HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: jnicholson@bowker.com (Jim Nicholson)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.pascal
Subject: Re: What we need is a TPU to PAS convertor (Re: tpu files)
Date: 5 Nov 92 01:57:43 GMT
Article-I.D.: bowker.wyTqTB1w164w
Organization: Bowker Electronic Publishing, New Providence NJ

sjmadsen@miavx1.acs.muohio.edu (Steve Madsen) writes:

>         1.  Personally, I don't want any .TPUs I distribute to be turned into
> .PAS files.  There are all sorts of reasons for this, including a package
> falling into the shareware category or people who just don't want others to
> have their source.  Whoever writes a TPU2PAS program is going to piss a lot o
> people off.  What kind of incentive will "register and I'll send you the sour
> to this unit" be after a program like this exists?  It will kill shareware in
> the programming tools department as we know it.  Timo doesn't even sell his
> units, but he doesn't want people having his source, and that's his right.  Y
> can't take that away from him.
 
If you choose not to distribute your TPUs as source, that's your business.  
If I choose not to use any code that I don't have source for, that's mine.  
The problem is, each new version of TP causes recompile breaks because they 
screw with the TPU format.  Thus, TPU-only distribution forces either the 
developer (Thanks, Timo! you're one of the few) or the user of a TPU to 
maintain several versions of the compiler, long after they might have chosen 
to abandon the older ones.
> 
>         2.  This builds on 1.  Some shareware that I've seen has a little
> disclaimer on it that reads (something like) "it is illegal to disassemble or
> otherwise reverse engineer this program."  If a program you TPU2PAS has this
> little notice on it, you've broken the license agreement and (I assume) can b
> sued by the author, provided he finds out about it.
 
Actually, under US law, such a clause is usually invalid.  If the developer 
of a unit claims a copyright to the code, use of that code then comes under 
federal copright law - which specifically ALLOWS for disassembly and 
reverse-engineering in many cases.  The only sure-fire legal way to do this 
sort of thing (if you're a developer) is to establish a contract with the 
person using your code - which, practically speaking, means getting a signed 
original copy of an agreem,ent between them and you.  Even so, you can't 
then claim "copyright" on the code; most contracts are enforcable under 
state laws, while the federal copyright law would have priority.
 
(Sorry for the lecture, especially to non-US readers.  I just went through 6 
weeks of legal hell here on this very issue.)
 
Anyway, the original post was in error; what's needed is not a TPU 
disassembler.  What we need is to force Borland to either stabilize the TPU 
definition (make it release independent), publish the interface with each 
release (making TPU upgrader programs easier to write), or provide their own 
upgrade utility.

Jim Nicholson                          Internet: jnicholson@bowker.com
Any opinions expressed are not         FidoNet : 1:2605/705.0
necessarily my own                     Voice   : 908-665-2864
From: samodena@csemail.cropsci.ncsu.edu (S. A. Modena)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.pascal
Subject: A bit about BP7
Date: 9 Nov 92 13:31:18 GMT
Organization: Crop Science Dept., NCSU, Raleigh, NC 27695-7620

In article <1dldbsINN834@iraul1.ira.uka.de> S_JUFFA@iravcl.ira.uka.de (|S| Norbert Juffa) writes:
> [ deleted a nice write up of the German roll out of BP7]

>.......................  BTW, Borland will shortly
>introduce a CD-ROM which has a complete bug-list for TP/BP including patches
>and workarounds on it. No date was given, though, at which this will be
>available.
>
>Norbert Juffa

Friday, I ordered the BP7 upgrade....read your upgrade offer carefully.
I will receive ProtoGen free *because* I am a registered owner of *both*
TP6 and TPW1.5.

On the CD Rom, I ordered my BP7 with 3.5" diskettes and *added* the
CD for $19 (anticipating the new line of $300 CD players due out any
day now).  Maybe (I hope) the bug patches/workarounds will be on the
CD.

I was greatly encouraged by Borland's including the Source for RTL
(and presumably TV).  But, folks, remember TP7 is available as a
stand alone product, and it does not appear to contain the full line
of "goodies" available with BP7....such as the DOS Extender, the
Debuggers (plural), library source....anyone buying TP7 alone
ought to speak up on what's included.  (I'm thinking that TP7
stand alone will be as plain vanilla as TC++3).  I believe BP7
combo knocks out the existance of TP Professional.  Does anyone
know authoritatively?

BP7 is clearly aimed at the developer and creating access to the
wealth of C++ DDL libraries and perhaps easing the porting of
a TP application to a true Windows form. 

When BP7 arrives and I get it unpacked, I'll post an explicit
summary of what is included and what my initial impressions are.

BTW, I also bought a BP Architecture book, which is supposed to
detail (like single stepping) what is happening in the TP/OWL
framework.  For about $50, I hope it is good.

Have a nice day!

Steve
---
+------------------------------------------------------------------+
|     In person:  Steve Modena     AB4EL                           |
|     On phone:   (919) 515-5328                                   |
|     At e-mail:  nmodena@unity.ncsu.edu                           | 
|                 samodena@csemail.cropsci.ncsu.edu                |
|                 [ either email address is read each day ]        |
|     By snail:   Crop Sci Dept, Box 7620, NCSU, Raleigh, NC 27695 |
+------------------------------------------------------------------+
         Lighten UP!  It's just a computer doing that to you.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
From: Shane.Greyvenstein@f61.n7101.z5.fidonet.org (Shane Greyvenstein)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.pascal
Subject: What we need is a TPU to PAS convertor (Re: tpu files)
Date: Sun, 08 Nov 92 11:39:03 GMT
Organization: FidoNet node 5:7101/61 - Pyramid, Pretoria

Hello Per!

In a msg of <05 Nov 92>, Per Goetterup writes to All:

 -> I can't help commenting on this. First of all there's several
 -> reasons why a TPU2PAS program would be extremely usefull without
 -> being a nuissance, the major one being BUGS. A lot of
 -> TPU-libraries availiable has serious bugs, which (faithful to a
 -> well- known law) when fixed, generate even more new bugs. I've
 -> encountered several cases where one of my programs ends up
 -> worthless because of a bug in a foreign library, which I most
 -> likely would be able to fix in no time. Today I've written all my
 -> libraries myself - just to avoid ending up dead for the above
 -> reason.

Well, I must disagree.  .TPU's only have bugs in them as a result of the .PAS file therefore having the source isn't going to eliminate the problem without the user modifying the code.  By providing the software as a .TPU, modification is EXACTLY what the author wishes to avoid!

 -> Second, it's not the programmer of the TPU2PAS program that
 -> responsible for what might be done (if he/she includes the
 -> standard disclaimers) but the person who uses it to disassemble

True, but then again, the author obviosly doesn't want the program dissasembled if it's supplied in .TPU - going back to the gun story, this is like selling a gun to someone without a license!

 -> Third (and last) I thoroughly dislike persons who's unwilling to
 -> share nifty parts of source code when requested. This ego-mania
 -> will be virtually eliminated with a TPU2PAS program around.

Most people are more than willing to share the theory and sometimes even the source to certain parts of the programs if asked for it.  I don't think that the above is anything near to a serious problem; besides, if one person won't tell you how, there's always someone else that can help you.

 -> I might just start writing a TPU2PAS program...

Then Borland is more than likely to change the format

Kindest regards,
Shane

--  
INTERNET: Shane.Greyvenstein@f61.n7101.z5.fidonet.org
via:  THE CATALYST BBS in Port Elizabeth, South Africa.
       (catpe.alt.za)   +27-41-34-1122 HST or +27-41-34-2859, V32bis & HST.
From: Shane.Greyvenstein@f61.n7101.z5.fidonet.org (Shane Greyvenstein)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.pascal
Subject: rebooting computers in programs
Date: Sun, 08 Nov 92 11:34:06 GMT
Organization: FidoNet node 5:7101/61 - Pyramid, Pretoria

Hello jeff!

In a msg of <06 Nov 92>, jeff gramowski writes to All:

 ->      I need to find a way to have my computer reboot at the end
 -> of one of my programs.  I have tried to use the Intr($19,regs)
 -> comand in turbo   pascal 6.0 and it only caused the computer to
 -> freeze up.  I need the computer to act like the Ctrl-alt-del keys
 -> have been pushed.

procedure RESET_SYSTEM;  assembler;

asm
  mov ax,40
  mov ds,ax
  mov word ptr[72],1234
  mov ax,$FFFF
  push ax
  xor ax,ax
  push ax
  retf
end;

 -> Please send your information to jygi_ss@uhura.cc.rochester.edu.

Sorry, I don't know how to send it via the above  :-)

Kindest regards,
Shane

--  
INTERNET: Shane.Greyvenstein@f61.n7101.z5.fidonet.org
via:  THE CATALYST BBS in Port Elizabeth, South Africa.
       (catpe.alt.za)   +27-41-34-1122 HST or +27-41-34-2859, V32bis & HST.
Newsgroups: comp.lang.pascal
From: kushmer@bnlux1.bnl.gov (christopher kushmerick)
Subject: turbo pascal with large data elements
Organization: Brookhaven National Laboratory
Distribution: na
Date: Thu, 5 Nov 1992 18:02:35 GMT

I understand that there is a Pascal compliler that is source compatible
with Turbo Pascal, but allows for arbitrarily large data elements
(arrays, or whatever), limited only by the amount of memory in the machine,
including extended memory.

Does anyone know how this is implemented? In this system, would
a large array (>64KBytes) neccesarilly by contiguous or are they broken up into
<64KByte chunks?


-chris

-- 
Chris Kushmerick
kushmer@bnlux1.bnl.gov
Newsgroups: comp.lang.pascal
From: 4224_5276@uwovax.uwo.ca (Chris Walden)
Subject: Re: Help Converting :='x+y' to :=x+y
Organization: University of Western Ont, London
Date: Tue, 10 Nov 1992 14:47:47 GMT

In article <1dnfelINNp09@charnel.ecst.csuchico.edu>, psmedsha@ecst.csuchico.edu (Paul Smedshammer) writes:
> I don't know if this is a simple thing to do but I have not
> been able to figure it out.  I would like to take a string 
> of characters that represent an equation and implement that
> equation.  For example:
> 
>      Var  Equation : String[20];
>           x, y, Solution : Real;
>      Begin
>           Equation := 'x + y';
>           x := 1;
>           y := 2;
>              {'now right here I would like to be able
>              to use the equation in the string Equation
>              like this:
>           Solution := Somefunction(Equation);
>              Is this easily done?'}
>           Writeln('The solution is:',Equation,'=',Solution);
>      End.
> 
> I would like the user to be able to input an equation and
> then the program will perform different mathematics on that
> equation.  But to be able to do the mathematics I need to 
> get the input equation into the form " Solution := x + y".
> I would appreciate any help I can get on this.  I'm stuck now
> to changing the code for each different equation I use.  Thanks
> for your time.

This is my humble suggestion in how to implement it... have a function like:

SolveEqn(Equation:string; Vbles:VbleRec):real   ... where Equation is the
string equation and Vbles (type Vblerec) is a record of the values of the
variables.  You would have to limit variable to a set number (ie a..z or
something).  Then recursively call the function.  You will have to check for
()'s (if you allow them) and each operation (*-+/^..??) that you allow.

The two different ways I can suggest, would be to a) parse left to right,
recursing for "higher" order of operations, or b) scan for order of operations,
start at the highest, and actually simplify the string equation as you go.

Good luck... write me if you need any more suggestions!

Chris Walden  4224_5276@uwovax.uwo.ca
Newsgroups: comp.lang.pascal
From: ts@uwasa.fi (Timo Salmi)
Subject: Re: Where is general Pascal group?
Organization: University of Vaasa, Finland
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 1992 19:52:45 GMT

In article <1992Nov11.142012.9904@ericsson.se> etljmme@etlxd10h.etlxd writes:
>However, I would support a comp.lang.pascal.tp simply because TP isn't the only
>pascal but it _is_ popular enough to warrant a specific newsgroup.  Whether the
>comp.lang.pascal would still be used extensively, I don't know.  Hopefully.

Let me insert some informational facts here.  Newgroup creation is a
complicated process which takes about three months to go through
from square one.  The Turbo Pascal group has been suggested before
and if someone is prepared to take it seriously on, please first
read the UseNet rules of newsgroup creation
  63197 Oct 19 10:01 garbo.uwasa.fi:/pc/doc-net/usenews.zip

Please understand this note correctly.  I am not opposed.  On the
contrary.  I would certainly vote yes for a comp.lang.pascal.tp. 
But before the users get too carried away, it pays to find out the
realities of newsgroup creation process.

>How would we go about creating this group or rather, do others think it's even
>worth it?

The answer to your first question is in the above.  However, the
suggestion has been done before, as I said, and nothing came of it. 
But perhaps the time is riper now.  But someone has to voluteer to
do a _LOT_ of work first by taking on the lengthy official process. 
Else this discussion leads nowhere.  (These are the facts of UseNet
life). 

   All the best, Timo

P.S. No, not me.

..................................................................
Prof. Timo Salmi
Moderating at garbo.uwasa.fi anonymous FTP archives 128.214.87.1
Faculty of Accounting & Industrial Management; University of Vaasa
Internet: ts@uwasa.fi Bitnet: salmi@finfun   ; SF-65101, Finland
From: gael@gnlab008.grenoble.hp.com (Gael_Marziou)
Date: Mon, 9 Nov 1992 11:53:24 GMT
Subject: Re: Pascal to C translator
Organization: Hewlett-Packard, GND
Newsgroups: comp.lang.pascal

Well, I'm currently porting a 65 Klines HP Pascal source to C, I'm using
p2c 1.20 which is GNU software so you can find it nearly everywhere.
I found some bugs but got a very good support from the author Dave Gillespie.
The main pb is that p2c doesn't translate Pascal compiler directives into
C preprocessor directives. The only workaround I found is to transform those
directives into EMBED comments (special p2c format for comments) which will
be expanded into #define ...)
The most important thing to look at is size of translated data types which
can be different from the Pascal equivalent.

Cheers,
Gael

Gael Marziou : gael@hpgndl71.grenoble.hp.com or Gael_Marziou@hp6330.desk.hp.com
Organization: Queen's University at Kingston
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 1992 10:34:06 EDT
From: Jeff Boyd <BOYDJ@QUCDN.QueensU.CA>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.pascal
Subject: Re: Chess Puzzle


You only need one array of dimension 8, since you already know that there'll be
only one queen in any row or column.  The values will be 1..8 in each element.

Since you asked to be "steered", I'll refrain from posting something slick :-).
If you want speed, don't recurse.  If you want elegance, recurse.  Considering
reflections and rotations improves on both elegance and speed.


jeff
From: jjj45754@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (G Y M E)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.pascal
Subject: TVision Question
Date: 13 Nov 92 17:46:39 GMT
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana

I am fairly new to TVision so please bare with me if this question 
sounds too simple.

I am writing an application in which at some point the user is in a dialog
box where there are 4 different PInputLine's, each for a different
string to be entered by the user.  How can I be able to
read all 4 of the sets of data entered in all 4 of the PInputLine's into
a record. ie if my record is defined as:

RecordSample = record 
               line1 : string;
               line2 : string;
               line3 : string;
               line4 : string;
              end;

Thanx for any help you can offer.

Jim Johnson (jjj45754@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu)

-- 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
James J. Johnson               |  "Never underestimate the power of human
a.k.a.  GYME                   |   stupidity."  -- Gyme
jjj45754@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu      |  
Newsgroups: comp.lang.pascal
From: chard@borland.com (Richard Nelson)
Subject: Re: WANTED: Super VGA BGI drivers for TP 6.0/7.0
Originator: chard@genghis.borland.com
Organization: Borland International
Distribution: na
Date: Fri, 6 Nov 1992 00:46:24 GMT

>Does anybody have or know where I can get the SVGA BGI drivers for TP6.0/7.0 ?

Turbo Pascal 7.0 and Borland Pascal 7.0 both include new SVGA BGI drivers.
I don't know if they are available separately, however.
-- 
=========================================================================
 Richard Nelson, Borland Int'l | chard@borland.com | Go Bears! Grrr-rah!
  Had this been Borland's opinion, I would have written it in a manual.
  "I passed out and I rallied and I sprung a few leaks." -- J. Buffett
Newsgroups: comp.lang.pascal
From: dmurdoch@mast.queensu.ca (Duncan Murdoch)
Subject: Re: What we need is a TPU to PAS convertor (Re: tpu files)
Organization: Queen's University
Date: Thu, 5 Nov 1992 22:56:31 GMT

In article <wyTqTB1w164w@bowker.com> jnicholson@bowker.com (Jim Nicholson) writes:
>Anyway, the original post was in error; what's needed is not a TPU 
>disassembler.  What we need is to force Borland to either stabilize the TPU 
>definition (make it release independent), publish the interface with each 
>release (making TPU upgrader programs easier to write), or provide their own 
>upgrade utility.

None of those would help.  The interface definition has been published for 
TP 6 for at least a year now (see TWU1.ZIP on garbo for the most up to date 
version).   I believe the same author published the description for 5.5 
before that.  Certainly I've distributed source code that uses the .TPU 
format for all versions of TP from 4.0 onwards (see INTRFCxx.ZIP on 
garbo).  However, there are technical reasons why an upgrade utility would 
probably be unreliable - see my earlier post on this.

A reliable solution that Borland could implement would be a compiler option 
to produce .OBJ output instead of .TPU output. If you want Borland to do 
this, start buying compilers that do it instead of Borland compilers.  Stony 
Brook's, for instance.  Borland is market driven.  If they sell just as many 
compilers without that option, why put it in?

Duncan Murdoch
dmurdoch@mast.queensu.ca
Newsgroups: comp.lang.pascal
From: etljmme@etlxd10h.etlxd (jim moore xd/nda)
Subject: Re: Where is general Pascal group?
Reply-To: etljmme@etlxd10h.etlxd
Organization: Ericsson
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 1992 14:20:12 GMT

Despite being an avid Turbo Pascal user, I can't in all fairness disagree with
Markku.  Most of the questions are indeed on TP and therefore usually about
PC architecture as well.

Markku is quite right, ISO-Pascal does exist although I'm not too sure about
the "arrogant ommission of essential features".  I'm sure no arrogance is
intended nor are the features so blatantly ommitted without a suitable alternative.

However, I would support a comp.lang.pascal.tp simply because TP isn't the only
pascal but it _is_ popular enough to warrant a specific newsgroup.  Whether the
comp.lang.pascal would still be used extensively, I don't know.  Hopefully.

Finally, I must say that if most postings are about TP then it implies that TP
is the most popular.  After all, us TP'ers are not maliciously barging other
pascal user's out, we're just asking questions!

How would we go about creating this group or rather, do others think it's even
worth it?

Cheerio, Jim.
Newsgroups: comp.lang.pascal
From: ctaylor@cs.uiuc.edu (Conrad W Taylor)
Subject: Looking for B-Tree, AVL Tree, Print Routine...?
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Date: Tue, 10 Nov 1992 06:33:16 GMT


         Could someone direct me to some code which would
allow me to print out an AVL Tree like this:

             8
          /    \
         6      9
      /    \     \
     4     7     10

Thanks in advance to all reply to this post.

-Conrad

ps: The code can be in either Scheme or Lisp.
From: ddavies@ddbeezer.Dundee.NCR.COM (Derek Davies)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.pascal
Subject: Why did Microsoft abandon Pascal ?
Date: 9 Nov 92 13:20:42 GMT
Reply-To: ddavies@ddbeezer.Dundee.NCR.COM (Derek Davies)
Distribution: world
Organization: NCR E&M Dundee

Does anybody out there know why Microsoft have not released a version
of PASCAL since version 4.0 which was (I think) released around the
same time as C 4.0.

I have an application that is written partly in Microsoft PASCAL and
partly in Microsoft C. For some reason which I can't recall at this
moment, the PASCAL will not link with versions of MS C higher than 5.1.

I know I could convert the PASCAL to C or perhaps use Turbo PASCAL but
that doesn't answer the question .... why did Microsoft dump it ?

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
:: If C++ is the language of the future, is ++C the language of the past ? ::
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
::         Derek Davies (Consultant Software Magician), ESP Lab,           ::
:: Advanced Application Systems,NCR,Kingsway West,Dundee,Scotland.DD2 3XX  ::
::  EMAIL: Derek.Davies@Dundee.NCR.COM  Tel: 44 [0] 382 611511 ext. 2444   ::
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
::  I didn't post this ... somebody else must have used my PC to do it.    ::
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
--
From: kotov@ogicse.ogi.edu (Alexei Kotov)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.pascal
Subject: Re: Who's still using Turbo Pascal 5.5 ?
Date: 14 Nov 92 03:08:35 GMT
Article-I.D.: ogicse.45877
Organization: Oregon Graduate Institute (formerly OGC), Beaverton, OR

In article <1992Nov13.105239.46@ebc.ee> guest@ebc.ee (So~brad) writes:
>Eastern Europe, former Soviet ...

I guess you've never been there...

It doesn't take a long time for Europe and Russia to switch to a new
version (1 or 2 months is maximum).  So, it's just a matter of choice.
Newsgroups: comp.lang.pascal
From: sjsobol@wariat.org (Steven J. Sobol)
Subject: GetFocus
Organization: APK Public Access UNIX/Internet, Cleveland, OH, USA
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 1992 21:00:03 GMT

I need to use GetFocus to tell me which one of two listboxes in a dialog
has the current input focus. Trouble is, it returns a HWindow, and I need
to know how to get the window handles for each of the listboxes so I can
figure out which one is active. And I can't find my reference manual. :/

Basically, all I need to know is how to get the address for a list box 
control so that I can do this:

F := GetFocus;
if 
  F = { handle to ListBox 1 }
then
  { do processing for ListBox 1 } ;
if 
  F = { handle to ListBox 2 }
then
 { do processing for ListBox 2 } ;

{ otherwise, do nothing }

thanks in advance.

-- 
Steve Sobol - SWM ISO a life               sjsobol@tiny.com, sjsobol@wariat.org
President, The Tiny Software Co.  (IRC: RockNRoll)  ag510@cleveland.freenet.edu
Coordinator, Unix SIG, Greater Cleve. PC User Group        23707 Glenhill Drive
Founder, Midwest Regional COHERENT User Group        Cleveland, OH 44122    USA

INTERNET ACCESS IS COMING TO CLEVELAND VERY SOON. Stay tunded for details.