Finger V50_1_00 

VMS V5 required.

Major changes:

o none

Minor changes:

o NoOp'd the call to TT_UCB because I, and everyone I've asked, haven't
  figured out how to fix it. I, personally, don't mind it being broken.
  The only feature I miss is the originating DECnet node name for RT
  terminals. The Idle time code, in this day of Virtual terminals, requires 
  a re-write of the Finger Common Block for which I haven't the time.
o The sections dealing with mail.mai and vmsmail.dat have been re-written
  to conform to their new formats.
o The Magic Lat and Queue Name Macros have been replaced with Fortran code
  that uses documented interfaces to the terminal ucb and jbcsysque.dat.
  (PSI terminal recognition is a side benefit of this.)
o A VMS v5-compatible load average driver has been included and the necessary
  modifications to Finger have been made to facilitate it.
o New TCP code has been included, but not tested by me. Others say it works
  fine.
o An example of using REGISTER in a multi-node environment is included.


Parting comments:

My (as Jamie Hanrahan would say) 'copious free time' is quickly dwindling to
just a few hours a week. Hence, V50.1.0 hasn't been rigorously tested. It
works for me.

Furthermore, as the self-appointed maintainer of Finger, I resign. If someone
would like to pick up the ball and run with it, please do. I must say,
though, that Finger has reached a point were it might be better to start over.
Virtual terminals have caused much of Finger's original functionality to go
away. Finger was designed and implemented using 'real old' versions of VMS and
Fortran and could stand an overhaul just for efficiency sake. And finally with
VMS v5 serious consideration should be given to writing a cluster connection
using an SMISERVER SYSAP instead of beating DECnet into the ground. Many thanks
to Richard Garland for giving us Finger.

Ciao.

Rand P. Hall                         rand@merrimack.edu (csnet)
Director, Academic Computing         508.683.7111
Merrimack College
315 Turnpike Rd.                     "There is elegance in simplicity."
North Andover, Mass. 01845                      - Kimball S. Maddocks