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This is the birthday issue for AGOCG! I have now been in post for a year and hope that you feel this initiative has been worthwhile. I have certainly had a busy year. A number of things are completed now and I would like to draw these to your attention:
Dr Les Zieleznik (Oxford Polytechnic) and Dr Yien Kwok (MCC) are continuing their evaluation of PC graphics software. To assist in this process, it is intended to hold a concentrated two day final evaluation of products that Les and Yien consider should be on the short-list. A number of people with some experience of PC graphics are invited to assist In the evaluation. Final details will be available shortly with the work being undertaken during September or October. Please e-mail me for further details if you are interested in participating.
Dr Steve Morgan from the University of Liverpool is being co-opted on to the IUSC and is taking over the chair of the IGWP from me during August. We wish him well.
The initial printing of the UNIRAS Version 6 manuals was completed in the spring and so any CHEST site with Version 6 which has not received the Manchester 'Library Set' (including the interactives) should make enquiries. Some implementers may not be aware that Manchester can supply extra copies of the Version 6 Installation Guides at £3 or £4 each (depending on thickness). The latest versions of the Installation Guides we currently (20 July 1990) hold are:
Information about the Manchester Document Reproduction Service is on section H2D6, NISS Bulletin Board.
Of all of CHEST's software deals, the arrangement for the supply of graphics software from UNIRAS Ltd has been the largest and most complex. The amount of software involved is considerable on a good number of computers with a wide range of peripherals that support graphics. The software has gone to all but two universities and to many PCFC funded establishments, as well as SERC, NERC, AFRC and the MRC. Although there have been and still are a number of problems, in general the deal has been considered to be very successful.
However, such a large and complex software package demands good support both from the software supplier and in computer centres. The IGWP and AGOCG have been conscious of this and a number of initiatives have been brought forward to improve matters for centre support staff. One is related to day to day technical software support. Last year Cranfield submitted a paper which met with the Computer Board's approval for UNIRAS personnel to be based part time at Cranfield using systems for which sponsorship would be requested that would be used by UNIRAS personnel to supplement their in-house systems, and in addition JANET could be used for such support. Sponsored hardware has been promised from Acorn, Hewlett Packard, Pericom Sun and Tektronix. Discussions are continuing with other hardware suppliers.
UNIRAS UK has been working with Cranfield to develop a better means to support the large range of machines and geographical distribution of CHEST sites. The aim of the technical staff is to provide a direct response to problems from individual sites by the best possible method available.
UNIRAS has endeavoured to provide full support from the UK office every working day and has developed a good procedure to deal with problems and queries from customers. This procedure involves all the technical staff and administrative resources available in the UK office. UNIRAS would like to continue with this proven method while improving the support using the extra facilities available at Cranfield which have been used since February this year and are still being developed.
Initially UNIRAS will use the facilities at Cranfield for the following activities:
A UNIRAS technical person would come to Cranfield at frequent enough intervals to fulfil the above tasks. Problems that cannot be completed at Slough will be forwarded to Copenhagen or may require further work via Cranfield.
Note that the hot line support from the Slough office will continue as at present.
Further details will be supplied at the User Group meeting at Oxford during the CHEST Open Forum on the morning of 12 September.
PC packages for plotting remain the simplest, and therefore the favourite, methods for many but for a growing number of users the limitations of these packages are serious. Requirements for 3-dimensional plots, contouring, handling very large numbers of data points and some kind of pre-plotting setup in order to generate dozens of similar plots are increasingly common. Few PC packages can cope.
Unigraph 2000 is able to display almost any data in almost any way the user desires but it is not a simple package to learn, especially for those with little computing experience. To help students to learn Unigraph, two video programmes are being made at Newcastle University: they will be ready for the start of next term, in October, and have been made in conjunction with the other UNIRAS training materials announced by Anne Mumford in the July Newsletter.
The purpose of the videos is not to teach everything about Unigraph but to teach the students to understand how Unigraph works so that they can go on to explore the other facilities for themselves. Each video is accompanied by tutorial notes so that the students can work for themselves through the material that has been presented on the video.
While making the videos, the needs of different groups of students were borne in mind. Students with varying computing experience have been considered as well as those who belong to a department with no Unigraph expertise and therefore no potential teachers. Possible methods of using the tapes are discussed in the teachers' notes that accompany the videos.
The exact cost of the video programmes has not yet been determined but, because the project was funded by a grant from the Computer Board, it will be possible to charge only copying and handling costs.
The first video will be shown at the September meeting of the UNIRAS UK User Group after which all queries and orders should be sent to me.
We need a rapid assessment of the likely take-up of the following deal. If there is sufficient interest then the prices in the letter below will apply - otherwise they will be in the order of 10% - 12% higher. Please would you, therefore, indicate if your institution is likely to purchase one of these before 1 April 1991. It would be helpful if you could also indicate the likely quantity, if more than one might be bought, by your institution and perhaps whether A4 or A3 (or a mixture) would be chosen.
Because of the influence that UNIRAS has had in promoting the use of graphics within the community, there is an increasing need for colour printers to produce hard copy output. This need is likely to be exacerbated by the recent CHEST deal for ARC/INFO. Accordingly, the AGOCG, in conjunction with CHEST, surveyed the colour printer market and a number of products were selected for more detailed evaluation. To be selected, the supplier had to be able to provide both A3 and A4 models and these had be able to use either CGM or PostScript. The products from five suppliers were in fact evaluated in detail and the evaluation report will be available to the community in the near future. As the result of this evaluation the QMS system, as distributed by Sintrom, was chosen as the best value for money in terms of performance support and cost.
As a result of this evaluation, the QMS models are recommended by AGOCG and CHEST to the community and an arrangement has been reached with the suppliers to provide these systems to the community at advantageous prices between now and 1st April 1991. This arrangement is available to any member of the CHEST community during this period.
The A4 package above, during the agreement period, will cost £7,048.50, plus VAT, the list price of this package would normally be £13,865.00, plus VAT.
The A3 package, as above, will cost £12,462.00, plus VAT, during the offer period. The normal list price for this package would be £23,499.00, plus VAT.
Some Computer Board Central funding towards the maintenance cost has been used to obtain these prices. This offer by Sintrom has the full support of QMS.
This is not a commitment to purchase, but a rapid and reasonably accurate response would enable us to confirm these prices in time for those sites that want to buy early. The offer is open to all institutions on the CHEST site list (ie Universities, Polytechnics, Colleges of Higher Education and Research Councils) and to their departments. Please reply to CHEST@Bath.
