RISC OS 5.18 changes summary

This list was provided by Sprow to try to simplify the (very long and complicated) change list for RISC OS 5.16 to 5.18.

Alarm

• Incorrect templates and interactive help messages fixed.
• No longer fatally quits when the machine starts but doesn’t complete !Boot.

Draw

• Resizing objects no longer jump when picking the control point up with the mouse.
• System variable Draw$Options is kept in sync with the menu options so they are saved correctly with the other desktop settings.

Paint

• The tiled background in the sprite filer now appears correctly in EX0 and EX2 modes.
• Sprites may now be sorted by size, as well as by name.
• Colour numbers in the palette dialogue are now centred properly.
• JPEGs can now be dragged in via the RAM transfer protocol from other applications.
• Crashes related to dragging sprites back into the originating sprite filer are now resolved.

Filer

• Adjust dragging to drive icons no longer hangs (or worse, crashes).
• Viewers containing files sized > 2GB are now correctly sorted.
• Adjust clicking on “set type” now refreshes after the operation so it is in sync with the disc.
• Small icons (sm!app) with long named icons are now correctly truncated and therefore appear if the author supplied them in the !Sprites files.
• The “refresh” and “reverse sort” options now have interactive help.

Filer Action

• Now correctly reports the status of files sized > 2GB that it is working on.
• Gains a progress indicator bar.

Free

• Uses the same notation as *EX would at the command prompt.
• A corrupt error message resolved.

Pinboard

• Now *AddTinyDir behaves as in older versions, adding an unnamed directory to the iconbar.
• Minor speed ups by cacheing the current mode’s properties for operations such as tiling the backdrop.
• Hide the “Configure…” menu option when !Boot didn’t complete.
• Support for Message_ToggleBackdrop added.
• Missing dots in files dragged from the save box no longer report the wrong error.

Task Manager

• Now opens centred on screen.
• Occasional crashes dragging sliders around fixed.

Window Manager

• Uses an enhancement to Sprite Extend to select the ‘hot spot’ in mouse pointer shapes.
• Support added for applications using the vector floating point (VFP) hardware.

CDFS

• Now scans drives in reverse order to improve reliability of detection.

File Core

• Crash in *Verify fixed for ARMs which can’t do unaligned load of data.
• Crash in *Defect where the defect contained an object already is fixed.
• Fix to correctly format and mount single zone fixed discs (very small drives).
• Will now wait (prompting the user) when trying to boot from non existant media.
• A number of 26 bit and deprecated ARM instruction sequences removed.

File Switch

• Now correctly handles files sized > 2GB per the Programmer’s Reference Manuals.
• Added OS_FSControl 58.
• Updated OS_FSControl 28 to report counted totals up to 16 exabytes.
• In low memory situations commandline *COPY no longer leaks 32MB of RMA.
• Some possible NULL pointer errors fixed.

RAMFS

• No longer unconditionally clears 16k of RAM when the disc is infact smaller than 16k.

SCSIFS

• More reliable INQUIRY procedure when talking to non compliant drives.
• Speed ups and reliability improvements doing large block transfers, especially when talking to USB drives.

USB

• Better support for scrollwheel mice with box W and Z axis.
• Numerous reliability improvements.

Kernel

• New OS_Heap reason code to request aligned heap blocks, allowing vastly more efficient memory use for clients needing alignment (eg. the PCI and USB systems).
• New OS_ConvertVariform SWI which allows conversions of longer input values that the other OS_Convert SWIs and output in a number of other formats – eg. as MAC addresses and IPv6 network addresses.
• New OS_ReadSysInfo to allow programmers to find the address of a number of kernel variables rather than assuming their address, to permit in future these to be moved out of zero page. Disabling zero page will greatly reduce the chance of a machine crashing due to rogue applications.
• Support for ARMv6 and ARMv7 processors implemented.
• New OS_ReadUnsigned functionality to read 64 bit numbers from the user.
• Numerous small changes and build improvements.

Shared C Library

• Now supports functions for opening files larger than 2GB (see LFS v1.5).
• Autodetects the CPU supporting some newer ARM instructions and chooses more optimal library implementations if so.

BBC Econet

• Fix a crash when calling an unknown OS_Word.

LanManFS

• Gets the dates right in the *EX display when talking to a Windows client from Win2k and later.

BASIC and BASIC64

• Using TEXTLOAD to load an unnumbered file now does an implicit RENUMBER 10,1 rather than RENUMBER 10,10.
• Can use newer ARM instructions for more optimal library implementations when present.

Boot Commands

• Allows *REPEAT to process command lines up to 1k and no longer crashes on use of ‘-sort’ switch.

Debugger

• Allows *BREAKCLR to work with addresses over 64MB in a fully 32 bit memory space.

Toolbox

• Numerous changes and stability improvements, programmer’s should consult the detailed change logs to see if the recent changes benefit their Toolbox applications.

Font Manager

• Can use newer ARM instructions for more optimal library implementations when present.
• More reliable rendering of complex Unicode fonts.

Sprite Extend

• More strict checking performed on sprite pointers that Sprite Extend manipulates to improve system robustness.
• When output is switched to a one pixel wide or high or both sprite there is no longer a data abort.
• One pixel wide JPEGs are now correctly rendered.
• Rendering monochrome JPEGs in 8bpp greyscale modes or at scales below 1/6 now works.
• Improvement to OS_SpriteOp 36 to select the ‘hot spot’ in a mouse pointer shape correctly.
• The JPEG_[File]Info SWI now obeys bit 0 of the flags as documented, and can return the JPEG type detected now.
• JPEGs are more reliably vetted before plotting with more clear error messages if rejected.
• The OS_SpriteOp 17 now follows the algorithm in the Programmer’s Reference Manual.
• Numerous small speed and stability improvements.