HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: nicho@VNET.IBM.COM
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: Personal Computer World
Date: 7 Apr 92 15:41:15 GMT
Reply-To: nicho@vnet.ibm.com

In <1992Apr7.124009.10032@doc.ic.ac.uk> Ian Palmer writes:

>The IBM PC's have always relied upon MS-DOS up until fairly recently.
>An operating system which can handle upto 640k. Acorn dropped their
>origional BBC operating system with the release of RiscOS 2 (although
  Whassa matter ... never heard of Arthur :-)

>much of it remains similar as far as OS_BYTE (etc) are the same, it is
>essentilly very different). Personally I think this was a good thing
>as it allowed a fresh base to be set. In the PC world they are trying
>desperatly to hold onto MS-DOS with the production of Windows 3.
  Only Microsoft is holding on to Windoze and Dos. Others are taking
different routes.

>I understand that they are going to
>drop the MS-DOS side when it comes to Windows NT (or what ever it's
>called), but that will be too late (in my view) as the business world
>will have grasped Windows 3.
  Doubtful. Windoze is not suited to mission critical applications.
Small(ish) businesses may be using it, however larger businesses
are being a bit more cautious. Windoze has not quite been the
success Microsoft would have you believe.

>This is because IBM PC's have never made a drastic jump like
>the BBC micro -> Arch jump that Acorn managed.
  Perhaps it's because a drastic jump was not necessary.
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.
>
>It is my opinion that it is the PC market that is in for a bumpy ride
>ahead, more so than the Acorn market as Acorn have had a good platform
>for many years now (since the release of the A305) whereas 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 ???

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

 -----------------------------------------------------------------
               ** 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
From: switham@acorn.co.uk (Sean Witham)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Software Protection  (was: >>>New !Creator)
Date: 9 Apr 92 13:26:48 GMT
Distribution: comp
Organization: Acorn Computers Ltd, Cambridge, England

In article <3939@mercury.brunel.ac.uk> ee88jmf@brunel.ac.uk (J M Fielder) writes:

>In article <2251@sys.uea.ac.uk> marlow@sys.uea.ac.uk (K. Marlow PG) writes:
>>>   No way! If I have paid for software I want to be able to use it an *any*
>>>machine. What happens if my machine has to be replaced? Then what?
>>>Re-purchase the software? No thanks. Ask to get it fixed? Why should I? It
>>>should just go... No using the UIN is *not* a wise idea.
>
>Why not, it is used on 'serious' UNIX boxes all the time. Just type hostid
>and you get a UID all the time.
>

 Yes but most users view a piece of software the same way they view other items
they have purchased. If they buy a watch they expect to be able to use their
watch on any arm they like or even to be able to lend it to someone else. Of
course if they do lend it they themselves can't use for the duration of the loan.

>As for problems with EPROMS etc, PAL's have to be blown for the Archie series,
>so blowing a UID chip is not much of a problem.
>
>I would prefer a UID syastem than my silly dongle that sits of the back of
>my machine to run Impression.
>

I'm not fan of the dongle but I prefeer it to any other form of protection I
have come across so far as it allows me to use my piece of software on any
machine I use and I can also lend it for use to someone else. Of course while
I lend it to someone else I myself can't use it but then that seems fair.

>>  Perhaps what he should do is write to a special file the UIN with details
>>saying when the s/w for first and last run on that machine.. then when
>>the UIN changes it creates a new entry and continues updating that.  That
>>way you would be able to move the s/w around at will, it would be possible
>>to see from the file if you have been using it on two machines at the same
>>time.. which requires you to have two copies..
>
>Floating licences on networks are very useful, we have them here for the
>majo4rity of our 'serious' programs (Frame maker, Island write etc.)

Yes a network licence is fair for when you want several people to use it but
the example given above is stop people from being able to use the s/w on
more than one machine at the same time. Which is fair enough if we are not
going to stop people from changing from one machine to another in rapid
succession and at any one instant only have one machine actually running the s/w .

_________________________________________________________________________

Sean Witham (Xeno)     JANET: switham@uk.co.acorn or xeno@uk.ac.city.cs

The above is my own personal view, as long as it doesn't get me into
any trouble. Any facts are given in good faith I take no responsibilty
for their use, in fact I'd be very surprised if you can understand it
at all after my English/Spelling.
From: stephenm@p4.cs.man.ac.uk (M. B. Stephens)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: A5000 disc format recognising (BS-detector: BEEP BEEP BEEP)
Date: 13 Apr 92 11:28:00 GMT

In <19Zfqfj014n@bridge.welly.gen.nz> julian@bridge.welly.gen.nz (Julian Wright) writes:

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

>> In fact you can format an 800k disc as a 1.6M disc, it won't moan at
>> you as it totally disreguards the extra notch on the disc. Although
>> I've never tried it it is mentioned in the user guide somewhere, but
>> not recomended (for obvious reasons).

>Works fine for me.

>Back when 5.25" floppy disc drives were released for the Beeb, there were
>two main types available, single sided 40 track and double sided 80 track.
>People used to find that single sided 40 track discs worked fine in double
>sided 80 track drives.

>It would seem the same general principle holds for DD discs in an HD drive,
>at least on the Arc...

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.

The typical difference between 40tSS 40tDS 80tDS is whether or not the batch 
passed the appropriate test at the factory. The disks that failed the 80t
test would be retested as 40t. Note that this is a batch test and that the
test would be for conformance to clipping levels and not failure to format.
The factory then had one production line and so saved money.

I do not have first hand experience of this story, but I think it is very
plausible. So it is not suprising that 40t disks worked in 80t drives. This
only became the case though after 5.25" disks had been manufactured for some
time. I have a large number of very early 40t SS disks and these will not
format as 40t DS disks, never mind provide adequate clipping levels.

High Density (HD) disks are different. They have magnetic coatings with
different coercivities than standard density disks (SD). A possible analogy
is to think of cunieform written on clay tablets: a soft clay can be written
with a blunt stylus, a hard clay needs a sharp stylus but the marks can be
written closer together. The blunt sylus will still mark the hard clay but
the impressions will be shallower and if written closely may merge;
similarly the sharp stylus on the soft clay will not have the desired
effect.  When an SD disk is formatted as high density the data recorded on
the disk will probably not be at the desirable 70% level but possibly at the
marginal 40% level, also the magnetic domains may drift from their recorded
positions because of mutual repulsion.

Now you wouldn't try to use an ordinary ferric audio cassette at metal tape
bias and recording levels and expect to get as good results as if you had
used the right tape with the right recording setup.

Or maybe you would.


Mark.
stephenm@p4.cs.man.ac.uk
From: astevens@acorn.co.uk (Ashley Stevens)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: New machine
Date: 6 Apr 92 10:40:51 GMT
Distribution: comp
Organization: Acorn Computers Ltd, Cambridge, England

In article <1992Apr3.182602.3397@cl.cam.ac.uk> nbvs@cl.cam.ac.uk (Nicko van Someren on ely.cl.cam.ac.uk) writes:

>Having been closely following items about this subject I have a good idea for
>a new machine from Acorn:
>
>       An ARM9000 (or similar) with 500MIPS and 300MFLOPS
>       Multiprocessor support built into the base machine
>       A minimum of 32MB of RAM, expandable to 2GB, accessed at 50ns
>       16MB of video RAM to give a 2000x1500x32bit display
>       RISC OS 7 withall the features of RISC OS 3, UNIX SVR4, Windows NT
>       Telepathic user interface (no mouse ball to get fluff in...)
>       List price to be competitive with an Atari ST
>

All sounds reasonable so far...

>oh, I almost forgot...
>       Technical documentation that is compleat, correct and easy to read.
>

Damn! That's blown it! Oh well, you can't have everything. :-)

>I hear from a 'reliable' source that Acorn will be showing this machine at
>the Acorn User Show - but who knows which one.

Yes, it will probably be in a Sainsbury's carrier bag....

--
Ashley Stevens
From: ee88jmf@brunel.ac.uk (J M Fielder)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: >>>New !Creator
Date: 8 Apr 92 11:25:27 GMT
Reply-To: ee88jmf@brunel.ac.uk.brunel.ac.uk (J M Fielder)
Organization: Brunel University, Uxbridge, UK

In article <2251@sys.uea.ac.uk> marlow@sys.uea.ac.uk (K. Marlow PG) writes:
>>   No way! If I have paid for software I want to be able to use it an *any*
>>machine. What happens if my machine has to be replaced? Then what?
>>Re-purchase the software? No thanks. Ask to get it fixed? Why should I? It
>>should just go... No using the UIN is *not* a wise idea.

Why not, it is used on 'serious' UNIX boxes all the time. Just type hostid
and you get a UID all the time.

As for problems with EPROMS etc, PAL's have to be blown for the Archie series,
so blowing a UID chip is not much of a problem.

I would prefer a UID syastem than my silly dongle that sits of the back of
my machine to run Impression.

>  Perhaps what he should do is write to a special file the UIN with details
>saying when the s/w for first and last run on that machine.. then when
>the UIN changes it creates a new entry and continues updating that.  That
>way you would be able to move the s/w around at will, it would be possible
>to see from the file if you have been using it on two machines at the same
>time.. which requires you to have two copies..

Floating licences on networks are very useful, we have them here for the
majo4rity of our 'serious' programs (Frame maker, Island write etc.)

Joust
From: aralph@cix.compulink.co.uk (Alan Ralph)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: 8 bit stuff... (inc. postings & moderation)
Date: 15 Apr 92 09:48:51 GMT
Reply-To: Alan Ralph <aralph@cix.compulink.co.uk>
Organization: Gated to News by demon.co.uk

Alan Glover sez:
>We noticed Edouard's offer - what do **YOU** think? Is there anyone else
>out there who might like to have a go at running the groups.

>One thought would be arrange a fixed tenure - eg 12 months.

>I would be quite happy to stand down if the net concensus is that a change
>is a good idea (...certainly it's likely to better than the present
>posting rate we're achieveing :-/ ). 

Well, I think that if there are people on the Net with access to
facilities for processing and posting, then they should be allowed to have
a go at handling the sources and/or binaries newsgroups.

If we went for a 12 month 'term' of moderation, candidates would have to
guarantee that they would be contactable at the particular site for the
duration.

Anyway that's my feeling... what about YOU?

Alan Ralph.
From: cabr07@ccsun.strath.ac.uk ( G.N.Sinclair)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: Personal Computer World
Date: 7 Apr 92 18:53:18 GMT
Organization: Strathclyde University Physics

In article <1992Apr7.093250.18013@newcastle.ac.uk> J.W.Harley@newcastle.ac.uk (Jon Harley) writes:
>rjb12@unix.brighton.ac.uk (Browning;f110or89;[05306) writes:
>>Right, people. It's flame time again. But (J. Kortink & I. Rawlings take
>>note) directed against, IMO, a source of constant annoyance to Acorn
>>supporters everywhere: Personal Computer World magazine.
>
>I have just let my subscription lapse, and I won't be buying it on the
>newstands either, simply because as an Acorn owner it now has nothing of
>interest to me. Don't bother trying to change it - vote with your money.
>

Seems that plenty of people have been voting with cash - have you noticed
the large bill board adverts for PCW that have started appearing.   I never
saw any advertising of the magazine in the past.

Gordon.



-- 
JANET: G.N.Sinclair@uk.ac.strath
Other networks:   G.N.Sinclair%strath.ac.uk@   plus one of:
BITNET: UKACRL     UUCP: ukc.uucp      Internet: nsf.ac.uk
From: ppxpmd@mips.nott.ac.uk (P.Debenham)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: Bandwidth on the NZ Server
Summary: Stop crapping on free service providers
Date: 6 Apr 92 12:03:27 GMT
Distribution: comp
Organization: Cripps Computing Centre, University of Nottingham
   To respond to Neil's flame.  The people running the NZ server have
   Secondly there is some software put on the NZ server that people in other
   The real problem was people being greedy and selfish, e

PS Before anyone asks, I did not use the NZ server myself.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
'Do to others as you would have them do to you'  Jesus c30AD
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: /G=Richard/S=Crook/O=SJ-Research/ADMD=INTERSPAN/C=GB/@MHS-RELAY.AC.UK
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: A: Re: WIMP questions ...
Date: 6 Apr 92 17:10:37 GMT
Article-I.D.: MHS.ARM200-920406174750-6716F1AE*

Subject: Re: WIMP questions ...
banksie@khantazi.welly.gen.nz (Philip R. Banks) and
truemanc@p4.cs.man.ac.uk (Chris Trueman) write:

[some deleted]

>> 
>> Question 2:
>> 
>> Do you have to remove any event handlers that you have set up before
>> exiting the program?

> Theory:- No. As I understand it the default exit routines of your program
> will automatically handle that for you.

> Practice:- Become paranoid - trust nothing until you have validated it for
> yourself. IE remove your event handlers just in case...

As I understand it, the 'event handlers' of Risc_OSLib are merely functions
registered with the event module - i.e. the event module keeps function
pointers for the handlers in its static data space. On return from Wimp_Poll
(called within event_process()), the reason code is decoded, and the
appropriate handler is called. Since nothing is registered with the
operating system, other than the existence of the task (which will be killed
on program exit), you don't need to deregister handlers. They won't be
removed by exit handlers, since if the program disappears, the function
pointers also vapourise...

Richard

Richard.Crook%gb.interspan.sj@uk.ac.mhs-relay
The above is my own opinion only, and does not represent the views of my
company; no responsibility is accepted for consequences of use of the
'facts' stated...
From: ssurawls@susssys1.reading.ac.uk (Mister E)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: CIX
Date: 8 Apr 92 15:26:39 GMT

How does your average computer pleebie get access to CIX? I got there a long
time ago but have forgotten how to do it :-|

Any help would be appreciated!

Ian


Posted Wed Apr 8 16:26:32 BST 1992

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

        I went down the street to the 24-hour grocery.  When I got
        there, the guy was locking the front door.  I said, "Hey, the
        sign says you're open 24 hours."  He said, "Yes, but not in a
        row."
From: osmith@acorn.co.uk (Owen Smith)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: >>> Personal Computer World
Date: 14 Apr 92 12:10:09 GMT
Distribution: comp
Organization: Acorn Computers Ltd, Cambridge, England

In article <7606.9204131541@susssys1.rdg.ac.uk>
ssurawls@susssys1.reading.ac.uk (Mister E) writes:

>I can now
>zoom in and out of a document with headlines and diagrams with multiple
>multi-size fonts, all on a font cache of about 64K! It's SOOOOO Fast!

Indeed - the font cache can be small because it caches single characters
rather than chunks of 32 characters, so there is no cache wastage now. This
also means you can cache a few big characters for headings without flushing
the entire cache by accident.

>And now you can use all fonts with postscript printers as the postscript
>printer driver will automatically download the font definitions to the printer
>if the printer does not have the font. Pity the printer I have access to is an
>ancient apple laserwriter, which won't take them!

This really ought to work - we have no trouble with Apple LaserWriter+
font dowloading. Must admit I can't recall us trying an Apple LaserWriter
(have we got one?) but it's more likely a problem with an old firmware
revision. You could try sticking newer firmware (eg. LaserWriter+ or NTX)
in the printer.

Owen.

The views expressed are my own and are not necessarily those of Acorn.
From: osmith@acorn.co.uk (Owen Smith)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: help! checkmap fails
Date: 6 Apr 92 15:23:03 GMT
Distribution: comp
Organization: Acorn Computers Ltd, Cambridge, England

In article <9204061129.AA28250@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU> lithgow@uslp.UUCP writes:

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

ADFSDirCache (and SCSIFSDirCache) is completely different. No problems
with it either.

Owen.

The views expressed are my own and are not necessarily those of Acorn.
From: ppxpmd@mips.nott.ac.uk (P.Debenham)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: Bandwidth on the NZ Server
Date: 6 Apr 92 14:23:44 GMT
Distribution: comp
Organization: Cripps Computing Centre, University of Nottingham

Sorry folks, my editor chewed my chewing out for Neil.  Mind you I think it
manages to get its message across despite this.

How about some POSITIVE help from you Neil like offering to do the coordination
job between archive sites that you seem to think is all so easy!!!

Yours,
    Peter D
From: Albert.Koelmans@newcastle.ac.uk (Albert Koelmans)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Additions and/or replacements on the Newcastle Info Server
Keywords: Newcastle Info Server (Acorn Archimedes Archive)
Date: 7 Apr 92 15:45:20 GMT
Reply-To: Albert.Koelmans@uk.ac.newcastle
Organization: Computing Laboratory, University of Newcastle upon Tyne

fastbrot has been replaced by the latest version (2).

There are new versions of John Kortink's software:

discinfo 1.04
fileact 2.04
modeinfo 1.05
packdir 1.19

They have all been re-organized internally (no changes in functionality
however), all windows are now 'fandy bordered', and all parts in BASIC
have been crunched with Mike Harrisons BASIC cruncher, saving some
run-time space here and there.

(John adds that Translator, Creator and GreyEdit will not be updated - you
know by now why)





 
To retrieve a file from the archive, send a message to 
info-server@newcastle.ac.uk with the following content:

line-limit 1000
request: sources
topic: archimedes filename
request: end

where filename is replaced by the name of the file that you want.
A filename of 'index' will send you the latest index file.
A filename of 'tail_index' will send you the list of the last 50 files added
to the archive.

PLEASE MAKE SURE YOUR SOFTWARE IS VIRUS FREE BEFORE SENDING IT TO ME


--

E-mail address:  Albert.Koelmans@uk.ac.newcastle
Computing Laboratory, University of Newcastle upon Tyne,
Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU, UK (telephone +44 091-2228155,fax 2228232)
From: ojg@crosfield.co.uk (oliver gunasekara)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Viruses
Date: 8 Apr 92 09:17:37 GMT
Organization: Crosfield Electronics, Hemel Hempstead, United Kingdom.

I have got !Killer 1.26  but have been told that there is a big problem with
it. When it finds the module virus it removes the virus by deleting the 
infected module! I use !Hunter 1.02/3 by ACE/Arc Angels which removes the 
module virus from the module, leaving the module as it was. Why does the Acorn
!Killer application delete the modules leaving you with a machine that is in 
a worst state then when you were infected with the virus.

	Oly.

-- 
|  /|Oliver Gunasekara BEng (Hons) | InterNET   ojg@crosfield.co.uk  | Acorns |
| /-|Crosfield Electronics Limited | JANET      ojg@uk.co.crosfield  | 32-bit |
|/  |  R&D Diagnostics Engineer    | phone  +44 (0442) 230000 x3853  |  ARM   |
|  *** Prune Juice - a warriors drink ---> ST TNG Yesterdays Enterprise ***
From: xyz@alessia.dei.unipd.it ( Valerio Pulese )
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Rayshade 4.0.6 ???
Date: 15 Apr 92 15:43:16 GMT
Article-I.D.: sabrina.1992Apr15.154316.27549
Organization: D.E.I. Universita' di Padova - ITALY


Has anybody already ported rayshade 4.0.6 ?
Before losing my time I wish to know it.
Thanks & bye! 

Valerio
From: dpirie@cix.compulink.co.uk (Douglas Pirie)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: A5000 disc format ...
Date: 9 Apr 92 03:12:21 GMT
Reply-To: Douglas Pirie <dpirie@cix.compulink.co.uk>
Organization: Gated to News by demon.co.uk


 
  > 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.... 
 
  As far as I know, low density Mac (400k?) and Amiga are impossible on 
anything other than Macs and Amigas! The Mac varies the disk rotation speed 
depending on where the head is, and the Amiga, as far as I know, doesn't use 
a disk controller as such, and produces disks with no inter-segment gaps, 
which most controllers need. Now I don't know what's inside the A5000, but 
I'd be amazed if it copes with that little lot!
 
  BTW, high density Mac shouldn't be a problem, just as soon as someone gets 
round to writing the software... :-)
 
Douglas.