HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: C sprite plotting, false alarm!
From: Gavin.Flower@comp.vuw.ac.nz (Gavin Flower)
Date: Wed, 30 Sep 1992 20:03:41 GMT
Organization: Dept. of Comp. Sci., Victoria Uni. of Wellington, New Zealand.

In article <1992Sep30.122519.25038@westminster.ac.uk> gpcec@westminster.ac.uk (Tom Kirby-Green) writes:
>Silly me,
>      Sorry to bug you folks about sprite plotting, I should have been
>using OS_SpriteOp 256+24 and getting the address from R2 on exit, not
>'Op 256+14. Right, I'll just pop off and hang myself as a warning to
>idiots. :-)

If every good programmer did that - we'd still have lots of
programmers, but a distinct lack of good ones...

I still cringe at some of my silly errors.


Gavin
-- 
Tomorrow's Society                              | flower_g@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz
    Depends on                                   ----------------------------
Today's Children  - help us raise them properly! 
*******  These comments have no known correlation with dept. policy!  *******
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
From: u894776@bruny.cc.utas.edu.au (James McCoull)
Subject: Re: Yes, more .....
Organization: University of Tasmania, Australia.
Date: Mon, 5 Oct 1992 01:25:04 GMT

goodwin@edieng.enet.dec.com (Pete Goodwin) writes:

>As an example I wrote a simple program to print "Hi there!". In C it came to
>4k, in assembler 300 bytes (less?).

Not a good example.  This sort of overhead drops rapidly as you start
producing real programs.  Short programs in C, can always be "hand-linked"
with a small library.

Not that I want to enter this sort of argument.  I *hate* C, love 680x0
assembler, like ARM2 assembler, and like the odd bit of Miranda.

Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
From: cknight@esk.compserv.utas.edu.au (STRYQX (Chris Knight))
Subject: File Extraction?
Followup-To: comp.sys.acorn
Summary: Unix scripts to extract and uudecode files
Keywords: Unix, C, extract, uudecode
Organization: /etc/organisation
Date: Sat, 3 Oct 92 03:45:14 GMT
Expires: +14 days

Howdy,
	The name says it all really. Does anyone have any easy means of
extracting and uudecoding files sent by either mail-servers or c.b.a. posts.
I know of CBADecode, but that isn't working, and can't extract the listing
from mail servers. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Extraction on Unix
or the Arc are OK, but Unix is preferable as it's hard to do it all at once
on a 2Meg machine.
	Thanks in advance.
                                                               \/"\/\/"\/
Ciao,                                                          /   \/   \
              I expect to get flamed for this, =>              : #    # :
              but I've just got sick of the A                  \   \/   /
              symbol that everyone uses!                       /&.__._.%\
STRYQX                                                         |###% . .:
======                                                         |##% . . :
George:     ...come down and stay in the country. We can        \##\ . .:
            relive the old times!                                \##\ . :
Blackadder: What? Dig a hole in the garden, fill it with          &%&\ .:
            water and get your gamekeeper to shoot at us all      /  /\ :
            day!                                               ../\ /\ \!
From "Goodbyee!...", Blackadder Goes Forth                              \
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: That alleged bug with RO 3.10
From: jwil1@cs.aukuni.ac.nz (TMOTA)
Date: Fri, 2 Oct 1992 00:52:27 GMT
Organization: Computer Science Dept. University of Auckland

banksie@khantazi.welly.gen.nz (Philip R. Banks) writes:

>   Do other people remember a certain prat talking about a bug in RO 3.10
>regarding menu clicking on the Info window of the Task Manager? Well I did
>and when I was helping, well watching, a friend upgrade the A5000 we use
>with 3.10 I decided to check on the validity of this claim. Low and behold
>the bug refused to manifest itself.

Try clicking menu on the "Name:" text in the window. It bombs my A5000 and
Edouard's 410. It doesn't have any effect if you click elsewhere.

>   Now this really gets my goat as a direct result of this 'rumour' being
>started a great discussion about the 'bugs' of RO 3.1 resulted. And the
>funny thing is none of the alleged bugs reported thus far by these rumour
>mills has been verified. This news group is a great way to get uptodate
>information about what is happening in the Acorn world, but rumours like the
>above mentioned one undermine the usefulness of this group. Especially when
>the rumour is presented as fact.

I agree, there is too much pessimism and not enough congratulation on this
group. Mind you, I also like to hear about these things: some bugs it's
nice to know about to avoid them, and others are just really cute!

I would like to take this opportunity to say thanks to the guys
at Acorn NZ who helped me with my new A5000 & RO3 version 3.10, and also
thanks to the RISC OS developers at Acorn for all the things they got RIGHT.
(OK, so there are lots of small niggles, but there are a huge number of
new wonders and amazements and things I've been wanting for years...)

Keep up the good work!
-- 
_________________  "I'd like to answer this question in two ways:
  /____ _ _/_ __       First in my normal voice, and then
 // / //_//_ /_/       in a silly, high-pitched whine." (Monty Python)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
From: t-piersh@microsoft.com (Piers Haken)
Subject: Re: Acorn user show get-together
Date: 27 Sep 92 08:29:51 GMT
Organization: Microsoft Corp., Redmond, WA 98052

In article <1992Sep25.001227.22946@infodev.cam.ac.uk> crj10@phx.cam.ac.uk (Clive Jones), MJW19@phx.cam.ac.uk (Michael Williams) writes:
>In article <DBH.92Sep23175111@wombat.doc.ic.ac.uk> dbh@doc.ic.ac.uk (Denis Howe) writes:
>
>I, and Michael Williams <MJW19@phx.cam.ac.uk>, and possibly some other
>people with us, could well be interested in meeting a few people from
>the net. We'll be on the D.T. Software stand quite a bit of the time,
>but will certainly have time to wander around!
>
>If anyone takes over the mailing list, please could we be appended?
>
>>I hope it happens anyway.  Digitise me a group photo someone.
>
>D.T. Software is bound to have the odd Logitech Fotoman knocking
>around. (Shameless product plug. (-8 )
>
>--Clive.


See you there!

Piers.
-- 
Disclaimer: These views are my own and not necessarily
            those of the company for which I work.
From: Gavin.Flower@comp.vuw.ac.nz (Gavin Flower)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: Oh no ! More ....
Date: 3 Oct 92 15:20:27 GMT
Organization: Dept. of Comp. Sci., Victoria Uni. of Wellington, New Zealand.

In article <1992Oct3.125941.7579@cs.utwente.nl> kortink@cs.utwente.nl (John Kortink) writes:
[...]
>You know what's wrong with you C-freaks ? You can't really accept that
>what you've made can be done better. Maybe you should go doing ARM code
>or have peace with it.
[...]

I've already answered this so many times!  I simply do not understand
how John can mis-read what I have said.  I don't know how to be any
clearer than my previous posts.  It is one thing for John to disagree
with me, it is quite another to mis-represent what I have written.  If
anyone can shed some light on this communication problem I have with
John, I would appreciate it.  I assume his lack of understanding is
genuine, and not simply there to provoke me - I'm deliberately
ignoring his apparent personal attacks.


John, as a matter of record, which you can check back in my previous
postings, I've already stated that I have coded in ARM assembler, and
that I like it!

I thank everyone else for their patience.

I have appreciated the many informative posts that have been
generated, it has been a lot more productive than previous threads
involving "C" in this group, setting aside any personal comments
between me and John.


Gavin
-- 
Tomorrow's Society                              | flower_g@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz
    Depends on                                   ----------------------------
Today's Children  - help us raise them properly! 
*******  These comments have no known correlation with dept. policy!  *******
From: ssumille@csug3.cs.reading.ac.uk (Pete Millerchip)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Hard Drive incompatibility under RISCOS 3.1, help!
Date: 5 Oct 92 15:48:00 GMT
Organization: University of Reading

Can anyone out there help?
I just upgraded my A3000 to RISC-OS 3.1 and my Morley Electronics ST506 hard
drive podule now refuses to talk to the drive - I get a "Disk not understood,
are you sure it's formatted?" error even after I format it with !HForm.

I went straight from RISCOS 2 to 3.1 so I don't know whether this is a
problem with 3.0 as well. Can anyone help me? I'm going NUTS without my hard
disk! Is there a software fix, as I can't afford to upgrade to IDE or SCSI.

Any help much appreciated!

  Pete Millerchip (ssumille@sussys1.reading.ac.uk)
From: r_voisey@csd.brispoly.ac.uk (R Voisey)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: AKJ03 - Risc OS PRM
Date: 2 Oct 92 17:47:35 GMT
Organization: Bristol Polytechnic, England

In article <gilbertd.717867563@p4.cs.man.ac.uk> gilbertd@p4.cs.man.ac.uk (David Alan Gilbert) writes:

>On a completely different subject, a friend is thinking
>of getting an A4, but apparently PC keyboards
>are a bit limiting - what limitations are imposed by
>using a PC keyboard, and secondly does anybody know
>if there are student deals etc.????

What exactly do you mean when you say that PC keyboards are
limitting?  Do you mean the built in mini-PC keyboard, or
keyboards that can be attached to the external kbd socket?

The built in keyboard is quite usable actually - you soon
get to prefer using the keyboard instead of a mouse (at
least, when portable you do).

I don't know how well the A4 handles external AT keyboards..
If it allows you to remap the keyboard, preferably with a
seperate shifted map, then there should be no problem.  I
suspect, however, that it does not - in which case you should
strive to obtain a genuine IBM AT UK-103 key keyboard which
is almost identical to a standard Arch kbd.  I've been using
a PC keyboard on my 440 via my kbd interface for a while,
and it's a huge improvement over Acorn keyboards!

Bob

-- 
  Robert J. Voisey  :  r_voisey@csd.brispoly.ac.uk
         -- Probug Software Developments --
162 Staplehill Rd, Fishponds, Bristol, Avon, England
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: RISCOS 3.1 problems : CSD and configuration
From: jwil1@cs.aukuni.ac.nz (TMOTA)
Date: Tue, 29 Sep 1992 02:18:34 GMT
Organization: Computer Science Dept. University of Auckland

kortink@cs.utwente.nl (John Kortink) writes:
...
>really haunting me. I am in the process of completely going 3.1, and I'm
>afraid the firm ground I think I'm standing on may turn out to be a bit of
>a swamp.

Look on the bright side. At least it a better looking and altogether more
pleasant swamp.
-- 
_________________  "I'd like to answer this question in two ways:
  /____ _ _/_ __       First in my normal voice, and then
 // / //_//_ /_/       in a silly, high-pitched whine." (Monty Python)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
From: lorcan@cix.compulink.co.uk (Lorcan Mongey)
Subject: Re: !Palette file internals
Cc: lorcan@cix.compulink.co.uk
Reply-To: lorcan@cix.compulink.co.uk
Date: Thu, 1 Oct 1992 22:01:00 +0000

In message <1992Oct1.080849.23447@westminster.ac.uk>
gpcec@westminster.ac.uk (Tom Kirby-Green) writes:
 
>Where can I find out the internal structure of a !Palette file ( as
>produced by !Paint and the Desktop etc ). It seems to be 120 bytes
>long. Does it contain words as returned from OS_ReadPalette? If a 16
>colour sprite contains 2 * 16 words ( = 128 bytes ) in its "Palette
>Area", why does the !Palette file contain "only" 120? Or are they
>different internaly?
 
They are indeed different. The !Palette file is simply a series of VDU
commands which, when printed, define the palette. Twenty colours are
defined (16 "ordinary" colours, the border colour and three mouse
colours) and each definition is 6 bytes long, hence the 120 bytes.
See the VDU 19 description on P.421 of the User Guide.
 
>Is it me, or is there no mention of !Palette  files in the PRM?
 
I don't think it's you. :-)
 
Lorcan
From: Dave Sainty <terros@sideways.welly.gen.nz>
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: Archimedes Demo *Competition* [Any one interested?]
Keywords: euro,demo,acorn,archimedes,arm2,memc1a,memc1,vidc2,cheese,beer,women
Date: Wed, 30 Sep 92 01:12:43 +1200
Organization: Sideways Bulletin Board, Lower Hutt, New Zealand

gtoal@ibmpcug.co.uk (Graham Toal) writes:

> Nope, I've *never* seen the point in hacking demos.  It's a waste of
> good talent.  Intellectual masturbation.  It takes very little to adapt
> the skills to something more productive.  Why do you write demos?  To
> earn the respect of your peers.  I don't have much respect for people
> who are impressed by pointless demos to be honest.  Now if you wrote
> the world's fastest nn simulator running on a scalar architecture *then*
> you'd earn some respect, and from people who matter.

It's a form of art.

Been to the gallery recently?
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: ELITE... A GREAT GAME ON THE ARCHIE.....
From: Gavin.Flower@comp.vuw.ac.nz (Gavin Flower)
Date: Tue, 29 Sep 1992 23:41:05 GMT
Organization: Dept. of Comp. Sci., Victoria Uni. of Wellington, New Zealand.

In article <2ac89612.8ccafb.2@BEIZ.mediatex.ch> Ikki@BEIZ.mediatex.ch (0642210101: Fernmeldedirektion Olten) writes:
>Wich Elite-original-manual? This one
>from Archie-Elite or C=64 Elite? I think
[...]

The original Elite came out on the Beeb  (BBC model "B").


Gavin
-- 
Tomorrow's Society                              | flower_g@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz
    Depends on                                   ----------------------------
Today's Children  - help us raise them properly! 
*******  These comments have no known correlation with dept. policy!  *******
From: adamd@rhi.hi.is (Adam David)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: That alleged bug with RO 3.10
Date: 2 Oct 92 22:30:28 GMT

In <1992Oct2.005227.2017@cs.aukuni.ac.nz> jwil1@cs.aukuni.ac.nz (TMOTA) writes:

>banksie@khantazi.welly.gen.nz (Philip R. Banks) writes:

>>   Do other people remember a certain prat talking about a bug in RO 3.10
>>regarding menu clicking on the Info window of the Task Manager? Well I did

>Try clicking menu on the "Name:" text in the window. It bombs my A5000 and
>Edouard's 410. It doesn't have any effect if you click elsewhere.

It knocks out the Task Manager on my A3000 too. Looks like someone forgot to
remove the triggering code when whatever action this was got removed. Maybe
this had something to do with digitised pictures (?). 

I upgraded last night and had a good laugh about cardboard power supplies.
Well, it got me thinking for a few minutes that something on the motherboard
might need to be hardware patched to get things to work. It turned out to be
a legal disclaimer (page 24 of the fitting instructions).

Now, when can I upgrade to RiscOS 3.5 (last version ever) ?

--
Adam David. (adamd@rhi.hi.is)
From: rsxdp@unicorn.nott.ac.uk (D.Pead)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: That alleged bug with RO 3.10
Date: 6 Oct 92 10:23:27 GMT
Organization: Shell Centre for Maths Education , University of Nottingham

Just to confirm it - I've tried clicking menu over the "Name:" label
in the task manager info window.

I now have a Dead Task Manager.  Whoops!

That's on an A540.

Just to make it clear - you click menu over the word "Name" in the
task manager info box.  This gives an error box and the task manager
exits.
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: sparc file decoder source in C? (for unix)
From: jwil1@cs.aukuni.ac.nz (TMOTA)
Date: Tue, 29 Sep 1992 02:12:11 GMT
Organization: Computer Science Dept. University of Auckland

amell@nyx.cs.du.edu (Andrew P.Mell) writes:

>In article <Bv96D5.C36@ibmpcug.co.uk> gtoal@ibmpcug.co.uk (Graham Toal) writes:
>>I've been given a Sparc archive (stored files only, no compression)
>>by someone who couldn't write tar files.  Anyone got any code to
>>decode it on unix (I was about to say 'on a sparc' but thought that

>Serves you right for abandoning the Archie :-) try cark or something with
>a similar name. It is a Spark file decompresser for Unix, and is on the
>newcastle info-server somewhere.

It was also posted to comp.sources.acorn about 3 days ago...
-- 
_________________  "I'd like to answer this question in two ways:
  /____ _ _/_ __       First in my normal voice, and then
 // / //_//_ /_/       in a silly, high-pitched whine." (Monty Python)
From: marks@cs.man.ac.uk (Mark Stephens (MSc Stephen Furber))
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Essential PD software (and may be shareware)
Summary: What pd s/w should I get first?
Keywords: public domain software essential
Date: 29 Sep 92 10:44:48 GMT


What is the cream of the available PD software I should download first from
the various archives now I've finally bought my own Archimedes.

Suggestions of value for shareware would be welcome too.

Mark.

M.B.STEPHENS@UK.AC.MANCHESTER (JANET)
From: nicho@VNET.IBM.COM
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: That alleged bug with RO 3.10
Date: 2 Oct 92 08:19:07 GMT
Reply-To: nicho@vnet.ibm.com

In <2N4zkNj024n@khantazi.welly.gen.nz> Philip R. Banks writes:
>Not is Risc OS 3.10 *not* slower than 3.0 it is infact
>faster.
yeah, but is it faster than RISCOS 2.0 (which is what _most_ of us
are upgrading from)
 -----------------------------------------------------------------
               ** Of course I don't speak for IBM **
Greg Nicholls ... nicho@vnet.ibm.com or nicho@cix.compulink.co.uk
                  voice/fax: 44-794-516038
From: andyf@yama.uk.sun.com (Andrew Fox - Sun UK - Answer centre)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: Any RISC OS 2.0 ROMs going begging ?
Date: 28 Sep 92 07:02:21 GMT
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Distribution: world
Reply-To: andyf@yama.uk.sun.com
NNTP-Posting-Host: yama.uk.sun.com

In article 11078 Piete.Brooks@cl.cam.ac.uk (Piete Brooks on swan.cl.cam.ac.uk) writes:-

>If anyone is upgrading from RISC OS 2.0 to RISC OS 3* and have any unwanted
>ROMs please email me (pb@cl.cam.ac.uk -- I don't read this newsgroup) as I want
>to upgrade some Arthur machines to the same level as some other machines.
>[ I have been trying to get 2.0 ROMs for ages, but they 'sold out' ]

I've just been speaking to an Acorn dealer who is absolutely inundated with RISC OS
2.0 roms and would be glad to get rid of a few........

If you want to contact him the details are as follows:-

Write to:-

Desktop Projects Ltd.,
Unit 2A,
Heapriding Business Park,
Stockport,
SK3 0BT.

or phone +44 (0)61-474-0778 and ask for Paul.

Hope this helps,

Andy Fox.


P.S. Sorry if anyone thinks this is advertising. Please don't flame me...... ;-)


********************************************************************************
** Disclaimer: *****************************************************************
********************************************************************************
** The opinions expressed above in no way represent those of Sun Microsystems **
********************************************************************************
********************************************************************************
From: mcg@waikato.ac.nz
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: Braincells, RO2, RO3 and RO3.1
Date: 30 Sep 92 17:48:16 +1200
Organization: University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand

In article <1992Sep29.123139.15448@cs.utwente.nl>, kortink@cs.utwente.nl (John Kortink) writes:
> amell@nyx.cs.du.edu (Andrew P.Mell) writes :
> 
>>In article <1992Sep26.111148.19177@cs.utwente.nl> kortink@cs.utwente.nl (John
>>Kortink) writes:
>>>
>>>Ah, as usual, there's at least two braincells working here. 3.0 ROMs are from
>>>A5000's. So they only work in A5000's (or possibly the new machines). So
>>>who would want them ? They already have them ! (Or 3.1) I suggest you eat 'm.
>>
>>Eh? RO3.0 ROMs work fine in non-A5000 machines, and that includes the 310 with
>>carrier board.
> 
> Have you ever actually tried that ? Acorn has never announced them to be
> available (i.e. working) on non-A5000's. If so, there would have been an
> enormous rush on 3.0 ROMs when the A5000 came out. Maybe it'll start up,
> but won't be able to talk to, e.g., parallel port etc..
> 
> In any case, I was right about the braincells at least ...
> 

Ahhh, but my *two* brain cells are multi-tasking, unlike certain people's (not 
mentioning any names, eh John?) single non-multitasking brain cell. 

 
From Martin Glanvill		(mcg@waikato.ac.nz)

Dept. Maths 							      @@@@@/|@
University of Waikato						      @@@@/ |@
Hamilton							      @@@/__|@
New Zealand							      @@/   |@
								      @@@@@@@@

----------------****=====| A quote to make your day |======****-----------------
Children seldom misquote you.  In fact, they usually repeat word for word what
 you shouldn't have said.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: gpcec@sun.pcl.ac.uk (Tom Kirby-Green)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Tabs and !Edit
Date: 26 Sep 92 16:39:49 GMT
Organization: Polytechnic of Central London


Folks,
        Heres a quick question. When ( using C ) you create a text file
containing TAB chars ie;

        fprintf ( fp, "blah, blah \t blah\n" );

How come you have to use the "Expand Tabs" option in !Edit to expand these? 
Does !Edit somehow mark the file as expanded, or what?
        My main question being - how can I create a file in C with TABS
that automaticly appear correctly in !Edit.
        Guess the answers going to be blindingly obvious - but if some kind
person out there could put me out of my misery I'd be very grateful. :-)

        pre-thanks, just trying to be, Tom.


-- 
/---------------------| The University of Westminster |---------------------\
| Tom Kirby-Green           Email : gpcec@sun.pcl.ac.uk  or  Silence@Arcade |
\-------------| "All science is physics, or stamp collecting" |-------------/