*BSD News Article 7278


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Path: sserve!manuel.anu.edu.au!munnari.oz.au!uunet!uunet!bounce-back
From: cammejpm@camme.ac.be (J.-P. Malisse)
Subject: RFD: comp.sys.convex
Keywords: convex, fortran, vector, parallel, user group, supercomputing
Followup-To: news.groups
Approved: tale@uunet.uu.net
Sender: tale@uunet.uu.net (David C Lawrence)
Organization: UUNET Technologies, Inc
Date: Sun, 1 Nov 1992 23:49:36 GMT
Message-ID: <Bx2A6p.Gu8@uunet.uu.net>
Lines: 128

This is a formal Request for Discussion on the creation of a new newsgroup
called "comp.sys.convex" (not moderated).

This announcement is cross-posted to newsgroups whose readers may have 
interest in the discussion about the new group; follow-up discussion will
take place in "news.groups". Suggestions, comments or problems may also
be emailed to me at <cammejpm@camme.ac.be>.

REQUEST FOR DISCUSSION
----------------------

NEWSGROUP
  comp.sys.convex (not moderated)

PURPOSE
  The newsgroup 'comp.sys.convex' would be a forum for discussing 
  issues related to Convex computer systems hardware & software,
  common code optimization problems, system administration specific
  to ConvexOS.  It will NOT be a forum for forwarding sensitive information
  as e-mail and individual contact are for this purpose.

  It could be the best, and quickest way to exchange questions and
  answers, hints and tips on optimization, have contacts between users
  having common problems and maybe some common solutions.


RATIONALE

  Very often Convex users receiving news and having questions don't know
  really where to post their questions in such a way that it could be
  answered by some other Convex users.
  In the same way, people who could be able to answer the question are not
  necessarily inspecting all articles where Convex is mentioned, such a 
  newsgroup will usually permit better follow-ups for Convex issues.
  Users could discover lot of indirect Convex matter accidentally in 
  comp.lang.perl (T. Christiansen), sometimes in gnugroups, etc...

  Convex User Groups exist in U.S., Europe, and the Pacific Rim;
  Mailing lists have been going in the U.S and Europe for several years; 
  but this way of communicating is not particularly adequate for users
  of multi-recipient systems, i.e., each message is sent to each registered
  user, even on the same systems, moreover each user must ask to be
  explicitely registered.

  A newsgroup would permit all users of a Convex computer receiving the News
  to receive only one copy of each message and to share it potentially
  with all the users of the systems.

  This newsgroup could be a prolongation of each annual Convex User Groups
  meetings, permitting not only to those (s)elected people having the chance
  to take part to these interesting reunions but also to more common users,
  students, researchers, etc... to share their experiences.
  In the era of communication, newsgroups are the easiest way to build 
  bridges across oceans and permitting of people with common interests
  to be part of an electronic community wherever they are located 
  in the world.


CONTENT

  Miscellaneaous
  - Convex FAQ
  - bi-monthly (?)  mailing list report 
  - vectorisation, parallelisation problems and challenges
  - Convex FTP servers
  - ECUC, WCUC (conferences) 
  - jobs available
  - other events that concern Convex systems and/or users


  Hardware
  - Convex processors (GaAs, ...)
  - PA/RISC in MPP
  - ASAP, MMU, bank conflicts
  - Convex backup peripherals
  - native/IEEE floating point 
  - interfacing 3rd party products to Convex system

  Software
  - Public domain software
  - Software releases discussion and announces
  - Languages (Fortran/C,...) & optimising compilers
  - Application compiler
  - Special libraries (scilib, nag, ...)
  - Applications
  - Convex AVS crosspostings
  - Software development

  System
  - Network integration
  - Unix compatibility
  - System tuning
  - File servers
  - Real-Time systems
  - Meta MPP
  - Benchmarking and performance measurement


  System administration
  - Backups strategies
  - Queue management and accounting
  - File systems (striping, mirroring,...)
  - Security
  - Perl on Convex 

  This newsgroup will be in conjunction with the existing mailing lists
  to allow users who do not receive News to submit and receive newsgroup
  traffic and take part in the discussions.

NAME
  comp.sys.convex seems to be the name fitting the most adequately the purpose.

NOT MODERATED
  Convex users, belong mostly to research, universities, government,... 
  The number of users being relatively restricted compared to some workstations
  newsgroup (if you don't know what I mean look at the size of comp.sys.sgi)
  and in order to have questions answered as fastest as possible,
  this newsgroup would not need to be moderated and indeed would
  most probably be self-moderated.

NEWSGROUP CREATION
  The discussion period will be from November 1st, 1992 to November 23st, 1992.
  Please post all discussion in news.group.
  If a consensus is reached by the end of the discussion period,
  a CFV (Call for Votes) will be posted at that time. The voting period
  will last for 21 days.

Thanks for your interest !