[4] in mathematical software users group
Online versions of Technical Reports
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU)
Thu Mar 5 10:24:10 1992
To: msug@Athena.MIT.EDU
Cc: cfyi@Athena.MIT.EDU
Date: Thu, 05 Mar 92 10:22:38 EST
From: Reid M. Pinchback <reidmp@Athena.MIT.EDU>
For users of the MIT Athena computing environment, ACS has established
a "techreports" locker to contain online versions of technical reports from
other academic or research institutions. These reports will tend to be of
a mathematical or computational nature, and are intended to support the
activities and interests of the Mathematical Software Users' Group that
was recently instituted.
Periodic announcements will be made to the "msug" mailing list whenever
the contents of this locker are updated. The announcements will contain
a summary of the new reports available, and they will also contain information
on where the reports were came from so that non-Athena people can retrieve
those reports for themselves. Ideas for future additions to the locker are
welcomed; non-Athena people should email suggestions to the "msug" list;
Athena users can either email to that list or contact the Faculty Liaisons.
I've appended the top-level README file from the techreports locker to
the end of this email.
Reid M. Pinchback
Faculty Liaison
Academic Computing Services, MIT
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DOCUMENT Introduction to the "techreports" Locker
AUTHOR Reid M. Pinchback
Faculty Liaison, Academic Computing Services, MIT
LAST UPDATED 92/03/02 (RMP)
OVERVIEW
The techreports locker contains online versions of technical reports
from academic institutions around the world. Typically, these reports
are of a mathematical, computational, or engineering nature.
The format in which the reports are stored depends on the practice of the
site from where they originated, but typically they are in compressed
postscript. Such files will have ".ps.Z" at the end of the file name.
Except for such extensions, the name of the report file is usually based
on the report indexing scheme of its origin.
To use compressed postscript files, you need to uncompress them with
Unix commands like "uncompress" or "zcat". You can then view them
on-line with the Gnu "gs" (ghostscript) utility, or print them on
one of the Athena printers. For instance, to directly print the report
91-30.ps.Z, you would do the following:
athena% cd /mit/techreports/ftp.informatik.rwth-aachen.de
athena% zcat 91-30.ps.Z | lpr
If you wanted to first view the report on-line, you could do the following:
athena% cd /mit/techreports/ftp.informatik.rwth-aachen.de
athena% uncompress -c 91-30.ps.Z > /tmp/91-30.ps
athena% add gnu
athena% gs /tmp/91-30.ps
If you have not used ghostscript before, there is online documentation
in the gnu locker, in the directory /mit/gnu/doc/misc/gs. If you have
not used uncompress or zcat before, there are online man pages for those
utilities.
ORGANIZATION
There are a number of subdirectories in the techreports locker that
are named after various FTP sites. These subdirectories contain
technical reports retrieved from that site. Additionally, a number
of other informative files will exist in each subdirectory. These
files are:
README This contains status information about where
the reports are from and when the locker was
last updated with new material from that site.
Here is a typical README file:
Site name: Technical University of Aachen
Site city: Aachen
Site country: Germany
Site IP name: ftp.informatik.rwth-aachen.de
Site IP numbers: 134.130.52.1, 137.226.112.31
Report locations: pub/reports/
Last FTP update: 92/02/28
CONTENTS This is a brief listing of the reports. At this
time there is no standard format, the format varies
with how the FTP site records such information.
ABSTRACTS This is a more detailed description of the reports.
This file will only exist if the FTP site records such
information, and its format will vary accordingly.
The majority of reports in this locker are in English. Any reports that
are not in English will be placed in subdirectories named according to the
language of the report. For example, inside the directory for reports
from ftp.informatik.rwth-aachen.de, there is a subdirectory named "german"
which contains the report 90-14. If you find foreign-language reports to
be useful, you should inform the maintainers of the locker so that reports
in those languages can be retrieved in the future.
MAINTENANCE
At this time, the locker is maintained by the Faculty Liaisons. If you
have requests for other technical reports, you can contact us by email
at f_l@athena.mit.edu, or by telephone at x3-0115.
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