First release of Skinny
Richard Windley (1611) 55 posts |
I have released the first version of Skinny, a theme creator that I started some time ago. This is an early release and most likely has some issues. It has been tested on RISC OS 6 and quite briefly on RISC OS 5 on the Raspberry Pi. I am hoping to update it to take into account any future theme manager improvements should they become available. At this time it requires the ROL Toolbox modules but these appear to work OK with the limited testing I have done. |
Steve Pampling (1551) 8155 posts |
Interesting – but why build in a specific requirement for closed source modules when as far as I can tell on a quick test the application runs with the ROM based equivalents? |
nemo (145) 2529 posts |
You don’t need any modules to do OLE. |
Steve Pampling (1551) 8155 posts |
The application quoted has OLESupport as a required module in the !Run file. That was rather the point – that the !Run file sets up a requirement for specific revisions that may not be an actual requirement for the functionality and I wasn’t clear as to why this had been done. |
Richard Windley (1611) 55 posts |
I will try and address the above points. Excuse the typing, this is via my phone. ROL modules – I haven’t done much testing yet on the RO5 modules and wanted to release something I was at least slightly confident would work. If testing proves this to be the case with the inbuilt modules I will use those. OLESupport is available from the Sourcery page. I should have linked to it on the Skinny page. I was kindly allowed to link to the 32 bit version. It is used when As I said originally, this is an early release! |
Steve Pampling (1551) 8155 posts |
I think I may have sounded a touch snotty, my apologies.
Remember the saying: The only person who doesn’t make mistakes is the person that does nothing. I had a suspicion the OLE element was a link to another regularly installed app. The problem was of course that the main users were going to be RO 5.xx users and the 32 bit safe status became important as a result. Time to download the OLESupport module and test on ROOL modules rather than ROL. See what I can break. :-) |
Rick Murray (539) 13806 posts |
Just to throw in my tuppence; I have two and a half RISC OS systems.
The “and a half” is an emulator for RISC OS 3.70 and another for RISC OS 5.19. I have Toolbox modules. As far as I am aware, not a single one of them is the ROL version. I know I can install them, but I don’t see the point of installing something that isn’t being actively developed and is divergent from the version of RISC OS that is being actively developed. Perhaps you need to step back and ask yourself “do I need this version of X in order for my program to work?”. If not, how old a version would work? Because the more specific you are, the fewer people will be able to appreciate your efforts. I had this with some astronomical program (back circa Y2K). Written in BASIC, the first thing the software did was check for a StrongARM and bail out if not found. This wasn’t because the author used |
Richard Windley (1611) 55 posts |
Rick, you are quite right of course and I have done just this with my other applications. The main reason was the scrolllist gadget which is fairly heavily used and which I believed may be an issue. As I say, once I am happy it works OK with the native versions I will make the appropriate change. I was eager to make some sort of release as I knew I wouldn’t be able to do anything for a few days after Monday so may have been guilty of releasing something sooner than I otherwise would have. Steve, don’t worry. Glad for feedback and peoples views! |
Steve Pampling (1551) 8155 posts |
Perhaps this could be an opportunity to identify specific modules that need update to provide such facilities. I think it was Theo1 who suggested elsewhere that updating specific modules and simply forcing others to a higher revision number could remove the requirement to go looking for external versions. 1 Whatever the source of suggestion the idea is sensible – eliminate the requirement for closed source elements where even remotely possible. Where authors have used the features they are possibly best placed to comment on the usefulness vs. cosmetic. |
Andrew Rawnsley (492) 1443 posts |
For OLEsupport, the usual process is simply to contact me, let me know what you want to use it for, and I’ll grant approval with a credit in a textfile somewhere or whatever. Although OLEsupport was originally by CC, their licence restrictions forced us to “clean room” it for Mpro in 1999. Subsequently, we have updated and developed it – current version is 0.30. I’m open with source code for bug fixing if required, although technically, it is private source being part of Mpro. It was last updated in April this year, I believe, with the assistance of (momentarily forgets name), erm, the chap who maintains Impact etc. Matthew Philips. I’d prefer apps that need OLEsupport to include it with them – avoids too much confusion for users. |
Richard Windley (1611) 55 posts |
Andrew, I’ll email you about this as soon as I can. There seems to have been some confusion. |
Richard Windley (1611) 55 posts |
Following the feedback and comments made here I have released a new version of Skinny: - removes the reliance on ROL Toolbox modules |