HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: bcockburn@acorn.co.uk (Bruce Cockburn)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: DragASprite proper use.
Date: 9 Nov 92 14:08:04 GMT
Organization: Acorn Computers Ltd, Cambridge, England

In article <20020@acorn.co.uk> DWallin@acorn.co.uk (Dick Wallin) writes:

>Market research (yep we do
>some of this!) actually showed that the majority did NOT want solid sprite
>dragging, so it is not set as default.
>
>Dick Wallin

In article <1992Nov6.134421.15218@infodev.cam.ac.uk> nas20@cl.cam.ac.uk (Nick Smith) writes:

>It's rather a shame that you didn't bother to incorporate DragASprite across
>*all* the ROM s/w - eg, Pinboard, Filer. It would save us doing so many messy
>little hacks ! There are other examples of this sort of inconsistency in
>RO3.1 I feel - eg, the lovely multiple-selection drag boxes that Pinboard,
>Draw and the Filer use - so why not Paint ? It's such a shame, and new users
>probably find it confusing.
>
>Nick Smith

  Once marketing had identified the correct course of action all work on the
implementation of solid dragging stopped.  We concentrated on other work (to
get the project finished on time!).  Since solid dragging is not a
'supported' feature I think it is unreasonable to complain about its
inconsistency.  

  In general you are 'right' it is a shame that loads of ideas for
improvements were 'left out' of RISC OS 3, however we are a commercial
company and as such we MUST release products on time and on budget.  We will
keep working on things and taking user feedback but we must consider our
primary market (education) first, and we must remain viable and solvent as a
company.

  Bruce.


Any views expressed are my own and are not necessarily those     _--_|\ 
of Acorn. Any factual information is given in good faith and    /      \
neither I, nor Acorn can accept liability for loss or damage    \_.--._/
resulting from its use.                                               v
From: ahersee@dcs.warwick.ac.uk (Andrew Hersee)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: DragASprite / Modified filer.
Date: 10 Nov 92 18:43:15 GMT
Organization: Department of Computer Science, Warwick University, England

I think this thread should be moved over to comp.sys.acorn.tech especially
as certain people can only read comp.sys.acorn.tech.

I have posted my latest article to comp.sys.acorn.tech so I hope any
further discussion will follow it.


Andrew Hersee
From: pdenize@waikato.ac.nz
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Apps hanging instead of quitting in RO3.1
Date: 11 Nov 92 11:02:20 +1300
Organization: University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand

I have had a number of programs hang in RISC OS 3.10 when they are asked to
quit.  As they quit sometimes I am led to wonder if it is not some interaction
caused by some other application.

Has anyone located any reason that might explain this ?

Paul Denize
From: ahersee@dcs.warwick.ac.uk (Andrew Hersee)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: dragASprite / Modified filer.
Date: 8 Nov 92 15:36:47 GMT
Organization: Department of Computer Science, Warwick University, England

>Use an obey file named !run in the application-which-is-a-directory
>something like
>(call this obey file FRED)
>
>set alias$open_directory filer_opendir <Obey$Dir>
>open_directory
>(end FRED)
>Have all the sprites for applications-which-are-really-directories in the
>!Sprites file of your !System Directory (assuming !system is in the root
>directory ) then they are IconSprited when you open the window)
> 
>When you click on the application-that-is-a-directory it opens the sub
>
>I have done this for a couple of years now.
>Also I changed the sprite of FRED by redefining the filetype of FRED to an
>unused type, and defined the runtype for it Obey %.

Yes I do this for direcory 'links' unfortunately it does not work when
you close the resulting window with adjust. It simply takes you to the
directory where you have actually stored the propper directory. Is this
getting confusing?

I use Adjust Click to close my filer windows most of the time and thus I
get annoyed if the window that appears is not the window that I orriginally
clicked on to open the directory. This all works ok of you hack the filer
but NOT if you start creating obey files or applications. 

Andrew Hersee
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
From: Phil Emery
Subject: Customising RISC OS 3
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 1992 14:49:20 GMT
Organization: The University of Birmingham, United Kingdom

I've been trying to 'customise' some of the system windows in RO3. I've made so
me templates using FormEd and put them in a directory on my harddisc. I've also
 changed the system variable Switcher$Path to point to this directory. Unfortun
ately, the default windows remain active until the system is soft-booted. Does
anyone know how to replace the default windows with my new ones without soft bo
oting?

Phil Emery
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
From: merlin@maths.tcd.ie (Merlin Hughes)
Subject: Re: VIDC20!!
Organization: Dept. of Maths, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland.
Date: Tue, 10 Nov 1992 17:49:45 GMT

rsrodger@wam.umd.edu (Yamanari) writes:

>	When I read the annoncement, I was fairly impressed, but I noticed
>	that it didn't really give any hard core information.  

>	<i.e. what is the maximum resolution at 32 bits per pixel>

At a guess...

Data rate @ 160Mb/second, assume no sound DMA you can get
160*1048576/4/frame_rate pixels on screen in 32 bpp mode.
With a nice refresh like 80Hz, that gives 1/2 megapixel
display = 1024*512 or 784*668. Going down to 50Hz, you
could get 1024*818.

>	The other thing I noticed is that, other than the hardware cursor,
>	there was no mention whatsoever as to whether it had hardware
>	assisted graphics--i.e. bitblt, and so on.  

I would say it is a display-only chip, otherwise they would
have mentioned stuff like that. What you need to do is put
the VIDC on a graphics card, with wads of fast VRAM, and
then you can add your graphics processor to the card. All
the VIDC will do is display the picture cheaply, in a wide
variety of screen configurations. The Arc (if that is your
desired machine) will then send commands down to the card,
and get on with its own things at no system bandwidth loss.
The graphics processor can be an ARM or whatever. The Vidc
can only read from the VRAM; it will never write to it.

This is ignoring of course, all the mods needed to RISC OS
and many applications.

M.
From: sproven@cs.strath.ac.uk (Simon B Proven IE91)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: VIDC20!!
Date: 10 Nov 92 13:55:04 GMT
Organization: Comp. Sci. Dept., Strathclyde Univ., Glasgow, Scotland.

In article <1992Nov9.133838.17133@wam.umd.edu> rsrodger@wam.umd.edu (Yamanari) writes:
>In article <1992Nov9.110501.1@cc.curtin.edu.au> sdaveyj@cc.curtin.edu.au writes:
>>Hey! Has every body read acorn.sys.announce! VIDC20
>>
>>Wow, just what I have always wanted. 32Bit! suck eggs PC's cheap per chip
>>too, 28bit pallete!
>
>	When I read the annoncement, I was fairly impressed, but I noticed
>	that it didn't really give any hard core information.  

Yes it did - you just have to read between the lines.

>
>	<i.e. what is the maximum resolution at 32 bits per pixel>

Given max bandwidth of 160Mb/sec, you can get 32bpp 1024x768 at 50Hz

or 800x600 at 60Hz

(I *think*)

This is a back-of-envelope calculation, and 1024x768 is very close to the
limit (150Mb/sec) and I've not taken account of flyback, so 1024x768 may be
a nono, but 800x600 will work at 32bpp, as it only needs 109Mb/sec bandwidth
which is well within spec

:)

>	The other thing I noticed is that, other than the hardware cursor,
>	there was no mention whatsoever as to whether it had hardware
>	assisted graphics--i.e. bitblt, and so on.  

Which means it doesn't.  In other words, to get fast graphics systems, you
need a separete ARM600 coprocessor just to draw to the frame buffer.

>	If Acorn wants into the PC graphics biz, they'll have to provide
>	at least some graphics accelleration...

I'd call that ARM700 :)

> Robert Stephen Rodgers  ||  rsrodger@wam.umd.edu  || IRC: Yamanari

mad@bike
-- 
* Simon Proven - 3rd Year student of Computer and Electronic Systems at the *
* University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland  G1 1XQ                      *
* Secretary, University of Strathclyde Green Group                          *
* sproven@cs.strath.ac.uk             REAL (tm) peeps ride bike :)          *
From: smb@cs.nott.ac.uk (Simon Burrows)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: RISC OS 3 Impression...
Date: 13 Nov 92 10:42:36 GMT
Organization: Nottingham University

In article <BxLL5H.724@cen.ex.ac.uk> CDLatham@cen.ex.ac.uk (C.D.Latham) writes:
>
>That was the impression (sorry) that I got.  There is a need for
>better scientific publishing software for the Arc and this is one area
>that the man from CC wished to address.

Have you seen Techwriter from Icon Technology? It is *very* good, but quite
expensive relative to most Arc software.

>On a related topic, I also tackled the Minerva team, including their
>managing director, about Graphbox and Graphbox-pro which have very
>poor support for people wishing to produce technical documents.  They
>expressed a hope that something could be done in future releases but,
>sadly, I left feeling unconvinced.

I have heard people complaining in the past (I have no experience myself)
that general support from this company is rather poor. Hopefully I am wrong
and somebody will post with details of the superb support which they have
received.

>Arc software is second to none when it comes to almost all aspects of
>producing publication quality documents except for scientific and
>technical work where there is a huge deficiency.

See comments above. Techwriter is a very capable package, and for people
who do not need a page designer, but who are interested in writing letters,
technical and scientific documents, Techwriter is much more likely to
satisfy your needs than Impression II.

Simon
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Simon Burrows   smb@cs.nott.ac.uk  psyhsmb@unicorn.nott.ac.uk  +44 533 712030
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: D.S.Walker@bradford.ac.uk (Simeon Walker)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: Using custom screen modes with RO3.1
Date: 12 Nov 92 14:56:59 GMT
Organization: University of Bradford, UK
Originator: 91909178@muser

In article <1992Nov11.171409.5944@mnemosyne.cs.du.edu> ggasrren@nyx.cs.du.edu (Glenn Garrett) writes:
>Hi all
>I have quite a few programs for defining custom screen modes for
>the Arc but sadly *none* of them work with RISCOS 3.1. The new "Wide
>16" mode works quite well but is a bit too big for my display, (I only
>have an ordinary Linear RGB monitor). 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

-- 
Sim. ----------------------------------------------------------- Simeon Walker,
----------------------------------------- Department of Electrical Engineering,
D.S.Walker@bradford.ac.uk -------------------- University of Bradford, England.
From: ahersee@dcs.warwick.ac.uk (Andrew Hersee)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: DragASprite / Modified filer.
Date: 7 Nov 92 16:58:01 GMT
Organization: Department of Computer Science, Warwick University, England


>>Ok it is possible to do. All you need to do is plot the multiple files you
>>are going to drag in a sprite and then drag that larger sprite. (I may work
>>on this if no one else succedes).

>I think multiple-drag sprites look a bit silly to be honest!

>>My filer is already modified so that I can have sprites for normal directories
>>not just the ones with a ! at the beginning. This allows me to draw a little
>>picture in the lower half of a directory sprite depicting what the directory
>>contains. (eg my games directory is a standard directory sprite with a pac-

>neat! Of course don't need to modify the filer - just have your dirs
>as apps which when double-clicked on open a subdir, etc.

Yes this is what I used to do however tis not a very good solution :

i)  Takes more disc space for !Run etc + 2 directories
ii) You can not use adjust click on the resulting directory to take you back
    to the parent of the !directory. (Although I got round this problem
    in RO2 by having an app inside the !directory which had a !boot file
    which closed !directory and opened it's parent. Unfortunately this
    only works once in RO3)

I think my solution is the most flexible solution. But would be interested
in any other revolutionary idea :-)


>>Unfortunately I don't think I could post my Filer2 module as the main code
>>is copyright Acorn. How does the person who is going to attempt a dragasprite
>>filer think they are going to distribute it?

>This person who has done a dragsprite filer thinks he is going to distribute
>it as a !Patch type thing ;-)

Yes this is what I thought of doing however I have a few problems:

I have inserted approx 1k into the code thus certain address have changed
and also need changing. Does anyone know how one writes a patch file
for Acorn's patch utility or am I talking a load of you know what?

Is there enough demand for me to alter this?

In fact why don't I get together with 'this person' and we could release a
patch which did both solid drags and nice directory sprites?

Andrew Hersee
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
From: braindl@uhura.aston.ac.uk (DL BRAIN)
Subject: Re: Replay Harrier @ Newcastle
Organization: Aston University
Date: Thu, 12 Nov 1992 11:12:07 GMT

There are 4 parts, the forth part is on the Newcastle server at the moment.

I finaly got round to decoding replay last night, and very impressive it is
too, I haven't seen Quicktime, but it was much more impressive than an MPEG
player, I saw being used on a _very_ fast peasea.

I fiddled with the settings in the file and managed to get it playing at ~30
frames per second,(On an A5000 Mode28 taking the file from the Hard Disk) 
although at ~40fps the machine hung. (Ok this just makes the film too quick but
I just wanted to see how many fps were possible)

I found that stopping the film and re-sarting it lead to the picture breaking
up, (does it do this for anyone else who's tried it?) but the sound was un-
efected.

Another interesting bit was in one of the text files where while talking about
very high fps films it says "...requires ARM3 (or better) to work..."
_or better_ hmm.... maybe there is some truth in the ARMXXX rumers.

-- 
===============================================================================
|David Brain at Aston University (Comp. Sci.)     Braindl@uk.ac.aston.uhura   |
|             Smile. All the time. (It'll really get to them.)                |
============================Beyond the Pale====================================
From: chah@jet.uk (Colin H A Hogben)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: RISC OS 3 Impression...
Date: 13 Nov 92 17:14:52 GMT
Organization: Joint European Torus

In article <1992Nov10.125838.19939@gate.esat.kuleuven.ac.be> tytgat@rilke.esat.kuleuven.ac.be (John Tytgat) writes:
> Charles Moir told me at the BAU that there will be a major new version of
> Impression around Christmas.  We'll see...

Hmm... Christmas minus BAU show = approx 2 months; multiplied by
Computer Concepts' time dilation factor of 4, = 8 months.  Expect it
around June next year.

Me, a cynic? Never ;-)
-- 
- Colin Hogben    Joint European Torus    email: chah@jet.uk
"How much did you pay for this?" "Sixty quid, plus eight for the fruit-bat"
- Disclaimer: Please note that the above is a personal view and should not 
  be construed as an official comment from the JET project.
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
From: nas20@cl.cam.ac.uk (Nick Smith)
Subject: Re: DragASprite / Modified filer.
Reply-To: nas20@phx.cam.ac.uk (Nick Smith)
Organization: U of Cambridge Comp Lab, UK
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 1992 14:12:22 GMT

In article <BxJuvw.96I@cen.ex.ac.uk> CDLatham@cen.ex.ac.uk (C.D.Latham) writes:
>In article <1992Nov10.175107.2501@abekrd.co.uk> garyb@abekrd.co.uk (Gary Bartlett) writes:
>
>Hate to tell you chaps with this wonderful new idea, but I pointed out that
>the Sun Openwindows file manager does this and maybe it could be done for
>the RISC OS 3 filer many months ago on comp.sys.acorn. (8-)  Nobody took
>any notice at the time so why is everybody so excited about it now?
>--Christopher.

2 reasons I would say - lots of programmers are now getting their mits on
a non-broken OS (3.10), and RISC User publishing ForceADrag sparked a bit
of interest in the DragASprite module (not to mention the endless posts of
'how do you turn on sprite dragging -> you do this *FX -> no you do this
SYS call -> ... ' 8-(
--
Nick Smith, Rm.226, Churchill College, Cambridge ! Email: nas20@uk.ac.cam.phx
.sig quote wanted - must be under guarantee.     ! Tel: (0223) 465596
From: psyhsmb@mips.nott.ac.uk (Simon Burrows)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: The Acorn Product Guides
Date: 12 Nov 92 17:06:55 GMT
Organization: Cripps Computing Centre, University of Nottingham
Originator: psyhsmb@mips.nott.ac.uk

Last night I sat down with a copy of the Acorn Product Guide (fun bedtime
reading!), and several points occurred to me:

1) The Acorn Consumer & Education Product Guides are excellent publications,
   well worth getting hold of.

2) A huge diversity of software and hardware exists which most of us never
   hear about - our image of the Acorn market is coloured by those developers
   and companies which advertise in the Acorn magazines, but at all times
   a huge number of people must be beavering away developing products which
   get very little publicity except through these product guides.

3) Wouldn't the sort of information included in these guides be ideal for
   inclusion on a CD-ROM? Screenshots and sample output could be included,
   as well as demonstration versions of software.

I'd thoroughly recommend that everyone gets hold of a recent Acorn product
guide. (I've also got a very old Archimedes product guide, which lists a
large number of products which were either vapourware or vanished into
obscurity - including a desktop publishing package from Computer Concepts
(as yet without a name), which runs from ROM).

Simon
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Simon Burrows   smb@cs.nott.ac.uk  psyhsmb@unicorn.nott.ac.uk +44 533 712030
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: dcw-a@minster.york.ac.uk
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: sprite to draw
Date: 9 Nov 92 17:04:20 GMT
Organization: Department of Computer Science, University of York, England

In article <1992Nov5.121258.19779@infodev.cam.ac.uk> nas20@phx.cam.ac.uk (Nick Smith) writes:
>In article <1davnsINN2mn@yarrow.csv.warwick.ac.uk> espgl@csv.warwick.ac.uk (Mr D Charalambakis) writes:
>>        Is there any PD utility which takes a sprite and converts it to
>>draw file? I know about !Trace but I think this is not PD.
>>
>>        Does this exists for a PC? (ie tiff/gif to coreldraw)?
>
>!Trace is not PD - but don't let this put you off! It is one of my favourite
>bits of low cost software on the Arc: for L5.99 (inc VAT & PP) you get a
>very impressive Sprite->Draw file convertor (handles colour), a Draw file->
>
	Too right, I have seen both this and Midnight Tracer, a similar package and I am far more impressed
by !Trace. It is slightly slower but the results are far superior (as well as being far cheaper).

>Disclaimer: I have no connection with this product other than really liking
>it!
>--
	Me neither!

>Nick Smith, Rm.226, Churchill College, Cambridge ! Email: nas20@uk.ac.cam.phx
>.sig quote wanted - must be under guarantee.     ! Tel: (0223) 465596

	Doug.
From: torbenm@diku.dk (Torben AEgidius Mogensen)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: WHAT ARE THE BEST GAMES AROUND AT THE
Date: 10 Nov 92 10:22:04 GMT
Organization: Department of Computer Science, U of Copenhagen

Ikki@BEIZ.mediatex.ch (064230062: Fernmeldedirektion Olten) writes:

>AARRRGGHH. I hate Braben. Why, why and
>again why did he that, etc.
>(Ok, I have Elite on my Archie, but it
>was not converted by Braben himself).
>Talking about copyrights in this subject
>, what about Karma?? That has some parts
>of Elite too, hasn t it?

I seem to recall that the radar display design used in Elite was
patented or some such. I've seen 4D's add and the radar display looks
very much like that on Elite. So, this might be what Braben has sued
4D for.

The game looked quite good in the add (but which game doesn't ;-), so
it would be a shame if it didn't come out. I doubt that 4D will simply
drop th game, at the worst they will pay a license fee to Braben.

	Torben Mogensen (torbenm@diku.dk)
From: rcpieter@wsintt04.info.win.tue.nl (Tiggr)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: VIDC20 Press Release
Keywords: VIDC20
Date: 9 Nov 92 11:07:30 GMT
Reply-To: rcpieter@info.win.tue.nl
Distribution: comp

ssegars@armltd.uucp (Simon Segars) writes:

>... digital single processing ...

It's nice to see innovation, but would you care to explain the audience
what digital single processing actually is, and what makes it different
from a typo?

Tiggr
From: andy@laguna.santafe.edu (Andy Mell)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: Protection
Date: 10 Nov 92 17:47:54 GMT
Organization: Santa Fe Institute

In article <BxGFI8.LF@brunel.ac.uk> cs89jmb@brunel.ac.uk (Aeon Flux) writes:

>it exists then a passwd program comes up but it is not very safe as it allows
>access to the command line via F12.

*unplug ShellCLI will prevent the F12 problem.

-- 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Andy Mell, Applied Physics Department,  |   andy@santafe.edu
University of Hull, Hull, HU7 6RX       |   amell@nyx.cs.du.edu
England.                                |   torq@gnu.ai.mit.edu
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
From: jabell@nyx.cs.du.edu (James Bell)
Subject: New machines
Organization: Nyx, Public Access Unix @ U. of Denver Math/CS dept.
Date: Fri, 13 Nov 92 13:15:13 GMT



Hi guys,
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?
Sincerely,
James

Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
From: smb@cs.nott.ac.uk (Simon Burrows)
Subject: Re: sprite to draw
Organization: Nottingham University
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 92 11:10:51 GMT

In article <721328659.14106@minster.york.ac.uk> dcw-a@minster.york.ac.uk writes:
>>!Trace is not PD - but don't let this put you off! It is one of my favourite
>>bits of low cost software on the Arc: for L5.99 (inc VAT & PP) you get a
>>very impressive Sprite->Draw file convertor (handles colour), a Draw file->
>>
>Too right, I have seen both this and Midnight Tracer, a similar package and
>I am far more impressed by !Trace. It is slightly slower but the results are
>far superior (as well as being far cheaper).

You have missed out Image Outliner from Iota Software, which appears to be
far better than both of the above. Unfortunately it does have a higher
price-tag, but if you want to use such a utility seriously, Image Outliner
is the one to go for.

Simon
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Simon Burrows   smb@cs.nott.ac.uk  psyhsmb@unicorn.nott.ac.uk  +44 533 712030
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