HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: ee88jmf@brunel.ac.uk (J M Fielder)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: 24 bit editing
Date: 8 Apr 92 11:43:06 GMT
Reply-To: ee88jmf@brunel.ac.uk.brunel.ac.uk (J M Fielder)
Organization: Brunel University, Uxbridge, UK

In article <9270@baird.cs.strath.ac.uk> sproven@cs.strath.ac.uk (Simon B Proven IE91) writes:
>>imagine trying to find the pixel when the image has been dithered! This would
>>also make it near-impossible to accurately place objects (eg. line starts and
>>ends), when the image is dithered.

Wait around for a few months and you will have the ability to have 24 bit
graphics in RISC OS.

See Acorn User for details about PCATS 24 bit graphics card.

There are other things in the pipeline, who knows, you might even be able
to get 24 bits per pixel in a RISC OS window soon......

#Include <that normal disclamer about things.....>

Joust
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: 8 Apr 92 10:32:46 GMT
Reply-To: Albert.Koelmans@uk.ac.newcastle
Organization: Computing Laboratory, University of Newcastle upon Tyne


protector (2.10) has been replaced by the latest version.


 
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: gpvos@cs.vu.nl (Gerben 'P' Vos)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: NZ got axed, so sue him
Date: 11 Apr 92 12:18:23 GMT

Rob Geraghty writes:

>Thankyou to all the people who removed the only info-server I can access
>easily - I cannot ftp, or use telnet.  I can't even mail anyone in the uk!
>Now without the nz server, my only access to net software is the
>german info-server...

Aha! You haven't read the archive list properly! :-)
There is always, as a last resort, the ftpmail@decwrl.dec.com service.
Take a look at the bottom lines of the archive list posting.

Note to all: the ftpmail service is indeed only to be used *as a last resort*.
It's yet another of those services that friendly people on the net offer to
you. decwrl is quite a powerful and well-connected machine, but don't overload
it too badly!

John Kortink wrote:

>>Grow up, people. We are already spilling an enormous amount of negative
>>energy on here.

100% agreement to this. This group is becoming awful to read.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . G e r b e n   V o s   <><
Aconet: 8500/104!Gerben Vos  Internet: gpvos@cs.vu.nl
[...] is the closest to advertising I have ever seen from Acorn.  -- Jeremy Lee
Copy this line into your .signature to protect it against viruses! [version -9]
From: D.S.Walker@bradford.ac.uk (Simeon Walker)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: 8 bit stuff... (inc. postings & moderation)
Date: 14 Apr 92 10:16:22 GMT
Distribution: comp
Organization: University of Bradford, UK
Originator: 91909178@ccw401

In article <14048@acorn.co.uk> aglover@acorn.co.uk (Alan Glover) writes:
>... yes, Chris and I are still here (somewhere underneath this
>mountain of work).
>
Is it anything you would like to tell us about :-)) ?

>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.
>
I think it's good of him to offer. I at least would appreciate regular
postings to c.b.a.

>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 :-/ ). 
>

-- 
Sim. ----------------------------------------------------------- Simeon Walker,
----------------------------------------- Department of Electrical Engineering,
D.S.Walker@bradford.ac.uk -------------------- University of Bradford, England.
From: lithgow@uslp.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: Personal Computer World
Date: 9 Apr 92 05:54:06 GMT

[In message "Re: Personal Computer World", Browning;f110or89;[05306 writes:]
>nicho@VNET.IBM.COM writes:
>>   Only Microsoft is holding on to Windoze and Dos. Others are taking
>> different routes.
>Such as? Win 3.1 is still at the Beta test sites, OS2.2 (to compete with
>Win 3.1/NT) is not appearing 'til next year and developers are only
>*just* getting their teeth into Win 3.0!!

Sorry to shatter your illusion. But large businesses (not developers or
beta testers, users) already have OS/2 2.0, and it is to be released
*next month* (which may be this month, now). (And it runs Windows 3.0
apps and multiple DOS apps -- sucked in Microsoft.) (Source, some
Australian computer paper.)

- Malcolm.
lithgow@usl.com
These are my opinions.
From: devijt1@imec.be (Jo Tytgat)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Wimp_GetWindowOutline problem
Date: 7 Apr 92 16:52:14 GMT
Organization: IMEC vzw, 3030 Leuven, Belgium


I have the following problem in Risc OS 2 :

I want to open a window in the middle of the screen, not very
difficult I think but it should also take into account the
title height and vertical slider width.

A method could be : creating the window, read its size (including
title bar height and slider width) using Wimp_GetWindowOutline,
read the screencoordinates, do a simple calculation and
open the window with Wimp_OpenWindow.

This will not work because as stated in the PRMs :
'Wimp_GetWindowOutline works only correctly when the window is
already opened'.  A Wimp_OpenWindow just before Wimp_GetWindow-
Outline does not seem to help... Should there be a Wimp_Poll
between Wimp_OpenWindow and Wimp_GetWindowOutline ? I always
get the coordinates of the visual area of the window, so
title bar and vertical slider are not included.

I presume I can work with Wimp_GetWindowState and take note
of the title height and slider width by myself but I think
this is not a good method because Risc OS 3 seems to have
variable title height and slider width...

Any ideas ?

John
BASS
From: gta@st-andrews.ac.uk (Graham Allan)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: help! checkmap fails
Date: 8 Apr 92 14:11:45 GMT
Reply-To: gta@st-andrews.ac.uk
Organization: Greyfriars mail-relay

fl@tools.de (Frank Lancaster) writes:

> lithgow@uslp.UUCP writes:
> > I am almost 100% sure that 95% of the UNIX variants out there, provide
> > *no facilities* for de-fragmentation.
> > [...]

> Have you ever heard of BSD unix? Here's a quote from the fs man page:
> 
>      fs_optim specifies whether the file system should try to
>      minimize the time spent allocating blocks, or if it should
>      attempt to minimize the space fragmentation on the disk.  If
>      the value of fs_minfree (see above) is less than 10%, then
>      the file system defaults to optimizing for space to avoid
>      running out of full sized blocks.  If the value of minfree
>      is greater than or equal to 10%, fragmentation is unlikely
>      to be problematical, and the file system defaults to optim-
>      izing for time.
> 
> -- Frank Lancaster, fl@tools.de

It's still not clear from this man page what BSD unix is doing in this
situation. It sounds to me as if it makes the trade-off decision between
time-efficiency and fragmentation when it is creating (and presumably
updating/extending) files. This would only affect how the filesystem
allocates blocks for the particular file in question. This is a different
process from spontaneously deciding to defragment the disc (which involves
moving *other* files' blocks around), which is what is being discussed for
RISC-OS. (please note that this is only a guessed understanding of the above
man page extract; I know nothing of how unix actually does things!).

Graham Allan
Physics Dept., University of St.Andrews
From: marlow@sys.uea.ac.uk (K. Marlow PG)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: Acorn
Date: 8 Apr 92 14:21:03 GMT

dpirie@cix.compulink.co.uk (Douglas Pirie) writes:

>lithgow@uslp.UUCP writes:
> 
>  > Is it my imagination, or are Philip and I, and the Acorn
>  > employees, the only Acorn-computer-lovers in this group? ;-) 
> 
>  No, it's just that you don't let the rest of us get a word in edgeways :-)
> 
>  Personally, I feel there's only one real problem with Acorn computers - 
>Acorn. Or more accurately (before people start screaming) Acorm marketing. 
[...]
> 
>  The marketing side, on the other hand, gets me really annoyed. It's all 
>very well having a huge chunk of the educational market, but why (oh why oh 
>why) do Acorn seem happy to plod along with JUST that? When did you last see 
>an Acorn ad in a non-Acorn magazine? The phrase preaching to the converted 
>springs to mind.
> 
  What I'd like to see is them *not* bothering with the odd TV advert (anybody
see it/them?) and concentrating their money on things like adds in quality
newspapers.  They would have a much better chance then of putting their
product across, plus its considerly cheaper.  It me it seems that TV adverts
are best suited to those 'off the shelf' anywhere sort of products.
Adds for limited distribution goods from small companies just don't work
as by the time the person has grasped what the advert is about they miss
the bit telling them where to get it..  (the exception being small chain
stores).  Especially where the product involved is quite expensive (its
not like their selling woodscrews :-) )

  So I would put occasional adverts in newspapers like the Telegraph and
Independent (maybe more adverts around the start of school terms?),
along with adverts in Computer Shopper and additional adverts in weekly
magazines around Christmas.  Not particularly high impact, but constant &
permanent (.. ah now where was that Acorn advert? ..)

> 
>Douglas.

  Keith Marlow
--
 Keith Marlow,               *  Cyclone BBS (0603) 260973
 Information Systems P/G,    *   24 hours - Arc/Beeb/PC
 University of East Anglia,  *     - using Archiboard.   
 Norwich. Norfolk NR4 7TJ    *  - soon to be on Fidonet
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: 8 bit stuff...
From: jwil1@cs.aukuni.ac.nz (TMOTA)
Date: Mon, 13 Apr 1992 21:41:13 GMT
Organization: Computer Science Dept. University of Auckland

>> Sounds great to me ... if someone can be bothered to moderate the group,
>> then I certainly can be bothered to support it! :-)

>   One point to be concerned about is the email costs. I happen to know that
>Jason, and presumably Edouard as well, pays for all incoming email. And
>binaries of any description are not cheap to recieve....

Amazing what some people are willing to do in the interests of decent software
and stuff... Edouard says he is willing to pay for such email, and I tend
to agree with him... certainly the cost of emailing EVERYTHING that has been
posted to c.b.a. in the past year would be far less than  all my email during
that time (and I don't email binaries often ;-)

Also, it may be possible to leave the current moderator account active, and
have the present moderators email anything they can't handle over to either
edouard or Acorn NZ, which should reduce the costs to us personally...

Basically, we'd rather pay through the nose for email than watch c.b.a. fester
from lack of postings... There is a lot of good software out there, and it
would be very nice to be able to distribute it a bit better...

(Also, from my point of view, being able to post DeskLib directly onto cba
every couple of months would save a lot of hassles/costs, so it would be worth
it...)

-- 
_________________  "I'd like to answer this question in two ways:
  /____ _ _/_ __       First in my normal voice, and then
 // / //_//_ /_/       in a silly, high-pitched whine." (Monty Python)
From: sfc@ukc.ac.uk (Si.)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: File format help....
Date: 8 Apr 92 14:04:11 GMT
Organization: Computing Lab, University of Kent at Canterbury, UK.


  I wonder if anyone can help me..?

  I am writing a program which must deal with PC .DBF files. Can anyone
point me in the direction of literature which explains how these database
files are structured, or does anyone possibly have C source which could be
tailored to said problem?

  All help is received gratefully.

Si.

                ------------------------------------------
                University of Kent at Canterbury (England)
                           Phone (0227) 780 039
From: mcg@waikato.ac.nz
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: Computer emissions (was RO3 and the A5000 Multisy)
Date: 8 Apr 92 11:28:23 +1200
Organization: University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand

> Note that the conductive paint idea will also need earthing, just like in the
> silver foil.

That'll kill some but not all the noise....

what the amigas have is a great slab of steel top and bottom of the machine and
keyboard and more importantly separated the power supply from the computer and 
sheilded it.

Aluminium foil is o.k., but what you really need to do is encase the whole 
machine in a metal shell (like an AT case) for real shielding 
(I did it with my beeb, but the problem was the keyboard cable exiting from 
the machine was unsheilded,and you could see the effect of each keypress on a 
t.v.!).

Moving electrons create EM fields, thus when one electron moves along a monitor
cable, unless it's coax you're gonna get EM emmisions. Moreover the 
transformer in the power supply is going to generate the most EM emmision!

In the end, unless you want to spend a fortune, it's not really worth it.
From: zrzm0111@helpdesk.rus.uni-stuttgart.de (MUFTI)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: dead servers
Date: 6 Apr 92 14:57:16 GMT
Organization: User Helpdesk Comp. Cent. (RUS) U of Stuttgart, FRG

Hi !

There was a rumour, that the australien info-server died last month.
Has someone there build a backup of the files ?
Other servers may be glad if they can get a tape, a lot of diskettes,
a big email or a ftp-upload ....

so long
MUFTI
From: martin@thed.uk22.bull.com (Martin Percival)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: RO3 bug report forms
Date: 10 Apr 92 10:07:42 GMT
Organization: Bull HN Informations Systems Inc.


Does anyone have a saved copy of the bug reporting form that Alan Glover (I 
think) posted recently. I want to report what I've found to Acorn before asking around on the net. That way, things don't get into another negative punch-up
about RO3 when they may have already fixed my query :-)

Martin
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: faulty scsi controllers (was:Re: help! checkmap fails)
From: banksie@khantazi.welly.gen.nz (Philip R. Banks)
Date: Thu, 9 Apr 1992 21:04:09 +1200
Reply-To: banks_p@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz
Organization: My Arc.
Keywords: Harddisks

kai@nicedel.north.de (Kai Schlichting) writes:

> Hmm,I don't want to stir up a storm,but I own a SCSI controller from
> HCCS/Armstrong LTD. ,and !DiscInfo shows my harddisk COMPLETELY shattered
> into fragments...unlike adfs floppies,which always look fine.

   This is probably because floppies can be thought of as a bit of a special
case really. They are the limited space and highly fragmentation sensitive
end. Hard Drives are not so bad. Because of the larger spaces on HD's the
chances of finding contiguous free spaces are substantially higher and
compaction is not needed usually as you can grab the space required. Until
free space grows cramped your drive will happily remain free space
fragmented as it is not affecting performance.

   As I understand it the format fights fragmentation in two ways - always
trying to store OS_File block save files as contiguous chunks and by
coallesecing (sp?) OS_GBPBed files as they change in size over certain
limits. As files are by preferrence stored contiguously fighting
fragmentation then becomes a method of smart save code allocating space for
itself intelligently. Remember part of the beauty of the format and a very
neccesary part is that de-fragmentation operations must be the minority of
operations on the disc.

   What I want to know is how long did it take for Acorn to come up with
it....?

> As I've always had trouble with this controller (it keeps showing up
> a 'Target status unknown' error) , 2 replacement cards/ 1 ROM update didn't
> help (after phoning with the *lame* distributor here in Germany and
> HCCS in England for an amount of about 40 pounds(!)), I came to the
> conclusion that this company has designed a piece of *SHIT* ,and they're
> too prone to admit it. I use an A3000/4megs/vidc-enh/100megs Quantum Prodrive.
> Anymore reports about this company ,which I accuse of fraudulent
> service/productsales behaviour ?

   Yes that will be a case of broken software/hardware and not an error in
the underlying format. I wish you luck in getting them to fix their mess.

    Philip

--
Philip R. Banks                                                         @@@@@/|
Syntax: mail <banks_p@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz|banksie@khantazi.welly.gen.nz> @@@@/#|
                                                                        @@@/##|
What price the crown of a king on his throne,                           @@/---|
When you're chained in the dark all alone?  ---A.P.P.                   @/    |
From: ee88jmf@brunel.ac.uk (J M Fielder)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: A5000 disc format recognising
Date: 14 Apr 92 11:49:00 GMT
Reply-To: ee88jmf@brunel.ac.uk.brunel.ac.uk (J M Fielder)
Organization: Brunel University, Uxbridge, UK

In article <ARM200-920408131404-37018D55*@MHS> /G=Rhodri/S=James/O=SJ-Research/ADMD=INTERSPAN/C=GB/@mhs-relay.ac.uk writes:
>From the collected works of ssurawls@susssys1.reading.ac.uk (Mister E):
>>Does the A5000 recognise its disc types automatically and can you override
>>them? What I mean is if you put a 2 meg disc in and select format does it
>>default to 1.6 meg or 800K, and could you force it to format a 2 meg disc to
>>800K?
>No, it doesn't recognise the disc coating.  Think about it for a minute.

Surely it reconises the other hole in the 3.5" disk to say it is a 1.4Mb
floppy though?  I *hope* it does!

Joust
From: bdb@cl.cam.ac.uk (Brian Brunswick)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: RMA Compacting (Was...)
Date: 9 Apr 92 23:19:27 GMT
Reply-To: bdb@cl.cam.ac.uk (Brian Brunswick)
Organization: U of Cambridge Comp Lab, UK

In article <1992Apr08.223805.11626@microsoft.com> felixa@microsoft.com (Felix ANDREW) writes:
>
>Here is an example of some code sitting on the CLIV
>For some reason you need to turn off your Ineractive file
>copying from !Configure.

You need to trap *Filer_Action as well. See the boot file from !Links.
Brian.Brunswick@cl.cam.ac.uk  Disclaimer.  Short sig rules!
From: ssurawls@susssys1.reading.ac.uk (Mister E)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Word 5, pagemaker + impression
Date: 13 Apr 92 16:16:47 GMT

Some people said;

>I presume that you mean that Pagemaker and Word (especially Word 5, which
>can't even do fonts on screen), don't stand a chance? ;-)

> These disadvantages don't outweigh the number of extra features that they
>have, especially when 95% of those extra features will be used 1% of the
>time. (There are only a few features I miss on Impression, and Pagemaker
>doesn't even implement Impression's missing DTP features powerfully!)

This word 5 and impression argument looks like it could be a re-run of the
RISC versus CISC argument!

Impression has fewer features implemented more efficiently to make it easier
to use and faster as well. The more complex effects of other packages can be
emulated with the basic effects in impressions, and the more complex effects
were only used very infrequently. Making the program more simple made it more
compact making more space for performance enhancments like caches (font). It
was discovered during a study by Alan Turing in 1806 that in word 5 documents
compiled on a PDP-1 using fortran, 20 features accounted for 80% of the
layout, while 90% of the layout could be covered with 30 instuctions.

And so on..

Ian


Posted Mon Apr 13 17:16:42 BST 1992

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

>Why do they use powder soap on submarines?
>Because it takes longer to pick up.
From: nizar@concour.cs.concordia.ca (SABRA nizar.)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: !impression - so how good is it?
Date: 16 Apr 92 05:44:10 GMT
Distribution: comp
Organization: Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec

In article <23376@life.ai.mit.edu> torq@hal.gnu.ai.mit.edu (Andy Mell) writes:
>Email address for CC - good question, according to my uucp maps of the UK
>they do have an email address, support!cconcepts@acorn.co.uk, should do it
>assuming there is a support mail recipient, there, which most uucp sites 
>hanging off acorn appear to have.
>

Do you know of any other companies that hold this kind of connection to
the internet? Especially Beebug or Watford?

>Andy

Nizar.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
     _________________               ! " Ask not what your computer can do for
!\  !   __       _   /               !  you.  Ask  what you  can do  for  your
! \ ! !  /  /\  !   /                !  computer. "  -  Someone famous, 1980's
!  \! ! /_ /__\ !  /__               !
                     /    !   _      ! EMail:   n_sabra@pavo.concordia.ca
Tel. (514)747-1238  / /\  !\ !  /\   !          nizar@sunkisd.cs.concordia.ca
     (514)748-7524 / /__\ !/ ! /__\  !          nizar@concour.cs.concordia.ca
                                     !
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: I18N and OS's (Was Re: Personal Computer World)
From: Gavin.Flower@comp.vuw.ac.nz (Gavin Flower)
Date: Wed, 15 Apr 1992 22:58:09 GMT
Distribution: comp
Organization: Dept. of Comp. Sci., Victoria Uni. of Wellington, New Zealand.


In article <14152@acorn.co.uk>, osmith@acorn.co.uk (Owen Smith) writes:
         [...]
|> Gasp! Er - where do I start? A *VAST* amount of work went into doing
|> internationalisation for RISC OS 3. It's also one of the areas that isn't
|> finished in the A5000 version, and is one of the things we've been working
|> on. So if the time taken for RISC OS 3 to come out for standard machines
|> seems like a long time compared to the visible differences, remember that a
|> lot of non visible (and non UK relevent) work has been done.

I'm glad to hear this.  It should help sales enormously by expanding into 
markets that MS-DOS machines can't easily address, especially in the CIS, asia
etc..

         [...]
|> The number handling is a sod to use though - the application gets given a
|> load of bits saying where minus signs go, whether things are in brackets or
|> not etc. and the application writer has to write code to actually do it -
|> daft if you ask me. Should have been done such that you pass a number (or
|> string) in and get a formatted string out. The chances of all applications
|> doing it correctly and consistently are approximately zero.

YES,  it does seem rather an obvious and useful SWI - to return a formatted
string, as an addition (or even as a replacement).  If Acorn doesn't provide it,
how long before some third party does?  Come on Acorn, this SWI SHOULD be in
the version of RISC OS 3 for general release.

Gavin
-- 
                     Tomorrow's Society
                         Depends on
                     Today's Children  - help us raise them properly!
******* These comments have no known correlation with dept. policy! *******