HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: nicho@VNET.IBM.COM
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: Why isn't everything PD ?y
Date: 18 Aug 92 09:34:57 GMT
Reply-To: nicho@vnet.ibm.com

In <1992Aug18.095919.10153@waikato.ac.nz> mcg@waikato.ac.nz writes:
>expense incurred by, say John, is the electricity/coffee used in making the
>prog.
> He neither incurrs the expense of supplying a disc or return postage (maybe
   <sigh> You obviously don't write complex programs, nor write them
often. The single biggest expense is software is the developers time.
Why don't you try and write all the PD software you use for yourself,
and then see whether you think it's worth a few quid.
 -----------------------------------------------------------------
               ** 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
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
From: merlin@maths.tcd.ie (Merlin Hughes)
Subject: Re: Why isn't everything PD ?
Organization: Dept. of Maths, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland.
Date: Sun, 16 Aug 1992 23:24:57 GMT

mcg@waikato.ac.nz writes:

>In article <1992Aug16.112542.22758@cs.utwente.nl>, kortink@cs.utwente.nl (John Kortink) writes:

>> Otherwise ask yourself why isn't *everything* PD ? (I'll give you the
>> answer if you need it).

>Answer: Because dweebs like you, John, like to make a fast buck at the 
>expense of the common people who don't have the expertise/time to create the 
>software.

What sort of shit is this? Just because you are incapable of doing
something, you have no right to expect someone else to do it for you
for free. Life is capitalism dear friend. Like it or not, it's what
you're stuck with.

John made no fast buck. Everyone who stole his software did. They
got away without spending time (==money) writing the stuff themselves.

Would you ever get out of John's face; he wrote one of the most
popular pieces of software out for the arc, and people screwed him
over it. He has a reason to be pissed. You have no reason to
complain; you benefitted.

--SICK--Merlin Hughes--    /|
  merlin@maths.tcd.ie     //|
                         //_|           time to die
Acorn.. Deus et machina. /  |
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
From: robg@citr.uq.oz.au (Rob Geraghty)
Subject: clib3.75
Summary: where to find clib3.75
Keywords: help!
Organization: Prentice Centre, University of Queensland
Date: Wed, 19 Aug 1992 07:16:18 GMT

Help!
Where do I find a copy of clib3.75?
I've looked in all the ftp sites I can think of, but no luck.
I'm trying to resist using any of the mail servers!

thanks
Rob

--
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rob Geraghty                         | Time, flowing like a river
robg@durian.citr.oz.au               | Time, beckoning me
CITR                                 | APP
From: mcg@waikato.ac.nz
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: Why isn't everything PD ?
Date: 17 Aug 92 09:48:49 +1200
Organization: University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand

In article <1992Aug16.112542.22758@cs.utwente.nl>, kortink@cs.utwente.nl (John Kortink) writes:

[cut]

> Otherwise ask yourself why isn't *everything* PD ? (I'll give you the
> answer if you need it).

Answer: Because dweebs like you, John, like to make a fast buck at the 
expense of the common people who don't have the expertise/time to create the 
software.

You obviously didn't create software just to have your name/piccy splashed 
across the info bar.....


Besides, the elementary routines you used in your progs (i.e. LZW compression 
in !Packdir) are obviously *NOT* created by you, more like the elementary 
routines were obtained from standard texts on Data Compression and converted,
 by you, to run on the Arc.
 
 The point is, since you're charging people to use your software, is a 
percentage going to the original Authors of the Text, from which you obtained 
the LZW routine, and/or the Original Authors of the routine itself?!?!?

I'm sure there's a copyrighted text/algorithm or two being abused here?!?
From Martin Glanvill		(mcg@waikato.ac.nz)

Dept. Maths 							      @@@@@/|@
University of Waikato						      @@@@/ |@
Hamilton							      @@@/__|@
New Zealand							      @@/   |@
								      @@@@@@@@

----------------****=====| A quote to make your day |======****-----------------
It isn't just a good idea, it's the law!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
From: goodwin@edieng.enet.dec.com (Pete Goodwin)
Subject: Re: Acorn pushes out small dealers
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation
Date: Sun, 23 Aug 1992 13:04:19 GMT


In article <17981@acorn.co.uk>, bcockburn@acorn.co.uk (Bruce Cockburn) writes...

>  Who would be happy with a dealer who didn't have a good range of third
>party stuff?

Define good range. If a smaller dealer who can't afford to keep a large stock
goes out of existance, is that good?

>Who would be happy if, when they rang up for technical suport,
>they were told "we have to get back to you on that" or "sorry our technical
>person is off on two weeks holiday, my advice is don't switch the computer
>on again 'till they get back"?

Whenever I've contacted Acorn for support, I usually get a short letter saying
"Read the manual", "That's not possible" or nothing at all. I've gotten better
support from a local dealer.

The bugs I've reported on the DDE, have they been fixed? Has a new release
version of DDE been sent out fixing the problems?

The quality companies I've dealt with respond to problems with solutions,
either by sending new versions or fixes that work. I don't rate Acorn as a
quality company becasue it doesn't do this simple action for its customers
(i.e. me).

>Is it acceptable for an 'Acorn Dealer' to
>not have all current kit on the shelf?  (How would you feel if you went to
>McDs and asked for a cheese-burger and they said "sorry we only stock the
>Big-Mac, but we could get one in specially for you, come back in a week"?)

There's a big difference between a cheese-burger and the Archimedes range. A
cheeseburge represents a much smaller amount held in stock. What small dealer
can afford to keep EVERY machine in stock, for such a small user base as the
Archimedes? What is Acorn trying to do, shoot its dealers in the foot?

Pete Goodwin
goodwin@system.enet.dec.com
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
From: burke@vxdesy.desy.de
Subject: Re: Why isn't everything PD ?
Organization: (DESY, Hamburg, Germany)
Date: Mon, 17 Aug 1992 14:16:47 GMT

In article <2BkG0pj010n@st-andrews.ac.uk>, gta@st-andrews.ac.uk (Graham Allan) writes:
> mcg@waikato.ac.nz writes:
> 
>> Besides, the elementary routines you used in your progs (i.e. LZW compression 
>> in !Packdir) are obviously *NOT* created by you, more like the elementary 

> This is a possible argument. The trouble is, there's no end to it. I mean,

There is an end - as far as I know, algorithms can be PATENTED (much more
powerful than copyright). I assume that LZW isn't, otherwise you would have to
pay someone a (big) fee to use it.

  I find the original post a bit strange - why shouldn't someone be paid for
the time they spend writing software? Should Computer Concepts give us
Impression for free? The only thing is, if you sell your software you have a
legal and moral responsibility to support it (i.e. the purchasers can complain
if it doesn't work). As I see it, the main advantage of FreeWare is that you
can just release it and forget about it.

e----><----p | Stephen Burke           | Internet: burke@vxdesy.desy.de
 H   H   1   | Gruppe FH1T (Liverpool) | DECnet:   vxdesy::burke (13313::burke)
 H   H  11   | DESY, Notkestrasse 85   | BITNET:   BURKE@DESYVAX or SB2@UKACRL
 HHHHH   1   | 2000 Hamburg 52         | JANET:    sb2@uk.ac.rl.ib
 H   H   1   | Germany                 | Phone:    + 49 40 8998 2282
 H   H 11111 | HERA, the world's largest electron microscope!
From: nicho@VNET.IBM.COM
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: Fuzzy Logic co-processor for ARM
Date: 12 Aug 92 15:30:56 GMT
Reply-To: nicho@vnet.ibm.com


  Apparently VLSI technology have signed a technology agreement with
fuzzy logic specialists Togai InfraLogic. Togai have developed a
fuxxy logic co-processor, capable of evaluating 1M fuzzy operations
per second ina 10 bit config. The co-processor increases die size by
about 20%. Expect to see this mated with an ARM600 macrocell.
  Apologies if this is already on one of the new groups ...
 -----------------------------------------------------------------
               ** 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
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
From: sbirkett@cix.compulink.co.uk (Stuart Birkett)
Subject: Re: MicroVax
Reply-To: sbirkett@cix.compulink.co.uk
Date: Tue, 18 Aug 1992 19:25:41 +0000

 
  > In article <memo.575155@cix.compulink.co.uk>
  > sbirkett@cix.compulink.co.uk writes : 
 
  >> Could anyone tell me which machine has the more powerful
  >> processor. 
 
  >> My ARM3 powered 440/1 or a MicroVax 3100/20? 
 
  > What power you talk about ? Integer Power or Floating-Point
  > Power ? 
 
To make things simpler, which would do the most Dhrystones? 
 
Stuart.....
From: gta@st-andrews.ac.uk (Graham Allan)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: impression->TEX
Date: 14 Aug 92 00:11:26 GMT
Reply-To: gta@st-andrews.ac.uk
Organization: Greyfriars mail-relay

steve@acorn.co.uk (Steve "daffy" Hunt) writes:
> gta@st-andrews.ac.uk (Graham Allan) writes:
> : I would guess the existance of a PostScript to TeX converter is a lot more
> : likely than that of an Impression to TeX converter.
> 
> You can't in general "uncompile" PostScript output to any useful
> semblance of the source document.  Structural information is not
> preserved in the PostScript output.  Impression to TeX is a far more
> feasible operation.

I stand corrected (thinking about the contents of the average PostScript
file, this should have been obvious to me). I was just thinking that a
converter between two widely used formats would be more likely to exist. I'd
also question how much information a converter could extract from the
Impression DDL - enough for straightforward text, yes, but still a severely
limited subset of Impression's capabilities. Though I could be wrong, or it
could be good enough for the situation required...

Graham
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Graham Allan
Physics Dept, University of St.Andrews                   gta@st-andrews.ac.uk
From: rsxdp@unicorn.nott.ac.uk (D.Pead)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: impression->TEX
Date: 12 Aug 92 13:01:40 GMT
Organization: Shell Centre for Maths Education , University of Nottingham

In article <1992Aug10.141557.8155@vax.oxford.ac.uk> cstevens@vax.oxford.ac.uk writes:
>	anyone out there know if CC's Impression can produce TEX output files?
>does anyone have a module that'll convert from one to the other. I've been told

Impression "Document Description Format" looks a bit like this:

{Lots and lots of format data}
Some plain text, with or with out linefeeds & returns as required
{"Italic" on}A bit of text in Italics{"Italic" off} and without
{"Wobbly" on}A bit of text in a user defined style{"Wobbly" off}

etc.

So you could probably write a utility to do the conversion (e.g. in
one of the UN*X-type PD tools such as SED or as a MICROEMACS Macro).

ASCII input/output is a doddle.

Impression has a mechanism for bolt-on import/export modules, but I don't
think anybody other than CC has produced any.
From: andyf@yama.uk.sun.com (Andrew Fox - Sun UK - Answer centre)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Acorn and Psion join forces......
Date: 14 Aug 92 08:40:36 GMT
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Distribution: world
Reply-To: andyf@yama.uk.sun.com
NNTP-Posting-Host: yama.uk.sun.com


Hi All,
	
	Yesterday (13/8) Acorn held a meeting in a Park Lane hotel in London for
	dealers.

	At this meeting they are reputed to have announced SIX new products......

	I have yet to discover all the details as the dealers are bound by a 
	non-disclosure agreement of some sort, but it does seem certain that 
	Acorn have joined forces with Psion to produce a hand-held 'computer'
	to retail at about 250 pounds.

	Whether or not this is true I don't know, but Acorn will be making an	
	announcement concerning all these products at the end of this month.

	If I discover more, in advance of their announcement, I will post it to the
	group.

	Cheers for now,

	Andy Fox.


Disclaimer:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  The opinions expressed above in no way represent those of Sun Microsystems.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: Word Hound version 1.10
From: julian@bridge.welly.gen.nz (Julian Wright)
Date: Wed, 12 Aug 1992 22:11:54 +1200
Reply-To: wright_j@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz (Julian Wright)
Organization: USS Enterprise, NCC 1701a

ijp@doc.ic.ac.uk (Ian Palmer) writes:

> I've just had a thought. Were paths available under RO2, ie can you
> set a variable (eg. WordHound$Path) and then do things like
> WordHound:-whatever- ?????

Well the cause of the specific problem has already been ascertained,
but to answer your query... yes and no.

Yes paths are available in that form under RISC OS 2, but only for
loading/reading from that path. If you tried to write/save to a path
your file instead gets placed in the CSD. Under RISC OS 3 this has
been corrected so that saving to a path will cause the file to be saved
with the first element of the path for which a save operation is possible.

I tried it out with various combinations of read-only vs read-write
path segments. I did not try it with a writable segment first, which
doesn't have enough free space for the file, or for which a locked
file of the same leafname already exists though.

    Cheers, Julian
From: torbenm@diku.dk (Torben AEgidius Mogensen)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: impression->TEX
Date: 14 Aug 92 12:41:33 GMT
Organization: Department of Computer Science, U of Copenhagen

cstevens@vax.oxford.ac.uk writes:

>Hi folks,
>	anyone out there know if CC's Impression can produce TEX output files?
>does anyone have a module that'll convert from one to the other. I've been told
>that there's an option to produce an ascii output in something called the
>document description language. I don't have impression yet, so i don't know
>anything about this but it sounds like it might be a TEX like format. If this
>was possible I'd be able to forget about the 15Meg of TEX I have, buy
>impression and use that instead (which by many accounts is better).
>Unfortunately my printing facilities reaslly require a TEX format to get the
>best output.
>Hope someone can help 

I know of no program that can convert Impression files to TeX, but I
would imagine that it would be relatively simple to convert the
document description language to TeX. However, you will have no
guarantee that the output from TeX will look like the original
Impression document - lines might be broken in different places, words
might be hyphenated differently, page breaks might be different etc.

Someone here once wrote a program to convert one of the output formats
of MS-Word for the Mac to TeX. It worked reasonably well, but normally
you would manually adjust the output to get a satisfactory TeX
document.

Another (and probably more realistic) approach is to convert
Impression files (in some format) to DVI files, as produced by TeX for
printing. This might even be possible to do as a printer driver (like
the postscript drivers).

B.T.W, most TeX systems on large machines use postscript printers, so
maybe you could just use a postscript printer driver, print to a file
and then print that file on the postscript printer.

	Torben Mogensen (torbenm@diku.dk)
From: aglover@acorn.co.uk (Alan Glover)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn.announce
Subject: FAQ posting delay
Date: 13 Aug 92 10:40:29 GMT
Followup-To: comp.sys.acorn
Organization: Acorn Computers Ltd, Cambridge, England


   My apologies people for the delay in the posting of the FAQlist. My mail
host has been pipeing all of my email to /dev/null. This means any
corrections to the list emailed to me since the 30th of July have been
eaten.

   The FAQlist will make (touches copious amounts of wood) it's 15th of the
month appearance...

    Philip

--
Philip R. Banks  Syntax: mail < banks_p@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz >            @@@@@/|
                                                                        @@@@/#|
The Trojan Signature Virus :-                                           @@@/##|
Hi there! I am an anti signature virus utility. Copy me into your       @@/---|
signature to use me!                                                    @/    |

_______________________________________________________________________________

aglover@acorn.co.uk, moderator of comp.sys.acorn.announce. Submissions to
announce-request@acorn.co.uk, other related mail to announcer@acorn.co.uk.
From: gtoal@ibmpcug.co.uk (Graham Toal)
Subject: Re: New PC's, what's happening acorn?
Organization: The IBM PC User Group, UK.
Date: Sun, 16 Aug 1992 12:16:18 GMT

In article <9208161049.AA10301@sand.sics.bu.oz.au> s047@SAND.SICS.BU.OZ.AU (Jeremy Lee) writes:
>>to run it at a decent speed. Will the Americans never learn about
>>design?
>
>No. Not while their companies are being run by the marketers.

Will the British never learn about marketing?

No.  Not while their companies are being run by the designers.

Actually, that's not fair.  The real problem is that the companies
are run by professional managers with no specific experience of
*either* marketing or design.

G
--
From: gta@st-andrews.ac.uk (Graham Allan)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: MicroVax
Date: 15 Aug 92 13:43:36 GMT
Reply-To: gta@st-andrews.ac.uk
Organization: Greyfriars mail-relay

sbirkett@cix.compulink.co.uk (Stuart Birkett) writes:

> Could anyone tell me which machine has the more powerful processor.
>  
> My ARM3 powered 440/1 or a MicroVax 3100/20?

As far as I can remember, a VAXstation 3100 does about 3 MIPs, the newer
VAXstation 3100/76 does nearer 10. For whatever the MIPs figure is worth...
I would guess a VAX has better FP support than an ARM3.

Graham
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
From: 2105995@hydra.maths.unsw.EDU.AU ()
Subject: Broken Directory needs fixing
Organization: Ban the Mac Society, Aust, ltd
Date: Thu, 13 Aug 1992 22:23:41 GMT



AARRGGHHH!!!!!!

Does ANYone know how to fix a 'broken directory'?
I have some _rather_ important files contained in
one of these beasts.
Can those who do know how to fix it email me, and
if anyone comes up with the brainwave 'format your
HD', i think i shall scream! 




                             Cheers!

+----------------------------+---------------------------------------------+
|___                         | Real Programmers (tm) code in 68000         |
||__| .  __  __ |\/|  __   _ | Real Artists (rm) use Macintoshes           |
|| \    |__ |   |  |  __\ | \| Real Musicians (c) use SoundBlaster Pros    |
||  \ | ___||__ |  | |__| | || Real Idiots (pat. pend) do all of the above | 
+-President of the Ban the Mac Society, Regd office ARMature II BBS Sydney-+
From: RRNA@CCV.UIA.AC.BE
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: where are you, c.s.a. ?
Date: 20 Aug 92 10:31:00 GMT

******************************************************************************
De Rijk Peter                              * Inside every big problem,
E-Mail: rrna@ccv.uia.ac.be                 * there's a little problem,
FTP: 143.159.8.1                           * trying to get out.
******************************************************************************

I was following c.s.a. by ftp'ing the newsfeed at rcpieter@win.tue.nl. There
seems to be a problem now: the directory /pub/comp/sys/acorn has dissapeared. I
couldn't find c.s.a. on info-admin@eu.net, info-admin@nluug.nl, and lcs.mit.edu
either. Could someone please help me to find c.s.a ont the net again. (E-mail
please ;-))

Thanks in advance,

Peter

Disclaimer: you know!       
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
From: burke@vxdesy.desy.de
Subject: Re: Why isn't everything PD ?y
Organization: (DESY, Hamburg, Germany)
Date: Tue, 18 Aug 1992 15:01:45 GMT

In article <1992Aug18.095919.10153@waikato.ac.nz>, mcg@waikato.ac.nz writes:
>  a) Companies like CC employ hordes of programmers to write a prog (wages).

I.e. the programmers get paid!

>  b) They Pacakge their wares in (attractive) cases/packaging.

Which you generally throw away.

>  c) They provide separate *type-set* manuals.

So you print out the !Help file - adds, what, 10p to the cost? Anyway, most
PD applications don't need manuals.

d) (missing from the above) CC make a profit - or at least they try to. I'd
guess that the "hardware" cost of one copy of Impression is maybe 10-20 pounds,
so they have something like 90% profit margin - on the other hand, they spent
about three years writing it with no return.

  The bottom line is that you sell things for whatever price you like, and
people decide if they want to buy at that price. Most people release something
as PD because either it isn't good enough to sell, or they don't want the
hassle involved in commercial selling. A small number of people are generous
enough to provide commercial-quality software, with a commercial level of
support, for free, and should be praised for their generosity.

e----><----p | Stephen Burke           | Internet: burke@vxdesy.desy.de
 H   H   1   | Gruppe FH1T (Liverpool) | DECnet:   vxdesy::burke (13313::burke)
 H   H  11   | DESY, Notkestrasse 85   | BITNET:   BURKE@DESYVAX or SB2@UKACRL
 HHHHH   1   | 2000 Hamburg 52         | JANET:    sb2@uk.ac.rl.ib
 H   H   1   | Germany                 | Phone:    + 49 40 8998 2282
 H   H 11111 | HERA, the world's largest electron microscope!
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: So, should I buy an A540 now or wait for what's behind door #1?
From: jwil1@cs.aukuni.ac.nz (TMOTA)
Date: Thu, 13 Aug 1992 20:46:39 GMT
Distribution: comp
Organization: Computer Science Dept. University of Auckland

ph10@cus.cam.ac.uk (Philip Hazel) writes:

>|> show in October, which is two months away. The A540 is currently top of the
>|> range, but doesn't have RISC-OS 3, as the A5000's do.

>But Acorn has promised RISC OS 3 for other machines "soon", and the AU Show
>might just be the place for that too...

Supposedly, Acorn will be able to ship RISC OS 3 version 3.10 at the same time
as bulk shipments of the A4 commence - late September.
-- 
_________________  "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: tim@parcplace.com (Tim Rowledge)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Taxan 795, A540, !Saloon
Date: 21 Aug 92 15:56:20 GMT

I'm sure it's been asked before, but I don't recall seeing any solution:-
Given the above mix, how in &*&(^ do I get to run !Saloon ?
Everything is fine until the action starts and then the screen is scrambled
presumably by changing mode in some way. I have tried with and without the
Atomwide 795540size module, and even with a very expensive Toshiba-
supposedly-real-multi-synch monitor with no luck.
I'm really annoyed as it used to work beautifully with my NEC multisynch
(yes the mark 1 version with the goldfish bowl shaped screen) and I was
getting quite good. When I moved across the pond I had to abandon the NEC
but I thought that modern monitors ought to be at least as flexible :-(
Anyhelp would be appreciated.
	Tim Rowledge->tim@parcplace.com

Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
From: zrzm0370@rusmv1.rus.uni-stuttgart.de (Joerg Scheurich)
Subject: Re: MicroVax
Organization: Information Server, Comp.Center (RUS), U of Stuttgart, FRG
Date: Tue, 18 Aug 1992 10:31:44 GMT

In article <memo.575155@cix.compulink.co.uk> sbirkett@cix.compulink.co.uk writes:
>Could anyone tell me which machine has the more powerful processor.
> 
>My ARM3 powered 440/1 or a MicroVax 3100/20?

What power you talk about ?
Integer Power or Floating-Point Power ?

so long
MUFTI