HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: ijp@doc.ic.ac.uk (Ian Palmer)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: Acorn news release: Advance
Date: 22 Jan 1993 14:15:36 -0000
Organization: Department of Computing, Imperial College, University of London, UK.
NNTP-Posting-Host: oak42.doc.ic.ac.uk

In article <1993Jan22.132034.21810@cs.nott.ac.uk> smb@cs.nott.ac.uk (Simon Burrows) writes:
>
>It sounds more like the person who wrote the news release got their
>terminology wrong. It would be a major development if each set of
>ROMS had a unique ID number - but then, what about users of older
>versions of RISC OS? 
>

The leaflet for Acorn Advance states that it requires Risc-OS 3
(version 3.1 or later). Thus this wouldn't be a problem.

What I find odd is that several Acorn releases of late state that they
require Risc-OS 3 (version 3.1 or later). This would suggest that
Acorn have stoppped supporting RO2 wholesale, and also that there must
be some big difference between RO3.00 and RO3.1.

One thing I'd like to know is when am I get my RO3.1 upgrade, I'm
still waiting due to Acorn's total lack of enthusiasm for producing
A5000 upgrades :-( Quite why this should be so, because RO3.1 for
other computers have been in abundance for ages (since the Acorn User
show) and it's not as if there could be something which needs to be
produced for the A5000 upgrades holding them up, which is not needed
for the other version.

Ian

-- 
                            E-mail : ijp@doc.ic.ac.uk
 ___           __       Snail mail : Department of Computing, Huxley Building,
  /  _   _    /_/ _   / _ _   _  _   Imperial College, 180 Queens Gate,
_/_ (_|_| )  /   (_|_(_| ) )_|/_)    London. SW7 2BZ. England.
From: pwatson@lincoln.gpsemi.com (Philip Watson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: Best buy ARM 3 for old A440/RO3.10
Date: 25 Jan 93 17:17:43 GMT
Organization: GEC Plessey Semiconductors
X-Xxmessage-Id: <A789D2E913017097@mac_ldc1.lincoln.gpsemi.com>
X-Xxdate: Mon, 25 Jan 93 23:24:57 GMT
X-Useragent: Nuntius v1.1.1d12

In article <MICROSOC.93Jan25103847@black.oxford.ac.uk> Robin Watts,
microsoc@oxford.ac.uk writes:

>As far as I know, the IFEL upgrade that supposedly gives FPU support has
>always had a double row of pins for a second (vertically mounted) board
>on top of the first. this has been carefully done so, a) No probs with
pinouts

Yes, I can confirm this (since I bought my ARM3 upgrade from IFEL).

====================================================================
Philip Watson			Tel:   (0522) 500500 (switchboard)
GEC Plessey Semiconductors	Tel:   (0522) 502210
Doddington Road			Fax:   (0522) 502393 (Dept Fax)
Lincoln LN6 3LF			GNet:  Code 595
England				EMail: pwatson@lincoln.gpsemi.com.
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====================================================================
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
From: rsxdp@unicorn.nott.ac.uk (D.Pead)
Subject: Re: Acorn news release: Advance
Organization: Shell Centre for Maths Education, University of Nottingham
Date: Fri, 22 Jan 93 15:16:36 GMT

In article <1993Jan22.131726.21494@cs.nott.ac.uk> smb@cs.nott.ac.uk (Simon Burrows) writes:
>
>I agree with what you say, but it sounds crazy! After all, the majority
>of machines currently in use do not have an ID chip, and so default to
>number zero, the same as if you rip the ID chip out of a newer machine.
>This protection seems to be of very limited use, and I can't imagine
>that it will do much to stop the problem of illegal software copying.
>
Basically, is there an acceptable way of protecting against software
piracy? I think not:

* Most methods rely, by their very nature, bypass
the OS in some way and therefore introduce unnecessary compatibility problems.

* If you can't make a backup of a program, then it is totally unsuitable for
serious use - if your business database is inaccessible for three days while
a replacement disc is sent, or if your WP disc goes just before a deadline
then it could cost serious money.

* Dongles are the best of a bad lot, but are still pretty annoying.

* In virtually all cases, anybody seriously intent on large scale piracy
can either hack off the protection or get hold of an illicit, unprotected
version.

Basically, has anybody ever heard of a software house going under because of
illegal copying?  I suspect that the likes of FAST count all the ripped-off
programs in existance, multiply by the price of the package and then get
indignant at the figure.  In reality, although many of these packages do
represent lost sales I suspect that a large proportion are in the possesion
of enthusiastic "magpies" who would never have the money or inclination
to buy more than a fraction of the contents of their disc collection.

(P.S. If you disagree with any of the above, let he/she who is without
sin cast the first stone!)

I seem to remember that the producers of Autoroute for the PC had a lot
of trouble with piracy, and went as far as offering an amnesty in which
people could trade in their pirate copies for cut-price legit copies
(not a bad idea for any publisher feeling aggreived).  Amusingly,
Autoroute had a really militant software protection system which got
a lot of adverse comments in the press.  The pirate copy in circulation
was unprotected...

I think the best form of protection is to have a serial number encoded
in each piece of software so that it can be traced, and to offer an
incentive for purchasers to send in a registration form (an extra
manual, free upgrades, a cashback offer).  A real possibility of
pirate software being traced back to the original offender is a
pretty good deterrent.

 
These are my personal opinions and are not necessarily those of my
employers.


Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
From: alla0008@student.tc.umn.edu (Graham Allan)
Subject: Re: TeX with more than 65531 words of memory
Organization: University of Minnesota
Distribution: comp
Date: Wed, 27 Jan 1993 14:38:37 GMT

In article <FLIMM.93Jan27104503@sun.ph-cip.uni-koeln.de> flimm@ph-cip.uni-koeln.de (Oliver Flimm) writes:
>Hi,
>
>is it possible to make armatures work with more than its standard 65531
>words of memory. Everytime I try to tex a large document armatures exits
>after 20 pages with a message like "TeX capacity exeeded, sorry [main
>memory size=65531]". And 20 pages (without pictures) aren't very much
>on a A310 with 4MB RAM-Upgrage.
>
>BTW is there a newer version of TeX (3.0 or higher) available, either PD or
>commercial.

This sounds like strange behaviour. I'm no TeX expert, but I've often run
quite large (>200 pages) documents through armatures TeX, with no trouble
at all. If I remember rightly, the capacity limitation isn't so much to do
with the size of the document, but is related to how many fonts TeX has to
load and things like that.

The sources are there for TeX, so if you know what you're doing it may be
possible to recompile it with a larger memory size. But I suspect some
other problem.

TooLs GmbH sells a commercial port of TeX which is more recent than the
armatures one. I don't know what version it is though.

Graham.
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
From: smb@cs.nott.ac.uk (Simon Burrows)
Subject: Re: 3D Toolsprites
Organization: Nottingham University
Date: Thu, 21 Jan 93 11:29:54 GMT

In article <1993Jan19.192642.12164@unix.brighton.ac.uk> rjb12@unix.brighton.ac.uk (Titch) writes:
>cs89jmb@brunel.ac.uk (Aeon Flux) writes:
>> Remember before Christmas, someone said that they had seen the new set of 
>> professionally done toolsprites.
>> 
>> Well, is there anymore info on a possible release date?

The new 'textured' 3d iconsprites are on show at BETT '93 on the Acorn
stand. Ask someone and they will show them to you.

They are not available yet, but Acorn will be producing a disc upgrade
containing them in the future.

Simon
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Simon Burrows   smb@cs.nott.ac.uk  psyhsmb@unicorn.nott.ac.uk  +44 533 712030
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: julian@bridge.welly.gen.nz (Julian Wright)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: Help!
Date: Tue, 26 Jan 1993 23:31:24 +1300
Reply-To: wright_j@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz
Organization: USS Enterprise, NCC 1701a

MJW19@phx.cam.ac.uk writes:

> In article <93025.092128EY04@LIVERPOOL.AC.UK> EY04@LIVERPOOL.AC.UK writes:
> >I have a BASIC program that I have written for the BBC. Apart from compiling
> >the source code is there any way to prevent the source code from being seen
> >when it is being run on the computer?
> 
> I have a small piece of code that converts BASIC programs into executables in a
> rather obvious way. A drawback is that you cannot pass parameters to the BASIC
> program. Once an executable it can be squeeze-d, rendering it unreadable. I'll
> try and dig it out and make it work again, and then maybe post it to Newcastle.

I don't think this will help RJ if he wants to protect his program on
a BBC, though. The most effective method of protection that I have found
(and employed) is to crunch the program, thus rendering it rather
unreadable. It also has the beneficial side effect of speeding up
execution.

Another old favourite on the Model B was to put a REM *** at the top of
the program, and then poke characters 12, 21 and 3 on top of the
asterisks to prevent it from being listed. However such programs are not
protected against loading into the Basic Editor, and so are no longer
employed.

As for Arc Basic programs, simply converting them to an application with
the aforementioned utility and subsequently squeezeing them affords no
protection at all against looking at the program - there are several
unsqueeze utilities around (indeed a module version comes on the RISC OS
3.10 support disc inside !Patch) and once unsqueezed the small ARM code
header can easily be stripped off a program by loading it into !Edit.

--
Confusious say: "Man who sit on hot stove is better off"
From: amd2@ukc.ac.uk (A.M.Douglas)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: Watford Electronics
Date: 26 Jan 93 16:03:24 GMT
Reply-To: amd2@ukc.ac.uk (A.M.Douglas)
Organization: Computing Lab, University of Kent at Canterbury, UK.

I ordered a RAM upgrade last week, and it arrived on Saturday.
They were pretty busy.

A.
From: smb@cs.nott.ac.uk (Simon Burrows)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: New products from Acorn
Date: 21 Jan 93 19:42:06 GMT
Organization: Nottingham University

The Acorn press releases don't mention that Acorn has released its first
machines featuring 386/486 processors as well as the familiar ARM chips.

Two variants of the A4000 have been unveiled at BETT which are supplied
with the Acorn PC card as standard.

Simon
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Simon Burrows   smb@cs.nott.ac.uk  psyhsmb@unicorn.nott.ac.uk  +44 533 712030
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: maufr@csv.warwick.ac.uk (Mr N E Plum)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: Ethernet on the Archimedes
Date: 22 Jan 1993 00:07:24 -0000
Organization: Computing Services, University of Warwick, UK
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: caraway.csv.warwick.ac.uk


In article <1993Jan21.100340.2676@dcs.warwick.ac.uk>, thughes@dcs.warwick.ac.uk (Tom Hughes) writes:
|> Try using MODE 31 as this will give you more width, and
|> rumour has it that this mode is perfectly usable on an Acorn
|> Multisync.

Works fine on mine (hanging off an A5000). I can't stand anything less.

Nicolai
From: andyf@uk.sun.com (Andrew Fox - Sun UK - Answer centre)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: Printing problems (was: Dongles affect
Date: 26 Jan 1993 10:01:21 GMT
Organization: Sun Microsystems Ltd.
Distribution: world
Reply-To: andyf@uk.sun.com
NNTP-Posting-Host: yama.uk.sun.com

In article 13305 rocky@nnsgs50.lon40.nt.com (Dave Kennard) writes:

....stuff deleted....

>>There's another problem I get when printing more than one copy. Spurious
>>characters appear at the top of the second and subsequent copies of the same
>>page, but the first copy of each page comes out cleanly. Any ideas?
>
>Ditto on RO 3.0 printer driver - but I have been using the Ace Pro-driver for
>a while now, and the spurious characters' problem went away - so I assume
>that there is a bug in the RO3.0 printer driver.  Does the bug persist in
>the RO3.1 (supplied) printer driver?

Acorn acknowledged this bug in RO3.0, and it know appears to have gone away
in RO3.1. It only occurred if you were using a DeskJet or similar variant.

Andy.

+--------------------------------------------------+-------------------------+
|     /\       Andrew Fox,			   | Disclaimer:	     |
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+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
From: dhmyrdal@flipper.pvv.unit.no (Dag H}kon Myrdal)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: Acorn news release: Advance
Date: 27 Jan 93 21:34:34 GMT
Organization: ProgramVareVerkstedet - UNIT
NNTP-Posting-Host: flipper.pvv.unit.no

In article <1993Jan27.105943.9205@aston.ac.uk> davism@uhura.aston.ac.uk (Mik Davis) writes:
>: currently rife. Easiest solution: Don't try. Just make it compatible with
>: the latest OS release and take advantage of all the new features that you
[...]
>upgrade in the near future. I know of one school with >30 A3000s. They have
>absolutely no plans to go to Risc OS 3. Mainly because of the cost.
[...]

Well, in that case, I can't see much problems...
If they cannot afford GBP 20 for the upgrade (They wouldn't need
all those manuals...) then they probabaly cannot afford any new software either...
After all, that price from Acorn must already be a non-profit making 
price, indicating clearly that they want everybody to switch.
How many programs today supports Arthur ???

--Dag H.

-- 
--Dag Haakon Myrdal,       dhmyrdal@pvv.unit.no         -
-  Idrettsveien 29,        N-5037 BERGEN, NORWAY        -
-  Med.Tekn.Avd.           N-5021 Haukeland Hospital, No-
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: kortink@cs.utwente.nl (John Kortink)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Translator and palette-less sprites
Date: 27 Jan 93 12:31:30 GMT
Organization: University of Twente, Dept. of Computer Science

tb@liszt.thorn-emi-crl.co.uk (Tim Browse) writes :

>[...]
>While I'm on the subject (ok, not really), why is Translator so
>useless at displaying 16 colour sprites, especially if they have no
>palette? They usually look like a technicolour yawn (when I've seen
>friends display them, of course...)

Because it does the correct thing with palette-less sprites, and assumes
the default (mode 'x') palette, which is the palette used on a MODE x
command. It is not correct (though as an option possibly useful) to
assume the desktop palette. It is even more incorrect to at all save
sprites without palette, unless they're only used in the desktop environment.

Does anybody read documentation these days ? I dedicate quite a bit of
thought to precisely explaining what is happening with pixels and their
colours, and a lot of people don't even seem to read it.

Even unregistered people like you.


John Kortink

Still student of Informatics at the University of Twente, The Netherlands
NETMAIL : john@dialis.hacktic.nl                   DISCLAIMER : the usual

NOTE : My mail addres changed !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
From: crj10@phx.cam.ac.uk (Clive Jones)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Software protection, was Re: Acorn news release: Advance
Date: 24 Jan 93 18:19:32 GMT
Organization: U of Cambridge, England
Telephone-Messages: +44 223 33 4900
Address: Christ's College, Cambridge CB2 3BU, ENGLAND.

In article <1jrjskINNg5k@flipper.pvv.unit.no> dhmyrdal@flipper.pvv.unit.no (Dag H}kon Myrdal) writes:
>In article <1993Jan22.151636.24153@cs.nott.ac.uk> rsxdp@unicorn.nott.ac.uk (D.Pead) writes:
>[...]
>>I think the best form of protection is to have a serial number encoded
>>in each piece of software so that it can be traced, and to offer an
>>incentive for purchasers to send in a registration form (an extra
>>manual, free upgrades, a cashback offer).  A real possibility of
>>pirate software being traced back to the original offender is a
>>pretty good deterrent.
>
>The *best* form of protection is:
>1) Produce good manuals
>2) Give excellent after-sales service, with free upgrades
>
>I should know. This is why I bought Impression :-)

For some reason, Impression seems to be the one package people I know
invariably buy rather than "obtain". I agree entirely with the
sentiments expressed above.

My next software package is having the serial number of each release
deeply embedded in the software. To my delight, a friend of mine who
has not yet failed to eliminate keying information and/or protection
from any BBC/Archimedes package, refused to even try to remove this
embedded serial number, once I'd explained my algorithm to him.

I don't feel inclined to reveal the exact method I'm using, but,
assuming conjecture that people won't give away copies of software
which has their name written all over it in red neon tubes is correct,
there is plenty of scope for anti-piracy measures which are completely
portable, and need no hardware dongles.

--Clive.
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
From: snorri@fwi.uva.nl (Snorri Sturluson)
Subject: FOR SALE: Acorn Archimedes A310
Originator: snorri@zoe.fwi.uva.nl
Keywords: for sale
Organization: FWI, University of Amsterdam
Date: Tue, 26 Jan 1993 11:10:44 GMT


I want (no, I don't really want to, but have to) sell my 

	Acorn Archimedes A310 computer with
		4MB memory
		2 harddisks: 20MB & 40MB
		ARM2

I really don't have a clue about what price I should be asking for it,
so if anyone is interested just make me an offer and I'll consider it.

Snorri.
From: davism@uhura.aston.ac.uk (Mik Davis)
Subject: Re: Ethernet on the Archimedes
Organization: Aston University
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL241235]
Date: Fri, 22 Jan 1993 11:58:54 GMT

J M Hicks (cudat@csv.warwick.ac.uk) wrote:
   [about Mode 31]
: 
: >rumour has it that this mode is perfectly usable on an Acorn
: >Multisync.
: 
: Well, I find the characters too small for my liking and the flicker
: too annoying.  It's a matter of taste I suppose.

  It seems that the Acorn Multiscan monitors vary greatly in quality. I have
seen mode 31 on an Acorn monitor which didnt flicker at all. On the other hand,
I have heard of people who get *major* flicker from any decently hi-res mode.

--
___________________________________________.
 Mik Davis at Aston University, Birmingham |   .  .  __          .
                                           |   |\/|  | \  _,_  _  _
E-Mail: davism@uhura.aston.ac.uk           |   |  |. |_/ |_| \/ |/_'
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
From: rsxdp@unicorn.nott.ac.uk (D.Pead)
Subject: In defence of RM Nimbus
Organization: Shell Centre for Maths Education, University of Nottingham
Date: Mon, 25 Jan 93 15:23:32 GMT

Now come on, lets be fair to RM.  The Nimbus PC186 was launched yonks
and yonks ago, before the IBM PC gained it's stranglehold.  It used DOS
as it was originally intended - as a DISC operating system providing
a standard interface for file and character I/O.  At the time, there were
several other machines that ran MS-DOS but were not IBM compatible (e.g.
the Sirius and Apricot). The Nimbus was FAR superior to the original IBM
PC - it didn't have the silly 640K memory limit, it's XBIOS had proper,
high-level graphics facilities, optimised for running WIMP operating
systems (in those days MS Windows V1) and it's graphics made CGA look
pathetic (O.K - Big Deal). Remember - the so-called "PC Standard" is
non-existent - the only parts of the PC that were designed as standards were
 the basic I/O capabilities of DOS (files and dumb TTY) and the
format for expansion cards.  The BIOS/XBIOS code that made a PC a PC was
proprietory to IBM (and they were having legal battles with cloners).

Sadly the PC took off, and software houses started writing applications
that accessed the IBM PC XBIOS and hardware directly, and the superior
DOS machines like the Nimbus got marginalised.

What *was* naughty was the way in which Nimbii were later promoted by
RM enthusiasts (I don't know that it was RM themselves) because they
"Ran Industry Standard MS-DOS" even when most PC software would only
run on the Nimbus under the rather flakey PC emulator.  Mind you, at the
same time, Acorn Evangelists were plugging Acorn's PC board, which never
materialised...


Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
From: tippinme@cs.aston.ac.uk (ME TIPPING,,,,)
Subject: Re: Acorn v Research Machines
Reply-To: tippinme@cs.aston.ac.uk
Organization: Aston University (Comp Sci)
Distribution: uk
Date: Sat, 23 Jan 1993 10:04:54 GMT

I once asked my mum why the school where she works bought RM instead of Acorn stuff. She replied that because the school gets broken into regularly, they'd opted for RM computers as no thief would consider them worth stealing..........

Mike T.
From: crj10@phx.cam.ac.uk (Clive Jones)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: kill apps from cli?
Date: 24 Jan 93 18:29:59 GMT
Organization: U of Cambridge, England
Telephone-Messages: +44 223 33 4900
Address: Christ's College, Cambridge CB2 3BU, ENGLAND.

In article <1993Jan22.095903.22140@dcs.warwick.ac.uk> thughes@dcs.warwick.ac.uk (Tom Hughes) writes:
>It's certainly possible to list the running tasks - you just call
>TaskManager_EnumerateTasks repeatedly, outputing the information. The
>other question is trickier, as you would have to send a Message_Quit
>to the task concerned, which can't be done unless you're a desktop
>task.

You're right about the TaskManager_EnumerateTasks call, provided, of
course, that you're running under RiscOS3, and haven't rebooted the
taskmanager recently.

Quitting a Wimp application, however, is far easier than that (a
Message_Quit can be ignored by the application in any case, even if
you do send one). All you need to do is call Wimp_CloseDown with
'TASK' in one register, and the task_id of the task you want to kill
in another (I've forgotten the exact register assignments). This
mechanism is used by module tasks to die in response to service calls,
even when they may not be the current task.

--Clive.
From: rsxdp@unicorn.nott.ac.uk (D.Pead)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Watford Electronics
Date: 26 Jan 93 14:23:59 GMT
Organization: Shell Centre for Maths Education, University of Nottingham

Just out of interest - has anybody managed to get Watford Electronics
to answer the 'phone in the last few days? I'm counting myself lucky that
I haven't currently got anything on order from them...
Maybe their switchboard has gone west or something.
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn