Copyright 1994-2016 by Kevin G. Barkes All rights reserved. This article may be duplicated or redistributed provided no alterations of any kind are made to this file. This edition of DCL Dialogue is sponsored by Networking Dynamics, developers and marketers of productivity software for OpenVMS systems. Contact our website www.networkingdynamics.com to download free demos of our software and see how you will save time, money and raise productivity! Be sure to mention DCL Dialogue! DCL DIALOGUE Originally Published April, 1994 The Amazing Talking VAXstation By Kevin G. Barkes I rarely get excited about third-party OpenVMS software. Unlike the PC world, which has nifty screen savers, multi-featured personal information managers (PIMs), financial management software, powerful spreadsheets and word processors, all at dirt-cheap pricing, OpenVMS software is pretty drab: system management utilities, compilers, some high-end publishing stuff, all at rather stiff prices. So when something really useful comes along at a good price that is perfectly suited for running on an OpenVMS machine, it's news. RamPage, from Ergonomic Solutions, is a VAX-to-pager general purpose messaging system that is inexpensive, reliable, and a joy to use. Installation consists of loading the software with VMSINSTAL, entering information about your paging service(s) and users' beepers into RamPage's databases, and connecting the supplied modem to your system. The modem is a plain vanilla 2400 bps unit, so if you're short of ports you can use a modem you already have installed on your system. Judging from the number of inquiries I received about my BEEPER.COM utility in the September '92 issue, there's a big demand for a product like RamPage. Unlike BEEPER.COM, which is a real limited function, brain-dead command procedure easily foiled by the vagaries of VAX com ports and terminal servers, RamPage is a robust piece of software which will probably give you new ideas for using your beeper. A minimal user of system resources, RamPage was designed to mesh seamlessly with the OpenVMS environment. It provides effortless interfaces to DCL, OpenVMS Mail, ALL-IN-1 and DECwindows. It even supplies a series of library routines which can be called by home-grown applications, so your programs can generate and send pager messages with no sweat. In fact, RamPage is easier to use than MS-DOS based PC pager programs and far more reliable, thanks to the stability of the OpenVMS platform. RamPage works by creating a server queue that grabs the communications port whenever it needs to transmit a page. When a page reaches the top of the queue, RamPage calls the paging carrier service and transmits the numeric or alphanumeric message entered by the user. RamPage also works with "dumb" tone-only pagers. Normally, you'd want to dedicate a terminal or server port to RamPage. Those of us with workstations don't have lots of ports to spare, however. If the port is allocated by another user, RamPage will abort, the queue will stop, and the symbiont will send an OpenVMS mail message to the system manager or designated party complaining about the situation. I wrote a small command procedure that runs as a detached process, monitors the RamPage queue and the current owner of the port. If the RamPage queue stops, the procedure checks to see if the port is still allocated. If it isn't, the procedure resets and restarts the RamPage queue; no outgoing pages are lost. If the port is still allocated, it monitors the owner process until it detects five minutes of no i/o activity. It then kills the idle process and restarts RamPage. This is a problem that's limited mainly to workstation users. Sites with "big" VAXes should have no problem justifying a port and adding a dedicated phone line. This is especially true sites which have lots of personnel with pagers. The RamPage software is extremely simple to use. It consists of a number of "dispatchers" which control the handling and transmission of pages. The simplest is the Terminal Dispatcher, which is displayed as the familiar "While You Were Out" notepad metaphor. Using RamPage in this manner is simply a matter of filling in the blanks; no training is necessary. I leave RamPage running in one window on my VAXstation so my wife and kids can page me directly without having to go through my answering service. The DCL Dispatcher provides a command line method of sending a page and features a number of nifty qualifiers. The basic RamPage command, $ RAMPAGE USER "This is a test message." will cause RamPage to check its databases for the user's paging service carrier and beeper information and to send the page. The /AFTER qualifier allows you to submit a page for later transmission. This is useful for reminding yourself of meetings or appointments or, my primary use, as a method of getting yourself out of a boring meeting or family gathering. $ RAMPAGE BARKES "VAX coolant failure!!" /AFTER=17:30 will allow me to leave that reunion of my wife's family and remind me to pick up a six-pack of, er, VAX coolant on my way home to watch Star Trek reruns. This simple interface makes it easy to integrate RamPage into existing command procedures. One global search and replace command, for example, modified last month's RoboVAX procedure so my system can page me when problems develop. OpenVMS Mail messages can be sent via pager through the Mail Dispatcher by adding the prefix rampage%, page% or rp% to the user's name: MAIL> SEND To: SMITH,JONES,RP%BARKES Message length is limited due to paging service restrictions; maximum length is about 240 characters. The RamPage software compensates by stripping out spaces, tabs and blank lines from messages prior to transmission. Even niftier is the Mail Forwarding Dispatcher. When enabled, it forwards OpenVMS mail messages you receive to your pager without the sender having to add the rp% prefix to your username. You can control which messages are forwarded to you by specifying From: line search strings with the /INCLUDE and /EXCLUDE qualifiers to the RamPage /MAIL command. You can also specify how often RamPage should scan your NEWMAIL folder to look for new messages. RamPage comes with detailed documentation that's easy to follow. Ergonomic Solutions conducts a pre-shipping survey when possible and pre-configures the kits by adding lists of pager PIN numbers and carrier services to the RamPage database prior to delivery. A number of large companies have signed up with RamPage, according to product manager Craig Lombardi, who patiently helped me get the software to work with a recalcitrant old modem that I needed to keep installed. Support is top-notch and readily available. If you're looking for a way to professionally manage your pager users in the most reliable manner, you need RamPage. It's one of those products you'll wonder how you lived without. ****** Mea Culpa. Those of you who live in the east know what it's been like since the beginning of the year. Blizzards, ice storms, record cold and road salt shortages plagued us for months; the local schools were closed for nine days, a record. On top of that, I had to deal with family health problems, including colds, pneumonia, carpal tunnel syndrome and kidney stones. This delayed my response to reader requests. Hopefully, I'll be caught up by the time this column is published. Thanks for your understanding and concern... ******************** Kevin G. Barkes is an independent consultant whose son and daughter are in the local high school's spring musical and drama club and who wishes he could sell fund-raising candy over the internet. Kevin lurks on comp.os.vms and can be reached at kgbarkes@gmail.com. ***************** Ergonomic Solutions Software Products Division P.O. Box 7052 Plainville, CT 06062 203-793-0445 RamPage costs $995.00, includes messaging hardware, software and documentation and includes a 90-day warranty.