News from Third Party Developers

All the latest news about software and hardware products from third party developers

The news is organised in chronological order, with the most recent stories at the top. Choose the month you require, then click on a topic heading to jump to the associated announcement.

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2002 Dec Nov Oct Sep Aug Jul 2002
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2001 Dec Nov Oct Sep Aug Jul 2001
Jun May Apr Mar Feb Jan
2000 Dec Nov Oct Sep Aug Jul 2000
Jun May Apr Mar Feb Jan

July 2001


New(ish) products

31st July 2001

Robin Watts

Just a quick note to say that we have updated our website to include details of 2 products that I forgot to add before. Both have been available since last Novembers ARM club show at Epsom, but I've been too inept to update the website to include them.

LoadMaster: A download manager compatible with all RISC OS browsers. Multiple, Queueable, Interruptible, Restartable, Sequential or Concurrent downloads. Just ukp23.50 (inc VAT).

ImageNFS: An image filing system based NFS client; ideal for connecting your RISC PC to Unix servers using the NFS protocol. A mature implementation as extensively used in the development of RISC OS 4. Just ukp41.13 (inc VAT).

http://www.wss.co.uk/

Robin Watts

New Warm Silence Upgrade Scheme

31st July 2001

Robin Watts

We have just updated the web page describing the upgrade schemes available to WSS customers. Hopefully the descriptions of what to do to get the latest versions of software we sell will be less confusing than before.

http://www.wss.co.uk/

The *big* change is that we now have a scheme in place with CJE whereby people can order upgrades on credit cards (hence it can all be done over the net). Anyone interested in using this scheme should read the webpage and follow the instructions there - do NOT ring CJE until you have read the instructions.

Robin Watts

!GCCide v1.18

30th July 2001

Dave Appleby

!GCCide v1.18 is now available from

http://www.davea.web.btinternet.co.uk/gccide/

Some bugs fixed

If object directory doesn't exist it is created when project is made.
'Top bit set' characters (eg hard space) now work OK in pathnames.
Config file buffer sizes can now handle large projects.

Summer Holidays

Don't expect any more development before autumn :-(

However, I do have some ideas for future enhancements :-)
If you have any, please let me know!

But what does it do?

'Front end' for GCC tools
Project manager
Generates makefiles
Easy to manage different GCC versions
Easy to manage 3rd party libraries

Dave Appleby

Audiogalaxy Satellite 1.02

30th July 2001

Marc Warne

Version 1.02 Available

Version 1.02 of the Audiogalaxy Satellite for RISC OS has been released. This features the following changes over 1.00 which a few of you might have downloaded:

What is Audiogalaxy?

One of the great qualities of the internet is the ability for people to communicate ideas and explore other people's musical collections and tastes in a truly global community. Audiogalaxy is committed to promoting and raising people's understanding of music and broaden the range of music available that you might not know exists through a community of people who have a passion for music.

(information from the Audiogalaxy website)

What is the Audiogalaxy Satellite?

The Audiogalaxy Satellite is a small and simple program that allows you to share your music with friends and other users on Audiogalaxy. You must download [...] and run the Audiogalaxy Satellite for the system to work correctly.

(information from the Audiogalaxy website)

http://www.alpha-programming.co.uk/

Marc Warne

MySQL Clients for RISC OS

27th July 2001

Luke Graham

I've recently ported most of the MySQL client programs to RISC OS. They should be considered beta quality code at best, however they seem to work on my machine...

All clients are available from

http://www.bighamster.co.uk/luke/mysqlclients.html

Any feedback would be appreciated.

BTW these are the same versions of the clients that were released last friday, but have been split up a bit.

For anyone who doesn't know MySQL is a common SQL database, more info from their website at

http://www.mysql.com/

Luke Graham

RISC OS Molecular Cell biology Page Back+ NEW APP

26th July 2001

Bob Hartley

The RISC OS Molecular and Cell Biology Page is Back and there is a new application for measuring cell area dispersion elongation etc etc. It can be found at:

http://www.r.hartley.freeuk.com/index.html

Some of the page is out of date but I've 5 days left of my PhD so I'll get to it after that.

Bob Hartley

Audiogalaxy Satellite for RISC OS

25th July 2001

Marc Warne

Alpha Programming presents...

The Audiogalaxy Satellite for RISC OS

I've just finished writing basic version of this client which can download MP3s using Audiogalaxy's servers. Since Napster has been useless recently, I have been using Audiogalaxy and until now, there hasn't been a client available for RISC OS.

This client only supports file downloading, but resuming seems to work. It does not support the uploading of files or creation of new users. Please note that it is unlikely to be completely stable as it is an initial release.

The program is FREEWARE and is available at the new Alpha Programming web site at:

NB: Please do not use the old Alpha Programming website, which used to be http://www.alphapro.demon.co.uk/ as it will be removed soon.

If you haven't heard of Audiogalaxy before, please visit their website at http://www.audiogalaxy.com/. It's basicially a set of servers to enable MP3 file sharing.

Marc Warne

Locate 0.50 released

24th July 2001

Steve Fryatt

Locate 0.50 is now available for download. The main improvements since version 0.40 (a full list is on the website and in the documentation) are:

There have also been some minor tweaks to the results window interface and a full set of RISC OS 3 style sprites is now used on the older OS rather than the RISC OS 4 (green directory) ones. The usual bug fixes are also included...

The program is Freeware, and can be downloaded from my website at

If you do download it, I would appreciate your comments and feedback on any bugs or features that could be added or improved. It should work on any version of RISC OS from 3.1 onwards; let me know if it doesn't!

Locate is a Desktop utility to search for files, directories and applications meeting a given set of criteria. It will match filenames using wildcards and will also compare size, age, type, attributes and contents; the idea is based very loosely on the 'Find files' utility in Windows and the equivalent on the Mac.

Steve Fryatt

Gigo updated

24th July 2001

Rick Hudson

Gigo is another trashcan app - it's an acronym for Garbage In, Garbage Out. The initial release last year provided the basic functions of file binning and unbinning (restoring the file to its original location). Since releasing its source, some third party (credited in the docs) improvements have given it all the things it was meant to have:

Auto-rename is the main improvement over the previous release which means you can trash files with the same name from different places and not have each one overwriting the last.

Gigo 1.02 is downloadable from its web page:

The license is (now) GPL and the source archive is available from the same page.

Rick Hudson

Cerilica Vantage available today!

24th July 2001

Cerilica Limited

Cerilica is pleased to announce that Cerilica Vantage v1.00 is now available immediately direct from Cerilica in the UK. This follows a very successful delivery schedule for all existing customers.

Cerilica Vantage is RISC OS' premier vector design and publishing package. It has recently been described in Acorn User's independent review as:

'The things that it was designed for, it does with an effortlessness unrivalled in any other drawing application on any other platform.'

Features it brings to RISC OS vector design and publishing include:

For more information about the largest software release for RISC OS for many years, please visit:

Cerilica accepts credit card orders. Please contact Cerilica direct if you wish to place an official order.

Overseas customers can order Cerilica Vantage direct from one of Cerilica's overseas dealers. The following page gives further details:

Please contact your nearest overseas dealer for current local information and status.

Nicholas van der Walle

Announcing Labyrinth 0.50

23rd July 2001

John Kortink

Labyrinth 0.50

Labyrinth is a RISC OS port of the Acornsoft game Labyrinth for the BBC micro. No sound, but otherwise complete.

Labyrinth 0.50 is available now, from the 'Software' section of:

http://www.inter.nl.net/users/J.Kortink

Note that Labyrinth is freeware.

John Kortink

Beta release of version 0.27 of Director

23rd July 2001

Philip Ludlam

This is to announce the beta release of version 0.27 of Director.

Several bugs have been removed since the previous pre-beta release and some functionality has been added. All those who downloaded the pre-beta release should upgrade to this release.

As of this release there are two archive available for download. One contains the main Director programs and associated utilities and menus. The other also contains the source code and CVS information.

Both archives can be downloaded from:
http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/director/

Since the last stable release of Director, the following changes have been made:

Since the last pre-beta release of Director, the following changes have been made:

For those who don't know what Director is, it is a general purpose desktop tool. It allows you to customise your desktop by creating menus of useful commands and icons to attach the menus to. Any number of menus or icons can be created and attached in any order to each other.

Director also allows an alternative and faster view onto files in the form of directory menus and allows these menus to be attached to other menus also.

Director has some other useful features such as remembering the most recently used files, the ability to add key strokes into the keyboard buffer and the ability to produce directory menus over drive icons.

Director is fully customisable by the user, and can do many or all of the functions of Pinboard+, TreeMenu (AKA DirMenu), Filer-, QuickDir, DeskUtils, Memorizer, Menon and some of the functions of Filer+.

Philip Ludlam

Updated AcornSearch resources

23rd July 2001

Ian Hawkins

AcornSearch is a dedicated search engine for RISC OS, ARM and Acorn related material. It contains searchable indexes of Files, News, Websites, and even Stronghelp manuals.

Updated Resources:

Any suggestions/criticisms would be appreciated.

AcornSearch: http://www.acornsearch.com/
JavaHunter: http://www.javahuter.com/

Ian Hawkins

GnuPlot 3.7.1 for RISC OS

22nd July 2001

Bob Brand

This is to announce a preliminary release of a port of GnuPlot 3.7.1 for RISC OS.

GnuPlot is a command-line driven plot program that can produce 2D and 3D plots of (almost) any function or set of data. It exists on virtually any computer platform that has a C compiler. It can produce output in, amongst others, dxf, gif, PostScript and EPS, CGM, HP-PCL (most HP DeskJets and LaserJets), most dot matrix printers, PNG, LaTeX (and pstricks, MetaFont) and of course RISC OS Draw and Sprite format.

The Draw output is closely modelled after the PostScript driver. It supports colour and black-and-white drawfiles, both with solid lines and with dash patterns as well as 75 different 'points'.

The Sprite output can be in 16 colours (the standarddesktop colours), 16 grey tones or black-and-white and with transparant or opaque background. For the rest it is like the other GnuPlot bitmap drivers.

This is a preliminary release. There is as yet no proper RISC OS front end, it simply runs in a taskwindow. And it uses !Draw and !Paint (or any other program that recognizes draw or sprite) as viewer. But since, in my experience, its main use is in processing scripts rather than interactive use, this is not too much of an inconvenience.

The sources are provided as well, so it is possible to compile Draw and Sprite support into your existing version of GnuPlot for e.g. Linux. A Windows version with Draw and Sprite support can be downloaded as well, in case someone wants to create Draw files for use with OakDraw or Xara X. (It works with the demo versions of both programs.)

Changes with respect to version 3.4 for RISC OS:

For a start of course all changes and new features that 3.7.1 for other platforms have.

The names of the drivers changed from arcdraw and arcsprite to rodraw and rosprite, partly since it is no longer Archimedes only and partly to prevent confusion with a PC draw program called arcdraw. Existing scripts may have to be changed, but they may have to be changed any way because of the other new features of version 3.7.1.

The drivers are written from scratch. The porter of version 3.4, Erik van de Pol, seems to have left the Acorn/RISC OS scene and the sources of his port are not available. So output from existing scripts may look a bit different.

There is no proper RISC OS front end.

Download it from http://www.brandpoint.tmfweb.nl/riscos/.

Please send comments, remarks etc. to rogp@brandpoint.tmfweb.nl (preferred) or bbrand@nki.nl if it is urgent.

Bob Brand

POSum update

22nd July 2001

Darren Windsor

An update from POSum HQ, to let you know how things are progressing with the project.

More than just an EPOS package

If you've been reading up on our newsgroup postings you will know that over the past few months we've been adding more and more modules to EBMS (the software behind the POSum). What we're aiming for is a Total Business Management package; Solutions, not just for the retail shop owner, but all areas of the commercial and industrial marketplace. The customer simply selects what modules suits his/her business: and so on. POSum solutions become a 'pick and mix' affair, where they are customised to the client's requirements.

Gone are the days when POSum meant just a solution for the corner shop owner. POSum systems can now find their way into newsagents, healthfood stores, equipment manufacturers, PC builders, factory outlets, repair service providers, garages... and a whole host of other commercial/industrial fields.

So if you know anyone who could be interested in a POSum solution then get in touch. We're grateful for all sales leads, regardless of whether or not they result in a successful sale.

Morale booster for RISC OS

Did you know that most EPOS systems use DOS rather than Windoze because of reliability issues? Obviously this results in the lack of a GUI; an area which we've got covered...

It's not very often that you hear the phrase "Great; it's not Windoze", but that's something which we are hearing time and time again with the POSum. Developers are scared of using an unreliable OS because of the problems it brings. Just ask any EPOS reseller and they'll tell you plain and simple; Windoze scares them.

RISC OS not only provides a stable GUI based OS but it makes an ideal embedded system for truly discless clients, not requiring a cut-down version of the OS.

Ask Mal McClenaghan, of RiscStation Australasia, and he'll tell you how POSum solutions are replacing PC based systems which continually fall over.

EPOS systems need to be reliable; to every proprietor they are the life support system of their business.

Australasia

Sales continue down-under with POSum systems finding there way into various areas of the retail market. It's nice to hear of RISC OS solutions in use in busy shopping centres, where they are in some cases replacing PC based solutions.

Holland

This week sees the first sale of EBMS to our neighbours over on mainland Europe, and even before a distribution agreement has been signed ! It looks as though our European cousins are champing at the bit for a decent EPOS package.

All mainland Europe sales enquiries should be directed to Frank Kraaij (of Desk) on +31-10-2860541, or by email to 'info@deskvof.nl'.

UK

Closer to home, we're currently establishing a reseller network for POSum systems. If you have any interest in becoming a registered POSum reseller contact Alan Gibson (of Liquid Silicon) on 01592 592265, or by email to 'sales@liquid-silicon.com'.

Component Integration and Tracking module

Image Software is proud to announce the addition of a new module for EBMS, 'C.I.T'.

C.I.T (Component, Integration and Tracking) provides an ideal system for people who build equipment and need to keep track of serial numbers, batch numbers, builds, etc.

Using this module you tell the system exactly what components make up a piece of equipment (eg. a computer). You can submit builds to the workshop for assembly, where the assembler is given step by step instructions on how to build the machine and is prompted for any information you would like to track (eg. serial numbers of components).

Serial numbers, etc are all logged; so you can easily check on the validity of returned equipment (was that faulty component really supplied by you ?)

Because the C.I.T module integrates with the job control system, already implemented into EBMS, build jobs can be traced from start to finish using the standard job control facilities. Organising your workload couldn't be easier.

Total Business Management

The addition of this module is another step towards achieving a 'Total Business Management Solution' for RISC OS; with point-of-sale, stock control, customer accounting and job control facilities in a single, integrated package.

Available now!

EBMS and complete POSum systems are available right now...

For users who already have a RISC OS machine EBMS can be purchased direct from Image Software (details in the signature). Users requiring a complete POSum system, and potential resellers, should contact Alan Gibson (of Liquid Silicon) on 01592 592265, or by email to sales@liquid-silicon.com.

Enquiries for mainland Europe sales should be directed to Frank Kraaij (of Desk) on +31-10-2860541, or by email to 'info@deskvof.nl'.

Final word

Now there's no excuse for all you resellers out there who build, sell and/or repair RISC OS machines not to be using EBMS! And there's no excuse for everyone else in the RISC OS community not to be pushing POSum into the outside world.

For those people out there still using Prophet, don't forget that you can simply drag-and-drop your entire database into EBMS; no conversion or messing with data required.

For a free demo version, or for more information, visit our website and get in touch. I hope that everyone in the RISC OS community will all help us to make POSum the success it deserves to be. We can't do it without you.

www.imagesoft.co.uk

Darren Windsor

Oaktree

21st July 2001

Richard Grant

There are several in the Acorn world who used Oaktree as their Host Server for their sites, a decision made, one presumes, so as to support a couple of ex-BBC micro enthusiasts in their new venture. I was one and DiscKnight was another. Those who did will now know that the company went belly-up along with its new owner, IS4B and that the servers are now switched off.

Another Coventry based Internet company, Computime, who have been trading for 16 years have bought the companies and their assets and are now holding the original servers which they had intended to wipe and sell for what they can get. However, there are some 300 websites on these servers and Computime have agreed to copy any website to CDRom and supply it back to its original owner for ukp100 + VAT. So if you want your original files back for any reason, you need to move fast and contact www.computime.co.uk sharpish.

Richard Grant

Updated RISC OS Software section!

21st July 2001

Frode Wells

RISC OS Users,

Check out the link below:
http://www.studio32.net/RiscOSSoftware.html

I have updated the RISC OS software section on my website. All the broken links are now fixed. You will find links to RISC OS software on this webpage.

Frode Wells

PsiFS 1.50 released (freeware SIBO/EPOC connectivity)

21st July 2001

Alexander Thoukydides

PsiFS 1.50

The sixth release of PsiFS is now available for free download from:

The most significant changes from version 1.40 are:

PsiFS is a freeware RISC OS file system that communicates with a remote SIBO or EPOC device via the Psion Link Protocol (PLP). Files can be manipulated as if they were on a local harddisc, alebit a slow one, so copying is simply a matter of dragging icons between filer windows. Full source code is available under the GNU General Public Licence.

Reasonably complete descriptions of the Psion Link Protocol and EPOC SIS file format are also available from the same web site under the GNU Free Documentation License.

Alexander Thoukydides

Super Methane Brothers V1.3.7

21st July 2001

Mark Page

The development version of the RISC OS Super Methane Brothers Game is ready for final testing.

Find the game at www.methane.fsnet.co.uk. The source code is also available at the site.

The game is licensed using the GNU General Public License Version 2

Mark Page

Acorn Dune II

19th July 2001

Jason Tribbeck

After trying to contact Westwood Studios regarding the status of Dune II, I have released the Acorn version of Dune II, and it is available from http://www.tribbeck.com/dune2/

Please note that there isn't really any support for this game, but you should read the main page before you have any problems.

In case you have never heard of it, Dune II is the strategy game that when released on the PC started the strategy game genre. It is based on the Frank Herbert book "Dune", as well as the Dino De Laurentis film of the same name. You are in control of forces belonging to a "House", and the idea is to take control of the planet "Arrakis", by using the planet's resources to buy weapons and technology. There are a number of levels in the game, each one getting more difficult, with a wider range of options available to you.

Jason Tribbeck

FTPc 1.35

19th July 2001

Colin Granville

I've just put FTPc 1.35 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.

Colin Granville

Announcing DigitalCD v2.52

17th July 2001

André Timmermans

I have just updated my homepage at

or

The changes are:

For those who still don't know:

DigitalCD is a desktop music player compatible with RISC OS 3.1 or later (including StrongARM). It provides independent control panels for any connected CD drive and music files playlists. It's main features are:

André Timmermans

Announcing DigitalCD v2.51

17th July 2001

André Timmermans

I have just updated my homepage at

or

The changes are:

For those who still don't know:

DigitalCD is a desktop music player compatible with RISC OS 3.1 or later (including StrongARM). It provides independent control panels for any connected CD drive and music files playlists. It's main features are:

André Timmermans

Notice to R-Comp customers with Bigfoot email addresses

16th July 2001

R-Comp

This is an important announcement to all R-Comp customers who have registered Bigfoot.com email addresses with us for upgrades etc.

For a while now, upgrade emails to bigfoot addresses have been failing, so you will not have been receiving upgrades. We are unable to even send short messages back to bigfoot addresses to inform users of the problem!

As such, if you have currently registered a Bigfoot address with us (or indeed, any other company which emails software upgrades) we would urge you to phone us with an alternative 'proper' email address with a 'normal' internet provider such as Freeserve, FreeUk, Argo, Demon, UKgateway etc....

We applogise if this causes inconvenience, but having received several upgrade requests from Bigfoot customers recently, and being unable to service their requests, it seems sensible to inform people generally.

As a rule of thumb, don't request email upgrades via free web email services such as bigfoot, hotmail, yahoomail, activemail etc.... Whilst some may be ok, a proper email address will serve you better for this purpose.

R-Comp

!GCCide v1.17

16th July 2001

Dave Appleby

!GCCide v1.17 is now available from

http://www.davea.web.btinternet.co.uk/gccide/

Some bugs fixed

Missing headers window now stays open after mouse clicks, and is resizable.
Library list now works properly when long macro paths encountered.

Enhanced feature

Makefile include files (-I in CCflags) now compiled from path list selection AND library list. This combines the functionality from v1.15 (only library list) and v1.16 (only path list selection).

But what does it do?

'Front end' for GCC tools
Project manager
Generates makefiles
Easy to manage different GCC versions
Easy to manage 3rd party libraries

As far as I know, everything is now working as it should be :-)

If you think otherwise, or would like to see more features added please let me know.

Dave Appleby

Shine v1.05

14th July 2001

Pete Everett

Shine v1.05, a simple MP3 encoder port.

This release is mainly to correct the bitstream error on the last frame as reported by AMPlayer.

Download from http://www.everett9981.freeserve.co.uk/pete.htm

One version for all machines now.

I have stopped it wasting about 10% of the available bits although I doubt this makes any noticeable difference.

You may find it goes just a teeny bit faster though.

Pete Everett

Quantum Software Site back up and running

14th July 2001

Stuart Halliday

Due to Internet Host Oaktree going out of business the Quantum Software site has had to move Host.

But we're up and running now so please take a look at our new URL.

http://www.quantumsoft.co.uk/

Existing customers, could you update your bookmarks please?

I've added a lot of free files to http://www.quantumsoft.co.uk/files/

and the ever popular SuperSearch page is now hosted here at:

http://www.quantumsoft.co.uk/search/

All this plus the usual great programs like Keystroke, Blinds, TempDir and the like. If you've not looked recently then now is the time to give it a browse.

I want to add lots more clipart and the like so if you've any ideas I'd be happy to listen.

One last thing. If you've got a PD program you want to share with the world then give me an email and I'll give you some free cyberspace to put it on.

Oh and the Acorn Cybervillage is online too... ;-)

http://acorn.cybervillage.co.uk/

Stuart Halliday

John Kortink's Zeri link

14th July 2001

Jochen Lueg

I read in Archive magazine that there is renewed interest in this excellent system. I had considered writing a program for it, but found that the easiest was to write scripts for both the Acorn and my PC.

The file is on my website. Once installed (instructions supplied) you have two icons in an Acorn window called ZeriT and ZeriR and two batch files which you can place on the PC desktop. To transmit a file, which is placed in a directory called Transport, you simply click on ZeriR on the receiving machine and ZeriT on the transmitting machine and the program moves across.

I have used the system for quite some time with great success.

This stuff is freeware.

http://www.argonet.co.uk/users/tudor/

Jochen Lueg

Pluto and Speak - change of URL

13th July 2001

Jonathan Duddington

My email address has changed from jsd@argonet.co.uk to

The URL for the trial versions of Pluto (news/mail reader and text database) and of the Speak text-to-speech software is now

For URLs for Pluto update versions, take the old URL and replace:

The Pluto users mailing list is run on 'egroups'. To subscribe, send an email to: Pluto-Users-subscribe@egroups.co.uk

Jonathan Duddington

ROX-Filer 1.1.6

13th July 2001

Thomas Leonard

NEWS

ROX-Filer 1.1.6 - a new developer release of the filer, has been released (source and Linux-x86 binaries only at the moment):

It's a developer release, so you may wish to stay with the current stable version, although the new one should be OK.

Please report any bugs found.

RedHat and Mandrake RPMs for version 1.1.5 are now available.

Changes since 1.1.5:

BACKGROUND

ROX-Filer is a graphical file manager for Unix/Linux which provides a RISC OS-like interface. It is also the core component of the ROX desktop; a RISC OS-like desktop for Unix/Linux.

The filer is distributed under the GNU General Public License, which means that anyone can modify it, use bits of it in their own (GPL) programs, etc. Indeed, many of the improvements made to the filer were added by other ROX users and posted as patches to the mailing list.

The filer comes with translations for Dutch, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Polish and Russian.

ADDRESSES

There are new installation and getting started guides available. The getting started guide has lots of screenshots and may be interesting to people thinking of trying ROX, or wondering what it looks like.

You can read more, download ROX-Filer, read the comments people have made, and look at some screenshots here:

There are two mailing lists; rox-users and rox-devel. You can subscribe here, or look at the archives:

A selection of tutorials on writing ROX applications is now on-line:

More tutorials may be written if there is demand...

OTHER ROX NEWS

Xtheater, a gtk-based MPEG player (unrelated to ROX) has now added support for ROX application directories -- the latest (CVS) version simply appears as a ROX application and is run by clicking on it.

The rox-base package has been updated to 1.0.1, with a selection of new and improved icons.

Wallpaper, an application for controlling the desktop backdrop image, is now available from the ROX site. It can set centred, scaled or tiled images by dragging an image to it, and can choose a random image for you on login.

Edit has been updated slightly (popup menu, configuration box allowing you to choose the font, etc). The main improvements to Edit will happen when Gtk+-2.0 is released, as the text handling has been completely overhauled.

The bug (in Gtk) which caused spring opening directories to fail to work sometimes has been found -- the next release should have it fixed.

ROX-Menu (Menon/Director thing) has been updated. See Leandro Pereira's site:

A bug in AVFS (which prevented you from running applications from inside compressed archives) has been fixed in the latest CVS. AVFS is now the preferred implementation of image filesystems for ROX.

Stephen Watson has updated his clock applet:

Thomas Leonard

PDF 0.92.1.03

11th July 2001

Colin Granville

I've just put an update to !PDF 0.92.1.03 on my web site: http://www.netchess.iconbar.com/pdf/. It has the following changes:

!PDF is a public domain PDF - Portable Document FIle - reader for RISC OS.

Colin Granville

Read Mpeg video with sound under RISC OS!

11th July 2001

David Feugey

Hello, it's david from eQ R&D.

We now provide you two things under GNU/GPL license.

  1. A new version of stupid player. There is no real modification, but it should now work on most computers.
  2. The 'Release Candidate' 1 of Kino
    Kino is probably the first software video player 'with sound' for Mpeg1 and Mpeg2 (under RISC OS)! It uses mpeg software decoder (Lawrence A. Rowe, Ketan Patel, and Brian Smith), mpg123 (Michael Hipp) and mpeg2dec/libmpeg (http://www.linuxvideo.org/mpeg2dec/).

    It's heavily modified to works well under R7500 motherboards (with small video from www.pocketmovies.net).

I hope you'll find that useful.

URL is http://www.eqrd.net/

David Feugey

RISCDomain - packed to the brim with goodies...

10th July 2001

David Bradforth

ALLIGATA MEDIA GROUP
PRESS RELEASE - 10th July 2001

We're pleased to announce that issue one of RISCDomain is due for publication on 14th August, 2001.

RISCDomain takes the view that life with RISC OS is always moving forward. This is reflected in an editorial basis that tends to include ample coverage of the lighter things, yet pays due attention to the bad side of thigns too through comment columns, reader leaders and such like. Every issue is supplied with a compact disc, including a selection of top software and we'll guarantee that two of the first three issues will feature a software collection never featured anywhere else.

Features of the first issue include:

  1. Home Accounting with your RISC OS computer
  2. 101 Top Tips for RISC OS designers [using Impression, Ovation, ArtWorks, DrawWorks, etc]
  3. A comparative overview of the current RISC OS news/info sites [drobe, iconbar and so on]
  4. 10 pages of practical projects
  5. 10 pages of questions & answers/hints & tips
  6. 15 pages of reviews, covering both retro and new products
  7. 10 pages of programming hints tips and a whole lot more!
  8. 5 page walk through of the CD-ROM
  9. 5 pages of beginners tutorials

The CD-ROM with the first issue features over 1,000 programs providing a broad sample of what's available in the public domain. The second CD-ROM will include a COMPLETE graphics editing package, and the content of the third has yet to be confirmed.

PRESENTATION / PAGINATION

The first issue of RISCDomain is 64 pages [at the moment - may get bigger], with a colour cover on top. We're producing the magazine using Ovation Pro and ArtWorks, although the promotional literature is being output with the assistance of Adobe Distiller and Adobe InDesign on the Macintosh. This will allow us to gain the best possible deal on the printing of our promo sheet!

SUBSCRIPTIONS

RISCDomain is published bi-monthly, at alternate months to RISC World. The first issue is due around two weeks after the next issue of RISC World, and as APDL are kindly acting as our subscriptions/distribution house all orders should be directed towards them... this also means that RISC World readers qualify for an EXCLUSIVE discount.

If you're not yet a subscriber to RISC World,

All rates are for within the UK, please enquire if overseas.

ORDERING

Please direct orders towards APDL, at 39 Knighton Park Road, Sydenham, London SE26 5RN - do ensure that cheques/postal orders are made payable to APDL and NOT RISCDomain. Credit/debit card orders can be taken by phone to 020 8778 2659 and general subscription enquiries can be directed towards subs@alligatagroup.co.uk stating RISCDomain in the subject line.

CONTRIBUTIONS

We welcome all ideas for publication, and have two comment columns available. If you have anything suitable, please let me know by email at which point I'll come back to you if interested.

ANY QUESTIONS?

Feel free to ask!

David Bradforth

!GCCide v1.16

9th July 2001

Dave Appleby

!GCCide v1.16 is now available from

http://www.davea.web.btinternet.co.uk/gccide/

Some bugs fixed

Dragging files to Project/Source list works now works properly again.
Makefile include files (in CCflags) now search paths from path list selection rather than library list.
Changing selected library in Project/GCC/Library list now updates Project/Libraries/Search Paths properly.
Project/Libraries/Refresh now works properly.

Some new features added

Options window opens on startup if Options missing or !gcc or !Library are missing.
'Quit now' option added when trying to quit while background tasks running.
Adjust+Cancel in Options & Project (but not Toolbox) windows & restores original settings.
Ide/Source button now opens Source window allowing files to be opened/closed/saved.

But what does it do?

'Front end' for GCC tools
Project manager
Generates makefiles
Easy to manage different GCC versions
Easy to manage 3rd party libraries

Dave Appleby

StarPort, gpasm and cURL

9th July 2001

Michael Curtis

Three new programs are now available from my website:

A new, improved, version of NetConfig is also in the works.

http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~jamjars/

Michael Curtis

!TimeZone config plug-in for RO4

7th July 2001

David James

At some point in the last week, someone wrote in a post that it was a shame that there was no time zone configuration tool for RISC OS 4.

I've attempted to remedy this with !TimeZone, a plug-in for the RISC OS 4 configuration application.

It's not perfect, but it is available for download from:

http://www.jamesweb.org.uk/timezone

David James

Special ViewFinder software support for Zap

7th July 2001

John Kortink

The last steps in making ViewFinder the allround best performer in graphics drawing (in addition to its other traits) are being taken.

Due to a short and fruitful collaboration between Zap maintainer Darren Salt and Windfall Engineering, new versions of Zap's text rendering engine ZapRedraw make use of new hardware accelerated text drawing functions recently added to the ViewFinder software. Making Zap's on screen performance the highest ever seen.

Writers and maintainers of text editors, if interested in making their text editor fly, are kindly invited to contact me for details of the relevant API calls.

John Kortink
Windfall Engineering

Cerilica Vantage Launch!

6th July 2001

Cerilica Limited

This is special announcement to finally say that Vantage is now available for general order. It has taken many years to complete but the result was definitely worth the wait!

Cerilica Vantage, RISC OS' premier vector design and publishing package, has been endowed with some of the most advanced technology ever seen on any platform. It has just been described in the latest edition of Acorn User as follows:

'The things that it was designed for, it does with an effortlessness unrivalled in any other drawing application on any other platform.'

And now, on the 6th July, the first packages were readied to be sent to the initial customers. To coincide with this, Cerilica will start taking new orders for the first time generally for over two years.

To support this, the Cerilica Vantage web pages have been uploaded and provide a guided tour of the package, a comprehensive features list, examples and details of how to order.

See... http://www.cerilica.com/

Cerilica has also secured a deal with EFF, RISC OS' professional font designers, to make the EFF Professional Font CD 2 available with each package for a reduced price. This CD contains 805 of the highest quality fonts available on RISC OS and is a recommended addition to the designer's and publisher's toolbox.

With a continuous supply of packages hereon, expected delivery dates are as follows:

(All dates depend on delivery service and supplies to Cerilica)

Currently new orders may take approximately 3 weeks to process due to the the need to process initial orders first. Customer orders will be dealt with in the order of receipt.

More announcements and news of Vantage development will be made shortly.

Nicholas van der Walle

!NumberFix 2.53 with long file names

6th July 2001

Jochen Lueg

!NumberFix can now handle long file names and is to be found on the PD section of my website. Please don't ignore the rest of the site - the Roe Valley is very beautiful and some of the stories are even funny!

For those that don't know, !Numberfix allows you to manipulate files with numeric names. It will for instance change 1, 2, 3, 4 .... 11, 12 to 01, 02, 03, 04 .... 11, 12 so that the filer displays them in proper order. You can re-number the files so that they start from any number. If the number is above 100, it will change 01 to 001 and so on.

You can merge two directories so that if you have directories with files numbered say, 01 to 10, you will end up with a directory with files from 01 to 20.

Once the numbers are sorted out, you can add prefixes and postfixes. For instance, if your files were numbered 01 to 10 you could end up with RoeValley_01/jpg to RoeValley_10/jpg.

NumberFix is shareware.

http://www.argonet.co.uk/users/tudor/

Jochen Lueg

Windfall Engineering lowers price of ViewFinder

5th July 2001

John Kortink

Windfall Engineering has just opened its own website, and, to celebrate the occasion, the price of ViewFinder cards has been permanently lowered.

In addition, an extra 10% 'summer sale' discount is given on ViewFinder cards ordered during July or August 2001.

Visit the Windfall Engineering website at:

http://www.windfall.nl/

John Kortink

!Finder 1.20 released

5th July 2001

Chris Nelson

!Finder v1.20

!Finder is a multi-tasking file search utility which takes a (wild-carded) file name and/or a file type specification and optionally creation dates and file sizes, and searches a user specified directory for matches. Options include recursive searches, case sensitivity and automatic directory opening.

Files found matching your criteria are displayed in a window similar to the filer in Full Info mode.

New in Version 1.20

!Finder now allows you to search via the file datestamp, either by a specified range of dates, or by an age in days, hours or minutes.

You can now specify a size range for the files you are interested in.

You can specify multiple file types, separated by commas. Applications and Directories can be searched for by specifying the dummy filetypes 'App' and 'Dir' respectively.

!Finder now has a memory! When you open the search dialog box, the last values you entered (if any) will be in the fields ready for you to adjust them for your new search.

!Finder now fully supports interactive help on all dialog box icons.

Download

To download !Finder, visit its website:

http://www.nhal.demon.co.uk/finder/

Chris Nelson

My words on hardware/misc - A public apology

4th July 2001

Richard Walker

I Richard Walker unreservedly withdraw the libellous and vexatious statements made by me on csa. hardware and csa.misc between the 28th June 2001 to the 3 July 2001 regarding MicroDigital Limited, its employees and products.

I unreservedly apologise to MicroDigital Limited and its employees for my wholly unreasonable comments and I hereby give an undertaking not to repeat or make other libellous and vexatious statements about the company or its employees.

I further unreservedly apologise to MicroDigital Limited for the libellous and vexatious statements I made about their products and I hereby give an undertaking not to repeat or make other libellous and vexatious statements about the company=91s products.

I should like the following facts known. I do not own nor have I every owned a product or products manufactured by MicroDigital Limited nor have I ever had any dealings whatsoever with the company or its employees.

I should like it known that I wrote the statements in an attempt to mislead readers of the various newsgroups and thereby cause damage to MicroDigital Limited, its employees and products.

I had absolutely no reason whatsoever to have made such outrageous statements and I did so without any thought as to the possible consequences of my actions.

I accept that my statements regarding other postings were made on the contents as presented. I now realise that they only represent the views of the writer, they do not include a view from the company's perspective. I should have taken that fact into account before commenting.

I am truly sorry for my actions and the trouble and inconvenience I have caused the company and any embarrassment caused to the staff and directors.

I should like it to be known that the company has generously waived its claim for damages instead they have asked me to make a donation to a charity chosen by the company.

Richard Walker

Roots 1.13

4th July 2001

Alex Waugh

Roots version 1.13 is now available from my website: http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~ajw498/. The main addition is a style editor to allow you to edit/create your own graphics styles more easily.

Roots is a program for graphically laying out a family tree.

Alex Waugh

Irish Acorn User Group

3rd July 2001

Richard James C. Butler

Any Irish (Southern & Northern) Acorn/RISC OS Users, please contact mailto:richardjcbutler@eircom.net.
It has been decided that a Acorn/RISC OS user group /will/ be created to serve users from the Republic and Northern Ireland.

Please note that the Northern Ireland Acorn User Group (NIAUG) has been expanded to cover the whole island.

Richard James C. Butler

!NoButton

3rd July 2001

Jochen Lueg

Modern printers have all kinds of different functions which on a PC would be selected with a mouse from within the Properties window of the printer driver program.

Some printers give access to these functions via the control buttons, but the sequences are tedious and hard to remember.

On my website is a program that enables you to perform most of these test functions with the mouse in the comfort of your chair (if indeed you are sitting down at the time!)

At the moment I have included maintenance function for

Canon 4650
Canon 7100
Epson 750 Photo

It is up to you to connect the correct printer. Default is the Canon 4650, but the iconbar menu opens a small Epson 750 window. The !Printers application does not have to be installed when you use the program.

The program is written in such a way that I can easily update it for other printers. Drop me an e-mail if you have a different printer and I will see what I can do.

NoButton is shareware and found via the PD link from the title page of my website, address below.

http://www.argonet.co.uk/users/tudor/

Jochen Lueg

e-COMmerce solutions for RISC OS

3rd July 2001

Darren Windsor

Just to let you know of the imminent release of 'e-COMmerce' for RISC OS.

e-COMmerce is a plug-in application for EBMS (the software behind the POSum) which provides a total retail solution for businesses, integrating shop salesand mail order (as provided by EBMS) with e-commerce facilities.

e-COMmerce provides a webserver for EBMS which, along with a permanent Internet connection (such as an ADSL link) provides your customers with 24 hours shopping and account maintenance facilities.

For more information take a look at our website at www.imagesoft.co.uk and follow the POSum link.

For further information either contact ourselves (contact details below) or Liquid Silicon on 01592 592265.

Image Software (UK) RISC based EPOS solutions.

48 Hinchliffe Road, Poole, Dorset BH15 4ED.

Tel. 01202 269720 Mob. 07740 622861
Fax. 01202 685072 Email sales@imagesoft.co.uk
Web www.imagesoft.co.uk

Darren Windsor

POSum website

3rd July 2001

Darren Windsor

Just to let you know that the POSum brochures are now available in PDF format from our website: http://www.imagesoft.co.uk/.

Darren Windsor

CBSA website has been updated

2nd July 2001

Paul F. Johnson

Just to let you know that the comp.{binaries/sources}.acorn website has been updated yet again!

Updated

Super Methane Brothers 1.3.5 : an improved and under development platformer (sources also available)

New

A new port of the essential maths package for all serious maths bods, Euler. StrongHelp manual included in the archive.

http://www.acornusers.org/cbsa/index.html

Paul F. Johnson

SmoothArtist Web Site Update

2nd July 2001

Michael Drake

The SmoothArtist Website has been updated. Currently it contains an original skin for DigitalCD and the hundred levels I've made for Marsquake Boom: Deluxe. (A RISC OS Bomber Man style game)

Also available are 7 backdrops, created with Composition.

www.smoothartist.com

Michael Drake

!Pdf 0.92.1.02

2nd July 2001

Colin Granville

I've just put a Pdf 0.92.1.02 on my web site: http://www.netchess.iconbar.com/pdf/. It has the following changes:

!Pdf is a Public Domain PDF - Portable Document File - reader for RISC OS

Colin Granville

Pluto Users Mailing List

2nd July 2001

Pluto Users

Just a reminder that the only Mailing List, for folks interested in the Pluto mail/news reader is 'Pluto Users'. Jonathan Duddington is a member and contributes as appropriate. This is a very disciplined List so your Inbox will not get swamped with spam or irrelevant messages.

To subscribe to this group, click here: mailto:Pluto-Users-subscribe@egroups.co.uk?Subject=SIGNON and send off the empty email.

Pluto Users

Waiting for the SmartMedia version of DigiFlash?

2nd July 2001

Neil Farnham-Smith

Waiting for DigiFlash SmartMedia? Development on the drivers is all complete except for one small, but very vital component of code which hasn't been documented by the card readers manufacturer.

This has been the cause of the continued delay and we are currently working hard to source the necessary informantion necessary to complete the SmartMedia version of the product as quickly as possible.

Our current beta version of the reader can read and write data to SmartMedia, however the necessary documentation will give us information on how to calculate the defect map, without this the majority of media will be unreadable or produce corrupted data.

Advanced orders are being queued and you will be contacted when the product is ready to be shipped. We would like to apologise for the delay and assure customers who have placed advanced orders or who are waiting that every effort is being made to complete the product as quickly as possible.

Surftec will ensure all the latest development news as it happens will be posted to our web site (on the front page) at http://www.surftec.com/.

Neil Farnham-Smith

RiscSearch

1st July 2001

Patrick Mortara

It's been a busy weekend with !RiscSearch, now there's version V0.71ß available, which fixed some errors introduced within the last versions, but now it seems as !RiscSearch works quite well, reliable and a little bit faster ...

Changes in V0.71ß:

For all of you, who don't know about !RiscSearch !RiscSearch is meant to be a meta-search engine, and AFAIK it is the only one available for RISC OS anywhere. It helps you to find web-pages about a certain topic by asking different search engines about the keywords you supply. It collects results from (at the moment) 9 different engines, filters out duplicate matches and then presents all links in a window of your web-browser.

Patrick Mortara


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