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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In the light of the increasing difficulties in obtaining mice for RISC OS machines, Stuart Tyrrell Developments are pleased to announce the immediate availability of a quality mouse for RISC OS, designed for machines which are fitted with the traditional "acorn-style" mouse port (ie all Acorn branded machines other than the A7000).
The 3-button Genius branded mice are enabled for use with RISC OS machines using our PS2MouseMini technology, which ensures full compatibility with the "acorn-style" mouse standard.
The mouse plugs directly into the above RISC OS machines, with no requirements for separate adaptors, drivers, or software patches, making it a simple, high quality replacement for both home and education environments.
The STD Standard Mouse retails in one-off quantity for UKP19.95 inc VAT and delivery, and is available immediately.
Dealer and Education enquiries are welcomed, with discounts available to both for quantity purchase. We also offer dealers the opportunity to supply their own novel, branded or unbranded mice to be enabled for RISC OS use, subject to a small MOQ.
The latest version of !Pdf is now available from
http://www.netchess.iconbar.com/pdf/
!Pdf is a public domain Pdf (Adobe Acrobat) file viewer for RISC OS.
This is just a minor bugfix release of !Flash. It fixes a problem with the sound system.
!Flash is a plugin for web browsers that enables you to view flash files. Many commercial sites use this format to make their site more attractive. Besides showing nice pictures and clips the flash object also allows you to navigate through a site, therefore, without the right plugin it was most times impossible to get see websites that are flash only. Although we now have the capability to view flash files not all sites will allow us to enter because they test for other required features or do not detect the !Flash plugin.
You can download !Flash 0.410.1.1 as usual from my website
http://members.ams.chello.nl/l.smiers
eQ's StupidPlayer comes in a new version (0.3). StupidPlayer is a MP3 player based on mpg123 and placed under the GPL.
It's now really faster in both 22 KHz (+ 30 %) and 11 KHz (+ 60 %) modes, so it can work in higher modes on desktop, even in 22 KHz mode. StupidPlayer is on http://www.eqrd.net/
eQ now works on a full Mpeg1 video reader... 15-16 frames / sec on a standard R7500 motherboard :) The optimised version will come in a few weeks...
Image Software is proud to announce the release of !ImagePrxy the HTTP proxy server for RISC OS.
Using !ImagePrxy, running on a RISC OS machine connected to the Internet, you can allow access to the WWW from all the machines on your local area network (RISC OS, PC, MAC, etc).
Why resort to a PC alternative when you can stay with the stability of RISC OS for your proxying needs?
!ImageProxy is available now at an introductory price of 39.99UKP (fully inclusive).
Please direct all sales enquires to sales@imagesoft.co.uk.
I've just released GnuPG 1.0.6 for RISC OS. It's an important bug-fix release (there was an exploitable bug in some circumstances) that has a few small additions here and there as well. If you are keen to know the exact changes, please refer to the NEWS file inside the distribution.
GnuPG itself is a commandline tool without any graphical stuff. It is the real crypto engine which can be used directly from a command prompt, from obey scripts or by other programs. Therefore it can be considered as a backend for other applications.
Messenger Pro 2.50 already supports GnuPG in a beta stage. Currently it is the only mail/news reader for RISC OS that has built-in support for GnuPG. I hope that other mail/news reader authors will support GnuPG in the future in a similar way like PGP 2.6.3ia is supported today.
Have fun and a Pretty Good Privacy!
The Association of Acorn Usergroups (AAUG) are pleased to announce the full release of their new FREE ISP for RISC OS users - AAUG Online
Why put money into pockets of fat-cat ISPs like Freeserve who probably havnt even heard of RISC OS!!
We support full automated sign-up online - with no obligation - if you like us, use us!
Need more reasons? Try these...
We look forward to welcoming all RISC OS users to the Free ISP club!!
Neil Spellings
AAUG Chairman
Image Software is proud to release !BigBro the network supervision package for RISC OS.
!BigBro allows a network administrator to view the desktops of other RISC OS machines on a network. Ideal for the office or school to keep an eye on what's going on.
Features:
The server comes comlete with an unlimited client licence, for an introductory price of 29.99UKP (fully inclusive).
Contact us for more information.
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
(Proprietor)
The first edition of this book was originally published under the title First Steps in Programming Acorn RISC OS Computers in 1993 by Sigma Press Ltd. It has now been out of print for several years.
A second edition has now been released as a freeware DTP document, both in its original form as an Impression document and as a conversion to Ovation Pro format by Richard Hallas. It can be downloaded from http://www.argonet.co.uk/users/mfox/books
These files will also be included in Issue 6 of Foundation RISC User, published by RISCOS Ltd for members of the RISC OS Foundation. The FRU database also includes a demo version of Ovation Pro which may be used to view (and possibly print) the Ovation Pro version.
It it hoped that an HTML version will be produced in due course. Once this has been completed, it will be published in Foundation RISC User at some time in the future as a uniquely enhanced version, with the ability to run the example software directly from the pages with a single click.
An online sampler edition of FRU is now a permanent feature of the RISCOS Ltd Web site at http://foundation.riscos.com/fru.htm
and the Fourth Dimension website is now hosted at
http://www.cjemicros.co.uk/4d/
The old http://www.cje.co.uk/ site will in future simply redirct you to the new site.
Our email addresses have therefore changed to:
sales@cjemicros.co.uk
info@cjemicros.co.uk
support@cjemicros.co.uk
dealersales@cjemicros.co.uk
4d@cjemicros.co.uk
See http://www.cjemicros.co.uk/prices/
If you can't find what you are looking for on the list, simply give us a call and we've probably got it in stock anyway!
The results of the Fourth Dimension PocketReader Competition to find the most Practical, Useful, Unusual and Unlikely uses of the Siemens PocketReader with new RISCOS Software are as follows:
Peter Dunn - Combine with !Speak as an aid for blind users to read newspaper text, magazines etc.
*Useful
Peter Dunn (again!) - Noting TV programme details when recording video tapes.
*Unusual
Andrew Harmsworth - Using it to OCR the first million decimal places of PI (about 20 A4 pages or so) which silly sixth formers will insist on printing out.
"Scan all your tatoos and output as text so you can check the spellings"
Congratulations to Graham Waterworth, our winning entrant who wins a PocketReader with RISC OS software and a mystery extra prize(!). This, and runners up certificates will be winging their way in the post in the next few days.
Many thanks to Chris Hughes of WAUG for taking time to judge the competition during a very busy day making sure everything went smoothly at the Wakefield Show.
If you entered the competition but weren't lucky enough to win, or even if you never got round to entering, we still have stocks of PocketReaders for 62ukp including PC and RISCOS software. See http://www.cjemicros.co.uk/pocketreader/ for full details.
We would like to announce txt2pdf 4.6 version.
http://www.sanface.com/txt2pdf.html
txt2pdf is shareware; it is a very flexible and powerful PERL5 script that converts text files to PDF format files, so you can use it in every operating systems supported by PERL5, including Acorn. If you prefer we also distribute executables for Windows, Linux, Solaris, AIX, HP-UX, and FreeBSD. Inside the Windows version is Visual txt2pdf, a VB GUI.
What's new in this version
We've corrected a possible bug with Acrobat Reader 5.x and the PDF made by previously txt2pdf releases. Now inside the layer you've to put your text commands inside BT and ET
Test txt2pdf 4.6!
You can find it at http://www.sanface.com/txt2pdf.html
Just to announce another new version of !FontMgr2, the lightweight shareware font manager program.
Major improvements to this version:
There have been sundry other little usability improvements - read the history & !Help files for details. Probably the most useful is that when you scan a file for fonts, you can enable fonts and launch the file with one click of the mouse.
And the program still runs in a sub-128k wimpslot.
If anyone has other file formats that they would like supported, please email me. (Preferably with a few SMALL example files, even more preferably with a fully paid for registered working copy of the program...)
Download from http://www.argonet.co.uk/users/ttehtann
Enjoy
i'm pleased to report that i now have one set of discs in, forming part of the next upgrade being sent free to all owners of the superior cd. if you have yet to register, you will not receive the upgrade - plain and simple.
we're holding back on sending them out, as we've decided now to offer a printed manual as well. this will be sent at the same time, to make the upgrade package a little more worthwhile. there's a veritable genius working on the manual at the moment - so we'll leave him to do it at his own pace.
if you have any questions, do please let me know.
At this year's Wakefield Acorn RISC OS Show, as at last year's, I took a large number of digital photographs.
Lots of people have demanded to see such photographs, and so I've made available a subset of unedited photographs on the RISC OS User Group of London Website at http://www.jellybaby.net/rougol/wakefield/2001/
Highlights include:
I'm afraid I've upgraded my camera since last year, and thus these images are much higher quality, but also much larger - about 3x larger than last year's images, and thus around 200KB each.
I've not written any HTML to go with the pictures; the results should work happily with your RISC OS (or other) browser, but please let me know if not (I've briefly tested the above URL with Fresco 2.13 and Oregano 1.10).
As mentioned above, these forty-one photographs are just a subset of the seventy or so that I took. The remainder are either too poor for release, or require further editing; the latter will be released at the same URL within the next few days, and I'll post on csa.misc (but not here) to let people know they've arrived. They include some of the more obvious omissions from the above list of highlights...
A complete set of properly edited photographs, with full captions and explanations, will feature in Foundation RISC User issue 6, in addition to my in depth articles featuring analysis and speculation covering the RISC OS Hardware Partner presentations at the show (and anything else I can persuade them to let me publish), and Richard Hallas' full show report. For more information on joining the RISC OS Foundation and helping to support the future of RISC OS, visit http://www.riscos.com/
All of the photographs were taken on Sunday 20th May 2001, and thus the show was a great deal less busy than it was on Saturday; all RISC OS shows tend to be much less busy on the Sunday.
All photographs were taken using an Olympus camera supplied by Photodesk Ltd., variously transferred prepared and uploaded using RISC OS 4 from RISCOS Ltd., a StrongARM Turbo 287MHz from APDL, and Photodesk Light from Photodesk Ltd., and are now served by the Apache webserver running on a FreeBSD system at Jellybaby Networks.
I would like to thank all exhibitors and visitors at the show for their patience with the photography; and the organisers and helpers at the Wakefield Acorn RISC OS Show for yet another extremely well run and enjoyable show.
There are, of course, other show reports and photographs available on the
web, including:
http://www.iconbar.com/
http://www.riscos.org/
http://www.cumbrian.demon.co.uk/show/photos.html
For comparison purposes, last year's photos are still at:
http://www.jellybaby.net/rougol/wakefield/2000/
Those of you who like to wander round directory structures will doubtless want to check out the /2002/ and /2003/ directories just as you did last year, but trust me - there's nothing there because *those shows haven't happened yet*!
This release of !Flash keeps !Flash in sync with the linux openflash player. The changes are:
!Flash is a plugin for web browsers that enables you to view flash files. Many commercial sites use this format to make their site more attractive. Besides showing nice pictures and clips the flash object also allows you to navigate through a site, therefore, without the right plugin it was most times impossible to get see websites that are flash only. Although we now have the capability to view flash files not all sites will allow us to enter because they test for other required features or do not detect the !Flash plugin.
You can download !Flash 0.410.1.0 as usual from my website
http://members.ams.chello.nl/l.smiers
For some time now, this software has been undergoing a major rewrite, and the result of this has now been released: v2.00 is now available.
More details about WebChange are available at:
http://www.softrock.co.uk/webchange/ros/
Users who have not yet done so following requests to the (old) mailing list, and those users not on the list, should email me with the password they wish to use to access the download page. Please be sure to provide enough details for me to be able to verify you as a customer.
However, as a launch offer, between now and 30th June, 2001, the Wakefield show price is being held for mail order customers - so until that date, you can purchase WebChange2 for just 10ukp
For online credit card transactions, the price is held at 12ukp until the same date.
Soft Rock Software
FREEPOST (BS7978)
Westbury-on-Trym
Bristol
BS10 7NP
Be sure to provide a contact email address.
You can order WebChange2 online using your credit card by visiting:
http://www.uksharereg.com/webchange.html
However, a new list has now been set up, and this list is an open one.
To subscribe, send an email to
MajorDomo@www.softrock.co.uk with the following as the body of the message:
subscribe wc4ros
Thereafter, you can post to the list by sending to wc4ros@www.softrock.co.uk
Just a short reminder:
The RISC OS Show of the German Archimedes Group is on the weekend June 2 & 3 (next weekend) in Grafhorn slightly east of Hannover.
Interested to come: mailto:hzn@hq.gag.de
Eine kurze Erinnerung:
Die RISC OS Show der German Archimedes Group findet am Wochenende 2. & 3. Juni (nachstes Wochenende/Pfingsten) in Grafhorn Ostlich von Hannover statt.
Interesse zu kommen: mailto:hzn@hq.gag.de
You can now download version 1.15 of !FullNames from my website at
http://www-users.york.ac.uk/~ajb121/fnames.htm
The only change since the recently released 1.14 is the fixing of a bug that would sometimes cause the machine to crash when loading !FullNames.
It would appear that my earlier announcement for version 1.14 did not reach everyone's news server, so I'll repeat the list of recent changes:
New since 1.13:
New since 1.12:
New since 1.11:
For those of you who don't know, !FullNames is a freeware utility which provides the following features:
I have put up a brief page of instructions for those wishing to create PDF files from Sibelius7. There are no illustrations as yet, but I intend to re-write the page soon with more detail and some screenshots.
The results from PDF files created from Sibelius7's PoscScript output are quite amazing - I've recently run of hundreds of pages this way which needed to be professional quality.
With most printing firms accepting PDFs as standard this is the most convenient way to get professional quality printouts of your scores. Or indeed take them to a friend's PC, who happens to have a very expensive printer, as I did ;-)
The URL is http://www.arenaman.com/sibeliuspdf.php
Hope it is of some vague use to someone.
Hello, this is David from eQ R&D
.This is just a note to clarify a few things:
Anyway, as usual, any help is greatly accepted.
Oregan is in partnership with leading chipset vendors, manufacturers and Internet Service Providers, leveraging the company's turnkey solution to deliver exciting new services to the home.
Headquartered in modern West London offices, the atmosphere at Oregan is demanding, but also exciting. Oregan attributes its continued success to the fresh perspectives and significant contributions that each employee brings to this exhilarating, fast-paced environment. Employees at Oregan have the opportunity to make a difference by exceeding expectations, whilst enjoying a workplace where their opinions are valued, their results are rewarded and fun is not sacrificed.
Oregan strives to recruit, reward and retain qualified individuals who are committed to teaming up with the brightest and best in the business to build an industry leader. Oregan rewards challenging work assignments with competitive base salaries and pre-IPO stock options.
Software Engineer - Embedded (EN01)
details at: http://www.oregan.net/pageopen.asp?j-en01
Software Engineer - Server (EN02)
details at: http://www.oregan.net/pageopen.asp?j-en02
You may also send your resume via regular mail to the Human Resources Dept, at the address below.
Oregan Networks UK Ltd
The White Building, 52-54 Glentham Road
Barnes, London, SW13 9JJ, United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0) 20 8846 0990
Fax: +44 (0) 20 8846 0999
Web: http://www.oregan.net/
For those who couldn't make it to the Wakefield Show please find below details of a new type of RISC OS machine that was on show called "SLYM"
www.cumana.net/products/acorn/nc.htm
Cumana / Cannon Computing (in association with Castle) are pleased to announce a new 'all in one' concept. The 'SLYM' design concept features RISC OS technology built into a LCD Screen housing, providing a very compact terminal to access Acorn and PC environments on your network using Citrix. There are a number of potential applications for this type of machine for schools, hospitals, businesses and home users and the development of the production model is now underway.
Proposed Specification:
ARM 7500FE (56Mhz)
32Mb EDO
8Mb Flash
10/100 Network card with Activity light
2x PS2 ports
Serial port
Headphone out
Audio In
Parallel Port
SVGA Port
Power on/off switch
Reset Switch
USB (not connected at present)
RISC OS 4.03
Oregano Web Browser (Internet Ready)
Optional Cordless Keyboard & Mouse
If you require any further information regarding this product or you would like to see a demo please e-mail me at ntaylor@cumana.co.uk. More info on Citrix, Networking etc.... can be found on our website www.cumana.net.
This world is changing!
Nigel A.Taylor
Cumana/Cannon Computing
Hello, I'm David Feugey, CTO of eQ R&D (http://www.eqrd.net/)
We now provide you a few software for RISC OS:
A full RISC OS SDK for Linux and Win32.
A Win32 version of the Armulator with Linux HD and Roms.
A cyrillic font package.
We also have some software in development like Zhaba (an embedded JVM for DOS and RISC OS) and StupidPlayer, a MP3 player for ARM7500FE computers! StupidPlayer will work soon at 22 KHz on desktop. This version works at 11KHz, but on desktop and even with complex VBR files.
Please note that, for now, all software is under GNU/GPL licence.
I have just updated my homepage at
http://www.digitalcd.riscos.org.co.uk/
or
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Horizon/4471/
The changes are:
For those who don't know:
WinAmp is the most commonly used MP3 player on the Windows platform.
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:
Many of you will know of Director by Nick Craig-Wood. From its first release in 1994 through to the present day it has found its way into the hearts of many RISC OS users.
However, in recent years development of Director has crawled to a standstill due to lack of time and other commitments.
Therefore I would like to announce a change in the way Director is to be maintained.
Firstly, Nick has kindly let me take over development of Director. He also said that any future versions of Director should be licensed under the General Public License (GPL).
Nick has requested that any future development of Director should be a collaborative piece of work. Therefore at his suggestion I have setup a project on SourceForge (www.sourceforge.net) to continue development of Director.
If you are interested the please have a look at the project home page which is: http://director.sourceforge.net or the project summary on SourceForge at: http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/director/
Currently I would say that the version available from SourceForge should be considered as a pre beta of version 0.27. That is not because it is full of bugs, it's just that it has not been thoroughly tested. I do plan to release a beta of 0.27 shortly, with a full release after that.
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+.
You can find out more information on the General Public License (GPL) on the page: http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html.
Mesa is a 3-D graphics library with an API which is very similar to that of OpenGL*. To the extent that Mesa utilizes the OpenGL command syntax or state machine, it is being used with authorization from Silicon Graphics, Inc. However, the author makes no claim that Mesa is in any way a compatible replacement for OpenGL or associated with Silicon Graphics, Inc.
Those who want a licensed implementation of OpenGL should contact a licensed vendor.
While Mesa is not a licensed OpenGL implementation, it is currently being tested with the OpenGL conformance tests. For the current conformance status see the CONFORM file included in the Mesa distribution.
* OpenGL(R) is a registered trademark of Silicon Graphics, Inc.
More information on Mesa is available at http://mesa3d.sourceforge.net/
Fixed palette 8 bits per pixel (bpp), 16 bpp and 32 bpp formats are supported, with limited dithering facilities available in 8 bpp and 16 bpp modes.
The current driver is at version 0.36b6 and is intended for use with Mesa 3.4.1 (the current release). No new facilities have been added to the driver; it has only been updated so that it works with the current release of Mesa.
!CDChanger is now available from:
http://chocky.mine.nu/software/index.html#cdchanger
It is a simple device selector for CD Changers on the RapIDE IDE interfaces.
Please note: This will not work with any SCSI or IDE device other than RapIDE.
I Have put up on my webspace a few photos from the show.
http://www.cumbrian.demon.co.uk/show/photos.html
Enjoy.
In developing and producing a RISC OS laptop computer, RiscStation has experienced several setbacks along the way.
Previously we have been in discussions with a case manufacturer whose product became discontinued, a factor which in itself caused a major disruption to our progress and seriously affected our anticipated timescale for the laptop's public release.
Since then, we have entered discussions and agreements with a different case manufacturer who has a new product about to hit the market. We are very fortunate to have become associated with them at a very early stage in the life of their new case design. This means that the newly proposed case for the RiscStation laptop computer should enjoy a long period of availablity allowing us to satisfy the huge demand we are seeing.
However, the manufacturer of the case is not releasing their product to the general public until July and, under a non-disclosure agreement with them, we are not permitted to pre-release details of their product in advance of their own launch. This means that we are unable to display the actual finished article at the Wakefield Show this coming weekend.
Despite this situation, the design and development of the internal hardware, pending final approval, is now complete. Currently, RiscStation Ltd. is working to the case manufacturer's timetable.
Aside from laptop developments, RiscStation is very encouraged and excited by other discussions and the opportunities they afford. Come and see us on the RiscStation stand and experience the public presentation to learn more about what is to come.
RiScript's development is moving on apace with the recent major release of version 4.13. Building on the previous acclaimed releases, this upgrade brings greater user-friendly aspects to aid the process of creating PDFs, exporting Drawfiles and text from PostScript, PDF and EPS files and opening password-protected PDFs. New key short-cuts have been introduced to enable frequent users to navigate the software's extensive features with greater ease. All this in addition to a continuous improvement on an already comprehensive PostScript interpreter.
Full information may be found on the RiScript index and specification pages:
http://www.cerilica.com/riscript/index.htm
http://www.cerilica.com/riscript/spec.htm
This free upgrade has been sent automatically to all Cerilica RiScript customers who have opted to receive upgrades by e.mail. If you have purchased Cerilica-published RiScript either from Cerilica direct or via the overseas Cerilica dealers and wish to receive free upgrades, please e.mail cerilica@cerilica.com with your details, licence number and intention.
RiScript is RISC OS' premier PDF, PostScript and EPS interpreter as well as PDF generator. It allows users to view PDF and PostScript files from any source, such as the standard RISC OS printer driver, and base PDF documents on these. Its simplicity in use has been very well received by the numerous customers to date and with features such as comprehensive Drawfile and text export and printing options, brings many document transfer and interchange possibilities. If you wish to transfer documents to and from alternative systems such as PCs and Macs, with all components intact such as text, graphics and fonts, this is the product to do it with.
RiScript is supplied with a comprehensive printed manual, application and support disc in case and is available for only 59.00ukp. Full details of RiScript including overseas pricing and availability can be found by following this link:
http://www.cerilica.com/riscript/
RiScript will also be on display at the forthcoming Wakefield Show and available over-the-counter (if in stock).
Nicholas van der Walle
(Marketing Director)
As most of you will have noticed by now(!), this weekend sees the Wakefield Acorn RISC OS Show.
As mentioned already, Dave Walker's hardware collection will be on display, including (in his words) "System 1, 3, 5, Master, A680, A540, R225, etc". Relatively little of this will be running, but Dave will be on hand to talk about it in detail to anyone interested.
Dave will also have an original ARM1 Evaluation System - an ARM1 in "second processor" format for the BBC B or Master, with 4MB RAM. (From the days when 512KB of RAM was considered a lot!)
This will be one of two such systems at the show, the second one being on the Association of Acorn User Groups (AAUG) stand. At least one of them should be up and running (complete with software) and available for experimentation. (Try out your favourite ARM code and see what's different...)
For those interested, the system:
Although these weren't, of course, the first ARM processors ever, they are reasonably close to being the first ARM "systems" ever, designed (like the 32016 systems which predated them just slightly) to give prospective customers (and internal users) a chance to experiment with the new processor and do some early development work!
The one on the AAUG stand was originally used in a project to develop software for running stock exchanges on ARM processors...
I hope this will be of interest to those visitors intrigued by an important piece of Acorn's history, and indeed the history of microprocessors more generally.
The new and bug-fixed version 1.31 of NewAlarm, my 'rough-time' desktop alarm program, is now available from http://www.starfighter.acornarcade.com/mysite/utilities.htm#newalarm
Please note that the version which has been up there for the last six months contained a broken default alarm file which caused it to crash when run - so if you tried it and it didn't work, it might be worth trying again. Sorry.
It has taken many years to develop, brought the need to invent ground-breaking technology and is the largest single software development under RISC OS for many years. Cerilica Vantage is here!
Cerilica is proud to be exhibiting the fist commercial release of the powerful design and publishing software at Wakefield 2001 that was designed from the outset exclusively for RISC OS. Bringing technology never before seen on this operating system such as dynamic vector transparencies, sprite and complex fills, advanced rendering system, multi-lines as well as zoom-undo in impressive. But add platform-wide ground-breaking advances such as the TRUISM II arbitrary ink system and the FontX professional font and text control engine and once more RISC OS is a system to be proud of.
Cerilica Vantage has been conceived, designed and developed by professionals which means an impressively clean view of the document, highly efficient user-interface and the resource of short-cuts for those who become familiar with the package.
Further news announcements will be made over the coming weeks prior to the first package shipments and the Cerilica website will be updated appropriately. However, if you wish to see Cerilica Vantage for yourself, visit Wakefield 2001.
A full features list and example files are already present at:
http://www.cerilica.com/vantage
Cerilica is proud to sponsor the Wakefield Show for a third year. Being probably the most critical event of the year, many manufacturers and developers typically choose this occasion to reveal the latest products, of which this year will be no exception.
Cerilica will be displaying and demonstrating its design and publishing software range including Cerilica Vantage, the latest RiScript at version 4.13, the Cerilica Publishing Pack and TopModel.
Both RiScript and the Publishing Pack will be available over the counter, whilst stocks last, with the latter product being available on-disc at the show only (normally an on-line product only) in a limited quantity.
Key to most visitors will be the first public showing of the first commercial release version of Vantage with orders being taken once more following the initial promotion. Initial customers are due to receive their full products consisting of the CD with the software, examples and tutorials and full printed manual by mid June. New customers, with the queue commencing from the show, are due to receive their packages towards the end of June allowing for print timescales. See the separate announcement for full news of Vantage.
The only slight disappointment may be in the form of Cerilica TopModel. It has been agreed with Sincronia that the release date of the package is to be set slightly back to avoid any clash with the release of Vantage and to allow for a more thorough development of the documentation key to the product's revival.
Fully inclusive prices at the show are as follows:
RiScript version 4.13 57.50ukp
Cerilica Publishing Pack 19.50ukp
Orders are also being taken for:
Cerilica Vantage 241.50ukp
Cerilica TopModel v2.50 118.50ukp
We look forward to meeting all visitors to the show!
After a year - less a day - and _much_ fiddling, I have finally released a new version of "!68Host", sent to Paul Johnson for upload to the CBSA website.
"!68Host" is a RISC OS application that emulates a currently non-existent computer based on the 8-bit Motorola 6800 processor; more information is held in the application's "!Help" file.
The new release, v0.03 beta, is a "feedback" version; I have made many changes since v0.02, and although the new version appears to work fine on my systems (and, AFAICT, Paul Johnson's - thanks, Paul), I could do with some more feedback.
The main (visible) changes relate to compatibility and look-and-feel; this version should work fine on everything from a 1Mb RISC OS 3.1 system up to and including a fully-expanded Kinetic Risc PC - if, for some reason, it doesn't work on your system, please send a (detailed) bug report to me.
CBSA website:
http://www.acornusers.org/cbsa/Announce.html
Building on our established PS2Mouse range of interfaces, this device marries Stuart Tyrrell Developments' proven track record in novel interface design with the renowned PCB design and manufacture expertise of Simtec Electronics, and provides high functionality in a tiny adaptor. The interface takes the form of a short gender-changer style cable, thus providing for strain relief which will ensure that the connector on your machine remains protected.
PS2MouseMini is available for UKP18.95 inc VAT and carriage, and will be available for purchase at the show. Our fully configurable PS2Mouse interface remains available at UKP24.95
PS2MouseMini - more powerful than a Kinetic RiscPC and Omega put together*
STDMMK is a multimedia keyboard for users of RiscPC, A7000 and RiscStation machines.
Unlike most current multimedia keyboards, STDMMK is a novel "click" type, providing positive feedback of keypresses.
It has 19 seperate multimedia keys arranged across the top of the keyboard for easy access (no shifted function keys!). These provide control over web browsing (our web browser of choice is WebsterXL, available from R-Comp, owing to its excellent support for shortcut keys), along with CD functions and access to common applications. The action of keys may be changed by writing simple obey files or BASIC programs.
The keyboard is supplied complete with RISC OS and PC drivers, and is complete with an ergonomic wrist support. STDMMK costs UKP34.95 inc VAT and carriage.
The slimline switch box is supplied complete with all cabling, and is capable of resolutions exceeding 1600x1200 with out degredation.
It is fully compatible with our PS2Mouse interface, for full sharing of keyboard/monitor/mouse with RiscPC (A7000 / RiscStation / Mico have a PS/2-style mouse port built in). PS2Mouse or PS2MouseMini interfaces may be purchased discounted by UKP5 when bought at the same time as a switch - bringing the price to UP19.95 or UP13.95 respectively.
The slimline keyboard controlled switch costs UKP99.95 inc VAT and delivery. Professional Keyboard Controlled Switches, which include serial mouse conversion, enhanced front panels, audio confirmation, and optional OSD are also available - ask for details.
Similar in design to the Netproducts keyboards, the IR keyboard is a compact design, with the keypad integrated as a shifted function of the keyboard itself. The keyboard has a cursor control pad, and common keys like page up/page down are located sensibly.
The keyboard also has a built-in mouse controller, of the "nipple" variety (although, in this case, it's somewhat oversized!), which may be utilised with the addition of our PS2Mouse interface. Drivers will be available to allow the two mouse buttons to be remapped for users of A7000 type machines or PS2MouseMini.
The keyboard is supplied with a receiver, batteries and an AT adaptor (if you wish to use it with an older PC)
Range is approximately 10m, and battery life is typically 3 months in normal use.
The keyboard uses an advanced technique to ensure that, unlike the Netproducts keyboards, it does not suffer from missed keypresses. Please be aware that this technique does not allow the keyboard to be used with keyboard controlled switch boxes.
The IR keyboard costs UKP34.95 inc VAT and carriage.
(* - per product unit volume)
Following swiftly on from abc2psFE, I would like to let people know that there is also a desktop front end for Justin's port of abc2MIDI. This is available for free download from http://www.xl-cambridge.com/riscos/
Surprisingly enough, abc2MIDI converts ABC music files into MIDI files, ready to be played using ReMiDi or any other MIDI player. In combination with abc2ps, you can now listen to and produce scores for any music that you can find in ABC format.
Following swiftly on from Justin Fletcher's announcement of his port of the abc2ps command-line program, I would like to let people know that there is also a desktop front end. This is available for free download from http://www.xl-cambridge.com/riscos/
The abc2ps program converts the ABC format into staff notation as a postscript file, ready for printing. The abc2psFE front end simplifies use under RISC OS, with simple drag and drop file conversion.
Normal service has finally resumed on comp.sys.acorn.announce! After much hard work by Paul Vigay (above and beyond the call of duty!) and the Argonet staff, the cause of the problems has been tracked down and fixed.
All submissions can now be posted to the original csaa@argonet.co.uk address or direct to the newsgroup. You should then receive an automatic acknowledgement to confirm that your submission has been forwarded to the moderators. We will then carefully read your posting and either approve it or email you to suggest alterations to make the article more helpful.
Just a reminder, the email address for submissions is:
and related email to
If you do ever experience problems posting to the group, the back-up address of csaa@owlart.co.uk will always be available. Please only use this address if you have a problem with the other addresses.
Once again, many thanks to Paul and the Argo staff for their hard work in tracking down and fixing the problem.
NB. Last posting date for Wakefield Show announcements is midday Friday 18th May.
Andrew Conroy
[Backup Moderator]
After about 2 years of silence, VoiceCon 0.08 has just been released, and is available from http://www.tribbeck.com/voicecon/.
VoiceCon is a phrase-based speech recognition program for RISC OS 3.5+ for people using the following samplers (with microphones):
It has had the following additions from the last non-beta release:
On the web site is also some information about using a headset microphone (typically supplied with modems) with samplers to improve recognition still further.
Interested in networking your computers?
At Wakefield 2001, R-Comp Interactive will be demonstrating a range of Networking products for use with RISC OS machines - prepare to open your mind!!
Networking will also be included as part of Andrew Rawnsley's talk in the theatre just after 4pm on Saturday.
C860 1.3 Megapixel digital zoom: 225.00
C960 1.3 Megapixel 3x optical zoom: 320.00
C990 2.1 Megapixel 3x optical zoom: 420.00
C2040 2.1 Megapixel 3x optical zoom: 525.00
C3040 3.34 Megapixel 3x optical zoom: 790.00
C2100 2.1 Megapixel 10x zoom SLR: 750.00
E-10 4 Megapixel SLR: 1550.00
E-100RS Sports SLR: 1350.00
There's certainly going to be plenty to see on the R-Comp stand at the Wakefield show this year, with new versions aplenty:
Just a quick announcement to say that I've completely revamped my personal domain at http://www.vigay.com/.
This is home to all my RISC OS Shareware as well as various support documents such as the Ant Technical Support Scheme, csa.* FAQ and various third-party utilities that I host for people.
The side effect of this revamp means that a lot of old links no longer work. However, the big benefit is that the whole site is now cgi generated so every page contains valid 'any browser' html, and I've added a search engine to make finding things easier.
Everything now starts with the URL http://www.vigay.com/cgi-bin/search?a= followed by whatever you want to look at, so for example, my AntUtils page is now at http://www.vigay.com/cgi-bin/search?a=antutils. Or, you can just go straight to http://www.vigay.com/ and search for what you want.
I've also added a more descriptive error page if you do happen to go to one of the old (or missing) links, so that you'll hopefully find it easier to get back on track to what you're trying to find.
The overall design and layout of the site is similar to before and all pages have a handy navigation bar down the left hand side which contains all the most frequent or related links.
I hope people continue to find it useful, and thanks to all my visitors over the months.
Today's topics:
* ColourBar module released
* AWRender update: Quantum leap for ArtWorks file format support
ColourBar displays a Colour Bar (free-floating or attached to the main document window like the Info Bar) with all the colours defined in your current document. You can apply fill and line colours by either clicking on a colour (applies to the current selection) or by dragging a colour from the ColourBar to an object in your document.
No need to select any object, no need to switch to a dedicated tool. The previously long-winded procedure of applying a colour is reduced to a single click-and-drag operation.
You can find more details and a screenshot on the ColourBar home page:
http://www.mw-software.com/software/awmodules/colourbar.html
ColourBar costs only 12.50 Pounds (or DM 40 or 20.45 Euro). To order, send me a cheque payable to "Martin Wuerthner" and send me an e-mail with the subject "ColourBar order" at the same as posting your order. You can also order using your credit card via UK Shareware Registration Ltd. (follow the link on the ColourBar homepage).
I have managed to add support for Hatch(Pro) fills and JPEG objects to third-party applications like Impression, OvationPro and other programs that use the AWRender module. AWRender is a relocatable module that was released by Computer Concepts with Impression and the freely available AWViewer utility. Third-party applications can use it to display ArtWorks files. Unfortunatly, until now, the AWRender module only understood the original ArtWorks file format and ignored additional object types introduced by my ArtWorks plug-ins. It even crashed when encountering Hatch(Pro) fills.
Having spent a lot of time reverse-engineering AWRender, I have now created a new version of AWRender that fully supports Hatch(Pro) fills and JPEG objects.
This means, that after installing the AWRender update, you can drop ArtWorks files containing Hatch(Pro) fills and JPEG objects into Impression or OvationPro frames natively, without having to export in Draw format.
Unfortunately, the update is not available yet because, until now, I have not been able to obtain permission from Computer Concepts to distribute the enhanced version of AWRender. However, I still hope to get a response from them - if not, there is always the possibility of issuing a patch.
Soft Rock Software is pleased to announce that v2.00 of WebChange 2 will be available to buy at Wakefield, for a special show price of 10ukp - the normal price for this version is to be 15ukp.
WebChange 2 is a support tool for web site designers, and provides a number of features to simplify otherwise repetitive tasks.
The most notable addition in Version 2.00 is the script system, allowing a whole series of actions to be carried out without further user intervention.
Scripts being demonstrated at the show will be one to convert simple PipeDream files into HTML files, and one to extract tabular information from HTML files and turn it into a CSV file, suitable for importing into a spreadsheet.
No secret agents with silly names were harmed during the making of this announcement.
Two big entertainment releases at Wakefield this year:
The RISC OS version adds high resolution screen modes, and 16 and 32 bit colour. Bilinear graphics filtering is also available for that "3D accelerated" look, as well as transparency effects. Note that these do place a significant burden on the processor!
The game demands a StrongArm or Kinetic machine, and a CD drive.
Pricing is to be confirmed at the show, but it will be available both as an upgrade for Descent 1 owners, and in a double pack with the original game.
Again pricing has yet to be confirmed, although it is expected to be 25ukp at the show. Upgrades for people who have already purchased patches for Krisalis games will be possible, so ask at the show or give us a call next week if this may apply to you.
We are pleased to announce that SiteMaster 2+ will be available at the Wakefield show. This adds a new Uploading program to the product.
The new uploading program is both easy to use and also extremely flexible. It monitors changes to your site on your hard disc, and can upload everything or just the changed files. Before uploading takes place, a treeview of the site is shown, so that you can see what's going to be done, and make changes if you need to. Files can be marked as already uploaded, or ignored completely.
It is also possible to download all or part of your site, should you need to.
Additionally, the software keeps a log of each time you uploaded to the site, so that you can easily see what's changed since your last (or 2nd last etc.) upload.
Of course, the program can be used simply as a "point and click" program for uploading your site, too, if you are just getting to grips with creating your website.
The price for SiteMaster 2+ remains at 30ukp and it is available now. Existing SiteMaster 2 users have been sent the new uploader via email.
We are pleased to announce that v2.11 of Messenger Pro (Messenger Pro 1, that is!) has been sent out to those users who haven't yet upgraded to Messenger Pro 2. This sorts a couple of minor niggles in the older version which were dealt with in Messenger Pro 2, but warranted a fix for those users who have not yet upgraded.
Please note, this upgrade should *not* be used by anyone who has already got v2.50 of Messenger Pro!
As you might expect, we don't anticipate anything further in the way of enhancement for this older version, as work is now concentrated on extending Messenger Pro 2!
Please note that because this is essentially an "old" version, we will not have 2.11 discs at the Wakefield show.
Anyone wishing to upgrade to Messenger Pro 2 (v2.50) at Wakefield, will be able to do so but will be asked to return the old MPro 1 disk.
NetFetch can best be described as "DialUp without the Dial"! It is designed for use by people connecting to the internet through networks, routers, ADSL, Cable etc. Indeed, it shares much in common with DialUp, from configuration to interface, making it an ideal companion.
NetFetch is being released "alongside" DialUp to those who need it. In otherwords, you order DialUp or the R-Comp Suite, and ask for NetFetch!!!
The software derives its name from the simplicity with which you can set up mail/news fetching over a network. It shares DialUp's simple interface, and also supports the various protocols that DialUp offers, allowing NetFetch users to benefit from Dialup-enhanced programs.
NetFetch makes setting up periodic mail/news fetching trivial, so you can leave the software running, picking up your mail every 15 mins, for example. It also includes an Internet "panel" similar to DialUp, and various other features.
NetFetch is also supplied with RCI's Network/Print server boxes which offer shared internet connections for your home or small business network, as well as shared printing. Indeed, NetFetch was written because boxes like these benefit from easy to use software, but the dialing part of DialUp becomes irrelavent. Rather than complicate DialUp by making it "catch all", we decided to produce NetFetch as a separate program, designed particularly for the target audience.
NetFetch is available now, and will be on display at Wakefield this year, as well as the rest of the R-Comp Internet Suite. If you're intrested, feel free to contact us for more information.
The Paradise range of Graphics Tablets provide a superior input method for all types of graphics-related activities, as well as enhancing standard mouse-based programs and the RISC OS Desktop.
Paradise's flexible driver software gives you full control of all the features provided by these tablets, including work area calibration, pressure-sensing curve, click pressure and button mapping.
The tablets connect to any available RS232 (Serial) port on your computer (that includes Serial podules etc) and draws power via a keyboard pass-through connector, so no external power supplies are required for A7000/RiscPC/RiscStation etc. You can still use the mouse while the tablet is connected, and the larger tablet is thin enough to use as a mouse mat!
SPECIAL SHOW OFFER : SAVE FIFTEEN POUNDS!
To celebrate the launch of these items, the 5" x 4" PaintPal tablet, with pressure-sensitive cordless batteryless stylus and stand will be on sale for just 50 ukp - normal price 65 ukp. Come along to stand 66 to try, then buy!
For full details of the current hardware available, visit our website: http://www.paradise-uk.net/
Ian Jeffray
Paradise
The latest version of my program 'Switch', which provides a menu allowing you to iconise, pin, close, or send to back/front of the stack any window currently open on the desktop, should now be available on my brother's website at
http://www.starfighter.acornarcade.com/mysite/utilities.htm#switch
Version 1.51 offers two principal new features: the ability to act simultaneously on all windows belonging to a given task (i.e. bring all Filer windows to the front) and the ability to close *all* open windows.
WAKEFIELD 2001 - LATE NEWS - EXTRA ATTRACTIONS
Saturday and Sunday 19/20th May 2001
This will include examples from the original Acorn Mk 1 upwards through the Atom, Model A, Model B, ARM 1 32016 Second Processor, Master, Master Compact, Assorted Archimedes 300/400, A680 prototype RISC iX DTP system, A540, R225, A4000, NC plus assorted kludge boards including an ARM610 on an A540 CPU board..
This will be an unique opportunity to see these historic machines, but even more, Dave is very ready and willing to discuss the background and technical details of all these systems.
This presentation starts at 16.25 and will be most interesting.
For latest information, location maps, etc., please visit the show website:
Published 012/05/01
Mike Wilson, Publicity Officer, WACG
I'd like to announce NetChess an internet chess client for RISC OS
If you like chess but bored with playing the computer why not try internet chess. With Netchess you can connect to Internet Chess Servers like http://www.freechess.org/ and play or chat to people from all over the world.
NetChess is shareware and you can download a demonstration version which will let you play one game.
To find out more visit my NetChess web site
http://www.netchess.iconbar.com/
If you don't know the Python programming language, you may have a look at the Executive Summary below or at http://www.python.org/.
RISC OS Python includes the following highlights:
For use of Python you will need a filing system with long filename and >77 files/directory support.
Often, programmers fall in love with Python because of the increased productivity it provides. Since there is no compilation step, the edit-test-debug cycle is incredibly fast. Debugging Python programs is easy: a bug or bad input will never cause a segmentation fault. Instead, when the interpreter discovers an error, it raises an exception. When the program doesn't catch the exception, the interpreter prints a stack trace. A source level debugger allows inspection of local and global variables, evaluation of arbitrary expressions, setting breakpoints, stepping through the code a line at a time, and so on. The debugger is written in Python itself, testifying to Python's introspective power. On the other hand, often the quickest way to debug a program is to add a few print statements to the source: the fast edit-test-debug cycle makes this simple approach very effective.
Thanks to Guido v. Rossum and Martin v. Loewis for merging the RISC OS patches with the standard Python source tree (and of course special thanks to Guido for creating Python).
After almost four years of work, Artex Software are proud to present a brand new game for your RISC OS computer! In cooperation with R-Comp Interactive, this exciting realtime strategy game will be demonstrated at this year's show. Now you can pick up the mouse and send the battle units through the jungle, across deserts and snow-covered hills, and solve tricky strategic tasks. Professional graphics, a dense atmosphere, and well thought-out gameplay could make TEK the RISC OS game of the year! The actual release of the game will follow shortly after the Show, when all game balancing work has been done.
So visit the Wakefield Show and enjoy TEK 1608!
http://rox.sourceforge.net/rox_filer.php3
It's a developer release, so you may wish to stay with the current stable version, although the new one should be OK.
The main new feature is the `Huge Icons' display mode, which makes viewing thumbnails easier.
Changes since 1.1.2:
Translations:
Bugfixs:
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, Hungarian, Italian, Polish and Russian.
http://rox.sourceforge.net
http://rox.sourceforge.net/comments.php3
http://rox.sourceforge.net/screenshots.php3
There are now two mailing lists, rox-users and rox-devel. You can subscribe here, or look at the archives:
http://sourceforge.net/mail/?group_id=7023
http://rox.sourceforge.net/tutor_start.php3
More tutorials may be written if there is demand...
Stephen Watson has created some nice little applets, including a clock, an elm wrapper that indicates when you have new mail, and a load monitor (shows how busy the system is).
Enjoy.
Some time ago I announce the fact that AcornICQ would become open source and was stored on sourceforge.net. The last few weeks there were 2 volunteers to help me with the development of AcornICQ. These two people are: Maarten Bezemer and Joseph Heenan. Both people did already a lot of reorganisation of code.
We also set up two public mailinglists. The first is:
acornicq-users@lists.sourceforge.net
This list can be used for discussions and help about using AcornICQ.
To get some info about this list send a email to:
acornicq-users-request@lists.sourceforge.net with de word 'help' in the subject or body.
The second is:
>acornicq-bugs@lists.sourceforge.net
This list is for bug reports. Please send bugs to this list and give as much info as possible so that we can reproduce it. And if users on the list can confirm bugs, it would make life a lot easier for us.
To get some info about this list send an email to:
acoricq-bugs-request@lists.sourceforge.net
with the word 'help' in de subject or body.
Please do not email the developers directly (anymore), but use the mailingslists.
Thanks and bye,
Angelo
AcornICQ is the RISC OS ICQ client.
Repeat of posting sent 04may01 to csaa, but dissappeared into that black-hole :-(
ExpLAN are pleased to announce the availability of a new budget-priced LCD monitor at under ukp500 incl VAT
This is a lower-spec model than the 17-inch screen we released last year, and offers a basic XGA (1024x768) resolution at a full 32k colours. It is ideal for home/office use where screen flicker or space restrictions limit the acceptability of a standard CRT monitor. It has a low Eco-footprint at only 28W, and can be directly driven by a 12v car battery if required (ask for adaptor lead).
The monitor includes a RISCOS MDF and video lead suitable for use on RISCPC/A7000+ or RiscStation. It is not suitable for use under RISC OS 3.1 and an instruction sheet is supplied to specify the correct configuration for use on later versions of RISC OS.
Order as L15C at ukp492.32 incl VAT. Carriage extra.
The L17A, 17-inch screen which has been out of stock for the last 4 months, is about to be replaced by a new L17AS model at reduced price. Existing back-orders are expected to be fulfilled prior to the Wakefield Show.
Further info on both LCD screens and other Eco-friendly hardware on our website:
http://www.explan.co.uk/hardware/scrn.html
A software and driver package has been developed to provide RISC OS support for the Xerox DocuPrint C11 inkjet printer.
The package comprises:
This package is a joint development by Brian Pickard and Jonathan Briggs.
For further information please email:
Jonathan Briggs jbcb@globalnet.co.uk
I've just uploaded !RiscSearch V0.6B to my homepage at www.mortara.org. This version should be strongly regarded as beta, because I've done a lot of deep changes, especially to the decoder section.
For all of you, who still 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.
Changes in V0.6=DF are:
Changes in V0.6:
Have a lot of fun
DJF-JRF 1.08 can now be downloaded from:
http://www.movspclr.co.uk/software.html#djfjrf
Since the last release of DJF-JRF (1.05), there have been a few bug fixes and a couple of style-guide tweaks.
DJF-JRF is a player for DJF [1] tunes. DJF was originally intended for use within email-like correspondence to provide a simple, customisable way of announcing email arrival - essentially, if you opened an email from a person with a DJF tune it would be played for you, thus allowing other means of identification than purely by name. This feature was present in some of the Fido clients, but never made it to the Internet.
It's still quite silly and amusing, though.
[1] 'David's Jingle Format'
http://www.mikejs.com/riscos/amplay.html
In other words it's a player for MP3 music files.
It contains a number of features specifically aimed at dealing with large collections of MP3s, and with large playlists.
Being a frontend for the AMPlayer module, you need to have a version of AMPlayer installed on your system. AMPlayer can be downloaded from http://www.armware.dk/files/amplayer/ and should be installed using the !Configure (RISC OS 4) or !SysMerge (pre-RISC OS 4) applications. AMPlayer is not included in the AMPlay archive.
You will also need !WBModules v2.09 or greater on your system. This can be downloaded from http://www.wimpbasic.com/.
Memory requirements will vary depending on the playlist size.
Note that AMPlay is purely an AMPlayer front-end, and will not play anything other than the mpeg-audio formats that the AMPlayer module supports.
AMPlay is freeware. Full license details are included in the archive.
AMP16 1.01 can now be downloaded from:
http://www.movspclr.co.uk/software.html#amp16
This is the first release of AMP16, a 16 band graphic equaliser for AMPlayer. Features include:
Since we modify the DCT tables produced by AMPlayer, this is obviously not a perfect equaliser, but it does the job and looks pretty :-)
Note: AMPlayer is not supplied.
abcMIDI pack release 1.02 can now be downloaded from:
http://www.movspclr.co.uk/software.html#abcmidi
This is the first release of a collection of abc utilities I ported later year. Mostly, it consists of plain ports of the utilities in the abcMIDI package, with changes to make them run under RISC OS constraints (filenaming and typing).
The pack consists of:
abc files describe tunes in a textual format, allowing them to be transferred more easily between platforms.
CMunge 0.21 can now be downloaded from:
http://www.movspclr.co.uk/software.html#cmunge
Since the last release there hasn't been much happening. I can only assume that either people haven't used it, or it's pretty stable :-)
Bug fixes in this version:
CMunge is a free CMHG replacement. Like CMHG, it generates module headers for C programs, allowing them to be used like normal modules. It supports the vast majority of CMHG features, plus a selection of its own. Both source and binary version are available.
CMunge was originally written by Robin Watts, and is now maintained by Justin Fletcher.
AMPlayer 1.33 can now be downloaded from:
AMPlayer is a family of MP3 playback modules/decoding systems based on an optimised decoder core, implemented in a mix of C and assembler.
Version 1.33 sees various important changes:
For more information see the documentation within the distribution archives.
AMPlayer is a module for playing Audio MPEG files. It supports MPEG 1.0, 2.0 and 2.5 layer I, II, and III. ID3 is a means by which files containing Audio MPEG data can be 'tagged' with information about the file, like the Author, Album, Track name, etc.
Thanks to the beta testers who have been very helpful in tracking problems over the last few months.
AMPlayer was originally developed by Thomas Olsson. Justin Fletcher and Robin Watts have continued his work to produce this version.
abc2ps 1.04 can now be downloaded from:
http://www.movspclr.co.uk/software.html#abc2ps
This is the first release of this port of abc2ps. Essentially, it is a plain port of the abc2ps source with a couple of changes:
abc2ps is a command line utility to convert .abc files to PostScript. abc files describe tunes in a textual format, allowing them to be transferred more easily between platforms.
MP3Info 1.05 can now be downloaded from:
http://www.movspclr.co.uk/software.html#mp3info
This is the first release of MP3Info. Features include:
MP3Info is a desktop application for displaying information about audio MPEG (MP3) files. Information is provided by the AMPlayer module for other tasks to use, and MP3Info is a demonstration of how that facility can be put to use.
Note: AMPlayer is not supplied.
MP3ID3 1.06 can now be downloaded from:
http://www.movspclr.co.uk/software.html#mp3id3
Since the last release (1.01) MP3ID3 has been improved quite a bit. Major improvements include:
Bug fixes include :
MP3ID3 is a desktop application for editing the ID3v1.1 tags present on Audio MPEG (MP3) files. These tags provide meta-information about the track such as the artist, album and track name. MP3ID3 can edit these fields, forcibly override the defaults in the files, or guess new contents for them. ID3v1 tag information can be used by most Audio MPEG decoders, including AMPlayer.
For more details on ID3v1.1 and future ID3 developments, see <http://www.id3.org/>.
Note: There is no support for ID3v2.
MP3Encode 1.07 can now be downloaded from:
http://www.movspclr.co.uk/software.html#mp3encode
Since the last release (1.03) MP3Encode has had a number of updates, mostly to cope with other encoders than cmpa. Important changes include:
MP3Encode is a front end for the various command line Audio MPEG (MP3) encoders. A number of files can be queued for automatic encoding, allowing it to be used for batch encoding of raw PCM (CD) data or .wav files.
Thanks to the encoder authors for their comments and for testing MP3Encode.
Note: No encoders are included with this application.
I have recently updated both my own website, and the #riscos IRC web site.
Software available from my web site:
Go to http://www.duffell.net/
or directly to http://www-users.york.ac.uk/~jwd104/
The #riscos IRC site has been updated to make it more friendly, and easier to navigate and use. It stores the Charter and the list of Registered Helpers, amongst other things.
Go to http://www.riscos.cjb.net/
or directly to http://www-users.york.ac.uk/~jwd104/irc/
There do still appear to be some problems posting to c.s.a.announce. The latest problem which I have found is that postings are simply going into a black hole somewhere :-( Test posts do not bounce, but do not show up in my inbox either :-(
As an interim measure, can people please post articles to csaa@owlart.co.uk which will go directly into my mailbox, avoiding the csaa@argonet.co.uk box altogether.
Argo are still looking into the problems which seem to have been caused by moving to their new mail server.
Andrew Conroy
Backup Moderator
I have put up Ghostscript 6.50 on the Acornusers site:
http://www.acornusers.org/ghostscript
As usual a number of bugs have been fixed and enhancements made over the previous release, which was version 6.01. One very significant change has been to enable JPEG encoding of images written to PDF documents - very useful in reducing the size of the file created, and bringing the output much more inline with Acrobat.
Ghostscript can be used with !PS2Pdf to create PDF docs with selection of a variety of settings, including the image encoding (lossy DCT/JPEG or lossless 'Flate' compression).
There are links to !PS2Pdf and !GView on the RISC OS Ghostscript web page.
For the future I intend to carry on working towards releasing the source code required to build Ghostscript for RISC OS, and a release of Ghostscript version 7.0.
Not an awful lot has changed, but as it is now 4 months since the last OSLib release, I have decided to give you what there is.
Available for download from the usual places:
www.oslib.riscos.org.uk/
www.mk-net.demon.co.uk/oslib
Bug Fixes:
Corrects Naming Errors:
I've just put FTPc 1.34 on my web site: http://www.ftpc.iconbar.com/.
It fixes a potentially nasty bug with dragging to an application introduced in 1.33.
*** IF YOU UPGRADED TO 1.33 PLEASE UPGRADE TO 1.34 ****
!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.
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