With a trio of talks to tempt you in
The next meeting of the Wakefield RISC OS Computer Club (WROCC) is coming up and, in keeping with the current restrictions on gatherings, will once again be an online event. However, unlike the last meeting, which was for members only, this one is open to anyone who registers a wish to attend.
Continue readingIn order to facilitate the recent update to Launcher, Steve Fryatt made some changes to his Wimp library – and because of that changing, he has recompiled his C-based applications. This, he says, was mainly to ensure that the published source code will still build with the library, but does note that as a side benefit, they may benefit from other small improvements to the library – although in theory, mostly only in terms of stability. The updated applications, all of which can be found on Steve’s website or obtained via !Store, are:
News that will be of particular interest to developers, popular template editor WinEd has been receiving some attention.
The application was originally developed by Tony Houghton as a better solution for creating and editing template files than TemplEd, the application Acorn supplied for the task. After Tony stopped working on it, Adam Richardson maintained for a time, and his last release was in 2009. In the intervening period, with changes to RISC OS, it had started to fall behind, suffering problems on newer versions of the operating system.
Continue readingSteve Fryatt has released an update to Launcher, an application that provides a neat shortcut solution to running applications and other files. The program places panels at the side of the desktop, which can be opened to access the various shortcuts that have been configured for use from them.
Continue readingAnother update to Form Filler has been released by Kevin Wells, bringing it up to version 1.18. The program allows you to store a number of text strings, which can be inserted at the cursor when the corresponding button is clicked. A simple solution to cases where you might fill in certain details on a particular form repeatedly, or even use certain details on multiple different forms.
The application can store a number of different sets of strings, so any given set could correspond with a particular form – and version 1.18 allows you to choose which one to display when the form window is first opened. In addition, in an earlier update it became possible to name each of the form sets, but this improvement got missed from the announcement.
Gavin Smith, the new editor of Archive, has announced his plans for the magazine, including an expected date for the first issue to be published with him at the helm, the schedule moving forwards – and of course subscription prices.
Subscribers recently received issue 24:6 – a rounding off of the previous volume, edited and published as a fitting tribute to the late Jim Nagel by his family. The next issue, therefore, will mark the start of Gavin’s editorship by also being the start of a new volume, and that issue – 25:1 – can be expected to appear in mid-October.
Continue readingTom Williamson of Wi-Fi Sheep will be the guest speaker at the next meeting of the RISC OS User Group of London – which will once again be taking place online, via Zoom.
The subject of Tom’s presentation will be RISC OS Direct, the distribution (or distro) of the OS for the Raspberry Pi (and a version available for use on Windows, MacOS, and Linux via RPCEmu) put together in conjunction with RISC OS Developments Ltd.
Continue readingWhile RISC OS may now be regarded as a small, niche operating system, with only a tiny fraction of the number of users that more mainstream platforms attract, it does still have a surprisingly vibrant community – so with that in mind, every once in a while I look through a selection of news groups, mailing lists, and forums, looking for announcements that haven’t found their way to me via the RISCOSitory news inbox, and from those compile a ‘snippets’ post.
Here, then, is the latest selection of news items found that way.
Continue readingUpdates for MusicMan and MusicCD are available from R-Comp. Both applications, now at version 2.22, have been updated to remain compatible with the latest versions of RISC OS, and have also been pointed in the direction of a new online database for audio CD look-ups; FreeDB, the service previously used, was recently closed. In addition, MusicCD has been moved onto the same 2.22 codebase as MusicMan, and has therefore gained some features from it – in particular the ability to lookup information online, such as cover art, artist or composer information, etc.
Continue readingA new issue of Archive magazine – volume 24 issue 6 – has been produced by Bart Nagel, and if you are a subscriber it should by now have landed on your doormats. In fact, even if the previous issue – 24:5 – marked the end of your subscription, you should have received a copy of 24:6 anyway.
Continue reading