HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: ajdh@bnr.co.uk (Andrew J D Hurley)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: Heia guys: New flame war starting (ok, let's do it civilized...)
Date: 13 Oct 92 11:11:38 GMT
Organization: BNR Europe Limited, Harlow, GB

In article <19329@acorn.co.uk> enevill@acorn.co.uk (Edward Nevill) writes:
>In article <1992Oct9.115104.11559@cs.tu-berlin.de> aua@cs.tu-berlin.de (Daniel Tamberg) writes:
>
>>ARM700                         300  ps
>>64MB RAM                       640  ps
>>Disc drives (512MB SCSI & CD) 1100  ps
>>Graphics System                300  ps
>>16bit sound                    100  ps
>>Floptical drive                100  ps
>>Connectivity                   200  ps
>>Quietness                        0  ps
>>Bits & Pieces                  300  ps
>>----------------------------------------
>>SUM                           3040  ps
>
>How about adding in a few pounds for profit. Acorn is, after all, a
>commercial company:-)

True, but the prices quoted look like commercial rates to me and therefore
include profit. The only truly significant extra would be R&D so maybe
selling for 4000ps would be reasonable and a pretty good bargain too if
it is up to Acorn standards.

Throw in a high quality multi-scan (eq 16" trinitron like the one on
the Sun in front of me now) and you have a competition bashing workstation
package for less than 5k. It starts to look like a suitable platform for
serious business use, and cheap too.

As always it would be prudent to have a range of models starting at a low
end discless model (no HD or CD) and various models in between.




-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Andrew J D Hurley ,   <><         |  Email:   A.J.D.Hurley@bnr.co.uk
                                  |   or      Andrew.Hurley.EG40@bnr.ca
BNR Europe Ltd., London Road,     |  route:   uunet!ukc!bnr!ajdh
Harlow, Essex CM17 9NA, UK.       |  Phone:   +44 279 402535
From: julian@bridge.welly.gen.nz (Julian Wright)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: AKJ03 - Risc OS PRM
Date: Wed, 7 Oct 1992 06:44:11 +1200
Reply-To: wright_j@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz
Organization: USS Enterprise, NCC 1701a

pcolmer@acorn.co.uk (Philip Colmer) writes:

> NO! An Archimedes keyboard is NOT guaranteed to work. Apparently, BBC
> Acorn User tried it and it seemed to work, but the port on the A4 is
> only intended for use with an IBM keyboard.

Funny, I was at an official Acorn demo of the A4 a while ago and the only
external keyboards in use there were standard Arc ones. Working perfectly.
What is it about the port that makes it theoretically incompatible with a
standard Arc keyboard?

--
I'm here to chew gum and kick ass - and I'm all outta gum...
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
From: jabell@nyx.cs.du.edu (James Bell)
Subject: A7000
Organization: Nyx, Public Access Unix @ U. of Denver Math/CS dept.
Date: Sun, 11 Oct 92 16:16:10 GMT



Does anybody know the release date of the new high powered computer
from Acorn? I would like a change from my current machine, and these
Acorn machines do sound real interesting. I don't want to go and buy
one of these machines which were launched a few months ago when everyone
round here seems to know about these new power machines due out next
year. Unlike some people I need the 24 bit colour capability which will
be available with the VIDC20, and the power of the new RISC processor.
Some people even suggest 64 bit processing is a possibility with this
A7000 machine. Looking at your FAQ I see that the technology in the
current machines has been around for six? years, so it must be time
for something radical from Acorn. How big is the Acorn company? Do
they have the resources to produce something so amazing as I have
heard people say? How do people find out these things?
I hope that you can help me. I do not want to waste my money.
Sincerely,
James.
From: ics.aslater@Control.Com (Alastair M. Slater)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: Tierra (doesnt anyone else use this?)
Date: 10 Oct 92 12:33:03 GMT
Reply-To: ics.aslater@control.com
Organization: Industrial Computing Society

Dear All....

Having actually now managed to get !Tierra running on my machine I can now 
offer some hopefully helpful pointers for anyone else wanting to but having 
some bother - 
I think the easiest way is to roll your own makefile in the usual fashion by 
adding members  - the main tierra source requires everything in the 
!Tierra.source.c directory apart from arg and arg_inc -> do not include 
these in the Tierra !RunImage project otherwise you will have trouble with 
duplicate definitions. Run the make file for this - if you have trouble with 
the headers then transfer them to your riscos library directory and copy the 
sys headers given with tierra into that h directory - they then should open.
Having done this you should be able to link the whole lot together (dont 
forget riscos_lib and stubs object files) and get the !RunImage.
Lastly create a new project for arg - this requires o.stat and o.time (i 
think) as well as the riscos and stubs object files to be linked in.
The system should then run rather nicely - but it does slow down (as already 
mentioned) with more genotypes and later generations and if you want to 
leave it running then i think that about 4meg if disk space should keep it 
happy for a couple of hours..


Alastair.

Wot no email? Yup.
From: nicho@VNET.IBM.COM
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: Heia guys: (ok, let's do it civilized...)
Date: 15 Oct 92 08:12:25 GMT
Reply-To: nicho@vnet.ibm.com

In <9210150224.AA22858@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU> Malcolm Lithgow writes:
>Therefore the performance of the Alpha is unimpressive,
  Oh good grief. How on earth did you make this spectacular leap of
logic ?? That's like saying a Panda's performance isn't impressive,
ergo a Ferarri's isn't either, because an F1 can beat both.
>If you had done a bit of engineering, ..
 Don't try and teach your grandma to suck eggs boy, you just look stupid.
>-Malcolm.  lithgow@usl.com  These are merely my opinions.
 And exceedingly poorly thought out ones at that.
 -----------------------------------------------------------------
               ** 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: esutt@warwick.ac.uk (Andrew Edward Hersee)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: The in's and out's of that silly RO3.10 bug.
Date: 8 Oct 92 10:10:03 GMT
Organization: Computing Services, Warwick University, UK



Right then about that RO 3.1 bug everyone is talking about. The bug occurs
when you click with the menu button over Name:. I think it should work on
ALL RO3.1 machines since I know why it does it. Here is a quick description:

It is all due to the new
method used to start a scrolling message about the authors etc. I suggest you
dissasemble the task manager to find out what it is doing! I was confused as
to why it should crash out. What it does is take the x coordinate of the mouse
pointer and subtract the minimum x coordinate of the icon you clicked on. This
gives you the offset in pixels from the left of the icon. It then divides the
value by 32 to get the offset into the string and reads the character you
clicked on. Now if you click on Name: the Name: icon does not contain
Indirected text and thus when it tries to read the chracter it gets an invalid
pointer (actually the value of 'Name') from the indirection pointer and trys
to read the character by reading a byte  and hey presto, a dead task manager.

If you want to know more then load up your favourite dissasembler and find out
what you have to do to initialise the message:-)

I could post a bug fix but there's no point since who goes around clicking on
info windows with the menu button anyway???



Andrew Hersee
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: That alleged bug with RO 3.10
From: banksie@khantazi.welly.gen.nz (Philip R. Banks)
Date: Sat, 10 Oct 1992 20:28:34 +1300
Reply-To: banks_p@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz
  <1992Oct8.234928.3721@cs.aukuni.ac.nz> <1992Oct9.184308.1@vxdesy.desy.de>
Organization: My Arc.

burke@vxdesy.desy.de writes:

> In article <1992Oct8.234928.3721@cs.aukuni.ac.nz>, jwil1@cs.aukuni.ac.nz (TMOTA) writes:
> > But without a task manager, you can't get a CLI (unless you quit the desktop
> > entirely, in which case you might as well hit the reset button)... or at
> 
> As long as you still have a disc icon and can start an editor, you can create
> an obey file and execute it (or have I missed the point?)

   Better than that you can restart the Task Manager again. Quite simply by
having an Obey script like this :-

RMReinit TaskManager
Desktop

Thats it. Simple eh? And because you can create an obey file from edit you
can *always* make this if you don't have it at hand. So much for 'crashing
the machine'. 'Killing one task' would have been a far better description of
this bug.

    Philip

--
Philip R. Banks  Syntax: mail < banks_p@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz >            @@@@@/|
                                                                        @@@@/#|
                                                                        @@@/##|
Fate protects fools, little children and ships named Enterprise.        @@/---|
 ---Commander Riker, ST:TNG 'Contagion'                                 @/    |
From: adamd@rhi.hi.is (Adam David)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: That alleged bug with RO 3.10
Date: 8 Oct 92 12:19:49 GMT

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

>   Incredible how slow news propogation can be isn't it? I only get to see
>this 8 days after it was posted. One point to notice about it is that the
>report of the error *in no way* states that it will 'crash the machine'.
>This was the whole thrust of earlier postings on this bug 'report/rumour'.

Yes, but how do you get the Task Manager back without rebooting the machine?
F12 no longer does anything useful, and the only way to get a task window is
by loading an earlier version of !Edit from disc. What CLI commands can be
used to restore the Task Manager to normality?

--
Adam David. (adamd@rhi.hi.is)
From: sdaveyj@cc.curtin.edu.au
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: modem-program
Date: 16 Oct 92 02:26:18 GMT
Organization: Curtin University of Technology

> sdaveyj@cc.curtin.edu.au writes:
> 
>>heaps of features. (eg 115000 baud on A5000 multitasking downloading)
> 			^^^^^^
> Isn't that a little fast for a serial port only officially capable of 9600 bps?
> And modems capable of speeds in excess of 19200bps are a little scarce...
> 
> Or is this some dinky feature for transferring between 2 5000's via the
> parallel ports?

What Alfred did was to look at the data sheets for the fancy IO chip in the 
A5000 and found that it can do more than 19200. So he did it. It is serial
not parallel, and could be used to link two A5000's (or 30x0s together), 
I'm pretty sure it's 115000, in that region anyway.

The program detects which computer you are running on (A3000,310,ect or A5000)
and highlights appropiate possible configurations on the menu. Ie A3000 can 
do 1200/75 but the A5000 can't.

I hope that helps. I wish Alfred could answer personally but he dosen't 
have easy acccess to the net.
From: cs89jmb@brunel.ac.uk (Jason M Banham)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: 3D borders
Date: 15 Oct 92 13:51:30 GMT
Organization: Brunel University, Uxbridge, UK
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL6]

Thanks to the following peeps who mailed me with the info I needed:

johny@cogs.susx.ac.uk
gavinw@syma.susx.ac.uk
mhardy@acorn.co.uk
jrmt1@ukc.ac.uk
ainsjc@castle.ed.ac.uk

Apparently, with RO3.10 you now have *ToolSprites which needs to be substituted
for IconSprites in the original !SetIcons program.

The benefit is better speed (though watch out for mis-matched sizes of sprites)


Ta muchly

Jayce.

--

"I may be a shallow guy, but a shallow guy with a great ass!" - Cat, Red Dwarf
 
Jason "Archangel" Banham                Sequent Computer Systems UK
 					Product Support
Internet: aangel@sequent.co.uk
 	  cs89jmb@brunel.ac.uk
From: S.Hickinbottom@lut.ac.uk
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: OOP languages
Date: 7 Oct 92 17:53:01 GMT
Reply-To: S.Hickinbottom@lut.ac.uk (Stuart Hickinbottom)
Organization: Loughborough University, UK.

In article <1992Oct7.114709.3670@westminster.ac.uk> gpcec@westminster.ac.uk (Tom Kirby-Green) writes:
>Folks,
>	I'm sure this is a unoffical FAQ, but what the heck. Since I'm doing
>a module on Object Orientated Design I'd like to play with some of these
>concepts on the Arc in a language that has direct surport for 'em. What OOP
>languages are there. I remember a while back talk of C++ finally making an
>appearance ( first quarter next year? ). Are there existing languages.
>
>	Many thanks, Just trying to be, Tom
>
>-- 

I'll second this - I'm about to undertake the design and implementation of
a general processor simulator in C++, so I'd appreciate details of versions
for the Arc, and if that is not possible, which ones will run under the
emulator (Microsoft C/C++ 7.00 requires a 386, doesn't it?).

Thanks

Stuart


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                             Stuart Hickinbottom
                           Department of Computing
                    Loughborough University of Technology
                                   England 
                   email: S.Hickinbottom@loughborough.ac.uk
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: cs89jmb@brunel.ac.uk (Jason M Banham)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: !SoftPC
Date: 15 Oct 92 10:27:34 GMT
Organization: Brunel University, Uxbridge, UK
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL6]

Greetings,

Having just read an article about writing software emulators the term "!SoftPC"
cropped up.

I recall from a "recent" Acorn press release the mention of this piece of
s/ware and a claim that it gave enhanced PC emulation over !PCEm 

Does anyone have any information/specs on this?
Is it an Acorn or 3rd party product?

Is it vapourware?


Ta muchly,

Jayce.

[apologies if this Q has already been asked, but I've been in America for a
 couple of weeks ... approx the launch of the new machines/AUN etc...]

--

"I may be a shallow guy, but a shallow guy with a great ass!" - Cat, Red Dwarf

Jason "Archangel" Banham                Sequent Computer Systems UK
					Product Support
Internet: aangel@sequent.co.uk
	  cs89jmb@brunel.ac.uk
From: ssuferry@csug.cs.reading.ac.uk (James Michael Ferryman)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: RISC-OS 3.1 bug
Keywords: RISC-OS
Date: 7 Oct 92 11:40:22 GMT
Organization: University of Reading

Another bug in RISC-OS 3.1 (may also be present in 3.0) is concerned with
the Monitor configuration - the screensaver is initially defaulted to OFF.
Clicking on the advance icon increases the blanktime in 30 sec intervals.
If however you then go back to OFF it causes the blanktime to be 0 and thus
extremely irritating.  In other words, the lower bound is not set correctly.

Hope this helps.
From: phrwd@csv.warwick.ac.uk (Mr zianni)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: hard discs etc
Date: 9 Oct 1992 12:35:50 +0100
Organization: Computing Services, University of Warwick, UK
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: clover.csv.warwick.ac.uk

                Hi,
        I wish to buy the following:

    * cheap (even second hand) msync monitor for the A440/1
    * 100MB IDE/SCSI hard disc
    * 4MB ram for A3000
    * RISC OS 3.10 + 440 carrier board + HD floppy

        The prices for hard discs exc. P&P and VAT that I 've found
in Acorn Computing (Oct issue) are:

ORION                   105MB   SCSI int        305
ICS                     100MB   SCSI int        305
ALSYSTEMS               120MB   SCSI int        299
ARM TECH LTD            125MB   IDE  int        349
                                SCSI int        399
PYRAMID COMP SERV       105MB   IDE  int        280
                                SCSI int        285
DESKTOP PROJECTS LTD    105MB   IDE  int        305
                        125MB   IDE  int        359
WATFORD ELECTRONICS     100MB   SCSI int        325

        Obviously the cheapest is the ALSYSTEMS one. Does anybody know
this company? Are they good? Is their HD reliable?

        The prices for 4MB RAM exc P&P and VAT are:

ORION                   129
ICS                     140
PYRAMID                 130
DESKTOP PROJECTS        129
WATFORD                 125

        Has anybody come across any cheaper prices that those above for HD or
RAM? I 'd really appreciate it if someone in the group could let me know.

        Can anybody give me the cheapest price for the RO3 plus the board and
a HD floppy for the 440/1?

        By the way, I 'm selling my Watford RT Digitiser, PHILIPS 12'' mono
monitor and (former Serial Port) joystick i/f with joystick. If anybody is
interested contact me with offers in:

es216@uk.ac.warwick.eng


        Thanx, Jim.
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
From: dahe@cl.cam.ac.uk (David Elworthy)
Subject: Re: GNU software
Reply-To: dahe@cl.cam.ac.uk (David Elworthy)
Organization: U of Cambridge, England
Date: Thu, 15 Oct 1992 13:51:58 GMT

In article <martin.719075624@thed.uk22.bull.com>,
martin@thed.uk22.bull.com (Martin Percival) writes:
|> >> I got your email address from the README of the Ghostscript 2.4
release, I
|> >> hope you have some spare time to reply.
|> 
|> Just a quickie question...
|> 
|> Does this imply that GS2.4 is already converted, I could have sworn that the
|> version on Newcastle is earlier. Or am I just getting fuzzy in my old age!?
|> 
|> If the answer is yes to 2.4, how about 2.5.2 (didn't you just know that was
|> coming :-) )
|> 
|> Martin

Er...um... I think the last release I did was from the 2.3 sources. It
was a while back, and my brain's gone all fuzzy, so I can't quite
remember. I don't have plans to do a new release for a while. I have got
access to the 2.4 sources, but nothing will happen until at least when I
finish my PhD thesis, and maybe not even then.

-- david
From: S.Hickinbottom@lut.ac.uk
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: RISC-OS 3.10 Features
Date: 7 Oct 92 17:56:23 GMT
Reply-To: S.Hickinbottom@lut.ac.uk (Stuart Hickinbottom)
Distribution: uk
Organization: Loughborough University, UK.

In article <1992Oct7.135457.16121@rdg.dec.com> goodwin@edieng.enet.dec.com (Pete Goodwin) writes:
>
>In article <1992Oct7.095813.10753@cs.nott.ac.uk>, rsxdp@unicorn.nott.ac.uk (D.Pead) writes...
>>Ive seen talk about the "interface" style slabbed icons in RO3.1,
>>but some people may not have noticed that it also supports the
>>automatic pointer changing feature of "Interface".
>> 
>>Put the following in an icons validation string:
>> 
>>   Pspritename
>> 
>>...and when the cursor is over the icon, it changes to sprite
>><spritename> (which must be in the WIMP sprite pool and follow
>>the rules for pointer sprites).  Unlike Interface, you don't need
>>to modify your polling loop to make this work.
>
>I'll have to try this one!
>
>Unfortunately I think there's a bug in 3.1's 3d icons - a friend and I have
>descovered an Address Exception on Quitting applications written by us - the
>address is always in the Window Manager. I've not tracked down the fault as
>yet. The Address Exceptions disappears if we don't use 3d icons.
>
>Pete Goodwin
>goodwin@system.enet.dec.com

I think the problem here is to do with when you have the icons defined as
buttons which press down for a length of time. When you click the 'OK' button
to quit an application, for instance, the icon presses and the application
quits. A short time later the wimp decides the button should come up and
tries to mess with the window details in the RMA and hence crashes because
it is not there anymore.

Simple answer - don't make a button that can quit 3d!

Stuart


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                             Stuart Hickinbottom
                           Department of Computing
                    Loughborough University of Technology
                                   England 
                   email: S.Hickinbottom@loughborough.ac.uk
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: cs89jmb@brunel.ac.uk (Jason M Banham)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: ModeEx
Date: 8 Oct 92 15:06:55 GMT
Organization: Brunel University, Uxbridge, UK
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL6]

Having installed RO3.1 in my A410/1 I now find a most useful utility does not
work :-(

Of course I am referring to the module 'ModeEx' which simulates modes 20, 21
(and some others) on a standard medium res monitor.  
The question I want to ask is:

Does anyone have a RO3 compatible version ???


Cheers,

Jayce.

--

"I may be a shallow guy, but a shallow guy with a great ass!" - Cat, Red Dwarf

Jason "Archangel" Banham                Sequent Computer Systems UK
					Product Support
Internet: aangel@sequent.co.uk
	  cs89jmb@brunel.ac.uk
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
From: goodwin@edieng.enet.dec.com (Pete Goodwin)
Subject: Re: RISC-OS 3.10 Features
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation
Distribution: uk
Date: Thu, 8 Oct 1992 08:01:32 GMT


In article <1992Oct7.175623.13847@lut.ac.uk>, S.Hickinbottom@lut.ac.uk writes...

>I think the problem here is to do with when you have the icons defined as
>buttons which press down for a length of time. When you click the 'OK' button
>to quit an application, for instance, the icon presses and the application
>quits. A short time later the wimp decides the button should come up and
>tries to mess with the window details in the RMA and hence crashes because
>it is not there anymore.
> 
>Simple answer - don't make a button that can quit 3d!

The way I quit my application is via Quit on a menu. There's no 3d button used
here, so why should it look for window details?

Pete Goodwin
goodwin@system.enet.dec.com
From: ojg@crosfield.co.uk (oliver gunasekara)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: AU Meet
Date: 12 Oct 92 08:46:03 GMT
Organization: Crosfield Electronics, Hemel Hempstead, United Kingdom.

To the following and any one else who will be at the Acorn User Show :

Alexander L McLintock <alm@doc.ic.ac.uk>,
Andrew Hurley <A.J.D.Hurley@bnr.co.uk>,
Andrew P Mell <amell@nyx.cs.du.edu>,
Chris Marshall <cmarshall@acorn.co.uk>,
John "Lord Yak Da Hairy" Yeates <johny@cogs.susx.ac.uk>,
John Tytgat <tytgat@esat.kuleuven.ac.be>
Jon Harley <J.W.Harley@newcastle.ac.uk>,
Jonathon Roach <jroach@acorn.co.uk>,
Owen Smith <osmith@acorn.co.uk>,
Robert Voisey <r_voisey@csd.brispoly.ac.uk>,
Robert.Turner@brunel.ac.uk,
Roger Attrill <ra2@doc.ic.ac.uk>,
Sean Witham <switham@acorn.co.uk>,
Simon Burrows <smb@cs.nott.ac.uk>,
Simon Proven <sproven@cs.strath.ac.uk>,

>My current suggestion is to gather at the nearest bar to the Acorn
>stand at 12:00 on Saturday and then again at closing time for a pizza
>hunt.

I will be there wearing a DataStore T-shirt, with !Oly on the front. The
location 'nearest bar to the Acorn stand' seems a bit vague. How about
12:00 outside Morley Electroncs stand 48 wich is right in front of Acorn's.
And then we can go to the Bar.

See you there.
		Oly.

PS. I will be there from Thursday to Sunday, as I am staying a the Hilton.






-- 
|  /|Oliver Gunasekara BEng (Hons) | InterNET   ojg@crosfield.co.uk  | Acorns |
| /-|Crosfield Electronics Limited | JANET      ojg@uk.co.crosfield  | 32-bit |
|/  |  R&D Diagnostics Engineer    | phone  +44 (0442) 230000 x3853  |  ARM   |
|  *** Prune Juice - a warriors drink ---> ST TNG Yesterdays Enterprise ***