HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: D.S.Walker@bradford.ac.uk (Simeon Walker)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: PC Emulator 1.8
Date: 14 Apr 92 10:30:31 GMT
Organization: University of Bradford, UK
Originator: 91909178@ccw401

In article <1992Apr13.082729.11087@newcastle.ac.uk> 
Albert.Koelmans@newcastle.ac.uk (Albert Koelmans) writes:

...

>I have never been able to run *any* version of the PC Emulator on my machine
>(a standard 310 with Watford 5.25 floppy interface fitted). It just hangs
>whenever I start it up. Has anyone had the same problem? Any hints about what
>could be wrong?
>
>Albert

I remember that version 1.34 used to hang while it was starting up if I
had left other programs had left some modules running. I just used to add
any module I could think of (but not the ones there when I turned it on :-)
to the list of ones the PCE kills when starting up. I don't think it liked
!StrongEd either.

Unfortunately for you I have never seen any problems with later versions,
apart from not having enough memory to run the PCE with anything else.


-- 
Sim. ----------------------------------------------------------- Simeon Walker,
----------------------------------------- Department of Electrical Engineering,
D.S.Walker@bradford.ac.uk -------------------- University of Bradford, England.
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: help! checkmap fails
From: epoo1@cs.aukuni.ac.nz (Edouard Malachi     Poor           )
Date: Thu, 9 Apr 1992 05:35:04 GMT
Organization: Computer Science Dept. University of Auckland

In <18ZtJTj013n@khantazi.welly.gen.nz> banksie@khantazi.welly.gen.nz (Philip R. Banks) writes:

>> Speaking of caches, my ADFSBuffers setting of 256 may have messed PackDir
>> up -- I'll try it with no ADFSBuffers. (I do have the latest version.)

>  It could be a tad excessive. Just to be cautious with ADFSBuffers (as
>Acorn people have freely admitted it does have bugs in the RO2 version) I
>would only set it as high as 64. I personally favour 4 but haven't done any
>speed or performance tests to reccomend this. Actually I would be interested
>if anyone has done some tests and what kind of values work out well...

I personally prefer 0 as it makes that filecore in use error go away...

Nice to know I can't turn it on with the 5000's either :-( But at least Acorn
has come out with an exiting new bug to replace the worn out old one...

Edouard Poor
(imagine .sig here)
From: lithgow@uslp.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Sound ( Was Re: New machine )
Date: 9 Apr 92 05:59:16 GMT
Article-I.D.: ucbvax.9204090931.AA10969

[In message "Sound ( Was Re: New machine )", Kim Gunnar St|vring yhus writes:]
> [Lots of stuff about sound handling which is presumably accurate.]

I stand corrected. Sorry.

- Malcolm.
lithgow@usl.com
This is obviously not an opinion, but it is mine.
From: switham@acorn.co.uk (Sean Witham)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: >>>>>>>New !Creator
Date: 16 Apr 92 11:22:56 GMT
Distribution: comp
Organization: Acorn Computers Ltd, Cambridge, England

In article <19834.9204131353@susssys1.rdg.ac.uk> ssurawls@susssys1.reading.ac.uk (Mister E) writes:


>I should imagine that you will need to send your UIN to a software house that
>has written the program you want, and they will code it into the program. Then
>it will only run on the machine that you bought it for. As far as I can
>remember, you are not allowed even to run the program on your other archie if
>you have one.


 As I mentioned before this hardly seems fair. Most people regard a peice of
software that they have purchased the same way they would regard a watch. You
can only use it on one arm at a time but it's up to you which arm you use it
on. Should someone wish to lend it to a friend to use on their arm then fine,
it just means while their friend has it they themselves can't use it.

_________________________________________________________________________

Sean Witham (Xeno)     JANET: switham@uk.co.acorn or xeno@uk.ac.city.cs

The above is my own personal view, as long as it doesn't get me into
any trouble. Any facts are given in good faith I take no responsibilty
for their use, in fact I'd be very surprised if you can understand it
at all after my English/Spelling.
From: lithgow@uslp.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: help! checkmap fails
Date: 6 Apr 92 04:04:10 GMT
Article-I.D.: ucbvax.9204060724.AA18880

[In message "Re: help! checkmap fails", Philip R. Banks writes:]
>    The Free Space Map is a wonderful piece
>of work. Very very clever with built in anti-fragmentation features.
>Wonderful! However as it is a bit stream of data determining where
>errors are is difficult. This is one thing, is the Arc unique for having the
>only filing system that de-fragments *as* it is being used?
>
>    Philip

Is it my imagination, or are Philip and I, and the Acorn employees, the
only Acorn-computer-lovers in this group? ;-)

Anyway, there is at least one other filesystem that does on-the-fly
defragmentation. It's an *optional* FS for SVR4 UNIX, called the Veritas
File System. This system provides lots of other goodies (disk mirroring,
striping, etc.) but is most definitely not standard equipment (I wouldn't
know how much a binary would cost you, but the source is tens of
thousands). And this is on an OS that costs $1000 in binary!

A few months back I lauded ADFS's wonderful structure. It's internals are
pretty impressive (and I've used it error-free for years, unlike UNIX
FS's, which dirty their pants, sometimes fatally, whenever the system
crashes, ie. regularly -- this is another thing that Veritas gets rid
of.) But people on comp.sys.acorn didn't seem to appreciate it, and
prefered whinging about all their little niggles, as if they were the end
of the world.

Ah, well. Just so long as Acorn keep making good products, I'm happy.

- Malcolm.

lithgow@usl.com

UNIX is a registered trademark of UNIX System Laboratories, Inc.

These are my opinions. But I don't shoot people who try to steal them.


--- End of forwarded message from postmaster
From: flimm@ph-cip.uni-koeln.de (Oliver Flimm)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: gnuplot (and gcc) for the arc?
Date: 8 Apr 92 12:08:52 GMT
Distribution: comp
Organization: Institute of Theoretical Physics, University of Cologne, F. R.
	Germany

Hi,

is there yet a port of gnuplot available for the arc. If so, where can I get 
it from? In addition, is there a port of gcc available?

Thanx in advance

Oliver
--
._____________________________________________________________________________.
|    Oliver Flimm, Cologne, Germany      e-mail: flimm@ph-cip.uni-koeln.de    |
|                                                                             |
|    You can tell how far we have to go, when FORTRAN is the language of      |
|    supercomputers...                                 - Steven Feiner -      |
|_____________________________________________________________________________|
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: New machine
From: jwil1@cs.aukuni.ac.nz (TMOTA)
Date: Mon, 6 Apr 1992 22:12:24 GMT
Organization: Computer Science Dept. University of Auckland

nbvs@cl.cam.ac.uk (Nicko van Someren on ely.cl.cam.ac.uk) writes:

>Having been closely following items about this subject I have a good idea for
>a new machine from Acorn:

>	An ARM9000 (or similar) with 500MIPS and 300MFLOPS
>	Multiprocessor support built into the base machine
>	A minimum of 32MB of RAM, expandable to 2GB, accessed at 50ns
>	16MB of video RAM to give a 2000x1500x32bit display
>	RISC OS 7 withall the features of RISC OS 3, UNIX SVR4, Windows NT
>	Telepathic user interface (no mouse ball to get fluff in...)
>	List price to be competitive with an Atari ST

You don't mention the cache the processor will need... The disparity between
the processor (500MIPS + 300MFLOPS) which if I'm not mistaken is a cycle time
of less than 2 ns, and the memory (50ns) seems a little drastic, to say
the least... So why not use an 1 MB cache (dual-ported to allow FP and
integer operations to execute in parallel)... Should be available by the
end of April at W.H.Smiths for about GBP $3.99 if rumours are correct...

I also feel you are skimping on the video side of things a bit... Anything
less than 4096x4096 just doesn't make the grade in my work-ampitheatre.

And don't forget that it should have a pair of joystick sockets.

;-)

-- 
_________________  "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
Subject: DSEdit && A5000's
From: jwil1@cs.aukuni.ac.nz (TMOTA)
Date: Mon, 6 Apr 1992 22:22:50 GMT
Organization: Computer Science Dept. University of Auckland
Keywords: DSEdit, A5000

A few people have been having problems using DSEdit on A5000's.
I assumed that the (rather crappy) sound driver code it uses was to blame,
but it turns out that this is not the case at all...

The problem is very simple, and extremely easy to fix. (It's another "My GOD!
Did *I* really write *THAT*?!?!?")

In the main !RunImage program, there is a line that starts *CHA.
...if this line is changed to start *CHANNELVOICE instead, aparrently the
program runs fine... (I have not been able to test this).

This is because *CHA. is an abbreviation for ChannelVoice under RISC OS 2,
but some other nasty RISC OS 3 command intercedes, causing problems...

The bug actually hails from the days when DSEdit was running under Arthur,
as after I got RISC OS 2.00 (and found that ACCESS had changed from A. to AC.
(Arrgh!)) I started using the full *command in all my programs to ensure
future compatibility... honest!

I hope this helps those who are wanting to use DSEdit on 5000's...
If it works, then perhaps somebody would be kind enough to either fix the
version on Newcastle, or add a text file explaining the fix? Thanks.

-- 
_________________  "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: martin@thed.uk22.bull.com (Martin Percival)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: RO3 bug report forms
Date: 14 Apr 92 08:38:58 GMT
Distribution: comp
Organization: Bull HN Informations Systems Inc.

Many thanks for the form Alan, I will keep it safe this time!

As for my origianl reason for requesting it.....well it looks like I may have
to throw it open to the net anyway, since it may have been spotted by more
than one person with an A5000.

My original problem was related to the use of HD IBM format disks. I was loading
a file from the diskette into an application to see if I still wanted to keep
the data, and then deleting it if it was of no further use. I found that after
the deletion, the next file loaded into the same application took substantially
longer than normal to load. E.g. a file that took 10 secs went up to 1.5 mins!

After finally loading successfully, I tried it again with the same file, and it
loaded again in 10 secs. I then tried the whole procedure again : delete a file,
try loading a different (randomly chosen) file, same slow result. So I then
tried a dismount-remount sequence immediately after the deletion, and this got
the loading speed back up to normal. My initial feeling about the whole thing is
that the file system gets somehow "confused" about where a given file is on 
disk after a deletion has occurred, but I can't explain the slow access rate.

The only problem is that I can no longer duplicate the problem. I thought I'd
better try loading into an Acorn standard app (Edit in this case) to try to
narrow the problem down. All worked fine, so I went back to the original app to
try to lay the blame at it's feet...and that worked fine too!! So, some time
during my last session with the A5000 I did something that changed the way
diskette access works for IBM style diskettes. Hmm...tricky :-)



This is an open invitation for someone else with an A5000 to tell me I'm not
going completely round the bend!                 

(Or maybe I am......exit stage left cackling and rubbing hands)

Martin
From: dmf@aber.ac.uk (Darren Michael Forbes)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: >>A5000 disc format recognising
Date: 16 Apr 92 10:07:54 GMT
Organization: University of Wales, Aberystwyth

> stephenm@p4.cs.man.ac.uk (M. B. Stephens) writes:
>
>>> ssurawls@susssys1.reading.ac.uk (Mister E) writes:
>
>>>A PC owning friend gave me some discs to for me to put some JPEGs on for
>>>him.  He gave me ten discs. On each of those discs was parts of Word for
>>>Windows, takes up about 15 discs! Try running it on anything less than a 4
>>>meg machine and you are in trouble. My friend has an 8 meg PC with 32 meg
>>>virtual memory, and still the programs are always swapping out of memory.
>
>I use a 2Meg single floppy PC (386sx) with Word for Windows and MicroGrafx
>Designer (better than Draw but EXPENSIVE) running on a network (so add the
>network drivers to the DOS & Windows 3 overheads). With both programs active
>in memory, one holding a 100 page document and the other a simple A4 size
>line drawing, there is NO swapping.
>
  This is impressive.  We have a 4Mb 386dx mounted on an ethernet network
and it swaps like crazy when running more than one app at a time.  I
just started Word 2.1 and left it running with an empty document.  Then I
shrank it's window down a little and scrolled the program manager window.
Result?  Rattle rattle rattle, the hard disk swaps like mad.  Now this
could be poor configuration you may say but there are around 50 PC's on
this campus running the same software and the computer unit has been trying
for months to improve performance.  I for one would be glad to know
how your PC is configured.

>The ARC is still a better machine but this box I keep next to my computer
>went BEEP BEEP BEEP when I read the above.
>
>Mark.
>stephenm@p4.cs.man.ac.uk
-- 
Darren Forbes  | "Wooden mice know what's nice;    |
dmf@uk.ac.aber |  sawdust cheese and maple spice." | 
dmf@aber.ac.uk |           - The Bones Of The Moon |
From: rogersh%p4@uk.ac.man.cs (rogersh)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Risc OS 3 - New SWI needed
Date: 15 Apr 92 11:50:34 GMT
Organization: Department of Computer Science, University of Manchester UK


	A new SWI is desperately needed in RO3. It may already have been
added on A5000s but I don't have access to any documentation for RO3.
Basically on several occasions I have needed to be able to resolve a
generic file path into a fully rooted GSTrans'd one. I.e. I want
a SWI that converts an arbitrary filename with @, \, device specifiers,
special fields, FS specifiers or whatever in any combination into
a fully rooted GSTransed filename that is independent of the current
FS, CWD URD PSD LIB selections, etc. I.e. passing "@" would
get the current working directory. Note this SWI would have to cope
with special devices like kbd: as well.

	It's possible (though computationally extremely expensive
and very awkward) to do this manually under RO2 - it would be very
much easier for FileSwitch to export this information (which it already
maintains) rather than hiding it from the user.

	-Huw

[ H.J.Rogers  INTERNET: rogersh%p4@cs.man.ac.uk                    ]
[    ,_,      JANET: rogersh%p4@uk.ac.man.cs                       ]
[  :-(_)-o   "I'll be back..."                                     ]
[   _} {_    "Computer Science is an engineering discipline."      ]
From: torq@hal.gnu.ai.mit.edu (Andy Mell)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Unix on the Arc
Date: 14 Apr 92 00:17:58 GMT

Hullo,

        If youve had your eyes on the PC public domain scene, you will no 
doubt have noticed the whole gamut of 'free' unices coming out for the PC,
specifically, Linux, 386BSD, BSD/386, and Gnu HURD. The first 3 are based
on BSD 4.3 and the last one a combination of BSD 4.4 and Mach 3.0. Gnu HURD
is not out yet, but I have access to the development source which runs on a
386 and the pmax (mips)

        I was thinking to myself the other night, it would be nice if 
someone/some people got one of those sources running on the Archimedes.
The PC 386BSD is being written by several people all over the world, take
a peek at comp.unix.bsd to see what is going on. Obviously a lot of work
and experience is involved to get a whole OS running on the archimedes.

        No doubt the magnitude of the PC market has some bearing on the 
reason why its the first computer to host a 'free' BSD unix. But we archimedes
people are just as dedicated arnt we?

        Do you think its possible to embark on such a venture? and do you
think its worthwhile? I do, and I know a few other people who read this
newsgroup do too.

How about a healthy discussion? :-)

Andy
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: A5000 disc format recognising
From: jwil1@cs.aukuni.ac.nz (TMOTA)
Date: Sat, 11 Apr 1992 00:35:46 GMT
Distribution: comp
Organization: Computer Science Dept. University of Auckland

osmith@acorn.co.uk (Owen Smith) writes:

>1.44 Meg Mac format, both read and write, should be no problem at all. But

They definitely are no problem. Neither should be 800k. (All my Mac-hacker
friends claim that the new macs all use "standard" HD drives to read the
old discs... after all, changing speed is equivalent to changing density
while keeping the same speed... and aparrently the new drives don't change
speed to read old format discs...)

>is it really necessary? Macs can read and write PC discs, and so can A5000s

YES! If you have used a Mac to put stuff on IBM format, you will realise there
are a lot of problems... The major one is that mac directories != ibm
directories != Arc directories... thus, moving a 31-character mac filename
onto a PC disc loses you a few characters on the way (Not to mention
uppercasing, loss of file type info etc.) Also, Mac programs have a NASTY
habit of doing CR/LF conversions (seemingly at random!) every time you move
files between aufs, mac, and IBM formats... I have to filetype everything
to "GIF" (which makes everyone realise it's a binary, so they don't touch it)
at the moment to ensure the same file gets home as I started with...
If I could just read direct off the original Mac disc it would be easier.

Also, it's far more convenient to use your normal Macintosh discs that you
use every day in your macintosh, and simply take them home when you feel
like it, rather than "I'll just copy my stuff from Mac format to IBM format
so I can take it home". This is "convenience".

And thirdly, I wouldn't need an extra set of "transfer" discs in IBM format...
just my Mac "work discs" and my Arc "work discs".

>the question. You have to write an entire Amiga track at once since there
>are no inter sector gaps, and you just can't do that through FileCore as an

Can't you do something like having 1 sector per track? I don't know the
ins and outs of this, so you probably can't I guess...

>Different point - am I the only person on this group who quotes only enough
>of the original article to give context to my follow-up? Most peope seem
>to include the whole lot, monster 6 line .sig included!

I do and I don't, in that order.
-- 
_________________  "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: dpirie@cix.compulink.co.uk (Douglas Pirie)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: Scandal: Acorn betrays cu
Date: 9 Apr 92 03:12:15 GMT
Reply-To: Douglas Pirie <dpirie@cix.compulink.co.uk>
Organization: Gated to News by demon.co.uk

banksie@khantazi.welly.gen.nz writes:
 
  > kai@nicedel.north.de (Kai Schlichting) writes: 
 
  >> As this is all so easy,I have to ask: How could this all be
  >> done by Acorn, when there's just 0.1 pence to save ? It
  >> might even be cheaper to insert 34-way cable into a 34-way
  >> plugs,as it is more accurate and therefore less work to do,
  >> the user just hasn't got to be frightened of the 'purring'
  >> drive, while there is no disk in it,and track 0 not yet hit. 
 
  > I believe this was done as a marketing decision because it
  > was felt that a clicking drive, especially when there is no
  > disc in it, would confuse new users. The validity of this
  > decision is a little dubious. (If indeed it was the reason
  > for its removal.) 
 
  As I remember it, the reason for this was that the drives originally used 
in the A3000 and new 400s simply did not support the "disk changed" signal. 
It may be that drives used later did, but Acorn couldn't very well supply 
some machines with this facility, and some without, without causing trouble 
amongst custommers.
 
Douglas.
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: Christchurch BBS. 
From: Gavin.Flower@comp.vuw.ac.nz (Gavin Flower)
Date: Mon, 13 Apr 1992 22:22:16 GMT
Organization: Dept. of Comp. Sci., Victoria Uni. of Wellington, New Zealand.
Keywords: CHCH, NZ, BBS, ACORN


I see competition for your old friend Julian.

Next he'll be advertising for international callers, and the race will be on!
Actually I don't think so, unless he puts another line in (Julian, hint ,hint).


Gavin

-- 
                     Tomorrow's Society
                         Depends on
                     Today's Children  - help us raise them properly!
******* These comments have no known correlation with dept. policy! *******
From: nicho@VNET.IBM.COM
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: Personal Computer World
Date: 8 Apr 92 13:16:30 GMT
Article-I.D.: mammoth.9204081325.AA23008
Reply-To: nicho@vnet.ibm.com

In <1992Apr8.104359.910@unix.brighton.ac.uk> Browning;f110or89;[05306 writes:
>nicho@VNET.IBM.COM writes:
>OS2.2 (to compete with Win 3.1/NT) is not appearing 'til next year
  References please. I'm writing this on a production copy of OS/2 2.0
FYI it started shipping on 31/3/92

>>   Doubtful. Windoze is not suited to mission critical applications.
>> Small(ish) businesses may be using it, however larger businesses
>> are being a bit more cautious. Windoze has not quite been the
>> success Microsoft would have you believe.
>You would have been right a month or two ago. Now, PC developers really
>are writing stuff for Win and assuming that MS have *really* sold 10
>million copies, then even if a mere fraction are serious users that's
>still quite a market.
   Again references please. This contradicts my understanding of the
current state of the market.

>> -------- stuff deleted --------
>...but Win 3.0 still crashes regularly - and OS/2 HAS been known to
>fall over, whatever is claimed elsewhere.
  Funny. First you state that OS/2 2.0 won't ship till next year,
then you tell me it has been known to crash. Can we clarify exactly
what we are talking about here ???
   This is getting out of hand. This will be (thankfully) my last
comment on this topic. If anyone wishes to persue this, we can do
it via email. My apologies to all of you actually expecting ACORN
based posts.
 -----------------------------------------------------------------
               ** 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