New RISCOS Questions :)

Hi all so wanting a unique OS to work with on the RPI and thought this one looked pretty interesting especially the built in coding options and open nature. I’m sure for most users the UI is an attractive nostalgia trip but personally I’m curious as to whether It’s possible to at least change the icon art to something a little less mid 90s? TLDR: Can I create new modern icons and update the file type/folder, menu/pin icons etc and would it be difficult to do? (Aside from the time involvement of course)! Thanks :)

There are other themes supplied. Click Menu (middle mouse button) on the Task Manager icon (far right of the icon bar) and choose Configure from the menu. Click on Theme and try the ones available.

All the icons and window furniture are simple bitmap graphic files that can be edited using Paint.

If you look inside !Boot (double click while holding down shift key) and go into Resources.!ThemeDefs.Themes then you can see some of the existing icon themes. Copy one and edit it to your heart’s content :-)

Can I create new modern icons and update the file type/folder, menu/pin icons etc and would it be difficult to do?

You totally can, and I fully support anyone doing it.
RISC OS as much as I love it, does need some new modern looking Themes.

Extra Info:

• menu button click over the ‘Apps’ on the iconbar and select ‘Open ’$’
• in the new Window that opens, navigate to Resources.Wimp.Sprites
• The ‘Tools’ file contains the ROM supplied graphics for Windows
• The ‘Sprites’ file contains the ROM supplied graphics for the most common Apps, Filetypes used by RISC OS.

Keep us posted with your developments, and of course – welcome to the RISC OS community.

Okay great thanks both! Spent the evening kicking around updating the most obvious/often used icons like the USB/SD card, folders and text file icons. Also working on modernising the windows themselves, is there any way to change the background color of windows/icon bar? Quite fun doing it though :) and just doing the basics makes it look much better imo, will post a screenshot when I can, maybe tomorrow.
If people like it is there anywhere to upload the THEME folder?

Thanks!

Sounds like you have been very productive. I’m looking forward to seeing the results.

With regards to changing the window backgrounds, this is possible if Windows use the default Wimp Colour 1 (a light grey). I asked this very same question myself a few years back, so I’ll link the answer I got as it answers it pretty well.

https://www.riscosopen.org/forum/forums/2/topics/2735#posts-34655

I’m not actually sure what the process of adding a new theme to RISC OS is? But we certainly need one.

Hah I don’t know about VERY productive lol but quite please with it so far. It’s pretty fun to have your own mini OS to customise. :) Checked over that post will see what I can do, thanks again!

Nyt.

Okay sorry to double post here is an early prototype image of the UI: NYT UI

Let me know what you think? I might also create a more general Modern UI post to display progress.

Nyt.

Yeah! Looking really nice!
The X on the close icons need tweaking, but I really do like the new modern theme a lot.

Oh Yeah, RISC OS supports HiDpi like other modern Operating Systems, but does not support Fractional Scaling.
It is possible to create higher resolution sprites, and the Wimp will scale them down if necessary.

To display HiDpi mode:

1. go to the screen Manager (second right icon on the Iconbar
2. click select
3. move mouse to Mode→ window
4. Append ’ EX0 EY0’ to the end of the mode definition in the text box
5. click OK button

It would be great to have the very first HiDpi theme on RISC OS :-) I don’t think anyone has done it yet.

The default ‘Raspberry’ theme on the Pi is HiDPI aware. I’m not at my Pi at present, but I believe you need to switch to EX0 EY0 mode before the desktop loads, otherwise it’ll use the EX1 EY1 icons.

The default ‘Raspberry’ theme on the Pi is HiDPI aware

Oh really. I didn’t realise. I shall have to check next time I get access to my Pi (which is a long time away due to this Covid-19).

Ok thanks both, will take a look at that! ;)

Nyt.

The image is a bit small but it looks like a good start! Would like to try it here once it is done.

Ok so I tried that Ey Ei Ey Ei Yo thing… I’m mean EX0 Ey0.. :P, but had a slight issue in that my screen resolution suddenly reduced to a very high detail 800×600 looking mode! On a side note the icons themselves I think are HD anyhow as they are just individually coloured pixels so they looked slick in the added mode. Added a few new icons and tidied up the icon bar ones so looks a bit smarter but a WIP of course. Half tempted to just create my own custom RISC OS image as been removing some unnecessary bulk apps. Finally I am struggling with changing the window art as it is displaying transparent as seen in the first picture… but only for the scroll bars not the X button etc… weird? Any thoughts?

Regards, Nyt!

I played about with some theme stuff ages ago here

Probably out of date a bit now, and some stuff was RISC OS 6 specific, but it wasn’t a requirement.

Ok so I tried that Ey Ei Ey Ei Yo thing… I’m mean EX0 Ey0.. :P, but had a slight issue in that my screen resolution suddenly reduced to a very high detail 800×600 looking mode!

You did it right. The resoluion remains as high as it was before, but the pixel density is increased, so you get twice as much detail, hence it looking more magnified. It’s only really going to be useful when users move to 4K resolutions and want or need things to look bigger on screen.

Regarding the scrollbars not showing on screen – that’s something I haven’t seen before. I would perhaps just check the sprite sizes, sprite names, sprite resolution. It seems so strange that it happens.

I think the ROOL Boot sequence should include a few more themes than it does currently. A collection of themes that are fully tested with RISC OS 5 would be a great addition.

Yeah hah will keep mucking around, updated a bit more now but just a bit backwards getting screenshots online as using the PI without internet but will post soon, thanks again! And Richard will take a proper look at that website tomorrow thanks!

Nyt!

That’s looking slick!

Do you know of this?

https://www.reallysmall.co.uk/Pages/categories/riscos/themes/skinny.php

Skinny seems to have some kind of colour depth bug on my Pi. Just a few minutes ago I installed the theme manager that the link on that page leads to. It actually works!
I only mention them because maybe it will give you more infrastructure to work with.

e: Okay. So the other themes are complaining about “Boot:!Sprites not found at 317”. But the theme that came with it applied and works perfectly.

Yeah thanks need to try that looks good!

I have another question hah sorry:

I’m using BASIC for a project at the moment but I’m curious if anyone knows whether you can use multiple sprite files within one BASIC file? For example one containing art sprites one containing text sprites etc…

Also is there anyway through basic or an OS call somehow to auto set the RAM usage to say 500mb automatically as I run the file? This way I can use large sprite files if possible!

Finally are there any limitations to the length of BASIC files etc? Like currently this one is 8kb itself is there a max limit per file size?

Thanks again much appreciated! Hoping to post an update pic soon too!

Nyt. :)

if anyone knows whether you can use multiple sprite files within one BASIC file? For example one containing art sprites one containing text sprites etc…

Yes. They’re simply loaded into sprite areas, so just allocate some memory and set it up as a sprite area, and supply the appropriate area address when necessary.

If the names of the sprites are unique, you may find it easier to merge them all into one sprite area. That way you don’t need to keep track of which area contains which sprites.

Also is there anyway through basic or an OS call somehow to auto set the RAM usage to say 500mb automatically as I run the file? This way I can use large sprite files if possible!

Yes and no. Yes it can be done, but no you shouldn’t blindly set something as massive as that (can an application slot even be that big?). Add up the sizes of your sprite files, add them to HIMEM and then allocate that much.

Call Wimp_SlotSize to allocate the necessary amount of memory, then set END to encompass that memory.
Note that you’ll need to add 32K to the size given to END as the slot size known to the Wimp counts from the app base address &8000 whereas the size given to END counts from &0.

Finally are there any limitations to the length of BASIC files etc? Like currently this one is 8kb itself is there a max limit per file size?

I don’t think there’s a limit on the file size, but there is a limit on the line numbering – the highest possible line number is 65279 (&FEFF). This is because the first byte being &FF marks the end of the program, and there are only two bytes for the line number.
Even if you don’t use line numbers, line numbers are present.

Your editor may allow you to change the line numbering. If not, if you’re risking getting close (with the default +10 numbering), you can force it to a different scheme in BASIC by using something like this:

>10REM This
>20REM is
>30REM a
>40REM test!
>RENUMBER 2,2
>LIST
    2REM This
    4REM is
    6REM a
    8REM test!
>RENUMBER 1,1
>LIST
    1REM This
    2REM is
    3REM a
    4REM test!
>

Thanks for the reply!
So I guess I need to turn on line numbering to check, I assume library files just ‘paste’ the code in so splitting files and using them as libraries won’t help?

That’s good news with sprites, I did try to do a test with that but if currently it just crashes when I redefine a new sprite file so not sure what I’m missing there, I would post code shots but RPI not internet enabled. If it’s best to just merge within one file I can just make one large sprite file (assuming they don’t have size limitations) and do it that way.

Not sure I 100% get the wimp change mem part unfortunately as I’m not too good with OS calls and literally copy and pasted the sprite bits I needed from the docs hah.

Finally the amount of memory used shouldn’t be an issue really as in my own set up nothing of major importance will be affected by setting a large amount of RAM aside and the plan is to use RPCEMU to auto boot into the game and send it to friends to play on windows pcs anyhow! (Hope that made sense!)

Thanks again sorry if I’m being daft!

Nyt.

I assume library files just ‘paste’ the code in so splitting files and using them as libraries won’t help?

No – each file uses its own line numbers, ao Libraries can be very useful. Much larger BASIC programs are perfectly possible – I have one with over 2MB of source split over about 40 files.

A program can have a WimpSlot of over 500MB on RISC OS 5.

crashes when I redefine a new sprite file

Defining a sprite file should not crash. The program can Load one or more sprite files into one or more sprite areas.

Oh wow that’s good to know! Not that I’m planning to make some mammoth project but I’d rather not hit a wall so to speak so that’s good then! So in effect even if I hit the 65000 line limit all I would need to do would be to move code into separate files and it would be fine?

And yeah so I did the OS_SpriteOp 9+256, block% and then the other one with OP 10 etc but as I already defined another sprite in my main file it just crashed when I ran the proc from the new file? Don’t know if that makes sense hah!

So happy that I can make large BASIC games then (at least technically) as means I can just keep adding things and realistically 500mb is a lot lol since even relatively modern 3D games has lower ram teas hah ;)

Thanks again, really appreciate the help of the community despite my many questions. I do google searches and read the docs etc but sometimes because risc os is not as popular as windows/Linux there doesn’t seem to be all the answers..

;), Nyt.

it just crashed

Without the exact error message, and which statement, it is hard to help.

Haha I will update you tomorrow but my luck with BASIC error messages are a pop up saying ‘mistake’ lol

Nyt.