HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: taaustin@vaxb.acs.unt.edu
Subject: U.S. users find A&O on wuarch
Organization: University of North Texas
Date: Tue, 13 Oct 1992 14:12:11 GMT

Alpha & Omega was placed in the net by Frank Stevenson yesterday.
 
This is a demo by the folks who brought us the incredible demo
MESMERIZED.  For the folks in the U.S. who are interested I 
have placed it on wuarchive.  The directory path is
systems/amiga/incoming/demos/a-and-o.dms
 
 
(the name a-and-o, rather than original a&o is because my vax
garbles things like '&' to things like '$5f'
 
Enjoy!
 
Terry
From: 00tdboardman@bsu-ucs.uucp
Newsgroups: alt.sys.amiga.demos
Subject: Hardwired Demo booting problem...
Date: 10 Oct 92 15:51:12 GMT

Probably already asked before but:

When the Hardwired demo boots, and it prompts for disk2, and I stick it in, it
doesn't do anything.  What's wrong?  Both disks decompressed okay with DMS.
Pressing the right mouse button starts some weird (but cool) music, which just
repeats over and over...  What's the deal?
-- 
.___.........................................................................__.
: /ed Boardman - Ball State University    :00TDBoardman@Leo.BSUvc.BSU.edu __///:
:                                         :00TDBoardman@BSUVAX1.bitnet    \XX/ :
:.........................................:..............................AMIGA.:
From: hazen@athena.cs.uga.edu (Mark)
Newsgroups: alt.sys.amiga.demos
Subject: Re: Christmas Demos
Keywords: WANTED
Date: 8 Oct 92 06:27:02 GMT
Organization: University of Georgia, Athens

craigs@garfield.cs.mun.ca (Stace) writes:

>Could someone post or e-mail me and FTP site where I might find some Christmas
>themed demos for the Amiga.  Thanks.

Try looking around for the Megawatts Xmas Demo '91.


There are rumors that there will be a '92 Megawatts Christmas demo to
make the first pale.


Of course, this is only a rumor, and should only be spread or printed
if you really, really, want to.

-- 
My other .sig is also an Amiga.              -hazen@athena.cs.uga.edu
Mark Hazen			 	     -Reverb of Megawatts (huh?)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups: alt.sys.amiga.demos
From: kodak@mentor.cc.purdue.edu (Jason Balicki (KodaK))
Subject: Re: Odyssey demo
Organization: Purdue University Computing Center
Distribution: na
Date: Thu, 8 Oct 1992 03:11:26 GMT

>Havn't seen it yet!

it's got some nice stuff in it even if it was all precalculated.

Jason Balicki
kodak@mentor.cc.purdue.edu
From: crystal@glia.biostr.washington.edu (Crystal)
Newsgroups: alt.sys.amiga.demos
Subject: Re: U.S. users find A&O on wuarch
Date: 16 Oct 92 02:25:50 GMT
Organization: University of Washington

In <1992Oct15.080149.27196@bristol.ac.uk> ccsw@bristol.ac.uk (EthaStorm) writes:

>In article <1992Oct13.200027.15068@ringer.cs.utsa.edu> mjbrown@lonestar.utsa.edu (Marc J. Brown) writes:
>>Thanks :).  Not to press my luck or anything... but would it be possible for
>>whoever archives these demos to do it in two parts per disk?  Since I don't

>Hiya Marc.

>   I have the same problem. The way I've found around it is the following

>1> Format a floppy to FFS (use 'format drive df0: name "whatever" FFS')
>2> Copy the DMS file to the FFS floppy.
>3> Drag-copy (drag the icon) the DMS file to RAM:
>4> Cancel on the "Ram disk full" and the "Remove incomplet file" requesters.
>5> Change to RAm: and 'dms write fiile.dms to df0:'
>6> Watch for where the DMS file runs out.
>7> Delete file.dms from RAM:, and copy DMS to RAM:
>8> Insert the FFS floppy, and 'dms repack df0:file.dms to df0:part LOW XX'
>   where XX is the track that DMS stopped on in the first run.

>I have a basic A500+, with 1M RAM. The drag copy usually gets about 350K of
>DMS file, so I can usually unpack most DMS files in two passes.

>As for the UUENCODing bit, I can't help you.

>  Hope this is of some use,

>  EthaStorm  *8)

These are going to sound like *very* strange questions to those who know
what is going on, but:

1)  Why can't it just be unarc'd to RAM or to the harddisk?

2)  How can a program that is *arbitrarily* split between two floppies be
    expected to run properly (if at all)?

3)  Why is the FFS command important?  Doesn't 2.04 *normally* run as FFS?

4)  How does one "change to RAM"?  cd Ramdisk for me (and various permutations
    of the name illicit an "object not found" error.  :<

5)  Why do people insist on using DMS when I've been told that it often gives
    "Fatal error" when unarc'ing thereby wasting a LOT of time trying to get
    a large file opened up?

I'm still a newbie and just discovering demos and haven't yet figured out
DMS or ZOO...

BTW, as for the UUencoding - if you have access to VAX or Unix host, you can
uuDECODE the files before downloading (or upload them to the host and decode
them).  I understand there is a uudecode for the Amiga, but you need uudecode
to decode it - pretty sick joke if you ask me... :<   (but you didn't...)

Crystal
  ;>
Newsgroups: alt.sys.amiga.demos
From: mortene@Lise.Unit.NO (Morten Eriksen)
Subject: Re: ZOM packer format?
Organization: Norwegian Institute of Technology
Date: Fri, 16 Oct 92 13:42:17 GMT

The packer is called ZOOM. Should be at all the big ftp-sites.

Morten
From: Jesse_Michael@amwbbs.rain.com (Jesse Michael)
Newsgroups: alt.sys.amiga.demos
Subject: Re: Over 20,000fps (yes TWENTY THOUSAND)
Distribution: world
Date: 14 Oct 92 17:48:03 PST
Organization: No Organization

>Nobody wants this, but the figure of 2000fps shows how fast the OS
routines
>are now. In other words you have only to spend 1/2000 of a second per
frame
>for switching the buffers. So nobody needs to bash the hardware directly
>anymore.
>
>    Stefan

2000fps is not all that fast...

I just did some tests on my Amiga 500 with a 7.16mhz 68000, old NTSC agnus,
512k fast, and 512k chip.

By going directly to the hardware, I could do my double-buffering in 8
bitplanes at more than 20,000fps.

I got 60000(!) switchs in 2.88 seconds.  That comes to about 20833 fps.

This is considerably faster than the OS routines.

It even surprised me that my routines were that fast, so I rechecked
everything many times.  :D

Anyway, double-buffering is only one small reason for going directly to the
hardware.

-Jesse (Haze of Epsilon)

-- Via DLG Pro v0.985b
From: Vitas_P@grace.UUCP (Vitas P)
Newsgroups: alt.sys.amiga.demos
Subject: Re: toon wanted
Distribution: world
Date: 12 Oct 92 23:41:47 EST
Organization: Graceful Boot BBS (send replies to moscom.com!grace!User_Name)

 VK> ... tape called "The Mind's Eye".  It is available in
 VK> some video stores, and you may also order it from TechMedia Video. 

     Fans of the Mind's Eye video:  I have a tip.  I bought the video from
TechMedia and convinced a friend to buy the one from Radio Shack.  I was
surprised that there are two versions!  Both of them show pretty much the
same animations, but in some places, different animations appear and some
new music appears in the Radio Shack version.

     I think it's worth owning both versions, if only for the slight
difference in the aesthetic editing.

     I just thought you'd be interested in knowing this since it surprised
and pleased me.

-- Via DLG Pro v0.992


-Vitas P.-  22 Wolcott Avenue, Rochester, NY 14606
preferred: moscom.com!grace!vitas
reliable: vitas@grace.bah.rochester.ny.us
Graceful Boot BBS: (716) 426-4779
"I'm a nice guy, really!  If I had friends, you could ask 'em."   - Splash
Newsgroups: alt.sys.amiga.demos
Subject: Re: Well over 2000fps (yes THOUSAND!)
From: jbickers@templar.actrix.gen.nz (John Bickers)
Date: 9 Oct 92 19:28:08 PST
Organization: TAP

Quoted from <1992Oct8.103327.59531@cc.usu.edu> by slbfn@cc.usu.edu:

> Now, you guys tell me why you'd have to pound the hardware if the system
> calls can do over 2000fps.  That is *damn* fast.

    Because double buffering is just a _small_ reason to bang the
    hardware. There are lots of other more important reasons.

> 	Travis Carter
--
*** John Bickers, TAP.                   jbickers@templar.actrix.gen.nz ***
***    "Radioactivity - It's in the air, for you and me" - Kraftwerk    ***
From: Jesse_Michael@amwbbs.rain.com (Jesse Michael)
Newsgroups: alt.sys.amiga.demos
Subject: Re: Well over 2000fps (yes THOUSAND!)
Date: 9 Oct 92 11:18:12 GMT
Organization: No Organization

In a message dated Thu  8 Oct 92 23:09, Slbfn@cc.usu.edu wrote:

 S> Now, you guys tell me why you'd have to pound the hardware if the
system
 S> calls can do over 2000fps.  That is *damn* fast.

Isn't that the speed that it can do the double buffering at?

Why would you want to double-buffer at 2000fps without being able to change
your buffers?

-Jesse   (Haze of Epsilon)

-- Via DLG Pro v0.985b
From: wchucky@ocf.berkeley.edu (Chuck Woo)
Newsgroups: alt.sys.amiga.demos
Subject: Re: Christmas demos....Lots of them & more....!
Date: 9 Oct 1992 00:24:39 GMT
Organization: U.C. Berkeley Open Computing Facility
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: earthquake.berkeley.edu

In article <1992Oct8.142955.20141@sequent.com> anthony@sequent.com (Anthony Roberts) writes:
>Why me you ask??  Well i am in the Amiga Group `Digital' which,
>unless you don't live on planet, you all must have heard of.

is that the group that did "Punisher"?  what machine is it supposed to run
on?  I've tried pal-booted with 1meg and 3meg (512 chip), and even ntsc.
it gets to the first thing (the zooming text) and just does that over and
over again.
I assume this is not normal  :)

-- 
---------------------------------------------///
Chuck Woo      wchucky@ocf.berkeley.edu     ///
(bubba buh boo dee do buh boo dee do..) \\\///
-----------------------------------------\XX/
Newsgroups: alt.sys.amiga.demos
From: anthony@sequent.com (Anthony Roberts)
Subject: Christmas demos....Lots of them & more....!
Organization: Sequent Computer Systems, Inc.
Distribution: sqnt
Date: Thu, 8 Oct 92 14:29:55 GMT

Hi there everyone...

I;ve just read some mail for a request of new demos comming out this
christmas & where to get them from.....

Well all this information can be received via me....

Why me you ask??  Well i am in the Amiga Group `Digital' which,
unless you don't live on planet, you all must have heard of.

Our party here in the UK will be the place to be for all the latest
demos around & if any of you would like them then thats fine by me,
but i'll have to put them up after the party...  The party is on
October 24th (which ain't Xmas!) but i'm sure you'll all want to see
some of the coolest demos around...

As for Chrimbo.....  Why wait till then...  I may set up some sort of
file base so that you all can get the latest demos all year round
when they've only been spread for a couple of hours...!!

Anyway, i'm new to this groovy message system & i'm yet to look at it
fully (Due to work!) but i hope to get some form of response....

Hear from ya all soon.....@nthony... a.k.a - Lord Flight of Digital.

PS : Many thanks to Phill Everson for introducing me to this....!
     Cheers Phill!
Newsgroups: alt.sys.pdp8
From: kerry@Ingres.COM (Kerry Kurasaki)
Subject: OS-8
Reply-To: kerry@Ingres.COM (Kerry Kurasaki)
Organization: Ask Computer Systems Inc., Ingres Division, Alameda CA 94501
Distribution: na
Date: 7 Oct 92 18:55:51 GMT

How many other operating systems do you know where the resident portion
was only 256 12-bit words?
Newsgroups: alt.sys.pdp8
From: lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner)
Subject: Re: Another OS/8 trivia question
Reply-To: lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner)
Organization: Columbia University
Date: Tue, 13 Oct 1992 19:47:05 GMT

In article <1992Oct13.171324.3141@pony.Ingres.COM> kerry@Ingres.COM (Kerry Kurasaki) writes:

>
>And the bonus question:
>
>	What should the value be at that location and what is the
>	significance of that value?
>
>Gee, you guys ARE good!

If bit[0] of 07777 is a one, batch is running.  If you want to interact with
it, the source of the BAT handler is useful info for this.  Look in the PDP-8
archives for it on ftp.telebit.com where it is or will be soon.

Bits[6-8] are the software core size where 000 and 111 both mean 32K is
available because they both mean the highest field available is 7.

Bits[3-4] are the date base group year bits currently, where each increment
is 8 years starting at 1970-77 going to 1994-2001.  Since it's getting
close to the end of the world, I want a definition for all the bits so I
can at least double the lifetime, if not quadruple it.  So please find me
a bit or two, preferably in that word.  Anyone know what all of the other
6 bits mean?

cjl
Xref: sparky alt.sys.pdp8:34 alt.folklore.computers:14951
From: bmw@isgtec.com (Bruce M. Walker)
Newsgroups: alt.sys.pdp8,alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Wanted: Unused PDP-8?
Date: 9 Oct 92 10:23:19 GMT
Distribution: na
Organization: ISG Technologies Inc., Mississauga Ontario

In article <1992Oct6.104738.21099@cbnewsl.cb.att.com> rl@cbnewsl.cb.att.com (roger.h.levy) writes:
> 
> I am quite sure that at one time there was a microprocessor that fully
> emulated the PDP-8.  Is there still a supply of these chips?

You are referring to the Intersil IM6100 processor "family".  5 to 10
volt CMOS, various speed grades from 4 to 8 MHz.  Originally appeared
about 1976; Harris second-sourced them and also came out with an
improved version, the 6120 (co-designed with DEC? ... cl will elaborate :-)

I rather doubt that either company makes these any more ... 'tis a shame.

I have a few myself, along with the companion chips: the 6102 MMU,
timer and DMA combo, the 6101 PIE (peripheral interface element: kind
of port decoder/timing controller), and some 6402 CMOS UARTs.  Sorry,
not for sale!  These'll either get built into my home-brew PDP8 project
that I started in 1977 (so it's been a long time coming, what about
that garage you promised yourself you'd clean out? sheesh!), or held
for their antique value.  When PDP8 architecture comes back into vogue,
and everyone wants one, I'll be able to sell these things and retire
comfortably.

--
"The path of my life is strewn with cowpats from the devils' own herd."
                                          -- Edmund Blackadder II
bmw@isgtec.com   [ ...!uunet.ca!isgtec!bmw ]  Bruce Walker
Newsgroups: alt.sys.pdp8
From: lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner)
Subject: Re: OS-8
Reply-To: lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner)
Organization: Columbia University
Distribution: na
Date: Thu, 8 Oct 1992 01:48:23 GMT

In article <1992Oct7.185551.8168@pony.Ingres.COM> kerry@Ingres.COM (Kerry Kurasaki) writes:
>How many other operating systems do you know where the resident portion
>was only 256 12-bit words?

But P?S/8' resident portion is only 128 12-bit words for a functional system
and 35 words for reloading the system while it is swapped out.  This is
because paper-tape loaders occupy the other 93 words of the same 128 words.

cjl
From: lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner)
Newsgroups: alt.sys.pdp8
Subject: Re: PC incrementing
Date: 13 Oct 92 19:28:51 GMT
Reply-To: lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner)
Organization: Columbia University

In article <_byz88_@rpi.edu> jwilson@unix.cie.rpi.edu (John Wilson) writes:
>I'm sure someone (cjl?) will know the answer to this nitpicky
>question...
>
>When an MRI occurs in the last word of a page (+177) and has bit
>4 set ("this page" as opposed to page 0), is the datum accessed
>on this page or the next one?  That is to say, by the time the
>high 5 bits of the PC have been prepended to the low 7 bits of
>the instruction, has the PC been incremented yet?
>
>I would just try it but my 8/e is in Boston...
>
>Thanks,   John

Real easy.  Look at the register flow:

First update PC to fetch your instruction at say 0377.  It goes into the
memory buffer.  Then the PC is updated to 0400.  Note that if an ISZ and
it skips, that could make it 0401, but in any case the PC is out of the loop.
The effective address is calculated from the MB, not the PC's pointings at
that point.  Moreover, the MB can be uses as a pointer as well, and even
an autoindexed one in the case of indirect through what (was) in 0010-0017
before writing that location back.  In any case, eventually the effective
address is calculated and put into the memory address, since the MA is
where the memory comes from, not the PC.  (Yes, earlier the PC -> MA was
performed to fetch the instruction from memory.)

So, the answer is that there is no special relationship with falling through
a page.  The page where the instruction is stored is the current page for
all effective address calculation purposes.

An alternate comment:  The PDP-8/e panel is an economy measure, and doesn't
really tell what's going on.  The earlier machines make it clear in the lights
what's in what when and where.  Some of the confusion is clearly caused by
always reading a bunch of lights merely labeled "memory address" without
regard to whose address it is at the moment, etc.

An interesting side note for simulators:

There have been -8 simulators written that aren't compatible on a similar
point: falling off the end of a field, not a page.  Regardless of instruction
type, some programs do the un-PDP-8-ly thing of going to the next FIELD,
not to location 0000 of the current field.  Of course little software,
even diagnostics, ever check for this!  (Although I did once write a piece
of bootstrap-time once-only code in a particular handler that needed this
to work right!  Thus, a simulator with that peripheral in it would flunk :-).)

cjl
Newsgroups: alt.sys.pdp8
From: kerry@Ingres.COM (Kerry Kurasaki)
Subject: Another OS/8 trivia question
Reply-To: kerry@Ingres.COM (Kerry Kurasaki)
Organization: Ask Computer Systems Inc., Ingres Division, Alameda CA 94501
Date: 12 Oct 92 18:28:40 GMT

Wow!  Some pretty sharp netters out there.  Here's another one:

Anyone know how OS/8 knows if batch is running?  That is, how does
KMON know to get stuff from the file instead of the keyboard?
Newsgroups: alt.sys.pdp8
From: kerry@Ingres.COM (Kerry Kurasaki)
Subject: Re: Another OS/8 trivia question
Reply-To: kerry@Ingres.COM (Kerry Kurasaki)
Organization: Ask Computer Systems Inc., Ingres Division, Alameda CA 94501
Date: 13 Oct 92 23:19:16 GMT

In article <1992Oct13.194705.6091@news.columbia.edu> lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner) writes:
>>
>>And the bonus question:
>>
>>	What should the value be at that location and what is the
>>	significance of that value?
>>
>If bit[0] of 07777 is a one, batch is running.  If you want to interact with
>it, the source of the BAT handler is useful info for this.  Look in the PDP-8
>archives for it on ftp.telebit.com where it is or will be soon.
>
Actually, there is an additional check made to ensure that Batch was not
corrupted/overwritten.  It's been a looooooong time, but there is a magic
value in ??? location 0200 ??? in the batch field.  What is that value
and what is the significance of it?
From: jwilson@unix.cie.rpi.edu (John Wilson)
Subject: PC incrementing
Organization: CIE, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY
Date: Sun, 11 Oct 1992 20:09:30 GMT

I'm sure someone (cjl?) will know the answer to this nitpicky
question...

When an MRI occurs in the last word of a page (+177) and has bit
4 set ("this page" as opposed to page 0), is the datum accessed
on this page or the next one?  That is to say, by the time the
high 5 bits of the PC have been prepended to the low 7 bits of
the instruction, has the PC been incremented yet?

I would just try it but my 8/e is in Boston...

Thanks,   John
Newsgroups: alt.sys.pdp8
From: johnson@tigger.jvnc.net (Steven L. Johnson)
Subject: Re: Another OS/8 trivia question
Originator: johnson@tigger.jvnc.net
Organization: JvNCnet
Date: Tue, 13 Oct 1992 03:26:11 GMT

kerry@Ingres.COM (Kerry Kurasaki) writes:

>Anyone know how OS/8 knows if batch is running?  That is, how does
>KMON know to get stuff from the file instead of the keyboard?

By looking at location 7777 in field 0.  Actually I knew it
was someplace in the last few words of field 0, but had to look
it up to remember which one.

-Steve "been a few years since I wrote disk drivers for OS/8"
From: tedcrum@garnet.berkeley.edu ()
Newsgroups: alt.sys.pdp8
Subject: Rainbow Taken!
Date: 7 Oct 1992 22:22:47 GMT
Organization: University of California, Berkeley
Distribution: ba
NNTP-Posting-Host: garnet.berkeley.edu
Keywords: DEC, Rainbow

The Rainbow that I was offering has found a new home. Thank you for
your response.

-Ted Crum
Newsgroups: alt.sys.pdp8
From: kerry@Ingres.COM (Kerry Kurasaki)
Subject: OS-8: Trivia Question
Reply-To: kerry@Ingres.COM (Kerry Kurasaki)
Organization: Ask Computer Systems Inc., Ingres Division, Alameda CA 94501
Distribution: na
Date: 7 Oct 92 18:57:15 GMT

Does anyone remember when the "End of the World" was for OS-8?

And what that meant?

Kerry
Newsgroups: alt.sys.pdp8,comp.sys.dec,comp.sys.dec.micro,vmsnet.pdp-11
From: jollie@zambini.cs.uiowa.edu (Jeffrey C. Ollie)
Subject: Getting DEC's permission to redistribute PDP-8 software and manuals
Date: Thu, 15 Oct 1992 05:09:26 GMT
Organization: University of Iowa

Hi,

  I was wondering if anyone knew who to contact at Digital to obtain
permission to redistribute some of their copyrighted material.  What
I have are a bunch of manuals and listings of various software for
the PDP-8.  Most of the stuff is copyrighted 1965 or 1966.  The manuals
I plan to photocopy, the software listings I plan to photocopy and convert
to an electronic form.  There are also a number of programs on paper tape
that I'll convert once I get a paper tape reader up and running.

  Please e-mail me, I'll summarize for the net.

Jeff Ollie
jollie@zambini.cs.uiowa.edu
"The Happy User"

Newsgroups: alt.sys.pdp8
From: kerry@Ingres.COM (Kerry Kurasaki)
Subject: Re: Another OS/8 trivia question
Reply-To: kerry@Ingres.COM (Kerry Kurasaki)
Organization: Ask Computer Systems Inc., Ingres Division, Alameda CA 94501
Date: 13 Oct 92 17:13:24 GMT

In article <1992Oct13.032611.7348@tigger.jvnc.net> johnson@tigger.jvnc.net (Steven L. Johnson) writes:
>
>>Anyone know how OS/8 knows if batch is running?  That is, how does
>>KMON know to get stuff from the file instead of the keyboard?
>
>By looking at location 7777 in field 0.  Actually I knew it
>was someplace in the last few words of field 0, but had to look
>it up to remember which one.
>

And the bonus question:

	What should the value be at that location and what is the
	significance of that value?

Gee, you guys ARE good!
Newsgroups: alt.astrology
From: casper@vxcrna.cern.ch (CASPER,DAVI./PPE)
Subject: Re: Full Moon
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41    
Organization: European Organization for Nuclear Research, CERN
Date: Fri, 9 Oct 1992 10:54:00 GMT

In article <1992Oct9.095710.164747@dstos3.dsto.gov.au>, mjp@itd.dsto.gov.au writes...
>casper@vxcrna.cern.ch (CASPER,DAVI./PPE) writes:
> 
>>Yes the answer is that there are no more violence, fires, and accidents at
>>the time of the full moon than at other times.
> 
>Have a look at any statistical data from a hospital or
>mental ward and it will reflect this. Deaths are clearly
>quantatisable and not open to opinion. Psycology textbooks
>mention the statistically significant increase but can not
>explain it.

Actually, large statistical studies show no such thing.  In a number of
documented cases the effect can be easily explained by the increase in crime
on weekends (the phases of the moon tend to recur on the same day of the
week, changing gradually over a period of months).

References on request.  If you know of data otherwise, please post.


Dave

Newsgroups: alt.astrology