HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: marlow@sys.uea.ac.uk (Keith Marlow PG)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: Computer Concepts
Date: 19 Nov 92 10:11:40 GMT
Organization: UEA School of Information Systems, Norwich, UK.

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

>In article <1992Nov18.111052.10914@cs.nott.ac.uk> rsxdp@unicorn.nott.ac.uk (D.Pead) writes:
>>In article <1eag79INNp27@oak49.doc.ic.ac.uk> ijp@doc.ic.ac.uk (Ian Palmer) writes:
>>>If all these required their own incompatable dongles you'd be stuffed.
>>>The short answer is you can only really have one dongle at a time, and
>>
[...]

>The reason I said that a group of manufacturers got together was that
>they could share the developement costs. Plus you assume that I meant
>some software method, well I didn't. I was actually refering to a
>hardware method, but which did not involve scrambling the entire
>output of every conceivable output on the back of your computer, or
>having massive trees of badly made dongles.

>But it won't happen because it's a lot easier to produce some half
>heated non-solution (like dongles or mixed up cables) than it is to
>come up with a real solution.


	Personally I prefer the idea of a software key made up for each
copy sold.  Encoded into this software key would be the name and address
of to whom the software is registered, and an optional timeout period.  The
timeout period could be used for when the s/w is provided in a shrink wrapped
form and gives the user a timeout of say a month before the default key
becomes invalid, which gives time for the registration card they sent off
to be processed & the true key to be delivered back.  The name & address could
either be quickly flashed on the screen while the s/w is loading up or made
possible to display off an info entry in the main menu.

	I know this doesn't stop two copies of the same program being used at
once, but it does make it possible for the person with the copy and the person
whose s/w was copied to be both done for illegal copying.

	I would also imagine that encoding the s/w serial number into any
specialist files it produces (e.g Impression documents) would allow actual
usage to be confirmed as well.

	Keith
--
Keith Marlow,              *  When you love someone; You're always insecure;
Information Systems P/G,   * And there's only one good way to reassure;
University of East Anglia, *    Tell her about it...
Norwich. Norfolk NR4 7TJ   * 
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
From: thughes@dcs.warwick.ac.uk (Tom Hughes)
Subject: Re: Network solutions for ARC: Ethernet/SLIP on RISCos? KA9Q? DNET?
Organization: Department of Computer Science, Warwick University, England
Distribution: comp
Date: Mon, 23 Nov 1992 10:16:47 GMT

In article <JKH.92Nov22174018@whisker.lotus.ie> jkh@whisker.lotus.ie (Jordan K. Hubbard) writes:
>only serial stuff in the picture).  What I'd like in the Archie in the
>short term is some sort of SLIP solution that runs under RISCos.  I'm

Have you tried the KA9Q package, available from an FTP site near you
(try package a159 from micros.hensa.ac.uk).

Tom.

============================================================================
Tom Hughes, CS3

thughes@uk.ac.warwick.dcs            57 Shakleton Road
csugk@uk.ac.warwick.csv              Earlsdon
                                     Coventry
(0203) 673584                        CV5 6HT
============================================================================
From: r_voisey@csd.uwe.ac.uk (R Voisey)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: A5000 Monitor Problem
Date: 23 Nov 92 13:37:00 GMT
Organization: University of the West of England, Bristol

In article <VAUGHANM.92Nov20163336@n3i.cs.man.ac.uk> vaughanm@cs.man.ac.uk (Vaughan Marks) writes:

>It seems to me that the monitor supplied with my A5000 is slightly 
>out of focus! I put up with ut for a while, thinking it was probably
>my eyesight but others agree that it is very fuzzy.

Lots of early monitors (and a few later ones) had this problem.  Acorn
know about it, and your dealer is obliged to replace it.

Bob
-- 
  Robert J. Voisey  :  r_voisey@csd.uwe.ac.uk
         -- Probug Software Developments --
162 Staplehill Rd, Fishponds, Bristol, Avon, England
From: r_voisey@beans.uwe.ac.uk (R Voisey)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: New machines
Date: 16 Nov 92 10:03:24 GMT
Reply-To: r_voisey@csd.bristol-poly.ac.uk
Organization: The University of the West of England (The Magic Roundabout)

In article <1992Nov14.102036.4399@infodev.cam.ac.uk>, djt1000@cl.cam.ac.uk (D.J. Taylor) writes:
|> emulating at 486 speed? Anyhow the PC card is a good idea. I have a lot of
|> 'friends' at uni with 486 machines, who turn around to me with an ARM3 based
|> machine and say "Well you cannot run everything I can!".

For that matter, they can't run everything you can..  and Mac owners can't run
everything Spectrum owners can.

|>    Hving said this I am very anti PC machines, but if Acorn want to (and I don't
|> know if they're trying) get a decent slice of the industry market, then I'm
|> afraid they might have to go in with a completely PC compatable machine, and pull
|> users away from the ideas of PC machines once they have sold them Acorn 'PC's'.

I've never heard anyone from Acorn claim to be tackling traditional PC markets,
other than the occassional attempt to attract home users away from DOS/Windows
to an ARM solution.  They do, however, appear to be interested in the workstation
market (with some success, by all accounts).

Bob

-- 
  Robert J. Voisey  :  r_voisey@csd.uwe.ac.uk
         -- Probug Software Developments --
162 Staplehill Rd, Fishponds, Bristol, Avon, England
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
From: alla0008@student.tc.umn.edu (Graham Allan)
Subject: Re: Emulators
Organization: University of Minnesota
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 1992 20:43:48 GMT

In article <1992Nov20.152411.18298@crc.ac.uk> naffara@crc.ac.uk (Dr. N.A. Affara) writes:
>Hello,
>Since RiscOS 3.1 allows you to format Atari floppies, does this mean that 
>Acorn (or someone else) are going to make an Atari emulator?
>If they aren't, it seems a bit pointless being able to format floppies like
>this. You can also format PC disks and they have a PC emulator...

I think the ability to format and otherwise deal with Atari discs is just
a bonus feature - as the Atari format is 99% identical to DOS, it wasn't
any more effort add the handling of Atari discs.

Graham						allan@mnhep8.hep.umn.edu


Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
From: thughes@dcs.warwick.ac.uk (Tom Hughes)
Subject: Re: PC Emulator
Organization: Department of Computer Science, Warwick University, England
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1992 13:25:28 GMT

In article <1ed3r2INN4fa@oak41.doc.ic.ac.uk> ijp@doc.ic.ac.uk (Ian Palmer) writes:
>b) Acorn didn't actually go out of their way to bring anyones
>attention to the matter, like actually telling anybody. I mean they
>spend loads of money sending you useless advertising for things you
>don't want, but when it comes to useful information they don't bother
>writing to the peoplewho bought the package do they - oh no that would
>be helpful. Instead they rely on people scowering the magazines for
>snippets of information (which usually flatly contradict each other).

I saw a news article in BAU (about 2-3 column inches) which said to
phone Customer Support, so I did. I phoned on Friday 28th August and
sent my disc off the same evening. As Monday 31st was a bank holiday,
they can't have got my disc until at least Tuesday 1st September, but
they still changed it, even if it did take them about four weeks to do
so.

I do agree about the advertising though. I have had at least three
letters now about their travelling show thing, two of them exactly the
same!

Tom.

============================================================================
Tom Hughes, CS3

thughes@uk.ac.warwick.dcs            57 Shakleton Road
csugk@uk.ac.warwick.csv              Earlsdon
                                     Coventry
(0203) 673584                        CV5 6HT
============================================================================
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
From: rebroad@dcs.warwick.ac.uk (Richard Broadley)
Subject: Re: A5000 Monitor Problem
Organization: Department of Computer Science, Warwick University, England
Date: Sun, 22 Nov 1992 23:52:35 GMT

In article <VAUGHANM.92Nov20163336@n3i.cs.man.ac.uk> vaughanm@cs.man.ac.uk (Vaughan Marks) writes:
>It seems to me that the monitor supplied with my A5000 is slightly 
>out of focus! I put up with ut for a while, thinking it was probably
>my eyesight but others agree that it is very fuzzy.

I think they are all like this. Mine is anyway. I'm thinking of buying a
different one.
	Can anyone recommend a good monitor to use with my A5000 for under 200
pounds?

>Cheers,
>       _    _     _  __   ____    ________________________________________
>   \ \\_\\ \\ _\_\\_\\ \ \\ \ \   \  Vaughan Marks: vaughanm@cs.man.ac.uk \
>    \_\\ \\_\\_\\ \\ \\ \_\\ \ \   \_______________________________________\ 

Thanks,
	Richard
From: rsxdp@unicorn.nott.ac.uk (D.Pead)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: Replay Harrier
Date: 20 Nov 92 17:57:08 GMT
Organization: Cripps Computing Centre, University of Nottingham

In article <1992Nov20.123424.17225@unix.brighton.ac.uk> rjb12@unix.brighton.ac.uk (Titch) writes:
>J.Herbert1@lut.ac.uk (John O'Malley) writes:
>> 
>> I thought the quality of replay harrier was pretty bad as well but, running
>> it at home on my old 310 out of ram disc, the old monitor/ mode 15 combination
>> gave a much better image than on my A5000.

Maybe the colour mapping tables for the higher resolution modes weren't
included in the demo version of !ARMovie? There's a whole set of lookup
tables - about a dozen on the CD ROM - in !Armovie.Movingline

>> How do you change the fram speed from
>> 12.5 to 25 fps or higher and still keep the film running properly. In the 
>> harrier header file, I changed the frame speed attribute to 25 and the film kept
>> breaking up and colour definition was lost. Oh well.
>
>If you were trying to get 25 fps out of your 310, I think you'll find that the
>cause of the problem is your 8MHz ARM2.
>

I think the fact that the 12.5/25fps decision is made by the compressor
and a 12.5FPS file only contains the data for 12FPS playback has
more to do with it.
From: nbvs@cl.cam.ac.uk (Nicko van Someren)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: The new Acorn Machine
Date: 16 Nov 92 13:37:19 GMT
Reply-To: nbvs@cl.cam.ac.uk (Nicko van Someren)
Organization: U of Cambridge Comp Lab, UK

In article <gilbertd.721643489@p4.cs.man.ac.uk> gilbertd@p4.cs.man.ac.uk (David Alan Gilbert) writes:
>In <10942@baird.cs.strath.ac.uk> gpalmer@cs.strath.ac.uk (Gary J Palmer IE91) writes:
>
>>Personally, i think that RISCiX is overpriced, and comes with too much...
>>if Acorn got rid of the Motif / X.desktop bundle, and perhaps made NFS,
>>TCP/IP (is SLIP available under RISCiX??) and similar optional, I'm sure
>>that for about 100 pounds for the base package, I'd buy it.....
>
>I agree, I commented to an Acorn representative at the BAU show,
>that I could buy a 386 (or even a 486) and get a free unix clone
>for less than I could buy RISCiX (including X).

It may be that RISCiX comes with too much but the price that Acorn set
for RISCiX is very good value for what to you get.  An R260 is only
500 quid more than an A540 and comes with not only a full BSD4.3 with
TCP/IP, NFS, and X but also X.desktop, both the Athena and Motif
widgets and libraries, FORTRAN, PASCAL and C compilers, assembler and
a good sized set of useful tools including gnuemacs.  I once totted up
how much a similar setup from SCO would cost for a 486 (and face it
you need a good 486 to catch an R260, a 386 is not good enough).  SCO
unix gives you very little in the basic setup.  The full set will cost
you the best part of 2800 pounds retail in the UK.  If you just want
SCO with NFS, X, a C compiler and the various widget libraries it
still costs over 1400 pounds.

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

If you want a similar setup and you are going to buy one of the maiin
stream unix products then I expect you are wrong.

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

The RISCiX kernel binary kit is available to RISCiX license holders on
request and it even comes with template code to show you how to write
both block and stream device drivers.  The fact is most 3rd parties
dont care about RISCiX.

Nicko


--
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Nicko van Someren, nbvs@cl.cam.ac.uk, (44) 223 358707 or (44) 860 498903    |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
From: r_voisey@csd.uwe.ac.uk (R Voisey)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: Emulators
Date: 23 Nov 92 13:35:22 GMT
Organization: University of the West of England, Bristol

In article <1992Nov20.152411.18298@crc.ac.uk> naffara@crc.ac.uk (Dr. N.A. Affara) writes:
>Since RiscOS 3.1 allows you to format Atari floppies, does this mean that 
>Acorn (or someone else) are going to make an Atari emulator?
>If they aren't, it seems a bit pointless being able to format floppies like
>this. You can also format PC disks and they have a PC emulator...

I suspect the main reason they  put it in was because it must have been
2 minutes work.  ST floppies are virtually identical to PC floppies (by
default).

Has anyone tried reading 'unusual' ST floppies (ie variable sectors/track)
with RO3.1?  3.0 failed miserably..

Bob

-- 
  Robert J. Voisey  :  r_voisey@csd.uwe.ac.uk
         -- Probug Software Developments --
162 Staplehill Rd, Fishponds, Bristol, Avon, England
From: A.G.Catchpole@bradford.ac.uk (AG CATCHPOLE)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Comms/Kermit software needed (sorry!)
Date: 21 Nov 92 22:56:30 GMT
Organization: University of Bradford, UK
Originator: 92079460@muser
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL6]



Sorry about my last posting, I'll try and get used to using vi.

I've got an A3000 with RISC OS 3.10, and I've been trying to use Acorn Kermit
to connect to the University PAD network in the halls here. The problem is
that nothing is happening - ie. flashing cursor, no response.

I have had the connections and settings checked out, I've had my serial port
checked out and replaced, so I now reckon its the software or RISC OS 3.10.

Or both. Anyway, does anyone know of some cheap comms software (in other words
not Hearsay II) that would do the job and would work with my setup?
The serial lead is wired up as in the FAQ as the connection works fine with
a laptop PC. Does David Pilling still sell his Kermit software seperately?
Or can I get some suitable software from a ftp site?

Any replies to the address below. Thanks,

Ade
-- 
--------------- Adrian Catchpole <A.G.Catchpole@uk.ac.bradford> ---------------
1st year ug Comp.Sci.  Dept. of Computing, University of Bradford, Bradford, UK
From: S_TILLENBURG@iravcl.ira.uka.de (|S| Stephan Tillenburg)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Reading Mac disks (low density)
Date: 20 Nov 92 15:17:38 GMT
Organization: University of Karlsruhe (FRG) - Informatik Rechnerabt.
NNTP-Posting-Host: irav21.ira.uka.de
X-News-Reader: VMS NEWS 1.23

The Mac emulator SPECTRE GCR on the ATARI ST is a piece of hardware fitted to
the ROM PORT. If you want to read Mac disks, you have to fit a cable from the
SPECTRE - Hardware to the Floppy-Out ( no bug, OUT believe it or not ) of the
ST. As the speed of rotation in of the drive is fixed in the ST, the transfer
rate to the floppy is modified, the GCR - coding may be done by hardware or 
software, don't know. ( Speed of rotation differs in Mac drives depending
which track you are accessing, but the transferrate is constant ).

What does that mean to Archimedes ?
You can't read Mac - Disks ( 400K or 800K ) with the original Floppy
Controller ( WD 1772 or so ), but you need some supporting hardware.

  Bye, hope that helps  Stephan
From: adamd@rhi.hi.is (Adam David)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: Reading Mac disks (low density)
Date: 21 Nov 92 17:23:46 GMT

In <1eiviiINNd7g@iraul1.ira.uka.de> S_TILLENBURG@iravcl.ira.uka.de (|S| Stephan Tillenburg) writes:

>The Mac emulator SPECTRE GCR on the ATARI ST is a piece of hardware fitted to
>the ROM PORT. If you want to read Mac disks, you have to fit a cable from the
>SPECTRE - Hardware to the Floppy-Out ( no bug, OUT believe it or not ) of the
>ST. As the speed of rotation in of the drive is fixed in the ST, the transfer
>rate to the floppy is modified, the GCR - coding may be done by hardware or 
>software, don't know. 

I think the GCR coding is done in software, the transfer rate is hardware
generated under software control. If someone can come up with the ARM code
to drive one of these beasts, the hardware connections are trivial by
comparison. But quite honestly, it would only be worth the trouble if a
Mac emulator existed for the Arch. Whether the 680x0 would be done in
software or hardware remains to be seen. Software emulation would be less
of a pain on the newer ARM chips which have configurable byte order.
Since it is such an easy thing to do, I am rather surprised that no-one
has made a Mac-on-a-card to fit inside an Acorn machine. The basic model
would be a 68000 CPU with ROM sockets and some RAM, and would rely on the
Acorn machine for all I/O. This ought to be just as easy to do as a PC
card, there is even a set of Macintosh compatible ROMs out there that
can be licensed without running into legal hassles with Apple.

There is to be a Mac-on-a-card for PCs, if it is to happen on the Arch it
would make better sense to interface direct than to use a PC card as a
mediator.

--
Adam David. (adamd@rhi.hi.is)
From: ferdinan@oeinck.waterland.wlink.nl (ferdinand oeinck)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: test
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 92 19:32:45 CET
Organization: My own node in Groningen, NL.

back to c.s.a., finally. Can someone reply on this message as I'm still in
the process of testing?

ferdinand.
From: cs89jmb@brunel.ac.uk (Aeon Flux)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: The new Acorn Machine
Date: 18 Nov 92 10:21:00 GMT
Organization: Brunel University, Uxbridge, UK
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL6]

David Alan Gilbert (gilbertd@p4.cs.man.ac.uk) wrote:
: In <1992Nov16.133719.27313@infodev.cam.ac.uk> nbvs@cl.cam.ac.uk (Nicko van Someren) writes:
: 
: >It may be that RISCiX comes with too much but the price that Acorn set
: >for RISCiX is very good value for what to you get.  An R260 is only
: >500 quid more than an A540 and comes with not only a full BSD4.3 with
: >TCP/IP, NFS, and X but also X.desktop, both the Athena and Motif
: >widgets and libraries, FORTRAN, PASCAL and C compilers, assembler and
: >a good sized set of useful tools including gnuemacs.  I once totted up
: >how much a similar setup from SCO would cost for a 486 (and face it
: >you need a good 486 to catch an R260, a 386 is not good enough).  SCO
: >unix gives you very little in the basic setup.  The full set will cost
: >you the best part of 2800 pounds retail in the UK.  If you just want
: >SCO with NFS, X, a C compiler and the various widget libraries it
: >still costs over 1400 pounds.
: 
: I think that is fair enough - but...
: 
: ... an A540 is a bit pricy to start with - thinking of it another
: way an A540 is around #1000 more than an A5000 so that makes an
: R260 #1500 more than an A5000.  Perhaps a lot of this is more
: due for the need for pricing to catch up with the release of
: the A5000.

Actually are you looking at RRP prices?

Because not so long ago Beebug were selling off some A540 machines at around
the 1600 pounds stirling mark (ex. VAT) which made me think that a new, higher
spec machine was around the corner.

I'm pretty sure they were brand new, had the hard disc etc...

Then we got the A3010/A3020/A4000 range ;-)

But if you look at the pointers, this suggests a new, improved machine soon.

<stuff deleted>

: - David Alan Gilbert - gilbertd@p4.cs.man.ac.uk - G7FHJ@GB7NWP                -
: ------(Programmers don't sleep - they just park their heads)-------------------

Jayce.

P.S. I don't have any connection with Beebug - I just remember the advert!

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

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

   ***** Acorn rep on StudentSoft/Archimedes owner/Computer Scientist *****
From: A.M.Wall@newcastle.ac.uk (A.M.Wall)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: Using custom screen modes with RO3.1
Date: 16 Nov 92 11:20:56 GMT
Organization: University of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK NE1 7RU

In article <721651305.10977@minster.york.ac.uk> mhw@minster.york.ac.uk writes:
>In article <10959@baird.cs.strath.ac.uk> gpalmer@cs.strath.ac.uk (Gary J Palmer IE91) writes:
>>
>>Does anyone know if the overscan modes supplied with Impression II work
>>under RiscOS3.1, as I use them by default :-)
>
>I'm still using mode 66 with no problems whatsoever; it's a bit bigger

But isn't mode 66 identical to the mode 39 provided with RO3?
From: lagrue@rx.xerox.com (John Lagrue)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: Replay Harrier @ Newcastle
Date: 18 Nov 92 14:08:37 GMT
Reply-To: lagrue.wgc-e@rx.xerox.com
Organization: Rank Xerox, Welwyn Garden City, UK

I've pulled replay Harrier over from uts.mcc, but though the speed is
impressive, the picture quality is abysmal. Am I running in the wrong mode (28)
or is there some setup that I need that doesn't seem to be mentioned anywhere?

Thanks in advance for any help on this subject.

JDL

---
John Lagrue
=============================================================
| uucp address: ..!uunet!rx.xerox.com!lagrue.wgc-e          |
| Arpa address: Lagrue.Wgc-e@RX.Xerox.COM                   |
=============================================================
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
From: tytgat@rilke.esat.kuleuven.ac.be (John Tytgat)
Subject: Re: BBS Problems: Risc OS 3.1
Organization: K.U.Leuven, Belgium
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 1992 16:33:39 GMT

In article <1992Nov20.012540.3915@usage.csd.unsw.OZ.AU> 2105995@hydra.maths.unsw.EDU.AU () writes:
>help!
>
>RiscBBS v1.01 DOES NOT WORK ON RISCOS 3.1 ON AN A5000!!!
>
>does anyone know why? OR how to fix it?

In the !Run file of RiscBBS there is a RMLoad of a module (sorry, I can't
remember its name) which simply programs the MEMC to access the ROMs at
a higher speed.  Unfortunately this doesn't work with the A540 and
A5000 ROMs.  The fix for this problem is to remove that RMLoad statement.

If this fix doesn't work, I would suggest to take contact with the author at :

Carl_Declerck@p10.f500.n292.z2.fidonet.org

Carl himself is a proud owner of an A5000 RISC OS 3.1, so I guess there are
no other compatibility problems.

BTW, version v1.02 of RiscBBS is on its way and it a *major* improvement
despite what the difference in version numbers (0.01) would suggest...
Start wetting your lips now... ;-)

>Sorry about the cryptic message, but I am in the middle
>of exams... :(

Good luck.

John.
tytgat@esat.kuleuven.ac.be (do not thrust my e-mail address in the header)
BASS
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn