Whence linuz?
Doug Tody wrote on Jan 28, 1998
[The question is what happened to "bin.linuz" (containing gzip compressed executables) which was present in Linux/IRAF] > I notice that the "linuz" distribution isn't present. Should I > expect any problems if I just go ahead and gzexe the executables? > We do a lot of running on laptops and other systems with limited > disk space, so this is important to us. linuz was always a bit odd as it isn't a real architecture. It would have been awkward this time around since we have half a dozen platforms rather than one. So I wanted to drop it. There should be no problem gzexe-ing a few executables if you want to (I would leave cl.e and x_system.e unzipped and maybe one or two others, and gzexe the rest). Maybe I should add a comment to the README about this.
Anthony J. Ferro wrote on Jan 29, 1998
Since I asked the original question about linuz, maybe this would be a good time for a follow up question which has been bothering me: When should questions/comments be posted to the newsgroups versus simple e-mail to iraf@noao.edu? I've noticed that the IRAF group tends to sort of post "the best of e-mail questions" to the newsgroup. I think this is a useful practice and applaud it. My question is should I have asked my question about linuz to the newsgroup (which one?), or just sent e-mail and presume it would be posted if appropriate? Thanks, Tony Ferro Doug Tody (tody@tucana.tuc.noao.edu) wrote: : [The question is what happened to "bin.linuz" (containing gzip compressed : executables) which was present in Linux/IRAF] : : > I notice that the "linuz" distribution isn't present. Should I : > expect any problems if I just go ahead and gzexe the executables? : > We do a lot of running on laptops and other systems with limited : > disk space, so this is important to us. : : linuz was always a bit odd as it isn't a real architecture. It would have : been awkward this time around since we have half a dozen platforms rather : than one. So I wanted to drop it. There should be no problem gzexe-ing : a few executables if you want to (I would leave cl.e and x_system.e unzipped : and maybe one or two others, and gzexe the rest). Maybe I should add a : comment to the README about this. : -- --------- Anthony J. Ferro aferro@as.arizona.edu Steward Observatory, NICMOS Project Ph: (520) 621-8683 University of Arizona FAX: (520) 621-1891 Tucson, AZ 85721 http://merlin.as.arizona.edu/~tferro/ ---------
Doug Tody wrote on Jan 29, 1998
On Thu, 29 Jan 1998, Anthony J. Ferro wrote: > Since I asked the original question about linuz, maybe this would be a > good time for a follow up question which has been bothering me: When > should questions/comments be posted to the newsgroups versus simple e-mail > to iraf@noao.edu? I've noticed that the IRAF group tends to sort of post > "the best of e-mail questions" to the newsgroup. I think this is a useful > practice and applaud it. My question is should I have asked my question > about linuz to the newsgroup (which one?), or just sent e-mail and presume > it would be posted if appropriate? Hi Tony, In general I think the more traffic in the newsgroups/mailing-lists the better. This has the benefit of spreading the expertise around, and eventually we might even see a discussion which is not so one-sided as it is now (i.e. in the future we could have expert iraf users helping other users). Meanwhile we try to forward stuff to the newsgroups occasionally to keep them from totally dying from disuse, and because it is undeniably useful to do so. For example it is only appropriate to post major stuff like the announcement of a new IRAF version to the main IRAF mailing list (adass.iraf.announce, which is forwarded to a zillion people), so we need a place such as adass.iraf.system to discuss the minor follow up issues that always come up - things like why don't executables linked on Solaris 2.6 always run on 2.5, the Debian Linux support question just posted, and a hundred other things like that. Many people no longer read the newsgroups under USENET due to all the SPAM postings, but all these newsgroups are gatewayed to moderated mailing lists and an increasing number of people are subscribing to these, so even a modest level of discussion can be quite useful. Plus the newsgroups are archived and searchable via the IRAF web pages. The bottom line is it is up to you. If the question is directed at a specific person email is probably best. General queries can be posted to either iraf@noao.edu or a newsgroup, but in many cases, the most benefit will result from using a newsgroup. In any case, we do encourage people to post to the newsgroups. Try to think of them like the mail subscription services/discussion groups that have become so popular in the past couple of years. - Doug
Last post on Jan 29, 1998