Primer 0.5 under VMS 5.4

[jds at uctvax.uct.ac.za]

Dear molbionetters,

Has anyone had success compiling Primer 0.5 (Whitehead institute) under
VMS V5.4?  I have FTP'd the files 2 times and even got a friend to send
the files on disk.  Here is what I have done and the results obtained:

I have used the makefile.com provided with Primer as well as creating my
own.  The makefile I create is below:

                    $ set def uct7:[gcg.primer]
                    $ cc/list PRIMER
                    $ cc/list TEXT
                    $ link/Exec=primer primer,text

Everything seems to compile and link without errors, but when I test the 
program with SAMPLE.SEQ and MOUSE.REP (as per the instructions), I get
different results than expected.  In fact, the default replies for OPTIMAL
primer melting temperature, MINIMUM acceptable primer melting temperature
and MAXIMUM acceptable primer melting temperature are 17 digit numbers!!!
Furthermore, no primers are selected using SAMPLE.SEQ and MOUSE.REP.
When I use my own sequence data, I sometimes get primers selected, but the
Tm values given are also 17 digit numbers!

Any suggestions on what I'm doing wrong would be most appreciated.

Thanks,

Joe

 --
 Joseph D. Santangelo, Ph.D. |    Phone:            27 21 650-2465
 Department of Microbiology  |      FAX:            27 21 650-4023
 University of Cape Town     |
 Rondebosch, 7700            | Internet:       Joe at micro.uct.ac.za
 South Africa                |       Or:      Jds at uctvax.uct.ac.za