The latest issue of on-off-on-off-under-new-management PDF magazine Drag ‘n Drop is now available.
Volume 6 issue 2 of the magazine is the Winter 2015 edition and, although it’s the second issue of the volume, it’s the first issue of the calendar year, featuring 34 pages of news, reviews and features, including:
- A review of Quizmaster, an educational title recently released by Jon Robinson/Archiesoft.
- Two type-in listings, one for a program that provides an easy way to scroll windows, and the other for a Repton/Boulderdash-style game called Mr Miner.
Various programming tutorials, including an article discussing the merits of using Lua over BASIC.
The magazine costs just £3.50, payable using Paypal, and can be downloaded immediately after paying – and there is a sampler of the latest issue also available to download. If you are unable (or unwilling) to use Paypal, the magazine can also be purchased via !Store – the price is a little higher at £4.50, but includes the type-in listings in typed-in format; they are ready to run.
Drag ‘n Drop was originally edited and published by Paul Stewart, a long time RISC OS fan who started the magazine in 2009 and remained at the helm until 2012. Paul almost closed the magazine in 2011, but was persuaded to keep it going, and when he made that same decision again in 2012, Christopher Dewhurst took it over.
An amateur publication, the format of the magazine features an unusual page size. That size was explained to me some years ago by the editor as being ideal for viewing on screen, rather than printing, and is one that he (though I’m not sure now which ‘he’ that was – whether it was Christopher or Paul who said this to me) felt was ideal for the average RISC OS user’s screen. Looking at it here (albeit necessarily on Windows), displayed at 100% on a 1920×1080 display, it fills a little over three quarters of the screen vertically and about half the screen horizontally – allowing me to have the magazine open on one half of the screen, and to edit this post in the other. I think perhaps an A4 format would probably work just as well at this resolution, but not all RISC OS users have 1920×1080 displays – although that may be a question worth adding to the next RISC OS Survey (conducted with the RISC OS Awards poll).