University of St Andrews
COMPUTING
LABORATORY
Computer Algebra support
Macintosh News
Hyphens on the Macintosh
Workshop on molecular biology software
Serviceability figures
NEWSLETTER
November 1987
North Haugh, St Andrews
KY16 9SX,
Scotland.
Telephone
76161
2
3
Computer Algebra support
Macintosh News
The University of Uverpool now has a Computer Algebra support officer.
This post is
funded by the Computer Board and is of great potential benefit to the UK academic commu­
nity. The following facilities will be available to all UK universities:
- access to Computer Algebra expertise: the Computer Algebra support officer will be
able to advise users on which system is most suitable for a particular task.
•
the Computer Algebra support officer can be 'bOOkEd' to give Computer Algebra
courses. The courses offered will vary from gentle introductions to Computer 1\.1ge­
bra to more detailed courses on the specific systems.
- access to the Computer Algebra systems in use at liverpooL This access is intended
to enable users from other sites to evaluate the various packages.
•
collections of REDUCE utilities will be developed. The REDUCE system is currently
the most popular Computer Algebra system. However, it suffers from the disadvan­
tage that it has relatively few built-in functions. The absence of these facilities is par­
ticularly frustrating for the novice user who is familiar with writing REDUCE code.
-libraries of useful algorithms will be collected and made availabie to other UK uni­
versities.
Changes to the booking system:
There are now six Apple Macintosh Plus Microcomputers in the Computer User Area of the
Computing Laboratory. All six are connected via AppleTalk to both the LaserWriter and
the ImageWriter. Two of them at present have only a single 800K Disk Drive. Of the four
AppleTalked Macintoshes, two are bookable. The Macintosh with the Hard Disk (that is the
original Macintosh which is situated next to the LaserWriter) may only be booked if you are
going to use packages which require the Hard Disk, (Le. PageMaker or MacTeX) or if you
are going to connect to the VAX (as we have only one MacTerminal licence). Also, you may
have to use this Macintosh if you require some of the extra fonts that we cannot fit onto the
floppy System Disks for the other Macintoshes. Remember, if you have special font require­
ments, a personalised System Disk can be created for you - requests to the Advisory Service.
The Macintosh situated next to the ImageWriter is then bookable for use with any software
package. Folders containing booking sheets will be found nearby.
The other Macintoshes are available on a first-come-first-served basis.
The Computing
Laboratory is constantly reviewing the use of these Macintoshes and if problems arise we
will have to think again about the present arrangements. If anyone need extensive access to
a Macintosh for a short period of time, where possible we will book one of these Macin­
toshes for such use.
The Computer Algebra support officer is:
In view of these new booking arrangements, all the software packages (apart from Page­
Maker, MacTeX and MacTerminal) have been removed from the Hard Disk. These are now
Dr D Harper
The Computer Laboratory
Chadwick Building
each of these packages (except for MacWrite which used to be free with every Macintosh)
and so a particular package may only be used on one of the Macintoshes at a time. When
POBox 147
you have finished using a disk from the box, please replace it so that other people can
Liverpool
which packages are available for
L693BX
use.
see
At present the box should contain MacWrite,
MacDraw, Cricket Draw, Cricket Graph, MacPaint, FullPaint and SuperPaint.
telephone 051 7096022 extension 2932
MAIL may be sent over the Janet network to:
on individual floppy disks in a box at the Macintosh cluster. We have one licence only for
alqebra@liverpool
Access to the LaserWriter:
At present, access to the LaserWriter is fairly easy. All we ask is that your Departmental
User Representative authorises you,
as
the bill for LaserWriter usage will go to him; he will
then decide whether you or your department is to pay the bill. We thus rely on the honesty
of the users to complete the "Charging Sheets" after using the LaserWriter. This procedure
is not working very well. There are a number of options open to us: one is to have the
LaserWriter in the Machine Room so that users would have to ask the operators for their
output - this would be extremely inconvenient. The other option is to fit a "Copytex" unit
to the LaserWriter like those found on most photocopiers around the University. We are
currently looking into this option.
�"""""-'-"=
that supplying your own paper for the LaserWriter does not make its usage free:
the cost of paper in the 7p charge is only 0.33p!
November 1987
Novernr.('f 19117
4
Hyphens on the Macintosh
5
In the various Macintosh fonts, provision is made for only three lengths of dash, which are
There are generally-accepted conventions regarding the diffeent lengths of dash (short line)
used for the purposes of hyphenation and other punctuation and for specific symbols such
as minus or single chemical bonds.
Starting with the shortest dash, these are:
for hyphen, en-rule (or minus) and em-rule. Unfortunately, there seems to be a surprising
lack of standardisation between fonts, so that the hyphen and the
are frequently
transposed! In the following, the 'minus' key is taken to be the key adjacent to the '0' (zero)
key, and 'option' refers to simultaneous use of the 'option' key.
The following fonts have hyphen='minus' and en-rule='option-minus':
Helvetica
hyphen
en-rule
minus
em-rule
single chemical bond
New Century Schoolbook
Palatino
Times
Zapf Cfwnary
An en-rule is a line the width of a letter n, and an em-rule the width of an m. The usage of
the minus si �n and the single chemical bond are obvious, but the proper use of the other
three dashes IS not so well-known.
The hyphen is used either to break up a word across a line-ending, or to Join two other
words together to make a new composite word, sometimes to avoid ambiguity; for instance:
blue-green (meaning bluish green)
hyphenation
A use of the en-rule is in compounds where the first part does not modify the meaning of
the second part: it can then be thought of as standing for 'and' or 'to'. Uses of en-rules stand
for 'and' in the following:
oil-water interface
gas-liquid chromatography
red-green colourblind
(note the difference here from the meaning of the hyphen in 'blue-green' in the example
above)
The following fonts have hyphen='option-minus' and �n-rul�='minus':
Chicago
Courier
Geneva
Monaco
The following fonts do not differentiate between hyphen and en-rule:
New York
It is important to remember to check which convention has been used in the font of your
particularly if you decide to change fonts after composing your text. All fonts appar­
ently have 'shift-option-minus' for em-rule, which thus presents no difficulty.
The en-rule is used to replace the word 'to' in phrases such as:
1914-18 war
input-output ratio
The en-rule should not be used to replace 'to' if the word 'from' is used:
from 1970 to 1976
not from 1970-6
A further less common use of the en-nJe is as a parenthetical dash as in three places in
this sentence. This usage requires a space on either side of the en-rule.
The em-rule is used sometimes to introduce lines of dialogue, notably in foreign tExtS. In the
past, it has been used in English-without spaces-as a parenthetical dash, as i1; this sen­
tence; this use is nowadays fulfilled by the spaced en-rule, as described above, More com­
monly in English, the em-rule is used to indicate the omission of a word or a part of a word
in a sentence, and in tables, to indicate a blank or null entry.
November 1987
November 1987
7
6
Workshop on molecular biology software
The Inter University Software Committee (ruSC) holds regular software workshops; a
workshop on molecular biology software will be held at the University of Cambridge on 5th
and 6th January 1988. The purpose of this workshop is to provide a briefing in the software
and associated facilities available and under development in the field of molecular biology.
As growth is expected to be very rapid, the future requirements will be emphasised so that
those engaged in planning are made aware of the needs. Practical applications to the fields
of medicine and biotechnology will be emphasised where appropriate. Talks will include
accounts of experience of use of software in order for participants to be able to compare their
own experiences.
Serviceability figures
VAX-ll/78SSystems period: AUGUST 1987
Period Covered Tune
Scheduled Preventive Maintenance
Scheduled Back-up Dumps
Scheduled Systems Development
User Service
SAVB
hrs.mins
744.00
4.10
13.30
0.35 (1)
725.45
744.00
1.00
7.20
1.10 (1)
733.45
Time Lost:
Unscheduled maintenance
Hardware Faults
Other Lost Time
System Recovery Time
Those attending will be developers, implementors, advisors and users of software from UK
academic and research institutes. The workshop will provide an opportunity for these
people to meet and discuss problems of mutual interest.
Further details, including programme and booking form, are available from Peter Adamson
in the Computing Laboratory (ex 8129 or mail CLSPA), or from Or M J Bishop, University of
Cambridge, Computer Laboratory, Pembroke Street, Cambridge CB2 3QG.
SAVA
hrs.mins
Notes:
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.45 (2)
(1) Fire test for 0.35 minutes
(2) 3 unscheduled re-boots
Period Covered Time
Scheduled Preventive Maintenance
Scheduled Back-up Dumps
Scheduled Systems Development
User Service
SAVA
hrs.mins
SAVB
hrs.mins
720.00
2.40
9.55 (4)
125
640.40
720.00
1.15
7.45
0.00
710.20
00.00
02.45 (5)
58.30 (6)
4.05 (7)
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.40
Time Lost:
Unscheduled maintenance
Hardware Faults
Other Lost Time
System Recovery Time
Notes:
(3)
(3) 2 unscheduled re-boots due to Dexpand upgrade
(4) Including time taken to restore USERl disk to alleviate
disk fragmentation problems that were affecting performance
(5) System files, including User Authorisation File, had to be
restored following DEC PM
(6) System down over the weekend from Friday at 9.30 pm
(7) 6 unscheduled re-boots mainly due to Dexpand problems andupgrades
November 1987
8
Useful Information
Advisory Service:
- MAiL to ADVISOR
-phone 8140
-duty advisor at Computing Laboratory
9.30-12.30 and 2.00-5.00 Monday to Friday
- advisor at Psychology terminal cluster
9.30-12.00 Monday to Friday (term-time only)
8133
Fault reporting:
-phone
On-line information:
- class INFO on Gandalf P ACX
- HELP STANDREWS for general information
about local additions to VMS systems
- HELP DEPREP for list of departmental representatives
- HELP TERMINALS for terminal locations etc
- HELP TIMETABLE
- HELP DOCUMENT for list of documentation
- HELP SOFTWARE for list of software available
- NEWS for summary of Newsletter items
and other occasional special news
Documentation:
- Usernotes (free from Laboratory secretary)
-VM5 manuals: contact Alan Cunningham
(8120)
External access to VAX systems:
dial-up lines
- 5t Andrews 74131 or 75085 (no parity, full duplex, 300 baud)
JANET (X29)
- address 00000700700104
enter SAVA or SAVB in response to "Enter called address"
-NRSnameUK.AC.ST-ANDREWS.SAVA (or .SAVB)
November 19137