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On my site (http://www.argonet.co.uk/users/tudor) is another interface project which allows you to control a cassette deck from the computer. The write-up describes my particular design but can be adapted to other models as long as they are electrically suitable.
A small demonstration program called "!TapeCon" is also provided. Simply follow the link at the bottom of the index page to the interfacing projects.
I have changed all my interfacing programs, ie !StepCon, !LED_Board, !OvalTime so that the presence of the printer port is assumed if a user port can't be detected. If a user port is found, this is given preference. I don't know why I hadn't thought of this before.
Another article on the interface section of my site explains how to make suitable leads for all the projects.
I hope someone finds all this useful.
I am pleased to announce that after considerable delay, we have at last appointed an additional Backup Moderator for comp.sys.acorn.announce. I'd like to thank everyone who expressed an interest in the post, we received far more replies than we were expecting, something which was very pleasing. The decision was a hard one as everyone had very impressive 'qualifications'.
The new Backup Moderator is Nick Boalch, who I am sure you will know from his postings to the Acorn groups. Nick is also moderator of the *.answers newgroups and a web designer. Hopefully he will also be assisting in the creating of a c.s.a.announce website.
I am sure that you will treat him as well as you treated me when I first began moderating 5 1/2 yrs ago.
http://www.mikejs.com/riscos/amplay.html
The main download includes the app itself and text documentation. HTML documentation and the (WIMPBasic) source are also available for download. There is also a documentation update for people with 1.44 to save downloading the whole thing again.
Documentation can also be viewed online at:
http://www.mikejs.com/riscos/amplay/docs/html/index.html
The main amplay page now also includes a work in progress section on v1.50.
NettleSSH beta 0.20 can now be downloaded from:
NettleSSH is an experimental spin-off from the Nettle terminal client which supports new protocols and has a more experimental structure.
Important features:
Because NettleSSH is based on the same sources that Nettle is updates to Nettle will benefit NettleSSH, and because NettleSSH source is available to all (although not under SourceForge control) back-ports of the more stable features should be possible. Similarly, because it is experimental, some features may not operate as advertised and documentation is a little more lax.
I would like to thank the testers of NettleSSH in its various versions, and in particular to Alex and the core Nettle developers for their work and their criticisms of this project.
Follow-ups by email, please.
Announcing Oww 0.67.10
[Oww is an application for RISC OS and Linux (and other Unix flavours) to control a Dallas Semiconductor / AAG 1-wire weather station, and associated weather instruments. See www.aag.com.mx for hardware.]
Summary (see the News file for more info):
This would have been out sooner, but I've been moving house!
Please note that my old melhuish.net Web forwarding is no longer active, so please be sure to update your bookmarks to:
http://melhuish.info/simon/projects/oww/
The molecular and cell biology page has moved to http://www.r.hartley.freeuk.com/software/
There are also 2 new APPS
!Confocal and !Labbook
!Confocal is a very early implementation of a database for microscopy. in a confocal microscope you can scan cells or tissue for various different stains and detect things inside cells. However, the microscope has various settings like laser strength and also the stains used to detect the cells are varied. !confocal allows you to search for your information.
!Labbook is a lab-book database that allows you to search for experiments etc. If you are asked about the data that is referenced inside your lab books (generally I generate 3-4/year) from distant experiments. EG Boss says "you looked at cell motility following PI3kinase inhibition on 2micron silica grooves with a depth of 50nm". You can type in PI3 and 50nm and silica and search for the info.
This is a VERY early app and is really to get feedback for future more professional apps. All the individual apps will be released as freeware.
LOGOSLITE 3.2 Released
SUPERSONIC!
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LogosLite is a simple Bible text reader which enables you to quickly look up passages in the translation of your choice.
- - - -
Version 3.2 of the mini-Bible browser, LogosLite, has now been released and is available for FREE download at www.logosword.co.uk
v3.2 available for FREE at www.logosword.co.uk/logoslite.shtml
It's with sadness I report on behalf of Ian Hawkins that a dramatic 'fsck' failure on the acornsearch.com server at the weekend caused complete loss of the entire system.
www.acornsearch.com, the popular search engine and file archive (eg the old Barnet 'Freenet' archive) has been lost. The search engine scripts remain, however, and Acornsearch will be revived eventually - we hope.
autobuilder.acornsearch.com, which generated nightly builds of gccsdk, Nettle etc, has also been lost in entirity and there are currently no plans to regenerate this.
New versions of both Locate and Float have now been released. Locate is up to version 0.70, while Float has reached 0.30.
Both pieces of software are FREEWARE. They should both run on RISC OS 3.1 and later and have been tested on Red Squirrel and RISC OS Select. Full details of both upgrades can be found on my website.
Version 0.70 has a few new features, in particular:
The new version of Locate can be downloaded from my website, at
http://www.stevefryatt.org.uk/software/locate/
Version 0.30 has a few new features over the last version announced here. As well as various bug-fixes, it now supports the WIMPSymbol font in help texts and a new 'Show all' option in the icon-bar menu will temporarily override the various 'hide' options in the choices.
The new version of Float can be downloaded from my website, at
http://www.stevefryatt.org.uk/software/float/
Version 0.42 (27 Jul 2002) of BeebIt has now been released.
BeebIt is a freeware BBC Micro computer emulator for RISC OS versions 3.00 and above. It emulates the Acorn BBC Model B, BBC Model B+ and BBC Master 128 computers.
The following improvements have been done since 0.40.
As always, you can get the latest version from http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/mjfoot/ under the BBC link.
ROX-Filer 1.3.3 (developer release) is out now! This version should be pretty stable.
ROX-Filer is a small, fast, powerful filer for Unix, Linux and compatible systems. Its user interface is based on the RISC OS filer, and it supports similar concepts, such as application directories, drag-and-drop saving and popup menus. It also implements a RISC OS like pinboard, and a panel which can be used in a similar way to the RISC OS iconbar. It also supports many features not found in RISC OS, including thumbnails of images, keyboard short-cuts, many more options, powerful search facilities, etc.
ROX-Filer can be used on its own, with another desktop (such as GNOME, KDE or XFCE), or as the core component of the ROX desktop. The ROX desktop aims to bring all the good features of RISC OS to modern systems. Get ROX-Filer here: (source and Linux-x86 binary archives at present):
http://rox.sf.net/rox_download.php3
The filer now requires Gtk+-2.0 (which installs easily alongside Gtk+-1.2):
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.
http://rox.sourceforge.net/install.php3
http://rox.sourceforge.net/guide.php3
You can read more, download ROX-Filer, read the comments people have made, and look at some screenshots here:
http://rox.sourceforge.net
http://rox.sourceforge.net/comments.php3
http://rox.sourceforge.net/screenshots.php3
There are two mailing lists; rox-users and rox-devel. You can subscribe here, or look at the archives:
http://sourceforge.net/mail/?group_id=7023
A selection of tutorials on writing ROX applications is available on-line:
http://rox.sourceforge.net/tutor.php3
http://sourceforge.net/project/stats/index.php?report=months&group_id=7023
The filer was recently reviewed on Linux Orbit, scoring 9/10.
Several of the python applications have been upgraded to use Gtk+-2.0, and have various new features:
Archive (drag-and-drop archiving utility):
http://rox.sourceforge.net/archive.php3
Memo (RoughTime-inspired alarm clock):
http://rox.sourceforge.net/memo.php3
Wallpaper (random backdrop chooser):
http://rox.sourceforge.net/wallpaper.php3
ROX-Lib (easy-to-use programming library):
http://rox.sourceforge.net/rox_lib.php3
http://rox.sourceforge.net/rox_lib_docs/rox.html
Some new tutorials are starting to appear here:
Michael Terry has written a small panel applet to control xmms (music player):
http://rox.sourceforge.net/applets.php3
Enjoy!
Further to a recent thread on c.s.a.a. I have now released a command line utility to batch translate a directory tree from RISC OS <dir>.<name> format to UNIX <name>/<ext> format, or vice-versa; either in situ or across file systems.
Unixify can be found at
<http://www.mk-net.demon.co.uk/software/risc_os/unixify.zip>
Any comments, constructive criticism and bug reports are welcome. Followups to c.s.a.a.
Following discussions in the 'acorn' newsgroups, Tight Fit Theatre is pleased to make available email addresses in the invalid.org.uk domain to RISC OS users. To purchase a licence to use an address in the invalid.org.uk domain please send ukp1 per address requested to:
Existence of such addresses will not appear on any server, nor will mail be redirected, nor will you be able to download it. The purpose of invalid.org.uk email addresses is to enable you to use a valid domain in newsgroups but to prevent the receipt of spam, either directly or that which is sent to message IDs. For legal reasons we will keep a register of the licences issued but your details will not be passed on to anyone else except under compulsion of law.
So, take your fist step to reduce newsgroup-originating spam and at the same time support a small-scale professional theatre company.
On my website (http://www.argonet.co.uk/users/tudor) is the latest of my small interfacing projects. This time it's a stepper motor driver accompanied by a program called !StepCom.
Circuit diagram and pcb layout are provided. I would be interested in any feedback. The program is pd.
After considerable development work Image Software is proud to announce that ImagePrxy (our proxy server application for RISC OS) now provides proxying of secure HTTPS (HTTP with SSL) connections.
This means that from a single RISC OS box connected to the Internet, a network of machines (whether they be RISC OS, Windows, Mac or Linux, etc) can now access secure web sites (such as Internet banking sites) through the proxy.
Considerable work has been done on the proxy over the past several weeks, to improve performance and increase stability. The latest version is the fruit of much hard work. Just recently we announced that the proxy could now handle user configurable proxying - this means that the proxy can be configured to proxy POP, SMTP, IRC, etc services in addition to HTTP/HTTPS.
Development work continues and we hope to make announcements, on further functionality added to the application, in the coming weeks.
Registered users will receive a free upgrade over the coming week. I would ask all users who have purchased ImagePrxy since its release to contact us to ensure that their email address is on the upgrade mailing list, to avoid disappointment.
ImagePrxy is a proxy server for RISC OS providing HTTP, HTTPS and user configurable proxying services. This means that a network of machines (regardless of platform) on a home, office or school network can access the Internet through a single machine with a dial-up connection. The proxy provides a HTTP cache (to speed up web-browsing) and filtering services (for teacher/parental control over web sites visited).
ImagePrxy is available direct from ourselves at 39.99UKP fully inclusive. We accept all major credit/debit cards. Contact details can be found in the signature below. As with all our products upgrades are supplied free of charge to registered users, as and when they are released.
Thank you for your time.
Image Software (UK)
RISC based business management 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
NetChess version 1.04 is now available
Changes:
Existing users can upgrade from the netchess private area.
NetChess is a shareware Internet Chess client allowing you to connect to internet chess servers - like freechess.org - and play, chat and watch chess games and other chess variants supported by the server.
It is available from
http://www.netchess.iconbar.com/
On my website - http://www.argonet.co.uk/users/tudor - is a new interfacing project describing a simple LED board. Go to the bottom of the index page and follow the interfacing link if you are interested.
The project is accompanied by a demonstration program called !LED_Board, which does as much to an 8 bit binary number as I can think of. The program can be used on its own or in conjunction with a built LED board.
I have released TaborcaGS which allows for users of the Taborca demo, as release via RISCOS Ltd with RISC OS 4, to use the ghostscript engine to generate pdf file output. To use this you will require the taborca demo and ghostscript. The improvments are:
This can be found at:
<http://www.sparkplug.org.uk/>
Please email me if you you find it usefull or not as the case may be.
I have ported a set of Vorbis ogg file tools these include integer based decoder, floating point based decoder, encoder, comment editor and file information displayer. The decoders and encoder convert to and from other file formats so in the case of the decoder a second stage is required before they can be played. The integer based decoder works faster then realtime on a StrongARM RiscPC and the input and output can be a stream so an other application could be based around it to form a basic realtime player.
For these of you that do not know what Vorbis ogg is here is a brief description from the vorbis web site:
Ogg Vorbis is a new audio compression format. It is roughly comparable to other formats used to store and play digital music, such as MP3, VQF, AAC, and other digital audio formats. It is different from these other formats because it is completely free, open, and unpatented.
These tools can be downloaded at:
<http://www.sparkplug.org.uk/>
Please email if you find them usefull or not as the case may be.
For all users of Cerilica Vantage, Draw, Ovation, Impression, TextEase, TechWriter, EasyWriter, etc.!
Cerilica is proud to announce that its its latest brand-new software pack has been officially released. The Cerilica Publishing Pack 2 contains 5 software utilities ideally suited to working alongside any RISC OS design and publishing system and caters for the following:
Full details of the pack's contents, please visit the new web page:
http://www.cerilica.com/ppack2
This wide ranging software pack has something to suit every user from the beginner to the professional and is very competitively priced at only 29.00ukp fully inclusive!
Cerilica's Publishing Pack may be ordered by the usual methods direct from Cerilica in the UK (phone, e.mail, post, etc.) and is supplied by e.mail. Full ordering details may be found at:
http://www.cerilica.com/ordering
LogosWord 4.0 RELEASED!
www.logosword.co.uk
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LogosWord is a Bible Study software suite for RISC OS, facilitating the study of Bible texts, commentaries, dictionaries, lexicons and other resources.
- - -
LogosWord 4.0 has finally been released and is now available for purchase and downloading at www.logosword.co.uk!
If you would like to try out LogosWord 4.0, you can download a 14 day trial version, which is available to everyone.
LogosWord 4.0 provides many new features, including online help, support for the New Testament Greek Interlinear module, verse alignment across columns, and much more, at a lower price.
Also, the selection of translations has been massively increased since LogosWord's early days, and other resource modules have also been added to the collection.More are on the way.
I have also been given permission to provide the text of GOD'S WORD, "the translation for the next generation", a highly acclaimed modern translation , to the list of translations freely available for downloading!
These are just some of the developments which have culminated in the release of LogosWord 4.0.
LOGOSLITE 3.0 Released
- - - -
LogosLite is a simple Bible text reader which enables you to quickly look up passages in the translation of your choice.
- - - -
Version 3.0 of the mini-Bible browser, LogosLite, has now been released and is available for FREE download at www.logosword.co.uk
The RISC OS port that was availlable of gnuzip wouldn't run on my strongarm machine, so I've made a quick and dirty port (I don't know for sure if it is dirty, but it sure was quick) of it.
As far as I know it does the trick. At the moment I haven't got a website to put it on, but if anybody is interested in it, mail me.
gnu zip is the unix equivalent of !Squash, it can compress and decompress files. It is needed to decompress eq. netBSD kernel images. Files that have been compressed using gnu zip cannot be read with !Sparkplug and usually have the dos-extension .gz (/gz)
This is a hack that allows diff output to be shown in a Thowback window. This version by me, based on the publication on comp.sys.acorn.programmer by Druck.
The 1h update includes a fix for a memory corruption problem in the image processing library used by spr_fsi.
SPRtools Provides bitmap format conversion and image processing command line utilities, designed to run on RISC OS, UNIX and Win32 platforms. Supplied with RISC OS desktop front end scripts for use with !ComndCTRL.
SPRtools and other programs mentioned can be found at:
http://www.armclub.org.uk/free
I have written a small project that interfaces a 77.5 MHz atomic clock receiver to a RiscPC, assuming that you have a user port. The total cost of the project is only about 15 UKP, because it makes use of an existing radio. You need to be able to handle a soldering iron because a small interface needs to be built and fitted to the receiver.
The project is accompanied by a program called '!AtomZeit', which decodes and demonstrates the incoming signal.
To read the project go to the bottom of the index page on my website and follow the link to 'RiscOS Interfacing projects. (So far there are only two).
The program can be found by following the link to the PD section of my site.
I would be interested to hear from anyone that attempts this project.
=== !TempTed, the Template Text Editor (v2.8, first release version) ===
This freeware tool for programmers and translators is released for the first time.
See http://www.xs4all.nl/~erikgrnh/riscos/tempted.html
!TempTed enables the user to edit icon and window title texts of Template files in bulk, without the need to access every window separately with a Template Editor (like the excelent !WinEd or !TemplEd). This also removes the danger of accidentily moving the positions of icons or windows when changing the texts.
!TempTed can export and import the texts in the form of a plain text file, similar to the way Message files can be exported from and imported into !ResEdit.
!TempTed is particularly useful for translations of templates to a different language. In that case normally all texts need to be changed, and this can be tedious with a Template Editor. After the bulk translation you can get on with the job of tweaking the icon sizes to accept possibly longer texts.
!TempTed keeps track of the sizes of the icon text buffers in the template and warns if the new texts are longer, or are too long for a non-indirected icon text.
Because the output of !TempTed is a textfile, it offers the possibility of keeping the texts under version control, by using RCS or CVS.
Finally, it's a handy tool for tracking down obsolete icons in a window, which have become invisible or have fallen outside the visible area.
Please send me any and all comments you care to give. The tool has so far only been used in two different environments, so any contributions to the development are welcome.
Enjoy!
The LibXML and LibXSLT tools xmlcatalog, xmllint, and xsltproc, as well as the RISC OS source for libxml 2.4.23 and libxslt 1.0.19 have been updated at:
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/justin.fletcher/XML/
This update follows the release of the libxml 2.4.23 and libxslt 1.0.19 sources on the 8th.
XML is a structured description format used in many modern applications. XSLT is a mechanism for transforming data in XML-based formats to other formats (most usually HTML or some similar markup). XML Catalogs are structured, extensible way of providing cached copies of externally accessible documents.
XMLCatalog manipulates catalogs.
XMLLint checks validity and well-formedness of XML documents.
XSLTProc applies stylesheets transforms (XSLT) to XML documents.
The tools contained in these releases are used by in the 'RISC OS documentation project', which I am working on. They have been tested by myself and those working on the project.
This release incorporates a number of bug fixes and corrections which have been applied over the past month or so:
More information about libxml2, libxslt and its related tools can be obtained from http://xmlsoft.org/. More information on xsldebug (not updated in this release) can be obtained from http://xsldbg.sourceforge.net/. libxml2 and libxslt is developed by Daniel Veillard, as an open source project in collaboration with many others.
LibXML and LibXSLT are currently in API freeze for Gnome.
As in the past, I intend to keep RISC OS libxml2/libxslt releases within 24 hours of the base unix source release. Extreme heat has caused a slightly delay to this one. Nobody'll notice though.
Followups by email, please.
"The Unix porting project is a way for you to actively contribute to RISC OS by having a say in what programs you want to see, and getting support, development and automated upgrades of those programs."
In other words, it's a way for you to say what programs you want to see brought to RISC OS from Unix. It costs a mere 25ukp per 6 months.
But this post can't do it justice. To learn more, visit:
I am happy to report that my Acorn System 1 Emulator is now available for download from
http://www.cary.demon.co.uk/acorn/
The Emulator is a program which runs under Windows and emulates the hardware of the real micro-computer. The Emulator runs the original Acorn monitor program, and so allows the development of programs exactly as on the original machine. The intent is to preserve the general look and feel (and sound) of the original, while making it available to many more people than have the actual hardware. The Acorn design is an excellent platform for learning the basic concepts of computers and the skills necessary to program a computer using machine code.
In addition to the functions of the original Acorn kit, the Emulator provides:
All comments welcome!
Just to let you know that version 1.04 of MailScout, the online junk email filtering system for RISC OS, is in last minute testing prior to release.
This version sports some handy new filtering options implemented at the request of existing users (which proves that we do listen!).
This version allows auto-flagging of certain types of email:
These all help in the fight against junk mail and they've proved very effective in our own tests.
Registered users will receive their upgrade in due course (free of charge,naturally).
For those who haven't heard of MailScout - put simply it allows you to remove junk/unwanted email from your mailbox *before* downloading your email. This saves you time/money spent in downloading unwanted junk. Most other filtering systems (such as those built into your email software) rely on you having to download all your email first, before removing the rubbish.
MailScout is available direct from us for a very reasonable 25UKP (all in). Payment can be by credit/debit card (we accept all the major ones - and Solo ;-) or by cheque. Contact details can be found below.
Image Software (UK)
RISC based business management 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
I've put a new version of ViNCe on my web pages
http://www.vinc17.org/acorn/riscpc_eng.html#vince
ViNCe is a VNC client. Its goal is to work on a remote desktop environment through the network, from a RISC OS computer. See <http://www.uk.research.att.com/vnc/> for more information about VNC.
The changes since the last announce:
A reminder that the Videodesk Mailing List is still operative.
If you used to be in, but have received nothing recently, it may be because we have an old email address which has now been deleted due to bouncing emails:
To SignOn:
Send an email with SUBJECT SIGNON to vdesk-user@fillin.co.uk
To SignOff send an email from the old/existing address with the subject SIGNOFF to vdesk-user@fillin.co.uk
or visit the Website at www.fillin.co.uk >> bottom of content page
This is an AUTOMATED list using !Pluto Software by Jonathan Duddington
Please ensure 'acknowledge' is deselected on the mailing list: otherwise 'acknowledgements' may 'howlround' if not intercepted.
(One 'former' subscriber is currently 'bouncing' off 2 addresses!) If you no longer have the old address from which to unsubscribe, then please email Phil@fillin.co.uk with details.
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