32-bit-clean version of the Ace Computing Euclid module

I’m currently working on porting ClearView (Merlyn Kline’s hypertext reader/compiler) to 32bit RISC OS and I’ve hit a sticking point.

Ace Film support requires Ace Computing’s “Euclid” module, which as far as I can tell isn’t 32-bit clean.

Has anyone 32-bitted this module yet?

I understand The Complete Animator uses a similar file format — so same question again, is there a 32bit-clean TCA animation player module which can also handle Ace films?

I’m also trying to track down the origin of a Utility called “InitApp” which is called by ClearView’s !Boot. The text strings imply it deals with IconSprites, but I’m not certain where it’s from or whether it’s even needed.

In brighter news: I’ve got ClearView building and running (albeit without Ace Film support) on my Raspberry Pi. I should be able to look into doing a release soon!

Cheers,
Phil.

EasiWriter/TechWriter are coming with a 32bit version of EuclidX.
It’s public domain, so you can ask Martin. IMHO, it shouldn’t be a problem :)

Are you sure that InitApp isn’t a virus? A possibility, given your description!

@David – thanks for that, I’ve just emailed Martin — he’s sent me the module, and it works great!

@Richard – I’m quite sure it’s not a virus, as I’ve just spent the last three hours staring at the Armalyser output.
It gets the current <Obey$Dir>, hacks off the last path segment (“!ClearView”) and sets ClearView$Dir. Once it’s done that, it loads the !Sprites file, renames the “!app” sprite to “!clearview” (doing the same for sm_!app and ic_app). A sum total of 840 bytes of code (filetype Utility / &ffc).

I can’t tell where it came from, perhaps an old version of Acorn C?

Anyway, I’m close enough to release that I’m comfortable to show you all the code — https://github.com/philpem/clearview

Is there a 32bit version of the Ace standalone player application, Projector?

I still think it is a shame the whole Ace Computing suite of graphics programs seem to have been lost :-(

Tony Cheal still seems to be around — the Ace website is still online at http://www.acecomp.demon.co.uk/
He’s on LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/tony-cheal-6b4a4b19/

During the latter part of their life, the apps were available from Oak Solutions, which later became Dial Solutions — http://www.dialsolutions.com/contact/

I’ve possibly got his email address somewhere, but I don’t know if it’s still current. It’d be worth a yell to see if the copyright could be worked out for a public release.

From what I recall, most of the Ace applications were written in BBC BASIC, with an RMModule bolted on. They’re a bit twitchy on my StrongARM RISC PC, but work fine on my A3010. That might mean there’s more work to be done.
I have to admit I’m curious if they could be sped up by running them through one of the BASIC compilers (RiscBASIC or ABC).

I also recall a third-party raytracer, which is sat on the Qube FTP site. That most certainly isn’t 32bit clean, and is also a sod to run on a RISC PC.

I should probably clarify that my RISC PC is fairly tricked out — 202MHz StrongARM, IDE, SCSI, Unipod, video framegrabber… and a ViewFinder… The SA and VF combination with 32bit CLib is pretty good at making marginal code break!

and a ViewFinder…

Ahh, Mr. Kortink’s stuff IIRC.

Clever coding, but sadly uses a lot of optimisation tricks that broke on later processors and absolutely 32 bit intolerant (the code too)

Anyway, I’m close enough to release that I’m comfortable to show you all the code

It will be cool to test the release :)

and absolutely 32 bit intolerant (the code too)

Oh, damn, I felt that from here… 😂

Good news it is nothing bad, but it is very odd that the utility exists at all! Typical !Boot files inside applications are fairly vanilla.

Perhaps Andrew R could be persuaded to drop them a line about their Cad/Euclid Progs – so they can be added to !Store.
By the way can !Store be accessed from Android phone?.

I’ve just released the first binary distribution of ClearView 1.09 — more details in the announcement: https://www.riscosopen.org/forum/forums/1/topics/15189

I’ve also got a version of LineEditor which works quite nicely on the Pi — you can get that from here: https://github.com/philpem/LineEditor/ . Credits in the README, I’m just stepping on the shoulders of giants with this one :)