HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: stephenm@p4.cs.man.ac.uk (M. B. Stephens)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: A5000 disc format recognising (BS-detector: BEEP BEEP BEEP)
Date: 15 Apr 92 12:06:15 GMT

O.K. so I mucked up on the distribution line again.

In <stephenm.703164480@p4.cs.man.ac.uk> stephenm@p4.cs.man.ac.uk (M. B. Stephens) writes:

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

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

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

>>Works fine for me.

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

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

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.

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

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

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

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

Or maybe you would.


Mark.
stephenm@p4.cs.man.ac.uk
From: torq@hal.gnu.ai.mit.edu (Andy Mell)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: > Personal Computer World
Date: 8 Apr 92 19:17:34 GMT
Organization: /etc/organization

In article <24530.9204071814@susssys1.rdg.ac.uk> ssurawls@susssys1.reading.ac.uk (Mister E) writes:
>
>In a recent amiga magazine, they were reviewing the new Amiga OS. They said
>the the new OS has outline fonts as standard, and is the first personal
>computer to have outline fonts!

Shows how ignorant the plebs are doesnt it? plebs use amigas.
The Amiga implementation of outline fonts in WB2.0 is actually very poor
compared to the archimedes, the fonts are not cached properly, they take
ages to display with lots of disc activity, they lack hinting, and
anti aliasing. Full marks to acorn for that one
(Neil Raine wasnt it?)

Andy
From: ssurawls@susssys1.reading.ac.uk (Mister E)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: A5000 disc format recognising
Date: 7 Apr 92 16:53:56 GMT

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?

And also, does anyone know how flexible the A5000 disc controller is, ie is
mac and amiga format reading a possibility? I have heard great things about
it....

Someone on the net recently commented that acorn, himself and one other are
the only acorn fans here. Well in about a week I don't think I will ever be
able to say anything REMOTELY critical of acorn as I am going to be forced to
use macs for a while. If ever you get annoyed with your archie, go and try to
do the same job on a PC, mac or Amiga, and then things will be fine when you
get back home!

Just seen the new printer drivers working with a deskjet 500C. Very
impressive... And the ability to have two printers on the bar for colour and
B/W was great as well.. Well done acorn!

Ian
Being positive


Posted Tue Apr 7 17:53:51 BST 1992

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

>>        You are ALL individuals...
>
>Yes. We are all individuals.
 
I'm not.
From: nizar@concour.cs.concordia.ca (SABRA nizar.)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: New FTP site for the Archie
Date: 15 Apr 92 03:26:56 GMT
Organization: Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec

Howdy!

	After looking at the fortnightly posting of FTP sites available for
the archie, I noticed the uts.mcc.ac.uk site. After looking through the site,
I found that it contains many useful applications (and games/demos).

	Would there be any disadvantages of uploading some of the software
available on the Newcastle server to this site? (I could do most of the work,
if necessary). This would provide Acorn users with an FTP site which provides
fast (yes, the machine's connection to the internet is quite fast) and
efficient means of circulating software.

	The Amiga is already supported by 100's of FTP sites. The PC has an
infinite number of FTP sites which carry software for it... The Archie only
has a few. I will email the Sys Admin of uts.mcc.ac.uk (Geoff Lane) and ask
him about his views on this idea. I'll post the results of my research into
this.

	- 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
                                     !
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
From: julian@bridge.welly.gen.nz (Julian Wright)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: A5000 disc format recognising
Date: 9 Apr 92 23:02:17 GMT
Reply-To: wright_j@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz (Julian Wright)
Organization: USS Enterprise, NCC 1701a

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

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

Works fine for me.

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

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

    Cheers, Julian.
--
----------------------------| RO2:SYS 68,59243844 |--------------------------
wright_j@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz |---------------------| "I'm sig of sicknatures!"
----------------------------| RO3:SYS 68,60816742 |--------------------------
--
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: 8 bit stuff...
From: jwil1@cs.aukuni.ac.nz (TMOTA)
Date: Mon, 13 Apr 1992 21:54:27 GMT
 <1992Apr11.005240.23207@cs.aukuni.ac.nz> <1at6o+j014n@khantazi.welly.gen.nz>
Organization: Computer Science Dept. University of Auckland

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

>jwil1@cs.aukuni.ac.nz (TMOTA) writes:

>> us one of the best collections of PD in this hemisphere (I'm sure), so we
>   I wouldn't be so sure about having the best collection of PD.... :-)

I did say "one of the best"... a while back, I'm sure I had the best collection
in NZ (I had a *lot* of incoming discs!) but things have dried up a bit
recently... but I still feel that between myself and Edouard, we have a pretty
good collection...

>> Oh, yeah... and we will definitely include a short description of each file
>> at the top of the posting so that you don't have to decode all 20 parts
>> of a huge post just to find out what the hell is in it!

>   All sounds good. To which addresses etc should we send stuff? And what
>will be your scheme for posting? First come first serve? Or a priority
>system....

Well, I think most of these things can be sorted out if/when anything
becomes official... or do you all want us to make an election race out of
this, and start promising things to get into office? ;-)

Basically, I think the main idea is to do our best... I think a FIFO queue
would suffice in most cases (look at the current volume passing through cba
and you will see what I mean...), but if volume starts to get high, then
some kind of priority might be installed... certainly we would want to
ensure that the small files were inserted between big posts so that you
always get something every couple of days and you don't spend 3 weeks
waiting for 3 big posts to go by just so that a really useful 2k module can
be posted...

And it would be worthwhile setting up a system whereby we simply place
files (uucoded and split) into a directory ready for posting, and have
a cron task automatically post the first n kilobytes of it each day, so
that the throughput is more steady, and so that both of us can "miss" a
day or two (very unlikely anyway) without the flow being interrupted.

Also, I think we could possibly add in new files from the bbs to fill in
if we ever run out of things to post... I don't know... what do people think?

Basically, whatever seems like a good idea can be tried... Certainly we know
what it feels like to be on the receiving (or not-receiving ;-) end of these
things, and I think we have a fair idea of what needs to be done to improve
matters...
-- 
_________________  "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: ijp@doc.ic.ac.uk (Ian Palmer)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: Yet more grumbles about Acorn (Was Re: The draw format and Acorn)
Date: 7 Apr 92 09:30:49 GMT
Organization: Department of Computing, Imperial College, University of London, UK.

In article <1992Apr6.234431.17616@cs.aukuni.ac.nz> jwil1@cs.aukuni.ac.nz (TMOTA) writes:
>ijp@doc.ic.ac.uk (Ian Palmer) writes:
>
>>As for my grumbles about Acorn, my only real grumble with them is
>>concerning the PRM's for risc-os 3. As I see it there is no
>>justification for Acorn holding out until RO3 comes out fully. The
>
>...but surely you don't expect Acorn to do an entire print run of PRM's
>when they freely (?) admit that portions of RISC OS (even ones in ROM
>in A5000's) are not actually finalised yet? I mean, if Acorn don't know
>what a particular call will be defined to do in the release of RO3, then
>how can you expect them to go to the expense of printing a manual on the
>subject.

As I understood (I won't disclose the source) it RO3 was simply in the
debugging stage and that 'nothing new was going to be added'. Now I
may have been mis-informed, but with nothing to the contrary I can
only believe the version I've heard (don't you just love Acorn's
(Acorn the company, not the people who work for Acorn - it seems this
distinction has to be made) total secrecy about everything policy).
This being the case the PRMs could be released.

>As far as I know, ISVs can all get their hands on prerelease versions of
>the manuals, but "plebs" will have to make do with RO2 PRMs and hacking
>until RO3 actually exists...
>

Well Risc Developements have definitely seen them, as they refer to
them in one of their articles. The problem is I don't have the RO2
PRMs, I can't afford to throw away >#70 just to have to spend it all
over again when the RO3 PRMs finally come out. Again due to Acorn's
secrecy it has not been assertained whether or not there will be an
upgrade for manuals, or everyone will have to buy them outright if
they already have the RO2 manuals. If Acorn (the company....) simply
stated the position one way or the other it might at least aleviate
the situation slightly (assuming they were going to offer an upgrade,
at a reasonable price, but if not then I, for one, am back to stage
one).

>Sure it's a pain to have to wait until Acorn have finalised the product,
>but why can't you just feel happy that you are lucky enough to be able
>to afford a 5000... At least you've GOT Risc OS 3...
>
>-- 
>_________________  "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)

Yours, someone who remains in the dark. If only it was as simple as
switching on a light switch. Instead you find that someone's knicked
the bloddy light bulb :-(

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: dpirie@cix.compulink.co.uk (Douglas Pirie)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Acorn
Date: 7 Apr 92 23:45:40 GMT
Reply-To: Douglas Pirie <dpirie@cix.compulink.co.uk>
Organization: Gated to News by demon.co.uk

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. 
(You've started me off now :-) ). I fully appreciate the contribution 
Acorn's technical staff make here and elsewhere, both in support and of 
course product development. Next time you feel a little miffed at the way 
the Arm seems to be lagging a bit behind current developments, think of the 
size of Acorn compared to, say, Intel.
 
  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.
 
  Another topic which has cropped up here recently is that of secrecy. This 
really gets on my wick, especially recently. Shortly before the A5000 
appeared, I was about to change my A3000 for a 410, because of the easier 
expansion to ARM3 etc. Virtually up to the launch date Acorn flatly denied 
that ANY new machine existed, and it was only luck that stopped me parting 
with my cash before I saw what was comming. (The luck? well, I lost my 
job...). I can understand a company not wishing to dent sales of it's 
existing products, but having bought and used Acorn computers since my Beeb 
about 8 years ago, I almost feel betrayed.
 
  And now Acorn are flatly denying that they have any plans to use the 
ARM6(00) in any future machines. About October, would you say? :-)
 
 
Douglas.
From: kai@nicedel.north.de (Kai Schlichting)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: faulty scsi controllers (was:Re: help! checkmap fails)
Keywords: Harddisks
Date: 10 Apr 92 00:58:33 GMT
Article-I.D.: arc.1A0gx6j010n
Organization: Archimedes !RUCP Users

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

> 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 ?
> bye,Kai.
> 
what a pity that I have to write a follow up to my own article,but it fits
here best.
Yesterday, for the first time, a broken-directory error occurred on my machine,
something I've heard from others ,and always feared.
Thanks ,it's just a sh*t graphical tool (yes ,it's an application dir which was
near the end of a *BIG* dir) I planned to delete,since long.
The strange thing is: I can MOVE it (say: rename across dir's under RO2) around
the harddisk,but things like virus scanners/killers (those 2) fail..together
with checkmap (which is near to be useless;as discussed) and some other
tools working with the file/dir structure.
Question is: how will I delete that object (the applic dir),without harm ?
I've heard about a technique as of overwriting the 2k of dir struct with something
harmless..and then delete it. Has somebody got a ready-made prog for this?
I use a SCSI drive (100M) with the named HCCS controller.
My sector size is 512 bytes,the large alloc unit is 7680 bytes, ID length
is 14 bits,as John Kortink's !DiscInfo says it.
(Has this an effect to the 2k block for each dir ?)
bye,Kai.

--------------------------------------------------------------- 
Tel.:  +49 421 556803 (voice)
E-mail: kai@nicedel.north.de (private UUCP site)
       j08i@dhbrrz41.bitnet (not valid;gets forwarded to rs550)
       j08i@rs550.zfn.uni-bremen.de (University)
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: gilbertd@p4.cs.man.ac.uk (David Alan Gilbert)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: Computer emissions (was RO3 and the A5000 Multisy)
Date: 10 Apr 92 11:25:55 GMT

In <19xfw-j014n@khantazi.welly.gen.nz> banksie@khantazi.welly.gen.nz (Philip R. Banks) writes:

>mcg@waikato.ac.nz writes:

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

>   That is all I am after. You see I get complaints from my parents about TV
>reception when my machine is on. As I usually want to use my machine at the
>times they want to watch TV (and I need my Arc fix soooo after using Macs
>and X boxes all day.) this leads to arguement.

>   If it reduces the interference level even a bit it will be worth it.

>    Philip

It is the leads coming out which are the problem - see how much it drops
when you pull the monitor lead out (not with the machine on of course!!!)

Thats a problem one way - but what about the other - 100W on some Amateur
bands from my fathers transmitter and my Keyboard dies - although this
may not be helped by the keyboard extension lead.

Dave

-- 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- David Alan Gilbert - gilbertd@p4.cs.man.ac.uk - G7FHJ@GB7NWP                -
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: ssurawls@susssys1.reading.ac.uk (Mister E)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Risc-OS 3, manuals, bugs etc...
Date: 13 Apr 92 13:50:35 GMT

Well, I now have an A5000, and am well happy :-)

Lots of people have been moaning about no Risc-OS 3 PRMS. One bloke said that
Commodore didn't release the amiga manuals for years. They also require about
500 quid for you to become a registered developer.

They do give out technical notes, but only in america! A friend wrote to them
to try and get a copy out of the USA and into britain, and they told him that
it is forbidden for the notes to get into the publics hands in england! I
think the 500 quid you spend is paying for the notes the americans get for
free...

Have been having a look at the manuals for RO3, and they look much better than
the previous ones, so I hope the PRMs will be better too! When they arrive...

Does anyone out there know why Pinboard behaves rather strangely? I get wierd
behaviour from it when using a sprite as a backdrop, such as a 200K sprite
sometimes takes 1500K to remember it when tiled, but when I reboot sometimes
it goes back down to about 300K. It seems to vary the amount of memory it
needs to store the same sprite! Most strange... I am unable to duplicate this
odd behaviour reliably so have been unable to test things out successfully.

Anyone have any ideas?

Ian


Posted Mon Apr 13 14:50:27 BST 1992

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

A Dublin lawyer died in poverty and many barristers of the city sub-
scribed to a fund for his funeral. The Lord Chief Justice of Orbury
was asked to donate a shilling. "Only a shilling?" said the man. "Only
a shilling to bury an attorney? Here's a guinea; go and bury 20 of them."
From: /G=Rhodri/S=James/O=SJ-Research/ADMD=INTERSPAN/C=GB/@mhs-relay.ac.uk
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: A5000 disc format recognising
Date: 8 Apr 92 12:58:29 GMT
Article-I.D.: MHS.ARM200-920408131404-37018D55*

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.


>And also, does anyone know how flexible the A5000 disc controller is, ie is
>mac and amiga format reading a possibility? I have heard great things about
>it....

No again, unfortunately.  Mac discs require a variable speed *drive*, and I
remember the relevant Acorn people turning green at the mere mention of
Amiga format :-)

---
Rhodri James                   *  Disclaimer:  These are my opinions, not
SJ Research Ltd, Cambridge     *    those of my company UNLESS I SAY SO!
Rhodri.James%gb.INTERSPAN.sj   *  
            @mhs-relay.ac.uk   *  
   or                          *             Wombats are go!
rmj10@phx.cam.ac.uk            *
From: anita@sci.kun.nl (Anita van Nieuwenborg)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Disk-drives
Date: 8 Apr 92 13:08:06 GMT
Organization: University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands

Hi!

My old disk-drive on my A310 broke down. Now I am looking for a new one,
but it is very hard to find a normal 720K pc-drive. (Someone said that should
work).
But I can buy a high-density-drive for a fair price. Does smene know if I
can attach this drive to my A310 and use it as a 800K drive?

---Anita