Acorn News Service Newsletter

Issue: 237 (16 March 2008)

Featured site this issue: http://www.riscosopen.org/

General News

RISC OS Open release more source code

Castle Technology Ltd and RISC OS Open Ltd (ROOL) have released the third batch of RISC OS source code. This release focuses on low level components including the USB stack, DeviceFS, DMA manager, TCPIPLibs, and internationalisation modules.

Also, as a part of the co-operation between RISC OS Open and RISCOS Ltd, ROOL released a tool aimed at gathering some specific statistics from a wide range of RISC OS users, in order to better identify where the main problem areas lie with respect to the differences between the RISCOS Ltd RISC OS branch and the Castle Technology RISC OS branch.

The EnsureScan program will search for applications in a specific location on your computer, for example in a specified directory (defaulting to $.Apps) or all of a specified hard disc.

It will scan for applications and when it finds one, it will look at any RMEnsure commands in !Boot or !Run files to build a list of all of the modules which are required by that application.

The data collected is simply: how many times during the scan was a given module seen in an RMEnsure command and what version numbers of modules are being asked for? This is useful because it will indicate which modules are important to developers and that in itself helps to focus attention on solving problems where separate streams of development of those modules means that a simple version number check (as per RMEnsure) is no longer sufficient.

Just install and run EnsureScan, then e-mail the results to ROOL. <http://www.riscosopen.org/binaries/ensurescan.zip>

<http://www.riscosopen.org/>

Commercial News

VirtualRPC for Mac technical support area

Whilst VirtualAcorn prepare the next release of VirtualRPC-AdjustSA for Mac OS X they have taken the opportunity to update the technical support section of their web site.

Following feedback from beta testers there is now a Mac OS X specific section of the site available at: <http://www.virtualacorn.co.uk/support/articles/indexmac.htm>

ElectricType from Orpheus

Orpheus are proud to announce a deal to exclusively use the ElectricType blog system for all dialup and broadband subscribers.

ElectricType is an alternative to mainstream blogging systems such as MovableType, Wordpress, and Blogger, designed exclusively with RISC OS users in mind. All facilities are controllable and navigable using RISC OS browsers and, as no Javascript is used, fully compatible with NetSurf.

ElectricType allows people who do not want to learn HTML to edit and manage their own web site easily from their favourite web browser. ElectricType provides a quick and easy way for users to setup and manage their own blog. It offers the following features:

Fully W3C validated HTML and CSS on every page
Automatic RSS feed (also W3C validated)
Automatic 'Archives' links
Integrated calendar for easy navigation
Full comment management with spam protection and filtering
Automatic link/trackback generation
Automatic 'last 10 comments' index
Integrated search engine
Selectable colour schemes and user-customisable layout/design
Free RISC OS support
Support for inline images

ElectricType will be available free to all Orpheus subscribers, but is currently in limited beta testing. For more information, please visit <http://www.electrictype.com/>.

MoreDesk v1.17 available

MoreDesk version 1.17 is now available to try or buy from the 7th software web site <http://www.7thsoftware.com/moredesk/>.

The latest version includes some significant new features and a number of bug fixes and other improvements. Here are the highlights:

Added the auto-load events to desktop automation. These events can be used to run files when a desktop is entered or load files into an editor (and position the window).
Implemented a work-around for a really annoying bit of filer window behaviour which meant that sometimes they would stick to the edge of the screen when you change desktop instead of moving off-screen.
Modified main window redraw code to include an indication of the iconbar location in all desktops, not just the current one.
Added an option "User" for possible positions to open the main window at. This new option simply means open at the same position as last time - useful if you have a specific position and size for the main window that you like to use.
Main window opening position was calculated slightly incorrectly. This could lead to bits of the window furniture being unreachable - depending upon the configured opening position.

The full details of the changes in version 1.17 are available here: <http://www.7thsoftware.com/moredesk/html/history.html>

MoreDesk allows you to organise your windows on over a space which is larger than the normal desktop. MoreDesk costs just GBP14.99 (plus VAT) and can be purchased online or by sending an order form to 7th software.

<http://www.7thsoftware.com/>

PD/Shareware News

New software summary

PC Play Pinball, pinball game
A simple Pinball game converted from an early 90s pinball game for DOS.
<http://alanb.drobe.co.uk/pcppinball/>
Postscript PDF for Brother duplex printers
A Postscript 2 printer definition file for Brother duplex printers. It allows automatic double sided printing flipping the paper on either the long or short sides, from both the main paper tray and the multi-purpose tray.
<http://www.rjdarby.co.uk/riscos/>

Updated software summary

CSVamp v3.10
Produce new, modified CSV/TSV files from existing CSV/TSV files. This version improves the way that the output file deals with any CSV record fields which include comma and/or double-quote characters as part of their content, and the application now uses Dr Wimp v4.80.
<http://www.rayfavre.me.uk/dwapps.html>
Firefox v2.0.0.12
Firefox 2 release 4. This version is based on Firefox 2.0.0.12 and includes bug fixes.
<http://www.riscos.info/index.php/Firefox>
Parmesan v1.30
MSN Messenger client. The new feature in this release is 'Alerts', little windows, sound effects and speech letting you know what is going on without having to concentrate.
<http://parmesan.recoil.org/>
SiteMatch v2.00
Enables you to synchronise your remote web sites with prototypes on your local machine. This version includes a number of enhancements which are designed to improve your productivity when managing large sites. The main change was to separate out the Select site, Compare, Upload and Reset functions - you no longer have to wait for a compare if you do not need it. Version 2 runs faster and in half the memory.
<http://www.exhaustnotes.org.uk/riscos/sitematch/>

Club News

Upcoming meetings

ROUGOL (London), 17th March - Ray Favre
<http://www.rougol.org.uk/>
RONWUG (North West), 19th March - Programming for RISC OS
<http://www.ronwug.org/>
SAUG (Southampton), 1st April
WROCC (Wakefield), 2nd April - 25th Anniversary
<http://www.wrocc.org.uk/>
RONE (North East), 10th April - Digital photography
<http://www.cjemicros.f2s.com/public/HouseFindMap.gif>
IRUG (Kent), 12th April
<http://www.irug.org.uk/>
SASAUG (Surrey & Sussex), 14th April
<http://www.sasaug.org.uk/>
ROUGOL (London), 21st April
<http://www.rougol.org.uk/>
Wakefield Show 2008, 26th April
<http://www.wakefieldshow.org.uk/>
WROCC (Wakefield), 7th May
<http://www.wrocc.org.uk/>
SAUG (Southampton), 13th May

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