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GNU's Bulletin January, 1993
The GNU's Bulletin is the semi-annual newsletter of the Free Software Foundation, bringing you news about the GNU Project.
Free Software Foundation, Inc. Telephone: (617) 876-3296
675 Massachusetts Avenue Electronic mail: gnu@prep.ai.mit.edu
Cambridge, MA 02139 USA
GNU's Who
GNU's Bulletin
What Is the Free Software Foundation?
What Is Copyleft?
LGPL Query
Free Software Support
Free Software Support Far From Home
GNUs Flashes
Please Support Free Software
Cygnus Matches Donations!
Andrew Toolkit Stays Free
GNU Zip to Replace Compress
What Is the LPF?
Project GNU Status Report
Sources of Free Information
GNU Software Worldwide
Another Kernel Built with GCC
GNU in Japan
GNU Technical Seminar in Tokyo
Moscow Free Software Conference
Project GNU Wish List
A Small Way to Help Free Software
GNU Documentation
How to Get GNU Software
GNU Software Available Now
Contents of the Emacs Tape
Contents of the Languages Tape
Contents of the Utilities Tape
Contents of the Experimental Tape
Contents of the X11 Tapes
Berkeley Networking 2 Tape
VMS Emacs and Compiler Tapes
GNU Source Code CD-ROM
MS-DOS Distribution
Contents of the Demacs diskettes
Contents of the DJGPP diskettes
Contents of the Selected Utilities diskettes
Contents of the Windows diskette
The Deluxe Distribution
Tape Subscription Service
Free Software for Microcomputers
Announcing FSF T-shirts
Thank GNUs
Free Software Foundation Order Form
Michael Bushnell is working on the GNU operating system and
maintains GNU tar. Jim Blandy is preparing GNU Emacs
19. Roland McGrath is polishing the C library, maintains GNU
make, and helps with the GNU operating system.
Tom Lord is writing a graphics library and working on
Oleo, the GNU spreadsheet. Brian Fox is improving various
programs that he has written including makeinfo, info, the
readline library, and BASH, and is writing the BASH
manual. Jan Brittenson is working on the C interpreter and
maintaining finger. Mike Haertel is making GNU
grep POSIX-compliant and beginning work on optical character
recognition. David MacKenzie maintains most of GNU's small
utilities--more programs than nearly everyone else combined.
Melissa Weisshaus is editing documentation and writing the GNU Utilities manual. Robert J. Chassell, our Secretary/Treasurer, handles our publishing in addition to many other tasks.
Noah Friedman is our system ambiguator. Lisa `Opus' Goldstein continues to run the business end of FSF, with Gena Lynne Bean assisting in the office. Spike MacPhee assists RMS with administrative tasks. Charles Hannum works on typesetting and many other jobs.
Richard Stallman continues as a volunteer who does countless tasks, such as C compiler maintenance and finishing the C Library manual.
Volunteer Len Tower remains our on-line JOAT (jack-of-all-trades), handling mailing lists and gnUSENET, information requests, etc.
Written and Edited by: Melissa Weisshaus, Noah S. Friedman,
Charles Hannum, Robert J. Chassell, Lisa Goldstein,
and Richard Stallman.
Illustrations by: Etienne Suvasa and Jamal Hannah
Japanese Edition by: Mieko Hikichi and Nobuyuki Hikichi
The GNU's Bulletin is published in January and June of each year. Please note that there is no postal mailing list. To get a copy, send your name and address with your request to the address on the front page. Enclosing a business sized self-addressed stamped envelope ($0.52) and/or a donation to cover copying costs is appreciated but not required. If you're from outside the USA, sending a mailing label rather than an envelope, and enough International Reply Coupons for a package of about 100 grams is appreciated but not required. (Including a few extra International Reply Coupons for copying costs is also appreciated.)
Copyright (C) 1993 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the copyright notice and permission notice are preserved, and that the distributor grants the recipient permission for further redistribution as permitted by this notice.
The Free Software Foundation is dedicated to eliminating restrictions on people's abilities and rights to copy, redistribute, understand, and modify computer programs. We do this by promoting the development and use of free software in all areas of computer use. Specifically, we are putting together a complete integrated software system named "GNU" (GNU's Not Unix) that will be upwardly compatible with Unix. Most parts of this system are already working, and we are distributing them now.
The word "free" in our name pertains to freedom, not price. You may or may not pay money to get GNU software. Either way, you have two specific freedoms once you have the software: first, the freedom to copy the program and give it away to your friends and co-workers; and second, the freedom to change the program as you wish, by having full access to source code. Furthermore, you can study the source and learn how such programs are written. You may then be able to port it, improve it, and share your changes with others. If you redistribute GNU software, you may charge a fee for the physical act of transferring a copy, or you may give away copies.
Other organizations distribute whatever free software happens to be available. By contrast, the Free Software Foundation concentrates on development of new free software, working towards a GNU system complete enough to eliminate the need for you to purchase a proprietary system.
Besides developing GNU, FSF distributes copies of GNU software and manuals for a distribution fee, and accepts tax-deductible gifts to support GNU development. Most of FSF's funds come from its distribution service. We are tax exempt; you can deduct donations to us on your U.S. tax returns.
The Board of the Foundation is: Richard M. Stallman, President;
Robert J. Chassell, Secretary/Treasurer; Gerald J. Sussman,
Harold Abelson, and Leonard H. Tower Jr., Directors.
The simplest way to make a program free is to put it in the public domain, uncopyrighted. But this allows anyone to copyright and restrict its use against the author's wishes, thus denying others the right to access and freely redistribute it. This completely perverts the original intent.
To prevent this, we copyright our software and manuals in a novel manner. Typical software companies use copyrights to take away your freedoms. We use the copyleft to preserve them. It is a legal instrument that requires those who pass on the program to include the rights to further redistribute it, and to see and change the code; the code and rights become legally inseparable.
The copyleft used by the GNU Project is made from a combination of a regular copyright notice and the GNU General Public License (GPL). The GPL is a copying license which basically says (in several pages of legalese) that you have the freedoms discussed above. An alternate form, the GNU Library General Public License (LGPL), applies to certain GNU Libraries. This license permits linking the libraries into proprietary executables under certain conditions. The appropriate license is included in all GNU source code distributions and in many of our manuals. We will also send you a copy. Please send your request to either address on the front cover.
Note that the library license actually represents a strategic retreat. We would prefer to insist as much as possible that programs based on GNU software must themselves be free. However, in the case of libraries, we found that insisting they be used only in free software appeared to discourage use of the libraries rather than encouraging free applications.
We strongly encourage you to copyleft your programs and documentation, and we have made it as simple as possible for you to do so. The details on how to apply either license appear at the end of each license.
Both libg++ and libc are covered by the Library
General Public License. Do you use either of these libraries in a
proprietary application under the terms of the LGPL? We would like to
know to help evaluate whether the LGPL is doing the job it was designed
to do. Please send mail to gnu@prep.ai.mit.edu, or to
the postal address on the front cover of this Bulletin.
The Free Software Foundation does not provide any technical support. Although we create software, we leave it to others to earn a living providing support. We see programmers as providing a service, much as doctors and lawyers now do; both medical and legal knowledge are freely redistributable entities for which the practitioners charge a distribution and service fee.
We maintain a list of people who offer support and other consulting
services, called the GNU Service Directory. It is in the file
`etc/SERVICE' in the GNU Emacs distribution, `SERVICE' in the
GCC distribution, and `/pub/gnu/GNUinfo/SERVICE' on
prep.ai.mit.edu. Contact us if you would like a printed copy
or wish to be listed in it.
If you find a deficiency in any GNU software, we want to know. We have
many Internet mailing lists for announcements, bug reports, and
questions. They are also gatewayed into USENET news as the gnu.*
newsgroups. You can get a list of the mailing lists available by
mailing your request to either address on the front cover.
If you have no Internet access, you can get mail and USENET news via UUCP. Contact a local UUCP site, or a commercial UUCP site such as:
UUNET Communications Services,
3110 Fairview Park Drive - Suite 570,
Falls Church, VA 22042
USA
Phone: (703) 876-5050
E-mail: info@uunet.uu.net
A list of commercial uucp and networking providers is posted
periodically to USENET in newsgroup news.announce.newusers with
Subject: `How to become a USENET site'.
When we receive a bug report, we usually try to fix the problem. While our bug fixes may seem like individual assistance, they are not. Our task is so large that we must focus on that which helps the community as a whole. We do not have the resources to help individuals. We may send you a patch for a bug that helps us test the fix and ensure its quality. If your bug report does not evoke a solution from us, you may still get one from another user who reads our bug report mailing lists. Otherwise, use the Service Directory.
So, please do not ask us to help you install the software or figure out how to use it--but do tell us how an installation script does not work or where the documentation is unclear.
Here are some free software support companies that we have not mentioned before. We urge you to employ support service companies such as these, because you help the industry as well as yourself by getting your pick of support vendors. The FSF is not affiliated with any of these companies. For the addresses of other support companies, please consult the Service Directory.
Signum Support AB Box 2044 S-580 02 Linkoping Sweden +46 (0)13 21 46 00 (voice) +46 (0)13 21 47 00 (fax)signum@signum.seingwa@isy.liu.sepen@lysator.liu.se
Hundred Acre Consulting 1280 Terminal Way, Suite 26 Reno, NV 89502-3243 USA +1-702-329-9333info@pooh.comuunet!heather!info
gzip is the GNU replacement for compress. It is currently
in beta release. gzip compresses much more than compress
does; a file compressed with gzip is usually two thirds the size
of a file compressed with compress. Additionally, although
gzip is slower than compress, gunzip is faster than
uncompress. This is important for the users of software
distributions.
FSAG
c/o Michaela Merz
Heimatring 19
6000 Frankfurt/Main 70
Germany
fidonet: fsag, 2:247/14
fsag@eurom.fsag.incom.de
phone: ++49-69-6312083
bbs: ++49-69-6312934
bbs: ++49-69-6312083
bbs: ++49-69-634588
If you are in Europe and find it inconvenient to do business across the
Atlantic, we urge you to get your GNU software from FSAG as a way of
supporting the GNU Project.
wdiff 0.4, screen
3.2b, and Termcap 1.1 have all been recently added to the Utilities
tape. See "Contents of the Utilities Tape" for more information.
If you believe in free software and you want to make sure there is more in the future---please support the efforts of the FSF with a donation!
Your tax-deductible donation (on U.S. tax returns) will greatly help us reach our goals.
$500 $250 $100 $50 other $______ Foreign currency:______
Circle the amount you are donating, cut out this form, and send it with your donation to:
Free Software Foundation 675 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02139 USA
To encourage cash donations to the Free Software Foundation, Cygnus Support will match gifts by its employees, and by its customers and their employees.
Cygnus will match donations from its employees up to a maximum of $1000 per employee, and will match donations from customers and their employees at 50% to a maximum of $1000 per customer. Cygnus Support will donate up to a total of $10,000 in 1993.
Donations payable to the Free Software Foundation should be sent to Cygnus Support where they will be matched and forwarded to the FSF each quarter. The FSF will provide the contributor with a receipt to recognize the contribution (which is tax-deductible on U.S. tax returns). Donations sent to the FSF directly will not be matched, except by prior arrangement with Cygnus Support.
The Andrew Toolkit is both an extensible, object-oriented toolkit for graphical user interfaces and a package of applications. The most widely-used application is the Andrew Message System (AMS). The Toolkit is distributed on the GNU Project's "optional" X Windows tape, and the GNU Project's Source Code CD-ROM.
Not long ago, several people asked whether the Toolkit would stay free. It will. The Andrew Toolkit Consortium plans to continue to make versions of the Toolkit and the AMS freely usable and distributable. However, there is (as there always has been) a catch: members of the Consortium get updates sooner and more frequently than the rest of us. This provides Consortium members with another incentive to continue as members.
by Richard Stallman
We finally have a data compression program that is as good as
compress (actually, somewhat better) and patent-free for the moment.
It is called gzip and was written by Jean-Loup Gailly,
jloup@chorus.fr.
When compressing, gzip produces a new format all its own. We
cannot implement compress-compatible compression because of the
LZW algorithm patents. However, the patents do not prohibit
uncompression, so gzip is designed to recognize and properly
uncompress files that were made by compress.
gzip uses the file suffix `.z' for compressed files. We
chose this because GNU programs such as GNU tar and the Emacs 19
Dired mode use `z' as an option or command pertaining to
compression, and these would be less natural and harder to remember if
compressed files did not have `z' in their names. This suffix
conflicts with the compact program, but this does not seem to be
a big problem; distribution of compact files is not widespread.
We are gradually converting our FTP distribution files on
prep.ai.mit.edu to use gzip. We hope to stop distribution of
compress soon. In the GNU system, we plan to make the
compress command run gzip.
While we think gzip does not infringe any patents we know of, it is
always possible it infringes others we have not heard about. Even if it
is patent-free today, new software patents are issued every day, and one
covering gzip may be issued at any moment. In September 1991, when
we were a week away from releasing another data compression program, a
patent was issued which covered the algorithm that it used. We never
released that program.
Unfortunately, patents endanger any software development activity, and
you cannot effectively protect yourself from them except through
political action to change the law in your country and elsewhere. The
author of compress and the author of the program we almost used
in 1991 have both joined the LPF.
The League for Programming Freedom (LPF) aims to protect the freedom to write software. This freedom is threatened by "look-and-feel" interface copyright lawsuits and by software patents. The LPF does not endorse free software or the FSF.
The League's members include programmers, entrepreneurs, students, professors, and even some software companies.
From the League membership form:
The League for Programming Freedom is a grass-roots organization of professors, students, business people, programmers, and users dedicated to bringing back the freedom to write programs. The League is not opposed to the legal system that Congress intended--copyright on individual programs. Our aim is to reverse the recent changes made by judges in response to special interests.
Membership dues in the League are $42 per year for programmers, managers and professionals; $10.50 for students; $21 for others.
To join, please send a check and the following information:
The League is not connected with the Free Software Foundation and is not itself a free software organization. The FSF supports the League because, like any software developer smaller than IBM, it is endangered by software patents. You are in danger too! It would be easy to ignore the problem until the day you or your employer is sued, but it is more prudent to organize before that happens.
The address is:
League for Programming Freedom
1 Kendall Square - #143
P.O. Box 9171
Cambridge, MA 02139
USA
Email: lpf@uunet.uu.net
Phone: (617) 243-4091
If you haven't made up your mind yet, write to LPF for more information,
or send Internet mail to lpf@uunet.uu.net.
recover-file also reinstalls the buffer's undo history
malloc which wastes less memory than the old
GNU malloc. The GNU regular-expression functions (regex)
now mostly conform to the POSIX 1003.2 standard, and a new, faster regex
implementation should be ready soon.
GNU stdio lets you define new kinds of streams, just by writing a
few C functions. The fmemopen function uses this to open a
stream on a string, which can grow as necessary. You can define your
own printf formats to use a C function you have written. Also,
you can safely use format strings from user input to implement a
printf-like function for another programming language, for
example. Extended getopt functions are already used to parse
options, including long options, in many GNU utilities.
The current version is 1.05. Version 1.06 will include complete support
for SVR4 and Solaris 2, and better support for Linux. For more
information, see "Contents of Experimental Tape."
The GNU C Library Reference Manual describes all the library
facilities, including both what Unix calls "library functions" and
"system calls." It is new, and we would like corrections and
improvements. Please send them to
bug-glibc-manual@prep.ai.mit.edu. We won't print this manual
on paper until it is more stable.
altdorf.ai.mit.edu in
`/archive/scm' or nexus.yorku.ca in
`/pub/scheme/new'.
The FSF is not distributing JACAL on tape yet. To receive an IBM PC
floppy disk with the source and executable files, send $99.00 to:
Aubrey Jaffer 84 Pleasant Street Wakefield, MA 01880 USA
make
GNU make version 3.63 has just been released. New features
include a standard GNU configure script, long option support,
more flexible environment variable support, and an improved
include directive. GNU make is fully compliant with the
POSIX.2 standard, and also supports parallel command execution, flexible
implicit pattern rules, conditional execution, and powerful text
manipulation functions.
lord+@andrew.cmu.edu. Please send bug reports regarding
Oleo to bug-oleo@prep.ai.mit.edu. For more information, see
"Contents of Experimental Tape."
ghostview@cs.wisc.edu, has created a previewer for
multi-page files, called Ghostview, on top of Ghostscript.
Ghostscript includes a C-callable graphics library (for client programs
that do not want to deal with the Postscript language). It also
supports IBM PCs and compatibles with EGA, VGA, or SuperVGA graphics
(but do not ask the FSF staff any questions about this; we do not use
PCs).
groff
James Clark has completed groff (GNU troff and related
programs). Version 1.06 is now available (see "Contents of the
Utilities Tape"). groff is written in C++. It can be
compiled with GNU C++ Version 2.3 or later.
Bugs in groff will be fixed, but no major new developments are
currently planned. However, groff users are encouraged to
continue to contribute enhancements. Most needed are complete Texinfo
documentation, a grap emulation (a pic preprocessor for
typesetting graphs), a page-makeup postprocessor similar to pm
(see Computing Systems, Vol. 2, No. 2), and an ASCII output class
for pic so that pic can be integrated with Texinfo.
Thanks to all those who have contributed bug reports.
makeinfo, a standalone
formatter, and info, a standalone Info reader. Both are written
in C and are independent of GNU Emacs.
Stuart Cracraft
P.O. Box 2841
Laguna Hills, CA USA
cracraft@ai.mit.edu
(714) 770-8532
g77)
GNU Fortran is in "private" alpha test (testing by a small
group of experts) and is not yet publicly released.
The primary focus of the alpha test is to test the g77 front end,
since that has most of the new code. The secondary focus of the alpha
test is to test the integration between the front end and the back end.
Currently, this is where most of the bugs seem to be. The tertiary
focus is the quality of code generated by the GNU back end.
A mailing list exists for those interested in the Fortran front end for
GCC. To subscribe, ask:
info-gnu-fortran-request@prep.ai.mit.edu. If you would like to
contact the author and/or current maintainer of GNU Fortran, write to
fortran@prep.ai.mit.edu.
tar and a new manual will be released soon.
The manual will describe tar and related programs;
how to make backups, how to restore files, how to put files on
tapes for interchange purposes, and so on.
libc, which are already available.
There is more to `freely redistributable' than software. Here is a partial list of organizations providing freely redistributable information.
mrcnext.cso.uiuc.edu (in `/etext') and
oes.orst.edu (filename `/pub/almanac/etext'). For
instructions on how to obtain text from Bitnet, send the word `HELP' in
the body of a message to BITFTP@PUCC. Instructions will be
mailed. Or look at bit.listserv.gutnberg, a USENET group.
obi.std.com. You can also dial
world.std.com with a modem (617-739-9753, 8N1) and create an
account to access this information (login as new). Accounts on
world are charged for their connect time (send to
office@world.std.com for details).
jgoodwin@adcalc.fnal.gov, is working on a project
called "FreeLore". One goal is to create a core of useful, copylefted
textbooks. Currently, he is testing a prototype curriculum for
students from junior-high school through early college; the curriculum
uses Texinfo. The FreeLore project is looking for volunteers. For more
information, contact Mr. Goodwin.
by Melissa Weisshaus
Users world-wide now have easier access to GNU and other free software. Users in the United States have been able to get free software from the FSF and numerous other FTP sites for some time. Recently, free software oriented companies and FTP sites have appeared around the world, making GNU and other free software more easily available to users in Europe, Asia, and Australia. Additionally, there has been increased interest among the world business community in GNU software.
Companies have been set up to support, develop, and in some cases distribute GNU and other free software. Some companies that we know of are Wingnut in Japan, the Free Software Association of Germany, and Signum Support AB in Sweden. Additionally, the "Center for GNU Development" in Moscow is translating GNU documentation into Russian.
There are now FTP sites available in ten countries in North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. Please see the updated list in "How to Get Gnu Software" for an expanded list of international FTP sites and for FTP sites in your area.
In December of 1992, the FSF, the Japan Unix Society, and the Software Engineers Association of Japan jointly sponsored a GNU Technical Seminar in Tokyo. The conference was quite successful, attended by over 130 GNU enthusiasts. In April of 1993, a conference will take place in Moscow; Richard Stallman will attend that conference also.
See the articles entitled "GNU Technical Seminar in Tokyo" and "GNU in Japan" for more information about Japanese GNU development. For information regarding the Moscow conference, see the article entitled "Moscow Free Software Conference". See the "GNUs Flashes" to get information about the Free Software Association of Germany, and "Free Software Support Far From Home" for information about Wingnut and Signum Support AB.
Version 2.1 of AMIX (Commodore's SVR4-based Unix for the Amiga 2000 and 3000) has its kernel built with GCC. The stated reason is better performance.
Mieko, h-mieko@sra.co.jp, and Nobuyuki Hikichi,
hikichi@sra.co.jp, continue to work on the GNU Project in
Japan. They translate GNU information, write columns (and a book),
request donations, and consult about GNU. They have translated Version
1 of the GNU General Public License into Japanese and have arranged for
the translation of Version 2, which will be available soon. They also
provided invaluable help supporting the recent GNU Technical Seminar in
Tokyo.
Japanese versions of Emacs (nemacs) and Epoch (nepoch) are
available. Both of them are widely used in Japan.
MULE (the MULtilingual Enhancement of GNU Emacs) is a version of GNU
Emacs that can handle many character sets at once. Eventually the
features it provides will be merged into the FSF version of Emacs.
Ken'ichi Handa, handa@etl.go.jp, is beta testing MULE; you
can FTP sources from sh.wide.ad.jp:/JAPAN/mule or
etlport.etl.go.jp:/pub/mule.
The Village Center, Inc. has printed a Japanese translation of the GNU Emacs Lisp Reference manual and also uploaded the Texinfo source to various bulletin boards. They are donating part of the revenue that generated by distributing the manual to the FSF. Their address is: Fujimi-cho 2-2-12, Choufu City, Tokyo 182.
A group connected with the commercial personal computer network in Japan
is writing and distributing a copylefted hardware (circuit diagram)
design and associated software that uses a MIPS-architecture based CPU.
The OS which runs on this machine, t2, is a subset of Unix that
uses GCC and GDB as the system's compiler and debugger. They are also
running MIPS-BSD, which is based on both the 386BSD and Mach kernels.
Many groups in Japan distribute GNU
software, including JUG (a PC user group), Nikkei Business
Publications and ASCII (publishers), and the Fujitsu FM Towns users
group. Anonymous UUCP is also now available in Japan; for more
information contact toku@dit.co.jp.
You can also order GNU software directly from the FSF--indeed, we encourage you to do so: every 150 tape orders allows FSF to hire a programmer for a year to create more free software.
The FSF does not distribute nemacs, nepoch, or MULE on
tape; however nemacs is available on the GNU Source CD-ROM.
The FSF, together with the Software Engineers Association of Japan (SEA) and the Japan Unix Society (JUS), sponsored a GNU Technical Seminar in Tokyo on December 2 and 3, 1992. The speakers were Richard Stallman, Michael Bushnell, and Ken'ichi Handa. Bob Myers and David Littleboy translated the English talks into Japanese. Software Research Associates, Inc. provided help in countless ways. The FSF also unveiled both the newly released GNU Source Code CD-ROM and the new GNU T-shirts.
Over 130 people attended the seminar and many members of the Japanese press interviewed Richard Stallman. (Look for a cover story in an upcoming issue of Asahi Pasocon.) We are considering more seminars both in Japan and elsewhere if there is sufficient interest in any one region.
The FSF had a booth and a visible presence at the Japan Unix Society Fair '92 held in Yokohama from December 9 through 11. JUS provided the booth, and JUS volunteers pitched in to help staff it. This was so successful we hope to appear at other Unix events in Japan in the future.
On December 10, Richard Stallman gave a talk at Toshiba Corporation which was attended by 70 people. The following day, he spoke at Aoyama Gakuin University.
Both the seminar and the booth succeeded beyond our expectations. We received many unsolicited donations from individual supporters and users' groups, and were surprised and pleased by the number of the enthusiastic volunteers who came forward to help us at our various events.
A conference on free software will take place in Moscow on April 19-23, 1993. It will be hosted by the Society of Unix User Groups (formerly the Soviet Unix Users Group), the Russian Center for Systems Programming, and the International Center for Scientific and Technical Information.
Participants are coming from North America, Europe and Japan, including Richard Stallman, who founded the Free Software Foundation.
The main topics include: the current state of the GNU project and other FSF projects; free software portability in open systems environments; user experiences with free software; free software in education and training; legal aspects of free software; relevance of free software to modernization and democracy in Russia and other parts of the former Soviet Union; and how to contribute to free software.
The hosts of the conference are requesting submissions of original designs, papers and ideas, and welcome the participation of computer and software companies.
For further information, you may contact any of the following members of
the program committee. In Moscow, you may contact Sergei Kuznetsov,
kuz@ivann.delta.msk.su, at +7-095-272-4425; Mr.
Kuznetsov is the chair of the meeting. You may also contact Peter
Brusilovski, plb@plb.icsti.su at +7-095-198-7055, or
Dmitry Volodin, dvv@hq.demos.su at +7-095-231-2129.
In Boston, contact Geoffrey S. Knauth, gsk@marble.com, at
+1-617-891-5555.
...imagine how little used calculus would have been if a court had decided that no one could study, use or do research on it without paying a royalty to Newton's designated heirs.
-- The Independent, October 5, 1992
Wishes for this issue are for:
libg++ and libc are covered by the GNU Library
General Public License. Do you use either of these libraries in a
proprietary application under the terms of the LGPL? We would like to
know to help evaluate whether the LGPL is doing the job it was designed
to do. If you do (or know of someone who does) please send mail to
lgpl-query@gnu.ai.mit.edu, or to either address on the front
cover of this Bulletin.
gnu@prep.ai.mit.edu for the task list and coding
standards.
gnu@prep.ai.mit.edu.
If you find that GNU software has been helpful to you, and in particular if you have benefitted from having sources freely available, please help support the spread of free software by telling others. For example, you might say in published papers and internal project reports:
"We were able to modify the
fubarutility to serve our particular needs because it is free software. As a result, we were able to finish the XYZ project thirty weeks earlier."
Let users, management, and friends know! And send us a copy. Thanks!
GNU manuals are intended to explain the underlying concepts, describe how to use all the features of each program, and give examples of command use. GNU documentation is distributed as Texinfo source files, which yield both typeset hardcopy and an on-line hypertext-like presentation via the menu-driven Info system. These manuals, provided with our software, are also available in hardcopy; see the "FSF Order Form" inside the back cover.
The Emacs Manual describes editing with GNU Emacs. It also explains advanced features, such as outline mode and regular expression search, and how to use special modes for programming in languages like C and Lisp.
The Emacs Lisp Reference Manual covers the GNU Emacs Lisp programming language in great depth, including data types, control structures, functions, macros, syntax tables, searching and matching, modes, windows, keymaps, byte compilation, markers, and the operating system interface.
The Texinfo Manual explains the markup language used to generate both the online Info documentation and typeset hardcopies. It tells you how to make tables, lists, chapters, nodes, indexes, cross references, how to use Texinfo mode in GNU Emacs, and how to catch mistakes.
The GAWK Manual describes how to use the GNU implementation of
awk. It is written for someone who has never used awk and
describes all the features of this powerful string manipulation
language.
The Make Manual describes GNU make, a program used to rebuild
parts of other programs. The manual tells how to write makefiles,
which specify how a program is to be compiled and how its files depend
on each other. The new edition of the manual describes the new features
in version 3.63, and includes a new introductory chapter for novice
users, as well as a new section on automatically generated dependencies.
Debugging with GDB explains how to use the GNU Debugger, including how to run your program under debugger control, how to examine and alter data, how to modify the flow of control within the program, and how to use GDB through GNU Emacs.
The Bison Manual teaches how to write context-free grammars for the Bison program that convert into C-coded parsers. You need no prior knowledge of parser generators.
The Flex Manual tells you how to write a lexical scanner definition
for the flex program to create a C-coded scanner that will
recognize the patterns described. You need no prior knowledge of scanner
generators.
Using and Porting GNU CC explains how to run, install, and port the GNU C compiler. Currently, we are distributing two versions of GCC, version 1 and version 2, each documented by a different version of the manual.
The Termcap Manual, often described as "Twice as much as you ever wanted to know about Termcap," details the format of the Termcap database, the definitions of terminal capabilities, and the process of interrogating a terminal description. This manual is primarily for programmers.
The Emacs Calc Manual includes both a tutorial and a reference manual for Calc. It describes how to do ordinary arithmetic, how to use Calc for algebra, calculus, and other forms of mathematics, and how to extend Calc.
All the software and publications from the Free Software Foundation are distributed with permission to copy and redistribute. The easiest way to get GNU software is to copy it from someone else who has it.
You can get GNU software direct from the FSF by ordering a distribution tape or CD-ROM. Such orders provide most of the funds for the FSF staff, so please support us by ordering if you can. See the "FSF Order Form".
If you have Internet access, you can get the software via
anonymous FTP from the host prep.ai.mit.edu (the IP address
is 18.71.0.38). Get file
`/pub/gnu/GETTING.GNU.SOFTWARE' for more information.
There are also third party groups who distribute our software; they do not work with us, but can provide our software in other forms. For your convenience we list some of them; see "Free Software for Microcomputers". Please note that the Free Software Foundation is not affiliated with them in any way and is responsible for neither the currency of their versions nor the swiftness of their responses.
These TCP/IP Internet sites provide GNU software via anonymous FTP
(program: ftp, user: anonymous, password: your name,
mode: binary):
archie.oz.au (archie.oz for ACSnet), utsun.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp, ftp.cs.titech.ac.jp.
ugle.unit.no, ftp.stacken.kth.se,
isy.liu.se, ftp.win.tue.nl, ftp.informatik.tu-muenchen.de,
ftp.denet.dk, ftp.eunet.ch, nic.switch.ch, nic.funet.fi,
ftp.eu.net.
labrea.stanford.edu, jaguar.cs.utah.edu,
cc.utah.edu ftp.cs.widener.edu,
wuarchive.wustl.edu,uxc.cso.uiuc.edu,
gatekeeper.dec.com, mango.rsmas.miami.eduftp.uu.net (under `/packages/gnu').
Those on the SPAN network can ask rdss::corbet.
Those on JANET can look under src.doc.ic.ac.uk:/gnu.
You can get some GNU programs via UUCP. Ohio State University posts
their UUCP instructions regularly to newsgroup comp.sources.d on
USENET. These people will send you UUCP instructions via electronic
mail:
hao!scicom!qetzal!upba!ugn!nepa!denny, uunet!hutch!barber, src@contrib.de (Europe), james@bigtex.cactus.org, acornrc!bob, uucp@cis.ohio-state.edu, and info@uunet.uu.net
For those without Internet access, see the section entitled "Free Software Support" for information on receiving electronic mail via UUCP.
As we enjoy great advantages from the inventions of others, we should be glad of an opportunity to serve others by any invention of ours.
--Benjamin Franklin
We offer Unix software source distribution tapes in tar format on
the following media: 1600 bpi 9-track reel tape, 8mm Exabyte cartridges,
Sun QIC-24 cartridges, Hewlett-Packard 16-track cartridges, and IBM
RS/6000 QIC-150 cartridges (the RS/6000 Emacs tape has an Emacs binary
as well). We also offer: a CD-ROM (see "GNU Source Code CD-ROM");
MS-DOS diskettes with some GNU software (see "MS-DOS Distribution");
and VMS tapes (which include sources and executables) for GNU Emacs and
the GNU C compiler (see "VMS Emacs and Compiler Tapes").
The contents of the various 9-track and cartridge tapes for Unix systems are the same (except for the RS/6000 Emacs tape, which also has executables); only the media are different (see the "FSF Order Form"). Documentation comes in Texinfo format. We welcome any bug reports.
Some of the files on the tapes may be compressed to make them fit.
Refer to the top-level `README' file at the beginning of the tapes
for instructions on decompressing them. uncompress may not work!
Version numbers listed by program names were current at the time this Bulletin was published. When you order a distribution tape, some of the programs might be newer, and therefore the version number higher.
gzip 0.6
Some of the contents of our tape distribution is compressed. We include
software on the tapes to compress/decompress these files. Due to patent
troubles with compress, we are switching to another compression
program, gzip. gzip can uncompress LZW-compressed files
but uses a different algorithm for compression which generally produces
better results. It is presently in beta test but we hope people will
begin using it. This year we are converting all our compressed
distribution files on prep.ai.mit.edu, as well as our
distribution tapes.
make 3.63
GNU make has nearly all the features of the BSD and System V
versions of make, as well as many of our own extensions. It
complies with POSIX 1003.2. GNU extensions include parallel
compilation, conditional execution, and text manipulation. Source for
the Make manual comes with the program.
GNU make is distributed on several of the tapes because native
make programs lack essential features for using the GNU configure
system to its full extent.
This tape contains programming tools: compilers, interpreters, and related programs (parsers, conversion programs, debuggers, etc.).
cfront (the AT&T compiler), as
cfront has been diverging from ANSI. G++ comes with source
for the GNU G++ User's Guide (not yet published on paper).
G++ compiles source quickly, provides good error messages, and works
well with GDB. As G++ depends on GCC, it must be used with a
specific numbered version of GCC.
ld or GDB) to support many different formats in
a clean way. BFD provides a portable interface, so that only BFD needs
to know the actual details of a particular format. One consequence of
this design is that all of the programs using BFD will support formats
such as a.out, COFF, ELF, and ROSE. BFD comes with documentation.
ae
ae works with GCC to produce more complete profiling
information.
ar, gprof, ld, nm,
ranlib, size, and strip. The GNU linker ld
is fast, and is the only linker which emits source-line numbered error
messages for multiply-defined symbols and undefined references.
yacc, with more features. Source for the Bison manual is
included.
robotussin is
supplied for converting standard libraries to this format. However,
this workaround is becoming obsolete, as BFD is replacing it (see the
entry on "BFD").
dld 3.2.3
dld is a dynamic linker written by W. Wilson Ho. Linking your
program with the dld library allows you to dynamically load
object files into the running binary.
f2c 3.2.90
f2c converts Fortran--77 source files into C or C++.
flex 2.3.7
flex is a mostly-compatible replacement for the Unix lex
scanner generator, written by Vern Paxson of the Lawrence Berkeley
Laboratory. flex generates far more efficient scanners than
lex does. Source for the Flex manual is included.
as and works for 32x32, 680x0,
80386, SPARC (Sun-4), and VAXen.
awk. Source for the GAWK manual comes with the software.
gdbm 1.5
The gdbm library is the GNU replacement for the standard
dbm and ndbm libraries. gdbm supports both styles
but does not need sparse database formats (unlike its Unix
counterparts).
gmp 1.2
GNU MP (gmp) is a library for arbitrary precision arithmetic,
operating on signed integers and rational numbers. It has a rich set of
functions, all with a regular interface.
gperf 2.1
gperf is a "perfect" hash-table generation utility. There are
actually two implementations of gperf, one written in C and one
in C++. Both will produce hash functions in either C or C++.
indent 1.6
indent is the GNU-modified version of the freely-redistributable
BSD program of the same name. It formats C source according to GNU
coding standards by default, though the original default and other
formats are available as options.
perl 4.035
Larry Wall has written a fast interpreter named perl which
combines the features of sed, awk, sh, and C. It
has all these programs' capabilities, as well as interfaces to all the
system calls and many C library routines.
gzip 0.6, and make 3.63
See "Contents of the Emacs Tape" for a full description of these programs.
This tape consists mostly of smaller utilities and miscellaneous applications not available on the other GNU tapes.
m4 macro calls. Many GNU programs use Autoconf-generated
configure scripts now.
sh and offers many extensions found in csh and
ksh. BASH has job control, csh-style command history, and
command-line editing (with Emacs and vi modes built-in and the
ability to rebind keys).
bc 1.02
bc is an interactive algebraic language with arbitrary precision.
GNU bc was implemented from the POSIX 1003.2 draft standard, but
it has several extensions including multi-character variable names, an
else statement, and full Boolean expressions.
cpio 2.2
cpio is an alternative archive program with all the features of
SVR4 cpio, including support for the final POSIX 1003.1
ustar standard.
diff 2.0
GNU diff compares files showing line-by-line changes in several
flexible formats. It is much faster than the traditional Unix versions.
The "diff" distribution contains diff, diff3, sdiff,
and cmp.
elvis 1.6
elvis is a clone of the vi/ex Unix editor. It
supports nearly all of the vi/ex commands in both visual
and line mode. elvis runs under BSD, System V, Xenix, Minix,
MS-DOS, and Atari TOS, and it should be easy to port to many other
systems.
find 3.7
find is frequently used both interactively and in shell scripts
to find files which match certain criteria and perform arbitrary
operations on them. xargs and locate are also included.
finger 1.37
GNU Finger should work on a wide variety of systems. For more
information, see the "GNU Project Status Report."
hello 1.1
MandelSpawn is a parallel Mandelbrot program for the MIT X Window
System. GNU Chess has text and X display interfaces (see "Project GNU
Status Report"). NetHack is a display-oriented adventure game similar
to Rogue. GnuGo plays the game of Go (Wei-Chi); it is not yet very
sophisticated.
The GNU hello program produces a familiar, friendly greeting. It
allows non-programmers to use a classic computer science tool which would
otherwise be unavailable to them. Because it is protected by the GNU
General Public License, users are free to share and change it.
gnuplot 3.2
gnuplot is an interactive program for plotting mathematical
expressions and data. Curiously, the program was neither written nor
named for the GNU Project; the name is a coincidence.
See the entry on GNU Graphics "Contents of the Experimental Tape" for
information on a related program.
gptx 0.2
gptx is the GNU version of ptx, a permuted index
generator. Among other things, it produces readable "KWIC" (KeyWords
In Context) indexes without the need of nroff, and there is an
option to produce TeX code as output.
grep/egrep 1.6 and fgrep 1.1
The [ef]grep programs are GNU's versions of the Unix programs of the
same name. They are much faster than the traditional Unix versions.
groff 1.06 and mgm 1.07
groff is a document formatting system, which includes
implementations of troff, pic, eqn, tbl,
refer, the man, ms, and mm
macros, as well as drivers for Postscript, TeX dvi format, and
typewriter-like devices. Also included is a modified version of the
Berkeley me macros and an enhanced version of the X11
xditview previewer.
mgm is a macro package for groff. It is almost compatible
with the DWB mm macros and has several extensions.
less 177
less is a paginator similar to more and pg but with
various features (such as the ability to scroll backwards) which most
pagers lack.
m4 1.0.3
GNU m4 is an implementation of the traditional Unix macro
processor and is mostly System V Release 4 compatible, although it has
some extensions (for example, handling more than 9 positional
parameters to macros). m4 also has built-in functions for
including files, running shell commands, doing arithmetic, etc.
patch 2.0.12g8
patch is our version of Larry Wall's program to take
diff's output and apply those differences to an original file to
generate the modified version.
diff, RCS
can handle binary files (executables, object files, 8-bit data, etc).
recode 3.2.4
recode converts files between character sets and usages. When
exact transliterations are not possible, it may get rid of offending
characters or fall back on approximations. It recognizes or produces
more than a dozen character sets and can convert each character set to
almost any other one. recode pays special attention to
superimposition of diacritics, particularly for French.
screen 3.2b
screen is a terminal multiplexor which allows you to handle
several independent "screens" (ttys) on a single physical terminal.
Each virtual terminal emulates a DEC VT100 plus several ANSI X3.64 and
ISO 2022 functions. screen sessions can be detached and resumed
later on a different terminal.
sed 1.13
sed is a stream-oriented version of ed. It is used
frequently in shell scripts.
tar 1.11.1
GNU tar includes multivolume support, the ability to archive
sparse files, automatic archive compression/decompression, remote
archives, and special features to allow tar to be used for
incremental and full backups. Unfortunately GNU tar implements
an early draft of the POSIX 1003.1 ustar standard which is
different from the final standard. Adding support for the new changes
in a backward-compatible fashion is not trivial.
libtermcap.a
on any system. It does not place an arbitrary limit on the size of
Termcap entries, unlike most other Termcap libraries. Included is
extensive documentation in Texinfo format.
time 1.4
time is used to report statistics (usually from a shell) about
the amount of user, system, and real time used by a process.
tput 1.0
tput is a portable way to allow shell scripts to use special
terminal capabilities. GNU tput uses the Termcap database,
rather than Terminfo as most implementations do.
wdiff 0.4
wdiff compares two files, finding which words have been deleted
or added to the first in order to obtain the second. We hope eventually
to integrate it, as well as some ideas from a similar program called
spiff, into future releases of GNU diff.
chgrp,
chmod,
chown,
cp,
dd,
df,
du,
install,
ln,
ls,
mkdir,
mkfifo,
mknod,
mv,
mvdir,
rm,
rmdir,
and
touch.
The "shellutils" are small commands used on the command
line or in shell scripts:
basename,
date,
dirname,
echo,
env,
expr,
false,
groups,
id,
logname,
nice,
nohup,
pathchk,
printenv,
printf,
sleep,
stty,
su,
tee,
test,
true,
tty,
uname,
who,
whoami,
and
yes.
The "textutils" programs manipulate textual data:
cat,
comm,
csplit,
cut,
expand,
fold,
head,
join,
nl,
paste,
pr,
sort,
split,
sum,
tac,
tail,
tr,
unexpand,
uniq,
and
wc.
gzip 0.6, and make 3.63
See "Contents of the Emacs Tape" for a full description of these
programs.
This tape includes software which is currently in beta test and is available for people who are feeling adventurous. Some of the software already has released versions on the distribution tapes. The contents of this tape are transient; as the programs become stable, they will replace older versions on other tapes. Please send bug reports to the appropriate addresses (listed on the tape in the notes for each program).
long long int). It can generate code for most of the same
machines as version 1, plus the following: AMD 29000, Acorn RISC, DEC
Alpha, Elxsi, HP-PA (700 or 800), IBM RS/6000, IBM RT/PC, Intel 80386,
Intel 960, Motorola 88000, and SPARC (running Solaris 2). Version 2 can
generate a.out, COFF, ELF and OSF-Rose files when used with a suitable
assembler. It can produce debugging information in several formats: BSD
stabs, COFF, ECOFF, ECOFF with stabs symbols, and DWARF.
Not all of the version 1 machine descriptions have been updated yet;
some do not work, and others need work to take full advantage of
instruction scheduling and delay slots. The old machine descriptions
for the Alliant, Tahoe, and Spur (as well as a new port for the Tron) do
not work, but are still included in the distribution in case someone
wants to work on them.
Using the new configuration scheme for GCC, building a cross-compiler is
as easy as building a compiler for the same target machine. Version 2
supports more general calling conventions: it can pass arguments "by
reference" and can preallocate the space for stack arguments. GCC 2 on
the SPARC uses the standard conventions for structure arguments and
return values.
Version 2 of the compiler supports three languages: C, C++ and
Objective C; the source file name extension or a compiler option selects
the language. The front end support for Objective C was donated by
NeXT. The runtime support needed to run Objective C programs is now
distributed with GCC (this does not include any Objective C classes
aside from object).
GNU C has been extended to support nested functions, nonlocal gotos, and
taking the address of a label.
Source for the GCC manual, Using and Porting GNU CC, is included
with the compiler.
Since the C compiler has been unbundled in Solaris, this tape
temporarily contains compiled binaries of GCC for Solaris systems in
addition to the sources. In the future, Solaris binaries will be
available on separate media.
configure script and runs on
Sun-3 & Sun-4 (SunOS 4.1), HP 9000/300 & Sony NEWS 800 (4.3 BSD), MIPS
DECstation (Ultrix 4.2), and i386/i486 (System V & BSD).
The C library comes with a newly finished manual in source form.
graph, xplot and
plot2ps; support for output in ln03 and TekniCAD TDA file
formats; a replacement for the spline program; examples of shell
scripts using graph and plot; the addition of a statistics
toolkit; and the use of configure for installation.
Existing ports need retesting. Contact Rich Murphey,
Rich@rice.edu, if you can help test/port it to anything
other than a SPARCstation.
The two X11 tapes contain Version 11, Release 5 of the MIT X Window System. The first FSF tape contains all of the core software, documentation, and some contributed clients. We call this the `required' X tape since it is necessary for running X or running GNU Emacs under X. The second, `optional,' FSF tape contains contributed libraries and other toolkits, the Andrew Toolkit, games, and other programs.
The Berkeley "Net2" release contains the second 4.3 BSD distribution and is newer than both 4.3BSD-Tahoe and 4.3BSD-Reno. It includes most of the BSD software system except for a few utilities, some parts of the kernel, and some library routines which your own C library is likely to provide (we have replacements on other tapes for many of the missing programs). This release also contains third party software including Kerberos and some GNU software.
We offer two VMS tapes. One has just the GNU Emacs editor. The second
contains the GNU C compiler, Bison (needed to compile GCC), gas
(needed to assemble GCC's output), and some library and include files.
We are not aware of a GDB port for VMS. Both VMS tapes have executables
from which you can bootstrap, since the DEC VMS C compiler cannot
compile GCC. Please do not ask us to devote effort to VMS support,
because it is peripheral to the GNU Project.
The Free Software Foundation has produced its first CD-ROM. This CD
contains sources to the distribution of the GNU Project including:
Emacs, GCC, G++, GDB, Bison, GAS, Make, GAWK, Texinfo, the GNU
Utilities, RCS and CVS, f2c, gnuplot, Ghostscript,
tar, diff, and BASH, as well as the MIT X Window System,
and MIT Scheme. This CD included everything on our Emacs, Languages
(except T), Utilities, Experimental, X11 Required and X11 Optional tapes
as of October 1992. Note that the BSD-Net2 tape contents are not on
this CD. Some of the versions are earlier then listed in "GNU Software
Available Now". These programs are not on this CD: PCL, CLISP,
Autoconf, Fax, wdiff, screen, Termcap, and Oleo.
The CD-ROM also contains some packages ported to Intel 80386 and 80486-based machines running MS-DOS: Demacs, DJGPP, and MIT Scheme 7.2. In addition, it contains Mtools, which is a public domain collection of programs to allow Unix systems to read, write, and manipulate files on an MS-DOS file system (typically a diskette).
The CD is in ISO 9660 format and can be mounted as a read-only file system on most operating systems. You can build most of this software without needing to copy the sources off the CD. It requires only enough free disk space for the object files and the intermediate build targets. Except for several of the MS-DOS packages, there are no precompiled programs on this CD. You will need a C compiler (programs which need some other interpreter or compiler normally provide the C source for a bootstrapping program).
The CD costs $400 if you are buying it for a business or other organization, or $100 if you are buying it for yourself.
The FSF is now distributing some of the GNU software that has been ported to MS-DOS on 3.5 inch, 1.44MB diskettes. The disks contain both source and executables.
Demacs is a version of Emacs 18.55 ported to MS-DOS, with some changes from Emacs 18.57. Two versions are actually included--one which handles 8-bit character sets, and one, based on Nemacs, which handles 16-bit character sets, including Kanji. We distribute it on five 3.5 inch diskettes, containing both source and executables.
Demacs runs on Intel 80386 and 80486--based machines running MS-DOS. It is compatible with XMS memory managers and VCPI, but not with Microsoft Windows extended mode or other DPMI managers.
DJGPP is a complete port of GCC, libraries, development utilities, and a symbolic debugger, for Intel 80386 and 80486--based machines running MS-DOS. We distribute it on four 3.5 inch diskettes, containing both source and executables.
DJGPP requires at least 5MB of hard disk space to install, and 512K
of RAM to use. It is compatible with XMS memory managers and VCPI, but
not with Microsoft Windows extended mode or other DPMI managers. It
cannot emulate multitasking (e.g. fork(2)) or signals.
The GNUish MS-DOS Project releases versions of GNU software ported to PC compatibles. In general, this software will run on 8086 and 80286--based machines; it does not require an 80386. Some of these utilities are necessarily missing features.
We are distributing these utilities, both source and executables: Bison,
RCS, flex, GAWK, cpio, diff, MicroEmacs,
find, some file utilities, gdbm, grep, libc,
ptx, indent, less, m4, make,
sed, shar, sort, and Texinfo.
We are distributing versions of GNU Chess and gnuplot ported to
Microsoft Windows, on a single diskette, containing both source and
executables.
If I have seen farther than others, it is because I was standing on the shoulders of giants.
--Isaac Newton
The Free Software Foundation has been repeatedly asked to create a package that provides executables for all of our software. Usually we offer only sources. In addition to providing binaries with the source code, the Deluxe Distribution includes copies of all our printed manuals.
The FSF Deluxe Distribution contains the binaries and sources to hundreds of different programs including GNU Emacs, the GNU C Compiler, the GNU Debugger, the complete MIT X Window System, and the GNU utilities.
You may choose one of the following machines and operating systems: HP 9000 series 200, 300, 700, or 800 (4.3 BSD or HP-UX); RS/6000 (AIX); Sony NEWS 68k (4.3 BSD or NewsOS 4); Sun 3, 4, or SPARC (SunOS 4 or Solaris). If your machine or system is not listed, or if a specific program has not been ported to that machine, please call the FSF office.
We will supply the software on one of the following media in Unix tar format: 1600 or 6250 bpi, 1/2 inch, reel to reel tape; Sun DC300XLP 1/4 inch cartridge, QIC-24; HP 16 track DC600HC 1/4 inch cartridge; IBM RS/6000 1/4 inch cartridge, QIC-150; and Exabyte 8mm tape. If your computer cannot read any of these, please call us.
The manuals included are one each of the Bison, Calc, Gawk, GNU C Compiler, GNU Debugger, Flex, GNU Emacs Lisp Reference, Make, Texinfo, and Termcap manuals; six copies of the GNU Emacs manual; and a packet of reference cards for GNU Emacs, Calc, the GNU Debugger, Bison, and Flex.
In addition to the printed and on-line documentation, every Deluxe Distribution includes an ISO 9660 CD-ROM that contains sources of our software.
The Deluxe Distribution costs $5000. This package is for people who want to get everything compiled for them or who want to make a purchase that helps the FSF in a large way.
The FSF is starting a tape subscription service. If you do not have net access, the subscription service enables you to stay current with the latest FSF developments. For the one-time cost equivalent to three tapes, we will mail you four new versions of the tape of your choice over the course of the next year.
Every quarter, we will send you a new version of a Languages, Utilities, Experimental, or MIT X Windows Required tape. The Emacs, BSD Net-2, and the MIT X Windows Optional tapes are not changed often enough to warrant quarterly updates.
See the section entitled "Subscriptions" in the "FSF Order Form".
We do not provide support for GNU software on microcomputers because it is peripheral to the GNU Project. However, we are distributing a few such programs on tape, CD-ROM, and diskette. We are also willing to publish information about groups who do support and maintain them. If you are aware of any such efforts, please send the details, including postal addresses, archive sites, and mailing lists, to either address on the front cover.
See "MS-DOS Distribution" for more information about microcomputer software available from the FSF. Please do not ask us about any other software. The FSF does not maintain any of it and has no additional information.
Boston Computer Society 1 Kendall Square, Bldg 1400, Cambridge, MA 02139 USA Phone: (617) 252-0600
ftp.funet.fi in /pub/amiga/gnu (Europe)
using anonymous FTP.
For info on (or offers to help with) the GCC port and related projects,
ask Leonard Norrgard, vinsci@nic.funet.fi. For info on the
GNU Emacs port, ask David Gay, dgay@di.epfl.ch, or Mark D.
Henning, henning@stolaf.edu. You can get more info via
anonymous FTP in `prep.ai.mit.edu:/pub/gnu/MicrosPorts/Amiga'.
atari.archive.umich.edu using
anonymous FTP. Howard Chu, hyc@hanauma.jpl.nasa.gov,
maintains the archive. Ports are discussed on USENET in
comp.sys.atari.st.tech & comp.sys.atari.st.
hobbes.nmsu.edu via anonymous FTP. To join the mailing list,
send a message to os2gcc-request@charon.mit.edu.
tsx-11.mit.edu:/pub/linux (USA),
nic.funet.fi:/pub/OS/Linux (Europe). See newsgroup
comp.os.linux for Linux discussions. Ask
linux-activists-request@niksula.hut.fi about their mailing
lists.
sokol@reyes.stanford.edu. This is the result of the work
described in the Dr. Dobb's Journal series on 386BSD.
ftp.clarkson.edu in `/pub/msdos/djgpp'. You can
subscribe to a mailing list on DJGPP by sending your e-mail address to
djgpp-request@sun.soe.clarkson.edu.
The FSF is distributing DJGPP both on floppies and the CD-ROM (see
"MS-DOS Distribution" and "GNU Source Code CD-ROM").
int86 Lisp function, machine-specific
features such as function key support, file name completion with drive
name, child processes (suspend-emacs and call-process).
Dired mode works without `ls.exe'. Anonymous FTP it from:
wuarchive.wustl.edu in /mirrors/msdos/demacs (US),
utsun.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp in /GNU/demacs (Japan),
and ftp.funet.fi in /pub/gnu/emacs/demacs
(Europe).
The FSF is distributing Demacs both on floppies and the CD-ROM (see
"MS-DOS Distribution" and "GNU Source Code CD-ROM").
nelson@crynwr.com, has written a small
programmable editor that is compatible enough with GNU Emacs that
Freemacs users can use the GNU Emacs manual as a reference for
it. It will run on most MS-DOS systems, including 8088 machines.
Anonymous FTP it from `emacs16a.zip' (under
PD1:<MSDOS.FREEMACS>) from wsmr-simtel20.army.mil;
or send $15 (copying fee) to:
Russ Nelson 11 Grant St. Potsdam, NY 13676 USA Phone: (315) 268-1925 (Fax: 9201)Specify floppy format:
5.25"/360K; or 3.50"/720K.
info-gnu-msdos-request@sun.soe.clarkson.edu for info
on MS-DOS ports of GNU programs and related mailing lists. More
information is in files `/pub/gnu/MicrosPorts/MSDOS*', found on
prep.ai.mit.edu via anonymous FTP.
The FSF is distributing MS-DOS ports of many GNU programs on floppies
(see "MS-DOS Distribution").
Free Software Foundation T-shirts are now available, designed by local artist Jamal Hannah. The front of the t-shirt has an image of a GNU hacking at a workstation with the text "GNU's Not Unix" above and the text "Free Software Foundation below. They are available in two colors, Natural and Black. Natural is an off-white, unbleached, undyed, environmentally friendly cotton, printed with black ink. Great for tye-dyeing, or displaying as is. Black is printed with white ink and is perfect for late night hacking. All shirts are thick 100% cotton, and are available in sizes M, L, XL, and XXL.
Use the "FSF Order Form" to order your shirt, and consider getting one as a present for your favorite hacker!
Work for something because it is good, not just because it stands a chance to succeed.
--Vaclav Havel
Thanks to all those mentioned above in "GNUs Flashes", "Project GNU Status Report", "GNU in Japan", and "GNU Software Available Now".
Our undying gratitude to Carl W. Hoffman for all of his help.
Thanks to the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and the Laboratory for Computer Science at MIT for their invaluable assistance of many kinds.
Thanks are due to the following people for their assistance in the recent Japan activities: Nobuyuki & Mieko Hikichi, Dr. Ken'ichi Handa, Dr. Ikuo Takeuchi, Bob Myers, David Littleboy, Mike Kandall, Prof. Masayuki Ida, JUS & SEA, Michio Nagashima and Paul Abramson. Thanks to Village Center, Inc., ASCII Corporation, the Japan Unix Society, A.I. Soft, and many others in Japan, for their continued donations and support.
Thanks to the USENIX Association for letting us have a table at their conference. Thanks again to the Open Software Foundation for their continued support. Thanks to Cygnus Support for assisting Project GNU in many ways.
Thanks to the University of Massachusetts at Boston (especially Rick Martin) for letting Karl Berry and Kathryn Hargreaves use their computers.
Thanks to Jim Morris of Carnegie-Mellon University for supporting Tom Lord. Brian Fox says "domo arigato gozaimashita" to Dr. Ed Gamble and ATR Japan for hosting him for 6 weeks in Kyoto, Japan. Joseph Arceneaux thanks Richard Karpinkski of UCSF and Paul Hilfinger of UCB, as well as Paul's students Luigi, Ed, Alan, and Kinson, for their kind assistance.
Thanks to Lucid, Inc. for the loan of an X terminal and for their support of Joe Arceneaux. Thanks to Chet Ramey for his continuing work on improving BASH. Thanks to Carol Botteron for proofreading and other assistance.
Thanks go out to all those who have either lent or donated machines, including Cygnus Support for a Sun SPARCstation; Hewlett-Packard for two 80486, six 68030, and four Spectrum computers; Brewster Kahle of Thinking Machines Corp. for a Sun-4/110; Doug Blewett of AT&T Bell Labs for two Convergent Miniframes; CMU's Mach Project for a Sun-3/60; Intel Corp. for their 386 machine; NeXT for their workstation; the MIT Media Laboratory for a Hewlett-Packard 68020; SONY Corp. and Software Research Associates, Inc., both of Tokyo, for three SONY News workstations; IBM Corp. for an RS/6000; the MIT Laboratory of Computer Science for the DEC MicroVAX; the Open Software Foundation for the Compaq 386; Delta Microsystems for an Exabyte tape drive; an anonymous donor for 5 IBM RT/PCs; Liant Software Corp. for five VT100s; Jerry Peek for a 386 machine; NCD Corporation for an X terminal; and Interleaf, Inc., Veronika Caslavsky, Paul English, Cindy Woolworth, and Lisa Bergen for the loan of a scanner.
Thanks to all those who have contributed ports and extensions, as well as those who have contributed other source code, documentation, and good bug reports. Thanks to those who sent money and offered help. Thanks also to those who support us by ordering manuals and distribution tapes. The creation of this bulletin is our way of thanking all who have expressed interest in what we are doing.
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