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Status: National Symbolics LISP Users' Group
1 National Symbolics LISP Users' Group
Report of the President
0 February 1989
Greetings. I wish to report on the status of the National Users' Group
and our progress of the last six months.
As you may know, our organization is a US corporation whose purpose is
to support users in the effective application of Symbolics and related
systems to their work. Now in its fifth year of activities, the Users'
Group is the focus for many channels of interaction among users. The
Group also serves the critical function of speaking the needs of users
to corporate Symbolics in a unified voice. We also take responsibility
for aiding International users in achieving the same benefits as our US
members.
The last year has seen an ever-increasing cooperation between the Users'
Group and Symbolics. Mr Jay Wurts, Chairman and CEO of Symbolics,
strongly supports us. Under his leadership, the company has already
fulfilled most of our requests and I believe is working to achieve all
of them. The regional managers have taken a renewed interest in the
activities of local groups and are providing resources to aid in their
revitalization. Mr Reza Seddigh of Symbolics, Chatsworth, has been
appointed official liaison to the Users' Group and has worked tirelessly
on many, disparate issues and with great success.
We encourage all users, whether as individuals or part of a site, to
become active members of the National Users' Group. The means of
enjoying the benefits of the group (and for contributing your own
expertise) are many:
I. E-MAIL. On Internet, the mailing list SLUG@ai.sri.com is actively
used for discussions of features/bugs, news, help in finding solutions,
experiences with the environment, etc. (Send mail to
slug-request@ai.sri.com to join the list.) In addition there is now
DIALnet access via machines provided by Symbolics at their offices in
Chatsworth, California, and Burlington, Massachusetts. This means that
(a) users can easily communicate point-to-point with each other through
Symbolics, and (b) users with no other means can gain access to
Internet, including the major mailing list of slug@ai.sri.com. We are
currently preparing a start-up document to aid those not already
familiar with DIALnet and Mailer systems on the Symbolics, though this
information is also available in the Symbolics documentation. (Those
wishing copies of the users registry or sample configuration files
should contact me.)
II. Code Patches. A mechanism is now being finalized whereby users can
share their patches to Symbolics proprietary code without contradicting
software license agreements. SLUG will coordinate this activity among
its members, facilitating the exchange via e-mail and the Library, while
ensuring compliance with legal requirements. More will be announced
about this shortly. We continue to work with Symbolics on the creation
of a method for distributing patches and work-arounds from Symbolics
developers to members of the Users' Group on a timely basis.
III. Users' Group Library. Code and system contributions from users and
Symbolics are distributed via cart tape for a nominal fee to Members,
who must have a valid Program License Agreement with Symbolics to obtain
that code which incorporates Symbolics proprietary software. (See the
relevant areas of the membership application, and associated Library
Submission form. Questions can be directed to
slug-librarian@ai.sri.com.)
IV. Annual International Meeting. A forum for face-to-face exchange, the
annual meetings include sessions about current topics of note,
tutorials, presentations by Symbolics marketing and technical staff,
product demonstrations and entertainments. These all take place over a
five-day period around mid-year. The 1989 meeting is scheduled for the
the 12th through 16th of June (two days of tutorials by Symbolics
Education Services, followed by three days of conference) at MIT in
Cambridge, Massachusetts. The theme, now under refinement, will concern
the integration of software developed on high-end Symbolics development
hardware into other environments. We continue to seek ideas and
contributors for sessions and tutorials; please let me know of your
needs. (If you are not presently a member of the National Group and not
on Symbolics' mailing list, please forward your postal mail address to
me to insure you will receive further information about the conference.)
We have also endeavored to produce a periodic Newsletter by and about
the National Group but, aside from a premiere issue, we have been unable
to sustain the enormous editorial effort required to consistently
produce it. Past contributors are still enthusiastic, and there is still
great interest and utility in such a vehicle for exchange. Any
individual interested in working on further issues should contact me.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
We seek to involve all users in the activities of the Users' Group. In a
volunteer, non-profit organization we rely on the energy of individuals
to work at a management level at a variety of tasks. Coordinating
events, writing prose, contributing hacks and systems, managing the
activities of the Group, close interaction with Symbolics --- these
efforts make a useful, and in many instances, indispensable difference
in the effective use of Symbolics systems. In recognition of
contributions to the Group, each year by vote at the Annual Meeting we
elect our Directors, a title that is the highest (but not the only) form
of recognition for the special individuals who work on everyone's
behalf.
On behalf of the working Board of Directors, I hope you will join and
be active. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any
questions or comments.
Respectfully submitted,
Paul Pangaro, President, National Symbolics LISP Users' Group
c/o PANGARO Incorporated
800 3rd Street NE
Washington DC 20002
Voice: 202-547-7775 FAX: 202-547-6910
E-mail: slug-president@W<@>ai.sri.com and
pan%athena.pangaro.dialnet.symbolics.com@riverside.scrc.symbolics.com
or
slug-president@ai.sri.com