 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| To: | 999 (all members) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| From: | E4W (Crispin Boylan) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Subject: | High Density FDC? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Hi As you are probably finding, it is getting quite hard to find new 80t double sided disks, and to a certain | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| extent, even | 3.5 inch 720k | disks. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| What I was wondering, is if the beeb | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| could be adapted to use | 1.44mb High | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Density 3.5 inch | floppies? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Ok, so maybe this is crazy talk, but would it be impossible? To me it seems as if the only things needed would be the right controller, and an | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| adaption for it to the | 8271 | slot in | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| the | BBC B | (I don't know what the thing | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| in the | Master | is like, apart from it | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| is a | 1770) | and a compatible DFS, maybe | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| HDDFS? | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| I have been looking into this a bit, especially the controller side of things, and so far I have come up with two possible candidates for the chip, | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| the | Western Digital 37c65 | and the | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Intel 82078. | The thing is that most | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| new floppy controllers have | broken | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| single density modes, | that is they | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| cannot write to single density disks, but may be able to read them. Just out of interest, how feasible is this? Is there an unpassable stumbling block? I would like to see this done, but sadly I am hopeless at writing any program, let alone DFS chips!!! Anyone got any ideas? It would be nice to see it done at least! | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| To: | 999 (all members) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| From: | K8G (Jonathan Harston) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Subject: | Using a Beeb on the Internet | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In the last issue Chris wrote about obstacles he saw in using his Beeb on the Internet. This repsonds to some of those queries. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| There are loads of protocols to be observed and loads of passwords to pass. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Well, so there are with a BBS dial-up system. Admittedly, the difficulty here is obtaining the information on the protocols to use in the first place. The stock answer is 'why don't you just use Netscape/IExplorer/Etc? Because I'm trying to write my own! You can very easily use the Internet indirectly with any computer using a gateway through a Bulletin Board. I use Arcade which gives me full email and access to the newsgroups they subscribe to, and FTP (file transfer protocol) where I can grab files stored anywhere on the 'net. I have been in contact with someone via the comp.os.cpm newsgroup who has written a dialup SLIP connection program in Z80 and I'm going to translate it into 6502 for the Beeb. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Some HTML files are huge. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Tell me about it! People use super- all-singing mega-fast PCs and it still takes them five minutes before any information arrives because they are trying to download a 15Mb file that just says 'Hello'. It's very easy to write an on-the-fly LF to CR converter when downloading text files. It's just another level of complication to strip out unneccesary hyper-text codes while downloading. And of course, you don't have to download the graphics images, you can just stick to the textual parts of the pages. It would still be best to download to a disk rather than to memory as this is more flexible. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Hypertext links | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| There's a standard way of displaying hypertext links in a text browser, so no problems there. Basically, the links that appear in the area you are looking at are listed on the bottom few lines of the screen and you select them from there. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Search Engines! How would you be able to use a search engine on a BBC? | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In exactly the same way you use it on a PC. The engine doesn't run on your computer, it's running on somebody else's computer on the other side of the world. You just send a text string to it; when it's finished, it just sends a series of text strings back. Everything on the internet is running on another computer somewhere; the only thing running on your computer is a sophisticated terminal. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| And how would EMail be handled? | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The same way as with email through a Bulletin Board. You type in your message, and the computer at the other end deals with it. In summary, I've been using the Internet from a BBC since last September. I can email anyone in the world, read and write to newsgroups, grab and send files and Web pages. I would like to get a working Web Browser finished for the Beeb, but the only additional advantages it would give me would be Web pages arriving in a few minutes instead of longer. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| To: | 999 (all members) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ReplyTo: | D5K (Ian Bell) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| From: | K8G (Jonathan Harston) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Subject: | Internal CoPro | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In Ian's advert in iss63 it mentions: 'Internal 65c02 Second Processor for the BBC B/B+' The Master's the only machine with an internal CoPro socket. The B/B+ only has an external socket. What exactly do you mean? | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| EDITOR.......IMPORTANT! This event has been organised by Jonathan without consulting me. (I am on nights on this date!). It is therefore NOT an 8BS gathering. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| To: | 999 (all members) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| From: | K8G (Jonathan Harston) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Subject: | NTAUS 3 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Announcing... Not the | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Friday 24th July -- Sunday 26th July 70 Camm Street, Walkley, Sheffield Contact me for directions Tel: (0114) 281 8708 Beebs a-plenty, many networked. Bring strange pieces of kit. Ask questions, give answers. Many good local Pubs! | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||