HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: banksie@khantazi.welly.gen.nz (Philip R. Banks)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn.advocacy
Subject: Re: Authorship of Acorn Files & Documentation
Date: Thu, 27 Aug 1992 15:44:16 +1200
Reply-To: banks_p@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz
Organization: My Arc.

smb@cs.nott.ac.uk (Simon Burrows) writes:

> It struck me the other day that every release version of RISC OS has had at
> least one nasty bug, which could surely be detected by even a casual user
> after a few hours/days of testing the operating system:
> 
>  RISC OS 2.00: Filecore in use bug
>  RISC OS 3.00: ADFSbuffers bug
>  RISC OS 3.10: Info window bug + more possibly yet to be found
> 
> Such significant bugs lead me to wonder whether something ought to be done
> to improve the quality of beta-testing for such Acorn products? 

   Oh come on. Be fair. This is 512k+ of code we are talking about here,
with subtle interactions between sections that makes verification that all
is working difficult at the least. I have yet to find *any* code of similar
complexity and magnitude that doesn't have a similar level of bugs.

   The more important thing to ask is does the bug prevent the OS from
fulfulling it's job? With this alleged RO 3.10 bug the answer is no.
Certainly it doesn't help with the stability but if one sets up the
info-window templates to not register clicks then the problem is solved.

    Philip

--
Philip R. Banks  Syntax: mail < banks_p@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz >            @@@@@/|
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                                                                        @@@/##|
I breathe the air, While they're running in a rat race,                 @@/---|
Way above it all, Standing on higher ground. ---A.P.P.                  @/    |
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn.advocacy
From: dconnors@gucis.cit.gu.edu.au (David Connors)
Subject: Arcs and Graphics...
Organization: Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia.
Date: Thu, 3 Sep 92 01:46:45 GMT

Hello,

Thanks to all of those who responded to my request for information some
time ago about the Acorn range of machines. I was put in touch with a 
person from Acorn in Melbourne (I think) who promptly sent me a whole mess of
brochures on the Acorn range.

Anyway, to the point of my article.

I own an Amiga 500 which is getting a little bit long in the tooth unfortunately
and I am currently looking for a suitable upgrade path. Now, as it stands
the Amiga 3000 is a nice machine, but it offers NOTHING over and above my
500 other than general performce increase (same sound, same gfx etc). I've been
considering entering into the Arc world but the graphics on the machines aren't
*that* much better than the Amiga and I'd really like to step up in a 
big way for not much money.

I was wondering if Acorn has a new graphics chip set in the works at all?
Commodore does but it's only going to be faster with more colour -- no new
resolutions from what the romours have said and I'd have to buy one of the
new machines (as the new chipset is 32 bit) which would cost an arm and
a leg (at least!!).

PC's all suck, Macs are for vegetables and *sigh* a decent UNIX workstation
costs a little too much for me being a student. If anyone can provide
me with some information I would be grateful.

Cheers,


   Dave Connors - D.Connors@sct.gu.edu.au     Griffith University, Australia
 - -- ---=-==-=================================================-==--=--- -- -
Disclaimer - These opiini^H^H damn! ^H^H ^Q ^[ .... :w  :q  :wq  :wq! ^d  X ^?
exit X Q  ^C ^? :quitbye  CtrlAltDel   ~~q  :~q  logout  save/quit :!QUIT
^[zz ^[ZZZZZZ ^H  man vi ^@  ^L  ^[c  ^# ^E ^X ^I ^T ? help  helpquit ^D  ^d
man help ^C ^c help exit ?Quit ?q CtrlShftDel "Hey, what does this button d..."
                                - Unknown
 - -- ---=-==-=================================================-==--=--- -- -
From: row@bnr.co.uk (Reuben Wells)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn.advocacy
Subject: Re: New Acorn MAchines
Date: 27 Aug 92 12:39:01 GMT
Reply-To: row@bnr.co.uk (Reuben Wells)
Organization: BNR Europe Limited, London Road, Harlow, Essex, GB

In the referenced article C.Wong1@lut.ac.uk (C Wong) writes:
>I wonder how long we'll have to wait for the A6000 (A7000 or A8000 ?) range ?
>with a ARM 750 ? (the one used in the new machines is called the ARM250,
>except the Pocket one, a cmos V30 I believe). The 250 has the majority of the
>A400 chipset on one piece of silicon, one chip, but clocked at 12MHz. Perhaps
>something similar for the next high-end ARM chip, but may be clocked at 30MHz
>or so, with read and write cache (larger than 4k?) and a FP onboard. A full
>32bit, higher speed expansion bus would be most useful, an EISA compatible
>bus would make sense, so that PC expansion cards could be used, with the        appropriate drivers and s/w. All this + the much speculated VIDC2 would be
>a suitable flagship for Acorn and leave the competition gasping. Only IFs !!

I agree with this, I remember when the Archimedes first cam out is was
quoted as being the "fastest micro ever" ! These new machines are nothing
special, its like the Spectrum -> Spectrum + -> Spectrum +2 -> Spectrum +3
saga :-) :-) In the meantime other companies like IBM, Acorn etc. were
producing machines much butter and faster and the machine died (well
sort of died - I have still got one at home)

Now people like Sun are bring out machines like the new Sparc 10, that
can run up to about 200 MIPS ! Acorn are bringing out new machines
at 6 MIPS with dated hardware such as the MEMC and VIDC no floating
point hardware, a crap serial port ! 

Claims these machines run 40% faster than a 386DX are very very misleading !
386DX at what clock speed, 8 Mhz, 25 Mhz, 33 Mhz, 40Mhz ? Doing what kind of
processing adding up integers ? Floating point ? Graphics ? Windows based
applications ? What a stupid statement !

These machines are nothing new and in my opinion Acorn hasn't had a new
machine since the release of the Archimedes ! In two years since the release
of the A540 they have not been able to produce a faster/better machine ?

What I want to see is a machine that support lots of memory (SIMMS
would be nice), hires graphics, floating point hardware, capable of
about 20-30 MIPS and a few MFLOPS) and a sensibly priced Unix all
for under 1500 pounds ! I can get all this in a 486DX for considerably
less ! A good operating system like RISCOS is not going to keep selling
the machine for every unless something new comes along, and soon.


Reuben O. Wells	- BNR Europe Ltd - (+44) 279 403704
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn.advocacy
From: smb@cs.nott.ac.uk (Simon Burrows)
Subject: Re: RISC OS 3.1 Upgrade Availability
Organization: Nottingham University
Date: Fri, 4 Sep 92 18:00:49 GMT

In article <1992Sep4.193411.10621@waikato.ac.nz> mcg@waikato.ac.nz writes:

>If this is an unchanged RO3 manual you're talking about.. you must be joking 
>about being easy to read!

It is *much* better than the RO2 manuals, IMHO. I would prefer it to be
spiral bound and split in half, but I suppose that the cost & total weight had
to be kept down. (You can't expect bugs to be documented in the main manuals).

Further to my previous posting praising the upgrade, I ought to mention one
reservation, if you are using an 8MHz ARM2 - it is rather slow... still, ARM3's
are cheap on the international market, so perhaps some enterprising company
will fix this problem? :=)

Simon.
Xref: sparky comp.sys.acorn.advocacy:67 comp.sys.acorn:8314
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn.advocacy,comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: Validation of Acorns DesktopC includes
From: jwil1@cs.aukuni.ac.nz (TMOTA)
Date: Sun, 23 Aug 1992 23:18:54 GMT
Organization: Computer Science Dept. University of Auckland

goodwin@edieng.enet.dec.com (Pete Goodwin) writes:


>In article <1992Aug19.061705.24053@cs.aukuni.ac.nz>, jwil1@cs.aukuni.ac.nz (TMOTA) writes...

>>The moral of the story: Don't use RISC OS Lib.

>The moral is: complain to Acorn to get them fixed. Don't just give up on
>RISCOSlib otherwise it'll stay as it is. Now if Acorn would like to fix the
>faults I've logged so far...

I did!
And now, while I wait for the (inevitable) 3 years while the problems are
fixed (there are a *lot* of problems), I am refraining from use of ROLib...
-- 
_________________  "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: smb@cs.nott.ac.uk (Simon Burrows)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn.advocacy
Subject: Authorship of Acorn Files & Documentation
Date: 26 Aug 92 11:38:00 GMT
Organization: Nottingham University

In a recent posting by David Elworthy (mislaid), he was talking about debate
when he worked at Acorn about whether the names of application/documentation
authors should be included in the release versions.

I heard the other day about an unfortunate bug in RISC OS 3.10 (available RSN).
(I read about this in the Acorn Customer Services Q&A database). Go to the
switcher menu, and open the RISC OS 3 info window. Click on this, and the
machine promptly crashes with 'Abort on Data Transfer' (so I am told..).

The reason for this (apparently) was that clicking was supposed to produce
a list of all the people involved in the development of RISC OS 3. However,
somebody decided at the last moment that this was inappropriate, and so
removed the means to display the list, without removing all of the code
to access it. (Perhaps this decision to remove this means of displaying the
list was taken to protect the lives of the RISC OS 3 authors?). Thus we have 
an unfortunate bug.

It struck me the other day that every release version of RISC OS has had at
least one nasty bug, which could surely be detected by even a casual user
after a few hours/days of testing the operating system:

 RISC OS 2.00: Filecore in use bug
 RISC OS 3.00: ADFSbuffers bug
 RISC OS 3.10: Info window bug + more possibly yet to be found

Such significant bugs lead me to wonder whether something ought to be done
to improve the quality of beta-testing for such Acorn products? 

Simon.
From: smb@cs.nott.ac.uk (Simon Burrows)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn.advocacy
Subject: The RISC OS 3 Development Team
Date: 27 Aug 92 22:00:36 GMT
Organization: Nottingham University

Have you ever wanted to see mugshots of the RISC OS 3 Development Team?
Would you like to see the faces of those elusive people who occasionally
post (mis)information to this group?

Well, now you can! All you need is a machine fitted with RISC OS 3.00
(not 3.10). Select the 'Exit' option from the switcher menu, type *DESKTOP
and press <return>. As soon as the RISC OS 3 Title page is displayed,
quickly type the letters 'rmtmd' (without the quotes!).

If you have done this correctly and at the right time, you will quickly
find out. If nothing unusual happens, try again..

Have fun!!


--Simon

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
=  Simon Burrows    smb@cs.nott.ac.uk   psyhsmb@unicorn.nott.ac.uk      =
=  Tel +44 533 712030   Also on Arcade Bulletin Board as myself         =
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: r_voisey@csd.brispoly.ac.uk (R Voisey)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn.advocacy
Subject: Re: New Acorn MAchines
Date: 27 Aug 92 23:04:54 GMT
Organization: Bristol Polytechnic, England

In article <1992Aug27.123901.16950@bnr.co.uk> row@bnr.co.uk (Reuben Wells) writes:

>Claims these machines run 40% faster than a 386DX are very very misleading !
>386DX at what clock speed, 8 Mhz, 25 Mhz, 33 Mhz, 40Mhz ? Doing what kind of

They claim it's faster than a 33Mhz 386 (refer to c.s.a.announce).

>processing adding up integers ? Floating point ? Graphics ? Windows based
>applications ? What a stupid statement !

MIPS as in integer instructions..  the benchmark makes takes no account of
actual application performance, but I suspect the ARM scores even better on
that account than it does on raw power (apart from FP of course..  I hear
that's coming _real_ soon..  anyone care to comment?).

>These machines are nothing new and in my opinion Acorn hasn't had a new
>machine since the release of the Archimedes ! In two years since the release
>of the A540 they have not been able to produce a faster/better machine ?

The A5000 SI's faster than the (current) 540..  the older 540s ran at 33Mhz I
recall.

Cheers

Bob


-- 
Robert J. Voisey  :  r_voisey@csd.brispoly.ac.uk   (Janet)
GUI coders do it     Bob Voisey @ 2:252/106.0      (Fidonet)
on the desktop       Bob Voisey @ 100:104/106.0    (TurboNet)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn.tech
From: robg@citr.uq.oz.au (Rob Geraghty)
Subject: arc kermit
Summary: how to make it work?
Keywords: file transfer
Organization: Prentice Centre, University of Queensland
Date: Fri, 28 Aug 1992 04:23:16 GMT

I have my archimedes connected to a DECstation using a null-modem cable.
The terminal mode of kermit shows that it is working, but the file
transfer times out.  Why won't it transfer?  I have checked all the
parameters and both machines show *exactly* the same thing!

Why do I have this problem with the arc?  I used to use BBC kermit with
my BBC all the time and *NEVER* had any file transfer problems.

My only guess is that the arc is expecting 7-bit data while the dec is
sending 8 bit data.  Both are set to binary mode but I see no way of
setting the arc's data-bit/stop-bit setup.  Nor is there any indication
of what it *is*.

HELP! :-()

Rob G

--
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rob Geraghty                         | Time, flowing like a river
robg@durian.citr.oz.au               | Time, beckoning me
CITR                                 | APP
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn.tech
From: robg@citr.uq.oz.au (Rob Geraghty)
Subject: PCem reading drive A
Summary: why does it take so long?
Keywords: PCem
Organization: Prentice Centre, University of Queensland
Date: Wed, 2 Sep 1992 06:50:20 GMT

I have just timed PCem on my A420/1 doing a directory of drive a:.
It took 2 minutes 30 seconds!!
Why on *earth* is it so slow?  The emulator is in single task mode
running DOS 5.0 with 456,704 bytes available to DOS (mem).

This makes floppy disks *useless*!!

Rob

--
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rob Geraghty                         | Time, flowing like a river
robg@durian.citr.oz.au               | Time, beckoning me
CITR                                 | APP
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn.tech
From: robg@citr.uq.oz.au (Rob Geraghty)
Subject: PCem
Summary: does it work with mouse in desktop?
Keywords: PCem
Organization: Prentice Centre, University of Queensland
Date: Wed, 2 Sep 1992 05:40:44 GMT

I have just been using wordperfect with the PCem on my arc.
(sad, know but I don't have $240aud for Impression junior...)
When in the desktop mode, the mouse is bound to the desktop
and so of course doesn't talk to wordperfect.  Is there any
way of fixing this (other than single tasking)?

(and no I don't want to buy a pc ;-)

Rob

--
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rob Geraghty                         | Time, flowing like a river
robg@durian.citr.oz.au               | Time, beckoning me
CITR                                 | APP
From: dseal@armltd.co.uk (David Seal)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn.tech
Subject: Re: Disk free space
Date: 25 Aug 92 15:19:14 GMT
Distribution: comp
Organization: A.R.M. Ltd, Swaffham Bulbeck, Cambs, UK

In article <1992Aug24.174024.1@vxdesy.desy.de> burke@vxdesy.desy.de writes:

>[Description of mismatch between amount of data on disc and amount of disc
> space used.]
>
>  To investigate a bit further, I tried creating a directory (in the root);
>the free space dropped by 13Kb (exactly). I created another directory,
>and it dropped by another 18Kb. I then created a 1-byte-long file; the
>free space didn't change at all! I created another 1-byte file, and again
>the free space didn't change. Does anyone understand this?

What is going on is that ADFS allocates space in large chunks. When you
create a directory, it gets a lot of space, 2k of which is used for the
directory itself. The rest of the space is reserved for small files in that
directory. So you lose a lot of space when you create the directory, then
don't lose anything when the small file is created, since it is using the
previously reserved space.

(I'm not quite certain why you're getting different amounts for different
directories. Possibly it's due to the free space being in small chunks -
e.g. ADFS looks for a chunk of size 10k and finds a gap in the free space
map of length 13k. It can't allocate you just 10k, since the remaining 3k is
too small to be allocatable, so it gives you 13k. Next time, it finds a gap
of size 18k. Again, the remaining 8k is too small, so it gives you the whole
thing.)

This has obvious possible disadvantages - e.g. the possibility that the
reserved space won't get used. But it also has a number of advantages: for
instance, it allows the free space map to be stored very compactly and
accessed efficiently. Another one is that small files tend to be stored in
the same area on disc as the directory they're in: this often reduces the
number of disc seeks you need to access the file (i.e. when you seek to the
correct place to get the directory, you automatically find yourself in the
right place to read the file itself without a further seek). The result is
faster access to files.

David Seal
dseal@armltd.co.uk

All opinions are mine only...
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn.tech
From: aroest@fwi.uva.nl (Axello de Roestello)
Subject: Re: ARM3 instructions.
Organization: FWI, University of Amsterdam
Date: Fri, 4 Sep 1992 17:26:18 GMT

amsh1@ukc.ac.uk (Brian May#2) writes:
>hands. I wonder if someone could write RiscOs for a PC? Or an Archimedes
>emulator, now that would be amusing...

A colleague of a friend of mine (...) has written an ARM emulator in C and has
ported BBC-Basic V to an IBM RS/6000 workstation. Now he finally has a decent
programming language on his mini computer :-)
(He is quite stiffy so he won't give me the source, maybe I should steal it 
someday...)

Axel

-- 
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aroest@fwi.uva.nl    | This has made a lot of people very angry
                     | and been widely regarded as a bad move.
                     | (Douglas Adams)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn.tech
From: zrzm0111@helpdesk.rus.uni-stuttgart.de (MUFTI)
Subject: Postmortem Datatransfer ?
Organization: User Help Desk, Comp. Cent. (RUS), U of Stuttgart, FRG
Date: Thu, 3 Sep 1992 09:40:01 GMT

Hi !

I detected a very strange thing while using the taskwindows of !edit of 
RISCOS 2.00.

I started 2 programs in 2 taskwindows, both where modules started as
applications.
If I leave the 1. program (with SWI OS_Exit) there was a strange datatransfer:
The registers (at least one (R10)) of the 2. Program got the same contence of
the registers of the 1. Program (before SWI OS_Exit).

Done I something wrong, or cause SWI OS_Exit not a "taskswitch" between the
taskwindows, which restore the old registersets ?

so long
MUFTI
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn.tech


In article <17993@acorn.co.uk> pcolmer@acorn.co.uk (Philip Colmer) writes:

   >If you were writing a text editor which allowed text effects (eg font
   >changes, colour changes, etc) to be applied, how would you hold the
   >data? My initial thoughts are:

How about a vector of lines, with each line being a vector of chunks, with each
chunk being a string and a vector (or list) of effects?

It depends a little how line-breaking works, of course.
--

Regards,    | "The date of death of a sentient entity must never be
Kers.       | mentioned in a Dirac 'cast." - Blish, ``The Quincunx of Time''.
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn.tech
From: jkh@sparc3.lotus.com (Jordan K Hubbard)
Subject: Re: New Language/Compiler (ideas wanted)
Organization: Lotus Ireland
	<KERS.92Aug17083517@cdollin.hpl.hp.com>
	<1992Aug18.114418.10160@waikato.ac.nz>
Date: 31 Aug 92 13:12:41

>Beware: Lisp is essentially an interpreter, even when it's compiled.

So?  I'd call this a real plus.  Machines are a lot faster than they
used to be and I look forward to the day when we remove the
compilation step again.  I think programmer optimization costs more
than run time optimization, obviouslt, so now it's just a matter of
waiting until machines are fast enough that the users can live with
the response time as well.


				Jordan
From: roozemaa@dutiws.tudelft.nl (Peter.Roozemaal.IS-assistent)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn.tech
Subject: Re: PCem
Keywords: PCem
Date: 2 Sep 92 11:14:30 GMT
Organization: T W I, Delft University of Technology

In article <robg.715412444@citr.uq.oz.au> robg@citr.uq.oz.au (Rob Geraghty) writes:
>I have just been using wordperfect with the PCem on my arc.
>(sad, know but I don't have $240aud for Impression junior...)
>When in the desktop mode, the mouse is bound to the desktop
>and so of course doesn't talk to wordperfect.  Is there any
>way of fixing this (other than single tasking)?

In one of the !PCem menus there is an option called "connect mouse" or the
like. When clicked the mouse will be connected with the MSDOS mouse pointer.
Clicking one of the mouse buttons (I thought MENU) links the mouse with
RISCOS.
			PeteR

-- 
--- Peter W. Roozemaal --- Email: witaroo@dutinfh.twi.tudelft.nl --------------
-------------------------- Smail: Geitenkamp 45 -------------------------------
--- tel. +31-15-611389 ---------- 2623 BB  Delft ---------- If it's urgent, ---
--------------------------------- the Netherlands --------- don't phone me! ---
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn.tech
From: cudat@warwick.ac.uk (J M Hicks)
Subject: Filecore in use bug
Organization: Computing Services, Warwick University, UK
Date: Wed, 2 Sep 1992 16:24:54 GMT

A recent item of news in comp.sys.acorn.advocacy mentioned a bug
in RISC OS 2.00 called the "Filecore in use" bug.

What is this bug and how does one recover from it?

I'm sure this is old hat: I'll send the news group a summary of replies
I receive by electronic mail.
--
Jim Hicks, Computing Services, Warwick University, Coventry, England. CV4 7AL
cudat@csv.warwick.ac.uk
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