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**** The Hebrew University of Jerusalem ****
**** Computation Center ****
News Bulletin #26
30-March-1992
Today's topics:
- Mathematica software installed and available for various machines.
- MAIL files compression.
- BMAIL's VERIFY command.
- SAS naming restrictions.
o Mathematica: The Mathematica software (from Wolfram Research Inc.)
has been installed on HUJIVMS; packages for other systems can be
bought at the academic price via the Computation Center (see details
bellow).
<<"mathematica_root:[graphics]-----.m"
Mathematica is a symbolic mathematics processor which includes a
general interactive graphical facility. Here we'll describe only a
few things which are specific to the implementation of the VAX/VMS
version. On the VAX, in order to run it simply hit the MATHEMATICA
command. The program will decide on which terminal you work
automatically. If you want to change the terminal type you have to
use one of the following commands:
<<Decwindows.M - for Xwindows display.
<<Tek.M - for Tektronix compatible terminals.
<<Terminal.M - for "dumb" terminal usage.
<<VT340.M - For VT-340 (and compatibles) graphics (Regis graphics).
When you save a file with the Display command the file is saved in a
pseudo-PostScript format. This format is useable only by
Mathematica's display programs that reads it and display it on a
terminal; the commands are:
VTPS filename - Displays the file on a VT340 terminal.
DECWPS filename - Display the file on an Xwindow display.
TTYPS filename - Display the file on a dumb terminal.
Note: these commands are used only when you saved your graphics in
a file and all you want is to display it on the screen without the
need to enter the Mathematica package.
Now, how do you print Mathematica's output on a printer? You have
first to convert the pseudo-PostScript file into a "real" PostScript
file. This is done with the PSFIX command, whose format is:
$ PSFIX/OUTPUT=postscript-file Mathematica's-output-file
There is only one set of Mathematica books available at the
Computation Center. It is available for reading at the Computation
Center only. If you want to look at it, please call Marian at
65-84937.
We'll soon have a short guide about Mathematica and a short course.
If you don't know what Mathematica is and how to use it, please hold
your breath a little...
o MAIL file compression - If you use VMS/MAIL comprehensively you will
find that your MAIL.MAI file keeps growing. The way to reduce its
size (and get better response from MAIL) is to compress it once in a
while. This is done with the command COMPRESS inside MAIL. It will
create a smaller MAIL.MAI file, while keeping the old one in
MAIL.OLD. If the compression went correctly (no error messages) you
can delete MAIL.OLD file.
o BMAIL's VERIFY command - In some odd circumstances BMAIL can drop a
message from its directory listing. The message exists but it does
not appear in the directory listing inside BMAIL thus you can't see
it. In order to overcome it please issue the command VERIFY (inside
BMAIL) once in a while. Such lost messages will be entered into
NEWMAIL folder.
o SAS naming restrictions: If you are using SAS then this message is
important for you. When you call SAS procedure, SAS doesn't load
immediately the procedure from its internal storage. It first
prepends the string SAS to the procedure name and looks for this
executable file in your current directory. If it finds it, it will
try to use it instead of the original SAS procedure. For example,
if you call the procedure GPLOT and there is a file named
SASGPLOT.EXE in your working directory SAS won't use its own GPLOT
but will try to execute your program instead... Thus, beware when
naming a file whose name start with SAS.
__Yehavi:
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