HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: smb@cs.nott.ac.uk (Simon Burrows)
Subject: Re: The new Acorn Machine
Organization: Nottingham University
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 92 11:26:26 GMT

In article <925609155607@ibm3090.bham.ac.uk> EEE92002@UK.AC.BHAM.IBM3090 writes:
>Has anyone else hear the rumours of a new Acorn machine that will appear
>next year?
[lots of old-hat stuff deleted]

There was a lot of speculation a few months back that some company was
going to bring out a dedicated personal games console based around an
ARM processor (for the US market?). Has anybody heard any more about this?
From: shunger@waikato.ac.nz
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: <None>
Date: 9 Nov 92 17:51:30 +1300
Organization: University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand

I seem to remember a simular discussion about 3d icons not to long ago...

I think the best decision is what acorn have done, i.e set a default
If you want to expand it you can,

Total cost $0.05 (N.Z doesn't have 1's and 2's)
Date: Tue, 10 Nov 1992 10:02:38 +0100
From: gunnar@fasel.robin.de (Gunnar Z.)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: DragASprite proper use.y
Organization: El Gunthor Pasa

mcg@waikato.ac.nz writes:

> In article <20020@acorn.co.uk>, DWallin@acorn.co.uk (Dick Wallin) writes:
> 
> > Incidentally the reason for this was that our user base seems to find the
> > solid drag obscures where they wish to drop the icon.
> 
> What a load of coblers!

Now what's wrong with this?

> If anything, the *very* thin (blue) outline boarder is extremely hard to see 
> (unless one places one's face within 10cm of the screen), ...

Wear your glasses :-) I run my desktop in a 2 bpp mode on a greyscale
monitor, and I have no problem with the thin grey outline. In fact, I find
this is a matter of taste, and if most people find that the solid drag
obscures where they want to drag their icons (which is a valid point, IMO),
then the default should be to have solid drags switched off. After all,
Acorn has to satisfy the majority of their costumers, and the other ones
know how to switch the stuff on again.

Gunnar
-- 
Metamorphosis:  aus   |)    |) | |\|    |  _  fasel bleibt (    _  _  |  |
.hotb.sub.org wurde o |\ () |) | | | o (| (-' fasel bleibt | (|'-,(-' (  o
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
From: smb@cs.nott.ac.uk (Simon Burrows)
Subject: Re: WHAT ARE THE BEST GAMES AROUND AT THE
Organization: Nottingham University
Date: Tue, 10 Nov 92 12:59:09 GMT

In article <1992Nov8.022904.3470@cam.compserv.utas.edu.au> cknight@esk.compserv.utas.edu.au (Chris Knight) writes:
>>
>>AARRRGGHH. I hate Braben. Why, why and
>>again why did he that, etc.
>
>I agree. It's not as if Braben is on hard times! From recent info in computer
>magazines, he's collected a six figure income for Elite, and the same again
>from the hype that's appearing over Elite 2.

But remember who he is taking to court - Impact Software (the Fourth
Dimension). This same company has just forced a game called Cascade to
be withdrawn because of its similarities to 4D's Cataclysm game, so it
seems fitting that this action is being taken. Remember that this is
business we are talking about.

>Besides, if you're going to write a space game using vector graphics, how can
>you not make it look like an Elite spin-off. Fercrissakes, the guy's just a
>money-grabbing so-and-so. Talented, but still money-grabbing.

I believe the action is not because the game itself is similar to Elite, but
because of the type of scanner display which it uses.

Simon
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Simon Burrows   smb@cs.nott.ac.uk  psyhsmb@unicorn.nott.ac.uk  +44 533 712030
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: jwil1@cs.aukuni.ac.nz (TMOTA)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: DragASprite proper use.
Date: 8 Nov 92 23:11:21 GMT
Organization: Computer Science Dept. University of Auckland

DWallin@acorn.co.uk (Dick Wallin) writes:

[Drag-a-sprite]

>Unfortunately, you are wrong here, I believe. Market research (yep we do
					       ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I've never really had much faith in Market Research myself... Often it
seems to be the management's way of justifying the way they built
something... Not that I'm accusing Acorn or anything, just an idle comment...

>some of this!) actually showed that the majority did NOT want solid sprite
>dragging, so it is not set as default.

>Incidentally the reason for this was that our user base seems to find the
>solid drag obscures where they wish to drop the icon.

I agree... My solution: I designed some *nice* icons for text files, etc.
which aren't square blocks - they have gaps and spaces around them which
reduce the 'obscuring' problem a lot, and also make the drop-shadows look
a heck of a lot better...

I feel that dragasprite plus well designed icons is far superior to
box-drags and boring square icons from the dark ages...

Perhaps Acorn could look into the idea of getting a *designer* or *artist*
to do their frontends and icons, rather than their (very able but less
than artistic in most cases) programmers...

It's surprising how many people like a nice icon-set and will adopt it, but
will be happy with what Acorn sets as the default simply because they don't
realise how nice the icons for things could look...
-- 
_________________  "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)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: WHAT ARE THE BEST GAMES AROUND AT THE
From: Ikki@BEIZ.mediatex.ch (064230062: Fernmeldedirektion Olten)
Date: 6 Nov 1992 11:27:54 CET
Organization: MEDIAtex AG, CH-8807 Freienbach/SZ

AARRRGGHH. I hate Braben. Why, why and
again why did he that, etc.
(Ok, I have Elite on my Archie, but it
was not converted by Braben himself).
Talking about copyrights in this subject
, what about Karma?? That has some parts
of Elite too, hasn t it?

Greetings.

Internet: Ikki(at)BEIZ.mediatex.ch





|B                                    B|
|E           CH: VTX *3600#           E|
|I           D:  BTX *28881#          I|
|Z                                    Z|
From: bwc@waikato.ac.nz (Ug!)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: DragASprite proper use.
Date: 6 Nov 92 12:15:50 +1300
Organization: Vooniersity fo Kaiwato

Nick Smith writes:
> you may well see a new bit of PD  (called something different ;-) which does
> sprite drags from the RO3/2 filer as well in the not-so-distant future.

Yeah, yeah!  (drool, drool)  I look forward to it!  (even if it's shareware,
rather than PD)
							Ug!
From: rsxdp@unicorn.nott.ac.uk (D.Pead)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: Acorn Computers
Date: 11 Nov 92 10:35:24 GMT
Organization: Shell Centre for Maths Education University of Nottingham

In article <1992Nov10.224105.13623@cs.nott.ac.uk> smb@cs.nott.ac.uk (Simon Burrows) writes:
>In article <BxG8sv.6qt@newcastle.ac.uk> A.M.Wall@newcastle.ac.uk (A.M.Wall) writes:
>>In article <1992Oct29.110459.1688@mnemosyne.cs.du.edu> jabell@nyx.cs.du.edu (James Bell) writes:
>>>
>>>
>>>Does Acorn have a division in the US? Canada even? I`d like to contact
>>>Acorn without having to mail a letter to England.
>>>
>>>Sincerely,
>>>James.
>>
>>Acorn does have links with Olivetti Canada, but I don't think there is an 
>>actual division of Acorn in Canada or the US.
>
>At the BBC Acorn User Show I met some chaps who claimed to be from Acorn
>Canada. I don't think they were crooks... Do the Olivetti folks call 
>themselves Acorn?
>
>
You must pop up and see my "Acorn Computers Canada Inc." mousemat some
time, Simon!  They definitely exist because they lent us a load of
110V Arcs in Quebec this summer.

Try:

Comspec (Acorn Canada)
74 Wingold Avenue
Toronto
Ontario M6B 1P5
CANADA

>
From: CDLatham@cen.ex.ac.uk (C.D.Latham)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: RISC OS 3 Impression...
Date: 12 Nov 92 10:00:53 GMT
	<BxJsy9.5M0@cen.ex.ac.uk> <1992Nov11.170447.29002@news2.cis.umn.edu>
Organization: Computer Unit. - University of Exeter. UK

In article <1992Nov11.170447.29002@news2.cis.umn.edu> alla0008@student.tc.umn.edu (Graham Allan) writes:
> Any hints/rumours about possible new features/abilities/(bugs)?
> Does "major new version" imply a similar jump to Impression ->
> Impression II?

That was the impression (sorry) that I got.  There is a need for
better scientific publishing software for the Arc and this is one area
that the man from CC wished to address.  In particular, many learned
journals accept contibutions in Tex format.  Tex is a horrible thing
and most people don't want that sort of brain damage, so CC were
thinking of including some sort of support.  It would certainly be
imperfect but something would be better than nothing.

On a related topic, I also tackled the Minerva team, including their
managing director, about Graphbox and Graphbox-pro which have very
poor support for people wishing to produce technical documents.  They
expressed a hope that something could be done in future releases but,
sadly, I left feeling unconvinced.

Arc software is second to none when it comes to almost all aspects of
producing publication quality documents except for scientific and
technical work where there is a huge deficiency.
--
Christopher.
From: CDLatham@cen.ex.ac.uk (C.D.Latham)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: RISC OS 3 Impression...
Date: 13 Nov 92 19:04:14 GMT
	<BxLL5H.724@cen.ex.ac.uk> <1992Nov13.104236.21893@cs.nott.ac.uk>
Organization: Computer Unit. - University of Exeter. UK

In article <1992Nov13.104236.21893@cs.nott.ac.uk> smb@cs.nott.ac.uk (Simon Burrows) writes:

> Have you seen Techwriter from Icon Technology? It is *very* good, but quite
> expensive relative to most Arc software.

No I haven't, but it certainly sounds interesting.  You are right
about the price, but I'm sure many non-Arc users would be more than
glad to pay 250 quid for such a package.

Re Minerva:
> I have heard people complaining in the past (I have no experience myself)
> that general support from this company is rather poor. [ ... ]

Minerva's managing director looked distinctly embarrassed when I was,
with great politeness, pointing out some of the deficiencies of the
company and its products.  The conversation was along the lines of we
would desparately love to support our local business in Exeter but
there are one or two things it would be useful for you to know.  She
was very pleased that someone wanted to take the trouble to explain
and was very sympathetic.  To give her credit, Minerva's director
remembered me because I bought one of the first A310s they ever sold
years back.

A few days later I heard from a colleague at the university that he
was going to buy a couple of Arc for a reseach project or something
and had approached Minerva but they gave their usual cool response.
Its sad, we want the local trader to do well but the message doesn't
seem to be getting through.

About producing technical documents though:  Techwriter sounds like a
good bet but that still doesn't solve the problem of graphs.  Graphbox
is fine for business, really not bad at all in fact.  But say I want a
contour plot of a molecular wavefunction I calculated or a false
colour electron density map for a crystal, then there's nothing on the
Arc.

Getting back to the original subject, one slightly tricky point I
discussed with the CC man was dongles.  The new machines all have a
unique machine identity built in.  It seems CC are exploring the
possibility of using this in the future because dongles are so
unpopular.  I thought that was an interesting point.
--
Christopher.
From: bwc@waikato.ac.nz (Ug!)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: CC's upgrade policy.
Date: 11 Nov 92 09:33:07 +1300
Organization: Vooniersity fo Kaiwato

D.Pead writes:
>Tom Hughes writes:
>>
>>The 'enlightened upgrade policy' may, I fear, be changing slightly.
>>According to the November issue of Archive which I received yesterday,
>>Impression 2.18 (which supports rendering of Artworks files) will only
>>be free to owners of Artworks. Others will have to pay a small (?) fee
>>of around ten pounds (this price is not definate).
>>
>>The suggestion is that such a policy might be more the norm in future.
> 
> Can't say I blame them - they must have spent a fortune in sending out
> Impression upgrades.  Most other firms would at least have charged for
> the Impression 1 -> 2 upgrade (which was free if you could put up with a
> addenum to the old manual and no new fonts).

Sorry, not free.  Cheaper.  I should know, since I payed for it...

> "Unenlightened" upgrade policies are the "Save up all the bugs
> for the next major release and offer users a 20% discount" and "we have
> no plans to upgrade this package".  Did anybody SEE the upgrade system
> from MS Word for DOS to Word for Windows?

You mean there *was* one?  Damn!

Seriously though, I agree that CC's update policy has been pretty good.
However, I'd love to see them offering upgrade *patches* for access on the
InterNet -- they could post them to NewCastle or somthing.  That way we could
all access the upgrade and reduce the time and effort CC spends on upgrades.

							Ug!
From: espgl@csv.warwick.ac.uk (Mr D Charalambakis)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: sprite to draw
Date: 5 Nov 1992 11:15:08 -0000
Organization: Computing Services, University of Warwick, UK
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: yarrow.csv.warwick.ac.uk

        Is there any PD utility which takes a sprite and converts it to
draw file? I know about !Trace but I think this is not PD.

        Does this exists for a PC? (ie tiff/gif to coreldraw)?


                Thanks, Jim.
From: mcg@waikato.ac.nz
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: Protection
Date: 11 Nov 92 15:37:31 +1300
Organization: University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand

In article <BxGFI8.LF@brunel.ac.uk>, cs89jmb@brunel.ac.uk (Aeon Flux) writes:
> Hello fellow Acorn Peeps,
> 
> Having been the victim of a theft this weekend I would like to take further 
> steps to protect my computer system from being "useful" in the event of it
> being pinched.
> 

Um, engraving the hard drive and CPU case might be a start for those who are 
paranoid about their hardware being stolen..... apart from that there's not 
very much else you can do...

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

   -----------*********======| Have a nice day |======*********-----------
							              ######## 
	 			    ^				      #####/|#
University of Waikato		    0  				      ####/.|#
Hamilton			   -|-	 			      ###/__|#
New Zealand			    ^				      ##/   |#
				  _/ \_				      ########
                      
----------------****=====| A quote to make your day |======****-----------------
Have the courage to live.  Anyone can die.
                                        -- Robert Cody
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: gilbertd@p4.cs.man.ac.uk (David Alan Gilbert)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: DragASprite proper use.
Date: 9 Nov 92 08:28:41 GMT

In <20020@acorn.co.uk> DWallin@acorn.co.uk (Dick Wallin) writes:

>Unfortunately, you are wrong here, I believe. Market research (yep we do
>some of this!) actually showed that the majority did NOT want solid sprite
>dragging, so it is not set as default.

>Incidentally the reason for this was that our user base seems to find the
>solid drag obscures where they wish to drop the icon.

Fair enough - but it would be nice if it was put on a Configure - most of the
rest of the preferences are - I mean most people I know dont let windows fly off all
sides (they normaly fix the top left corner of the screen so windows cant go that way),
but the option is there.

Dave
>Dick Wallin

P.S. I was using Risc OS 3.1 Edit yesterday and had two windows open on the
same file - I lost one - I dont know where it went - but the '2' was
still in the title of the other window.  I checked the backdrop - it
was knowwhere to be seen.  I tried everything - 'f12', change screen mode,
dont allow dragging off the side etc. - but to no avail - it
had gone - I couldnt get it back - has anyone else had this??

-- 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- David Alan Gilbert - gilbertd@p4.cs.man.ac.uk - G7FHJ@GB7NWP                -
------(Programmers don't sleep - they just park their heads)-------------------
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
From: smb@cs.nott.ac.uk (Simon Burrows)
Subject: Re: <None>
Organization: Nottingham University
Date: Tue, 10 Nov 92 13:02:55 GMT

In article <1992Nov9.175130.12058@waikato.ac.nz> shunger@waikato.ac.nz writes:
>I seem to remember a simular discussion about 3d icons not to long ago...
>
>I think the best decision is what acorn have done, i.e set a default
>If you want to expand it you can,

Fair enough, but it ought to be documented in the user manuals.

Simon
From: gtoal@cursci.demon.co.uk (Graham Toal)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Protection
Date: 9 Nov 92 21:49:37 GMT
Organization: Current Drugs


In article <BxGFI8.LF@brunel.ac.uk> cs89jmb@brunel.ac.uk writes:
>Having been the victim of a theft this weekend I would like to take further 
>steps to protect my computer system from being "useful" in the event of it
>being pinched.

Don't bother.  What good will it do *you* after it's gone?

I'd suggest 1) Buy a padlock, drill a few holes, and lock the machine
to your desk.  2) Fit one of those motion-alarms inside it.

G
From: cmp0136@sys.uea.ac.uk (P. Arnold)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: Moving files between Arc's and Mac's
Date: 13 Nov 92 16:53:01 GMT
Organization: UEA School of Information Systems, Norwich, UK.

>	I have a A5000 and a MacSE30 and often need to swap files between the
>two ( mainly because I don't have a printer for the Arc - yet ). The
>easiest thing to do is format a disc to either DOS 1.4 or 720 standard. Put
>your Arc files on this and then takes this disc over to the Mac. So long
>as you have a "SuperDrive" Mac ( i.e. one that reads High-D floppies ) you can
>use the "Apple File Exchange" program ( free with all HD-floppy Macs ).

	If you have a high density drive and a PC emulator on your arc then 
you can use an IBMPC Maintosh disk reader.  This only reads/writes
high-density Mac discs and does it rather slowly.  Still its better than nothing.

If you want a copy then mail me.

If anyone knows a bit of 80x86 code then could they have a stab at converting it so
that it runs in the desktop. 

**************************************************************************
*     ___    ___                      |                                  *
*    /  /   /  /              /     / | <-- That stands for Peter Arnold *
*   /__/   /__/ __  __  __   /  __ /  |                                  *
*  /      /  / /   / / /  / /  /  /   | E-mail  CMP0136@SYS.UEA.AC.UK    *
* /      /  / /   / / /__/ /  /__/    |                                  *
**************************************************************************

P.S. I think that the program is shareware but it might be P.D.
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
From: kortink@cs.utwente.nl (John Kortink)
Subject: Arc's RTC
Organization: University of Twente, Dept. of Computer Science
Date: Thu, 5 Nov 1992 12:17:03 GMT

In article <1992Nov3.133310.27976@dcs.warwick.ac.uk>
gothick@dcs.warwick.ac.uk (Matthew B. M. Gibson) writes:

>Since I upgraded to RISCOS 3.10, every time I turn off the computer, it loses
>the clock setting.  All the configurations stay, and I've just replaced the
>betteries to make sure it wasn't them at fault.

>I have an A440/1 (ARM3) and I've checked for any RISCOS 2 software left around
>which might be doing silly things.  Any suggestions?

The Real Time Clock itself is most probably duff and could, conceivably, be
the result of messing about inside the Archimedes (eg static). However, I'd
suggest it's more likely coincidence that it's chosen now to 'become late'.

I recently had the same effect on an 'old' A440 and had to replace the RTC
chip. Assuming the 440/x also uses the same clock (PCF8583 I think), you
should first check the voltage on pin 8 of the RTC. If this shows about 2.8
V then it's almost certain that you'll have to replace the RTC. Luckily,
replacement is easy, just a matter of unsoldering/resoldering the clock.
Nevertheless, I would advise 'socketing' the new chip on the board just in
case the same thing should ever occur again.

>Thanks,


>Matt

My pleasure,

Les Currell

currell@mpi-muelheim.mpg.dbp.de

                !!! All flames will be incinerated !!!
From: CDLatham@cen.ex.ac.uk (C.D.Latham)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: DragASprite / Modified filer.
Date: 11 Nov 92 11:35:55 GMT
	<1992Nov7.004421.4770@infodev.cam.ac.uk>
	<1992Nov10.175107.2501@abekrd.co.uk>
Organization: Computer Unit. - University of Exeter. UK

In article <1992Nov10.175107.2501@abekrd.co.uk> garyb@abekrd.co.uk (Gary Bartlett) writes:

   I  can see how multiple file drags might look silly if they weren't done
   well.    But   what   about  the  following  scheme:   create  a  sprite
   representing  the  multiple files under the pointer and solid-drag that,
   [ ... ]

Hate to tell you chaps with this wonderful new idea, but I pointed out that
the Sun Openwindows file manager does this and maybe it could be done for
the RISC OS 3 filer many months ago on comp.sys.acorn. (8-)  Nobody took
any notice at the time so why is everybody so excited about it now?
--Christopher.
From: amw@cs.bham.ac.uk (Andy Wood)
Subject: Re: RISC OS 3 Impression...
Organization: School of Computer Science, The University of Birmingham, UK
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 1992 15:46:40 GMT

tytgat@rilke.esat.kuleuven.ac.be (John Tytgat) writes:

> Charles Moir told me at the BAU that there will be a major new version of
> Impression around Christmas.  We'll see...

I rang CC the other day to find out when the Impression / Artworks Files
upgrade would be ready and they said by Christmas - has 2.18 mutated
into a major new version? 

Andy...

-- 

Andy Wood : amw@cs.bham.ac.uk
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
From: thughes@dcs.warwick.ac.uk (Tom Hughes)
Subject: Re: MultiFs & Apple Macs
Organization: Department of Computer Science, Warwick University, England
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 1992 13:28:15 GMT

In article <1992Nov11.122413.26831@lut.ac.uk> S.J.Schofield1@lut.ac.uk (Steve) writes:
>I remember reading somewhere, along time ago, in a galaxy far, far away about
>a version on MultiFS that would be able to read / write apple mac disks (As in
>disks from the apple mac).

If you look in the Acorn product directory (as distributed at the BAU
show), the entry for Arxe systems (who sell MultiFS) includes a
product called MacFS, but gives no other info other than "phone for
details".

>It would be a good thing if this happend as I would find it quite useful.

Me too. I don't expect anyone to try and find a way round the problems
of low density Mac disks, but just having high density would be fine.

Tom.

============================================================================
Tom Hughes, CS3

thughes@uk.ac.warwick.dcs            57 Shakleton Road
csugk@uk.ac.warwick.csv              Earlsdon
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