Date   : Tue, 27 Jul 2004 11:14:11 +0100
From   : jgh@... (Jonathan Graham Harston)
Subject: Re: Quickchip CAD software... (ACW)

Jules Richardson <julesrichardsonuk@...> wrote:
> All my Panos disks are labelled as "Acorn Computer Cambridge Series
> Distribution Disc" by the way.
 
My release notice is labeled "Acorn Computer Cambridge Series", all the
disks are labelled "32016 Second Processor"
 
> > 32016 Second Processor DISTRIBUTION DISK 1 PANOS STARTUP AND UTILITIES
> > (includes BBC Basic and 32016 assembler) Pre-release Issue C
[snip]
 
> Copies of those would be handy. There have been quite a few 32016 copros
> floating around of late after a batch turned up in a skip here (I think
> the count of known survivors is up to about 25 now!), but none of us
> have any software.
 
I was given mine by somebody from (I think) Northen Ireland who came to
the Harrogate Acorn show in 1995(?), or maybe one of the Sheffield Not The
Acorn User Shows.
 
> Ten years ago there was some 32016 3rd-party software on York uni's ftp
> server, but of course it's long since vanished. The chap who owned it
 
I saw that some years ago. When I went back to grab it it had vanished!
I've only found one other item on the Internet about the 32016, a copy is
at http://www.mdfs.net/Docs/Comp/32016
 
> Well perhaps we should make a serious effort to collect images of
> everything into one place? It'd also be nice to scan the manuals (I'm
> happy to do that if you're willing to let me borrow them!).
 
I've got a scanner at work (after requesting one for four years). I'll pop
in over the summer when it's quieter and scan them in. Then, we'll have a
big OCRing task on our hands!
 
> This chap at the CGE show (assuming that wasn't you!) copied all the
 
'twas me!
 
> Panos stuff he had onto my friend's laptop, so I'll see what there is
> there when he forwards that on to me.
 
I tend to carry around a backup of my home server on CD, particularly as
at work the IT people don't understand the concept of me wanting to access
my home system from work. "But you can log in to the Town Hall from
home..."  Yes, but that's the *wrong way round!*
 
The problem I had on Sunday was that the PC laptop couldn't undertand the
Acorn/RISC OS file information, so the chap (who's name I can't remember!)
will have all the files, but no file information. For some PanOS files
this doesn't matter, as the "extension" tells the system what to do with
it.  I told said chap I'd zip & image everything up when I got home and
send him a CD.  I'm going to do some initial testing to throw together
some PC-based image-to-disk transfer instructions.
 
[Aside: At the CGExpo somebody asked me: "what do you use to read BBC
disks?" I gave the obvious answer: "A BBC"!  But to append "... with a PC"
to the question: I tend to use OmniDisk, Chris tends to use FDC.]
 
> Presumably you have an ACW? If so, does yours have the optional mouse
 
Nope, I've just got an external 32016 CoProcessor.
 
> board fitted? One of my friends got one with a mouse board recently but
> information on what mouse the system uses and how to actually drive it
> very patchy (the board hangs off the 1MHz bus and contains a pair of
> large counter ICs, rather than make use of the User port)
 
If I had a circuit diagram of the mouse board I could probably write a
*Mouse command specifically for it (or mouse-sys or whatever the PanOS
file would need to be...)
 
-- 
J.G.Harston - jgh@...                - mdfs.net/User/JGH
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