Recent Posts

Topic: General / Updated Samba server?

This is all way outside my area of expertise. Can someone explain why an SMB server is preferable to an NFS server?

Topic: General / Icon Flag - needs help to draw from Wimp

Bit 7 is specified in the Icon flag to specify if the icon needs help to be redraw
The Redraw_Window_Request doesn’t seem to specify icon handles, so not sure where the Wimp reports that it needs help to draw the icon.

I’d like to write some code to make an icon a bit more clever around how it deals with displaying the sprite in an icon, and assumed that this would be achieved via this bit, but I’m having no luck with it.

Does anyone know what this bit is used for, and how to use it?

Topic: Aldershot / The long term future of RISC OS

I think Castle were part of the equation

No. Simtec, R-Comp, STD. At least for Net100. Not sure about USB, UniPod and VPod – maybe only STD and Simtec.

Topic: Code review / Maestro

Rick’s comment:
To an accuracy of two milliseconds (same reason CallAfter/CallEvery is 2cs).
Steve’s Comment:
One fast timer (can we go faster than 1kHz?)

Can you not run it 2KHz? and get 0.5mS ticks?
If you’re wanting millisecond precision why accept accuracy of 2mS?

Topic: Aldershot / The long term future of RISC OS

I think Castle were part of the equation

I also think that RComp might have been too, so that may actually be doubly relevant!

Topic: Aldershot / The long term future of RISC OS

I seem to think the NET100 was a partnership between several RISC OS companies, so maybe one of them can get STD to release the source to bring it up to date?

I think Castle were part of the equation and probably the only ones with activity this decade so contacting the owners of all their IP might work out.

Topic: Community Support / GPIO6 usage

I suppose the test would be does GPIO6 still show spurious signals when you have nothing connected to it?

Topic: Aldershot / The long term future of RISC OS

That web site page has not been updated for 14 years…

My guess is they don’t sell them any more! :-)

But at least someone had a go at it once and got it to work. I seem to think the NET100 was a partnership between several RISC OS companies, so maybe one of them can get STD to release the source to bring it up to date?

Topic: Aldershot / The long term future of RISC OS

Aha:
Here it is on STD’s website.

That web site page has not been updated for 14 years…

Topic: Code review / Maestro

I’ve probably misunderstood, but isn’t that exactly what Jeffrey is proposing in the ARM generic timer thread?

Yes, but everyone is following the standard management principle:
Ignore it or diss it at the time and then present it in a new coat of paint at a later date and pretend it’s new and possibly personal.

Topic: General / Updated Samba server?

I also think that it would be desirable to have a working Samba server, though the one we “have” is only SMB1, which is a rapidly dying breed.

Close to extinct, as you will probably have noticed somewhere in the Windows8.x – Windows 10 (and matching server instances) plus recent MacOS revisions SMB1 found itself on the wrong side of a closed door. You can re-enable in some cases but subsequent patches turn off for you.

There seems no immediate prospect of having an SMB2 or SMB3 server. But, on a LAN inaccessible to the outside world, it should be OK.

SMB 2.0 support in certain devices breaks nicely when you go to later 2.x – from the evidence of an old Ricoh printer scanner updated to not use SMB1 and use SMB2 instead, things get more secure and even base SMB2.0 starts failing.
That’s on a corporate LAN, with a collection of techies to diagnose and check.

Then we get the gem: SMB 3.1.1 also makes secure negotiation mandatory when connecting to clients using SMB 2.x and higher.

The world is moving on and RO needs to support the current version of common communications or none of the devices we can buy to plug in to our private LAN will be visible.

Probably best to see what SMB offerings are out there that could be ported from a generic ARM base to RO.

Topic: General / Updated Samba server?

… No, the MiliusBeagle Samba server is still as flaky as ever on my BBxM. It makes MPro unstable. Every time anything crashes, Alt-Break doesn’t rescue it. I’ve had two crashes where even the mouse cursor stopped moving. Fortunately it hasn’t eaten the disc.

In the short time during which it was working, I was able to connect to it from my phone (Android) and send a couple of files to it, but curiously I wasn’t able to connect to it from Ubuntu, which of course does connect to my NAS boxes.

So I’m giving up on Samba server again.

Topic: Code review / Maestro

One fast timer (can we go faster than 1kHz?) and slower sub-timer facilities for any event requiring vaguely precise regular action.

I’ve probably misunderstood, but isn’t that exactly what Jeffrey is proposing in the ARM generic timer thread?

Topic: Code review / Maestro

So back to my earlier proposal:

An event FastTickerV, fires at 1kHz
OS_FastCallEvery and OS_FastCallAfter, act just like their 100Hz counterparts
OS_RemoveFastTickerEvent to undo the previous two
OS_ReadFastTime, like ReadMonotonicTime for the 1kHz ticker

and

Don’t steal a hardware timer for a specific use, make a system-wide resource and everything can benefit.

Which in various different words seems to be what most people are saying.

One fast timer (can we go faster than 1kHz?) and slower sub-timer facilities for any event requiring vaguely precise regular action.

I suspect any such facility would:
1. Be rather handy in the OS itself
2. Extremely handy to anyone doing “bare-metal” projects.

Topic: Aldershot / The long term future of RISC OS

Thanks Andy & Vince :)

Topic: Community Support / Using SWI TaskManager_Shutdown

What do you do after the assembler routine has been run?

Coo, 2015.¹ Since the trigger for the action was a specific key combination² captured by a modified Filer module I’m pretty certain single/multi tasking didn’t come into it. I do recall the RPCEmu had fits about certain aspects (probably just a small bit where the emulation isn’t 100%)

Ref. your other query about GPIO pins and 1 second high pulse: Aren’t the GPIO pins limited voltage and current? So the hold down probably ought to be via something like a 4k7 to limit the current the GPIO could be ever asked to source.
Anyway, that 1 second high status sounds like the processor trying to reset something and if you’ve programmed the GPIO6 to be input only that surely shouldn’t be so.

¹ Must get back to playing with those Filer/keyboard bits.
² Memory says I was experimenting with Alt+R (intending to do Win+R later) for reboot and Alt-S(Win+S later) for shutdown.

Topic: General / Updated Samba server?

I also think that it would be desirable to have a working Samba server, though the one we “have” is only SMB1, which is a rapidly dying breed. There seems no immediate prospect of having an SMB2 or SMB3 server. But, on a LAN inaccessible to the outside world, it should be OK.

But I’ve never had a RISC OS Samba server stay up for any significant length of time (except by not accessing it, which is of course cheating). I gave up on it for years, then tried it again maybe a couple of years back, and found it to be even less stable than I had remembered.

I suppose I should have another go…

The “out of the box” settings are guaranteed to cause a crash if my memory serves me correctly.

Topic: Code review / Maestro

I was thinking about this while I was at work, and sorry, I just can’t justify MIDI needing to claim an entire timer (which might be the only available one in the system) for itself.

So back to my earlier proposal:

• An event FastTickerV, fires at 1kHz
• OS_FastCallEvery and OS_FastCallAfter, act just like their 100Hz counterparts
• OS_RemoveFastTickerEvent to undo the previous two
• OS_ReadFastTime, like ReadMonotonicTime for the 1kHz ticker

This would provide RISC OS with the long known mechanisms for scheduling events and timing/delaying, only running to an accuracy of 1kHz rather than 100Hz.

More than all of that, it would be a system wide resource available for suitable software (in the same way as now with the existing setup) which is infinitely better than the entirely bad idea of “let’s create a protocol to claim a limited resource to solve just one problem”.

MIDI? Solved:

• Reading data? Record OS_ReadFastTime value at the start, then each packet can be stamped with the FastTime when the packet was read, a bit of simple maths can convert that into “offset from the start”. At millisecond resolution.
• Sending data? Work out when, put the data into a local buffer, schedule a FastCallAfter. RISC OS will call your code when the time is ready, so just copy the data from local buffer to USB device, then schedule the next time. To an accuracy of two milliseconds (same reason CallAfter/CallEvery is 2cs).
• Think you need absolute millisecond accuracy? Claim FastTickerV and do it yourself.

Want to time very specific delays in BASIC, maybe for poking hardware, maybe better than 100Hz? The ReadFastTime SWI, just like ReadMonotonicTime. I bet you could do reasonable work in a millisecond on a Pi, even in BASIC!

Don’t steal a hardware timer for a specific use, make a system-wide resource and everything can benefit.

Topic: General / Finding where a file is...

I’m just saying that there’s something floating around in RO that messes with capitalisation.

Probably some MS Office code that got lost.
There’s me trying to write case sensitive command strings for Unix and Cisco and the chuffin’ stuff decides, erroneously and stupidly, that I need an uppercase substitution in my document/email.

Topic: Code review / Maestro

I’d disagree when the alternate is

“alternative”?

= Other option?

Topic: Code review / Maestro

we really need a way to reserve timers

I’d disagree when the alternate is to “hijack” everything as low as possible and offer replacements at super intervals that are multiples of 0.001s.

Topic: Code review / Maestro

If hardware timers are in shoft supply, then isn’t it possible to use one timer for more tssks? Especially as there is a fixed ratio between centisecond and millisecond, isn’t it possible to program the (now in use for centiseconds) timer to millisecond intervals, dispatch 1 ms-events everytime and centisecond ones once per ten msec-ones?

When I referred to a master timer in the "generic timer thread, what you have said matches what I was thinking of so

Perhaps a stupid idea,

I’m thinking it’s a good idea. Druck did a module that did that so he thought it was a good idea. Other people are now free to join in thinking it’s a good idea.

Topic: Code review / Maestro

Acorn made a module – TimeCode ? – that hijacks Timer1 for itself.

The TimeCode Reader Podule was sold by Uniqueway. We have a new one in stock! It was used in conjunction with Sibelius.

Topic: Code review / Maestro

does not use Timer1 – the help says…

This is surely a good thing rather than a bad thing?

At the end of the day, who cares which timer is used, as long as it is properly abstracted away and gives the necessary resolution (as far as I understood so far, microsecond resolution would be good enough).

Topic: Aldershot / The long term future of RISC OS

Hmm…

clicks

Aha:
Here it is on STD’s website.