The latest RISC OS Awards poll, covering 2017, came to a close a on Saturday, 26th May – and the results are now known.
The Awards website has been updated to show the results, and the winners (for whom I have contact details) will be notified by email later today, with direct links to the results so that they can be referred to on the their own websites.
The results have already been announced on the RISCOSitory Twitter feed, but for anyone not using Twitter they are below.
But first, the usual preamble about how the poll is set up and the results counted.
The same format was used this year as last. With one exception, each category had up to six nominations, along with an option not to vote, and one to vote for something else (entering that alternative into the text field for the category). The one exception was the ‘Best overall contributor’ category, which just contained a text field so that people could vote for whoever they want.
After a round of discussions on the RISC OS Open forum, the CSV file containing the final nominations were run through a RISC OS program to set up the voting form – the poll went live. The other end of the process, counting the votes, was also dealt with on RISC OS, with another program used to parse the source data and create CSV files, which were then loaded into Fireworkz for final processing. A simple formula in Fireworkz was able to tell me either which of the main nominations won, or if I needed to look at the alternative options.
The poll itself was run somewhat later than it should have been – instead of being kicked off either in late December or early January at the latest, this time it was opened on 20th March. With it closing on 26th May, that meant it ran for a little over two months, which is a similar time period as previous polls. Unfortunately, though, the number of votes was a very disappointing 106, which is a significant drop on the last two years. The only comparable year in terms of numbers is 2014, which yielded just over 100 votes.
So that’s the preamble – now for the results:
Best commercial software
The nominations were Font Directory Pro, AMCOG Development Kit, ArtWorks2, NetFetch5, Impact, and ePic.
And the winner, with 36% of the vote is ArtWorks2, from MW Software. Originally developed by Computer Concepts, ArtWorks2 is a graphics application that harnesses the power and versatility of vector graphics.
Best non-commercial software
The nominations were DplngScan, RDSP, PrivateEye, Otter Browser, MiniTime, and VNC Server.
And the winner, with 30% of the vote is Otter Browser, ported to RISC OS by Chris Gransden. Otter is a browser based on the Qt5 library using the QtWebkit back-end, and aims to deliver some of the best features of the classic Opera web browser.
Best game or diversion
The nominations were Equinox, ScummVM, Doom Trilogy, Manga, SpaceShip, and Protector.
And the winner, with 25% of the vote is Manga from Rick Murray. The application provides a way to read Manga (Japanese comics) from Mangareader.net.
Best hardware
The nominations were Wispy, PiFi v2, S&P Hat, RaspberryRO Lite, and Micro One.
And the winner, with 32% of the vote is Wispy, from RISCOSbits. Wispy makes use of a direct network connection from a RISC OS computer to an Orange Pi Zero, to provide wireless connectivity and more.
Best solution for backwards compatibility
The nominations were ADFFS, Aemulor, ArcEm, ArchiEmu, RPCEmu, and VirtualRiscPC.
And the winner, with 49% of the vote is Aemulor from Adrian Lees. Running on modern RISC OS platforms, Aemulor provides a compatibility layer between the new hardware and old software.
Best new development
The nominations were experimental multi-core support, partition support for ARMX6, support for 4K sectors and therefore larger hard drive sizes, the formation of RISC OS Developments and its successful fundraising efforts, RPCEmu now using the Qt library, and the Linux port of RISC OS.
And the winner, with 40% of the vote is experimental multi-core support, thanks to Jeffrey Lee.
Best show of initiative
The nominations were David Feugey/RISC OS FR for launching a BASIC programming initiative, Elesar Ltd and Piccolo Systems for teaming up to keep products available, Christopher Bazley for making available updated versions of Schema 2 and WimpBasic, Adrian Lees and Spellings.net for making Aemulor a free download, and Tony Bartram for developing RDSP to improve the RISC OS sound facilities.
And the winner, with 48% of the vote is Adrian Lees and Spellings.net for making Aemulor free to download for all RISC OS platforms.
Best website or online resource
The nominations were Archive-online, Acorn News Service, RISC OS Open website and forum, RISC OS Packaging Project and repositories, PlingStore, the Icon Bar.
And the winner, with 53% of the vote is the RISC OS Open website and forum. An extensive site run by the company charged with looking after the operating system, this is where new versions can be downloaded, and contact made with those people involved in updating it.
Best publication or offline resource
The nominations were Archive Magazine, Drag ‘n Drop magazine, GAG News, Updated BBC BASIC manual, French issue of Frobnicate magazine.
And the winner, with 40% of the vote is the updated BBC BASIC manual from RISC OS Open Ltd. For people who program in BBC BASIC, the manual is a vital tool, and with the last version having been published some twenty five years previously, this new version brings it up to date with the version of BASIC included in RISC OS ROM images.
Best foreign language resource
The nominations were Arcsite.de, Big Ben Club website, RISCOS.fr, Steffen Huber’s blog, GAG News, French issue of Frobnicate magazine.
And the winner, with 52% of the vote is RISCOS.fr, which clearly continues to be a popular website run by David Feugey, with sections in a variety of languages, but the core in French.
Best show or event
The nominations were Acorn World Exhibition, London Show, Recursion, RISC OS eXperience, Southwest Show, Wakefield Show.
And the winner, with 43% of the vote is the Wakefield Show. Of the main shows, Wakefield is one of the two biggest and most popular – with the other being the London Show, which it pipped to first place by only two votes.
Most innovative or interesting project
The nominations were Richard Ashbery for resurrecting Jan Vibe’s graphics programs, the HomeCtrl home automation GUI from Thomas Milius, Timothy Baldwin’s port of RISC OS to Linux, Raik for the ‘biggest’ RISC OS portable, and Chris Hall for the smallest.
And the winner, with 37% of the vote is the Linux port of RISC OS by Timothy Baldwin. For the port, RISC OS is built to run as an executable program on ARM-based Linux machines, so it’s running on those systems as a program in its own right, just like any other program, and within it normal RISC OS software can be run.
Best overall contributor
As ever, there were no nominations in this category, and voters were asked to simply nominate which person or individual best deserved to win. Of the 106 valid voting forms received, only 59 voters entered something for this field – and of those, one individual was named in just over half of the entries. In reverse order, the top three are:
- Third place, with 7% of the vote, goes to the RISC OS Open team.
- Second place, with 12% of the vote, goes to Andrew Rawnsley and R-Comp.
- And in first place, with 53% of the vote, is Jeffrey Lee.
Broken cog of the year
The nominations were Vince Hudd/RISCOSitory for being so far behind with everything, RISC OS Open Ltd for their not-so-epic ePic announcement, and RISC OS Open Ltd again for forgetting to publicise the release of DDE28.
And the winner, with 33% of the vote is RISC OS Open Ltd for building up the release of ePic with an epic amount of hype, and then disappointing people with what it actually turned out to be – a simple mash-up of two existing products, albeit to produce something that makes a lot of sense and is a worthy product itself.
A notable second place, with just two fewer votes, goes to Vince Hudd and RISCOSitory for being so far behind with everything. Yay me!
