HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn.advocacy
Subject: Re: The ARM Club
From: banksie@khantazi.welly.gen.nz (Philip R. Banks)
Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1992 11:22:59 +1300
Reply-To: banks_p@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz
Organization: My Arc.

microsoc@ox.ac.uk (Robin Watts) writes:

> I spent a fun few hours poking round inside TaskWindows the other day, using
> Sarah[1]. As far as I can make out the only messages TaskWindow receives are
>
> 1) Nulls
> 2) Key Pressed
> 3) Mouse Clicked
> 4) Messages (17,18,19) - Only the Taskwindow specific ones.
>
> Now because of this surely we don't mind it taking a time slice on each of
> these, with the possible exception of KeyPressed and Mouseclicked. I suspect
> the major slow down is through using Edit to display the output, but we will
> soon know, as !Zap[2] is to have a taskwindow mode...

   Well I know already what the performance of an Editless taskwindow as Julian
and I put a taskwindow mode into our UUCP dialers to background them. The net
result is while a slowdown does occur it is not as bad as it is with Edit. But
even so TaskWindow should really only use Null polls to time slice to properly
background. That way TaskWindow is only hogging the CPU when it doesn't matter,
when things are idleing, and so shouldn't be so much of a pain...

> [2] Zap: Text-Editor extrordinaire - Loads in about 38K as a module, and
> does everytyhing any other editor does on the Arc, with redefinable keys,
> with faster redraw than the wimps block-copy functions...

   The only problem I have with Zap is that is doesn't cope well with Multisync
modes. I can't say I like looking at half height text myself. Will Dom cure
this defficiency in Zap?

    Philip

--
Philip R. Banks  Syntax: mail < banks_p@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz >            @@@@@/|
                                                                        @@@@/#|
                                                                        @@@/##|
Radiation emissions from Quirium are perilously high, therefore repairs @@/---|
should not be attempted by pilots with vertigo. ---Arc Elite Manual     @/    |
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn.advocacy
From: toma@db.TC.Cornell.EDU (Rory Toma)
Subject: What the heck?
Organization: Not bloody likely around here!
Distribution: comp.sys.acorn.advocacy
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1992 17:19:29 GMT

IS an Acorn Archimedes? I have heard only a little about them.
Where can I see one? Who sells them? I am in Tucson, AZ.
--
toma@tc.cornell.edu - Rory Toma

Opinionated and tunnel-visioned? Darn right. But then, my employer really
doesn't know what I'm talking about anyway...
From: microsoc@oxford.ac.uk (Robin Watts)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn.advocacy
Subject: Re: The ARM Club
Date: 16 Nov 92 12:48:02 GMT
Organization: /u3/microsoc/users/rjw/.organization
In-reply-to: banksie@khantazi.welly.gen.nz's message of 15 Nov 92 22:22:59 GMT

In article <#include-large-random-number> banksie@khantazi.welly.gen.nz (Philip R. Banks) writes:


>      The only problem I have with Zap is that is doesn't cope well with
> Multisync modes. I can't say I like looking at half height text myself. Will
> Dom cure this defficiency in Zap?
>
>       Philip

As far as I know Dom has no plans to change this aspect of Zap - He spent a
considerable amount of effort writing the Code to display as fast as it does.
I suspect he could be persuaded to give an option to double the height of the
text at some stage (though I prefer it as it is), but I know he is currently
working on his BASIC Editor mode (designed to be key compatible with good old
ARMBE). Combine this with the forthcoming Taskwindow mode, and the fact that
it runs about 90 times the speed of Edit, disassembles, and Disc edits at the
same time, has a coherent search system (including searching for instructions
and searching to buffer etc), and we can all *Unplug Edit :-)

Robin

P.S. If anyone has any idea or comments about Zap, then please mail me at
m90rjw@uk.ac.ox.ecs, or even go direct to Dom at symes@uk.ac.ox.maths.
From: microsoc@oxford.ac.uk (Robin Watts)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn.advocacy
Subject: Re: Damn Fine Zap (was The A. Club (actua..))
Date: 17 Nov 92 23:34:17 GMT
Distribution: comp
Organization: /u3/microsoc/users/rjw/.organization
In-reply-to: robertej@cs.aston.ac.uk's message of 17 Nov 92 13:29:13 GMT


Ewen,

As I stated before, Zap is still under development, and a BASIC Editor is next
on Dom's list to do (I know he has it to the stage, where you can edit
BASIC, but only if you can type in tokens directly.) Following quickly after
this is the TaskWindow Mode.

It will probably be a fortnight or so away.

Robin
From: steve@acorn.co.uk (Steve "daffy" Hunt)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn.advocacy
Subject: Re: The ARM Club
Date: 16 Nov 92 12:29:28 GMT
Organization: Acorn Computers Limited, Cambridge, UK
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL6]

Philip R. Banks (banksie@khantazi.welly.gen.nz) wrote:
: davism@uhura.aston.ac.uk (Mik Davis) writes:
: 
: > About co-operative vs Pre-emtive multitasking...
: > 
: >   What would happen if someone were to try and come up with a system which had
: > a RiscOS-like front end (i.e. co-operative) but which had a pre-emptive
: > back-end for chucking jobs into the background or running a "batch" job?
: 
:    You get X windows basically. And I am less than impressed with the
: responsiveness of X windows myself. (Very nice on the networking side 

This is not very accurate.

X servers are not co-operative.  Typical X servers are internally
single-threaded and have a simple internal scheduler that handles
operations from non-quiescent clients on a round-robin basis.  X
protocol operations are typically atomic, but that said, there is no
way for an application to "hog" the server like a RISC OS program can
hog the machine.  In other words, XNextEvent is *not* the basis for
scheduling (either in the X server or the client's OS) like Wimp_Poll
is.

Other clients that are not actually doing X operations at a particular
time still run - they aren't blocked completely just because the X
server is doing something for another client.

Furthermore, there is nothing in the X protocol that forces X servers
to be single-threaded and I believe that multithreaded X servers have
been experimented with, and may exist on certain platforms.

-- Steve
-- 
				Steve Hunt	steve@acorn.co.uk
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn.advocacy
Subject: Re: The ARM Club
From: banksie@khantazi.welly.gen.nz (Philip R. Banks)
Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1992 11:16:22 +1300
Reply-To: banks_p@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz
Organization: My Arc.

davism@uhura.aston.ac.uk (Mik Davis) writes:

> About co-operative vs Pre-emtive multitasking...
>
>   What would happen if someone were to try and come up with a system which had
> a RiscOS-like front end (i.e. co-operative) but which had a pre-emptive
> back-end for chucking jobs into the background or running a "batch" job?

   You get X windows basically. And I am less than impressed with the
responsiveness of X windows myself. (Very nice on the networking side though.)

    Philip

--
Philip R. Banks  Syntax: mail < banks_p@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz >            @@@@@/|
Moving swiftly throught the waters, Cannons blazing as she came,        @@@@/#|
Brought a might metal War Lord, Crashing down in sheets of flame,       @@@/##|
Thinking fortune must have smiled, People started cheering,             @@/---|
"Come on Thunder Child!" ---"Thunder Child"                             @/    |
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn.advocacy
From: davism@uhura.aston.ac.uk (Mik Davis)
Subject: Re: Acorn typo
Organization: Aston University
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL241235]
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 1992 17:05:51 GMT

Does anyone know quite WHY we were told about this school having bought some
Acorn computers? Did I miss somrthing in the press release or are Acorn going
to tell us about every school that buys a few archimedes machines from now on??


:-)

Mik

--
___________________________________________.
 Mik Davis at Aston University, Birmingham |   .  .  __          .
                                           |   |\/|  | \  _,_  _  _
E-Mail: davism@uhura.aston.ac.uk           |   |  |. |_/ |_| \/ |/_'
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn.advocacy
From: davism@uhura.aston.ac.uk (Mik Davis)
Subject: Re: Acorn's Advertising Campaign
Organization: Aston University
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL7]
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1992 09:57:19 GMT

Chris Knight (cknight@esk.compserv.utas.edu.au) wrote:
: Howdy,
: 	Isn't it wonderful to see Acorn launching what sounds like a decent
: advertising campaign to sell the new Acorn machines? Have they finally woken
: up to the fact that sales to education will not keep them afloat, when the
: majority of education centres will have to opt for cheaper machines due to
: tighter budgetary policies? Or is it simply the fact that Acorn are not making

  I think that Acorn knew perfectly well that they had to advertise to get the
general public interested in their machines but until recently, they haven't
been able to afford to spend a small fortune on an advertising campaign...

  Just my thoughts

--
___________________________________________.
 Mik Davis at Aston University, Birmingham |   .  .  __          .
                                           |   |\/|  | \  _,_  _  _
E-Mail: davism@uhura.aston.ac.uk           |   |  |. |_/ |_| \/ |/_'
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn.advocacy
From: robertej@cs.aston.ac.uk (ThinkPix)
Subject: Damn Fine Zap (was The A. Club (actua..))
Reply-To: robertej@cs.aston.ac.uk
Organization: Aston University (Comp Sci)
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1992 13:29:13 GMT

Zap is excellent, I use it all the time, however I agree with R Watts and I Palmer,
does anyone know if/when it will be able to handle BASIC tokenised programs?

Ewen
From: mybg@doc.ic.ac.uk (M Y Ben Gershon)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn.tech
Subject: SyQuest removables under RISCiX
Date: 22 Nov 1992 14:43:11 -0000
Organization: Department of Computing, Imperial College, University of London, UK.
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: swan.doc.ic.ac.uk

If anyone has any experience of using SyQuest removables to backup RISCiX
using 'dump', could they please contact me.  I have managed to get it
backed-up, using a 'tape density' of 4096 and a 'tape length' of 1180ft, and
it prompts for the second 'tape' correctly under 'dump'.  However, 'restore'
gives up when it gets to the end of the first 'tape' and says that it got a
'read error while trying to resynchronize'.  Presumably it doesn't recognise
that it has reached the end of the 'tape'.  However, it DOES know when doing
'dump'!

By the way, it does seem to work when using the i flag and doing an interactive
restore - well it knows when a file is on the second volume, but I haven't
tested it rigorously, so it may not always work.

Another Syquest problem concerns RISC OS backups.  Does anyone know of any
software which will back up RISC OS s/w (preferably compressed) onto 
multiple SyQuests?  RISC DEVELOPMENTS' HD Companion is no good, as it will
only do one SyQuest cartridge.  I have tried Frank Lancaster's 'tar', but
it does not dismount the SyQuest when it gives a prompt, so it's no good, as
the SyQuest can't be removed from the drive!

Any help would be much appreciated.

Michael Ben-Gershon
mybg@doc.ic.ac.uk
From: gilbertd@p4.cs.man.ac.uk (David Alan Gilbert)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn.tech
Subject: Risc OS 3.1 bug - disappearing windows
Date: 13 Nov 92 08:40:30 GMT

Hi,
For anybody who read a posting of mine about
a week ago, I noted I lost an edit window - it seems
to have disappeared.  I now think I have found out
what has been going on.

If you iconise a window near the bottom of the screen,
and then pull the icon bar to the front, the icon can
actualy get lost behind the icon bar - lost forever.

Can anyone confirm this is the problem, and
is there a work around/fix /patch etc. - i.e.
something we can put in code so that our programs
dont suffer from it.

Dave

-- 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- David Alan Gilbert - gilbertd@p4.cs.man.ac.uk - G7FHJ@GB7NWP                -
------(Programmers don't sleep - they just park their heads)-------------------
From: gaspar@urz.unibas.ch
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn.tech
Subject: MFM Harddisc size
Date: 16 Nov 92 10:34:43 MET
Organization: University of Basel, Switzerland

As far as I can remember, the biggest harddisc size you could use with a
Archimedes 410/1 was around 50 Meg. under RISC OS 2.
Was that a limitation of RISC OS or due to the controller. If it was the 
former: can you use bigger MFM harddiscs now under RISC OS 3.1?
Thanks for any help.

laci
-- 

*******************************************************************************
*             Laci Gaspar, University Basel, Switzerland                      *
*******************************************************************************
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn.tech
Subject: Re: Palette switching in Mode 15
From: banksie@khantazi.welly.gen.nz (Philip R. Banks)
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1992 20:20:43 +1300
Reply-To: banks_p@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz
Organization: My Arc.

drushall@cs.man.ac.uk (David Rushall) writes:

> I have a number of 'Spectrum 512', a 512-colours-on-the-screen picture format
> for the Atari ST, which I would like to view on my A5000. The images would
> fit on a Mode 15 screen, and could be displayed in all their glory if I had
> some code to display a mode 15 screen, with a pallete switch at the beginning
> of each scan line.

   The spectrum 512 system would better suit a palette switched Mode 12
screen as only 16 colours are ever in use on each scan line.

> Would any kind person happen to have some code to display a mode 15 screen
> in this way, that they were prepared to let me have? Or even some code to
> display 'Spectrum 512' images?
> 
> Ideally, the code should work on any Acorn machine (obvious exceptions
> disregarded), but if it only works with A5000/RO3.0 then that's good enough.

   It certainly wouldn't be hard to do the palette swicthing on any machine
simply by hooking into IOC Timer 1 and using it. I was playing with
implementing a Spectrum 512 picture viewer but ran out of time and interest.

    Philip

--
Philip R. Banks  Syntax: mail < banks_p@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz >            @@@@@/|
                                                                        @@@@/#|
                                                                        @@@/##|
What price the crown of a king on his throne, when you are chained in   @@/---|
the dark all alone? ---A.P.P.                                           @/    |
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn.tech
From: /G=Rhodri/S=James/O=SJ-Research/ADMD=INTERSPAN/C=GB/@mhs-relay.ac.uk
Subject: Re: problems with time on RISCOS 3.1
Organization: Yale CS Mail/News Gateway
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 1992 18:31:33 GMT

blacka@logica.co.uk writes:

>I recently discovered a number of problems in RISCOS3.1time
>handling

[details omitted for reasons of space]

I note that in a later post you say you are running RO3.10 in an A420.  When
you put the new ROMs in, did you do a PowerOn-Delete (or similar) to clear
the CMOS RAM?  If not, your time zone could be (and probably is) set to
anything, and could easily give the bizarre responses mentioned above.

A general note, folks; always, always, always reset your CMOS RAM on
switching from RO2 to RO3 (or vice versa), as the allocations have changed!

---
Rhodri James                   *  Disclaimer:  These opinions are shareware,
SJ Research Ltd, Cambridge     *    and may only be used if you send off
Rhodri.James%gb.INTERSPAN.sj   *    $100 registration fee in used fivers.
            @mhs-relay.ac.uk   *    SJ Research is not registered with me.
   or                          *
rmj10@phx.cam.ac.uk            *             Wombats are go!
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn.tech
From: melis@fys.ruu.nl (Angelo Melis)
Subject: Re: Ada
Organization: Physics Department, University of Utrecht, The Netherlands
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1992 08:36:43 GMT

In <1992Nov16.182002.23091@news.uni-stuttgart.de> zrzm0111@helpdesk.rus.uni-stuttgart.de (MUFTI) writes:

>In article <721568878.8377@minster.york.ac.uk> dcw-a@minster.york.ac.uk writes:
>>In article <721427694.8949@minster.york.ac.uk> rmp-a@minster.york.ac.uk (Roger M. Pimlott ) writes:
>>>OK is it possible to get the Ada programming language on an Arc?
>>>If so how?
>>>
>>	Well, all that i have seen working is various versions of PC Ada running under the emulator.
>>This is a question that comes up at this time of year on this group every year, and lots of people reply,
>>but very few of the questioners ever bother implementing it, because the chance of getting even a small
>>program to compile in a naff, memory-intensive language like ada, is v.slim indeed, esp. under emulation.

>So I know, someone try to port ADAED to the acorn Archimedes.
>It's a tokenizer/executor for the ADA language, but it's currently not
>validated (but it's earlier validated). 
>If don't know, how much memory it will want, if it will be ready, but there
>is a IBM-PC-version of ADAED, so I hope, the memory-requirement will not
>be too much ....

>so long
>MUFTI

Hi,

I am the person who is doing the port of ADAED. I am now half way with
the port, but at the moment my Archimedes 310 gets a memory upgrade.
To get ADAED compiling on the Archie I need more memory, thats why I
upgrade my machine. My friend who is doing this upgrade said to me that
it will take two weeks to do this upgrade (he has a normal job and is
doing this in his spare time). So I hope I can continue with it in about
two weeks (after two weeks I have a lot more spare time also, so the
porting should go a bit faster. At the moment I did the programming in
the weekends).

Bye,

Angelo
is 
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn.tech
From: fred@genesis.demon.co.uk (Lawrence Kirby)
Subject: removable mass storage ( Syquest, Floptical ) 
Distribution: world
Organization: BT
Date: Mon, 23 Nov 1992 00:56:05 +0000


In article <5634@krafla.rhi.hi.is> adamd@rhi.hi.is writes:

>
>In <1ej06qINNd7g@iraul1.ira.uka.de> S_TILLENBURG@iravcl.ira.uka.de (|S| Stephan> Tillenburg) writes:
>
>>I read flopticals can read only MS-DOS standard formats
>>( 9 sectors per track on DD and 18  sectors per track on HD )
>>but you can't read 10 sectors per track on DD - disks
>
>Is this a limitation of the device driver / filing system software on the
>computer, or of the embedded SCSI firmware on the drive? It seems to me that
>it is a question of whether the filing system recognises the disks rather
>than a limitation of the drives.

This an issue in the Floptical's firmware. I was in contact with an Insite rep.
on Compuserve and he was aware of Acorn and this issue.

-----------------------------------------
Lawrence Kirby | fred@genesis.demon.co.uk
Wilts, England | 70734.126@compuserve.com
-----------------------------------------
From: D.S.Walker@bradford.ac.uk (Simeon Walker)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn.tech
Subject: Re: MFM Harddisc size
Date: 21 Nov 92 12:35:09 GMT
Organization: University of Bradford, UK
Originator: 91909178@muser

In article <1992Nov20.173551.42574@urz.unibas.ch> gaspar@urz.unibas.ch writes:
>In article <1992Nov19.090920.8363@csd.uwe.ac.uk>, r_voisey@garlic.uwe.ac.uk (R Voisey) writes:
>> In article <1992Nov17.180524.42564@urz.unibas.ch>, gaspar@urz.unibas.ch writes:
>> 
>> |> > bigger than 50Megs you have to swap a link (to change sector size I think).
>> |>                                / ^^^^^^^^^^^
>> |> Could someone tell me what this means? 
>> 
>> |> 9 heads and when I enter that parameter I get a message that I might! 
>> |> swap link 3 or something like that.
>> 
>[ text deleted]
>   So, if you want to swap link 3 you have to take the lid off your
>> machine, and find J3. 
>[text deleted
>
>> 
>> Hope that helps
>
>Yes it helped! Thanks. The jumper wasn't called J3 though. There are two 
>jumpers next to the cables that go to the drive and they are calld PL8 and PL9.
>I tried out every combination of setting and it worked with BOTH jumpers 
>changed. Does someone (maybe from Acorn?) know if that's ok?
>
>The problem wasn't solved completely because the drive should have 88 Meg
>capacity. After formatting with 17 Sect/Track, 9 Heads and 1024 Cylinders
>(The controller cannot cope with more that 1024, I think. The drive has 1073
>cylinders), I had about 40 Meg free on the drive. Where is the rest???
>
>I tried to format the drive with 32 Sect/Track and it worked. But this is
>probably not advisable to do.
>Any ideas?
>
>> Bob
>laci

Most specs for hard drives intended for PC's seem to specify 17 sectors.
While trying to get an old Seagate drive to format under RO2 giving 17
sectors I got only half the capacity. Later with the formatter that comes
with RO3.1 I formatted it to 32 sectors (all other params the same) and
got the full capacity and it works fine.

As far as the hardware of the drive is concerned I don't think it matters
how many sectors there are per track. I *think* it's dependant on what
the software expects.

-- 
Sim. ----------------------------------------------------------- Simeon Walker,
----------------------------------------- Department of Electrical Engineering,
D.S.Walker@bradford.ac.uk -------------------- University of Bradford, England.
From: srm2@ukc.ac.uk (S.R.Mansfield)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn.tech
Subject: How do you use DragASprite?
Summary: Programmer needs help on RISC OS 3.10 feature.
Date: 18 Nov 92 10:53:16 GMT
Organization: Computing Lab, University of Kent at Canterbury, UK.


I have a question concerning a new feature of RISC OS 3.10 from
the programmers point of view.  I would like my application I'm writing to
use the DragASprite module so I too could have icon dragging from
save as dialogue boxes (similar to Acorns own apps).

Does any one know how to use this module? Methods of use and SWI interface
details would be welcomed.

Thanks,
   Stephen Mansfield.
From: S_TILLENBURG@iravcl.ira.uka.de (|S| Stephan Tillenburg)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn.tech
Subject: RE: removable mass storage ( Syquest, Floptical )
Date: 20 Nov 1992 15:28:26 GMT
Organization: University of Karlsruhe (FRG) - Informatik Rechnerabt.
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: irav21.ira.uka.de
X-News-Reader: VMS NEWS 1.23

I read flopticals can read only MS-DOS standard formats
( 9 sectors per track on DD and 18  sectors per track on HD )
but you can't read 10 sectors per track on DD - disks

( As I mentioned before - this is not my own experience with flopticals )

   Bye  Stephan
From: u91pag@ecs.ox.ac.uk (Paul Gilkerson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn.tech
Subject: Getting 3rd Party Filing Systems To Use Showfree
Date: 16 Nov 92 21:28:02 GMT
Organization: Oxford University, UK
Originator: microsoc@black


I have a RISC Developments IDE Hard disc, and have been trying to get
the filer to use showfree instead of the old-fashioned free command
(RISC Developments havn't updated their software to take advantage of
RO3 yet). If I type:

Showfree -FS idefs 4

I get an error message saying that the filing system cannot be found. I
assume this is because the filing system does not take advantage of
some RO3 feature. Anyway, I looked through the Free module (which
provides Showfree), and found that there were three ADFS SWI's. I
changed these to the equivalent IDEFS SWI's, and re-ran the module. If
I now type:

showfree -FS adfs 4

I get a showfree window telling me how much room I have on my IDE
harddisc. However, if I then, say, delete a file the showfree window is
not updated, and still shows the previous status of my disc. If I
re-type the command, then the showfree window is updated. The only way
I can see of getting round this, is to have a task continually
executing 'showfree'. However this is far from satisfactory (not least
because I cann't close the window, and it keeps jumping to the top).

What I want to know is if there is anyone out there who knows anything
about showfree and how it works, or if anyone has solved the same
problem before.

I would appreciate any replies.
Thanks,

Paul.


 ************  Paul Gilkerson  *****  u91pag@ecs.ox.ac.uk   ************
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn.tech