This area contains a compressing disk, plus the (read-only)
utilities to make it available on your systems. The disk contains
the DECUS catalog and SIG tape info in a "flat" easily available form,

The DECUS information is available in archives elsewhere in the
collection, but in less accessible forms; the compressing virtual
disk allows the material to be kept online using considerably
less space than would otherwise be needed.  The disk can be
accessed at essentially the same speed as normal ones.  The DECUS
information includes the full library catalog and a great deal of
other material describing what is available via the DECUS
library, so that you can use SEARCH or other tools to find
programs that might be of interest. Since the DECUS info disk
takes only about 10000 blocks, it is economical to keep it online
for reference. It contains material also covering the SIG tapes
for the VMS, L&T, RSX, and RT SIGs covering the period 1977-1994
and is offered in this form so that it can be most readily
accessed even when you have other CDs in your drives.

The virtual disk software to access the virtual disk is VMSINSTALlable
and will let you create a disk on VAX or AXP VMS (AXP VMS 1.5 or
before; the 6.1 version will be available shortly) which has
all the catalog material. Its access speed is comparable to normal
disk, and it can be used normally once started.  (Once a V6.1 AXP
version is available, it will be included also. The VAX version
should work on any recent VMS version.)

To start it, point a /system/exec logical KERSQUASH at this
directory and device and run the SQUASH_DECUSINFO.STARTUP
procedure from a fully privileged account to make the DECUS
information disk available.

You will shortly see device FRA0: on your system that will be
mounted and available and in which the DECUS information is
available in [decuslib...] and [94avmslt...], totally
decompressed.

To install readonly SQUASH, from a privileged account type
the command

$ @SYS$UPDATE:VMSINSTAL SQUASH010 disk:[vms94a.kermit_flat]

(where you replace "disk:" by the real disk name containing this
directory.)

An example, assuming you have the material on DKB200: (and after
using VMSINSTAL to install readonly Squash:

$ ASS/SYS/EXEC DKB200:[LT94A.INFO] KERSQUASH:
$ @KERSQUASH:SQUASH_KERMIT.STARTUP

Note this runs a detached process which handles the on the fly
decompression.

The VMSINSTAL command procedure here installs only a read-only
version of SQUASH. The full version can be ordered from Acorn Software
(508 266 9800, or sales@acornsw.com) and a 30-day demo is available
on Internet at dmc.com. The login screen there when you FTP to "anonymous"
will give the locations. The SQUASH distribution is available in normal
and ZIP-compressed format. Unzip can be found on these tapes or CD.