From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Mon Nov 25 16:32:45 1996 Message-Id: X-Mailer: Novell GroupWise 4.1 Date: Mon, 25 Nov 1996 16:21:40 +0000 From: Dan Doore To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Subject: Re: Programmers cheer - Reply Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 280 Lines: 17 > I thought the programmers cheer was: > > Shift it to the left. > Shift it to the right. > Push in, Pop out. > Byte, byte, byte! It sounds like something but it has *nothing* to do with programming :O You have far too much time on your hands, do some work matey :) Dan. From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Mon Nov 25 16:32:45 1996 X-Authentication-Warning: dcsun4.comp.brad.ac.uk: lwillis owned process doing -bs Date: Mon, 25 Nov 1996 16:23:02 +0000 (GMT) From: Lee Willis To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Subject: Re: 51 FPC Error, ARGH!!!! In-Reply-To: Message-Id: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 425 Lines: 16 On Mon, 25 Nov 1996, Justin Skists wrote: ;>On Mon, 25 Nov 1996, Frode Tenneboe wrote: ;> ;>And how comes there is no rounding function instead of just a trunc? I'd rather ;>9.9 equalled 10 than 9... Add 0.5 and then trunc it. This will do what you're looking for ... Lee. How many Microsoft employees does it take to screw in a light bulb? None, they just make darkness the industry standard! From imc Mon Nov 25 16:36:15 1996 Subject: Re: Samson text editor To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Mon, 25 Nov 1996 16:36:15 +0000 (GMT) In-Reply-To: from "Tim Wells" at Nov 23, 96 09:39:31 am X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL24 PGP6] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Content-Length: 325 Lines: 9 On Sat, 23 Nov 1996 09:39:31 +0000 (GMT), Tim Wells said: > Despite the plug for LaTex, it isn't WYSIWYG (at the moment*). > [* Qualifier added because I've recently seen lyx - a WYSIWYG front end - > but this is by no means a finished product] Scientific Word for Windows is allegedly a WYSYWIG interface to LaTeX. imc From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Mon Nov 25 16:38:38 1996 X-Authentication-Warning: dcsun4.comp.brad.ac.uk: lwillis owned process doing -bs Date: Mon, 25 Nov 1996 16:31:01 +0000 (GMT) From: Lee Willis To: sam users Subject: Re: SOS magic TAB key In-Reply-To: <199611251423.OAA11448@BITS.bris.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: 1148 Lines: 33 On Mon, 25 Nov 1996, Stephen Harding wrote: [My quote about Unix filename completion] ;>The trouble with the "I will only write as much as I can" method is how ;>the user is surposed to know if the whole thing has been generated or only ;>the first part. You generally know the name of the program you're trying to access, otherqisee why are you accessing it ... ? ;>I assume you mean that if there is only one file and the whole thing has ;>been generated there is an automatic enter. NO, no, no, and definitely no. Filename completion acts on any command for example if you were typing the name of an executable then it would probably be a nice idea to have an automatic return (Unless you were redirecting input and/or output etc. etc.) but if you were doing a copy you can do cp this[TAB] this[TAB].BAK so the TAB press completes it up to this_is_a_program and then lets you carry on and type the rest of your command line. An automatic return here would NOT be what you wanted ... Lee. How many Microsoft employees does it take to screw in a light bulb? None, they just make darkness the industry standard! From imc Mon Nov 25 16:38:54 1996 Subject: Re: Samson text editor (was Re: SAMSON: bundled software) To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Mon, 25 Nov 1996 16:38:54 +0000 (GMT) In-Reply-To: <903.199611231609@holly.csv.warwick.ac.uk> from "Mr P R Walker" at Nov 23, 96 04:09:01 pm X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL24 PGP6] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Content-Length: 480 Lines: 13 On Sat, 23 Nov 1996 16:09:01 +0000 (GMT), Mr P R Walker said: > > > editor that would recognise certain keywords and fill > > Well it's a possible addition to the syntax-highlighting editor that someone > > was talking about, but again this is something that would be sold, not given > > away. > Have you ever seen MindReader, for the PC? It does just this, and is > shareware. So what? (Anyway, shareware is software you pay for so this doesn't contradict what I said). imc From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Mon Nov 25 16:38:56 1996 Message-Id: <9611251622.AA7062@worldcom-47.worldcom.com> To: sam-users From: Stefan Drissen Date: 25 Nov 96 16:51:29 Subject: Re: E-Tracker nightmares - Reply Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: Text/Plain Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 1849 Lines: 87 >Doh!! > >[codey bits snipped] > >So, if I understand correctly once I load my tracker >tune at 65536, I should be able to do: > >void tracker_init() >{ >#asm > ld a,5 ;page for 65536?? > out(251),a > call 32768 >#endasm >} Wrong! To get the page use: page=(address/16384)-1 In this case that means for address 65536 you'll be wanting 3. >void tracker_play() >{ >#asm > ld a,5 > out(251),a > call 32772 ;I think, I'm sure it's not 32768 again >#endasm >} Wrong! The call is to 32771. Also the page is wrong obviously. >Where tracker_init gets called once and tracker_play >once each frame. Yep. >Looking at this, do I have to do additional things >e.g. disable interrupts, put the pages back ?? Nope. Well, not sure about putting the pages back for C. In case you do need to do something like that it would be safe to do the following: in a,(251) push af routine pop af out (251),a >Dan. Stefan "the bolt-on's much nicer down below" Drissen **************************************** This document should only be read by those persons to whom it is addressed and is not intended to be relied upon by any person without subsequent written confirmation of its contents. Accordingly, Coopers & Lybrand disclaim all responsibility and accept no liability (including in negligence) for the consequences for any person acting, or refraining from acting, on such information prior to the receipt by those persons of subsequent written confirmation. If you have received this E-mail message in error, please notify us immediately by telephone. Please also destroy and delete the message from your computer. Any form of reproduction, dissemination, copying, disclosure, modification, distribution and/or publication of this E-mail message is strictly prohibited. **************************************** From imc Mon Nov 25 16:47:31 1996 Subject: Re: z80 interrupts again To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Mon, 25 Nov 1996 16:47:31 +0000 (GMT) In-Reply-To: from "Andrew M Gale" at Nov 24, 96 01:38:03 am X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL24 PGP6] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Content-Length: 264 Lines: 8 On Sun, 24 Nov 1996 01:38:03 +0000 (GMT), Andrew M Gale said: > Thanks to everyone who replied on interrupts.... > but I've got another! Does HALT respond to both > INT and NMI interrupts Yes. Otherwise it would be in deep doodoo if you did "DI:HALT". :-) imc From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Mon Nov 25 16:58:53 1996 Date: Mon, 25 Nov 1996 16:35:52 +0000 (GMT) From: Justin Skists X-Sender: c93js1@napier.cms.dmu.ac.uk To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Subject: Re: Atari ST's.. Any good? In-Reply-To: <28F326B26D4@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: 1413 Lines: 29 On Mon, 25 Nov 1996, James R Curry wrote: > Actually, I find it to be a reliable computer.. It crashes less than > the PC's here at uni, the hard drive is very useful for data storage, ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Oh how true that is... I once lost all of my work once in the first year... Never did really trust them again... > there are some decent programs available and you can play 'Frontier' ^^^^^^^^ I got this game on the PC... It's a cool game! :) Almost as good as Elite! And did you guys know that that David Brabem got told of by (is it) Ian Bell for producing the sequel without his permission.... And people wonder why no-one can get permission to make Elite for the SAM.. I have also got the third Elite game (First Encounters) which is basically... Crap... VERY good graphics wise but it was too slow... And it IS REALLY funny trying to land on a planet with negative gravity! :) Errmmm... Oops.. Must mention SAM at least once! :) -- ============================================================================= |Justin Skists (c93js1@dmu.ac.uk) | Don't take life so seriously, | |BSc (Hons) Computer Science, Year 4 | you'll never survive it! | |De Montfort University, Leicester, England | - (C) CamLoRTS 1996 | ============================================================================= From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Mon Nov 25 16:58:53 1996 Date: Mon, 25 Nov 1996 11:37:32 -0500 From: BrenchleyR@aol.com Message-Id: <961125113731_1750557767@emout19.mail.aol.com> To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Subject: Re: item 1A - SRAM board Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 207 Lines: 10 In a message dated 25/11/96 12:34:08, you write: >If you can't do that, get Ghostscript... it'll be one of the best moves you >make today. > >Simon Ok Simon, so where do we all get Ghostcript from? Bob. From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Mon Nov 25 16:58:54 1996 Date: Mon, 25 Nov 1996 11:37:32 -0500 From: BrenchleyR@aol.com Message-Id: <961125113732_1784112071@emout20.mail.aol.com> To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Subject: Re: item 1A - SRAM board Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 820 Lines: 21 In a message dated 25/11/96 12:51:41, you write: >>Make it WMF if poss, it is the best for this sort of thing. > >Nope, it's the best for this sort of thing if you're using Windoze. If >you're on any other machine in the universe, Postscript is the standard. > >Simon Sorry, but can't agree with that Simon. Postscript may be the standard on MAC, but in the PC world (which is, like it or not, the majority) then Postscript is hardly ever used for file transfer like this. Of all the programs on my system, only Corel Draw (3 & 5) will load EPS files - but you have already said that is not the file type you are talking about. The standard with DOS is PCX, GIFF or TIFF. With Windows its WMF or BMP. JPG and a few others are gaining ground but I can find no reference at all to Postscript (other than EPS). Bob. From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Mon Nov 25 16:59:30 1996 X-Authentication-Warning: dcsun4.comp.brad.ac.uk: lwillis owned process doing -bs Date: Mon, 25 Nov 1996 16:54:05 +0000 (GMT) From: Lee Willis To: sam-users Subject: Re: E-Tracker nightmares - Reply In-Reply-To: <9611251622.AA7062@worldcom-47.worldcom.com> Message-Id: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 524 Lines: 25 On 25 Nov 1996, Stefan Drissen wrote: ;> ;>>void tracker_play() ;>>{ ;>>#asm ;>> ld a,5 ;>> out(251),a ;>> call 32772 ;I think, I'm sure it's not 32768 again ;>>#endasm ;>>} ;> ;>Wrong! The call is to 32771. Also the page is wrong obviously. I'm darn sure it's 32774 you know ... At least that's what I used to do in my demos and it always seemed to work OK ...! Lee. How many Microsoft employees does it take to screw in a light bulb? None, they just make darkness the industry standard! From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Mon Nov 25 16:59:51 1996 Date: Mon, 25 Nov 1996 11:37:25 -0500 From: BrenchleyR@aol.com Message-Id: <961125113725_1485980103@emout15.mail.aol.com> To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Subject: Re: Tecky manual = annoying Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 150 Lines: 9 In a message dated 23/11/96 19:18:11, you write: > >WHY?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ?? Why not? Bob From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Mon Nov 25 16:59:55 1996 X-Authentication-Warning: dcsun4.comp.brad.ac.uk: lwillis owned process doing -bs Date: Mon, 25 Nov 1996 16:37:07 +0000 (GMT) From: Lee Willis To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Subject: Re: E-Tracker nightmares - Reply In-Reply-To: Message-Id: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 1365 Lines: 61 On Mon, 25 Nov 1996, Dan Doore wrote: ;>[codey bits snipped] ;> ;>So, if I understand correctly once I load my tracker ;>tune at 65536, I should be able to do: ;> ;>void tracker_init() ;>{ ;>#asm in a,(251) push af ;> ld a,5 ;page for 65536?? ;> out(251),a ;> call 32768 pop af out (251),a ;>#endasm ;>} Yep OK so far ( Apart from replacing pages as you mentioned ... ). ;> ;>void tracker_play() ;>{ ;>#asm in a,(251) push af ;> ld a,5 ;> out(251),a ;> call 32772 sorry forgot to mention, should be 32774! pop af out (251),a ;>#endasm ;>} ;> ;>Where tracker_init gets called once and tracker_play ;>once each frame. ;> Yep, that should work .. ;>Looking at this, do I have to do additional things ;>e.g. disable interrupts, put the pages back ?? I'm not sure. C might save all registers for you on entering the assembler bit, if not you'll have to PUSH all of the registers E.g HL, DE, BC, AF, IX, IY, HL', DE', BC', AF' and then POP them all back off at the end. I'm not sure how C handles interrupts either, you'd have to ask someone who knows how the SAM C Compiler works .. Failing that, just try it and see what it does ... Lee. How many Microsoft employees does it take to screw in a light bulb? None, they just make darkness the industry standard! From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Mon Nov 25 17:00:14 1996 Date: Mon, 25 Nov 1996 11:37:36 -0500 From: BrenchleyR@aol.com Message-Id: <961125113734_1917490887@emout03.mail.aol.com> To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Subject: Re: item 1A - SRAM board Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 893 Lines: 24 In a message dated 25/11/96 12:59:46, you write: >;>Would be better to use any file format that Paint Shop Pro 3x will read, >;>that is the one that just about everyone will have, and EPS is not one of > ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ > > Hello? You're talking s...e again ??? > >Why do you insist on believing that everyone is well off, and has the same >system as you. Everyone has _different_ set-ups so this was a silly >comment to make ... > >Lee. Hold it, HOLD IT!!! Sorry Lee, but you don't have to be well of to have PaintShop Pro 3, it get on at least one cover disc a month, its available on then WWW and most other places, and even though it says you have a 90 day trial, I've seen unregistered copies saying "You are on day 1234 of your 90 day trial". If you want a copy then give me a postal adress and I will send you a copy on 31/2" disc. Bob. From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Mon Nov 25 17:00:14 1996 From: James R Curry Organization: De Montfort University To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Mon, 25 Nov 1996 16:51:15 GMT Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: QUOTED-PRINTABLE Subject: Re: Games Priority: normal X-Mailer: Pegasus Mail for Windows (v2.42a) Message-Id: <28FD8AC39AC@sahara.cms.dmu.ac.uk> Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 597 Lines: 17 Sorry that this message is a little late... I'm going through some=20 mail which I never read... > I must admit that I cannot understand why anyone wants to knock it. O= k, if > you already have the Sprectrum Elite, and you have the ability to tra= nsfer it > to SAM disc, then you would not be interested, but don't knock it jus= t > because you don't want it. Hmm.. I have more than one copy of that compilation with Elite on...=20 Maybe I should sell them off at =A32 each.. ;) -- James R Curry hc95jc@dmu.ac.uk "20 Dollars! Aw, I wanted a peanut.." - Homer Simpson, the Simpsons. From imc Mon Nov 25 17:16:28 1996 Subject: Re: Samson text editor (was Re: SAMSON: bundled software) To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Mon, 25 Nov 1996 17:16:28 +0000 (GMT) In-Reply-To: from "Lee Willis" at Nov 24, 96 04:35:15 pm X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL24 PGP6] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Content-Length: 368 Lines: 13 On Sun, 24 Nov 1996 16:35:15 +0000 (GMT), Lee Willis said: > What about reading a list of filenames into memory whenever a change > directory command is issued. That way the OS/DOS would just have to check > memory .... Could be too memory intensive, but worth a try ... :) That wouldn't work for less /users/saj/tem[TAB] less /users/saj/template would it? imc From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Mon Nov 25 17:17:02 1996 Message-Id: X-Mailer: Novell GroupWise 4.1 Date: Mon, 25 Nov 1996 16:53:28 +0000 From: Dan Doore To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Subject: Re: Atari ST's.. Any good? - Reply - Reply Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 447 Lines: 17 > I thought it had a faster processor... And better > MIDI capabilities. > > Oh... But I musn't forget, the AMIGA had better > GRAPHICS. And that of course, is what the quality > of a machine was judged on at the time.. Graphics make of break a computer, you know it, they know it, everybody knows it - you think the Sony PS lives off it's ability to use memory cards???? Anyway, there's no need for this on Sam-users anyway. EOL Dan. From imc Mon Nov 25 17:47:48 1996 Subject: Re: Samson text editor (was Re: SAMSON: bundled software) To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Mon, 25 Nov 1996 17:47:48 +0000 (GMT) In-Reply-To: from "Lee Willis" at Nov 24, 96 04:36:14 pm X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL24 PGP6] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Content-Length: 558 Lines: 17 On Sun, 24 Nov 1996 16:36:14 +0000 (GMT), Lee Willis said: > ;>Esc is not a particularly good key for anything much, given that function > ;>keys send it. But why TAB? > 'Cos its nice ... "Nice"? Why is it "nice"? (And besides, you wouldn't want to use this in an editor in case the person actually wanted to write a tab). > ;>imc <--- who is going to have difficulty if he ever changes his shell after > ;> using csh for so long :-) > Try tc shells, they make life easier all round .... No, if I change my shell it's going to be bash. imc From imc Mon Nov 25 17:51:17 1996 Subject: Re: SOS text editor To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Mon, 25 Nov 1996 17:51:17 +0000 (GMT) In-Reply-To: <199611242047.UAA00264@pipe2.uk.pipeline.com> from "Samsboss@uk.pipeline.com" at Nov 24, 96 08:47:35 pm X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL24 PGP6] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Content-Length: 715 Lines: 15 On Sun, 24 Nov 1996 20:47:35 GMT, Samsboss@uk.pipeline.com said: > Why? By that I mean why only the 'text' editor? A word proccessor, even a > fairly simple one, would be much better that a text editor. And yes I have > read all the mailings, I just dont see what you can do with a 'text' editor > that a proper word processor could do just as well and do a lot more > besides. Oh for heaven's sake! For the nth time, a word processor and a text editor are different. You don't edit programs on a word processor. While I personally probably wouldn't use a word processor I can see that one is needed to sell the machine to the masses. But a (separate) text editor definitely has to be on there as well. imc From imc Mon Nov 25 17:51:54 1996 Subject: Re: item 1A - SRAM board To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Mon, 25 Nov 1996 17:51:54 +0000 (GMT) In-Reply-To: <199611242047.UAA00268@pipe2.uk.pipeline.com> from "Samsboss@uk.pipeline.com" at Nov 24, 96 08:47:41 pm X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL24 PGP6] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Content-Length: 468 Lines: 15 On Sun, 24 Nov 1996 20:47:41 GMT, Samsboss@uk.pipeline.com said: > On Nov 24, 1996 16:14:31, 'Tim Wells ' wrote: > > > >Was going to offer, but see others have already volunteered. Would have > >thought that a postscript file would be fairly distributable though. > > > >Tim W. > -- > Would be better to use any file format that Paint Shop Pro 3x will read, > that is the one that just about everyone will have Oh no it isn't. imc From imc Mon Nov 25 18:04:28 1996 Subject: Re: How long a filename? To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Mon, 25 Nov 1996 18:04:28 +0000 (GMT) In-Reply-To: <9611250757.AA01986@asmal.edh-net> from "Frode Tenneboe" at Nov 25, 96 08:57:20 am X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL24 PGP6] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Content-Length: 411 Lines: 13 On Mon, 25 Nov 1996 08:57:20 +0100, Frode Tenneboe said: > *BZZZZT*; y-acute (ý) and y-diaeresis (ÿ) are both not ASCII. :) Why not? Is Y-acute (Ý) ASCII then? > > On the other hand, 127-159 are control codes in ISO8859. > You mean that 128-159 are extended control characters? Actually I don't know what they are, but whatever it is they are not printable. And 127 is DEL, which is a control code. imc From imc Mon Nov 25 18:05:41 1996 Subject: Re: Samson text editor (was Re: SAMSON: bundled software) To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Mon, 25 Nov 1996 18:05:41 +0000 (GMT) In-Reply-To: <9611250801.AA01996@asmal.edh-net> from "Frode Tenneboe" at Nov 25, 96 09:01:11 am X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL24 PGP6] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Content-Length: 374 Lines: 10 On Mon, 25 Nov 1996 09:01:11 +0100, Frode Tenneboe said: > Because it has a 'picturesque' implication - better than anything else > at least. TAB -> move cursor to the right (and fill in the rest of...) Sort of, I guess... (why not right-arrow then, seeing as it's not printable like TAB is?) There is a Help key on most Sun keyboards. Why doesn't it use that? :-) imc From imc Mon Nov 25 18:06:10 1996 Subject: Re: Samson text editor (was Re: SAMSON: b - Reply To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Mon, 25 Nov 1996 18:06:10 +0000 (GMT) In-Reply-To: from "Dan Doore" at Nov 25, 96 09:44:27 am X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL24 PGP6] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Content-Length: 281 Lines: 9 On Mon, 25 Nov 1996 09:44:27 +0000, Dan Doore said: > > True, I've always thought that the Escape key should > > be Very Big, Bright Red and labeled 'PANIC!!!' > I already have one, nestling between ESC and F1 :) What? For a start, ESC and F1 are nowhere near each other. imc From imc Mon Nov 25 18:10:47 1996 Subject: Re: SCREEN$ to PPM? To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Mon, 25 Nov 1996 18:10:47 +0000 (GMT) In-Reply-To: <1.5.4.32.19961125095305.0098cb44@nessie.mcc.ac.uk> from "Simon Cooke" at Nov 25, 96 09:53:05 am X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL24 PGP6] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Content-Length: 1295 Lines: 30 On Mon, 25 Nov 1996 09:53:05 +0000, Simon Cooke said: > > But still, turning the brightness > >up on your monitor probably alters it more than multiplying all values > >by 8/7. :-) > The SAM's RGB output stage is basically an R-2R ladder, which has quite good > monotonicity (as long as you assume that all the resistors are of resonable > tolerance). It's designed so that each level of brightness increases the > output voltage by a certain fraction of the max. output. OK. I never doubted this really. This doesn't affect my statement above about the brightness knob though. > Gamma values should really only be used to match linear color signals to > non-linear phosphor response curves. There's a gamma corrector in all > monitors and TV's, Not! Well not according to the Gamma Tutorial anyway. It claims that video cameras have a built-in gamma of about 0.5 to correct for the TV which has a gamma of about 2.5. > As the Gamma function is non-linear, you're still not getting the same > effect as doing the 8/7 multiplication trick -- you're introducing a > non-linearity to the data. I didn't claim it did. I did however claim that to my eyes a straight colour test works better with gamma than when viewed with no gamma correction. imc From imc Mon Nov 25 18:11:21 1996 Subject: Re: Samson text editor (was Re: SAMSON: bundled software) To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Mon, 25 Nov 1996 18:11:21 +0000 (GMT) In-Reply-To: from "Lee Willis" at Nov 25, 96 10:22:40 am X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL24 PGP6] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Content-Length: 311 Lines: 11 On Mon, 25 Nov 1996 10:22:40 +0000 (GMT), Lee Willis said: > On Fri, 22 Nov 1996 Ian.Collier@comlab.ox.ac.uk wrote: > ;>If you go with a non-BASIC command line then you can dispense with the > ;>quotes. You would still need them if you use OS commands within the > ;>BASIC though. > Why ???? Why what? imc From imc Mon Nov 25 18:12:13 1996 Subject: Re: z80 interrupts again To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Mon, 25 Nov 1996 18:12:13 +0000 (GMT) In-Reply-To: from "Lee Willis" at Nov 25, 96 10:49:21 am X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL24 PGP6] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Content-Length: 216 Lines: 10 On Mon, 25 Nov 1996 10:49:21 +0000 (GMT), Lee Willis said: > HALT responds at the start of the screen frame only I think > (Preparing to be shouted out for being totally wrong ..) YOU ARE TOTALLY WRONG. :-) imc From imc Mon Nov 25 18:12:49 1996 Subject: Re: item 1A - SRAM board To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Mon, 25 Nov 1996 18:12:49 +0000 (GMT) In-Reply-To: <199611251137.LAA23720@pipe1.uk.pipeline.com> from "Samsboss@uk.pipeline.com" at Nov 25, 96 11:37:59 am X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL24 PGP6] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Content-Length: 151 Lines: 6 On Mon, 25 Nov 1996 11:37:59 GMT, Samsboss@uk.pipeline.com said: > Make it WMF if poss, it is the best for this sort of thing. WTF is WMF? ;-) imc From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Mon Nov 25 18:38:38 1996 X-Authentication-Warning: dcsun4.comp.brad.ac.uk: lwillis owned process doing -bs Date: Mon, 25 Nov 1996 17:37:53 +0000 (GMT) From: Lee Willis To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Subject: Re: item 1A - SRAM board In-Reply-To: <961125113734_1917490887@emout03.mail.aol.com> Message-Id: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 971 Lines: 30 On Mon, 25 Nov 1996 BrenchleyR@aol.com wrote: ;>In a message dated 25/11/96 12:59:46, you write: ;> ;>>;>Would be better to use any file format that Paint Shop Pro 3x will read, ;>>;>that is the one that just about everyone will have, and EPS is not one of ;>> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ;>> ;>> Hello? You're talking s...e again ??? ;>> ;>>Why do you insist on believing that everyone is well off, and has the same ;>>system as you. Everyone has _different_ set-ups so this was a silly ;>>comment to make ... ;>> ;>>Lee. ;> ;>Hold it, HOLD IT!!! ;>Sorry Lee, but you don't have to be well of to have PaintShop Pro 3, it get Nope it was a reference to past occasions where samsboss cliamed that everyone could afford to buy all the SAM software ( A Blatantly untrue statment ...) Lee. How many Microsoft employees does it take to screw in a light bulb? None, they just make darkness the industry standard! From imc Mon Nov 25 18:38:52 1996 Subject: Re: E-Tracker + frames To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Mon, 25 Nov 1996 18:38:52 +0000 (GMT) In-Reply-To: from "Justin Skists" at Nov 25, 96 11:43:40 am X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL24 PGP6] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Content-Length: 933 Lines: 19 On Mon, 25 Nov 1996 11:43:40 +0000 (GMT), Justin Skists said: > Off on a tangent - How much CAN you get done in a TV frame? Approx how many > instructions on average? Each frame contains 312 lines and each line contains 384 Tstates. That makes 119808 Tstates per frame if you are running with the screen off. 192 of the lines are screen lines. 256 out of the 384 Tstates are screen Tstates. Most instructions run half as fast on the screen as they do off the screen (exceptions include INC HL, which takes the same amount of time). So we can characterise a screen line as containing 128 screen T'states and 128 off-screen T'states (where T' approximately equals T). This makes the total number of T'states in one frame 192*(128+128)+120*384 which is 95232 (about 79% of normal). Now what you need to know is the average length of an instruction in Tstates. I don't know this number but about 10 is probably not far off. imc From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Mon Nov 25 18:38:54 1996 X-Authentication-Warning: dcsun4.comp.brad.ac.uk: lwillis owned process doing -bs Date: Mon, 25 Nov 1996 17:41:44 +0000 (GMT) From: Lee Willis To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Subject: Re: Samson text editor (was Re: SAMSON: bundled software) In-Reply-To: <9611251716.AA01111@booth17.ecs.ox.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: 767 Lines: 28 On Mon, 25 Nov 1996 Ian.Collier@comlab.ox.ac.uk wrote: ;>On Sun, 24 Nov 1996 16:35:15 +0000 (GMT), Lee Willis said: ;>> What about reading a list of filenames into memory whenever a change ;>> directory command is issued. That way the OS/DOS would just have to check ;>> memory .... Could be too memory intensive, but worth a try ... :) ;> ;>That wouldn't work for ;> ;>less /users/saj/tem[TAB] ;>less /users/saj/template ;> ;>would it? ;> No, point taken but the OS would only have to read from disk if pathnames were included, and my first suggestion _might_ save time, you'd have to try it and see ... Lee. How many Microsoft employees does it take to screw in a light bulb? None, they just make darkness the industry standard! From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Mon Nov 25 18:39:30 1996 From: Gavin Smith Organization: University of Ulster To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Mon, 25 Nov 1996 18:26:18 GMT Subject: Re: item 1A - SRAM board Priority: normal X-Mailer: Pegasus Mail for Windows (v2.23) Message-Id: <199DC366D1B@smserver1.ulst.ac.uk> Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 193 Lines: 11 > > Would be better to use any file format that Paint Shop Pro 3x will read, > > that is the one that just about everyone will have > > Oh no it isn't. > > imc > Oh yes it is. Gavin Smith From imc Mon Nov 25 18:40:30 1996 Subject: Re: 51 FPC Error, ARGH!!!! To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Mon, 25 Nov 1996 18:40:30 +0000 (GMT) In-Reply-To: <9611251158.AA02567@asmal.edh-net> from "Frode Tenneboe" at Nov 25, 96 12:58:14 pm X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL24 PGP6] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Content-Length: 478 Lines: 16 On Mon, 25 Nov 1996 12:58:14 +0100, Frode Tenneboe said: > The problem, as far as I remember, is that you are multiplying two > numbers on integer form where the result is >65535. Try doing a > RST 28 > DB 31H ;RESTACK > DB 0H ;MULT > DB 33H ;EXIT I doubt this would make a difference, seeing it would be a pretty big bug if Sam BASIC couldn't multiply 1234 by 56! Perhaps the problem is that you are getting a floating point number back and you expected an integer? imc From imc Mon Nov 25 18:41:08 1996 Subject: Re: 51 FPC Error, ARGH!!!! To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Mon, 25 Nov 1996 18:41:08 +0000 (GMT) In-Reply-To: from "Justin Skists" at Nov 25, 96 12:36:15 pm X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL24 PGP6] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Content-Length: 322 Lines: 8 On Mon, 25 Nov 1996 12:36:15 +0000 (GMT), Justin Skists said: > Another question: Does the commands for MOD and IDIV work with a number such as > 65536 (91h, 00, 00, 00, 00 (AEDCB) in FPC-land)? I'm using these to convert to > and from 32bit (BCDE) integer numbers.. If it works in BASIC it should work on the FPC. imc From imc Mon Nov 25 18:44:36 1996 Subject: Re: item 1A - SRAM board To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Mon, 25 Nov 1996 18:44:36 +0000 (GMT) In-Reply-To: <199DC366D1B@smserver1.ulst.ac.uk> from "Gavin Smith" at Nov 25, 96 06:26:18 pm X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL24 PGP6] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Content-Length: 339 Lines: 12 On Mon, 25 Nov 1996 18:26:18 GMT, Gavin Smith said: > > > Would be better to use any file format that Paint Shop Pro 3x will read, > > > that is the one that just about everyone will have > > > > Oh no it isn't. > Oh yes it is. Well I haven't got it and it appears that Lee hasn't, so that's not "just about everyone" then is it? imc From imc Mon Nov 25 18:47:11 1996 Subject: Re: SOS magic TAB key To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Mon, 25 Nov 1996 18:47:11 +0000 (GMT) In-Reply-To: <199611251423.OAA11448@BITS.bris.ac.uk> from "Stephen Harding" at Nov 25, 96 02:23:25 pm X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL24 PGP6] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Content-Length: 432 Lines: 13 On Mon, 25 Nov 1996 14:23:25 +0000 (GMT), Stephen Harding said: > The trouble with the "I will only write as much as I can" method is how > the user is surposed to know if the whole thing has been generated or only > the first part. If it didn't complete the name because it was ambiguous or didn't exist then it beeps. > How about making a 'beep' if the OS requires you to type more. Oh so you _have_ used it before then. imc From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Mon Nov 25 21:33:25 1996 From: Gavin Smith Organization: University of Ulster To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Mon, 25 Nov 1996 18:39:08 GMT Subject: Re: How long a filename? Priority: normal X-Mailer: Pegasus Mail for Windows (v2.23) Message-Id: <19A12F7225D@smserver1.ulst.ac.uk> Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 802 Lines: 23 > On Mon, 25 Nov 1996 08:57:20 +0100, Frode Tenneboe said: > > *BZZZZT*; y-acute (y) and y-diaeresis (y) are both not ASCII. :) > > Why not? Is Y-acute (Y) ASCII then? > > > > On the other hand, 127-159 are control codes in ISO8859. > > > You mean that 128-159 are extended control characters? > > Actually I don't know what they are, but whatever it is they are not > printable. And 127 is DEL, which is a control code. > > imc Look, is this argument necessary? 255 is an ASCII code - at least its in the extended set - on this PC it is the character "_" 128-255 are in the extended set and vary from manufacturer to manufacturer. (My old C64 and my Speccy for example). Basically it can be whatever the manufacturer wants it to be, but yes, it is still an ASCII character. Gavin Smith From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Mon Nov 25 21:33:25 1996 From: Mr P R Walker Message-Id: <2643.199611251841@lily.csv.warwick.ac.uk> Subject: Re: item 1A - SRAM board To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Mon, 25 Nov 1996 18:41:12 +0000 (GMT) In-Reply-To: <199DC366D1B@smserver1.ulst.ac.uk> from "Gavin Smith" at Nov 25, 96 06:26:18 pm X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL25] 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: 194 Lines: 10 > > > Would be better to use any file format that Paint Shop Pro 3x will read, > > Oh no it isn't. > Oh yes it is. He's behind you! Paul AKA "no it isn't - at least, we don't have it here" From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Mon Nov 25 21:33:25 1996 From: Gavin Smith Organization: University of Ulster To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Mon, 25 Nov 1996 18:41:41 GMT Subject: Re: Samson text editor (was Re: SAMSON: b - Reply Priority: normal X-Mailer: Pegasus Mail for Windows (v2.23) Message-Id: <19A1E0A3C41@smserver1.ulst.ac.uk> Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 458 Lines: 13 > On Mon, 25 Nov 1996 09:44:27 +0000, Dan Doore said: > > > True, I've always thought that the Escape key should > > > be Very Big, Bright Red and labeled 'PANIC!!!' > > > I already have one, nestling between ESC and F1 :) > > What? For a start, ESC and F1 are nowhere near each other. > > imc What? ESC being the character next to the F1 key on the PC keyboard, means they "are nowhere near each other?" Or where you referring to the SAM keyboard? From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Mon Nov 25 21:33:26 1996 From: Gavin Smith Organization: University of Ulster To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Mon, 25 Nov 1996 18:30:50 GMT Subject: Re: SOS text editor Priority: normal X-Mailer: Pegasus Mail for Windows (v2.23) Message-Id: <199EFAC7E86@smserver1.ulst.ac.uk> Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 708 Lines: 18 > Oh for heaven's sake! For the nth time, a word processor and a text editor > are different. You don't edit programs on a word processor. > > While I personally probably wouldn't use a word processor I can see that > one is needed to sell the machine to the masses. But a (separate) text > editor definitely has to be on there as well. > > imc > Can't we have a text/word processor prog in one? I mean, there could be an option in the word processor to strip the program of all its fanciness, fonts etc to leave a bare text editor. The program could "remember" what option it was in the last time it was exited from (text editor or word processor) and automatically enter that mode. Gavin Smith From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Mon Nov 25 21:33:36 1996 X-Authentication-Warning: dcsun4.comp.brad.ac.uk: lwillis owned process doing -bs Date: Mon, 25 Nov 1996 18:47:58 +0000 (GMT) From: Lee Willis To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Subject: Re: Samson text editor (was Re: SAMSON: bundled software) In-Reply-To: <9611251811.AA01329@booth17.ecs.ox.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: 584 Lines: 22 On Mon, 25 Nov 1996 Ian.Collier@comlab.ox.ac.uk wrote: ;>On Mon, 25 Nov 1996 10:22:40 +0000 (GMT), Lee Willis said: ;>> On Fri, 22 Nov 1996 Ian.Collier@comlab.ox.ac.uk wrote: ;>> ;>If you go with a non-BASIC command line then you can dispense with the ;>> ;>quotes. You would still need them if you use OS commands within the ;>> ;>BASIC though. ;> ;>> Why ???? ;> ;>Why what? ;> Why would you need the quotes within BASIC ? Lee. How many Microsoft employees does it take to screw in a light bulb? None, they just make darkness the industry standard! From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Mon Nov 25 21:33:36 1996 Message-Id: From: ee31ag@ee.surrey.ac.uk (Andrew M Gale) Subject: another SRAM design.... To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Mon, 25 Nov 1996 18:55:25 +0000 (GMT) In-Reply-To: <199611191502_MC1-C2C-9800@compuserve.com> from "Neville Young" at Nov 19, 96 03:02:25 pm X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL24] 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: 209 Lines: 6 Whilst we're on the subject of SRAM boards, I'll post the design I had up on nvg... if I can work out how. It's less versatile than Nev's, but probably uses less components (8 ttl chips + 1 or 2 SRAMs) -Andy From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Mon Nov 25 21:33:36 1996 Message-Id: <1.5.4.32.19961125190009.0066db28@mail.enterprise.net> X-Sender: ffyon@mail.enterprise.net X-Mailer: Windows Eudora Light Version 1.5.4 (32) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Date: Mon, 25 Nov 1996 19:00:09 +0000 To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no From: Mark Walker Subject: Re: unsubscribe - Reply again Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 406 Lines: 9 I always was a bit slow! Sorry I have to leave...moving to Paris, new email address there - and I can't handle 100+ mails per day Mark ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mark Walker | ffyon@enterprise.net | This is NOT a sig. Repeat, this is NOT a sig. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Mon Nov 25 21:33:47 1996 Date: Mon, 25 Nov 1996 20:02:03 GMT Message-Id: <199611252002.UAA09067@pipe1.uk.pipeline.com> To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Subject: Re: SOS text editor From: samsboss@uk.pipeline.com (Samsboss@uk.pipeline.com) Cc: sam-users@nvg.unit.no X-Pipeuser: samsboss X-Pipehub: uk.pipeline.com X-Pipegcos: (Samsboss@uk.pipeline.com) X-Mailer: Pipeline v3.5.0 Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 916 Lines: 24 On Nov 25, 1996 17:51:17, 'Ian.Collier@comlab.ox.ac.uk' wrote: >Oh for heaven's sake! For the nth time, a word processor and a text editor >are different. You don't edit programs on a word processor. > >While I personally probably wouldn't use a word processor I can see that >one is needed to sell the machine to the masses. But a (separate) text >editor definitely has to be on there as well. > >imc -- If a text editor edits text, and so does a word processor, then the only difference is the way that they carry out that task. If for example you press a control+key combination to do something in your text editor, then there is no reason why that could not work in a wordprocessor package as well. Someone said it was the time a program took to load that made the difference - I can't take that serious. And as another person said, what % of SAMSON users will actually program. Samsboss. From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Mon Nov 25 21:33:48 1996 From: JohnnaPig Teare Organization: University of Central Lancashire To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Mon, 25 Nov 1996 19:04:58 GMT+0 Subject: Re: SOS text editor Priority: normal X-Mailer: Pegasus Mail for Windows (v2.33) Message-Id: Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 363 Lines: 12 > While I personally probably wouldn't use a word processor I can see that > one is needed to sell the machine to the masses. But a (separate) text > editor definitely has to be on there as well. So for the hundred and nth time, why can't we have both? > imc > Johnna Pig Teare (j.d.teare@uclan.ac.uk) "Mab is the Queen and there's a good apothecary man!" From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Mon Nov 25 21:33:48 1996 From: JohnnaPig Teare Organization: University of Central Lancashire To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Mon, 25 Nov 1996 19:06:06 GMT+0 Subject: Re: Big Red Button Priority: normal X-Mailer: Pegasus Mail for Windows (v2.33) Message-Id: Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 297 Lines: 12 > > I already have one, nestling between ESC and F1 :) > > What? For a start, ESC and F1 are nowhere near each other. Well I suppose it depends on what keyboard you're using, doesn't it? > imc > Johnna Pig Teare (j.d.teare@uclan.ac.uk) "Mab is the Queen and there's a good apothecary man!" From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Mon Nov 25 21:33:48 1996 From: JohnnaPig Teare Organization: University of Central Lancashire To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Mon, 25 Nov 1996 19:15:34 GMT+0 Subject: Re: Bizzare SAM stories Priority: normal X-Mailer: Pegasus Mail for Windows (v2.33) Message-Id: Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 2619 Lines: 65 Hello, > My right hand disk flappy thingy to cover up the hole has been > missing for the last 5 years. (Hey, bob, are replacements > available..?) The temptaion to play with these little buggers was too much for me - I snapped mine too, wrote a classified ad for inclusion in SCAC and the nice Phil Glover came to the rescue and sent me his one which he didn't need after he'd got a new drive. If you want one, I'm sure some hospitable soul will help you out. > Hmm.. If you like that story.. > > I once glued SYMBOL SHIFT down. > > Graham Goring and me managed to drop a TV set onto the SAM and snap > of 7 keys. Better than that, I dropped the computer on the floor, some of the keys fell out so i swopped them around and challended my girlfriend to a game of TnT with me on Joystick. Won by a mile... > We also managed to bounce a basket ball on his blue alpha sound > sampler while it was plugged in and playing a mod until it came out > and the entire thing crashed. Balanced my Yamaha Keyboard on top of my telly while playing MIDI through it, knocked the telly - the keyboard fell off and the power connector thing snapped - for the second time in it's short life. The Sam was also dragged across the desk and fell onto the floor (again!). > And I managed to headbutt the shelf the SAM was on from below.... A > fairly high up shelf.. The SAM was switched on.. It took a > quadruple backflip off the shelf, hit the floor *ON IT'S DISK > DRIVE!!* the disk flew out, the thing bounced over one more time onto > it's power button and switched itself off... Of course.. I needed > a new disk drive after this. The old one did work still, just VERY > SLOWLY! Damn...can't beat that one. Although, when my SAM keyboard started playing up I opened it up, snipped the edges of the frayed membrane connector and plugged it back in only to get different letters from various keys. I used to do the same thing with the Spectru all the time and it never failed, but on the SAM things were a different matter. Anybody have any clue as to why things were different? > > And my SAM *STILL* works.. Sturdy computers. And whenever we have power spikes, the SAM is always the last thing to go down. Let's face it... They're ace aren't they? I think we should have a road test with the SAM and see how much of a bashing we can give them. You can go first... > -- > James R Curry hc95jc@dmu.ac.uk > > "20 Dollars! Aw, I wanted a peanut.." - Homer Simpson, the Simpsons. > Johnna Pig Teare (j.d.teare@uclan.ac.uk) "Mab is the Queen and there's a good apothecary man!" From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Mon Nov 25 21:33:49 1996 From: JohnnaPig Teare Organization: University of Central Lancashire To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Mon, 25 Nov 1996 20:03:04 GMT+0 Subject: The SAM FAQs Priority: normal X-Mailer: Pegasus Mail for Windows (v2.33) Message-Id: Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 243 Lines: 11 Hello, Two questions really... 1) Who owns the SAM FAQs that I found whilst searchig the net for all things coupe? 2) Can I use them perlease? Johnna Pig Teare (j.d.teare@uclan.ac.uk) "Mab is the Queen and there's a good apothecary man!" From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Mon Nov 25 21:33:49 1996 Message-Id: From: ee31ag@ee.surrey.ac.uk (Andrew M Gale) Subject: SRAM To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Mon, 25 Nov 1996 20:48:38 +0000 (GMT) In-Reply-To: <961119114153_1318151952@emout11.mail.aol.com> from "BrenchleyR@aol.com" at Nov 19, 96 11:41:54 am X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL24] 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: 399 Lines: 13 I have put my files in ftp.nvg.unit.no - they are in the incoming directory but need to be authorised since I put them up anonymously. And they are in postscript and xfig formats... sorry! chip count is: 1 x ls138 1 x ls367 1 x ls74 1 x ls273 1 x ls244 1 x ls32 1 x ls08 1 x ls02 1 or 2 x 128K-by-8 SRAM, the number of which I don't recall just now - I will look it up! -Andy From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Mon Nov 25 21:55:20 1996 Date: Mon, 25 Nov 1996 21:00:28 +0000 (GMT) From: "A.S. Collier" X-Sender: asc25@puce.csi.cam.ac.uk To: Sam-users Subject: E-Tracker music Message-Id: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: QUOTED-PRINTABLE Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 1919 Lines: 51 150 messages you sent today! 150!! And I had to read them all before replying, or else I'd have repeated things... So, E-Tracker. Normally page it in to high memory, and call 32774 every frame. (But by compiling the tune at a different address you can change that.) And yes, it does take an age if you want to do it properly. Ther= e are easy ways to cheat if you don't mind using LOADSAMEMORY. But there is another answer. ProTracker2 has been released by Persona (someone was asking what to sp= end money on) I have reviewed the package in the latest issue of Zodiac, ou= t as soon as Michael prints it (along with Second Opinion, the Basic colu= mn competition special, a review AND SOME MAP of Momentum, and a whole loa= d of other features; =A31 write to Michael for details) For: This is a nicer looking, easier to use, and much more powerful package than E-Tracker. You get about a dozen demo tunes and several instruments. And it's slightly cheaper. All in all, I'd wholeheartedly recommend it except....=20 Against: The manual has not been written yet. (Not sure who's supposed = to be doing that, might even be me - erk. But as soon as it is finished, a copy will be sent to anyone who ordered it) Also, the 'compiler' is pre= tty non-existant. BUT I am writing a replacement for it, nearly finished it too (only a couple of commands left to incorporate) which reduces tune= s to a size of about 10 to 15K and executes pretty quickly - much faster than the standard E-Tracker player OR David Brant's ET player. And mine should be fully compatible with ProTracker itself. I hope. I guess I'll= be able to finish during the Christmas vac (which starts in a little under two weeks! I'm counting the days...)=20 All in all, buy ProTracker and work out how to use it. By the time you'= ve done that and written some music, I'll have finished the new compiler a= nd E-Tracker will be eating dust. Andrew From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 08:32:15 1996 Date: Mon, 25 Nov 1996 23:31:01 GMT Message-Id: <199611252331.XAA18911@pipe1.uk.pipeline.com> To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Subject: Re: SRAM From: samsboss@uk.pipeline.com (Samsboss@uk.pipeline.com) Cc: sam-users@nvg.unit.no X-Pipeuser: samsboss X-Pipehub: uk.pipeline.com X-Pipegcos: (Samsboss@uk.pipeline.com) X-Mailer: Pipeline v3.5.0 Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 888 Lines: 28 On Nov 25, 1996 20:48:38, 'ee31ag@ee.surrey.ac.uk (Andrew M Gale)' wrote: >And they are in >postscript and xfig formats... sorry! > > >-Andy -- Up until know I was getting to like you. What is XFIG when its at home (or not at home as the case may be). And how the $%^& to I get to look at the files in a format may sad little unknown, non-standard, underpowered, neglected machine can understand. ie any bl$%dy format that is used by a run of the mill graphics prog on a flaming PC? Is it too much to ask? (no I don't want the answer I know a couple of yous out there are bound to give so don't waste your time and mine). Come on folks, hows we gunna get sumit dun in de SAM world if half of us can't communicate with the other half in this world. Given the number of graphic formats we have to select from, there must be ONE we can all agree on. Samsboss. From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 08:33:35 1996 Date: Mon, 25 Nov 1996 17:44:38 -0500 From: Neville Young <106166.1560@CompuServe.COM> Subject: Re: Sram board To: sam users Message-Id: <199611251745_MC1-C66-150A@compuserve.com> Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 879 Lines: 24 Hi, Thanks Cookie. I was using the ROMCS line. If that don't work then I need some time to rethink before I upload it. My first idea is as follows: to write to the sram - select the required page, write enable it, then write to the last 16K block of the 4th 1Meg. This is similar to how Bruce did it for his RAM/ROM board but he didn't bother about any 1Megs being present. I would prefer to be able to just make the required block read-write as needed. Unfortunatley at first glance this would entail duplicating some of the ASIC's logic and latching the top 3 bits of port 250. Another way is to select the target block and then outpout 16K through a single port. Then again the sram is supposed to be emulating rom so I just might go with the first idea. Oh and it don't need 12V at 70A. The 4 sram chips claim to require 1uA each at 2V standby and 70mA at 5V. Nev From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 08:33:35 1996 Date: Mon, 25 Nov 1996 23:16:15 GMT Message-Id: <199611252316.XAA18160@pipe1.uk.pipeline.com> To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Subject: Re: item 1A - SRAM board From: samsboss@uk.pipeline.com (Samsboss@uk.pipeline.com) Cc: sam-users@nvg.unit.no X-Pipeuser: samsboss X-Pipehub: uk.pipeline.com X-Pipegcos: (Samsboss@uk.pipeline.com) X-Mailer: Pipeline v3.5.0 Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 488 Lines: 20 On Nov 25, 1996 18:44:36, 'Ian.Collier@comlab.ox.ac.uk' wrote: >> > > Would be better to use any file format that Paint Shop Pro 3x will read, >> > > that is the one that just about everyone will have >> > >> > Oh no it isn't. > >> Oh yes it is. > >Well I haven't got it and it appears that Lee hasn't, so that's not "just >about everyone" then is it? > >imc -- Well lets just say that in /the real world/ everyone I've come across has got Paintshop Pro 3. Samsboss. From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 08:33:36 1996 Message-Id: From: ee31ag@ee.surrey.ac.uk (Andrew M Gale) Subject: Re: SOS text editor To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Mon, 25 Nov 1996 21:45:40 +0000 (GMT) In-Reply-To: <199611252002.UAA09067@pipe1.uk.pipeline.com> from "Samsboss@uk.pipeline.com" at Nov 25, 96 08:02:03 pm X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL24] 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: 1159 Lines: 24 > If a text editor edits text, and so does a word processor, then the only > difference is the way that they carry out that task. If for example you > press a control+key combination to do something in your text editor, then > there is no reason why that could not work in a wordprocessor package as > well. > When you just want to edit text, wordprocessors ponce around too much. The number of times I've used X-Wordperfect and got little splodges on the screen when it doesn't update properly is too many! I know it's probably not true, but I always feel I can be more sure of exactly what I've got with a text editor - with a wordprocessor you can't be sure about number of spaces (especially with proportional fonts), the difference between tabs and spaces, the types of spaces ('soft' or 'hard'), and whether or not there are any control-codes whacked in [ok - this last point isn't so important since you can get most wps to strip the control codes]. I would like... a good wordprocessor, and a neat text editor. Actually, my favourite wp is Mini Office II on the C64 - basic, and could do with embellishment, but nice. And it's not wysiwyg. -Andy From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 08:33:36 1996 Date: Mon, 25 Nov 1996 18:16:17 -0500 From: Neville Young <106166.1560@compuserve.com> Subject: Re: E-tracker nightmares To: sam users Message-Id: <199611251817_MC1-C65-B6B4@compuserve.com> Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 538 Lines: 27 >> >>So, if I understand correctly once I load my tracker >>tune at 65536, I should be able to do: >> >>void tracker_init() >>{ >>#asm >> ld a,5 ;page for 65536?? >> out(251),a >> call 32768 >>#endasm >>} > > If your call lasts any time at all you'll need to preserve the screen mode: in a,(251) ; read current HMPR and a,0xE0 ; mask off screen mode or a,3 ; select page 3 for 65536 out (251),a ; switch page. call etc and make damm sure you're not executing from an address > 0x7FFF when you switch the page. Nev. From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 08:33:36 1996 Date: Mon, 25 Nov 1996 23:17:16 GMT Message-Id: <199611252317.XAA18282@pipe1.uk.pipeline.com> To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Subject: Re: Samson text editor (was Re: SAMSON: bundled software) From: samsboss@uk.pipeline.com (Samsboss@uk.pipeline.com) Cc: sam-users@nvg.unit.no X-Pipeuser: samsboss X-Pipehub: uk.pipeline.com X-Pipegcos: (Samsboss@uk.pipeline.com) X-Mailer: Pipeline v3.5.0 Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 196 Lines: 10 On Nov 25, 1996 18:47:58, 'Lee Willis ' wrote: >Why would you need the quotes within BASIC ? > >Lee. -- Cos it be part of the Basic syntax me boyo! Samsboss. From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 08:33:36 1996 Date: Mon, 25 Nov 1996 23:18:16 GMT Message-Id: <199611252318.XAA18356@pipe1.uk.pipeline.com> To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Subject: Re: another SRAM design.... From: samsboss@uk.pipeline.com (Samsboss@uk.pipeline.com) Cc: sam-users@nvg.unit.no X-Pipeuser: samsboss X-Pipehub: uk.pipeline.com X-Pipegcos: (Samsboss@uk.pipeline.com) X-Mailer: Pipeline v3.5.0 Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 366 Lines: 14 On Nov 25, 1996 18:55:25, 'ee31ag@ee.surrey.ac.uk (Andrew M Gale)' wrote: >Whilst we're on the subject of SRAM boards, I'll >post the design I had up on nvg... if I can work out how. >It's less versatile than Nev's, but probably uses less >components (8 ttl chips + 1 or 2 SRAMs) >-Andy -- Good idea, the more the.... Oh, and what format? Samsboss. From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 08:33:39 1996 Date: Mon, 25 Nov 1996 23:22:29 GMT Message-Id: <199611252322.XAA18603@pipe1.uk.pipeline.com> To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Subject: Re: Bizzare SAM stories From: samsboss@uk.pipeline.com (Samsboss@uk.pipeline.com) Cc: sam-users@nvg.unit.no X-Pipeuser: samsboss X-Pipehub: uk.pipeline.com X-Pipegcos: (Samsboss@uk.pipeline.com) X-Mailer: Pipeline v3.5.0 Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 301 Lines: 8 Please, Please, no more. These sad tales of misuesed and abused SAMs is causing me tooo much distress. If you don't all start treating your SAMs a lot better I'm going to report you to the RSPCS. So there... Samsboss. (I look after my SAM, there, there, I won't let them nasty men get at you.) From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 08:33:42 1996 From: JohnnaPig Teare Organization: University of Central Lancashire To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Mon, 25 Nov 1996 21:48:13 GMT+0 Subject: Overloaded! Priority: normal X-Mailer: Pegasus Mail for Windows (v2.33) Message-Id: Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 232 Lines: 7 Blimey! No mail for ages - not even returns from the ones I'd posted up and then 18 all at once! Have you ever heard about Buses...?! Johnna Pig Teare (j.d.teare@uclan.ac.uk) "Mab is the Queen and there's a good apothecary man!" From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 08:33:45 1996 Message-Id: <9611252300.AA9418@worldcom-57.worldcom.com> To: sam-users From: Stefan Drissen Date: 25 Nov 96 22:00:53 Subject: Re: What's out there... Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: Text/Plain Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 1770 Lines: 54 >> I thought I should fork out for some new SAM products. >> What should I buy? What has Fred got? What is the status of the >> HD interface? >> >> -Frode > >I was thinking of getting some new SAM stuff myself! I've got a nice >little 200 quid to spend on it. I figured I would buy the two new >Fred games, a subscription to the brilliant Blitz, Ice Chicken from >Persona (to relive childhood memories of Pengi on the Acorn >Electron), an upgrade to my old SC_Word Pro disk, an advance order >for the SAM_Clock and possibly even the HD interface. Any other ideas >anyone? > >Gavin Smith Don't forget to get yourself a SAMdac! Play those mods at a lovely 7 bit per channel resolution in stereo (ask Dan for an unbiased opinion!). Attaches to your parallel printer interface, for just 25 pounds (meaning that you can go along and treat yourself to 8 of them! ;^) ) Stefan. **************************************** This document should only be read by those persons to whom it is addressed and is not intended to be relied upon by any person without subsequent written confirmation of its contents. Accordingly, Coopers & Lybrand disclaim all responsibility and accept no liability (including in negligence) for the consequences for any person acting, or refraining from acting, on such information prior to the receipt by those persons of subsequent written confirmation. If you have received this E-mail message in error, please notify us immediately by telephone. Please also destroy and delete the message from your computer. Any form of reproduction, dissemination, copying, disclosure, modification, distribution and/or publication of this E-mail message is strictly prohibited. **************************************** From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 08:34:01 1996 Message-Id: <9611252302.AA9726@worldcom-57.worldcom.com> To: sam-users From: Stefan Drissen Date: 25 Nov 96 21:21:53 Subject: Re: SOS Hard Drives Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: Text/Plain Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 1840 Lines: 46 >> I never thought of this actually - hard drives wil have to be >> standard really, won't they. Will this push the price over our stlg300 >> or stlg400 limit? > >Not sure how expensive the rest will be, but the HD interface is about >60UKP and the hard drive will be about the same, probably. The power supply >will be in the PC-style case, so you don't need that, which would help. 60UKP???? You have got to be joking! That's the price that the SD Software one is going for. If you look at just the components of the interface you'll be needing not much more than 10UKP! Okay, so you've then got some assembly costs and a profit margin to put on top of that... As to a harddrive... the smallest one that you can get in large numbers seems to be an 850 meg drive (and these are dying out as well) for approx 100UKP. There must however be spare supplies of 500 meg drives out there somewhere... Stefan "cheers for changing the address Bob" Drissen **************************************** This document should only be read by those persons to whom it is addressed and is not intended to be relied upon by any person without subsequent written confirmation of its contents. Accordingly, Coopers & Lybrand disclaim all responsibility and accept no liability (including in negligence) for the consequences for any person acting, or refraining from acting, on such information prior to the receipt by those persons of subsequent written confirmation. If you have received this E-mail message in error, please notify us immediately by telephone. Please also destroy and delete the message from your computer. Any form of reproduction, dissemination, copying, disclosure, modification, distribution and/or publication of this E-mail message is strictly prohibited. **************************************** From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 08:34:21 1996 Message-Id: <9611252259.AA9278@worldcom-57.worldcom.com> To: sam-users From: Stefan Drissen Date: 25 Nov 96 22:14:39 Subject: Re: E-Tracker nightmares - Reply Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: Text/Plain Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 1580 Lines: 63 >On 25 Nov 1996, Stefan Drissen wrote: > >;> >;>>void tracker_play() >;>>{ >;>>#asm >;>> ld a,5 >;>> out(251),a >;>> call 32772 ;I think, I'm sure it's not 32768 again >;>>#endasm >;>>} >;> >;>Wrong! The call is to 32771. Also the page is wrong obviously. > >I'm darn sure it's 32774 you know ... Oops. It's been a while.... the pages are wrong though. I was actually reading my paging message and was amazed that no one went along and said that it should really be: page=(address DIV 16384)-1 >At least that's what I used to do in my demos and it always seemed to work >OK ...! Naaah, I won't hassle you about that sentence... ;^) >Lee. Those stars weren't going at 50Hz... Stefan. **************************************** This document should only be read by those persons to whom it is addressed and is not intended to be relied upon by any person without subsequent written confirmation of its contents. Accordingly, Coopers & Lybrand disclaim all responsibility and accept no liability (including in negligence) for the consequences for any person acting, or refraining from acting, on such information prior to the receipt by those persons of subsequent written confirmation. If you have received this E-mail message in error, please notify us immediately by telephone. Please also destroy and delete the message from your computer. Any form of reproduction, dissemination, copying, disclosure, modification, distribution and/or publication of this E-mail message is strictly prohibited. **************************************** From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 08:34:22 1996 Message-Id: <9611252302.AA9690@worldcom-57.worldcom.com> To: Neville Young <106166.1560@compuserve.com> Cc: sam users From: Stefan Drissen Date: 25 Nov 96 21:35:33 Subject: re: sensible FAT (prejudiced view) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: Text/Plain Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 1193 Lines: 42 >I know it's a prejudiced view but I quite like the HDOS filing system. It's >based on UNIX >with a few additions. >directory entries point to file sector allocation maps (inodes) which have >tables of sector start,end addresses > >Nev. Is one of the additions an even unfriendlier user interface? ;^) Stefan. **************************************** This document should only be read by those persons to whom it is addressed and is not intended to be relied upon by any person without subsequent written confirmation of its contents. Accordingly, Coopers & Lybrand disclaim all responsibility and accept no liability (including in negligence) for the consequences for any person acting, or refraining from acting, on such information prior to the receipt by those persons of subsequent written confirmation. If you have received this E-mail message in error, please notify us immediately by telephone. Please also destroy and delete the message from your computer. Any form of reproduction, dissemination, copying, disclosure, modification, distribution and/or publication of this E-mail message is strictly prohibited. **************************************** From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 08:34:27 1996 Message-Id: <9611260007.AA1188@worldcom-47.worldcom.com> To: sam-users From: Stefan Drissen Date: 25 Nov 96 21:26:45 Subject: Re: SAM speech... Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: Text/Plain Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 1509 Lines: 48 >>It is possible to generate speech in software. I'm sure the ARM can cope >>with this, though it might be a bit processor intensive and the existing >>algorithm uses floating point maths. >> >There must be a chip somewhere. >>imc > >Bob. Why bother wasting a chip on something as tackyish as speech synthesis. Just make sure that there's a decent DAC on the board and let the software do the rest. A speech only chip is in my opinon a total waste of time and money. Even our beloved current SAM can handle speech synthesis if it wants to! Stefan "still puddling around on a multipurpose sample player routine" Drissen. **************************************** This document should only be read by those persons to whom it is addressed and is not intended to be relied upon by any person without subsequent written confirmation of its contents. Accordingly, Coopers & Lybrand disclaim all responsibility and accept no liability (including in negligence) for the consequences for any person acting, or refraining from acting, on such information prior to the receipt by those persons of subsequent written confirmation. If you have received this E-mail message in error, please notify us immediately by telephone. Please also destroy and delete the message from your computer. Any form of reproduction, dissemination, copying, disclosure, modification, distribution and/or publication of this E-mail message is strictly prohibited. **************************************** From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 08:34:34 1996 Message-Id: <9611252302.AA9694@worldcom-57.worldcom.com> To: sam-users From: Stefan Drissen Date: 25 Nov 96 21:33:42 Subject: Re: SNA-RUNner: IFF2 - Reply - Reply Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: Text/Plain Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 2628 Lines: 68 >Two mods were looked at by Blue Alpha when they had control over the building >of SAMs. The first was the 8Mhz clocking, the second was a mod to reset the >1772. > >Both were rejected in the end, mainly because it was felt that they were not >really necessary. Yeah right. Not really necessary - sorry but I find this a total load of rot! It may not be really necessary if all that you are doing is playing games and always leave your discs write protected, if however you are actually doing something productive (codingwise) it happens all too often that the machine crashes and you have to push reset to reset the machine. Accientally leave the disc in the drive and bingo - bye bye work! >All I can say is that, given the thousands of discs that have gone through my >machines over the years, I doubt that I have had more than a handful of >corruptions and I don;t think that any of those can be traced to a problem >that would be cured by the DPU. I corrupted too many discs for my own good before getting the DPU. The whole idea of removing a disc before resetting a machine is totally unnatural. When turning the power on/off I do find removing the disc a natural behaviour. I used to own a Speccy with a disciple - no way did you have to do anything silly like removing the disc before resetting. The disciple also had a debounce NMI... what went wrong in SAM's design? >Of course, when we get round to designing a replacement for the 1772, we can >look at things again, but I would never want to see the golden rule changed. Golden rule? Sorry Bob, but as far as computers are concerned there's only one golden rule: the user is the boss. >Bob. I can give Edwin a call about using the DPU if you like. Stefan. **************************************** This document should only be read by those persons to whom it is addressed and is not intended to be relied upon by any person without subsequent written confirmation of its contents. Accordingly, Coopers & Lybrand disclaim all responsibility and accept no liability (including in negligence) for the consequences for any person acting, or refraining from acting, on such information prior to the receipt by those persons of subsequent written confirmation. If you have received this E-mail message in error, please notify us immediately by telephone. Please also destroy and delete the message from your computer. Any form of reproduction, dissemination, copying, disclosure, modification, distribution and/or publication of this E-mail message is strictly prohibited. **************************************** From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 08:35:36 1996 Message-Id: From: ee31ag@ee.surrey.ac.uk (Andrew M Gale) Subject: Nev & Simon To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Mon, 25 Nov 1996 21:34:54 +0000 (GMT) In-Reply-To: <199611191502_MC1-C2C-9800@compuserve.com> from "Neville Young" at Nov 19, 96 03:02:25 pm X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL24] 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: 749 Lines: 26 A few things occurred to me whilst drawing up the SRAM board regarding /dbdr : Nev: with the new sambus, would it be possible to have it so the buffers are automatically enabled during a cpu write? This saves any write-only hardware from driving the /dbdr line, and shouldn't cause any problems. I'd guess this is what you're going to do anyway... Simon: I spotted something regarding the Gemini schematic - to do with using rdl to drive /dbdir. Assuming we don't need to bother driving /dbdr for writes (see above) then there's still a problem - because the output buffers will become active even when the Gemini isn't being addressed (for example during a memory read) and hence the data to the cpu will be corrupted! Any thoughts?! -Andy From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 08:44:09 1996 X-Warning: Assuming character set ISO 8859-1 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=3Diso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 09:27:51 +0100 From: ft@edh.ericsson.se (Frode Tenneboe) Message-Id: <9611260827.AA03189@asmal.edh-net> To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Subject: Re: How long a filename? X-Sun-Charset: ISO-8859-1 Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 634 Lines: 24 >=20 > On Mon, 25 Nov 1996 08:57:20 +0100, Frode Tenneboe said: > > *BZZZZT*; y-acute (=FD) and y-diaeresis (=FF) are both not ASCII. := ) >=20 > Why not? Is Y-acute (=DD) ASCII then? No. ASCII is per definition 7-bit. >=20 > > > On the other hand, 127-159 are control codes in ISO8859. >=20 > > You mean that 128-159 are extended control characters? ...for ISO8859. >=20 > Actually I don't know what they are, but whatever it is they are not > printable. And 127 is DEL, which is a control code. Yes, 127 is a controll code for ASCII delete - actually, it comes from the days of the punchcards. Try to guess why. :) -Frode From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 08:44:09 1996 Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 09:29:32 +0100 From: ft@edh.ericsson.se (Frode Tenneboe) Message-Id: <9611260829.AA03192@asmal.edh-net> To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Subject: Re: Samson text editor (was Re: SAMSON: bundled software) X-Sun-Charset: US-ASCII Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 502 Lines: 16 > On Mon, 25 Nov 1996 09:01:11 +0100, Frode Tenneboe said: > > Because it has a 'picturesque' implication - better than anything else > > at least. TAB -> move cursor to the right (and fill in the rest of...) > > Sort of, I guess... (why not right-arrow then, seeing as it's not printable > like TAB is?) Because right-arrow has a definition on a command-line. > > There is a Help key on most Sun keyboards. Why doesn't it use that? :-) Because there is a TAB key on _all_ keyboards? -Frode From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 08:44:14 1996 Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 09:30:58 +0100 From: ft@edh.ericsson.se (Frode Tenneboe) Message-Id: <9611260830.AA03195@asmal.edh-net> To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Subject: Re: Samson text editor (was Re: SAMSON: bundled software) X-Sun-Charset: US-ASCII Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 421 Lines: 13 > > On Sun, 24 Nov 1996 16:36:14 +0000 (GMT), Lee Willis said: > > ;>Esc is not a particularly good key for anything much, given that function > > ;>keys send it. But why TAB? > > > 'Cos its nice ... > > "Nice"? Why is it "nice"? (And besides, you wouldn't want to use this in > an editor in case the person actually wanted to write a tab). Of course not, it isn't called file completion for nothing.... -Frode From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 08:44:14 1996 Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 09:34:02 +0100 From: ft@edh.ericsson.se (Frode Tenneboe) Message-Id: <9611260834.AA03198@asmal.edh-net> To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Subject: Re: How long a filename? X-Sun-Charset: US-ASCII Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 799 Lines: 19 > > Actually I don't know what they are, but whatever it is they are not > > printable. And 127 is DEL, which is a control code. > > > > imc > > Look, is this argument necessary? 255 is an ASCII code - at least its > in the extended set - on this PC it is the character "_" > > 128-255 are in the extended set and vary from manufacturer to > manufacturer. (My old C64 and my Speccy for example). Basically it can be whatever > the manufacturer wants it to be, but yes, it is still an ASCII character. It is necessary as some people apparently don't understand this. ASCII is a standard and is 7-bits. Therefor, an 8-bit characterset might be ASCII conforming, meaning that it has implemented 0-127 accoriding to ASCII standard, but as it is a 8-bit character it is not ASCII. Getit? -Frode From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 08:44:14 1996 Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 09:40:34 +0100 From: ft@edh.ericsson.se (Frode Tenneboe) Message-Id: <9611260840.AA03202@asmal.edh-net> To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Subject: Re: SRAM X-Sun-Charset: US-ASCII Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 241 Lines: 9 > > I have put my files in ftp.nvg.unit.no - they > are in the incoming directory but need to be authorised > since I put them up anonymously. And they are in > postscript and xfig formats... sorry! Moved into ./docs as sram.zip. -Frode From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 08:55:57 1996 Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 09:53:18 +0100 From: ft@edh.ericsson.se (Frode Tenneboe) Message-Id: <9611260853.AA03209@asmal.edh-net> To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Subject: Re: item 1A - SRAM board X-Sun-Charset: US-ASCII Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 1358 Lines: 35 > In a message dated 25/11/96 12:51:41, you write: > > >>Make it WMF if poss, it is the best for this sort of thing. > > > >Nope, it's the best for this sort of thing if you're using Windoze. If > >you're on any other machine in the universe, Postscript is the standard. > > > >Simon > > Sorry, but can't agree with that Simon. Postscript may be the standard on > MAC, but in the PC world (which is, like it or not, the majority) then > Postscript is hardly ever used for file transfer like this. PostScript is not standard on Mac, it _is_ standard. > > Of all the programs on my system, only Corel Draw (3 & 5) will load EPS files > - but you have already said that is not the file type you are talking about. THen it's about time you clean up your system. > > The standard with DOS is PCX, GIFF or TIFF. With Windows its WMF or BMP. JPG > and a few others are gaining ground but I can find no reference at all to > Postscript (other than EPS). BMP, PCX, GIF and TIFF are bitmaps, ie. not properly scalable. JPG is a lossy format in addidtion to not being scalable, and WMF is completely rubbish designed for and equal window manager. PS is a vector-based (with bitmap abilities) format - or, more a language. It is talked by most modern printers directly. It is also the most widely used format for interchange of non-bitmap graphics. -Frode From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 09:00:43 1996 Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 08:57:04 +0000 (GMT) From: Justin Skists X-Sender: c93js1@napier.cms.dmu.ac.uk To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Subject: Re: 51 FPC Error, ARGH!!!! In-Reply-To: <9611251840.AA01687@boothp2.ecs.ox.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: 995 Lines: 24 On Mon, 25 Nov 1996 Ian.Collier@comlab.ox.ac.uk wrote: > I doubt this would make a difference, seeing it would be a pretty big bug > if Sam BASIC couldn't multiply 1234 by 56! You're right... I tried this last night and it was OK... :( DAMN! What is the problem? Does anyone know the criteria needed to get 51 FPC error? I still can't get it by manipulating the numbers... > Perhaps the problem is that you are getting a floating point number back and > you expected an integer? Could be.. I'm sure I've always used IDIV, MOD and TRUNC if I wanted integers... Even JGETINT rounds it for me.. :) -- ============================================================================= |Justin Skists (c93js1@dmu.ac.uk) | Don't take life so seriously, | |BSc (Hons) Computer Science, Year 4 | you'll never survive it! | |De Montfort University, Leicester, England | - (C) CamLoRTS 1996 | ============================================================================= From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 09:05:12 1996 Message-Id: <1.5.4.32.19961126090503.008e68d4@nessie.mcc.ac.uk> X-Sender: scooke@nessie.mcc.ac.uk X-Mailer: Windows Eudora Light Version 1.5.4 (32) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 09:05:03 +0000 To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no From: Simon Cooke Subject: Re: Samson text editor (was Re: SAMSON: bundled software) Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 658 Lines: 17 At 05:16 PM 11/25/96 +0000, you wrote: >Status: > >On Sun, 24 Nov 1996 16:35:15 +0000 (GMT), Lee Willis said: >> What about reading a list of filenames into memory whenever a change >> directory command is issued. That way the OS/DOS would just have to check >> memory .... Could be too memory intensive, but worth a try ... :) Just add disk-cacheing to the DOS... could be problems in detecting media changes, but if you assume that no disk changes in less than 1 or 2 seconds, it might improve matters... Disk keys might work too ;) (generate a CRC of the boot sector, plus the random-number key, and that should give quite valuable data). Simon From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 09:47:01 1996 Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 10:17:51 +0100 From: ft@edh.ericsson.se (Frode Tenneboe) Message-Id: <9611260917.AA03284@asmal.edh-net> To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Subject: Re: 51 FPC Error, ARGH!!!! X-Sun-Charset: US-ASCII Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 719 Lines: 24 > On Mon, 25 Nov 1996 Ian.Collier@comlab.ox.ac.uk wrote: > > > I doubt this would make a difference, seeing it would be a pretty big bug > > if Sam BASIC couldn't multiply 1234 by 56! > > You're right... I tried this last night and it was OK... :( _not_ OK you mean? > DAMN! What is the problem? > > Does anyone know the criteria needed to get 51 FPC error? I still can't get it > by manipulating the numbers... Try leaving out bits and pieces and see when it fails. > > > Perhaps the problem is that you are getting a floating point number back and > > you expected an integer? > > Could be.. I'm sure I've always used IDIV, MOD and TRUNC if I wanted > integers... Even JGETINT rounds it for me.. :) -Frode From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 09:47:01 1996 Message-Id: <1.5.4.32.19961126092514.008f48fc@nessie.mcc.ac.uk> X-Sender: scooke@nessie.mcc.ac.uk X-Mailer: Windows Eudora Light Version 1.5.4 (32) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 09:25:14 +0000 To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no From: Simon Cooke Subject: Re: item 1A - SRAM board Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 443 Lines: 15 At 06:12 PM 11/25/96 +0000, you wrote: >Status: > >On Mon, 25 Nov 1996 11:37:59 GMT, Samsboss@uk.pipeline.com said: >> Make it WMF if poss, it is the best for this sort of thing. > >WTF is WMF? ;-) Windows Meta File -- the one that the GDI (Graphics device interface) code uses for graphics spooling to both screen and (with modifications) printer. Copies across the clipboard too... nice simple format, but not a standard one. Simon From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 09:47:02 1996 Message-Id: <1.5.4.32.19961126092538.008f8070@nessie.mcc.ac.uk> X-Sender: scooke@nessie.mcc.ac.uk X-Mailer: Windows Eudora Light Version 1.5.4 (32) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 09:25:38 +0000 To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no From: Simon Cooke Subject: Re: How long a filename? Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 225 Lines: 10 At 09:27 AM 11/26/96 +0100, you wrote: >Yes, 127 is a controll code for ASCII delete - actually, it comes >from the days of the punchcards. Try to guess why. :) All bits set ;) BTW, Frode: ever made a lace tape? ;) Simon From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 09:47:04 1996 Message-Id: <1.5.4.32.19961126092516.008fae98@nessie.mcc.ac.uk> X-Sender: scooke@nessie.mcc.ac.uk X-Mailer: Windows Eudora Light Version 1.5.4 (32) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 09:25:16 +0000 To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no From: Simon Cooke Subject: Re: SOS text editor Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 323 Lines: 11 At 08:02 PM 11/25/96 GMT, you wrote: >Someone said it was the time a program took to load that made the >difference - I can't take that serious. And as another person said, what % >of SAMSON users will actually program. If it's anything like the SAM (and it probably will be until "SAMGRANDSON"), then about 95% Simon From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 09:47:04 1996 Message-Id: <1.5.4.32.19961126092519.008f55d4@nessie.mcc.ac.uk> X-Sender: scooke@nessie.mcc.ac.uk X-Mailer: Windows Eudora Light Version 1.5.4 (32) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 09:25:19 +0000 To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no From: Simon Cooke Subject: Re: Nev & Simon Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 1479 Lines: 38 At 09:34 PM 11/25/96 +0000, you wrote: >Status: > >A few things occurred to me whilst drawing up >the SRAM board regarding /dbdr : > >Nev: with the new sambus, would it be possible to >have it so the buffers are automatically enabled >during a cpu write? This saves any write-only >hardware from driving the /dbdr line, and shouldn't >cause any problems. I'd guess this is what you're >going to do anyway... It's not difficult to drive the /dbdr line ... just use a resistor and a diode to invert the write line -- it's open collector so there should be no problem ;) (if it's not -- that side of my electronics knowledge is pretty flaky) then just add the relevant transistor... >Simon: I spotted something regarding the Gemini >schematic - to do with using rdl to drive /dbdir. >Assuming we don't need to bother driving /dbdr >for writes (see above) then there's still a problem >- because the output buffers will become active >even when the Gemini isn't being addressed (for >example during a memory read) and hence the data >to the cpu will be corrupted! I've not got a printout of the schematic in front of me, but there should be no problems -- the buffers should be pretty much tri-states, and the chip enable line on the comms chip will just tristate the bus when it's inactive... I've got a spare buffer on there (take away the stuff to do with interrupts -- I realised it was pretty redundant), so that could be used if the RDL stuff becomes a problem. Simon From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 09:47:06 1996 Message-Id: <1.5.4.32.19961126092528.008f817c@nessie.mcc.ac.uk> X-Sender: scooke@nessie.mcc.ac.uk X-Mailer: Windows Eudora Light Version 1.5.4 (32) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 09:25:28 +0000 To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no From: Simon Cooke Subject: Re: Sram board Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 916 Lines: 24 At 05:44 PM 11/25/96 -0500, you wrote: >Thanks Cookie. I was using the ROMCS line. >If that don't work then I need some time to rethink before I upload it. > >My first idea is as follows: to write to the sram - select the required >page, write enable it, then write to the last 16K block of the 4th 1Meg. >This is similar to how Bruce did it for his RAM/ROM board but he didn't >bother about any 1Megs being present. > >I would prefer to be able to just make the required block read-write as >needed. Unfortunatley at first glance this would entail duplicating some of >the ASIC's logic and latching the top 3 bits of port 250. > >Another way is to select the target block and then outpout 16K through a >single port. > >Then again the sram is supposed to be emulating rom so I just might go with >the first idea. Would you like me to ask Martin nicely if we can put the MultiROM design out on the list? Simon From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 09:47:24 1996 Message-Id: <1.5.4.32.19961126092537.00903ddc@nessie.mcc.ac.uk> X-Sender: scooke@nessie.mcc.ac.uk X-Mailer: Windows Eudora Light Version 1.5.4 (32) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 09:25:37 +0000 To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no From: Simon Cooke Subject: Re: SRAM Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 154 Lines: 8 At 11:31 PM 11/25/96 GMT, you wrote: >Given the number of graphic formats we have to select from, there must be >ONE we can all agree on. TIFF. Simon From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 09:47:24 1996 Message-Id: <1.5.4.32.19961126094258.00996d4c@nessie.mcc.ac.uk> X-Sender: scooke@nessie.mcc.ac.uk X-Mailer: Windows Eudora Light Version 1.5.4 (32) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 09:42:58 +0000 To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no From: Simon Cooke Subject: Re: GCC... Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 3184 Lines: 73 >1) As far as I know all the gcc backends use use two features of CPUs > which do not exist on the Z80, namely frame pointer manipulation > and stack frames. The former refers to the ability to address the stack > through an indexed addressing mode, ie in x86 > > MOV AX,[BP+DI] - loads AX with the contents of the offset BP+DI > in the stack segment. > This allows the compiler to keep track of the position in the C > code - required for debuggers. Stack frames are blocks of memory > in the stack used to pass varaibles to functions. Basically the CPU > can automatically allocate memory and move the stack pointer with > a single instruction - ENTER and LEAVE on x86. > Both of these could be done on a z80, but it requires quite a bit of > register manipulation resulting in inefficient code True, but the GCC compiler doesn't appear to prohibit you from doing it... in fact it caters for it by allowing you to define what registers it'll affect etc. >2) gcc works on a FLAT memory model, unlike REAL mode PC DOS compilers > it has no concept of near and far. For a z80 (rather than a z380) C > compiler a segmentated approach would be essential. I think a version of > gcc for the z380 is certainly possible. Now that /is/ a big problem. hmmm.. could we pass the handling of the paging to a linker and let the compiler come up with whatever code it likes? >> >> Also, are there any Z80 back-ends for GCC out there already? > >No - and I've check quite widely. I've also been in contact with the writers >of the other public domain C compilers bcc, c68 (the QL one) and lcc. The >latter one is probably our best bet for the SAM. There is a rumour of a >6502 backend for lcc - the only 8-bit version I have come across. Might it be reasonably easy to look at the way the C64 one was done and bodge it to do Z80? >The other point is that the C compiler itself is ONLY the first step. Even >with the backend all we get is assembly. For proper C developement we need >a proper assembler which produces object files (a normal SAM one won't do) >together with a linker and library generator etc. These last steps have >never existed for the SAM (Sam-C sidesteps the issue). They have been done >on z80 though on CP/M. *nods* >C programs are usually processed in the following way (even in DOS) > >myfile1.c\ / myfile1.o \ >myfile2.c +- COMPILER -> Assembler -+ myfile1.o + LINKER -> myfile1.exe >myfile3.c/ \ myfile1.o / > >SOURCE FILES OBJECT FILES EXE FILE > > >Note that ONLY at the LINKER stage do the lables get resolved to an >address in memory, this is fundementally different to standard assemblers >There is never the concept of a code file being created in memory. > >If you remove the compiler stage, this is the way assembly is done on a PC - >ie assembly source file NEVER contain an ORG statement. With this approach >code generation is far easier. Rightyho... in that case, the first thing we need to work on is a Linker[1]... any takers? Simon [1] well, maybe not the first thing... it needs to be done in parallel with the assembler which can handle linking... From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 09:48:12 1996 Message-Id: <1.5.4.32.19961126092535.00906c34@nessie.mcc.ac.uk> X-Sender: scooke@nessie.mcc.ac.uk X-Mailer: Windows Eudora Light Version 1.5.4 (32) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 09:25:35 +0000 To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no From: Simon Cooke Subject: Re: item 1A - SRAM board Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 316 Lines: 11 At 11:16 PM 11/25/96 GMT, you wrote: >Well lets just say that in /the real world/ everyone I've come across has >got Paintshop Pro 3. And what a wonderfully diverse place that real world of yours is. In /my/ real world, everyone I've come across has Adobe Photoshop. Or Paintshop Pro 4. Or Ghostscript... Simon From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 09:48:13 1996 Message-Id: <1.5.4.32.19961126092536.008f6f94@nessie.mcc.ac.uk> X-Sender: scooke@nessie.mcc.ac.uk X-Mailer: Windows Eudora Light Version 1.5.4 (32) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 09:25:36 +0000 To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no From: Simon Cooke Subject: Re: item 1A - SRAM board Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 325 Lines: 13 At 11:37 AM 11/25/96 -0500, you wrote: >Ok Simon, so where do we all get Ghostcript from? ftp://ftp.doc.ic.ac.uk/pub/packages/simtel/win3 It's in there somewhere. Alternatively, telnet to src.doc.ic.ac.uk, and perform an Archie search. Or do a search on the web using altavista: http://www.altavista.digital.com/ Simon From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 09:48:13 1996 Message-Id: <1.5.4.32.19961126094300.00991a80@nessie.mcc.ac.uk> X-Sender: scooke@nessie.mcc.ac.uk X-Mailer: Windows Eudora Light Version 1.5.4 (32) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 09:43:00 +0000 To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no From: Simon Cooke Subject: Re: SOS my right ARM. Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 940 Lines: 24 At 12:02 PM 11/18/96 +0000, you wrote: >Status: > >On Sun, 17 Nov 1996 15:37:00 +0000, Dave Hooper said: >> Presumably someone will have to write the graphics libraries for the >> RISC chip... so couldn't the butterfly technique be implemented there >> instead? > >It probably wouldn't be any use, since I imagine the screen will be stored >as one (or more) byte per pixel so there wouldn't be any advantage in >printing things in a silly order. What you'll need to be able to do is >split a byte of character data into bits, but I imagine the ARM can do >that efficiently without even using a table. AFAIK it can probably do it... it'll have a shift opcode at the very least... >However, if you want the ARM to print stuff for you then it will need a >copy of the font. How will this be arranged? Will you be able to select >from several different fonts? Presumably so... just upload a new one if you want to use it :) Simon From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 09:50:15 1996 Message-Id: From: ee31ag@ee.surrey.ac.uk (Andrew M Gale) Subject: Re: SRAM To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 09:47:25 +0000 (GMT) In-Reply-To: <199611252331.XAA18911@pipe1.uk.pipeline.com> from "Samsboss@uk.pipeline.com" at Nov 25, 96 11:31:01 pm X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL24] 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: 586 Lines: 14 > And how the $%^& to I get to look at the files in a format may sad little > unknown, non-standard, underpowered, neglected machine can understand. ie > any bl$%dy format that is used by a run of the mill graphics prog on a > flaming PC? > Calm down! Calm down! I've put it up in .eps format now as well. I did try .gif but I couldn't get a decent conversion from .ps to .gif --- so tough! I think you will find that most of the schematics to be found on the web are in postscript format, so if you want to see them, get yourself a viewer! (How about a .ps viewer for SAM?) -Andy From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 10:00:34 1996 Message-Id: X-Mailer: Novell GroupWise 4.1 Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 09:48:35 +0000 From: Dan Doore To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Subject: Re: Samson text editor (was Re: SAMSON: b - Reply Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 427 Lines: 18 > > > True, I've always thought that the Escape key should > > > be Very Big, Bright Red and labeled 'PANIC!!!' > > > I already have one, nestling between ESC and F1 :) > > What? For a start, ESC and F1 are nowhere near each other. PC Keyboard. I got it at a computer show - a nice little bright red self-adhesive key with PANIC written on it. A lot of people actually think it's linked to the alarm system :)) Dan. From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 10:00:43 1996 Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 04:52:26 -0500 From: BrenchleyR@aol.com Message-Id: <961126045225_231636727@emout02.mail.aol.com> To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Subject: Re: Bizzare SAM stories {WAS - Golden rule for disk safety} Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 165 Lines: 8 In a message dated 25/11/96 16:06:54, you write: >And my SAM *STILL* works.. Sturdy computers. >-- Designed to last, very few things like that these days. Bob. From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 10:00:44 1996 Message-Id: From: ee31ag@ee.surrey.ac.uk (Andrew M Gale) Subject: Re: Nev & Simon To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 09:49:38 +0000 (GMT) In-Reply-To: <1.5.4.32.19961126092519.008f55d4@nessie.mcc.ac.uk> from "Simon Cooke" at Nov 26, 96 09:25:19 am X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL24] 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: 323 Lines: 9 > I've not got a printout of the schematic in front of me, but there should be > no problems -- the buffers should be pretty much tri-states, and the chip > enable line on the comms chip will just tristate the bus when it's inactive... > Yes... it will tri-state the comms chip outputs, but not the SAMBus buffers. -ANdy From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 10:10:58 1996 Message-Id: <1.5.4.32.19961126100351.009882a8@nessie.mcc.ac.uk> X-Sender: scooke@nessie.mcc.ac.uk X-Mailer: Windows Eudora Light Version 1.5.4 (32) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 10:03:51 +0000 To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no From: Simon Cooke Subject: Re: Nev & Simon Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 650 Lines: 19 At 09:49 AM 11/26/96 +0000, you wrote: >Status: > >> I've not got a printout of the schematic in front of me, but there should be >> no problems -- the buffers should be pretty much tri-states, and the chip >> enable line on the comms chip will just tristate the bus when it's inactive... >> > >Yes... it will tri-state the comms chip outputs, but not the SAMBus >buffers. The SAMBUS buffers won't care anyway will they? They'll just be getting a floating signal from all interfaces whether they're enabled or not -- if more than one drives DBDIR in a simple manner based on the Processor RD/WR state, then it shouldn't have any affect. Simon. From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 10:11:26 1996 Message-Id: <1.5.4.32.19961126100654.0099e708@nessie.mcc.ac.uk> X-Sender: scooke@nessie.mcc.ac.uk X-Mailer: Windows Eudora Light Version 1.5.4 (32) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 10:06:54 +0000 To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no From: Simon Cooke Subject: Gif Converter source Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 32961 Lines: 1413 Hi everyone... the Ftp site was down (alas), so I'm sending it here... ;GIF File reader and converter ;~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ;Very dodgy and very alpha -- first pass only. Converted from C to SAM BASIC ;(I didn't know any C at the time, so it was very guessworky), and from ;SAM BASIC to M/C. No optimisation at this stage. Please feel free to play, ;as long as I get some credit... ;(c) 1993 Simon Cooke ;The usual copyright applies - OKAY CHRIS???!!!!!!!!!!!! ; ^^^^^^^^^^^ for the uninitiated, this is Chris White.. ; we've swapped routines for years ;) ;Time flies like an arrow.... ;Fruit-flies like a banana! ;Things to do ;=-=-=<>=-=-= ;Modify so that it can handle OTHER than just 8bit piccies ;Quantized palette relocation ORG &8000 DUMP 1,0 lmpr: EQU &FA hmpr: EQU &FB vmpr: EQU &FC brdr: EQU &FE gif.l.off: EQU 0 ;GIF loaded at 65536 gif.l.p: EQU 3 put.off: EQU 0 ;final image stored page 13... put.p: EQU 11 scr.width: EQU 128 scr.depth: EQU 192/2 x.start: EQU 128-16 y.start: EQU 180 decode.method: EQU 3 ;For decoding methods: ;0 - monochrome ;1 - bayer dither ;2 - 1 bit guns (BRMGCYW - speccy colours) ;3 - 1 bit guns , bayer dithered... ;4 - quantized palette start: DI CALL initialise IN A,(lmpr) LD (lmpr.store),A IN A,(vmpr) LD (vmpr.store),A LD (sp.store),SP LD SP,other.stack CALL convert.gif CALL show.gif ret.to.basic: LD A,(lmpr.store) OUT (lmpr),A LD A,(vmpr.store) OUT (vmpr),A LD SP,(sp.store) okayer: LD A,&7F IN A,(&FE) RRA RRA JR C,okayer LD A,(error) OR A JR Z,palette LD L,A LD H,0 ADD HL,HL LD DE,error.table ADD HL,DE LD E,(HL) INC HL LD D,(HL) EX DE,HL CALL send.message palette: LD A,(decode.flags) OR A JR NZ,not.monoc LD HL,lum.palette JR out.pal not.monoc: LD HL,bayer.palette out.pal: PUSH HL LD DE,&55D8 LD BC,16 LDIR POP HL LD DE,&55D8+20 LD BC,16 LDIR LD BC,(return.code) ;VALUE TO RETURN TO BASIC EI RET ;Initialise routines ;-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- initialise: LD A,&FE CALL &112 LD HL,init.errors CALL send.message LD HL,gif.l.off LD A,gif.l.p LD (read.off),HL LD (read.p),A LD A,put.p LD HL,put.off LD (stash.off),HL LD (stash.p),A LD HL,scr.width LD (w.width),HL LD HL,scr.depth LD (w.depth),HL LD HL,x.start LD (w.x.off),HL LD HL,y.start LD (w.y.off),HL LD A,decode.method LD (decode.flags),A RET ;Convert GIF ;-=-=-=-=-=- convert.gif: LD HL,gif LD B,3 gif_check: ;Check for GIF header CALL read.byte XOR (HL) INC HL JR NZ,not_gif DJNZ gif_check CALL read.byte LD (gif.err.a),A SUB "0" ADD A,A ADD A,A ADD A,A ADD A,A LD E,A CALL read.byte LD (gif.err.a+1),A SUB "0" OR E LD (gif.type),A CALL read.byte LD (gif.type2),A LD (gif.err.a+2),A CP "a" JR NZ,unknown_versn LD A,(gif.type) CP &87 JR Z,id_done CP &89 JR Z,id_done unknown_versn: LD A,5 ;GIFxxx LD (error),A JR id_done not_gif: LD A,4 ;Not a GIF file LD (error),A JP ret.to.basic id_done: LD A,E LD (gif.type),A CALL read.word LD (p.width),DE CALL read.word LD (p.depth),DE CALL read.byte LD (global.flags),A CALL read.byte LD (border),A CALL read.byte ;ASPECT (ignore) LD HL,global.palette LD A,(global.flags) LD (palette.in.use),HL BIT 7,A CALL NZ,read.pal ;read in global pal ;if there is one... ;NOW read extensions... read.extension: CALL read.byte CP ";" ;END OF GIF block RET Z CP "!" ;ARBITRARY EXTENSION block JR Z,read.ext CP "," ;IMAGE block JR Z,image.ext unrec.ext: LD L,A LD H,0 LD (return.code),HL LD A,6 ;Unrecognised extension LD (error),A JP ret.to.basic ;Read arbitrary extension block read.ext: CALL read.byte CP &FE JR NZ,not.comment ;Comment extension block - raw ASCII text. ;(passed over - not acted upon in this version!) ;1st byte - field length. IF 0, end of COMMENT block ; otherwise, read FIELDLENGTH bytes and try again! comment.block: CALL read.byte ;loop counter OR A JR Z,read.extension ;end of COMMENT block LD B,A comment.loop: CALL read.byte DJNZ comment.loop JR comment.block not.comment: CP &01 JR NZ,not.ptext ;Plain-text extension block ;(again, passed over...) ;Header defining text use, then text as in COMMENT block! CALL read.long ;merely skip over header... CALL read.long CALL read.long CALL read.byte JR comment.block not.ptext: CP &F9 JR NZ,not.cblock ;GFX Control block ;(you guessed it...) CALL read.long CALL read.word JR read.extension not.cblock: CP &FF ;if not found, summat ;spooky going on... JR NZ,unrec.ext ;APPLICATION BLOCK ;Yet another one I can't be arsed reading & using... anyway, ;it's not necessary. CALL read.long CALL read.long CALL read.long JR read.extension ;IMAGE EXTENSION ;This one's one that is important... image.ext: CALL read.word LD (i.x.off),DE CALL read.word LD (i.y.off),DE CALL read.word LD (i.width),DE CALL read.word LD (i.depth),DE CALL read.byte LD (local.flags),A LD HL,local.palette LD (palette.in.use),HL LD A,(local.flags) BIT 7,A JR Z,not.local.pal CALL read.pal JR completion not.local.pal: LD HL,global.palette LD (palette.in.use),HL completion: CALL decompress ensure.loop: LD A,(field.f) CP 2 JP Z,read.extension CALL read.field JR ensure.loop ;Show GIF on-screen ;-=-=-=-=<>=-=-=-=- show.gif: LD A,(vmpr.store) AND 31 OR 32 OUT (lmpr),A LD (low.vmpr),A LD HL,put.off LD (read.off),HL LD A,put.p LD (read.p),A LD HL,&0000 LD (c.y.off),HL LD BC,(i.depth) depth.loop: PUSH BC LD HL,&0000 LD (c.x.off),HL LD BC,(i.width) width.loop: PUSH BC CALL read.byte LD (currentcode),A ;use a free variable! LD HL,(c.y.off) ;current Y position AND A LD DE,(w.y.off) ;- window y offset SBC HL,DE JP C,not.this.byte ;above window SRL H RR L LD (a.y.off),HL ;actual screen y-coord LD DE,(w.depth) AND A SBC HL,DE ;- window depth JP NC,show.no.more ;below window LD HL,(c.x.off) ;current X position AND A LD DE,(w.x.off) ;- window x offset SBC HL,DE JP C,not.this.byte ;to left of window SRL H RR L LD (a.x.off),HL ;actual screen x-coord LD DE,(w.width) AND A SBC HL,DE ;- window width JP NC,not.this.byte ;to right of window LD A,(decode.flags) OR A JR Z,mono CP 2 JP Z,speccy.col JP C,mono.bayer CP 3 JP Z,colour.bayer JP NC,quantized mono: LD A,(currentcode) LD L,A LD H,0 LD DE,(palette.in.use) INC D INC D INC D ADD HL,DE LD A,(HL) AND &F0 LD B,A RRCA RRCA RRCA RRCA LD C,A JP plot.pixel speccy.col: LD A,(currentcode) LD L,A LD H,0 LD DE,(palette.in.use) ADD HL,DE LD A,(HL) AND %10000000 RRCA RRCA ;red bit LD B,A INC H LD A,(HL) AND %10000000 RRCA RRCA ;green bit OR B LD B,A INC H LD A,(HL) AND %10000000 RRCA RRCA RRCA ;blue bit OR B LD B,A RRCA RRCA RRCA RRCA LD C,A JP plot.pixel colour.bayer: LD DE,bayer.dither LD A,(a.x.off) AND 7 LD L,A LD H,0 LD A,(a.y.off) AND 7 ADD A,A ADD A,A ADD A,A ADD A,L LD L,A ADD HL,DE LD A,(HL) LD (bayer.val),A LD B,0 LD A,(currentcode) LD L,A LD H,0 LD DE,(palette.in.use) ADD HL,DE LD A,(HL) SRL A PUSH HL LD C,A LD A,(bayer.val) CP C JR NC,no.red.bay SET 5,B no.red.bay: POP HL INC H LD A,(HL) SRL A PUSH HL LD C,A LD A,(bayer.val) CP C JR NC,no.gre.bay SET 6,B no.gre.bay: POP HL INC H LD A,(HL) SRL A PUSH HL LD C,A LD A,(bayer.val) CP C JR NC,no.blu.bay SET 4,B no.blu.bay: POP HL LD A,B RRCA RRCA RRCA RRCA LD C,A JP plot.pixel mono.bayer: LD DE,bayer.dither LD A,(a.x.off) AND 7 LD L,A LD H,0 LD A,(a.y.off) AND 7 ADD A,A ADD A,A ADD A,A ADD A,L LD L,A ADD HL,DE LD A,(HL) LD (bayer.val),A LD A,(currentcode) LD L,A LD H,0 LD DE,(palette.in.use) INC D INC D INC D ADD HL,DE LD A,(HL) SRL A SRL A LD C,A LD A,(bayer.val) CP C JR C,bayer.set LD BC,&0000 JP plot.pixel bayer.set: LD BC,&F00F JP plot.pixel quantized: LD A,(currentcode) plot.pixel: LD A,(a.y.off) LD H,A LD A,(a.x.off) LD L,A SRL H RR L JR C,odd.pixel even.pixel: LD A,(HL) AND &0F OR B LD (HL),A JR not.this.byte odd.pixel: LD A,(HL) AND &F0 OR C LD (HL),A not.this.byte: LD HL,(c.x.off) INC HL INC HL LD (c.x.off),HL POP BC DEC BC LD A,B OR C JP NZ,width.loop POP BC LD HL,(c.y.off) INC HL INC HL LD (c.y.off),HL DEC BC LD A,B OR C JP NZ,depth.loop RET show.no.more: POP BC POP BC RET ;Decompress GIF compressed using LZW compression) ;-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- decompress: CALL init_decomp CALL read.byte ;reads initial codesize LD (bits),A CALL shift.left LD (clearcode),HL INC HL LD (eofcode),HL INC HL LD (nextcode),HL INC A LD (codesize),A CALL shift.left LD (codesize2),HL dec_loop: CALL get.code LD (thiscode),HL LD (currentcode),HL LD DE,(eofcode) ;does THISCODE = EOFCODE? AND A SBC HL,DE RET Z ;end of image not_eof: LD DE,(thiscode) ;if THISCODE > NEXTCODE, LD HL,(nextcode) ;error has occured... AND A SBC HL,DE JR NC,not_overrun LD A,1 ;"Code overrun error in LD (error),A JP ret.to.basic ; decompaction" not_overrun: LD HL,(thiscode) ;does THISCODE = CLEARCODE? LD DE,(clearcode) SBC HL,DE JR NZ,not_clear LD HL,(clearcode) ;if so, re-init all tables INC HL INC HL LD (nextcode),HL LD A,(bits) INC A LD (codesize),A CALL shift.left LD (codesize2),HL XOR A LD (oldcode.f),A JR dec_loop ;begin loop again... not_clear: LD IX,fcodestack LD HL,(thiscode) ;does THISCODE = NEXTCODE? LD DE,(nextcode) AND A SBC HL,DE JR NZ,unpack_loop LD A,(oldcode.f) OR A JR NZ,old_flagged LD A,2 ;"Prefix error in LD (error),A JP ret.to.basic ; decompaction" old_flagged: LD A,(oldtoken) LD (IX),A INC IX LD HL,(oldcode) LD (thiscode),HL unpack_loop: LD HL,(thiscode) ;THISCODE = CLEARCODE? LD DE,(clearcode) AND A SBC HL,DE JR C,end_unpack LD HL,(thiscode) LD DE,lcodestack ADD HL,DE LD A,(HL) LD (IX),A INC IX LD HL,(thiscode) ADD HL,HL LD DE,codestack ADD HL,DE LD E,(HL) INC HL LD D,(HL) LD (thiscode),DE JR unpack_loop end_unpack: LD A,(thiscode) LD (oldtoken),A copy_pack: LD A,(thiscode) CALL put.byte PUSH IX POP DE AND A LD HL,fcodestack SBC HL,DE JR NC,end_copy DEC IX LD A,(IX) LD (thiscode),A JR copy_pack end_copy: LD A,(oldcode.f) ;does OLDCODE hold a value? OR A ;(NZ if Y, Z if N) JR Z,not_inc_next LD HL,(nextcode) ;NEXTCODE < 4096? LD DE,4096 AND A SBC HL,DE JR NC,not_inc_next LD HL,(nextcode) ADD HL,HL LD DE,codestack ADD HL,DE LD DE,(oldcode) LD (HL),E INC HL LD (HL),D LD HL,(nextcode) LD DE,lcodestack ADD HL,DE LD A,(oldtoken) LD (HL),A LD HL,(nextcode) INC HL LD (nextcode),HL LD DE,(codesize2) ;is NEXTCODE >= CODESIZE2? AND A SBC HL,DE JR C,not_inc_next LD A,(codesize) ;is CODESIZE < 12? CP 12 JR NC,not_inc_next INC A LD (codesize),A CALL shift.left LD (codesize2),HL not_inc_next: LD HL,(currentcode) LD (oldcode),HL LD A,1 LD (oldcode.f),A JP dec_loop ;Performs: 2^A ;Returns answer in HL shift.left: LD HL,1 PUSH AF shift.l.loop: OR A JR NZ,shift.l.o POP AF RET shift.l.o: ADD HL,HL DEC A JR shift.l.loop ;Gets n-bit code from data store... get.code: PUSH AF PUSH DE PUSH BC LD B,0 LD HL,&0000 code.loop: LD A,(bits.left) CP 8 JR C,not.new.byte SUB 8 LD (bits.left),A CALL read.field LD (last.read),A not.new.byte: LD A,(bits.left) INC A LD (bits.left),A DEC A EXX LD HL,bits.table LD E,A LD D,0 ADD HL,DE LD E,(HL) LD A,(last.read) AND E ;mask off bit no' (BITS.LEFT) EXX JR Z,end.code LD A,B ;LD A, EXX LD L,A LD H,0 ADD HL,HL LD DE,code.table ADD HL,DE LD A,(HL) EXX LD E,A EXX INC HL LD A,(HL) EXX LD D,A ADD HL,DE end.code: INC B LD A,(codesize) CP B JR NZ,code.loop LD (return.code),HL POP BC POP DE POP AF RET read.field: field.loop: LD A,(field.f) CP 1 JR Z,data_ready ;if 1, field has been accessd JR C,start_field ;if 0, no field currently in ;use... ;Any other value means overrun... LD A,3 ;read over length of GIF! LD (error),A JP ret.to.basic start_field: LD A,1 LD (field.f),A CALL read.byte LD (bytes.left),A data_ready: CALL read.byte LD (exitvalue),A LD A,(bytes.left) DEC A LD (bytes.left),A OR A JR NZ,exit.field CALL read.byte LD (bytes.left),A OR A LD A,2 JR Z,end.of.fields LD A,1 end.of.fields: LD (field.f),A exit.field: LD A,(exitvalue) RET ;Read long from address at READ.OFF, READ.P and increment the ;pointer... ;Goes in order (MSB>LSB): BCDE read.long: PUSH HL PUSH AF IN A,(lmpr) PUSH AF LD A,(read.p) OR 32 OUT (lmpr),A EX AF,AF' LD HL,(read.off) LD E,(HL) INC HL LD D,(HL) INC HL LD C,(HL) INC HL LD B,(HL) INC HL BIT 6,H JR Z,readhl RES 6,H LD A,(read.p) INC A AND 31 LD (read.p),A readhl: LD (read.off),HL POP AF OUT (lmpr),A POP AF POP HL RET ;Read word from address at READ.OFF, READ.P and increment the ;pointer... ;MSB>LSB: DE read.word: PUSH HL PUSH AF IN A,(lmpr) PUSH AF LD A,(read.p) OR 32 OUT (lmpr),A EX AF,AF' LD HL,(read.off) LD E,(HL) INC HL LD D,(HL) INC HL BIT 6,H JR Z,readhw RES 6,H LD A,(read.p) INC A AND 31 LD (read.p),A readhw: LD (read.off),HL POP AF OUT (lmpr),A POP AF POP HL RET ;Read byte from address at READ.OFF, READ.P and increment the ;pointer... ;CORRUPTS: AF' read.byte: ;CHECK FOR KEY LD A,&7F IN A,(&FE) RRA RRA JP NC,ret.to.basic PUSH HL LD A,R AND %00100111 OUT (brdr),A IN A,(lmpr) PUSH AF LD A,(read.p) OR 32 OUT (lmpr),A EX AF,AF' LD HL,(read.off) LD A,(HL) EX AF,AF' INC HL BIT 6,H JR Z,readhh RES 6,H LD A,(read.p) INC A AND 31 LD (read.p),A readhh: LD (read.off),HL POP AF OUT (lmpr),A XOR A OUT (brdr),A EX AF,AF' POP HL RET ;Put byte into address at STASH.OFF, STASH.P and increment the ;pointer... ;CORRUPTS: AF', (STASH.OFF,STASH.P) put.byte: PUSH AF PUSH HL EX AF,AF' IN A,(lmpr) PUSH AF LD A,(stash.p) OR 32 OUT (lmpr),A EX AF,AF' LD HL,(stash.off) LD (HL),A INC HL BIT 6,H JR Z,stashh RES 6,H LD A,(stash.p) INC A AND 31 LD (stash.p),A stashh: LD (stash.off),HL EX AF,AF' POP AF OUT (lmpr),A POP HL POP AF RET init_decomp: LD A,8 LD (bits.left),A XOR A LD (oldcode.f),A LD (field.f),A LD (bytes.left),A RET ;Prints message. Delimited by a 255 byte send.message: LD A,(HL) CP 255 RET Z RST &10 INC HL JR send.message ;Reads palette into store ;STORE=HL, bits in palette =bits 2-0 of A read.pal: PUSH BC PUSH DE AND 7 INC A EX DE,HL CALL shift.left PUSH HL POP BC EX DE,HL pal.loop: CALL read.byte ;read.r LD (HL),A INC H EXX LD L,A LD H,0 LD DE,r.lum ADD HL,DE LD B,(HL) EXX CALL read.byte ;read.g LD (HL),A INC H EXX LD L,A LD H,0 LD DE,g.lum ADD HL,DE EX AF,AF' LD A,(HL) ADD A,B LD B,A EX AF,AF' EXX CALL read.byte ;read.b LD (HL),A INC H EXX LD L,A LD H,0 LD DE,b.lum ADD HL,DE EX AF,AF' LD A,(HL) ADD A,B LD B,A EX AF,AF' EXX EXX LD A,B EXX LD (HL),A DEC H DEC H DEC H INC HL DEC BC LD A,B OR C JR NZ,pal.loop POP DE POP BC RET ;GIF Conversion data space ;~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ bayer.dither: DEFB 0,32,8,40,2,34,10,42 DEFB 48,16,56,24,50,18,58,26 DEFB 12,44,4,36,14,46,6,38 DEFB 60,28,52,20,62,30,54,22 DEFB 3,35,11,43,1,33,9,41 DEFB 51,19,59,27,49,17,57,25 DEFB 15,47,7,39,13,45,5,37 DEFB 63,31,55,23,61,29,53,21 bits.table: DEFB %00000001 DEFB %00000010 DEFB %00000100 DEFB %00001000 DEFB %00010000 DEFB %00100000 DEFB %01000000 DEFB %10000000 code.table: DEFW %0000000000000001 DEFW %0000000000000010 DEFW %0000000000000100 DEFW %0000000000001000 DEFW %0000000000010000 DEFW %0000000000100000 DEFW %0000000001000000 DEFW %0000000010000000 DEFW %0000000100000000 DEFW %0000001000000000 DEFW %0000010000000000 DEFW %0000100000000000 DEFW %0001000000000000 DEFW %0010000000000000 DEFW %0100000000000000 DEFW %1000000000000000 gif: DEFM "GIF" ;RGB > Luminance conversion table grey.data: MDAT "lumen.dat" r.lum: EQU grey.data g.lum: EQU grey.data+256 b.lum: EQU grey.data+512 ;Grey-scale palette for use with luminance values lum.palette: DEFB 0,0,8,5,7,13,15,82 DEFB 112,90,120,117,119,125,127,127 ;RGB basic palette for use with BAYER dither bayer.palette: DEFB 0,17,34,17+34,68,68+17,68+34,127 DEFB 0,17,34,17+34,68,68+17,68+34,127 error.table: DEFW error0,error1,error2,error3,error4,error5 DEFW error6 init.errors: DEFB 22,0,0,255 error0: DEFM "No errors occured" DEFB 255 error1: DEFM "Code overrun error in decompaction" DEFB 255 error2: DEFM "Prefix error in decompaction" DEFB 255 error3: DEFM "Met END OF FILE while decoding!" DEFB 255 error4: DEFM "This is not a GIF file" DEFB 255 error5: DEFM "GIF" gif.err.a: DEFM "xxx" DEFM " is not a recognised version." DEFB 13 DEFM "Thus, an error may " DEFM " have occured" DEFB 255 error6: DEFM "Unrecognised extension block found!" DEFB 255 ;-=-=-=-=-=-=- ;End of saved data... rest is data space length: EQU $-start bayer.val: DEFB &00 palette.in.use:DEFW &0000 decode.flags: DEFB &00 gif.type: DEFB &00 ;either &87 or &89! gif.type2: DEFB &00 global.flags: DEFB &00 global.palette:DEFS &0400 ;R,G,B and L local.flags: DEFB &00 local.palette: DEFS &0400 w.x.off: DEFW &0000 w.y.off: DEFW &0000 w.width: DEFW &0000 w.depth: DEFW &0000 p.width: DEFW &0000 p.depth: DEFW &0000 i.width: DEFW &0000 i.depth: DEFW &0000 i.x.off: DEFW &0000 i.y.off: DEFW &0000 c.x.off: DEFW &0000 c.y.off: DEFW &0000 a.x.off: DEFW &0000 a.y.off: DEFW &0000 border: DEFB &00 lmpr.store: DEFB &00 vmpr.store: DEFB &00 sp.store: DEFW &0000 low.vmpr: DEFB &00 codestack: DEFS 8192 ;16-bit offset table lcodestack: DEFS 4096 ;16-bit offset table fcodestack: DEFS 4096 ;8-bit data table error: DEFB &00 oldcode.f: DEFB &00 bits: DEFB &00 codesize: DEFB &00 codesize2: DEFW &0000 thiscode: DEFW &0000 currentcode: DEFW &0000 clearcode: DEFW &0000 nextcode: DEFW &0000 eofcode: DEFW &0000 oldcode: DEFW &0000 oldtoken: DEFB &00 exitvalue: DEFB &00 bits.left: DEFB &00 last.read: DEFB &00 field.f: DEFB &00 bytes.left: DEFB &00 stash.off: DEFW &0000 stash.p: DEFB &00 read.off: DEFW &0000 read.p: DEFB &00 return.code: DEFW &0000 DEFS 256 other.stack: EQU $ ORG 0 DUMP gif.l.p,gif.l.off MDAT "SOME.GIF" From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 10:14:16 1996 Message-Id: <1.5.4.32.19961126101000.009ad130@nessie.mcc.ac.uk> X-Sender: scooke@nessie.mcc.ac.uk X-Mailer: Windows Eudora Light Version 1.5.4 (32) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 10:10:00 +0000 To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no From: Simon Cooke Subject: SAM-->BMP Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 14724 Lines: 569 Here's the SAM--> BMP converter code. Doesn't work for mode 3 -- Microsoft don't stick to their own specifications. ;Windows BITMAP creator: ;/''''''''''''''''''''''\ ;+ (c) 1993 Simon Cooke + ;\,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,/ ;If you use this code, credit me please :) ;Works on currently displayed screen. Stores result in pages ;3&4... ;TO USE: ;------- ; Load in screen using 'LOAD "filenamexx"SCREEN$' ; SAVE "filenm.BMP" CODE 65536,USR 32768 ; an that's it... ORG &8000 ;Code length to be saved out from &8000: palette: EQU &55D8 ;Address of CLUT in sys.vars vmpr: EQU &FC ;Video paging port lmpr: EQU &FA ;Low section paging port hmpr: EQU &FB ;High section paging port bmp.page: EQU 3+32 ;page to store BMP in... bmp.start: EQU &0000 ;start address of BMP start: DI IN A,(lmpr) LD (low.page+1),A ;Store original BASIC values LD (sp.store+1),SP;for restoration later... LD SP,0 ;Self-modifying... IN A,(vmpr) ;Find current video setting AND 31 ;strip mode bits OR 32 ;Format for use in LMPR LD (vid.page+1),A ;store using self-modifying ;code LD HL,palette ;Copy palette to buffer LD DE,palette.store LD BC,20 LDIR IN A,(vmpr) AND 96 ;Strip video MODE bits LD (video.mode+1),A CALL set.bmp.mode4 ;RETURNS with video mode in A OR A ;test if a=0 JP Z,convert1to4 ;if mode 1, convert to mode 4 CP 32 JP Z,convert2to4 ;if mode 2, convert to mode 4 PUSH AF ;copy mode 3 or 4 picture to CALL copy.pic ;buffer, line 191 first, line POP AF ;0 last... CP 64 ;if mode 3, store as mode 3 JP Z,mode3stash ;After mode1 or 2 conversion, routine is re-entered here... mode4stash: LD HL,palette.store ;convert palette to RGB values from LD B,16 ;SAM CLUT format... CALL palette.conv LD A,bmp.page ;page in BMP dump address... OUT (lmpr),A LD DE,bmp.start+54 LD HL,palette.bgr ;copy palette to bmp LD BC,64 ;(16 colours) LDIR mode3.reentry: LD (headersize),DE ;store headersize (means that BMP ;dump address must start at 0 in a page) LD HL,bit.map.buffer;store pixel map LD BC,24576 LDIR LD (filesize),DE ;entire filesize... LD HL,bmp.header ;copy header to bmp page LD DE,bmp.start LD BC,54 LDIR LD BC,(filesize) JP ret.to.basic mode3stash: LD HL,palette.store+16 ;Offset to mode3 palette LD B,4 CALL palette.conv LD A,bmp.page OUT (lmpr),A LD DE,bmp.start+54 LD HL,palette.bgr ;copy palette to bmp LD BC,16 ;(4 colours) LDIR JP mode3.reentry ;Copy picture from screen to buffer, mirrored in y axis ;------------------------------------------------------ ;(only for modes 3 and 4) copy.pic: vid.page: LD A,&00 OUT (lmpr),A LD HL,191*128 ;line 191 of screen address LD DE,bit.map.buffer LD B,192 ;192 lines copy.loop: PUSH BC LD BC,128 LDIR DEC H POP BC DJNZ copy.loop RET ;Convert MODE 2 picture to MODE 4 picture... ;------------------------------------------- ;Mode 2 display layout is 256x192 2bit -- either set or reset, to give the ;foreground/background status, with a 32x192 attribute map holding values ;for which of the 16 CLUT colors the foreground and background are... ;Converts to MODE 4 (256x192, 4 bit) convert2to4: LD A,(vid.page+1) OUT (lmpr),A LD DE,bit.map.buffer LD B,192 conv24loop: LD C,0 LD A,B CALL find.y.mode2 PUSH HL LD L,0 LD H,B SRL H RR L SRL H RR L SRL H RR L SET 5,H PUSH HL POP IX POP HL conv24loop2: PUSH BC CALL expand.attrib LD A,(HL) CALL expand.byte INC HL INC IX POP BC INC C LD A,C CP 32 JR NZ,conv24loop2 LD A,B DEC B OR A JR NZ,conv24loop JP mode4stash ;Convert MODE 1 picture to MODE 4 picture... ;------------------------------------------- ;Similar to Mode 2, except the ATTRIBUTE map is 32x24 (8x8 characters instead ;of mode 2's 8x1 characters). The display is also arranged in a seemingly ;haphazard manner -- this is because it is a SPECTRUM (Timex 2000 I think) ;display emulation mode... convert1to4: LD A,(vid.page+1) OUT (lmpr),A LD DE,bit.map.buffer LD B,192 conv14loop: LD C,0 LD A,B CALL find.y.spec ;calculate address for next line -- SPECTRUM ;display arrangement makes this complex. PUSH HL PUSH DE LD A,B AND %11111000 LD L,A LD H,0 ADD HL,HL ADD HL,HL LD DE,6144 ADD HL,DE PUSH HL POP IX POP DE POP HL conv14loop2: PUSH BC CALL expand.attrib LD A,(HL) CALL expand.byte INC HL INC IX POP BC INC C LD A,C CP 32 JR NZ,conv14loop2 DJNZ conv14loop JP mode4stash ;Convert MODE 1 or 2 bitmap to MODE 4 nybbles ;-------------------------------------------- expand.byte: PUSH HL LD A,(HL) LD L,A LD H,4 exp.loop: XOR A CALL expansion SLA L ADD A,A ADD A,A ADD A,A ADD A,A CALL expansion SLA L LD (DE),A INC DE DEC H JR NZ,exp.loop POP HL RET ;Convert bit 7 to a nybble... ;---------------------------- expansion: BIT 7,L JR Z,paper ink: OR B RET paper: OR C RET ;Convert attribute value to MODE 4 expansion values: ;--------------------------------------------------- ;Enter with IX pointing to attribute address. ;Exits with B holding INK expansion, C holding PAPER expansion ; A is corrupted on exit expand.attrib: LD A,(IX+0) AND %01000000 LD C,A ADD A,A SRL C SRL C SRL C OR C LD C,A ;put bright as PUSH AF LD A,(IX+0) AND %00111000 SRL A SRL A SRL A OR C LD C,A ;put paper in c with bright LD A,(IX+0) AND %00000111 LD B,A POP AF OR B LD B,A ;ink in b with bright RET ;Convert y coord to SPECCY (MODE 1) address... ;--------------------------------------------- find.y.spec: PUSH BC LD C,A AND 192 RRCA RRCA RRCA ;Enter with 'a' holding y line (0-191 LD H,A ;returns with HL holding screen addr LD A,C AND 7 OR H LD H,A LD A,C AND 56 RLCA RLCA LD L,A POP BC RET ;Convert y coord to MODE 2 address... ;------------------------------------ find.y.mode2: LD H,A LD L,0 SRL H RR L SRL H RR L SRL H RR L RET ;Initialise bitmap. ;------------------ ;This section sets up variables... ;as if for a MODE 4 bitmap. mode3 is called if needed to stash ;a MODE 3 bmp set.bmp.mode4: LD DE,&0401 ;D holds no' of bits per pixl ;(4 for mode 4). E holds ;width of image DIV 256... ;1 for mode 4. video.mode: LD A,&00 CP 64 JR NZ,mode4.picture LD DE,&0202 ;Sets to 2 bits per pixel, ;width of image 512 (div 256 ;=2) mode4.picture: LD IX,width LD (IX+0),&00 ;Width is set here LD (IX+1),E LD (IX+2),0 LD (IX+3),0 LD IX,bits ;Bits per pixel- 4 for mode4 LD (IX+0),D ; 2 for mode3 LD (IX+1),0 RET ;Convert SAM palette to 24-bit RGB ;--------------------------------- ;>Uses the following format: ;>R: 765 432 10 G: 765 432 10 B: 765 432 10 ;> R1 R0 H G1 G0 H B1 B0 H ;^ this was the original method. Now uses a full spread. ;Although this may not be perfect, it is pretty accurate. ;Entered with B holding no' of palette colours (4 or 16) ; HL holding start of SAM palette data palette.conv: LD IX,palette.bgr palette.loop: LD A,(HL) CALL decode.pal ;convert from SAM CLUT to RGB LD (IX+0),E LD (IX+1),D LD (IX+2),C LD DE,4 ADD IX,DE INC HL DJNZ palette.loop RET ;Converts raw SAM palette data to 24 bits... ;Enters: A=SAM Palette number ;Exits: C=RED 8bit, D=GRN 8bit, E=BLU 8bit ; SAM PALETTE: 76543210 ; xGRBHgrb decode.pal: PUSH HL PUSH AF bright: AND %00001000 RRCA RRCA RRCA LD C,A LD E,A LD D,A ;BRIGHT=bit 0 of all... POP AF red: BIT 5,A JR Z,not.hired SET 2,C not.hired: BIT 1,A JR Z,blue SET 1,C blue: BIT 4,A JR Z,not.hiblu SET 2,E not.hiblu: BIT 0,A JR Z,green SET 1,E green: BIT 6,A JR Z,not.higrn SET 2,D not.higrn: BIT 2,A JR Z,quantize.rgb SET 1,D quantize.rgb: LD L,C LD H,0 PUSH DE LD DE,quantize.table ADD HL,DE POP DE LD C,(HL) LD L,D LD H,0 PUSH DE LD DE,quantize.table ADD HL,DE POP DE LD D,(HL) LD L,E LD H,0 PUSH DE LD DE,quantize.table ADD HL,DE POP DE LD E,(HL) POP HL RET ;Allow return to SAM basic: ;-------------------------- ret.to.basic: low.page: LD A,&00 OUT (lmpr),A sp.store: LD SP,&0000 EI RET ;*************************************************************** ;Quantized (full spread) separate primary colour value expansion ;tables - expands 8 level brightness to 256 level... quantize.table: DEFB 0,36,73,109,146,182,219,255 ;*************************************************************** ;BMP File header details - partially already filled in. bmp.header: DEFM "BM" ;2 char ID filesize: DEFW 0,0 ;LONG filesize reserved: DEFB 0,0,0,0 ;reserved bytes headersize: DEFW 0,0 ;LONG headersize infosize: DEFW 40,0 ;LONG infosize width: DEFW 256,0 ;LONG width depth: DEFW 192,0 ;LONG depth (192) biplanes: DEFB 1,0 ;INT bitplanes bits: DEFB 4,0 ;INT bits bicompression: DEFW 0,0 ;LONG compression bisizeimage: DEFW 24576,0 ;LONG length of image in byts xpelspermetre: DEFW 0,0 ;LONG X pels per metre ypelspermetre: DEFW 0,0 ;LONG Y pels per metre colourused: DEFW 0,0 ;LONG actual no' colours colourimportnt:DEFW 0,0 ;LONG no' of important colors end.bmp.header:EQU $ ;************ palette.store: DEFS 20 ;Temporary palette store palette.bgr: DEFS 64 ;Temporary RGB palette store ;************ bit.map.buffer: ;converted bitmaps go here... DEFS 16383 DEFS 8193 length: EQU end.bmp.header-start From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 10:26:15 1996 Message-Id: <1.5.4.32.19961126102501.00995cac@nessie.mcc.ac.uk> X-Sender: scooke@nessie.mcc.ac.uk X-Mailer: Windows Eudora Light Version 1.5.4 (32) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 10:25:01 +0000 To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no From: Simon Cooke Subject: GFX COnverter code... Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 121 Lines: 7 Hiya... Sorry about not uploading an IFF converter -- the source for that particular one appears to be at home. Simon From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 10:57:06 1996 Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 11:52:10 +0100 From: ft@edh.ericsson.se (Frode Tenneboe) Message-Id: <9611261052.AA03476@asmal.edh-net> To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Subject: Re: How long a filename? X-Sun-Charset: US-ASCII Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 388 Lines: 13 > At 09:27 AM 11/26/96 +0100, you wrote: > >Yes, 127 is a controll code for ASCII delete - actually, it comes > >from the days of the punchcards. Try to guess why. :) > > All bits set ;) > > BTW, Frode: ever made a lace tape? ;) No, I was of the microdrive age. ;) Actually, I have some lace tape at my mother somewhere.....and I have programmed a PDP11 - does that count? ;) -Frode From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 10:57:12 1996 Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 10:52:37 +0000 (GMT) From: Tim Paveley To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Subject: Re: The SAM FAQs In-Reply-To: Message-Id: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 1416 Lines: 34 On Mon, 25 Nov 1996, JohnnaPig Teare wrote: > 1) Who owns the SAM FAQs that I found whilst searchig the net for all > things coupe? Urm, me I guess, i hink the only place they live is at my web site... Originally they were being done by Graham Goring, with a HTMLised version by me, however Graham lost his net access, and I never really thought they were worth keeping (god I hope samboss isn't graham back from the void ;) So I canabilised them for information, which I distributed around the rest of the pages, and removed the HTML version. I kept the text only version lying about mainly as it was text and all in one piece, and also coz I know imc quite often points at it in his usenet postings. > 2) Can I use them perlease? I don't mind :) If you update them I'd be more than happy to link a new improved copy back in again. My main thing with the FAQ, was that I never really thought that there were that many questions people frequently asked (other than "A what?"), and it tened to be more of a general resource, which is why I assimilated it ("we are the borg, prepare to be assimilated") :) > Johnna Pig Teare (j.d.teare@uclan.ac.uk) Tim ....@/ .........................................................................@/ Unc - Tim Paveley - http://dplinux.sund.ac.uk/~unc/ Staff of the Monochrome BBS - http://www.mono.org/ Owner of a Sam Coupe - http://www.mono.org/~unc/Coupe/ From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 10:59:19 1996 Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 11:54:54 +0100 From: ft@edh.ericsson.se (Frode Tenneboe) Message-Id: <9611261054.AA03479@asmal.edh-net> To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Subject: Re: SRAM X-Sun-Charset: US-ASCII Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 417 Lines: 10 > Calm down! Calm down! I've put it up in .eps format now as > well. I did try .gif but I couldn't get a decent conversion > from .ps to .gif --- so tough! I think you will find that most > of the schematics to be found on the web are in postscript > format, so if you want to see them, get yourself a viewer! > (How about a .ps viewer for SAM?) Added in ./docs/sram.zip - in addition to a .tiff an .ppm :) -Frode From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 11:24:56 1996 Message-Id: From: ee31ag@ee.surrey.ac.uk (Andrew M Gale) Subject: Re: Nev & Simon To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 11:21:57 +0000 (GMT) In-Reply-To: <1.5.4.32.19961126100351.009882a8@nessie.mcc.ac.uk> from "Simon Cooke" at Nov 26, 96 10:03:51 am X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL24] 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: 564 Lines: 15 > >Yes... it will tri-state the comms chip outputs, but not the SAMBus > >buffers. > > The SAMBUS buffers won't care anyway will they? They'll just be getting a > floating signal from all interfaces whether they're enabled or not -- if > more than one drives DBDIR in a simple manner based on the Processor RD/WR > state, then it shouldn't have any affect. > Ahh... I think we're both right! I think you are assuming that the new SAMBus will have just one set of buffers for all the slots, whereas I'm assuming there will be` one set of buffers per slot! -Andy From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 11:24:56 1996 Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 11:24:08 +0000 (GMT) From: "A.S. Collier" X-Sender: asc25@puce.csi.cam.ac.uk To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Subject: Re: 51 FPC Error, ARGH!!!! In-Reply-To: Message-Id: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 480 Lines: 15 On Tue, 26 Nov 1996, Justin Skists wrote: > Does anyone know the criteria needed to get 51 FPC error? I still can't get it > by manipulating the numbers... I've once seen it when I was running an interrupt routine through Basic; I hadn't remembered to stack IX and IY properly and the routine did use them... Whether or not that's a useful result though, I don't know. By rights the program should have totally died, so anything might have caused that error message. Andrew From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 11:37:26 1996 From: JohnnaPig Teare Organization: University of Central Lancashire To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 11:30:45 GMT+0 Subject: Re: E-Tracker music Priority: normal X-Mailer: Pegasus Mail for Windows (v2.33) Message-Id: Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 237 Lines: 7 > ProTracker2 has been released by Persona (someone was asking what to spend Is this the one that uses samples instead of beeps and burps? Johnna Pig Teare (j.d.teare@uclan.ac.uk) "Mab is the Queen and there's a good apothecary man!" From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 11:47:31 1996 Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 11:42:18 +0000 (GMT) From: Justin Skists X-Sender: c93js1@oughtred.cms.dmu.ac.uk To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Subject: Re: SRAM In-Reply-To: <1.5.4.32.19961126092537.00903ddc@nessie.mcc.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: 630 Lines: 17 On Tue, 26 Nov 1996, Simon Cooke wrote: > At 11:31 PM 11/25/96 GMT, you wrote: > >Given the number of graphic formats we have to select from, there must be > >ONE we can all agree on. > > TIFF. and have 2meg files for one picture? -- ============================================================================= |Justin Skists (c93js1@dmu.ac.uk) | Don't take life so seriously, | |BSc (Hons) Computer Science, Year 4 | you'll never survive it! | |De Montfort University, Leicester, England | - (C) CamLoRTS 1996 | ============================================================================= From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 11:53:24 1996 Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 11:51:16 +0000 (GMT) From: "A.S. Collier" X-Sender: asc25@navy.csi.cam.ac.uk To: Sam-users Subject: More errors Message-Id: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 226 Lines: 12 While we're on the subject, has anybody worked out how to display SamDOS error code 110? I won't spoil the fun by telling you what it is, but you can see it 'artificially' by typing POKE 16384,207,110:CALL 16384 Andrew From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 11:53:41 1996 Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 11:49:01 +0000 (GMT) From: Justin Skists X-Sender: c93js1@oughtred.cms.dmu.ac.uk To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Subject: Re: SRAM In-Reply-To: Message-Id: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 667 Lines: 16 On Tue, 26 Nov 1996, Andrew M Gale wrote: > (How about a .ps viewer for SAM?) Ermm... Will it handle it? It takes approx 30secs for the PC shareware prog to decode a page.. And that's a 486sx-25... (I've got ghostscript aswell but haven't bothered installing it yet..) -- ============================================================================= |Justin Skists (c93js1@dmu.ac.uk) | Don't take life so seriously, | |BSc (Hons) Computer Science, Year 4 | you'll never survive it! | |De Montfort University, Leicester, England | - (C) CamLoRTS 1996 | ============================================================================= From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 11:59:42 1996 Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 11:54:34 +0000 (GMT) From: Justin Skists X-Sender: c93js1@oughtred.cms.dmu.ac.uk To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Subject: Re: SRAM In-Reply-To: <9611261054.AA03479@asmal.edh-net> Message-Id: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 540 Lines: 13 On Tue, 26 Nov 1996, Frode Tenneboe wrote: > Added in ./docs/sram.zip - in addition to a .tiff an .ppm :) Could we have a .pdf? (Only kidding) -- ============================================================================= |Justin Skists (c93js1@dmu.ac.uk) | Don't take life so seriously, | |BSc (Hons) Computer Science, Year 4 | you'll never survive it! | |De Montfort University, Leicester, England | - (C) CamLoRTS 1996 | ============================================================================= From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 12:00:14 1996 From: Mr P R Walker Message-Id: <3528.199611261156@lupin.csv.warwick.ac.uk> Subject: Re: SRAM To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 11:56:14 +0000 (GMT) In-Reply-To: from "Justin Skists" at Nov 26, 96 11:49:01 am X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL25] 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: 293 Lines: 7 > > (How about a .ps viewer for SAM?) > Ermm... Will it handle it? It takes approx 30secs for the PC shareware prog to > decode a page.. And that's a 486sx-25... That didn't seem to worry you when you were glibly talking (or someone was, at any rate) about .gif viewers, web surfers, etc... From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 12:12:10 1996 Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 11:58:45 GMT Message-Id: <199611261158.LAA28689@pipe1.uk.pipeline.com> To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Subject: Re: Overloaded! From: samsboss@uk.pipeline.com (Samsboss@uk.pipeline.com) Cc: sam-users@nvg.unit.no X-Pipeuser: samsboss X-Pipehub: uk.pipeline.com X-Pipegcos: (Samsboss@uk.pipeline.com) X-Mailer: Pipeline v3.5.0 Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 173 Lines: 9 On Nov 25, 1996 21:48:13, 'JohnnaPig Teare ' wrote: >Have you ever heard about Buses...?! Ya, they all come along at once :) -- Samsboss. From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 12:12:37 1996 Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 11:58:55 GMT Message-Id: <199611261158.LAA28697@pipe1.uk.pipeline.com> To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Subject: Re: item 1A - SRAM board From: samsboss@uk.pipeline.com (Samsboss@uk.pipeline.com) Cc: sam-users@nvg.unit.no X-Pipeuser: samsboss X-Pipehub: uk.pipeline.com X-Pipegcos: (Samsboss@uk.pipeline.com) X-Mailer: Pipeline v3.5.0 Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 572 Lines: 19 On Nov 26, 1996 09:25:35, 'Simon Cooke ' wrote: >>Well lets just say that in /the real world/ everyone I've come across has >>got Paintshop Pro 3. > >And what a wonderfully diverse place that real world of yours is. > >In /my/ real world, everyone I've come across has Adobe Photoshop. Or >Paintshop Pro 4. Or Ghostscript... > >Simo -- Well in my real world the only people who have Photoshop are either using it at work or have an illigal copy. Paintshop Pro 4 is, I thought, WIN'95 and what the hell is Ghostscript? Samsboss. From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 12:12:37 1996 Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 11:59:02 GMT Message-Id: <199611261159.LAA28706@pipe1.uk.pipeline.com> To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Subject: Re: SRAM From: samsboss@uk.pipeline.com (Samsboss@uk.pipeline.com) Cc: sam-users@nvg.unit.no X-Pipeuser: samsboss X-Pipehub: uk.pipeline.com X-Pipegcos: (Samsboss@uk.pipeline.com) X-Mailer: Pipeline v3.5.0 Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 483 Lines: 14 On Nov 26, 1996 09:47:25, 'ee31ag@ee.surrey.ac.uk (Andrew M Gale)' wrote: >Calm down! Calm down! I've put it up in .eps format now as >well. I did try .gif but I couldn't get a decent conversion >from .ps to .gif --- so tough! I think you will find that most >of the schematics to be found on the web are in postscript >format, so if you want to see them, get yourself a viewer! >(How about a .ps viewer for SAM?) >-Andy -- Gee thanks Andy, love you lots. Samsboss. From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 12:12:38 1996 Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 11:58:59 GMT Message-Id: <199611261158.LAA28702@pipe1.uk.pipeline.com> To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Subject: Re: SRAM From: samsboss@uk.pipeline.com (Samsboss@uk.pipeline.com) Cc: sam-users@nvg.unit.no X-Pipeuser: samsboss X-Pipehub: uk.pipeline.com X-Pipegcos: (Samsboss@uk.pipeline.com) X-Mailer: Pipeline v3.5.0 Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 164 Lines: 10 On Nov 26, 1996 09:25:37, 'Simon Cooke ' wrote: >TIFF. > >Simon -- I second TIFF, all those in favour please say so. Samsboss. From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 12:12:38 1996 Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 11:59:04 GMT Message-Id: <199611261159.LAA28712@pipe1.uk.pipeline.com> To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Subject: Re: item 1A - SRAM board From: samsboss@uk.pipeline.com (Samsboss@uk.pipeline.com) Cc: sam-users@nvg.unit.no X-Pipeuser: samsboss X-Pipehub: uk.pipeline.com X-Pipegcos: (Samsboss@uk.pipeline.com) X-Mailer: Pipeline v3.5.0 Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 502 Lines: 17 On Nov 26, 1996 09:53:18, 'ft@edh.ericsson.se (Frode Tenneboe)' wrote: >PS is a >vector-based (with bitmap abilities) format - or, more a language. >It is talked by most modern printers directly. It is also the most >widely used format for interchange of non-bitmap graphics. > >-Frode -- NOT ON PCs. If I have Corel Draw, Paint Shop Pro, Fhoto Touch, and Page Plus/Draw Plus and NOT ONE of them will touch a file of Postscript format. Samsboss. (But thanks to everyone who replied) From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 12:36:18 1996 Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 12:05:16 +0000 (GMT) From: Justin Skists X-Sender: c93js1@oughtred.cms.dmu.ac.uk To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Subject: Re: SRAM In-Reply-To: <3528.199611261156@lupin.csv.warwick.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: 997 Lines: 23 On Tue, 26 Nov 1996, Mr P R Walker wrote: > > > > (How about a .ps viewer for SAM?) > > Ermm... Will it handle it? It takes approx 30secs for the PC shareware prog to > > decode a page.. And that's a 486sx-25... > > That didn't seem to worry you when you were glibly talking (or someone was, > at any rate) about .gif viewers, web surfers, etc... Weren't me, boss... I'm always wary of what I think the SAM can do.. Hence the reason my SMIDIP decodes the MIDI file prior to playing it rather than realtime decoding... I've seen the .gif viewer for Pro-DOS that someone made that I found on NVG... -- ============================================================================= |Justin Skists (c93js1@dmu.ac.uk) | Don't take life so seriously, | |BSc (Hons) Computer Science, Year 4 | you'll never survive it! | |De Montfort University, Leicester, England | - (C) CamLoRTS 1996 | ============================================================================= From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 12:36:18 1996 Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 12:09:49 +0000 (GMT) From: Tim Wells To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Subject: Re: item 1A - SRAM board In-Reply-To: <961125113732_1784112071@emout20.mail.aol.com> Message-Id: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 724 Lines: 16 On Mon, 25 Nov 1996 BrenchleyR@aol.com wrote: > The standard with DOS is PCX, GIFF or TIFF. With Windows its WMF or BMP. JPG > and a few others are gaining ground but I can find no reference at all to > Postscript (other than EPS). There aren't many programs to view postscript because there is a piece of hardware that'll do it for you - a laser printer. Hence, rather than drawings losing quality by passing through several different translation programs, you can just do the equivalent of 'print *.ps'. Alternatively, I expect that 'ghostview' is on a number of ftp sites - if you don't know any, point your web browser at http://www.micros.hensa.ac.uk (but only after about 8pm for anyone not from .ac.uk) Tim W. From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 12:36:24 1996 Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 12:10:15 +0000 (GMT) From: Justin Skists X-Sender: c93js1@oughtred.cms.dmu.ac.uk To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Subject: Re: 51 FPC Error, ARGH!!!! In-Reply-To: Message-Id: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 1197 Lines: 28 On Tue, 26 Nov 1996, A.S. Collier wrote: > On Tue, 26 Nov 1996, Justin Skists wrote: > > > Does anyone know the criteria needed to get 51 FPC error? I still can't get it > > by manipulating the numbers... > > I've once seen it when I was running an interrupt routine through Basic; I > hadn't remembered to stack IX and IY properly and the routine did use > them... Hmmm.... I really need to buy a new printer cartridge and print the program out.. Debugging on the screen is not really very easy... But registers normally hold temporary pointers that don't matter while I call FPC or hold old version of the values themselves prior to stacking... (My code is no way optimised yet - I'm trying to get the thing working... Maybe I shoulda done it in BASIC first but that would be WAY TOO slow...) -- ============================================================================= |Justin Skists (c93js1@dmu.ac.uk) | Don't take life so seriously, | |BSc (Hons) Computer Science, Year 4 | you'll never survive it! | |De Montfort University, Leicester, England | - (C) CamLoRTS 1996 | ============================================================================= From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 13:14:17 1996 From: JohnnaPig Teare Organization: University of Central Lancashire To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 12:11:18 GMT+0 Subject: Re: More errors Priority: normal X-Mailer: Pegasus Mail for Windows (v2.33) Message-Id: Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 428 Lines: 19 > While we're on the subject, has anybody worked out how to display SamDOS > error code 110? > > I won't spoil the fun by telling you what it is, but you can see it > 'artificially' by typing POKE 16384,207,110:CALL 16384 Go on, let us know what it is! I haven't got my SAM here with me in England! > > > > Andrew > > > > Johnna Pig Teare (j.d.teare@uclan.ac.uk) "Mab is the Queen and there's a good apothecary man!" From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 13:14:32 1996 Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 12:14:08 +0000 (GMT) From: Tim Wells To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Subject: Re: item 1A - SRAM board In-Reply-To: <199611261158.LAA28697@pipe1.uk.pipeline.com> Message-Id: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 628 Lines: 18 On Tue, 26 Nov 1996, Samsboss@uk.pipeline.com wrote: > On Nov 26, 1996 09:25:35, 'Simon Cooke ' wrote: > > >In /my/ real world, everyone I've come across has Adobe Photoshop. Or > >Paintshop Pro 4. Or Ghostscript... > Well in my real world the only people who have Photoshop are either using > it at work or have an illigal copy. Paintshop Pro 4 is, I thought, WIN'95 > and what the hell is Ghostscript? But Real World =/= Sam Users (Fortunately) - so all these arguments are a bit useless here. Ghostview is a program designed to view postscript files. (& is available for the PC) Tim W. From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 13:14:32 1996 Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 12:15:24 +0000 (GMT) From: Justin Skists X-Sender: c93js1@oughtred.cms.dmu.ac.uk To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Subject: Re: 51 FPC Error, ARGH!!!! In-Reply-To: <9611260917.AA03284@asmal.edh-net> Message-Id: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 1399 Lines: 35 On Tue, 26 Nov 1996, Frode Tenneboe wrote: > > On Mon, 25 Nov 1996 Ian.Collier@comlab.ox.ac.uk wrote: > > > > > I doubt this would make a difference, seeing it would be a pretty big bug > > > if Sam BASIC couldn't multiply 1234 by 56! > > > > You're right... I tried this last night and it was OK... :( > > _not_ OK you mean? No. I put the sad face because it wasn't my bug... > > DAMN! What is the problem? > > > > Does anyone know the criteria needed to get 51 FPC error? I still can't get it > > by manipulating the numbers... > > Try leaving out bits and pieces and see when it fails. Trouble is that I'm cross-compiling from the PC and it takes time to transfer to SAM... I should've started it using LERM but I like the features of TASM.. Perhaps I should save up my pennies and get Comet.... (What does Comet give me that LERM and TASM can't? apart from no line numbers, etc... Does it have local lables? really long (32 char) lable names? "library" files that you can include? Macros?) -- ============================================================================= |Justin Skists (c93js1@dmu.ac.uk) | Don't take life so seriously, | |BSc (Hons) Computer Science, Year 4 | you'll never survive it! | |De Montfort University, Leicester, England | - (C) CamLoRTS 1996 | ============================================================================= From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 13:14:32 1996 Message-Id: <1.5.4.32.19961126123442.008ebdc4@nessie.mcc.ac.uk> X-Sender: scooke@nessie.mcc.ac.uk X-Mailer: Windows Eudora Light Version 1.5.4 (32) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 12:34:42 +0000 To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no From: Simon Cooke Subject: Re: item 1A - SRAM board Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 406 Lines: 11 At 11:58 AM 11/26/96 GMT, you wrote: >Well in my real world the only people who have Photoshop are either using >it at work or have an illigal copy. Paintshop Pro 4 is, I thought, WIN'95 >and what the hell is Ghostscript? For photoshop... yep, most people I know use it at work too. Paintshop Pro 4 is indeed Win '95 (or Win NT), and Ghostscript is a lovely little postscript interpreter program Simon From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 13:14:33 1996 Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 12:40:07 +0000 (GMT) From: "A.S. Collier" X-Sender: asc25@puce.csi.cam.ac.uk To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Subject: Re: 51 FPC Error, ARGH!!!! In-Reply-To: Message-Id: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 324 Lines: 10 > > On Tue, 26 Nov 1996, Justin Skists wrote: > I really need to buy a new printer cartridge and print the program out.. > Debugging on the screen is not really very easy... Haven't you got a monitor program? GI_MON would be perfectly good enough; get it on FRED issue, errrm, help! I'll get back to you on that. Andrew From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 13:14:33 1996 X-Authentication-Warning: dcsun4.comp.brad.ac.uk: lwillis owned process doing -bs Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 12:52:32 +0000 (GMT) From: Lee Willis To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Subject: Re: SOS text editor In-Reply-To: <199611252002.UAA09067@pipe1.uk.pipeline.com> Message-Id: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 1455 Lines: 37 On Mon, 25 Nov 1996, Samsboss@uk.pipeline.com wrote: ;>If a text editor edits text, and so does a word processor, then the only ;>difference is the way that they carry out that task. If for example you ;>press a control+key combination to do something in your text editor, then ;>there is no reason why that could not work in a wordprocessor package as ;>well. I agree with you so far (Makes a change ...) ;> ;>Someone said it was the time a program took to load that made the ;>difference - I can't take that serious. Well it is serious. If you compare the amount of time it takes Microsoft Word (For example.) to load, and the time it takes a Unix system to load Vi (Sorry, don't know any PC text-editors ..) then the difference is tremendous. I for one would like to have a nice text-editor loadable from the CLI to edit short CLI programs etc. etc. rather like I use vi to edit shell scripts on Unix, I don;'t want to have to wait 60 seconds (or more!) every time I want to change something. We need a text-editor if only for techie bods to use from the CLI, 'processors are over complicated for these sort of tasks .. ;> And as another person said, what % of SAMSON users will actually ;> program. Well some of them better had or we're all up the creek without a steering implement ... Lee. How many Microsoft employees does it take to screw in a light bulb? None, they just make darkness the industry standard! From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 13:15:34 1996 Message-Id: X-Mailer: Novell GroupWise 4.1 Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 12:18:42 +0000 From: Dan Doore To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Subject: Re: item 1A - SRAM board - Reply Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 486 Lines: 13 > There aren't many programs to view postscript because there > is a piece of hardware that'll do it for you - a laser > printer. Hence, rather than drawings losing quality by > passing through several different translation programs, > you can just do the equivalent of 'print *.ps'. I tried this once and it didn't work - it just printed the 'text' of the .PS file, what did work was doing a binary copy of the file to the printer (COPY /B file.ps LPT1) and it worked fine. Dan. From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 13:15:35 1996 Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 12:21:46 +0000 (GMT) From: Justin Skists X-Sender: c93js1@oughtred.cms.dmu.ac.uk To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Subject: Re: SOS text editor In-Reply-To: <199611252002.UAA09067@pipe1.uk.pipeline.com> Message-Id: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 1151 Lines: 25 On Mon, 25 Nov 1996 samsboss@uk.pipeline.com wrote: > Someone said it was the time a program took to load that made the > difference - I can't take that serious. And as another person said, what % > of SAMSON users will actually program. If the programming language is easy/powerful enough, I'd say A LOT (95 - 100%). Even my Dad programmed the Speccy and he's computer illiterate.. He wouldn't even dare touch our PC to program.. My mum used to play with the Speccy but won't even dust the PC.. What does that tell you? We have to bring back the "image" of the Spectrum compared to things like BBC 'B' and the first IBMs... Fun to "play" (ie program/explore) with to its limits and not so expensive/incomprehensible that you wouldn't dare touch it! -- ============================================================================= |Justin Skists (c93js1@dmu.ac.uk) | Don't take life so seriously, | |BSc (Hons) Computer Science, Year 4 | you'll never survive it! | |De Montfort University, Leicester, England | - (C) CamLoRTS 1996 | ============================================================================= From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 13:16:07 1996 From: JohnnaPig Teare Organization: University of Central Lancashire To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 12:13:57 GMT+0 Subject: Re: SRAM Priority: normal X-Mailer: Pegasus Mail for Windows (v2.33) Message-Id: Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 500 Lines: 13 > > > > (How about a .ps viewer for SAM?) > > Ermm... Will it handle it? It takes approx 30secs for the PC shareware prog to > > decode a page.. And that's a 486sx-25... > > That didn't seem to worry you when you were glibly talking (or someone was, > at any rate) about .gif viewers, web surfers, etc... > I can't remeber anybody ever mentionig a GRAPHICAL web browser for the SAM. Only for SAMSon. Johnna Pig Teare (j.d.teare@uclan.ac.uk) "Mab is the Queen and there's a good apothecary man!" From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 13:16:11 1996 Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 12:38:56 +0000 (GMT) From: Justin Skists X-Sender: c93js1@oughtred.cms.dmu.ac.uk To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Subject: Re: E-Tracker + frames In-Reply-To: <9611251838.AA01669@boothp2.ecs.ox.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: 1939 Lines: 40 On Mon, 25 Nov 1996 Ian.Collier@comlab.ox.ac.uk wrote: > On Mon, 25 Nov 1996 11:43:40 +0000 (GMT), Justin Skists said: > > Off on a tangent - How much CAN you get done in a TV frame? Approx how many > > instructions on average? > > Each frame contains 312 lines and each line contains 384 Tstates. That > makes 119808 Tstates per frame if you are running with the screen off. > > 192 of the lines are screen lines. 256 out of the 384 Tstates are screen > Tstates. Most instructions run half as fast on the screen as they do off > the screen (exceptions include INC HL, which takes the same amount of time). > So we can characterise a screen line as containing 128 screen T'states and > 128 off-screen T'states (where T' approximately equals T). This makes the > total number of T'states in one frame 192*(128+128)+120*384 which is 95232 > (about 79% of normal). > > Now what you need to know is the average length of an instruction in Tstates. > I don't know this number but about 10 is probably not far off. And what's this in English? ;) ((192*128)+(120*384))/10 approx= 7373 instructions (with instructions approx= 10T) before the Frames counter gets increased (without turning off the screen)? That seems a hell of a lot! If that's right, then my SMIDIP program should be able to throw the data out of the MIDI ports, make pretty lines on the screen, AND make me a cup of tea all at the same time! :) -- ============================================================================= |Justin Skists (c93js1@dmu.ac.uk) | Don't take life so seriously, | |BSc (Hons) Computer Science, Year 4 | you'll never survive it! | |De Montfort University, Leicester, England | - (C) CamLoRTS 1996 | ============================================================================= From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 13:16:12 1996 Message-Id: <1.5.4.32.19961126123441.008eccd0@nessie.mcc.ac.uk> X-Sender: scooke@nessie.mcc.ac.uk X-Mailer: Windows Eudora Light Version 1.5.4 (32) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 12:34:41 +0000 To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no From: Simon Cooke Subject: Re: SRAM Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 334 Lines: 17 At 11:42 AM 11/26/96 +0000, you wrote: >Status: > >On Tue, 26 Nov 1996, Simon Cooke wrote: > >> At 11:31 PM 11/25/96 GMT, you wrote: >> >Given the number of graphic formats we have to select from, there must be >> >ONE we can all agree on. >> >> TIFF. > >and have 2meg files for one picture? Not if it's LZW compressed. Simon From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 13:16:12 1996 Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 13:36:44 +0100 From: ft@edh.ericsson.se (Frode Tenneboe) Message-Id: <9611261236.AA03630@asmal.edh-net> To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Subject: Re: item 1A - SRAM board X-Sun-Charset: US-ASCII Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 472 Lines: 12 > NOT ON PCs. > > If I have Corel Draw, Paint Shop Pro, Fhoto Touch, and Page Plus/Draw Plus > and NOT ONE of them will touch a file of Postscript format. Gee...the world does not revolv around PCs. Besides, it is a pretty common format on PCs too. I know for a fact that Corel Draw V will handle PS - the others I don't know, but remember that PS is not a bitmap format - which the PC industry seem to think is better than a scalable vector representation. -Frode From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 13:16:12 1996 X-Authentication-Warning: dcsun4.comp.brad.ac.uk: lwillis owned process doing -bs Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 12:54:07 +0000 (GMT) From: Lee Willis To: Sam-users Subject: Re: E-Tracker music In-Reply-To: Message-Id: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: QUOTED-PRINTABLE Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 597 Lines: 22 On Mon, 25 Nov 1996, A.S. Collier wrote: ;>ProTracker2 has been released by Persona (someone was asking what to = spend ;>money on) I have reviewed the package in the latest issue of Zodiac, = out ;>as soon as Michael prints it (along with Second Opinion, the Basic co= lumn ;>competition special, a review AND SOME MAP of Momentum, and a whole l= oad ;>of other features; =A31 write to Michael for details) Need anyone to test it ...? Lee.=20 How many Microsoft employees does it take to screw in a ligh= t bulb? None, they just make darkness the industry standard! From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 13:16:18 1996 Message-Id: <1.5.4.32.19961126123443.008ea7a0@nessie.mcc.ac.uk> X-Sender: scooke@nessie.mcc.ac.uk X-Mailer: Windows Eudora Light Version 1.5.4 (32) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 12:34:43 +0000 To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no From: Simon Cooke Subject: Re: item 1A - SRAM board Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 813 Lines: 22 At 11:59 AM 11/26/96 GMT, you wrote: [PS as a standard transfer format] >NOT ON PCs. > >If I have Corel Draw, Paint Shop Pro, Fhoto Touch, and Page Plus/Draw Plus >and NOT ONE of them will touch a file of Postscript format. Corel Draw /can/ handle EPS files (which version do you have?) -- though it's buggy. It should also be able to handle PS files with a quick rename (AFAIK, EPS is PS compatible, but the EPS version also has an embedded bitmap version of the image for systems that want to be able to embed the PS files, but can't do the interpretation). Paint Shop Pro, Fhoto Touch -- what do you expect? They're bitmapped image display software, not vector image display software. Page Plus/Draw Plus are cheapo DTP software... AFAIK they probably don't even accept Adobe Illustrator files. Simon From imc Tue Nov 26 13:43:33 1996 Subject: Re: E-Tracker + frames To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 13:43:33 +0000 (GMT) In-Reply-To: from "Justin Skists" at Nov 26, 96 12:38:56 pm X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL24 PGP6] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Content-Length: 963 Lines: 34 On Tue, 26 Nov 1996 12:38:56 +0000 (GMT), Justin Skists said: > On Mon, 25 Nov 1996 Ian.Collier@comlab.ox.ac.uk wrote: > > This makes the > > total number of T'states in one frame 192*(128+128)+120*384 which is 95232 > > Now what you need to know is the average length of an instruction in Tstates. > > I don't know this number but about 10 is probably not far off. Actually, better make that 12. > And what's this in English? ;) 95232/12 = 7936 instructions per frame. If you are leaving interrupts on don't forget the instructions used by the interrupt routine. It depends what sort of instructions you are using. For example: LD r,r 4 LD r,n 8 LD A,(HL) 8 LD rr,nn 12 JR x 12 POP rr 12 PUSH rr 16 LD A,(nn) 16 LD HL,(nn) 20 LD rr,(nn) 24 With the screen on and interrupts off you should be able to do exactly 23808 NOP instructions per frame. :-) imc From imc Tue Nov 26 13:44:45 1996 Subject: Re: Samson text editor (was Re: SAMSON: b - Reply To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 13:44:45 +0000 (GMT) In-Reply-To: from "Dan Doore" at Nov 26, 96 09:48:35 am X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL24 PGP6] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Content-Length: 281 Lines: 11 On Tue, 26 Nov 1996 09:48:35 +0000, Dan Doore said: > PC Keyboard. Ah yes, I thought we were talking about the Sam keyboard. > I got it at a computer show - a nice little bright red self-adhesive > key with PANIC written on it. So it doesn't actually do anything then... imc From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 14:07:09 1996 X-Authentication-Warning: dcsun4.comp.brad.ac.uk: lwillis owned process doing -bs Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 12:55:41 +0000 (GMT) From: Lee Willis To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Subject: Re: item 1A - SRAM board In-Reply-To: <199611252316.XAA18160@pipe1.uk.pipeline.com> Message-Id: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 379 Lines: 16 On Mon, 25 Nov 1996, Samsboss@uk.pipeline.com wrote: ;>-- ;>Well lets just say that in /the real world/ everyone I've come across has ;>got Paintshop Pro 3. ;> And the award for Most Patronising Mailer 1996 goes to ... Lee. How many Microsoft employees does it take to screw in a light bulb? None, they just make darkness the industry standard! From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 14:07:29 1996 X-Authentication-Warning: dcsun4.comp.brad.ac.uk: lwillis owned process doing -bs Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 12:57:07 +0000 (GMT) From: Lee Willis To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Subject: Re: Samson text editor (was Re: SAMSON: bundled software) In-Reply-To: <199611252317.XAA18282@pipe1.uk.pipeline.com> Message-Id: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 617 Lines: 21 On Mon, 25 Nov 1996, Samsboss@uk.pipeline.com wrote: ;>On Nov 25, 1996 18:47:58, 'Lee Willis ' wrote: ;> ;>>Why would you need the quotes within BASIC ? ;>> ;>-- ;>Cos it be part of the Basic syntax me boyo! ;> But doesn't the BASIC reference the DOS when it finds a DOS command in which case if we change DOS syntax we don't need the quotes no more. It would be silly to have one syntax for CLI and another for programming .. Lee. How many Microsoft employees does it take to screw in a light bulb? None, they just make darkness the industry standard! From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 14:07:30 1996 Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 14:01:18 +0100 From: ft@edh.ericsson.se (Frode Tenneboe) Message-Id: <9611261301.AA03684@asmal.edh-net> To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Subject: Re: 51 FPC Error, ARGH!!!! X-Sun-Charset: US-ASCII Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 227 Lines: 6 > Trouble is that I'm cross-compiling from the PC and it takes time to transfer > to SAM... I should've started it using LERM but I like the features of TASM.. Perhaps you should look at poking the values directly :) -Frode From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 14:07:30 1996 Message-Id: <1.5.4.32.19961126130448.009aba28@nessie.mcc.ac.uk> X-Sender: scooke@nessie.mcc.ac.uk X-Mailer: Windows Eudora Light Version 1.5.4 (32) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 13:04:48 +0000 To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no From: Simon Cooke Subject: Re: 51 FPC Error, ARGH!!!! Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 503 Lines: 20 At 12:40 PM 11/26/96 +0000, you wrote: >Status: > >> > On Tue, 26 Nov 1996, Justin Skists wrote: > >> I really need to buy a new printer cartridge and print the program out.. >> Debugging on the screen is not really very easy... > >Haven't you got a monitor program? GI_MON would be perfectly good enough; >get it on FRED issue, errrm, help! I'll get back to you on that. Or how about getting Turbomon from Simon Owen's web site? I think it's: http://obob.demon.co.uk/ but I'm not sure... Simon From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 14:07:42 1996 From: JohnnaPig Teare Organization: University of Central Lancashire To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 13:15:44 GMT+0 Subject: Re: SOS text editor Priority: normal X-Mailer: Pegasus Mail for Windows (v2.33) Message-Id: Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 1806 Lines: 40 > On Mon, 25 Nov 1996 samsboss@uk.pipeline.com wrote: > > > Someone said it was the time a program took to load that made the > > difference - I can't take that serious. And as another person said, what % > > of SAMSON users will actually program. > > If the programming language is easy/powerful enough, I'd say A LOT (95 - 100%). > Even my Dad programmed the Speccy and he's computer illiterate.. He wouldn't > even dare touch our PC to program.. > > My mum used to play with the Speccy but won't even dust the PC.. > > What does that tell you? Yes, nut in all honesty they are more likely to program in BASIC and, having used Basic on many platforms, I like the way in which the SAM has a command line and the ability to pull down lines from the listing for editing. It also checks the line before committing it to the listing. It saves all sorts of 'Syntax error' things later on. If the suggestion is that we have to program BASIC from within a textprocessor then this is a backwards step IMHO. Serious programmers will want a text processor so let's make them one. Lots of others will want a Wordprocessor so let's make them one. To be honest, this is really another futile argument that, like the recent ASCII codes thingy and the file format thing just prohibits progress. If we can make both processors, then let us do that. If we can't (and I can't see why we can't really) then we'll have to discuss preferences then. But it's silly to let things like this distract us from setting up software and hardware specs. How about we start planning some of this SAMSon Software? Starting with the GUI? > |Justin Skists (c93js1@dmu.ac.uk) | Don't take life so seriously, | Johnna Pig Teare (j.d.teare@uclan.ac.uk) "Mab is the Queen and there's a good apothecary man!" From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 14:08:44 1996 Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 13:43:31 +0000 (GMT) From: Tim Paveley To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Subject: Postscript files (was: Re: item 1A - SRAM board - Reply) In-Reply-To: Message-Id: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 1372 Lines: 30 On Tue, 26 Nov 1996, Dan Doore wrote: > > printer. Hence, rather than drawings losing quality by > > passing through several different translation programs, > > you can just do the equivalent of 'print *.ps'. > I tried this once and it didn't work - it just printed the > 'text' of the .PS file, what did work was doing a binary copy > of the file to the printer (COPY /B file.ps LPT1) and it worked Hmm, this reminds me of a problem I had printing my project last year. For some reason when I asked microsoft word to print in postscript format, it bunged an extra control code at the very start of the file, thus ruining the postscrpipt header, and the printer printed it as text. Loading the postscript file into a decent unix text editor, removing the offending code, and saving again, meant the postscript file printed first time. CMIIW, but isn't postscript meant to be written in normal text (ie ascii 32 to 12something and EOL's) so shouldn't need to be printed as a binary file. :sighs Then again, that wasn't the only problem I had with word on my project. So are we going to have TeX ported to the sam then? .........................................................................@/ Unc - Tim Paveley - http://dplinux.sund.ac.uk/~unc/ Staff of the Monochrome BBS - http://www.mono.org/ Owner of a Sam Coupe - http://www.mono.org/~unc/Coupe/ From imc Tue Nov 26 14:25:11 1996 Subject: Re: Postscript files (was: Re: item 1A - SRAM board - Reply) To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 14:25:11 +0000 (GMT) In-Reply-To: from "Tim Paveley" at Nov 26, 96 01:43:31 pm X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL24 PGP6] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Content-Length: 343 Lines: 12 On Tue, 26 Nov 1996 13:43:31 +0000 (GMT), Tim Paveley said: > CMIIW, but isn't postscript meant to be written in normal text (ie > ascii 32 to 12something and EOL's) Yes it is. > So are we going to have TeX ported to the sam then? We were. I was going to do it. Possibly still am, but not for years and years and years and... imc From imc Tue Nov 26 14:25:42 1996 Subject: Re: SRAM To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 14:25:42 +0000 (GMT) In-Reply-To: from "Andrew M Gale" at Nov 26, 96 09:47:25 am X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL24 PGP6] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Content-Length: 112 Lines: 6 On Tue, 26 Nov 1996 09:47:25 +0000 (GMT), Andrew M Gale said: > (How about a .ps viewer for SAM?) Ha ha. imc From imc Tue Nov 26 14:31:27 1996 Subject: Re: SRAM To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 14:31:27 +0000 (GMT) In-Reply-To: <1.5.4.32.19961126092537.00903ddc@nessie.mcc.ac.uk> from "Simon Cooke" at Nov 26, 96 09:25:37 am X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL24 PGP6] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Content-Length: 601 Lines: 15 On Tue, 26 Nov 1996 09:25:37 +0000, Simon Cooke said: > At 11:31 PM 11/25/96 GMT, you wrote: > >Given the number of graphic formats we have to select from, there must be > >ONE we can all agree on. > TIFF. But this appears to be a collection of different formats in itself. At our computing services we have a scanner attached to a Mac (unfortunately). I scanned a page in with PhotoShop and saved it in TIFF format. I asked TextBridge to scan the TIFF file and it complained that it couldn't understand it even though (a) TextBridge accepts TIFF files and (b) the image worked fine on xv. imc From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 15:10:10 1996 From: Stephen Harding Message-Id: <199611261406.OAA14686@BITS.bris.ac.uk> Subject: SOS magic TAB key To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no (sam users) Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 14:06:24 +0000 (GMT) X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL25] 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: 234 Lines: 10 > > How about making a 'beep' if the OS requires you to type more. > > Oh so you _have_ used it before then. ? I have never used an OS that (to my knowledge) automaticaly completes file names (without the need of a '*') >imc numb. From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 15:11:25 1996 Message-Id: X-Mailer: Novell GroupWise 4.1 Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 13:55:45 +0000 From: Dan Doore To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Subject: Re: Samson text editor (was Re: SAMSON: b - Reply Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 208 Lines: 13 > > I got it at a computer show - a nice little bright red self-adhesive > > key with PANIC written on it. > > So it doesn't actually do anything then... Apart from worry the secretaries, no. :) Dan. From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 15:11:35 1996 Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 14:14:55 +0000 (GMT) From: Justin Skists X-Sender: c93js1@nutmeg.cms.dmu.ac.uk To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Subject: Re: 51 FPC Error, ARGH!!!! In-Reply-To: Message-Id: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 1058 Lines: 24 On Tue, 26 Nov 1996, A.S. Collier wrote: > > > On Tue, 26 Nov 1996, Justin Skists wrote: > > > I really need to buy a new printer cartridge and print the program out.. > > Debugging on the screen is not really very easy... > > Haven't you got a monitor program? GI_MON would be perfectly good enough; > get it on FRED issue, errrm, help! I'll get back to you on that. I've got E-Mons (I think that was what it's called) somewhere from the YS tapes... But I've thrown away all my magazines and I can't remember the keys.. :/ Does it do a single step trace thingy showing all the registers, etc.. I know Lerm Toolkit can do this but it can't emulate paging... -- ============================================================================= |Justin Skists (c93js1@dmu.ac.uk) | Don't take life so seriously, | |BSc (Hons) Computer Science, Year 4 | you'll never survive it! | |De Montfort University, Leicester, England | - (C) CamLoRTS 1996 | ============================================================================= From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 15:12:28 1996 From: JohnnaPig Teare Organization: University of Central Lancashire To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 14:44:50 GMT+0 Subject: Do me a favour... Priority: normal X-Mailer: Pegasus Mail for Windows (v2.33) Message-Id: Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 1078 Lines: 29 Hello! Well, it's up and running (my website, that is) and I'd appreciate a little support from you all. If you go to: http://yi.com/home/TeareJohnna and have a look around (and perhaps leave a few messages in the Get Involved page) and then 'REGISTER YOUR SUPPORT FOR MY HOMEPAGE' I'd be most greatful. There's a list of SAM Email addresses, a brief history of the SAM up there (I'm going to rewrite it to encompass everything that has happened - perhaps more comprehensive than the book Colin M had planned?), the SAM Faq's and some other stuff. What I need is some interesting articles of any nature to put up there. Any offers? Anyway, I'm 83rd in the table of top websites and I'd like to be first eventually (540 votes - I'll make it) so if you could spare some time to visit me, leave a message and register a vote (the button is on the index page) I'd be really indebted to each and every one of you. Thanks very much for any help offered in article form. Johnna Pig Teare (j.d.teare@uclan.ac.uk) "Mab is the Queen and there's a good apothecary man!" From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 15:13:01 1996 Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 14:16:56 +0000 (GMT) From: Justin Skists X-Sender: c93js1@nutmeg.cms.dmu.ac.uk To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Subject: Re: SRAM In-Reply-To: <1.5.4.32.19961126123441.008eccd0@nessie.mcc.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: 747 Lines: 21 On Tue, 26 Nov 1996, Simon Cooke wrote: > At 11:42 AM 11/26/96 +0000, you wrote: > >> TIFF. > > > >and have 2meg files for one picture? > > Not if it's LZW compressed. Doesn't that make it equivelent to a GIF? - Except that TIFFs have 24bit colour comapes to GIF's 8bit - Then again, you don't need 24bits to disaply 2 colours (Black and white)! -- ============================================================================= |Justin Skists (c93js1@dmu.ac.uk) | Don't take life so seriously, | |BSc (Hons) Computer Science, Year 4 | you'll never survive it! | |De Montfort University, Leicester, England | - (C) CamLoRTS 1996 | ============================================================================= From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 15:14:32 1996 Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 13:56:44 +0000 (GMT) From: Justin Skists X-Sender: c93js1@nutmeg.cms.dmu.ac.uk To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Subject: Re: E-Tracker + frames In-Reply-To: <9611261343.AA02827@boothp2.ecs.ox.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: 913 Lines: 23 On Tue, 26 Nov 1996 Ian.Collier@comlab.ox.ac.uk wrote: > If you are leaving interrupts on don't forget the instructions used by the > interrupt routine. Eeek... In the first rewrite, I had intended in bypassing the interrupt routine and writing my own dedicated one for SMIDIP (which will ignore most things)... > With the screen on and interrupts off you should be able to do exactly > 23808 NOP instructions per frame. :-) And it will do the exact same thing as my program does at the moment! :) (Ie, Nothing!) -- ============================================================================= |Justin Skists (c93js1@dmu.ac.uk) | Don't take life so seriously, | |BSc (Hons) Computer Science, Year 4 | you'll never survive it! | |De Montfort University, Leicester, England | - (C) CamLoRTS 1996 | ============================================================================= From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 15:14:40 1996 From: Dave Hooper <9531427@EIGG.SMS.ED.AC.UK> Organization: Edinburgh Uni (CS and MATHS) To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 14:29:45 +0000 Subject: And today, 225 mails... X-Confirm-Reading-To: ddh@dcs.ed.ac.uk X-Pmrqc: 1 Priority: normal X-Mailer: Pegasus Mail for Windows (v2.42a) Message-Id: <196BF441FF@eigg.sms.ed.ac.uk> Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 2148 Lines: 45 That's what I received. About 8 or 9 were useful, a further 6 or so amusing. The rest? Almost identical. Ok: To summarise 225 mails: o The 'best' image format to use would be the one most people would be *able* to view. TIFF is ok, but some software doesn't read tiffs (not much). PS is nice and all, but very little PC software reads it. And ghostscript (at least whenever I have used it) appears buggy and reads the files wrongly. GIF is widely used. Ok, so it's a bit crap. But if two files (on PS /EPS and one GIF (or TIFF)) everyone could look at stuff. On this PC I'm using, the only image software I can use is PC paintbrush. I'm not sure what my point is here. Forget that last one. o Text editors / word processors. Yeh yeh, had it all before. Look, I personally don't see anything wrong with EITHER of the two options: A good text editor, bundled, and a usable word processor, bundled, with a smart word processor to buy; or, a usable word processor, bundled, with a text-only 'mode' and all that, and a smart word processor to buy. Personally I might prefer the first, others might prefer the second. So why not have a good text editor, bundled, and a usable word processor, bundled, WITH a text-only 'mode' ... doesn't WordPerfect do something like this anyway (similar, at any rate). Best of both worlds. Oh, and here's a PC windows text editor : notepad (for whoever couldn't think of one) o For real world read unbiased cross section of the population. Always . . . work to the lowest common denominator (within reason: don't assume everyone uses a Tatung Einstein or worse - and I know of someone who still does) o Someone should be appointed in some way to make decisions at some stage. ATM all we're doing is ping-ponging suggestions at each other, and then arguing about what anyone else says. This is getting us nowhere. +---------------------------------------+------------------------+ | a shot in the dark with a rubber gun | wizards and 3D an | | http://www.geocities.com/area51/5636/ | unbeatable combination | +---------------------------------------+------------------------+ From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 15:16:39 1996 From: Stephen Harding Message-Id: <199611261403.OAA14664@BITS.bris.ac.uk> Subject: SOS text editor To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no (sam users) Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 14:03:05 +0000 (GMT) X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL25] 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: 529 Lines: 13 > > While I personally probably wouldn't use a word processor I can see > > that one is needed to sell the machine to the masses. But a > > (separate) text editor definitely has to be on there as well. > > So for the hundred and nth time, why can't we have both? No one is saying that we only need one. A good text editor and a cut down version of the wordpocessor with the machine and a fuller wordprocessor that must be brought. People who want a wordprocessor want to buy it. > Johnna Pig Teare (j.d.teare@uclan.ac.uk) From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 15:23:36 1996 Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 14:29:10 +0000 (GMT) From: Justin Skists X-Sender: c93js1@nutmeg.cms.dmu.ac.uk To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Subject: Re: 51 FPC Error, ARGH!!!! In-Reply-To: <1.5.4.32.19961126130448.009aba28@nessie.mcc.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: 858 Lines: 22 On Tue, 26 Nov 1996, Simon Cooke wrote: > At 12:40 PM 11/26/96 +0000, you wrote: > Or how about getting Turbomon from Simon Owen's web site? > > I think it's: > http://obob.demon.co.uk/ I got it via Scrapbook... It sounds pretty good... :) And it's obobo... And another thing: How come I'm not mentioned in the SAM Scrapbook in the Who's Who or the Contacts...? :( *Sob sob cry cry* If who ever looks after it is on here, I'm a coder guy and a hardware guy. -- ============================================================================= |Justin Skists (c93js1@dmu.ac.uk) | Don't take life so seriously, | |BSc (Hons) Computer Science, Year 4 | you'll never survive it! | |De Montfort University, Leicester, England | - (C) CamLoRTS 1996 | ============================================================================= From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 15:38:41 1996 Message-Id: <1.5.4.32.19961126152739.00992390@nessie.mcc.ac.uk> X-Sender: scooke@nessie.mcc.ac.uk X-Mailer: Windows Eudora Light Version 1.5.4 (32) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 15:27:39 +0000 To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no From: Simon Cooke Subject: Re: SRAM Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 433 Lines: 14 At 02:16 PM 11/26/96 +0000, you wrote: >Doesn't that make it equivelent to a GIF? > - Except that TIFFs have 24bit colour comapes to GIF's 8bit > - Then again, you don't need 24bits to disaply 2 colours (Black and white)! Naaaah.... you've got the wrong end of the stick... TIFFs have got 2 colour modes as well. They're kind of equivalent to a GIF, but more widely supported -- they're a standard for Faxes and scanners. Simon From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 15:41:24 1996 Message-Id: From: ee31ag@ee.surrey.ac.uk (Andrew M Gale) Subject: SRAM...and? To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 15:21:18 +0000 (GMT) In-Reply-To: <9611261425.AA02732@booth6.ecs.ox.ac.uk> from "Ian.Collier@comlab.ox.ac.uk" at Nov 26, 96 02:25:12 pm X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL24] 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: 383 Lines: 15 OK, enough whingeing about file formats - has anyone looked at the design? Let's have some critical comments so Nev has something to work on... my comments are: * limited to 256K - is this too little? * power circuit could be dodgy for SRAM backup * one-off programming - i.e. once programmed it becomes a ROM * power-up options a bit difficult to select (using jumpers) -Andy From imc Tue Nov 26 15:42:39 1996 Subject: Re: SRAM To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 15:42:39 +0000 (GMT) In-Reply-To: <1.5.4.32.19961126152739.00992390@nessie.mcc.ac.uk> from "Simon Cooke" at Nov 26, 96 03:27:39 pm X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL24 PGP6] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Content-Length: 411 Lines: 11 On Tue, 26 Nov 1996 15:27:39 +0000, Simon Cooke said: > They're kind of equivalent to a GIF, but more widely supported I hardly think so. GIF viewers are everywhere. There is even one for the Sam. Can you view TIFF on the Sam? Also, as I was mentioning, TIFF is not one format but several different ones and there doesn't seem to be any guarantee that program Y will support program X's compression. imc From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 16:27:51 1996 Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 15:38:17 +0000 (GMT) From: Dave Handley To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Subject: Re: SRAM In-Reply-To: <1.5.4.32.19961126152739.00992390@nessie.mcc.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: 422 Lines: 12 > TIFFs have got 2 colour modes as well. > > They're kind of equivalent to a GIF, but more widely supported -- they're a > standard for Faxes and scanners. They might be more widely supported, but I've never used a TIFF file in any way in my entire life (at far as I'm aware). I might have missed something earlier (because I don't have time to read through 100+ mails a day!) but what's wrong with GIF files? DAVE From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 16:27:58 1996 From: Mr P R Walker Message-Id: <950.199611261619@chive.csv.warwick.ac.uk> Subject: Re: SRAM To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 16:18:51 +0000 (GMT) In-Reply-To: <199611261158.LAA28702@pipe1.uk.pipeline.com> from "Samsboss@uk.pipeline.com" at Nov 26, 96 11:58:59 am X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL25] 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: 271 Lines: 6 > I second TIFF, all those in favour please say so. Sorry - I vote for something more common, such as PNG - or if we really must, GIF, but I think that doing a gif program without Unisys' permission would be slightly dodgy. PNG is patent-free, and also more efficient. From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 16:36:39 1996 From: Mr P R Walker Message-Id: <981.199611261631@chive.csv.warwick.ac.uk> Subject: Re: SRAM To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 16:30:59 +0000 (GMT) In-Reply-To: from "Dave Handley" at Nov 26, 96 03:38:17 pm X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL25] 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: 583 Lines: 14 > > > TIFFs have got 2 colour modes as well. > > > > They're kind of equivalent to a GIF, but more widely supported -- they're a > > standard for Faxes and scanners. > > They might be more widely supported, but I've never used a TIFF file in > any way in my entire life (at far as I'm aware). > > I might have missed something earlier (because I don't have time to read > through 100+ mails a day!) but what's wrong with GIF files? The compression method used is patented by Unisys, last I heard. ALso they're less efficient that some alternatives, and size is everything... From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 16:36:40 1996 Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 12:13:03 +0000 (GMT) From: Si Owen To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Subject: Re: Samson text editor (was Re: SAMSON: bundled software) In-Reply-To: <9611251747.AA01160@booth17.ecs.ox.ac.uk> Message-Id: Organisation: Wordcraft International Ltd. Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 651 Lines: 15 On Mon, 25 Nov 1996 Ian.Collier@comlab.ox.ac.uk wrote: > No, if I change my shell it's going to be bash. If you want the ultimate in shells try 'zsh' - it's nicely compatible with bash. If we're gonna have a Sam shell this is the one to copy! Si /------------------------------------+----------------------------------------\ | Si Owen | Home: si@obobo.demon.co.uk | | Wordcraft International Ltd, UK | Work: sowen@wordcraft.co.uk | | Fax: +44-1332-295525 | WWW: www.obobo.demon.co.uk | \------------------------------------+----------------------------------------/ From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 16:36:40 1996 From: Mr P R Walker Message-Id: <965.199611261627@chive.csv.warwick.ac.uk> Subject: Re: SOS Hard Drives To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 16:27:33 +0000 (GMT) In-Reply-To: <9611252302.AA9726@worldcom-57.worldcom.com> from "Stefan Drissen" at Nov 25, 96 09:21:53 pm X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL25] 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: 963 Lines: 22 > 60UKP???? You have got to be joking! That's the price that the SD Software > one is going for. If you look at just the components of the interface you'll Well, yes. This is what I based the estimate on, seeing as I a) don't know what's in the interface b) couldn't understand it anyway c) have no idea how much any of them cost. > As to a harddrive... the smallest one that you can get in large numbers see > to be an 850 meg drive (and these are dying out as well) for approx 100UKP. > There must however be spare supplies of 500 meg drives out there somewhere.. Why not just use 850meg? I can't believe that all of the coders who might be attracted to SAMSon will either want to, or be able to, write programs such as full-fledged word processors in a reasonable space, so just have as much as possible. > Accordingly, Coopers & Lybrand disclaim They're doing a lecture at university sometime - you should ask if you can be the one to give it ;) From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 16:36:40 1996 From: Mr P R Walker Message-Id: <973.199611261629@chive.csv.warwick.ac.uk> Subject: Re: SOS text editor To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 16:29:21 +0000 (GMT) In-Reply-To: <199611252002.UAA09067@pipe1.uk.pipeline.com> from "Samsboss@uk.pipeline.com" at Nov 25, 96 08:02:03 pm X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL25] 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: 184 Lines: 5 > Someone said it was the time a program took to load that made the > difference - I can't take that serious. That's okay. I have trouble taking you seriously at the moment as well. From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 16:45:03 1996 X-Authentication-Warning: dcsun4.comp.brad.ac.uk: lwillis owned process doing -bs Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 16:34:43 +0000 (GMT) From: Lee Willis To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Subject: Re: SRAM In-Reply-To: <981.199611261631@chive.csv.warwick.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: 384 Lines: 13 On Tue, 26 Nov 1996, Mr P R Walker wrote: ;>they're less efficient that some alternatives, and size is everything... ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ That's not what my girlfriend said ... Lee. How many Microsoft employees does it take to screw in a light bulb? None, they just make darkness the industry standard! From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 16:46:06 1996 From: James R Curry Organization: De Montfort University To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 16:46:14 GMT Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7BIT Subject: Re: Samson text editor (was Re: SAMSON: b - Reply Priority: normal X-Mailer: Pegasus Mail for Windows (v2.42a) Message-Id: <2A7C41D4282@sahara.cms.dmu.ac.uk> Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 441 Lines: 15 > On Mon, 25 Nov 1996 09:44:27 +0000, Dan Doore said: > > > True, I've always thought that the Escape key should > > > be Very Big, Bright Red and labeled 'PANIC!!!' > > > I already have one, nestling between ESC and F1 :) > > What? For a start, ESC and F1 are nowhere near each other. > > imc They are on this keyboard.... -- James R Curry hc95jc@dmu.ac.uk "20 Dollars! Aw, I wanted a peanut.." - Homer Simpson, the Simpsons. From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 16:46:29 1996 From: James R Curry Organization: De Montfort University To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 16:44:36 GMT Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7BIT Subject: Re: item 1A - SRAM board Priority: normal X-Mailer: Pegasus Mail for Windows (v2.42a) Message-Id: <2A7BCD354E3@sahara.cms.dmu.ac.uk> Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 1072 Lines: 31 > On Sun, 24 Nov 1996 20:47:41 GMT, Samsboss@uk.pipeline.com said: > > On Nov 24, 1996 16:14:31, 'Tim Wells ' wrote: > > > > > > >Was going to offer, but see others have already volunteered. Would have > > >thought that a postscript file would be fairly distributable though. > > > > > >Tim W. > > -- > > Would be better to use any file format that Paint Shop Pro 3x will read, > > that is the one that just about everyone will have > > Oh no it isn't. > > imc ARGHHHHHHHH!!! This is getting ridiculous, people are supposed to be helping design the SAMSon and all they can do is argue about which file format the DESIGNS should be in!!!!!!!!! THIS IS POINTLESS! LOOK AT THE SUBJECT!!!! "RE: item 1A - SRAM board". Not "ARGUMENT ABOUT SOMETHING COMPLETELY INSIGNIFICANT WHICH NOBODY CARES ABOUT!" Sorry.. It was just getting to me a bit.. I await the flames.. -- James R Curry hc95jc@dmu.ac.uk "20 Dollars! Aw, I wanted a peanut.." - Homer Simpson, the Simpsons. From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 16:47:59 1996 From: Mr P R Walker Message-Id: <1023.199611261645@chive.csv.warwick.ac.uk> Subject: Re: SRAM To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 16:44:59 +0000 (GMT) In-Reply-To: from "Lee Willis" at Nov 26, 96 04:34:43 pm X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL25] 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: 282 Lines: 7 > ;>they're less efficient that some alternatives, and size is everything... > ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ > That's not what my girlfriend said ... I was wondering which of you would be the first to pick that up... Congratulations! ;) From imc Tue Nov 26 16:52:13 1996 Subject: Re: SRAM To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 16:52:13 +0000 (GMT) In-Reply-To: <950.199611261619@chive.csv.warwick.ac.uk> from "Mr P R Walker" at Nov 26, 96 04:18:51 pm X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL24 PGP6] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Content-Length: 1101 Lines: 25 On Tue, 26 Nov 1996 16:18:51 +0000 (GMT), Mr P R Walker said: > > I second TIFF, all those in favour please say so. > Sorry - I vote for something more common, such as PNG - or if we > really must, GIF, but I think that doing a gif program without > Unisys' permission would be slightly dodgy. Erm, we are not discussing a program here - we are discussing the format in which people should put up their circuit diagrams for us all to laugh at^W^W study. And I don't think a format for which there are currently no viewers is a good idea for that! Also I don't think the Sam should have a "standard" image format. It should be equally easy to use all kinds of images (by loading them into a spiffy conversion utility like "xv"). > PNG is patent-free, and > also more efficient. On that subject, I notice that the doc on LZ77 compression says that this works well in general but is not so good for certain types of data such as raster graphics. So isn't it a bit odd for the PNG folks to have decided on LZ77 to compress their raster graphics? imc From imc Tue Nov 26 16:53:54 1996 Subject: Re: Samson text editor (was Re: SAMSON: b - Reply To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 16:53:54 +0000 (GMT) In-Reply-To: <2A7C41D4282@sahara.cms.dmu.ac.uk> from "James R Curry" at Nov 26, 96 04:46:14 pm X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL24 PGP6] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Content-Length: 210 Lines: 8 On Tue, 26 Nov 1996 16:46:14 GMT, James R Curry said: > > What? For a start, ESC and F1 are nowhere near each other. > They are on this keyboard.... Wake up, we covered this several minutes ago! :-) imc From imc Tue Nov 26 17:16:01 1996 Subject: Re: Samson text editor (was Re: SAMSON: bundled software) To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 17:16:01 +0000 (GMT) In-Reply-To: from "Lee Willis" at Nov 26, 96 12:57:07 pm X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL24 PGP6] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Content-Length: 2561 Lines: 51 On Tue, 26 Nov 1996 12:57:07 +0000 (GMT), Lee Willis said: > ;>>Why would you need the quotes within BASIC ? > But doesn't the BASIC reference the DOS when it finds a DOS command in > which case if we change DOS syntax we don't need the quotes no more. It > would be silly to have one syntax for CLI and another for programming .. Lots of systems have one syntax for CLI and another for programming. It's a question of what you want the CLI to look like and what you want the programming language to look like. For example, C and perl are languages which are different from the CLI. If you want to run a CLI command then you have to use the system() function to pass the command to the operating system. Rexx is similar, but in that you just have to type a string expression which gets passed to the operating system. Unix shells, DOS batch files and the current Sam BASIC are examples of systems in which the CLI and the programming language are the same. They are each consistent within themselves, but each requires a method to tell the difference between elements of the language and words in the CLI. - In shells, the difference is marked by putting '$' in front of each variable and by having several words (like "if" and "while") that cannot be the names of programs (on the other hand there's no problem with "./if" and "/bin/while"). - DOS batch files are entirely similar, except that the special character is '%' instead of '$'. - Sam BASIC uses quotes to mark anything that isn't a variable name or another part of the language, and you can't start a program just by typing its name because that's defined to be a command in BASIC. If you want to make the CLI and the programming language separate then that's fine. Lose the quotes from the CLI. But you will then have to add to the BASIC a way to execute a CLI command. If you want to keep the CLI and the programming language the same then it would be inconsistent to lose the quotes. You might define that whenever Sam BASIC saw the keyword LOAD it would expect a name with no quotes, but that would be inconsistent with the rest of BASIC, and it would also disallow you from loading a program whose name was contained in the variable a$. So you might as well in that case say that the LOAD command isn't BASIC at all but part of a separate CLI. Incidentally, as long as we are going down this route, perhaps it's time that the LOAD and SAVE commands were retired?... (In most systems, to run a program called a.out you type a.out, not LOAD "a.out"). imc From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 17:31:18 1996 Message-Id: <1.5.4.32.19961126172814.008ec084@nessie.mcc.ac.uk> X-Sender: scooke@nessie.mcc.ac.uk X-Mailer: Windows Eudora Light Version 1.5.4 (32) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 17:28:14 +0000 To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no From: Simon Cooke Subject: Re: SRAM Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 406 Lines: 14 At 04:18 PM 11/26/96 +0000, you wrote: >Status: > >> I second TIFF, all those in favour please say so. > >Sorry - I vote for something more common, such as PNG - or if we >really must, GIF, but I think that doing a gif program without >Unisys' permission would be slightly dodgy. PNG is patent-free, and >also more efficient. I thought we were still talking about printing out the schematics? Simon From imc Tue Nov 26 18:06:12 1996 Subject: Re: How long a filename? To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 18:06:12 +0000 (GMT) In-Reply-To: <19A12F7225D@smserver1.ulst.ac.uk> from "Gavin Smith" at Nov 25, 96 06:39:08 pm X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL24 PGP6] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Content-Length: 491 Lines: 14 On Mon, 25 Nov 1996 18:39:08 GMT, Gavin Smith said: > > > > On the other hand, 127-159 are control codes in ISO8859. > > Actually I don't know what they are, but whatever it is they are not > > printable. And 127 is DEL, which is a control code. > 128-255 are in the extended set and vary from manufacturer to > manufacturer. The operative words above are "in ISO8859" which, being an international standard, doesn't vary from manufacturer to manufacturer as far as I am aware... imc From imc Tue Nov 26 18:06:36 1996 Subject: Re: SOS text editor To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 18:06:36 +0000 (GMT) In-Reply-To: from "JohnnaPig Teare" at Nov 25, 96 07:04:58 pm X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL24 PGP6] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Content-Length: 361 Lines: 11 On Mon, 25 Nov 1996 19:04:58 GMT+0, JohnnaPig Teare said: > > While I personally probably wouldn't use a word processor I can see that > > one is needed to sell the machine to the masses. But a (separate) text > > editor definitely has to be on there as well. > So for the hundred and nth time, why can't we have both? Isn't that what I just said?... imc From imc Tue Nov 26 18:11:06 1996 Subject: Re: Bizzare SAM stories To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 18:11:06 +0000 (GMT) In-Reply-To: from "JohnnaPig Teare" at Nov 25, 96 07:15:34 pm X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL24 PGP6] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Content-Length: 793 Lines: 21 On Mon, 25 Nov 1996 19:15:34 GMT+0, JohnnaPig Teare said: > > And my SAM *STILL* works.. Sturdy computers. > And whenever we have power spikes, the SAM is always the last thing > to go down. Let's face it... I sometimes leave my Sam on overnight (to keep my place in a looong news archive that I'm reading) and I sometimes find that it has crashed even when I didn't notice any power spikes. > They're ace aren't they? I think we should have a road test with the > SAM and see how much of a bashing we can give them. You can go > first... I have done the NMI-debounce mod precisely three times. On one of these occasions the Sam spontaneously stopped working. I think I must have been sold duff equipment. imc (not to mention the time when I had to replace the colour crystal...) From imc Tue Nov 26 18:13:10 1996 Subject: Re: SRAM To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 18:13:10 +0000 (GMT) In-Reply-To: <199611252331.XAA18911@pipe1.uk.pipeline.com> from "Samsboss@uk.pipeline.com" at Nov 25, 96 11:31:01 pm X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL24 PGP6] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Content-Length: 365 Lines: 10 On Mon, 25 Nov 1996 23:31:01 GMT, Samsboss@uk.pipeline.com said: > What is XFIG when its at home (or not at home as the case may be). Format produced by a program called (guess what) xfig. Not much use if you haven't got it, but quite useful if you have. And he didn't expect you to be able to look at it - that's why he created the EPS version as well. imc From imc Tue Nov 26 18:14:37 1996 Subject: Re: How long a filename? To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 18:14:37 +0000 (GMT) In-Reply-To: <9611260827.AA03189@asmal.edh-net> from "Frode Tenneboe" at Nov 26, 96 09:27:51 am X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL24 PGP6] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Content-Length: 376 Lines: 13 On Tue, 26 Nov 1996 09:27:51 +0100, Frode Tenneboe said: > No. ASCII is per definition 7-bit. I think you've changed the subject, but never mind... > Yes, 127 is a controll code for ASCII delete - actually, it comes > from the days of the punchcards. Try to guess why. :) Because if you cocked up you could just punch all the holes out and it would turn into a DEL. imc From imc Tue Nov 26 18:15:29 1996 Subject: Re: Samson text editor (was Re: SAMSON: bundled software) To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 18:15:29 +0000 (GMT) In-Reply-To: <9611260829.AA03192@asmal.edh-net> from "Frode Tenneboe" at Nov 26, 96 09:29:32 am X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL24 PGP6] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Content-Length: 371 Lines: 10 On Tue, 26 Nov 1996 09:29:32 +0100, Frode Tenneboe said: > > Sort of, I guess... (why not right-arrow then, seeing as it's not printable > > like TAB is?) > Because right-arrow has a definition on a command-line. Not when the cursor is already on the end of a line (and OK I suppose you could ask for a completion in the middle of a line but it sounds unlikely). imc From imc Tue Nov 26 18:16:54 1996 Subject: Re: 51 FPC Error, ARGH!!!! To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 18:16:54 +0000 (GMT) In-Reply-To: from "Justin Skists" at Nov 26, 96 08:57:04 am X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL24 PGP6] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Content-Length: 420 Lines: 11 On Tue, 26 Nov 1996 08:57:04 +0000 (GMT), Justin Skists said: > Does anyone know the criteria needed to get 51 FPC error? I still can't get it > by manipulating the numbers... I think that happens if you delete too much stuff from the FPC stack. I have also had it when the program and/or machine stack was not in the right position (I think that means: don't put the program or the machine stack in section D). imc From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 18:32:34 1996 From: JohnnaPig Teare Organization: University of Central Lancashire To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 18:18:36 GMT+0 Subject: Re: SOS text editor Priority: normal X-Mailer: Pegasus Mail for Windows (v2.33) Message-Id: Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 540 Lines: 17 > On Mon, 25 Nov 1996 19:04:58 GMT+0, JohnnaPig Teare said: > > > > While I personally probably wouldn't use a word processor I can see that > > > one is needed to sell the machine to the masses. But a (separate) text > > > editor definitely has to be on there as well. > > > So for the hundred and nth time, why can't we have both? > > Isn't that what I just said?... But I think, as the date will identify, I said it first. > > imc > Johnna Pig Teare (j.d.teare@uclan.ac.uk) "Mab is the Queen and there's a good apothecary man!" From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 18:38:49 1996 From: James R Curry Organization: De Montfort University To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 16:57:33 GMT Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7BIT Subject: Re: The SAM FAQs Priority: normal X-Mailer: Pegasus Mail for Windows (v2.42a) Message-Id: <2A7F41A69EB@sahara.cms.dmu.ac.uk> Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 227 Lines: 8 > (god I hope samboss isn't graham back from the > void ;) Nope, he's not.. Graham still has no access to Email. -- James R Curry hc95jc@dmu.ac.uk "20 Dollars! Aw, I wanted a peanut.." - Homer Simpson, the Simpsons. From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 18:40:28 1996 From: James R Curry Organization: De Montfort University To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 17:20:51 GMT Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7BIT Subject: Re: Bizzare SAM stories {WAS - Golden rule for disk safety} Priority: normal X-Mailer: Pegasus Mail for Windows (v2.42a) Message-Id: <2A857FD3A20@sahara.cms.dmu.ac.uk> Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 407 Lines: 15 > >And my SAM *STILL* works.. Sturdy computers. > >-- > > Designed to last, very few things like that these days. > > Bob. Very true... My Playstation has been kept perfectly safe with hardly any mishaps.. (Just one, and it worked after that, anyway). And I've had to replace it 3 times. -- James R Curry hc95jc@dmu.ac.uk "20 Dollars! Aw, I wanted a peanut.." - Homer Simpson, the Simpsons. From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 18:43:09 1996 From: James R Curry Organization: De Montfort University To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 18:43:53 GMT Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7BIT Subject: Re: Bizzare SAM stories Priority: normal X-Mailer: Pegasus Mail for Windows (v2.42a) Message-Id: <2A9BA5E5368@sahara.cms.dmu.ac.uk> Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 1040 Lines: 29 > On Mon, 25 Nov 1996 19:15:34 GMT+0, JohnnaPig Teare said: > > > And my SAM *STILL* works.. Sturdy computers. > > > And whenever we have power spikes, the SAM is always the last thing > > to go down. Let's face it... > > I sometimes leave my Sam on overnight (to keep my place in a looong news > archive that I'm reading) and I sometimes find that it has crashed even > when I didn't notice any power spikes. Wow. I sometimes leave my SAM on for several days, and I've never had problems like this. > > They're ace aren't they? I think we should have a road test with the > > SAM and see how much of a bashing we can give them. You can go > > first... > > I have done the NMI-debounce mod precisely three times. On one of these > occasions the Sam spontaneously stopped working. > > I think I must have been sold duff equipment. > > imc (not to mention the time when I had to replace the colour crystal...) > > -- James R Curry hc95jc@dmu.ac.uk "20 Dollars! Aw, I wanted a peanut.." - Homer Simpson, the Simpsons. From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 18:54:13 1996 Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 13:51:57 -0500 From: BrenchleyR@aol.com Message-Id: <961126135157_706077795@emout15.mail.aol.com> To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Subject: Re: SRAM Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 179 Lines: 9 In a message dated 26/11/96 10:56:36, you write: >Added in ./docs/sram.zip - in addition to a .tiff an .ppm :) > > -Frode Frode, you are too good to us all. Many thanks. Bob. From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 18:59:38 1996 Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 13:52:10 -0500 From: BrenchleyR@aol.com Message-Id: <961126135209_1453221347@emout05.mail.aol.com> To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Subject: Re: SOS text editor Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 462 Lines: 14 In a message dated 26/11/96 14:56:25, you write: >No one is saying that we only need one. >A good text editor and a cut down version of the wordpocessor with the >machine and a fuller wordprocessor that must be brought. People who want >a wordprocessor want to buy it. > No, what we do is we write ONE program. But we make it so good that C programmers and the like will use it as a text editor, while others can use it as a reasonable wordprocessor. Bob. From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 18:59:39 1996 Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 13:52:02 -0500 From: BrenchleyR@aol.com Message-Id: <961126135202_1084318819@emout17.mail.aol.com> To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Subject: Re: SOS text editor Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 335 Lines: 11 In a message dated 26/11/96 12:45:56, you write: >We have to bring back the "image" of the Spectrum compared to things like BBC >'B' and the first IBMs... Fun to "play" (ie program/explore) with to its >limits >and not so expensive/incomprehensible that you wouldn't dare touch it! Now that is an angle I would go along with. Bob. From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 18:59:39 1996 Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 13:52:08 -0500 From: BrenchleyR@aol.com Message-Id: <961126135208_1421227694@emout04.mail.aol.com> To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Subject: Re: Samson text editor (was Re: SAMSON: b - Reply Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 163 Lines: 10 In a message dated 26/11/96 14:09:24, you write: >So it doesn't actually do anything then... > >imc No, but I bet its fun to hit it.... I would love one. Bob. From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 18:59:55 1996 Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 13:52:07 -0500 From: BrenchleyR@aol.com Message-Id: <961126135207_1352558307@emout02.mail.aol.com> To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Subject: Re: SOS text editor Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 340 Lines: 11 In a message dated 26/11/96 14:09:19, you write: >How about we start planning some of this SAMSon Software? Starting >with the GUI? No, you start at the bottom and work up. The first thing we need is to get the existing ROM/DOS working in the paged enviroment of the SRAM board. Then we can start looking at what changes to make. Bob. From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 18:59:56 1996 Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 13:52:06 -0500 From: BrenchleyR@aol.com Message-Id: <961126135206_1319110627@emout01.mail.aol.com> To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Subject: Re: Samson text editor (was Re: SAMSON: bundled software) Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 364 Lines: 11 In a message dated 26/11/96 14:08:16, you write: >But doesn't the BASIC reference the DOS when it finds a DOS command in >which case if we change DOS syntax we don't need the quotes no more. It >would be silly to have one syntax for CLI and another for programming .. > >Lee. Quite agree, it would be silly to have two, that is why the quotes will stay. Bob. From owner-sam-users@nvg.unit.no Tue Nov 26 19:00:04 1996 From: JohnnaPig Teare Organization: University of Central Lancashire To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 18:54:19 GMT+0 Subject: Re: Bizzare SAM stories Priority: normal X-Mailer: Pegasus Mail for Windows (v2.33) Message-Id: Reply-To: sam-users@nvg.unit.no Status: RO Content-Length: 1151 Lines: 25 > > On Mon, 25 Nov 1996 19:15:34 GMT+0, JohnnaPig Teare said: > > > > And my SAM *STILL* works.. Sturdy computers. > > > > > And whenever we have power spikes, the SAM is always the last thing > > > to go down. Let's face it... > > > > I sometimes leave my Sam on overnight (to keep my place in a looong news > > archive that I'm reading) and I sometimes find that it has crashed even > > when I didn't notice any power spikes. > > Wow. I sometimes leave my SAM on for several days, and I've never > had problems like this. > Although this I can;t agree with from personal experience. I left my SAM on for two nights once and the VDU thingy inthe PSU blew (lots of ooo sounds there - Dylan Thomas would be proud) and once I left it on for a week and the out casing of the PSU (only a small corner of it mind) had sunk where the heat had melted i (and the VDU had blew). So, yes the SAM computer unit is fine, but the PSU are a bit dodgy (until I started buying them from Greenweld, I might add...;-) > James R Curry hc95jc@dmu.ac.uk Johnna Pig Teare (j.d.teare@uclan.ac.uk) "Mab is the Queen and there's a good apothecary man!"