Q5.1) Why does DOSFS corrupt my files occasionally?
Under RISC OS 3 DOS, and indeed with any other ImageFS filing system, discs are treated as one large file and ADFS applies write-behind buffering to nearly everything it does. (See the question on ADFSBuffers for more details about this.) This means while working on a DOS disc the entire disc is treated as one large open file.
However as long as a file is held open the cache is not flushed out fully till the machine is explicitly told to do so. This means when working with non-ADFS format discs always dismount them before removing them from the drive. With ADFS format discs this is not so critical, as files aren't held open during most operations on them, but it is good to get into the habit of dismounting floppy discs.
Q5.2) Where can I obtain the latest version of module X?
All patch modules, official RISC OS extensions and the like can be sourced from the RISC OS ftp sites. Ideally your dealer will also have copies of them too and you should be able to obtain them from them. (If they don't you may like to pass on the ones from the ftp site, if you request them, so that they are up to-date.) Failing that you should probably contact RISCOS Ltd who now manage all aspects of RISC OS development.
I am also in the process of compiling a complete list of up-to-date module version numbers, together with links to where you can download them from.
This database is online at http://www.vigay.com/riscos/system/
&000-&0FF User's personal usage (ie non-distributed)
75% of the user area is for PD/Shareware, with allocations co-ordinated by Pineapple. If your software is going to be distributed, you should have an allocated filetype to avoid clashes.
RISCOS Ltd cannot publish its master list of filetypes because, at any given time, it will contain allocations made for products which have not yet been announced. Therefore, they would be in breach of confidence by doing so - and the editing overhead for producing a sanitised list is too great.
However, all is not lost. Denis Howe maintains an unofficial list of filetype allocations. This can be found at http://wombat.doc.ic.ac.uk/acorn/doc/filetypes and includes details about whether the allocation is an official one, a de facto one and what the file contains. If you would like an official 'Acorn' filetype issued to you, you should contact Pineapple Software, who are responsible for allocating filetypes.
Currently, no. Acorn did have, in the early days of the experimental ARM work, an in house compiler. However this compiler was sufficiently unstable and buggy to be un-releasable as a commercial product and was only used because in house support was available immediately to the users of the compiler. When Olivetti invested in Acorn this technology went to them so that Acorn no longer have even an in house Modula 2 compiler.
However some companies have stated intentions to produce Modula 2 compilers for the Arc. Whether these intentions become reality has yet to be seen.
Q5.5) What Public Domain Languages are available for Acorn machines?
The answer to this is a list that is maintained by Gavin Wraith (gavin@wraith.u-net.com). Accordingly updates, corrections and other comments should all be sent to him.
April 2000
This is a (necessarily partial) list of freely available programming languages and programming tools for Acorn Risc OS computers. Some of the items are in the public domain, some are not. I am well aware that many of the items are also available in many other places. I will be grateful to receive emendations and further items. Remember that hensa is mirrored at ftp://ftp.doc.ic.ac.uk/computing/systems/archimedes/collections/hensa/riscos
gavin@wraith.u-net.com
Further information
-------------------
* Imperative Languages
* Object Oriented Languages
* Declarative Languages
* Forths
* Lisps
* ARM Object Code Assemblers
* AOF Tools
* Miscellaneous
Further information
-------------------
* Higher Education National Software Archive (Hensa).
* List of free compilers and interpreters maintained by D.Sharnoff and A.Robenalt, and regularly posted to comp.compilers. Do not expect to find anything specifically for ARM machines.
* Acorn FAQ.
* Compiler tools.
Imperative Languages
--------------------
- ADA bytecode interpreter from http://www.mirror.ac.uk/micros/arch/riscos/c/c052
- ADA GNAT 3.01 compiler from http://www.mirror.ac.uk/micros/arch/riscos/e/e095
- ALGOL 68S from ftp://ftp.cs.man.ac.uk/pub/chl/A68S
- AWK - Aho, Weinberger and Kernighan's text-processing language from http://awk.riscos.org.uk
- CHARM from David Pilling
- ICON 9.1 By ftp from ftp:cs.arizona.edu or http://www.mirror.ac.uk/micros/arch/riscos/e/e116
- G77 0.5.19 GNU FORTRAN from ftp://ftp.sp.ph.ic.ac.uk/pub/tsh/fortran.zip or from http://www.mirror.ac.uk/micros/arch/riscos/e/e167
- GCC GCC 2.7.2 GNU C, C++, Objective C Compiler, release 1.0.7 from http://www.mirror.ac.uk/micros/arch/riscos/b/b013
- LUA - prize-winning extension language from http://lua.riscos.org.uk/
- OBERON POT 1.33 (Portable Oberon Translator) from http://www.mirror.ac.uk/micros/arch/riscos/d/d132
- PASCAL PC 4.09 Norcroft DDE Compiler from http://www.mirror.ac.uk/micros/arch/riscos/a/a122
- PASCAL GPC 1.0.2 - Gnu Pascal Compiler from http://www.mirror.ac.uk/micros/arch/riscos/e/e168
- PERL 5.01 from http://www.mirror.ac.uk/micros/arch/riscos/a/a049
- PYTHON 2.2 from http://www.schwertberger.de/python.html
- RLAB 1.25 from http://www.mirror.ac.uk/micros/arch/riscos/e/e022
- TCL 7.4 from http://www.mirror.ac.uk/micros/arch/riscos/e/e057
Object Oriented Languages
-------------------------
- ARMBOB 2.1 from http://www.mirror.ac.uk/micros/arch/riscos/b/b178
- GC++ GNU C++ 2.7.2 from http://www.mirror.ac.uk/micros/arch/riscos/b/b013
- GNUST 1.1.1 Smalltalk-80 from http://www.mirror.ac.uk/micros/arch/riscos/c/c045
- GRS from http://www.mirror.ac.uk/micros/arch/riscos/b/b062
- LITTLEST 0.0 Little Smalltalk from http://www.mirror.ac.uk/micros/arch/riscos/a/a102
- OBJECTIVE C GNU 2.7.2 from http://www.mirror.ac.uk/micros/arch/riscos/b/b013
- SATHER ISCI Sather 1.1 - Mail to Peter Naulls
- SQUEAK Smalltalk 2.7 - now includes sockets, web server and browser. From http://sumeru.stanford.edu/tim/pooters/squeak.html
Declarative Languages
---------------------
- BIBPROLOG 3.30 from http://www.mirror.ac.uk/micros/arch/riscos/d/d005
- GOFER 2.30a (GoOd For Equational Reasoning) from http://www.mirror.ac.uk/micros/arch/riscos/a/a262 See comp.lang.functional FAQ.
- HOPE 4.02a from http://www.mirror.ac.uk/micros/arch/riscos/a/a139
- HUGS 98 - latest version of Haskell Users Gofer System from http://shiell.cjb.net/files/hugs98-src-riscos.zip
- HUGS 1.3 (Haskell Users Gofer System) from http://www.mirror.ac.uk/micros/arch/riscos/d/d041 See comp.lang.functional FAQ.
- HU-PROLOG 1.62 Humboldt University Prolog from http://www.mirror.ac.uk/micros/arch/riscos/e/e062
- MOSML 1.42 - Moscow ML port by Andrew Hunter from http://www.geocities.com/~cfsfcpage/
- OCAML 2.00 - Objective CAML port by David Fletcher from http://www.dcs.ed.ac.uk/home/djf/ocaml/
- SML 4.0.01 Edinburgh Interpreter from http://www.mirror.ac.uk/micros/arch/riscos/a/a216
Forths
------
- AFORTH 0.70 from http://www.mirror.ac.uk/micros/arch/riscos/a/a293
- FORTHMACS 3.1 from http://www.mirror.ac.uk/micros/arch/riscos/c/c073
- TILEFORTH 2.1 Portable C implementation from http://www.mirror.ac.uk/micros/arch/riscos/a/a111
- WIMPFORTH 1.0 from http://www.mirror.ac.uk/micros/arch/riscos/e/e096
Lisps
-----
- CLISP 01.01 Common Lisp from http://www.mirror.ac.uk/micros/arch/riscos/c/c189
- FOOLSLISP 1.3 from http://www.mirror.ac.uk/micros/arch/riscos/c/c162
- GNU SCHEME from http://www.mirror.ac.uk/micros/arch/riscos/b/b105
- SIOD 2.90 (Scheme In One Defun) from http://www.mirror.ac.uk/micros/arch/riscos/a/a275. Also see George Carrette's site.
- XLISP 1.60 from http://www.mirror.ac.uk/micros/arch/riscos/a/a103
- XLISP+ from http://www.mirror.ac.uk/micros/arch/riscos/b/b076
ARM AOF Assemblers
------------------
- AOFLIB 0.07 create AOF files with the Basic Assembler. From http://www.mirror.ac.uk/micros/arch/riscos/e/e108
- AS 1.26b from http://www.mirror.ac.uk/micros/arch/riscos/a/a132
- ASM 2.01 from Plasma Sphere BBS (tel.+44 1925 757920/1)
- EXTASM 1.00 from http://www.mirror.ac.uk/micros/arch/riscos/b/b120
- TLA 0.2a (The Last Assembler) from http://www.mirror.ac.uk/micros/arch/riscos/a/a119
AOF Tools
---------
- ADDFILE 0.05 from Plasma Sphere BBS (tel.+44 1925 757920/1). Embed data in AOF files.
- DECAOFB 1.00 - decode AOF files. From http://www.mirror.ac.uk/micros/arch/riscos/d/d038
- DRLINK 0.28 Linker from http://www.mirror.ac.uk/micros/arch/riscos/b/b071 and from Plasma Sphere BBS (tel.+44 1925 757920/1).
- MAKEALF 1.03 - tools for Chunk files. From http://www.mirror.ac.uk/micros/arch/riscos/d/d039
Miscellaneous
-------------
- J 6.2 (APL-like language) from http://www.mirror.ac.uk/micros/arch/riscos/a/a165
Q5.6) Why does the RO3.5 desktop sometimes revert to the system font?
This is due to a bug in the RISC OS 3.5 Wimp module. Applications that have outline fonts in their icons and a validation string of R5 or R6 (slabbed icon) will trigger this bug and cause the desktop to revert to the system font. There are two solutions to this problem depending on your level of computer literacy.
The easiest solution, for people who are very shy of template editors, is to complain to the author(s) of the application about this problem and get them to fix it. If you are not shy of template editors you could also go in and edit the applications templates so that none of the slabbed icons have outline fonts in them.
Q5.7) Why does ChangeFSI display a blank white window, not an image?
Version 1.13S of ChangeFSI now has the RISC OS 3.6 JPEG support built into it. However the code has been designed to fail 'gracefully' if the support code is not available in the OS. For instance when you run the software on versions of the OS older than RISC OS 3.6. In this case a blank white window is displayed.
To regain normal use of ChangeFSI go to the main menu and select Sprite Output instead of JPEG output. Next time you load a picture, or re-process the current one, an image will be displayed. The JPEG Output option is not greyed out because even though no image is displayed you can still save the processed file as a JPEG.
For those of you with RISC OS 3.5 the module can be obtained from Acorn's FTP sites at ftp://ftp.acorn.com/pub/riscos/releases/spriteextend.arc
This can be softloaded in your Boot.PreDesk sequence to use it.
If you've got RISC OS 3.10 you'll need to load the "JPEGMsgs" and "JPEGRender" modules BEFORE you load ChangeFSI. These were available on Acorn User CD no.8 (inside the $.Boot.Newboot.!Boot.Resources.!System.310.Modules directory)
This is both a tricky and simple question to answer. The cause of the error is unknown, but something is erroring. However rather than displaying the error message RISC OS has a subtle bug in it that causes it to display the above error message instead. The sequence goes like this:-
- An error occurs.
- The wimp realises it needs to load the hi-res toolsprites & loads them.
- The wimp then displays the error message.
Unfortunately the process of loading the his-res toolsprites over-writes the buffer containing the original error block. (IE the block of memory with the error number and error message in it.) What it overwrites it with is the string 'WindowManager:Sprites22', which is a path reference to where the hi-res toolsprites are to be found.
This error has been corrected in RISC OS 3.60 and, presumably, future versions of the OS. (Thanks go to Alan Glover for this information.)
Additionally the error can be provoked by conflicting versions of the DrawFile module being loaded. If you are experiencing this error message then it is worthwhile to scan your hard drive looking for all copies of the module and ensuring they are consistantly the latest version of the module.
Q5.9) Is there a Real Audio or Real Video player for Acorns?
Currently, sort of. A Real Audio player exists for NCOS but this is not useful for most RISC OS machines due to it's dependance on the presence of hardware Floating Point. An integer arithmetic version has been made by Warm Silence Software for StrongARM equipped machines but it currently cannot be released due to licensing issues.
However, Kira Brown and Justin Fletcher ported an Amiga RA player to RISC OS and you can download the latest version from her web site at http://www.neutralino.demon.co.uk/
This version however will not play 'streaming' RealAudio, and many of the newer RA files.
Q5.10) Is there any 'streaming audio' player software available for RISC OS machines?
There are a number of streaming audio players for RISC OS available from http://duffell.cjb.net which will allow you to listen to radio stations via the internet, assuming they use the SHOUTcast or MP3 audio streaming protocols.
Pineapple Software have produced a program called !Killer, which is the definitive means of checking for or killing viruses. There are a few other commercial solutions, see the next question for details on how to obtain them.
There are also a few PD programs around, but these tend to detect only a small subset of the viruses in circulation. !VKiller used to be OK, but it is no longer maintained, is now seriously out of date and fails to work under RISC OS 3. Out of the PD virus utilities the current best is Kiwisoft's !Slayer. This detects most known viruses and removes quite a few as well and serves as a good secondary defence if Killer is unavailable to you. Scanner should be available on various FTP/Email servers. I have als
Various virus killers are out there. Here is a, probably incomplete, list of those available.
Killer
------
Killer is distributed by Pineapple Software. Who can be reached at:-
Pineapple Software,
352 Green Lane,
Ilford,
Essex IG3 9JS
England.
Tel. +44 (208) 599 1476 Fax +44 (208) 598 2343
via email:-sales@pineaple.demon.co.uk
support@pineaple.demon.co.uk or virus@pinesoft.demon.co.uk
Or if you need a German version of the program you can contact Uffenkamp Computer Systeme at:
Gartenstr. 3,
D-32130 Enger.
Tel. +49 (5224) 978075 Fax +49 (5224) 978076
via email:- ucsorder@ucs.de or usupport@ucs.de
Early versions (up to 1.26) are PD, but should not be used now as they are ineffective against the new crop of viruses that have subsequently appeared since it's release.
Slayer
------
Slayer is a freeware virus killer available from Kiwisoft. It can be downloaded from http://www.kiwisoft.co.uk/software/slayer/ It has the advantages over !Killer in that it is free, and also it is very fast.
VZap
----
This is a shareware product released by Paul Vigay. It can be downloaded from Paul's www site at http://www.vigay.com/software/vzap.html and is updated as and when new viruses are discovered.
Q6.3) I have received some information about a virus from a reputable source, it apparently affects Windows, Mac and/or Linux systems, is it perhaps dangerous for RISC OS users too?
No known virus designed for Windows, Macintosh, Linux or Unix systems has ever infected a RISC OS system. Whilst many Acorn computers are capable of running DOS or Windows operating systems via software or hardware emulation, it is only the DOS/Windows environment that is vulnerable to infection by these virusues.
Unless you have detailed evidence indicating that the virus in question has actually infected RISC OS systems, issues concerning viruses for foreign systems are best dealt with via your Windows, Macintosh, Linux or Unix anti-virus software supplier.
Q7.2) What Acorn related companies are available on the net via email?
There are quite a few companies now on the net and reachable via email with more joining as time passes. Here is the list of companies that have given permission to be entered here in the FAQ. If the email address is to a person rather than either an automated system or perhaps a group of people I have placed the name of the person in brackets after the email address description
4Mation Ltd :-
sales@4mation.co.uk Information and Sales enquiries.
The Advisory Unit :-
sales@advisory-unit.org.uk General enquiries.
Aleph One :-
info@aleph1.co.uk Information about products and prices.
Alpha Programming :-
info@alpha-programming.co.uk General enquiries
marc@indivisibilities.com (Marc Warne)
Alternative Publishing Ltd :-
sales@apsoft.co.uk Sales, service and upgrades
Archive magazine :-
paul@archivemag.co.uk Editor (Paul Beverley)
The ARM Club :-
info@armclub.org.uk Enquiries etc...
ARMage Software :-
armage@armage.demon.co.uk Enquiries etc...
Artex Software GbR :-
info@artexsoft.com General enquiries.
Atomwide :-
Sales@atomwide.co.uk Information about products and prices.
Castle Technology :-
Sales@castle.org.uk Info, Products, Prices, Ordering etc.
info@softrock.co.uk Enquires, Sales and Product information.
Squirrel Solutions :-
info@squirrel-net.demon.co.uk Enquiries, Sales and Product information.
Stuart Tyrell Developments :-
Info@STDevel.demon.co.uk General Enquiries etc.
Thinx Solutions :-
Thinx@spark.demon.co.uk Sales Enquiries and Product Support
Tower Electronics Ltd :-
tower@enterprise.net All enquiries.
Uffenkamp Computer Systeme :-
ucsinfo@ucs.de Product information, events et al.
usupport@ucs.de After sales support, technical queries.
ucsorder@ucs.de Sales enquiries.
Uniqueway :-
info@uniqueway.co.uk General queries, product related or
otherwise.
support@uniqueway.co.uk Support for products. (Serial
number should be quoted where
relevant.)
sales@uniqueway.co.uk For credit card orders.
Warm Silence Software :-
Robin.Watts@wss.co.uk Enquiries etc. (Robin Watts)
Wyddfa Software :-
gwilliams@cix.compulink.co.uk Enquiries etc. (Gwyn Williams)
Xavier Software :-
xavier@bangor.ac.uk Enquiries etc...
Zynet Ltd :-
zynet@zynet.co.uk Enquiries etc...
If you are a company and you would like to included in this list please send me an email, to the address specified at the bottom of the FAQ, detailing the email addresses and their general function. I will then include them into the FAQ. However as a matter of policy I will only include an address if I receive email from the owner, or a representative for the owner, of that address.
As I frequently update the FAQ between postings you may wish to get the latest and most up-to-date copy of the FAQ before it next gets posted. There are two ways to do this. Firstly read it off the web at http://www.vigay.com/csafaq/
Secondly, if you don't have access to the world wide web I can email you a copy. However, in order to save my phone bill, I would prefer people to download it from my web site. I hope to set up an email server at some point in the future, which might make things easier.
Q7.5) What WWW pages are out there for Acorn topics?
The web is now expanding at an alarming rate and Acorn Web pages are popping up all over the place. This list of Web pages is checked periodically by myself for validity but I make no claims that URL's present here are currently valid. I'm no longer adding to this list because I maintain a more extensive and dedicated Acorn links page at http://www.riscos.org/links/ so I would recommend looking there if you want to contact a specific company, person or locate a particular item of software.
* http://www.acornarcade.com
Acorn gaming site with news, reviews, features and support for Acorn
gaming.
* http://acorn.cybervillage.co.uk
The Acorn CyberVillage pages - dealers, developers, information, software
and low cost web rental.
* http://www.poppyfields.oaktree.co.uk/acorn/
The Acorn computer user WWW Server. - contains pointers to other Acorn
Tim Rowledge's page (Acorn version of Squeak Smalltalk).
* http://www.uniqueway.co.uk
Uniqueway Ltd's home pages.
* http://www.wss.co.uk/
Warm Silence Software.
* http://www.werewlf.demon.co.uk
Werewolf Software.
* http://xavier.bangor.ac.uk/cgi-bin/xavier
Xavier Software Ltd's home page.
* http://www.zynet.co.uk/
Zynet Ltd's home page.
Note that, as with email addresses, I require either the owner of the pages, or a representative of the owner, to email me if they wish to be included in the list.
Q7.7) Where can I advertise second hand Acorn kit?
There are various web sites available now that list second hand adverts without charge. If you are wanting to sell some equipment it may well be worth your time trying them. They are:-
http://acorn.cybervillage.co.uk/noticeboard.stm
The Acorn User Magazine website normally carries free ads, but you can also advertise for free in the magazine by emailing your advert to; aufreeads@acornuser.com
There is also a large Acorn/RISC OS section on the UK Auction site eBay (www.ebay.co.uk)
You can also advertise items for sale on the relevant Acorn Usenet newsgroup. I would advise advertising hardware and peripherals on comp.sys.acorn.hardware and any software items on comp.sys.acorn.misc
Please respect Usenet 'netiguette' by refraining from posting your advert to multiple newsgroups (known as cross-posting).
Q8.1) How compatible with other systems is an Acorn machine?
This is a fairly brief introduction to the issue. If your question isn't answered below than it is well worthwhile going to the Acorn Emulation Pages at http://acorn.cybervillage.co.uk/emulation/, which cover this subject in some detail.
PC - The early 'Archimedes' machines can handle 720K DOS discs and all machines since the A5000 can also handle 1.44MB discs. In RISC OS since version 3.0, DOS compatibility is built in, whereas under the older RISC OS 2 you have to use one of the (PD) utilities. There are two PC (software) emulators that can handle most PC software, three if you count the fact that Acorn's offering is split into two emulator programs. There are also PC cards, containing an 80x86 processor and other PC hardware, which uses
the main computers' disc and video. All emulators are multitasking (and not PD). RiscPC machines, by adding a 486 or 586 'second processor' card, can fully emulate a PC. However, these are still quite slow by todays PC standards.
Unix - Unix software can be ported (and in fact many packages already have been) with the help of UnixLib. Memory-hungry ports, such as gcc, can be run with the aid of !Virtual (also PD). Of course if you are really desperate to run Unix software it might be advisable to buy RISCiX (only available second hand now), the Acorn flavour of Unix (suitable only for A540 or older machines), or perhaps use linux (compatible with all 32bit Acorn machines) or NetBSD/arm32 (for RiscPC machines).
Further information on NetBSD/arm32 is available from http://www.netbsd.org/Ports/arm32/
Mac - Commercial software is available that can read HFS format discs, including hard drives and CDROMs. For floppy discs this generally encompasses high density discs (1.44 MB format) and a limited subset of double density (720 kb) discs. Essentially the software can read the disc if the tracks have been laid down with constant angular velocity, rather than constant linear velocity - which requires a variable speed drive to work.
Most Macintoshes default to CLV format discs when formatting double density discs but some Mac software exists to override this and, in theory, such discs are readable using the Acorn software. To be sure that the double density disc is a CAV format disc, then formatting it first in your Acorn machine is a good step and the disc will then work with Macintosh machines.
Also most modern Macintoshes can, like Acorn machines, read and write PC format discs so transfer is possible via that medium as well. There is no Mac emulator available natively. However if you have a PC card in your RiscPC it is possible to run Executor 2.0 under the PC Emulation to then emulate a Mac. However this approach is likely to be fairly slow.
A shareware application called ExMac is available from http://www.vigay.com/cgi-bin/ROlinks?q=exmac which will allow you to read, write and format Apple Mac discs under RISC OS.
Atari ST - Like PC floppies, the Archimedes can read, write and format ST-format floppies. An Atari emulator is available, called STem, which is of limited utility is currently under development and improvement.
Amiga - The amiga uses an unusual disc format that is not easily read by other machines. Accordingly there is currently no Amiga format disc reader available. But Amiga's can read PC and Macintosh format discs, so again transfers can occur via that medium. There is one Amiga emulator available, a port of the Unix Amiga Emulator, but it is somewhat CPU intensive and really requires a StrongARM to be useful.
Spectrum - There are emulators around for this and Amstrad, the owners of the Sinclair copyright, have released permission for the ROM images, needed to run these emulators, to be copied and released with the emulators.
Apple][ - Again emulators are available for this. However they, like the Spectrum emulators, require a copy of the ROM image to work. The copyright of the ROM image for these machines, as far as I am aware, prevents them being distributed, so you have to source your own copy of them.
BBC B - Once again emulators exist, including Acorn's own effort of 6502Host. The emulators are fairly good, offering a high level of compatibility. See question 8.3 for more details about two commercially available emulators. Also various programs do exist that allow the newer Acorn machines to read BBC B format floppy discs.
GameBoy - An emulator exists for this, capable of loading and using most snapshots with sound correctly emulated. Snapshots seem to be fairly freely available on the Internet and a search in any of the more capable search engines should quickly turn up a set of sites with downloadable snapshot images.
Amstrad CPC - Emulators exist for these machines and Amstrad & Locomotive Software have given their permission for the ROM images, needed to make them work, to be freely distributable with the emulators.
Macintosh - A BBC BASIC environment was released some years back as a commercial product featuring compatibility with a limited subset of OS_Bytes and other features for limited compatibility with a BBC Model B. More information is available from http://emulation.net/bbcmicro/
IBM Compats - In addition to the old MS-DOS version of BBC BASIC, a brand new Windows version was released last year by Richard Russell. Full details of his products, including BBC BASIC (86) and 'BBC BASIC for Windows', are available on his website at http://www.rtrussell.co.uk/
Officially, no. Unofficially there is a patch that enables the Emulator to run fairly well. Unfortunately the patch does not correctly enable the break key; however, it does substitute the Scroll Lock key, so you can reset the emulator easily from inside the emulator. On a StrongARM equipped RiscPC you need to disable all but the instruction cache while running the emulator. (An '*Cache I' will do this.)
Here is the patch :-
REM >HostPatch
REM RISC PC !65Host patch
REM Obtained from comp.sys.acorn.games
REM Provided by tim@spodnet.org (Tim Gladding)
REM of Cambridge, England
REM Tweaked to substitute ScrollLock for Break
REM by arcsalt@spuddy.mew.co.uk (Darren Salt)
SYS "OS_File",5,"<65Host$Dir>.!RunImage" TO t,,,,len
DIM data len
SYS "OS_File",255,"<65Host$Dir>.!RunImage",data
FOR ptr=0 TO len-4 STEP 4
word=data!ptr
CASE word OF
WHEN &E3520402, &E2600402, &E3510402: data?ptr=&05
WHEN &13A0000F: data?ptr=&0E: REM key code for ScrollLock
It is a BASIC program - simply enter it into the BASIC editor of your choice, let the filer see the copy of 65Host that is to be patched and run it. A copy of the 65Host emulator can be found on the Acorn FTP site.
A PD BBC Emulator, called !BeebIt, is available to download from http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/mjfoot/bbc.htm, but this doesn't include the ROM images due to copyright reasons, so you will need to obtain these seperately.
There is also a commercially available BBC emulator, called 6502Em, available that works on the RiscPC range and boasts improved compatibility, mostly with games, over the Acorn effort. It also is StrongARM compatible.
Yes, there are a number of utilities available, such as ArcDisc or ArcImg. A good first port of call is http://acorn.revivalteam.de/Emu/Emu.html which also includes other useful links to emulating RISC OS machines under Windows.
I don't know if any of these utilities will read the latest F+ format discs, as used by RISC OS 4.
Q8.5) What software handles files with this extension?
This really depends on what the extension is. Most popular extensions and file formats are catered for, either natively or by third-party utilities.
Presented below is a list of common file extensions and the software that, in some way, handles the file. It is recommended, especially for commercial software, that you verify that software will indeed perform the functions you require on the file format. This list is intended as a starting point to give the reader a pointer towards suitable software, nothing more.
N.B. This list is primarily for programs that convert foreign file formats into Acorn usable data - not the other way round. Some programs listed will export as well as import but this is by no means guaranteed.
* AVI (.avi) , &FB2, Audio Visual file.
- CineWorks, commercial.
- MovieFS, commercial.
* BMP (.bmp) , &69C, Bitmap file (Windows).
- BMPSprite, freeware.
- ChangeFSI, commercial - supplied with RISC OS 3 and above.
- Compo, commercial.
- ImageFS, commercial.
- ImageMaster, commercial.
- Translator, shareware.
* CGM (.cgm) , &B2B, Computer Graphics Metafile.
- CGM->Draw, careware.
- DXF-CGM, careware.
* DXF (.dxf) , &DEA, Drawing eXchange Format file.
- Draw, commercial - supplied with all versions of RISC OS.
Yes. Oak released a program called Oak-Draw for Windows. This program can load, save and manipulate Acorn Draw format files in the Windows environment. The commercial program CorelXara can also load and manipulate Draw files.
