EUUG Conference Florence Italy Apr 21-24 (long)
R.P.A.Collinson
pc at ukc.ac.uk
Fri Feb 7 01:34:59 AEST 1986
European UNIX(Tm systems User Group
SPRING CONFERENCE AND EXHIBITION
Florence, Italy, April 21-24 1986
Pre-Conference Registration Information
``Firenze Incontra''
Centro Affari / Centro Congressi
Conference and Exhibition Centre
Florence, Italy
This news item refers to two forms which cannot be replicated easily
on the news. You should contact the EUUG office address below to
get copies of the forms - but time is short.......
IMPORTANT NOTICE: DUE TO A COMBINATION OF ITALIAN HOLIDAYS IT MAY BE
EXTREMELY DIFFICULT TO FIND HOTEL SPACE AFTER THE RESERVATION DEADLINE HAS
PASSED. THE HOTEL RESERVATION OFFICE IS UNDER STRONG PRESSURE TO CANCEL ALL
PRELIMINARY, NON CONFIRMED RESERVATIONS AT THE DEADLINE DATE.
DEADLINE DATE FOR HOTEL RESERVATIONS:
FEBRUARY 28, 1986
Please address any questions on this news item to the EUUG office.
Please do not send me any questions, it will cost you time. I will
simply forward them.
Programme Items
---------------
The EUUG spring conference and exhibition spans a total of four days from
April 21st to April 24th. This news item contains information regarding the
conference, exhibition, tutorials and accommodation facilities.
Plenary Session April 21 (Monday afternoon)
Technical Conference Programme April 22-24 (Tuesday-Thursday)
Industrial Conference Programme April 22-24 (Tuesday-Thursday)
Advanced Tutorials April 21 (Monday)
Introductory Tutorials April 22 (Tuesday)
Exhibition April 22-24 (Tuesday-Thursday)
Also, the IEEE working group P1003 will hold its meeting in conjunction with
the EUUG conference in Florence:
IEEE - P1003 meeting April 16-18 (Wednesday-Friday)
Due to the pressure on hotel accommodation in Florence at the time of the
conference, it is essential to act immediately if a booking is to be
secured. Use the Hotel Booking form which is appears later in this item.
Plenary Session
---------------
The Technical Conference Programme and the Industrial Conference Programme
will be preceded by a common Plenary Session, to be held on Monday April
21st (afternoon). During this plenary session, there will be a debate on:
Research and Technology Policy of Europe
For this session, officials from the European Economic Community and Italian
Government, along with other influential persons will be invited.
Technical Programme
-------------------
The technical programme will run for three days from April 22nd to April
24th. Topics to be addressed include:
uses of the UNIX system in the real world;
distributed filesystems: design and implementation;
management of a large software distribution;
database management systems;
ISO/OSI implementations for UNIX; and
process management under Berkeley 4.2.
Some of the most interesting papers in previous conferences have not been
related to the implementation details of UNIX, but of how the system is
really used, and for what purposes.
The implementation details of UNIX are relatively well understood now. The
only area where any real new development is taking place is that of
distributed filesystems. There are only really two serious contenders: RFS
available in V.3 from AT&T and NFS designed by Sun Microsystems. A number
of the papers will present the respective merits of each system. Only time
will tell which becomes more widespread.
The following selection of speakers have already been secured. The
technical programme will be finalised by the end of January. A full
programme will be made available to all delegates at the registration desk.
Previous experience has suggested that releasing the programme early is a
mistake in view of the considerable number of last-minute alterations that
inevitably occur. The information presented below should be used as an
indication of the topics and major interest areas for the conference.
Dave Presotto: The Eighth Edition IPC Mechanism
Real UNIX has often been described as ``the system currently running on
Dennis Ritchie's machine'': that is Edition VIII.
Dave and Dennis designed the IPC mechanism for this research version of the
system. In his talk, Dave will examine the IPC facilities offered with
particular reference to the implementation of network-wide service providers
and how these are named.
Peter Weinberger: The Eighth Edition Remote Filesystem
Peter is famous for at least two pieces of work. Firstly, he is the W in
AWK (Aho, Weinberger and Kernighan), that useful pattern matching and
scanning language the we all use daily. His second well known work is in
the area of distributed filesystems, in particular he was responsible for
the initial design and implementation of the Edition VIII remote filesystem.
In Florence, Peter will explain the motivation behind this work on the
remote filesystem and study the model of the world it assumes.
Andy Rifkin: RFS in System V.3
RFS is AT&T's answer to the ``I want my system to use those files over
there'' problem. RFS will be available with V.3 (beta releases for which
are still three months away). Andy is the person currently working on RFS
within AT&T. In this talk he will explain how it is implemented under
System V.3 and highlight its features and limitations.
Russel Sandberg: The Sun Network File System - NFS
In direct ``competition'' to RFS is the Sun Microsystems Network File System
- NFS. The design objectives of the two systems were different as will be
explained by Russel during this talk. Following an initial overview of NFS,
he will concentrate on a comparison of NFS and RFS. Some problems of
implementation will also be studied. Additional papers on NFS will explain
how a real implementation was performed by the introduction of vnodes into
the UNIX kernel as an alternative to the standard inode as the focus of all
filesystem activity.
Tom Killian: Computer Music Under Eighth Edition
Under the heading of applications to which the UNIX system has been put, Tom
will describe his work with the music system at the Labs. All the
implementation has been performed under Edition VIII, some of whose more
interesting features will be explained. A surprising number of standard
UNIX tools are utilised in the production of input for ``m'', a music
compiler. Examples of pieces written in ``m'', C and the Bourne Shell will
be shown and played.
Bill Joy: Workstations in the Future
At the EUUG conference in Paris 1982 Bill predicted the future of UNIX
workstations and the technology associated with them for the three years
which were to follow. That time has elapsed and therefore he has offered to
update that talk with further insights into the developments in the next few
years. The talk will not only cover UNIX workstations, but developments the
in technology applicable, regardless of operating system.
Lauren Weinstein: The Stargate Project
Stargate allows the transmission of netnews type information over cable
television and satellite systems. The techniques employed allow the
additional netnews information to be broadcast at the same time as existing
audio and visual signals without any adverse effects. Lauren will discuss
both the technical and organisational aspects of the project.
Mike Hawley: Developments at Lucasfilm
Mike will discuss UNIX and computers at Lucasfilm. The excitement comes from
combining information technology with the richest possible kinds of
communication media. Examples range from the high-end graphics and audio
work done there (with the PIXAR and ASP systems) to earthier projects
involving large databases of sound effects, books, poetry, etc; and of
course, music. Most of the work exemplifies Unix applications and systems
development with an artistic bent.
IEEE - P1003 Meeting
--------------------
The IEEE working group P1003 will hold its meeting at the end of the week
preceding the Florence conference: April 16th to April 18th. The IEEE-P1003
meeting will be a unique opportunity to get into contact with the official
UNIX standardisation efforts. During the meeting, there will be a ballot
for the Strawman standard and an attempt will be made to identify, and set
priorities for, issues required for a full-use standard. Among the topics
under consideration are:
locking
real-time systems
ioctl and termio
signals
networking
internationalisation
character sets
terminal control
timezones
IEEE are interested to learn of similar and related efforts in Europe and
obtain an update on the X/OPEN position.
Formal reports will be presented on: status of the above ballots;
co-operation with the ANSI C committee; and a report from the shell and
utilities working group. In addition, there will be a report from the
real-time sub-comittee and the SVID working group.
There are plans to setup further activities in the area of the network
news, on which European input is sought.
Air fares within Europe usually drop to half the price when you spend a
Saturday night at your destination. This might well compensate for
additional hotel expenses, plus it will give you a full weekend to visit the
unique city of Florence itself.
Further information can be obtained from:
Craig Lund / Jim Isaac
Charles Rivers Data Systems
983 Concorde Street
Framingham
Massachusetts 01701
Tel: +1 617 6261000
Industrial Programme
--------------------
The industrial Programme will run for three days from April 22nd to April
24th (in parallel with the Technical Programme).
Preliminary Outline
The industrial conference programme is oriented towards people interested in
understanding the trends of UNIX System V, and especially the application
areas where UNIX is used or is suitable to use. The main objective is not
the presentation of products by hardware manufacturers, independent software
vendors, value added resellers etc., but the discussion of real cases,
important projects, and problems involved in different situations and
environments.
On the first day of the industrial sessions (April 22), the presentations
will be in English, with simultaneous translation into Italian. The day's
programme is devoted to international themes.
The second day (April 23), talks will be in Italian, without translation;
only items of specific concern to the Italian market will be presented here.
The third day (April 24) will be a ``free session'', where people can
present their software products in a limited time frame, without any kind of
pre-screening; the choice of the language is up to the speaker but no
translation will be available.
The following topics have been planned for the first two days:
Tuesday April 22, morning:
UNIX Standards.
The UNIX standardisation activities will be presented, with specific
attention to the problem of ``real'' portability over different systems by
different manufacturers. This topic will be treated with the X/OPEN Group
and the IEEE-P1003 working group as the main protagonists.
Not only the operating system, but also development tools (languages, file
access methods, environment) are involved in the issue of portability. The
X/OPEN group will describe its activities and explain the main objectives
behind the ``Portability Guide''.
Tuesday April 22, afternoon:
UNIX in the European Institutions
Some interesting cases of using UNIX will be presented by representatives
from the EEC (European Economic Community) and its various research centres,
in order to give a review of the involvement of UNIX in the ``European''
world. This will be a good occasion to see different and particular
applications in a world well known for its skill in advanced technology, and
also to have a clearer view on the meaning of European efforts to have a
common strategy.
Wednesday April 23, morning:
UNIX in the University
In most countries, UNIX has the roots of its history in the Universities.
In Italy, the situation is quite different. With the exception of some
``pioneers'', UNIX only started to spread over the Italian Universities
during the last year. This session is an opportunity to examine the
situation: to analyse the perspectives of UNIX in the universities, to
examine the projects and the areas where UNIX is strongly involved, in order
to understand the role that the universities will play in the UNIX world.
Wednesday April 23, morning and afternoon:
UNIX in industrial and commercial applications
The diffusion of UNIX in the industrial and commercial world is now growing
very rapidly. The focus of the lectures will be on the problems involved in
using UNIX for commercial applications in different sectors of the market
(banks, manufacturing, business, graphics). More than a review of real or
possible applications, the emphasis will be on the choice of the correct
development tools, on the need to integrate existing environments (PC or
mainframe), and on different views on these problems.
Thursday April 24, morning and afternoon
Free presentations of software products running under UNIX.
Advanced Tutorials
------------------
After the success of the Copenhagen tutorials, the programme committee
decided to organise once again a day of ``advanced'' UNIX tutorials in
combination with this EUUG conference. There will be two parallel sessions
on Monday, April 21st.
Mike Tilson, of Human Computing Resources Inc. (Toronto, Canada) will
present a one-day tutorial on: Porting UNIX to New Machines.
The Instruction Set Ltd (London, UK) will present a series of six
short tutorials (one hour each) on topics at an advanced level:
System V Inter Process Communication
Make for the enthusiast
The Source Code Control System - SCCS
System V Documenters Workbench Software
(including Device Independent Troff)
AWK
Advanced features of the Bourne Shell.
A comprehensive set of course notes will be distributed with each tutorial.
Availability of the course notes can only be guaranteed for registration and
payment in advance.
Advanced Tutorials are an extra cost item, and must be specifically booked.
Check the booking forms which are enclosed in this Program Booklet.
Abstract of Mike Tilson' tutorial
Porting UNIX to New Machines'':
The UNIX system is highly portable, but it still will not run on a new
processor without significant effort. Because the use of UNIX is growing,
many people are involved in moving or ``porting'' UNIX to new machines.
These ``ports'' range in complexity from writing a few drivers to a full
re-targeting of UNIX to an entirely new architecture.
This tutorial is aimed at technical staff and technical managers who are
involved in adapting UNIX systems to new processors. The tutorial will
cover the full range of issues that must be considered in order to bring up
UNIX on a hardware configuration that has never before run it. The tutorial
will also be of interest to those responsible for adapting UNIX support
libraries and/or C compilers on new machines, and in general to everybody
with an interest in ``heavy duty'' program portability issues.
Mike Tilson has been involved in porting UNIX to the Computer Automation
4/95, the PERQ graphics workstation, the National 32000, the Motorola 68010,
Prime 50 Series, CDC Cyber 180, as well as several other proprietary systems.
Mike's lecture ``A tutorial on program portability'' at the EUUG conference
in Dublin was a success on its own, and one of the best lectures of the
entire conference. Mike Tilson is certainly among the worlds top experts in
the area of UNIX program portability.
Introductory Tutorials
----------------------
Introductory Tutorials will be presented on the second day of the
conference, April 22nd. The introductory tutorials are meant to serve a
local, Italian need, since in most European countries there are sufficient
ways of obtaining introductory information about the UNIX system. For this
reason, they will be presented in Italian, with no simultaneous translation.
The purpose of the tutorials is to give a general overview of UNIX; the
system-architecture, the development environment, and the market opportunity
offered by UNIX. The tutorials are aimed at an audience of technical or
managerial background, approaching UNIX to check the possibilities to adopt
it, or to understand the real opportunities that UNIX can provide to them.
Bookings for the introductory tutorials are not handled by the EUUG, but by
the local organisers only. If you plan to attend any introductory
tutorials, you should contact the Italian User Group I2U for registration
details.
Exhibition
----------
The exhibition opens on April 22nd and runs for three days. It will offer
attendees the opportunity to see the full range of hardware, software and
support services available for the UNIX system. More than 50 booths are
planned with a total amount of approximately 2500 sq. mtrs. Invitations to
participate have been sent out to all major suppliers of UNIX related
equipment or services. A number of important technical demonstrations are
planned for the Exhibition.
Useful addresses
----------------
Conference Venue:
Piazza Adua 1
50123 Firenze, Italia
(this is one block away from the Central Railway station)
Centro Affari
tel: +39 55 27731
tlx: 571265
European UNIX systems User Group:
Mrs Helen Gibbons
EUUG secretariat
Owles Hall
Buntingford
Herts SG9 9PL, England
tel: +44 763 73039
Local organisers, on behalf of the I2U
Italian UNIX systems User Group:
Mr. Giuseppe Molinari
I2U - Italian UNIX systems User Group
Secretarial Office
Piazza Solferino 7
10121 Torino, Italia
tel: +39 11 538608/548134
tlx: 224064
Mr. Fulvio Fagiani
Olivetti SA
Via Meravigli 12
20123 Milano, Italia
tel: +39 2 88362165
fax: +39 2 88362466
uucp: olhqma!olita2!itasupp
The local organisation includes the organisation of the plenary session, of
the exhibition, of the introductory tutorials, and of the industrial
conference programme.
Hotel bookings:
Centro Servizi di Segreteria
attn. EUUG
Via Andorra 4
tlx: 572534 corium i
50126 Firenze, Italia
tel: +39 55 6810592/3/4
tlx: 572534 corium i
Programme chair for the technical conference and for the advanced tutorials:
Mr. Nigel Martin
The Instruction Set Ltd.
152-156 Kentish Town Road
London NW1 9QB, England
tel: +44 1 4822525
uucp: inset!nigel
General Information
-------------------
Conference desk"
At: Firenze Incontra, Centro Affari
Opening hours: Sunday, April 20th, from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.
and during conference hours.
Final registration and final programme
Participants must register at the Registration desk upon their arrival in
Florence (see opening hours above). The registration desk will be open one
day in advance of the conference program. People arriving ten minutes
before the start of the first conference lecture cannot be guaranteed quick
service. A fully detailed conference program, plus other appropriate
documentation, will be handed to all delegates upon arrival.
Languages
English is the official language at the EUUG event. The technical conference
programme and the advanced tutorials will be entirely English spoken.
The industrial conference programme will be in English (with translation to
Italian) on April 22, and in Italian (with NO translation to English) on
April 23. On April 24 - the free session programme - the choice of language
is up to the individual speaker but there will be no translation facilities.
The introductory tutorials will be Italian spoken, with NO simultaneous
translation.
Luncheons
Luncheons are included in the fees for the conference programs but NOT for
the tutorials. In any case, there are ample restaurants in the immediate
neighbourhood of the conference venue.
Transport
Florence can be reached easily by train and by the Italian motorway system.
For air traffic, Florence is served by Pisa Airport which is about 80 Km
from Florence. There are direct train connections, approximately once an
hour, between the airport railway station and Florence's Central Railway
Station (``S.Maria Novella''). Since Pisa is not well serviced by
international airlines, and since the train connections are not very
frequent, the trip might be time consuming. It is recommended to plan your
return trip for the day after the conference, instead of the evening of the
last day.
Liability and Insurance
Neither EUUG, nor I2U will assume any responsibility for damage to property
or injury to persons during the entire event. Participants are recommended
to arrange for their own personal travel and health insurances.
Tape Service
The Spring conference will host a tape distribution service. The tape will
contain various public domain programs in source and/or binary form taken
from the net and also MH6, GNU Emacs (hopefully 17.36), the Langston games
(with all binaries), MMDF and hopefully other contributed software. People
wanting to contribute software should contack mcvax!frankk or
mcvax!diku!keld immediately.
The price will be 35 pounds per tape including the cost of the tape. Do NOT
bring a tape with you, as tape copying will not be done on site. You will
be required to fill out an agreement form with a special clause covering
MMDF usage.
If you would like to buy a tape in Florence, please add a line to your
registration form stating "conference tape required" and add 35 pounds to
the total amount due. Your tape can be collected on arrival.
Student Scholarships
There are a very limited number of student scholarships available to
students wishing to contribute to the conference programme. These are
jointly sponsored by EUUG and UNIX Europe Limited. Please apply to the
Program Chairman (Mr. N. Martin) for more details.
Buffet Reception
UEL have kindly agreed to sponsor a reception for all delegates to be held
early one evening. Details will appear in the final registration pack.
Booking Information
Hotel Reservation, for ALL delegates
IMPORTANT NOTICE: DUE TO A COMBINATION OF ITALIAN HOLIDAYS IT MAY BE
EXTREMELY DIFFICULT TO FIND HOTEL SPACE AFTER THE RESERVATION DEADLINE HAS
PASSED. THE HOTEL RESERVATION OFFICE IS UNDER STRONG PRESSURE TO CANCEL ALL
PRELIMINARY, NON CONFIRMED RESERVATIONS AT THE DEADLINE DATE.
DEADLINE DATE FOR HOTEL RESERVATIONS:
FEBRUARY 28, 1986
Hotel reservations are handled by:
Centro Servizi di Segreteria
attn: EUUG conf
Via Andorra 4
50126 Firenze, Italia
tel: +39 55 6810592/3/4
tlx: 572534 corium i
The enclosed Hotel Reservation Form must be completed, and returned to the
Centro Servizi di Segreteria, together with payment of the appropriate hotel
deposit.
Conference registration and hotel reservation are handled separately. Do
not interchange addresses or payments; submit every form to its own
appropriate destination, which is clearly indicated on all forms. Neither
the EUUG, nor the I2U will handle any hotel reservations themselves.
Advance Booking for the Conference
Bookings and registrations for which no advance payment has been received
cannot be guaranteed in any way. When payment has not been received in
time, you will be expected to pay (cash) at the registration desk. The rate
appropriate for on-site registration will be charged. If a duplicate payment
is received later, the cash payment will be reimbursed minus a small
handling fee. The moral: book early, please.
Cancellations
No refund of fees will be possible in case of cancellation. Cancellations
can only be accepted when communicated at least one month before the start
of the conference. In this case, the hotel will refund the deposit minus a
Lire 30.000 handling fee. After this date, no refunds will be given. All
cancellations must be in writing.
Procedure for Italian delegates
Italian Delegates should contact their local organiser for registration
details:
I2U Italian UNIX systems User Group
Piazza Solferino, 7
10121 Torino, Italia
In most cases, the brochure will be mailed to Italian delegates along with a
supplement for local registration, supplied by I2U. In addition, the Hotel
Booking Form should be completed and returned to the appropriate address
(see ``Hotel Reservation'').
Please note the fact that Hotel booking (and payment of the hotel deposit)
is handled separately from the conference registration. Do not interchange
the different addresses nor the different amounts to pay and/or different
addresses to remit the payment to.
Fees For Italian Delegates (For Advance Payment Only)
Members Non-members
Full conference programme, including 400.000 500.000
technical and industrial sessions, and
exhibition. Does not include tutorials.
Advanced tutorials (one full day) 250.000 350.000
Introductory tutorials (one full day) 100.000 150.000
One day attendance to industrial pro- 300.000 350.000
gramme; includes exhibition.
All prices in Italian Lire.
There is a special student rate for the conference programme; members:
50.000, non-members 80.000. There are no reduced rates for the other program
items. The student rate does not include a copy of the proceedings.
Students applying for the reduced rate, must submit evidence of their
student status together with their registration form. The EUUG/I2U
organisation decides whether any submitted evidence will be accepted.
Procedure for non-Italian delegates
The enclosed Registration Form for Non-Italian delegates must be completed
and returned to EUUG, Owles Hall, Buntingford, Herts. SG9 9PL, England,
together with payment of the appropriate registration fees.
Payment for non-Italian delegates' registration fees must be remitted by
banker's draft or cheque, made payable to EUUG. All payments must be made
in Pounds Sterling. Please refer to EUUG, and state your NAME on all
payments. From the European mainland, a banker's draft is probably the most
convenient way. Do not send checks if your government imposes restrictions
on international money transfers this way.
In addition the Hotel Booking Form should be completed and returned to the
appropriate address (see ``Hotel Reservation'').
Please note the fact that Hotel booking (and payment of the hotel deposit)
is handled separately from the conference registration. Do not interchange
the different addresses nor the different amounts to pay and/or different
addresses to remit the payment to.
Fees For Non-Italian Delegates (For Advance Payment Only)
Members Non-members
Full conference programme, including 160 200
technical and industrial sessions, and
exhibition. Does not include tutorials.
Advanced tutorials (one full day) 100 140
One day attendance to industrial pro- 120 140
gramme; includes exhibition.
All prices in Pounds Sterling.
There is a special student rate for the conference programme; members: 20,
non-members 32. There are no reduced rates for the other program items. The
student rate does not include a copy of the proceedings. Students applying
for the reduced rate, must submit evidence of their student status together
with their registration form. The EUUG/I2U organisation decides whether any
submitted evidence will be accepted.
On-site Registration Fees
Members Non-members
Full conference programme, including 550.000 650.000
technical and industrial sessions, and
exhibition. Does not include tutorials.
Advanced tutorials (one full day) 250.000 350.000
Introductory tutorials (one full day) 100.000 150.000
One day attendance to industrial pro- 300.000 350.000
gramme; includes exhibition.
All prices in Italian Lire.
More information about the Comp.org.usenix
mailing list