4Dgifts

[dave "who can do? ratmandu!" ratcliffe]

In article <8905131445.aa23484 at SMOKE.BRL.MIL>, BUG at campus.swarthmore.EDU writes:
> 
>   We have problems similar to Scott Dixons;  when we do a make in the iristools
> directory,  the routine cant find something in libgutil.a  (it is ranlib) and
> it halts.  Since these routines are free but unsupported, I guess we get what
> we pay for.
>         -Amy Bug,  Swarthmore College Physics Dept  (BUG at SWARTHMR)


"ranlib" is an out-of-date and archaic item that should have been cleaned up
by now but hasn't been yet.  however, it does work, as is explained in the
file ~4Dgifts/iristools/README.   in ~4Dgifts/bin there is a shell script 
called ranlib which was implemented for backwards-compatibility sake for the
2000/3000 machines.  to quote from ~4Dgifts/iristools/README:

    NOTEs:  YOUR UID MUST BE SET TO 4Dgifts (or guest depending on which 
            line comes first in /etc/passwd).  This is essential because 
            of the need for the shell to recognize that ~4Dgifts/bin is 
            in its path so it can find ~4Dgifts/bin/ranlib when it goes
            to make a symbol definition file in the archives being built 
            for the two libraries libimage.a and libgutil.a.  ~/bin/ranlib
            is a script to enable these libraries to be built on 2000/3000
            as well as 4D machines.  The idea here is that the iristools
            subtree was designed to able to be copied in its entirety from
            a 4D to a 2000/3000 machine, and be compiled/run on this 
            family of machine as well.
--
                                            daveus rattus   

                                   yer friendly neighborhood ratman

      Few concepts during this quarter-century have been as important, as
    controversial,  as misunderstood, and as misinterpreted as secrecy in
    government.  No idea during this period [1946-1971] has had a greater
    impact upon Americans and upon the American way of life  than that of 
    the containment of  Communism.   Both are inseparably intertwined and
    have  nutured  each  other  in a blind Pavlovian way.   Understanding 
    their relationship is a matter of fundamental importance.
			           -L. Fletcher Prouty, "The Secret Team"