SUMMARY: map to the stars (software naming convention)

From: Ray Stell <stellr_at_smyrna.cc.vt.edu>
Date: Tue, 24 Oct 1995 12:22:42 -0400 (EDT)

Original question:
==================
Is there a map that links the lmf subset names and the setld
product names? I gave an example of four names given
for one of the products:

  Subset name (from the setld -i): AFAADVANCED320
 Product Name (from lmf list full: ADVFS-UTILITIES
                              UPI: 0EGAA
                        Directory: afs320


Answer:
=======
No.


Details:
========
alan_at_nabeth.cxo.dec.com (Alan Rollow
------------------------------------
  Once upon a time, there was a bureaucracy built around the nameing
  of things; subsets, licenses, products, etc. While their goal was
  to help maintain some consistency, as often as not, they simply
  prevented useful products from being released because the red tape
  they put was enough to scare small products off. It is hard to
  make a profit when the engineers spend more time dotting the i's
  of half a dozen product release check lists than writing code.
  
  As DEC lost money, parts of this bureaucracy had to be cut away.
  
  There's still some of it left, but they don't try as hard to
  maintain the consistenty. They're still trying to hard at
  product prevention :-)
  
  And their the consisency of naming is complicated by a number
  of things.
  
  1. Setld. The naming convention of setld is simple:
  
          {Product-code}{subset-name}{version}
  
      The product code is limited to three letters. There used to
      to be an convention around using the last to indicate architecture
      when VAX and MIPS releases of ULTRIX products were released, but
      this has been ignored on most Alpha products.
  
      The subset can be whatever the engineers want it to be. There
      are some conventions; DOC, MAN, BASE.
  
      And finally three characters for the versions; major, minor
      and revision.
  
          300 = V3.0
          250 = V2.5
  
      Unfortunately, some release engineerings can't keep up with their
      product managers and quirks happen:
  
          OSFBASE350 = OSF base system software V3.2C
  
  2. Somebody who doesn't know how to spell UNIX hands out PAK
      names. They have some internal standard to maintain and the
      best we can hope for is that spend a second or two listening
      to our suggestions.
  
  3. I think, yet a different group assigns the UPI and it has very
      strict standards to follow; xx-yyyzz-m*
  
          xx - selects license type; cluster, service, documentation,
                  traditional, etc.
          yyy - UPI
          zz - who knows.
          m* - Media type.
  
  If you can get a copy of our software price book, it will have pages
  that explain the 2-5-2 numbering and nearly all the magic decoder
  rings you'd need to make as much sense of it as can be made. That
  will give you a map between product name and UPI.
  
  I think there is a listing file on the CD that also maps product
  name, UPI and directory.
  
  Unfortunately, I don't know of anybody that adequately documents
  the PAK names that are needed and *I* have found it annoying.


(editor: yah, what he said!)


  I suppose everybody assumes that since a paper PAK comes with the
  product that it is obvious looking at the paper which is which.
  Unfortunately, I can get all the non-royalty bearing PAKs at
  once and have hard a time figureing which was which. You're
  better when you have the full PAK, but in the cases were it
  only has the LMF information on it; well that's why you're
  asking the question.


(editor: yup)

  
  My suggestion is to complain to each and every product group
  about the lack of documentation on the PAK name. Installation
  guides say you need the PAK, but they rarely say what the PAK
  product name is.


(editor: I wouldn't expect them to be able to unless they had
          the map 8^)
          

  Even if there were one central clearing house for these sorts
  of complaints I suspect they'd go back into the product prevention
  business rather than product quality business.
  
  

maillard_at_atyisa.enet.dec.com> Benoit Maillard - Digital France:
---------------------------------------------------------------
The hard part is LMF: The only place it is stored into CAN BE a string
into an executable or a library that is part of the kit. So you can try:

zcat < COMPRESSEDSUBSET | tar xvf - filesInUsrBin
then strings thos files to look for an UPPERCASE string.
This is not determinist. You have to do it by hand and then figure out
what looks cryptic enough to be the LMF Prodname string. :-(
===============================================================
Ray Stell stellr_at_vt.edu (540) 231-4109 KE4TJC 28^D
Received on Tue Oct 24 1995 - 18:04:04 NZDT

This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Wed Nov 08 2023 - 11:53:46 NZDT