From sam-users-owner@nvg.unit.no Thu Feb 1 10:09:23 1996 Date: Thu, 01 Feb 1996 10:07:15 +0000 (GMT) From: I LOVE PEOPLE WHO SCREW AROUND WITH MY PERSONAL NAME Subject: Re: Sam Shows To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Message-Id: <01I0P1CGPTBM9D5D18@tay.ac.uk> X-Vms-To: IN%"sam-users@nvg.unit.no" Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/PLAIN; CHARSET="US-ASCII" Status: RO Content-Length: 96 Lines: 3 The next Gloucester Show is on the 20th April, I think! It's a Saturday around then anyway.... From imc Thu Feb 1 13:42:06 1996 Subject: Re: BASIC functions To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Thu, 1 Feb 96 13:42:06 MET In-Reply-To: <199601301351.OAA00003@sabre-wulf.nvg.unit.no>; from "Simon Cooke" at Jan 30, 96 1:50 pm X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.3 PL11] Content-Length: 891 Lines: 21 On Tue, 30 Jan 1996 13:50:50 +0100 (MET), Simon Cooke said: > Ian... would you like a copy of Andy Wright's code from MasterDOS which > allows him to insert FF based tokens? What is "insert"? I already know how to use, say, FF FE as my own token as long as it is usually undefined (in fact my code for that appears to be cleverer than MasterDOS because it keeps other people's FF tokens in place, whereas if I boot MasterDOS after my program the tokens disappear). If you mean something other than that then could you elaborate? > He rewrites the MTOKV routines while they're in the transient buffer > area... quite nasty actually ;) I don't see why this should be necessary. I didn't see such a thing in MasterDOS and I haven't got one in my program. imc PS At least I _think_ my program uses FF tokens. I wrote it as a test, but I think I would have tested with an FF token. From sam-users-owner@nvg.unit.no Thu Feb 1 17:17:04 1996 Message-Id: X-Sender: scooke@nessie.mcc.ac.uk X-Mailer: Windows Eudora Version 1.4.4 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Date: Thu, 01 Feb 1996 13:37:57 +0000 To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no From: simon.cooke@umist.ac.uk (Simon Cooke) Subject: Re: Sam Shows Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 572 Lines: 18 From: I LOVE PEOPLE WHO SCREW AROUND WITH MY PERSONAL NAME >The next Gloucester Show is on the 20th April, I think! It's a Saturday >around then anyway.... Colin... I see you've had your name changed by deed poll! ;) Simon -!- Mains Hum: A sine of the times??? +- Email:Simon.Cooke@umist.ac.uk ---- Fidonet: 2:250/124.2 (Simon Cooke) -+ | Snail:1 Dovey Close, Astley, Tyldesley, Manchester, M29 7NP, UK | | Tel: (01942) 886084 Fax: (01942) 886084 (ring voice first to confirm!)| +- WWW: http://jumper.mcc.ac.uk/~simonc ----------------------------------+ From sam-users-owner@nvg.unit.no Fri Feb 2 20:54:11 1996 Date: 02 Feb 96 09:28:31 EST From: Andrew Collier <100751.545@compuserve.com> To: Sam users Subject: Sam shows Message-Id: <960202142830_100751.545_GHV47-2@CompuServe.COM> Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 211 Lines: 9 On the 1/2/96, somebody said: >The next Gloucester Show is on the 20th April, I think! It's a Saturday >around then anyway.... There's also the All-Formats fairat Haydock Park tomorrow... Anybody going? asc From sam-users-owner@nvg.unit.no Fri Feb 2 20:59:20 1996 Date: 02 Feb 96 09:28:28 EST From: Andrew Collier <100751.545@compuserve.com> To: Sam users Subject: BASIC functions Message-Id: <960202142827_100751.545_GHV47-1@CompuServe.COM> Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 2331 Lines: 48 It sounds like I want to be using a token between 3Bh and 84h, so I expect I'll be able to use any which isn't already allocated. Are there any programs other than MasterBasic which add new function keywords? Perhaps it would be a good idea to explain exactly what I'm trying to do :-) The keyword COMPRESS can be used either as a command, or as part of a function. So, to compress an area of memory you would type: COMPRESS start TO finish AT addr or to compress the current screen: COMPRESS SCREEN AT addr etc. After you've done this, you might type something like: SAVE "code" CODE COMPRESS POINT, COMPRESS LENGTH, COMPRESS CALL The actual compression algorithm will be much the same as the one I used to store Ian's digitised screens, which were on FRED 65. However, with a few modifications I'll be able to make it :- - compress more efficiently (though already it's better than the Imploder for every file I've tried) - compress more quickly - decompress much more quickly thus making it rather more suitable for large files. Incidentally, the code on FRED 65 can be used to compress screens as well as decompressing them - I sent Colin a fairly small Basic program to help with this, which I was expecting him to have put in Bits 'n' Bobs, but he didn't. (All you have to do is call a different address, but I've forgotten what that is. I'll look it up if anybody's interested.) Meanwhile, back at the point; there are a couple of inconsistancies which become apparrent when using function tokens rather than command tokens: MTOKV routines seem to want you to return with A=token-58 rather than A=token-59. Any reason? PRTOKV routines enter with A=255 (fair enough) BUT getting the next byte of the token doesn't appear to be a simple matter of RST 20h, or at least, I've tried that and it didn't appear to work reliably. (Typing compress and pressing return would give '?COMPRESS u ' - after pressing another key this would become either '-' or more usually some wierd things like Withoutinvalid stringumber.) Also, what pointers and things do I need to store or replace, in case I read the second byte of a function which turns out not to be the one I'm interested in? I thought the whole point of documenting the vectors and jump table routines was to make it clear exactly what the coders needed to do.... asc From sam-users-owner@nvg.unit.no Fri Feb 2 23:04:32 1996 Date: Fri, 2 Feb 1996 22:57:45 +0000 (GMT) From: Tim Wells <93tgw@eng.cam.ac.uk> To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Subject: Re: BASIC functions In-Reply-To: <960202142827_100751.545_GHV47-1@CompuServe.COM> Message-Id: Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/PLAIN; charset="US-ASCII" Status: RO Content-Length: 650 Lines: 14 Can't give detailed help here - when I was trying to add new commands, I gave up on inserting my own tokens, and just added new meanings to old commands (at last a use for ZAP and POW :) However when sorting the code out, I found it was essential to look at how the ROM handled its commands. I then used the jump table entries, with some code based on what was in the ROM, to handle my new commands. Tim. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ = Tim Wells -- tgw1001@cam.ac.uk -- http://www2.eng.cam.ac.uk/~93tgw = ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ From sam-users-owner@nvg.unit.no Sat Feb 3 00:33:08 1996 Message-Id: <199602030029.BAA26446@sabre-wulf.nvg.unit.no> Subject: Re: Sam shows To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Sat, 3 Feb 1996 00:29:25 +0100 (MET) Cc: Simon.Cooke@nessie.mcc.ac.uk (Simon Cooke) In-Reply-To: <960202142830_100751.545_GHV47-2@CompuServe.COM> from "Andrew Collier" at Feb 2, 96 09:28:31 am X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL21] From: Simon Cooke Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Status: RO Content-Length: 556 Lines: 17 > On the 1/2/96, somebody said: > > >The next Gloucester Show is on the 20th April, I think! It's a Saturday > >around then anyway.... > > There's also the All-Formats fairat Haydock Park tomorrow... Anybody going? If I can make it there... but then, unless you go in tomorrow, you won't know that until we collide at Haydock ;) If you're there, me & martin will probably see you there. We won't be going 'til the afternoon tho'. I'll be bringing Termite so far (in its very unfinished and unusable state) with me if you want to have a look Simon From sam-users-owner@nvg.unit.no Mon Feb 5 12:29:09 1996 Message-Id: <199602051226.NAA03965@sabre-wulf.nvg.unit.no> Subject: Quickie... To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Mon, 5 Feb 1996 12:20:38 +0100 (MET) Cc: Simon.Cooke@nessie.mcc.ac.uk (Simon Cooke) X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL21] From: Simon Cooke Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Status: RO Content-Length: 1669 Lines: 34 Hi everyone, Well, I've started writing the hard parts of Termite now... the disk access and filing systems stuff, as well as the bits which install it all and do the boring-but-essential stuff. I've decided that you won't be able to run it off the disk it's provided on; you'll have to have another disk spare to unpack it onto. There will also be a registration procedure for vendors to follow -- each copy will *have* to have the name & address of the buyer embedded into it in various places in the code, as well as a serial number which will be dotted around. Anyone got any comments on the master-disk-can't-be-run-straight-away idea? Once you've made a backup you'll still be able to make other backups using the master disk (that's what it's there for - just in case), but piracy is a niggle in the back of my mind. I think that having it in a form where the user can customise away and stick it on whatever disks they want to is important though. Anyway, I thought I'd better throw it open -- the main reason for the backup is so that if your work-disk gets corrupted, you've still got the software (less work for me in sorting out duff disks!). The other thing is that at the /moment/ I think that Termite will use PRODOS and SAM format disks. If we can pin down the proper header format (as in SAMTOMS), then I can use that for a lot of things too. MSDOS format disks may come into play if I feel that it's worthwhile, and easy enough to implement. I'm aiming for an April (ie Gloucester show!) release date of the /software/ -- or rather, a showing off of the software! -- but the manual may take a little longer to appear. Simon From imc Mon Feb 5 14:34:29 1996 Subject: Re: BASIC functions To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Mon, 5 Feb 1996 14:34:29 +0100 (MET) In-Reply-To: <960202142827_100751.545_GHV47-1@CompuServe.COM> from "Andrew Collier" at Feb 2, 96 09:28:28 am X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL24 PGP6] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Length: 1953 Lines: 39 On 02 Feb 96 09:28:28 EST, Andrew Collier said: > MTOKV routines seem to want you to return with A=token-58 rather than > A=token-59. > Any reason? MTOKV returns the same answer as JGTTOK, namely either an FF_token minus 3A or a non_FF_token minus 3B, the distinguishing feature of an FF_token being that the returned value is less than 4A. If this isn't what the manual says then it is obviously incorrect. > PRTOKV routines enter with A=255 (fair enough) BUT getting the next byte of the > token doesn't appear to be a simple matter of RST 20h, A token is printed by first printing FF and then printing a number. On the other hand, RST 20 simply increases the value of CHAD and returns what it points to. These are totally unconnected functions. Printing an FF_token is a rather messy business. First you need to store the current output routine address and change it to point to your token printing routine, then return straight away. When the next byte of the token is printed it will be intercepted by your routine, which must put the address back to what it was and then print the token. If it wasn't your token then you have to jump to the normal FF_token-printing routine. How do you know where that is? MasterDOS and MasterBASIC know the approximate location of it in ROM and its first few bytes, so they just search for it. What I do is rather cunningly print an FF and then see what the current output address points to (and put it back to normal). It would be so much easier if there were a vector for this. It wouldn't be too hard to write a short program containing one so that all FF_token- printers could go through it. Any spare system variables available? > I thought the whole point of documenting the vectors and jump table routines was > to make it clear exactly what the coders needed to do.... Yes, that is the point and some day they probably will be documented (how's the new technical manual, Si? :-) ). imc From sam-users-owner@nvg.unit.no Tue Feb 6 13:55:37 1996 From: Vitezslav Sem Organization: SPSSE Liberec To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Tue, 6 Feb 1996 14:44:26 +0100 Subject: X-Confirm-Reading-To: "Vitezslav Sem" X-Pmrqc: 1 Priority: normal X-Mailer: Pegasus Mail v3.22 Message-Id: <1AFD0F7591E@prum.spsselib.hiedu.cz> Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 33 Lines: 3 help Vitezslav Sem Spsse Liberec From sam-users-owner@nvg.unit.no Tue Feb 6 21:11:15 1996 Message-Id: X-Sender: scooke@nessie.mcc.ac.uk X-Mailer: Windows Eudora Version 1.4.4 Date: Tue, 06 Feb 1996 21:04:45 +0000 To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no From: simon.cooke@umist.ac.uk (Simon Cooke) Subject: Latest project from Rooksoft/Entropy Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Status: RO Content-Length: 1434 Lines: 36 Hi everyone, Well, after four hours solid work, Martin Rookyard and Simon Cooke have finished their latest, and biggest project. Featuring the latest efforts in design, and engineering, we've managed to come up with something which towers above the rest! It's based around an original design which forms the core, which we'd scrapped due to increasing problems with maintainance over the last week or so. We had a few problems with it breaking down half-way through, but we think it's finished now, and ready to be unleashed on an unsuspecting public!!! What is it? Well... it's an 8 foot high snowman actually, with carrot eyes, eyebrows, buttons... if we had a video camera with working digitiser (Derek Morgan has it at the moment) we could show you it too :-) It can see over the fence into the next garden, and is about the height of Martin's son's swing! If you've got snow, enjoy it while it lasts. If you're not enjoying it, commiserations, and I hope the weather gets better for you soon! Yours-with-aching-arms-and-sore-wrists-from-packing-together-too-much-snow, Simon -!- Mains Hum: A sine of the times??? +- Email:Simon.Cooke@umist.ac.uk ---- Fidonet: 2:250/124.2 (Simon Cooke) -+ | Snail:1 Dovey Close, Astley, Tyldesley, Manchester, M29 7NP, UK | | Tel: (01942) 886084 Fax: (01942) 886084 (ring voice first to confirm!)| +- WWW: http://jumper.mcc.ac.uk/~simonc ----------------------------------+ From sam-users-owner@nvg.unit.no Tue Feb 6 21:24:29 1996 Message-Id: X-Sender: scooke@nessie.mcc.ac.uk X-Mailer: Windows Eudora Version 1.4.4 Date: Tue, 06 Feb 1996 21:18:02 +0000 To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no From: simon.cooke@umist.ac.uk (Simon Cooke) Subject: BASED ON AN IDEA ISSUE 1 Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Status: RO Content-Length: 789 Lines: 31 Hi everyone, We're waiting for issue 1 of Based On An Idea to come back from the printers as I write -- it'll probably be about 2 weeks or so, unfortunately. Anyway, now would be a good time to send those subs in! 6 pounds for a year, (which is 4 issues) or 2 pounds an issue. Cheques made payable to M. Rookyard, Send em to: M. Rookyard, 1 Dovey Close, Astley, Tyldesley, Manchester, M29 7NP Sorry for the blatant advertising :( Simon -!- Mains Hum: A sine of the times??? +- Email:Simon.Cooke@umist.ac.uk ---- Fidonet: 2:250/124.2 (Simon Cooke) -+ | Snail:1 Dovey Close, Astley, Tyldesley, Manchester, M29 7NP, UK | | Tel: (01942) 886084 Fax: (01942) 886084 (ring voice first to confirm!)| +- WWW: http://jumper.mcc.ac.uk/~simonc ----------------------------------+ From sam-users-owner@nvg.unit.no Thu Feb 8 09:02:37 1996 Date: Thu, 08 Feb 1996 08:27:01 GMT From: Briansam@bgserv.demon.co.uk (Brian Gaff Sam Dept.) Message-Id: <13398@bgserv.demon.co.uk> To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Subject: Re: RCPT: X-Mailer: PCElm 1.10 Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 142 Lines: 8 Could everyone please turn OFF their receipt ackd? I am getting a lot of message read messages in the list! Brian -- Brian Gaff Sam Dept. From sam-users-owner@nvg.unit.no Thu Feb 8 12:02:16 1996 From: sh5655@bristol.ac.uk (SL. Harding) Message-Id: <199602081158.LAA23419@irix.bris.ac.uk> Subject: SoundFX To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Thu, 8 Feb 1996 11:58:43 +0000 (GMT) In-Reply-To: <13398@bgserv.demon.co.uk> from "Brian Gaff Sam Dept." at Feb 8, 96 08:27:01 am X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL21] Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Status: RO Content-Length: 650 Lines: 17 Humm. Is it just my imagination or are the numbers of messages on this list decreasing? Oh-well, back to the point. As you have all probably forgotten, I am working on a 1-on-1 beat-'em-up with the working title of SAMfighter (I know its a crap title). This is now nearing completion, but one of the remaining features to add are the spot sound effects when a character is hit etc. I have been pondering the most effective way to do them (The whole game is in machine code), My priorities are speed of replay more so then memory. I can't even decide whether to sample the sounds. Could the free version of E-Tracer at unit.no help? STEVE From imc Thu Feb 8 13:10:11 1996 Subject: Re: RCPT: To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Thu, 8 Feb 1996 13:10:11 +0100 (MET) In-Reply-To: <13398@bgserv.demon.co.uk> from "Brian Gaff Sam Dept." at Feb 8, 96 08:27:01 am X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL24 PGP6] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Length: 235 Lines: 9 On Thu, 08 Feb 1996 08:27:01 GMT, Brian Gaff Sam Dept. said: > Could everyone please turn OFF their receipt ackd? > I am getting a lot of message read messages in the list! I acknowledge receipt of this message. imc PS I agree. :-) From sam-users-owner@nvg.unit.no Thu Feb 8 14:31:45 1996 Date: Thu, 8 Feb 1996 14:22:09 GMT Message-Id: <199602081422.OAA05537@syntech.netwales.co.uk> X-Sender: e0021@mail.netwales.co.uk X-Mailer: Windows Eudora Light Version 1.5.2 To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no From: Matt Round Subject: Re: SoundFX Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Status: RO Content-Length: 1479 Lines: 31 For the flurries of blows etc. you don't want everything to slow down, so simply use standard sound chip features. If you use variable white noise you can get some great effects, but you'll have to experiment and fine-tune the sound otherwise you'll just get hisses and farts (which may be useful for some kinds of beat-'em-up I guess). Combine the 2 variable channels to get a nice deep thud and vary the pitch and volume 'manually' every 50th of a second or so to give flexibility and far better sounds. Just create a simple sound-effect format which has a table for the pitch and volume, maybe for turning freq and noise on and off, etc.. E-tracker probably wouldn't be any good, although I suppose you could have each sound effect as a short tune if you're willing to put up with the slow player. Games Master's sound effects can be pretty good, and you supposedly get a routine with it that allows you to play the effects from SAMBASIC. I haven't tried it myself, but it would allow you to interactively edit sounds and would take care of everything. For things like characters screaming as they die, use some samples! And a beat-'em-up isn't a beat-'em-up without someone saying something naff like "Let's Fight!" at the start of each round. I'd have thought sound effects would be the least of your worries... what about the tons of graphics needed to make it anything more than "Mr.Stick-Man Throws A Tantrum"? That's what put me off doing a beat-'em-up... Matt. From sam-users-owner@nvg.unit.no Fri Feb 9 00:03:28 1996 Date: Thu, 8 Feb 96 19:45:16 MET From: Stefan Drissen Subject: Based on an idea..... To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no X-Mailer: Chameleon - TCP/IP for Windows by NetManage, Inc. Message-Id: Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/PLAIN; CHARSET="us-ascii" Status: RO Content-Length: 4376 Lines: 98 Hi all! Just thought I'd send in a little message since everything has been sooooo very quiet lately (except for the receipt messages). "Based on an idea" just popped in my letter box and thudded on my doormat. (ok so it's a lie, it popped into my virtual mailbox and thudded on my virtual doormat (desktop?) - which is still a lie since it wasn't actually mailed to me....) So what does this wonderful little mag have to offer in its forty pages? Obviously it starts with a nice picture of SAM reading BOAI. After which it's straight onto the contents page (after jumping over an ad). Like the cover this also looks very professional indeed. In the contents the following items are mentioned as regular items: - editorial : some waffle on the reason for starting this mag - a gap in the market for a heavy techy mag. With the editorial the great layout (beating Format for six) shows up again with a nice photo included in the text. - news : nothing which I hadn't read about before elsewhere, but all the news is there in one place. - subscription : how to subscribe - the advantages etc - contacts : a list of most SAM companies in the SAM world including addresses and phone numbers. I won't mention the little error in redirecting Format (under manuals) to software when they are actually listed uner publications.....ooops! - index of advertisers : a list of the companies advertising their warez, hmmmm, to avoid being the odd one out I should really make up some company name.... ;) - next issue : what does next issue have in store? I'm not revealing that, after all, this is a review of the current issue. - credits and disclaimer - the regular lame duck story... ;) Being the launch issue, the regularity of these items still has to be proven. The features for this issue are the following: - How to be a complete bursterd : an article on how the burstplayer as used in that pesky mod player works. Article written by me, so I won't rate it.... did I tell you it's bloody brilliant!? - Of mice and men : info on how to detect and read the SAM mouse. Info that should have been put in the techy manual (or at least in one of the updates) so that all us coders didn't need to fart around figuring this one out. - Is there anybody out there? : Dave Whitmore gets lonely and decides to start up a BBS for the SAM. Read why. - Sam gets wired : what are we all up to on the net - maybe not as interesting for anybody reading this, since you're on the net anyway and probably know where all the SAM stuff is by now, but very useful for newbies. ;) - A high speed SAM? : article by Martin Rookyard on the possibilities of a souped up SAM - favourite possible candidate for a new CPU is the Z380. Lots of yummy info on this chip which would accelerate our Sams quite nicely. - DPU : and then there's a review of the Disc-Protector-Unit. I wonder if these are still available though.... Edwin made a small batch for Steve Nutting before moving off to Thailand - I don't know if he also gave Steve instructions on how to build them himself.... And that covers that. All in all the presentation of the mag is finger licking yummy. Big Bob should take a look at this mag and see how it's done! The articles are all of the techy nature - which is totally brill if you are somewhat into coding/hardware stuff. Even for the novice Samite this is well worth reading - see how the pro's have done there stuff.... Final verdict: GO GET YOUR TWO POUND'S WORTH!!!!! (or even better, sub for 4 issues at only six pounds) Available from the following address: Based on an idea 1 Dovey Close Astley Tyldesley Manchester M29 7NP Stefan Drissen aka Solar Flare of Entropy +------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | E-mail: drissen@pi.net, + * http://www.pi.net/~drissen | | S-mail: Zevende Herven 6, 5232 JZ 's-Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands | | Telephone: +31-73-6414969 . * . | +------------------------------------------------------------------------+ From sam-users-owner@nvg.unit.no Fri Feb 9 03:06:13 1996 Message-Id: <311AB891.61A8502F@RMnet.it> Date: Fri, 09 Feb 1996 03:59:29 +0100 From: "A.D.R." Organization: S P E C T R E X-Mailer: Mozilla 2.0 (X11; I; Linux 1.2.8 i486) To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Subject: Re: Based on an idea..... References: Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Status: RO Content-Length: 1088 Lines: 27 Hi! Stefan Drissen wrote: > > "Based on an idea" just popped in my letter box and thudded on my doormat. > (ok so it's a lie, it popped into my virtual mailbox and thudded on my > virtual doormat (desktop?) - which is still a lie since it wasn't actually > mailed to me....) You got me really curious, is there a PS/PDF/Word6 or whatever version available too?? If yes, how much does it cost? The same or less than the printed version? I would prefer to get it as a file rather than printed as the Italian mail is quite slow delivering mail... BTW, what has happened to the XCoupe SAM Emulator? I would really need it, either as source code or as compiled binary for Linux, as my SAM is currently without a monitor so I can't use it. :-( _ (_ i a o, Arne +==============================================================+ | Arne Di Russo - IRC: Balbo, #phonecards #linux | | Roma, Italy - ar@RMnet.it (also adr@iol.it) | +==============================================================+ \...................> powered by LINUX <...................../ From sam-users-owner@nvg.unit.no Fri Feb 9 10:34:57 1996 Message-Id: <9602091004.AA02390@dxmint.cern.ch> From: Allan Skillman (Dr Kid) Subject: Re: Based on an idea..... To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Fri, 9 Feb 96 11:04:39 MET In-Reply-To: <311AB891.61A8502F@RMnet.it>; from "A.D.R." at Feb 09, 96 3:59 am Mailer: Elm [revision: 70.85] Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 1154 Lines: 33 > BTW, what has happened to the XCoupe SAM Emulator? I would really need it, > either as source code or as compiled binary for Linux, as my SAM is > currently without a monitor so I can't use it. :-( Well after a pretty hectic end of year/new year I have finally got back to actively developing XCoupe. In fact its just compiling away on my spanking new Notebook next to me on the desk. Heres a quick up date of the progress :- 1) I've now tested the code on the following systems: Alpha OSF/1 - the original developement platform HPUX 9.01 ULTRIX Linux - My new box 2) The mouse emulation is now underway 3) I've been playing with optimisation of the CPU. The original code was based on xzx, and after all the tweaking I could give it I got about 25-30% SAM performance on my PC - although it is only a 486SX. On my OSF box its fine except for when line int. palette chenages are used. My latest venture is to use Ian Collier's z80 emulation used in xz80 - which is both faster and more complete. I've got this just about working, although there seems to be a few funny bugs left All in all - watch this space Allan -- From sam-users-owner@nvg.unit.no Fri Feb 9 11:50:24 1996 From: Dave Hooper <9531427@EIGG.SMS.ED.AC.UK> To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Fri, 9 Feb 1996 11:52:18 +0000 Subject: Re: SoundFX Priority: normal X-Mailer: Pegasus Mail for Windows (v2.10) Message-Id: <70514A3A@eigg.sms.ed.ac.uk> Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 2167 Lines: 53 SL Harding said sommat like: >I have been pondering the most > effective way to do them (The whole game is in machine code), My priorities > are speed of replay more so then memory. I can't even decide whether to > sample the sounds. Well, If you want a quick efficient way to produce sound effects,programming the sound chip the normal way is best (ie, like music... NOT like samples). This way you (really) only need to write new data to the soundchip every screen frame... unlike samples, where you need to write to the soundchip every few milliseconds... I think (and this is a personal opinion) that the best way to go about this is have a table of a few bytes for each sound effect, and another table to index into the first table... Say 'sound effect 3' is called for, the index into the actually sound effect is found by finding the THIRD (sfx 3) element of the second table. This gives an address into the first table. The elements in the first table consist of pairs of bytes, the first being the soundchip register to write to, the second being the data to write to it. If a 'register' byte is greater than 28, this could be used to signify the end of the soundchip write for this frame. If the byte =255, it could signify the end of the soundeffect. Each screen frame, the data is sent to the soundchip in a similar way to this: SFX: LD HL, (current_position_in_sound_effect_data) LD A,H OR L RET Z; no sound-effect signified when current_position=0 LD BC, 511 NEXT: LD A,(HL) CP 29 JR NC, END OUT (C), (HL) <- can you do this? DEC B INC HL OUT (C),(HL) INC B INC HL JR NEXT END: LD (current_position_in_sound_effect),HL RET err, something like that anyway. You'll have to experiment vastly to find the best sound effects you can generate using the soundchip... I'd recommend judicious use of the techy manual and a simple program that simply outputs random numbers to the soundchip... ;) > Could the free version of E-Tracer at unit.no > help? Err, for music , yes. For sound effects, wouldn't know. davee From sam-users-owner@nvg.unit.no Fri Feb 9 12:58:21 1996 Message-Id: <199602091018.LAA25021@sabre-wulf.nvg.unit.no> Subject: Re: Based on an idea..... To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Fri, 9 Feb 1996 10:18:20 +0100 (MET) Cc: Simon.Cooke@nessie.mcc.ac.uk (Simon Cooke) In-Reply-To: <311AB891.61A8502F@RMnet.it> from "A.D.R." at Feb 9, 96 03:59:29 am X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL21] From: Simon Cooke Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Status: RO Content-Length: 1107 Lines: 30 Hi Arne... > You got me really curious, is there a PS/PDF/Word6 or whatever version > available too?? Ummmm.... not really. The reason that Stefan got to see an online version of it was mainly because he wrote an article for the mag, and he also had an advert in there... > If yes, how much does it cost? The same or less than the printed version? > I would prefer to get it as a file rather than printed as the > Italian mail is quite slow delivering mail... I'll have a talk to Martin and Maria about it - if they agree, we'll see what we can come up with. :) > BTW, what has happened to the XCoupe SAM Emulator? I would really need it, > either as source code or as compiled binary for Linux, as my SAM is > currently without a monitor so I can't use it. :-( Eeek... that's a shame. You know, there's a shop here in manchester selling greyscale stereo monitors for 30 quid a shot (inc. VAT). (Silica Shop be their name). Allan is the one to shout at about Xcoupe btw... If you want to get one of those monitors, and can stand the wait, lemme know and I'll see what I can sort out. Simon From sam-users-owner@nvg.unit.no Fri Feb 9 13:44:00 1996 Message-Id: <199602091026.LAA25162@sabre-wulf.nvg.unit.no> Subject: Re: Based on an idea..... To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Fri, 9 Feb 1996 10:26:18 +0100 (MET) Cc: Simon.Cooke@nessie.mcc.ac.uk (Simon Cooke) In-Reply-To: from "Stefan Drissen" at Feb 8, 96 07:45:16 pm X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL21] From: Simon Cooke Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Status: RO Content-Length: 778 Lines: 17 > Hi all! Thanks for the review Stefan - much obliged ;) > - DPU : and then there's a review of the Disc-Protector-Unit. I wonder if > these are still available though.... Edwin made a small batch for > Steve Nutting before moving off to Thailand - I don't know if he > also gave Steve instructions on how to build them himself.... Well, I asked Steve about this when I first found out that Edwin had shipped out to Thailand. He said that he's got someone else to make them now, but if Steve ever actually /stops/ making them, we've decoded the circuit already (quite easy really -- even with the top of the chip scratched off so you can't see what it is) so we could publish it or do them ourselves. Dunno if that'd be okay with Edwin though... Simon From sam-users-owner@nvg.unit.no Sun Feb 11 09:59:16 1996 Date: Sun, 11 Feb 1996 07:34:13 GMT From: Briansam@bgserv.demon.co.uk (Brian Gaff Sam Dept.) Message-Id: <13443@bgserv.demon.co.uk> To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Subject: Strange add on? X-Mailer: PCElm 1.10 Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 242 Lines: 9 I had a letter the other day from a fitness freak who wanted to know if there was any SAM s/w or hardware to monitor heart rate etc, and all that. I know nothing about this sort of thing, but there you are... Brian -- Brian Gaff Sam Dept. From sam-users-owner@nvg.unit.no Sun Feb 11 13:08:15 1996 Message-Id: <199602111004.LAA28428@sabre-wulf.nvg.unit.no> Subject: Re: Strange add on? To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Sun, 11 Feb 1996 10:04:14 +0100 (MET) Cc: Simon.Cooke@nessie.mcc.ac.uk (Simon Cooke) In-Reply-To: <13443@bgserv.demon.co.uk> from "Brian Gaff Sam Dept." at Feb 11, 96 07:34:13 am X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL21] From: Simon Cooke Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Status: RO Content-Length: 612 Lines: 14 > I had a letter the other day from a fitness freak who wanted to > know if there was any SAM s/w or hardware to monitor heart rate > etc, and all that. I know nothing about this sort of thing, but > there you are... Shouldn't be too hard... differential amplifier, wired into the comms interface (makes a really good triggered interrupt driver if you get it running at the right levels).... hmmm... The main problem I can see with that is that legally, you're in a bit of a fix. You have to start putting things like "this is not to be used for medical purposes" all over it, and things like that. Simon From sam-users-owner@nvg.unit.no Mon Feb 12 15:17:30 1996 Message-Id: <199602121421.PAA15929@sabre-wulf.nvg.unit.no> Subject: File systems revisited To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Mon, 12 Feb 1996 14:21:05 +0100 (MET) Cc: Simon.Cooke@nessie.mcc.ac.uk (Simon Cooke) X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL21] From: Simon Cooke Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Status: RO Content-Length: 1289 Lines: 64 Hi everyone, I've finally started work on the file handling parts of Termite (which funnily enough correspond pretty exactly to those parts which will be in EDOS eventually)... This is how the directory looks so far. It can handle EDOS (spec undefined as of yet), SAMDOS/MASTERDOS/+D/Disciple, MSDOS and PRODOS (CPM) disks. Directory headers: SAMDOS: DF1:DISKLABEL:/* files files2 files3 Number of free K-Bytes = 200 3 Files, 77 Slots Free PRODOS: [CPM] DF1:USER 0:/*.* PRODOS .COM PRODOS .HLP Number of free K-Bytes = 100 2 Files, 254 Slots Free MSDOS (root dir) [MSDOS] DF1:NO LABEL:/*.* COMMAND .COM IO .SYS Number of free K-Bytes = 540 2 Files, 110 Slots Free MSDOS (not root dir) [MSDOS] DF1:NO LABEL:/subdir/*.* .. FILES .TST MOREFILE.TXT Number of free K-Bytes = 217 2 Files (note the lack of no' of slots free...) It can only detect Prodos disks which have been formatted by the Prodos formatter program itself at the moment -- or at least those with a correct 16 byte bpb You'll probably notice the DF1 bit... I've come up with some new devices... DF1,DF2 = D1,D2 RD1-RD5 = D3-D7 (Ramdisks) HD1-HD8 = D8-D15 (Hard disks) I've not come up with any more yet, but you'll still be able to use the D* way of doing it. Simon From sam-users-owner@nvg.unit.no Mon Feb 12 16:19:07 1996 Date: 12 Feb 96 10:58:57 EST From: Andrew Collier <100751.545@compuserve.com> To: Sam users Subject: basic functions Message-Id: <960212155857_100751.545_GHV76-1@CompuServe.COM> Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 2186 Lines: 72 On 5/2/96 Ian Collier replied: >Printing an FF_token is a rather messy business. First you need to store >the current output routine address and change it to point to your token >printing routine, then return straight away. When the next byte of the >token is printed it will be intercepted by your routine, which must put >the address back to what it was and then print the token. If it wasn't your >token then you have to jump to the normal FF_token-printing routine. How >do you know where that is? MasterDOS and MasterBASIC know the approximate >location of it in ROM and its first few bytes, so they just search for it. >What I do is rather cunningly print an FF and then see what the current >output address points to (and put it back to normal). Output routine address? I suppose that's PATOUT ('address of printable characters output routine') I tried the following code which doesn't work. (Source included courtesy of Simon Cooke's Comet-Ascii converter) :- PRINT_FF: CP 255 JR NZ,NOUSE PRINTIT: CALL 4 LD DE,PATOUTS-$ ADD HL,DE LD DE,(PATOUT) LD (HL),E INC HL LD (HL),D CALL 4 LD DE,PRINTWORD-$ ADD HL,DE LD (PATOUT),HL RET NOUSE: PRTOKVS: EQU $+1 LD HL,0000 INC H DEC H RET Z JP (HL) PRINTWORD: CP TOKEN JR NZ,NOTMYTOKEN PATOUTS: EQU $+1 LD HL,0000 LD (PATOUT),HL CALL 4 LD DE,KEYWORD-$ ADD HL,DE EX DE,HL LD BC,9 CALL &0013 POP HL RET NOTMYTOKEN: LD A,255 RST &10 LD DE,(PATOUT) CALL 4 LD BC,PATOUTS-$ ADD HL,BC LD (PATOUT),HL EX DE,HL JP (HL) Should I be junking one or two return addresses somewhere? asc From imc Mon Feb 12 17:41:45 1996 Subject: Re: basic functions To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Mon, 12 Feb 1996 17:41:45 +0100 (MET) In-Reply-To: <960212155857_100751.545_GHV76-1@CompuServe.COM> from "Andrew Collier" at Feb 12, 96 10:58:57 am X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL24 PGP6] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Length: 389 Lines: 14 On 12 Feb 96 10:58:57 EST, Andrew Collier said: > Output routine address? I suppose that's PATOUT Ah no, it's whatever (CURCHL) points to, if that's what it's called on the Sam. For example, on the spectrum... 10 PRINT #1; 20 LET a=PEEK 23633+256*PEEK 23634 30 LET b=PEEK a+256*PEEK (a+1) 40 PRINT b will print the current output address of channel #1, which is usually 2548. imc From sam-users-owner@nvg.unit.no Mon Feb 12 17:42:50 1996 Message-Id: <311F68A2.7E252F6E@RMnet.it> Date: Mon, 12 Feb 1996 17:19:46 +0100 From: "A.D.R." Organization: S P E C T R E X-Mailer: Mozilla 2.0 (X11; I; Linux 1.2.8 i486) To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Cc: allan@hpopb1.cern.ch Subject: Re: Based on an idea..... References: <9602091004.AA02390@dxmint.cern.ch> Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Status: RO Content-Length: 1404 Lines: 37 Allan Skillman (Dr Kid) wrote: > > 1) I've now tested the code on the following systems: > > Alpha OSF/1 - the original developement platform > HPUX 9.01 > ULTRIX > Linux - My new box ^^^^^^^ Great, my Linux box is waiting anxiously to get that SAM Coupe feeling too! ;-) > 3) I've been playing with optimisation of the CPU. The original code was based > on xzx, and after all the tweaking I could give it I got about 25-30% SAM > performance on my PC - although it is only a 486SX. On my OSF box its fine > except for when line int. palette chenages are used. Well so a DX2-80 should be more or less 100% SAM Coupe speed (or do you have an SX2?) > My latest venture is to use Ian Collier's z80 emulation used in xz80 - > which is both faster and more complete. I've got this just about working, > although there seems to be a few funny bugs left > > All in all - watch this space If you need a beta tester for Xcoupe on Linux let me know, I would be happy to help you! :-) _ (_ i a o, Arne +==============================================================+ | Arne Di Russo - IRC: Balbo, #phonecards #linux | | Roma, Italy - ar@RMnet.it (also adr@iol.it) | +==============================================================+ \...................> powered by LINUX <...................../ From sam-users-owner@nvg.unit.no Mon Feb 12 17:51:22 1996 Message-Id: <311F665D.4B4BCBC2@RMnet.it> Date: Mon, 12 Feb 1996 17:10:05 +0100 From: "A.D.R." Organization: S P E C T R E X-Mailer: Mozilla 2.0 (X11; I; Linux 1.2.8 i486) To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Cc: Simon Cooke Subject: Re: Based on an idea..... References: <199602091018.LAA25021@sabre-wulf.nvg.unit.no> Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Status: RO Content-Length: 1122 Lines: 29 Simon Cooke wrote: > > > If yes, how much does it cost? The same or less than the printed version? > > I would prefer to get it as a file rather than printed as the > > Italian mail is quite slow delivering mail... > > I'll have a talk to Martin and Maria about it - if they agree, we'll see > what we can come up with. :) Please let me know what you decide, I would really like to get it that way! > If you want to get one of those monitors, and can stand the wait, lemme > know and I'll see what I can sort out. Thanks for the offer, but I don't think mailing a monitor is a good idea (it would probably cost more than the monitor itself) and anyway at the moment I really don't have ANY money... otherwise I would have bought a 2.hand portable TV or s.th. similar. _ (_ i a o, Arne +==============================================================+ | Arne Di Russo - IRC: Balbo, #phonecards #linux | | Roma, Italy - ar@RMnet.it (also adr@iol.it) | +==============================================================+ \...................> powered by LINUX <...................../ From imc Mon Feb 12 17:55:32 1996 Subject: Re: File systems revisited To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Mon, 12 Feb 1996 17:55:32 +0100 (MET) In-Reply-To: <199602121421.PAA15929@sabre-wulf.nvg.unit.no> from "Simon Cooke" at Feb 12, 96 02:21:05 pm X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL24 PGP6] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Length: 311 Lines: 11 On Mon, 12 Feb 1996 14:21:05 +0100 (MET), Simon Cooke said: > You'll probably notice the DF1 bit... I've come up with some new devices... > DF1,DF2 = D1,D2 > RD1-RD5 = D3-D7 (Ramdisks) > HD1-HD8 = D8-D15 (Hard disks) Why does the D come first in one and second in two? How about some consistency? :-) imc From sam-users-owner@nvg.unit.no Mon Feb 12 18:35:45 1996 Message-Id: From: geoffw@jumper.mcc.ac.uk (Geoff Winkless) Date: Mon, 12 Feb 1996 18:27:02 +0000 In-Reply-To: Simon.Cooke -- "File systems revisited" (Feb 12, 2:21pm) X-Mailer: Mail User's Shell (7.2.5 10/14/92) To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Subject: Re: File systems revisited Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 594 Lines: 20 On Feb 12, 2:21pm in "File systems revisited", warbled: ] You'll probably notice the DF1 bit... I've come up with some new devices... ] ] DF1,DF2 = D1,D2 ] RD1-RD5 = D3-D7 (Ramdisks) ] HD1-HD8 = D8-D15 (Hard disks) Sick Commodore Amigaphile... Is that Nicam's influence??? Why not have all drives addressable -as if they were the same- but have different handlers for each? Surprisingly enough, this makes adding a new type of drive and making it work with all existing software surprisingly easy... :) Witness ADFS on the Arch (yaaaawn, here I go again... :) I'll shut up. -- Geoff From sam-users-owner@nvg.unit.no Tue Feb 13 13:17:07 1996 From: Dave Hooper <9531427@EIGG.SMS.ED.AC.UK> To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Tue, 13 Feb 1996 13:17:57 +0000 Subject: Re: File systems revisited Priority: normal X-Mailer: Pegasus Mail for Windows (v2.10) Message-Id: <61E1332B6B@eigg.sms.ed.ac.uk> Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 763 Lines: 21 Ian Collier wrote sommat like: > On Mon, 12 Feb 1996 14:21:05 +0100 (MET), Simon Cooke said: > > You'll probably notice the DF1 bit... I've come up with some new devices... > > > DF1,DF2 = D1,D2 > > RD1-RD5 = D3-D7 (Ramdisks) > > HD1-HD8 = D8-D15 (Hard disks) > > Why does the D come first in one and second in two? How about some > consistency? :-) I expect he's nicked the Amiga's identifiers like DF1 because they sound good (go on, say it, DEE EFF WUN!), whereas RD.. and HD.. are (Almost) immediately recognisable as being Ramdisk and HardDisk. Although, if the Amiga is some influence, DR1.. and DH1.. could be used (except DR1.. might be mistaken to mean Drive1 rather than Drive (RAM) 1.) I personally like the way it is at the moment! davee From sam-users-owner@nvg.unit.no Wed Feb 14 09:37:44 1996 Message-Id: <199602140932.KAA20264@sabre-wulf.nvg.unit.no> Subject: Re: File systems revisited To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Wed, 14 Feb 1996 09:31:15 +0100 (MET) Cc: Simon.Cooke@nessie.mcc.ac.uk (Simon Cooke) In-Reply-To: <9602121655.AA01954@booth10.ecs.ox.ac.uk> from "Ian.Collier@comlab.ox.ac.uk" at Feb 12, 96 05:55:32 pm X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL21] From: Simon Cooke Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Status: RO Content-Length: 492 Lines: 16 > On Mon, 12 Feb 1996 14:21:05 +0100 (MET), Simon Cooke said: > > You'll probably notice the DF1 bit... I've come up with some new devices... > > > DF1,DF2 = D1,D2 > > RD1-RD5 = D3-D7 (Ramdisks) > > HD1-HD8 = D8-D15 (Hard disks) > > Why does the D come first in one and second in two? How about some > consistency? :-) Well... DF1 and DF2 because it's closer to D1 and D2... RD etc... because it's easier (more phonetically... damn.. can't remember the word. It scans better!) Simon From sam-users-owner@nvg.unit.no Wed Feb 14 09:38:44 1996 Message-Id: <199602140937.KAA20334@sabre-wulf.nvg.unit.no> Subject: Re: File systems revisited To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Wed, 14 Feb 1996 09:37:10 +0100 (MET) Cc: Simon.Cooke@nessie.mcc.ac.uk (Simon Cooke) In-Reply-To: from "Geoff Winkless" at Feb 12, 96 06:27:02 pm X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL21] From: Simon Cooke Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Status: RO Content-Length: 900 Lines: 26 > On Feb 12, 2:21pm in "File systems revisited", warbled: > ] You'll probably notice the DF1 bit... I've come up with some new devices... > ] > ] DF1,DF2 = D1,D2 > ] RD1-RD5 = D3-D7 (Ramdisks) > ] HD1-HD8 = D8-D15 (Hard disks) > Sick Commodore Amigaphile... Is that Nicam's influence??? Only a little... > Why not have all drives addressable -as if they were the same- but have > different handlers for each? > > Surprisingly enough, this makes adding a new type of drive and making it > work with all existing software surprisingly easy... :) Well, the only reason for the extra device system is to make it easier to remember what drive is what... that way you don't have to worry about which drive's the hard drive, which one's a ram drive, etc etc... You'll still be able to /use/ D1,D2,D3 etc... but I was thinking of giving people the option. Up to you guys, of course ;) Simon From sam-users-owner@nvg.unit.no Wed Feb 14 11:05:27 1996 Message-Id: From: ee31ag@ee.surrey.ac.uk (Andrew M Gale) Subject: Re: File systems revisited To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Wed, 14 Feb 1996 11:02:43 +0000 (GMT) In-Reply-To: <61E1332B6B@eigg.sms.ed.ac.uk> from "Dave Hooper" at Feb 13, 96 01:17:57 pm X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL24] Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Status: RO Content-Length: 810 Lines: 22 > > > You'll probably notice the DF1 bit... I've come up with some new devices... > > > > > DF1,DF2 = D1,D2 > > > RD1-RD5 = D3-D7 (Ramdisks) > > > HD1-HD8 = D8-D15 (Hard disks) > > > > Why does the D come first in one and second in two? How about some > > consistency? :-) > > I expect he's nicked the Amiga's identifiers like DF1 because they > sound good (go on, say it, DEE EFF WUN!), whereas RD.. and HD.. are > (Almost) immediately recognisable as being Ramdisk and HardDisk. > Although, if the Amiga is some influence, DR1.. and DH1.. could be > used (except DR1.. might be mistaken to mean Drive1 rather than Drive > (RAM) 1.) > I personally like the way it is at the moment! > Why don't we just scrap the D altogether? We know we're not using tape, and as for network.... come on! -Andrew From imc Wed Feb 14 12:00:44 1996 Subject: Re: File systems revisited To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Wed, 14 Feb 1996 12:00:44 +0000 (GMT) In-Reply-To: <199602140932.KAA20264@sabre-wulf.nvg.unit.no> from "Simon Cooke" at Feb 14, 96 09:31:15 am X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL24 PGP6] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Length: 366 Lines: 10 On Wed, 14 Feb 1996 09:31:15 +0100 (MET), Simon Cooke said: > Well... DF1 and DF2 because it's closer to D1 and D2... In what way closer? I can think of no reason why I would rather type DF1 than FD1. I am less likely to get it wrong if (a) all three are the same way around and (b) it's closer to the English description ("floppy disk", not "disk floppy"). imc From sam-users-owner@nvg.unit.no Wed Feb 14 12:44:55 1996 From: COLIN ANDERTON Organization: HSH, University of Nottingham To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Wed, 14 Feb 1996 12:22:50 GMT0BST Subject: Hello Priority: normal X-Mailer: Pegasus Mail v3.22 Message-Id: <116CBC5E39@hhn1.hughall.nottingham.ac.uk> Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 55 Lines: 5 Happy Valentine's Day, everyone. Lots of love, Colin From sam-users-owner@nvg.unit.no Wed Feb 14 13:08:30 1996 Message-Id: <199602141305.OAA23457@sabre-wulf.nvg.unit.no> Subject: Re: File systems revisited To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Wed, 14 Feb 1996 13:04:49 +0100 (MET) Cc: Simon.Cooke@nessie.mcc.ac.uk (Simon Cooke) In-Reply-To: <9602141200.AA03268@boothp2.ecs.ox.ac.uk> from "Ian.Collier@comlab.ox.ac.uk" at Feb 14, 96 12:00:44 pm X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL21] From: Simon Cooke Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Status: RO Content-Length: 732 Lines: 22 > On Wed, 14 Feb 1996 09:31:15 +0100 (MET), Simon Cooke said: > > Well... DF1 and DF2 because it's closer to D1 and D2... > > In what way closer? Well... the first thing I always think of is "D..." when I want to use a drive. > I can think of no reason why I would rather type DF1 than FD1. I am less > likely to get it wrong if (a) all three are the same way around and (b) it's > closer to the English description ("floppy disk", not "disk floppy"). Okay - valid point. What I'd most prefer to do would be to have it like unix -- ie no drives at all... but that involves mounting them and stuff like that. Hmmm... what do you reckon, people? Have the floppies/whatever accessed via a /dev/dfa0/whatever path? :) Simon From sam-users-owner@nvg.unit.no Wed Feb 14 13:13:05 1996 Message-Id: <199602141309.OAA23525@sabre-wulf.nvg.unit.no> Subject: Re: File systems revisited To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Wed, 14 Feb 1996 13:07:20 +0100 (MET) Cc: Simon.Cooke@nessie.mcc.ac.uk (Simon Cooke) In-Reply-To: from "Andrew M Gale" at Feb 14, 96 11:02:43 am X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL21] From: Simon Cooke Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Status: RO Content-Length: 700 Lines: 20 > > I personally like the way it is at the moment! > > > > Why don't we just scrap the D altogether? We know we're not using > tape, and as for network.... come on! Well, the thing is, I want to add some stuff like COM1: for the comms interface, LPT1: for printer... so that you can copy files to them. Or at least that's the plan. Some people /do/ use the network too! And the tape system... but admittedly not too much. I much prefer the unix system, the numbers get in the way too much of what it all actually does, but I think we need something a little less cryptic than D8 / whatever. ps. anyone know if Nev's Hard Drive software lets you use two IDE drives on the same cable? Simon From sam-users-owner@nvg.unit.no Wed Feb 14 13:19:30 1996 Message-Id: <199602141317.OAA23656@sabre-wulf.nvg.unit.no> Subject: Re: Hello To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Wed, 14 Feb 1996 13:16:45 +0100 (MET) Cc: Simon.Cooke@nessie.mcc.ac.uk (Simon Cooke) In-Reply-To: <116CBC5E39@hhn1.hughall.nottingham.ac.uk> from "COLIN ANDERTON" at Feb 14, 96 12:22:50 pm X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL21] From: Simon Cooke Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Status: RO Content-Length: 198 Lines: 11 > Happy Valentine's Day, everyone. > > Lots of love, > > Colin Tsk :) He'll be wanting cards from us all next ;) (I've sent mine off... and a single red rose. Cost a bloody mint though). Simon From sam-users-owner@nvg.unit.no Wed Feb 14 13:20:39 1996 From: tsp93ma@soton.ac.uk Message-Id: <199602141319.NAA24154@vision.soton.ac.uk> Subject: Re: Hello To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Wed, 14 Feb 1996 13:19:10 +0000 (GMT) In-Reply-To: <116CBC5E39@hhn1.hughall.nottingham.ac.uk> from "COLIN ANDERTON" at Feb 14, 96 12:22:50 pm X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL23] Content-Type: text Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 274 Lines: 11 Awwww, Colin, I'm touched. But I'm afraid you'll never come between me and my love for the source to EGGBuM II. ....@/ -- Tim Paveley - Maths with Computer Science - University of Southampton Sad Snail Productions Web Pages: http://www.soton.ac.uk/~tsp93ma/Coupe/snail/ From imc Wed Feb 14 13:21:59 1996 Subject: Re: File systems revisited To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Wed, 14 Feb 1996 13:21:59 +0000 (GMT) In-Reply-To: <199602141305.OAA23457@sabre-wulf.nvg.unit.no> from "Simon Cooke" at Feb 14, 96 01:04:49 pm X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL24 PGP6] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Length: 591 Lines: 15 On Wed, 14 Feb 1996 13:04:49 +0100 (MET), Simon Cooke said: > Well... the first thing I always think of is "D..." when I want to use a > drive. Actually I think of A: B: and so on (probably). After all, lettering the drives is not really any different from numbering them; it's less typing, and the system is already popular (see the +3, CP/M and MS-DOS). > Hmmm... what do you reckon, people? Have the floppies/whatever accessed > via a /dev/dfa0/whatever path? I think you'll find that's actually /dev/fd0a (although the a denotes a partition number and isn't really required). imc From sam-users-owner@nvg.unit.no Wed Feb 14 15:20:53 1996 Date: Wed, 14 Feb 1996 14:01:04 +0000 (GMT) From: Daniel James Doore X-Sender: iq4d4385@jaffle-fddi To: Sam Users Subject: SoundBlaster killed my sound chip. Message-Id: Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/PLAIN; charset="US-ASCII" Status: RO Content-Length: 667 Lines: 22 There has been a death in the family. At 2:30am last night my sound chip made a buzzing noise and died at the hands of the 'LINE IN' socket. 1. Where can I get it repaired? 2. How much will it cost? I'm annoyed because I'm sure there were warnings about this on this list but hey, hindsight is a wonderful thing when you delete your mail :( H E L P ! Dan. +========================================================================+ | Dan Doore - Ex-Head Pod And Dogsbody | D.J.Doore-iq4d4385@lmu.ac.uk | | WARNING!! Only read every so often, so you might have to wait a bit. | +========================================================================+ From sam-users-owner@nvg.unit.no Wed Feb 14 16:03:57 1996 From: NEIL A MAYNARD To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Wed, 14 Feb 1996 16:00:56 GMT Subject: Re: File systems revisited Priority: normal X-Mailer: Pegasus Mail for Windows (v2.01) Message-Id: <21586D330D6@wmcu1.uwcm.ac.uk> Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 1079 Lines: 30 > From: Ian.Collier@comlab.oxford.ac.uk > On Wed, 14 Feb 1996 13:04:49 +0100 (MET), Simon Cooke said: > > Well... the first thing I always think of is "D..." when I want to use a > > drive. > > Actually I think of A: B: and so on (probably). After all, lettering the > drives is not really any different from numbering them; it's less typing, > and the system is already popular (see the +3, CP/M and MS-DOS). > I agree with this point and feel that it is very easy to remember!! > > Hmmm... what do you reckon, people? Have the floppies/whatever accessed > > via a /dev/dfa0/whatever path? > > I think you'll find that's actually /dev/fd0a (although the a denotes a > partition number and isn't really required). > > imc > This is a lot of typing and more difficult to remember Neil Maynard +------------------------------------------+ | Neil Maynard | | Tel:(01222) 743561 Fax:(01222) 766276 | | E-Mail: Maynard@cf.ac.uk | +------------------------------------------+ From sam-users-owner@nvg.unit.no Wed Feb 14 16:36:30 1996 Date: Wed, 14 Feb 96 17:28:21 MET From: Stefan Drissen Subject: RE: SoundBlaster killed my sound chip. To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no X-Mailer: Chameleon - TCP/IP for Windows by NetManage, Inc. Message-Id: Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/PLAIN; CHARSET="US-ASCII" Status: RO Content-Length: 1288 Lines: 33 >There has been a death in the family. > >At 2:30am last night my sound chip made a buzzing noise and died at the >hands of the 'LINE IN' socket. > >1. Where can I get it repaired? You'll probably have to do it yourself. Aargh! You should (hopefully) be able to get a new SAA1099 at your local electronics shop (I know I did). You'll then have to desolder the old SAA1099 and bung in a new one. When this happened to me Edwin Blink did all the wise stuff - and it worked like brand new afterwards. :) :) :) >2. How much will it cost? A new SAA1099 cost me 15 guilders at the time (6 pounds or so) - maybe this is the right time to get a SAMdac? (sorry - couldn't resist the plug ;) ) Stefan Drissen _____ ___ _ ___ ______ ___ ____ / _// \| | /\ | \ | _/ | /\ | \ _/ aka \_ \| || |__ / \| / | _|| |__ / \| / _| of ENTROPY /____/\___/\____\____\_|_\ |_| \____\____\_|_\___\ / \ / Email: drissen@pi.net http://www.pi.net/~drissen \ / Zevende Herven 6,5232 JZ 's-HERTOGENBOSCH,The Netherlands \ / telephone: +31-73-6414969 \ --------------------------------------------------------------- From sam-users-owner@nvg.unit.no Wed Feb 14 22:45:59 1996 Date: Wed, 14 Feb 96 23:43:16 MET From: Stefan Drissen Subject: RE: Hello To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no X-Mailer: Chameleon - TCP/IP for Windows by NetManage, Inc. Message-Id: Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/PLAIN; charset="US-ASCII" Status: RO Content-Length: 836 Lines: 24 >Happy Valentine's Day, everyone. > >Lots of love, > >Colin Where's my card then? (same to you btw, its just that once again, for the umpteenth year running I got myself a special PO box number to handle the excess mail, pointless :( ) Stefan Drissen _____ ___ _ ___ ______ ___ ____ / _// \| | /\ | \ | _/ | /\ | \ _/ aka \_ \| || |__ / \| / | _|| |__ / \| / _| of ENTROPY /____/\___/\____\____\_|_\ |_| \____\____\_|_\___\ / \ / Email: drissen@pi.net http://www.pi.net/~drissen \ / Zevende Herven 6,5232 JZ 's-HERTOGENBOSCH,The Netherlands \ / telephone: +31-73-6414969 \ --------------------------------------------------------------- From sam-users-owner@nvg.unit.no Thu Feb 15 09:05:52 1996 Message-Id: <199602150903.KAA10224@sabre-wulf.nvg.unit.no> Subject: More files... To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Thu, 15 Feb 1996 09:02:54 +0100 (MET) Cc: Simon.Cooke@nessie.mcc.ac.uk (Simon Cooke) X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL21] From: Simon Cooke Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Status: RO Content-Length: 1383 Lines: 41 'lo all, Just working on the DOS again ... now the problem is that it's going to have to handle about 6 or 7 different types of device... 1. HDOS Hard Drives (Nev Young style) 2. SAMDOS floppies 3. PRODOS floppies (CPM 2.2, Amstrad PCW 1512 b: format) 4. MSDOS floppies 5. EDOS floppies (when the spec is settled on -- at the moment, only the track 0, sector 1 format has been defined) 6. EDOS Hard Drives (SAM Users 'better-than-Nev's one' style) 7. RAM Drives The question is... how do we do the file accesses? What we need are: 1. Create 2. Open 3. Read 4. Write 5. Set position in file (random access?) We also need some method of getting file type information to and thro. Now, we can use KDSK headers for this purpose (and in fact I want to -- it should be a good system if it works), but we need some way of implementing this in the DOS. We also have problems with file names being of a different format on the different systems. This can be fixed, to an extent, but it's kludgy. I was thinking of using COGNOMEN files to store extra name information (ie a WIN 95 style lookup table, with disk-name to user-seen name mapping), but it might lead to longer access times. If anyone can think of the way that /they/ would like files accessed, and tell me, then I'll get to work on it. Otherwise I'll just see what I can come up with :) Simon From sam-users-owner@nvg.unit.no Thu Feb 15 09:19:44 1996 Date: Thu, 15 Feb 1996 07:54:48 GMT From: "Brian Gaff Sam Dept." Message-Id: <13520@bgserv.demon.co.uk> To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Subject: Of syntax and sound chips... X-Mailer: PCElm 1.10 Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 577 Lines: 18 Hmm, everyone has their pref on the syntax. However, if you plan to sell this to mr/mrs average, they will have no idea what UNIX is, let alone its syntax. I say, keep the logic as it is on SAM now as much as possible, while making it as expendable as possible. Sound chips... Mine still works, what exactly blows them up? Might I suggest that if you are in the habit of doing this, a sicket might be a good idea? Also, I can point anyone at a person who can do the work in the UK, but I have no idea of the price as he has not donm one yet! Brian -- Brian Gaff Sam Dept. From sam-users-owner@nvg.unit.no Thu Feb 15 10:46:08 1996 Message-Id: <199602151042.LAA11747@sabre-wulf.nvg.unit.no> Subject: Re: Of syntax and sound chips... To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Thu, 15 Feb 1996 10:41:41 +0100 (MET) Cc: Simon.Cooke@nessie.mcc.ac.uk (Simon Cooke) In-Reply-To: <13520@bgserv.demon.co.uk> from "Brian Gaff Sam Dept." at Feb 15, 96 07:54:48 am X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL21] From: Simon Cooke Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Status: RO Content-Length: 479 Lines: 13 > Sound chips... > > Mine still works, what exactly blows them up? Might I suggest > that if you are in the habit of doing this, a sicket might be a > good idea? Also, I can point anyone at a person who can do the > work in the UK, but I have no idea of the price as he has not > donm one yet! Probably the lack of an amp before it goes into the other system. If someone could just stick a unity-gain (follower) opamp in there, it'd probably not kill the soundchip :) Simon From sam-users-owner@nvg.unit.no Thu Feb 15 11:04:09 1996 Message-Id: <199602151101.MAA12147@sabre-wulf.nvg.unit.no> Subject: KDSK Headers & Cognomen files To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Thu, 15 Feb 1996 11:01:21 +0100 (MET) Cc: Simon.Cooke@nessie.mcc.ac.uk (Simon Cooke) X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL21] From: Simon Cooke Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Status: RO Content-Length: 1391 Lines: 41 Hi all, Sod it... how about getting rid of KDSK headers, and /just/ using COGNOMEN files instead? Sure, it'd be longer to access the data, but not all that much longer... So all you'd have is (say on MSDOS systems) your normal files... say they were: COGNOMSR.S MASTERDOS22 AUTOBOOTER SAM.C SAM.D On an MSDOS/CPM disk, they'd look something like this: COGNOMSR.S MASTERDOS.22 AUTOBOOT.ER SAM .C SAM .D SAM-INFO.COG The SAM-INFO.COG is a COGNOMEN (or naming) file. It's format could be something like this: COGNOMEN (8) Magic string... version (1) Version of COGNOMEN type file numfiles (2) Number of files (up to 65535?) using this file for info {11 total} Now, each file takes up to 256 bytes (?) on the disk... stored with it are: system (1) System the file came from (1 = SAMDOS, 2 = PRODOS/MSDOS - 0 indicates that the file info slot is empty) filename (11) Filename in the directory which this file can be found under. (doesn't include name/suffix separators under PRODOS/MSDOS) namelen (1) Length of the /real/ file name in characters. NB: name includes separators (eg file.nme) realname (n) Real name of the file, namelen characters long. length (4) File data length datetime (4) Date & Time of save? fsinfol (n) File specific information Or something like that... Any comments? Simon From sam-users-owner@nvg.unit.no Thu Feb 15 12:27:57 1996 Message-Id: From: ee31ag@ee.surrey.ac.uk (Andrew M Gale) Subject: Re: Of syntax and sound chips... To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Thu, 15 Feb 1996 12:22:32 +0000 (GMT) In-Reply-To: <13520@bgserv.demon.co.uk> from "Brian Gaff Sam Dept." at Feb 15, 96 07:54:48 am X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL24] Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Status: RO Content-Length: 505 Lines: 16 > Sound chips... > > Mine still works, what exactly blows them up? Might I suggest > that if you are in the habit of doing this, a sicket might be a > good idea? Also, I can point anyone at a person who can do the > work in the UK, but I have no idea of the price as he has not > donm one yet! > > Brian > Shorting the analogue outputs to +5v seems to do it! I remember someone mentioning (on this list) that they'd put their SAA1099 in a socket but now they have problems with dodgy connections.... From sam-users-owner@nvg.unit.no Thu Feb 15 15:09:44 1996 Message-Id: From: ee31ag@ee.surrey.ac.uk (Andrew M Gale) Subject: Re: Of syntax and sound chips... To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Thu, 15 Feb 1996 15:03:09 +0000 (GMT) In-Reply-To: <199602151042.LAA11747@sabre-wulf.nvg.unit.no> from "Simon Cooke" at Feb 15, 96 10:41:41 am X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL24] Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Status: RO Content-Length: 663 Lines: 16 > > Mine still works, what exactly blows them up? Might I suggest > > that if you are in the habit of doing this, a sicket might be a > > good idea? Also, I can point anyone at a person who can do the > > work in the UK, but I have no idea of the price as he has not > > donm one yet! > > Probably the lack of an amp before it goes into the other system. If > someone could just stick a unity-gain (follower) opamp in there, it'd > probably not kill the soundchip :) > > Simon And remembering to consider biassing around the op-amp - since the SAM has no negative supply.... Zapping an op-amp is far cheaper than zapping an SAA1099, so it'd be worth doing! From sam-users-owner@nvg.unit.no Thu Feb 15 15:36:07 1996 From: NEIL A MAYNARD To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Thu, 15 Feb 1996 15:17:19 GMT Subject: VGA Monitors Priority: normal X-Mailer: Pegasus Mail for Windows (v2.01) Message-Id: <22CCEAE24DF@wmcu1.uwcm.ac.uk> Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 396 Lines: 11 Is it possible to connect a SAM up to a VGA (PC Style) Monitor. If so they does someone know how to do it?? Cheers Neil Maynard +------------------------------------------+ | Neil Maynard | | Tel:(01222) 743561 Fax:(01222) 766276 | | E-Mail: Maynard@cf.ac.uk | +------------------------------------------+ From sam-users-owner@nvg.unit.no Thu Feb 15 16:25:28 1996 Message-Id: <199602151622.RAA18866@sabre-wulf.nvg.unit.no> Subject: Re: Of syntax and sound chips... To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Thu, 15 Feb 1996 16:21:56 +0100 (MET) Cc: Simon.Cooke@nessie.mcc.ac.uk (Simon Cooke) In-Reply-To: from "Andrew M Gale" at Feb 15, 96 03:03:09 pm X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL21] From: Simon Cooke Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Status: RO Content-Length: 330 Lines: 8 > And remembering to consider biassing around the op-amp - since > the SAM has no negative supply.... Zapping an op-amp is far > cheaper than zapping an SAA1099, so it'd be worth doing! > If you're willing to reduce a bit of the linearity for some protection, sticking a couple of diodes in to clamp it would work too... Simon From sam-users-owner@nvg.unit.no Thu Feb 15 17:33:24 1996 Message-Id: <199602151730.SAA20179@sabre-wulf.nvg.unit.no> Subject: Re: VGA Monitors To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Thu, 15 Feb 1996 17:29:39 +0100 (MET) Cc: Simon.Cooke@nessie.mcc.ac.uk (Simon Cooke) In-Reply-To: <22CCEAE24DF@wmcu1.uwcm.ac.uk> from "NEIL A MAYNARD" at Feb 15, 96 03:17:19 pm X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL21] From: Simon Cooke Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Status: RO Content-Length: 452 Lines: 14 > > Is it possible to connect a SAM up to a VGA (PC Style) Monitor. If so > they does someone know how to do it?? Well, the thing is you have to split the sync into horiz. and vert. sync -- which you have to integrate the signal to do. Probably not too hard. Do it with some spit, polish, and some passive components if you really tried... We offered to build something to do it in FORMAT a while back, but he never printed the offer... Simon From sam-users-owner@nvg.unit.no Thu Feb 15 20:09:35 1996 Message-Id: From: geoffw@jumper.mcc.ac.uk (Geoff Winkless) Date: Thu, 15 Feb 1996 20:06:51 +0000 In-Reply-To: ee31ag -- "Re: Of syntax and sound chips..." (Feb 15, 12:22pm) X-Mailer: Mail User's Shell (7.2.5 10/14/92) To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Subject: Re: Of syntax and sound chips... Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 518 Lines: 14 On Feb 15, 12:22pm in "Re: Of syntax and sound chips...", Andrew warbled: ] Shorting the analogue outputs to +5v seems to do it! I remember ] someone mentioning (on this list) that they'd put their SAA1099 ] in a socket but now they have problems with dodgy connections.... Yeah, I do. Then again, it could be because of my dodgy soldering to the socket :) I blew mine up by wire-orring a cd player and the sa1099 through to my amp. It doesn't like the outputs being pulled low (probably) and thus dies. -- Geoff From sam-users-owner@nvg.unit.no Fri Feb 16 01:55:46 1996 Date: Thu, 15 Feb 1996 17:42:02 +0000 (GMT) From: Si Owen To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Subject: Re: More files... In-Reply-To: <199602150903.KAA10224@sabre-wulf.nvg.unit.no> Message-Id: Organisation: Wordcraft International Ltd. Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/PLAIN; charset="US-ASCII" Status: RO Content-Length: 975 Lines: 29 On Thu, 15 Feb 1996, Simon Cooke wrote: > The question is... how do we do the file accesses? > > What we need are: > > 1. Create > 2. Open > 3. Read > 4. Write > 5. Set position in file (random access?) I'm probably thinking of this from a C sort of view, but never mind. How about Create being an option passed to open? Random access using Seek. Close, Delete and Rename?. Iterators are nice too: FindFirst (matching given criteria of filename and/or attributes etc.) and FindNext to find the next! What about getting/setting date, time, size etc.? Will these remain separate functions or be compounded in a Stat sort of equivalent? > Simon Si +------------------------------------+----------------------------------------+ | Si Owen | Email: si@obobo.demon.co.uk | | Wordcraft International Ltd, UK | Fax: +44-1332-295525 | +------------------------------------+----------------------------------------+ From sam-users-owner@nvg.unit.no Fri Feb 16 04:16:50 1996 From: Rob Partington Message-Id: <199602152302.XAA00467@heffer.demon.co.uk> Subject: Re: VGA Monitors To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Thu, 15 Feb 1996 23:02:29 +0000 (GMT) In-Reply-To: <199602151730.SAA20179@sabre-wulf.nvg.unit.no> from "Simon Cooke" at Feb 15, 96 05:29:39 pm X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL24] Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Status: RO Content-Length: 1022 Lines: 27 Simon Cooke wrote... > > > > > Is it possible to connect a SAM up to a VGA (PC Style) Monitor. If so > > they does someone know how to do it?? > > Well, the thing is you have to split the sync into horiz. and vert. sync > -- which you have to integrate the signal to do. > > Probably not too hard. Do it with some spit, polish, and some passive > components if you really tried... > > We offered to build something to do it in FORMAT a while back, but he > never printed the offer... Just to say that my SAM is connected to my Acorn AKF17 monitor via the Scart socket... Maybe this works on other monitors as well? -- +X------------------------------------------------------------------------oO+ | Bob Partington - rjp@heffer.demon.co.uk - Linux'd and Acorn'd # | work - http://www.adxis.com/ - personal - http://www.adxis.com/staff/rjp/ ^ | This message may not reflect the opinions of Adxis v +<----##############################################################------->+ From sam-users-owner@nvg.unit.no Fri Feb 16 07:26:28 1996 Date: Fri, 16 Feb 1996 06:54:03 GMT From: Briansam@bgserv.demon.co.uk (Brian Gaff Sam Dept.) Message-Id: <13551@bgserv.demon.co.uk> To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Subject: Re: Of syntax and sound chips... X-Mailer: PCElm 1.10 Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 810 Lines: 23 In message geoffw@jumper.mcc.ac.uk (Geoff Winkless) writes: > On Feb 15, 12:22pm in "Re: Of syntax and sound chips...", Andrew warbled: > ] Shorting the analogue outputs to +5v seems to do it! I remember > ] someone mentioning (on this list) that they'd put their SAA1099 > ] in a socket but now they have problems with dodgy connections.... > > Yeah, I do. Then again, it could be because of my dodgy soldering to > the socket :) > > I blew mine up by wire-orring a cd player and the sa1099 through to my > amp. It doesn't like the outputs being pulled low (probably) and thus > dies. > > -- > Geoff > One wonders what we are doing direct coupling AC circuits anyway. Surely if you did not fiddle with it internally, it should survove? Brian -- Brian Gaff Sam Dept. From sam-users-owner@nvg.unit.no Fri Feb 16 10:43:25 1996 Message-Id: <199602161041.LAA04854@sabre-wulf.nvg.unit.no> Subject: Re: More files... To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Fri, 16 Feb 1996 10:40:44 +0100 (MET) Cc: Simon.Cooke@nessie.mcc.ac.uk (Simon Cooke) In-Reply-To: from "Si Owen" at Feb 15, 96 05:42:02 pm X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL21] From: Simon Cooke Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Status: RO Content-Length: 727 Lines: 16 > On Thu, 15 Feb 1996, Simon Cooke wrote: > I'm probably thinking of this from a C sort of view, but never mind. > How about Create being an option passed to open? Random access using Seek. > Close, Delete and Rename?. Iterators are nice too: FindFirst (matching given > criteria of filename and/or attributes etc.) and FindNext to find the next! > > What about getting/setting date, time, size etc.? Will these remain separate > functions or be compounded in a Stat sort of equivalent? Dunno yet... to tell the truth, I've not looked into C enough (on the file handling side) to know much about how it does it... BUT the Iterators are familiar to me from CPM, which is how they do it, so I'd probably use them :) Simon From sam-users-owner@nvg.unit.no Fri Feb 16 16:23:46 1996 Date: 16 Feb 96 11:08:39 EST From: Andrew Collier <100751.545@compuserve.com> To: Sam users Subject: basic Message-Id: <960216160838_100751.545_GHV81-1@CompuServe.COM> Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 564 Lines: 13 I'm rather tempted to make the Compresser code ROM specific - presumably there aren't any changes to these magic numbers in 3.5 or Autoboot or whatever - but the compressed code should be able to expand on any machine. On a different tangent, does ANYIV take any notice of HMPR? If you do the recommended routine ending - LD A from "Andrew Collier" at Feb 16, 96 11:08:39 am X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL24 PGP6] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Length: 1452 Lines: 40 On 16 Feb 96 11:08:39 EST, Andrew Collier said: > On a different tangent, does ANYIV take any notice of HMPR? It's a location in memory, so it doesn't take notice of anything... You can easily see what happens by disassembling a few bytes from address 56. 0038 F5 PUSH AF 0039 C5 PUSH BC 003A DBF9 IN A,(STATPORT) 003C 4F LD C,A 003D DBFA IN A,(250) 003F 47 LD B,A ;B=LMPR, C=STATUS 0040 E5 PUSH HL 0041 3E5F LD A,PAGE1F+40H 0043 D3FA OUT (250),A ;BOTH ROMS ON, PAGE 0 IN SECTION B 0045 2A705B LD HL,(ANYIV) 0048 E9 JP (HL) It usually carries straight on (you can obviously get this address by checking ANYIV). 0049 ED73D25A ANYI: LD (SPSTORE),SP 004D 31004C LD SP,INTSTK 0050 CD2DD4 CALL INTS 0053 F9 LD SP,HL 0054 D3FA OUT (250),A 0056 E1 POP HL 0057 C1 POP BC 0058 F1 POP AF 0059 FB EI 005A C9 RET If you want to trap ANYIV then you do have to put port 250 back. A good way to do this is make sure that page 0 is in section B at all times so that putting it back doesn't page anything out. :-) Otherwise, try jumping to (ANYIV)+11 or just call it 0054. imc From imc Fri Feb 16 18:33:56 1996 Subject: Re: Of syntax and sound chips... To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Fri, 16 Feb 1996 18:33:56 +0000 (GMT) In-Reply-To: from "Geoff Winkless" at Feb 15, 96 08:06:51 pm X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL24 PGP6] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Length: 306 Lines: 9 On Thu, 15 Feb 1996 20:06:51 +0000, Geoff Winkless said: > I blew mine up by wire-orring a cd player and the sa1099 through to my > amp. It doesn't like the outputs being pulled low (probably) and thus > dies. Wire-or? Common sense seems to suggest a capacitor or two in there before you do that... imc From sam-users-owner@nvg.unit.no Sat Feb 17 08:42:13 1996 Date: Fri, 16 Feb 1996 20:11:41 +0000 (GMT) From: Si Owen To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Subject: Re: KDSK Headers & Cognomen files In-Reply-To: <199602151101.MAA12147@sabre-wulf.nvg.unit.no> Message-Id: Organisation: Wordcraft International Ltd. Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/PLAIN; charset="US-ASCII" Status: RO Content-Length: 944 Lines: 22 On Thu, 15 Feb 1996, Simon Cooke wrote: > Now, each file takes up to 256 bytes (?) on the disk... stored with it are: > > Or something like that... Any comments? Any thoughts on directory structure? If the same format will be used for hard disks, it won't be a good idea to stick to the current linear directory structure. Otherwise it'd also mean you had to reserve a certain amount of space at the start of the disk, and that would put a limit on the number of files you could store. Just wondering how directories fit into your file entries system. (hope it doesn't sound like I'm making trouble :-) ) > Simon Si +------------------------------------+----------------------------------------+ | Si Owen | Email: si@obobo.demon.co.uk | | Wordcraft International Ltd, UK | Fax: +44-1332-295525 | +------------------------------------+----------------------------------------+ From sam-users-owner@nvg.unit.no Sat Feb 17 12:08:29 1996 Date: Thu, 15 Feb 1996 19:30:09 +0100 (GMT) From: David Gommeren Subject: Re: VGA Monitors To: Sam List In-Reply-To: <22CCEAE24DF@wmcu1.uwcm.ac.uk> Message-Id: X-Mailer: ANT RISCOS Marcel [ver 0.99] Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/PLAIN; CHARSET="US-ASCII" Status: RO Content-Length: 533 Lines: 13 On Thu 15 Feb, NEIL A MAYNARD wrote: > Is it possible to connect a SAM up to a VGA (PC Style) Monitor. If so > they does someone know how to do it?? I don't think this is possible because (modern) VGA monitors can only lock onto a couple of resolutions/frequencies (640*480 at 70Hz, 800*600 at 70Hz etc.). Even if you take a multi-sync or similar monitor it will be a problem because the minimal horizontal frequency is far too high for the low-frequency (TV-compatible) output from the SAM. David Gommeren (gommerd@interpac.be) From sam-users-owner@nvg.unit.no Mon Feb 19 12:37:56 1996 Message-Id: <199602191230.NAA30310@sabre-wulf.nvg.unit.no> Subject: Re: KDSK Headers & Cognomen files To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Mon, 19 Feb 1996 12:29:44 +0100 (MET) Cc: Simon.Cooke@nessie.mcc.ac.uk (Simon Cooke) In-Reply-To: from "Si Owen" at Feb 16, 96 08:11:41 pm X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL21] From: Simon Cooke Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Status: RO Content-Length: 2683 Lines: 65 > > On Thu, 15 Feb 1996, Simon Cooke wrote: > > > Now, each file takes up to 256 bytes (?) on the disk... stored with it are: > > > > Or something like that... Any comments? > > Any thoughts on directory structure? If the same format will be used for > hard disks, it won't be a good idea to stick to the current linear directory > structure. Otherwise it'd also mean you had to reserve a certain amount of > space at the start of the disk, and that would put a limit on the number of > files you could store. Just wondering how directories fit into your file > entries system. (hope it doesn't sound like I'm making trouble :-) ) Ah... well, you see this is just for the Cognomen file -- all it actually is is a lookup file, which can be scanned for files with attributes which can't be stored in the directory structure of the disk it's stored on -- eg 256 character long filenames on an MSDOS disk, etc... It's not actually for the /real/ directory file structure, just a bodge to, say, give SAM file attributes on a PC disk, which can be recovered when copying them back to the SAM. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- As for the file system, I started off writing it and got a fair way this weekend, but I've had to restart from scratch -- I was doing it pretty much the wrong way (you need an incredibly flexible system for more than one possible disk structure), so now only certain routines are DOS independent, but all the file access routines that an application uses will be (to the user) identical. Eg: to open a file, you call fopen, with A holding a value such as: bits 7-5 - reserved -- set to zero!!! bit 4 - ? not sure yet -- probably end up as reserved though bit 3 - append to file on writes bit 2 - allow file to be created if doesn't exist bit 1 - allow file writes bit 0 - allow file reads and HL must have a value pointing to a valid file name terminated by a null. (The file name will be converted to a name suitable for a given DOS if necessary..?) Returns CF set if error, error code in A register or CF reset returns file reference number in A - used for all future file ops Close file Enters with A = file ref. no' to close, Exits with CF set on error, error code in A, or CF reset, A undefined Clear File Same conditions as CLOSE file, but abandons any buffered data. I'm going to have to write something akin to Malloc to allocate memory for files etc, and I've got a device/dos-specific allocation map for removable media devices, which solves problems about having files on different disks... but it's still a pain. I might write just the SAMDOS version for now instead of trying to do all three at once... Si From imc Mon Feb 19 14:40:07 1996 Subject: Re: KDSK Headers & Cognomen files To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Mon, 19 Feb 1996 14:40:07 +0000 (GMT) In-Reply-To: <199602191230.NAA30310@sabre-wulf.nvg.unit.no> from "Simon Cooke" at Feb 19, 96 12:29:44 pm X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL24 PGP6] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Length: 555 Lines: 14 On Mon, 19 Feb 1996 12:29:44 +0100 (MET), Simon Cooke said: > Eg: to open a file, you call fopen, with A holding a value such as: > bits 7-5 - reserved -- set to zero!!! > bit 4 - ? not sure yet -- probably end up as reserved though > bit 3 - append to file on writes > bit 2 - allow file to be created if doesn't exist > bit 1 - allow file writes > bit 0 - allow file reads There should be a bit for whether to truncate the file if it exists (PLUS3DOS also has one so that if the file exists then it is renamed to *.bak and a new file is created). imc From sam-users-owner@nvg.unit.no Mon Feb 19 15:40:50 1996 Message-Id: <199602191538.QAA01222@sabre-wulf.nvg.unit.no> Subject: Re: KDSK Headers & Cognomen files To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Mon, 19 Feb 1996 15:28:15 +0100 (MET) Cc: Simon.Cooke@nessie.mcc.ac.uk (Simon Cooke) In-Reply-To: <9602191440.AA01382@boothp2.ecs.ox.ac.uk> from "Ian.Collier@comlab.ox.ac.uk" at Feb 19, 96 02:40:08 pm X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL21] From: Simon Cooke Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Status: RO Content-Length: 1019 Lines: 24 > On Mon, 19 Feb 1996 12:29:44 +0100 (MET), Simon Cooke said: > > Eg: to open a file, you call fopen, with A holding a value such as: > > bits 7-5 - reserved -- set to zero!!! > > bit 4 - ? not sure yet -- probably end up as reserved though > > bit 3 - append to file on writes > > bit 2 - allow file to be created if doesn't exist > > bit 1 - allow file writes > > bit 0 - allow file reads > > There should be a bit for whether to truncate the file if it exists > (PLUS3DOS also has one so that if the file exists then it is renamed to > *.bak and a new file is created). I can go for that :) Actually, bits 7-4 can double up later; they're used internally for "file has changed", "buffer dirty", and disk DOS types at the moment - but since I only need the create/truncate bits when the file's opened... How does the append thing work? Does it force writes to the end of the file, or will it end with an error if you try to write earlier? Or does it just set the pointer on entry to the end of the file? Si From imc Mon Feb 19 16:06:25 1996 Subject: Re: KDSK Headers & Cognomen files To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Mon, 19 Feb 1996 16:06:25 +0000 (GMT) In-Reply-To: <199602191538.QAA01222@sabre-wulf.nvg.unit.no> from "Simon Cooke" at Feb 19, 96 03:28:15 pm X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL24 PGP6] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Length: 543 Lines: 11 On Mon, 19 Feb 1996 15:28:15 +0100 (MET), Simon Cooke said: > How does the append thing work? Does it force writes to the end of the > file, or will it end with an error if you try to write earlier? Or does > it just set the pointer on entry to the end of the file? In Unix it means you are allowed to seek (in order to read a record, for instance), but wherever the file pointer is when you write some data it always goes on the end of the file and the file pointer ends up at the end of the data (which is also the end of the file). imc From sam-users-owner@nvg.unit.no Mon Feb 19 18:55:05 1996 Date: Mon, 19 Feb 1996 18:23:32 +0000 (GMT) From: Daniel James Doore X-Sender: iq4d4385@jaffle-fddi To: Sam Users Subject: Re: Of syntax and sound chips... In-Reply-To: <13520@bgserv.demon.co.uk> Message-Id: Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/PLAIN; charset="US-ASCII" Status: RO Content-Length: 1205 Lines: 36 On Thu, 15 Feb 1996, Brian Gaff Sam Dept. wrote: > Sound chips... Now we're talking sausages! :) > Mine still works, what exactly blows them up? God only knows, one FZZZT and it was gone (with a 'spectrum vomit' crash screen to boot) > Might I suggest that if you are in the habit of doing this, a sicket > might be a good idea? It's not the sort of thing I am going to make a habit of, I can assure you of that, but If I get a replacement I'll probably socket it anyway. > Also, I can point anyone at a person who can do the > work in the UK, but I have no idea of the price as he has not > donm one yet! Cheers, if you could send me the details as and when I would appreciate it, but if the replacement is relativley easy to do (I'm reasonably deft with a soldering iron) can I get a replacement by mail order - from Maplin's or similar stockist? Cheema. * Dan. +========================================================================+ | Dan Doore - Ex-Head Pod And Dogsbody | D.J.Doore-iq4d4385@lmu.ac.uk | | WARNING!! Only read every so often, so you might have to wait a bit. | +========================================================================+ * Chee(rs) ma(te) ;-) From sam-users-owner@nvg.unit.no Tue Feb 20 15:11:44 1996 Message-Id: X-Sender: scooke@nessie.mcc.ac.uk X-Mailer: Windows Eudora Version 1.4.4 Date: Tue, 20 Feb 1996 14:59:35 +0000 To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no From: simon.cooke@umist.ac.uk (Simon Cooke) Subject: Re: KDSK Headers & Cognomen files Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Status: RO Content-Length: 1225 Lines: 28 >Status: RO > >On Mon, 19 Feb 1996 15:28:15 +0100 (MET), Simon Cooke said: >> How does the append thing work? Does it force writes to the end of the >> file, or will it end with an error if you try to write earlier? Or does >> it just set the pointer on entry to the end of the file? > >In Unix it means you are allowed to seek (in order to read a record, for >instance), but wherever the file pointer is when you write some data it >always goes on the end of the file and the file pointer ends up at the >end of the data (which is also the end of the file). Right, that's okay then - I can handle that :) BTW: when you do a truncate, does it alter the file immediately and truncate it to zero (kind of an erase, followed by the creation of a file with the same name & attributes, but no data), or does that only occur when the first data byte is written to it? Thanks, Simon -!- Mains Hum: A sine of the times??? +- Email:Simon.Cooke@umist.ac.uk ---- Fidonet: 2:250/124.2 (Simon Cooke) -+ | Snail:1 Dovey Close, Astley, Tyldesley, Manchester, M29 7NP, UK | | Tel: (01942) 886084 Fax: (01942) 886084 (ring voice first to confirm!)| +- WWW: http://jumper.mcc.ac.uk/~simonc ----------------------------------+ From imc Tue Feb 20 15:15:25 1996 Subject: Re: KDSK Headers & Cognomen files To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Tue, 20 Feb 1996 15:15:25 +0000 (GMT) In-Reply-To: from "Simon Cooke" at Feb 20, 96 02:59:35 pm X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL24 PGP6] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Length: 515 Lines: 11 On Tue, 20 Feb 1996 14:59:35 +0000, Simon Cooke said: > BTW: when you do a truncate, does it alter the file immediately and truncate > it to zero (kind of an erase, followed by the creation of a file with the > same name & attributes, but no data), or does that only occur when the first > data byte is written to it? The former. (Consider "ls -al > foo" when foo already exists. The listing is created after the file is opened but before any of it is written. The file is listed as being zero bytes long). imc From sam-users-owner@nvg.unit.no Tue Feb 20 23:32:38 1996 Date: Tue, 20 Feb 1996 12:06:45 +0000 (GMT) From: Si Owen To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Subject: Re: KDSK Headers & Cognomen files In-Reply-To: <9602191440.AA01382@boothp2.ecs.ox.ac.uk> Message-Id: Organisation: Wordcraft International Ltd. Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/PLAIN; charset="US-ASCII" Status: RO Content-Length: 827 Lines: 26 On Mon, 19 Feb 1996 Ian.Collier@comlab.ox.ac.uk wrote: > There should be a bit for whether to truncate the file if it exists This could be a 'create' option to opening a file, which some OSs support. We might even be able to save a bit by sharing bits for mutually exclusive options for read and write :-) > (PLUS3DOS also has one so that if the file exists then it is renamed to > *.bak and a new file is created). Yuk, PLUS3DOS shouldn't do that, it should be up to the application! > imc > Si +------------------------------------+----------------------------------------+ | Si Owen | Email: si@obobo.demon.co.uk | | Wordcraft International Ltd, UK | Fax: +44-1332-295525 | +------------------------------------+----------------------------------------+ From sam-users-owner@nvg.unit.no Wed Feb 21 00:25:26 1996 Date: Tue, 20 Feb 1996 11:59:24 +0000 (GMT) From: Si Owen To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Subject: Re: KDSK Headers & Cognomen files In-Reply-To: <199602191538.QAA01222@sabre-wulf.nvg.unit.no> Message-Id: Organisation: Wordcraft International Ltd. Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/PLAIN; charset="US-ASCII" Status: RO Content-Length: 922 Lines: 21 On Mon, 19 Feb 1996, Simon Cooke wrote: > How does the append thing work? Does it force writes to the end of the > file, or will it end with an error if you try to write earlier? Or does > it just set the pointer on entry to the end of the file? I think it's just the same as opening the file for writing, then seeking to the end of the file. Another function... what about Truncate, so truncate the file to a specified length. MS-Windows OpenFile() has a 'create' flag to opening a file, which opens a file for writing and truncates to zero length ; if the file didn't exist it is created. Si +------------------------------------+----------------------------------------+ | Si Owen | Email: si@obobo.demon.co.uk | | Wordcraft International Ltd, UK | Fax: +44-1332-295525 | +------------------------------------+----------------------------------------+ From sam-users-owner@nvg.unit.no Wed Feb 21 12:27:53 1996 From: ccaakrt Message-Id: <25878.9602211223@rs6-233.cls-4.bcc.ac.uk> Subject: Re: KDSK Headers & Cognomen files To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Wed, 21 Feb 1996 12:23:52 +0000 (GMT) In-Reply-To: from "Si Owen" at Feb 20, 96 12:06:45 pm X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL25] Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Status: RO Content-Length: 701 Lines: 20 > On Mon, 19 Feb 1996 Ian.Collier@comlab.ox.ac.uk wrote: > > > There should be a bit for whether to truncate the file if it exists Si Owen followed up with: > This could be a 'create' option to opening a file, which some OSs support. > We might even be able to save a bit by sharing bits for mutually exclusive > options for read and write :-) I hope all potential DOS authors note the smiley here! What about when you want to open a file for both reading AND writing. Yes, you do want to do that sometimes. A swap file for example. It's better to reserve a bit to mean "use extended bits in E register" than cram multiple meanings into every last bit. We're not on the ZX81 any more! / from "Si Owen" at Feb 20, 96 12:06:45 pm X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL24 PGP6] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Length: 769 Lines: 19 On Tue, 20 Feb 1996 12:06:45 +0000 (GMT), Si Owen said: > We might even be able to save a bit by sharing bits for mutually exclusive > options for read and write :-) The way to save bits is to eliminate the case "neither read nor write", not to eliminate "both read and write" as that can be quite useful. You can also eliminate "truncate and read" and other such nonsense. In fact, PLUS3DOS does it by numbering the combinations rather than having a bit for each one. > > (PLUS3DOS also has one so that if the file exists then it is renamed to > > *.bak and a new file is created). > Yuk, PLUS3DOS shouldn't do that, it should be up to the application! Why? With its current definition there is a consistent interface which does not require reams of code. imc From sam-users-owner@nvg.unit.no Thu Feb 22 21:17:45 1996 Date: Thu, 22 Feb 1996 17:50:51 +0000 (GMT) From: Si Owen To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Subject: Re: KDSK Headers & Cognomen files In-Reply-To: <9602211233.AA04020@boothp2.ecs.ox.ac.uk> Message-Id: Organisation: Wordcraft International Ltd. Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/PLAIN; charset="US-ASCII" Status: RO Content-Length: 957 Lines: 24 On Wed, 21 Feb 1996 Ian.Collier@comlab.ox.ac.uk wrote: > > > (PLUS3DOS also has one so that if the file exists then it is renamed to > > > *.bak and a new file is created). > > > Yuk, PLUS3DOS shouldn't do that, it should be up to the application! > > Why? With its current definition there is a consistent interface which does > not require reams of code. It doesn't sound like the sort of thing that the OS should do. Sounds more like they got bored, or had a spare bit they we're desperate to use! Maybe it stems from my dislike of certain text editors which litter my hard disk with backup files I don't want ;-) > imc Si +------------------------------------+----------------------------------------+ | Si Owen | Email: si@obobo.demon.co.uk | | Wordcraft International Ltd, UK | Fax: +44-1332-295525 | +------------------------------------+----------------------------------------+ From imc Fri Feb 23 11:30:28 1996 Subject: Re: KDSK Headers & Cognomen files To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Fri, 23 Feb 1996 11:30:28 +0000 (GMT) In-Reply-To: from "Si Owen" at Feb 22, 96 05:50:51 pm X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL24 PGP6] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Length: 460 Lines: 10 On Thu, 22 Feb 1996 17:50:51 +0000 (GMT), Si Owen said: > It doesn't sound like the sort of thing that the OS should do. Sounds more > like they got bored, or had a spare bit they we're desperate to use! Maybe it > stems from my dislike of certain text editors which litter my hard disk with > backup files I don't want ;-) It's up to the individual program to decide whether or not to do that, but if it does then it's a lot easier if the OS does it. imc From sam-users-owner@nvg.unit.no Wed Feb 28 11:09:33 1996 From: sh5655@bristol.ac.uk (SL. Harding) Message-Id: <199602281105.LAA28680@irix.bris.ac.uk> Subject: Re: Spectrum emulator To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Wed, 28 Feb 1996 11:05:28 +0000 (GMT) In-Reply-To: <9512151655.AA05751@boothp2.ecs.ox.ac.uk> from "Ian.Collier@comlab.ox.ac.uk" at Dec 15, 95 05:55:30 pm X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL21] Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 243 Lines: 7 This is probably a stupid question but how the hell do we run speccy stuff from sites such as nvg? I can't work it out! Judging be the stupidity of this question I recommend it is responded to via E-mail. thanks! sh5655@bris.ac.uk Steve. From imc Wed Feb 28 12:05:00 1996 Subject: Re: Spectrum emulator To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Wed, 28 Feb 1996 12:05:00 +0000 (GMT) In-Reply-To: <199602281105.LAA28680@irix.bris.ac.uk> from "SL. Harding" at Feb 28, 96 11:05:28 am X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL24 PGP6] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Length: 382 Lines: 13 On Wed, 28 Feb 1996 11:05:28 +0000 (GMT), SL. Harding said: > This is probably a stupid question but how the hell do we run speccy > stuff from sites such as nvg? I can't work it out! Can you be a bit more specific? What would you like to run it on, for example? > Judging be the stupidity of this question I recommend it is responded to > via E-mail. This _is_ email! :-) imc From sam-users-owner@nvg.unit.no Wed Feb 28 13:32:25 1996 From: sh5655@bristol.ac.uk (SL. Harding) Message-Id: <199602281327.NAA18499@irix.bris.ac.uk> Subject: Re: Spectrum emulator To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Wed, 28 Feb 1996 13:27:36 +0000 (GMT) In-Reply-To: <9602281205.AA04204@boothp2.ecs.ox.ac.uk> from "Ian.Collier@comlab.ox.ac.uk" at Feb 28, 96 12:05:00 pm X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL21] Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 543 Lines: 25 > > On Wed, 28 Feb 1996 11:05:28 +0000 (GMT), SL. Harding said: > > This is probably a stupid question but how the hell do we run speccy > > stuff from sites such as nvg? I can't work it out! > > Can you be a bit more specific? What would you like to run it on, > for example? > Snapshot files basically, such as those with extensions like .z80 and .tap > > Judging be the stupidity of this question I recommend it is responded to > > via E-mail. > > This _is_ email! :-) > You know what I mean! ;-) > imc > C9 Steve. From sam-users-owner@nvg.unit.no Wed Feb 28 13:33:13 1996 Message-Id: <9602281329.AA02568@dxmint.cern.ch> From: Allan Skillman (Dr Kid) Subject: Re: Spectrum emulator To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Wed, 28 Feb 96 14:29:11 MET In-Reply-To: <9602281205.AA04204@boothp2.ecs.ox.ac.uk>; from "Ian.Collier@comlab.ox.ac.uk" at Feb 28, 96 12:05 (noon) Mailer: Elm [revision: 70.85] Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 770 Lines: 15 As he is writing to the SAM group - I guess he means to run them on a SAM in spectrum 'mode'. +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Coming soon....... XCoupe, the one and only SAM Coupe emulator | | *** http//www.hep.ucl.ac.uk/~ajs/xcoupe *** | +------------------------------+-------------------------------------------+ | Allan Skillman | "There are five flavours of resons, the | | HEPP Group | elementary particles of magic : up, down, | | University College London | sideways, sex-appeal and peppermint." | | Email : ajs@hep.ucl.ac.uk | - Terry Pratchett (Lords and Ladies) | +------------------------------+-------------------------------------------+ From imc Wed Feb 28 13:33:38 1996 Subject: Re: Spectrum emulator To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Wed, 28 Feb 1996 13:33:38 +0000 (GMT) In-Reply-To: <199602281327.NAA18499@irix.bris.ac.uk> from "SL. Harding" at Feb 28, 96 01:27:36 pm X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL24 PGP6] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Length: 263 Lines: 9 On Wed, 28 Feb 1996 13:27:36 +0000 (GMT), SL. Harding said: > > Can you be a bit more specific? What would you like to run it on, > > for example? > Snapshot files basically, such as those with extensions like .z80 and .tap No, that's not what I asked... imc From sam-users-owner@nvg.unit.no Wed Feb 28 13:55:00 1996 From: sh5655@bristol.ac.uk (SL. Harding) Message-Id: <199602281351.NAA21681@irix.bris.ac.uk> Subject: Speccy Emu (Re) To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Wed, 28 Feb 1996 13:51:55 +0000 (GMT) X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL21] Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 878 Lines: 30 Forwarded message: > From cm4bcsrh@bs41.staffs.ac.uk Wed Feb 28 13:30:35 1996 > Hello! > > To run speccy stuff you need an emulator program such as "z80" or "jpp". These > programs are for the p.c and can be found in the utils directory of nvg if > I remember right. These programs will let you load the speccy games with > .sna and .z80 extentions. > There are emulators for other computers but i dont know much about them. > You do have a p.c I hope! > > I cant wait for the coupe emulator to come out for p.c! > > Bye Bye > > Steve > > cm4bcsrh@bs41.staffs.ac.uk So, nobody has written a sam 'patcher' to run such files on a speccie emulator for the sam? changing the subject completely... why has the number of conversations on this news group dropped off this term? is everyone spending all of their time working instead of samming? Oh well. C9 Steve H. From imc Wed Feb 28 14:08:48 1996 Subject: Re: Speccy Emu (Re) To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Wed, 28 Feb 1996 14:08:48 +0000 (GMT) In-Reply-To: <199602281351.NAA21681@irix.bris.ac.uk> from "SL. Harding" at Feb 28, 96 01:51:55 pm X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL24 PGP6] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Length: 466 Lines: 12 On Wed, 28 Feb 1996 13:51:55 +0000 (GMT), SL. Harding said: > So, nobody has written a sam 'patcher' to run such files on a > speccie emulator for the sam? Too bad your machine is an SGI rather than a Sun, otherwise you would have been able to write the .SNA files (almost) directly to a Sam disk with "samtools"... If you have a PC then Geoff's program might be able to write snapshots on sam disks, but I think Geoff might be the person to comment on that. imc From sam-users-owner@nvg.unit.no Wed Feb 28 14:12:48 1996 Message-Id: <9602281409.AA09859@dxmint.cern.ch> From: Allan Skillman (Dr Kid) Subject: Re: Speccy Emu (Re) To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Wed, 28 Feb 96 15:09:52 MET In-Reply-To: <199602281351.NAA21681@irix.bris.ac.uk>; from "SL. Harding" at Feb 28, 96 1:51 pm Mailer: Elm [revision: 70.85] Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 1324 Lines: 31 Hello again, > So, nobody has written a sam 'patcher' to run such files on a > speccie emulator for the sam? > Ah - you mean a program to convert .SNA snopshots to native SAM (+D) format snapshots, I wrote one of them a while ago in SAM Basic, I'm sure I posted it to nvg. I'll try and dig it out if you like. > > changing the subject completely... > why has the number of conversations on this news group dropped off > this term? is everyone spending all of their time working instead of samming? > Well my excuse is that I've been hard at work on XCoupe..... BTW Running a SAM emulator in speccy mode on a PC is a wierd experience :) Allan +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Coming soon....... XCoupe, the one and only SAM Coupe emulator | | *** http//www.hep.ucl.ac.uk/~ajs/xcoupe *** | +------------------------------+-------------------------------------------+ | Allan Skillman | "There are five flavours of resons, the | | HEPP Group | elementary particles of magic : up, down, | | University College London | sideways, sex-appeal and peppermint." | | Email : ajs@hep.ucl.ac.uk | - Terry Pratchett (Lords and Ladies) | +------------------------------+-------------------------------------------+ From sam-users-owner@nvg.unit.no Wed Feb 28 14:58:56 1996 From: James R Curry To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Wed, 28 Feb 1996 14:57:45 GMT Subject: .Z80/SNA files Priority: normal X-Mailer: Pegasus Mail for Windows (v2.23) Message-Id: <21704A14213@sahara.cms.dmu.ac.uk> Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 132 Lines: 8 Is there any program that allows .Z80/.SNA files to be run on the SAM? -- James R Curry. hc1jc@dmu.ac.uk Certified Insane. From sam-users-owner@nvg.unit.no Thu Feb 29 11:39:33 1996 From: sh5655@bristol.ac.uk (SL. Harding) Message-Id: <199602291136.LAA11777@irix.bris.ac.uk> Subject: Re: Speccy Emu (Re) To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Thu, 29 Feb 1996 11:36:24 +0000 (GMT) In-Reply-To: <9602281409.AA09859@dxmint.cern.ch> from "Allan Skillman" at Feb 28, 96 03:09:52 pm X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL21] Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 1142 Lines: 36 > > On Wed, 28 Feb 1996 13:27:36 +0000 (GMT), SL. Harding said: > > > Can you be a bit more specific? What would you like to run it on, > > > for example? > > > Snapshot files basically, such as those with extensions like .z80 and .tap > > No, that's not what I asked... > > imc > Oups! that is my thought for having my telnet window too small! Or am I just going mad? Yes I did mean to run them from a sam speccy emulator, If allen did post a converter to unit.no then I am sorted! I must be more specific in future! While I am here; Did anyone ever produce comprehensive lists of the programs at nvg each with, say, a paragraph about what they do? It would be helpfull if such information was held in text files at the top of each directory expecially in the utility and misc sections as their titles tend not to be that great a help in finding out what they do. It would save downloading and decompressing loads of them when looking for something. Steve H. P.S. I surpose I had better start signing meyself off as 'Numbly' (and why not?) instead of 'Steve' to avoid confusion with other members. C9 Numbly From sam-users-owner@nvg.unit.no Thu Feb 29 12:00:29 1996 Date: Thu, 29 Feb 1996 11:41:50 +0000 (GMT) From: Daniel James Doore X-Sender: iq4d4385@jaffle-fddi To: Sam Users Subject: Re: .Z80/SNA files In-Reply-To: <21704A14213@sahara.cms.dmu.ac.uk> Message-Id: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 741 Lines: 22 On Wed, 28 Feb 1996, James R Curry wrote: > Is there any program that allows .Z80/.SNA files > to be run on the SAM? Yep, David Zambonini (DMZ/Vodka) wrote one a while back, it's OK for Z80 files (48k only) but the SNA bit is a bit dodgy. I think it's on NVG, if not I can mail you a copy. I used Z80 on the PC to convert the SNA's to Z80 format and it worked a treat, now the house rings to the sound of Manic Miner at 3am. Dan. +========================================================================+ | Dan Doore - Ex-Head Pod and Dogsbody | D.J.Doore-iq4d4385@lmu.ac.uk | | WARNING!! Only read every so often, so you might have to wait a bit. | +========================================================================+ From sam-users-owner@nvg.unit.no Thu Feb 29 13:53:09 1996 From: Dave Hooper <9531427@EIGG.SMS.ED.AC.UK> Organization: Pion Software To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Thu, 29 Feb 1996 13:53:17 +0000 Subject: Re: CR/LF in text files (was Re: PDASM) Priority: normal X-Mailer: Pegasus Mail for Windows (v2.10) Message-Id: <1A44A35E6F@eigg.sms.ed.ac.uk> Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 2161 Lines: 56 Here's an old one! > 1) Unix: > printable ASCII, plus: > BS: CHR$(8) move back one column (used in overstrike sequences e.g. T+_, e+`) > TAB: CHR$(9) a TAB (advance to column divisible by 8) > LF: CHR$(10) line feed, implies CR (advance to beginning of next line), > FF: CHR$(12) a form feed (advance to end of page, especially for printers) > CR: CHR$(13) move back to column one (can be used to overstrike whole line) > all arranged never to exceed column 80, > > So for Unix, LF is the conventional end-of-line. > > 2) MSDOS: > DOS Character Set, incorporating printable ASCII, plus: > TAB: CHR$(9) a TAB (advance to column divisible by 8) > LF: CHR$(10) move down one row (but not necessarily to beginning of line) > FF: CHR$(12) a form feed (advance to end of page, especially for printers) > CR: CHR$(13) move back to column one > > And for MSDOS, CRLF is the conventional end-of-line. > > 3) Mac: > Apple Character Set, incorporating printable ASCII, and: > TAB: CHR$(9) a TAB (advance to Text window TAB stop) > CR: CHR$(13) carriage return implies LF (advance to beginning of next line) > > But for Macs, CR is the conventional end-of-line. > > From this I would conclude that to read a text file, one should > interpret any of LF, CR, CRLF, LFCR or FF as an end-of-line, and TAB > as whitespace implying a tabular layout. All other non-printable or > non-ASCII characters should be stripped or replaced with, say, "_", > respectively. > > To write a reasonably portable text file, use only printable ASCII, > plus TABS, and end lines with CRLF. Would it be sensible to read in a TAB character, but then replace it in memory with a number of white spaces, to bring it to a column divisible by 8? Then, when saving, it would still output white spaces. Is that ok? This is because I'm really thick and can't think of nice cheerful way to consider TABs in the text editor I'm writing. (still). There should (will, probably) be an option to save out with changes to line terminators, eg, it could convert all LF to CRLF or whatever (effectively a primitive export function). davee ____ | |_|\ | _ | Sticky |____| From imc Thu Feb 29 14:03:15 1996 Subject: Re: CR/LF in text files (was Re: PDASM) To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Thu, 29 Feb 1996 14:03:15 +0000 (GMT) In-Reply-To: <1A44A35E6F@eigg.sms.ed.ac.uk> from "Dave Hooper" at Feb 29, 96 01:53:17 pm X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL24 PGP6] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Length: 459 Lines: 11 On Thu, 29 Feb 1996 13:53:17 +0000, Dave Hooper said: > Would it be sensible to read in a TAB character, but then replace it > in memory with a number of white spaces, to bring it to a column > divisible by 8? Then, when saving, it would still output white > spaces. Is that ok? Not really. Some people really hate it when an editor messes with their whitespace. Also, some versions of "make" require tab characters to be present in the Makefile. imc From sam-users-owner@nvg.unit.no Fri Mar 1 17:53:37 1996 Date: Thu, 29 Feb 96 23:10:25 MET From: Stefan Drissen Subject: RE: Colin Anderton To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no X-Mailer: Chameleon - TCP/IP for Windows by NetManage, Inc. Message-Id: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 1548 Lines: 35 >I've just replied to your message, using the address in the From >field, with Confirm delivery selected. I haven't had any message >back from your server, so if you haven't recieved it, I've no idea >why. I can mail everyone else successfully. It's because Colin is in the middle of a passionate love affair with none other than the gorgeous (so I'm told - never seen her) Isla Fisher. :) There probably is a technical reason though, like the server not responding to crappy confirm delivery messages. I mean, if you don't get the message slammed back in your face I think that it's fairly safe to assume that it was indeed delivered.... holding my breath to hear otherwise. :) BTW Colin, ta for mentioning that really brilliant story I told you in the Freditorial - the screen I saw is the picture that was also on the previous Fred with you and Tim sitting next to each other behind the Fred stand. :) :) Sent the dosh yet James? Stefan Drissen _____ ___ _ ___ ______ ___ ____ / _// \| | /\ | \ | _/ | /\ | \ _/ aka \_ \| || |__ / \| / | _|| |__ / \| / _| of ENTROPY /____/\___/\____\____\_|_\ |_| \____\____\_|_\___\ / \ / Email: drissen@pi.net http://www.pi.net/~drissen \ / Zevende Herven 6,5232 JZ 's-HERTOGENBOSCH,The Netherlands \ / telephone: +31-73-6414969 \ ---------------------------------------------------------------