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Date: Sun 31-Aug-1991 20:02:07 From: next-faq@media.mit.edu Subject: FAQ-1/3: Answers to Frequently Asked Questions FAQ-1/3 910831: Frequently Asked Questions pertaining to the NeXT computer. The information contained in these posts are a compilation of answers to questions posted by participants in the comp.sys.next USENET groups. No guarantees are made regarding the correctness of these responses. This will get posted to comp.sys.next.announce about every other week. There is currently no particular order to this list, items get added and removed over time. We are not affiliated with any of the companies mentioned in this posting. If you have any corrections, additions, questions, or answers to add to this list, please send email to next-faq@media-lab.media.mit.edu A copy of the FAQ can be found on sonata.cc.purdue.edu in pub/next/FAQ as well as other useful information (diskdrive and simm sources). Also in Japan on srawgw.sra.co.jp [133.137.4.3] FAQ-1/3 910801: Frequently Asked Questions pertaining to the NeXT computer. General Information ------------------- G0. Where can I find additional questions and answers regarding the NeXT computer? (this question is really never asked but really should be :-) Every NeXT machine owner has access to manuals to a degree. Network and System Administration (NSA), for example contains answers to many of the questions asked to comp.sys.next. Some of the important man pages are reproduced in the NSA as appendices. - User manuals are shipped with every NeXT. Additional copies available from NeXT (N6002/N6003/N6014/N6026) $25. - NeXT Technical documentation. (How to program in the NextStep environment) Order from NeXT (N6007B) $95. These are packaged ten volumes in two slipcases; the whole stack is 8-1/2 inches high. They look just like the other documents that come with the machine, 8.5x11", perfect-bound paperbacks. Operating System Software NeXTstep Concepts NeXTstep Reference, v. 1 NeXTstep Reference, v. 2 Development Tools Sound, Music, and Signal Processing: Concepts Sound, Music, and Signal Processing: Reference Writing Loadable Kernel Servers Technical Summaries Supplemental Documentation The "Extended" OS release contains online versions of the "Reference" (but not "Concepts") chapters. - Get NeXT's Concepts and Tutorial sections electronically from the ftp archives. These were not included in the 2.0 distribution but are included in hardcopy form with the NeXT Technical Documentation. This is perhaps the single most important reference for people wishing to develop software for the NeXT. - man pages, included with "Extended" release. - BSD unix documentation (MISC, PS1, PS2, SMM, USD). Available from to USENIX site members. A lot of this has been integrated into the NeXT documentation. Some of this is sorely missing. - Adobe documentation. Available machine-readable by e-mail from ps-file-server@adobe.com. Hardcopy available from Adobe Developer Support Line +1 415 961-4111 for a nominal charge. NeXT last shipped these as part of the 1.0a release; hardcopies appeared in 0.9 Technical Documentation, were omitted in 1.0, and have returned in updated form in _Supplemental Documentation_ of the 2.0 Tech Docs (which is not available on-line). - Get NextAnswers for Digital Librarian from one of the many ftp sites (see below) that have NeXT software. NextAnswers is a series of questions and answers that the NeXT technical support staff has compiled. They tend to clarify issues not covered or poorly covered in the on-line documentation. Anyone can send bugs or suggestions to bug_next@next.com - Another good source of information is the archives of previously posted notes from the comp.sys.next newsgroup. Note that since the split of comp.sys.next, it is unclear if anyone is maintaining an archive of all the groups. -NeXTstep Advantage book is available electronically from the archive servers: cs.orst.edu: pub/next/documents/NeXT/ sonata.cc.purdue.edu: pub/next/docs/ (still in submissions directory?) etlport.etl.go.jp: pub/NeXT/documents/NeXTstepAdvantage/ The file name is NeXTstepAdvantage.tar.Z; (its compressed size is 1.3 megabytes; uncompressed, it's 9.5 megabytes). -There is a tutorial on how to use IB on the archive servers under the file name IB_tutorial.ps.Z which is the postscript only file and IB_tutorial_Source.tar.Z which contains example source code for the tutorial. In addition NeXT has released an updated tutorial It can not be overly emphasized that getting the on-line documentation from 2.0 extended will help enormously in researching problems with the aid of digital librarian. G1. How may I contact NeXT Computer, Inc.? NeXT Computer, Inc. 900 Chesapeake Drive Redwood City, CA 94063 Phone:1-800-848-NeXT (Redwood City #) The non-800 number for NeXT is 1-415-366-0900 1-408-437-0400 (BusinessLand) 1-800-800-NeXT (NeXT Connection-software and peripherals) 44-81-565-0005 (U.K. #) 44-81-565-0016 (U.K. fax #) 81-44-549-5295 (NeXT marketing div. of Canon - Japan) 81-44-549-5462 (NeXT Japan fax #) +41-22-788-2890 (NeXT Europe - Geneva, Suisse) note: numbers abroad are listed with the country codes first. You will need to dial the international access number of your long distance carrier before proceeding to dialing the country code, area code and phone number. G2. Is there a mail order company that sells NeXT-related peripherals? Yes, its called NeXTconnection. Address: 9 Mill Street, Marlow, NH 03456 Phone: 1-800-800-NeXT G3. Is there a NeXT specific magazine? Yes. There are also many NeXT specific newsletters, many of which are available via ftp from the NeXT specific ftp sites (look in pub/next/newsletters on cs.orst.edu and pub/next/Newsletters on sonata.cc.purdue.edu - purdue seems to carry more newsletters on line than orst.). Some cost money, others don't. Available from purdue: SCaNeWS - Southern California NeXT Users Group Newsletter, first issue came out January 1991. Edited by Mike Mahoney (manhoney@beach.csulb.edu) BaNG - Bay Area NeXT Users Group, one item on-line on Purdue. Edited by Joe Barello (Joe_Barello@bang.org) rmNUG NeWS - Rocky Mountain NeXT Users Group Newsletter, latest issue May 1991 (monthly). Edited by David Bowdish (73340.2146@compuserve.com). NeXTVieW - Vancouver NeXT Users Group NeXT Users' Journal, latest issue December/January 1990-1. Edited by Erica Liebman (erica@kong.gatech.edu). Hardcopy: NeXT on Campus NeXT developments in academia. Call NeXT at 1-800-848-NeXT for free subscription info. NeXTworld Published quarterly with monthly ad-free newsletters ($23.95). NeXTWORLD, 501 Second Street, San Francisco, CA 94107 415 978 3182 (phone), 415 978 3196 (fax) NeXTworld email address: ddinucci@nextworld.com NeXUS Published bi-monthly for $36/year. Contact Alfonso Guerra at {emory|gatech}!nanovx!nexus. What's NeXT? The Boston Computer Society NeXT User group produces a NeXT newsletter called "What's NeXT?" edited by Michael Burress (pro-angmar!michaelb@alfalfa.com) and Eric Celeste (efc@athena.mit.edu). The Boston Computer Society, One Kendall Square, Cambridge, MA 02139-1562 Phone 617-252-0600, M-F 9:30-5:30 G4a. What are the names of some of the ftp sites that have NeXT-related files? There are too many to list them all, so are here are just a few: NeXT: cs.orst.edu, nova.cc.purdue.edu, sonata.cc.purdue.edu, and umd5.umd.edu fiasko.rz-berlin.mpg.de / 141.14.140.32 MIT GNU: aeneas.mit.edu MIT X: export.lcs.mit.edu music: princeton.edu See NextAnswers for more sitenames. G4b. If I am not on the internet, how can I get to the ftp sites via email? cc.purdue.edu is configured as an email archive server. This means you can upload and download files via email. Send mail to: archive-server@cc.purdue.edu with the subject line help and you will get a complete description of this service. submissions: Mail should be sent to archive-server@cc.purdue.edu with the subject of 'submission' (no ticks) if a person is submitting material to the archives. They need to include a 1-2 sentence description of the submission, the OS release the product runs on, and if it is source, binary, newsletter, etc. G5. What is the claimed performance of the new 040 NeXT machines? NeXT advertises the new 040 machines at 15 MIPS and 2 MFLOPS. [industry accepted benchmarks will be posted here... anyone?] G6. What are some good references on Objective C? *** This section has been completely rewritten 8/31/91 *** Objective-C and other useful Object-oriented programming references: Budd, Timothy, _An Introduction to Object-Oriented Programming_ (Addison-Wesley) [It discusses Smalltalk, Object Pascal, C++ _and_ Objective-C] Cox, Brad J., _Object Oriented Programming: An Evolutionary Approach_ ISBN 0-201-10393-1. (Addison-Wesley) [Note: 2nd edition - ISBN# is 0-201-54834-8 and has coauthor A.J. Novobilski] Huizenga, Gerrit, "Slides from a short course on Objective-C" available via anonymous ftp from sonata.cc.purdue.edu in pub/next/docs/ObjC.frame.Z, ObjC.ps.Z, or OldObjC.wn.tar.Z Meyer, Bertrand, _Object-Oriented Software Construction_ (Prentice-Hall). NeXT Technical Documentation Pinson and Weiner, _Objective-C: Object-Oriented Programming Techniques_ (Addison-Wesley). 350 pages, ISBN 0 201 50828 1, paperback. User Reference Manual for Objective-C which is available from Stepstone Corporation. (203)426-1875. Note: There are some differences between Stepstone's Objective-C and NeXT's. G7. How much does the NeXT cost? A retail price list may be obtained by contacting NeXT at the number or address mentioned in a previous question. Educational prices vary depending upon the university. The typical educational discount is between twenty and thirty percent. NeXT offers registered developers a significant discount. G8. Where can I buy a NeXT? From NeXT, Businessland, Computer Attic (three locations in southern San Francico Bay Area), Abacus Inc (San Francisco), Random Access (Denver), Essex Computers (N.J.), and possibly from your university if you are a student, faculty or staff. if your university does not offer the NeXT, you may be able to buy from a "hub" university if the hub program is available in your state (contact NeXT for more info). Cambridge Electronics is now seeling NeXT systems. G9. How do i become a NeRD? What does it cost? What is involved? Who do i contact if i am interested? NeRD - NeXT Registered Developer 1- Call the 800 number to get a registration form, fill it out and send it back to NeXT. 2- NeXT will assign an "advocate" from within the company to review your needs. 3- Register to go to a 5 day developer's camp either in Pittsburgh or or Redwood City. Cost is $995 They will teach you the essential information needed for developing applications on the NeXT. [It is excellent -pasc] 4- Once you have gone through the above, you will get technical support directly from NeXT via email or phone (in urgent cases!). Their support is quite comprehensive. G10. How do I start an official NeXT User Group? To start a NeXT group, just send email to "user_groups@next.com". G11. Why isn't comp.sys.next split into smaller groups? [REMOVED July 22 1991] G12. How do I file a complaint with NeXT? A number of postings to comp.sys.next indicates that NeXT really should have a formal channel for complaints. Complaints are about machines not arriving, and about the company. The current mechanism for doing this is to call the 800 number and be directed to the correct support center. This seems a bit backwards, as it seems a lot easier to post a gripe to comp.sys.next. However posting complaints to comp.sys.next does little other than make you look like a whiner. So be PATIENT and hang in their while being channeled to the proper authority. G13. Where can I communicate to others interested in doing music on the NeXT? *** rewritten 8/31/91 *** Since NeXT has become for now the platform of choice for much of the computer music composition and research community, the newsgroup comp.music is one good place to find people with information and interest in music on the NeXT. There is also a mailing list specifically for NeXT music: NeXT Music SIG (nextmusic@silvertone.Princeton.edu) To subscribe: send email to nextmusic-request@silvertone.Princeton.edu G14. What special interest groups exist? Classroom: NeXT Courseware SIG (next-classroom@gac.edu) To subscribe: send the following text message to MAILSERV@gac.edu --"Subscribe next-classroom <your name>" Communications/TeleCommunications SIG (nextcomm@marble.com) To subscribe: send email to nextcomm-request@marble.com GIS(Geographical Information Services)SIG (next-gis@deltos.com) To subscribe: send email to next-gis-request@deltos.com Medical: NeXTMed SIG (NeXTMed@ulnar.biostr.washington.edu) To subscribe: send email to NeXTMed-request@ulnar.biostr.washington.edu Music: NeXT Music SIG (nextmusic@silvertone.Princeton.edu) To subscribe: send email to nextmusic-request@silvertone.Princeton.edu NeXTManagers (quick & technical answers) (next-managers@stolaf.edu) To subscribe: send email to next-managers-request@stolaf.edu Network & Security Management for Labs & Large Installations (next-lab@cs.ubc.ca) To subscribe: send email to next-lab-request@cs.ubc.ca Programmers: NeXT Programmers SIG (next-prog@cpac.washington.edu) To subscribe: send email to next-prog-request@cpac.washington.edu Japanese: Kanji and Japanese on the NeXT To join - Email: next-nihongo-request@pinoko.berkeley.edu G15. Is it true I can get inexpensive 030 cubes from Businessland? This was true a few months ago, but Businessland no longer has anymore of these machines for sale. G16. How may I let the NeXT user community know of an upcoming NeXT-related event? Please send any announcements of upcoming NeXT-related events to Patrick Hayes at phayes@bottom.magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu These events will be posted to comp.sys.next in a weekly "NeXT Week" posting. Be sure to send your announcement in plenty of time to have it posted prior to the event. One to two weeks in advance would be a good idea. G17. What are the guidelines for posting to comp.sys.next.announce? [New July 22 1991] Submissions can be sent to csn-announce@media.mit.edu. Since postings will be carried across many networks, commercial announcements may be edited down to reflect network usage policies. Program announcements should contain as much infomation as possible (which ftp sites, are sources included, is it shareware/freeware/commercial...) Programs made available via anonymous ftp should not be in submissions directory. Upgrades -------- U1. What comes with the 040 Upgrade? An anti-static disposable bracelet, installation guide, new OD cable, OD filter, 040 board, a SIMM extractor tool, Fed-Ex return slip and registration card to get a free copy of Improv and NeXTWorld. U2. What comes with the 1.0 -> 2.1 software upgrade? The 2.0 upgrade comes with an optical disk with 2.0 extended, a bunch of manuals, and keyboard tilt feet. There is a mail back cards to get Mathematica 2.0 and Sybase (eventually). This may change, of course, and may be different for non-educational users. The 040 upgrade requires the 2.0 upgrade. NeXT is now shipping "direct" 1.0->2.1 upgrades on OD as #N5507. U3. What has happened in release 2.0 with the versions of Franz Allegro Common Lisp, the Sybase SQL Server, and Mathematica that were distributed with OS1.0? These products are no longer bundled with the NeXT OS. Owners of old cubes are, however, entitled to continue using them. Allegro Common Lisp: When upgrading from 1.0 to 2.0, the upgrade program offers the opportunity to save your copy of Common Lisp. You can do this, and it will still run on the '030 cube except that the Foreign Function Interface no longer works. The hardware upgrade from the '030 to the '040, however, breaks this version of Common Lisp completely and it will no longer run. With the OS2.0 upgrade, there is a postcard to return to NeXT requesting an updated version of Common Lisp which (when released) will run on the '040 under 2.0. Future enhancements to Allegro Common Lisp (including the soon-to-be-released version with CLOS support) will only be available directly from Franz Inc. Owners of old cubes can obtain upgrade service as "maintenance/support" at a lower cost than buying a new Allegro Common Lisp license (which is what owners of new cubes and slabs must get). Contact Franz Inc. for details and prices. Sybase: The release 1.0 Sybase SQL Server is completely broken by release 2.0, and the upgrade program will delete this from your disk (without asking permission) in the course of upgrading. Release 2.0 contains an SQL client, which can be used to connect to SQL servers on your network (perhaps older cubes still running 1.0, for example). A new SQL server (with some modified features) will be sent to owners of old cubes who request it by means of the same postcard that gets you a new version of Common Lisp. Mathematica: The upgrade program offers you the opportunity to save your old version of this, and the old version still runs under 2.0 (on both '030 and '040 hardware). Sending in the postcard referred to above from the OS2.0 upgrade kit will get you a new version of Mathematica, too. This version will be available free to academic users with new cubes and slabs as well. All of the upgraded programs referred to above will be provided on NeXT floppies, not OD's. You will need either to buy an external floppy drive or to have someone else transfer them from floppy to OD in order to make use of them. These upgrades are supposedly shipping. U4. How do I get the 2.1 upgrade? All new machines are shipping with 2.1, as well as release 2 software products. People running 2.0 can order an upgrade distribution from NeXT. 2.1 distribution does not have a 2.0->2.1 upgrade application shipped with it. There is currently no way of getting it due to licensing issues. 2.1 Upgrade kit is part #n7022 on floppies costs $50 call the NeXT 800 number for it. If you have purchased 2.0, you may upgrade to 2.1 with somebody else's upgrade. Only major upgrades need to be purchased (1.0,2.0,3.0). NeXT considers your 2.0 purchase to include the rights to all 2.x releases. Their $50 charge is to cover cost's only, not to purchase "rights". OS
Date: Sun 19-Sep-1991 23:43:14 From: lacsap@plethora.media.mit.edu (Pascal Chesnais) Subject: FAQ-1/3: Answers to Frequently Asked Questions FAQ-1/3 910919: Frequently Asked Questions pertaining to the NeXT computer. The information contained in these posts are a compilation of answers to questions posted by participants in the comp.sys.next USENET groups. No guarantees are made regarding the correctness of these responses. This will get posted to comp.sys.next.announce about every other week. There is currently no particular order to this list, items get added and removed over time. We are not affiliated with any of the companies mentioned in this posting. If you have any corrections, additions, questions, or answers to add to this list, please send email to next-faq@media-lab.media.mit.edu A copy of the FAQ can be found on sonata.cc.purdue.edu in pub/next/FAQ as well as other useful information (diskdrive and simm sources). Also in Japan on srawgw.sra.co.jp [133.137.4.3] FAQ-1/3 910919: Frequently Asked Questions pertaining to the NeXT computer. General Information ------------------- G0. Where can I find additional questions and answers regarding the NeXT computer? (this question is really never asked but really should be :-) *** add _Support Bulletin to the list of electronically available docs *** Every NeXT machine owner has access to manuals to a degree. Network and System Administration (NSA), for example contains answers to many of the questions asked to comp.sys.next. Some of the important man pages are reproduced in the NSA as appendices. - User manuals are shipped with every NeXT. Additional copies available from NeXT (N6002/N6003/N6014/N6026) $25. - NeXT Technical documentation. (How to program in the NextStep environment) Order from NeXT (N6007B) $95. These are packaged ten volumes in two slipcases; the whole stack is 8-1/2 inches high. They look just like the other documents that come with the machine, 8.5x11", perfect-bound paperbacks. Operating System Software NeXTstep Concepts NeXTstep Reference, v. 1 NeXTstep Reference, v. 2 Development Tools Sound, Music, and Signal Processing: Concepts Sound, Music, and Signal Processing: Reference Writing Loadable Kernel Servers Technical Summaries Supplemental Documentation The "Extended" OS release contains online versions of the "Reference" (but not "Concepts") chapters. - Get NeXT's Concepts and Tutorial sections electronically from the ftp archives. These were not included in the 2.0 distribution but are included in hardcopy form with the NeXT Technical Documentation. This is perhaps the single most important reference for people wishing to develop software for the NeXT. - man pages, included with "Extended" release. - BSD unix documentation (MISC, PS1, PS2, SMM, USD). Available from to USENIX site members. A lot of this has been integrated into the NeXT documentation. Some of this is sorely missing. - Adobe documentation. Available machine-readable by e-mail from ps-file-server@adobe.com. Hardcopy available from Adobe Developer Support Line +1 415 961-4111 for a nominal charge. NeXT last shipped these as part of the 1.0a release; hardcopies appeared in 0.9 Technical Documentation, were omitted in 1.0, and have returned in updated form in _Supplemental Documentation_ of the 2.0 Tech Docs (which is not available on-line). - Get NextAnswers for Digital Librarian from one of the many ftp sites (see below) that have NeXT software. NextAnswers is a series of questions and answers that the NeXT technical support staff has compiled. They tend to clarify issues not covered or poorly covered in the on-line documentation. Anyone can send bugs or suggestions to bug_next@next.com - Get NeXT _Support Bulletin_ from the archives. It is meant for support centers. - Another good source of information is the archives of previously posted notes from the comp.sys.next newsgroup. Note that since the split of comp.sys.next, it is unclear if anyone is maintaining an archive of all the groups. -NeXTstep Advantage book is available electronically from the archive servers: cs.orst.edu: pub/next/documents/NeXT/ sonata.cc.purdue.edu: pub/next/docs/ (still in submissions directory?) etlport.etl.go.jp: pub/NeXT/documents/NeXTstepAdvantage/ The file name is NeXTstepAdvantage.tar.Z; (its compressed size is 1.3 megabytes; uncompressed, it's 9.5 megabytes). -There is a tutorial on how to use IB on the archive servers under the file name IB_tutorial.ps.Z which is the postscript only file and IB_tutorial_Source.tar.Z which contains example source code for the tutorial. In addition NeXT has released an updated tutorial It can not be overly emphasized that getting the on-line documentation from 2.0 extended will help enormously in researching problems with the aid of digital librarian. G1. How may I contact NeXT Computer, Inc.? NeXT Computer, Inc. 900 Chesapeake Drive Redwood City, CA 94063 Phone:1-800-848-NeXT (Redwood City #) The non-800 number for NeXT is 1-415-366-0900 1-408-437-0400 (BusinessLand) 1-800-800-NeXT (NeXT Connection-software and peripherals) 44-81-565-0005 (U.K. #) 44-81-565-0016 (U.K. fax #) 81-44-549-5295 (NeXT marketing div. of Canon - Japan) 81-44-549-5462 (NeXT Japan fax #) +41-22-788-2890 (NeXT Europe - Geneva, Suisse) note: numbers abroad are listed with the country codes first. You will need to dial the international access number of your long distance carrier before proceeding to dialing the country code, area code and phone number. G2. Is there a mail order company that sells NeXT-related peripherals? Yes, its called NeXTconnection. Address: 9 Mill Street, Marlow, NH 03456 Phone: 1-800-800-NeXT G3. Is there a NeXT specific magazine? Yes. There are also many NeXT specific newsletters, many of which are available via ftp from the NeXT specific ftp sites (look in pub/next/newsletters on cs.orst.edu and pub/next/Newsletters on sonata.cc.purdue.edu - purdue seems to carry more newsletters on line than orst.). Some cost money, others don't. Available from purdue: SCaNeWS - Southern California NeXT Users Group Newsletter, first issue came out January 1991. Edited by Mike Mahoney (manhoney@beach.csulb.edu) BaNG - Bay Area NeXT Users Group, one item on-line on Purdue. Edited by Joe Barello (Joe_Barello@bang.org) rmNUG NeWS - Rocky Mountain NeXT Users Group Newsletter, latest issue May 1991 (monthly). Edited by David Bowdish (73340.2146@compuserve.com). NeXTVieW - Vancouver NeXT Users Group NeXT Users' Journal, latest issue December/January 1990-1. Edited by Erica Liebman (erica@kong.gatech.edu). Hardcopy: NeXT on Campus NeXT developments in academia. Call NeXT at 1-800-848-NeXT for free subscription info. NeXTworld Published quarterly with monthly ad-free newsletters ($23.95). NeXTWORLD, 501 Second Street, San Francisco, CA 94107 415 978 3182 (phone), 415 978 3196 (fax) NeXTworld email address: ddinucci@nextworld.com NeXUS Published bi-monthly for $36/year. Contact Alfonso Guerra at {emory|gatech}!nanovx!nexus. What's NeXT? The Boston Computer Society NeXT User group produces a NeXT newsletter called "What's NeXT?" edited by Michael Burress (pro-angmar!michaelb@alfalfa.com) and Eric Celeste (efc@athena.mit.edu). The Boston Computer Society, One Kendall Square, Cambridge, MA 02139-1562 Phone 617-252-0600, M-F 9:30-5:30 G4a. What are the names of some of the ftp sites that have NeXT-related files? There are too many to list them all, so are here are just a few: NeXT: cs.orst.edu, nova.cc.purdue.edu, sonata.cc.purdue.edu, and umd5.umd.edu fiasko.rz-berlin.mpg.de / 141.14.140.32 MIT GNU: aeneas.mit.edu MIT X: export.lcs.mit.edu music: princeton.edu See NextAnswers for more sitenames. G4b. If I am not on the internet, how can I get to the ftp sites via email? cc.purdue.edu is configured as an email archive server. This means you can upload and download files via email. Send mail to: archive-server@cc.purdue.edu with the subject line help and you will get a complete description of this service. submissions: Mail should be sent to archive-server@cc.purdue.edu with the subject of 'submission' (no ticks) if a person is submitting material to the archives. They need to include a 1-2 sentence description of the submission, the OS release the product runs on, and if it is source, binary, newsletter, etc. G5. What is the claimed performance of the new 040 NeXT machines? NeXT advertises the new 040 machines at 15 MIPS and 2 MFLOPS. [industry accepted benchmarks will be posted here... anyone?] G6. What are some good references on Objective C? Objective-C and other useful Object-oriented programming references: Budd, Timothy, _An Introduction to Object-Oriented Programming_ (Addison-Wesley) [It discusses Smalltalk, Object Pascal, C++ _and_ Objective-C] Cox, Brad J., _Object Oriented Programming: An Evolutionary Approach_ ISBN 0-201-10393-1. (Addison-Wesley) [Note: 2nd edition - ISBN# is 0-201-54834-8 and has coauthor A.J. Novobilski] Huizenga, Gerrit, "Slides from a short course on Objective-C" available via anonymous ftp from sonata.cc.purdue.edu in pub/next/docs/ObjC.frame.Z, ObjC.ps.Z, or OldObjC.wn.tar.Z Meyer, Bertrand, _Object-Oriented Software Construction_ (Prentice-Hall). NeXT Technical Documentation Pinson and Weiner, _Objective-C: Object-Oriented Programming Techniques_ (Addison-Wesley). 350 pages, ISBN 0 201 50828 1, paperback. User Reference Manual for Objective-C which is available from Stepstone Corporation. (203)426-1875. Note: There are some differences between Stepstone's Objective-C and NeXT's. G7. How much does the NeXT cost? A retail price list may be obtained by contacting NeXT at the number or address mentioned in a previous question. Educational prices vary depending upon the university. The typical educational discount is between twenty and thirty percent. NeXT offers registered developers a significant discount. G8. Where can I buy a NeXT? From NeXT, Businessland, Computer Attic (three locations in southern San Francisco Bay Area), Abacus Inc (San Francisco), Random Access (Denver), Essex Computers (N.J.), and possibly from your university if you are a student, faculty or staff. if your university does not offer the NeXT, you may be able to buy from a "hub" university if the hub program is available in your state (contact NeXT for more info). Cambridge Electronics is now selling NeXT systems. G9. How do i become a NeRD? What does it cost? What is involved? Who do i contact if i am interested? NeRD - NeXT Registered Developer 1- Call the 800 number to get a registration form, fill it out and send it back to NeXT. 2- NeXT will assign an "advocate" from within the company to review your needs. 3- Register to go to a 5 day developer's camp either in Pittsburgh or or Redwood City. Cost is $995 They will teach you the essential information needed for developing applications on the NeXT. [It is excellent -pasc] 4- Once you have gone through the above, you will get technical support directly from NeXT via email or phone (in urgent cases!). Their support is quite comprehensive. G10. How do I start an official NeXT User Group? To start a NeXT group, just send email to "user_groups@next.com". G11. Why isn't comp.sys.next split into smaller groups? [REMOVED July 22 1991] G12. How do I file a complaint with NeXT? A number of postings to comp.sys.next indicates that NeXT really should have a formal channel for complaints. Complaints are about machines not arriving, and about the company. The current mechanism for doing this is to call the 800 number and be directed to the correct support center. This seems a bit backwards, as it seems a lot easier to post a gripe to comp.sys.next. However posting complaints to comp.sys.next does little other than make you look like a whiner. So be PATIENT and hang in their while being channeled to the proper authority. G13. Where can I communicate to others interested in doing music on the NeXT? Since NeXT has become for now the platform of choice for much of the computer music composition and research community, the newsgroup comp.music is one good place to find people with information and interest in music on the NeXT. There is also a mailing list specifically for NeXT music: NeXT Music SIG (nextmusic@silvertone.Princeton.edu) To subscribe: send email to nextmusic-request@silvertone.Princeton.edu G14. What special interest groups exist? Classroom: NeXT Courseware SIG (next-classroom@gac.edu) To subscribe: send the following text message to MAILSERV@gac.edu --"Subscribe next-classroom <your name>" Communications/TeleCommunications SIG (nextcomm@marble.com) To subscribe: send email to nextcomm-request@marble.com GIS(Geographical Information Services)SIG (next-gis@deltos.com) To subscribe: send email to next-gis-request@deltos.com Medical: NeXTMed SIG (NeXTMed@ulnar.biostr.washington.edu) To subscribe: send email to NeXTMed-request@ulnar.biostr.washington.edu Music: NeXT Music SIG (nextmusic@silvertone.Princeton.edu) To subscribe: send email to nextmusic-request@silvertone.Princeton.edu NeXTManagers (quick & technical answers) (next-managers@stolaf.edu) To subscribe: send email to next-managers-request@stolaf.edu Network & Security Management for Labs & Large Installations (next-lab@cs.ubc.ca) To subscribe: send email to next-lab-request@cs.ubc.ca Programmers: NeXT Programmers SIG (next-prog@cpac.washington.edu) To subscribe: send email to next-prog-request@cpac.washington.edu Japanese: Kanji and Japanese on the NeXT To join - Email: next-nihongo-request@pinoko.berkeley.edu G15. Is it true I can get inexpensive 030 cubes from Businessland? This was true a few months ago, but Businessland no longer has anymore of these machines for sale. G16. How may I let the NeXT user community know of an upcoming NeXT-related event? Please send any announcements of upcoming NeXT-related events to Patrick Hayes at phayes@bottom.magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu These events will be posted to comp.sys.next in a weekly "NeXT Week" posting. Be sure to send your announcement in plenty of time to have it posted prior to the event. One to two weeks in advance would be a good idea. G17. What are the guidelines for posting to comp.sys.next.announce? [New July 22 1991] Submissions can be sent to csn-announce@media.mit.edu. Since postings will be carried across many networks, commercial announcements may be edited down to reflect network usage policies. Program announcements should contain as much information as possible (which ftp sites, are sources included, is it shareware/freeware/commercial...) Programs made available via anonymous ftp should not be in submissions directory. Upgrades -------- U1. What comes with the 040 Upgrade? An anti-static disposable bracelet, installation guide, new OD cable, OD filter, 040 board, a SIMM extractor tool, Fed-Ex return slip and registration card to get a free copy of Improv and NeXTWorld. U2. What comes with the 1.0 -> 2.1 software upgrade? The 2.0 upgrade comes with an optical disk with 2.0 extended, a bunch of manuals, and keyboard tilt feet. There is a mail back cards to get Mathematica 2.0 and Sybase (eventually). This may change, of course, and may be different for non-educational users. The 040 upgrade requires the 2.0 upgrade. NeXT is now shipping "direct" 1.0->2.1 upgrades on OD as #N5507. U3. What has happened in release 2.0 with the versions of Franz Allegro Common Lisp, the Sybase SQL Server, and Mathematica that were distributed with OS1.0? These products are no longer bundled with the NeXT OS. Owners of old cubes are, however, entitled to continue using them. Allegro Common Lisp: When upgrading from 1.0 to 2.0, the upgrade program offers the opportunity to save your copy of Common Lisp. You can do this, and it will still run on the '030 cube except that the Foreign Function Interface no longer works. The hardware upgrade from the '030 to the '040, however, breaks this version of Common Lisp completely and it will no longer run. With the OS2.0 upgrade, there is a postcard to return to NeXT requesting an updated version of Common Lisp which (when released) will run on the '040 under 2.0. Future enhancements to Allegro Common Lisp (including the soon-to-be-released version with CLOS support) will only be available directly from Franz Inc. Owners of old cubes can obtain upgrade service as "maintenance/support" at a lower cost than buying a new Allegro Common Lisp license (which is what owners of new cubes and slabs must get). Contact Franz Inc. for details and prices. Sybase: The release 1.0 Sybase SQL Server is completely broken by release 2.0, and the upgrade program will delete this from your disk (without asking permission) in the course of upgrading. Release 2.0 contains an SQL client, which can be used to connect to SQL servers on your network (perhaps older cubes still running 1.0, for example). A new SQL server (with some modified features) will be sent to owners of old cubes who request it by means of the same postcard that gets you a new version of Common Lisp. Mathematica: The upgrade program offers you the opportunity to save your old version of this, and the old version still runs under 2.0 (on both '030 and '040 hardware). Sending in the postcard referred to above from the OS2.0 upgrade kit will get you a new version of Mathematica, too. This version will be available free to academic users with new cubes and slabs as well. All of the upgraded programs referred to above will be provided on NeXT floppies, not OD's. You will need either to buy an external floppy drive or to have someone else transfer them from floppy to OD in order to make use of them. These upgrades are supposedly shipping. U4. How do I get the 2.1 upgrade? All new machines are shipping with 2.1, as well as release 2 software products. People running 2.0 can order an upgrade distribution from NeXT. 2.1 distribution does not have a 2.0->2.1 upgrade application shipped with it 2.1 Upgrade kit is part #n7022 on floppies costs $50 call the NeXT 800 number for it. OS
Date: Sun 03-Oct-1991 21:40:31 From: lacsap@plethora.media.mit.edu (Pascal Chesnais) Subject: FAQ-1/3: Answers to Frequently Asked Questions FAQ-1/3 911003: Frequently Asked Questions pertaining to the NeXT computer. The information contained in these posts are a compilation of answers to questions posted by participants in the comp.sys.next USENET groups. No guarantees are made regarding the correctness of these responses. This will get posted to comp.sys.next.announce about every other week. There is currently no particular order to this list, items get added and removed over time. We are not affiliated with any of the companies mentioned in this posting. If you have any corrections, additions, questions, or answers to add to this list, please send email to next-faq@media-lab.media.mit.edu A copy of the FAQ can be found on sonata.cc.purdue.edu in pub/next/FAQ as well as other useful information (diskdrive and simm sources). Also in Japan on srawgw.sra.co.jp [133.137.4.3] FAQ-1/3 911003: Frequently Asked Questions pertaining to the NeXT computer. General Information ------------------- G0. Where can I find additional questions and answers regarding the NeXT computer? (this question is really never asked but really should be :-) Every NeXT machine owner has access to manuals to a degree. Network and System Administration (NSA), for example contains answers to many of the questions asked to comp.sys.next. Some of the important man pages are reproduced in the NSA as appendices. - User manuals are shipped with every NeXT. Additional copies available from NeXT (N6002/N6003/N6014/N6026) $25. - NeXT Technical documentation. (How to program in the NextStep environment) Order from NeXT (N6007B) $95. These are packaged ten volumes in two slipcases; the whole stack is 8-1/2 inches high. They look just like the other documents that come with the machine, 8.5x11", perfect-bound paperbacks. Operating System Software NeXTstep Concepts NeXTstep Reference, v. 1 NeXTstep Reference, v. 2 Development Tools Sound, Music, and Signal Processing: Concepts Sound, Music, and Signal Processing: Reference Writing Loadable Kernel Servers Technical Summaries Supplemental Documentation The "Extended" OS release contains online versions of the "Reference" (but not "Concepts") chapters. - Get NeXT's Concepts and Tutorial sections electronically from the ftp archives. These were not included in the 2.0 distribution but are included in hardcopy form with the NeXT Technical Documentation. This is perhaps the single most important reference for people wishing to develop software for the NeXT. - man pages, included with "Extended" release. - BSD unix documentation (MISC, PS1, PS2, SMM, USD). Available from to USENIX site members. A lot of this has been integrated into the NeXT documentation. Some of this is sorely missing. - Adobe documentation. Available machine-readable by e-mail from ps-file-server@adobe.com. Hardcopy available from Adobe Developer Support Line +1 415 961-4111 for a nominal charge. NeXT last shipped these as part of the 1.0a release; hardcopies appeared in 0.9 Technical Documentation, were omitted in 1.0, and have returned in updated form in _Supplemental Documentation_ of the 2.0 Tech Docs (which is not available on-line). - Get NextAnswers for Digital Librarian from one of the many ftp sites (see below) that have NeXT software. NextAnswers is a series of questions and answers that the NeXT technical support staff has compiled. They tend to clarify issues not covered or poorly covered in the on-line documentation. Anyone can send bugs or suggestions to bug_next@next.com - Get NeXT _Support Bulletin_ from the archives. It is meant for support centers. - Another good source of information is the archives of previously posted notes from the comp.sys.next newsgroup. Note that since the split of comp.sys.next, it is unclear if anyone is maintaining an archive of all the groups. -NeXTstep Advantage book is available electronically from the archive servers: cs.orst.edu: pub/next/documents/NeXT/ sonata.cc.purdue.edu: pub/next/docs/ (still in submissions directory?) etlport.etl.go.jp: pub/NeXT/documents/NeXTstepAdvantage/ The file name is NeXTstepAdvantage.tar.Z; (its compressed size is 1.3 megabytes; uncompressed, it's 9.5 megabytes). -There is a tutorial on how to use IB on the archive servers under the file name IB_tutorial.ps.Z which is the postscript only file and IB_tutorial_Source.tar.Z which contains example source code for the tutorial. In addition NeXT has released an updated tutorial It can not be overly emphasized that getting the on-line documentation from 2.0 extended will help enormously in researching problems with the aid of digital librarian. G1. How may I contact NeXT Computer, Inc.? NeXT Computer, Inc. 900 Chesapeake Drive Redwood City, CA 94063 Phone:1-800-848-NeXT (Redwood City #) The non-800 number for NeXT is 1-415-366-0900 1-408-437-0400 (BusinessLand) 1-800-800-NeXT (NeXT Connection-software and peripherals) 44-81-565-0005 (U.K. #) 44-81-565-0016 (U.K. fax #) 81-44-549-5295 (NeXT marketing div. of Canon - Japan) 81-44-549-5462 (NeXT Japan fax #) +41-22-788-2890 (NeXT Europe - Geneva, Suisse) note: numbers abroad are listed with the country codes first. You will need to dial the international access number of your long distance carrier before proceeding to dialing the country code, area code and phone number. G2. Is there a mail order company that sells NeXT-related peripherals? Yes, its called NeXTconnection. Address: 9 Mill Street, Marlow, NH 03456 Phone: 1-800-800-NeXT G3. Is there a NeXT specific magazine? Yes. There are also many NeXT specific newsletters, many of which are available via ftp from the NeXT specific ftp sites (look in pub/next/newsletters on cs.orst.edu and pub/next/Newsletters on sonata.cc.purdue.edu - purdue seems to carry more newsletters on line than orst.). Some cost money, others don't. Available from purdue: SCaNeWS - Southern California NeXT Users Group Newsletter, first issue came out January 1991. Edited by Mike Mahoney (manhoney@beach.csulb.edu) BaNG - Bay Area NeXT Users Group, one item on-line on Purdue. Edited by Joe Barello (Joe_Barello@bang.org) rmNUG NeWS - Rocky Mountain NeXT Users Group Newsletter, latest issue May 1991 (monthly). Edited by David Bowdish (73340.2146@compuserve.com). VNUS Newsletter - Vancouver NeXT Users Group The last issue was in Sept 91. Edited by three people, including the Chairman of VNUS, Lawrence Clarke (lclarke@next1.wimsey.bc.ca). NeXT Users' Journal, latest issue December/January 1990-1. Edited by Erica Liebman (erica@kong.gatech.edu). Hardcopy: NeXT on Campus NeXT developments in academia. Call NeXT at 1-800-848-NeXT for free subscription info. NeXTworld Published quarterly with monthly ad-free newsletters ($23.95). NeXTWORLD, 501 Second Street, San Francisco, CA 94107 415 978 3182 (phone), 415 978 3196 (fax) NeXTworld email address: ddinucci@nextworld.com NeXUS Published bi-monthly for $36/year. Contact Alfonso Guerra at {emory|gatech}!nanovx!nexus. What's NeXT? The Boston Computer Society NeXT User group produces a NeXT newsletter called "What's NeXT?" edited by Michael Burress (pro-angmar!michaelb@alfalfa.com) and Eric Celeste (efc@athena.mit.edu). The Boston Computer Society, One Kendall Square, Cambridge, MA 02139-1562 Phone 617-252-0600, M-F 9:30-5:30 G4a. What are the names of some of the ftp sites that have NeXT-related files? There are too many to list them all, so are here are just a few: NeXT: cs.orst.edu, nova.cc.purdue.edu, sonata.cc.purdue.edu, and umd5.umd.edu fiasko.rz-berlin.mpg.de / 141.14.140.32 MIT GNU: aeneas.mit.edu MIT X: export.lcs.mit.edu music: princeton.edu See NextAnswers for more sitenames. G4b. If I am not on the internet, how can I get to the ftp sites via email? cc.purdue.edu is configured as an email archive server. This means you can upload and download files via email. Send mail to: archive-server@cc.purdue.edu with the subject line help and you will get a complete description of this service. submissions: Mail should be sent to archive-server@cc.purdue.edu with the subject of 'submission' (no ticks) if a person is submitting material to the archives. They need to include a 1-2 sentence description of the submission, the OS release the product runs on, and if it is source, binary, newsletter, etc. G5. What is the claimed performance of the new 040 NeXT machines? NeXT advertises the new 040 machines at 15 MIPS and 2 MFLOPS. [industry accepted benchmarks will be posted here... anyone?] G6. What are some good references on Objective C? Objective-C and other useful Object-oriented programming references: Budd, Timothy, _An Introduction to Object-Oriented Programming_ (Addison-Wesley) [It discusses Smalltalk, Object Pascal, C++ _and_ Objective-C] Cox, Brad J., _Object Oriented Programming: An Evolutionary Approach_ ISBN 0-201-10393-1. (Addison-Wesley) [Note: 2nd edition - ISBN# is 0-201-54834-8 and has coauthor A.J. Novobilski] Huizenga, Gerrit, "Slides from a short course on Objective-C" available via anonymous ftp from sonata.cc.purdue.edu in pub/next/docs/ObjC.frame.Z, ObjC.ps.Z, or OldObjC.wn.tar.Z Meyer, Bertrand, _Object-Oriented Software Construction_ (Prentice-Hall). NeXT Technical Documentation Pinson and Weiner, _Objective-C: Object-Oriented Programming Techniques_ (Addison-Wesley). 350 pages, ISBN 0 201 50828 1, paperback. User Reference Manual for Objective-C which is available from Stepstone Corporation. (203)426-1875. Note: There are some differences between Stepstone's Objective-C and NeXT's. G7. How much does the NeXT cost? A retail price list may be obtained by contacting NeXT at the number or address mentioned in a previous question. Educational prices vary depending upon the university. The typical educational discount is between twenty and thirty percent. NeXT offers registered developers a significant discount. G8. Where can I buy a NeXT? From NeXT, Computer Attic (three locations in southern San Francisco Bay Area), Abacus Inc (San Francisco), Random Access (Denver), Essex Computers (N.J.), Farnsworth Computer Centers (Chicago Suburbs), and Advantage Computers has three locations in Vancouver, Burnaby, and Victoria (British Columbia). Also possibly from your university if you are a student, faculty or staff. if your university does not offer the NeXT, you may be able to buy from a "hub" university if the hub program is available in your state (contact NeXT for more info). Cambridge Electronics is now selling NeXT systems. G9. How do i become a NeRD? What does it cost? What is involved? Who do i contact if i am interested? NeRD - NeXT Registered Developer 1- Call the 800 number to get a registration form, fill it out and send it back to NeXT. 2- NeXT will assign an "advocate" from within the company to review your needs. 3- Register to go to a 5 day developer's camp either in Pittsburgh or or Redwood City. Cost is $995 They will teach you the essential information needed for developing applications on the NeXT. [It is excellent -pasc] 4- Once you have gone through the above, you will get technical support directly from NeXT via email or phone (in urgent cases!). Their support is quite comprehensive. G10. How do I start an official NeXT User Group? To start a NeXT group, just send email to "user_groups@next.com". G11. Why isn't comp.sys.next split into smaller groups? [REMOVED July 22 1991] G12. How do I file a complaint with NeXT? A number of postings to comp.sys.next indicates that NeXT really should have a formal channel for complaints. Complaints are about machines not arriving, and about the company. The current mechanism for doing this is to call the 800 number and be directed to the correct support center. This seems a bit backwards, as it seems a lot easier to post a gripe to comp.sys.next. However posting complaints to comp.sys.next does little other than make you look like a whiner. So be PATIENT and hang in their while being channeled to the proper authority. G13. Where can I communicate to others interested in doing music on the NeXT? Since NeXT has become for now the platform of choice for much of the computer music composition and research community, the newsgroup comp.music is one good place to find people with information and interest in music on the NeXT. There is also a mailing list specifically for NeXT music: NeXT Music SIG (nextmusic@silvertone.Princeton.edu) To subscribe: send email to nextmusic-request@silvertone.Princeton.edu G14. What special interest groups exist? Classroom: NeXT Courseware SIG (next-classroom@gac.edu) To subscribe: send the following text message to MAILSERV@gac.edu --"Subscribe next-classroom <your name>" Communications/TeleCommunications SIG (nextcomm@marble.com) To subscribe: send email to nextcomm-request@marble.com GIS(Geographical Information Services)SIG (next-gis@deltos.com) To subscribe: send email to next-gis-request@deltos.com Medical: NeXTMed SIG (NeXTMed@ulnar.biostr.washington.edu) To subscribe: send email to NeXTMed-request@ulnar.biostr.washington.edu Music: NeXT Music SIG (nextmusic@silvertone.Princeton.edu) To subscribe: send email to nextmusic-request@silvertone.Princeton.edu NeXTManagers (quick & technical answers) (next-managers@stolaf.edu) To subscribe: send email to next-managers-request@stolaf.edu Network & Security Management for Labs & Large Installations (next-lab@cs.ubc.ca) To subscribe: send email to next-lab-request@cs.ubc.ca Programmers: NeXT Programmers SIG (next-prog@cpac.washington.edu) To subscribe: send email to next-prog-request@cpac.washington.edu Japanese: Kanji and Japanese on the NeXT To join - Email: next-nihongo-request@pinoko.berkeley.edu G15. Is it true I can get inexpensive 030 cubes from Businessland? This was true a few months ago, but Businessland no longer has anymore of these machines for sale. G16. How may I let the NeXT user community know of an upcoming NeXT-related event? Please send any announcements of upcoming NeXT-related events to Patrick Hayes at phayes@bottom.magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu These events will be posted to comp.sys.next in a weekly "NeXT Week" posting. Be sure to send your announcement in plenty of time to have it posted prior to the event. One to two weeks in advance would be a good idea. G17. What are the guidelines for posting to comp.sys.next.announce? [New July 22 1991] Submissions can be sent to csn-announce@media.mit.edu. Since postings will be carried across many networks, commercial announcements may be edited down to reflect network usage policies. Program announcements should contain as much information as possible (which ftp sites, are sources included, is it shareware/freeware/commercial...) Programs made available via anonymous ftp should not be in submissions directory. Upgrades -------- U1. What comes with the 040 Upgrade? An anti-static disposable bracelet, installation guide, new OD cable, OD filter, 040 board, a SIMM extractor tool, Fed-Ex return slip and registration card. U2. What comes with the 1.0 -> 2.1 software upgrade? The 2.0 upgrade comes with an optical disk with 2.0 extended, a bunch of manuals, and keyboard tilt feet. There is a mail back cards to get Mathematica 2.0 and Sybase (eventually). This may change, of course, and may be different for non-educational users. The 040 upgrade requires the 2.0 upgrade. NeXT is now shipping "direct" 1.0->2.1 upgrades on OD as #N5507. U3. What has happened in release 2.0 with the versions of Franz Allegro Common Lisp, the Sybase SQL Server, and Mathematica that were distributed with OS1.0? These products are no longer bundled with the NeXT OS. Owners of old cubes are, however, entitled to continue using them. Allegro Common Lisp: When upgrading from 1.0 to 2.0, the upgrade program offers the opportunity to save your copy of Common Lisp. You can do this, and it will still run on the '030 cube except that the Foreign Function Interface no longer works. The hardware upgrade from the '030 to the '040, however, breaks this version of Common Lisp completely and it will no longer run. With the OS2.0 upgrade, there is a postcard to return to NeXT requesting an updated version of Common Lisp which (when released) will run on the '040 under 2.0. Future enhancements to Allegro Common Lisp (including the soon-to-be-released version with CLOS support) will only be available directly from Franz Inc. Owners of old cubes can obtain upgrade service as "maintenance/support" at a lower cost than buying a new Allegro Common Lisp license (which is what owners of new cubes and slabs must get). Contact Franz Inc. for details and prices. Sybase: The release 1.0 Sybase SQL Server is completely broken by release 2.0, and the upgrade program will delete this from your disk (without asking permission) in the course of upgrading. Release 2.0 contains an SQL client, which can be used to connect to SQL servers on your network (perhaps older cubes still running 1.0, for example). A new SQL server (with some modified features) will be sent to owners of old cubes who request it by means of the same postcard that gets you a new version of Common Lisp. Mathematica: The upgrade program offers you the opportunity to save your old version of this, and the old version still runs under 2.0 (on both '030 and '040 hardware). Sending in the postcard referred to above from the OS2.0 upgrade kit will get you a new version of Mathematica, too. This version will be available free to academic users with new cubes and slabs as well. All of the upgraded programs referred to above will be provided on NeXT floppies, not OD's. You will need either to buy an external floppy drive or to have someone else transfer them from floppy to OD in order to make use of them. These upgrades are supposedly shipping. U4. How do I get the 2.1 upgrade? All new machines are shipping with 2.1, as well as release 2 software products. People running 2.0 can order an upgrade distribution from NeXT. 2.1 distribution does not have a 2.0->2.1 upgrade application shipped with it 2.1 Upgrade kit is part #n7022 on floppies costs $50 call the NeXT 800 number for it. OS
Date: Sun 17-Oct-1991 14:14:32 From: lacsap@plethora.media.mit.edu (Pascal Chesnais) Subject: FAQ-1/3: Answers to Frequently Asked Questions FAQ-1/3 911003: Frequently Asked Questions pertaining to the NeXT computer. The information contained in these posts are a compilation of answers to questions posted by participants in the comp.sys.next USENET groups. No guarantees are made regarding the correctness of these responses. This will get posted to comp.sys.next.announce about every other week. There is currently no particular order to this list, items get added and removed over time. We are not affiliated with any of the companies mentioned in this posting. If you have any corrections, additions, questions, or answers to add to this list, please send email to next-faq@media-lab.media.mit.edu A copy of the FAQ can be found on sonata.cc.purdue.edu in pub/next/FAQ as well as other useful information (diskdrive and simm sources). Also in Japan on srawgw.sra.co.jp [133.137.4.3] FAQ-1/3 911003: Frequently Asked Questions pertaining to the NeXT computer. General Information ------------------- G0. Where can I find additional questions and answers regarding the NeXT computer? (this question is really never asked but really should be :-) Every NeXT machine owner has access to manuals to a degree. Network and System Administration (NSA), for example contains answers to many of the questions asked to comp.sys.next. Some of the important man pages are reproduced in the NSA as appendices. - User manuals are shipped with every NeXT. Additional copies available from NeXT (N6002/N6003/N6014/N6026) $25. - NeXT Technical documentation. (How to program in the NextStep environment) Order from NeXT (N6007B) $95. These are packaged ten volumes in two slipcases; the whole stack is 8-1/2 inches high. They look just like the other documents that come with the machine, 8.5x11", perfect-bound paperbacks. Operating System Software NeXTstep Concepts NeXTstep Reference, v. 1 NeXTstep Reference, v. 2 Development Tools Sound, Music, and Signal Processing: Concepts Sound, Music, and Signal Processing: Reference Writing Loadable Kernel Servers Technical Summaries Supplemental Documentation The "Extended" OS release contains online versions of the "Reference" (but not "Concepts") chapters. - Get NeXT's Concepts and Tutorial sections electronically from the ftp archives. These were not included in the 2.0 distribution but are included in hardcopy form with the NeXT Technical Documentation. This is perhaps the single most important reference for people wishing to develop software for the NeXT. - man pages, included with "Extended" release. - BSD unix documentation (MISC, PS1, PS2, SMM, USD). Available from to USENIX site members. A lot of this has been integrated into the NeXT documentation. Some of this is sorely missing. - Adobe documentation. Available machine-readable by e-mail from ps-file-server@adobe.com. Hardcopy available from Adobe Developer Support Line +1 415 961-4111 for a nominal charge. NeXT last shipped these as part of the 1.0a release; hardcopies appeared in 0.9 Technical Documentation, were omitted in 1.0, and have returned in updated form in _Supplemental Documentation_ of the 2.0 Tech Docs (which is not available on-line). - Get NextAnswers for Digital Librarian from one of the many ftp sites (see below) that have NeXT software. NextAnswers is a series of questions and answers that the NeXT technical support staff has compiled. They tend to clarify issues not covered or poorly covered in the on-line documentation. Anyone can send bugs or suggestions to bug_next@next.com - Get NeXT _Support Bulletin_ from the archives. It is meant for support centers. - Another good source of information is the archives of previously posted notes from the comp.sys.next newsgroup. Note that since the split of comp.sys.next, it is unclear if anyone is maintaining an archive of all the groups. -NeXTstep Advantage book is available electronically from the archive servers: cs.orst.edu: pub/next/documents/NeXT/ sonata.cc.purdue.edu: pub/next/docs/ (still in submissions directory?) etlport.etl.go.jp: pub/NeXT/documents/NeXTstepAdvantage/ The file name is NeXTstepAdvantage.tar.Z; (its compressed size is 1.3 megabytes; uncompressed, it's 9.5 megabytes). -There is a tutorial on how to use IB on the archive servers under the file name IB_tutorial.ps.Z which is the postscript only file and IB_tutorial_Source.tar.Z which contains example source code for the tutorial. In addition NeXT has released an updated tutorial It can not be overly emphasized that getting the on-line documentation from 2.0 extended will help enormously in researching problems with the aid of digital librarian. G1. How may I contact NeXT Computer, Inc.? NeXT Computer, Inc. 900 Chesapeake Drive Redwood City, CA 94063 Phone:1-800-848-NeXT (Redwood City #) The non-800 number for NeXT is 1-415-366-0900 1-408-437-0400 (BusinessLand) 1-800-800-NeXT (NeXT Connection-software and peripherals) 44-81-565-0005 (U.K. #) 44-81-565-0016 (U.K. fax #) 81-44-549-5295 (NeXT marketing div. of Canon - Japan) 81-44-549-5462 (NeXT Japan fax #) +41-22-788-2890 (NeXT Europe - Geneva, Suisse) note: numbers abroad are listed with the country codes first. You will need to dial the international access number of your long distance carrier before proceeding to dialing the country code, area code and phone number. G2. Is there a mail order company that sells NeXT-related peripherals? Yes, its called NeXTconnection. Address: 9 Mill Street, Marlow, NH 03456 Phone: 1-800-800-NeXT G3. Is there a NeXT specific magazine? Yes. There are also many NeXT specific newsletters, many of which are available via ftp from the NeXT specific ftp sites (look in pub/next/newsletters on cs.orst.edu and pub/next/Newsletters on sonata.cc.purdue.edu - purdue seems to carry more newsletters on line than orst.). Some cost money, others don't. Available from purdue: SCaNeWS - Southern California NeXT Users Group Newsletter, first issue came out January 1991. Edited by Mike Mahoney (manhoney@beach.csulb.edu) BaNG - Bay Area NeXT Users Group, one item on-line on Purdue. Edited by Joe Barello (Joe_Barello@bang.org) rmNUG NeWS - Rocky Mountain NeXT Users Group Newsletter, latest issue May 1991 (monthly). Edited by David Bowdish (73340.2146@compuserve.com). VNUS Newsletter - Vancouver NeXT Users Group The last issue was in Sept 91. Edited by three people, including the Chairman of VNUS, Lawrence Clarke (lclarke@next1.wimsey.bc.ca). NeXT Users' Journal, latest issue December/January 1990-1. Edited by Erica Liebman (erica@kong.gatech.edu). Hardcopy: NeXT on Campus NeXT developments in academia. Call NeXT at 1-800-848-NeXT for free subscription info. NeXTworld Published quarterly with monthly ad-free newsletters ($23.95). NeXTWORLD, 501 Second Street, San Francisco, CA 94107 415 978 3182 (phone), 415 978 3196 (fax) NeXTworld email address: ddinucci@nextworld.com NeXUS Published bi-monthly for $36/year. Contact Alfonso Guerra at {emory|gatech}!nanovx!nexus. What's NeXT? The Boston Computer Society NeXT User group produces a NeXT newsletter called "What's NeXT?" edited by Michael Burress (pro-angmar!michaelb@alfalfa.com) and Eric Celeste (efc@athena.mit.edu). The Boston Computer Society, One Kendall Square, Cambridge, MA 02139-1562 Phone 617-252-0600, M-F 9:30-5:30 G4a. What are the names of some of the ftp sites that have NeXT-related files? There are too many to list them all, so are here are just a few: NeXT: cs.orst.edu, nova.cc.purdue.edu, sonata.cc.purdue.edu, and umd5.umd.edu fiasko.rz-berlin.mpg.de / 141.14.140.32 MIT GNU: aeneas.mit.edu MIT X: export.lcs.mit.edu music: princeton.edu See NextAnswers for more sitenames. G4b. If I am not on the internet, how can I get to the ftp sites via email? cc.purdue.edu is configured as an email archive server. This means you can upload and download files via email. Send mail to: archive-server@cc.purdue.edu with the subject line help and you will get a complete description of this service. submissions: Mail should be sent to archive-server@cc.purdue.edu with the subject of 'submission' (no ticks) if a person is submitting material to the archives. They need to include a 1-2 sentence description of the submission, the OS release the product runs on, and if it is source, binary, newsletter, etc. G5. What is the claimed performance of the new 040 NeXT machines? NeXT advertises the new 040 machines at 15 MIPS and 2 MFLOPS. [industry accepted benchmarks will be posted here... anyone?] G6. What are some good references on Objective C? Objective-C and other useful Object-oriented programming references: Budd, Timothy, _An Introduction to Object-Oriented Programming_ (Addison-Wesley) [It discusses Smalltalk, Object Pascal, C++ _and_ Objective-C] Cox, Brad J., _Object Oriented Programming: An Evolutionary Approach_ ISBN 0-201-10393-1. (Addison-Wesley) [Note: 2nd edition - ISBN# is 0-201-54834-8 and has coauthor A.J. Novobilski] Huizenga, Gerrit, "Slides from a short course on Objective-C" available via anonymous ftp from sonata.cc.purdue.edu in pub/next/docs/ObjC.frame.Z, ObjC.ps.Z, or OldObjC.wn.tar.Z Meyer, Bertrand, _Object-Oriented Software Construction_ (Prentice-Hall). NeXT Technical Documentation Pinson and Weiner, _Objective-C: Object-Oriented Programming Techniques_ (Addison-Wesley). 350 pages, ISBN 0 201 50828 1, paperback. User Reference Manual for Objective-C which is available from Stepstone Corporation. (203)426-1875. Note: There are some differences between Stepstone's Objective-C and NeXT's. G7. How much does the NeXT cost? A retail price list may be obtained by contacting NeXT at the number or address mentioned in a previous question. Educational prices vary depending upon the university. The typical educational discount is between twenty and thirty percent. NeXT offers registered developers a significant discount. G8. Where can I buy a NeXT? From NeXT, Computer Attic (three locations in southern San Francisco Bay Area), Abacus Inc (San Francisco), Random Access (Denver), Essex Computers (N.J.), Farnsworth Computer Centers (Chicago Suburbs), and Advantage Computers has three locations in Vancouver, Burnaby, and Victoria (British Columbia). Also possibly from your university if you are a student, faculty or staff. if your university does not offer the NeXT, you may be able to buy from a "hub" university if the hub program is available in your state (contact NeXT for more info). Cambridge Electronics is now selling NeXT systems. G9. How do i become a NeRD? What does it cost? What is involved? Who do i contact if i am interested? NeRD - NeXT Registered Developer 1- Call the 800 number to get a registration form, fill it out and send it back to NeXT. 2- NeXT will assign an "advocate" from within the company to review your needs. 3- Register to go to a 5 day developer's camp either in Pittsburgh or or Redwood City. Cost is $995 They will teach you the essential information needed for developing applications on the NeXT. [It is excellent -pasc] 4- Once you have gone through the above, you will get technical support directly from NeXT via email or phone (in urgent cases!). Their support is quite comprehensive. G10. How do I start an official NeXT User Group? To start a NeXT group, just send email to "user_groups@next.com". G11. Why isn't comp.sys.next split into smaller groups? [REMOVED July 22 1991] G12. How do I file a complaint with NeXT? A number of postings to comp.sys.next indicates that NeXT really should have a formal channel for complaints. Complaints are about machines not arriving, and about the company. The current mechanism for doing this is to call the 800 number and be directed to the correct support center. This seems a bit backwards, as it seems a lot easier to post a gripe to comp.sys.next. However posting complaints to comp.sys.next does little other than make you look like a whiner. So be PATIENT and hang in their while being channeled to the proper authority. G13. Where can I communicate to others interested in doing music on the NeXT? Since NeXT has become for now the platform of choice for much of the computer music composition and research community, the newsgroup comp.music is one good place to find people with information and interest in music on the NeXT. There is also a mailing list specifically for NeXT music: NeXT Music SIG (nextmusic@silvertone.Princeton.edu) To subscribe: send email to nextmusic-request@silvertone.Princeton.edu G14. What special interest groups exist? Classroom: NeXT Courseware SIG (next-classroom@gac.edu) To subscribe: send the following text message to MAILSERV@gac.edu --"Subscribe next-classroom <your name>" Communications/TeleCommunications SIG (nextcomm@marble.com) To subscribe: send email to nextcomm-request@marble.com GIS(Geographical Information Services)SIG (next-gis@deltos.com) To subscribe: send email to next-gis-request@deltos.com Medical: NeXTMed SIG (NeXTMed@ulnar.biostr.washington.edu) To subscribe: send email to NeXTMed-request@ulnar.biostr.washington.edu Music: NeXT Music SIG (nextmusic@silvertone.Princeton.edu) To subscribe: send email to nextmusic-request@silvertone.Princeton.edu NeXTManagers (quick & technical answers) (next-managers@stolaf.edu) To subscribe: send email to next-managers-request@stolaf.edu Network & Security Management for Labs & Large Installations (next-lab@cs.ubc.ca) To subscribe: send email to next-lab-request@cs.ubc.ca Programmers: NeXT Programmers SIG (next-prog@cpac.washington.edu) To subscribe: send email to next-prog-request@cpac.washington.edu Japanese: Kanji and Japanese on the NeXT To join - Email: next-nihongo-request@pinoko.berkeley.edu G15. Is it true I can get inexpensive 030 cubes from Businessland? This was true a few months ago, but Businessland no longer has anymore of these machines for sale. G16. How may I let the NeXT user community know of an upcoming NeXT-related event? Please send any announcements of upcoming NeXT-related events to Patrick Hayes at phayes@bottom.magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu These events will be posted to comp.sys.next in a weekly "NeXT Week" posting. Be sure to send your announcement in plenty of time to have it posted prior to the event. One to two weeks in advance would be a good idea. G17. What are the guidelines for posting to comp.sys.next.announce? [New July 22 1991] Submissions can be sent to csn-announce@media.mit.edu. Since postings will be carried across many networks, commercial announcements may be edited down to reflect network usage policies. Program announcements should contain as much information as possible (which ftp sites, are sources included, is it shareware/freeware/commercial...) Programs made available via anonymous ftp should not be in submissions directory. Upgrades -------- U1. What comes with the 040 Upgrade? An anti-static disposable bracelet, installation guide, new OD cable, OD filter, 040 board, a SIMM extractor tool, Fed-Ex return slip and registration card. U2. What comes with the 1.0 -> 2.1 software upgrade? The 2.0 upgrade comes with an optical disk with 2.0 extended, a bunch of manuals, and keyboard tilt feet. There is a mail back cards to get Mathematica 2.0 and Sybase (eventually). This may change, of course, and may be different for non-educational users. The 040 upgrade requires the 2.0 upgrade. NeXT is now shipping "direct" 1.0->2.1 upgrades on OD as #N5507. U3. What has happened in release 2.0 with the versions of Franz Allegro Common Lisp, the Sybase SQL Server, and Mathematica that were distributed with OS1.0? These products are no longer bundled with the NeXT OS. Owners of old cubes are, however, entitled to continue using them. Allegro Common Lisp: When upgrading from 1.0 to 2.0, the upgrade program offers the opportunity to save your copy of Common Lisp. You can do this, and it will still run on the '030 cube except that the Foreign Function Interface no longer works. The hardware upgrade from the '030 to the '040, however, breaks this version of Common Lisp completely and it will no longer run. With the OS2.0 upgrade, there is a postcard to return to NeXT requesting an updated version of Common Lisp which (when released) will run on the '040 under 2.0. Future enhancements to Allegro Common Lisp (including the soon-to-be-released version with CLOS support) will only be available directly from Franz Inc. Owners of old cubes can obtain upgrade service as "maintenance/support" at a lower cost than buying a new Allegro Common Lisp license (which is what owners of new cubes and slabs must get). Contact Franz Inc. for details and prices. Sybase: The release 1.0 Sybase SQL Server is completely broken by release 2.0, and the upgrade program will delete this from your disk (without asking permission) in the course of upgrading. Release 2.0 contains an SQL client, which can be used to connect to SQL servers on your network (perhaps older cubes still running 1.0, for example). A new SQL server (with some modified features) will be sent to owners of old cubes who request it by means of the same postcard that gets you a new version of Common Lisp. Mathematica: The upgrade program offers you the opportunity to save your old version of this, and the old version still runs under 2.0 (on both '030 and '040 hardware). Sending in the postcard referred to above from the OS2.0 upgrade kit will get you a new version of Mathematica, too. This version will be available free to academic users with new cubes and slabs as well. All of the upgraded programs referred to above will be provided on NeXT floppies, not OD's. You will need either to buy an external floppy drive or to have someone else transfer them from floppy to OD in order to make use of them. These upgrades are supposedly shipping. U4. How do I get the 2.1 upgrade? All new machines are shipping with 2.1, as well as release 2 software products. People running 2.0 can order an upgrade distribution from NeXT. 2.1 distribution does not have a 2.0->2.1 upgrade application shipped with it 2.1 Upgrade kit is part #n7022 on floppies costs $50 call the NeXT 800 number for it. OS
Date: Sun 22-Oct-1991 00:51:22 From: lacsap@plethora.media.mit.edu (Pascal Chesnais) Subject: FAQ 1/3: Answers to Frequently Asked Questions (repost) FAQ-1/3 911003: Frequently Asked Questions pertaining to the NeXT computer. The information contained in these posts are a compilation of answers to questions posted by participants in the comp.sys.next USENET groups. No guarantees are made regarding the correctness of these responses. This will get posted to comp.sys.next.announce about every other week. There is currently no particular order to this list, items get added and removed over time. We are not affiliated with any of the companies mentioned in this posting. If you have any corrections, additions, questions, or answers to add to this list, please send email to next-faq@media-lab.media.mit.edu A copy of the FAQ can be found on sonata.cc.purdue.edu in pub/next/FAQ as well as other useful information (diskdrive and simm sources). Also in Japan on srawgw.sra.co.jp [133.137.4.3] FAQ-1/3 911003: Frequently Asked Questions pertaining to the NeXT computer. General Information ------------------- G0. Where can I find additional questions and answers regarding the NeXT computer? (this question is really never asked but really should be :-) Every NeXT machine owner has access to manuals to a degree. Network and System Administration (NSA), for example contains answers to many of the questions asked to comp.sys.next. Some of the important man pages are reproduced in the NSA as appendices. - User manuals are shipped with every NeXT. Additional copies available from NeXT (N6002/N6003/N6014/N6026) $25. - NeXT Technical documentation. (How to program in the NextStep environment) Order from NeXT (N6007B) $95. These are packaged ten volumes in two slipcases; the whole stack is 8-1/2 inches high. They look just like the other documents that come with the machine, 8.5x11", perfect-bound paperbacks. Operating System Software NeXTstep Concepts NeXTstep Reference, v. 1 NeXTstep Reference, v. 2 Development Tools Sound, Music, and Signal Processing: Concepts Sound, Music, and Signal Processing: Reference Writing Loadable Kernel Servers Technical Summaries Supplemental Documentation The "Extended" OS release contains online versions of the "Reference" (but not "Concepts") chapters. - Get NeXT's Concepts and Tutorial sections electronically from the ftp archives. These were not included in the 2.0 distribution but are included in hardcopy form with the NeXT Technical Documentation. This is perhaps the single most important reference for people wishing to develop software for the NeXT. - man pages, included with "Extended" release. - BSD unix documentation (MISC, PS1, PS2, SMM, USD). Available from to USENIX site members. A lot of this has been integrated into the NeXT documentation. Some of this is sorely missing. - Adobe documentation. Available machine-readable by e-mail from ps-file-server@adobe.com. Hardcopy available from Adobe Developer Support Line +1 415 961-4111 for a nominal charge. NeXT last shipped these as part of the 1.0a release; hardcopies appeared in 0.9 Technical Documentation, were omitted in 1.0, and have returned in updated form in _Supplemental Documentation_ of the 2.0 Tech Docs (which is not available on-line). - Get NextAnswers for Digital Librarian from one of the many ftp sites (see below) that have NeXT software. NextAnswers is a series of questions and answers that the NeXT technical support staff has compiled. They tend to clarify issues not covered or poorly covered in the on-line documentation. Anyone can send bugs or suggestions to bug_next@next.com - Get NeXT _Support Bulletin_ from the archives. It is meant for support centers. - Another good source of information is the archives of previously posted notes from the comp.sys.next newsgroup. Note that since the split of comp.sys.next, it is unclear if anyone is maintaining an archive of all the groups. -NeXTstep Advantage book is available electronically from the archive servers: cs.orst.edu: pub/next/documents/NeXT/ sonata.cc.purdue.edu: pub/next/docs/ (still in submissions directory?) etlport.etl.go.jp: pub/NeXT/documents/NeXTstepAdvantage/ The file name is NeXTstepAdvantage.tar.Z; (its compressed size is 1.3 megabytes; uncompressed, it's 9.5 megabytes). -There is a tutorial on how to use IB on the archive servers under the file name IB_tutorial.ps.Z which is the postscript only file and IB_tutorial_Source.tar.Z which contains example source code for the tutorial. In addition NeXT has released an updated tutorial It can not be overly emphasized that getting the on-line documentation from 2.0 extended will help enormously in researching problems with the aid of digital librarian. G1. How may I contact NeXT Computer, Inc.? NeXT Computer, Inc. 900 Chesapeake Drive Redwood City, CA 94063 Phone:1-800-848-NeXT (Redwood City #) The non-800 number for NeXT is 1-415-366-0900 1-408-437-0400 (BusinessLand) 1-800-800-NeXT (NeXT Connection-software and peripherals) 44-81-565-0005 (U.K. #) 44-81-565-0016 (U.K. fax #) 81-44-549-5295 (NeXT marketing div. of Canon - Japan) 81-44-549-5462 (NeXT Japan fax #) +41-22-788-2890 (NeXT Europe - Geneva, Suisse) note: numbers abroad are listed with the country codes first. You will need to dial the international access number of your long distance carrier before proceeding to dialing the country code, area code and phone number. G2. Is there a mail order company that sells NeXT-related peripherals? Yes, its called NeXTconnection. Address: 9 Mill Street, Marlow, NH 03456 Phone: 1-800-800-NeXT G3. Is there a NeXT specific magazine? Yes. There are also many NeXT specific newsletters, many of which are available via ftp from the NeXT specific ftp sites (look in pub/next/newsletters on cs.orst.edu and pub/next/Newsletters on sonata.cc.purdue.edu - purdue seems to carry more newsletters on line than orst.). Some cost money, others don't. Available from purdue: SCaNeWS - Southern California NeXT Users Group Newsletter, first issue came out January 1991. Edited by Mike Mahoney (manhoney@beach.csulb.edu) BaNG - Bay Area NeXT Users Group, one item on-line on Purdue. Edited by Joe Barello (Joe_Barello@bang.org) rmNUG NeWS - Rocky Mountain NeXT Users Group Newsletter, latest issue May 1991 (monthly). Edited by David Bowdish (73340.2146@compuserve.com). VNUS Newsletter - Vancouver NeXT Users Group The last issue was in Sept 91. Edited by three people, including the Chairman of VNUS, Lawrence Clarke (lclarke@next1.wimsey.bc.ca). NeXT Users' Journal, latest issue December/January 1990-1. Edited by Erica Liebman (erica@kong.gatech.edu). Hardcopy: NeXT on Campus NeXT developments in academia. Call NeXT at 1-800-848-NeXT for free subscription info. NeXTworld Published quarterly with monthly ad-free newsletters ($23.95). NeXTWORLD, 501 Second Street, San Francisco, CA 94107 415 978 3182 (phone), 415 978 3196 (fax) NeXTworld email address: ddinucci@nextworld.com NeXUS Published bi-monthly for $36/year. Contact Alfonso Guerra at {emory|gatech}!nanovx!nexus. What's NeXT? The Boston Computer Society NeXT User group produces a NeXT newsletter called "What's NeXT?" edited by Michael Burress (pro-angmar!michaelb@alfalfa.com) and Eric Celeste (efc@athena.mit.edu). The Boston Computer Society, One Kendall Square, Cambridge, MA 02139-1562 Phone 617-252-0600, M-F 9:30-5:30 G4a. What are the names of some of the ftp sites that have NeXT-related files? There are too many to list them all, so are here are just a few: NeXT: cs.orst.edu, nova.cc.purdue.edu, sonata.cc.purdue.edu, and umd5.umd.edu fiasko.rz-berlin.mpg.de / 141.14.140.32 MIT GNU: aeneas.mit.edu MIT X: export.lcs.mit.edu music: princeton.edu See NextAnswers for more sitenames. G4b. If I am not on the internet, how can I get to the ftp sites via email? cc.purdue.edu is configured as an email archive server. This means you can upload and download files via email. Send mail to: archive-server@cc.purdue.edu with the subject line help and you will get a complete description of this service. submissions: Mail should be sent to archive-server@cc.purdue.edu with the subject of 'submission' (no ticks) if a person is submitting material to the archives. They need to include a 1-2 sentence description of the submission, the OS release the product runs on, and if it is source, binary, newsletter, etc. G5. What is the claimed performance of the new 040 NeXT machines? NeXT advertises the new 040 machines at 15 MIPS and 2 MFLOPS. [industry accepted benchmarks will be posted here... anyone?] G6. What are some good references on Objective C? Objective-C and other useful Object-oriented programming references: Budd, Timothy, _An Introduction to Object-Oriented Programming_ (Addison-Wesley) [It discusses Smalltalk, Object Pascal, C++ _and_ Objective-C] Cox, Brad J., _Object Oriented Programming: An Evolutionary Approach_ ISBN 0-201-10393-1. (Addison-Wesley) [Note: 2nd edition - ISBN# is 0-201-54834-8 and has coauthor A.J. Novobilski] Huizenga, Gerrit, "Slides from a short course on Objective-C" available via anonymous ftp from sonata.cc.purdue.edu in pub/next/docs/ObjC.frame.Z, ObjC.ps.Z, or OldObjC.wn.tar.Z Meyer, Bertrand, _Object-Oriented Software Construction_ (Prentice-Hall). NeXT Technical Documentation Pinson and Weiner, _Objective-C: Object-Oriented Programming Techniques_ (Addison-Wesley). 350 pages, ISBN 0 201 50828 1, paperback. User Reference Manual for Objective-C which is available from Stepstone Corporation. (203)426-1875. Note: There are some differences between Stepstone's Objective-C and NeXT's. G7. How much does the NeXT cost? A retail price list may be obtained by contacting NeXT at the number or address mentioned in a previous question. Educational prices vary depending upon the university. The typical educational discount is between twenty and thirty percent. NeXT offers registered developers a significant discount. G8. Where can I buy a NeXT? From NeXT, Computer Attic (three locations in southern San Francisco Bay Area), Abacus Inc (San Francisco), Random Access (Denver), Essex Computers (N.J.), Farnsworth Computer Centers (Chicago Suburbs), and Advantage Computers has three locations in Vancouver, Burnaby, and Victoria (British Columbia). Also possibly from your university if you are a student, faculty or staff. if your university does not offer the NeXT, you may be able to buy from a "hub" university if the hub program is available in your state (contact NeXT for more info). Cambridge Electronics is now selling NeXT systems. G9. How do i become a NeRD? What does it cost? What is involved? Who do i contact if i am interested? NeRD - NeXT Registered Developer 1- Call the 800 number to get a registration form, fill it out and send it back to NeXT. 2- NeXT will assign an "advocate" from within the company to review your needs. 3- Register to go to a 5 day developer's camp either in Pittsburgh or or Redwood City. Cost is $995 They will teach you the essential information needed for developing applications on the NeXT. [It is excellent -pasc] 4- Once you have gone through the above, you will get technical support directly from NeXT via email or phone (in urgent cases!). Their support is quite comprehensive. G10. How do I start an official NeXT User Group? To start a NeXT group, just send email to "user_groups@next.com". G11. Why isn't comp.sys.next split into smaller groups? [REMOVED July 22 1991] G12. How do I file a complaint with NeXT? A number of postings to comp.sys.next indicates that NeXT really should have a formal channel for complaints. Complaints are about machines not arriving, and about the company. The current mechanism for doing this is to call the 800 number and be directed to the correct support center. This seems a bit backwards, as it seems a lot easier to post a gripe to comp.sys.next. However posting complaints to comp.sys.next does little other than make you look like a whiner. So be PATIENT and hang in their while being channeled to the proper authority. G13. Where can I communicate to others interested in doing music on the NeXT? Since NeXT has become for now the platform of choice for much of the computer music composition and research community, the newsgroup comp.music is one good place to find people with information and interest in music on the NeXT. There is also a mailing list specifically for NeXT music: NeXT Music SIG (nextmusic@silvertone.Princeton.edu) To subscribe: send email to nextmusic-request@silvertone.Princeton.edu G14. What special interest groups exist? Classroom: NeXT Courseware SIG (next-classroom@gac.edu) To subscribe: send the following text message to MAILSERV@gac.edu --"Subscribe next-classroom <your name>" Communications/TeleCommunications SIG (nextcomm@marble.com) To subscribe: send email to nextcomm-request@marble.com GIS(Geographical Information Services)SIG (next-gis@deltos.com) To subscribe: send email to next-gis-request@deltos.com Medical: NeXTMed SIG (NeXTMed@ulnar.biostr.washington.edu) To subscribe: send email to NeXTMed-request@ulnar.biostr.washington.edu Music: NeXT Music SIG (nextmusic@silvertone.Princeton.edu) To subscribe: send email to nextmusic-request@silvertone.Princeton.edu NeXTManagers (quick & technical answers) (next-managers@stolaf.edu) To subscribe: send email to next-managers-request@stolaf.edu Network & Security Management for Labs & Large Installations (next-lab@cs.ubc.ca) To subscribe: send email to next-lab-request@cs.ubc.ca Programmers: NeXT Programmers SIG (next-prog@cpac.washington.edu) To subscribe: send email to next-prog-request@cpac.washington.edu Japanese: Kanji and Japanese on the NeXT To join - Email: next-nihongo-request@pinoko.berkeley.edu G15. Is it true I can get inexpensive 030 cubes from Businessland? This was true a few months ago, but Businessland no longer has anymore of these machines for sale. G16. How may I let the NeXT user community know of an upcoming NeXT-related event? Please send any announcements of upcoming NeXT-related events to Patrick Hayes at phayes@bottom.magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu These events will be posted to comp.sys.next in a weekly "NeXT Week" posting. Be sure to send your announcement in plenty of time to have it posted prior to the event. One to two weeks in advance would be a good idea. G17. What are the guidelines for posting to comp.sys.next.announce? [New July 22 1991] Submissions can be sent to csn-announce@media.mit.edu. Since postings will be carried across many networks, commercial announcements may be edited down to reflect network usage policies. Program announcements should contain as much information as possible (which ftp sites, are sources included, is it shareware/freeware/commercial...) Programs made available via anonymous ftp should not be in submissions directory. Upgrades -------- U1. What comes with the 040 Upgrade? An anti-static disposable bracelet, installation guide, new OD cable, OD filter, 040 board, a SIMM extractor tool, Fed-Ex return slip and registration card. U2. What comes with the 1.0 -> 2.1 software upgrade? The 2.0 upgrade comes with an optical disk with 2.0 extended, a bunch of manuals, and keyboard tilt feet. There is a mail back cards to get Mathematica 2.0 and Sybase (eventually). This may change, of course, and may be different for non-educational users. The 040 upgrade requires the 2.0 upgrade. NeXT is now shipping "direct" 1.0->2.1 upgrades on OD as #N5507. U3. What has happened in release 2.0 with the versions of Franz Allegro Common Lisp, the Sybase SQL Server, and Mathematica that were distributed with OS1.0? These products are no longer bundled with the NeXT OS. Owners of old cubes are, however, entitled to continue using them. Allegro Common Lisp: When upgrading from 1.0 to 2.0, the upgrade program offers the opportunity to save your copy of Common Lisp. You can do this, and it will still run on the '030 cube except that the Foreign Function Interface no longer works. The hardware upgrade from the '030 to the '040, however, breaks this version of Common Lisp completely and it will no longer run. With the OS2.0 upgrade, there is a postcard to return to NeXT requesting an updated version of Common Lisp which (when released) will run on the '040 under 2.0. Future enhancements to Allegro Common Lisp (including the soon-to-be-released version with CLOS support) will only be available directly from Franz Inc. Owners of old cubes can obtain upgrade service as "maintenance/support" at a lower cost than buying a new Allegro Common Lisp license (which is what owners of new cubes and slabs must get). Contact Franz Inc. for details and prices. Sybase: The release 1.0 Sybase SQL Server is completely broken by release 2.0, and the upgrade program will delete this from your disk (without asking permission) in the course of upgrading. Release 2.0 contains an SQL client, which can be used to connect to SQL servers on your network (perhaps older cubes still running 1.0, for example). A new SQL server (with some modified features) will be sent to owners of old cubes who request it by means of the same postcard that gets you a new version of Common Lisp. Mathematica: The upgrade program offers you the opportunity to save your old version of this, and the old version still runs under 2.0 (on both '030 and '040 hardware). Sending in the postcard referred to above from the OS2.0 upgrade kit will get you a new version of Mathematica, too. This version will be available free to academic users with new cubes and slabs as well. All of the upgraded programs referred to above will be provided on NeXT floppies, not OD's. You will need either to buy an external floppy drive or to have someone else transfer them from floppy to OD in order to make use of them. These upgrades are supposedly shipping. U4. How do I get the 2.1 upgrade? All new machines are shipping with 2.1, as well as release 2 software products. People running 2.0 can order an upgrade distribution from NeXT. 2.1 distribution does not have a 2.0->2.1 upgrade application shipped with it 2.1 Upgrade kit is part #n7022 on floppies costs $50 call the NeXT 800 number for it. OS
These are the contents of the former NiCE NeXT User Group NeXTSTEP/OpenStep software archive, currently hosted by Marcel Waldvogel and Netfuture.ch.