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Acronyms 5.25 is now available from:
<http://homepage.eircom.net/~lrtc/downloads/acronyms.zip>
Please e-mail <richardjcbutler@eircom.net> with any bug reports or comments.
If you don't know, Acronyms is a little program that displays the meaning of acronyms and abbreviations. It was once developed my Gareth Duncan, but he kindly let me develop it further.
This is the first public release, and thanks to all beta-testers.
Version 1.20 of my EAsm assembler is now available at
<http://sudden.recoil.org/easm/>
EAsm is an assembler for Microchip's 12 and 14 bit PIC processors and Atmel's AVR range. Provisional but untested support is also provided for PICs with 16 bit instructions.
EAsm supports most of mpasm's functionality, and adds some of the nicer features of objasm, such as throwback and $-expansion.
Also on the site are StrongHelp manuals detailing the PIC and AVR instruction set, a Zap mode for colouring EAsm files, and an AVR programmer requiring no special hardware. In short, a complete SDK for AVRs.
For your information, I've just uploaded an Enigma Simulator for RISC OS to my web pages. The software can be freely downloaded.
Enigma is a mechanical encryptions device that was used by the Germans during WWII. Many simulations are available under Windows, but none for RISC OS, until now. Unlike most other simulation (such as the various Java Applets around) this version produces correct results and has been tested against real Enigma devices. There are many different versions and models of the Enigma around, and most are covered by the software.
During WWII the Enigma codes were broken by the UK's secret service in a place called Bletchley Park, which is now a museum. With the event of a block buster film, called Enigma, being released today (28 August 2001) the Enigma Simulator for RISC OS may be of interest.
The Enigma Simulator for RISC OS is available from:
As threatened, I've put up zips of the various apps discs and some Dealer Support discs. These are all way past their sell-by date, and *must* not be run on current generation hardware.
It's all at
http://www.eclipse.co.uk/gilberts/archiology
Which apalling pun is hopefully new.
Anyone with any other old stuff they would like me to put up, send it to
mailto:mgilbert@eclipse.co.uk
Thanks to Peter Miller as noted on the page. I've got some other bits to add, too.
A full list of news can be found inside the archive. Some of the most important changes include:
The new version and some useful utilities can be downloaded from my DIY homepage at
There has been discussions on the Acorn Newsgroups recently about planning a RISC OS Show in Scotland.
To this end a mailing list has been created to discuss it. So if you want to talk about it or any other Scottish RISC OS relevant subject then subscribe by sending a email to:
scots_show-subscribe@ncsolutions.net
The Scots Show is being run by:
There is also a Scottish Computer Users Noticeboard for personal announcements at http://www.quantumsoft.co.uk/scg/
RISC OS 2001 Show
The third annual RISC OS show will take place on 20 and 21 October at the Blue Mountain Centre at Binfield near Reading (Post code RG42 4EX).
The show is being organised by the ARM Club, Risc OS User Group of London and the Surrey and Sussex Acorn User Group.
Shuttle buses will leave from Reading station, to which frequent fast trains operate from London and Heathrow.
For more information and advance ticket sales visit www.riscos2001.com.
Hello, this is david from eQ R&D (one more time) - excuse me for my very bad english...
There is a new Russian/English keyboard layout switcher on our website (beta version, just for testing). This software comes from a new russian co-worker at eQ. Welcome to him :)
StupidPlayer comes also in a new version (0.5). It now skips RIFF header file in Microsoft MP3 files. So any file could be read with StupidPlayer (at least).
We should compile all our software with 26 bits libraries soon (we haven't got Acorn C yet). Note also that eQ is now fully working on ARM and RISC OS (since RISC OS community seems to love us a bit :)... So much products should be available soon.
Thanks for all your messages!
Bye, David
http://www.eqrd.net
A RISC OS driver has been developed for the Xerox C8 colour inkjet printer.
The RISC OS driver for the Xerox DocuPrint C8 printer provides the following print modes:
Basic, Colour
Draft, Black
Normal, Black
Best, Black
The modes print at the following resolutions:
Basic, Colour - 300x300dpi, Left to Right printing.
Draft, Black - 300x300dpi, Bidirectional printing.
Normal, Black - 600x300dpi, Bidirectional printing.
Best, Black - 600x300dpi, Left to Right printing.
Other resolutions are not possible with RISC OS.
The Best, Black mode produces, in my opinion, very good quality text output from WP/DTP packages on appropriate paper. The Basic, Colour mode produces what would probably considered output of a Draft quality. Good quality colour output is NOT possible with this printer under RISC OS.
Plain text printing is supported from eg. Edit.
Please note that the lateral position of some files is not quite the same at 600x300 as it is at 300x300. It has not been possible to resolve this issue. No head alignment software is provided, to optimise the bi-directional printing it is necessary to use the driver software provided by Xerox.
An appropriate icon bar symbol is provided.
For more information please email me, Jonathan Briggs at,
jbcb@globalnet.co.uk
Canon BJC-6500 colour inkjet printer
ExpLAN announces a reduction in the price of this A3 Bubblejet printer to ukp 199 +VAT, = ukp233.82. (Orig rrp = ukp279 +VAT)
This printer is the predecessor of the current S4500 model. Both print at up to 720dpi and take the same ink tanks and cartridges. It features extra speed enhancement when printing black-only which will be useful for those requiring rapid reproduction of A3-sized spreadsheets.
The price includes a Single-user version of !PrintControl, the RISC OS driver system from ExpLAN. School users and others requiring site licence options should enquire for special terms. This model requires !Printers 1.64 or later, and is therefore unsuitable for computers earlier than RISC OS 3.5.
PrintControl provides for head alignment, flushing of blocked nozzles etc.
Further info on
http://www.explan.co.uk/printers/canon.html
We have a new version of Kino, our video player with sound. It should now read both Mpeg1 Layer 2 and Layer 3 sound streams, so more files will work now.
Kino 0.1 is on http://www.eqrd.net
I'm pleased to announce the release of RiscCPS and brand new emulator for RISC OS!
RiscCPS emulates CPS1 and CPS2. What is CPS? I hear you ask... well it is the Capcom Play System, which is an arcade system upon which some great games were released. These games include Final Fight, Street Fighter, Strider, Ghouls and Ghosts... Note: This is a brand new emulator, not a port.
Sounds pretty kewl, what do I need to run it?
Well... you need a fairly hefty machine. A minimum of 24MB RAM, a StrongARM processor and preferably some VRAM. However currently the emulator needs more power than the SA can provide, but games are playable - otherwise I wouldn't have released it.
I have all that... is there anything else I need?
Yes! You will need some romsets. There is a list of romsets supported provided with the emulator. Games such as Final Fight, Street Fighter 2 and Strider all work - in fact 21 different romsets work in all.
Is there any sound?
Not at the moment. The emulator isn't fast enough to provide a nice quality.
OK... where can I get it?
From my website. http://www.acornemus.freeserve.co.uk
If you have any major problems please email me. Any requests for roms will be ignored and if people persist the relevant authorities will be informed. Also I do not want people demanding the latest CPS2 sets to be included, everything is done when I feel like it.
Anyhow enjoy the new emulator!
Version 1.7 of Vice, the Versatile Commodore Emulator has been released. For a list of the general news in this version see the Vice homepage at
Vice includes emulators for some popular CBM computers like the C64, C128, PET, VIC20 and CBM2. It also includes a SID player based on the C64 binary with the reSID engine.
RISC OS specific news include
You can download versions for all supported platforms from the Vice homepage (see above); the RISC OS binary is mirrored at my software page at
Warning: the download archive is huge (2.7 MB) and the emulators need lots of memory (5-9MB) and speed (StrongARM is minimum spec). If you've got all that: enjoy!
LogosWord: Bible study software for RISC OS
VERSION 2.0 BETA RELEASE
Thanks to the comments from beta-users, many improvements have been taken onboard, and I have had time to add further features and additional functionality.
The website is at www.logosword.co.uk,
hosted by RealIngenuity (www.realingenuity.com).
LogosWord is still in the BETA phase for a little while yet, and I should like to encourage folks to visit the website, register*, grab a copy of the beta software, and try it out. Your feedback would be welcome!
The core program is LogosWord, which you can use to view the dictionaries, lexicons, translations, commentaries and other material available for download on the site. (LogosWord requires a minimum of 3 translations installed.)
(* Registered users will receive a data key via e-mail.)
W. Simpson
simpson.general@ntlworld.com
software@www.logosword.co.uk
The stable version of the Super Methane Brothers game for RISC OS is now available at www.methane.fsnet.co.uk
If you downloaded the 1.3.x version - you may want to look at www.methane.fsnet.co.uk/history.txt before you decide to upgrade.
Today's topic:
An additional fix, provided by David Bryan, corrects problems with anti-aliased rendering in 32k colour modes. This problem was caused by an incompatibility of ViewFinder with the way the DitherExtend module worked.
This means that ArtWorks can now be used in high-resolution ViewFinder modes, e.g. 1600x1200 at 16M colours and that the size of bitmaps that can be exported using the BMExport module is only limited by the amount of available memory and hard disc space.
Having installed all these free bug fixes and enhancements, why not consider getting some of MW Software's acclaimed ArtWorks plug-in modules to finally add a wealth of new features to ArtWorks, including rotatable, multi-column text areas, user-defined pattern-fills, JPEG objects, shape intersection, polygons and stars, new grid types, sprite and GIF export, a drag 'n' drop colour bar, object replications, etc. A full list of modules can be found at
I've just put FTPc 1.37 on my web site: http://www.ftpc.iconbar.com/. It has the following changes:
!FTPc is a freeware internet File Transfer Protocol Client. It enables you to transfer files/directories to and from your web space from the desktop using drag and drop.
Co-Comp Ltd (www.co-comp.co.uk) announced on Thursday the launch of a new web portal to support and enhance the RISC OS community.
The portal is named My RISC OS and is aimed at enabling the sites' users to submit news articles, tutorials, have discussions, co-ordinate downloads and collect links etc.
My RISC OS has many exciting features including the integration of messaging systems, chat facilities, downloads and multiple language choices.
The feature that sets the portal apart from some of the others aimed at RISC OS users, is the ability for visitors to submit news and articles themselves in a similar style to Slashdot (www.slashdot.org)
My RISC OS is a collaborative effort that is looking for support from its users to enhance the style and features available. Several administrators have volunteered their assistance, now we need you to submit news, visit the site and get involved.
For further details and to visit the site see: www.myriscos.co.uk
Version 3.3 of !Makealias is now available
Provision has been made for internationalisation and many thanks to Benoit and Nico for the french and part dutch translations. Any contributes to further languages or corrections to existing ones, gratefully accepted.
The application is also distributed with a patch for !Boot which fixes the problem of incorrect versions of toolbox modules in certain directories. This is available seperately.
Makealias can be found on my website under the Software section.
http://www.argonet.co.uk/users/mripley/index.html
Announcing the release of NetTime 1.05
This fixes a bug in the pop up window which did not store a time reset when one was required.
NetTime is an online time calculator which tracks the amount of time spent online per month. It shows session time plus monthly aggregated time. It now has a pop up window which reminnds you when the first of the month comes along, or when a month has elapsed since the last reset.
NetTime can be downloaded from
http://www.denmarkwa.net.au/~kwright/
A new version of BookMaker, the freeware hotlist and address book manager, is now available.
This version fixes a bug in the previous version that in some circumstances could result in URLs being stored in the wrong address book.
BookMaker V1.63 can be downloaded from:
Just to let you know that a new version of !Png2Spr is available on my website, http://www.argonet.co.uk/users/ttehtann. The new version can translate masks on 256-colour sprites into transparency information (well, as long as you don't use all 256 colours in the visible portion of the sprite!).
!Png2Spr is a freeware program that allows you to convert PNG images to acorn sprites, or vice versa, either from the command line or via the desktop. Unlike !Translatr & !Creator, it can convert alpha channels & transparency information to/from sprite masks.
I've just released the first version of a small routine that will generate a colmplete web site from a directory of images.
At the moment it only works with TIFFs and JPEGs as the source, but I intend to extend this to allow almost any input image type.
The application is called !Web_Gen, and the current version is available on http://www.argonet.co.uk/users/daves/software along with a couple of other reasonably useless utilities.
Bugs, requests for aditions and extensions can be sent to support@starfiend.co.uk
Due to popular request Quantum Software have created a Mailing List for their ever popular RISC OS !Keystroke program.
http://www.quantumsoft.co.uk/keystroke/
If you own (or are thinking of owning) a copy of !Keystroke then subscribe to the list by sending a blank email to:
keystrokelist-subscribe@quantumsoft.co.uk
Keystroke is a sophisticated macro-making program that allows the user to control their Desktop environment in a automated way.
I've put the latest version of Snes9X, my front-end to David McEwen's fantastic port, onto AcornArcade's ftp site. Most people know the game and some even know the capabilities of the emu. so there's not much more to say except have fun.
http://www.acornarcade.com/cgi-bin/gamelist
Version 1.04-001 of !EnBank, The multi-currency accounts package for RISC OS, is now available from the RISC OS pages of the EnVision Software web site: http://riscos.envision-software.co.uk/
Please note that !EnBank requires RISC OS V3.5 or later.
Basic home use of the base unit, that's a maximum of 5 Accounts, 10 Standing Orders and 500 Transactions, is free.
Licence details and prices to remove the base unit restrictions and/or add multi-currency capabilities are on the web site. You can also check out !EnBank's full capabilities by requesting a free 60 day trial licence.
Just a short note to say that the Winner of the Wimpbasic best utitly passwords has been updated, and can be found at
http://www.argonet.co.uk/users/jpeachey/
Just follow the links into the computing section.
For those not in the know Passwords is a small utility which allows you to store your internet passwords in an encrypted form. No more bits of paper stuck under the keyboard. Full details at the website.
If anyone out here is interested in hosting and managing the Freenet site, please contact me.
Thanks
Gareth Dykes, who is the owner of the Pluto Users mailing list, has informed me that he intends to close the current list.
To avoid discontinuity, I asked him both by private email and on the List instead to transfer ownership to myself or someone else, but I received no reply.
I have therefore set up a new Pluto Users list at:
Members of the old list will need to re-subscribe to the new one as I do not have access to the membership list.
To subscribe, send an email by clicking here:
I intend to continue now on the new PlutoUsers list to read messages regularly, answer questions, and respond to suggestions.
A trial version of the Pluto news/mail reader and text database is available for download at:
I have written a program to decode and display the Rugby time standard. It is still under development and works very well. The most recent copy - called !OvalTime - is on my website.
http://www.argonet.co.uk/users/tudor
This program is of no use without an msf receiver, hence I have started a new interfacing section on my website that explains how to build and interface the circuit. Other projects will be added in good time.
The link is at the bottom of my home page, you can't miss it (or the counter).
!OvalTime is shareware. Advice to registered users is free.
Justice FM is a short term radio station run by young people for the local community in Acton, UK. The radio project was set up by members of the local community and the Metropolitan Police. The project originally was part of a package of crime diversion but now aims to give youth people background and experience in radio and broadcasting.
The station uses RISC OS thanks to Castle Technology who have kindly provided Acorn RiscPCs for the broadcast period. The machines perform daily tasks for the station like the MP3 Player out system, Internet access, E-mail, DTP and Office Admin.
Adam Shailes, Justice FM's IT Manger (aged 17) said, "We know we can rely on RISC OS for a quick easy setup and to perform where reliability is very important, such as a Radio Station."
Tune in and listen and catch an Acorn RiscPC playing our over night playout! The station can be heard on 87.7FM in the West London area and on the Internet via Shoutcast between the 8th to 19th August 2001.
RISC OS users on the internet can listen via !MP3Radio
Justice FM - 87.7FM - www.justicefm.co.uk
The mix that does justice!
Live 8th to 19th August
The first meeting of the Hemel Hempstead RISC OS User Group is:
Next to Traffic lights at Box lane (Road to Bovingdon)
The room is free for the first meeting.
If you have a RISC OS computer and you live near Hemel Hempstead, come and join us.
I look forward to seeing you there.
Version 0.30 of WebJames is now available from my website: http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~ajw498/.
WebJames is an HTTP server for RISC OS.
Changes for version 0.30 include:
Support for content negotiation and multiviews.
Added a hander for HTML with SSI (server side includes)
Suports Location: and Status: headers output by CGI scripts
Outputs a Date: header in all responses
This post to announce the avaibility of a territory module for France.
The URL to follow is:
For the curious, the source is available:
For people who dowloaded the module from my site previously. The new version has a fix for the last known bug in it.
Credits: The territory module was built from the James Bursa territory kit as a basis.
Bug reports or remarks are welcome at mailto:bgilon@free.fr.
The latest version of Account2 (1.14) the freeware home accounts application is now available from
http://www.ksedwards.ukgateway.net/account2/
This latest version includes many requests by users.
Automatic internal transfers between sub-accounts can be set.
More comprehensive sorting facility added. Accounts can now be sorted by category, transactions details, debits and credits as well as by date order.
Accounts can now be linked to each other for easier transfer of transactions. Internal linked transfers between sub-accounts are now possible.
Up to 20 transactions can be selected for copying, pasting, deleting and transferring to linked accounts.
Added an abbreviation table so transaction details that you enter frequently can be reduced to a single keypress (or whatever you choose).
Entries to the credit and debit fields can be the result of a calculation if desired.
Some editing of direct debits is possible (amount, details and category)
All direct debits can be refreshed in one action.
A new year reset option is available which leaves only transactions which have not been seen on a statement, and creates a "Balance brought forward".
You can forecast your balance for any specified date in the rest of the year.
A new version of !MakeTable, a CSV/TSV -> HTML Table convertor is now available from
This version fixes a bug in the HTML->text conversion.
For those of you who have been waiting patiently for better PIC programming facilities on Acorn RISC OS, I have ported Timo Rossi's PIC12DIS, PIC14DIS and PICASM to RISC OS. The driver software for the Maplin/David Tait PIC Programmer should be done in a few weeks.
Also planned is a port of GPASM - the GNU PIC Assembler - to RISC OS. This should be done within the next three weeks.
Have fun and let me know how you get on. If you absolutely need some programmer software, you can download Mike Cook's driver software for the Maplin PIC programmer from http://www.doc.mmu.ac.uk/library/Acorn/RTR97.html (as featured in Acorn User magazine).
I've recently released new versions of SSHProxy (0.16), pscp (0.49b05) and CryptRandom (0.07). SSHProxy and pscp respectively implement the terminal session and secure copy (file transfer) parts of the Secure Shell (ssh) protocol v1. CryptRandom is a module for generating cryptographically useful random numbers under RISC OS. Details of the changes can be found below.
Also released on my website is details of my DIY 16 bit sound upgrade for older Risc PCs, originally published in Archive and posted with their kind permission. This, and belatedly my DIY Risc PC 486 card upgrade page, also include photos of my hardware.
All this can be found at http://www.markettos.org.uk/
Theo
Ported and added support for tcp_wrappers - this allows you to specify precisely who can and cannot connect to the proxy (now not restricted to just localhost)
Fixed pause when sent lots of data (eg ls -lR would sometimes wait for a keypress before continuing)
Fixed terminal type corruption bug (ANTTerm reported vt220vt200...etc)
Fixed seizing up when server wasn't providing any output (eg passwd or su) on some SSH servers
Now *Runs !Syslog instead of Filer_Run - makes sure Syslog is ready before SSHProxy runs
New CryptRandom
The address of the !PDF web site has changed to
The existing site will redirect you for a short while so please change your links.
Image Software is pleased to announce that we can now accept credit and debit card payments for all our products.
All prices are fully inclusive. More details can be found on our website at http://www.imagesoft.co.uk/
Special rates available for resellers; contact sales@imagesoft.co.uk for more details.
Place your order now on 01202 269720.
I've updated !SimpWeb, my text to html converter. It now outputs a proper html heading with DOCTYPE information and provides a default title based on the textfile leafname.
Version 1.12 now available from my website:
http://www.greywall.demon.co.uk/riscos/soft.html
I've just put FTPc 1.36 on my web site: http://www.ftpc.iconbar.com/. It has the following changes:
!FTPc is a freeware internet File Transfer Protocol Client. It enables you to transfer files/directories to and from your web space from the desktop using drag and drop.
It is with delight I am able to inform that APDL/ProAction have acquired the education titles formally published by Triple 'R' Education, including Picture Book 1, Dataword, Target Maths and Money Matters. We are presently updating the programs to work natively under RISC OS 4, including upgrading the resolution of the sprites in order that the programs run in a VGA [non-letterbox] screen mode, making Dataword RISC OS compliant and a whole lot more.
We are expecting to release, on 14th August, a CD-ROM containing Picture Book, Target Maths, Money Matters and Dataword for ALL RISC OS computers at just 14.90ukp inclusive. Site licence pricing is available upon application. Upgrades are also to be made available: simply return your original program disc(s) to buy at 9.90ukp - a saving of 5ukp.
Other developments are afoot on the education front, and through virtue of some recently established partnerships we should have a further three education titles before the end of the year - newly ported education titles that make the most of your home computer.
To order the Triple 'R' Education CD-ROM, please call APDL on 020 8778 2659, email info@apdl.co.uk or write to APDL, 39 Knighton Park Road, Sydenham, London SE26 5RN. No upgrades will be offered without the original disc(s) being returned.
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