*BSD News Article 87660


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From: peter@va.pubnix.com
Date: 26 Jan 1997 07:52:50 -0500
Organization: Pubnix Access Systems (Virginia)
Message-ID: <comp-bsd-gnusenet27-596532$597@pub03.va.pubnix.com>
Followup-To: poster
Subject: Fees Reduced and Tutorial Descriptions for Free Software Conference
                 in San Francisco, Feb 20-21, 1997
Distribution: world
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        Thanks to recent negotiations with the SF Hilton the
        rates for the Second Conference will be *identical*
        to those of last year.  Moreover, the new room rates
        at the Hilton are only $150/night, single or double!
        Register now to ensure accommodations.


        This announcement also now includes both full tutorial
        descriptions and a full conference schedule with all
        the talks and events.


        Please repost this wherever you think is appropriate!
        And/or suggest additional mailing lists and newsgroups to:
        gnu@prep.ai.mit.edu


========================================================
2nd Annual Conference on Freely Redistributable Software
========================================================

 San Francisco, CA, USA   *   February 19-21, 1997
 Sponsored by Cygnus Solutions and the Free Software Foundation


Join us in San Francisco on February 20-21, for the second conference that
uniquely brings together implementors, publishers, support organizations, and
users of freely redistributable software.

Vernor Vinge, the noted SF (Science Fiction) author and futurist, will give a
keynote speech at the conference Reception on Thursday.

On Friday, a panel of experts will discuss the Commercial Aspects of Free
Software.

--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--
~ We have renegotiated with the hotel, and have been able to substantially
lower the registration fee and hotel room rates for this conference. ~
--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--


Table of Contents
-----------------

        * Tutorials Descriptions
        * Conference Schedule
            + Thursday, February 20
                > Tutorials
                > Presentations
                > Reception
                > BoFs
            + Friday, February 21
                > Tutorials
                > Presentations
                > Special Panel on the Commercial Aspects of Free Software
        * Contact Information
        * Hotel Information
        * Registration Form and Information
        * Cancellations


----------------------
Tutorials Descriptions
----------------------

Tutorials will be held from 8:30am to noon on both Thursday and Friday;
tutorial students will receive a free lunch on each day (12-1:30pm).

The Thursday tutorials are
        Programming in Awk (Arnold Robbins)
        Using Guile (Jim Blandy)
        Programming Java (Jeffrey Hsu)
        Introduction to Linux (Phil Hughes)

The Friday tutorials are
        Advanced Editing with Emacs (Richard Stallman)
        qmail (Russell Nelson)
        Software Testing with DejaGNU (Rob Savoye)
        Distribution Channels: Ways to Enter the Commercial Market
                                                         (Don Rosenberg)

---------------------
Tutorial Descriptions
---------------------


Thursday, February 20
---------------------


Programming in Awk, Arnold Robbins
----------------------------------

This tutorial will begin with a brief review of the awk language. Participants
should already be familiar with programming, regular expressions and Unix
basics, such as pipes and I/O redirection. It will cover a history of awk
language development (V7 awk, New awk, POSIX awk); discuss freely available
awk implementations; and move on to extensions in GNU awk and some of the
other implementations, not in POSIX standard awk. There will be copious code
examples.

Arnold Robbins is a professional programmer and technical author. he is the
maintainer of GNU awk, and the author of the book "Effective AWK Programming,"
which comes with gawk, or can be bought separately.


Using Guile, Jim Blandy
-----------------------

Guile is an interpreter for a clean, simple programming language, packaged as
a library to be linked with applications to make them extensible. Guile
provides a neutral base to which the application can add its own data types,
primitive operations, and control structures. Guile supports multiple
scripting languages by compiling them to Scheme, its native language.

Jim Blandy has been fascinated by Scheme and Lisp implementation techniques
since 1986, and currently maintains Guile for the Free Software Foundation. He
also works on Teak, a graphical filesystem browser which uses Guile. He would
like to see Guile out-Perl Perl.


Programming Java, Jeffrey Hsu
-----------------------------

This Java programming tutorial will cover the Java language features, basic
applet programming, and, time permitting, some of the many Java APIs. It is
intended for programmers with some familiarity of object-oriented concepts.
Demos and code of working applets will be shown.

The part on the core language will include details on the Java class system,
syntactic constructs, the Java interface language feature, packages, and the
threads facilities. The applet portion will be much more introductory and will
focus on basic rendering and GUI object creation.

Jeffrey Hsu is the Internet Consulting Engineer at Cygnus. He is currently
working on a compiler for Java bytecodes and Java source to native machine
language.


Introduction to Linux, Phil Hughes
----------------------------------

A look under the hood: what makes up a Linux system, what you need, how to
install it, and what to do when something goes wrong.

Phil Hughes is the publisher of Linux Journal, the monthly magazine of the
Linux community.



Friday, 21 February
-------------------


Advanced Editing With Emacs, Richard M. Stallman
------------------------------------------------

Emacs is both an editor and a programming environment. In this tutorial, the
creator of the most popular of all Unix editors will move beyond the
everyday. This tutorial will explain advanced Emacs facilities for editing
text and programs and manipulating files -- features including programming
language major modes, tags tables, enriched mode, and shell buffers -- all
without Emacs Lisp programming.

Richard M. Stallman is the President of the Free Software Foundation and the
creator of Emacs. He is also the principal author of Bison, GDB, and GCC.

qmail, Russell Nelson
---------------------

In this tutorial, we'll show you how to upgrade from sendmail to qmail. Email
is mission-critical these days, so we'll show you how to make the change
safely. And everyone is doing interesting things with email these days, so
we'll show you how to make set up an infobot; a fax gateway; mailing lists
(with list and bounce managers); and POP3 server.

Russell Nelson has a long and checkered history in the free software
movement. He's given away Freemacs, and the formerly-Clarkson, now Crynwr
Packet Driver Collection. The Packet Driver Collection is the only free
software ever to be a finalist in PC Magazine's Technical Excellence
awards. Russell has made a living out of free software for the last five
years.


Software Testing with DejaGNU, Rob Savoye
-----------------------------------------

DejaGNU is a framework for creating test suites for native or embedded
software applications. It includes a collection of useful procedures for
writing test suites, as well as a program to run the test cases. Test suites
are written in Tcl using the Expect extensions. This discussion covers how to
use DejaGNU, as well as testing methodologies, and how to setup a testing
infrastructure.

Rob Savoye is the author of DejaGNU, and a longtime telecommuter for Cygnus
from his house *way* up in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. He also spends
considerable time making the GNU tools work better for embedded systems, and
he is also the author of libgloss, a collection of BSPs for GCC. When not
hacking, he spends his time dealing with rural life at 8500ft, skiing,
climbing, and Rainbow Gatherings.


Distribution Channels: Ways to Enter the Commercial Market, Don Rosenberg
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

This tutorial will provide an overview of the dynamics of the commercial
software market, and describe how to use the various means of distribution,
from direct sales (mail, Web, etc.) through niche marketing and on to the big
distributors. It will supply a description of the commercial software market
for those considering entering it.

Don Rosenberg is the Principal of Stromian Technologies.


-------------------
Conference Schedule
-------------------

---------------------
Thursday, February 20
---------------------

8:00am-1:30pm Registration


Tutorials
---------
   Track:       TT1           TT2           TT3             TT4

 8:00-10:00am   Guile         gawk          Intro. to Java  Intro. to Linux
10:00-10:15am   Coffee Break  Coffee Break  Coffee Break    Coffee Break
10:15-12:00am   Guile         gawk          Intro. to Java  Intro. to Linux
12:00-1:30pm    Lunch         Lunch         Lunch           Lunch


Presentations
-------------

There will be multiple presentation (aka talks) tracks.


1:30-5:00pm

    Device Drivers (Nelson & Thorpe)    Distributed Applications (Maranda)
    Scheme to Java (Bothner)            Guile (Blandy)
    Bounded pointers (G. McGary)        Business Model (Kingdon)


Reception
---------

A reception will be occur at 6:30pm, and will feature a keynote speech by
noted SF (Science Fiction) author and futurist Vernor Vinge.


BoFs
----

8:30pm Birds of a Feather Sessions (BoFs)

If you wish to schedule a Birds of a Feather Sessions on any free software
topic, please contact registration before the Reception.


-------------------
Friday, February 21
-------------------

8:00am-1:30pm Registration

Tutorials
---------
   Track:       FT1           FT2             FT3             FT4

 8:00-10:00am   qmail         Distribution    Advanced Emacs  DejaGNU
                                    Channels
10:00-10:15am   Coffee Break  Coffee Break    Coffee Break    Coffee Break
10:15-12:00am   qmail         Distribution    Advanced Emacs  DejaGNU
                                    Channels
12:00-1:30pm    Lunch         Lunch           Lunch           Lunch


Presentations
-------------

There will be multiple presentation (aka talks) tracks. We have also invited a
panel of experts to discuss the Commercial Aspects of Free Software.


1:30-5:00pm

    NetSim++ (Maranda)              Free Software as a Business
    Threads for FreeBSD (Birrell)   Model for Privacy Distribution (J. Gilmore)
    FTP Search (Egge)               Panel: Commercial Aspects
    Id-Utils (McGary)                       of Free Software (R. Morin, chair)


Special Panel On The Commercial Aspects of Free Software
--------------------------------------------------------

This panel of experts will discuss the Commercial Aspects of Free Software.

    Bob Bruce           Walnut Creek CDROM (freeware publisher)
    L. Peter Deutsch    Aladdin (freeware author)
    David Fickes        ADVice (markets and publishes freeware)
    John Gilmore        Cygnus, EFF, SWAN, etc.
    Brett Halle         Apple Computer (MkLinux Project)
    Rich Morin          Prime Time Freeware (freeware publisher)
    Adam Richter        Yggdrasil (freeware publisher and support)
    Michael Tiemann     Cygnus (freeware publisher and support)
    Len Tower           Free Software Foundation (producer of freely
                                        redistributable GPLed software )

-------------------
Contact Information
-------------------

For more information, contact <conf97@gnu.ai.mit.edu>.

For less information, call +1.408.542.9644, FAX to +1.408.542.9699, or web to
http://www.gnu.ai.mit.edu/conferences/97san-fran/announcement.html.


-----------------
Hotel Information
-----------------

The conference will be held at the San Francisco Hilton and Towers Hotel in
downtown San Francisco.

Rooms are currently being held at special conference rates. All reservations
must be made directly with the hotel by calling +1-800-445-8667 or
+1-415-771-1400. To qualify for the conference rate, please identify yourself
as an FSC'97 attendee. If you need special facilities or services, please
notify the hotel at the time of reservation. A guarantee by check or credit
card is required for any arrival after 6pm. Cancellations on a guaranteed
reservation must occur more than 48 hours prior to specified arrival time to
ensure a refund.

The special room rates are:

        Single $150

        Double $150

Alternatively, you could sleep in the street for a $15 loitering fee.


--------------------------------------------
Conference Registration Information and Form
--------------------------------------------

Sadly, we're too lame to provide full electronic registration capabilities via
the web. So the following information is provided online to help you decide
what parts of the conference are of most interest to you. If you print this
part out, fill it out and send it to us (along with proper payment), you'll be
pre-registered! Either Fax this form to +1.408.542.9699, or return it to this
address:

    Cygnus Solutions
    FSC Registrations
    1325 Chesapeake Terrace
    Sunnyvale, CA  94089
    USA

    Voice:  +1.408.542.9644
    Fax:    +1.408.542.9699


Packages
--------

Full Conference           $495  (tutorials, lunches, presentations, reception)
Students (with studentid) $200
Reception & Keynote only  $100
Tutorials Only (with lunch)
   -- One morning         $175
   -- Two mornings        $295
Presentations Only        $300
Optional donation to FSF  $___

Total:                  ______


Name: -------------------------------------------------------


Title: ______________________________________________________


Company: ____________________________________________________


Street Address: _____________________________________________


City/State/Province: ________________________________________


Zip Code/Postal Code/Country: _______________________________


Telephone: __________________________________________________


Fax: ________________________________________________________


E-mail: _____________________________________________________


I wish to register for:
        (A Thursday Tutorial ____________________________ )

        (A Friday Tutorial ____________________________ )

        (Presentations on Thursday and Friday Afternoons)

If you registered for the tutorials, please select a lunch menu below:

Thursday    Chicken  Beef  Vegetarian  Turkey  Ham&Cheese

  Friday    Chicken  Beef  Vegetarian  Turkey  Ham&Cheese

This form must be postmarked by February 10, 1997 for pre-registration
pricing.


Payments
--------

Payments accepted in US Dollars only. Make all checks payable to the ``Free
Software Foundation''.


Enclosed: (Check) (Money Order) (Credit Card (MasterCard) (Visa))


Credit Card Number:


Expiration Date:


Signature:


-------------
Cancellations
-------------

No refunds will be made for registrations canceled after February 9,
1997. Substitutions may be made at any time before the first day of the
program.


--
-----------------------------------------------------------
Peter H. Salus  #3303  4 Longfellow Place  Boston, MA 02114
        peter@pedant.com         +1 617 723 3092
-----------------------------------------------------------