HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: fdupont@girole.ens-lyon.fr (Florent Dupont de Dinechin)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re:  Scandal: Acorn betrays customers! (:-)
Date: 8 Apr 92 13:25:04 GMT
Reply-To: fdupont@girole.ens-lyon.fr (Florent Dupont de Dinechin)
Organization: Ecole Normale Superieure de Lyon, France

As soon as I read this article, (well, the day after because my fingers tend to 
shiver a little after 3 am), I opened my A3000 and replaced the missing link.
It works all right, thank you, but I agree with the last postings explaining
that Acorn removed it in order not to frighten the customers: The drive sounds
like a machine gun when it waits for a disk.
Besides, in my Arc, the drive cable is a 34 way, not a 32 way. They had to cut
two wires in the middle of it, which surely costs a lot more than leaving a
34-way cable...

_________________________________________________________________________
Florent de Dinechin				|
2nd year student in computer science		|
Ecole Normale Superieure de Lyon, France	|
e-mail:	fdupont@ensl.ens-lyon.fr		|
	fdupont@frensl61.bitnet			*
Real world address:
	ch C02, ENSL, 46 allee d'Italie		
	69364 Lyon,France
From: banksie@khantazi.welly.gen.nz (Philip R. Banks)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: help! checkmap fails
Date: Wed, 8 Apr 1992 00:45:02 +1200
Reply-To: banks_p@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz
Organization: My Arc.

lithgow@uslp.UUCP writes:

> This is getting to be a habit. :-)

> Unless you're talking about some whacky UNIX like ULTRIX, HP/UX, then
> this is wrong. System V, Xenix, SVR4, SCO UNIX, etc., all require special
> de-fragmentation programs, which, until recently, have been rare. I
> worked with a company that wrote a de-fragmentation program, so I'm
> pretty sure of this. The typical method of de-fragmenting a UNIX FS is to
> back it up to a streaming device (such as tape), remake it (ie. format
> it), and restore it. Yech.

   Err yes we use HP/UX here with some Sun OS as well. Guess who hasn't used
the Suns here yet.... :-)

> Speaking of caches, my ADFSBuffers setting of 256 may have messed PackDir
> up -- I'll try it with no ADFSBuffers. (I do have the latest version.)

  It could be a tad excessive. Just to be cautious with ADFSBuffers (as
Acorn people have freely admitted it does have bugs in the RO2 version) I
would only set it as high as 64. I personally favour 4 but haven't done any
speed or performance tests to reccomend this. Actually I would be interested
if anyone has done some tests and what kind of values work out well...

> Does the ADFSDirBuffers setting have the same detrimental effects as
> ADFSBuffers? I hope not, because you can't turn it off...

   Not as far as I am aware.

> This is one of the things that both delights and frustrates me with
> Acorn. An Acorn bod has said, in reference to one of RISC OS's many
> innovative features, 'but doesn't everyone do it?'

   Yes, it has been my experience that to appreciate the beatiful features
of the Arc you really need to be a computer type to understand them. I mean
the disc format, as I have already said, is absolutely beautiful in its
underlying structure. When you mentioned it last I just didn't understand
what you were talking about fully as it is only recently that I have had
enough information available to me to appreciate what is going on in there.

   Now if only ADFS had the ability for longer filenames and more than 77
objects per directory. However I am sure that is coming....

    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.                   @/    |
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: >>>>help! checkmap fails
From: epoo1@cs.aukuni.ac.nz (Edouard Malachi     Poor           )
Date: Tue, 14 Apr 1992 00:34:21 GMT
Organization: Computer Science Dept. University of Auckland

In <20415.9204131413@susssys1.rdg.ac.uk> ssurawls@susssys1.reading.ac.uk (Mister E) writes:

>TMOTA said;

>> A warning: Don't *ever* use the reset button when break will work... Use
>> ctrl-break rather than ctrl-reset... ONLY use reset if ctrl-break fails to
>> have the desired effect... This is because filecore disables break while
>> vital disc updates are being done, so you can't cause problems with maps
>> with ctrl-breaks. However, reset can't be disabled, so it is possible to
>> interrupt a map-write half-way through with reset, which trashes your
>> disc...

>I have never used reset on my machine, but that was because it didn't work!

>Now that I have a new machine I was wandering through the manuals, and this
>advice was not to be found. The manual states that to start the machine again
>you press CTRL-RESET. It may be in another part of the manual, but it would be
>better in the basic explanation, eg "The keyboard is the long thing with blobs
>on. On the top edge, where the curly thing joins to it, there is a large flat
>button. Press CTRL (one of the blobs) and this button when the machine needs
>restarting, but only if CTRL (that blob again) BREAK (and a friend) does not
>work."

Actually I find it interesting that they put the reset key on the keyboard right
next to the break key, and they both have very similar operations (ctr-break and
ctr-reset doing the same thing unless something has gone wacko in a big way, when
only ctr-reset will do the trick.)

In my mind it was a rather foolish decsision to put it there. On the back of the
machine, or, in a pinch, on the side would be more sensible. Its all very well to
tell the poor person whose lost his HDD's map to hitting ctr-reset that he should
of hit ctr-break instead. But its really just poor design that let him do so
without having to think about it first. Its like having a four year old child and
letting the cord of the electric kettle hang over the side of the bench. You can
say "Don't pull on this" but if the child does and endures Pain and Suffering then
it isn't really the childs fault, its the person who put the cord there when they
could have placed it somewhere safe.

Its what most sensible manufaturers do...

Edouard.
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
From: charles@morgan.ucs.mun.ca (Charles Loader)
Subject: Re: Personal Computer World
Organization: Memorial University of Newfoundland
Date: Wed, 15 Apr 1992 10:06:40 GMT

In article <1992Apr13.161619.2984@microsoft.com> felixa@microsoft.com (Felix ANDREW) writes:
>Someone wrote ...
>>Such as? Win 3.1 is still at the Beta test sites, OS2.2 (to compete with
>>Win 3.1/NT) is not appearing 'til next year and developers are only
>>*just* getting their teeth into Win 3.0!!
>Windows 3.1 was announced last monday (6th April) to the world at
>Windows World. FYI 20K resellers were able to place more than 750K
>copies of 3.1 on their display shelves. And as for end users, well
>175K upgrades were delivered in time for the launch.
>Thats almost a million copies sold on the week of release.
>
>>> OS/2 runs Dos and Windoze programs quite happily, without being
>>> architecturally held back because of it. Windoze NT will (probably)
>>> do something similar.The word 'emulator' comes to mind here.
>>...but Win 3.0 still crashes regularly - and OS/2 HAS been known to
>>fall over, whatever is claimed elsewhere.
>Although os2 supports 3.0 - who wants to run that, when 3.1 is now here?
>I'm not sure what is meant by the word 'emulator'. I'm sure the man from
>IBM knows WHY os2/2.0 has good win3.0 support 8-)
>
>>> The average PC spec is now 80386SX with 4MB,a VGA monitor and a 60MB
>>> disk. Where have you been the last 3 years ???
>>Ahem. There are far more 286s out there than 386s.
>As far as I know out of the 70million PC's out there (clones etc) most of
>them are not 386,486,586 based - Intel havent shipped that many chips.
>
>>> >(a bit like your average business man who knows nothing about
>>> >computers).
>>>   Nor would it seem, does your average student .... :-)
>
>Oh yeah - it also shipped in 7 languages simultaneously (that includes
>the documentation) Neat huh?

Well I hope their advertising etc. is
not better than the prduct AGAIN.  We
have one PC running Win. 3.0 and it is
an absolute PAIN.  It probably should
never have been released (crashes so
frequently that we abandonded it). I
have seen the 3.1 beta and it is better
but we will not be buying it for a year
or so (if we can help it!).  What gets
me is that is seems that they are
actually going to charge for the
upgrade 3.0 - 3.1.

I am staying with the command line on
the PC where it is fairly safe!


Whats this got to do with Acorn?
From: neilp@cs.hw.ac.uk (Neil Postlethwaite)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: Well done Acorn!!!!!!
Date: 16 Apr 92 10:18:34 GMT
Organization: Dept of Computer Science, Heriot-Watt University, Scotland

In article <1992Apr13.233113.7478@newcastle.ac.uk> D.M.Johnson@newcastle.ac.uk (Dave Johnson) writes:
>
>I have just seen a program about the BBC computer literacy project. It was
>amazing to discover that Acorn had developed a working prototype for the BBC
>model computer in just 4 days. Out of interest how long did the Archimedes
>take?

	Well they had been working on the ARM since about late '84 from what
I've read. The Arc, who knows. Arthur, about 10 minutes. A quick hack
of the Beeb OS !

	Riscos 3: 3 years + (AND STILL WAITING).

	Neil

P.S. Can't afford an A5000 before you start..............
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
From: zrzm0111@helpdesk.rus.uni-stuttgart.de (MUFTI)
Subject: cark under Unix: Bad Header causes real Problems
Organization: User Helpdesk Comp. Cent. (RUS) U of Stuttgart, FRG
Date: Wed, 15 Apr 1992 14:49:49 GMT

Hi

Has someone an idea, why the cark under unix often get problems with 
unpacking files ?
I unstand, that files with wrong compression types can't be tested extracted,
but there are files with reported to be crunched and stored in archiving
get bad header errors in extracting/testing. Often a surrender of cark
follow the Bad Header.
On the other hand, cark reports files as ok while testing, but they are
not ok, (cark extract to rubbish, !sparkplug fails with crc-checkerror).

Know someone the reasons of this problems ? They may make cark rather 
unusable ....

so long
MUFTI
From: nicho@VNET.IBM.COM
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Word 5, pagemaker + impression
Date: 14 Apr 92 08:07:33 GMT
Reply-To: nicho@vnet.ibm.com

In <8240.9204131616@susssys1.rdg.ac.uk> Mister E writes:
>Some people said;
>was discovered during a study by Alan Turing in 1806 that in word 5
>documents compiled on a PDP-1 using fortran, 20 features accounted
>for 80% of the layout, while 90% of the layout could be covered
>with 30 instuctions.
  References please ... This is the first I've heard of a 19th century
PDP .....
 -----------------------------------------------------------------
               ** 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
Subject: Re: 8 bit stuff...
From: epoo1@cs.aukuni.ac.nz (Edouard Malachi     Poor           )
Date: Mon, 13 Apr 1992 23:31:15 GMT
 <1992Apr10.165056.20380@unix.brighton.ac.uk> <1AXmxQj014n@khantazi.welly.gen.nz> <1992Apr13.214113.14410@cs.aukuni.ac.nz>
Organization: Computer Science Dept. University of Auckland

In <1992Apr13.214113.14410@cs.aukuni.ac.nz> jwil1@cs.aukuni.ac.nz (TMOTA) writes:

> [...getting binaries going again...]
>
>(Also, from my point of view, being able to post DeskLib directly onto cba
>every couple of months would save a lot of hassles/costs, so it would be worth
>it...)

And Colour Moria... Don't forget Colour Moria... (Still no menus of course, that
would have been too easy... No I did the hard one :-)

Edouard.
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: Software Protection (was: >>>New !Creator)
From: jwil1@cs.aukuni.ac.nz (TMOTA)
Date: Sat, 11 Apr 1992 00:58:31 GMT
Distribution: comp
Organization: Computer Science Dept. University of Auckland

sproven@cs.strath.ac.uk (Simon B Proven IE91) writes:

>>I agree, but I hate it when the dongle falls out of the back of the machine
>>and Impression doesn't give me a chance to re-insert it! Arrrrgh!

>Handy hint no. 101:

>Screw the bloody thing in! :)

Yeah... I do... and then it's a *real* pain every (quite often) time I want
to use the software on a different machine (Which is supposedly one of the
benefits of the dongle... )

sigh...

-- 
_________________  "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: osmith@acorn.co.uk (Owen Smith)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: More bollocks from Mr. Rawlings
Date: 13 Apr 92 10:47:56 GMT
Distribution: comp
Organization: Acorn Computers Ltd, Cambridge, England

In article <1992Apr10.061058.18236@cs.aukuni.ac.nz> epoo1@cs.aukuni.ac.nz
(Edouard Malachi     Poor           ) writes:

>But there is one other person who has written high quality dithering
>engines for the Arc... The ever talented John Kortink!
>
>Seriously John, do you think it would be a useful addition? Would it
>be hard to do? My guess is not, but then again I don't know whats
>involved...

Well yes such a SWI might be useful, BUT it needs to be carefully thought
about and designed. Also, I've been using ChangeFSI quite a bit recently and
have seen !Translator handling some of the same images, and I must say that
although !Translator is a lot faster, ChangeFSI nearly always produces
considerably superior output.

Owen.

The views expressed are my own and are not necessarily those of Acorn.
From: banksie@khantazi.welly.gen.nz (Philip R. Banks)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: A5000 disc format recognising
Date: Wed, 8 Apr 1992 19:23:19 +1200
Reply-To: banks_p@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz
Organization: My Arc.

ssurawls@susssys1.reading.ac.uk (Mister E) writes:

> 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?

   The A5000 makes no assumption about what format you want. It simply lets
you pick what format you like and the drive is capable of. Thus yes you can
format HD discs to 800K if you *really* want. Conversely the drive doesn't
take note of the High Density 'hole' in discs and 1 Meg unformated floppies
may be formmated to 1.6 Meg if you like.

> 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....

   Yes it is. Mac definitely - there high density format uses a 1.44 Meg
format style so there are no hangups over rotational speed differences.
Amiga discs it *should* be possible to. I know of PC programs that let their
HD FDC's read Amiga format discs and assume the technique should be possible
on an A5000.

> Someone on the net recently commented that acorn, himself and one other are
> the only acorn fans here. Well in about a week I don't think I will ever be
> able to say anything REMOTELY critical of acorn as I am going to be forced to
> use macs for a while. If ever you get annoyed with your archie, go and try to
> do the same job on a PC, mac or Amiga, and then things will be fine when you
> get back home!

   This is indeed the situation I am in. I am growing to loath X windows and
the Mac GUI after having become so used to the Risc OS desktop. It is a very
nasty shock to the system to go back to such GUI's....let alone the software
on the machines. Ugh!

> Just seen the new printer drivers working with a deskjet 500C. Very
> impressive... And the ability to have two printers on the bar for colour and
> B/W was great as well.. Well done acorn!
> 
> Ian
> Being positive

   Oh good. Keep it up - it is much nicer.

    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: /G=Rhodri/S=James/O=SJ-Research/ADMD=INTERSPAN/C=GB/@mhs-relay.ac.uk
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: Personal Computer World
Date: 8 Apr 92 12:58:42 GMT
Article-I.D.: MHS.ARM200-920408131517-35F9C7D7*

nicho@VNET.IBM.COM (Greg Nicholls) writes:

>In <1992Apr7.124009.10032@doc.ic.ac.uk> Ian Palmer writes:
>>[...] the IBM
>>PC's platform is still (it's very sad to say :-) ) the 8086 and when
>>you consider that now people are still using the A305 with a much
>>greater specification than when released, look at the poor 8086 user
>>with his 640k and MS-DOS.
>   IBM PC's have _never_ been 8086 based ....
>The average PC spec is now 80386SX with 4MB,a VGA monitor and a 60MB
>disk. Where have you been the last 3 years ???

Huh?  I would have expected someone with an address of ibm.com to have 
their
history straighter than that.  The original PCs were 8086-based machines
with 64K memory, a real advance for the times I don't think.  Admittedly I
didn't work on one until they were 8086-based machines with 640K memory 
(and
no cassette interface)...

Of course the assertion that any hardware or software manufacturers
seriously consider compatibility with anything less than a 386 machine is
pure bullshit.


>>(a bit like your average business man who knows nothing about
>>computers).
>  Nor would it seem, does your average student .... :-)

Come now, let's not insult students by calling Ian average :-)

---
Rhodri James                   *  Disclaimer:  These are my opinions, not
SJ Research Ltd, Cambridge     *    those of my company UNLESS I SAY SO!
Rhodri.James%gb.INTERSPAN.sj   *  
            @mhs-relay.ac.uk   *  
   or                          *             Wombats are go!
rmj10@phx.cam.ac.uk            *
From: marks@cs.man.ac.uk (Mark Stephens (MSc Stephen Furber))
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: New ARM development
Date: 15 Apr 92 12:40:21 GMT

neilp@cs.hw.ac.uk (Neil Postlethwaite) writes:


>	According to May BAU, Prof Steve Furbar (ARM co-inventor with Rog'),
                                         Furber  
>he is developing an Asynchronous version of the ARM as his new project
>at UMIST.
BONG! wrong again. Give that man a consolation lettuce.

The work is being done at Manchester University in the Department of
Computer Science. UMIST is a largely seperate entity with its own Dept. of
Computation. Confuse the two at your peril.

Mark.
marks@cs.man.ac.uk
From: ssurawls@susssys1.reading.ac.uk (Mister E)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: better filing systems
Date: 13 Apr 92 14:06:44 GMT

Philip R. Banks mentioned;

>   Now if only ADFS had the ability for longer filenames and more than 77
>objects per directory. However I am sure that is coming....

If you are using RO3 it seems that the filename length limiting is not handled
by the applications (at least not the new ones), they allow you to enter
anything you want. It is only when you try to write the file that you get an
error.

This is great, as it allows you to edit text files on a PC disc using Edit,
even if there is an extension, and that's just an example of the fact that any
day now, someone could produce a new filing system with long names and
different seperators (the seperator can be redefined according to a text file
I have) and applications would allow longer filenames. Great! Obviously
current applications that do check would not work without mods, but they would
gradually move over.

Ian


Posted Mon Apr 13 15:06:38 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."
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: Arm and 486 and things
From: epoo1@cs.aukuni.ac.nz (Edouard Malachi     Poor           )
Date: Fri, 10 Apr 1992 07:11:17 GMT
Organization: Computer Science Dept. University of Auckland

In <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?
>
>I hope this is conjecture.

Hmmm... Take a look at, say, Pagemaker or Word 5 and then compare to Impression.

They really don't stand a chance in that feild. I'd say they are more likely to
move their 600dpi printer or (possible) their scanner across...

Edouard.
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
From: lezz@merlin.dev.cdx.mot.com (Lezz Giles)
Subject: MIDI sequencer and dealers in North America
Keywords: MIDI
Reply-To: lezz@merlin.dev.cdx.mot.com (Lezz Giles)
Organization: Motorola Codex, Canton, MA
Date: Fri, 10 Apr 1992 17:11:25 GMT

A quick question - I live in Boston, Mass. in the USA,
and I have an Archimedes A310.  I want to buy a MIDI
sequencer and interface card - is there a dealer in the
USA or Canada who'd sell me the stuff or do I need to
get it all shipped in from the UK?  If I need to get
it shipped from the UK, can anybody recommend a dealer?
Also can anybody recommend a MIDI sequencer and interface?

Also, how much is Elite for the Archimedes and how does
it compare to the old Elite for the BBC Micro (I actually
got up to "Elite" class on my old BBC many years ago).

Lezz "no signature yet" Giles
From: news@comlab.ox.ac.uk
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: Personal Computer World
Date: 9 Apr 92 09:32:19 GMT
Organization: Oxford University Computing Laboratory, UK

In article <1992Apr8.104359.910@unix.brighton.ac.uk> rjb12@unix.brighton.ac.uk (Browning;f110or89;[05306) writes:
>nicho@VNET.IBM.COM writes:
>>   Whassa matter ... never heard of Arthur :-)
>Yes, but then again RO2 was greatly compatible with Arthur.
Amusingly, RO bears almost exactly the same relationship to Arthur
as current Windows setup bear to old MS-DOS.  Same benefits, same
flaws,  extends kernel functionality a touch more but doesn't
have simplicity benefits of a uniform 32-bit architectuire.

>
>>   Only Microsoft is holding on to Windoze and Dos. Others are taking
>> different routes.
>Such as? Win 3.1 is still at the Beta test sites, OS2.2 (to compete with
>Win 3.1/NT) is not appearing 'til next year and developers are only
>*just* getting their teeth into Win 3.0!!

I don't suppose you read the Guardian today / tried some experiments :-).
3.1 has been buyable in the U.K. for some days now (dead cheap edu deals
too).  OS/2 2.0 shipped electronically last month, though I'm not sure
if the shrink-wrap version is buyable quite yet.




Andrew


        Andrew Stevens                  
      Programmming Research Group       JANET: Andrew.Stevens@uk.ac.oxford.prg
     11 Keble Road, Oxford, England     UUCP:  ...!uunet!mcvax!ukc!ox-prg!as
     OX1 3QD   +44 0865 272563