HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: gpcec@westminster.ac.uk (Tom Kirby-Green)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: !Palette file internals
Date: 1 Oct 92 08:08:49 GMT
Organization: University of Westminster


        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?

        Thanks for you help. Is it me, or is there no mention of !Palette 
files in the PRM?

                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" |-------------/
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
From: warrenb@microsoft.com (Warren Burch)
Subject: Re: ELITE... A GREAT GAME ON THE ARCHIE.....                                        
Date: 28 Sep 92 07:00:07 GMT
Organization: Microsoft Corporation

In article <2ac4a8d6.8ccafb.0@BEIZ.mediatex.ch> Ikki@BEIZ.mediatex.ch (0642210101: Fernmeldedirektion Olten) writes:
>I m playing Elite on the Archie like
>an addicted. I know Elite sience it was
>released on the C=64, had it on the
>Amiga too, and now on the Archie. It
>has a lot of features more than the
>other versions.
>I collected a cargo-canister from a
>pirate-ship I blasted off, and (you al-
>ways see what you pick up) there was
>written "Megaweed!!" on the monitor.
>What does that mean? I checked my cargo-
>hold, but didn t find anything like that
>. Does somebody knows somehting about
>that?
>Thanks for all infos.
>Internet: Ikki(at)BEIZ.mediatex.ch
>
>|B                                    B|
>|E           CH: VTX *3600#           E|
>|I           D:  BTX *28881#          I|
>|Z                                    Z|

Hi, 

  the 'MegaWeed' message is a reference from
the original Elite Manual. 'MegaWeed' is
a intergalactic herbal narcotic (actually
it's just a product of a deranged imagination
- no reference intended DB :) ). We thought
it would be funny to identify this type of
narcotic every now and again - just one of the
many cute features Clive demanded be left in. 
(It was originally all different colours and
in bouncy lettering).
  Anyway glad to hear you are enjoying Elite.
Keep blasting.

-Warren.

---------------------------------------------
Warren Burch     |  warrenb@microsoft.com 
Microsoft,       |--------------------------- 
1, Microsoft Way,| My opinions mean nothing
Redmond, WA.	 | whatsoever.
USA.		 |
---------------------------------------------


Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
From: kortink@cs.utwente.nl (John Kortink)
Subject: Who the f*** is J ???
Organization: University of Twente, Dept. of Computer Science
Date: Thu, 1 Oct 1992 22:36:39 GMT

zrzm0111@helpdesk.rus.uni-stuttgart.de (MUFTI) writes :

>The last pdlist contain a interesting program:
>
>!J              J language processor v3.4a [117k].......Iverson Software Inc
>
>Do anyone know anything about this ?

It's the successor of Iverson's APL language. I never worked with J, but I
think it was meant to be a power user's APL (more powerful, and added in
the much needed procedural language constructs). APL itself is a pig to
get into, but I suspect it of being able to define a CAD program in a
one-liner ... Rather terse.

>Is it a compiler or interpreter ?

Probably an interpreter, like APL.


John Kortink

Student of Informatics at the University of Twente, The Netherlands
(God, will I ever stop doing things 'on the side' and get it done?)
NETMAIL : kortink@cs.utwente.nl              DISCLAIMER : the usual
From: gpcec@westminster.ac.uk (Tom Kirby-Green)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: C sprite plotting, false alarm!
Date: 30 Sep 92 12:25:19 GMT
Organization: University of Westminster

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. :-)

                Still 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" |-------------/
Xref: sparky comp.sys.acorn:8828 comp.sys.acorn.tech:213
From: pcolmer@acorn.co.uk (Philip Colmer)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn,comp.sys.acorn.tech
Subject: Re: PostScript printing (was Re: RiscOS 3.1, Risc Development IDEFS)
Date: 29 Sep 92 10:41:01 GMT
Organization: Acorn Computers Ltd, Cambridge, England

In article <19013@acorn.co.uk> pcolmer@acorn.co.uk (Philip Colmer) writes:

>The new SWI that applications need to call is PDriver_DeclareFont
>(&80157):

Total bollocks, I'm afraid.

First of all, before calling PDriver_DeclareFont, check bit 29 of the
features word returned from PDriver_Info. If set, the
PDriver_DeclareFont call is supported and *must* be used (in order to
avoid the problems described previously). If not set, the call is not
supported.

Secondly, here is the correct description of the PDriver_DeclareFont
call:

   Entry: R0  = font handle or 0
          R1 -> font name if r0=0
          R2  = Flags
                 bit 0 set => DON'T download font if not present within device
                 bit 1 set => Kerning will be applied when this font is used.
   Exit:  -

 DeclareFont is only valid when there is an active job and prior to
 any draw page commands.

--Fil.

---------------------------------------------------------------------
        Practise random kindness and senseless acts of beauty
From: smb@cs.nott.ac.uk (Simon Burrows)
Subject: Re: That alleged bug with RO 3.10
Organization: Nottingham University
Date: Fri, 2 Oct 92 21:02:35 GMT

Here is a quote from Acorn Customer Services:

"RISC OS 3.1 TASK MANAGER

Problem: When displaying the info box on the task manager in RISC OS 3.1, if
MENU is selected over this window then an 'Abort on Data Transfer' error
occurs.

Answer: The reason why is that selecting menu over the info box would have
displayed a rolling demo of all the programmers involved in the development
of RISC OS 3. As this was removed from 3.1, unfortunately the removal left
this bug."

[I guess that this is the feature which can now be accessed by clicking
on the letters t-e-a-m]

Simon B.
From: Alber.Koelmans@newcastle.ac.uk
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn.announce
Subject: Additions and/or replacements on the Newcastle Info Server
Date: 6 Oct 92 07:32:05 GMT
Followup-To: comp.sys.acorn
Organization: Acorn Computers Ltd, Cambridge, England


I my previous posting I for got to include the file sizes, which are
important to many people - apologies for this....
In general, if no file size is given it will be less than 100K.

povray size is 153K
povscene size is 692K

New and updated software:

arcfs and arcfs_extra have been replaced by the latest version (0.54).

New software:
zap - a text editor with lots of features. by Dominic Symes.
      Note that this comes in the form of a compresses tar file.
      The size is 93K (just to show I haven't forgotten this time).




 
To retrieve a file from the archive, send a message to 
info-server@newcastle.ac.uk with the following content:

line-limit 1000
request: sources
topic: archimedes filename
request: end

where filename is replaced by the name of the file that you want.
A filename of 'index' will send you the latest index file.
A filename of 'tail_index' will send you the list of the last 50 files added
to the archive.

PLEASE MAKE SURE YOUR SOFTWARE IS VIRUS FREE BEFORE SENDING IT TO ME


--

E-mail address:  Albert.Koelmans@newcastle.ac.uk
Computing Science Department, University of Newcastle upon Tyne,
Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU, UK (telephone +44 091-2228155,fax 2228232) 

_______________________________________________________________________________

aglover@acorn.co.uk, moderator of comp.sys.acorn.announce. Submissions to
announce-request@acorn.co.uk, other related mail to announcer@acorn.co.uk.
From: Albert.Koelmans@newcastle.ac.uk
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn.announce
Subject: Additions and/or replacements on the Newcastle Info Server
Date: 2 Oct 92 13:32:09 GMT
Followup-To: comp.sys.acorn
Organization: Acorn Computers Ltd, Cambridge, England

New ray tracing software and scenes from (i.e. ported by) Pete Goodwin.
File names and descriptions are as follows:

        povray          POVray V1.0 - this replaces pvray 1.7.2
        dat2pov         Convert PVray Beta 0.5 scene
                        files to POVray V1.0 format.

                        *** NOTE ***
                        This has not been extensively
                        tested.

        Note that to return to desktop multitasking, press SPACE.

        povscene        about 1.5 megs of compressed scene files. Some
                        of these are impressive (eg fish13, snail) but
                        take a long time to run.


pvray has now been withdrawn from the archive.





 
To retrieve a file from the archive, send a message to 
info-server@newcastle.ac.uk with the following content:

line-limit 1000
request: sources
topic: archimedes filename
request: end

where filename is replaced by the name of the file that you want.
A filename of 'index' will send you the latest index file.
A filename of 'tail_index' will send you the list of the last 50 files added
to the archive.

PLEASE MAKE SURE YOUR SOFTWARE IS VIRUS FREE BEFORE SENDING IT TO ME


--

E-mail address:  Albert.Koelmans@newcastle.ac.uk
Computing Science Department, University of Newcastle upon Tyne,
Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU, UK (telephone +44 091-2228155,fax 2228232) 

_______________________________________________________________________________

aglover@acorn.co.uk, moderator of comp.sys.acorn.announce. Submissions to
announce-request@acorn.co.uk, other related mail to announcer@acorn.co.uk.
From: Albert.Koelmans@newcastle.ac.uk
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn.announce
Subject: Additions and/or replacements on the Newcastle Info Server
Date: 28 Sep 92 13:37:36 GMT
Followup-To: comp.sys.acorn
Organization: Acorn Computers Ltd, Cambridge, England



wapuro from the binaries newsgroup has been added to the archive.

New software:

ka9q - by Greg Stewart-Nicholls. Networking software, including tcp/ip.

spatience - a game by Jason Horsnell. Description:
    This is a program that allows the playing
    of a number of variations of the patience
    game.  It if fully animated etc etc, and
    allows users to create their own games.

 
To retrieve a file from the archive, send a message to 
info-server@newcastle.ac.uk with the following content:

line-limit 1000
request: sources
topic: archimedes filename
request: end

where filename is replaced by the name of the file that you want.
A filename of 'index' will send you the latest index file.
A filename of 'tail_index' will send you the list of the last 50 files added
to the archive.

PLEASE MAKE SURE YOUR SOFTWARE IS VIRUS FREE BEFORE SENDING IT TO ME


--

E-mail address:  Albert.Koelmans@newcastle.ac.uk
Computing Science Department, University of Newcastle upon Tyne,
Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU, UK (telephone +44 091-2228155,fax 2228232) 

_______________________________________________________________________________

aglover@acorn.co.uk, moderator of comp.sys.acorn.announce. Submissions to
announce-request@acorn.co.uk, other related mail to announcer@acorn.co.uk.
From: aglover@acorn.co.uk
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn.announce
Subject: New phone numbers at Acorn
Date: 2 Oct 92 14:27:24 GMT
Followup-To: comp.sys.acorn
Organization: Acorn Computers Ltd, Cambridge, England


As from Monday 5th October 1992, Acorn Computers Ltd will have a new
telephone System.  This will mean a change in telephone and
fax numbers, they are as follows;

       Telephone (both sites)    0223 254254

       Fulbourn Road fax         0223 254262
       Newmarket Road fax        0223 254270


_______________________________________________________________________________

aglover@acorn.co.uk, moderator of comp.sys.acorn.announce. Submissions to
announce-request@acorn.co.uk, other related mail to announcer@acorn.co.uk.
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
From: kortink@cs.utwente.nl (John Kortink)
Subject: Stop cross-posting !
Organization: University of Twente, Dept. of Computer Science
Date: Tue, 29 Sep 1992 12:32:51 GMT

mcg@waikato.ac.nz writes (twice, thrice ?) :

>For *everyone* out there trying to print using RO3.x printer manager, (this
>advice is direct from CC):-
>
>[... lengthy info deleted ...]

Could you stop cross-posting messages, and everyone else for that matter.
This stupid group split was not devised so people could go duplicating
on several groups. If you voted 'yes', then use it properly.


John Kortink

Student of Informatics at the University of Twente, The Netherlands
NETMAIL : kortink@cs.utwente.nl              DISCLAIMER : the usual
From: mcg@waikato.ac.nz
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: Riscos 3 for sale (?)y
Date: 1 Oct 92 19:23:37 +1200
Organization: University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand

In article <1992Sep30.225024.9288@csd.brispoly.ac.uk>, r_voisey@csd.brispoly.ac.uk (R Voisey) writes:
> In article <1992Sep28.220736.16000@mnemosyne.cs.du.edu> amell@nyx.cs.du.edu (Andrew P.Mell) writes:
> 
>>Aha, I have been meaning to knock up a switcher board, how did you do it?
>>you have a drawfile of the PCB layout by any chance? Bear in mind I can
>>only handle 2 layer/side PCB.. Or is there somewhere I can buy one from?
> 
> A friend of mine has done a commercial one, but isn't sure if the potential
> market will make it worthwhile.  He may show it at the BAU show, or he may
> not..
> 
> If anyone would be interested in such a product, email me!  NB I have no
> commercial interest in this.
> 
> Cheers
> 

I'd be interested in knocking up a PCB (so long as the layout is single sided 
and is either free or at modest cost ; i.e. below 5 quid).

It shouldn't be too hard to design a PCB, given the appropriate Pin outputs and 
hardware details from Acorn....the problem is trying to weasel this information 
out of them!  
From Martin Glanvill		(mcg@waikato.ac.nz)

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

----------------****=====| A quote to make your day |======****-----------------
Van Roy's Law:
	An unbreakable toy is useful for breaking other toys.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
From: kortink@cs.utwente.nl (John Kortink)
Subject: Re: Oh no ! More ....
Organization: University of Twente, Dept. of Computer Science
Date: Sat, 3 Oct 1992 12:59:41 GMT

Gavin.Flower@comp.vuw.ac.nz (Gavin Flower) writes :

>The difference, is that the other people made points in a manner that was
>reasonably well thought out, and free from personal attacks.  Mostly,
>they appeared to have read carefully what had already been said.
>Maybe you should contrast your approach with theirs.

You're really childish, Gavin.

This 'you don't read well enough' thing comes up time and again when
people can't 'win' their discussions and people keep disagreeing.
If you can accept the fact that there *can* be disagreement, you
don't need these infantile remarks. You used 'm 10 times now. People
just don't have to agree with your 'thruth' you know.

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.

Grow up, will you. A hefty argument is great, but it gets much too
personal this way. It's all a bunch of opinions you know. Nothing more.


John Kortink

Student of Informatics at the University of Twente, The Netherlands
(God, will I ever stop doing things 'on the side' and get it done?)
NETMAIL : kortink@cs.utwente.nl              DISCLAIMER : the usual
From: mhardy@acorn.co.uk (Michael Hardy)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: Riscos 3 for sale (?)y
Date: 2 Oct 92 13:37:53 GMT
Organization: Acorn Computers Ltd, Cambridge, England

In article <1992Oct1.192337.11167@waikato.ac.nz> mcg@waikato.ac.nz writes:

>It shouldn't be too hard to design a PCB, given the appropriate Pin outputs and 
>hardware details from Acorn....the problem is trying to weasel this information 
>out of them!  

There are Technical Reference Manuals available for all Archimedes
computers. These all include full circuit diagrams, component lists, etc. So
you don't have to 'weasel this information out': we've thought of you
already! See your Acorn supplier for more details...

- Michael J Hardy

  Technical Publications    Email:      mhardy@acorn.co.uk
  Acorn Computers Ltd       Telephone:  +44 223 214411
  Cambridge TechnoPark      Fax:        +44 223 214382
  645 Newmarket Road        Telex:      817875 ACORN G
  Cambridge CB5 8PB
  England                   Disclaimer: All opinions are my own, not Acorn's
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
From: pete@eo11.eoc.com (Peter Cockerell)
Subject: Re: Archimedes Demo *Competition* [Any one interested?]
Keywords: euro,demo,acorn,archimedes,arm2,memc1a,memc1,vidc2,cheese,beer,women
Organization: EO, Inc.
Date: Mon, 5 Oct 1992 23:19:56 GMT

In article <w41VRB2w165w@sideways.welly.gen.nz> Dave Sainty <terros@sideways.welly.gen.nz> writes:
>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.

You say that as though it's a bad thing, Graham. Isn't most programming
done outside of real commercial environments (and we ARE talking about
readers of comp.sys.acorn here, after all) done for the intellectual
satisfaction of it? Or for grade assignments, which is the same thing.
And anyway, most programmers are total wankers anyway, so I think the
term's doubly apt. Many :-)

Pete

PS I don't suppose you ever hear from B Bridgwater do you? Email if you
do. Cheers.
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
From: aglover@acorn.co.uk (Alan Glover)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: New email address for Tor Houghton
Date: 6 Oct 92 07:34:23 GMT
Organization: Acorn Computers Ltd, Cambridge, England

Please note that Tor Houghton (co-author of the Archimedes Virus
Reference Document, and author of !Scanner/Interferon) is now in the
UK.

The new email address is : torh@cogs.susx.ac.uk

Please do not use the bhodvedt@gollum.uio.no address any more.

Alan
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: Yes, more .....
From: jwil1@cs.aukuni.ac.nz (TMOTA)
Date: Mon, 5 Oct 1992 21:38:02 GMT
Organization: Computer Science Dept. University of Auckland

>>It should be borne in mind that John Kortink has a somewhat unusual
>>perspective on matters, simply because he's into image processing

>Then you haven't seen my BBS software, or PackDir, or any of my
>hardware designs for the Arc.

(no intention to offend. This is NOT a flame. Humour circuits on, please)

The above comment struck me as a bit funny, John...
The BBS software: A way of getting your hands on image files (or even better
of getting people to pay to give them to you!) ;-)

Packdir: a small application built around some well-written routines which
originated, if I am correctly informed, from your image-translating
software? ;-)

Hardware designs... like your um... video digitiser? ;-)

;-) ;-) ;-)

Actually, I think John's bias is towards the *type* of software that *does*
benefit from assembler implementation, rather than work on better algorithms.
A large proportion of desktop processing (indenting buttons when clicked
etc.) can be done fast enough from interpreted BASIC. Moving to C or asm
to make them faster is of no real benefit in terms of speed.

What I think is most important is finding those routines that the user
*notices* the execution time of (compressing 100kB with LZW, for example)
and then doing anything possible to immprove their speed. The first
step (IMHO) should be trying to find a better algorithm (if one exists),
and then if that still isn't fast enough, resort to assembler if you think
you can get more speed out of it. In the case of LZW, the benefits are
tremendous. In other cases, the benefits are so small that the programmer
might decide they aren't really worth the bother. Case in point: Translator
is not ALL written in assembler... some of it is in BASIC.

So it seems that maybe John, despite raving about assembler being the only
language to use, actually links his assembler routines into an easier-to-
program, higher-level language just like the rest of us...

I personally prefer C to BASIC for such frontends (at least for larger
projects - BASIC is excellent for desktop clocks and the like)
because it runs faster, and nobody can poke about in my source code.
But the instant I find myself _waiting_ for one of my programs to do
something, I start to think about how I might improve the speed... better
algorithms? cache calculated data? re-write in assembler?

So what are we all arguing about?

P.S. Malcolm Lithogow: I tried to reply to your email, but my attempts
bounced... so I'll just shut up! That should make you happy!
-- 
_________________  "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: gilbertd@p4.cs.man.ac.uk (David Alan Gilbert)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Risc OS 3.1 supplies
Date: 5 Oct 92 07:30:07 GMT

Hi - I was told that Risc User/Beebug/Risc Developments
have got about 300 RO3.1 supplies out of about 400.
Archive have got 65 out of 1000

And most small dealers have it.

So why are Archive (who I have ordered it from)
getting such a raw deal as far as supplies go - 
I know people who have cancelled from Archive, and I am tempted
to do the same - but there again they are the best Acorn dealers
I know?

Dave

-- 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- David Alan Gilbert - gilbertd@p4.cs.man.ac.uk - G7FHJ@GB7NWP                -
------(Programmers don't sleep - they just park their heads)-------------------
From: jroach@acorn.co.uk (Jonathan Roach)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: RISCOS 3.1 problems : CSD and configuration
Date: 28 Sep 92 16:14:17 GMT
Organization: Acorn Computers Ltd, Cambridge, England

Ah, here you have come across the tip of one of the more rocky icebergs
encountered during RISC OS 3 development. The problem you've encountered
stems from the changes made to support transparent access to foreign format
(DOS) floppies and partitions. This work required that FileSwitch know
exactly what file was being accessed so that it could get open any (DOS)
partitions as necessary. In order that this could be done all filenames are
converted by FileSwitch into a standard form - a path which includes the
disc name and $ and no wildcards - and this form is what the filing system
gets to see. Unfortunately some (IMHO badly implemented) filing systems
couldn't cope. Some filing systems wanted only THING::DISC.a.b.c and some
wanted only THING::DISC.$.a.b.c - note BOTH of these forms are perfectly
valid. This caused some problems, so, as a 'fix-it' FileSwitch grew a table
of filing systems which needed special handling - filenames supplied with $
got $ passed through, and filenames supplied without $ didn't get $ passed
to the filing system. Yeah, I know this is a real bodge, but it got many
filing systems working that were otherwise getting traumatised. The problem
you've encountered is mismatch between filing system and brave new world.

OK, what's the plus side of all these changes:

* a complete architecture to access foreign format floppies.
* CSD etc managed by FileSwitch and held in system variables (there's an
job for some bright spark to localise these system variables in taskwindows
so that multiple compiles can be done without major grief :-)
* Writing filing systems for RISC OS 3.1 is *MUCH* easier than RISC OS 2.
There's much of the legwork of the CSD and *Cat gunge taken out of your
hands.

--Jonathan

PS Yeah, OK, icebergs are made of ice, but I couldn't think of a better
adjective.