Thus it was written in the epistle of F. Alfredo Rego,
>
> ...
> > P.S.  Alfredo, if you ever want to do an all-day seminar with no topic
> > whatsoever, let me know and I'll sign up for advance tickets :-).
>

<snip>

> Now, I might want to take a little bit of an exception with your comment of
> "no topic whatsoever" (even though I know you meant it in a kind way).
> Heaven forbid -- the bean counters and survey counters and evaluation
> counters might get a fit if they take you literally, because they love
> presentations that stick to a linearly predefined sequence of platitudes :-)

:-).  Please note that I'm offering to come if you do happen to have a
"topicless talk," not claiming you had one.  For those who might be confused on
the subject, the 7:30 meeting (which was well worth getting up for) had a lot
of material on the topic advertised and I said as much on my evaluation :-).
In particular:
  1) There can be performance value to repacking master datasets as well as
     details.  Those with Adager can accomplish this using the repack command.
  2) MPE/iX machines are not as tied to the blocksize as MPE/V machines, as
     they can read large chunks of "real estate" consisting of many blocks (and
     I got the impression from what was said that the chunks didn't necessarily
     have to include integer numbers of blocks--is that true?).   Still, good
     blocking factors, resulting in efficient use of disc space will increase
     performance, as they make the "chunk reading" more effective--reading more
     useful data at a time.
  3) *WARNING* This is worth noting, particularly by those who use integer keys
     or have large master datasets!
     In the first release of MDX (which is supposed to be out on PP5, I think),
     Image will now expect *MASTER* dataset sizes (when enabled for MDX) to be
     a multiple of the blocking factor and DBSCHEMA will silently round them
     up.  This means that the primary address calculation for integer keys and
     the hashing for non-integer keys will be affected and that the DBA will be
     unable to exactly specify what the dataset size will be.  Alfredo, could
     you say more on this subject, please?  Is there anything Adager can do to
     get around it, or do we need to just be aware and decide to use or not use
     MDX depending on how we would be affected?

And one point which was in one of the supporting tangents but which may not
itself have been exactly on topic ;-)

  4) Alfredo is home-schooling his kids and is teaching them about math using
     sliderules which they are constructing themselves.  YES!!!!  :-)

> Just for the record (and for the benefit of those people who put a great
> deal of importance on evaluation forms), let me stress that the topic of
> our little session yesterday morning was "The HP3000 and IMAGE are an
> unbeatable combination".

Is this where I don't mention that the title was "IMAGE/SQL Performance"? :-)
Or was that your suprise?  Speaking of which, I seem to have made it all the
way through the conference without identifying what that was--could you make
up for my blindness?

> My HP3000 campaign has just began.  I am glad Ted liked its first salvo!

Not just yours, either :-).  I went up and caught Harry Sterling after the
Management Roundtable.  He was dashing out to catch a plane but was gracious
enough to pause briefly while I 1) mentioned that the question about HP gaining
from Compaq's purchase of Digital was likely aimed at CSY wrt the 3000 picking
up ex-VMS folks (to which he agreed or at least nodded his head appropriately)
and 2) asked him if there were any plans to put HP3000 ads in Wall Street
Journal and Golf Digest and suchlike.  He said that there were plans :-).  I
had taken too much of his time already, so I didn't press further, but keep
your eyes open.  We'll see what happens.

Also, HP is definitely intending to make the ESC a useful thing.  Your voices
are being heard.  If you haven't checked it out already (I haven't, but will
as soon as I get a chance), take a look at the new Electronic Support Center.
I participated in a focus group on it, and if what they claim is out there is
actually out there, they've made great strides.  And they aren't done yet.  We
gave them some very specific answers regarding needs and the plans they already
are working on and the new ones we gave them are pretty exciting stuff.   Keep
an eye on the ESC over the next few months and see if it doesn't become a whole
lot more useful.  Also, we asked specifically, and the appropriate methods for
giving feedback are 1) Click the YES and NO responses when they show up at
various places in the site and 2) If you have specific questions or answers or
advice or whatever, call HPRC and let them know.

Ted
--
Ted Ashton ([log in to unmask]), Info Serv, Southern Adventist University
          ==========================================================
That sometimes clear ... and sometimes vague stuff ... which is ...
mathematics.
                        -- Lakatos, Imre