Recent News and Tips

"I have to hand it to you and Qedit for Windows. I tried taking a look at this 16MB trace file using WordPad but it was slow and jerky and just difficult to work with. Finally it hit me, duh, what about QWIN. QWIN worked perfectly! Very clean and very fast."

Barry Durand
Allegro Consultants

5/31/2002

Read this column in The Register about firms that are trying to build quiet PCs.

5/30/2002

eXegeSys will use Ordina Denkart's ViaNova 3000 software and services to transfer the HP e3000-based eXegetic eRP suite to a wide range of open system platforms.

5/30/2002

Pete Vickers is a consultant with both HP 3000 experience and Windows experience. His product GUI3000, not only integrates Qedit for Windows, but transforms your database by building SQL files to create the new database. All keys are retained, and Master/Detail relationships are replicated by using foreign keys and constraints. Third part indexing keys are catered for. The data is exported to sequential files, and a SQL file containing the load commands is created. This gives full flexibility for the user on loading up their new database.

5/27/2002

Our "Robelle Tech" column in the NewsWire magazine describes the syntax highlighting feature in Qedit for Windows.

5/23/2002

Here is an experienced Suprtool professional who lives on Texada Island, BC and provides IT services throughout the islands and the lower mainland of BC.

5/22/2002

The May Robelle Tech column in the 3000 NewsWire is about the technical challenges in porting the classic Qedit editor from the HP 3000 to the HP 9000, something that Robelle accomplished over 10 years ago.

5/21/2002

With people migrating MPE reports, this article from Robelle's HP Encyclopedia on lineprinter Carriage Control (single space, page eject, overprint, etc.) should be helpful.

5/17/2002

The latest "What's Up, Documentation?" newsletter from Robelle is now available for web browsing. Here is what you will find:

- Jeff Vance's New MPE Internals Papers
- 3000 NewsWire reports on transition survey results.
- Steve Hammond's excellent column on MPEX from Vesoft for the 3000 NewsWire.
- Information about Qedit for Windows new Syntax Coloring feature
- See our new web page that helps Plan your future for your HP 3000 with resources, links and ideas on dealing with EOL announcement.
- and more.

The latest issue is available at the link above. For back issues, visit www.robelle.com/library/newsletter/

5/16/2002

This is an article by Dave Thomas, "The Deplorable State of Class Libraries", in the inaugural issue of the new Journal of Object Technology. Dave Thomas (Bedarra Corporation, Carleton University and University of Queensland) is one of the directors of Robelle.

5/13/2002

Transoft has a package for transforming HP 3000 applications (and other platforms). According to their web site, AMISYS has selected them as a migration partner. Transoft is offering "webinars" on their 3000 migration options.

5/10/2002

The 3000 NewsWire explores this free utility from HP that aids system managers in determining and understanding what files exist on an HP 3000, as well as what the accounting structure is on a given system. The SIU scans all files, groups, directories and accounts, accumulating disk usage statistics, file code data and database information.

5/09/2002

This Atlanta firm with a long list of references has HP 3000 consultants who know both Qedit and Suprtool.

5/08/2002

Jonathan Backus reports from the recent HP conference:

We emphasized that OpenMPE is NOT "open source", but rather a "Closed Source, Open Community" and that OpenMPE is not in the business of trying to talk companies out of migrating. OpenMPE is in the business of giving the community the choices they desire.

5/07/2002

From The Register web site:

There's been a lot of talk in the tech press lately about whether CodeWeavers' Crossover Office for Linux will draw Windows users. The theory here is that a fair number of home users and a vast lot of businesses naturally despise Windows, but can't give it up because they adore MS Office. Home computer users may have learned it in school and be habituated to it, and they may take their work home now and then. If the uni or the office uses MSO, they'll obviously need it on their PCs.

For businesses, the savings from an open-source OS have got to be tantalizing; but the learning curve on a new office suite is also a productivity curve -- and that, obviously, costs money.

5/06/2002

Steve Hammonds writes this excellent column for the 3000 NewsWire:

So when I assumed responsibility for a system that did nightly processing and involved heavy updating of several databases, I had to figure out a way to avoid those pesky calls at hours that had single digits. This was in the Mesozoic Era when disc was still expensive, so we could not just set the capacities as high as we wanted and ignore it. We had to ‘manage’ it. I hate trying to remember to do something every day, so I needed to figure out something that would happen on its own and let me know if there’s a problem.

Enter MPEX and the DBSETFULLNESS file attribute.

5/06/2002

Papers from the April Solutions Symposium, in PDF format: UNIX vs MPE Administration, Super Suprtool Solutions, Patch Management, HP Eloquence, Ecometry Database Optimization and Performance Tuning, and many more.

5/03/2002

The 3000 NewsWire contains an interview with Richard Gambrell, Director, Computing Systems and Networks Univ. of Tennessee at Chattanooga about the university's HP 3000 transition. For example:

I see our migration path as a long thing, over five to 10 years. I’m enthusiastic about the improvements a rewrite can provide, although I’m apprehensive about the work. I’m not one to say let’s keep using the same stuff, because the same stuff is pretty aged. It’s been patched to death, and there’s design flaws. The good thing about the announcement is that it provides a lever I can use to solve that problem. Before, I couldn’t find the right lever to free up the resources. It wasn’t a big problem before, they were just little problems.

The best way I’ve thought about this is like turning the clock back. Linux is the opportunity we saw in 1975. And the equivalent of the cheap minicomputers we bought then from DEC and HP are the commodity servers today.

5/02/2002

We have created a new web page, Planning Your HP 3000 Future, for resources, links and ideas on dealing with the End-of-Life announcement of the 3000. We will continue to add information and web links to this page as we gather them.

5/01/2002

Interesting opinion piece about software defects: If Microsoft made cars instead of computer programs, product-liability suits might by now have driven it out of business.

5/01/2002

Archived News and Tips...

HP 3000 Book

Edited by Bob Green of Robelle, from articles written by Robelle, by The 3000 Newswire, and by other experts in the HP 3000 field.

This 300-page book contains the latest information on three important topics:
Homesteading
HP 3000 Tune Up
Migrating a 3000 application.