Athena 8.0 Release (AC-08.0)

Overview

In August 1996, Information Systems will release the latest version of the Athena system (Release 8.0) on Sun and SGI workstations. These changes are effective as of the following dates:

• Sun release - August 6, 1996
• SGI release - August 13, 1996

(Note that Release 8.0 will not be ported to DECstations or RS6000s, as these platforms are being phased out.)

Summary of Changes

Among the most visible changes are the following:

• DECstations and RS6000s are being phased out; Suns and SGIs are being upgraded. As of Release 8.0, only Sun and SGI workstations will be fully supported in Athena clusters -- DECstations and RS6000s are being phased out. All DECstations and RS6000s will be removed from the clusters as soon as they can be replaced with new Suns or SGIs. Anyone dependent on the old platforms (e.g., courseware developers who built programs for DECstations or RS6000s) should be sure to take note of this change.

• The new default version of Emacs (19.30) is significantly different from previous versions. The Emacs text editing program is being upgraded (from version 18.59 on Suns, and version 19.28 on SGIs) to version 19.30. The move to version 19 represents the most significant change in the user interface to Emacs on Athena in years, and affects user customizations (e.g., in ~/.emacs files) as well as the look of Emacs on your screen. (Emacs 19.30 is now the version of Emacs you get by default when you type emacs at the athena% prompt; Emacs 18 is still available via the emacs18 command.)

• The Andrew/EZ software has been upgraded and moved to a locker, but users can still access it the same way. The Andrew software (including the EZ text processing program) has been upgraded and a variety of new features added. The software has also been reorganized: users can still access EZ directly from the release, as in earlier versions of Athena, but now, as with other third-party software packages on Athena, the software is actually maintained in a separate locker and includes unsupported as well as supported functions.

• MIME support is now available in electronic mail applications. MIME support has been built into the standard Athena email clients (xmh, inc, show, etc.), although the feature is turned off by default to minimize the impact on typical users.

• Other minor software changes were made, including changing the default C compiler on Suns to the vendor-supplied cc. The C compiler called by default with the cc command on Sun workstations is now the vendor-supplied Sun C compiler. Other miscellaneous user-visible changes include the removal of a number of backward-compatability links (to help forward the separation of Athena and vendor-supplied system software), and the removal of outdated programs and functionality.

• Some third-party software is being upgraded. New versions of some popular locker-delivered software (FrameMaker, SAS, Xess, etc.) include significant new features and enhancements.

How to Tell What Version of Athena You Are Running

If your workstation is running the Athena 8.0 Release, the text string "8.0" should appear within the output of the machtype -L command. For example:

  athena% machtype -L
  8.0F

(The letter following "8.0" may be different on your system; this simply indicates a minor update within the 8.0 Release. As long as it says "8.0", you are running the new release.)

Reporting Bugs

Please report any problems in the new release by using the sendbug command on Athena:

  athena% sendbug