HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: zzassgl@uts.mcc.ac.uk (Geoff Lane)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: New FTP site for the Archie
Date: 15 Apr 92 14:03:37 GMT
Organization: Manchester Computing Centre, Oxford Road, Manchester, M13 9PL, England.

In article <3452@daily-planet.concordia.ca> nizar@concour.cs.concordia.ca (SABRA nizar.) writes:
>Howdy!
>
>	After looking at the fortnightly posting of FTP sites available for
>the archie, I noticed the uts.mcc.ac.uk site. After looking through the site,
>I found that it contains many useful applications (and games/demos).
>
>	Would there be any disadvantages of uploading some of the software
>available on the Newcastle server to this site? (I could do most of the work,
>if necessary). This would provide Acorn users with an FTP site which provides
>fast (yes, the machine's connection to the internet is quite fast) and
>efficient means of circulating software.
>


I have no objection in principle.  The problem is, as it is almost
everywhere else, the limited amount of resources that we can devote to a
service that does not form part of our service definition.  While the
filestore is available and I have time to maintain the ftp/pub directories
the RiscOS stuff will be available.  Anything that is uploaded into the
"incoming" directory will be moved into the main RiscOS directory eventually
so long as it is PD, Shareware or copyrighted s/w with permission to
redistribute - anything else will be deleted.  Currently everything is
archived with David Pillings !Spark 2 application - it makes life simpler if
any new stuff is also archived this way. 



-- 
Geoff. Lane.                                  Janet: zzassgl@uk.ac.mcc.uts
UTS Sys Admin, Manchester Computing Centre, Oxford Rd, Manchester, M13 9PL
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: Acorn
From: banksie@khantazi.welly.gen.nz (Philip R. Banks)
Date: Mon, 13 Apr 1992 23:23:22 +1200
Reply-To: banks_p@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz
Organization: My Arc.

lithgow@uslp.UUCP writes:

> It was amusing to see that one of the 'some future release' enhancements
> was stackable filesystems. Acorn have only had that technology for three
> or four years (with a three level stack for ADFS, RAMFS, etc., and two
> level stack for most other FS's), and it will be three or four years
> before UNIX gets it.

   Stackable FS's? What doest thou meanst Malcolm? Thou doest speakith with
a strange tongue.... :-)

    Philip

--
Philip R. Banks                                                         @@@@@/|
Syntax: mail <banks_p@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz|banksie@khantazi.welly.gen.nz> @@@@/#|
                                                                        @@@/##|
What price the crown of a king on his throne,                           @@/---|
When you're chained in the dark all alone?  ---A.P.P.                   @/    |
From: torq@hal.gnu.ai.mit.edu (Andy Mell)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: Scandal: Acorn betrays customers! (:-)
Date: 13 Apr 92 00:06:51 GMT
Organization: /etc/organization

In article <1aeOjuj014n@bridge.welly.gen.nz> wright_j@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz (Julian Wright) writes:

>----------------------------| RO2:SYS 68,59243844 |--------------------------
>wright_j@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz |---------------------| "I'm sig of sicknatures!"
>----------------------------| RO3:SYS 68,60816742 |--------------------------
                          ___________/
                         /           
 You wouldnt have a RiscOS 2.01 version of this would you? I am wondering
 what it says? :-) (presumably the list of RiscOS contributors?)
 BTW: I remember that there was a list in the top end of the BBC OS 1.2 rom
From: ee88jmf@brunel.ac.uk (J M Fielder)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: ARM code JPEG coming up
Date: 8 Apr 92 11:51:11 GMT
Reply-To: ee88jmf@brunel.ac.uk.brunel.ac.uk (J M Fielder)
Organization: Brunel University, Uxbridge, UK

In article <1992Mar31.103936.4789@cs.utwente.nl> kortink@cs.utwente.nl (John Kortink) writes:
{ Stuff about an ARM JPEG decocoder / encoder]

I saw an advert in Acorn User for an application called !JPEG.

Something like #84 for a full version, #24 for a decode only version.

Now, if they are using the Independent JPEG stuff then it seems like being
able to make money out of thin air.

Anyone know anymore about this one.  Is is a quick ARM one, if it is then I
might be tempted to by the decode only version.

Joust
From: torq@hal.gnu.ai.mit.edu (Andy Mell)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: Comp.Sys.Acorn and Newcastle
Date: 17 Apr 92 00:15:00 GMT
Article-I.D.: life.23398
Organization: /etc/organization

In article <1992Apr15.234122.18003@demon.co.uk> Steve Loft <sloft@cix.compulink.co.uk> writes:
>Can anyone help with the following queries from a friend who has access to 
>Mail (via some sort of Unix gateway) but not News?
> 
>Firstly, is there any way he can receive Comp.Sys.Acorn with this setup?

Your friend can post articles to comp.sys.acorn by mailing his message to
comp-sys-acorn@ucbvax.berkeley.edu but the gateway is a bit dicky sometimes.
Unfortunately at present there is no way i know of which enables you to
receive articles posted to comp.sys.acorn by mail, unless someone sets up a
news-mail exploder for this group, this might be a good idea, several other
newsgroups are gated to mail.

>Secondly, he retrieved some files from the Newcastle info server, but 
>somewhere along the way all the 'hash' characters got stripped out.  Any 
>clever ideas as to what can be done about this (other than find out what is 
>stripping them and get it to stop!).

I imagine it is a VMS/IBM system somewhere between him and the newcastle
info-server, the only way you are gonna get round that is to try and make
the mail go a different way (if the info-server supports routing) or by
using a different machine.

Andy
From: ssurawls@susssys1.reading.ac.uk (Mister E)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: >>Computer emissions
Date: 13 Apr 92 14:26:19 GMT

mcg@waikato.ac wrote;

>what the amigas have is a great slab of steel top and bottom of the machine
and
>keyboard and more importantly separated the power supply from the computer
and
>sheilded it.

That shield is also coke and coffee proof, thankfully.

My proposed solution may well not solve the radio emission problem totally,
but it will reduce the amount of RF coming out. If the TV is a room or two
away then that should be fine. Even encloding the beast in a metal case
doesn't stop radio emissions totally, my old 310 still knocks out radios for
miles! I keep on expecting misguided aircraft to land on my house...

Ian


Posted Mon Apr 13 15:26:06 BST 1992

=+=+=+=+=+ 8< =+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ 8< =+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ 8< =+=+=+=+=+=+=+
Mr Ian Rawlings, Telephone Reading (0734) 662301
	EMAIL ssurawls@susssys1.rdg.ac.uk

A Dublin lawyer died in poverty and many barristers of the city sub-
scribed to a fund for his funeral. The Lord Chief Justice of Orbury
was asked to donate a shilling. "Only a shilling?" said the man. "Only
a shilling to bury an attorney? Here's a guinea; go and bury 20 of them."
From: philip@popeye.axion.bt.co.uk (Philip DNM44)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: 1st Word Plus query
Keywords: JP150 driver
Date: 16 Apr 92 09:29:31 GMT
Reply-To: philip@popeye.axion.bt.co.uk (Philip DNM44)
Followup-To: comp.sys.acorn
Organization: British Telecom Research Labs



Hello archietypes
A quick question for all you smart netters. Is there a printer driver (or 
1WPConfig file) which allows you to drive the JP150 ( the ink jet bundled
with the A5000LC ) direct from 1st Word Plus ? I cannot find one in the
set supplied which allows HP Deskjet emulation. I find it strange that
the software and hardware supplied with the LC package do not seem to work
correctly together. 
    All I want to do is use italics in a letter and can't seem to find a 
sensible way to do it. It is possible to use the Acorn printer driver 
but you seem to have to kill 1WP first. Where am I going wrong ? Does this
query make sense ? Am I being dense ? (Certainly possible - I am a new
Acorn user.) 
    Aside from this I am delighted with the A5000 :-) :-)
Philip
Please reply to mail address below.



-- 
  Philip Rutter,  Network Management Department
| BT Laboratories   | e-mail : philip@muppet.bt.co.uk  |     /--\  /   /  /  /
| Martlesham Heath  | phone  : +44 473 648134          |    /   / /   /  /  /
| Ipswich           |----------------------------------|   /___/ /___/  /  /
| Suffolk IP5 7RE   |                                  |  /     /   /  /  /
| England           |                                  | /     /   /  /  /___
From: mrp@minster.york.ac.uk
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Arm and 486 and things
Date: 7 Apr 92 11:59:51 GMT
Organization: Department of Computer Science, University of York, England

more fuel for the great Arm vs 3/486 debate, (i'm not sure which side
this is for though);

in the current issue of pcw there was a little ad. seeking PC
programmers, experienced in windows grpahics and assembler, to work on
a graphics application.  The ad. was placed by Computer Concepts.

Any thoughts, obvious conclusions? 

 - martin.
From: ssurawls@susssys1.reading.ac.uk (Mister E)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: >>A5000 disc format recognising
Date: 13 Apr 92 14:49:22 GMT

mcg@waikato.ac wrote;
>> Does the A5000 recognise its disc types automatically and can you override
>> them? What I mean is if you put a 2 meg disc in and select format does it
>> default to 1.6 meg or 800K, and could you force it to format a 2 meg disc
to
>> 800K?
>
>A: #1 Yes it recognises formatted discs automatically; viz a PC 1.44M
formatted       >disc is recognised and is used as if it was an ADFS disc.
>      (except r/w operations to and from it are slower for some reason).

It also takes a while to catalogue a floppy disc now as it checks to format
first. Then when the directory display appears it looks identical to an ADFS
display, room for plenty of confusion there! Especially if you copy files such
as archives or text files, which will be given the correct file type.

>   #2 No, it doesn't recognise the type of disc as per Mac LC's when you
>      try to format it, i.e. 2D (800K) unformatted disc -> 800K only,
>      HD (1.44M) -> 800K or 1.44M.
>      What you select as the format, it will format as requested regardless
of
>      the type of disc(unless you select 1.6M format for a 800k disc!).

If you pop an 800K disc is, you CAN format it to 1.6 megs, and it works. How
long for, is anybody's guess, but I suppose that if you were to use high
quality double density discs perhaps it would be allright. Double density
discs are always much cheaper than high density, a lot of the time less than
half price, eg I can get good quality discs at 35 pence per disc, and I don't
have to buy hundreds either! (Note that this price may have gone up as I
haven't bought any discs for a while) I get the discs from Diamond Computing,
but don't tell them you have an archie as they are liable to start making the
usual defunct comments like "Oh I met the other archie owner yesterday" or
"What are you going to put on the discs? No software that's for sure" etc etc
etc....

>> And also, does anyone know how flexible the A5000 disc controller is, ie is
>> mac and amiga format reading a possibility? I have heard great things about
>> it....

> Nope. Only those listed -> Atari & MS-DOS only. (I've already tried it).

The mac and amiga formats are not built in to RO3 (current version :-) ) but
this does not necessarily mean that you can't read them. After all, the older
arthur discs were directly readable in RO2, they have now added PC discs to
them, so perhaps we will get third party/PD programs to read mac and amiga now
we have the new controller.

>        Martin.

Ian


Posted Mon Apr 13 15:49:09 BST 1992

=+=+=+=+=+ 8< =+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ 8< =+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ 8< =+=+=+=+=+=+=+
Mr Ian Rawlings, Telephone Reading (0734) 662301
	EMAIL ssurawls@susssys1.rdg.ac.uk

A Dublin lawyer died in poverty and many barristers of the city sub-
scribed to a fund for his funeral. The Lord Chief Justice of Orbury
was asked to donate a shilling. "Only a shilling?" said the man. "Only
a shilling to bury an attorney? Here's a guinea; go and bury 20 of them."
From: dbh@doc.ic.ac.uk (Denis Howe)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Karma
Date: 8 Apr 92 18:20:56 GMT
Organization: Computing Department, Imperial College, London, UK

Mail me if you have Karma - I'm feeling lonely!

And where the hell is a world warmed by gravitational tidal forces?
--
Denis Howe <dbh@doc.ic.ac.uk>  __o     I don't really love computers
H558A Imperial College London  \<__/   I just  say that  to get them
   +44 (71) 589 5111 x5064     / \_)   into bed with me.  T Pratchet
From: torq@hal.gnu.ai.mit.edu (Andy Mell)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: gnuplot (and gcc) for the arc?
Date: 8 Apr 92 19:31:43 GMT
Distribution: comp
Organization: /etc/organization

In article <FLIMM.92Apr8120852@sun.ph-cip.uni-koeln.de> flimm@ph-cip.uni-koeln.de (Oliver Flimm) writes:
>
>is there yet a port of gnuplot available for the arc. If so, where can I get 
>it from? In addition, is there a port of gcc available?
>
Yes, there is, I have gnuplot 3.0 sitting on my hard disc at the moment, but
you'll have to wait for it until I get back to uni, it costs too much to
upload by modem.

gcc 2.0 has been compiled in RisciX, but apparently there are problems with 
the object file format or something, I dont know exactly, havnt tried it.
I fear gcc for RiscOS is going to need a fat arc to run, i.e. one with
8 megs, we shall have to see, it may just fit in.

Andy
From: rjb12@unix.brighton.ac.uk (Browning;f110or89;[05306)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: Arm and 486 and things
Date: 8 Apr 92 11:00:27 GMT
Organization: Brighton Polytechnic, UK

mrp@minster.york.ac.uk writes:
> in the current issue of pcw there was a little ad. seeking PC
> programmers, experienced in windows grpahics and assembler, to work on
> a graphics application.  The ad. was placed by Computer Concepts.
> 
> Any thoughts, obvious conclusions? 
Oh crikey. Is CC abandoning the Acorn market by attempting to make inroads
into the PC DTP market with Windows Impression?

I hope this is conjecture.

Rich.
-- 
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Rich Browning (rjb12@bton.unix)   *   Madness ...
Department of Computer Science    *   ... is merely a state of 
Brighton Polytechnic              *       intellectual independence
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
From: rogersh%p4@uk.ac.man.cs (rogersh)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: New ARM development
Date: 15 Apr 92 11:43:14 GMT
Distribution: comp
Organization: Department of Computer Science, University of Manchester UK

In article <1992Apr12.100328.23766@cs.hw.ac.uk> neilp@cs.hw.ac.uk (Neil Postlethwaite) writes:
>
>	According to May BAU, Prof Steve Furbar (ARM co-inventor with Rog'),
>he is developing an Asynchronous version of the ARM as his new project
>at UMIST.

	PLEASE - NOT AT UMIST. At Dep. of Comp. Sci., UNIVERSITY of
Manchester. Furthermore it's not UMIST but the University that made the
first electronic stored program computer - the MU1...

	-Huw

[ H.J.Rogers  INTERNET: rogersh%p4@cs.man.ac.uk                    ]
[    ,_,      JANET: rogersh%p4@uk.ac.man.cs                       ]
[  :-(_)-o   "I'll be back..."                                     ]
[   _} {_    "Computer Science is an engineering discipline."      ]
From: ee88jmf@brunel.ac.uk (J M Fielder)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: Arm and 486 and things
Date: 14 Apr 92 11:30:45 GMT
Reply-To: ee88jmf@brunel.ac.uk.brunel.ac.uk (J M Fielder)
Organization: Brunel University, Uxbridge, UK

In article <1992Apr8.110027.1098@unix.brighton.ac.uk> rjb12@unix.brighton.ac.uk (Browning;f110or89;[05306) writes:
>mrp@minster.york.ac.uk writes:
>> in the current issue of pcw there was a little ad. seeking PC
>> programmers, experienced in windows grpahics and assembler, to work on
>> a graphics application.  The ad. was placed by Computer Concepts.
>> Any thoughts, obvious conclusions? 
>Oh crikey. Is CC abandoning the Acorn market by attempting to make inroads
>into the PC DTP market with Windows Impression?

From 'the grapevine'

CC is going to port ArtWorks and / maybe Impression onto other platforms.
It would 'seem that' CC wants to get more money for the ideas in ArtWorks than
they could ever get out of selling it into the Archimedes market. Some of the
features in Artworks etc. are innovative and new and it has now taken them
nearly 3 times as long to write Artworks as they thought at the start (project
management?????) so 'the grapevine' presumes that they want more money.

Shame they didn't write it all in C :-)

They above is only what I have heard in a 2nd or greater hand way. It could
all be true, or a load of rubbish :-)

Joust
From: banksie@khantazi.welly.gen.nz (Philip R. Banks)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: A5000 disc format recognising
Date: Sat, 11 Apr 1992 18:52:01 +1200
Reply-To: banks_p@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz
Organization: My Arc.

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

> 1.44 Meg Mac format, both read and write, should be no problem at all. But
> is it really necessary? Macs can read and write PC discs, and so can A5000s
> so why bother?

   Simple. Convenience. The ability to read other machines disc formats is
*very* useful for people who have to work with more than one brand of
machine. I know for myself that the hassles of using Apple File Exchange,
and of using Macs in general :-) , would make a Mac disc format reader
*most* useful. Also PC format does alot of name truncation and loss of file
type information. This neccesitates the packing of the files into a
'transport' format which is yet more hassle.

   So much nicer and easier to just be able to shove the disc in go...
Also there is the other hassle of you more often than not forget some
important files that you need which means you have to go back, repack the
file, shift it to PC format, unpack it and generaly get grumpy at the extra
hassle....

>               Amiga, ahem. Well, one of my friends is an Amiga guru, and we
> thought about this. Writing them is totally, utterly and absolutely out of
> the question. You have to write an entire Amiga track at once since there
> are no inter sector gaps, and you just can't do that through FileCore as an
> image filing system. We were very dubious about even being able to do it
> driving the floppy controller directly - there is no write track operation
> on the 82C710 in the A5000. You stand a slightly higher than nil chance on
> the 1772 in older machines, but it still isn't very likely. Reading Amiga
> discs looks as if it will probably work most of the time, but would fail
> occasionally.

    This would explain a few things. I found with my hacked together 'lets
investigate Amiga discs' proglet that every so often one of the tracks would
prove unreadable on a 1772 FDC. I presume this is because the track end -
start gap is so small that the FDC couldn't find it? And yes I am well aware
of how *horrible* the Amiga disc format is...

> Different point - am I the only person on this group who quotes only enough
> of the original article to give context to my follow-up?

   Yes Owen. Nobody else does it. Of course not.... :-)

    Philip

--
Philip R. Banks                                                         @@@@@/|
Syntax: mail <banks_p@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz|banksie@khantazi.welly.gen.nz> @@@@/#|
                                                                        @@@/##|
What price the crown of a king on his throne,                           @@/---|
When you're chained in the dark all alone?  ---A.P.P.                   @/    |
From: dreid@acorn.co.uk (David Reid)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: Floppie-drive
Date: 9 Apr 92 19:11:10 GMT
Distribution: comp
Organization: Acorn Computers Ltd, Cambridge, England

In article <1992Apr8.131608.29875@sci.kun.nl> anita@sci.kun.nl (Anita van Nieuwenborg) writes:


>The disk-drive of my A310 broke down, so I have to buy a new one.
>Some time ago I was told that a normal pc drive (720K) would work.
>But I have some troubles finding one. I can however buy a 1.2Mb drive
>(high-density-drive) for a fair price.
>Does anyone know if such a drive will work?


Sorry , it won't really... as this drive type requires a  quad-density
controller such as that found in an A5000 (also this drive is 5.25" not
3.5").

Keep your eyes peeled for a 3.5" 720K drive sometimes refered to as a 1Mbyte
floppy drive... 

or you could get one from your Acorn Dealer...

Dave


These comments are my own and do not necessarily reflect the comments of
the company or its policies.
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: Risc OS 3 - New SWI needed
From: Philip.Banks@comp.vuw.ac.nz (Philip Richard Banks)
Date: Thu, 16 Apr 1992 02:03:27 GMT
Organization: Dept. of Comp. Sci., Victoria Uni. of Wellington, New Zealand.

In article <4585@m1.cs.man.ac.uk> rogersh%p4@uk.ac.man.cs (rogersh) writes:
>
>	A new SWI is desperately needed in RO3. It may already have been
>added on A5000s but I don't have access to any documentation for RO3.
>Basically on several occasions I have needed to be able to resolve a
>generic file path into a fully rooted GSTrans'd one. I.e. I want
>a SWI that converts an arbitrary filename with @, \, device specifiers,
>special fields, FS specifiers or whatever in any combination into
>a fully rooted GSTransed filename that is independent of the current
>FS, CWD URD PSD LIB selections, etc. I.e. passing "@" would
>get the current working directory. Note this SWI would have to cope
>with special devices like kbd: as well.
>
>	It's possible (though computationally extremely expensive
>and very awkward) to do this manually under RO2 - it would be very
>much easier for FileSwitch to export this information (which it already
>maintains) rather than hiding it from the user.

   Already done. Try OS_FSCanonaclisePath (If I remember my spelling correctly.
) I can't remember the SWI details but that is the one you are after. That is
one of the big improvments in RO3 - the extraction of FS vars into FileCore/
Switch.

   Also the RO2 method of extricating a full path using OS_GBPB will not work
on RO3.... 

Philip

-- 
 Philip R. Banks  pbanks@comp.vuw.ac.nz (An Arc owner with a mission)  @@@@@/|
    (Quite what mission I am not too sure yet. But I do have one!)     @@@@/#|
 "There may be an om in moment,but there's very few folk in focus!"    @@@/--|
	--'Hallowed be thy Name' by Emerson,Lake & Palmer.             @@/###|
From: nizar@concour.cs.concordia.ca (SABRA nizar.)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Arc Modem wiring.
Date: 10 Apr 92 08:05:52 GMT
Organization: Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec

Howdy!

	I have heard a few times that the Archie has to have a different kind
of serial cable than PCs. I have a standard PC cable connecting my A3000 to my
fax/modem. The modem seems to work fine, but I have problems with the fax
part of it when I try to run a fax program from the PC Emulator.

	When is it necessary to use the special kind of wiring? Could it be
that the wire that I'm using is causing the fax to crash (as well as RiscBBS)?

	I would appreciate any help on this matter. Thanx.

Nizar.
From: nicho@VNET.IBM.COM
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: Personal Computer World
Date: 8 Apr 92 16:16:38 GMT
Reply-To: nicho@vnet.ibm.com

In <ARM200-920408131517-35F9C7D7*@MHS> /G=Rhodri/S=James/O=SJ-Research/ADMD=INTERSPAN/C=GB/@mhs-relay.ac.uk writes:
>The original PCs were 8086-based machines.......
  I was trying to finish this, but I can't let this one lie.
 Have you heard of an 8088 ?????
 -----------------------------------------------------------------
               ** 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