HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: ijp@doc.ic.ac.uk (Ian Palmer)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Staka and WordHound
Date: 30 Jul 92 11:16:13 GMT
Organization: Department of Computing, Imperial College, University of London, UK.

This is mainly in reply to e-mail from steve@klaatu.demon.co.uk, but I shall
post here because (a) it has some general relevance, and (b) I can't seem
to reply to his e-mail address (mainly due to our system).

First, there is a mistake in the Staka (available from Newcastle) help file
which should tell you to use CTRL-ESCAPE to quit, not SHIFT-ESCAPE.


Now to Word Hound. To clarify the situation, when I release version 1.10 of
Word Hound there will only be a replacement archive file, the main data
files (shipped as WordHound2 to WordHound5) will remain unchanged. All that
will happen is that WordHound1 will be replaced with a new version. This
means that you can go ahead and get the whole package, and only have to get
one part again if you want to upgrade when version 1.10 comes out.


Work on version 1.10 is going well at the moment and so (if all goes well)
version 1.10 may be out soon. I have already managed to hotlink to
Impression, although there is a slight problem with it. When you select a
word in Impression it sends an Impulse message telling the world what this
word is, but it does not add the space that might also be highlighted after
the word. Thus I can not assertain whether or not to add a space after a
selected word has been passed on. So at the moment I assume that I do. But
I assume there must be a complementary Impulse message that I can send to
tell Impulse what to change the word selected to, but I know no way of
finding out what this message might be. Ho Hum!


I shall now have to wait about 15minutes while our dying news server
accepts this posting. (I'm currently about 3 days behind on News at the
moment due to the problems - it's very annoying :-( ).

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: aglover@acorn.co.uk (Alan Glover)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn.announce
Subject: Additions and/or replacements on the Newcastle Info Server
Date: 29 Jul 92 07:30:02 GMT
Followup-To: comp.sys.acorn
Organization: Acorn Computers Ltd, Cambridge, England


new software from Ian Palmer:

calenary - a combined calender and diary program.
staka    - a 3d tetris game.

New software from Gunnar Zoetl:

A port of XLISP PLUS. Filenames are
xlisp_bin
xlisp_src





 
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@newcastle.ac.uk
Computing Laboratory, University of Newcastle upon Tyne,
Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU, UK (telephone +44 091-2228155,fax 2228232) 

_______________________________________________________________________________

aglover@acorn.co.uk, moderator of comp.sys.acorn.announce. Submissions to
announce-request@acorn.co.uk, other related mail to announcer@acorn.co.uk.
From: aglover@acorn.co.uk (Alan Glover)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn.announce
Subject: Welcome to comp.sys.acorn.announce
Date: 27 Jul 92 09:17:40 GMT
Followup-To: comp.sys.acorn
Organization: Acorn Computers Ltd, Cambridge, England

c.s.a.a. intro version 1, 27th July 1992

Welcome to comp.sys.acorn.announce. This is a low-volume moderated
group for announcements about (products for) Acorn computers or the
ARM, as well as additions to public archives, FAQ lists, virus alerts,
etc.

The following will usually be considered suitable material for the
group:
  
  * Updates on mail server content
  * Updates to list of archive sites
  * The FAQ
  * Press Releases (Acorn and other)
  * Virus Warnings
  * Forthcoming binaries/sources posting details

Other submissions will be considered on their merits.

It is up to the authors of the various articles mentioned above
whether they also post to comp.sys.acorn.
  
Follow-ups will be directed to comp.sys.acorn.tech or comp.sys.acorn
as appropriate.  

The following will not get posted, so don't bother sending them:
  
  * Any critique of a previous posting (observe the follow-up line !)
    (Factual corrections may be posted though)
  * Anything which contains/is based on rumour or unfounded speculation
  * Anything which is even slightly flame-like
  
The mail addresses to use are:
  
  submissions to c.s.a.a : announce-request@acorn.co.uk or
                           announce@acorn.co.uk
  
  related messages to the moderator : announcer@acorn.co.uk
  
Attempting to post to the group will also cause the article to be
routed to the submission address.  
  
Do not use my normal email address, since messages to either of the
above are routed to a different mailbox.

Alan

_______________________________________________________________________________

aglover@acorn.co.uk, moderator of comp.sys.acorn.announce. Submissions to
announce-request@acorn.co.uk, other related mail to announcer@acorn.co.uk.
From: aglover@acorn.co.uk (Alan Glover)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn.announce
Subject: NEWCASTLE INFO SERVER - please read
Date: 30 Jul 92 12:34:10 GMT
Followup-To: comp.sys.acorn
Organization: Acorn Computers Ltd, Cambridge, England

<Moderator's note: I'm working on being able to correctly quote the
original sender of the article. Bear with me...>

As usual, I will be away on holiday during August. No new software will be
added during this period.

Please do not mail me any new or updated software until I get back - my
mailbox is likely to overflow. Some contributors to the archive do not read
this newsgroup and will send me stuff anyway, leaving very little room for
anything else.

Many thanks for your cooperation, and I wish everybody a pleasant holiday.

Albert

--

E-mail address:  Albert.Koelmans@newcastle.ac.uk
Computing Science Department, University of Newcastle upon Tyne,
Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU, UK (telephone +44 091-2228155,fax 2228232) 


_______________________________________________________________________________

aglover@acorn.co.uk, moderator of comp.sys.acorn.announce. Submissions to
announce-request@acorn.co.uk, other related mail to announcer@acorn.co.uk.
From: aglover@acorn.co.uk (Alan Glover)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn.announce
Subject: CBA/CSA postings update
Date: 29 Jul 92 11:56:31 GMT
Followup-To: comp.sys.acorn
Organization: Acorn Computers Ltd, Cambridge, England


comp.{binaries,sources}.acorn update, 29/07/92
==============================================

The following files have been posted to comp.binaries.acorn recently:
date    parts    description
	3        Forth
	8        Drawfiles
	1        CBADecode 1.01
	2        !Larger
	2        djpeg
	3        datasuite (datavox/dataload)
01/07   5        DSEdit II demo
07/07   3        SysBeep
08/07   7        PlaySong
12/07   4        A4Scanned (picture of A4 circuitboard)
14/07            (playsong posting continues)
16/07   1        Wimp example application : cf comp.sources.acorn
16/07   1        !HackSpr
21/07   8        Archimedes colour UMoria 5.4.0.
		 (Still undergoing posting)
---

The following files have been posted to comp.sources.acorn:
date    parts    description
	1        Edit (Archimedes, BASIC)
	1        Pre-empt (Archimedes, ARM)
	1        basic detokenisor (Arc/Unix, C)
	1        Life & examples (BBC, BASIC/6502)
	1        Demon (BBC, BASIC)
	1        Spark.c (Arc/UNIX, C)
	1        podinfo (Arc, BASIC)
01/07   9        DeskLib 1.04  (Arc, C & ARM)
06/07   1        hackwin (Arc, BASIC)
06/07   2        Repost, parts 4 &5 of DeskLib 1.04
14/07   1        RISC OS 3.10 window icons
14/07   1        File/desktop icons
15/07   1        Inter-application data transfers (Arc, Docs)
15/07   1        Floppy/Hard drive disc errors (Arc, Docs)
16/07   1        Desktop !Boot system (Arc, BASIC)
16/07   1        WIMP programming example (Arc, BASIC) : cf comp.binaries.acorn
17/07   1        RO3 icon border validation strings (Arc, Docs)

---

I will try to keep this list up to date. If you see anything on it that
you missed the first time around, then after a sufficient amount of time
has passed we might be persuaded to re-post it. However, binaries usually
are updated fairly regularly, so it's only sources that are likely to
need to be reposted at your request.

Jason Williams


_______________________________________________________________________________

aglover@acorn.co.uk, moderator of comp.sys.acorn.announce. Submissions to
announce-request@acorn.co.uk, other related mail to announcer@acorn.co.uk.
From: lithgow@upjomon.usl.com (Malcolm Lithgow)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: Okay, so tell us about this Archimedes computer...
Date: 28 Jul 92 02:17:08 GMT

Sorry about posting to comp.sys.acorn, but I can't post to any of the
new sub-groups yet (Berkely hasn't added them yet. :-<)

[In message "Okay, so tell us about this Archimedes computer...", Iskandar Taib writes:]
>What exactly _is_ it? Microprocessor? OS? GUI? What apps are avai-
>lable? What does it cost (please give configuration info: hard drive 
>size, monitor, etc..) and whether it can take clone parts (hard 
>drives, monitors, etc...). How well would it integrate into a world
>of IBM and Mac using coworkers, ethernet and Novell servers?

I'll leave it to other people to describe the proprietary bits of the Arch.

I wanted to comment on the ease of integration into an 'industry
standard' environment. The Arch uses IBM PC-standard parts for most of
its bits (hard disks, monitors, printers, even keyboards in the latest
machine). Also, lots of software exists for inter-connection, such as
NFS, various serial ports, and, according to an article in a New Zealand
computer paper, support for Novel Netware.

Now, I haven't heard anything else about this Netware on the Arch
before. Anyone have any clues?

Anyhow, judging from the rumours and news releases, Acorn is forging
ahead with their architecture. (And so they should -- there are still no
competitors for the Arch, and the Japanese/American companies (except
Apple, who are stuck with the Mac, and have now made the stupid decision
for the 'PowerPC' architecture) are too dull to release a machine that
can compete, and the rest of the world doesn't have the money.)

-Malcolm  lithgow@usl.com  Don't worry: these are only my opinions.
From: gta@st-andrews.ac.uk (Graham Allan)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: DDE Fortran - any chance?
Date: 31 Jul 92 18:05:27 GMT
Reply-To: gta@st-andrews.ac.uk
Organization: Greyfriars mail-relay

Does anyone know where the DDE Pascal compiler, which Acorn kindly released
to the Newcastle server, originally came from. I thought I remembered seeing
somewhere that the C, pascal and Fortran compilers for RISCiX were all based
on the Norcroft code generator. So is the RISC OS DDE pascal a port of the
RISCiX compiler?

Secondly, if this is so, is there any chance the Fortran compiler might also
be ported? (as a commercial product or otherwise). It would certainly be
nice to have available an updated Fortran compiler, to run under DDE and
with support for DDT - maybe even making it possible to cross-link Fortran,
pascal and C program segments?

- Graham

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Graham Allan
Physics Dept, University of St.Andrews                   gta@st-andrews.ac.uk
From: stuart@hpopd.pwd.hp.com (Stuart Hickinbottom)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: WordHound
Date: 28 Jul 92 09:46:29 GMT
Organization: Hewlett-Packard NSG-PWD, UK.

I would also like to congratulate Ian on a very nice application indeed. It
is certainly a very usefull addition to my already full harddisc!

I'm interested though, in where all of the data came from - I've never seen
an app. like this PD before.

Stuart


/*****************************************************************************
Stuart Hickinbottom          PHONE: +44 344 763161
Hewlett Packard Ltd            FAX: +44 344 763429
Nine Mile Ride            OPENMAIL: Stuart Hickinbottom/pinewood,lab,hpopd
Wokingham                   HPDESK: Stuart Hickinbottom/HP1600/LB
Berkshire                Unix Mail: stuart@hpopd.pwd.hp.com
RG11 3LL                      X400: C=GB; ADMD=GOLD 400; PRMD=HP; ORG=HP;
ENGLAND                              OU1=Pinewood; SN=Hickinbottom; GN=Stuart
*****************************************************************************/
From: gta@st-andrews.ac.uk (Graham Allan)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: New MultiTOS PC (Atari Falcon)
Date: 25 Jul 92 03:45:05 GMT
Reply-To: gta@st-andrews.ac.uk
Organization: Greyfriars mail-relay

banksie@khantazi.welly.gen.nz (Philip R. Banks) writes:

> Gavin.Flower@comp.vuw.ac.nz (Gavin Flower) writes:
> 
> > In article <BJDBoB28w165w@mantis.co.uk> mathew <mathew@mantis.co.uk> writes:
> > >Gavin.Flower@comp.vuw.ac.nz (Gavin Flower) writes:
> > >> In article <HVy2NB7w165w@mantis.co.uk> mathew@mantis.co.uk (mathew) writes:
> > >> >Gavin.Flower@comp.vuw.ac.nz (Gavin Flower) writes:
> > [...]
> > >Yeah, sorry.  It's actually a whopping >ten< letters, isn't it?  Oh, the
> > >luxury.
> > 
> > As I said ALL O/S's have their weaknoesses!
> 
>    This is *not* an OS weakness. This is a *filing system* weakness. Get it
> right. If you have a more advanced filing system then the OS will happily
> use it.

[sorry about insane depth of quoting]

Sadly, I think most applications have these filing system weaknesses
hard-coded into them, ie: 10 character filenames, etc. I'm talking
about where you enter a filename into a save-file window here; loading
strangely-named files wouldn't cause any problem. Until any FS exists that
doesn't have this limitation, there's not much incentive for application
writers to allow for more. Of course, RISC-OS NFS doesn't have this
limitation, but then, its number of users can probably be counted on the
thumbs of one hand...

Sorry to prolong this discussion, but I think it's a valid (if minor)
criticism of some RISC OS software.

Graham
From: ijp@oak3.doc.ic.ac.uk (Ian Palmer)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: 3d icons for RO3.xx
Date: 22 Jul 92 09:13:32 GMT
Organization: Department of Computing, Imperial College, University of London, UK.
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL3

epoo1@cs.aukuni.ac.nz (Edouard Malachi     Poor) writes:
: In <1992Jul21.101037.19560@doc.ic.ac.uk> ijp@oak9.doc.ic.ac.uk (Ian Palmer) writes:
: 
: >Oh, and on a different note, something to wet your appetites. I shall
: >soon (probably tomorrow, if not next week) upload (to somewhere, havn't
: >decided where yet) a little (understatement of the year) application
: >called 'Word Hound' a combined thesaurus and dictionary (yes
: >dictionary, with definitions and the like). The only problem is that
: >it's big (very big - we are talking hard disc only application here)
: >and I havn't quite worked out how to split the main dictionary (2 Meg
: >of compressed data) into distributable (and recombinable) bits yet.
: 
: >  [...deleted for brevity...]
: 
: Ahhh! Sounds like _exactly_ what I've always wanted! Hows about sending
: it to comp.binaries.acorn so the rest of the world can enjoy it too?
: 
: >Ian
: 
: Edouard

I'll send it to comp.binaries.acorn if you really want, but as I've
said "it's big". In compressed binary form (not uuencoded) it's over
3Meg long, which if you posted at about 50k a day would take about 10
weeks :-)

For this reason I don't really want to send/upload it to anywhere
where I can't either ftp to to there, or send it in big pieces.

I'll upload it to Manchester (uts.mcc.ac.uk) today (I can ftp to
there) and unless some other site, group, asks me specifically I won't
send/upload it anywhere else (for the time being).

If you do really want me to send it to comp.binaries.acorn I will need
to know what the largest single mail message can be handled at your
end, as I don't really feel like splitting it into 85 pieces and
mailing them if I can get away with doing it in less (but bigger)
bits.

Ian

--
                            E-mail : ijp@doc.ic.ac.uk
 ___           __       Snail mail : Department of Computing, Huxley Building,
  /  _   _    /_/ _   / _ _   _  _   Imperial College, 180 Queens Gate,
_/_ (_|_| )  /   (_|_(_| ) )_|/_)    London. SW7 2BZ. England.
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
From: amell@nyx.cs.du.edu (Andrew P.Mell)
Subject: Re: WordHound
Organization: Nyx, Public Access Unix at U. of Denver Math/CS dept.
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 92 16:11:07 GMT

In article <1992Jul28.101659.20367@doc.ic.ac.uk> ijp@swan.doc.ic.ac.uk (Ian Palmer) writes:
>
>is that I wanted (a) to let everyone know of it's exsistence, and (b)
>to make sure I could get peoples "wants" before I got too far and they
>became too difficult to add.
>
One suggestion that I would find useful, add support for dragging the
complete dictionary/thesaurus entry for a word as a text file. So if I
wanted to enter the exact definition of a word into a document its just
a matter of menu button, click on save and drag the icon.

Andy
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: C books
From: Gavin.Flower@comp.vuw.ac.nz (Gavin Flower)
Date: Wed, 22 Jul 1992 10:00:43 GMT
Organization: Dept. of Comp. Sci., Victoria Uni. of Wellington, New Zealand.

In article <KERS.92Jul22091829@cdollin.hpl.hp.com> kers@hplb.hpl.hp.com (Chris Dollin) writes:
[...]
>I was completely put off the Dabhand book when I picked it up in a bookshop,
>opened it at random, and encountered the statement that it was unwise to use
>definitions of the form
>
>    type *tp = &p;
>
>``because tp won't point anywhere yet''. This confusion of initialisation with
>assignment caused me to put the book back on the shelf post-haste. Has there
>been a second edition?
>
>   Of course there is Kernigan and Ritchie .....
>
>If you already know how to program in some language, I reccomend K&R (make sure
>you get the second - ANSI C - edition). If not, Harbison and Steele (also the
>second edition, I think) is supposed to be pretty good.
[...]
>Regards,    | ``In fingers of trees, and valleys of gold    | Judy Tzuke
>Kers.       | I watch as you outshine the charlatan foe.''  | Higher & Higher

I had a detailed look through the first edition of the Dabhand guide,
it could have been a lot better, to put it diplomatically.  

K&R 2nd ed, covers ANSI "C", is what I use as my main reference, for
both home (Archimedes) and university (assorted UNIX boxes).  It has
the best index I've ever seen in a manual.  It has a sort of tutorial
which is OK, if you've already learnt how to program.

I would reccomend using the ANSI protyping facility, and enabling all
the warning messages.  It is a lot safer...  I speak from more years
programming than I care to admit, and in more languages than I can
remember!  (Though I must admit I've managed to avoid Pascal and
Modula II!)

Gavin
-- 
Tomorrow's Society                              | flower_g@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz
    Depends on                                   ----------------------------
Today's Children  - help us raise them properly! 
*******  These comments have no known correlation with dept. policy!  *******
From: julian@bridge.welly.gen.nz (Julian Wright)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: Wimpmode problem
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 1992 14:03:51 +1200
Reply-To: wright_j@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz (Julian Wright)
Organization: USS Enterprise, NCC 1701a

bergur@kopasker.is (Bergur Gudmundsson) writes:

> Hello. I have an A5000 computer with multiscan monitor (1028 x 768)
> but the only hi res wimpmode that works correctly is mode 27.
> Can any one tell me why mode 20, 30 and 31 doesn`t work.

What do they do? Do they cause your monitor to go off screaming, or are they
just not centered, or are they too tall for the screen, or what?

If the latter, I have found that changing the Height-Adjust switch to
manual and twiddling with the Height-Adjust knob usually does the trick...

    Cheers, Julian.
From: mcg@waikato.ac.nz
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Responses to "RO_mathlib" request post
Date: 21 Jul 92 17:42:10 +1200
Organization: University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand


To all those people who've replied to the "summissions required" posting 
earlier :-

  Thanks for the response, and if I haven't replied yet, sorry.

For some people, the e-mail address can't be found by the mail daemon here, so 
I can't respond to those letters. If you're one of those people whom I haven't 
replied to yet, please forward an alternative e-mail addressee, please?

If people want some pre-release (talking about 6 months here) code/theory* to 
tide them over till the proper thing comes out, just send me mail. 

* where available.


From Martin Glanvill		(mcg@waikato.ac.nz)

Dept. Maths 							      @@@@@/|@
University of Waikato						      @@@@/ |@
Hamilton							      @@@/__|@
New Zealand							      @@/   |@
								      @@@@@@@@

----------------****=====| A quote to make your day |======****-----------------
Psychiatrists say that one out of four people are mentally ill.  Check
 three friends.  If they're ok, you're it.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: gunnar@fasel.hotb.sub.org (Gunnar Zoetl)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Mult-O-printing (Was: Re: ARC vs PC - no debate. (long!))
Date: 21 Jul 92 20:43:29 GMT
Organization: El Gunthor Pasa

osmith@acorn.co.uk (Owen Smith) writes:

> In article <1YWCpMj010n@fasel.hotb.sub.org> gunnar@fasel.hotb.sub.org
> (Gunnar Zoetl) writes:
> 
> >This would not solve the problem, as it is not the printer driver locking up
> >the machine, but the application that is printing, as someone from acorn
> >stated the last time a similar thread occurred. Try it yourself: setup the
> 
> Sorry to disappoint you, but most of the time taken in printing *IS* the
> time taken to crank the bytes down the wire to the printer and wait for the
> printer to do the business

This heavily depends on what you are printing. For pure text, this is true,
but for dvi files, draw files and such, that require a lot of computation, 
the printing time depends mostly on the time required to generate the page.

I know the point is that the printer driver spends too much time waiting for
the printer, and this time could be used in a better way. 

> To be able to effectively multi-task while printing, we would need
> pre-emptive tasks with prioritised scheduling (such that printing would be
> low priority) and we would also need easily switchable graphics contexts.

I am not quite sure if this is necessarily so. I think, if a spooler was
implemented within the driver, and the spooler would be interrupt driven,
whereas the application interface of the printer driver (I mean the part
that gets the data from the apps) just relied on the application to do the
multitasking, it would provide enough means to multitask while printing.
  It is not quite as primitive as the thing I just wrote, but I think you
get the idea.
  On the other hand, getting an application to do the printing in multi-
tasking mode would require a lot more effort. However, if you have coop-
erative multitasking, as we do, you are free to implement the multitasking
while printing in any way you like, heading for maximum printing performance
or maximum usability of the machine while printing. You do not have this
option when doing preemptive multitasking.
  Now, please do not start this preemptive vs. cooperative multitasking war
again, I do know that both have their benefits, and also both have their
shortcomings. (I work with Unix boxes, too) The problem is, we are stuck
with the cooperative way, so we have to make the best out of what we have.

Gunnar
--
Seid nett zueinander ,-----.         ___o     o
                  ,-'----+--`--.   _'\ <,_   (\
                  '-(_)----(_)-'  (_)/  (_)  /> Sonst gibts auf die Backen.