zrzm0111@helpdesk.rus.uni-stuttgart.de (MUFTI) (02/21/91)
subjects:
1. questions, questions, questions .... (maybe you know an answer ?)
2. !submit/!extract should be the archiver of comp.binary.acorn
3. What about a new alternative newsgroup alt.language.wars.acorn ?
===========
Hi !
1.
==
Here are some questions (most about software).
If you think, your answer is not interesting to the public, mail to me
zrzm0111@helpdesk.rus.uni-stuttgart.de (internet)
ZRZM AT DS0RUS1I (bitnet)
a) I'm searching for public-domain-software-, free-software- or shareware-
-assemblers, -interpreters and -compilers for Acorn Archimedes.
Who knows some servers? Every language will be useful.
The only assembler I know will be posted to comp.binary.acorn from
Frank Lancester.
I've heard about from a forth-interpreter/compiler. (some said, this
software is on the newcastle-server, but I can't see it on the index-
file.
b) Who knows Servers containing all versions of !Sparkplug (especially
Version 1.XX and Version 2.00 ) ?
c) Is there a program that can handle more than one taskwindow ?
( !edit can, but it doesn't work correct with the simple emacsprogram I
use (can't use WIMP-emacs). !edit doesn't work correct in loading
Applications )
d) Is there a program makeing a "softer" reset than
<GREAT CHARATER BUTTON>-<BREAK>, which can hold loaded Applikations
according with a program similar to unix-"kill" to throw out the
crashed program ? Is it possible to create such programs ?
e) I've seen a port of the C-Compiler GNU-C to Archimedes RISCix.
Tiggr modified it. Is it possible to port GNU-C to Archimedes RISCOS ?
What are the difficulties ?
f) Does everone knows the Email- or Real-mail-adress of BEEBUG ?
g) What hardware you need at least to ubgrade memory on a Archimedes A3000 ?
(I've heard something about a SIMM-Module)
h) Exists a Mail-->Janet-filetransfer -server similar to the Mail-->ftp
-server BITFTP at pucc.princeton.edu ?
i) Exists somewhere a file with a discription of the most common used
systemcalls of Acorn-Archimedes under RISCOS ?
2.
==
I think, !submit/!extract should be the archiver on comp.binary.acorn.
Alain Glover writes that there are 2 possible programs for
comp.binary.acorn:
a) !Spark
b) !submit/!extract (which is tar and uue coming with a command-file)
Here are my arguments according to this programs:
a)
!spark is a commercial program. Newsgroups should not support
commercial interests. There are Freesoftware-programs to unarchive
sparked files, but when you want to post in comp.binary.acorn you
must buy !spark (or break the laws).
!spark has no own standart. Not all versions of !Spark are compatible.
There are no unarchiving programs for all versions of sparked files
on other Operation Systems. This is ugly when you download files
from a mainframe-netserver to a restricted memory-and disk-space
small system.
b)
there are Freesoftware-programs tar and uudecode.
the tar- and uue-standart is a common standart and will not change in
the future.
There are portations of tar and uudecode to other Operation Systems.
tar- and uue- archived files are available for a group of Acorn
Archimedes users, you should not forget. All who uses RISCix (a UNIX
clone on Acorn Archimedes), belongs also to comp.binary.acorn.
Maybe they want to port a software to RISCix, which sourcecode is
included a binary in a archived file in comp.binary.acorn.
what do YOU think ?
3.
==
What about a new alternative newsgroup alt.langages.wars.acorn ?
I think it's a hard job to read comp.sys.acorn if you are not interested
in the discussion about "the best language on the Archimedes".
The advantage using a alternative newsgroup alt.<something> is, that it
can be created without a official request and wiped if the "best language"
is found.
The disadvantage is that some newsgroupadministrators don't want alternative
newsgroups. (I think cause of alt.6.pictures...)
thanx
so long
J. Scheurich
(
zrzm0111@helpdesk.rus.uni-stuttgart.de (internet)
ZRZM AT DS0RUS1I (bitnet)
)
ps: I vote for comp.binary.acorn !pcolmer@acorn.co.uk (Philip Colmer) (02/25/91)
In article <8660@castle.ed.ac.uk> aighb@castle.ed.ac.uk (Geoffrey Ballinger) writes: > Excuse me if I am being thick but I always thought that !Spark >produced a compressed *binary* archive a la arc, zip, etc., while (if >the above synopsis is correct) !submit/!extract produced an uncompressed >*ascii* archive. If this is the case then we should use a combination of >the two, i.e. !submit a !Spark-ed file. Anybody want to correct me? Yeah, I will :-) Both !Spark and !Submit/!Extract produce binary archives. !Spark produces an Archimedes derivative of the PC ARC format. !Submit produces a UNIX tar file - NB although !Submit uses Frank Lancaster's tar port and Frank has added RISC OS support, !Submit does NOT use it, thus assuring full UNIX compatibility. After creating the binary archive, both applications produce uuencoded (ie ASCII) versions, ready for posting. The main differences are: * Spark archives can only be read on RISC OS machines with the appropriate version of Spark. This is because of the "changes" that David Pilling made to the "specification" of an ARC file. This has drawbacks for people who get their news via UNIX machines as it means that they cannot tell whether or not they want to spend money downloading an article to their Archimedes because it needs to be downloaded before they can tell what is in it. If we use !Submit/Extract, this is not so much of a problem as the tar file can be decoded on the UNIX machine first. * anyone creating a Spark archive for posting as an article has to pay PARTICULAR attention if the archive gets big because of the 100K mail size imposed by most mail gateways. !Submit gets around this automatically by knowing of this limitation and splitting uuencodings up to the appropriate size. * when you come to rejoin *multiple* articles, you need to strip the head and tail off Spark articles (I believe). You don't need to for !Extract. Of course, the above seems slightly (?) biased in favour of !Submit/!Extract which is not too suprising since I wrote them ... but then I took care to overcome many of the problems associated with posting articles to the news system, which (after all) is NOT what !Spark was designed for in the first place. --Fil. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The method adopted in our X server to avoid phosphor burn is "to display a picture of a black cat in a coal mine. This is effectively indistinguishable from screen blanking."