HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: gilbertd@p4.cs.man.ac.uk (David Alan Gilbert)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: Using custom screen modes with RO3.1
Date: 13 Nov 92 08:37:06 GMT

In <1992Nov12.145659.26219@bradford.ac.uk> D.S.Walker@bradford.ac.uk (Simeon Walker) writes:

                                        Does anyone know of any programs
>>which allow custom screen modes in RISCOS3.1, or alternatively, is
>>there a patch which will allow existing custom modes to be used?

>The program I had (can't remember the name) now no longer seems to work,
>but the modes I defined using it under RO2 still work fine under RO3.1

>The mode 12 equivalent I use is a little wider and deeper than the new
>Acorn wide mode, though my monitor is adjusted to the limit to fit it
>all on, perhaps you can adjust yours

I use !SetDir for overscan modes, now it didnt work at first in Risc OS3.1,
and I decided to find out why - the reason was that it used
the same modes as some of the new ones.  The solution was simple
(if a little fiddly) - I binary patched the module to change the
modes it used.  Is there a program which calculates
the !Patch files? If so I could produce a patch file.

Dave

-- 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- David Alan Gilbert - gilbertd@p4.cs.man.ac.uk - G7FHJ@GB7NWP                -
------(Programmers don't sleep - they just park their heads)-------------------
From: r_voisey@csd.uwe.ac.uk (R Voisey)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: Computer Concepts
Date: 17 Nov 92 11:41:01 GMT
Organization: University of the West of England, Bristol

In article <1992Nov16.112704.8970@gate.esat.kuleuven.ac.be> tytgat@rilke.esat.kuleuven.ac.be (John Tytgat) writes:

>Could you be more precise what's so bad and wrong with CC' FaxPack ?

Ties up a podule slot and has no modem facility.  Personally I'd go for a
FAX Modem with Pilling's ArcFAX.  Admittedly, though, Concepts FAX software
is probably slightly better than ArcFAX.

As far as Concept's service goes, I'd agree with you.  They've always
provided excellent service - from their ST & BBC days through to now.

Bob
-- 
  Robert J. Voisey  :  r_voisey@csd.uwe.ac.uk
         -- Probug Software Developments --
162 Staplehill Rd, Fishponds, Bristol, Avon, England
From: r_voisey@csd.uwe.ac.uk (R Voisey)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: The new Acorn Machine
Date: 17 Nov 92 11:33:05 GMT
Organization: University of the West of England, Bristol

In article <gilbertd.721643489@p4.cs.man.ac.uk> gilbertd@p4.cs.man.ac.uk (David Alan Gilbert) writes:

>I dont know what the price of commercial Unix's are for PC's,
>but I suspect a reasonable 386 could be purchased with Unix
>for less than RISCiX.

Last time I looked, SCO-V was pushing half a grand WITHOUT compilers.  The
programmer's toolkit (compilers/assemblers/linkers/debugger) was an extra
couple of hundred.  If you then buy opendesktop (the route SCO suggest) you're
looking at a tag around the same as RiscIX.

Having said that, you can get Linux for free - I believe someone is working
on an X11R5 port for it as well.  It's not in the class of SCO, but it's
not bad either - probably the best freeware product I've seen to date.

>The other point is that if RISCiX was a LOT cheaper,
>and it was available for the A5000, they would have the
>cheapest Unix workstation going, and I know a lot
>of people who would be pleased with it.

By all accounts, Acorn are interested in tackling the workstation market with
a high spec machine, rather than a cheap'n'nasty solution.  If they were, for
example, to release a high spec machine based around ARM600, 24 bit graphics
with onboard accelerator (something from Intel, perhaps - but not i486), 
plenty of RAM and RISCiX only (workstation peeps don't want RISCOS) and price
it below a Sun 3 sparcstation then I think they'd have a good chance of making
a killing.  It would be nice if they launched it, say, early next year.  Pure
speculation you understand.

>Of course one of the problems is the complete lack of
>compatibility with anything except Acorns SCSI card,
>thats why I believe they should give the tools for
>building the kernel with RISCiX (I dont think they
>do at the moment), and then 3rd parties would
>write drivers for their cards.

3rd parties can get the necessary tools fairly cheaply from Acorn.  To date,
nobody has considered it worth the effort.  I believe ARXE were thinking
about it (but their new combined scsi/hi-density card doesn't seem to have
it).  The Serial Port are apparently planning to put RISCiX support into their
8 port serial card.

Cheers

Bob

NB All opinions are my own, and might not even be true.
-- 
  Robert J. Voisey  :  r_voisey@csd.uwe.ac.uk
         -- Probug Software Developments --
162 Staplehill Rd, Fishponds, Bristol, Avon, England
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
From: dhmyrdal@flipper.pvv.unit.no (Dag H}kon Myrdal)
Subject: Re: RISC OS 3 Impression...
Organization: ProgramVareVerkstedet - UNIT
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 92 13:44:47 GMT

In article <Bxo4z3.LD1@cen.ex.ac.uk> CDLatham@cen.ex.ac.uk (C.D.Latham) writes:
[...]
>Getting back to the original subject, one slightly tricky point I
>discussed with the CC man was dongles.  The new machines all have a
>unique machine identity built in.  It seems CC are exploring the
>possibility of using this in the future because dongles are so
>unpopular.  I thought that was an interesting point.

Too bad.
I think dongles are nice. The only problem is if you have several dongles
at once from different manufacturers...
The ID-number strategy, on the other hand, restricts the usage of the
program to the machine it was bought for - ie a much more restricting
protection than any dongle.
If want to use my copy of Impression on another machine, I simply take with
me the dongle (matchbox-size), and a floppy containing the program...

Now, what if Impression suddenly needs that one machine to work?
-You cannot take the program with you anywhere.
-You cannot use the same program(s) for your desktop and laptop...
-You cannot use the programs on a replacement machine when the
 main one is malfunctioning, is sent in for an upgrade or repair...
-You will have to (probably) take contact with the original publisher
 if you want the old programs to work on your new A8000 that you
 upgrade to in a few years time; and in the meantime the publisher
 may have gone bust...


--Dag



-- 
--Dag Haakon Myrdal,       dhmyrdal@pvv.unit.no         -
-  Werchsmeister Emeritus, Omega Verksted,              -
-  Idrettsveien 29,        N-5037 BERGEN, NORWAY        -
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: pdenize@waikato.ac.nz
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Fun with Taskwindows
Date: 23 Nov 92 12:01:34 +1300
Organization: University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand


I was playing around with the Taskwindow command
I thought that some may find the following interesting.

First ^F12 to get a taskwindow 

then:

* set alias$jackhammer taskwindow jackhammer -quit
* jackhammer

That's it, it appears to do nothing ... Now check your Task display

There are a few interesting things you can still do before rescuing your 
machine.

try to drop the next slot to 0K, the taskwindows generated simply move to 
Module space.

To kill the taskwindows:

* unset alias$jackhammer

Have Fun.


Paul Denize

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Paul Denize                                Internet: PDenize@Waikato.ac.nz
Department of Computer Science
University of Waikato                         phone: ++64 7 8562-889
Hamilton                                                          Ext 8743
NEW ZEALAND                                   fax  : ++64 7 8560-135
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: cs89jmb@brunel.ac.uk (Aeon Flux)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: NEW MACHINES
Date: 18 Nov 92 10:38:15 GMT
Organization: Brunel University, Uxbridge, UK
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL6]

064230062: Fernmeldedirektion Olten (Ikki@BEIZ.mediatex.ch) wrote:
: Talking about chips: Is the ARM 600 comp
: arable with the ARM 250?
: Will there be a successor of the ARM 250
: ? (For example ARM 350).

The Arm6XX chip contains an on-board memory management unit, better protection
and I think a write back cache.

The Arm250 is a souped up Arm2 with MemC1a,VIDC and the other one (I/O) on 
board.

I read yesterday in BAU that companies like Aleph1 were thinking of making an
Arm600 upgrade but were put off by the cost.

I didn't think RiscOS could hack the Arm600, or am I wrong here?

As for a successor to the Arm250 - I personally doubt it, the machines are
targetted at a slightly different area of the market, but who knows what
ARM Ltd are upto, after all the release of the Arm250 was one of the best kept
secrets this summer!

: 
: 
: Greetings.
: 
: Internet: Ikki(at)BEIZ.mediatex.ch
: 
: 
: 
: 
: 
: |B                                    B|
: |E           CH: VTX *3600#           E|
: |I           D:  BTX *28881#          I|
: |Z                                    Z|

Jayce.

P.S. Anyone want to correct me on these details?
     After all, this stuff is all from memory and contents of reading through
     the Acorn news groups :-)

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

Jason "Archangel" Banham               Internet: cs89jmb@brunel.ac.uk       
					         aangel@sequent.co.uk

   ***** Acorn rep on StudentSoft/Archimedes owner/Computer Scientist *****
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
From: vulch@kernow.demon.co.uk (Anthony Frost)
Reply-To: vulch@kernow.demon.co.uk
Subject: BBS Problems: Risc OS 3.1
Organization: VCS Kernow
X-Mailer: ReaderS for the Acorn Archimedes
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 1992 23:35:03 +0000

 
  > Also, on a related topic, does ArcBBS support PC Offline
  > mail readers? Does anything do this? 
 
I keep saying I'll port one of my Arc native OLRs to the PC, but I haven't
got round to it yet...
 
         Anthony
From: mnw-a@minster.york.ac.uk
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Acorn Computing Disc Problems
Date: 23 Nov 92 20:00:59 GMT
Organization: Department of Computer Science, University of York, England


	I've just bought Acorn Computing - and the Fervour demo
	doesn't work. It installs on the icon bar - but clicking left button
	over the icon does nothing - although, you can set all the game
	options from the desktop.
	Please could someone help - I know someone did do a recent news
	posting about this - but I just thought it was the usual memory
	problem, and skipped over it.
	Cheers,
		Mark
		
		
     ----------------------------------------------------------------------------	
     |  ` What would you say, my lord, if I were to say...'I love you'?         |
     |    Umm...(strangled)..Well, it depends entirely on who you said it to.   |
     |  If you said it to a horse, I'd presume you were sick...if you said it   |
     |  to Baldrick, I'd presume you were blind...                              |
     |   -- Kate and Edmund : Bells                                             |
     ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
From: naffara@crc.ac.uk (Dr. N.A. Affara)
Subject: Emulators
Organization: MRC Human Genome Resource Centre
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 1992 15:24:11 GMT

Hello,
Since RiscOS 3.1 allows you to format Atari floppies, does this mean that 
Acorn (or someone else) are going to make an Atari emulator?
If they aren't, it seems a bit pointless being able to format floppies like
this. You can also format PC disks and they have a PC emulator...

Thanks for any help,
Phil
(E-mail naffara@uk.ac.crc)
-- 
Kryten (When Cat says why don't we raise the defensive shields?) "A superlative
suggestion sir,with only two drawbacks: one,we don't have any defensive shields
and two,we don't have any defensive shields.I know that,technically,that's only
one drawback,but it was such a big one I thought I'd mention it twice".
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
From: smb@cs.nott.ac.uk (Simon Burrows)
Subject: Re: Computer Concepts
Organization: Nottingham University
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 92 16:07:42 GMT

In article <marlow.722167900@radon.sys.uea.ac.uk> marlow@sys.uea.ac.uk (Keith Marlow PG) writes:
>
>	I know this doesn't stop two copies of the same program being used at
>once, but it does make it possible for the person with the copy and the person
>whose s/w was copied to be both done for illegal copying.

I agree with you in principle, but many people must surely agree that it is
*extremely* difficult to be 100% certain that nobody can ever rip-off copies
of software which is registered to you. It is so easy for somebody to insert
a floppy disc in your drive & sneak a quick copy.

You might not believe how blatant some people are - for example a certain
games company at the BBC Acorn User Show caught no end of people inserting
their own floppies to steal copies of games off the hard discs at the show.

Archimedes programs are sufficiently portable for the integrity of a person's
system to be almost impossible to maintain unless NOBODY is allowed near that
machine (and that includes Acorn exhibition machines, which contain much
software licensed to Acorn Computers Ltd).

Simon
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Simon Burrows   smb@cs.nott.ac.uk  psyhsmb@unicorn.nott.ac.uk  +44 533 712030
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: r_voisey@garlic.uwe.ac.uk (R Voisey)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: The new Acorn Machine
Date: 19 Nov 92 09:19:10 GMT
Reply-To: r_voisey@csd.bristol-poly.ac.uk
Organization: The University of the West of England (The Magic Roundabout)

In article <JKH.92Nov17140603@whisker.lotus.ie>, jkh@whisker.lotus.ie (Jordan K. Hubbard) writes:

|> For example, I wouldn't consider using X if I couldn't get the 1152x900 (x8)
|> resolution I'm using at the moment - I don't think such resolutions are
|> possible on the Arc.

You could run that in 4bpp with a VIDC enhancer (probably around 40Mhz should
do the trick).  But 8bpp would be pushing it..

|> If you really really want a true unix workstation, then buy a
|> SparcStation classic LC or wait for HP's next low-end snake, I.E. buy
|> a real workstation for it!  Even a 486PC has some real problems in the

Well, I think I'd probably wait a while and see what leaps forth from Acorn.
I suspect that they'd  have a problem competing with the Sparcstation Classic
though (enters at 4 grand I seem to recall, with lots of RAM and lots of disk).

Bob

-- 
  Robert J. Voisey  :  r_voisey@csd.uwe.ac.uk
         -- Probug Software Developments --
162 Staplehill Rd, Fishponds, Bristol, Avon, England
From: smb@cs.nott.ac.uk (Simon Burrows)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: New machines
Date: 16 Nov 92 12:27:16 GMT
Organization: Nottingham University

In article <1992Nov13.172521.1259@infodev.cam.ac.uk> MJW19@phx.cam.ac.uk (M.J. Williams) writes:
>In article <1992Nov13.131513.12073@mnemosyne.cs.du.edu> jabell@nyx.cs.du.edu (James Bell) writes:
>>Thanks for all your replies to my last messages.
>>Somebody told me recently that new machines from
>>Acorn may use an 80486 processor for graphics work,
>>working with the VIDCII to free up the ARMXXX. This
>>sounds like pure imagination - could it be true?
>
>Pure imagination. Not even Acorn could be *that* stupid. Why use a piece of
>crap like a 486 when you can get a cheap, faster processor and you own 30% of
>the company that makes them?
>
>Not that Acorn would even need a separate graphics processor (although it may
>be a good excuse to add another L500 to the retail price...)

Not sure about this. I think James may have got his numbers mixed up and could
well be getting confused with more suitable Intel chips.

Simon.
From: unregistered@newcastle.ac.uk (Jason O'Broin)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Armadillo A448mb SoundSampler/MIDI Card
Keywords: MIDI
Date: 19 Nov 92 13:22:14 GMT
Organization: Computing Laboratory, U of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK NE1 7RU.



I have recently bought a secondhand Armadillo A448mb Stereo Sound Sampler/MIDI
card. Although the Sound Sampler bit of it works happily with Armadeus, I don't
seem to be able to find any information on how to get the MIDI features to work.
Programs like Maestro don't even recognise the MIDI interface on this card.

Any information on how to control the MIDI interface (the more technical the 
better) would be much appreciated.

Mail or post please. I will summarise as appropriate.

Thanks, 

Jason
(nmsc084@uk.ac.newcastle.turing)

( 'To make some kind of difference                           QUEENSRYCHE
   Then everyone must know,                                    'Speak'
   Eradicate the fascists, Revolution will grow'        Operation : Mindcrime )
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
From: sdaveyj@cc.curtin.edu.au
Subject: Re: New machines
Organization: Curtin University of Technology
Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1992 08:12:45 GMT

>>Acorn may use an 80486 processor for graphics work,
>>working with the VIDCII to free up the ARMXXX. This
>>sounds like pure imagination - could it be true?
> 
> Pure imagination. Not even Acorn could be *that* stupid. Why use a piece of
> crap like a 486 when you can get a cheap, faster processor and you own 30% of
> the company that makes them?
> 
> Not that Acorn would even need a separate graphics processor (although it may
> be a good excuse to add another L500 to the retail price...)
> 
> Mike.

What a laugh! 486? why bother. Anyway, about the last paragraph, I tend to 
aggree. Most of the work done on archimedes is using the desktop, and
really the processor dosen't spend loads of time updating display, so
maybe it would be nice to have the option of a graphics processor but
not compulsory. Anyway the graphics chip would have to be faster than
the main CPU otherwise it might as well do it its' self.

I like the sound of the new machine rumors, I hope it is soon, my PC386
friend desperately wants an archimedes (hopefully at a lowish price)

             John
From: r_voisey@csd.uwe.ac.uk (R Voisey)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: MIDI card
Keywords: MIDI
Date: 17 Nov 92 11:55:32 GMT
Organization: University of the West of England, Bristol

In article <ser638.721907492@cdc835> ser638@cdc835.cdc.polimi.it (Cristian Ghezzi) writes:
>I need a MIDI card for my A310.
>I know that The Serial Port sold a "Sampler and MIDI card" once
>upon a time, but I can't find any more adverts in the mags.

The product was sold by QD Enterprises, who used to use The Serial Port label.
The Serial Port is now independent, and does not sell QD's products.  I think
this needs explaining, because there is a lot of confusion about these
companies:

  The Serial Port:  MD - Hugo Fiennes : Sell:

     Arcterm VII, Serial Cards, Keyboard Interface, Modems etc

  QD Enterprises: MD - Andrew <Queer Dog> Foyle : Sell:

     MIDI/Sampler stuff, Tracker, SCSI boards etc

To confuse the issue, QD change labels every few months.  They used to be
Vertical Twist, and some products still carry that label I think.  Now
they're Leading Edge, and are trading in association with Greyhound (a major
distribution company).  Look in BAU for the Leading Edge advert (I think it's
a tacky little monochrome affair) and you should find the information you
need.

It might take a while to get any response out of QD, since (in my opinion, and
I don't think I'm alone) their service stinks and they have all the
professionalism of a rabid dog.

>I think that buying a sampler and a MIDI card at the same time may
>be a good idea, but I never read a review of that board so I don't
>know anything about the quality.

I think BAU gave it a fairly good review..  it was mentioned in passing in
the November issue).   The product is actually pretty good - I use one
myself.  Note, that when I'm nasty about QD I am _not_ referring to their
development team, who are excellent.

One thing you may not realise - this is not a podule.  It plugs into the
econet socket, so if you already have an econet module you have a problem.
I'd also better point out that the quality of the sampler is not quite as
good as dedicated (8 bit) sampler podules, but it's not far off.

Cheers

Bob

NB.  Disclaimer:  So sue me.

-- 
  Robert J. Voisey  :  r_voisey@csd.uwe.ac.uk
         -- Probug Software Developments --
162 Staplehill Rd, Fishponds, Bristol, Avon, England
From: andyf@uk.sun.com (Andrew Fox - Sun UK - Answer centre)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: ArtWorks' GDraw module
Date: 23 Nov 92 04:02:50 GMT
Organization: Sun Microsystems Ltd.
Distribution: world
Reply-To: andyf@uk.sun.com
NNTP-Posting-Host: yama.uk.sun.com

Do you want any app that uses draw files to be approximately
40% faster, then read on.......

Whilst playing about with ArtWorks, I noticed a module called
GDraw. Upon closer examination, this module seemed to have the
same SWI's as the inbuilt OS Draw module, plus a few ArtWorks
specials.

It then occured to me that perhaps you might replace the
Draw module in the OS with GDraw, and that this would 
give a significant speed increase. Well, you can, and it does.

All you need to do is change the SWI chunk number from being
&44540 (ArtWorks) to &40700 (Draw).

Basically, load the GDraw module into a suitable editor, e.g.
Dominic Symes' excellent !Zap. Change it to display words,
and look at the eigth word of the module. This should contain
00044540. Change this to read 00040700. Now find the SWI
base name, GDraw, in this case and change it to something else.
I use QDraw. This avoids a clash with ArtWorks when it loads
the GDraw module. Now re-save the module with a new name.

To use the new module you will also need DitherExt. This module
is supplied with both Impression and ArtWorks, but I suggest 
that you use the one supplied with ArtWorks. This module is
necessary because GDraw is dependent on it.

The best way to use the new module, is to incorporate it in your
boot sequence. I have put QDraw and DitherExt in my 'Library'
directory and I do the following on bootup.

RmKill Draw
RmLoad %.DitherExt
RmLoad %.QDraw

I RmKill draw in preference to unplugging it, as this allows 
Draw etc. to work if you don't use your boot sequence.

When you now use Draw, DrawPlus, Vector etc. they all re-draw
with about the same speed as ArtWorks. Impression is also
significantly faster if you have documents with lots of
draw files in them.

Curiously, if you unplug Draw, the RISC OS 3 startup message
doesn't appear. Presumably, this is because the text is a
draw path.

Happy Hacking,

Andy.

+-----------------------------+----------------------------------------------+
| Andrew Fox,                 |     'Life, don't talk to me about life.'     |
| Product Support Engineer,   +----------------------------------------------+
| Sun Microsystems Inc.,      |  					     |
| Citygate, Sale,             | Disclaimer:These opinions are mine, assuming |
| Cheshire, M33 1JF,          |            I can remember what I've said.    |
| ENGLAND. +44 (0)61-905-4589 |                                              |
+-----------------------------+----------------------------------------------+





Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn