Date: Mon, 11 AUG 1997 09:26:14 +0100 (BST) From: Dave Walker Subject: Acorn Developer News 11/08/97: Conference aftermath, etc To: isvquery@acorn.com Hi folks... Acorn Developer News 11/08/97 Conference Aftermath -------------------- It was good. In fact, it was very good. It was particularly good to see so many of you there (137 in total), and I hope it proved useful. We're still going through the questionnaire results (we had 100 of them returned), and I get the feeling that this feedback will provide me with some good ammunition to shake a few more things up around here. We have to do this again sometime! For Those who Couldn't Attend ----------------------------- In the run-up to the conference, a number of developers told me that they would be unable to attend; some were on holiday, others were away on business, and still others are based sufficiently far away from Cambridge that travel costs would be prohibitive. So that these developers can still get some benefit from this week's events, we are putting together some more conference folders containing hardcopy of all the presentation slides and the CD ROM of resource and evaluation material; these will be made available at a price of UKP30 inc VAT (UKP25.53 ex VAT) once we have a product code assigned to them. As we don't have the product code yet, please hold off on your orders for a few more days; also be sure to send your NDAs in with the order. Missing Pages ------------- It's been brought to my attention that a small number of the conference folders had some pages missing. If you have a folder which appears to be missing some pages, please let me know which presentation appears to have been abridged and I'll either email you an electronic copy or post you a complete hardcopy. Be aware that electronic copies will be in either Impression Style or CableNews, depending on the presentation in question; please state your preference for recycled electrons or recycled trees. So... When's The Next One? -------------------------- This is perhaps the most popular question I was asked on Wednesday; the simple answer is that we'll have another conference once we have another conference-worth's things to tell you! I'm already having a think about what's coming along internally which will make a good presentation, and I reckon there's enough things which we still have under wraps (or which you only received an overview of this week) to make a conference mid next year even more informative. Watch this space, but don't expect anything to happen for a few months yet! PCI Reference Material ---------------------- A number of hardware developers asked me on Wednesday about the formal PCI bus spec and where to get hold of it. The best place to go is to the PCI Special Interest Group, who have a WWW site at http://www.pcisig.com/ ; although joining the SIG isn't cheap, it's without doubt the best way to get hold of the absolute definitive word on the subject once you're well into it. Alex Bienek, who is in the process of designing and implementing IOMDII, also recommends a look at http://www.annabooks.com/ ; "PCI Hardware and Software" is a popular starting point. Be aware that these books may only be available by mail order from the USA... Java Reference Material ----------------------- On a similar note, I had a word with Piers to see what he recommends in the way of Java literature.... > The books I recommend are: > Java in a Nutshell, O'Reilly There are two editions - one for Java 1.0.2 > and one for 1.1 - either will do at this stage, but 1.1 will be better in > the longer term. > Java 1.1 Developer's Handbook, Sybex ISBN 0-7821-1919-0 Not a beginner's > guide, but pretty good for an intermediate/expert user. > Java Threads, O'Reilly Pretty good book specialising in Java Threads. Only > for the expert user who wants to know about threading code. > Piers. Support from Causality for the RiscBSD image -------------------------------------------- True to their word, Causality Ltd now have a page set online specifically supporting the release of RiscBSD which shipped on the Conference CD; the page can be found at http://www.causality.com/acorncd.html Currently on the site are two new install kernels (one for Risc PC, the other for A7000) which fix the installation problems involving awk; using these kernels means that you don't have to install the separate awk binary shipped on the patch disc which accompanies the CD. Also on the site is the xarm X server binary, which was missing from the x11full CD distribution set; the new server is xarm30, so users who have files expecting to find xarm27 or xarm29 will need to modify their links accordingly. Thanks to Mark Brinicombe for putting this together so promptly. More BSD Notes -------------- If it isn't clear in the BSD documentation, don't worry about boot floppies etc; the stripped-down root filesystem required for installation is linked onto the back of the inst kernels (which is the reason why they're big). Just run the bootstrap loader that's supplied on the CD, set your root device to md0 and the kernel to the appropriate inst kernel for your system, and take it from there. Once the kernel has built the FS on your BSD partition, you can halt the system, swap to a 7k or voy kernel, and boot from wd0 or wd1 as applicable to install the sets. Cheers, -- Dave Walker, Engineering Support Manager Acorn Computers Ltd Tel: +44 (0) 1223 725233 Acorn House, 645 Newmarket Road Fax: +44 (0) 1223 725333 Cambridge, CB5 8PB, United Kingdom WWW: http://www.acorn.co.uk/