If you develop software on or for RISC OS, or you’re considering doing so – or you’re working on the operating system itself, there’s an online meeting on Saturday, 13th June, 2026, that might be right up your street. That’ll be the next ‘friendly fireside chat’ for developers of all persuasions and skill levels – the only crucial requirement is that it’s about RISC OS programming.
The purpose of these meetings is to provide a way for developers and those interested in the topic to get together (virtually) and have an informal discussion about all matters pertaining to RISC OS development. Being informal, there is no set topic or agenda, and those present at the meeting can bring up any subject they like. For example, you could use the meeting to seek advice on a confusing SWI call, or track down a bug in a piece of code that seems to be staying resolutely hidden.
Sometimes these meetings are used by people to show off their latest developments – especially if what they’re working on is useful in the context of programming – so you might get a chance to see a demonstration of something you’ll be thinking about using when released, and you might also therefore be able to offer feedback and ideas to the developer before that release happens.
And, of course, you can just sit back and listen to the discussion without actively participating – sometimes a lot can be learnt by doing just that.
With a 7:30pm kick off time, the meetings take place using the Zoom video conferencing software, which is available for most platforms. They are open to anyone, regardless of their programming prowess – you could be someone with no programming experience looking for advice on where to begin and what tools to use, an expert with many years of development behind you, or anything between the two extremes; all are welcome.
To join the meeting, you will need a platform on which Zoom can be run, along with the meeting credentials. If you’ve joined a previous fireside chat, those credentials remain unchanged, but if not you can get them via one of these routes:
- You can contact Andrew McCarthy on Twitter or Mastodon – or indeed from your RISC OS computer using ChatCube.
- Or you can send an email to me here in the RISCOSitory bunker. Please note, though, that any emails sent to me on the day of the meeting itself will not receive a reply until very close to the meeting’s start time!
If you can’t wait until the next meeting to discuss RISC OS development issues with others, or want to continue a discussion started at the meeting, there is also now a Discord discussion forum – The RISC OS Coding Community.