HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: r_voisey@kiwi.uwe.ac.uk (R Voisey)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn.advocacy
Subject: Re: Admin: Review of c.s.a.a's usefulness to date
Date: 16 Dec 92 10:38:55 GMT
Reply-To: r_voisey@csd.bristol-poly.ac.uk
Organization: The University of the West of England (The Magic Roundabout)

In article <Bz3prr.7xK@cs.vu.nl>, gpvos@cs.vu.nl (Gerben 'P' Vos) writes:

|> one minor peeve: some of the Acorn news releases seem a bit too commercial
|> to me. I think c.s.a.ann is a place for factual information, not a place where
|> advertising should take place.

The news releases seem to be standard press releases that also get sent to
SID and the Acorn support bulletin boards.  I don't suppose anyone at
Acorn has time to change them for c.s.a.a, and personally I'd rather read
the news as commercial prose than not at all.

Bob

--
  Robert J. Voisey  :  r_voisey@csd.uwe.ac.uk
         -- Probug Software Developments --
162 Staplehill Rd, Fishponds, Bristol, Avon, England
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn.advocacy
From: idg10@cl.cam.ac.uk (I.D. Griffiths)
Subject: Mode usage
Organization: U of Cambridge Computer Lab, UK
Date: Sun, 13 Dec 1992 03:09:39 GMT

Why do Acorn not really cater for people who might like to change mode once
in a while?

I run in one of two screen modes, spending about half my time using one
and half using the other.  Mode 31 (800*600 16 colour square pixels) and
Mode 102 (1200 ish by 500 ish, basically rectangular pixels, same horiz
res as mode 23, half the verticalr resolution and 16 colours.)

There is no way I could ever only use one of these modes all the time, since
they both have different points of merit and disadvantages, which
become relevant in different situations.  (Basically when I need high
resolution, or a large work area respectively, but that's not the only
issue.)

The problem is that Acorn seem to write making the assumption that users
will either always run in square pixel modes, or in rectangular pixel modes,
but never alternate, and so either one or other set of iconsprites gets
loaded, and it ends up looking duff in on of the modes.  Could there be
no provision for loading both sets?

This would not really be necessary if Acorn drew their sprites well, but
they give the impression of having gone out of their way to draw them to
look naff in at least one mode (frequently both.)  I'm not sure that the
square pixel sprites look better than the old rectangular ones, their
only plus being that they don't look quite as blocky.  This is stupid
since it is perfectly possible to edit the low res sprites in such a way
that they look exactly the same when sprite scaled down, but look good in
hi-res modes.  I have a set system sprites which look good in both modes and
have slowly been replacing all the sprites on my system with these, but I
don't see why Acorn haven't done this.  The alterations made to the hi-res
default sprites seem by and large to have been calculated to make them look
naff in rectangular pixel modes, rather than with a view to looking better
or anything.

Ian Griffiths
From: jamesh@aifh.ed.ac.uk (James Hammerton)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn.advocacy
Subject: Re: Extended BASIC
Date: 12 Dec 92 15:03:56 GMT
Reply-To: jamesh@aifh.ed.ac.uk (James Hammerton)
Organization: Dept of AI, University of Edinburgh, Scotland

In article <1992Dec10.133739.6131@odin.diku.dk>, torbenm@diku.dk (Torben
AEgidius Mogensen) writes:

# BTW, you already have pointers in BASIC V. In fact you have had them
# since the BASIC interpreter on the Atom. Do the operator names ? and !
# ring a bell? There is also an operator to access floating point
# numbers through memory addresses. And as for alloc(), DIM does that.

Yes, this is true, but there's no way of releasing memory, thus allocated,
leaving
a lot of memory managament to the programmer.Pascal does it a lot more
nicely(does
C?).
 
# What is needed to make BASIC as strong as C (or similar languages) is
# records and unions. These can be simulated using memory operators, but
# it is rather cumbersome and errorprone. As for naming of record
# variables, I suggest adding dots, like "person." etc. Accessing a
# field would be by "person.age" etc. This is similar to the naming of
# array variables as "a()" for access to the whole and element access by
# "a(12)".


I certainly would agree with this.

 
# 	Torben Mogensen (torbenm@diku.dk)

James

-- 
*  James Hammerton               *  If Pascal is equivalent to the     *
*  Email: jamesh@uk.ac.ed.aisb   *  mini-metro,then ML is the concept  *
*                                *  car where steering is done         *
*                                *  recursively using the gearstick.   *
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn.tech
From: idg10@cl.cam.ac.uk (I.D. Griffiths)
Subject: Re: Indirected icons in templates and resspr.
Organization: U of Cambridge Computer Lab, UK
Date: Sun, 13 Dec 1992 02:01:07 GMT

In article <1992Dec10.093501.25007@westminster.ac.uk>, gpcec@westminster.ac.uk (Tom Kirby-Green) writes:
|> Folks,
|> 	Can someone clear something up for me. Using the resspr library
|> ( Desktop C ) I've placed my application's iconbar-icon and window
|> icons in a Sprite file, now, in my Template I have sprite icons, button
|> type 3. BUT NOT indirected. When I do...
|> 
|> 	w_handle = template_syshandle( "legoWin" );
|> 
|> 	the icons appear ok. However, if I create a indirect sprite
|> icon in a template file, and then use the above to read the template nothing
|> appears (!!?!!).
|> How ( having dynamicly created a sprite area ) do I access the icon
|> definitions that follow the wimp_wind pointed to by w_handle. According
|> to the PRMs I need to get hold of the indirected icon's and plug in my
|> user sprite area before wimp_create_wind'ing the window.
|> 


Have you tried setting the sprite area in the window template definition to
point to your dynamically created sprite area?

How are you doing your indirected sprite exactly?  Is it an "Sspritename"
type thing in the validation string, or actually a direct pointer to the
sprite?  If the former you will definately need to have the sprite area
referenced in the template before creating the window, and if the latter,
it is still possible...


The way tto get to icon definitions is gettinga pointer to 88 + 32*icno
where icno is the number of the iccon you require.   The template_syshandle
does (I think) return you a pointer to an actual genuine Wimp_ type
window definition, so you can access it as you would in any convenient
language like assembler...  C will merely make things difficult for you
by being awkward about letting you do pointer maths.  Something like
this may work:

  icon = (wimp_icon *) (((char *) w_handle) + 88 + 32 * icno );

although I'm not sure if wimp_icon is the type you want, not having my
C manual to hand.

Ian Griffiths
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn.tech
From: jkh@whisker.lotus.ie (Jordan K. Hubbard)
Subject: Formation of working group to port GCC 2.3.2 to RISCOS
Organization: Lotus Development Ireland
Distribution: comp
Date: Sat, 19 Dec 1992 01:34:13 GMT

Hello,

As some of you know, I've recently taken up the task of adapting the
RISCiX port of gcc 2.3.2 to the RISCOS environment.  I'm currently
targeting 3.1, but I don't see any particular reason (at this time)
why it won't be equally usable under 2.0.

I've taken it up for four reasons:

1.  I already use gcc on daily 6 platforms (Amiga, 386BSD, SUNOS 4.1.2,
    HPUX, AIX & PC532/Mach) and very much enjoy being able to standardize
    on one compiler.

2.  I've got a fair bit of experience with gcc, having done the Symmetric
    port, and do a bit of ongoing work tweaking the PC532 version.  I've
    also been using it regularly since version 1.21.

3.  2.3.2 also supports C++, which is my current language of choice (despite
    its somewhat massive flaws :-) and I don't have many alternatives on
    the Archimedes.

4.  I'd really enjoy porting it to the Archimedes.

Now, this picture is unfortunately not without flaws.

For one, I'm a fairly new Arch user and have a lot to learn about the
system (and my 3.1 PRMS have not yet arrived - ARGH).  I'm hoping to
find other people who know a lot about AOF format to deal with the
issues of linkage and libraries.  I am currently working with the
author of !AS (who is somewhat busy at the moment) to more closely
target his assembler.  This is really not a problem for me, and I feel
confident that I can beat gcc into generating code that !AS largely
likes.  The problems will arise when it comes time to link the objects
together.  This is where I'm hoping other folks can come to my rescue
with a GPL/PUBLIC DOMAIN solution.  Saying we should use Acorn's
linker isn't going to cut it - the entire development system MUST be
available to anyone, completely free of charge.

Secondly, I have limited time, with several other GNU/PD projects
rotting in my "in box" that I really need to spend some time on as
well.  I will not be able to work full time on this, but I am willing
to coordinate and harass members of the group often enough to ensure
that progress doesn't grind to a complete halt! :-)

I think we have a very good start with the RISCiX port, and I'm quite
comfortable with hacking on the back end of 2.3.2.  Let's get gcc on
the Arch and finally have a decent C development environment that
doesn't cost and arm and a leg.

Comments?

					Jordan

--
Jordan Hubbard		Lotus Development Ireland	jkh@whisker.lotus.ie
I DO NOT SPEAK FOR LOTUS - IT HAS PLENTY OF LAWYERS TO DO THAT FOR IT ALREADY
From: mckay_g@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn.tech
Subject: Re: ObjAsm: Conditional includes
Date: 20 Dec 92 18:42:24 NZST
Organization: Welligton City Council, Public Access.
NNTP-Posting-Host: kosmos.wcc.govt.nz

If you want to do conditional includes in objasm/aasm you need to do someting
like the following (can't be too sure if the is exactly right because my
manuals are on the other side of the world!)


; File to define register names

   [ :NOT::DEF:regs

   GBLL regs


r0 RN  0
r1 RN  1
    .
    :

;  <stuff to include>

   ]

   END

I seem to recall that this does the trick.

Rob

Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn.tech
From: altman@cryton.demon.co.uk (Hugo Fiennes)
Subject: Re: lha de-archiving 
Distribution: world
Organization: The Serial Port
Reply-To: altman@cryton.demon.co.uk
X-Mailer: Simple NEWS 1.90 (ka9q DIS 1.19)
Date: Fri, 18 Dec 1992 17:00:15 +0000

In article <robg.724585152@citr.uq.oz.au> robg@citr.uq.oz.au writes:

>amclintock@cix.compulink.co.uk ("Cray Communications, Alex McL") writes:
>>> I am in need of a utility to de-archive lha compressed files.
>
>>> Do any versions of Spark or arcfs handle these?
>>Not that I know of.
>
>Yes.  The version of spark I have does work on *some* lharced files.
>
>>> Or is there any other program in the public domain?
>>Yep! there is a simple lharc de-archiver. 
>
>This archimedes lharc program does *not* unarc some methods.  I have
>found this while trying to unarc tracker files.  I ended up having to
>use the DOS lharc under the PCEm :-(
>
There are later versions that handle up to -lh5- files, and the most
recent SparkFS does -lh5- archives aswell.

Hugo

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                     "Did I say that? My lips didn't move..."
Hugo Fiennes - The Serial Port                      altman@cryton.demon.co.uk
                                                or altman@cix.compulink.co.uk
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: kers@hplb.hpl.hp.com (Chris Dollin)
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 1992 09:43:13 GMT
Subject: Re: CFD: Icon names in templates
Organization: Hewlett-Packard Laboratories, Bristol, UK.
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn.tech

In article ... wsinda@wsintt02.info.win.tue.nl (Dick Alstein) writes:

   * A standard for icon names, defining their maximum length and
   the way they are stored in a template file. This means that the
   file format of template file must be extended. The current
   format definition does have room for such an extension.

I suggest the maximum length for an icon name be at least 255. 65535 is
another plausible limit. Essentially ``as big as you ferreting like''.

--

Regards, Kers | "Once   I would have been glad   to have made your acquaintance
Renaissance:  | Now   I feel the danger   brought about   by circumstance."
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn.tech
From: /G=Owen/S=Smith/O=SJ-Research/ADMD=INTERSPAN/C=GB/@mhs-relay.ac.uk
Subject: EPS files
Organization: Yale CS Mail/News Gateway
Date: Mon, 14 Dec 1992 12:40:10 GMT

pwatson@lincoln.gpsemi.com (Philip Watson) wrote:

>In article <1992Dec7.182144.12837@aston.ac.uk> Mik Davis,
>davism@uhura.aston.ac.uk writes:
>>  Can MSWord on a Mac not read Postscript files? - I was intending to
>use this
>>method myself to transfer some work done during the university vacation.
>Can
>>it be done?

>Well I've just tried it on a copy of Word 5.0 for Macintosh and it will
>load
>EPS files but not plain Postscript. (Maybe it's an extra cost option.)

I just thought I'd point something out here, as it may be of interest. The
Acorn PostScript printer drivers (both RISC OS 2 and 3) always generate EPS
files if the output is a single page. If the output is multi-page, then you
get a standard PostScript file. Some programs which can import EPS don't
like the version numbers quoted by the RISC OS 2 driver though. This can be
fixed by a quick edit to the output, or even the printer driver module
(since finding the string with !Edit isn't hard).

Owen.
From: CDLatham@cen.ex.ac.uk (C.D.Latham)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn.tech
Subject: Re: TCP/IP
Date: 18 Dec 92 16:47:05 GMT
Organization: Computer Unit. - University of Exeter. UK

In article <ARM200-921214130212-4DA1D7C*@MHS> /G=Owen/S=Smith/O=SJ-Research/ADMD=INTERSPAN/C=GB/@mhs-relay.ac.uk writes:

[ ... about TCP/IP software problems ... ]

Yes, you are partly right there Owen in that there are several patched
versions on the internet module and the original unpatched one all
with the same number 1.01!  Finding the right one to go with a given
combination of ethernet board, nfs and vt220 is a time consuming
business as I found out the other day helping a colleague.  Added to
that the Acorn ethernet III boards are almost, but not quite identical
to the Atomwide ones.

We got it going in the end by trying every possible permutation but
were not helped by a very nasty interaction with RISC OS 3.1 and
!Protracker which I wrote about the other day.  Everything fails with
internal errors and its impossible to mark the ethernet interface `up'
afterwards.  Only a delete-power-on reset will fix it - anything less
severe results in more internal errors.

There are still quite a few TCP/IP bugs and bits of bad design which I
have moaned [directly] to Acorn about for the last year.  Here's one
for starters:-

Run !VT220 and !NFSFiler.  Open a telnet connection with !VT220 and
login somewhere.  Now mount a directory with !NFSFiler and notice that
the cursor vanishes in the vt220 window with no obvious way of getting
it back.  Clicking on the window gives it the input focus but no
cursor.  Now if you think that is odd, select something in the window,
click menu and observe that option Select->Type is greyed out and
inoperative!  Click select to clear the selection and the cursor
magically returns.  Now everything works as it should.

The TCP/IP manuals are rather weak in some places; for example setting
up the NFS printer doesn't have the vital instruction that you must
export directory /var/spool/pcnfs to your Acorn machines.  Ftp is
implemented very poorly - a filer style interface would be best or at
least the option of command line operation instead of those messy
menus.  The menu doesn't stay up with click adjust sometimes when it
ought to which makes it even worse.

I could go on but won't bore you with the other niggles.  The TCP/IP
software is nearly very good but just misses the mark somehow.  It
certainly isn't one of Acorn's best efforts which are usually
excellent in my opinion.

--Christopher.
From: mhw@minster.york.ac.uk
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn.tech
Subject: Trouble with Morley SCSI card under RISC OS 3.10
Date: 20 Dec 92 13:20:12 GMT
Organization: Department of Computer Science, University of York, England

I'm having a little trouble with my system now that I've moved to
RISC OS 3.10. When I try to dismount floppy disks the machine will
sometimes hang completely (i.e. the mouse pointer doesn't move and
the break key won't work). Some comments I've read have suggested this
is due to early versions of the SCSI software for the Morley card.

Can anyone confirm this connection - I've noticed that my hard disc
seems to mount and dismount itself at will (the name under the icon
keeps changing) but I'm not sure what's causing the problem.

The SCSI modules from the EPROM on the card have the following
version numbers:
SCSIDriver	1.07
SCSIFS		1.05
SCSIFiler	1.05
Do recent versions of the software exhibit these problems?

I've got slightly later versions of the software (1.08, 1.07 and 1.06
from memory) on the support disk that comes with the card, but I can't
seem to replace the modules downloaded from ROM with copies from the
hard disk. The newly loaded SCSIFS just refuses to recognise the disk,
giving "Please insert disk '...'" messages. Any ideas how to replace
the older modules at boot time?

-Mark.
From: pwatson@lincoln.gpsemi.com (Philip Watson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn.tech
Subject: Re: Impression file format
Date: 15 Dec 92 17:21:41 GMT
Organization: GEC Plessey Semiconductors
X-Xxmessage-Id: <A753C5B467017097@mac_ldc1.lincoln.gpsemi.com>
X-Xxdate: Tue, 15 Dec 92 23:26:12 GMT
X-Useragent: Nuntius v1.1.1d12

In article <921215002947@avistic.demon.co.uk> Lorcan Mongey,
lorcan@avistic.demon.co.uk writes:
>In article <1992Dec8.112419.19538@aston.ac.uk> davism@uhura.aston.ac.uk
>(Mik Davis) writes:
>
>> Actually, this is getting to be a rather acute problem. Does anyone
>> know of any way of transferring files from an arch. to a Mac running
>> MSWord whilst retaining at least some of the layout.
> 
>Have you tried the Impression Business Suppliment? I believe it does
>import/export in various PC-world formats.

Looking at the entry for the Impression Business Supplement in the
Latest Acorn Product directory (Page 71) It says...

"The Impresseion Business Supplement includes
utilities for mail-merging, Expression-PS, and
loader modules for several PC and Macintosh
applications.
.
.
.
The loader modules are for PC and Macintosh applications,
including Microsoft Word (RTF), WordPerfect 4.2, 
WordStar 4.0, and PipeDream. They enable files from these
applications to be loaded directly into Impression,
complete with many text attributes (such as bold, underline,
font face/size)."

I think the key phrases are:-
1)    "loaded", no mention of export.
2)    "many text attributes", not full support for RTF etc

I guess the latter would legitimately be difficult to expect.

====================================================================
Philip Watson			Tel:   (0522) 500500 (switchboard)
GEC Plessey Semiconductors	Tel:   (0522) 502210
Doddington Road			Fax:   (0522) 502393 (Dept Fax)
Lincoln LN6 3LF			GNet:  Code 595
England				EMail: pwatson@lincoln.gpsemi.com.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
"Fabricati Diem, Pvnc"		Standard disclaimer applies
====================================================================
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn.tech
Subject: Re: BBC Fonts
From: jwil1@cs.aukuni.ac.nz (TMOTA)
Date: Mon, 14 Dec 1992 22:13:48 GMT
Organization: Computer Science Dept. University of Auckland

ijp@doc.ic.ac.uk (Ian Palmer) writes:

>How can you load a set of BBC Fonts (say in your boot sequence)
>without getting a teak window saying 'Press SPACE or press a mouse
>button...'? (or without a task window at all).

If in your boot sequence, the answer is simple: *Print the font
*before* you invoke the desktop in your !Boot (or !Boot.!Run) file.

e.g. to quote from my !Boot (which is an application, containing a
!Run file and all my boot resources...) !Boot.!Run:

  IconSprites <Boot$Dir>.!Sprites
  Print <Boot$Dir>.Font

  Set Free$Path <Boot$Dir>.Resources.Free., <Free$Path>
  Set Wimp$Path <Boot$Dir>.Resources.Wimp., <Wimp$Path>
  |(etc)

  desktop <Boot$Dir>.AutoRun
-- 
_________________  "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.tech
Subject: Re: CFD: Icon names in templates
From: jwil1@cs.aukuni.ac.nz (TMOTA)
Date: Mon, 14 Dec 1992 22:34:54 GMT
Organization: Computer Science Dept. University of Auckland

wsinda@wsintt02.info.win.tue.nl (Dick Alstein) writes:

>This posting is a Call For Discussion.
[long description of tags for icons in template files deleted]

(Now that's what I call net-friendly quoting!)

You may be interested to know that somebody (whose name escapes
my swiss-cheese memory) is writing a new template editor, called
!Glazier (from scratch). It's very beta prerelease at the moment,
but is very good, and extremely promising...

But there is more... He has got an official file allocation from
Acorn for a new template file format, with the hope of making a
new template format, as well as releasing C code (or possibly even a
module) to allow programs to load the new template format and
'emulate' all the new features by a combination of new code
and use of existing WIMP constructs.

Some of the ideas i have seen/suggested for this format are:
  Tagged format which is upgradable - Acorn's format is a little restrictive
  as it is basically just a core dump... ;-)

  New 'meta-icons' for example, a 'slider' icon that is designed in the
  template editor, and used as a single icon in the program, but is actually
  defined in the window as a pair of WIMP icons... ALL the handling of these
  types of icons will be transparent to the user/programmer, thus giving
  the appearance of a much higher-level of icon capabilities.

  Tagged icons. Refer to each icon by a unique name-tag

  Extra information on icons stored in the template (e.g. "If this icon is
  clicked, shade that icon", etc)

  Incorporation of menu templates: Tagged menu items are used, so the
  menu structure can be edited (put the quit item as a subitem of the 'file'
  submenu if you like), but the program will still respond to a click on
  'quit' by quitting...
  Inclusion of support for ESG groups of tickable menu items, etc.

  Incorporation of hot-key definitions

Thus, the template format would allow editing of a much greater amount of the
interface without having to alter the program at all. Ideally, you should
be able to radically alter the look & feel of the application, it's menus
and key-bindings, ALL with a single template editor package.

So any suggestions I will collect and pass on to him if he doesn't get them
for himself...
-- 
_________________  "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)