January Release Update


The December, 1984, issue of the Athena @i(Newsletter) contained
a large article describing some changes that we will make to the
Athena system, cluster-by-cluster, during the period from January 2
to January 10.  This article updates the information in that
@i(Newsletter) and recaps its major points.  For more information,
see the December issue of the Project Athena @i(Newsletter).
(Old issue of the Athena @i(Newsletter) are usually available
in the clusters, or online in the directory @i(/usr/doc/newsletter).)


Emacs on VT125, Pro350, and VT240 Graphics Terminals

Emacs will behave slightly differently on all Athena VT125,
Pro350, and VT240 graphics terminals.  Over half of Athena's
terminals fall into this category, so most users will see
this change.

First, when you start Emacs up, it will print the following warning:
@example[
You cannot type CTRL-S on this terminal while in Emacs.
If you do, your terminal will seem to freeze.  Type
CTRL-Q to unfreeze it.

For the Emacs commands that have CTRL-S and CTRL-Q in them,
use the substitutes posted on the terminal.  For example,
to search, use CTRL-T instead of CTRL-S.

To see a list of these differences online, type:  CTRL-? K

Press the SPACEBAR to continue.
----------------------------
]

The Emacs commands that contain CTRL-S and CTRL-Q characters
in their names have been changed on VT125, Pro350, and VT240
terminals to these equivalences:
@example[
        Old                      New

  CTRL-S                     CTRL-T or CTRL-C S
   (Incremental Search)

  CTRL-Q                     CTRL-C Q
   (Quoted Insert)

  CTRL-T                     ESC-O J (slightly different)
   (Transpose Characters)

  CTRL-X CTRL-S              CTRL-C CTRL-I
   (Save File)

  CTRL-X CTRL-Q              CTRL-C CTRL-P
   (Set File Read Only)

  CTRL-^ Q                   ESC-XQ Register to Point
   (Q-Register to Point)

  CTRL-C CTRL-Q              ESC-XQuoted Meta Insert
   (Quoted Meta Insert)

  CTRL-C S                   CTRL-C CTRL-B    ("bumped")
   (Emacs Statistics)

  ???                        CTRL-C CTRL-E
   (Regular Expression Search)

  ???                        CTRL-C CTRL-H
   (Indent Sexp)
  
]

This change in Emacs behavior is due to three things:
@itemize{
Graphics terminals interpret CTRL-S and CTRL-Q as flow control
characters instead of passing them through to Emacs.

Athena is turning CTRL-S CTRL-Q flow control on all over
its network.  (The December @i(Newsletter) explains this
in greater detail.)

Athena is reconverting most of its VT100 terminals back into
VT125 graphics terminals in response to the requests for
more graphics terminals from most courses using Athena.
}

The IBM PC, VT220, and VS100 (VAXstation 100) terminals will not
be affected.  The factor that will actually trigger this response
in Emacs is a TERM environment variable set to VT125.  All
hardwired reconverted VT125's, Pro350, and VT240 terminals will
be redefined in the @i(/etc/ttys) filie as VT125.


Old Scribe 3C

Athena will make the new Scribe Version 4 the default version
invoked by the @i(scribe) command.  The old Version 3C
Scribe will still be available if you need it.  However, it
will not be invoked by typing @i(/usr/athena/old/scribe/scribe)
as announced in the December @i(Newsletter).  Instead, you
should access the old version of Scribe by saying:
@example{
/usr/old/scribe/scribe
}
We decided there was no good reason to subclassify outdated software.


Recap of Major Changes
@begin(itemize)
If you hang up the phone while dialed-in to an Athena machine,
you will automatically be logged out.

We installed RS/1, the electronic laboratory notebook.

There is a new version of the Emacs text editor with
minor improvements.  People with @i(.emacs_keys) and
@i(.emacs_vars) files must remove all ^R's from their
command definitions.

There is a new default Scribe, Version 4.  This Scribe
demands that your input files have a dot in their filename.
You should rename all your Scribe input files to have a
@i(.mss) suffix, e.g., @i(myfile.mss).  There is a 
new default output device, ln01, replacing the current lpt,
with slightly different page dimensions, including a few blank lines
before the page number.  Old page dimensions can be retained
by including an @device(lpt) command in your input file.

There is a new version of the Franz Lisp interpreter with
functions @i(emacs) and @i(emacsl) making it easy to go
between the interpreter and the editor.

A new version of Penplot with QPICTR is available.

Mh mail will not automatically copy everyone on the Cc:
list when you reply to a message unless you say @i(-ccall).

The @i(clear) command will selectively clear just text or
graphics or both (default).

There is a new interactive spelling checker program, @i(ispell).

The SPMS (Software Project Management System) has been removed.
@end(itemize)