From: sandmann AT clio DOT rice DOT edu (Charles Sandmann) Subject: CFV: comp.os.msdos.djgpp To: djgpp-announce AT sun DOT soe DOT clarkson DOT edu (DJGPP announcements) Date: Mon, 1 May 1995 20:27:22 -0600 (CST) Reply-To: voting AT syra DOT net FIRST CALL FOR VOTES (of 2) unmoderated group comp.os.msdos.djgpp Newsgroups line: comp.os.msdos.djgpp DOS GNU C/C++ applications and programming environment. Votes must be received by 23:59:59 UTC, 22 May 1995. This vote is being conducted by a neutral third party. For voting questions only contact Warren Lavallee . For questions about the proposed group contact Charles Sandmann . DISTRIBUTION This CFV has been cross-posted to: comp.os.msdos.misc comp.os.msdos.programmer comp.lang.c comp.binaries.ibm.pc.d comp.compilers gnu.misc.discuss And EMailed to: djgpp-announce AT sun DOT soe DOT clarkson DOT edu CHARTER comp.os.msdos.djgpp will be a newsgroup dedicated to all aspects of DJGPP, which is a port of several GNU utilities and development tools to DOS. Areas which would be welcome for discussion: 1. Support for applications compiled with this package 2. Installation and configuration advice 3. Help with environment specific features, such as hardware interrupts 4. Advice on porting code to this environment and status of ports 5. Discussions on adding features and new releases 6. Brief (20 lines or less) announcements of new or major release DJGPP related commercial/shareware/freeware products, with a pointer to web/ftp/email for more information. Products may be briefly mentioned in replies to specific problems. Areas which would be inappropriate: 1. Material which is covered in the FAQ (available from oak.oakland.edu: /pub/msdos/djgpp/faq100.zip and other simtel mirrors). A mini-FAQ with a pointer to the full FAQ will be posted weekly. 2. Questions or bug reports on GNU code not specific to DJGPP. If the user cannot determine if a bug is DJGPP specific, an brief initial posting would be acceptable. 3. General programming questions. The proposed newsgroup will be linked to the djgpp AT sun DOT soe DOT clarkson DOT edu mailing list through a bi-directional gateway to provide for users without news access. The gateway software (and node) have already been tested. RATIONALE There are hundreds of useful utilities (and thousands of programmers) which use DJGPP to avoid the 640K memory barrier under DOS. Users often require additional help getting this environment to work under the various combinations of memory managers and DOS emulation environments (such as OS/2, Windows, Windows NT). This subject is currently supported by a mailing list, which has over 500 subscribers (some of which are local mail exploders and mail-to-local-news gateways) and currently averages 26 messages per day (which has doubled each year since 1992). There are an additional 500 subscribers to djgpp-announce, which announces new ports and availability of new releases of the software. The heavy traffic has caused a loss of readership, and a newsgroup would enhance the ability to cross reference related information in other related groups. A group in the comp.os.msdos hierarchy would enhance the awareness of DOS users to the available applications and tools. HOW TO VOTE Send MAIL to: voting AT Syra DOT NET Just Replying should work if you are not reading this on a mailing list. Your mail message should contain *one* and only one of the following statements. DO NOT QUOTE THIS CFV IN YOUR VOTE. I vote YES on comp.os.msdos.djgpp I vote NO on comp.os.msdos.djgpp I vote ABSTAIN on comp.os.msdos.djgpp I CANCEL my vote on comp.os.msdos.djgpp Neither ABSTAIN nor CANCEL messages are counted as votes; they serve only to cancel any previous vote. Abstentions are noted in the final vote list, whereas CANCEL removes your vote from that list entirely. (This is the only difference between the two.) Anything else may be rejected by the automatic vote counting program. The votetaker will respond to your received ballots with a personal acknowledge- ment by mail - if you do not receive one within several days, try again. It's your responsibility to make sure your vote is registered correctly. If you later change your mind you may vote again; only your last valid vote will count. Standard Guidelines for voting apply: no more than one vote per person, no more than one vote per account. If you attempt multiple votes or other vote fraud, all your votes may be canceled and your name published. The complete vote list will be posted with the vote result, including how each person voted. Note that Usenet votes are not done by secret ballot. There will then be a five-day period during which the published vote list may be corrected and any irregularities addressed. The requirements for group creation are 100 more YES votes than NO votes, and 2/3 of all counted votes being YES.