Is this project under control, or just 'suck it and see' ?

Is this project under control, or just 'suck it and see' ?

[easlab]

> > Both users want to print to their 
> > printers, and the printers are defined thru .dosemurc files in their 
> > home directories. Once I run both users under the same login name, they 
> > both use the same .dosemurc settings file and thus BOTH PRINT ON THE 
> > SAME NETWORK PRINTER! Running one of DOSEMU session from other home 
> > directory dosen't help either, because DOSEMU takes .dosemurc strictly 
> > from user's home directory and this way the printing is directed to only 
> > one printer.
> 
Bartos-Elekes Zsolt wrote:-
> See the -f parameter for dosemu.bin to use a different .dosemurc, and start 
> each dosemu client with a different .dosemurc, which contains only a line like
> $_printer = "rlp_1"

But where/how do I "See the -f parameter for dosemu.bin" ?
Is there applicable documentation with the binary-only package ?

Someone wrote:-
> > you seem to have multiple versions of dosemu lying around.  Better
> > do some clean-up.

Yes I too have multiple installations/versions. 
Still trying to drive par-port hex378 with a DOS-application.
Is the method of 'cleaning up' sytematically documented anywhere ?

How old is this project ?
Isn't it time that someone explained to the 'contributors' that
in scientific english "everywhere" is critically different from
"anywhere" ?       
"... the dosemu binaries can reside everywhere in the system.
..you can call dosemu from everywhere."    !!

Does any[not every]body KNOW how to drive port  hex378 under 
pre- ver. 1.1.99.1, or do you all just 'suck it and see' eg. "this works 
for me" ?   

== Chris Glur.

Re: Is this project under control, or just 'suck it and see' ?

[Bart Oldeman]

On Thu, 22 Jan 2004 easlab@absamail.co.za wrote:

> How old is this project ?

11.5 years. DOSEMU 0.1 was released September 3, 1992.

> Isn't it time that someone explained to the 'contributors' that
> in scientific english "everywhere" is critically different from
> "anywhere" ?
> "... the dosemu binaries can reside everywhere in the system.
> ..you can call dosemu from everywhere."    !!

In this case (global.conf) "everywhere" was written by a non-native
speaker who didn't understand all the nuances between everywhere and anywhere.
Sheez! Be thankful that he at least wrote the documentation. He could just
sit on the bench and watch TV instead.

No native speaker so far has bothered to *thoroughly* check the
documentation for any errors of these sorts. This is a volunteer project,
and like in many other open source projects people will often just fix
what scratches their itch and can't be bothered to do anything else. We
don't have money to spend on an extensive specialist technical writer
department (note that technical documentation should ideally be written by
other people than the developers, but in open source projects this is
often not feasible).

> Does any[not every]body KNOW how to drive port  hex378 under
> pre- ver. 1.1.99.1, or do you all just 'suck it and see' eg. "this works
> for me" ?

The 1.0.2.1 update doesn't have the root restriction that 1.0.2 had, so it
should be able to access port 0x378 in the setup you wrote about yourself.

About README.bindist -- this file is included in the tarball as reference
but is also linked to from www.dosemu.org/stable (and was, for two years).
It's much easier to keep this file the same inside and outside the
tarball. Just like a car instruction manual contains some redundant
instructions about how to open the doors when it's already inside the car.

I'd love constructive contributions like patches and specific improvement
suggestions. But by the style you are using you're putting people off. If
only people like you would try to use DOSEMU then the fun would completely
disappear for me and i would just stop maintaining it. And then, indeed,
suck it completely!

Bart

Free Software: If you contribute nothing, expect nothing -- Uwe Bonnes

Re: Is this project under control, or just 'suck it and see' ?

[Bartos-Elekes Zsolt]

>>See the -f parameter for dosemu.bin
> But where/how do I "See the -f parameter for dosemu.bin" ?
> Is there applicable documentation with the binary-only package ?

Did you try 'man dosemu.bin'? ;-) I compiled 1.1.5 from source, but I suppose 
that the man pages are included in the binary packages too.

--
Zsolt