This book was originally published in 1993 and so is based on Computer Concepts' ArtWorks, that is, versions of ArtWorks up to 1.7. Later versions of ArtWorks produced by Martin Wuerthner (ArtWorks 2) have many extra tools and some dialogue boxes may have additional buttons and icons. These are described in the documentation supplied with these versions. However, ArtWorks' main drawing tools are the same and so this book still provides a very good basic guide for anyone new to ArtWorks.
Some minor changes have been made to the book to bring it slightly more up to date, but some sections, particularly Chapter 2 Installing ArtWorks, which rfers to the "dongle" used in early versions, do not apply to later versions but have been retained for completeness.
All rights reserved. This program is licensed for use on a single computer by a single user.
This version is supplied for the use of RISC World subscribers only.
Published by -
APDL
39 Knighton Park Road
Sydenham
London SE26 5RN
Phone : 020 8778 2659
Fax : 020 8488 0487
E-mail : info@apdl.co.uk
Contents
1. Introduction
Typographic conventions
Conventions used in this guide
Hard disc installation
2. Getting Started
What do I need ?
Running Card Shop
Basic Card Shop Concepts
A Short Tutorial
Creating A Card
Creating An Envelope
Creating Rows Of Stamps
Saving your work
3. The Standard Menus
The Icon bar Menu
The Options Menu
4. The main window icons
Card mode
Message mode
Envelope mode
Stamp mode
Save icon
Floppy icon
Directory path icon
Dustbin icon
5. The Tool icons
Font icon
Colour
Font names
Text entry icon
Spellings
Printer icon
Border icon
Picture icon
Stamp row icon
Money icon
6. Special dialogue boxes
7. Hints, Tips & Problems
Draw object files
Squashed files
Clip Art and Fonts
Subject Links
Problems
RISCWorld
ÿÿÿÿISSUE4/CQOUT/INDEX.HTM Issue 4, Bidding for items on CQout
Bidding for items on CQout
What we're about to tell you may come as a shock...
There are other auction sites apart from eBay. There, we've said it. Go take a cold shower and come back when you've calmed down.
Worrying thought isn't it, that you could be missing out on the bargain of the century on another auction site. Why didn't anybody tell us earlier? CQout ('Seek You Out'), at www.cqout.com is actually a well-established auction site. Live since 1999, it proudly boasts of being 'the most trusted online auction site' and the 'UK's second largest online marketplace'.
CQout follows a pretty familiar template to eBay. You bid for items, the highest bidder wins and you can sell items with a reserve or 'Buy It Now' option known as CQInstant. The payment options are slightly different, but not unusual. PayPal is available, but isn't integrated like it is with eBay; instead Nochex and SecurePay are used. Nochex is a UK version of PayPal, while SecurePay is similar to Escrow.
Essentially, if there's a feature on eBay, you'll be able to find its equivalent on CQout, albeit with a slightly different name. As with eBay, signing up requires verification, so make sure you've got a credit card or other form of identification to hand before starting. Unlike eBay, CQout contains an adult section, so it's not really a place for kids to browse unsupervised. There are also no fees for basic listings - only a one-off charge once the sale is complete.
Below we've got an 18 step introduction to the CQout website. Here we'll talk you through the process of getting started with what's growing as fast as eBay. If you do have any questions, please ask - we're more than happy to help.
STEP ONE: REGISTRATION CQout has a standard issue registration form. Simply fill in your vitals and click 'Continue'. If you've visited previously but had to stop the registration further in, just enter your email address and CQout will do the rest for you.
STEP TWO: VERIFICATION Time to pay up: CQout requires a £2 fee for all members, buyers and sellers. You'll need to tap out your credit card details for instant verification, or alternatively opt to use the postal option instead.
STEP THREE: MR POSTMAN No credit card, or don't feel like sending sensitive information out? CQout offers a postal registration service. This is useful, but with obvious disadvantages - it will be delayed for as long as it takes to get the letter sent.
STEP FOUR: FEE REFUND Some sellers offer a refund if you make your first bid with them. The £2 registration fee will be deducted from the final purchase price. On the credit card screen, click 'Fee Refund Offers'. Choose one of the sellers to see what's available.
STEP FIVE: FINITO! If you've entered all the details correctly, verification will be almost instantaneous. An email will be sent to the address you provided, confirming your username and password. Be careful however, as it sends the password in plain text.
STEP SIX: SERVICES PAGE When you log in, you'll be taken to the 'Services' page. This is your central control panel for CQout, its version of 'My eBay', giving you an overview of all the items you're selling and bidding on and access to the options and preferences.
STEP SEVEN: SELLING TIPS Click on 'CQout Preferences' in 'Services'. You can change email notifications of failed bids on auctions that have ended or set your seller preferences. It's useful to know that you can standardise your preferences automatically.
STEP EIGHT: USER ACCOUNT There are a number of other functions in 'Services'. You can view your full account history, with every debit and credit, going all the way back to when you first started. If you have a long history, this page may take a while to load.
STEP NINE: WATCH LIST When you're searching for items, you can add them to your watch list, which is accessed through 'Services'. The current auction status will be shown. You can remove items by ticking the checkbox and clicking 'Delete'.
STEP TEN: SEARCH ME Click on the 'Search' button at the top of the page to start looking for items. CQout uses a simple Boolean 'AND/OR' system for searches to make it easy for you to find the right item. You only need to fill in one of the boxes if you want.
STEP ELEVEN: NARROW DOWN Use 'AND/OR' to narrow down your search if you get too many matches, or try the 'Exclude' box to remove erroneous matches and select a specific category. To the right of the main search are options for searching for a specific auction.
STEP TWELVE: NO MATCHES If the item you search for isn't found, 'CQalert' allows you to set a watch list - whenever an item matching the keywords set on 'CQalert' appears, you'll be notified via email. Like the search, 'CQalert' uses Boolean search terms.
STEP THIRTEEN: I WANT IT! Instead of using 'CQalert', you can set up a 'Wanted Auction'. This takes you through the selling process, but at the end your listing is placed in the 'Wanted' section. Sellers are also alerted that you're looking for a particular item.
STEP FOURTEEN: FILTER AWAY! When you're searching for items, don't forget the filters. They're listed on the tabs above the page and allow you to view new auctions, popular auctions and local items, among others. Especially useful is the 'Ends Today' category.
STEP FIFTEEN: ITEM DETAILS Once you've found an item you're interested in, click on its description to bring up the details, including the usual start and finish times and the current bid, plus icons for services like 'CQtrusted' and 'Trade Seller'.
STEP SIXTEEN: QUESTIONS At the bottom of the description all accepted payment options are listed. There is also a space for entering questions. These will be sent straight to the seller and are sometimes displayed on the item page for others to see.
STEP SEVENTEEN: BIDDING TIME Enter the maximum amount you want to pay. CQout automatically increases your bid until you win, hit your price ceiling or the auction ends - known as 'AutoBid'. When you bid, the system tells you if you're the highest bidder.
STEP EIGHTEEN: TIME TO PAY If you win, check the seller's payment terms. Some sellers accept PayPal, which you can do simply by sending the money to their email address. Nochex is integrated, but you must have set up an account beforehand.
David Bradforth
ÿÿÿÿISSUE4/DISC/INDEX.HTM Issue 4, DiscWorld
DiscWorld
Aaron Timbrell rounds up the software directory
CardShop
This issue we have another exclusive RISCWorld give away. A free copy of CardShop, as included in the APDL Celebration package. CardShop lets you design your own greetings cards (Christmas, birthday, Easter, Mother's Day etc). It provides a framework within which you can create and manipulate a card containing both pictures and text, print out and construct an envelope for the card and produce rows of 'stamps'.
CardShop offers many features, including the easy import of graphics and the automatic scaling and positioning of fonts.
The user interface is written to be accessible for the younger child, although many older children and adults also enjoy using it. Card Shop provides options for producing the finished card. A single sheet can be produced which is then folded in four to produce an A6 card. Or you can produce an A5 card - this requires the paper to be reinserted into the printer. And finally there is the option to produce a card similar in size to the cards bought in shops.
The complete DiscWorld line up
As per usual we have our collections of the latest RISC OS games and applications, as well as support files for this issue's articles:
CardShop
Complete unrestricted version of CardShop, ideal for making Christmas cards.
Games
All the games from this issue's games world column.
Iyonix
Iyonix software from this issue's Iyonix column.
PD
All the latest PD, shareware and freeware releases from the PD column.
SDL
RISCWorld SDL code examples and a copy of !GCC.
ToolBox
This contains two sets of Toolbox Modules. The Castle archive contains the latest 26/32 bit neutral system components, required if you want to run a lot of new software releases on 26bit machines. The RISCOS Ltd archive contains later and improved versions of a number of modules and is suitable for all versions of RISC OS from 3.1 onwards. We have also included copies of SharedUnixLib and UnixHome as these are needed by some programs.
WebChange2
A special RISCworld edition of the software that some people are calling WebChange2....
It's looking very exciting in the RISC OS market at the moment. Against all expectations Qercus has come back from the dead with a nice issue and John Cartmell is promising to deliver further issues roughly every six weeks. Another new RISC OS magazine has also been launched. RISC OS Now is, like Qercus, a proper A4 colour magazine and looks very promising for a first issue, although I have to say that the number of errors in this first example is a cause for some concern.
Moving on from magazines there have been two very exciting developments in RISC OS since the last issue of RISCWorld.
Firstly RISCOS Open Ltd announced that they, in conjunction with Castle Technology Ltd, would be making certain components of the RISC OS 5 sources available under a "shared source" licence. This, presumably, is what Castle's Jack Lillingston was referring to when he made statement saying that Castle was considering open sourcing RISC OS. At the time of writing no source code has been made available, neither have the licence terms, or the pricing structure. Until these appear there isn't a great deal more to say beyond the fact that this development could turn out to be very interesting.
Secondly
So, there has been plenty of good news over the last couple of months, lets hope the flood of positive developments continues.
Editors Rant of the month
The following is about the vehicular faith, not specifically about computing.
Those who have been able to keep up with my motoring mayhem may well realise that the size of the Timbrell fleet is slowly decreasing. Indeed the main daily vehicle is the Vauxhall Monterey (Isuzu Trooper in drag - DH). So, as you would expect, it got used to ferry me, my suitcase and the show stuff down to the RISC OS SouthEast show last month, As usual before setting off I did my regular checks on fluids, tyres etc. I noticed that the auto gearbox fluid level was low, so I topped it up to the correct level before leaving.
As an aside I feel that I should point out that very little of my driving involves motorways these days. To be honest I seem to spend most of my time on country lanes and the occasional 'A' road when I head into Burton or Derby. The previous owner also didn't use the vehicle to travel long distances, so this trip could easily have been the vehicle's first longish motorway journey in quite a few years. Can you see where this is going yet? Anyway, having loaded up and set off I bowled down to the top end of the M42, which then takes me down to Birmingham. As is often the case I crawled around Birmingham in the Friday lunchtime snarl up. Finally light dawned as signs for the M40 appeared. The M40 was much clearer than the M42 and I made good progress. I had already decided to pop in and see some friends in Maidenhead before going on to visit my parents then finally to the hotel in Guildford.
So far so good. At least it was so good until I got about ten miles from High Wycombe. At this point one of the myriad warning lights on the dash came on. This particular light was the overheat warning on the gearbox. Bugger. I slapped the car into neutral and coasted onto the hard shoulder and turned the engine off. A quick look underneath revealed a nasty pool of gearbox fluid forming on the tarmac. Double bugger. I left the vehicle to cool down for half an hour an then checked the gearbox dipstick which showed that there was still fluid present. I started the engine and no warning lights came on. Oh well, I thought, lets see what happens. I carefully drove to Maidenhead, being overtaken by trucks all the way. Having got to Maidenhead I checked the fluid level again and it was still within the marks on the dipstick. However I took the opportunity to invest in a bottle of Dexron III fluid at the local auto factors.
Having indulged in several cups of tea I drove to my parents, still with no problems showing. Then I headed on to Guildford, again with no problems. Next morning I topped up the fluid and drove to the show, which was only two minutes away. I'm not going to go over the show itself as Dave Bradforth has written a show report for this issue. At the end of the day I loaded up and went off for a meeting in Guilford town centre. Then I decided to go and stay with my sister-in-law in Reading since, as the car had gone wrong, it seemed sensible to drive back in the morning.
Next morning I re-loaded the car and set off. I drove all the way home at sixty mph, which interestingly used a lot less petrol than driving at seventy, and the car didn't miss a beat. So what was wrong? To be honest I haven't got the faintest idea! I can't find anything amiss, I havn't seen any further leaks so I am a bit stumped. The best suggestion so far, from Dave Holden, was that some plonker had filled the box up with the wrong type of automatic transmission fluid and this couldn't cope with the heat and was bubbling. This would result in the pump sucking air and the box overheating. Well it's a fair suggestion. In the meantime I shall continue pottering around and checking the fluid once a week to see if the level drops.
Cheap motors, aren't they fun?
Printing RISC World
The new look of RISC World means that you will no longer get the yellow background when printing articles from RISCWorld. However you will still get the blue border on the left unless you turn off the printing of background images. The example below shows the print dialogue box from Fresco.
As you can see the option "No Background" is ticked. If you want to print out any of the RISCWorld pages and don't want to waste ink on a blue border then make sure you have clicked a similar option in your browser.
Aaron Timbrell
ÿÿÿÿISSUE4/GAMES/INDEX.HTM Issue 4, Games World
Games World
Paul Brett with the latest gaming news.
There has been so much activity on the RISC OS gaming front in the last couple of months that I don't think it can all be covered in one article. However I shall do my best. Let me start with a continuing theme:
More Magnetic Scrolls
Once again I am including two more games for use with the Magnetic Scrolls interpreter. If you have been hard at work then you may well have completed both Fish and Corruption. If this is indeed the case then you can now get your teeth into Wonderland and Guild of Thieves, both of which can be found in the software.games directory on this very issue. These two conclude the set of Magnetic Scrolls adventures, so you will now have the full set. Many hundreds of hours of gaming now await you.
Now lets move on to some new games.
ACED - Jason Tribbeck
ACED is a shoot 'em up game in glorious 3D, it's a somewhat similar to Elite, but without the trading elements. You're in control of a spaceship, out to clear space of alien invaders. Your spaceship is equipped with a front pulse cannon, shields, energy stores and left and right escape pods.
Changing speed, rotation and firing all diminish your energy stores, as does incoming enemy fire and collisions with enemy ships. When you are low on energy, you will be told that your energy is low - if it's very low, then a warning can be heard. If you are really very low, then the audio warning gets more frantic. If you run out of energy, your spaceship will be destroyed.
If you have survived the escape and destroyed enough enemies to satisfy your commanders, then you can continue with a new ship on a harder level.
Controls
Z or W - Lef
X - Righ
H - Fir
J - Thrus
K - Brak
F - Eject escape pod lef
G - Eject escape pod righ
F5 - Music volume dow
F6 - Music volume u
F7 - Sound effects volume dow
F8 - Sound effects volume u
End - Freez
Delete - Unfreez
ACED is currently in BETA form and is a work in progress. It is 32bit clean and should run on both the A9 and the Iyonix, as well as on older 26bit machines.
Bouncers - Stuart Tyrrell
Bouncers is a great little game. It was originally published in Micro User, and was written and is offered for free distribution by the author with the kind permission of Qercus Magazine (who hold copyright of Micro User articles). The game is very simple, guide the ball around the screens. You only have control over the ball's spin and its bounce, so you can only control the ball when it hits the ground, not when it's in the air, so be careful!
Controls
Z - Spin lef
Z - Spin righ
Return - Jum
I've just spent 20 minutes playing this when I should have been writing, which I think says a lot. This may be old, indeed very old, but it is a "goody".
Islands - Chris Wraight
Islands is a game of strategy and global domination for Acorn-compatible computers based on the popular board game Risk. Play takes place between up to six players, any number of which can be controlled by the computer. A variety of different maps can be used, and a level designer exists to define new ones (not uploaded yet - coming soon). Sound effects, computer strength levels and bonus cards are optionally implemented. The application takes up around 900K of space, and runs on RISC OS 3.1 or later. A 256-colour or better display is recommended.
Islands is Freeware. If you find it useful, please get in touch with the authors to show your appreciation. They cannot guarantee to be able to respond to all support inquiries, but if you report bugs or suggest features they will try their best to address them. Note that you will need a copy of PlayIt installed before Islands will run.
Hex-a-Hop - Herbert Krammer
Finally here is yet another new RISC OS game, Hex-a-hop. This is an SDL game that has been ported, rather well if I may say so, to run on RISC OS. This will run a little slow on RiscPC class computers, but is fine on the A9Home and the Iyonix (and VirtualRPC - Ed). The object of the game is to destroy all the green tiles. As the game progresses different types of tiles start to appear which make things more difficult. Instructions are shown on screen before the game starts. Good luck!
There will be more from me in the next issue.
Paul Brett
ÿÿÿÿISSUE4/HUGHJ/INDEX.HTM Issue 4, The Hugh Jampton Experience
The Hugh Jampton Experience
It's the man who's still waiting for Select4...no, not Druck...it's...Hugh...Jampton!
Thanks for taking the time to read the Hugh Jampton column. If you have arrived here by accident then tough luck. I have locked your browser so you will have to read my inane ramblings before your computer will be released! Ha...ha...etc. So let's start our first round of Chinese water torture with our beloved (are you sure about that - ED) caption competition.
The caption competition
As you will no doubt recall, in the last issue I published this and asked for your proposed captions. After the veritable torrent of one entry flooded in we have a massive no change:
So, who has nothing better to do?....
"Is this not a dog biscuit then?"
Vic Newman
"As soon as I work out how to get free of this ******* fancy-dress outfit I'll be able to eat properly but until then.........."
Vic Newman
"Couldn't you please make the stools taller"
Vic Newman
"As soon as I've been to the osteopath to get this neck sorted I'll be better at this."
Vic Newman
So congratulations to Vic for his efforts and a big smack round the chops to everyone else who couldn't be bothered. I don't know, I work my fingers down to the bone for you lot and you can't even manage a simple e-mail that saves me having to write a couple of sentences myself. You should be thoroughly ashamed of yourselves, I know I am.
Hugh's time travel competition
Before we leave the wonderful world of captions it's yet again time for Hugh's time travel competition. Here users send in entries for old competitions under the vague excuse that I never got the e-mails. Huh, as if...
Anyway a couple of issues ago we published this:
Lo and behold it's Vic Newman again, with...
"Media interest has been sparked by a rumour that a descendant of Monsieur Guillotine is working on the seating design for a well know car firm."
"The RSPCA has distanced itself from a new publication about how to safely restrain your pet while driving."
"If they were MY back legs, would I be looking this worried.....?"
"Fido is so eager to go for rides, it's difficult to stop him leaping headlong into the boot as soon as I open it."
This time I wasn't confused at all as I half expected this to occur, so would anyone fancy doing a new caption for the picture in Volume 4 Issue 3? I havn't bothered seeing what the picture in that issue is myself, but I am sure you can check for yourselves.
Anyway, let's have this issue's picture...
As usual send your filthy spam to hughj@riscworld.co.uk, don't forget to set the message title as something about Viagra to guarantee that I will read it. (that was a joke, I think. - ED).
Hugh's picture gallery
After my comment about EEC female parking spaces in the last issue I was sent this...
For our older readers here is a replaceent cut out and keep speedo for your car...
Can someone please write their own Mrs Slocombe gag...
And here is something for the Blue Peter generation...
Reports that the budget for vehicle clamps have been reduced have been hotly denied...
That's it, can someone please put the cat out......(why, is it on fire? - ED)
Matt Thompson with the latest news for Iyonix owners.
RISC OS 5.12
First up this month is the all important new ROM release. As promised by Castle, RISC OS 5.12 has now appeared. This new upgrade is, as expected, chargeable and will set you back £69 if you wish to upgrade. This is the version of RISC OS 5 which is now shipped with new Iyonix computers.
This is the first time there has been a charge for a ROM upgrade and this new release will form the base for all future ROM upgrades. These are expected to be free, but will not work with any other versions of RISC OS 5 except for 5.12 and there will be no more free upgrades for earlier versions.
The new ROM upgrade can be downloaded from www.iyonix.com and is available to buy now.
New features include support for a wider range of nVidia graphics processors and USB2 has now been moved into ROM. There are also a number of other improvements. Unfortunately at the time of writing these seem to be unknown, although I'm sure a list of changes will appear at some point.
When you upgrade to RISC OS 5.12 you can also, if you wish, upgrade to the nVidia FX5200 graphics card at the same time. The cost for the card and the upgrade is £139.00 - the quoted prices include VAT but not delivery (if relevant)
I have now upgraded my Iyonix to RISC OS 5.12 and I am pleased to say that by putting USB2 into ROM it has indeed improved the boot up time. It is much quicker and the delays that were there before have now gone.
Long boot up times are one of my pet hates with computers, so anything that helps reduce this is very welcome and as you can imagine I am very pleased to see this improvement. Apart from that and the version number change I haven't seen anything else different yet, although I am sure there are plenty of behind the scenes changes.
For more details on the upgrade or to order contact
Iyonix Ltd
Tel: 0870 383 4543
Fax: 0870 705 8879
web: email: sales@iyonix.com
Overseas tel: +44 870 383 4543
It is excellent to see further development on RISC OS 5 - and with the appearance of RISC OS Open Ltd (see below) we will hopefully be seeing even more developments and new features in the future.
RISC OS Open Ltd (ROOL)
After much speculation and discussion about RISC OS being made open source it would appear that this project is now going ahead. RISC OS Open Ltd - or ROOL for short - issued a press release on 29th September detailing the company's plans for the future of RISC OS development. The press release can be read in full at
At the time of writing the RISC OS Open website is quite basic with just some information pages available. There are a number of links to different parts of the website which are all inactive at the moment and as things progress these will be activated. Once it goes live then parts of RISC OS 5 will be available to develop. This includes the Shared C library, disc based applications (Edit, Paint, System, Boot) and the configuration plugins.
Also on the list is the old Acorn web browser Browse. This could be very interesting as we still are without a really good web browser for RISC OS despite the excellent work from many people who have been addressing the problem. I have never used Browse myself but have read many comments from users who speak very highly of it.
I personally think that this open source project could be very good for RISC OS 5. We have a good stable base with RISC OS 5.12 and now it can be enhanced further by the many RISC OS programmers, developers and enthusiasts who have the skills and knowledge to improve it but have been unable to do so in the past. As many of the main developers and programmers all have Iyonixes we could be seeing some interesting enhancements to RISC OS 5.
RISC OS Open Ltd are looking to recruit people to help with this project so if anyone if interested in contributing then contact them at
For more information and details about the RISC OS open source project see their website at
Easiwriter and Techwriter
A free update to Easiwriter and TechWriter was released recently. This was a bug correcting release, which corrected a problem with conversion of special characters during Word document import.
The latest version is V8.64, and this is a free upgrade to V8.6x users. You can download the new version using your user and password codes, which would have been emailed to you when you upgraded. The link to the download area is in this email as well. Any problems contact Mike Glover at Icon Technology - mike@icontechnology.co.uk.
PDF
A new version of the RISC OS PDF file reader !PDF was released recently. The latest version is now V3.00 1.18, which fixed a few bugs and problems. Download the latest version of this very useful program from
Ebay Advisor
The second issue of the Ebay Advisor magazine is published on 2nd November. This is a magazine which covers all aspects of using Ebay and is non platform specific. If you use Ebay or are interested in finding out about it, then this magazine worth checking out.
Contact David Bradforth at david.bradforth@alligatagroup.co.uk for more information or buy a copy through
Talking of magazines, I am sure everyone will be aware that Qercus is now being published again, so check their website at
In addition to the re-appearance of Qercus I am pleased to say that a brand new RISC OS magazine has been launched. RISC OS NOW is the magazine and check out the website at
Ebay and Paypal
Following on my recent article showing how to use PayPal successfully on RISC OS browsers I have found an even easier way round it and this method should be used instead. I am using the latest Netsurf build at the time of writing which is 27th October 2006.
To pay for something bought on Ebay with PayPal simply log into your PayPal account. Make sure you are on the 'My Account' page, and then just above the table of recent activity you should see the following:
Click on 'Items Won' next to the Ebay logo and you will then go to the 'Send Money' page. Here you will see listed any items you have bought on Ebay which need to be paid for. Simply click on 'Pay' and the payment process will begin and within a couple of minutes you'll have paid for your item and will have the confirmation email delivered. Another RISC OS browser issue solved! If only the other problems could be fixed as easily!
Manic Miner
A bit of a RISC World exclusive here. After seeing the 32bit conversions of Chuckie Egg and the other BBC Micro games from Michael Foot I asked the conversion programmer, Alan Buckley, if he would be interested in making both Jet Set Willy and Manic Miner (two of my all time favourite games) 32bit compatible. He said he would have a try if the source code was available. Luckily the author of Manic Miner on RISC OS, Darren Salt, was able to provide this and after a number of months of hard work Alan managed to make Manic Miner run successfully on the Iyonix.
The game runs perfectly and you should encounter no problems at all. If you do please do let me know. However, there is one slight glitch in this program and you will only notice it when you quit the application from the icon bar as the standard system beep gets changed from a beep to a horrible monotonous tone.
To see what I mean, before you load Manic Miner go into BASIC by pressing F12, then type BASIC (press Return) at the star prompt then VDU 7 (Return) you will hear the standard beep. Now run the game, quit it and when you return to the desktop, go back to BASIC in the same way and this time you will now hear the horrible tone instead!
Attempts to get this problem resolved have so far failed, but if anyone out there has the knowledge to fix this it would be excellent if this small glitch could be removed. The source code for Manic Miner is included in the same directory as the game, so if anyone does fix this sound glitch please let me know. A temporary fix is included in the directory of Manic Miner the file called 'ResetSnd' will put things back to normal. See the !Help file for more details.
Manic Miner is on this months CD so enjoy a welcome return to an 8bit classic. My thanks go to Alan Buckley for his time and effort for doing this conversion, and also to Darren Salt for converting the game to RISC OS and also providing the source code. If anyone can 32bit Jet Set Willy then that would be fantastic. Anyone fancy the job? (I can but hope!)
If you have any comments, hints & tips, corrections or anything Iyonix related then contact the Iyonix column at RISCWorld at
Matt Thompson
ÿÿÿÿISSUE4/JSW/INDEX.HTM Issue 4, Jet Set Willy
Jet Set Willy
Matt Thompson comes over all nostalgic...
What can you say about this game that hasn't been said already? Well not a lot really, but I am writing this as a tribute to my all time favourite game. I really have no idea why I like this game so much, but I remember seeing it way back in about 1985 on a friend's ZX Spectrum and that was it, I was hooked.
Back then I had an Acorn Electron and Jet Set Willy wasn't available for it until Tynesoft did the honours and converted it. It wasn't quite as good as the Spectrum version but it was still Jet Set Willy and now I could play it on my own machine. I upgraded to a BBC Micro a few years later which had a better version but after all these years and various machines the ZX Spectrum version for me is still the best.
Jet Set Willy was the sequel to the hugely popular Manic Miner. It was written by Matthew Smith and released in 1984 and it was a massive hit. Unfortunately the original release still contained some bugs and this meant that it was impossible to complete. However it is well known that the game was hacked by a few people in order to enable them to complete it, and Software Projects later released these 'pokes' officially so the game could be completed.
As a game Jet Set Willy was pretty basic. Guide the character around some screens collecting items and avoiding things that kill you. Not that original, but it was the way it was done that made it so good. The fact you could wander around all the screens at once, not have to collect all the items on one screen to get to the next. You could go anywhere at any time and have a different game each time, discovering the rooms until you found them all and then you could try to complete the game properly.
There is plenty of humour within the game with some obvious Monty Python influences (the big foot for one) and many rooms with strange names. Over the years since the game was released it has been been explained what they actually meant.
Due to the massive success of Jet Set Willy on the Spectrum it was inevitable that Software Projects, with some help from Tynesoft, would port the game to other home computer systems. Versions followed for the Amstrad, Commodore 64, Commodore 16, Commodore Plus4, BBC Micro, Acorn Electron, MSX, Atari 800 XL, and even the Dragon had a version. The VIC 20 missed out due to memory limitations, but VIC 20 owners did get an exclusive Miner Willy game called 'The Perils Of Willy' instead.
The background story to this version of the game was that Miner Willy, now a wealthy man after discovering some lost mine workings and then making his fortune (see Manic Miner) has bought himself a large house and thrown a big party which leaves his house in a bit of a mess. After the party all Willy can think about is crashing out in bed, but his housekeeper Maria will not let him into his room until he has cleared up all the mess.
There wasn't a great deal of difference between the many versions of Jet Set Willy. The C64 and Amstrad versions are, from what I have seen, pretty much the same, although it is noticeable in all the Commodore versions that the stairs actually look like stairs rather than lines (maybe this has something to do with the background story to JSW2?). The music is different from the Spectrum version, but apart from that it's pretty much identical. There may be different screens further into the game but I didn't get that far. One noticeable difference in the Amstrad version is the inclusion of a high score table, something which only appears in that version
I have never played the Dragon version so don't know what it is like, and as I don't have a Dragon emulator, I can't try it. However the screenshots on the JSW remakes website show that it ran in black and white and this version also had some exclusive rooms. One screenshot on the website shows 'The Guest Room'.
A version of Jet Set Willy appeared for the Atari 800 XL and from the description on the JSW remakes website it is the worst version, I have never played it so cannot say if it this is so, but it has to be said that the screenshots do not look good. There was also a version of JSW for the MSX. I have yet to see this version so cannot say what it is like, but would imagine it would be similar to of the others.
Another version of Jet Set Willy that was different was that for the Commodore 16. It looked like the Commodore 64 version but only had about 20 rooms due to lack of memory. It also lacked the toilet in 'The Bathroom' and Maria was not present in the 'Master Bedroom' which rather defeated the object of the game. However the pillow on the bed would kill you if you touched it and on collecting all the items if you return to the 'Master Bedroom' it would still be the same, and the pillow would still kill you. This isn't really a proper ending to the game, perhaps I missed something, but I don't think I did.
On the other side of the C16 tape of JSW was the C16 Plus 4 version. This was billed as an "Enhanced" version, though it didn't say of what, presumably they meant an enhanced version of the C16 version which is exactly what it was. It doesn't have all the rooms of the original Spectrum version but had more than the C16 version and had another exclusive room the 'Back Gate' where 'The Beach' would normally be. This version doesn't have the toilet or Maria either, but I never finished it so don't know what happens when you collect all the items.
The BBC Micro and Acorn Electron versions were the same except that the Electron version had monochrome rooms and no music. The BBC Micro version had the music and full colour screens, the room layout was the same as the Spectrum version and it was possible to complete this one.
Your Sinclair magazine famously published an April Fool in the form of a listing to allow you to find a 'hidden room' called 'April showers'. What the listing actually did was created that room and added it onto the JSW game. They ran a competition asking people to find the new room and the first person to tell Your Sinclair magazine where this room was located won a prize.
I managed to complete the BBC Micro version and if you collect all the items around the house, then upon returning to the 'Master Bedroom' Maria has now disappeared (if you don't want to know how the game ends look away now!). Walk up to the bed and walk through it. When Willy touches the pillow the computer will take over and guide him back across the top landing into the Bathroom where he will now stick his head into the toilet!
JET SET WILLY 2 - The Final Frontier
As with all games which are a success the sequel comes along and in 1985 Software Projects released Jet Set Willy 2, this time written by Derrick Rowson. Although the game sold well it was bit disappointing in that it was basically Jet Set Willy with extra rooms and the bugs of the original game removed.
The background story for this game is that Willy fell down some stairs and has had the builders in to remove the offending edges from the staircase (could these be the ones in the Commodore versions of JSW1?). While the builders were there they added many new rooms to the mansion and left a lot of mess all around the house. Needless to say Maria the housekeeper isn't happy about this, so as before Willy has to tidy up the mess before he can get into his bedroom.
The extra rooms make the challenge of completing the game even more difficult as there are now well over a hundred and some of them are not part of Willy's mansion. They include a rocket room, which takes you on a trip into space, and if you flick the switch in the new room 'Trip Switch' then make it back to 'The Yacht' without losing a life the yacht will sail away to 'The Deserted Isle'. There were rumours that this happened in the original Jet Set Willy if you let the game continue until a certain time but of course it didn't, so because of this it was incorporated into Jet Set Willy 2, where you can now sail to the deserted island in the yacht!
There were many myths and legends surrounding the original game including secret rooms, things that happened at certain points in the game, and others. None of them were true. I remember being told a few things that happened if you did certain things, these all turned out to be false as well.
Another interesting room is 'The Cartography Room'. This room can be found on the moon and it makes a basic map of all the rooms that you have visited during the game. Each room visited is represented by a block. If the block is red then it means there are items in that room to be collected, if the block is green then all the items in that room have been collected. The more blocks that appear the more rooms that have been visited. There is an item to be collected at the top of the screen, so in order to get it you need to have visited enough rooms so you can climb up the green blocks and collect the item. The following website
Jet Set Willy 2 was released on all the major 8 bit computers. On the C64 version you could walk through the toilet to discover some new rooms, and the bath in 'The Bathroom' is purple for some reason. The Spectrum version gameplay was the same as the first game, and the Amstrad version was pretty much the same as the Spectrum version except for different music and graphics variations. I'm not aware of any other new rooms, but that doesn't mean there aren't any.
The MSX had a version of Jet Set Willy 2 which I have yet to play but the screenshot on the JSW remakes website looks good and shows a room called 'The Maze' and the description of this version is 'Perfect' ! so I would imagine it is worth checking out.
Commodore 16 users fared much better with Jet Set Willy 2 and there were many more rooms this time. The game was split into 4 parts and you had to collect a certain number of items before you could move to the next part of the game. Perhaps they should have done this in the first place for Jet Set Willy and then the C16 version could have been the same as the C64?
The BBC/Electron tape version was strange, due to memory restrictions of 32K. Just about all of the Jet Set Willy rooms have been removed and about 95% of the Jet Set Willy 2 rooms remain, however there are a couple of rooms which I think only appear in this version. There is "The Fallout Shelter" which leads to the moon, and also "Ethel The Aardvark" which is another Monty Python reference. The enemies and the types of items collected are also different, plus when Willy goes to the moon he decides not to wear a spacesuit!
The BBC disc version featured all the rooms from Jet Set Willy and just about all the rooms from Jet Set Willy 2, although a few are missing. This was achieved by loading the game in stages. At various points during the game the disc drive would become active and then load the next part. The delay was minimal and didn't spoil the game at all, and was a good way of getting just about all the Jet Set Willy 2 rooms into 32K.
I have yet to complete Jet Set Willy 2 on any format, so haven't seen what happens when you do, although I guess that Maria will disappear and you have to touch the bed and he will then walk across to the toilet again. I have read that the Central Cavern from Manic Miner makes a reappearance!
In the late 1980s Software Projects commissioned versions of Jet Set Willy for the Amiga and Atari ST. Unfortunately neither were ever released, but the Atari ST version was finished and can be easily found on the internet. It works with fine with ST emulators. The ST version is a carbon copy of the original Spectrum version.
As for the Amiga version, I don't think it was ever finished and I have not found it when searching around on the internet. There are, however, plenty of Jet Set Willy games such as Jet Set Billy, Willys Weirdy Nightmare, Top Hat Willy also Jet Set Willy 2, and from the screenshots they look very good.
To get hold of all these versions of Jet Set Willy 1 and 2 the place you need to visit is
Although Jet Set Willy 2 was the last official release there have been many Jet Set Willy games created using a variety of game editors. They seem to have been mainly written for the Spectrum, and they should work without problems with any Spectrum emulator.
One of the first (if not the first) Jet Set Willy remakes was, 'Join The JetSet' and it was written by Richard Hallas.
This is a very good game. It keeps the feel of the original Jet Set Willy games unlike some of the remakes which are for advanced players. It is easy to get into, and on his website the author tells the story about how this game came about and the other Jet Set Willy remakes he made. The website is at
ZX-Heroes - this Jet Set Willy game pays tribute to many of the ZX Spectrum platform games, in which each room is from a ZX Spectrum game. The gameplay is the standard Jet Set Willy, and games featured include Chuckie Egg 2, Bubble Bobble, Henrys Hoard, Dizzy to name but a few. This can be downloaded from the World Of Spectrum website.
Another remake is 'Maria VS Some Bastards'. In this game you take on the role of Maria, who has to rescue Willy after he has been kidnapped. This game shows what can be created with game editors as the gameplay is different from normal. For example, Maria can fall without dying, some enemies can be touched without dying, some can't. The graphics are very impressive and to think they all run on a ZX Spectrum as well.
A very good resource for Jet Set Willy games is www.geocities.com/andrewbroad/spectrum/willy. The author, Andrew Broad, has created a number of Jet Set Willy and Manic Miner games, some of which are based around a theme, such as Lord of the Rings and a Neighbours themed Manic Miner remake! A collection of new Jet Set Willy/Manic Miner games were released together called 'Party Willy'. Included is a new Jet Set Willy adventure called Party Willy, and also the original Jet Set Willy game totally mirrored so the whole game is round the other way. There is also Jet Set Willy in the Manic Miner gamestyle, meaning that you have to collect all the objects before you can get out of the screen, and also Manic Miner in Jet Set Willy gamestyle, where you can wander through all the Manic Miner screens without having to collect the items first. This collection is well worth a look as is the website, as there are a number of game editors and utilities available, plus previews of many other forthcoming games.
These are many other Spectrum Jet Set Willy games, too many to mention here, but they can be found at World of Spectrum
In addition to the Spectrum Jet Set Willy games there have been many remakes of Jet Set Willy on other machines, such as the Amiga remakes mentioned earlier. There are other Jet Set Willy remakes on the PC such as Jet Set Willy - Trash Of The Universe, and Jet Set Willy - The Need For Sleep. These can can be found on the internet.
There are also PC versions of both Jet Set Willy and Jet Set Willy 2. The gameplay is identical to the Spectrum versions but they have much improved graphics which look really good and there is a choice of different tunes. Check
There is even a version available for mobile phones, but it would be really good to see a brand new version with the original rooms and lots of new ones, plus enhanced graphics and music, perhaps as a 3D or 2D platformer. Maybe it will happen, maybe it won't, but there will almost certainly be many more remakes.
Another Jet Set Willy remake was for Acorn RISC OS machines. It includes both Jet Set Willy 1 and 2 and has excellent high resolution graphics. It is very playable and highly recommended. There are some good touches, for example as well as Willy wearing a spacesuit on the moon he also puts on his coat and gloves in the 'Cold Store'. Another good feature is that when you die you get about five second of invulnerability so you don't die again instantly.
There is also a very good multi-tasking editor to create games with, of which there are two included. My only criticism about this version is that the end of game 'foot squashing Miner Willy' sequence has been replaced with a simple 'Game Over'. That aside, this is an excellent remake of Jet Set Willy, and one of the best ones I've seen so far. If you use or have access to RISC OS then why not give this version a go? It can be downloaded from
There was the heavily rumoured third Jet Set Willy game which was known as 'Megatree and Willy meets the taxman'. The game did technically exist and has been recently uncovered in Issue 5 of Retro Gamer magazine. There was never much of it actually written, and that is probably how it will stay.
With all these new games and remakes going on twenty years after the first game was released it is a true testament to the greatness of the game. It is one of the all time classics and will probably continue to be played for the next twenty years and beyond. Who knows, one day I might even complete Jet Set Willy 2!
It's been on the treadmill, it's had physiotherapy and it's bound to feel better, so let's see what's in your letter...s
Phew, we have had one heck of a full postbag (by our standards) this issue, so lets see what's been pickling your onions over the last couple of months...
Dear Aaron,
I'm generally pleased with the magazine, but think the navigation could be improved.
When I choose a page from the index page, and then return using the index icon, I return to the top of the index page and have to scroll down to get to where I came from.
I suggest that the index links from indexed pages should return so that the index item you went to them from is at least on the returned index page, and preferably at the golden mean position about 2/3 up.
This could easily be achieved using fragment identifiers. I think you could make some assumptions about how readers view your pages - screen resolutions/window sizes - and even if you got it wrong, it couldn't be worse than the present situation.
On a separate tack, thanks for the 32-bit x-files - very useful to me for accessing old CD-archived material on the Iyonix.
Having bothered to do that, why can't you do a 32-bit ZipEE. The only really non-32-bit thing about it is that it's been absoluted with a 26-bit header provided by an old AppBasic version - the zip and unzip apps are available 32-bitted already.
It would be dead easy to sort out given a bit of motivation!
Best wishes,
John Williams
Thanks for your letter. Dealing with your points in sequence. The links on each page directly reference the relevant page, so, as you have found out this will always load the new page with the view at the top. I think this is the correct behaviour. Lets say that you start at the main index page, then click on the link that takes you to my editorial and then you start reading the editorial. Half way down you decide to go back to the main index. At this point you have two choices. First you could use the "back" button on your browser. Lets assume you do that. This send you back to the main index. You then decide to continue reading the editorial. You now click on the "forward" button, and a well behaved browser will take you back to where you were on the editorial page. This is I think what you want.
Doing this in the HTML itself could be far from trivial, for a number of reasons. Firstly, as you say, we would need to make an assumption about how things are read. This would be a big mistake, you can never make such an assumption. Secondly you suggest that somehow the page should "rememberquot; where it was. We could do this so each article send you back to the main index at point n (where point n is the link to the page you were just looking at). That wouldn't be too bad, but, and this is why it isn't going to be done, someone has to do it. If someone has to do it, and lets face it that would be me, then that's going to take more time/money from the editorial budget. I would rather spend the money on another article, or on research for articles. Time isn't free, which brings me on the comment about !Zipee.
The 32 bit X-Files was done for our own use. We needed it, it didn't exist, so we did it. !Zipee is a great program, and it's hidden in the resources for each issue. However there are 3 2bit Zip applications around. !Zipee is indeed simply "hidden" inside a wrapper, so, why not do it yourself? It's quite easy to extract the BASIC from inside. Dump the wrapper and away you go. Mind you don't forget to get the author's consent before distributing it...
Our article about open sourcing RISC OS generated a number of comments...
Aaron,
Your article on the recent announcement about the open-sourcing of RISC OS was, to say the least of it, fascinating.
So, let's see if I can work out what it is I own. That would seem to be three licences, no, I forgot, sorry, four licences to use: (a) the set of Risc OS 2 ROMs that came out of the A3000; (b) the set of Risc OS 3.1 ROMs that are still in the A3000 (but currently unused because it's 9,500 km away from here); (c) the set of Risc OS 3.60 ROMs that came out of the RiscPC; (d) the set of Risc OS 4.39 ROMs currently installed in the Risc PC.
That's the easy part. What is less easy is to identify the licensors and their rights. I definitely hold (a) and (b) from Acorn Computers Ltd. and their successors and assigns. In the case of (c), the machine was bought second-hand, so I suppose I inherited the original licensee's right to use, itself derived from Acorn Computers Ltd. (something Microsoft are working on scotching in the case of their infamous product, which will thereby become even more infamous). I hold my licence to use (d) from RISCOS Ltd., so, like (a) and (b), that is, from my point of view, clean.
What it seems from your article is highly uncertain is precisely what the respective rights of Acorn Computers Ltd., Pace, Castle Technology and RISCOS Ltd. are to any or all of the products they have been licensing to people. I was aware, due to the large volumes of vitriol I have observed flowing under bridges, that the rights of RISCOS Ltd are somewhat uncertain, at least in some areas.
What I was not aware of is that the rights of Acorn Computers Ltd. and their successors and assignees are also somewhat uncertain.
What a mess!
One thing is clear. It doesn't matter what various people may or may not think and say about open-sourcing RISC OS before such time as the ownership of the product is made clear. Until that is done, no-one really knows where they stand, so no-one can plan anything with any certainty, be it commercial moves or otherwise. Now I think I understand what it is that has been bugging this platform and putting brakes on various attempts to develop it.
All I can say is that if the RISC OS platform is to survive, one prerequisite is for someone, somehow to sort out this unholy mess, difficult as it seems that may be to do.
A pile of badly-written junk it may be (evidenced by the recent discovery of well known bugs still lurking inside Vista, unfixed), but Windows does have one huge advantage over the RISC OS world: Microsoft does at least have ownership of its product.
Regards
Michael Poole
Thanks for the letter. Firstly with regard to your copies of RISC OS. As you say, you don't actually own any of them, you have a licence to use them. That licence is conditional on you obeying the terms. If you break the terms, you lose the licence. Your sets of RISC OS 2 and RISC OS 3 ROMS were licenced to you by Acorn. You may own the physical ROM, because tou paid for them, but the use of them is subject to a licence. The second hand machine is still licenced from Acorn as it contains an Acorn version of RISC OS. RISC OS 4.39 is licenced to you by RISCOS Ltd. All these ROMS are for use in an "Acorn" machine. Provided all you do is use them in an Acorn computer then you are within the terms of the licence. You can sell them on to a third party, and pass the licence on, provided you do not keep a copy.
To clarify a point, and it is a point I will keep emphasising, RISCOS Ltd's licence is 100% solid. There is no uncertainty when one has all the paperwork. RISCOS Ltd has full rights to use/develop/sell/whatever RISC OS except for a couple of very minor exclusions. I won't discuss these exclusions as the whole thing is covered by multiple NDAs (Non Disclosure Agreements). My advice, if you see anyone claiming to know what ROLs licence allows and doesn't allow, is to ask if they have a copy, along with the side letters. If the person doesn't, then they are talking out of their hat (arse - HJ).
As you may have noticed, despite a big announcement in September, not one jot of source code has been released by RISCOS Open Ltd. I shall leave you to ruminate on to why this is. In order to assist this I will suggest some purely speculative reasons that might be worth considering.
Those involved in RISCOS Open Ltd are too busy at present to sort things out
Castle haven't yet provided the sources to RISCOS Open Ltd
RISCOS Open Ltd didn't have the sources at the time of the announcement, but now they have seen them they can't be made available due to licensing problems
Or...perhaps they daren't open source it, because they know they don't have the right to
The whole thing may sound like a bit of mess, but in reality it's fairly clear cut. None of these problems effect RISCOS Ltd. With regard to ownership, actually Microsoft doesn't own all of Windows, some of it is licenced from third parties in just the same way that RISCOS Ltd licence some components from third parties.
Finally, with this issue the letters page has been back for a checkup with it's consultant, Dr Vince Hudd...
Hi Aaron,
I was just reading the letters... sorry, why's that plural? I was just reading the letter page in the latest issue, and couldn't help but notice Hugh's comment about the space filling waffle, which jogged a distant memory.
Wasn't there an episode of Star Trek about some kind of space filling waffle, which just kept on growing and growing?
I notice that in his article entitled "Establish an online presence for your business" David Bradforth, while mentioning a number of RISC OS packages, managed to miss out what (in my totally biased opinion) must surely be the best tool RISC OS has when it comes to website design and maintenance: WebChange.
The program is a commercial package, but while work progresses (unfortunately slowly) on a complete rewrite, the last 26-bit release is available to download from www.webchange.co.uk with no obligation to purchase - though purchasing brings with it a free upgrade to the new version, when it is eventually released.
Whereas many programs provide exactly what it says on the tin, and some provide a lot less than that, it has often been said of WebChange (by me, obviously, but people often nod their heads in agreement, though I suspect that's just to humour me in the hope I'll then shut up) that it does a lot more than it says on the tin - or would, if it actually came in a tin. This is mainly because I've added features to it over the years and forgot to document them, and only remember when people ask "can it be made to do whatever".
Some of the main facilities provided by the program include search and replace of all text/html files in a directory tree (including conditionally), concatenation of files, insertion of datestamps, file sizes and other files (to create a pseudo SSI facility for those whose hosts don't actually provide SSI facilities), case conversion of html tags, file renaming and case conversion, and much more besides.
The main thinking behind the software and, therefore, it's primary purpose, is to simplify the process of making what would otherwise be repetitive changes to a website - and to that end, the majority of the program's facilities (including many not covered by the front-end) are available via its script language.
One regular user of the software, who happens to be me (well, I'm the only person I can contact at this moment in time - I'm not online where I'm typing this) says of WebChange "It's the dog's danglies, mate!"
...and a little while later... and, yes, I've read the entire issue. Now doesn't that just take the biscuit? (Which could almost be an entry to the caption competition, if it wasn't for the fact it isn't the least bit funny!)
Cheers
VinceH
Starting from the end. Actually you should have sent that caption in, that would have doubled Hugh's entries. Now lets start again at the beginning. I think the plural of Letter is Letters, although we don't often have the problem at RISCWorld HQ. There were a couple of StarTrek TOS (The Original Series) episodes that features big space filling thingies' Indeed Star Trek actually won awards for the special effects (stop laughing at the back). I would go and check through the original series box sets, if I could be bothered to go downstairs, but then I might not come back up again and the letters page would just...
Sorry, went downstairs, made a coffee, fed the dogs, and did some faffing about, but I am back now. I'm sorry we neglected to mention WebChange2, we really should have done as it is, hold on, what did your e-mail say? Ah yes, it is an excellent package and well worth the miserly registration fee. Why don't we have a special RISCWorld version so people can try it out? You've done it? It's in the software directory already? Blimey that was quick.
Being serious for a moment, it is a very useful program and we genuinely do have a special version for RISCWorld readers to try out in the software directory on this issue.
Anyway that's all for this issue's letters page. If your letter hasn't been published, don't worry. I will have kept it for next issue so it looks like people write to us on a regular basis.
Aaron Timbrell
ÿÿÿÿISSUE4/MAGAZINES/INDEX.HTM Issue 4, Magazines for the Acorn user
Magazines for the Acorn user
David Bradforth takes a look at the current magazines available for the Acorn user. He's rather pleased with what he discovers.
If you were to take a time machine back to 1992, the magazine scene for Acorn users was full of activity. For those wandering around W.H.Smiths there was a choice of Acorn User, Acorn Computing and Archimedes World. Acorn User was the more serious title, with practical programming material in each issue; Acorn Computing was stronger in education and Archimedes World was renowned for its detailed games content.
For those interested in a subscription magazine, RISC User and Archive both offered their respective specialties. RISC User was essentially a newsstand magazine offered exclusively on subscription, using professional writers for its content, whereas Archive was written by enthusiasts for enthusiasts but with a professional editor.
Over the course of time we've lost the majority of these titles. However as the market has changed there have been a number of new releases along the way. Here we're bringing together details of the current magazine scene in printed form. The electronic magazines (RISC World and Foundation RISC User) will form an article in the next issue.
Qercus (www.qercus.com)
Back in December 2003, a newsgroup posting from Steve Turnbull of Tau Press and John Cartmell of Finnybank announced that Acorn User (as launched by Acorn in 1982) and Acorn Publisher (launched by Mike Williams in 1996) were to be merged into one title bringing together many different aspects of the RISC OS market.
At the time there was a lot of speculation as to how well this could work. For many years Acorn User had been a general interest RISC OS title but had suffered as a result of lack of investment from its publishers, whereas Acorn Publisher had long been dedicated to desktop publishing and web design using RISC OS computers.
Since then, the content hasn't been bad - it's a good mixture of elements from both Acorn Publisher and the better times of Acorn User, including tutorials from the likes of David Cowell, games articles exploring in somewhat more detail than before the origins of RISC OS and Acorn games and a selection of programming content.
Cover for the upcoming issue 278 of Qercus - highlights include an article by Peter Kilworth on the origins of Interactive Fiction. Peter Kilworth wrote Countdown to Doom for Acornsoft many years ago and this is still entertaining over twenty years later.
In the future it's promised that a selection of content from past issues of Acorn User, Archimedes World and Acorn Computing will be integrated into Qercus in a somewhat updated form. Given the huge library of content available, with the right selections this could make for interesting reading.
It's fair to say that Qercus has had its bad times as well as good - until September, there had not been a magazine published this year. Given that many believed the magazine would no longer be published it's pleasing to see otherwise. I have an involvement in the physical print management of the title and can say with confidence I'm pleased at what I'm seeing.
The current issue, 277, includes:
A creative imaging tutorial on vector imager
A guide through Computer Aided Desig
Programming tutorials on Lua, AppBasic and BBC Basi
An introduction to the secrets behind eBa
The history of type, covering the typefaces of Eric Gil
A practical EasiWriter tutoria
and mor
You can get the current copy of Qercus from Finnybank by phoning 0161 969 9820 or your newsagent can order it from their local distributor. If you need to quote it, the ISSN number is 1472-7894. It's still £4.20 (the same price Acorn User had since 1999).
RISC OS Now (www.riscosnow.com)
While there have been many publications launched over the years, it's fair to say that in the last two years there have been none that have achieved a regular production schedule. When Louie Smith, whose first introduction to the RISC OS world occured at the Southeast Show last year, announced her intention to launch a new RISC OS magazine there was a mixed reception. The post, released Friday July 28th, reads as follows:
My name is Louie Smith and I am going to launch a new bimonthly RISC OS programmers' and users' magazine; "RISC OS Now; For Users and Programmers". I am aiming the magazine at the existing user and programmer group but also with the aim of attracting new users.
I'm looking for anyone able to write articles and reviews aimed at experts and beginners alike. I am interested in articles about existing software and new releases. Also, if anyone is interested in writing a regular column please contact me.
As well as there being regular articles, news and reviews, there will also be competitions. The most important of these being an artwork competition for the front cover. The magazine will be A4 portrait. So get creative and submit artwork in either the form of drawings created on RISCOS Software, or photographs. A £20 prize will be issued for use of artwork in the magazine.
There will also be advertising space for companies associated with the RISC OS world. For a price list please email me directly. I'm also going to include a classified section for people who are wanting to sell second hand computer (RISC OS) equipment or make general announcements.
The cynics had their doubts that the magazine would appear, but at the Southeast Show it did just that. Ten minutes before the opening of the show, Louie walked in with the stand and magazines having picked them up on the morning of the show. The magazine had suffered a number of production difficulties, notably with the front cover photograph being monochrome instead of colour, but the stated aim had been achieved - a new magazine had been launched from scratch in two months flat.
The cover of RISC OS Now: how it should have appeared in print... Jack Lillingston unfortunately became monochrome in the printing process.
To work through the magazine, features in issue one include:
ArtWorks Tutorial, by Richard Ashberry. Richard is a professional graphic designer and uses ArtWorks for a good portion of his work so it will be interesting to see how this article develops over the coming issues. It starts by working through the basics of ArtWorks
Outside-In, from Louie, is intended to take a look at things from the world outside of the RISC OS market. In this first issue, that's a review of Last Train to Memphis by Peter Gularnick, and Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Mans Chest (coming to DVD shortly). It's an interesting concept, one that has been tried before, but my personal opinion is that the space may be better used for other RISC OS relevant content
Games Now, by Sion Clever, essentially brings the games market up to date for those picking up a RISC OS magazine for the first time. It includes details of commercial and public domain releases (including my own Desktop Repton product), and provides a good opportunity for those looking to take a look at games on their RISC OS desktop. The cheats, at the end of the article, could perhaps benefit from being a little larger - having a practical guide to the likes of Heroes of Might and Magic would perhaps address a need that the RISC OS community has, colourful guides to RISC OS games in printed form
In the Diary of a Newbie, Mike Carter shares his experiences as a new user of RISC OS. It's interesting to read through, and provides guidance on where to buy a second hand or new computer plus where to get support through those initial complications
In the Basic BASIC article, a first introduction to BASIC programming is provided. Having read through the listings, it's clear that the programming offered would work just as easily on the BBC Micro which is probably a good thing. BBC Basic has been copied but never bettered elsewhere in the big wide world
The Directory page lists a selection of companies active within the RISC OS world. There are some missing - notably Liquid Silicon - but it's certainly a starting point. I'd like to see this expanded to include details of the current RISC OS user groups, perhaps to promote an active interest in goings on at a local basis
The relevance of programming, by Gavin Wraith, attempts to show the relationship and relevance of lanugage in computer programming. Reading throught the piece it was a little hard to follow, but it essentially explores the relationship between what you, as a programmer, key into the computer and how the computer understands it
Jack Lillingston is interviewed by Louie, covering the origins of Castle Technology and how he envisages the market developing
How it Works, by Paul Vigay, explores how number bases work and how to count in hexidecimal
There are printing errors throughout the magazine that do make some of the articles a little hard to read, but what we have here is a good first issue which shows very well the intention of the title and how Louie hopes to develop it in the future. We do wish her all the best of luck with it. A single issue is £4.20 whereas a UK subscription is £29.99. The website contains details on how to pay.. unfortunately the address to which payment was sent was missed from the payment slip within the first issue.
Louie is hoping to have RISC OS Now available through W.H.Smiths, so we'll keep you updated.
Archive (www.archivemag.co.uk)
For any computer magazine to be running for twenty years is nothing short of amazing, but to have had one editor at the helm since the day of its launch shows nothing short of dedication. Archive was launched in 1987, at the same time as the first Archimedes computer, as a practical user group for those new to RISC OS.
Since that time it's always relied on a selection of material from its readers (and hence audience) and the editor. This has the advantage of drawing upon the knowledge different individuals have of their respective markets, and because none of the contributors are paid for their work there's a quite amazing passion behind it.
At the start of its twentieth volume the magazine had a minor redesign to bring the contents page onto the front cover which certainly adds emphasis to the contents within. A number of items have been shuffled around but this is still a highly practical magazine covering everything from the Internet to Ovation Pro and more besides.
Certainly recommended for those looking to cover some of the more complicated programming elements of RISC OS. With such a dedicated audience there's a little more space available for things that may not suit a magazine with a broader readership aim.
A subscription to Archive is £45, with an annually updated CD-ROM available containing every article from every volume of Archive to date at £19. It's always updated at the start of a new volume, so the current edition contains everything up to the end of volume 19. Some of the multimedia materials will not work on current machines, but it certainly provides an interesting historical archive.
Eureka (www.armclub.org.uk)
The ARM Club's magazine Eureka brings our roundup of printed media to a conclusion. Published quarterly, it's sent out to ARM Club members and, as with Archive, relies on a mixture of press releases and contributions from readers and members alike. It's got a usergroup feel to it, being mainly monochrome but with the occasional colour section, but as with many other aspects of this market shows a real passion for the platform.
You get it with an annual subscription to The ARM Club - £15 UK, £19 EU or £22 international. The ARM Club do have a healthy library of software available at a discount to members, and the enthuasism they have is evident in their many appearances at RISC OS shows.
David Bradforth
ÿÿÿÿISSUE4/PD/INDEX.HTM Issue 4, PD World
PD World
Paul Brett with the latest freeware and PD releases for RISC OS.
I am afraid to say that both my columns for this issue of RISCWorld will be shorter than usual. This isn't due to any lack of software releases on the part of RISC OS developers, but merely reflects an increased workload of late. So let us once again dive head first into the stream of software development.
CashBook - Steve Fryatt
CashBook is a home accounts application. Originally written for Steve's own use four years ago, it has been gathering dust on his hard disc ever since as he did not wish to release it in direct competition to any commercial titles. In its present (beta) form, CashBook is capable of keeping track of income and expenditure across multiple accounts. Analysis headings allow income and expenditure to be grouped and analysed. It has the following
features:
Support for multiple accounts and analysis headings, limited only by the available memory.
Real-time statement views are available for all accounts and analysis headings, making it much easier to track receipts and payments.
All transactions can be reconciled against bank statements, either from the main transaction list or by using the appropriate statement view.
Budgeting can be carried out using the analysis headings, and can be restricted to any time window required.
Accounts, incoming and outgoing analysis headings are viewed in three single lists, and can be grouped together to provide summaries of related categories.
Support for unlimited repeating transactions (standing orders, direct debits and regular payments or receipts). A look-ahead facility allows the effect of regular payments and post-dated transactions to be seen quickly.
Integral report system, allowing data to be analysed and viewed on screen, printed out or exported to spreadsheets, graphing packages or wordprocessors for further manipulation.
Support for multiple files to be edited at once.
Can import transaction data from Personal Accounts, initialising the necessary accounts and analysis headings in the process. Full instructions are given in the documentation
CashBook
CashBook is freeware; more details can be found at
CSVAmp - Ray Favre
CSVamp is a freeware application allowing users to produce new, modified CSV/TSV files from existing CSV/TSV files. Some of the many things that can be done include:
Re-order fields.
Extract fields.
Add additional fields
Split any field in two (in different ways)
Sort on any field (with options to report duplicates and/or to retain but ignore 1st record).
Concatenate fields, with or without intervening added text.
Add text before and/or after any field.
Extract selected records.
Change field separator i.e. comma or Tab
Change record terminator i.e. LF, CR, LF+CR or CR+LF
The CSVamp main window
Apart from the text-only !Help file in the application, there is also a 'proper' Manual available in Impression, Ovation Pro and HTML formats. Copies of the manual in all these formats is included in the PD directory in this issue.
Form Filler - Kevin Wells
A RISCWorld favourite over the years, Form Filler has recently had an update. The program has one simple purpose, it can fill in data fields in forms quickly. You can program Form Filler with data or phrases that you use on a regular basis. Then if you need to fill in these details in a Web based form, for example your address, you can do so with one click of the mouse.
FormFiller
Form Filler comes set up with some examples. These can easily be removed so that you can add your own phrases. If the default 10 buttons aren't enough the pressing the MENU button anywhere in the main window will bring up a menu where you can have up to 10 sets of forms. Clicking on one of those forms will bring up that form, named form 01 to form 10. Form editing is done from the Iconbar menu.
IPWhoIs - Kevin Wells
Have you ever wondered who owns an IP address, or a website? IpWhoIs can tell you. In order to use it all you have to do is type in a domain name or an IP address, then either hit the Return key on your keyboard or click on the OK button. IPWhoIS will then launch a browser to the
IPWhoIs
It's very simple to use, but can also be very useful.
KeyStroke - Quantum Software
Keystroke is a program which has the ability to make other desktop programs perform their functions in a repeatable sequence set up by yourself. You can make these sequences quickly and easily and store them for later use.
This 'macro-maker’ type program is unique in the world of RISC OS computers and offers you the chance to customise any number of functions into one key press. If you think of some of the repetitive tasks you have had to do in the past, Keystroke will wipe these away forever!
Keystroke can be set up to perform various sequences of mouse SELECT, ADJUST or MENU clicks, menu selections, inserting text, moving windows and the mouse pointer. It can also run external library functions which greatly increase its power over other programs. Keystroke allows these sequences to be repeated by one of three methods.
By running a small file in a Filer directory which tells Keystroke which sequence to perform. A number of these files could be stuck on the Pinboard or in a provided ‘Button bar’ type application, so that by clicking on these files with the mouse the sequence will be performed. This allows the exciting possibility of creating your own tool box for any application
A time delay may be set so that the sequence can be performed every XX minutes. This, for example, allows Keystroke to add an autosave facility to an application which does not have one
A key combination which when pressed performs the sequence. Virtually any key combination on the keyboard may be set up. You can even include the mouse buttons
KeyStroke
As an alternative way of using Keystroke, it can also play back these sequences at a greatly reduced speed so that you can in fact make a demonstration of another application as a teaching aid!
KeyStroke was a full commercial application, however with the closure of Quantum software it has now been released as FreeWare. You can get more details, as well as a number of support items, from the
Signing off
The next issue of RISCWorld will hopefully contain a very exciting annoucement. As they say, stay tuned.
Paul Brett
ÿÿÿÿISSUE4/SDL/INDEX.HTM Issue 4, SDL for RISC OS
SDL for RISC OS
Neil White
Please note that before trying to compile any examples you will need the Castle 32bit SharedCLibrary installed on your computer.
Well, after failing badly to set up a cross compiler and then much bugging of Mr Alan Buckley, I now have a set of up to date (though now probably out of date) SDL Libraries for RISC OS. Many thanks to Alan.
With this bi-months episode is the gcc c compiler, tools and utilities version 3.46, a version of UnixLib, SDL, SDL_mixer, SDL_image, SDL_gfx and others, all of which are subject to their licences. The code for the xpm and png routines has been cunningly crammed into this months example. First please read the disclaimer in article 1 of this series.
Looking in the makefile you will see that the method for identifying the libraries has changed from the first example. Looking in the !SDL help file will tell you what you might want to know about how to use it.
SDL_gfxPrimitives
If you have used any of the BASIC plotting routines you should easily be able to learn how to use the gfx primitives library. The library consists of a number of functions to draw various shapes using either a numbered colour or using RGB and Alpha. Antialiasing is is also supported in some functions but may not be very efficient. Browsing through SDL_gfxPrimitives.h will tell you the full list of available functions but few of the more interesting ones are as follows.
Note that all ___Color routines expect the colour to be in format 0xRRGGBBAA which is a hex number from 00 to FF for each channel.
Pixel
PixelColor ( surface , x , y , colour )
pixelRGBA( surface , x , y , r , g , b , a )
Horizontal line
hlineRGBA ( surface , start x , end x , y , r , b , a )
Vertical line
vlineColor( surface , x , start y , end y , color )
Line
lineColor( surface , start x , start y , end x , end y , color )
Shapes such as rectangles, pies and polygons are also supported in a similar fashion. In the code example I have included a few as a test screen for you to play around with. I encourage you to try changing a few of the variables or adding a few different shapes listed in SDL_gfxPrimitives.h and recompiling the code to see the results.
SDL_rotozoom
Well, from what I can gather from the supplied example and the limited documentation of the rotozoom library (read the disclaimer again) the rotozoom function will create a new surface of the correct size for the image and blit the image into that. It is probably best to create any rotated surfaces you want to use before you use them rather that do it on the fly as this will eat up cpu time.
Rotates and zooms a 32bit or 8bit surface to newly created surface. 'angle' is the rotation in degrees. 'zoom' a scaling factor. If 'smooth' is 1 then the destination 32bit surface is anti-aliased. If the surface is not 8bit or 32bit RGBA/ABGR it will be converted into a 32bit RGBA format on the fly.
Rotates and zooms a 32bit or 8bit surface to newly created surface. 'angle' is the rotation in degrees. 'zoomx' and 'zoomy' are scaling factors that can also be negative. In this case the corresponding axis is flipped. If 'smooth' is 1 then the destination 32bit surface is anti-aliased. If the surface is not 8bit or 32bit RGBA/ABGR it will be converted into a 32bit RGBA format on the fly.
Note: Flipping currently only works with antialiasing turned off.
zoomSurface ( surface , zoomx , zoomy , smooth );
Zooms a 32bit or 8bit surface to newly created surface. 'zoomx' and 'zoomy' are scaling factors for width and height. If 'smooth' is 1 then the destination 32bit surface is anti-aliased. If the surface is not 8bit or 32bit RGBA/ABGR it will be converted into a 32bit RGBA format on the fly.
The example I have supplied uses some slightly chopped up code from the test programs in the roto zoom source folder. Again, try changing a few of the numbers, all the best programs are created by simply banging the keyboard randomly.
The rotate picture function in the example accepts 5 variables, the destination surface, the surface to rotate, and a number to tell it to rotate, a number to tell it to use smooting or not. Changing these will result in a different effect on the RISC World logo when you recompile. This function is self contained and does all the screen redrawing and rotating and blitting inside the function.
The next part of the code simply draws a selection of shapes available form the primitives part of the library, then waits for a second, redraws the screen and uses the checkkeys() function to intercept any quit commands.
Hopefully I will find some reason to use the SDL_gfx libraries in one of my games, which i'm sure if I ever finish any will be included in the software section of this magazine.
Neil White
ÿÿÿÿISSUE4/SESHOW/INDEX.HTM Issue 4, Southeast Show report
Southeast Show report
David Bradforth has managed to visit two shows this year. The first was the Wakefield show, the second the more recent Southeast Show. He shares his experience here.
I can remember the first time I visited an Acorn show. It was the BBC Acorn User show in 1992. It took place in Wembley Exhibition Centre and I was 14. It doesn't take much in the way of maths to work out from that I'm now 28, and have been a semi-occasional visitor to Acorn shows ever since. The scale of them has changed somewhat, but the community feel was present even in those early shows. It's something that I've missed with my day job of late and hence have tried to attend as many shows as I found myself able to.
This year my first show was The Wakefield Show. The second was the more recent Southeast Show organised by the Surrey and Sussex Acorn User Group and Fillin Limited. As I was attending in a variety of capacities, I needed to be there at the time the show opened, and having finished my day's at work at 2am. on the Friday night I saw little point in going to sleep.
At 5.30am, I walked out of the front door, off to the train station to make my journey down to Guildford. Now my sense of direction, even at a place I've been to before, is rather poor. On more than one occasion I've got lost in Wakefield, and this visit to Guildford was no different. Of course the second I started to try to find my way from the station to the show venue it began to rain. Ho hum.
When the show opened I found myself wandering between the floor and the theatre. The theatre talks are covered elsewhere so my focus is on the developments occuring around the show floor.
CJE Micro's / Advantage Six www.cjemicros.co.uk
As usual, CJE Micros had one of the biggest stands at the show. Offering a selection of software, some dating back to the early 1990s, plus various pieces of hardware (second hand RiscPCs, printers and such like). The highlight of the CJE Micro's stand was easily the A9home. Available for the first time in its public form the A9home boasts:
RISC OS Adjust 3
400MHz Samsung ARM9 processo
Graphics processo
128Mb SDRAM / 8Mb VRA
40GB hard dis
2-3 watts average internal power usag
Essentially the a( is a tiny box that would serve very well as a media centre when loaded with the appropriate software. With a starting price of £499 + VAT it hits the magic price point for new technology and for those worried that their applications may not be compatible there is a version of Spellings' Aemulor to assist.
Stuart Tyrell becomes camera shy, while John from CJE Micro's pretends the camera isn't there...
Stuart and Matt from Advantage Six were on hand to answer questions, and Matt did an impromptu Q and A in the theatre towards the end of the day. The first knowledge he had of being in the theatre was when paying and walking in the front door. By all accounts, he provided an interesting talk despite this so is to be commended.
APDL www.apdl.co.uk
Publishers of RISC World, APDL were on hand with their usual selection of software covering everything from The Fourth Dimension games through to up to date spreadsheet packages for RISC OS users. Two of the most popular products on the day included the new Excel capable version of Schema and the Iyonix compatible version of WimpBasic 2.
Dave Holden publicises the latest games releases
Shortly after the show the former webmaster of the WimpBasic resources site posted a query as to whether anybody would be interested in seeing the resource site brought back up. It's worth supporting as an active forum would provide a means for users to support each other in their programming hobby where a magazine would delay things.
Archive www.archivemag.co.uk
Paul Beverely, editor of Archive for the last twenty years, had the latest issues available at the show along with the usual selection of CD-ROMs and booklets. Over the last year, Paul has compiled a selection of booklets bringing together material from different issues of Archive and Living with Technology to cover a wide variety of topics. At £5 each, they represent superb value for money.
Paul Beverley assists a customer by renewing their subscription
While Living with Technology was sadly closed earlier this year. The back issues CD-ROM is still available through Paul and there's a chance that the Living with Technology magazine will be reborn through the website. Do support the moderator - the link is on the Living with Technology site at www.livtech.co.uk.
Fortran Friends www.orpheusweb.co.uk/fortran
Fortran Friends is essentially a user group for those who program in Fortran and whom share a common interest in campanology (bell ringing). Their releases for the show included:
Version 3.4.6 release 2 of the GNU Fortran compile
!PolySymm, featuring everything !PolyDraw had to offer plus the ability to study different types of symmetr
The late Anne Parmenter's superb Bells and Bells Ringing multimedia tutorial (for both Windows and RISC OS
Diagrams for those with an interest in bell ringin
They also announced a multimedia CD gazetteer, built using HTML and standard photographs of the churches around the Oxford diocese. It makes for a fascinating journey around Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire and will work on virtually any computer.
To the right of the image we have a full size bell. This took less time to assemble than you might believe...
The Fortran Friends website has a link to Kate Crennell's website for The British Crystallographic Association, which in itself makes fascinating reading. Fortran Friends have been regulars on the user group and show circuit for as long as I can remember, as far back as Kate's articles in BEEBUG magazine many years ago. It was pleasing to see them at the show.
Icon Technology www.icontechnology.net
Mike Glover of Icon Technology was on hand, promoting the latest versions of EasiWriter and TechWriter. Originally conceived as a program to be released by Acorn Computers Ltd back in the 1990s, EasiWriter has benefited from being allowed to be developed independently over the last twenty years to such an extent that it's now one of the fullest featured word processors on any platform.
Now developed by Martin of MW Software, it's of little surprise that new features in both EasiWriter and TechWriter include a Save as PDF option, Bookmarks and native support for ArtWorks 2 images including transparency.
Another satisfied customer wanders away with their copy of EasiWriter.
For a program that has so much capability, it's now very cheap. Mike admitted on his way out of the door how surprised he was with the number of new copies being supplied. It's still a growing market for a quality word processor and perhaps the enthusiasm for the product is one of the reasons that EasiWriter and TechWriter keep gaining new practical features.
The Mathmagical Software Company www.mathmagical.co.uk/
Martin Hansen is one of those who just seems to ooze enthusiasm for the RISC OS platform. His stand, as you'll see from the photograph, was one of the most colourful at the show and attracted rather a lot of attention. I wandered past the stand on many occasions, and he was always talking and busy which is certainly a good sign for his own software developments.
The main product of Mathmagical is a program called ArtGraph that allows you to visualise mathematical equations as modern art. Some of the sample images are visually stunning and allow you to see very easily the impact changing one variable of an equation has on the resulting formulae. I'll admit there are times that I'm not sure I fully understand the maths, but it looks very nice - many of the images on his website would look very pleasing on the wall.
Another confused customer wonders which formulae they should enter into ArtGraph to create some of the works of art on Martin's wall...
We'll take a look at ArtGraph properly in the next issue of RISC World. In the meantime we'll have time to play with it and try to produce some interesting graphical results of our own.
MW Software www.mw-software.com/
Martin attends many RISC OS shows in the course of a year. Given that he's a native of Germany, and has a somewhat lengthy journey, it's pleasing to see somebody make so many visits to so many shows, especially when they're the programmer responsible for ensuring continued and regular development to the vector graphics package that always had a lot of potential from the moment of its launch.
Martin with the obligatory tie...
We are, of course, talking about ArtWorks. Vantage attempted to steal some of the limelight, but in the course of a year that very quickly disappeared into the dark to lick its wounds. The current version of ArtWorks, 2.6, includes instantly updated graduated files, internal arrowheads and a variety of new arrowhead designs as well as the standard transparent fills, vector and bitmap manipulation tools and much more besides.
One of ArtWorks' strengths lies in its capabilities as an export tool. You can use ArtWorks 2 to export images in a huge variety of vector and bitmap formats. To be able to take professional artwork directly from ArtWorks to your printer is a dream that many had for years and it's now possible, producing some very good results.
MW Software have plans for future versions of ArtWorks to include Multi-page handling, alpha channel support within spreads, a document cleaning option and more besides. It seems that every time Martin adds a new feature, more ideas appear - let's hope it continues for many years to come!
Orpheus Internet www.orpheusinternet.co.uk/
Five years ago there were a number of internet service providers in a position to offer support to RISC OS users. Now while many are compatible with RISC OS, few have staff on board with active knowledge of using RISC OS and are hence unable to support the service on our computers. Paul Vigay, MD of Orpheus, was the technical support side of ArgoNet for many years and has a knowledge of PC, Mac and RISC OS.
Paul Vigay offers practical internet advice to an interested third party
Publicising his Orpheus Internet service, Paul was very chatty throughout the show and provided some interesting anecdotes. In the run up to Christmas, Orpheus Internet have taken out advertising in a variety of RISC OS and mainstream publications, so hopefully as they grow they won't forget their roots.
Qercus www.qercus.com/
For just over a year all had been quiet on the Qercus front. Shortly before the Southeast Show, however, the quiet was lifted and issue 277 of Qercus was released. With the usual mixture of practical, programming, design and entertainment articles it suffered from a number of mistakes due to the speed at which it was ultimately produced.
John Cartmell discusses the mechanics of publishing with a Qercus subscriber. Inset - the cover of the next issue of Qercus.
I have to admit to having had a hand in the physical production side of Qercus, looking after the printer and producing the PDFs for printing. The simplicity with the process now offered to Qercus is allowing John to ensure that the magazine gets back to a regular frequency. As I write, the next issue (278) has just gone to print (the PDFs have been uploaded to the printer's server) and the following issue is in the planning stages.
John has an enthusiasm for the platform. We're optimistic that future issues of Qercus will continue to reflect that.
R-Comp www.rcomp.co.uk/
About a week before the Southeast Show Allan Rawnsley of R-Comp had a heart attack and was taken to hospital. This resulted in a question as to whether R-Comp would be able to attend the show at all. Allan normally drives and Diana would obviously now be staying with Allan in Warrington. It was great to see Andrew at the show, and to pass on our good wishes to Allan.
Notable for the absence of Allan, we're convinced that he was drinking Tea and enjoying the day off.
The major release from R-Comp was UniScan, allowing you to use a PC scanner from within RISC OS in much the same manner as UniPrint offers the chance to use a PC printer. A number of new computer specifications were available from R-Comp Interactive illustrating further the passion many have for driving the RISC OS market forward.
RISCOS Limited www.riscos.com
One of the bigger announcements at the event was the launch of RISC OS Six. Forming the next development of the RISC OS Select scheme this will be made available in its preview form to all who have had a RISC OS Select subscription over the last few years. To continue to receive updates, a current subscription to the select scheme will be required.
Paul Middleton illustrates RISC OS SIX to Drobe's Chris Williams.
RISC OS Six is now developed from a 26/32 bit code base, essentially allowing the company to develop for the A9 home series as well as the RiscPC/A7000 at the same time. The problem with developing for the Iyonix PC lies in the simple fact that no details have yet been passed to RISCOS Limited as to how the Iyonix PC initialises. As an essential part of the operating system, an input from Castle Technology would be necessary to ensure that this could happen.
Paul had the usual array of machines on show, including a Mac running Virtual Acorn, an A9 home and a large display showing off RISC OS to the whole room. The music from a variety of musicals illustrated the audio capabilities of RISC OS very well during the setup period and it has to be said that the RISCOS Limited stand was one of those where users could play with the new developments in person.
RISC OS Now www.riscosnow.com
We've covered the magazines in detail elsewhere, but one of the busiest stands for the duration of the show was that of RISC OS Now. As a new RISC OS publication, this generated much interest and despite a few errors in the production it's a nice looking magazine showing a lot of promise for the future.
Louie Smith, editor of RISC OS Now, takes a subscription. Inset we show the cover of issue one, as it should have appeared...
Louie Smith, the editor, has only been involved with the market for a short period of time. To see a new take on the RISC OS scene from somebody in that situation is certainly welcome. Since the show, the RISC OS Now website has launched with a forum for subscribers and contributors. We'd suggest making the forum open to the general public as this may generate interest in future issues of the magazine.
Virtual Acorn www.virtualacorn.com
Aaron Timbrell was on hand with the current versions of Virtual Acorn. Available with RISC OS 4 or RISC OS Adjust, in standard and StrongARM forms, the Virtual Acorn products need no introduction. The option has been made available for the company to launch a RISC OS Six version of Virtual Acorn at some point. Aaron will, of course, pass on details as and when he's ready.
Aaron Timbrell spies a customer on the horizon.
So there we have it - a whistle-stop tour of the Southeast Show. I clearly missed a few stands along the way (Castle Technology and The Electronic Font Foundry being two examples) but hopefully you can see the show in the same way as I. It showed promise, with new hardware developments, a new operating system and renewed development in some of the most capable applications on any platform the future for RISC OS is anything but quiet.
David Bradforth
ÿÿÿÿISSUE4/SETALKS/INDEX.HTM Issue 4, RISCOS South East Theatre Talks
RISCOS South East Theatre Talks
Steve Potts
Guildford Show Talks
This article is written from the notes I scribbled down during the recent South East Show in Guildford. I attended the show primarily to sit in on the theatre talks and to listen to what the various people had to say. This unfortunately means that I didn't have time to look at each of the stalls for long in the main hall and so have not really commented on the show as a whole, but rather only typed up my notes so that others who were not present can get a feel for what the presenters were telling the public.
As is usual at these show talks, there is a presentation talk, followed by a question and answer session. I've summarised the main talk and then paraphrased the question and answer session for each person. I didn't catch the names of questioners even when given, so I have marked each question with "Q -" and each answer with "A -". The notes I took are reproduced and expanded here in good faith, but any mistakes are my own.
Castle Technology Ltd.
The Castle Technology Ltd. talk was split up into three sections:
IYONIX PCs - Jack Lillingsto
Shared Source Initiative - Jack Lillingston and Steve Revil
RISC OS Open Ltd - Steve Revill
Jack had a few slides running from a desktop Iyonix X100 which summarised the current range of cases, specifications and prices. This was basically a repeat of previous talks with no significant new announcements. The only thing of note was that Castle are marketing the DIY kit once more after having previously only making it available as a limited time offer. Additionally there were some new graphics cards (requiring an Iyonix ROM update), but I guess this is just the sign that older cards are becoming more difficult to get hold of.
Jack also noted that the RISC OS 5.12 ROM is now available for download (at a cost).
Jack then opened the floor to questions about the products.
Q - Where is the laptop?
A - Iyonix Ltd. was formed to sell the computer products. Castle Technology Ltd. is only interested in Licensing RISC OS. The problem with a laptop is the case. You need a lot of money to get a case. They require large production runs in the order of 10,000s units. The market is not big enough. The other option is to take an existing case but either other manufacturers won't share them or the case is obsolete before the motherboard is ready. (Now where have I heard that before? - SP).
Q - Are Castle Cooperating with RISCOS Ltd. on RISC OS 6?
A - Jack said that he would probably cover that subject in the next part of the talk, but he didn't.
Q - Can you explain the Lead Free Solder issue?
A - It's an EC directive to remove Lead from products. (actually many harmful substances - SP) New products must conform, but there are exceptions. It only affects products manufactured after June, Jack said. He then went on to say that the Lead Free transition is relatively simple, but some products become obsolete and therefore there are no Lead Free replacements for some parts. Jack said that the current Iyonix PCs are not affected by this legislation but any new machine would be Lead Free.
Q - Have Castle considered using the new faster X-Scale processors?
A - Jack gave his normal answer about not commenting on possible future products, but he added that the new CPUs had been noted.
Q - There was a follow-up question from elsewhere in the theatre which asked that, given that the motherboard may have to be redesigned anyway for Lead Free, would it not also be a good time to use a faster CPU?
A - Just one word from Jack... "Possibly".
Q - Now that RISC OS 5.12 is a chargeable update, is that the start of charging for all updates?
A - RISC OS 5.12 is a one off charge for a new ROM build. Beyond that further updates are likely to be free for a while, but any further updates will require RISC OS 5.12 as a baseline.
Q - Will 5.12 with the new graphics card solve the "pyjamas" problem?
A - The New card appears to have resolved it.
At this point Steve Revill arrived and the question session ended. Jack then went on to talk about the direction in which Castle wanted to take RISC OS. Jack stressed that Castle owns RISC OS. He went on to say that Castle wanted to try to get RISC OS used in more places around the world and there were some key issues to be addressed. The following are the things they want to do.
Get more user
Ensure that RISC OS is a world wide product - for example get more customers in the far east
Raise the profile of RISC OS
Speed up the development cycle by making it more available to developer
Have a central repository with one version for everyone to acces
Ensure that access to RISC OS was easy for all from large companies down to small hobbyist developers.
Make the repository Web-Based
Provide "free" download of the sources for developer
Jack went on to explain that, for commercial developers, the Intellectual Property (IP) is around the edges of a common core and so these are the bits that commercial companies want to protect. In order for companies to make the best use of RISC OS, developers within companies need free access to the sources of the core parts.
Castle don't want a free for all with chaos and unorganised source code changes, but want to set up a central repository that can be managed for the best interests of all using the sources. Castle would license the sources free for personal use, but would charge a small royalty fee (in the order of pence) to commercial users of the sources. The intention is not to use a GPL license, as is used in Linux, but a "Shared Source" one, such that commercial users can protect and keep their IP.
The RISC OS sources will be gradually released over time and Jack suggested that Browse, Shared C Library and Printers would be early releases and a full ROM Build capability would be possible at some point, so that even Iyonix users could build a new ROM set for their machine. Jack also said that the initial release of code would be within weeks.
He then changed tack and went on to explain that Iyonix Ltd make the Iyonix motherboards and want to sell them, so they want to get as many users as possible. It is hoped that a community will develop around the Shared Sources web site so that potential customers would be able to see this and it should therefore make selling RISC OS easier. In summary, Jack finished by clarifying the role of Castle Technology Ltd, Iyonix Ltd. and RISC OS Open Ltd. as follows:
Castle Technology Ltd. (CTL) own RISC OS
Iyonix Ltd. (IL) sell the Hardware
RISC OS Open Ltd (ROOL) will provide access to the RISC OS Source Cod
Next was Steve Revill of RISC OS Open Limited.
Steve began by saying that RISC OS Open Ltd. basically had five people, four of whom were ex-Acorn and ex-Pace engineers. RISC OS Open Ltd. is a part-time activity for those involved. The four people at the helm, in addition to Steve are:
Andrew Hodgkinson
Andrew Moyler
Ben Avison
Richard Nicol
Apparently RISC OS Open Ltd. have been talking to Castle Technology Ltd. about opening up the sources to RISC OS for a while, but until recently had not been able to talk publicly about it. RISC OS Open Ltd. had been formed to achieve a number of goals:
Provide an interface for people to get at the source code of RISC OS
Manage developer forums
Manage a faults database
Provide a WIKI for people to contribute t
To some extent there was an overlap between some of the things said by Steve and points which Jack had touched upon earlier. For example, Steve confirmed that it was the intention to release enough source code for people to be able to build their own versions of a RISC OS ROM. Part of the reason why RISC OS Open Ltd. had been discussing these matters with Castle Technology Ltd. for some time was that release of the sources is quite a big task. There is a lot of code with comments stating that it had been licensed to third parties and so Castle Technology Ltd and RISC OS Open Ltd. have to choose carefully what to release.
One of the areas of source code that Steve said needed to be opened up was the Printer Stack and another was some of the Relocatable Modules which formed part of the Browse web browser because they had much useful value to people independently of Browse itself. Steve stressed that RISC OS Open Ltd. wanted to ensure that there were low barriers to the commercial use of the sources and that they hoped that RISC OS could be widely adopted.
The floor was then opened up to questions and these are summarised from my notes below:
Q - How do you avoid duplication of effort on RISC OS between RISCOS Ltd. and RISC OS Open Ltd.?
A - Steve answered by saying that, although duplication was unfortunate, it all depended on how much benefit the work on the source code would be to others. In some cases duplication might be worth the effort to bring such benefits to others. One example given was that if the RISCOS Ltd. version of !Paint was never to appear for the Iyonix, then opening up the sources could allow someone to improve the RISC OS 5 version. Steve was keen to make it clear that RISCOS Ltd. were more than welcome to contribute to the shared sources effort.
Steve added that there will be a forum for suggestions about changes or new functionality where these could be discussed to decide if something is worth doing.
Q - Given that RISC OS Open Ltd. is part-time, how much time and effort will Castle Technology Ltd be putting into source changes, and is Peter Wild around?
A - Jack was quick to state that "Pete" is on board and that RISC OS will be promoted by everyone. As to whether Castle Technology Ltd will be working on the sources, this is unlikely, but they may do so sometimes. Jack said that there are many markets where RISC OS code might be used, but Castle Technology Ltd can't predict these, so he felt it was better to let others find them.
Q - Have RISC OS Open Ltd. and Castle Technology Ltd thought about a subscription scheme and therefore getting users to vote with their money?
A - RISC OS Open Ltd. do want donations, but are not sure that subscriptions are the right way to go. The feeling is that it is not good to block access to small developers who may not have the cash. Therefore it had been decided just to charge small royalty fees for commercial exploitations which come about as a result of having had access to the code. As an aside, Steve talked about the fact that opening sources should allow the possibility of multiple hardware builds, for example, allowing people to make builds compatible with the Risc PC.
Q - If Castle Technology Ltd are not actively developing code, then where will RISC OS 5.13 come from - will it come from RISC OS Open Ltd.?
A - Any work that Iyonix Ltd. do will eventually feed back into the pool for others. As an example, Jack suggested that if a Firewire driver was created, then Iyonix Ltd. would want to be selling that for say, six months and then may decide to submit it to the pool of available source code. In this way others could further enhance it and Iyonix Ltd. would also benefit from those developments. The most important thing is to develop the RISC OS core.
Qercus - John Cartmell
Firstly John made an apology to subscribers and the RISC OS community as a whole. The latest issue of Qercus (277) had taken a long time to get right, but this has now been achieved.
From the beginning, when John took the magazine over from Mike Williams, there had been a problem. This was because the printing company had changed the method by which they would accept material to be printed. Prior to John taking the magazine on they had accepted printed copy which had been prepared for them, but now they needed material in Postscript and every time, something went wrong.
At one stage, after much of this had been understood, Qercus even ran an article on what was happening in the printing process, but the Printer fixed some of the deliberate mistakes that were supposed to illustrate some of the problems which can occur. Then there was the fact that it was extremely difficult to move to another printer and, coupled with family issues, this caused further delays.
John said that Qercus didn't want to send out a tatty magazine and upset subscribers by delivering something of sub-standard quality - they needed to get it right by ensuring that:
All subscribers would get a copy
Not only could 277 go out, but the next issue and the one after would be able to follow on schedule
John reassured everyone that issue 278 was on track for the end of November and expected subsequent issues to follow about every six weeks.
John thanked David Bradforth, who was sitting on the front row in the audience, who had been instrumental in fixing the copy problems that John had encountered.
As a result of the new arrangements:
Qercus is now 100% colour
There is flexibility as to which printers will print the magazine
News can be changed only a few hours before the print run if required
The layout and style have been improved
Next John moved on to what's in the magazine and why he does it. He said he produces the magazine because he believes in the RISC OS market and wants to see it survive and flourish and, hopefully, get more people buying hardware and software.
Now that the magazine is being distributed directly by the Qercus team John made an offer to any user groups that he can include a small leaflet which can be targeted to subscribers in the local area of the user group.
In issue 277, which was the much delayed issue of the magazine, there were the following articles:
Basic Basic (last of the series)
*Info and Yellow Pages
Graphics article
Desktop Publishing article
The History of Type
Qercus intends to celebrate the 25th Birthday of Acorn User and John plans to delve into the archives as part of that celebration. Also John hopes to use the archives to make use of old series and the Qercus web site and will be, in some cases, re-issuing articles and in other cases they will take old articles and update them. Many articles from the archives are still relevant today and John wants to give people who were not around ten years ago a chance to see some of the material (updated where appropriate) that is still of value.
John is also considering taking suggestions from users about old articles that they would like to see made available on the Qercus web site.
In summary, John made it clear that he's not doing this to make money. He wants RISC OS to continue to improve and that this is his contribution to the market. Finally, John reminded people that Qercus pays its contributors. Questions were then invited from the floor.
Q - Are you intending to put whole issues of Qercus online?
A - This has been requested by people in New Zealand, partly due to the time taken to reach them and John is considering what may be possible, but he's not yet had time to fully investigate the possibilities.
Q - Why is Qercus not available in newsagent?
A - John's response was that Qercus is available from newsagents, but only if you order it. Big newsagents charge very large sums of money just to have a magazine on the shelves.
So that people can at least browse the magazine John intends to put snippets up on the web site, but obviously only snippets as he doesn't want to cause actual sales to drop. He added that he will send a free older copy of the magazine to anyone who wants to see what Qercus is like.
Q - What will be in the magazine for Christmas?
A - There will be a freebie, a non-computer board game that you have to play with someone else. There is a series about computer games so that people who might otherwise not play games will have the opportunity to do so at Christmas. John also wants occasionally to have people picked at random to receive a small prize as a way of saying thank you to the subscribers.
Q - Which software packages are used in the production of Qercus?
A - Ovation Pro, Artworks, various Cerilca titles, various titles from David Pilling, but copy is received in all sorts of formats. John had tried to use RiScript 5 but this failed to live up to expectations and was the cause of some of the problems suffered during the last twelve months.
Qercus is now produced using these tools and output as Postscript, then passed to David Bradforth for final preparation using Distiller Press on the Mac. This is a highly configurable piece of software that can produce the PDF output required by professional printers. John added that RISC OS can produce PDFs, as has been shown with previous issues of Qercus, but for it to work you need to be sure that nobody at either end of the process changes anything.
Part of the problem with some issues of Qercus had been the articles on the History of Type. This series means that every single issue of the magazine required a new set of fonts and this was where problems occurred with the output. Issue 277 had three very expensive attempts to get it right and was a major struggle. The magazine's content is quite complex and not straightforward. It is because they are pushing the limits that some of the problems have occurred. After these three failed attempts John enlisted David Bradforth and, after about two weeks of working on the Postscript output, David was able to get the required result.
David interjected at this point to emphasize that the production of PDFs for the professional print industry required some very specific settings and that this amount of control is not available within packages such as RiScript.
John finished with a big thank you to David Bradforth and also said that Qercus was looking for reviews of software. They want these to be from people who actually use the software rather than only using it for the purpose of review.
Advantage 6 Q&A
Matt Edgar from Advantage 6 was next up with a question and answer session. Matt started by saying that he had not prepared a talk, as he had not been informed that he was to be doing one prior to his arrival at the show and that he had even paid to get in!
The question and answer session then began.
Q - When will Flash 3 be out?
A - Matt declined to commit to a date but said merely that it would be released when it is ready.
Matt then expanded his answer and explained that there was a cost to producing a flash update and they needed to be happy that it was right. The cost was not so much monetary, but the time required to fully test the components which would go into the update and then the testing of the update itself. Advantage 6 would have liked to have had the next flash update out before now, but there were other dependencies which until recently could not even have been discussed, such as the now public announcement from RISCOS Ltd. about RISC OS 6.
Q - What version of RISC OS will the final retail version of the A9 have?
A - RISC OS 6 will be the base version on everything, and that will include the A9.
Q - What advantages will Flash 3 have over earlier A9 ROMs?
A - There will be some graphics enhancements, some USB fixes and some Disc Image items.
Q - Any comment on the RISC OS Open Ltd. Shared Source announcement?
A - It means duplicated effort, which is unfortunate, but probably good for RISC OS as a whole.
Q - How much priority is being given to USB Printing Support?
A - The USB Stack under test at the moment addresses some printing issues. !Printers is something that you will need to discuss with RISCOS Ltd.
Q - Are there any known issues with sound? (A user had noticed a minor problem with an odd distortion)
A - The A9 differs in some of the sample rates it supports when compared with a Risc PC and will therefore select the nearest to that requested. With the slower sample rates it is possible that some may not available on the A9.
Q - In certain circumstances sound has crashed and will not function but CTRL+BREAK does not resolve this and instead a full power on reset is required. Why is this?
A - In a specific case that is known about the hardware drivers need a full reset.
Q - There are three types of user who have been purchasing the A9; Beta Testers, Experienced Users, and Retail Users. Is there a standard information channel available to all that Advantage 6 use to communicate issues?
A - The mailing list is available to all, but Beta Testers are giving detailed Technical Feedback, so they get some things earlier than others and therefore it is useful to treat them differently. As an example, there are some Beta testers who have been using USB stuff a lot and they have been able to report on issues and test fixes without affecting other users.
Q - Advantage 6 have shown technology demonstrations of Bluetooth on modified hardware. What are the chances of getting this for A9Home?
A - The A9Home is a basic machine which does not include Bluetooth. There is a problem with hardware updates so it's better to use USB for such things, but it is very costly to be a Bluetooth developer. Advantage 6 would need to justify the numbers before embarking on such work.
What's new at RISCOS Ltd. - Paul Middleton
The obvious answer to anyone around the show or who had been to one of the earlier roadshow events is that RISC OS Six was new. Paul started by saying that RISC OS Six was the latest and most up to date version of RISC OS.
There seems to have been confusion in some quarters, which I have witnessed first hand, so it seemed appropriate that Paul had decided to set the scene by defining the various versions of RISC OS from RISCOS Ltd.
RISC OS Select is a soft loadable version of RISC OS, but is only available for RISC OS 4 or later, so you need to have RISC OS 4.02 or later ROMs in your machine to be able to use Select. When soft loaded, RISC OS Select takes up 6Mb of RAM and loads its ROM Image into that memory, so your machine appears to have 6Mb less memory.
RISC OS Adjust is a ROM version of RISC OS. Currently there is the Adjust-32 on the A9Home - which is RISC OS 4.42, or there is the RISC OS Adjust ROMs for Risc PCs and A7000s. This is RISC OS 4.39 squashed down to fit into 4MB for the Adjust ROM package.
RISC OS Six is to be the new base level operating system from which all future updates will be derived. One of the big differences between previous versions of the operating system and this latest one is that, RISC OS Six is built from the new 26 / 32-bit neutral source code. Paul made it clear that any Risc PC class builds would be built as 26-bit because it didn't make sense to build them as 32-bit and then have software which couldn't run on 26-bit compatible machines.
RISC OS Select will continue the development of the operating system and be based upon RISC OS Six. Select 4 issue 1 will be the current version of RISC OS Six. There will soon be a download available of the RISC OS Six preview for Select subscribers, but those who have subscribed with a CD option will not receive a CD immediately as this will be a short while behind the release of the preview download. Paul also advised people that they should not expect a full release of RISC OS Six under Select 4 immediately. The first issue of Select 4 will be the preview of RISC OS Six and as it is a preview it will not be a full and complete version.
RISCOS Ltd. have recently released their Programmer's Reference Manuals on the Web free to all, and these are available from the RISC OS website at:
It is hoped that the RISC OS Six preview, available to previous Select subscribers as well as those who have continued to support RISCOS Ltd., will encourage re-subscriptions from those who have allowed their subscriptions to lapse. Subscribers who have renewed since 31st May 2004 will be eligible for the preview, whereas those who have current subscriptions at the time of release will get the final version. After Select 4 issue 1, Select 4 will continue with further releases.
RISC OS Six may work on the Omega and RiscStation machines, but this is not guaranteed because any problems found may not be easily resolved as the companies involved are no longer around.
Paul ended his talk and invited questions from the audience.
Q - Will RISC OS Six run 26-bit applications correctly?
A - Paul said that everything should be fine and that RISC OS Six has hardware abstraction (quite a lot) and so should be happy on a range of hardware. Paul also added that some of the acceleration within RISC OS Six is using the hardware abstraction and facilities available on, for example, the Viewfinder cards. It is hoped that RISC OS Six will support any combination of Risc PC hardware thrown at it. RISC OS Six does not contain a HAL like RISC OS 5, but is able to abstract hardware.
Q - Will Virtual Risc PC work with RISC OS Six?
A - There is no reason why not. It happily works with RISC OS 4.39.
Q - Is RISC OS Six available now?
A - Not at the moment. It takes a long time to make and test a ROM set. RISC OS Six will be a soft load for current hardware for now. RISC OS Six is not available as a one off payment, as in Adjust. Pricing will be as for subscribing to Select, as this is the way to obtain RISC OS Six.
Select has several advantages to RISCOS Ltd.. It allows us to know how many people are interested in continued developments and also how much money is coming in. This information helps RISCOS Ltd. to know what is worth doing.
Q - What about Select for the Iyonix?
A - RISCOS Ltd. would like Select for all machines, but there are factors to consider, such as time required. Iyonix is on the cards, but the lower levels must be done first. Stand alone Select Relocatable Modules have been shown running on the Iyonix, but some of that was unstable as it was not fully integrated. RISCOS Ltd. would like to be able to get the full package onto the Iyonix.
Q - Does RISC OS Six provide a base such that just drivers would be needed for the Iyonix?
A - Yes, in theory, but it would need to be fully tested. RISCOS Ltd. doesn't have the resources to throw at this.
Q - What are the new features in RISC OS Six?
A - RISC OS Six is just the first release of the next Select version. Select 4 features will be added over further issues. RISCOS Ltd. are not intending to Open Source the code to RISC OS, but they will enable development of RISC OS for all hardware developers (I expect he meant along the lines of what RISCOS Ltd. and Advantage 6 have done for the A9).
As part of his answer, Paul stated that 26-bit processors had continued in production far longer than ARM expected partly due to the demand from Pace for use in their set top box products.
RISCOS Ltd.'s goal is to support RISC OS developers and, in contrast to what some people think, all money has not gone into the A9 development. Advantage 6 paid for that. RISCOS Ltd. will be happy to work with anyone in the same way.
As far as features are concerned:
Virtual Risc PC would run the softload after a few tweaks are made
The number of Relocatable modules has grown whilst the Kernel has been reduced in size
Some Assembler code has been converted into C to aid maintainability
Window icons can be moved and placed at the side or bottom of windows
The Graphics Rendering support has been expanded to include many more formats e.g. SUN, XPM, Tablemate, Equasor and many others
The graphics converters allow 2-way conversion in many cases and are used in Paint and Draw. For example, Paint can take a Draw file and convert it to ICO, GIF, BMP etc. Draw can export as SVG.
Final RISC OS Select 4 will include some new fonts to complete the standard Postscript ones missing from Acorn's original clones. Other fonts will also be bundled with the final version.
New Configure Plug-ins will be available, such as the Compatibility Plug-in first seen on the A9Home
RISC OS has started to enforce rules from the PRM which were previously specified but unenforced. This has shown that there are lots of applications which have slow, creeping bugs which only cause trouble after the application has been running for a long time. Examples of such things are memory leaks or stack problems. One specific application which has been fixed as a result is StrongEd.
Hopefully over the next six months or so people will be testing many variants of hardware and applications on RISC OS Six. RISCOS Ltd. cannot do all the testing, users also need to provide feedback.
Q - Which machines does RISCOS Ltd. use for testing?
A - Mostly Risc PCs.
Q - Can the graphics converters output to PDF?
A - Not yet, but there is Taborca and RiScript. RISCOS Ltd. may not become involved in PDF export as you need to be quite an expert in PDF for that.
Q - RISCOS Ltd. have previously mentioned a possible move away from Sprites within the Desktop. Has there been any progress on this?
A - No, but RISCOS Ltd. has been looking at further graphics speed ups in hardware cards like the Viewfinder. Martin Wuerthner could probably explain what might be possible. RISCOS Ltd. have previously demonstrated hardware acceleration work done by the Simon team and this is very advantageous.
Q - With the new PRMs on the web will there be a printed copy available?
A - RISCOS Ltd. hope to produce a CD and Printed Manual at some stage, but before this it all needs to be carefully checked. There is no timescale or price set yet. RISCOS Ltd. have also been doing much debugging of the OS and have provided facilities for programmers to get more detailed debugging information too. Paul didn't want to go into detail but said that it's all in the PRMs.
Q - What changes have been done to Networking?
A - Zero configuration, Multicast and Rendezvous support. Querying other nodes on the network. All this has been done with the aim of making it much easier to just plug a RISC OS device into a network and use it. There has also been work on speedups and smoother operation.
Q - RISCOS Ltd. are not opening up the Source Code, but are you working with RISC OS Open Ltd.?
A - Not got around to it yet. Both parties have been busy, so time has not yet allowed it.
Q - Having mentioned customisable window furniture, are there any theme managers?
A - Other people could probably do it with the info that is available. There is already the Cosmetics application by Richard Hallas, which is well documented. Also Richard Goodwin has done a Themes manager.
RISC OS NOW - Louie Smith
Louie began by introducing herself as the Editor of the new magazine and stating that it was on sale now. She said that it was 'hot off the press' that morning and she had collected it from the printers on her way to the show.
RISC OS NOW is for users and programmers and contains tutorials on applications such as Artworks and articles about the relevance of programming. It is a full colour glossy magazine and Louie said that she had tried to go for a particular style, something similar to that of MAC World and other computer magazines. Other articles either in the first issue or planned for future issues were an interview, Techwriter, Basic BASIC, Outside-In (non-computer related) and she wanted it to be a nice general read.
Louie wants the magazine to attract new people to RISC OS. She did, however, admit that there were mistakes in the first issue.
As to the purpose of the magazine, Louie said that she wanted reliable content (ensuring the source of info was accurate) and a high quality magazine, but also wanted it to be what we, the readers, want and to that end had a suggestion sheet on the magazine stand in the main show hall.
Next Louie gave the audience a bit of background about herself. Last year she helped on a stand at the Guildford show. She had used RISC OS when she was about 13 years old at school and then later was forced to use Microsoft Windows for her university dissertation and this went wrong. Paul Vigay re-introduced her to RISC OS and she felt much more comfortable with it. With the peace of mind that using RISC OS gave her, she felt she wanted to produce a magazine. As many of us have found, Louie said that RISC OS allows her to do what she wanted without expecting system crashes. The user should be limited by imagination, not by the computer.
The price of the current issue of the magazine on the day of the show was £4.20, or for a year's subscription £29.95. The magazine is bi-monthly.
Before inviting questions from the audience Louie said that she would welcome any suggestions by email.
Q - What ideas do you have to reach new users?
A - I have contacted W.H.Smith to find out how I might get the magazine onto their shelves. Firstly the magazine needs an ISSN number, then it needs to be printed and submitted to them for review. Issue 1 will not be going to them because of printing errors.
Additionally, Louie intends to "plug" the magazine within schools.
Q - What software is used in the production of the magazine?
A - Ovation Pro, Artworks and Photodesk. The printers require PDF files - which is really awful. RISC OS NOW is output as Encapsulated Postscript with bleed, but there were hundreds of problems and the copy went back and forth to the printers. Anyone who says this stuff is very difficult is not exaggerating. After two months the first issue of RISC OS NOW was done.
Q - It's really good to hear about someone new joining the market with a good positive attitude. How do we stop everyone else arguing?
A - The market is small and doesn't need people arguing. I don't know why this is happening all the time. People just need to chill out and stop being so nasty.
Q - Where are the articles coming from?
A - I just announced that I was starting a new magazine and wanted contributors and got them.
The end
That was it for the RISC OS SouthEast theatre talks. A very interesting experience and I look forward to seeing the results from all those who gave their time.
Steve Potts
ÿÿÿÿISSUE4/VA/INDEX.HTM Issue 4, VirtualAcorn Tech Support
VirtualAcorn Tech Support
More from Aaron's tech support notebook
It's actually been a fairly quiet couple of months in the VirtualAcorn tech support department. One of the main reasons for this is, in my view, that most people are now running Windows XP with Service Pack 2 installed.
Windows XP Service Pack 2
Service Pack 2 fixes a number of quite nasty bugs in Windows. Some of these bugs can effect VirtualRPC in slightly unpredictable ways and can cause problems for users. Service Pack 2 fixes 99% of these problems and hence some of the tech support load gets lifted. For anyone who is running a copy of Windows XP without service pack 2 installed please install it as soon as as possible. It will help protect your Windows installation from various nasties and will fix a number of problems. If you are not sure if you have Service Pack 2 installed or not it's very easy to check. Open the Windows control panel and then double click on the System icon. If you are running XP with the default (idiot style) control panel then you will find the System icon hidden in the performance and maintainance section. Having double clicked on the System icon the System Properties window will open. This will open with the General tab selected. Here you will see the name of the operating system you are using under the System heading. At the bottom of this section it should say "Service Pack 2". If it doesn't then go and install Service Pack 2 now!
Windows Vista
The new version of Windows, called Vista, should start shipping to corporate users in November, with the home user versions appearing early next year. Vista is a very different kettle of fish from XP and has much more demanding hardware requirements. The Microsoft recommended minimum spec for a machine to run Vista is frankly laughable. My view is that a machine will need at least a 3Ghz single core processor, or a 1.8Ghz (per core) dual core processor with 1GB of RAM and a dedicated graphics card with at least 128Mb of memory and full DirectX 9 support. This will effectively rule out Vista on most laptops and on many desktop machines. My advice is that unless your machine is under a year old, forget it, stick with Windows XP.
So suppose you buy a new machine with Vista pre-installed, or you get a discount voucher for a "cheap" copy of Vista, is your VirtualAcorn going to work? The answer is yes. We have been testing versions of Vista for some time and I can confirm that all versions of VirtualRPC run on Windows Vista on both our Vista test machines. Currently Vista is in release candidate stage and there are a couple of issues that early adopters should be aware of. Firstly you will ideally need the correct Vista drivers for your graphics card. If your card isn't a mid to high end ATI or Nvidia product then you had best forget it. Vista should identify your card and install Windows drivers that will get things going, but performance will suffer using these generic drivers. Under Windows Vista Beta 2 the default Windows drivers will not run VirtualAcorn, on Vista RC1 the default drivers will run VirtualAcorn but performance will be down by around 30% (or so our tests so far indicate).
Assuming your card is powerful enough you will need to install the Vista driver from the manufacturer's site. You will need broadband for this as some of the drivers can run to 80Mb or more. Having installed the correct driver and re-started the PC you should now be able to run VirtualAcorn properly. One of the "improvements" in Vista is to tighten up the driver specifications. This should prevent rogue drivers accidentally getting installed but, in our experience, it has one nasty side effect. If you alter any of the graphics card options in the BIOS, for example the AGP aperture, then start Vista it won't load the drivers for the graphics card! This is because "something" has changed. This is patently ridiculous and I hope that Microsoft sort this nonsense out before a real release is rolled out.
So what I do I think of Vista? Well it looks nice, has lots of funky extra features and runs well on a high end machine. However Windows XP also runs well on high end equipment, doesn't swallow resources like Mr Creosote and, on the same hardware, actually runs VirtualAcorn product slightly quicker! So, my advice is to stick with XP for now, at least until Vista has matured and some of the issues have been resolved. A new machine with Vista pre-installed should be fine, assuming it's been set up correctly, but in my view upgrading to Vista on an existing machine is not sensible. At least it certainly isn't sensible based on the copies of Vista that Microsoft has sent us.
The Great CD shuffle
Before I go it's worth covering a subject that I have mentioned before, CD drives and RISC OS. To put it simply not all CD/DVD drives will work with RISC OS. The newer your copy of RISC OS is the greater the likelihood of your CD drive working out of the box, but there are still some drives that just won't play ball. This can be a pain with VirtualAcorn, but if your PC has more than one CD/DVD drive all might not be lost. By default VirtualAcorn will use the lowest numbered (not lowest letter) drive for reading CDs. However if this drive won't work with RISC OS you can easily alter VirtualAccorn to use another drive.
Doing this is fairly trivial, but does involve editing one of the VirtualAcorn configuration files. These files are human readable and can be edited in pretty much any text editor. I recommend Windows Notepad. Whatever you do don't use Wordpad, this is designed to display word processing documents and can mess up the configuration files unless you are very careful. In this example I will use VirtualRPC-SE, but the principle is the same for all versions. Note that on the StrongARM VirtualAcorns you will need to alter all three model files.
The first task is to find out which of the two (or more) drives VirtualAcorn is using. This can be done as follows, with VirtualAcorn running:
Press F1
Type CDF
Type CDDevices
The name of the drive should be shown under Product. Having checked which device it is we will now use the other one:
Quit VRP
From Windows go to
C:\Program Files\VirtualAcorn\VirtualRPC-SE\Models\Arm 7 RISC OS 4 (Jit
Double click on Model (or Model.cfg depending on how Windows is set up
If Windows doesn't know what to do choose to open it using a program chosen from a list and choose Notepad
You will see a human readable config file
Find the section
[CDDrive
CDRom = 0
change it to read:
[CDDrive
CDRom = 1
and save the file. Now simply load VirtualAcorn and wait until it enters the desktop and has finished booting, then:
Press F1
Type CDF
Type CDDevices
The name of the drive now selected should be shown under Product. Press Return to go back to the desktop. Now you can try the drive. In 99% of cases this will then get VirtualAcorn to read CDS (or data DVDs if you are running VirtualRPC-Adjust or AdjustSA).
That's it from me, I have to go and build an Intel Core2Duo test rig now. Perhaps I will give you some performance figures next time...
