Welcome to Inferno
------------------
This release of Inferno is provided in BETA state for test
and evaluation only. It is not intended to represent the
finished operating environment. The demonstration
applications provided with the release were developed to
test the system and are provided "as-is" for tutorial
use.
This README file contains important, last minute information
about the Inferno operating system BETA.2 distribution.
Before you install Inferno, carefully read the installation
instructions in the Inferno documentation.
IMPORTANT: For license information on deploying Inferno and
Limbo applications, see the license agreement published on
the Lucent Inferno web site at:
http://www.lucent.com/inferno
TABLE OF CONTENTS
-----------------
1. Minimum system requirements
2. How to get help
3. Installation
4. Rebuilding demo applications
5. Supplemental Documentation
6. Release notes
7. What's next
1. MINIMUM SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
==============================
This release of Inferno runs under the following supported
operating systems:
OS Version
-- -------
Windows NT 3.5.1
Windows 95 4.00.95
This release of Inferno requires the following minimum
hardware configurations:
OS Disk Storage RAM
-- ------------ ---
Windows NT/95 30 MB 16 MB
2. HOW TO GET HELP
==================
If you have any problems with this product, please read this
file, the online documentation files and man pages first.
If you still have a question and need assistance, help is
available via email at the following address:
infernosupport@lucent.com
When requesting technical support via email, please provide
the following information:
o Computer name and model and the name and model of any
additional hardware (video adapters, modems, etc.).
o The specific steps necessary to reproduce the problem you
are experiencing.
o Operating system version number.
o A description of your operating environment (path variable,
networking, etc).
3. INSTALLATION
===============
Installation and setup instructions are provided
in both Adobe Acrobat Reader 2.1 PDF format. See
Installation.pdf and Environment.pdf.
4. REBUILDING DEMO APPLICATIONS
===============================
Rebuilding the Dis programs distributed with the BETA.2 version of
Inferno under Windows requires the nmake.exe program that is supplied
with Visual C++ version 4.0.
Each tar archive of platform-dependent binaries includes a mkconfig
file that is installed in the root of the Inferno tree. The purpose of the file
is to parameterize the "mk" or "nmake" command used to build the
distribution programs. The platform-dependent parameters in the file
are:
OBJTYPE The object machine architecture: 386, mips, sparc, ...
SYSHOST The host system type: Inferno, Irix, Nt, Solaris, ...
SYSTARG The target system type: Inferno, Irix, Nt, Solaris, ...
To rebuild the distributed Limbo programs, first ensure that the Limbo
compiler is found in the PATH, and issue the build command from the
appropriate <inferno_root>/appl subdirectory of the Inferno tree. That
is, issue the commands
PATH=<inferno_root>/$SYSHOST/$OBJTYPE/bin:$PATH
cd <inferno_root>/appl
mk install
under Unix and
PATH=<inferno_root>\Nt\386\bin;%PATH%
cd <inferno_root>\appl
nmake install
under Windows.
Note, however, that it if more than one architecture type is installed in
a single Inferno tree, the mkconfig file in the root of the tree will be
the one appropriate to the last installed distribution. This means that
the mkconfig platform-dependent parameters may be inappropriate
for the platform where you want to run the mk or nmake command.
If this is the case, you can override the mkconfig parameters on the
command line. For example, if mkconfig is for a Solaris/sparc system,
and you want to run mk to rebuild Limbo applications on an Irix/mips
system, issue the command
mk install SYSHOST=Irix
5. SUPPLEMENTAL DOCUMENTATION
=============================
The following documentation provides additional information
useful in the operation of this product.
Kernighan, B. A Descent into Limbo. Unpublished, available at
http://www.lucent.com/inferno
Winterbottom, P. The Dis Virtual Machine. Unpublished, available
at http://www.lucent.com/inferno
6. RELEASE NOTES
================
You should not install to the same directory that contains Setup.exe.
----------------
The JIT compiler does not schedule threads in the same way as the
interpreter. In particular, instruction quanta can be
unpredictably larger when generated by the JIT compiler.
----------------
Module-specific compilation does not work properly. To work
around this problem, use the -c1 option to compile all modules or
do not run any JIT-compiling modules.
----------------
The performance of the Limbo built-in string type is poor. A new
implementation is under test.
----------------
The DES interface has been replaced with 40-bit RC4 in this
distribution to comply with US government export restrictions.
The DES interface is part of the commercial US distribution.
----------------
Module signing has been disabled in this release, but is part of
the commercial US product.
----------------
When running X-terminal packages under Windows, you must set the
color palette to 256 colors. Use:
Control Panel>>Display>>Settings:Color palette
----------------
Rules for entering network addresses are inconsistent. In general
addresses are entered as tcp!<machine_name>. When using the
getauthinfo program and in the remote directory dialog box (which
calls getauthinfo), enter <machine_name> only or the program will
fail.
----------------
The POP mail application in mux has been disabled. Do NOT try to
run this program. The register and audio control applications
have been disabled as well.
----------------
To start the mux application, you must issue the
following commands (error in manual):
bind -a '#C' /
mux/mux
----------------
Running the Inferno Web Browser:
When you invoke the Inferno Web Browser via Inferno's Window
Manager, the NT or Windows 95 PATH variable will be used to
locate the Web executable. Your PATH should include the directory
where the Inferno executables are installed, that is,
<inferno_root>\Nt\386\bin.
----------------
Uninstall:
It is recommended that you delete an Inferno instance via the
Uninstall program found in the Inferno folder. Uninstall will
delete the Inferno files and registry keys that were added
by the installation. The registry keys are used by Setup to
detect a previous instance of Inferno.
Inferno Setup adds the following keys to your registry:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE]\SOFTWARE\Lucent Technologies\Inferno\Beta 1.0
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE]\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\App
Paths\emu.exe
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE]\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Current
Version\Uninstall\InfernoDeinstKey
----------------
Services File:
Inferno requires a number of entries to be added to your
system Services file. Setup will fail to do this when
the user does not have Read/Write permissions on the Services
file. This typically occurs on NT installations where the
user does not have Administrator privileges, in such cases
you will need to have your system administrator update the
services file. The file <inferno_root>\services.txt contains
the service entries to be added.
----------------
NTFS Installation:
When installing Inferno on an NTFS partition, it is recommended
the user have full control over either the Inferno target directory,
if it exists prior to Setup, or the parent directory, otherwise.
For example, when installing to \users\inferno, the user should have
full control over \users\inferno (if \users\inferno exists)
or \users otherwise.
7. WHAT'S NEXT
==============
This section provides a list of current development plans for
the Inferno operating system.
NOTE: The following list is NOT a commitment to release any
of the listed features.
Feature Status
------- ------
o Limbo compiler to run under emu In test
o Java support Under development
o Tcl script interface for Limbo/TK In test
o Drag and drop GUI code generator In test
o Discriminated unions in Limbo Under development