🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <ARM200-921214130212-4DA1D7C*@MHS> /G=Owen/S=Smith/O=SJ-Research/ADMD=INTERSPAN/C=GB/@mhs-relay.ac.uk writes:

[ ... about TCP/IP software problems ... ]

Yes, you are partly right there Owen in that there are several patched
versions on the internet module and the original unpatched one all
with the same number 1.01!  Finding the right one to go with a given
combination of ethernet board, nfs and vt220 is a time consuming
business as I found out the other day helping a colleague.  Added to
that the Acorn ethernet III boards are almost, but not quite identical
to the Atomwide ones.

We got it going in the end by trying every possible permutation but
were not helped by a very nasty interaction with RISC OS 3.1 and
!Protracker which I wrote about the other day.  Everything fails with
internal errors and its impossible to mark the ethernet interface `up'
afterwards.  Only a delete-power-on reset will fix it - anything less
severe results in more internal errors.

There are still quite a few TCP/IP bugs and bits of bad design which I
have moaned [directly] to Acorn about for the last year.  Here's one
for starters:-

Run !VT220 and !NFSFiler.  Open a telnet connection with !VT220 and
login somewhere.  Now mount a directory with !NFSFiler and notice that
the cursor vanishes in the vt220 window with no obvious way of getting
it back.  Clicking on the window gives it the input focus but no
cursor.  Now if you think that is odd, select something in the window,
click menu and observe that option Select->Type is greyed out and
inoperative!  Click select to clear the selection and the cursor
magically returns.  Now everything works as it should.

The TCP/IP manuals are rather weak in some places; for example setting
up the NFS printer doesn't have the vital instruction that you must
export directory /var/spool/pcnfs to your Acorn machines.  Ftp is
implemented very poorly - a filer style interface would be best or at
least the option of command line operation instead of those messy
menus.  The menu doesn't stay up with click adjust sometimes when it
ought to which makes it even worse.

I could go on but won't bore you with the other niggles.  The TCP/IP
software is nearly very good but just misses the mark somehow.  It
certainly isn't one of Acorn's best efforts which are usually
excellent in my opinion.

--Christopher.