Alfredo wrote:
> Doug Werth  <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> >I can see several issues you will have to contend with on your project.
>
> I depend on my friends to bring these issues up.
>
[snip]
> >How do others set off bells and whistles? JobRescue is one obvious
solution.
> >It could scan for the message that Adager writes to the stdlist. Any
other
> >ideas?
>
> Doug has hit the jackpot.  To quote from what I wrote a couple of
> paragraphs above:
>
>         We might as well accept reality and, therefore, acknowledge the
fact
>         that people are neither "interested in" nor "good at" scanning a
>         bunch of boring messages (whether on the console or on $stdlist).
>         Computer programs are EXCELLENT for these kinds of tasks.
>
> So, I will be very thankful for any ideas along these lines.  I'll be
happy
> to program whatever is the most useful thing into Adager, but I need the
> collective help of HP3000-L to zero-in on such "most useful thing".
>
> I can broadcast "news" using any channel ($stdlist, console, files of any
> kind and flavor, and so on) but the fundamental question is, "will anyone
> listen and act appropriately as a result?"
>
>
> Thank you for your thoughts,
>
> Alfredo                            http://www.adager.com
>
Ideas:
You could do a TELL if the user had a session running in addition the
console message. (What, another program messing up my screen.:-))

I find e-mail very handy for notifications. This is one (*rare*) area I find
Unix friendly than MPE. Mainly because mail is built in and one can (more or
less) depend on a semi-standard way to send e-mail. Perhaps if there were a
standard way to use Posix mail from the CI and be notified that you have
messages - like Unix (HP, are you listening)?

Perhaps use a command option to trigger a command file to be run, with some
variables set that the command could pick up (like the name of the database
and dataset), with which the system manager can set up to do any kind of
notification, such as e-mail, ring a pager, or log to a file. Providing an
few example job streams would be handy for the part-time MPE administrator.

You could alter the system WELCOME message, but I've known that to be
ignored, too.:-)

We have a login script that runs from a system login UDC that looks to see
if a file called news.xu.sys exists. If is exists, then it prints on the
screen. From a session login, it pauses to wait for the <enter> (a.k.a.
<return>) key but from a job it just prints and goes on. It isn't
personalized, but it could be easily with HFS and a little code.

Richard Gambrell
Manager of Systems and Applications, Xavier Univ. of LA, New Orleans, LA
work e-mail: [log in to unmask]
home e-mail: [log in to unmask]
(over 10 years experience with MPE/iX and Unix systems and Powerhouse
programming with Image DBMS; resume available upon request)