ArtWorks and Impression installers CCSquash out of date

I’ve been trying to install old versions of Impression Publisher (4.03) and ArtWorks (StrongARM compatible version) from floppy images on my Pi. The issue I’ve hit now is that both Installers fail saying that CCSquash is out of date. Is there any way to resolve this?

Might actually be Publisher 4.13 – the Installer is from Oct 1996. The manual has 4.03 written on it.

The simple way to resolve it is to buy the Impression User Manual for £29 and you get Publisher (5.13) bundled with it via an exclusive download URL.

Martin Wurther may be able to help with Artworks, especially if you upgrade – at present there is a special offer for half price upgrades so it may cost about £49 (assuming you have Artworks 2) but you would then have the latest software.

I had noticed that you were giving away Publisher 5.13 with the manual, but already have a full set of manuals for both applications. Also quite loathe to spend more than a nominal sum on something that I’m unlikely to use very much. It’s ArtWorks 1 that I’ve got, so £69 for the upgrade. For the timebeing I’d be happy to run my older version under Aemulor if I can get it installed.

Any idea what might be causing the CCSquash error?

Well for a limited budget, !Style (3.13) is available free from !Store. I can’t help with the CCSquash error, I’m afraid.

Any idea what might be causing the CCSquash error?

The free Style download has CCSquash 1.03 which is a later version in the CCShared.RMStore folder within the download so you could try installing the updated Style elements first and then rerunning the Publisher installer.

Obviously Aemulor is still required to run both the installer and application.

I’m aware of Style, but was hoping to get Publisher running to see how it stacks up against the DTP software I’ve used for work etc. (e.g. InDesign, PagePlus, Affinity Publisher and Scribus). It’s really just an experiment – I doubt I’ll be able to use it for serious purposes due to the need to collaborate with others.

I’m assuming CCSquash is Computer Concepts’ compression software and that the error is being generated by some dependency in the OS. ADFFS and Aemulor were running when I double clicked the Installer. Would installing an older module somewhere possibly allow the Installer to complete?

The free Style download has CCSquash 1.03 which is a later version in the CCShared.RMStore folder within the download so you could try installing the updated Style elements first and then rerunning the Publisher installer.

Thanks for the suggestion – will give it a go!

I think the CCSquash modules in Style and in my version of Publisher might be identical – both are dated from 1993. The Installers on both ArtWorks and Publisher still fail saying CCSquash is out of date. Style runs fine under Aemulor.

Incidentally, looking at the version files inside the Installers I’ve got ArtWorks 1.7 and Publisher 4.13 (i.e. the final Computer Concepts version of both). Any suggestions about what to try next?

It’s weird that I’m getting the CCSquash error with Publisher/ArtWorks, but not with Style. Could it be the fact that I’m running the Publisher/ArtWorks Installers from a floppy image via ADFFS?

I when moving my copy of Impression and Artworks, I simply zipped up my copy on the other machine and transfered the copy across to my new computer and it all worked. I also copied the CCShared and CMYK dummy file acoss and it all worked without issue under Aemulor. Saved with the installing since new RISC OS computers did not have floppy drives anymore.

I when moving my copy of Impression and Artworks, I simply zipped up my copy on the other machine and transfered the copy across to my new computer and it all worked.

That would have been the sensible thing to do! Alas, my Risc PC is long gone.

I copied the contents of the floppies to the Pi’s SD card and got the same CCSquash out of date error, so ADFFS is not the culprit.

In case it helps identify the issue, here’s the text inside the Installer’s !Run file:

WimpSlot -min 720k -max 800k
Set Installer$Dir <Obey$Dir>

IconSprites <Installer$Dir>.!Sprites

RMEnsure StreamSquash 0.64 RMLoad <Installer$Dir>.rmstore.CCSquash
RMEnsure StreamSquash 0.64 Error “The copy of CCSquash within the Installer is out of date.”

Set Installer$Dir <Obey$Dir>
Set StyleInst1$Disc <Obey$Dir>.Resources

WimpSlot -min 128k -max 128k
basic -quit <Installer$Dir>.!RunImage

Try RMLoad-ing the CCSquash [I typed CCShared] from the new !Style’s CCShared.RMStore before running the installer.

The CCShared in my !Boot is from January 2022. Would that have been installed when I downloaded !Style? There is no CCShared in !Style’s RMStore.

OK, So dug out an old Impression Publisher 4.09 and imaged the discs via ArchiEmu in both adf and fcfs format.

I then started a new version of ArchiEmu on my ARMX6 and dragged the first Publisher disk image to the vitual drive, opened up the drive and started the installer and then dragged each image as requested.

This installed Publisher in ArchiEmu.

I then checked it worked in ArchiEmu, which it did.

I then used !EmuTrsf to drag the contents of the Publisher folder in ArchiEmu to my ARMX6 and also the other files that Chris/Stuart mentioned and set up Aemulor to run the old !System and Publisher and Publisher 4.09 is happily on my ARMX6 iconbar.

The updates to !System Chris mentioned:

“CCShared and CMYK dummy file”

Are required but the free Style 3.13 should take care of the CCShared elements.

Hope this helps

CChared is not the same as CCSquash. I think Stuart meant to say run the CCSquash from the path he gave and then try doing your Impression install, since by doing it that way the installer should see that CCSquash is already running and hopefully not complain.

Doug – many thanks for taking the time to do this. I’ll have a go myself later on.

The CCShared in my !Boot is from January 2022. Would that have been installed when I downloaded !Style?

That would have installed it in your system when you installed the free Style.

CCSquash will then be in System.!CCShared.RMStore of your Pi main drive.

Chris – thanks also! Gave that a go, but still no dice. I think the emulator route sounds logical.

Installed both Publisher and ArtWorks on RPCEmu and have transferred them to my Pi. Publisher works nicely. ArtWorks needed the RAM in RPCEmu to be reduced to 64Mb before it would load properly. On the Pi it crashes before an icon is loaded to the icon bar. I tried making a big RAM Disc to reduce the free memory, but it still won’t run. Is anyone else using ArtWorks 1.7 on RO 5.28?

ArtWorks 1.7 is over twenty years old and has since been continuously developed and converted to 32 bit. Running a twenty year old application under Aemulor when an updated version is available is a pointless exercise. It is a waste of effort for other people to spend their time helping you when a solution exists at a fair price (£69). A 64MB limit is not unexpected as machines with more than this were rare and expensive in 2001 and the limit of a 26 bit address is 64MB. When 32 bit applications started working on Iyonix, some of them could not handle more than 128MB until tweaked.

I’m sure that ArtWorks 2 is a fine piece of work, but I’m extremely unlikely to spend £69 on something that I’ll probably play around with for a few hours and then forget about. All I was doing was asking whether anyone knew whether the software I already own can be made to work. If there’s an answer then anyone else with the same problem will have an easier time.

I have now updated ArtWorks with the patches on Martin Wuerthner’s site and it no longer has issues with larger memory sizes in RPCEmu. However, it still crashes on my Pi.

but I’m extremely unlikely to spend £69 on something that I’ll probably play around with for a few hours and then forget about.

But you are happy for other people to spend their time to save you £69 for something that is not important to you. Hmmm!

All I was doing was asking whether anyone knew whether the software I already own can be made to work. If there’s an answer then anyone else with the same problem will have an easier time.

Artworks and Impression from the 26 bit era contain a lot of interesting coding tricks that depend on that 26 mode.
If you want versions that work on machines with processors in 32 bit mode, then they exist, as Chris has pointed out.

Sorry, but assembler that worked with fancy 26 bit tricks doesn’t work on a machine that has no 26 bit mode

But you are happy for other people to spend their time to save you £69 for something that is not important to you. Hmmm!

I’m just checking to see whether anyone has had it running under Aemulor on modern versions of the OS and, if so, which work arounds were necessary. I’m not asking anyone to go out of their way. If I knew how to do something and somebody asked a question on here then I’d jump in immediately. Surely that’s the point of the Community Support section?

Sorry, but assembler that worked with fancy 26 bit tricks doesn’t work on a machine that has no 26 bit mode

Impression Publisher 4.13 works nicely under Aemulor on RISC OS 5.28. ArtWorks 1.7f doesn’t, but from Googling it was working on both Iyonix and Pandaboard in the past. I’ll do some testing with different versions of the OS on RPCEmu and will report back.