:3323 comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc:18040 comp.os.linux.advocacy:46937 Neil Brendan Clark (nbc@vulture.dmem.strath.ac.uk) wrote: : Charles Reese <reese@chem.duke.edu> wrote: : >I have : >written macros that can accept raw data files from our instruments, load : >them into word, reformat them into tables, transfer them to Excel : >spreadsheets, do some preliminary math operations and then write them to : >files that MATLAB can read. : This is more or less exactly the kind of work I have done with UNIX in the : past and present, i.e. collection and presentation of real data. Our company is in the business of distributing financial data to a rather large client base. Until recently, we were using a roomfull of Intel DOS machines to accomplish this. About 18 months ago, we decided that Unix wasn't a dirty word, and needed investigating. Enter Linux. We are using one of those Intelliserver boxes to provide RS232 ports for modems. Each port is socket addressable, so it's easy to provide pseudo devices on a local machine that transparently talk to the ports. We have only good things to say about the way Linux has provided solutions in our environment. I will dare to extrapolate that other Unix implementations would have fared equally well. A fitting anecdote would be to relate a real problem which faced us when acquiring a system that originally broadcast it's data by using data transmissions over a local television channel. Our existing broadcast hardware lacked flow control, and was therefore throwing away data due to a lack of protocol definition. The Unix solution was: cat /dev/iservd0 > /tmp/dumpfile & tail -c 1 > /dev/iservd1 & tail -c 1 > /dev/iservd2 & etc. The equivalent DOS solution would have taken about a week to program. Unix is saving us a LOT of money! I am like a little boy with a new toy! Paul