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Nice open question for you - What needs doing to our software? We've got a lot of it, from former Beebug and Clares titles to a few of our own original titles. There are many more in the pipeline too... so a nice general question what can we do to improve some of our existing titles.
We've got active development plans for
Please let me know, either via this group or preferably copied via email what you think would improve a piece of our software. We'll read all emails, and build development lists for all appropriate titles. Again comments about any titles are most welcome; and we're not excluding any of them from future development plans.
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. BeebIt has been updated so that it will now run on Castle Technologies Iyonix computer.
The following improvements have been done since 0.50.
You can get the latest version from
http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/mjfoot/ under the BBC link.
I've just released a new version (0.12) of SpamStamp. This new version has the capability to cope a lot better with MIME, quoted-printable, base64, HTML and binaries.
You can find the new version here:
http://home.c2i.net/jjvdgeer/riscos/spamstamp.html
For those that don't know: SpamStamp is a program that attempts to detect if a mail is spam or not. Some headers are added to the mail with the result of that check. Your mail client can then decide what to do with the spam.
Deciding whether mail is spam or not is being done by bayesian filtering techniques (see http://www.paulgraham.com/spam.html). This means that you do not need to set up all kinds of rules, but the system figures it out by itself. It does this because every time it makes a mistake, you tell it that it took a wrong decision. This then increases SpamStamp's ability to detect spam.
This is the first public release of Basalt - BASic ALTernative keywords.
Basalt is simple to use. When the module is loaded, put *BasaltInit as the first effective line of a program and use the alternative keywords exactly as normal BASIC keywords.
Here are some features:
The full details can only be found in the StrongHelp manual, which can be downloaded separately.
I am still experimenting with Basalt so a few keywords may yet change and I would very much like feedback.
Basalt is 'freeware' and can be downloaded from:
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/kappa/basalt.htm
A mapping between RISC OS and the Unicode character set has been added to the collection of character sets at
<http://crl.nmsu.edu/~mleisher/csets.html>.
Download it as <http://crl.nmsu.edu/~mleisher/csets/RISCOS.TXT>.
A few minor updates
If you have already downloaded the HTML version of the Manual from
http://www.wattys.fsnet.co.uk/sof.htm#mamo
you may have noticed an error in some of the formatting. I must apologise for this lapse in checking of the HTML.
A corrected version should be on my site by the time this appears.
If you feel happy to delve and correct it for yourself, thus saving a further download of 363KB, put the HTML file in your editor and search for "<a name="test">" (without the surrounding ""s). Just in front of that singular phrase you will see the offending tag: <H1>. Remove it!
Your presumed indulgence is appreciated.
Version 2.05 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://www.envsoft.co.uk/riscos/
New feature for V2.05:
New features for V2.04 (released 25 May 2003) include:
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 for an unrestricted base unit, multi-currency and Budget Analysis extensions are on the web site. You can also check out !EnBank's full capabilities by requesting a free, no obligation, 60 day trial licence.
!EnBank is 26/32 Bit neutral.
APDL/PROACTION BRING SHERSTON'S CLASSIC CLIPART TO RISC OS We are pleased to announce that APDL/ProAction Software are, by agreement with Sherston Software Limited, bringing their Classic Clipart collection (featuring Split an Image and Christmas Allsorts) to the RISC OS platform. The HTML interface of the original is preserved; but we're adding a thumbnail catalogue to the CD-ROM and all graphics are in Draw format.
The price, including a site licence, is £9.90. That includes carriage; and VAT and amounts to approximately one third of the current PC/Mac user price.
To get your copy, call APDL on 0208 778 2659; email sales@apdl.co.uk or write to APDL, 39 Knighton Park Road, Sydenham, London SE26 5RN.
VICE (Versatile Commodore Emulator) is a portable emulator suite for the 8bit CBM machines C128, C64, CBM2, PET, Plus4 and VIC20. For more information visit the official VICE homepage at http://viceteam.bei.t-online.de/
The RISC OS release of version 1.12 is 32bit compatible and will therefore run on RiscPC and Iyonix computers, but requires the 32bit Shared C Library. For more information and the download link see the VICE section on my software page at
http://home.t-online.de/~zarquon/Software.html#vice
I have released the first beta version of PC Keyboard 2 (version 2.01), for use on Iyonix machines. PC Keyboard is a small module to change the use of the Delete, End (Copy) and optionally Home keys to follow the "PC-style" usage.
Now that RISC OS 5 follows this standard with writable icons and core applications, PC Keyboard 2 allows individual applications to be changed to match this behaviour, which provides consistency. Unlike version 1, version 2 uses wimp filters to achieve this effect, resolving many of the problems seen with the old version.
PC Keyboard 2 can be found on
http://www.stevefryatt.org.uk/software/utils/
Version 1 is still available from the same place, for use on earlier versions of RISC OS. The old version is not recommended for use on the Iyonix.
Version 0.36 of Float, my alternative Interactive Help client, has also been released. This contains a fix for the outstanding problem seen on the Iyonix, meaning that I have now included the application in the 32-bit Software database.
I would recommend this upgrade to all users, since although the problem only seemed to show on RISC OS 5, it could affect all machines.
Float can be downloaded from
http://www.stevefryatt.org.uk/software/float/
http://www.wattys.fsnet.co.uk/sof.htm#mamo
Please note that both are available in the following formats:
Impression, EasiWriter, Ovation Pro and HTML.
The constituents of the above are also available as Plain Text with Draw and Sprite files.
The Zipped file sizes range from 363 to 554KB for the Manual and 9 to 34KB for the Application Note.
Please also note that these revisions are based closely on the former Acorn documents authored by Dean Murphy in 1994. They aim to guide users over the main bug in !MakeModes and to make the instructions clearer.
The delay in making the above available is due largely to wasting time trying to get any comment out of Pace, regarding their copyright.
RISC OS Ltd support the issue of these revised documents and will in due course make them available from their "server", thus providing an archive.
Future revisions by me will be determined by further experience and by comments from users. My email address is present on the above site page.
A RISC OS driver is now available for the HP Deskjet 6122 printer.
The driver provides settings to allow either full colour or grey scale printing at both 300 and 600dpi. Specific settings are provided for a variety of media types and print qualities.
An appropriate icon bar symbol, which resembles the 6122, is provided. The driver package also includes new palette files and a 'toolkit'.
The driver should work reliably with RISC OS 4 and Printers version 1.64 or later. Use with Printers version 1.53, or later, may well be possible but is not guaranteed.
The driver has not been tested with either the Alpha, Omega or Iyonix computers.
The driver should work reliably either via the parallel port, with the recommended IEEE1284 standard cable, or via the Simtec USB card. Simtec USB setup is straightforward and does not require a modified version of !Printers.
Support is not provided for Duplex or Photo-realistic printing. Support is also not provided for automatic media type sensing.
For more information and details please contact Jonathan Briggs. jbcb@globalnet.co.uk
http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~jbcb/
UPDATE
The Big Ben Club presents its yearly show, the RISCOS Expo 2003
The Big Ben Club is the nationwide Dutch Acorn User Group.
Show date: Saturday, June 21th, 2003
venue: Expohall, Hotel Mercure, Buizerdlaan 10, Nieuwegein (near the city of Utrecht)
A first class location, with restaurant, parking garage (free)
from: 10.00 a.m. to 5.00 p.m.
admission: members free, non-members EUR 7,=
Exhibition / Promotion / Demonstration
Presentations
Castle Technology - MicroDigital - RISCOS Ltd
Exhibitors
Unix Porting Project www.chocky.org/unix/ (CAMBRIDGE, United Kingdom: Peter Naulls) is also attending our show
I have just discovered, and fixed, a minor bug in the !Spellbank application. It could not create user dictionaries on discs with very large amounts of free space. When it was originally written this was not a problem! If anyone reading this has a copy then, if you send me the original disc and a stamped addressed envelope, I will supply you with the upgrade to version 1.06.
For information, !Spellbank is a program that is designed to help children with looking up spellings and insert the result into any word processor (or similar program), keep a record for the teacher of what spellings have been looked up, and allow children to add store new words along with their meanings. It can also provide a list of unrecognised words in any file that contains text, even draw files. !Spellbank was originally sold by SEMERC but has now reverted to me, as one of the original authors. If anyone wants more details, please feel free to e-mail me.
This is to announce the 0.36 beta release of Director
All the archives can be downloaded from:
http://director.sourceforge.net
or
http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/director
Added -dontproxy to RunFilerAc.
Added -priority switch to all the IconSprites related menus and commands for Select 3.
Added Castle recommended system variables to !Run
Added error checking to DoClose (used in combination with Switch) Added language translations the Director module and Info window. (with thanks to Jerome Mathevet for the French translations and code testing)
Added RISC OS 4 service table to all suitable modules. Added routine signatures to all modules.
Added support to the -manwimpslot and -minwimpslot options for an 'm' or 'M' suffix (for megabyte).
Adjusted templates so that they look nicer in Select3. Close can now accept a command line argument of a window handle. CommMenu fixed to handle '|' chars from the output of a *command. FilerMenu copes with objects which don't exist. (Jerome Mathevet) Fixed DoClose so that it terminates the Iconize WIMP message. (Harriet Bazley)
Fixed up BinPL so that when it deleted entries, they weren't send to Recyclone under Select 3.
Fixed the bug where "*DirectorWindow <window>" followed by another *DirectorWindow operation on the same window without a Wimp_Poll inbetween caused Director to fail.
Internal changes made to the build process.
MenuMenu now handles Resources:$ and other FSes which end in :$ (i.e. are without drive numbers). (Jerome Mathevet)
Now builds two Director modules, one for RISC OS 3.1 and one for RISC OS 3.5+ primarily because of the language translations. Stopped OldMenu: from generating an 'Illegal window handle' error under certain conditions.
Switch no longer mangles window title bars with '<untitled>' in them. It also handles window title bars which include the '<' character, correctly.
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+.
To celebrate the new version of Wimpbasic, Wimpbasic.org is pleased to announce a new mailing list for all programmers using wimpbasic. The new forum is there to enable users, to share ideas, and obtain help.
If you would like to join the group please email forum@Wimpbasic.org.
Please enter your serial number, and subscribe as the subject.
Wimpbasic is an easy to use WIMP development system. Design your windows and code from a simple to use integrated enviroment. To see what can be achieved why not take a look at the Wimpbasic.org site which has an archive of a large number of programs.
Wimpbasic is sold by APDL for ukp39 ukp.
!AntiSpam, the freeware anti-spam tool, is available on my web site, http://www.apts04.dsl.pipex.com and is currently at version 1.09. This is the ninth update since its first release only a few weeks ago, in response to user feedback.
There is a lively Smartgroup available for discussion and support at http://www.smartgroups.co.uk/groups/antispam which is free to all, whether users or not.
!AntiSpam is freeware and is released under the GPL.
the Big Ben Club presents its yearly show, the RISCOS Expo 2003
The Big Ben Club is the nationwide Dutch Acorn User Group.
Show date: Saturday, June 21th, 2003
venue: Expohall, Hotel Mercure, Buizerdlaan 10, Nieuwegein (near the city of Utrecht)
A first class location, with restaurant, parking garage (free)
from: 10.00 a.m. to 5.00 p.m.
admission: members free, non-members EUR 7,=
Exhibition / Promotion / Demonstration
Presentations
Castle Technology - MicroDigital - RISCOS Ltd
Exhibitors
Archive Publications www.archivemag.co.uk/ NORWICH United Kingdom THE Acorn Enthusiasts' Magazine
The ARM Club www.armclub.org.uk/ LONDON United Kingdom Professional Collegue Club
Castle Technology Ltd www.castle-technology.co.uk FRAMLINGHAM United Kingdom IYONIX pc Oregano2 Web Browser Acorn RiscPC en A7000+, Kinetic SA-RiscPC met SDRAM
Desk vof www.deskvof.nl/riscos/ ROTTERDAM the Netherlands Soft & Hardware demonstration of Graphics Programs DTP lay-out | Web-Design door: Henk Huinen www.beeldwerk.demon.nl
MicroDigital Europe www.microdigitaleurope.com/ ROTTERDAM the Netherlands MD Omega pc - MD Alpha notebook
MW-Software www.mw-software.com/ KAISERSLAUTERN Germany Martin Wuerthner's ArtWorks 2
RComp / R-Comp Interactive www.arsvcs.demon.co.uk/r-comp/ KNUTSFORD United Kingdom Software | Sound | Games Network Hardware
RISCOS.be www.riscos.be/ ANTWERPEN België Belgium RISC OS Users Group
RISCOS Ltd www.riscos.com CARDIFF United Kingdom RISC OS Select | RISCOS Foundation
Surftec Ltd www.surftec.com HINDHEAD United Kingdom Soft & Hardware | Networks
Uffenkamp Computer Systeme www.ucs.de/ ENGER-DREYEN Germany Soft & Hardware | Books - Magazines
X-Ample Technology www.xat.nl/ OSS the Netherlands IYONIX pc Cerilica Vantage CueMaster, 'teleprompter' igb NOB CableNews Pro PHOTODESK
Big Ben Club Region den Haag Big Ben Club Workgroup Genealogie DEN HAAG the Netherlands DEN HAAG the Netherlands
Big Ben Club Workgroup Hardware Big Ben Club Region Oost + WG 8-bit DEN HAAG the Netherlands ARNHEM ELST NIJMEGEN the Netherlands
After a bit of a nudge, HMC&E have now processed Soft Rock Software's application for VAT registration, which applies from 1st June 2003.
This means that all of Soft Rock Software's prices now include an element of VAT. However, there will be no price increases as a direct result of this - the existing prices will be VAT inclusive, rather than have the VAT added.
Products currently available, and their [new] prices, are as follows:
WebChange for RISC OS
Full Price: 15.00ukp inc. (12.77 + 2.23 VAT) Budget price: 6.50ukp inc. ( 5.53 + 0.97 VAT) Upgrade budget=>full: 10.00ukp inc. ( 8.51 + 1.49 VAT)
WebChange is a website maintenance tool, designed to simplify many repetitive tasks, including search and replace across the whole [local copy of the] site, inclusion/updating of "standard" files, reading and including datestamps to indicate when pages were updated, and much more.
For more details see: http://www.webchange.co.uk/ros/
Please note that a new version is currently in development (existing users can download a beta version from the users website), and upon its release there will be a price increase for WebChange for RISC OS.
WebChange for Windows
Full price: 6.50ukp inc. ( 5.53 + 0.97 VAT)
WebChange for Windows is a much more limited version of the program, hence the lower price. However, due to the continuing advances of the RISC OS version, and the fact that the Windows version hasn't been updated since its original release, it is very likely that it will shortly be made available as a free download - so purchasing is probably not a sensible move at this stage.
For more details see: http://www.webchange.co.uk/win/
Trellis
Trellis isn't currently on sale, having not been developed any further for some considerable time. However, it is possible that it may shortly be made available once again at a much lower price than previously.
The following three products are all now priced as follows:
Full price: 0.00 ukp inc. ( 0.00 + 0.00 VAT)
(Absolute bargains if you want my opinion ;-)
FresCache
FresCache is an automated cache clearing tool for users of ANT's Fresco web browser. The program /selectively/ removes files from the cache based on the contents of a 'rules' file. This means that, for example, you can have it retain images only for those sites that you visit regularly, to save having to download the non-changing graphics over and over.
For more details see:
http://www.softrock.co.uk/products/frescache.html
AddTags
AddTags is a program designed to add random taglines to usenet posts, according to a set of user defined rules. You can have it place the tags above the sig separator, below the sig separator, after the sig, or not have ay tags at all, depending on the group to which you are posting, or the 'user' who is posting.
For more details see:
http://www.softrock.co.uk/products/addtags.html
WaitUntil
WaitUntil is a simple multitasking program that, quite simply, waits until certain conditions are met - and therefore provides a conditional pause for the calling obey file. The condition can be whether or not a specified app is running, or a specified system variable is set. Alternatively it can just wait until a specified amount of time has elapsed.
For more details see:
http://www.softrock.co.uk/products/waituntil.html
An unrequested move by the hosting company to new servers means that all subdomains on the riscos.org.uk service have consequently been removed.
Therefore anyone wishing to continue use of the service should contact me at this address as soon as possible so I can set up the subdomain again.
riscos.org.uk continues to be a free service.
I apologise for the inconvenience this causes.
I've uploaded some Acorn Access management tools wot I wrote to
http://www.eclipse.co.uk/gilberts/access/
The suite is called TME NetManager, and is designed to facilitate the deployment of an Acorn Access peer-to-peer network. One machine is dedicated as a Master Sharer, holding resources for several clients. Clients can be RISC OS 3.1 or better, Master needs 3.6 or 3.7. Later versions might work, but are untested to any great extent.
The core tool, !MakeServe, creates a set of shares on the Master system containing standard system resources with appropriate access permissions, and sets the Master system up to create these each time it boots.
The other tools are less comprehensive, but aid management of Client stations.
Details and instructions are given in the !Help file for each application.
There's more to come, and the address will change when I go to broadband in the next few weeks. Comments welcome.
On my website is the latest version of !Quaker. This program accompanies my earthquake detector project in the interfacing section of my site.
The program is much improved. You can now record five minutes worth of output and save it to disc automatically. This enables you to record hours of activity and play them back at a later date.
Each five minute session can now be initiated by a pre-set trigger, so that you will only record when something has happened.
If you haven't built the project, don't despair. I have included 20 minutes worth of output so that anyone can see what it looks like.
The hardware side of this project has also been updated. It now uses a smaller, simpler circuit board. The article on my webpage has been updated accordingly.
To get the program or read the article, scroll down to the bottom of my page and follow the relevant link.
While you are there, why not take a look at the beautiful Roe Valley as well.
http://www.argonet.co.uk/users/tudor
At long last I have produced a web site on the above subject. Naturally the main focus is on the drivers I have produced, primarily for HP Deskjet models. However I have also tried to cover commercial suppliers of both drivers and printers.
The web site can be found at http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~jbcb/
Although quite a lot of people already use SpamStamp, it has, until now, not had a very official status since there only was a file that could be downloaded from my website, not linked from any other pages. Since so many people are interested in SpamStamp, I decided that this should change.
I have just uploaded the latest version, 0.09, with limited support for ANT's mailfiles (but no installation instructions yet, sorry!).
I still feel it is not a completed product, so this isn't the official release. But at least now it has its own webpage... :-) (And I have not had reports of mail gone missing because of the use of SpamStamp, so it seems safe... No guarantees though! :-) )
For those that don't know: SpamStamp is a program that attempts to detect if a mail is spam or not. Some headers are added to the mail with the result of that check. Your mail client can then decide what to do with the spam.
Deciding whether mail is spam or not is being done by bayesian filtering techniques (see http://www.paulgraham.com/spam.html). This means that you do not need to set up all kinds of rules, but the system figures it out by itself. It does this because every time it makes a mistake, you tell it that it took a wrong decision. This then increases SpamStamp's ability to detect spam.
http://home.c2i.net/jjvdgeer/riscos/spamstamp.html
I have just uploaded version 1.25c to:
http://www.ksedwards.ukgateway.net/account2/
Account2 is a freeware home accounts application that has been in constant development since January 2001.
It includes many features that are normally found only in commercial packages, including sub-account facilities, categories and sub-categories, unlimited number of transactions, report creation and budgeting, export and import to various CSV and QIF formats and much more.
Recent changes
Clicking MENU over the "last file saved" icon on the toolbar now displays a menu of the last 10 files saved to allow for easy loading of frequently used files.
Clicking over any field in the Transaction details window produces a report of all transactions where there is a match with the field you clicked.
When using "last file saved" facility, an error message box now replaces the previous fatal error when trying to load a file which has been moved, renamed or deleted since saving.
Balance and Statement icons now display more digits. (Am I becoming richer?!)
Sub-categories of categories K to T were not being shown in the sub-category menus. This has now been cured.
Pressing RETURN in account details window did not save details. This is now cured.
"This Account" box on toolbar now allows up to 16 characters in the account name.
It is no longer necessary to press RETURN after creating new category and sub-category names.
ROX-Filer 2.0.0 is out now! This is the new stable release, and a major update from last year's stable release:
http://rox.sourceforge.net/rox_filer.html
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.html
The filer now requires GTK+-2.0.x or GTK+-2.2.x (which easily install alongside Gtk+-1.2):
Screenshots:
http://rox.sourceforge.net/screenshots.html
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.
Changes since 1.2.0:
There are three big changes in this release. The biggest is that the filer now uses GTK+-2.0 (or 2.2) rather than 1.2. This is a major change, bringing many benefits, especially in the areas of text handling and appearance. However, it is also quite a lot slower than before. Therefore, it is unlikely that the filer will run well on 486-type machines, even though the filer itself shouldn't be less efficient than before. It is also reported to be sluggish on a P-90, but is perfectly usable on a P-333. The speed may depend on your graphics card too.
The new version of GTK brings support for the new X font system, which provides good-looking (optionally) anti-aliased fonts. It also uses a sane font naming scheme (eg "Bitstream Vera Sans 10") rather than the previous system of random dashes, digits and stars. All modern Linux distros have this already set up, but if you're doing it manually, check the ROX FAQ entry on fonts ("Why don't my fonts don't look as good as the ones in the screenshots?").
The new GTK also uses double-buffering for drawing, which means that there shouldn't be any flickering when resizing windows, etc.
The second major change is to character encodings. Briefly: your computer uses numbers to represent characters (eg, 65 is 'A' in the ASCII encoding). Most other encodings extend ASCII with various accented characters or other symbols, but different systems use the same numbers for different letters, and each can only represent a particular alphabet. The effect of this is that you're forced to choose a single encoding for your whole system, but if you choose an encoding that, for example, does Greek characters, then you can't have any Chinese characters on your system, etc.
Obviously, this is very silly, and the solution is the UTF-8 encoding, which has a different number for every character in every known language. The plan (not just for ROX) is to move everything across to UTF-8 as soon as possible so these problems go away. However, this may require a little work if you're currently using a different encoding. People using plain ASCII (no accented characters) are unaffected, since UTF-8 only extends ASCII. See the FAQ entry for more information ("Why does the filer complain that my filenames aren't UTF-8?").
The third likely cause of complaints is the new pinboard. As with the encodings, we've moved over to a better system but it's going to annoy people who've got things set up for the old one. The old system involved creating lots of small 'shaped' windows, one for each icon. However, this doesn't work on GTK+-2, and it was causing lots of problems anyway. Also, different desktops were each implementing desktop icons differently and it was hard for window managers to support them all. Therefore the new window manager specification from freedesktop.org suggests that everyone uses a single large window for icons, and this is what GNOME, KDE, XFCE and ROX are all now doing.
This means:
The filer already provides a drop-box for setting a centred, scaled, tiled or stretched image as the backdrop. It also provides an interface to let other programs set the backdrop. In particular, the Wallpaper application (http://rox.sourceforge.net/wallpaper.html) can choose a random backdrop when you login and change it at regular intervals too. It can also use the output of another program (such as ImageMagick or XEarth) for the backdrop. See the FAQ entry for more information ("Can I make the pinboard transparent, like in the 1.2.x series?").
Note: I get a number of emails about this in the form "Hi, I think you're wrong about it not being feasible to use the old method for pinboard icons. It's actually really easy, and you should change it. I'd do it myself, except I'm not a programmer and I don't know how." If you feel tempted to write such an email, I suggest either learning to program first or finding a programmer willing to produce a prototype that we can discuss (note: solution must work on all X servers, be fast, still support the current scheme, which is better for most people, and be reasonably maintainable... good luck).
As well as the pinboard following the new window manager standard, better interoperability can be seen in several other areas. In particular, we support the new thumbnails specification, which allows sharing thumbnails with Gimp, Nautilus, etc, and we have merged the ROX, GNOME and KDE MIME databases to produce a single shared database (which GNOME and KDE are currently adding support for).
The user interface is now simpler and cleaner. In particular, drag-and-drop now defaults to opening a menu of operations, clicking on mount points defaults to mounting and the options box is far less confusing. We have also adopted the new GNOME button ordering for dialog boxes, which places the 'Yes, do it!' button in the bottom-right corner of all boxes (Mac style).
Other notable new features are the bookmarks menu, including a list of recently visiting directories, and the ability to set global short-cuts for any pinboard or panel icon (eg, start your web-browser or open a directory with a shortcut, even when using another program).
List of changes since the 1.2.x series:
DEPENDANCIES
FILER WINDOWS
TOOLBARS
ACTION WINDOWS
APPEARANCE
MENUS
INTERACTION WITH OTHER PROGRAMS
SORTING
SEND TO MENU
PINBOARD AND PANELS
THUMBNAILS
INTERNATIONALISATION
NEW TRANSLATIONS
SOAP
DRAG AND DROP
TYPES
BOOKMARKS
AUTOSIZING
OTHERS
ADDRESSES
There are 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.
http://rox.sourceforge.net/install.html
http://rox.sourceforge.net/guide.html
You can read more, download ROX-Filer, read the comments people have made, and look at some screenshots here:
http://rox.sourceforge.net/comments.html
http://rox.sourceforge.net/screenshots.html
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.htmlEnjoy!
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