Acorn News Service Newsletter

Issue: 157 (2 May 2004)

Featured site this issue: http://www.wakefieldshow.org.uk/

General News

Wakefield Show Theatre Programme

The Wakefield Show over the weekend of 15th and 16th May, is once again going to be the big event in the RISC OS calendar.

There is now a full Theatre Programme of talks on both Saturday and Sunday, lasting up to 45 minutes each (all times subject to change):

Entrance to these presentations is free. Some will be very, very popular indeed. The show will be open between 10am and 6pm on Saturday and 10am and 4pm on Sunday.

Remember you can save money and get your tickets in advance. Full details on the show web site: <http://www.wakefieldshow.org.uk/>. The closing date for Advance Tickets is 8th May. Advance Ticket holders also get the chance to enter the IYONIX Money off draw on the Saturday (even if you come on Sunday).

There will be a free mini-bus service between Wakefield Westgate Station and the show operating throughout the weekend. This has been kindly sponsored by APDL and Virtual Acorn. The show is organised on behalf of the Wakefield RISCOS Computer Club by Chris Hughes.

<http://www.wakefieldshow.org.uk/>

IYONIX pc downunder

A group of enthusiasts in Australia, led by Ross McGuiness, with the unstinting help and assistance of Castle, has been working on a solution to bring a cost-effective IYONIX pc solution to Australia.

By adopting a self-help approach Ross and his group of RISC OS enthusiasts have assembled a high specification IYONIX pc from key components supplied by Castle, while all non Castle parts have been sourced locally. This saves significantly on shipping costs, and the first successful Oz-built IYONIX pc went live early in April 2004.

This imaginative enterprise allows Ross and his fellow enthusiasts to pass on huge savings over the standard imported price of the IYONIX pc and will encourage the early replacement of aging Risc PCs. Savings of up to AUD500 are achievable depending on the amount of memory, size of Hard Disc and CD option. Even more can be saved if use is made of existing, compatible hardware that may be at hand.

Ross comments that, "We would love to hear from anyone in Australia who would like to purchase 'the IYONIX pc downunder' as a fantastic replacement to their now aging RISC OS machine. We would also welcome anyone who might consider returning to the RISC OS scene or indeed those who would like to try something exciting and different. Either way you are invited to contact us for further information or to express their interest in joining the group."

Ross is running this service as a non-commercial venture with the support of Castle and fellow RISC OS users, ensuring the availability in Australia of IYONIX pcs at a realistic price.

For further information please contact: Ross McGuinness, Cinnamon Coloureds Farmstay, RMB 1017 DENMARK, WA 6333 (Western Australia). <http://www.denmarkwa.com.au/iyonix/>

Drobe.co.uk publishes 1000th article

Drobe Launchpad <http://www.drobe.co.uk/> recently published its 1000th article, marking five exciting years of RISC OS related news, features and sarcasm. More details of which can be found here: <http://www.drobe.co.uk/riscos/artifact1039.html>

Commercial News

Castle launch subscription based C/C++ development suite

Following on from the successful launch of the 32bit compatible RISC OS C/C++ Development Suite in October 2002, Castle has today that it will be offering future upgrades to the development suite on a subscription basis for just GBP59pa inc VAT (reduced to GBP45 if paid by direct debit before 31st May 2004). New purchases of the development suite at a RRP of GBP199 inc VAT will include a subscription for the first year.

This step aims to ensure that RISC OS developers see a continuous flow of improvements to the development suite, providing better code density and performance for RISC OS applications than ever before. In addition features introduced into ARM development tools in the embedded world over the last few years will now be brought to the RISC OS platform.

Highlights due for immediate release include the addition of an inline assembler and packed structure support to the compiler. Later in 2004 Castle expect to release a version of the compiler containing a revamped optimiser. This is expected to give a noticeable performance improvement for compiled code running on both StrongARM and XScale based systems.

Full details of this subscription scheme and a proposed road map for the development of the tools can be found at <http://www.iyonix.com/tools/>.

200th issue of Archive

The 200th edition of Archive has been sent to subscribers, marking almost 17 years of publishing.

To celebrate the 200th issue, Archive are offering a special deal: all 200 issues of Archive for just GBP20 if you take out a year's subscription (GBP35 UK, GBP41 Europe, GBP48 RoW).

The first 192 issues are supplied on Archive Double CD Volume 16, with Volume 17 issues 1-8 inclusive in paper format.

To order phone editor Paul Beverley on 01603 722544, or e-mail <paul@archivemag.co.uk> with your credit card (or preferably debit card/Switch) details.

Partis Computing announces Free Backup

Partis Computing are pleased to announce a free online backup system. You e-mail data (encrypted if necessary) to <vault@freebackup.net> and it is archived for free. Shortly afterwards an e-mail will be sent back to you, with a URL to restore data again.

Further details may be found at <http://www.freebackup.net/>.

PD/Shareware News

New software summary

• AntiSpam 1k, variant of AntiSpam
  A variant of AntiSpam (a POP3 client) which decodes HTML mail into plain text, and adds a couple of other more minor enhancements.
  <http://kasoft.info/downloads.html>
• Bookings, manage holiday accommodation
  Management software for those who run B&B, small hotels, or let out rooms or other holiday accommodation. It has been written for a specific application in Australia for a RISC OS user who has four holiday units that are let throughout the year, but it is expected to be equally suitable for any small business with up to 10 rooms or units.
  <http://users.argonet.co.uk/users/cwragg/pages/comp.htm>
• IPP Device Driver, use to network printers
  A relocatable module for printing to IPP (Internet Printing Protocol) capable network printers and servers. If your network printer supports PostScript you can print directly using the RISC OS PostScript drivers. Alternatively, by printing a Unix server running free CUPS software you can use the RISC OS PostScript drivers to print to any printer, network or otherwise, supported by CUPS.
  <http://www.davel.me.uk/riscos/>
• MakeCHelp, produce HTML from C source
  A command line utility for producing StrongHelp and HTML files from C source and header files. It does not require any special tags to be placed in the header files, it just needs to be given the right command line options so it can associate the right function prototypes, types, #defines, enums, etc. with the right comment.
  <http://www.philipnet.com/utils/makechelp.php>
• MultiAS, multiple user tests for AntiSpam
  A user test framework for use in recent versions of AntiSpam, which allows multiple user tests to be installed merely by dropping them into the AntiSpam:Choices directory.
  <http://kasoft.info/downloads.html>
• ROMPatches, OS patches
  For: RISC OS 4.02, 4.29 (Select1i9) 4.33 (Select2i3) 4.37 (Select3i3):
  
  • Colour the Filer menu option "Delete" red.
  • Provide an empty directory name in the "New Directory" Filer window.
  • Stops TaskWindows from Wimp_Poll-ing every time their output buffer is full (which has the effect of speeding them up).
  • Alters the behaviour of Return at the "Are you sure you want to shut the computer down?" prompt so that it does shut the computer down, rather dismissing the prompt. It also alters the window templates to reflect the change.
  For: RISC OS 4.33 (Select2i3) only:
  
  • Patches CDFS so that it uses MimeMap rather than it's own internal tables. (The operation of CDFS was corrected for Select 3, so this patch is not applied to later versions.)
  
  <http://www.philipnet.com/utils/rompatches.php>

Updated software summary

• Basil v1.41
  BASIC Shared Installed Library module. It allows single copies of BASIC libraries to be shared by any program. The current version supports multiple independent list of libraries and is particularly oriented to library resource applications containing sets of interacting libraries. Only 3 *commands are required for its straightforward use, and there is support for more sophisticated operations. Now 32 bit compatible.
  <http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/kappa/basil.htm>
• IscaFS v0.13
  Read-only image filing system for accessing Linux ext2/ext3 image files and hard disc partitions. This version is RISC OS 5 compatible, and adds PartTool, a program to create image files and pseudo image files.
  <http://home.pages.de/~mac_bacon/smorbrod/IscaFS/>
• Makealias v4.2
  Create aliases of applications, files and directories. You can also create aliases of aliases. Now works even if you do not specify the type of help for an alias for an application alias.
  <http://web.ukonline.co.uk/mripley/software.html>
• RFSFiles v0.95
  This module provides *commands and SWIs to add and remove files in the ResoucesFS without the need to construct a separate module. Now 32 bit compatible.
  <http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/kappa/rfsfiles.htm>
• SpecialFX v1.04
  Desktop enhancement utility which improves Drawfile and font display. All users who currently have SpecialFX installed on their systems are strongly advised to upgrade to this new release, as it fixes some important bugs and significantly improves overall stability.
  <http://www.hallas.net/Software/SFX/>

Club News

Upcoming meetings

• WROCC (Wakefield), 5th May - Mike Cook, "Walking with Technology"
  <http://www.wrocc.org.uk/>
• WAUG (Wessex), 8th May
  <http://www.mfraz.freeserve.co.uk/waug/>
• DARC (Derbyshire), 10th May
  <http://www.darc-comp.org.uk/>
• EAUG (Essex), 11th May
  <http://www.wattys.fsnet.co.uk/eaug/>
• LAUG (Liverpool), 11th May
  <http://www.italia.co.uk/laug/>
• NKACC (Kent), 13th May - Home networking, wired and wireless
  <http://nkacc.roundel.net/>
• Wakefield 2004, 15th & 16th May
  <http://www.wakefieldshow.org.uk/>
• ROUGOL (London), 17th May - Castle Technology
  <http://rougol.jellybaby.net/>
• BARUG (Bristol), 26th May
  <http://www.barug.co.uk/>
• RISC OS Expo 2004 (Netherlands), 19th June
  <http://www.bigbenclub.nl/>

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