HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: julian@bridge.welly.gen.nz (Julian Wright)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: Disc questions
Date: Fri, 10 Apr 1992 07:18:33 +1200
Reply-To: wright_j@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz (Julian Wright)
Organization: USS Enterprise, NCC 1701a

ssurawls@susssys1.reading.ac.uk (Mister E) writes:

> Hmmm, seems Mr. Philip R. Banks thinks that RISC-OS defragments discs as it
> goes. Is he right on this? It seems a little strange, but that would help
> explain the occasional burst of disc activity I get when writing to an almost
> full disc.

It is true. This is helped by the fact that an E-format directory does not
store information about where a file is on the disc, it only refers to the
file by it's SIN (System Internal Number I think). It is the map which
determines which sectors on the disc are parts of the file in question, so
when the fragments are moved around, only the map needs to be updated...

> Another question I would like to find out the answer to, is does risc-os
> verify data written to a disc? Ie does it write the data then read it back to
> check it, or does it blindly assume that the data was written. If it doesn't,
> is there a way to switch it on??

I believe it does CRC the data at sector level, although I am not sure if it
reads the data back to see if the CRCs are all ok. Maybe not.

    Cheers, Julian.
--
----------------------------| RO2:SYS 68,59243844 |--------------------------
wright_j@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz |---------------------| "I'm sig of sicknatures!"
----------------------------| RO3:SYS 68,60816742 |--------------------------
--
From: torq@hal.gnu.ai.mit.edu (Andy Mell)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: New machine
Date: 8 Apr 92 18:44:55 GMT
Organization: /etc/organization


>nbvs@cl.cam.ac.uk (Nicko van Someren on ely.cl.cam.ac.uk) writes:
>
>>Having been closely following items about this subject I have a good idea for
>>a new machine from Acorn:

>>	16MB of video RAM to give a 2000x1500x32bit display

See the light.... I think a video signal should be supplied via a direct
connection to the optic nerve through a cranial implant socket on the skull
marked 'Archie' which no doubt everyone will sport one day. Of course, the
video signal is supplied by a biogenetically engineered VIDC.

TMOTA writes:
>You don't mention the cache the processor will need... The disparity between
>the processor (500MIPS + 300MFLOPS) which if I'm not mistaken is a cycle time
>of less than 2 ns, and the memory (50ns) seems a little drastic, to say

Cycle time doesnt have to be 2 ns, the processor could be supersuperscalar,
i.e. 25 instructions per cycle.

>>	Telepathic user interface (no mouse ball to get fluff in...)

This could probably be provided by a biogenetically engineered IOC. Shouldnt
be too much trouble to knock up. Similar services can be provided by the
cranial uplink.

>And don't forget that it should have a pair of joystick sockets.

Yes, and It will have to be IBM compatible too. (unfortunately)

So, lets quote that immortal line :-
'Acorn, How about it?' ;-)
From: t921690@minyos.xx.rmit.oz.au (Scott David Peucker)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: >Risc Developments A3000 20MB HD
Date: 17 Apr 92 05:39:20 GMT
Organization: RMIT Computer Centre, Melbourne Australia.

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


>A month? Luxury! Back when I were a lad, I had my hard drive sitting in a
>drawer for 5 weeks before my interface even arrived, and I got the drive
>2 weeks after phoning in my order!

Gosh...I've had this ST506 drive here (Formatted by a friend) for over 2 years,
and the controller card took...5 MONTHS to arrive...I had to order it 3 times
too.  Cost me about $20 in phone calls to Beebug....

One question, how would I go about connecting a second drive ?
Is it possible to "Daisy-chain" the drives on the one cable ?
OK, a few questions actually.  I have a PC case I wish to put my drive in - it
is 5.25in full hieght - how long would I be able to get away with making the   
cables from ribbon cable ?
On a similar nate, I'd like to mount another 3.5in drive in this case, how
would I go about wiring it ?

Scott.

&ankas rool&
Scott Peucker,  t921690@minyos.xx.rmit.oz.au
                scott_peucker@guru.pub.uu.oz.au
From: zrzm0111@helpdesk.rus.uni-stuttgart.de (MUFTI)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Wanted: Information about the preempter
Date: 13 Apr 92 18:39:36 GMT
Organization: User Helpdesk Comp. Cent. (RUS) U of Stuttgart, FRG

Hi

A few weeks ago, someone told here, that he wrote a tool for preemptive
multitasking and will public it in comp.binaries.acorn.
Unfortunatly comp.binaries.acorn is closed for a while. Could someone 
give me informations about the author ?

thanks
so long
MUFTI

ps:
    Shouldn't the moderator of comp.binaries.acorn lay a forward to 
    one of the ftp/mail-servers, if he isn't on duty for a long time ?
    The software he gets is not for private Acorn ltd. use .....
From: rjb12@unix.brighton.ac.uk (Browning;f110or89;[05306)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Isaac Asimov is dead
Date: 10 Apr 92 17:46:13 GMT
Organization: Brighton Polytechnic, UK

Isaac Asimov died on 6th April (if you already know that, my apologies).

His sad death is a hard thing for me to grasp; it was he (often
accompanied by Arthur Clarke) that held my hand during my first forays
into science fiction. His books continue to enchant me, as they have done
ever since my early school years.

I am annoyed at the media here in Britain: I can't remember seeing anything
on television about Mr. Asimov's death; it seems to have been obliterated
by election coverage and I think that's very wrong. Isaac Asimov was the
man who gave birth to the robot concept and the Three Laws of Robotics;
he was the man who changed the public's attitude of science fiction from 
contemptuous to admiring.

Something should be done to honour him.

In sadness,

Richard.

-- 
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Rich Browning (rjb12@bton.unix)   *  The Three Laws of Robotics 
Department of Computer Science    *   ... a design for humankind.      
Brighton Polytechnic              *       
****************************************************************************
		Isaac Asimov: May you rest in peace.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
From: ijp@doc.ic.ac.uk (Ian Palmer)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: Grumbles about RO3 PRMs
Date: 10 Apr 92 10:10:04 GMT
Organization: Department of Computing, Imperial College, University of London, UK.

Can I just settle this for once and forall. I was misinformed, by
someone not too unrealted to Acorn itself. I was told that RO3 had
been finalized (around Feb) and was simply in the debugging stage. I
was also informed that the manuals had been finalized and printing was
simply waiting to be released with the RO3 final version.

My only real crime here was beleiving what I was told, and in future I
shall return to my non beleiving self :-)

I would, however, like to straighten two points.

1) Analogies have to be, to some extent, different to the real
circumstances for two reasons, first to make them analogies, and the
other to make the point without allowing any prejuduces relating to
the situation in hand. I could have easily made my analogy stonger,
but chose not to, but my analogy still held.

2) My main, and origional point, which got lost somewhere along the
line was mainly about lack of information Acorn give about the
manuals. My main point is that I wish Acorn would settle the point as
to whether or not there is going to be an upgrade of the PRMs (RO2 to
RO3) and if so, what approx are the prices involved.

As I see it this moddicum of information can not 'hit their sales' as
everyone seems to point out. Quite the contrary (if the upgrades will
be available). If I know that I will be able to upgrade at a
reasonable amount, I may actually buy the RO2 PRMs for the interim
time, if I don't know - I won't.

This whole curfuffle has come around because of Acorn's total secrecy
policy, which I personally do not agree with on the whole (although I
agree there are times it is necessary).

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: neilp@cs.hw.ac.uk (Neil Postlethwaite)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: Personal Computer World
Date: 9 Apr 92 10:22:21 GMT
Organization: Dept of Computer Science, Heriot-Watt University, Scotland

In article <1992Apr7.124009.10032@doc.ic.ac.uk> ijp@doc.ic.ac.uk (Ian Palmer) writes:
>
>The only point in their reply (but then again they only made two
>points) which I disagree with is their assumption that at some future
>date software houses will stop producing products for the Archimedes,
>and thus IBM PC's are a better bet.
>

	This reminds me, there is an ad in PCW from Computer Concepts wanting
PC programmers. Is Impression on the move to Windows ?? If it is I think it
will have a BIG fight on its hands for market presence.

	Neil

P.S. May Issue.
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: Disc questions
From: jwil1@cs.aukuni.ac.nz (TMOTA)
Date: Fri, 10 Apr 1992 00:03:06 GMT
Organization: Computer Science Dept. University of Auckland

sproven@cs.strath.ac.uk (Simon B Proven IE91) writes:

>I once got a Disk Error when saving a file to my Oak SCSI hard disc.  The
>error turned out to be in the middle of the file.  *verify didn't detect
>the error but I *defected the sector out.

...be careful about doing this... I have a Quantum 105lps drive, which automatically
detects and maps out bad sectors by itself... it seems possible that you might therefore
get a write error via SCSI FS but the data has been "shuffled" by the drive and the bad
sector no longer exists as far as SCSI is concerned... and then you *defect it, resulting
in a perfectly good sector being lost from use...

This might explain why *verify didn't detect the error...

However, if your drive isn't so intelligent, *defecting is the best thing to do...
But I think you should check it out just in case (losing 512 bytes is far preferable to
losing 1024 bytes, especially after you do it a few thousand times... ;-)

-- 
_________________  "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: rjb12@unix.brighton.ac.uk (Browning;f110or89;[05306)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: Karma
Date: 10 Apr 92 11:05:57 GMT
Organization: Brighton Polytechnic, UK

Yup, I have Karma. The advice about searching around gas giants for
tidally-warmed bodies is good.

By the way, why do Karma's pulsars & neutron stars jump around all over the
place? Is there any astronomical evidence for this?

By the way (2), Periscope have released v.0.5 of the Flight Trainer - upgrades
are free (maybe something Acorn should think about with their PC emulator?).

Rich.
-- 
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Rich Browning (rjb12@bton.unix)   *   Madness ...
Department of Computer Science    *   ... is merely a state of 
Brighton Polytechnic              *       intellectual independence
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
From: banksie@khantazi.welly.gen.nz (Philip R. Banks)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: Disc questions
Date: Mon, 6 Apr 1992 12:44:47 +1200
Reply-To: banks_p@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz
Organization: My Arc.

ssurawls@susssys1.reading.ac.uk (Mister E) writes:

> Hmmm, seems Mr. Philip R. Banks thinks that RISC-OS defragments discs as it
> goes. Is he right on this? It seems a little strange, but that would help
> explain the occasional burst of disc activity I get when writing to an almost
> full disc.

   Defragmentation would certainly go a long way to explaining why E format
no-longer requires occasional compaction as D format does... Not to mention
it is very nice as it means E format finds it hard to suffer speed problems
from highly fragmented files that other disc formats suffer from. (Like PC's
for instance, you can get a several times speed improvement from their HD's
by running a defragmenter over them now and then.... Of course I am tempted
to argue that you improve their useability no end by using a fragmentation
device, called a sledge hammer, on them... :-) )

    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: ssurawls@susssys1.reading.ac.uk (Mister E)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Solaris
Date: 13 Apr 92 16:40:06 GMT

What is Solaris when it's at home? Last I heard it was a submarine. Is this
another PC product that performs like it is underwater? =)

Sorry!

Seriously, what is solaris!

Ian


Posted Mon Apr 13 17:40:01 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: G.J.Flanagan@newcastle.ac.uk (G.J.Flanagan)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: A5000 disk formats
Date: 14 Apr 92 07:48:00 GMT
Organization: University of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK NE1 7RU

Reading, writing and formatting MAC disks on the A5000 is quite possible
on the A5000, indeed it is easy, if you are prepared to use the 
PCEmulator and a public domain program called MAC-IN-DOS which is
available on the UK archive site, LANCS.PDSOFT.  The acual program 
name when unpacked from LANCS is CLINK.EXE.  The only problem is
that for file transfer, only TEXT files are supported. Going from
a MAC disk to DOS amd then RISCOS is very easy, but you could have
problems the other way round. MAC files consist of 3 parts, one of
which specifies the application needed to handle the imported text.
DOS/RISCOS knows nothing about these extra files, so it is down to you.
If you are interested get the files from the directory
micros/ibmpc/dos/g/g301 with the programs in g301mac.boo and a further
message about the above 'problem' in g301.bwr. 
If you have problems RISCOS - MAC I suggest RISCOS -> DOS and then use
the utility on the MAC to read DOS disks.   

Gordon Flanagan. (ngjf@uk.ac.newcastle)
P.S. Sorry about my problems with our mailer yesterday.
From: dbh@doc.ic.ac.uk (Denis Howe)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: MIDI and the Arc
Date: 15 Apr 92 12:00:52 GMT
Organization: Computing Department, Imperial College, London, UK

In article <1992Apr14.233838.9933@citec.oz.au> sgccreg@citec.oz.au
(Rob Geraghty) wrote:

>The EMR product can use the internal sounds as well as driving MIDI -
>I don't know if Inspiration can.

I asked the author at a show and he reminded me that the MIDI
interface software allows you to drive the internal sound system from
either incoming or outgoing MIDI so any MIDI sequencer should be able
to play the internal sounds.  I have used this with my sequencer, !MS
so I know it works in principle.  From the MIDI manual:

SWI "MIDI_SoundEnable"

Entry:	R0 =	0 to disconnect the sound system driver
		1 for connection to the MIDI IN buffer
		2 for connection to the MIDI OUT buffer

I will post my sequencer when it can handle standard MIDI files but
don't hold your breath - Karma takes up a lot of time :-).
--
Denis Howe <dbh@doc.ic.ac.uk>	virus infected .sig - do not copy
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: Arm and 486 and things
From: jwil1@cs.aukuni.ac.nz (TMOTA)
Date: Sat, 11 Apr 1992 00:41:04 GMT
Organization: Computer Science Dept. University of Auckland

>They really don't stand a chance in that feild. I'd say they are more likely to
>move their 600dpi printer or (possible) their scanner across...

...or if we're lucky, they are going to upgrade their card to do 800dpi like
all the new Macintosh "laser-direct" style cards are now doing...

-- 
_________________  "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: /G=Rhodri/S=James/O=SJ-Research/ADMD=INTERSPAN/C=GB/@MHS-RELAY.AC.UK
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: >Ethernet
Date: 6 Apr 92 16:43:12 GMT
Article-I.D.: MHS.ARM200-920406164312-39BDA1E6*

>> = moi, by the way.

ssurawls@susssys1.reading.ac.uk (Mister E) scrawls:

>All this talk about the wizzness of ethernet compared to econet is all very
>fine, but I seem to remember someone posting that the Acorn nfs programs only
>run at about 80K per second. Not a lot!

I happen to have Gardar Runolfsson's test results in front of me (in another
window).  Omitting his methods, the results are:

           cache on    cache off
ram->nfs    60k/sec      34k/sec  
nfs->ram   105k/sec      56k/sec
ram->net   18k/sec       17k/sec
net->ram   16k/sec       15k/sec

i.e. NFS only really starts achieving decent performance on reads.  I'd be
interested to know how fast it degrades, in terms of performance with two
stations on the net, three stations on the net, etc.


>>Your English is at least as good as most of the English in this newsgroup :-(

>This is very true! Mr. Gudmundsson, I recommend that you stop reading this
>group before your english sinks to the level of most of the others on this
>group! I thought acorn were supposed to be strong in education.....

Yes, but there's some users as just won't learn :-)
From: ssurawls@susssys1.reading.ac.uk (Mister E)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Unique Identity Numbers
Date: 8 Apr 92 15:32:36 GMT

Hmm, it seems that the A5000 DOES have a UID after all. Could cause some
problems for the pirates amongst you :-|

Would also allow a virus writer to target a specific person! I'm not telling
my number....

Apparently the UID is stored in a seperate chip inside or something, a repair
engineer told me that...

Ian


Posted Wed Apr 8 16:32:25 BST 1992

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

        I went down the street to the 24-hour grocery.  When I got
        there, the guy was locking the front door.  I said, "Hey, the
        sign says you're open 24 hours."  He said, "Yes, but not in a
        row."
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: help! checkmap fails
From: julian@bridge.welly.gen.nz (Julian Wright)
Date: Thu, 9 Apr 1992 08:24:34 +1200
Reply-To: wright_j@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz (Julian Wright)
Organization: USS Enterprise, NCC 1701a

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

> banksie@khantazi.welly.gen.nz (Philip R. Banks) writes:
> >alex@winx06 (Alexander Jung) writes:
> >> The first question is: How can this happen? [corrupted maps]
> >   By loosing power when the Map is in the middle of being updated. Or being
> >reset at that time.
> 
> ... or by crashing an A5000 while doing virtually any kind of disc access
> ;-(

I think you have been tainted by a rather bad experience with an A5000 early
on... :-( one which few other people appear to have had the misfortune to
share with you. Did you have ADFSBuffers configured when the disc crash
occurred? These regularly gave me phantom disc sector errors before I
removed them...

> [Advice to use Break rather than Reset where possible]

Yes I totally agree here. I find there are few times I need to use Reset
over Break - running LPMud in a 1.2Mb wimpslot is about the only time I can
think of, as it seems to turn off *all* interrupts when it runs out of
memory :-(

    Cheers, Julian.
--
----------------------------| RO2:SYS 68,59243844 |--------------------------
wright_j@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz |---------------------| "I'm sig of sicknatures!"
----------------------------| RO3:SYS 68,60816742 |--------------------------
--
From: torq@hal.gnu.ai.mit.edu (Andy Mell)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: VIDC independant tracker play routines
Date: 8 Apr 92 18:51:45 GMT
Organization: /etc/organization

In article <17dqg4j013n@khantazi.welly.gen.nz> banks_p@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz writes:
>   Oh yes they DO! One thing that really annoys me is the way Sound Tracker
>routines *ignore* the system volume settings set by the *volume command. In
>my set up I have speakers that do amplification but have no volume control.
>And even a measly 6 watts of sound is quite loud beleive me... Thus I can't
>use sound trackers with those speakers. Very annyoing. Especially when I
>*like* using those speakers.

6 Watts? hoho, I've had my Arc hooked up to an 8KW amp rig, It was a nice sound
really made you jump in your seat, but theres a rather annoying little buzz in 
the background wwhich I couldnt get rid of, even with gold plated leads.
From: stuart@hpopd.pwd.hp.com (Stuart Hickinbottom)
Date: Tue, 7 Apr 1992 12:45:40 GMT
Subject: Re: >A5000 secrets: 3D icons
Organization: Hewlett-Packard NSG-PWD, UK.
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn

/ hpopd:comp.sys.acorn / ijp@doc.ic.ac.uk (Ian Palmer) / 11:41 am  Apr  7, 1992 /
>Meanwhile back to the subject in hand, the solid dragging - one thing
>I've noticed is that only certain programs produce solid dragging
>(Edit, Draw, etc) so I guess the program has to tell the wimp to do
>it, why? It's not as if the wimp has to be told what sprite to use, as
>it can work this out for itself (I assume). Surley just for
>consistency all draged icons should be solid dragged, or none at all,
>not an inbetween state.

The WIMP couldn't automatically drag the image of the sprite around because
the drag is initiated as just a rectangular drag by the application code (in
the case of normal 'RO2' apps.), and has nothing to do with the sprite except
that it starts off at the same position as the sprite.

As far as I know the 'solid dragging aware' apps. initiate the drag in a
different way because they make a call to the supporting module by issuing
an SWI to it (I assume).

Now the WIMP *could* just read the area of the starting position of the
rectangular drag, but this could possibly cause great problems because it
may not actually be a file icon which is being dragged. Also, I have noticed
that the area is more often than not, not the same as the size of the sprite,
and so using this method would cause the image of a sprite with a bit of the
window background to be dragged also - not giving a very polished image.

>
>Now there might, and probably is, be a very good reason for this. But
>then again.....

See the above...

>
>Ian
>
>
>-- 
>                            E-mail : ijp@doc.ic.ac.uk
> ___           __       Snail mail : Department of Computing, Huxley Building,
>  /  _   _    /_/ _   / _ _   _  _   Imperial College, 180 Queens Gate,
>_/_ (_|_| )  /   (_|_(_| ) )_|/_)    London. SW7 2BZ. England.
>----------


/*****************************************************************************
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
*****************************************************************************/
All opinions are my own only.