MEMORANDUM

TO:	Bill O'Brien
FROM:	Keith M. Corbett
DATE:	28-Aug-87
SUBJ:	Recommendation to sell ASCII monitor with all Lambdas
COPY:	David Lee, Ron Genest, Clovis Regis


On the proposed price list, an ASCII monitor is provided with the Unix
systems and upgrades, but not with LISP-only systems.  As I have argued
in the past, this is a mistake for reasons of customer convenience and
maintainability.

The ASCII monitor is not just a Unix peripheral; it is a better monitor
to use as the system boot console.  For example:
  
  1. If LISP crashes, the LISP monitor sometimes freezes; in these
  cases it's impossible to get the debugging information from the
  LISP monitor, but we can use the remote console to run
  diagnostics.
  
  2. Intermittent error messages routinely disappear from the LISP
  monitor; they are more easily seen by the system manager on the
  remote console.
  
  3. When the customer is installing software, they should be able
  to work at a monitor near the tape drive.  Over 2 years of
  providing software support I have spent hours and hours just
  waiting for the customer to run between the machine room and his
  office.  Similarly, having to shuttle back and forth is a burden
  on the on-site field engineer; they much prefer to work on the
  console near the Lambda.
  
  4. Using the LISP monitor as console, customers have to press 5
  keys on the AI keyboard to interrupt LISP and access the boot
  program.  This 5-key sequence, "control-meta-control-meta-line",
  is popularly known as the "Lambda reach", and can best be
  performed by acrobats and LISP hackers -- not our typical
  customer.  The standard alternative is to re-initialize the
  system; some customers lose work repeatedly, and needlessly.
  This is another reason we didn't make the list of the "Ten Most
  User-Friendly Computers" of the 1980's.

Nobody has ever suggested that customers do not need a console monitor.
For the small additional price, is there any good reason not to include
it in the standard configuration?  Splitting the difference might add
$200-300 to the purchase cost, but it would be worth every penny (and
more) in customer satisfaction and improved service.

This is a classic case of being "penny-wise and pound-foolish."  If we
are truly trying to make up for the sins of the past, we will provide a
stand-alone console with every Lambda system we sell.

KMC