*BSD News Article 66824


Return to BSD News archive

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