Re: Y Combinator is restoring one of Alan Kay's Xerox Alto machines

[Curious Marc]

 

Alto Restoration Videos Parts 13 and 14 are uploaded

https://youtu.be/5f43fmZcj9Y

https://youtu.be/LxFv2JNNW-A

 

Marc



 

Error in PDP-12 Prints, and maybe all PDP-12s.

[Michael Thompson]

While debugging the PDP-12 at the RICM we found a mistake on sheet
TC12-0-LTR in the PDP-12 schematics. The pins on the data cable between the
TU56 and the TC12 labeled BT2 and FT2 should be BL2 and FL2. DEC wired the
TC12 backplane per the incorrect schematic and grounded pin F06T2 instead
of F06L2. The W032 on the end of the data cable has nothing connected to
pin T, so this leaves the TC12 end of the Triax cable shield for data track
3 ungrounded.

Data track 3 is the one on which we are having a noise problem, so this is
a promising discovery.

The 1969 and 1972 PDP-12 Engineering Drawings both have the same revision sheet
TC12-0-LTR and the same error. Maybe all PDP-12s have this wiring error?

-- 
Michael Thompson

Re: New batch of pdp8 OMNIBUS to USB interface! Please Read and react!

[Jon Elson]

On 02/19/2017 04:28 PM, Paul Koning wrote:

On Feb 19, 2017, at 5:22 PM, Mark J. Blair  wrote:
... and I only grudgingly use Fusion 360 because there's no viable 3D CAD/CAM 
competition that I know of in its very low price range.

A while ago I went looking for 3D CAD again, after giving up on TurboCAD in 
disgust.  Found FreeCAD (https://www.freecadweb.org).  Works on Mac, Windows, 
Linux.
Several of the guys at work are using FreeCAD and doing 
great stuff with it.


Jon

ISO IBM 3278 keyboards

[Guy Sotomayor Jr]

Hi,

I recently acquired a couple of IBM 3278 terminals (finally!).  They are 
complete and working
when shipped.  I haven’t powered them up yet…I need to check them out but other 
than some
slight screen burn they’re complete and very clean.  However, they came with 
data entry 
keyboards.  I’d really like to find one or more typewriter keyboards for 3278’s.

If anyone knows where some might be pried loose, I’d appreciate it.  I’m 
willing to trade or
pay $$’s.

Thanks.

TTFN - Guy

Re: PDF PDF Which is right and which is ... Was Re: PDP-11/24 CPU later version

[COURYHOUSE]

well  I save  the  tiff   because that's   what archivists  do
generally I  end up using the jpeg  to  make   picture  from. or  post to 
net!
 
 
 
 
In a message dated 2/19/2017 4:25:48 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time,  
t...@telegraphics.com.au writes:

On  2017-02-19 3:50 PM, couryho...@aol.com wrote:
> When  we scan stuff  at  SMECC
> it is saved in the following 3  formats   for  each item  scanned.
>
> PDF  with ocr  background
> TIFF
> JPEG
> and  ifcontaining a lot  of  text   a  TXT  file as  well.
>
> Kind of a shotgun approach... but   should  stand  test  of  time?

Only if you're publishing it  somewhere and many people are mirroring it.

--Toby

>
>  Ed#  _www.smecc.org_  (http://www.smecc.org)
>
>
>
> In a message dated  2/19/2017 1:44:52 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time,
>  j...@mercury.lcs.mit.edu writes:
>
>> From: Toby  Thain
>
>> Often the source  material is a multipage TIFF  from the scanner or other
>>  processing step.
>
>  Multiple single-page TIFFs, in my case.
>
>> So relevant tools  are things like tiff2pdf (tiffutils)
>
> But  also JPEG's,  for pages where the B+W scanning I use (with fax
> compression
>  to keep the file size down) results in pages that aren't  readable -  
this
> happens on faded pages. Does tiff2pdf handle a bunch of   single-page
> TIFF's, with a JPEG or two throw in?
>
>  Noel
>
>

Re: Wanted: Amiga 1000 hard drive

[Mike Stein]

Any idea what make/model?

m

- Original Message - 
From: "Steven Stengel" 
To: "Cc" 
Sent: Saturday, February 18, 2017 11:02 PM
Subject: Wanted: Amiga 1000 hard drive


> Anyone have an Amiga 1000 hard drive that they want to sell?
> 
>

Re: PDF PDF Which is right and which is ... Was Re: PDP-11/24 CPU later version

[Toby Thain]

On 2017-02-19 3:44 PM, Noel Chiappa wrote:

> From: Toby Thain

> Often the source material is a multipage TIFF from the scanner or other
> processing step.

Multiple single-page TIFFs, in my case.


Tiffcp and tiffsplit go between these, so I don't bother making a 
distinction... I find multipage TIFFs just as useful as PDF (since I 
don't care about OCR personally).




> So relevant tools are things like tiff2pdf (tiffutils)

But also JPEG's, for pages where the B+W scanning I use (with fax compression
to keep the file size down) results in pages that aren't readable - this
happens on faded pages.


If the pages are text, you can start with a grey scale scan and use a 
per page B threshold post-scanning, of course. I wouldn't ship grey 
scale just for some faded text pages.


A more common example of needing interspersed formats would be colour 
covers, or photographs in a mostly-text document. Or some schematics 
that need a higher resolution than the text (which rarely needs > 400).


> Does tiff2pdf handle a bunch of single-page

TIFF's, with a JPEG or two throw in?


Well, multipage TIFF certainly can (using tiffcp to assemble). I *think* 
tiff2pdf can transcode mixed documents reasonably to PDF (and maybe 
tumble can), but better test to be sure.


--T



Noel

Re: PDF PDF Which is right and which is ... Was Re: PDP-11/24 CPU later version

[Toby Thain]

On 2017-02-19 3:50 PM, couryho...@aol.com wrote:

When  we scan stuff at  SMECC
it is saved in the following 3  formats  for  each item  scanned.

PDF  with ocr background
TIFF
JPEG
and  if   containing a lot  of  text   a  TXT  file as well.

Kind of a shotgun approach... but   should stand  test  of  time?


Only if you're publishing it somewhere and many people are mirroring it.

--Toby



Ed#  _www.smecc.org_ (http://www.smecc.org)



In a message dated 2/19/2017 1:44:52 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time,
j...@mercury.lcs.mit.edu writes:


From: Toby Thain



Often the source  material is a multipage TIFF from the scanner or other
 processing step.


Multiple single-page TIFFs, in my case.


So relevant tools are things like tiff2pdf (tiffutils)


But  also JPEG's, for pages where the B+W scanning I use (with fax
compression
to keep the file size down) results in pages that aren't  readable - this
happens on faded pages. Does tiff2pdf handle a bunch of  single-page
TIFF's, with a JPEG or two throw in?

Noel

Re: New batch of pdp8 OMNIBUS to USB interface! Please Read and react!

[Mark J. Blair]

> On Feb 19, 2017, at 2:28 PM, Paul Koning  wrote:
> 
> 
>> On Feb 19, 2017, at 5:22 PM, Mark J. Blair  wrote:
>> ... and I only grudgingly use Fusion 360 because there's no viable 3D 
>> CAD/CAM competition that I know of in its very low price range.
> 
> A while ago I went looking for 3D CAD again, after giving up on TurboCAD in 
> disgust.  Found FreeCAD (https://www.freecadweb.org).  Works on Mac, Windows, 
> Linux.  It's a computational solid geometry program.

I do use FreeCAD as part of my KiCad flow, converting STEP models to VRML for 
KiCad's 3D renderer. But Fusion 360 offers real 3D CAM to drive my CNC mill, 
which is a big deal at its price point.


-- 
Mark J. Blair, NF6X 
http://www.nf6x.net/

Re: New batch of pdp8 OMNIBUS to USB interface! Please Read and react!

[Paul Koning]

> On Feb 19, 2017, at 6:36 AM, Philipp Hachtmann  wrote:
> 
> ...
> Wen I first encountered eagle it was running under DOS. No windows. Don't 
> remember if there was a schematic editor. And not much to click.

Yes, it had schematic editor, board editor, and the same half-assed autorouter 
it still has today.  And library editor.  No CAM processor, though.  The fact 
that it used DOS probably accounts for the odd mouse and cut/paste conventions, 
although even back then there were semi-standards of a sort at least for 
cut/paste.  

paul

Re: New batch of pdp8 OMNIBUS to USB interface! Please Read and react!

[Paul Koning]

> On Feb 19, 2017, at 5:22 PM, Mark J. Blair  wrote:
> ... and I only grudgingly use Fusion 360 because there's no viable 3D CAD/CAM 
> competition that I know of in its very low price range.

A while ago I went looking for 3D CAD again, after giving up on TurboCAD in 
disgust.  Found FreeCAD (https://www.freecadweb.org).  Works on Mac, Windows, 
Linux.  It's a computational solid geometry program.  One of the interesting 
features is a Python API; the model I created (Rolf Nelson's spaceship) is 5000 
lines of Python.  It also has a GUI, of course; I went the Python approach 
because it let me construct stuff numerically with ease.  It also let me 
customize the export machinery for POVray output.

paul

Re: New batch of pdp8 OMNIBUS to USB interface! Please Read and react!

[Mark J. Blair]

> On Feb 19, 2017, at 9:01 AM, Holm Tiffe  wrote:
> Nevertheless, I don't think that I want to push you to use KiCad,
> but you _really_ should change your attitude about it. This isn't really
> playing stuff for kids anymore..

I previously paid about $1,500 for the top tier of Eagle for use at home on my 
Mac. When they briefly sprung network licensing on us around version 6 or so, I 
decided to try out KiCad. I now use KiCad not only for my home projects, but 
also every day for real product design in my job; on my Mac at home, and under 
Linux at work. It's not quite on par with Windows based $20k/seat tools I've 
used before yet, but it's more than good enough for the kinds of designs I'm 
doing. And it's continually improving. And it frees up $20k more of my boss's 
money to spend on test equipment and prototyping. And it never needs to phone 
home to a license server.

I am curious to see what Autodesk does with Eagle, though. I use Fusion 360 
both at home and work (on my personal MacBook at work since it doesn't run 
under Linux), and good integration between Eagle and Fusion 360 could be very 
compelling. But I really don't like cloud based software as a service, and I 
only grudgingly use Fusion 360 because there's no viable 3D CAD/CAM competition 
that I know of in its very low price range.

-- 
Mark J. Blair, NF6X 
http://www.nf6x.net/

Re: PDF PDF Which is right and which is ... Was Re: PDP-11/24 CPU later version

[COURYHOUSE]

When  we scan stuff at  SMECC
it is saved in the following 3  formats  for  each item  scanned.
 
PDF  with ocr background
TIFF
JPEG
and  if   containing a lot  of  text   a  TXT  file as well.
 
Kind of a shotgun approach... but   should stand  test  of  time?
 
Ed#  _www.smecc.org_ (http://www.smecc.org)  
 
 
 
In a message dated 2/19/2017 1:44:52 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time,  
j...@mercury.lcs.mit.edu writes:

> From: Toby Thain

> Often the source  material is a multipage TIFF from the scanner or other
>  processing step.

Multiple single-page TIFFs, in my case.

> So relevant tools are things like tiff2pdf (tiffutils)

But  also JPEG's, for pages where the B+W scanning I use (with fax  
compression
to keep the file size down) results in pages that aren't  readable - this
happens on faded pages. Does tiff2pdf handle a bunch of  single-page
TIFF's, with a JPEG or two throw in?

Noel

Re: PDF PDF Which is right and which is ... Was Re: PDP-11/24 CPU later version

[Noel Chiappa]

> From: Toby Thain

> Often the source material is a multipage TIFF from the scanner or other
> processing step.

Multiple single-page TIFFs, in my case.

> So relevant tools are things like tiff2pdf (tiffutils)

But also JPEG's, for pages where the B+W scanning I use (with fax compression
to keep the file size down) results in pages that aren't readable - this
happens on faded pages. Does tiff2pdf handle a bunch of single-page
TIFF's, with a JPEG or two throw in?

Noel

Gimix 8K PROM board

[Brad H]

Hey guys,

 

I have a second SWTPC 6800 system I got recently and have it all running.
It came with a Gimix 8K PROM board and, thankfully, the manual.  It has two
EPROMs installed:

 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4pq0-BHd2x6R29LVy03d3c4dTA/view?usp=sharin
g

 

I'm assuming this board is used for things like storing BASIC in ROM, etc.
Based on the manual with DIP switch 7 set it is set to use C000 - if I
wanted to try and init whatever is on those chips, would it be as simple as
J C000 at the SWTBUG prompt?

 

Many thanks,


Brad

Re: PDF PDF Which is right and which is ... Was Re: PDP-11/24 CPU later version

[COURYHOUSE]

In a message dated 2/19/2017 8:06:50 A.M. US Mountain Standard Time,  
mo...@rodents-montreal.org writes:

>   - PDF/A is [...]
> Those are all good  archival properties!  However, it's also R/O.

Maybe if you stick  to Adobe's tools.  As demonstrated by this thread,
it's entirely  possible to modify such files, even if the currently-easy
ways to do that  involve a trip through a completely different
representation.

I find  it astonishing that anyone would seriously call any documented
file format  read-only.  (If PDF/A isn't documented, then IMO it's not
suitable for  archival under any circumstances.  But this thread makes
it sound as  though it's documented.)

/~\ The ASCII Mouse
\ / Ribbon Campaign
X   Against HTMLmo...@rodents-montreal.org
/ \  Email! 7D C8 61 52 5D E7 2D 39  4E F1 31  3E E8 B3 27 4B

==
OK .. (correct me if I am gong in the  wrong direction)  so  the   
important thing is that  there is... 
 
- data in a format that is readable by others and a  description of  
formats so  if needed a reader can be constructed at a  later date if needed. 

-non-commercial tools to access it  or have the ability to modify  the data 
in the future  for all of  time.
 
-a reader/writer can be redone to work under  a new operating system  since 
source code is freely available  for it?

  yea...  makes  sense...
 
I do  know  what I  do in any given week here  is not  necessary  for the 
present  but  for  years and   sometimes lifetimes   far removed  from the 
present   moment.
 
#Ed _www.smecc.org_ (http://www.smecc.org)  
 

Displaywriters in Chicago

[Al Kossow]

Is there anyone out there that can save these?

http://www.vcfed.org/forum/showthread.php?56313-IBM-Displaywriter-printer-(5215-or-5218)-needed

I'm primarily interested in archiving the software.

Re: New batch of pdp8 OMNIBUS to USB interface! Please Read and react!

[Holm Tiffe]

Philipp Hachtmann wrote:

> 
> >
> > For sure there are many things still todo for the KiCad people, but this
> > nose high attitude "thats vor arduino people only" is the wrong thing
> > for sure.. (german saying: Hochmut kommt vor dem Fall)
> Haha, you probably got me wrong. I never even tried out KiCAD - because 
> I had no idea why I should try out something else in the moment.
> 
> > It could do much much more and much better than what you pay for it.
> I am not sure. I have read about no tight coupling between schematic and 
> board. That's a no-go for me.

..and this is simply wrong.
Most eagle users are complaining aboZ
ut a not so tight coupling between the schematic symbols and the
footprint (which you can change in the schematic editor or in a program
called cvpcb) and this is a entirely different thing. 

> 
> > Do you want to know how eagles UI feels from my point of view?

yes .. but from far away. :-)
> 
> It's a well known disaster for newcomers. Many completely un-logic 
> aspects. Evil pitfalls in the schematic editor. The strangest copy and 
> paste mechanisms.
> But... If you are throgh that. And have already forgotten how 
> frustrating Eagle's UI once was... everything is fine then.
> I really love the console input on Eagle. I can do many things by just 
> typing in commands. Normal work does not involve pulldown menus.
> 
> Wen I first encountered eagle it was running under DOS. No windows. 
> Don't remember if there was a schematic editor. And not much to click.
> 
> :-)

To this times I've used Orcad on a Robotron EC1834 :-) It don't even had
a mice, I've managed to use a graphics tablet (K6405) for that but it
wasn't rally neccessary.

Nevertheless, I don't think that I want to push you to use KiCad,
but you _really_ should change your attitude about it. This isn't really
playing stuff for kids anymore..
simply watch some of the youtube videos explainig that push and shove
router, that is a really nice thing I don't want to miss anymore.
For sure you will find out that KiCad isn't eagle, but it never wanted
it to be..

Regards,

Holm

-- 
  Technik Service u. Handel Tiffe, www.tsht.de, Holm Tiffe, 
 Freiberger Straße 42, 09600 Oberschöna, USt-Id: DE253710583
i...@tsht.de Fax +49 3731 74200 Tel +49 3731 74222 Mobil: 0172 8790 741

Re: PDF PDF Which is right and which is ... Was Re: PDP-11/24 CPU later version

[Toby Thain]

On 2017-02-19 4:39 AM, Nico de Jong wrote:

The Open Office for Windows package has a "save as ...pdf" function



Y'all realise we're dealing with bundles of *scanned images* in the 
context of this discussion. Often the source material is a multipage 
TIFF from the scanner or other processing step.


So relevant tools are things like tiff2pdf (tiffutils), and tumble as 
cited on http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/


My objection to PDF/A doesn't really stand if there are good open source 
tools to process it (clearly the Adobe tools don't count).


--T


/Nico
  - Original Message -
  From: Paul Birkel
  To: 'General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts'
  Sent: Sunday, February 19, 2017 9:40 AM
  Subject: RE: PDF PDF Which is right and which is ... Was Re: PDP-11/24 CPU
later version


  -Original Message-
  From: cctalk [mailto:cctalk-boun...@classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Chuck
Guzis
  Sent: Saturday, February 18, 2017 4:04 PM
  To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts
  Subject: Re: PDF PDF Which is right and which is ... Was Re: PDP-11/24 CPU
  later version

--
I am using the free version of SPAMfighter.
SPAMfighter has removed 12169 of my spam emails to date.
Get the free SPAMfighter here: http://www.spamfighter.com/len

Do you have a slow PC? Try a Free scan 
http://www.spamfighter.com/SLOW-PCfighter?cid=sigen

Atlanta job opening

[Cindy Croxton]

If you are near Atlanta, there is an immediate opening for someone who knows
terminals and keyboards. Must be able to drive fork lift, climb ladders,
carry 50 pounds, etc. Email me if interested.

 

Cindy Croxton

OT: Immediate job opening in Atlanta

[Cindy Croxton]

If you are near Atlanta, there is an immediate opening for someone who knows
terminals and keyboards. Must be able to drive fork lift, climb ladders,
carry 50 pounds, etc. Email me if interested. This is a long term, full
time, good paying job.

 

Cindy Croxton

Re: PDF PDF Which is right and which is ... Was Re: PDP-11/24 CPU later version

[Mouse]

>   - PDF/A is [...]
> Those are all good archival properties!  However, it's also R/O.

Maybe if you stick to Adobe's tools.  As demonstrated by this thread,
it's entirely possible to modify such files, even if the currently-easy
ways to do that involve a trip through a completely different
representation.

I find it astonishing that anyone would seriously call any documented
file format read-only.  (If PDF/A isn't documented, then IMO it's not
suitable for archival under any circumstances.  But this thread makes
it sound as though it's documented.)

/~\ The ASCII Mouse
\ / Ribbon Campaign
 X  Against HTMLmo...@rodents-montreal.org
/ \ Email!   7D C8 61 52 5D E7 2D 39  4E F1 31 3E E8 B3 27 4B

Re: Reading PALs

[Alan Hightower]

 

Thanks for mentioning Logic Friday. I had never heard of it. I just used
it to great effect in an unrelaed combinatorial logic reduction problem!


-Alan 

On 2017-02-18 20:37, Chuck Guzis wrote: 

> On 02/18/2017 04:22 PM, Jim Brain wrote: 
> 
>> Seems like someone on list was willing and able to read PAL16L8s and 
>> give a try to some PAL16R4s... Is that person still on list and
>> still interested? If so, please contact me off-list.
>> 
>> I am trying to restore some C64 carts, and the PAL on my working unit
>> is protected, so I cannot replicate.
> 
> If I'm the person (see my blog on vcfed.org), "reading" isn't exactly
> the right term. For purely combinatorial PALs, the technique is to
> determine the input and output assignments, then exhaustively run
> through all the combinations. Take that data and run it through a logic
> minimizer, such as Logic Friday and then use a bit of wetware to pick
> out tristate control lines and their corresponding outputs.
> 
> Not foolproof by any means--and much less so, if the device is
> registered, but very often successful.
> 
> A schematic showing the part application can be a godsend.
> 
> --Chuck
 

RE: PDP-11/24 CPU later version

[Paul Birkel]

-Original Message-
From: cctalk [mailto:cctalk-boun...@classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Bob
Rosenbloom
Sent: Saturday, February 18, 2017 1:37 PM
To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts
Subject: Re: PDP-11/24 CPU later version

On 2/18/2017 10:29 AM, Paul Birkel wrote:
> -Original Message-
> From: cctalk [mailto:cctalk-boun...@classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Bob
> Rosenbloom
> Sent: Saturday, February 18, 2017 1:24 PM
> To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts
> Subject: Re: PDP-11/24 CPU later version
>
> On 2/18/2017 10:04 AM, Paul Birkel wrote:
>>> -Original Message-
>>> From: cctalk [mailto:cctalk-boun...@classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Al
> Kossow
>>> Sent: Saturday, February 18, 2017 12:50 PM
>>> To: cctalk@classiccmp.org
>>> Subject: Re: PDP-11/24 CPU later version
>>>
>>> PDF-A
>>>
>>> which is the reason it's not on bitsavers
>> Thank you Al.  It's not just me then who has heartburn with that format
> ..
>> 
> I removed the /A format and put the copy up here:
> http://dvq.com/docs/EK-11024-TM-003.pdf
>
> Bob
>
> -
>
> Thanks!  What tool did you use to do that?
>
> paul

Adobe Acrobat 9. Its buried down a few menus, and not obvious.
Menus:

Advanced then
Preflight (at the bottom on mine) then
PDF/A compliance then
Remove PDF/A information

Supposedly easier in Acrobat 10.

Bob
--

"Supposedly" is the operative expression IMO.  I have a very old copy of
Acrobat X Pro and had to first discover "Remove PDFa Information.sequ" and
install that.  Now it's:

Tools
Action Wizard
Actions
Remove PDFa Information

So that is perhaps more obvious, _once_ you discover that the functionality
has to be added; it's not a built-in, which was my erroneous expectation.

Thanks for the nudge in the right direction!

paul
-

Re: New batch of pdp8 OMNIBUS to USB interface! Please Read and react!

[Philipp Hachtmann]

On 18.02.2017 04:07, Jay Jaeger wrote:

On 2/17/2017 10:01 AM, Philipp Hachtmann wrote:



On 02/17/2017 01:02 AM, Jay Jaeger wrote:

First of all THANKS. I hope this works out.

?!?



The thanks was for your effort.  The hope that it works out was to say
that I hope that you decide to make some more and sell them, which seems
uncertain at this point.


No. I already decided to do them. It's just the details.


That was why I specifically wrote *shield*.  There are a lot of SPI
interface boards out there, and if there were a little room in the chip
to handle an Omnibus/SPI interface, a lot could conceivably be done with
it.  Examples:  SD Cards, Ethernet and so on.
With an FPGA I even would have considered soldering an ether net PHY 
onto the board..




As others have since pointed out, KiCAD has nothing whatsoever to do
with Arduino.  Others have addressed its strengths and weaknesses.  In
my case, the comment stemmed from perhaps wanting to take you hardware
design, and adapt it for other purposes, without having to start from
scratch.


Haha :-)

Re: New batch of pdp8 OMNIBUS to USB interface! Please Read and react!

[Philipp Hachtmann]

For sure there are many things still todo for the KiCad people, but this
nose high attitude "thats vor arduino people only" is the wrong thing
for sure.. (german saying: Hochmut kommt vor dem Fall)
Haha, you probably got me wrong. I never even tried out KiCAD - because 
I had no idea why I should try out something else in the moment.



It could do much much more and much better than what you pay for it.
I am not sure. I have read about no tight coupling between schematic and 
board. That's a no-go for me.



Do you want to know how eagles UI feels from my point of view?


It's a well known disaster for newcomers. Many completely un-logic 
aspects. Evil pitfalls in the schematic editor. The strangest copy and 
paste mechanisms.
But... If you are throgh that. And have already forgotten how 
frustrating Eagle's UI once was... everything is fine then.
I really love the console input on Eagle. I can do many things by just 
typing in commands. Normal work does not involve pulldown menus.


Wen I first encountered eagle it was running under DOS. No windows. 
Don't remember if there was a schematic editor. And not much to click.


:-)

Re: New batch of pdp8 OMNIBUS to USB interface! Please Read and react!

[Philipp Hachtmann]

On 19.02.2017 12:15, Holm Tiffe wrote:

In my opinion the learning step from using a fancy Arduino library to
understanding/modifying/writing another is too big.
In BASIC it started with little things like peek and poke.
There was no hidden C++ :-)



Agreed.
I'm used some of the "shields" for aruinos from time to time, but I
never used that arduino software for it. Ok, sometimes it is neccesary
to look into a library to finally find out how the hardware is to be
programmed..but I always wrote the code of my own. At least the masses
of arduino related stuff drops the prices for interresting hardware stuff
to play with.


Yes, I have some Arduino nano flying around. I even sometimes use their 
bootloader.

Re: New batch of pdp8 OMNIBUS to USB interface! Please Read and react!

[Philipp Hachtmann]

I don't have a problem with your arduino related point of view,

:)


but I'm
sure you never heard from the push and shove router that kicad implements?

I admit: you're right.


(take a look at youtube!)
If you have used it once, egale would look a lot like
copy-and-paste-maker-arduino-blinky-blinky-community-thingy..


As I wrote two minutes ago: Perhaps I've gone too far by seeing KiCAD 
too close to the Arduino thing. I know at least one clever guy using 
KiCAD as well.

Re: New batch of pdp8 OMNIBUS to USB interface! Please Read and react!

[Holm Tiffe]

Philipp Hachtmann wrote:

> 
> 
> On 17.02.2017 17:21, Kyle Owen wrote:
> > On Fri, Feb 17, 2017 at 10:01 AM, Philipp Hachtmann 
> 
> > KiCad has no affiliation to Arduino; in fact, it's being heavily maintained
> > by CERN.
> But wherever I (!) look, in my part of the universe, a strongly biased 
> and personal view, I see only those Arduino folks using it.
> Might be different in other places, but...
> 
> > With the licensing model Eagle has just moved
> > to, alternatives like KiCad sure seem attractive.
> The new Eagle license model is a mess. I will stick to my Eagle 7. The 
> idea of my little board designs being held hostage by a company 
> somewhere is not good.
> And when the day has come that I can't go with the then old Eagle 
> anymore and the licensing has not been repaired, then I will think about 
> alternatives. Perhaps then KiCAD has already changed into the greatest 
> EDA tool ever made.

Simply take a look now and then ..to adjust your point of view.
> 
> 
> > Why are you bent out of shape over the Arduino community? It seems clear to
> > me that teenagers growing up with them will outgrow the language and
> > hardware limitations and move onto more advanced things before starting
> > their careers. I think one could make a decent analogy to BASIC on many
> > 8-bit microcomputers from decades past.
> 
> Easy: If I had the impression that it is like you write, I'd be totally 
> fine with it!
> But back in those days with BASIC it was easier to take the next step. 
> If you want to go further beyond Arduino, you will have to instantly 
> understand a huge amount of stuff.
> In my opinion the learning step from using a fancy Arduino library to 
> understanding/modifying/writing another is too big.
> In BASIC it started with little things like peek and poke.
> There was no hidden C++ :-)
> 

Agreed.
I'm used some of the "shields" for aruinos from time to time, but I
never used that arduino software for it. Ok, sometimes it is neccesary
to look into a library to finally find out how the hardware is to be
programmed..but I always wrote the code of my own. At least the masses
of arduino related stuff drops the prices for interresting hardware stuff
to play with.

Regards,

Holm

-- 
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 Freiberger Straße 42, 09600 Oberschöna, USt-Id: DE253710583
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Re: New batch of pdp8 OMNIBUS to USB interface! Please Read and react!

[Philipp Hachtmann]

On 17.02.2017 17:55, Jon Elson wrote:

On 02/17/2017 10:01 AM, Philipp Hachtmann wrote:

The CPLD you had on the last board, XC9572XL is a bit long in the tooth,
perhaps?   Would you expect to use that one again, or a newer chip?

I will use it again. It was already old when I decided to use it. It
has 5V tolerant inputs.


It seems that Xilinx has made some hints that they do NOT plan to retire
the XC95xxXL series any time soon.

:-)


If they do, the CoolRunner II family can be used with the addition of
one more voltage regulator.
By the way my handmade prototype with three CPLDs (I ordered the wrong 
pincount) had CoolRunner II.

I then switched to the old one because the IO voltage compatibility.
I was unsure if I could connect TTL IN(!!!)-puts to the pins without 
degrading the chip too much: TTL inputs go up to 5V when they are left 
floating. I was simply not sure if the CoolRunner pins are properly 
protected against that. So I chose the safe option.

Re: New batch of pdp8 OMNIBUS to USB interface! Please Read and react!

[Philipp Hachtmann]

On 17.02.2017 17:21, Kyle Owen wrote:

On Fri, Feb 17, 2017 at 10:01 AM, Philipp Hachtmann 



KiCad has no affiliation to Arduino; in fact, it's being heavily maintained
by CERN.
But wherever I (!) look, in my part of the universe, a strongly biased 
and personal view, I see only those Arduino folks using it.

Might be different in other places, but...


With the licensing model Eagle has just moved
to, alternatives like KiCad sure seem attractive.
The new Eagle license model is a mess. I will stick to my Eagle 7. The 
idea of my little board designs being held hostage by a company 
somewhere is not good.
And when the day has come that I can't go with the then old Eagle 
anymore and the licensing has not been repaired, then I will think about 
alternatives. Perhaps then KiCAD has already changed into the greatest 
EDA tool ever made.




Why are you bent out of shape over the Arduino community? It seems clear to
me that teenagers growing up with them will outgrow the language and
hardware limitations and move onto more advanced things before starting
their careers. I think one could make a decent analogy to BASIC on many
8-bit microcomputers from decades past.


Easy: If I had the impression that it is like you write, I'd be totally 
fine with it!
But back in those days with BASIC it was easier to take the next step. 
If you want to go further beyond Arduino, you will have to instantly 
understand a huge amount of stuff.
In my opinion the learning step from using a fancy Arduino library to 
understanding/modifying/writing another is too big.

In BASIC it started with little things like peek and poke.
There was no hidden C++ :-)

Re: PDF PDF Which is right and which is ... Was Re: PDP-11/24 CPU later version

[Nico de Jong]

The Open Office for Windows package has a "save as ...pdf" function
/Nico
  - Original Message - 
  From: Paul Birkel
  To: 'General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts'
  Sent: Sunday, February 19, 2017 9:40 AM
  Subject: RE: PDF PDF Which is right and which is ... Was Re: PDP-11/24 CPU 
later version


  -Original Message-
  From: cctalk [mailto:cctalk-boun...@classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Chuck 
Guzis
  Sent: Saturday, February 18, 2017 4:04 PM
  To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts
  Subject: Re: PDF PDF Which is right and which is ... Was Re: PDP-11/24 CPU
  later version

--
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RE: PDF PDF Which is right and which is ... Was Re: PDP-11/24 CPU later version

[Paul Birkel]

-Original Message-
From: cctalk [mailto:cctalk-boun...@classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Chuck Guzis
Sent: Saturday, February 18, 2017 4:04 PM
To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts
Subject: Re: PDF PDF Which is right and which is ... Was Re: PDP-11/24 CPU
later version

On 02/18/2017 11:24 AM, couryho...@aol.com wrote:
> 
> Adobe claims " PDF/A - the ISO standard  for long-term archiving"
>  
> -I  am confused about all the  versions  etc..
> -which are  good  which are   bad? 
> -are there good  programs  for  opening hesitant to open pdf  file?
> - what is a goodfreeware   PDF  generator?  / modifier?
> - are older  versions of the reader  better than the newer ones?
> -my HP scanner software makes PDF files  eiher as graphics or as  graphics
with OCR
> -is my  HP scanner making "good"   pdf  files that can be read into the
future?
>  
> Sorry if  I seem  confused on  this... but I  am!

When scanning documents and converting to PDF, I've found that
ghostscript works fine (under Linux).  There's also a separate tiff to
pdf converter available as a package.   Some people use ImageMagick

There are also a number of free online conversion websites; I've used a
couple and they seem to be pretty decent.

--Chuck

-
http://www.differencebetween.net/technology/software-technology/difference-b
etween-pdf-and-pdf-a/ is a concise description

Summary:

  - PDF/A is a special type of PDF meant for archiving documents
  - PDF/A does not allow audio, video, and executable content while PDF does
  - PDF/A requires that graphics and fonts be embedded into the file while
PDF does not
  - PDF/A does not allow external references while PDF does
  - PDF/A does not allow encryption while PDF does

Those are all good archival properties!  However, it's also R/O.

For my purposes PDF/A is undesirable because I can't:  (1) OCR it.  (2)
Extract pages.  (3) Combine sectioned files into a single document.  (4)
Rotate pages permanently.

It's the R/O part that is "mighty unhelpful" since it precludes basic
document management.  Gotta hope that the archivist made good choices.  But
the choices of an archivist aren't necessarily those of a user with a
day-to-day need to fix stuff :-<.

I can see value for a processing stream that uses a PDF/A intermediary to
ensure the desirable properties listed above (e.g., font embedding) but then
a final save in standard "open" PDF that allow users to accomplish the types
of manipulations that I've listed.

-
paul