Acorn News Service Newsletter
Issue: 238 (27 April 2008)
Featured site this issue: http://www.riscos-connect.org/
General News
Wakefield Show 2008 report
NetSurf in Google Summer of Code 2008
Google Summer of Code is an annual program which offers stipends to
students for completing open-source projects over the summer.
<http://code.google.com/soc/2008/>
NetSurf has been awarded $20000 to pay for four undergraduate programmers
to work on NetSurf this summer.
<http://www.netsurf-browser.org/developers/gsoc>
<http://www.drobe.co.uk/riscos/artifact2290.html>
RISC OS Open release batch 4
ROOL released batch 4 of the RISC OS source code at the Wakefield Show.
Batch 4 includes low level components such as the RISC OS kernel, hardware
abstraction layer, and Shared C Library.
<http://www.riscosopen.org/>
Commercial News
Select4i4 featuring RISC OS 6.10 released at Wakefield Show
RISCOS Ltd have announced that RISC OS 6 is now available to members of
the RISC OS Select scheme. Currently RISC OS 6 is suitable for A7000,
A7000+, Risc PC, Kinetic and VirtualRPC products.
The RISC OS developers have made over three thousand changes and
improvements since the RISC OS 6.06 ROM was released at Wakefield 2007.
A year's subscription to the Select scheme costs from GBP99. Full details
can be found at:
<http://select.riscos.com/> and
<http://www.riscos6.com/>
R-Comp announce PDFsuite
R-Comp have announced PDFsuite, an affordable CD containing everything you
need to view, print, and create PDF files on RISC OS machines (OS 3.5+).
PDFmaker, a major part of the suite and developed by R-Comp, allows you to
create PDF files from almost any application in just a couple of clicks.
The Suite also includes PDF viewing software, capable of running on all
machines 3.5+. PDFsuite (including PDFmaker) can be installed in just four
clicks.
PDFsuite combines software developed by R-Comp with products from Colin
Granville and Martin Wuerthner, with permission. The software costs GBP19
on CD including a printed instruction booklet.
<http://www.rcomp.co.uk/r-comp/pdf>
R-Comp update TouchType 2 and Complete Animator
R-Comp and Iota Software have announced the transfer of the remaining Iota
assets, including Image Animator and Touch Type, to the R-Comp as of April
2008.
A major update to TouchType, which is often regarded as the best typing
tutor available, has been released. Version 2 of the RISC OS edition adds
many new features and improvements, including:
- No copy protection
- Compatibility with all RISC OS 3.1+ machines
- Overhauled user interface
- Updated speech system
- Rewritten manual
- Additional typing exercises
TouchType allows the use of any text files for typing practice, and
generates reports allowing you to monitor progress. You can view your
accuracy, words per minute, and a visual representation of your success
for each key. With an attractive user interface and spoken audio cues,
TouchType is an excellent program for all ages. RISC OS TouchType v2
costs GBP19.
A new version of Complete Animator was released at the Wakefield Show. It
will run from floppy/hard disc/network and the support modules have been
made 32bit safe. Animated GIF capability has been added to the software
and new documentation is available.
The software is compatible with Draw and Artworks files, as well as
Sprites, allowing you to bring in external art from almost any graphics
application. The current price is GBP30 and includes free updates.
<http://www.rcomp.co.uk/>
VirtualRPC-AdjustSA for Mac OS X
The full version of VirtualRPC-AdjustSA for Mac OS X is now shipping.
All beta testers are encouraged to take up the offer of a free upgrade to
the full version of VirtualRPC for the Mac. In order to obtain this
upgrade beta testers need to return their Beta2/3/4 CDs (just the CD not
the rest of the packaging).
VirtualRPC-AdjustSA for the Mac is supplied as a universal binary suitable
for Intel, G5 and some G4 Macs. VirtualRPC allows the user to run RISC OS
and RISC OS applications either in a window or in full screen mode. More
details can be found on the VirtualAcorn web site.
<http://www.virtualacorn.co.uk/>
PD/Shareware News
New software summary
- Brother Postscript 2 printer definition file
A PDF for 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/>
- Shishi, Kerberos authentication protocol
Kerberos is an authentication protocol used to prove your identity to
remote services over a network. It is capable of providing a single
authentication realm, whereby you use the same credentials to access any
service, and single sign-on. GNU Shishi is a Kerberos implementation
which has now been (partially) ported to RISC OS.
<http://www.riscpkg.org/~gdshaw/kerberos/>
Updated software summary
- Calibre v2.00
Design and print calendars of various formats in all shapes and sizes.
This version is a major upgrade and offers new a printing preview
facility and a completely revised method for managing Red Letter Days.
<http://www.rayfavre.me.uk/dwapps.html>
- Disc Commander v2.54
A comprehensive disc recovery application and sector editor, allowing
you to manually recover data from corrupted discs and deleted files.
Fully 32-bit and works on all versions of RISC OS (from 3.1 onwards).
This version implements additional scanning for deleted files of known
filetypes, as well as making the disc search multi-tasking. Shareware.
<http://www.vigay.com/software/commander.html>
- DrawPrint v1.12
Allows you to print a Draw, Sprite or JPEG file over several pages at
the scale of your choice. The latest version can crop images, for
example to remove navigation bars from web pages, and can load Sprite
and JPEG files, enabling users to print large images over several pages
with ease.
<http://sinenomine.co.uk/software/>
- Dr Wimp v4.90
WIMP 'programming environment' written in BBC BASIC. This version has
several enhancements: printing can now include scaling and inverting;
error reporting now uses new style error boxes; JPEGs can now be sized
to show/print in their 'natural' size or forced to 90dpi.
<http://www.rayfavre.me.uk/drwimp.html>
- GnuPG v1.4.9
A free replacement for PGP. This version features easier key management
and fixes some security issues.
<http://www.sbellon.de/gnupg.html>
- NetSurf v1.2
An open Ssurce web browser for RISC OS and Unix-like platforms including
Linux. This is a bug fix and security release.
<http://www.netsurf-browser.org/>
- PlayIt v1.69
A sound sample player. Runs on both 26bit and 32bit platforms.
<http://www.pittdj.co.uk/software/>
- ScanMod v1.09
Module database, scanner and integrity checker. This version can convert
SWI calls to/from numbers/names. ScanMod contains an internal database
of SWI calls so it can give you the relevant information even if the
required module is not loaded.
<http://www.vigay.com/software/scanmod.html>
- Showjpeg v1.06p
JPEG display and carousel program. Bug fix so that scaling at 100%
displays the JPEG sized in accordance with the dpi information within
the file, rather than assuming 90dpi.
<http://pearson.orpheusweb.co.uk/downs.htm>
- WebGallery v1.14
Convert directories of images into online web galleries. New in this
version: the ability to use PNG format images and the ability to read
and cache EXIF thumbnail data from source JPEGs. Shareware.
<http://www.vigay.com/software/webgallery.html>
Club News
Upcoming meetings
ANS Information
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