DNA

["Eric S. Crawley" <Crawley@alderaan.scrc.symbolics.com>]

    Date: Mon, 28 Nov 88 21:07 PST
    From: York@Chuck-Jones.ILA-West.Dialnet.Symbolics.COM (William M. York)

	Date: Mon, 28 Nov  14:45:07 1988
	From: whuts!milich@att.att.com

	Does anyone know of an alternative to DNA between Symbolics Genera 7.2
	and VAX VMS 4.4? We would like to use the VAX as a file server that is
	capable of handling the Load/Compile system feature of Symbolics.
	In addition we would like to store documentation files on the VAX
	and use the Symbolics document examiner. In other words we want to do
	more than just file transfers - we would like the VAX to do what a 
	Symbolics "file server" would do. Any suggestions or leads are greatly
	appreciated. Thank you in advance.

    Symbolics now has an NFS network protocol implementation on their price
    list.  You might be able to use it in conjunction with a VMS NFS server
    to get the results you want.  I have included Richard Lamson in the
    distribution of this message 'cause I think that he has recent
    experience with some NFS package for VMS.

Another alternative, if you can only buy software for your VAX, is a
package for VMS VAXen called MultiNet that allows a VAX to talk IP/TCP
and Chaos.  The chaos QFILE protocol is supported in MultiNet so the
Symbolics machines can use the VAX as a real file server without any
additional software on the Symbolics machines.  MultiNet was developed
at SRI but, last I heard, the developers had left to form their own
company to support MultiNet.  The catch is that it is rather expensive
(on the order of $10k per VAX CPU).  The pricing may have changed
recently.

[I don't mean to detract from the alternative presented by Mr. York,
especially since it means $$ for both ILA and Symbolics.  I'm just
letting you know about other alternatives available in the marketplace
so you can make a more informed decision.]