HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: smneyln@ariel.lerc.nasa.gov (Michael Neylon)
Subject: A needed utility for the Amiga...
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41    
Organization: NASA Lewis Research Center
Date: 13 Aug 1992 07:34 EST  

With the release of new software, including Maple, the Amiga now has all the
software (worthwhile of course) that IBMs and Macs have, EXCEPT an mathematical
equation editor!  There is TeX, but that is too slow/large/bulky for most
people.  I would like to know if anyone is planning on, working on, or has
released any such program.  The features that I would like to see are:
-Save as IFF brush (importing into WP or DTP)
-Graphical interface
	use scalable fonts for symbols and variables.
	buttons for 'intergration creation','summation cr.', etc...
-Ablilty to read in FORTRAN/C equation line, and translate to symbols...ie
	`x=INT(y^2+SIN(y),y,0,5)' would give output as x equalling the
	integral of y^*sin(y), from y=0 to y=5.

WordPerfect 5+ (on IBM) has this feature.  There is a Mac program that 
does this as well (shipped with Mathematica?).  But for the math/science/
engineering student, there is nothing for the Amiga.  This type of program is
definitely needed

Michael Neylon   aka Masem the Great and Almighty Thermodynamics GOD!
      //         | Senior, Chemical Engineering, Univ. of Toledo
  \\ // Only the |   Summer Intern, NASA Lewis Research Center
\  \X/   AMIGA!  |          smneyln@ariel.lerc.nasa.gov              /
 --------+ How do YOU spell 'potato'?  How 'bout 'lousy'? +----------
    "Me and Spike are big Malcolm 10 supporters." - J.S.,P.L.C.L
From: jesup@cbmvax.commodore.com (Randell Jesup)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.programmer
Subject: Re: System() and pr_ConsoleTask
Date: 22 Aug 92 00:43:02 GMT
Reply-To: jesup@cbmvax.commodore.com (Randell Jesup)
Organization: Commodore, West Chester, PA

paulk@terapin.com (Paul Kienitz) writes:
>Why do people traditionally pass a window filehandle to System() for input and
>NULL for output?  There's nothing in the documentation to support this -- what
>is it for?

	It's something that has never been really documented (but has always
been there since 1.x).  If you pass NULL for output to Execute() or System(),
it will open "*" to get an output filehandle.  If you pass an interactive
input filehandle, it will set your pr_ConsoleTask to point to that window,
and redirect signals from that window to the system/execute process (using
ACTION_CHANGE_SIGNAL) before opening "*".

>The other day I found that when I run my program which opens a CON: window and
>then runs a program in it with System(command, SYS_Input, windowhandle,
>SYS_Output, NULL, TAG_DONE) -- woops, make that SystemTags -- running UnZip 4.1
>causes its output to go to the parent CLI window instead of to the window I
>gave it, EVEN THOUGH I had specifically pointed my own pr_ConsoleTask to the
>new window beforehand, and it's supposed to copy that from its parent process.
>The new CLI inside System should be completely unaware of the original CLI
>window.

	I'm afraid I can't figure out what went wrong from that description.

-- 
"Rev on the redline, you're on your own; seems like a lifetime, but soon it's
 gone..."  Foreigner
-
Randell Jesup, Jack-of-quite-a-few-trades, Commodore Engineering.
{uunet|rutgers}!cbmvax!jesup, jesup@cbmvax.cbm.commodore.com  BIX: rjesup  
Disclaimer: Nothing I say is anything other than my personal opinion.
From: jesup@cbmvax.commodore.com (Randell Jesup)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.programmer
Subject: Re: Disk drive timing.... (without AmigaDOS)
Date: 21 Aug 92 21:44:28 GMT
Reply-To: jesup@cbmvax.commodore.com (Randell Jesup)
Organization: Commodore, West Chester, PA

9LORKIN@WINVMJ.VNET.IBM.COM ("Julian Lorkin") writes:
>How can you idle your Amiga for a fixed amount of time?
>
>Busy waiting the CPU in a closed loop is out of the question because a
>68030 will execute this loop faster than a 68000.  Is counting raster
>lines reliable? Like this .  .  .
>
>nextrast  move.b   dff006,d1
>waitrast  cmp.b    dff006,d1
>          beq.s    waitrast
>          dbf      d0,nextrast
>
>Would this work on all screen modes? and on all types of Amiga?
>
>Another method might be to use the CIAs but the driving input is
>different on PAL and NTSC machines.  How big is this difference? Is it
>big enough to cause problems?

	There was a very good article written by Bryce Nesbitt back in (I
think) summer 1988 for AmigaMail about this.  Basically, if you must busy-wait-
delay, or if the delay is less than a few milliseconds, you should read a
CIA register N times, where N is delay_required/1us.  Basically, assume
1us/read.  It will not be totally accurate, but we do guarantee that it will
take no less than 1us per read.  If you need to wait for longer periods, you
should either allocate and use a CIA (if you need short timings or need to
keep things from running), or if you're able to work with the system use
timer.device.

	Rasters are not very good for a timing base, since the beam rates
vary quite a bit (and on top of that are programmable to almost any value).
Look at productivity versus ntsc/pal, for example.

	You can probably get the back-issue of AmigaMail from Department C
here at Commodore, or get a whole set.

-- 
"Rev on the redline, you're on your own; seems like a lifetime, but soon it's
 gone..."  Foreigner
-
Randell Jesup, Jack-of-quite-a-few-trades, Commodore Engineering.
{uunet|rutgers}!cbmvax!jesup, jesup@cbmvax.cbm.commodore.com  BIX: rjesup  
Disclaimer: Nothing I say is anything other than my personal opinion.
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.programmer
From: bryanf@hpmcaa (Bryan Ford)
Subject: Re: Speculations: Amiga and Mach?
Organization: HP Cardiology Business Unit - McMinnville, OR
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL4
Date: Sat, 15 Aug 1992 00:30:11 GMT

casey@zorro.lexmark.lex.usa.na (Patrick Casey) writes:
> MACH seems pretty cool to me, too.  But I would hate to see Commodore
> move away from Exec.  It's small, efficient, and runs on all 680x0
> processors.  IMHO, Exec is one of the most beautiful pieces of
> software design I've ever seen.

I like Exec too.

BUT...

Exec in its current state doesn't do P/VM.  People want this.  -I- want it!
I've been using OS/2 2.0 over the summer, and despite the fact that it's a 
huge, lumbering, ugly, inefficient, and otherwise stupid beast, it is _so_
nice to have programs protected from each other...  This is like moving from
non-multitasking to multitasking - once you've had it, you can't live without
it.

Would it be reasonable to say that sooner or later the Amiga's OS is going
to have to support P/VM on CPUs that support it, or else slowly die out and
be replaced by newer OSs?

So, as I see it, the choice is simple: either support P/VM one way
or another, or become obsolete.  Assuming Commodore doesn't want the Amiga's
OS to become obsolete, then, I'm simply suggesting that a good way to go,
which would save a lot of time and make many people very happy, would be to
use Mach.

Furthermore, there's no need to completely get rid of Exec.  The quick,
non-copying message system would be excellent for interthread communication.
(Slower Mach messages would only have to be used for communication across
firewalls.)  The shared library system can definitely be retained; libraries
could even be shared across firewalled Mach tasks through shared memory.
All the cool list management routines can be kept.  Even system structures
like ExecBase can be retained and made available through shared memory, though
they would have to become read-only.  You wouldn't have to throw out Exec,
or even a large part of the existing OS structure, to make the switch.

				Bryan

Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.programmer
From: wild@nessie.cs.id.ethz.ch (Markus Wild)
Subject: Re: Link problem with GCC 2.2.2
Organization: Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), Zurich, CH
Date: Wed, 19 Aug 1992 15:14:52 GMT

In article <714220606.23897@minster.york.ac.uk> stuart@minster.york.ac.uk writes:
>
>I can't get the latest version of GCC (2.2.2, ftp'd from wuarchive) to
>successfully compile a C++ program which uses streams, the compilation
>phase seems to be successful but the linking phase fails with a reference
>to an undefined symbol ___new_handler.

My fault sorry. Will be corrected in a fix I'll send to wuarchive in one
or two das.

-Markus

-- 
Markus M. Wild    -  wild@nessie.cs.id.ethz.ch  |  wild@amiga.physik.unizh.ch 
Vital papers will demonstrate their vitality by spontaneously moving
from where you left them to where you can't find them.
Xref: sparky comp.sys.amiga.programmer:12252 comp.sys.amiga.hardware:14016
From: heinz@edohwg.UUCP (Heinz Wrobel)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.programmer,comp.sys.amiga.hardware
Subject: Re: WB 2.0 on A1000
Date: 11 Aug 92 21:18:51 GMT
Reply-To: cbmehq!cbmger!edohwg!heinz@cbmvax.commodore.com
Organization: Edotronik GmbH

In article <salnick.0f8y@dejavu.spk.wa.us> salnick@dejavu.spk.wa.us (There is no substitute for displacement...) writes:
>This should be possible, shouldn't it?  As long as I avoid the fancy
>screen modes...

No. Not without HW changes. The A1000 supports only 256K ROMs. 2.04 is
twice the size: 512K.

>Can anyone tell me how I might get my old (but reliable) A1000 to WB2.0?

Well, it is possible (I did it), but you need some HW experience.
You will loose the softkick feature and have 2.04 in ROM.

The method I worked out for Edotronik is only for "old" A1000 with piggy
back boards. Right now I do not know about the one's with kickstart ram on
the mainboard. Depending on public interest there could be reason to find
out about that, though...

You need to be able to use a soldering iron on your computer and you need
an adapter for the KS ROM, several replacement chips and new PAL's. This
amounts to an "upgrade kit" for A1000 users. It's not too hard to put in.

I can't tell you right now about the price we could make for you but if you
(or anyone) is interested drop me some email or a FAX to my _private_ FAX
number below. Everybody at Edotronik GmbH is on vacation right now except
for me, monitoring news at home.

Well, drop me a fax or some email/smail and I get back to you with some
pricing information for our upgrade kit the first days of september.
I'd prefer a fax. My computer loves to eat email.

The upgrade kit will be cheaper if you get more people to buy it... ;-) :-)


>Bob Salnick, Spokane,WA |  Home: salnick@dejavu.spk.wa.us

PS: Edotronik GmbH (and my home) is based in _germany_. Please note the
    country prefix in the phone numbers!


--
Heinz Wrobel, Edotronik GmbH (ECG018)
FAX +49 89 850 51 25 / TEL +49 89 850 25 20 (HOME!&VOICE, sometimes...)
From: walker@twix.unx.sas.com (Doug Walker)
Subject: Re: SAS/C and GCC questions
Originator: walker@twix.unx.sas.com
Date: Fri, 21 Aug 1992 13:56:31 GMT
Organization: SAS Institute Inc.


In article <1992Aug20.105503.13129@ultb.isc.rit.edu>, kxs5829@ultb.isc.rit.edu (K.X. Saunders ) writes:
|> 	Does SAS/C provide a flock() (a BSD system) call?  If not, is there
|> a way to get a FileHandle from a file descriptor so I could use LockRecord?

SAS/C does not provide flock().

You can get a FileHandle from a file descriptor, contact Tech Support.

-- 
  *****
=*|_o_o|\\=====Doug Walker, Software Distiller====== BBS: (919)460-7430 =
 *|. o.| ||                                          1200/2400/9600 Dual
  | o  |//     For all you do, this bug's for you!
  ====== 
usenet: walker@unx.sas.com                            bix: djwalker 
Any opinions expressed are mine, not those of SAS Institute, Inc.

Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.programmer
From: sd7047787@v8803s (SD7047787)
Subject: HOw to open screen on Xwindow UnixStation?
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41    
Organization: Nanyang Technological University - Singapore
Date: Fri, 14 Aug 1992 07:16:00 GMT

How to open a screen (not window) using X on Unix workstation?
I did the XOpenDisplay with my argument as hostname:0.1. From what I know the
1 means screen number. The whole program compiles but when I invoke the 
program it just cant connect to the X server. If I specify the argument as NULL 
the program would then be able to open a nice window on my default screen. But 
what I want now is a separate screen! Could someone help me.
Another thing, have anyone able to use the mtools found on some of the sites on 
their Unix machine? I just cant get it runs. *SIGH* 
Please reply me thru' my address. I seldom read the discussion here. Thanx!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
if u can imagine it, u can achieve it. | Steven K.B  |  ntu, singapore
if u can dream it, u can become it!    | internet: sd7047787@ntuvax.ntu.ac.sg
Save our earth, think GREEN.           | bitnet  : sd7047787@ntuvax
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: umward10@ccu.umanitoba.ca (Derek Ward)
Subject: COBOL
Organization: University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada
Date: Sat, 22 Aug 1992 23:18:56 GMT



  Are there are any PD COBOL compilers around?  I am looking for one for
the upcoming school seaon.
 
  Please reply via mail.

  Thanks.
 
Derek

-- 
    //         University of Manitoba, Winnipeg,
\\ //          CANADA!      
 \X/  AMIGA!   umward10@ccu.umanitoba.ca
From: aemst8@unixd2.cis.pitt.edu (Chad Freeman)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.programmer
Subject: A problem with RexxArpLib 3.0
Date: 13 Aug 92 01:46:51 GMT
Reply-To: cjfst4+@pitt.edu
Organization: University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL5

Hi,
	I've been working with ARexx and RexxArpLib (thanks Bill & Will!) a
bit recently and I've come across some unusual behavior.  Here's the
scenario:  I use RexxArpLib to open a custom screen and CreateHost a border-
less backdrop window.  I then display an IFF file in the window, and open a
string gadget over it.  Now comes the funny part: when I try to activategadget
the string gadget, it doesn't.  Now, after I receive input from the first
gadget, I open a second one, and activate it, and it _does_ activate with no
problems.  The first one, however, simply refuses to activate.  I've checked
and rechecked the syntax, and its fine.  Is this a bug involving the first
string gadget to be created, or am I doing something I shouldn't?
	Thanks for your (e-mail to cjfst4+@pitt.edu) help!  If you need to
see my source I'd be glad to send a snippet e-mail, but I won't waste band-
width.  Thanks again.

Chad
From: stelmack@eggo.tmc.edu (Gregory M. Stelmack)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.programmer
Subject: Program Fragmenting Memory
Date: 9 Aug 92 02:32:03 GMT
Organization: University of South Florida, Department of Computer Science and Engineering

I've been trying to track this problem down for two days now, so I ask here in
case it has to do with something outside my code.

My latest project has been fragmenting memory, and leaving two small chunks
behind. Running MungWall & MungList (thanks for Sushi!) reveals two tiny
chunks unfreed by my task -- sizes $0a and $a8. Anyway, I wrote my own 
wrappers for AllocMem and FreeMem that track the size and location of my
allocations, and replaced all my calls with these wrappers (searching every
source file to make sure I got them all). When I run with these, I still
lose memory, but all my Allocs are properly matched by same-sized Frees
(and MungWall does not complain). Also, neither address for the fragments
matches any of my allocations.

So, does anyone know of anything that might be causing this? I am using
SAS/C 5.10b, and will call SAS Monday to see if there might be something
with their startup/shutdown code, but in the meantime am asking here.
Any ideas? Anyone know of any other tools that might help me track this
down?

--
-- Greg Stelmack (stelmack@eggo.csee.usf.edu)
-- FullTime Grad Student, PartTime Amiga Salesman, PartTime Amiga Developer
-- Author of: Spades, Pro Port Analyzer Plus, more to come...
-- DISCLAIMER: The opinions reflected here are mine and mine alone.
From: paulc@hpsad.sad.hp.com (Paul Christensen X3073)
Date: Sat, 22 Aug 1992 03:24:09 GMT
Subject: SASC 6>.0
Organization: HP Signal Analysis Division - Rohnert Park, CA
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.programmer

As soon as anyone gets SAS v6, please post here on what it looks like 
and how it performs. Im interested in the GUI changes... 

Any changes to editor? ( built in file selector? )

How about code probe? 

thx

paulc


+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Paul Christensen        |     Email( Unix ) paulc@hpsad.sad.hp.com    |
| (707)794-3073           |     HPDESK Paul Christensen / HP5300/A0     |
+---------------------- HP MicroElectronics ----------------------------+  


Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.programmer
From: wild@nessie.cs.id.ethz.ch (Markus Wild)
Subject: Re: as under GCC2.2.2
Organization: Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), Zurich, CH
Date: Fri, 21 Aug 1992 00:18:07 GMT

In article <1992Aug20.123755.19105@usage.csd.unsw.OZ.AU> peteru@hydra.maths.unsw.EDU.AU writes:
>I would like to know what syntax does the assembler supplied with gcc2.2.2 use.
>The reason I am asking is simple. Here at the university of NSW in Sydney, 2nd
>year students are required to do some 68000 programing. While I had no problems
>switching between gas and Motorola conventions (besides being annoyed) many
>students here just want to write their stuff straight in gas.
>
>So besides wanting to know which syntax gcc's "as" accepts, I would also like to
>know what other parts of gcc am I likely to require in order to produce working
>executables using as.
>
>I assume that the linker and perhaps ixemul.library will be required, but I
>really don't have any idea. I am quite happy with SAS/C and don't plan to get
>gcc unless there is a VERY good reason for it.

Well, what syntax might gas accept, gas-syntax ;-)) Nah, to get serious, the
gas used with my gcc package uses MIT syntax (which annoyed a lot of people
I know ;-)), so you should feel quite familiar with it at home. To generate
executables, all you need besides is the linker, ld, which also comes
with that package. Now, depending on what you are programming on gas, you'll
also need a link library, but this does not really depend on gas, but on 
what you do with gas. So.. you apparantly seem to have the option of 
programming with SAS (and using Motorola syntax), or to use the same thing
you use in the university at home. Note that even at the object file level
that gas produces you should get compatible files to those produced with
the gas at the univerisity (probably on sun3). Thus you could take your
object files you created on your amiga and link them with any special libraries
the university might provide to go with certain programming exercises. So
at least I would use gas at home (but I guess you already knew that ;-)).

-Markus
-- 
Markus M. Wild    -  wild@nessie.cs.id.ethz.ch  |  wild@amiga.physik.unizh.ch 
Vital papers will demonstrate their vitality by spontaneously moving
from where you left them to where you can't find them.
From: tna@mentor.cc.purdue.edu (Trevor Andrews)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.programmer
Subject: Re: Speculations: Amiga and Mach?
Date: 14 Aug 92 03:37:52 GMT
Organization: Purdue University Computing Center

In article <1992Aug14.013328.7580@hpmcaa.mcm.hp.com> bryanf@hpmcaa (Bryan Ford) writes:
>There are already several versions of Un*x running on various versions of
>Mach, including the NeXT.  It seems to be getting popular, to say the least.

  Personal: MACH is alwsome....
>
>I don't want to cause an OS-war ruckus here, but most of us agree that one
>major sore spot of the Amiga's OS is its lack of virtual and protected

  We have VirMem...  Ever heard of GigaMem??

>memory.  (Anyone who's about to say, "but we don't *need* it", please think

  Protected Mem would be great but you must realize you need an MMU
  for both virmem and protection.... Most amigas still have 68000s in them.

...
>So assuming Commodore is planning on moving to virtual/protected memory
>anyway, it seems like using Mach 3 could be quite beneficial.  It is already
>working well, and it will likely become very mature and reliable by the time
>"Kickstart 3.0" could be released for it.  It would save Commodore all the

  If CBM was ready to move "UP" to the "real" world.  It would take to 
  long for them(anyone) to get somthing ready and working on MACH....

  Sorry, but it would be a nice dream...  I love MACH...  Umm, but
  please keep it away from the great guys at CBM!!!

>hassles of coming up with their own virtual/protected memory kernel design
>and making it fast and reliable; instead they could spend their time making
>the Amiga's OS work better with it.  All the Un*x hackers that have 
....

Take care,   //
  Trevor    VV

~~        ___ 
         ////         tna@mentor.cc.purdue.edu (128.210.10.8, 128.210.33.1)
        //// 
   ___ ////                       Imagine Software, Inc.
   \\\X///                        1218 South 5th Street
    \XXX/                         Lafayette, IN  47905-1716 U.S.A.
From: Charlie_Gibbs@mindlink.bc.ca (Charlie Gibbs)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.programmer
Subject: Re: Assembler programming.
Date: 19 Aug 92 23:15:06 GMT
Organization: MIND LINK! - British Columbia, Canada
Distribution: world

In article <1676@grivel.une.edu.au> cfiddyme@neumann.une.edu.au
(Chris Fiddyment) writes:

>  Has anyone had a look at the disks brought out by the Amiga Coders Club.
>  They are from England. I am a beggining assembler programmer and need some
>  help compiling them with A68k.
>   e.g.  This line gives the error:
>           MOVE.L (a0,d0),d0
>                   ^ Undefined symbol.

     The displacement is missing and A68k is getting confused.
The displacement is not optional on the 68000.  Some assemblers,
however, default it to zero.  A68k does not.  Someday I might find
the time to change this, but that will require a totally different
behaviour than when generating code for the 68020 and higher; these
processors allow you to omit the displacement from the generated
machine code as well.

     For now, change the line to this:

           MOVE.L 0(a0,d0),d0

This is guaranteed to work on any assembler.

Charlie_Gibbs@mindlink.bc.ca
I used to be indecisive, but now I'm not so sure.

Newsgroups: adsp.sw,comp.sys.amiga.programmer
From: epang@fraser.sfu.ca (Eugene Pang)
Subject: Re: Exception handler example
Organization: Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, B.C., Canada
Distribution: adsp,world
Date: Sat, 15 Aug 1992 22:02:44 GMT

kehlet@kehlet.adsp.sub.org (Jesper Kehlet) writes:
>[...]
>If you are interested in just using it [the example posted] as-is, it sets up
>a division by zero exception handler for the purpose of trapping exception #5
>[...]

>It is *NOT* mathematically correct, since simple math tells us, that it IS
>illegal, but I have reasoned with the fact, that the closer the denominator
>goes to zero, the higher the result of the division -- the numerator does
>really matter, except for going against zero from the positive or negative
>side -- I use the numerator to determine the sign of the operation.

You should also remind people that it's only for the DIVU/DIVS divide by
zero exceptions.  It doesn't handle the DIVSL & DIVUL (32 bit) divide
instructions (found on the '020 and above).

To add support would involve more than what I'm going to go into, but it would
start with the following btst's:

#6 - 1==DIVU/DIVS
        #8 - 1==DIVS
           - 0==DIVU
     0==DIVSL/DIVUL
        #11 - 1==DIVSL
              0==DIVUL

Then there's testing for 32 bit or 64 bit dividend, which register to store
the result, ...  Certainly doable, but I'm not volunteering. :-)