News

Thursday, 1st November 2001 [UK]

• Updated the RISC OS Programmer's Initiative information and CJE's URL.
   
  
• # You make believe that nothing is wrong until you're crying.
  You make believe that life is so long until you're dying.
     (Limp Bizkit; <title unknown>)

Monday, 24th September 2001 [France]

• Updated the Floating Point details; and added the bits about accuracy and speed. I was surprised by the results of the FP speed test.
   
  
• Revising the APCS section.
   
  
• Added details of hardware access, and some rudimentary examples of working with the hardware.
   
  
• # Hey, you should have seen us!
  We were on our way to Venus, hey, hey!
     (OMD; Walking on the milky way)

Friday, 22nd September 2001 [France]

• The Autumn equinox is tonight, 2001-09-23 at 00:04h.
   
  
• Added the pseudo-instructions document, to cater for things which were not instructions, but were available in the assembler.
  Amended a few links as is appropriate.
   
  
• Tidied the assorted lyrics on this page, and provided references (when known). They aren't necessarily things that I like and/or bought; just stuff I happened to be listening to as I write this, whether from the Dido CD, or radio, or MTV...
   
  
• # You have the bravest heart, the strongest emotions.
  After all the harm I've caused, you still want my loving.
  I can't believe I still receive so much affection from your side
  If you could give me one more chance, I'd love to turn the tide.
       (Sylver; Turn the tide)

Thursday, 5th July 2001 [France]

• Added 'Processor setup via co-processor 15' page. Scoured all my CD-ROMs for PDF and HTML datasheets.
  It's not of terrifically great use, but it is some of that esoteric stuff that might come in handy in really geeky pub quizzes!
   
  
• Extended unsqueeze instructions to cope with a squeezed file that didn't seem to follow the same rules, but was too close to be something different. I'm guessing the newer StrongARM-aware squeeze does it slightly differently.
   
  
• # Everytime you need me, you know I will be there, a love beyond compare.
  Say you will. Say you care.
     (Fragma; Every time you need me)

Sunday, 1st July 2001 [France]

• Well, I knew Sky was unplugging it's analogue transmissions. But I've discovered I'm paying the going rate for Sky package + a movie channel; and all I'm getting is two bloody channels. Hell, even Sky News has gone!
  More (flames) comments in the version notes of !Teletext.
  To add insult to injury, the Sky teletext is a pathetic shadow of it's former self. Damn.

Thursday, 28th June 2001 [France]

• Well, I'll be damned. All the detail here and nothing obvious about 'how to write assembler programs in BASIC'. Okay, so I'm a twat. Did I ever claim otherwise? :-)
   
  
• Added pictures of processors to the processor types page. Soon, I'll amalgamate the arm 2/250/3 description into that, and remove the former.
  Can you help?
  Some of the non-original pictures have been edited, but can you identify them? All have been retrieved from the public domain so I don't see any problems with using them here. But if it's your picture, I'll be more than happy to credit you. Email me.
  Same goes for a processor that I don't have - namely ARM250, and ARM7500(FE). I have a picture of the Kinetic, and also one of the StrongARM, so I don't need them. What would be nice is if somebody has a really tight shot of the ARM1. The close-up is simply the same JPEG at increased magnification. Not too useful really.
  Of course, if you have a better picture than one I have already, then hey! Send it to me please...
   
  
• Amended the main index page to have two processor pictures. Moved the intro text to rationale.
   
  
• Created the 'notation' page, to stop people asking why I wasn't using 'standard' notation such as 103EAh.
   
  
• # And here we stand, in old England's land; shattered glass on the ground.
       (Erasure; Crown of Thorns)

Monday, 30th April 2001

• Following a glitch with the counter cgi, I decided to reimplement the counter as a bit of in-line php3. This way, it records all accesses rather than just those who have images switched on.
   
  
• Later...
  It seems you can't start with zero, you must start with 1. Don't ask me...!
   
  
• # Can you be the one that sets my shadow free?
       (Billie Piper; Walk of life)

Tuesday, 10th April 2001

• The Quick Finder now links you to the relevant part of the linked page. So when you are looking for TEQ, you don't need to wade through loads of stuff to get there. Also, some of the more obscure links (ADR) might be harder to locate in a generalised text (god, did that make any sense?).
   
  
• Added a document on memory schemes and multitasking. A lot of it hasn't much relevence to the RISC OS environment. However something useful when you are programming is to be aware of other options, other ideas, other concepts.
   
  
• Funnies.
   
  
• # To you I belong.
       (B*witched; To you I belong (duh!))

Friday, 6th April 2001

• Corrected the 'short' (read: incorrect) file extensions in the site archive.
   
  
• Added the forum link to the assembler bit. Nobody used it off the main site, so maybe I can target it.
  This forum is regular HTML. It doesn't need Java or anything like that. Works just fine with Fresco...
   
  
• It has been pointed out that the background image could make it hard to read the index page. So I have cleaned it up, dropped in a different logo image, and the regular ARM as a seperator. Does this look tidier?
   
  
• Added the Quick Finder page.
   
  
• Included the newer OPT settings, thanks to Matthias Seifert.
   
  
• # Dear Isabel, I hope you're well, and what you've done is right...
       (Dido; Isabel)

Monday, 26th March 2001

• Converted the archives to Zip deflate format, tested with SparkPlug and tested reading directly from archive with SparkFS and Fresco.
  Tested one archive with WinZip, seemed okay, but didn't have time (the computer wasn't mine) to test them all - but I don't anticipate any problems.
   
  Please note, though, that in order to get the BASIC programs to compile, you will need access to a RISC OS machine. Brandy doesn't have a built-in assembler (logically!). Your other alternative is to convert the code to assemble with the SDK or ADS. Refer to www.arm.com for more information.
   
  
• Created new section, 32 bit operation, and jiggled things around.
   
  
• Added page on 32 bit rules.
   
  
• Added a bit on how to unsqueeze the long involved way.
   
  
• Added 'Another newsflash!'. I'm not messing with you, you can download the C development suite beta and use it for 60 days!
   
  
• Added the where you might find ARM page.
   
  
• # My friends make me smile, if only for a while, you can make me whole again.
       (Atomic Kitten (!); Whole again)

Friday, 23rd March 2001

• Corrected truth table for BIC instruction.

Wednesday, 7th March 2001

• Retitled the processor section to "The ARM processor",
  moved the "RISC vs CISC" there.
   
  
• Added section on "The pipeline".
   
  
• Added section on "The cache".
   
  
• Added the "Sanity warning". :-)
   
  
• Updated the "Processor Types" with differences between ARM610/ARM710 and added ARM7500/7500FP.
  I'd appreciate assistance with processors not covered that exist (do ARM4-5 exist? ARM8+?) and better details of ARM1 and StrongARM, can anybody help?
   
  
• Added red warnings to code that is known not to be 32-bit compliant. Altered code that had no actual need to preserve flags.

Tuesday, 27th February 2001

• Added 'search' option, to make it easier for you to find things.
   
  
• The example for the module code is messy. So I've put the module code page up on its own without an example. I'll add the example later, when it is 'nicer'.

Monday, 5th February 2001

• Code tested on an ARM 6 processor. All works as expected apart from proctype which fails to identify the processor. It only recognises up to ARM 3.
  I'll fix this when I discover a fool-proof method of detecting the processor type.
   
  
• Had 4040 hits today (not this one day, just accumulated!). Not bad, give it a few months and it'll probably overtake the rest of my website (since it was originally created!). It is already top of the statistics report.
   
  
• Added the rationale and linked in this news page.
  If you want to come and see what has changed, look here...
   
  
• Slight modification of the index menu.
   
  
• Updated PSR document to describe 32 bit operation, including some basic code to set the Z flag in 32 bit mode, and test it in 26 bit mode. Kinda useless really, but in current versions of RISC OS, kinda useless is a good description of 32 bit code. Shame, really...

Saturday, 3rd February 2001

• I started a page on writing relocatable modules while over in France last year, but did not want to write too much 'cos all I had was the Arthur PRMs (!). So I've updated it and am continuing. Surprisingly, not much has changed, aside from a load of waffle about instantiations (count how many times that word appears in the document!).
  I'm in the process of finishing off a little example module. It is five o'clock in the morning now, because I wanted to say the first build of the working module was performed at 05:04 03/02/01.
  Yes people, I really am that sad...